Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Afghanistan file

2022; Oxford University Press; Volume: 98; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ia/iiab254

1468-2346

Tim Willasey-Wilsey,

Military History and Strategy

Prince Turki AlFaisal has chosen a good moment to publish the narrative of his involvement with Afghanistan, just as publishers are rushing out accounts of the shambolic end to NATO's 20-year war in that hapless country. It is rather unusual for a senior Saudi prince to write a book, and doubly so when that prince was the chief of the Saudi intelligence service (the General Intelligence Directorate, GID) for the 24 years leading up to the 9/11 attacks (he resigned in the month before the attacks themselves). It is also a curious time to write on the subject, when families of the victims of 9/11 are still pursuing legal cases alleging complicity between the terrorists and Saudi officials. But although the prince is famously urbane, he is also cautious, and it is little wonder that the book is both well written and devoid of major revelations. There are, however, several smaller insights, going back to 1973 when Sardar Mohammad Daoud overthrew King Zaher Shah of Afghanistan and began the process which eventually led to the Soviet invasion five years later. The description of the assassinations of Nur Mohammad Taraki (suffocated by a pillow) and Hafizullah Amin (whose soup was poisoned) still have the capacity to shock, even in a country where violent death has become commonplace (pp. 24–5).