The Achilles Trap

PRAISE FOR DIRECTORATES: A cracking read … The errors Coll catalogues are familiar. What Coll does, though, is present all this in far more detail than anyone before him. Some of the episodes he describes are darkly hilarious … a must-read for anyone who cares about this never-ending war. – Christina Lamb * Sunday Times *Spellbinding … a magisterial account of the great tragedy of our age. – Robert Fox * Evening Standard *Engrossing … Steve Coll has written a book of surpassing excellence. – Andrew J. Bacevich * The New York Times Book Review *A spectacular account … a cast of characters that makes Bourne movies pale in comparison. – Demetri Sevastopulo * Financial Times *Masterful and entertaining … might well become the definitive account of the CIA and America’s secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. – Rafia Zakaria * Guardian *

Steve Coll is Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. His major books include Private Empire, The Bin Ladens and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker.