The Afghanistan File

The Afghanistan File', written by the former head of Saudi Arabian Intelligence, tells the story of his Department's involvement in Afghanistan from the time of the Soviet invasion in 1979 to Nine Eleven 2001. It begins with Saudi Arabia's backing of the Mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet occupation and moves on to the fruitless initiatives to broker peace among the Mujahideen factions after the Soviet withdrawal, the rise to power of the Taliban and the shelter the Taliban gave to Osama Bin Laden.

A recurring theme in the book is the extraordinary difficulties Saudi Arabia and its allies faced in dealing with the Mujahideen. Prince Turki found them magnificently brave, but exasperating. On one occasion, while trying to broker peace among them, he obtained the King's permission to open the Kaaba in Mecca. Inside, the leaders were overcome with emotion and swore never to fight each other again. A few hours later on their way to Medina they almost came to blows on the bus. Turki's account provides details of the Saudi attempts to bring its volunteers out of Afghanistan in the 1990s - with chequered success - and his negotiations with the Taliban for the surrender of Osama Bin Laden.

The book includes a number of declassified Intelligence Department documents. Prince Turki explains that the nihilistic, senseless terrorism witnessed in the Middle East over the last twenty years originated in Afghanistan, fueled by Osama's deluded belief that he played a key role in defeating the Russians. There is no evidence that he ever fought them at all. Soon after Nine Eleven, Saudi Arabia discovered that it had a homegrown terrorist problem involving some of the returnees from Afghanistan. Much of the huge change that has taken place in the Kingdom since has stemmed from the campaign to tackle this.