BOOK REVIEW:                                                                     September-05-15


Every so often a superb work of history is published. Such is the case with a book by Engineer Fazel Ahmed Afghan, MSc. In a word, this massive, compilation, authoritative work of history is superb!
Comprised of 747-pages "Conspiracies and Atrocities Afghanistan 1700-2014" (2015) richly-details Afghanistan's tumultuous, troubled history that has claimed an inordinate number of lives, while victim of a number of aggressive countries engaged in covert activity devastating the countries well-being.

The author claims "I admit to not being a historian" yet provides the advanced historic-researcher, educator, author, officials, and members of the Afghan Diaspora as well as the general public with a highly credible, authoritative and definitive account that details the scope and multitude of crimes perpetrated against Afghanistan, a non-aggressive, sovereign-nation and its storied people.

Establishing a link between past and present, a genuine, historic verified by an abundant array of documentation of Afghanistan's 300-year history required the author to investigate and exhaustively-research, and compile information spanning 300-years of history which required 23-chapters and 747-pages. Exposed are conspiracies by Great Britain, the USSR and more recently the unjustified US/NATO led invasion and occupation.

For the contemporary researcher engaged in writing or teaching modern-day conspiracies that victimized Afghanistan this book is a winner. Presenting case histories speaking to Osama bin Laden's Afghanistan, residency, the Taliban's good-will diplomatic-gesture offering to turn-over Osama bi Laden who was at the time a guest of the Taliban. At that time, US authorities claimed to be sparing no expense of either cash or manpower attempting to track him down in order to bring him to justice for his alleged planning of the 9/11 attack on America. The author also explores and analyzes the pernicious activity of Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistsn, as well as others.

The contemporary researcher will be fascinated as well as superbly-informed as to modern-day conspiracies and conjecture covering such topics as drugs proliferation, the theft of cultural antiquities and the war-time (1979-1989) comportment of Najibullah, Burhanudin Rabbani, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Rashid Dostum, members of the the Northern Alliance and a host of others.

I know of no other publication that covers and spans such a long and rich history of Afghanistan's 300-year, colorful history with such authoritative, credible scholarship. To put it simply, the author is a superb historian and author and deserves scholarly accolades from a wide array of recognition, educational-and historical publishing institutions.

For those engaged in comprehensive historical research, authorship and university-level history-based education, this is a definite must-have scholarly-compendium.

Bruce G. Richardson:

Author "Afghanistan, Ending the Reign of Soviet Terror", and "A Search for Truth"