On the Trail of a Lion: Ahmed Shah Massoud: Oil Politics and Terror

Rowan, a Canadian humanitarian aid worker,sought out Ahmed Shah Massoud in 1998, well before the legendary leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance met his death with two suicide bombers disguised as reporters on September 9, 2001. This rare and honest portrait is rooted in the two weeks Rowan spent camped among Massoud's men in the Panjshir valley stronghold, where they fought the Taliban after helping to bring about the invading Russian army's defeat. Rowan's brief face time with the alternately icy, graceful and passionate Massoud offers some perspective on how Massoud became a product and an instigator of the political turmoil that has defined Afghanistan for more than 20 years. But Rowan's personal narrative is interspersed with long passages of history and analysis, which are less convincing. Whether or not there's truth in statements like "Oil is the means to world domination that the U.S. seeks" or that CNN is "corporate America's version of recent world events," they come off as tendentious and lacking in nuance. The author's rehash of familiar theories about the 9/11 attacks will also disappoint readers looking for new insight into why things happened the way they did. B&w photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)