Looking for the Enemy : Mullah Omar and the Unknown Taliban

By Bette Dam

₹ 599.00 inclusive of all taxes

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About the book

For twenty years, the Taliban was the number one enemy of Western forces in Afghanistan. But it was an enemy that they knew little about, and about whose founder and leader, Mullah Omar, they knew even less.

Armed with only a fuzzy black-and-white photo of the man, investigative journalist Bette Dam decided to track down the reclusive Taliban chief a decade back. But in the course of what had seemed an almost impossible job, she got to know the Taliban inside out, realized how dangerously misinformed the global forces fighting it were, and made a startling discovery about the elusive Omar’s whereabouts.

The outcome of a five-year-long pursuit, Looking for the Enemy is a woman journalist’s epic story that takes the reader deep into the dangerous mountains and war-ravaged valleys of Afghanistan as it throws up several unknowns about an organization that is now once again at the helm in one of the world’s most fragile states.

Pages: 352

Available in: Paperback

Language: English

Bette Dam

Bette Dam is a Dutch investigative journalist who made a career working in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. She is currently a lecturer at the Sciences Po university in Paris on the subject of Afghanistan. She is also the author of A Man and a Motorcycle: How Hamid Karzai Came to Power.

Bette Dam is a unique voice among Western journalists, providing a hard look at the U.S. justification for war in Afghanistan. Looking for the Enemy is a fascinating biographical account of Mullah Omar’s life and an important contribution to our understanding of the war. This should be required reading for journalists and policy makers covering Afghanistan. - Jessica Donati, author of Eagle Down: The Last Special Forces Fighting the Forever War

Bette Dam was one of the bravest, best-connected and most committed investigative journalists working in Afghanistan during the five years I spent in the country. She was one of the very few Western journalists to gain real access to the Taliban movement, through years of painstaking work building relationships with senior ex-Talibs, and with people around the group’s fringes still connected to its center. - Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian

Bette Dam’s Looking for the Enemy is an in-depth, insightful, and engaging addition to the world’s knowledge of the Taliban’s enigmatic founding leader. - Jeff W. Hayes, former Director at the National Security Council staff, involved in talks with the Taliban since 2010

Dam’s work looks consistent, across the various sources. - Afghan independent researcher Borhan Osman, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal

Bette is like Carry in Homeland. A fascinating book. - The Correspondent

The account exposes an embarrassing failure of U.S. intelligence. - The Guardian