During what turned out to be a very critical time, before and immediately after the 9 11 attacks. He was very much involved in u. S. Efforts to oust the taliban from afghanistan and bring hamed karzai to power and the books title refers to the period between september 11 and december 2001 when karzai made his return to afghanistan from pakistan. Other books of course have reported extensively on the war in afghanistan including some by other former cia officials. Bob offers fresh details about the role of both the cia and the pakistanis in the pashtun areas of afghanistan in the months after 9 11 with his ringside seat as the Senior Agency official station the closest to afghanistan. He recounts meeting by meeting and sometimes even phonecall by phonecall how events unfolded. As he explains in the beginning of the book he knew early on that he wanted to write about the experience and about what happened so he kept extensive notes and was able to review many relevant documents. After hi