Godfather of Terror

Author: Lynne O’Donnell

Genres: Subject-Led Non-fiction

Serious non-fiction by Lynne O’Donell. The author is a reknowned, admired and award-winning journalist, considered a world authority on geopolitics and Afghanistan, Godfather of Terror is the only book you need to read to understand how international politics works and why countries like Afghanistan suffer horribly throughout history.

Her book is a high-stakes, fast-paced, non-fiction thriller that tells the true story of Haji Bashir Noorzai, the Afghan drug lord who built the Taliban, fuelled its heroin war, and now controls Afghanistan’s economy and mineral wealth as America and China battle for global supremacy.

Noorzai turned opium into a war machine, transformed the Taliban into his personal enforcers, and flooded the West with heroin.

Caught in a years-long DEA sting, he was sentenced to life in New York—only to be released in a secret 2022 hostage swap. Back in Kandahar, he resumed his reign, hailed as a kingmaker and trafficker of heroin and meth, while guarding Afghanistan’s trillion-dollar mineral wealth.

This is the defining account of how one man shaped global history.

“A must-read… the true, thrilling story of Haji Bashir Noorzai.”
- James Patterson

“O'Donnell exposes the nexus of criminality, terrorism, corruption, and the heroin economy… an urgent, compelling account of unaccountable power.”
- General David Petraeus

“Lynne O'Donnell has shown a tremendous passion and commitment to reporting on Afghanistan, often at great personal risk. This thriller of a book will reveal the history of the money trails behind the Taliban and the terrorist links that still keep them going today. Once again we are reminded that we can't ignore what happens in Afghanistan, now ruled by a terrorist group that prevents women from just living their lives.”
- Dominic Medley OBE, Former NATO spokesperson in Afghanistan

“Someone once told me: “There are conspiracies because there are conspirators.”  Godfather of Terror puts a giant exclamation mark, bigger than a bullseye, center mass of that theory.  Lynne O’Donnell crafts a novel better than Le Carre or Clancy, except it isn’t a novel, it’s real, and it’s true.”
- Matt Eversmann, Former U.S. Army Ranger, Co-author of The Battle of Mogadishu

“Godfather of Terror is a global spy thriller, packed with insights only someone with Lynne O’Donnell’s credentials and contacts could deliver. Her sources reveal an almost unbelievable dance with the creator of the Taliban—his capture, arrest, incarceration, and eventual release from a life sentence in a prisoner swap, leading to his return to Afghanistan more powerful than ever. From 2016 to 2026, much has changed in Afghanistan and the United States—and we are far less safe because of it. Lynne’s book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of democracy and our planet.”
- Debrah Farentino, Actor/ Producer

“Who better to write a ripped-from-the-headlines true life thriller than the woman who actually wrote those headlines for each of the western world’s great news agencies? This story of a larger-than-life figure helps explain why we are where we are - and where the world is going.”
- David Schlesinger, Former Editor-In-Chief, Reuters

“Lynne O’Donnell’s Godfather of Terror is a gripping thriller that reads with the urgency of a spy novel and the depth of investigative journalism. It weaves together espionage, terrorism, and the global drug trade into a story that is as chilling as it is revelatory. I couldn’t put it down. I loved this book—and I’m proud to share that it’s already in production as a documentary, set to be released in April 2026.”
- Matthew Berkowitz, Film Director, writer and producer. Wild in Blue. A Violent Man. The Madness Inside Me

“Raw and authentic. Lynne O’Donnell has risked her life to tell this story and others in a country that many news organizations simply deem too perilous to cover.”
- Tim Malloy, Emmy Award-winning war reporter 

“Lynne has an unmatched ability to situate stories from Afghanistan within the broader international context. She can explain both how the people and their stories are relevant to the world and why that matters.Haji Bashir Noorzai, the Godfather of Terror, is one such person. Lynne has followed his story for years and has developed leads and explored aspects of it that have implications for the Taliban’s current regime and its relationships with the world, particularly the United States. Haji Bashir Noorzai is one of a few key players that will shape the Taliban’s second stint in power. Yet, his story is under-explored and his role under-appreciated.”
- Ahmad Shuja, Former senior Afghan civil servant, Co-author of The Decline and Fall of Republican Afghanistan

 “During a time when the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan has once again been relegated to the specialist corner of the research and media community, despite continued strategic terrorism, organized crime and human rights challenges, Ms. O’Donnell’s book could not be more urgent. By focusing on Haji Bashir Noorzai, a key figure sitting at the intersection between Taliban extremism, terrorism and international organized crime Godfather of Terror will enable the specialists as well as the general readership to get a sense of the strategic mistakes the international community made during the 20 years of its efforts in Afghanistan and the region. It will also allow the reader to reconnect with the challenges that the region currently faces and to better understand the unique combination of extremism, terrorism and international organized crime that continues to be at the center of the threats emanating from South Asia.”
- Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, Senior Director, Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and Auschwitz Research Center on Hate Extremism and Radicalization (ARCHER), Former Coordinator, ISIL, al-Qaida and Taliban Monitoring Team, United Nations Security Council

“The untold story of one of the worst men in the world, and how America lured him into their grip, but released him, and he now funds the Taliban terrorist machine in Afghanistan with drug money. Nobody knows this terrain better than Lynne O'Donnell. A compelling tale of courage and cunning, and she tells it like an edge of your seat thriller. I was gripped.”
- David Loyn, Former BBC correspondent in Afghanistan , Author of The Long War: The Inside Story of America and Afghanistan since 9/11.

“Godfather of Terror will rattle readers who think that Western forces understood Afghanistan. It illuminates the kind of dynamics that dictated the outcome but which were kept hidden or were assumed to be conspiracy. But it does more than reveal the political miscalculations of the past. In telling Haji Bashir Noorzai’s story, it illuminates that power still resides in all those deeper layers of Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s story isn’t over. This book is required reading to understand its next chapters.”
- Ben Acheson, Former EU and NATO official in Afghanistan, Author of The Pashtun Tribes in Afghanistan