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This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies in For Terry Gross.

The National Counterterrorism Center has identified the Hacani Network as a lethal

and sophisticated insurgent group responsible for high profile suicide bombings in Afghanistan,

an armed assault on the Kabul International Hotel and other targets.

Our guest, journalist Jerry Van Dyck, has spent decades reporting on Afghanistan,

and in the early 1980s lived with Hacani Network leaders while they were battling

invading forces from the Soviet Union.

Van Dyck returned to the region several more times in succeeding years,

in part hoping to reconnect with the clan's leader and discuss the group's evolution

into an organization willing to kill innocent civilians in its attacks.

On one trip in 2008 Van Dyck was taken hostage by the Taliban and held captive for 45 days.

He later advised the Obama administration on a re-evaluation of its hostage policies.

Jerry Van Dyck grew up in a religious community in Washington state.

He was a track star in college and served in the US Army before beginning his work as a foreign correspondent.

He's reported for the New York Times, CBS, and other news organizations,

and has written several books. His latest published in September is,

without borders, the Hacani Network and the road to Kabul.

Well, Jerry Van Dyck, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thank you, Dave.

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