Lynne O’Donnell’s career took a dramatic turn on September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda’s attack on New York reshaped the global agenda. Until then, she had covered China’s rapid transformation from poverty to industrial powerhouse. But 9/11 pushed Afghanistan to the forefront, and Lynne followed the story, arriving as U.S. forces ousted the Taliban’s first regime.
She was there when America’s war began in vengeful victory and when it ended in chaotic retreat. Over two decades, she led major news bureaus in Kabul, working with multilingual teams to shape global coverage of the conflict. Her reporting won international recognition, particularly for exposing the suffering of Afghan women, an issue she continues to highlight after the Taliban’s brutal return in 2021.
In the war’s final months, she travelled deep into Afghanistan, breaking stories that foreshadowed the Taliban’s resurgence. She was on the last commercial flight out of Kabul before its fall. A year later, she returned to chronicle the changes — only to be kidnapped at gunpoint by Taliban intelligence, forced to “confess” that her reporting was “fake news.”
Asked if she is ever afraid, Lynne replies: “Fear is a sign of intelligent life.” A friend in Pakistan had those words printed on a coffee mug.
Her fearless journalism has exposed abuses of power, angered regimes from Pakistan to China, and even driven policy changes. She has helped free jailed colleagues, supported Afghan refugee journalists, and stood up for the silenced.
Lynne’s bestselling High Tea in Mosul: the True Story of Two Englishwomen in War-torn Iraq (2007) tells the extraordinary true story of two Englishwomen caught in Iraq’s decades of war. Her latest book, Godfather of Terror, reveals America’s pursuit of the Taliban’s chief financier, a drug kingpin who helped create the militia allied with Al Qaeda. She chronicles the secret operation that led to his capture and the missed opportunity to alter the course of the war.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Massoud Hossaini calls her “a battlefield legend.” Pakistani journalist Asad Ali Toor describes her as “loyal, empathetic, and an exceptional journalist and amazing human being.”
From war zones to newsrooms, Lynne O’Donnell remains a journalist who refuses to look away.
Photo credit: Courtney Body