Did the CIA train bin Laden during the Soviet Afghanistan war?
They sure did. Ironic, isn’t it?
While it’s true, I don’t think it’s a reason to necessarily criticize the CIA (not inferring that you were doing so btw.) Alot of people jump on the CIA about these types of ironies that always crop up as geopolitical situations change. National Security is often expediency-dependent. I don’t know enough to say the CIA has done enough long term thinking in these situations and is therefore inculpable, but I know I don’t know enough to jump all over them as many do.
It happens often enough that there is a term for it - “blowback”. The CIA backed many fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan at the time of the Soviet involvement - as noted, for reasons of expediency, agencies perferming covert operations will recruit allies that are less than savory, and perhaps not destined to remain allies. At the time, they probably felt that Afghanistan in the control of Islamic militants was preferable to a Soviet Afghanistan.
And Ho Chi Minn worked in a restaurant in London in WWI.
Taugh him everything he knew, the so-in-sos!
Many pundits have made the analogy that to get rid of the rats you have to be willing to go down into the sewer, and the US has so far been unwilling to do this. But it seems to me that the CIA has been trawling in the sewer for years and years. I worry the tragedy will be used to expand the CIA’s power.
The CIA not only trained Bin Laden and his ilk. Pakistani Intelligence set up the Taliban with CIA collusion. You have to understand the historical background: ever since Pakistan’s independence in 1947, they had been having problems with Afghanistan’s government over the border. The Pathan ethnic group in northwest Pakistan is the same as the Pashtuns in Afghanistan, with the Durand line arbitrarily drawn by the British colonialists through the middle of their tribal territory. For all these years, Pakistan’s goal has been to install a government in Kabul that would be manipulable by them or at least sympathetic. That’s the main reason Pakistan intelligence set up the Taliban. Extremely ironic, considering the boys’ hostility toward women, that this happened on Benazir Bhutto’s watch. The CIA colluded because of U.S. interest in a potential oil pipeline route through Afghanistan. This was all a horrible mistake. Pakistan’s society has been dangerously destabilized by the violent extremists that are now intimidating the decent people.
What good is the CIA anyway? All they can accomplish is international mischief. When it comes to protecting America, they’re useless. They’re worse than useless.
[[That’s the main reason Pakistan intelligence set up the Taliban. Extremely ironic, considering the boys’ hostility toward women, that this happened on Benazir Bhutto’s watch.]]
I’ve always been amazed at how the US backs and supports nations in which women are treated like animals, while we proudly boycotted South Africa for its treatment of black people.
kid, I will bash them. The CIA is completely useless. The agency is not civil, and it is surely not intelligent. The FBI couldn’t exactly act on the abundant information it accumulated because the CIA fell asleep on the wheel concerning the international communications. It completely missed signals from abroad. A short while ago it created our current monsters Sadaam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, killed democratically elected presidents and propped up other dictators around the world. This agency did more to get the world hostile about the US than any other group.
at the end of the cold war, the cia was casting about for something they could do to justify their existence. they came up with picking targets for military campaigns and their first choice (in fact, I think the only one) was the thing that turned out to be the chinese embassy in belgrade. i read that the actual people killed in that attack, with rather pinpoint accuracy, were three anti american journalists. quite the coincidence, if indeed it was an accident. it would be easier to determine their usefulness if we could get a straight answer out of them once in a while.
i concur with the irony about apartheid vs anti-woman violence and discrimination. I think these things will only be addressed when women are as militant as black activists were during the 70s. not just women, but men too need to be much more conscious of the currents of culture that excuse violence against women. if you wouldn’t tolerate a “negro joke” why would you tolerate a “mother in law joke”? Or a blonde joke. the list goes on and on. sorry for the rant. needed to be said.
Well…not only because of this pipe-line, but also because the talibans were fighting the Iran-supported Shias in western Afghanistan.
By the way, that policy went on until the middle of the 90’s. The US didn’t stop supporting the Talibans (or at least supporting the pro-Taliban policy of Pakistan) when the Soviets left Afghanistan.
I think the GQ has been answered, and the rest is debate. Off to Great Debates.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Somewhere on these boards is a link to a Toronto Star article about bin Laden’s recruitment and training by the CIA. Damned if I can find it now that I need it, however. Anyone else seen this link?