CNN’s background info on OBL says he was a founding member of Afghan Jihad, formed in 1979 as a response to the Soviet invasion. It was to fight in this Jihad that led OBL to leave Saudi Arabia.
My local newspaper (The Bangkok Post) is quoting a Middle East analyst named Hazhir Tiemourian who says that Afghan Jihad was supported with US money, which isn’t too surprising since US money supprted all sorts of similar anti-Soviet groups.
He further says that OBL received security training from the CIA itself, also not hard to believe. Does anyone know if this is true? Not to say the CIA is to blame, but it certainly would shed some light on how quickly our loyalties and enemies can change, and perhaps serve as a warning to scrutinize our own possible sponsored terrorism (read: “freedom fighters”)in the future.
on CNN, former director of the CIA ( i think it was the former director of the CIA ) said that bin laden was working for the CIA and hence knew, at some level, how their intelligence works.
This is the type of stuff I’m afraid will hamper an all out attack in response to this- America has a lot of embarrassing bedfellows in the Middle East, not that this justifies these individuals turning on us.
Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega and I’m sure many members of the Taliban, and possibly Bin Laden, have all been allies of the CIA at one point. Now that there is no more USSR, the lines have been redrawn.
The sad thing is we are going to have to sell our souls to other unsavory characters in order to get at Bin Laden if he indeed is the perpetrator.
As a member of the Mujahedin, Bin Ladin benefited from the enormous ($billions) airlift of arms the CIA sent (via Pakistan) to those fighting in the Afghani Jihad against the USSR 1979-89. One imagines that may well have also included training in the use of weaponry and guerrilla tactics.
It’s often cited that those experiences of the CIA helped to radicalise Bin Ladin.
Less certain is the role he played in the later Taliban takeover of Kabul. Allegedly, he used his personal fortune to finance the Taliban and, in doing so, secured positions for himself and his training camps in the north of Afganistan. He remains a ‘guest’.