I’ve heard of cites that Osama was part of a different gang in Afghan, not the one the US helped out, but is anyone able to cite that?
Yep, Osama was leading Maktab al-Khidamar in Afghanistan resistence to the Soviets. The CIA provided training, funding, and weapons to them (and dozens of other Afghan rebel groups). We didn’t so much take Osama to a CIA camp and spend years honing him into a super-terrorist so much as he was one of thousands we happened to arm and train for spot fighting the Soviets.
When the Soviets pulled out, Afghanistan broke into civil war. Many of the people we armed fled and became the largest group of international terrorists around, including Osama. The rest took over Afghanistan until we tried (and failed) to eradicate them 2 years ago. They are now sitting in southern Afghanistan waiting for us to leave.
So, the gist is that this is still a Cold War spinoff, and Osama was one of our mercenaries.
Quibble of order. The Taliban, as an organization, was not extant during the war against the Soviet Union. The Taliban was not founded until 1994. While many members of the Taliban were former mujahedeen, and were possibly armed by the U.S., the Taliban itself was not. If any outside power bears responsibility for the rise of the Taliban, it is Pakistan.
http://www.unomaha.edu/afghanistan_atlas/talhist.html
No quibble with your history of Osama bin Laden, however.
Sua
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This is crossposted here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=250813 So I am locking this.
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