I never heard his name before the 1993 WTC bombings. How/when was it determined that he engineered that? And was he seen as dangerous beforehand? I’m assuming the government at least knew who he was before 1993.
Dunno, dear–I was searching Google for you, and I ran across this interview from a while back (1998 I guess), and now I’m totally creeped out and I’m going to go hug my kids.
DDG, I saw part of that interview on a couple of news programs- it gave me the heebie-jeebies every time I saw it.
I thought the same things you did. Very scary.
American investment in Afghanistan to counter the Soviet invasion is somewhat responsible for the rise in popularity of the Taliban and groups espousing Osama’s philosophies. Like too much American foreign policy, Osama became a threat when he was percieved to stop supporting American goals in the tradition of Noriega or Ho Chi Minh. I am not trying to excuse his disgraceful actions nor speak ill of the innocents who died in recent disasters. However, threats are always a matter of interpretation and the U.S. has long supported unsavoury characters and regimes, as have many other countries to further their own interests.
He was “connected” to the 1993 WTC bombings, because evidently one of the bombers “knew him”, but it looks like he might not have been actually “red flagged” until 1996, when he declared war on the U.S. I dunno, I don’t have the patience to wade through a lot of “history Bin Laden” websites.
I would assume that the CIA has at least known who he was since 1979, as he was a wealthy Saudi who involved himself in helping the Afghans against the Russians, during that war.
