Al-Qaeda and the CIA

Hi guys,

I've noticed that a lot of people claim that there are ties between the US and OBL, in particular when OBL was recruiting the mujahadeen for Afghanistan from the early 80s to the late 80s. Looking around there seems to be a lot of disagreement about the extent of the aid from the US. Official sources claim that all US aid went to Pakistan, and the eventual recipient of the aid (OBL) was not known to the US. Others claim that CIA operatives directly trained OBL and close associates in the use of explosives and gave them tactical training.

So I'm wondering, what is the evidence for this either way? A quick google proved to be unenlightening due to the huge volume of information so I thought I'd post a request for sources from people on this board in case you have links to hand.

Any info appreciated!

You can find a very good account of how the US effort in
Afghanistan was handled by reading "Charlie Wilson's War".
I highly recommend the book, it being one of the few
that gives a really good account of a CIA program. These
programs are really hard to document because even very
few in the CIA know the particulars, everything being so
secret. As I recall Pakistan was the middle man in this
operation that gave the US deniability. In that effort,
the sanctuary for guerrilla operations was the rough mountain
terrain and Pakistan. Guerrilla efforts were hidden and supplied
by Pakistan. The supplies actually came from the US and
Saudi Arabia. They shared the bill 50-50. The plan for the
operation was the brain child of Michael Vickers, a rather
junior member of the CIA who had a genius IQ and much background
as an Army Special Operations type before joining the CIA.
Michael laid out the whole plan, as to weapons, how many of
them, the training needed etc. and his boss Gust Avrakotos
carried out the plan through the help of some key congressmen
providing funding, Saudi Arabia with more funding and
Pakistan acting as the middle man that funneled all the support
and training to the Afghan guerrillas. The Russians knew Pakistan
was furnishing the sanctuary, just as the US knew North Vietnam
was furnishing it in Vietnam. The Russians wavered though
and would not take action against Pakistan, similarly to
the US not taking a decisive action in North Vietnam. The
fact that Jimmy Carter threatened to use nuclear weapons
if Russia went outside of Afghanistan probably was a good
part of the reason Russia never neutralized Pakistan.
The US participation was completely covert. It was kept
secret to the point that only a few of the Afghanistan
leaders had any idea that they were being equipped with
weapons and equipment carefully determined by Michael
Vickers back at the CIA. As to whether OBL knew or was
in contact with the US at the time, I can't say, but it has
not that much importance to the current effort in that OBL
now hates the US and Pakistan as well, even though
he was glad they helped against the Russians in Afghanistan.
The US definitely did not train him so that he could attack us
as some conspiracy idiots want people to believe.
In the Russia/Afghan war the Russians won every battle,
completely dominating the fighting similar to how the
US completely and overwhelmingly won any battles in Vietnam.
To the Afghanis credit though, they would never give up and
finally the Russians decided it just wasn't worth it and
left. As the Russians marched out and left, the Afghanis
started immediately fighting each other, with the Taliban
finally controlling, at least in the south. One consequence
of this secrecy of the war was that many Muslims that fought
the war against Russia believed that they did it by themselves,
not even knowing that their plan and funding had come from
Michael Vickers, the CIA, and Saudi Arabia. They believed
that they had actually defeated the Russians, with the help
of God, of course, who was on their side and militant Islam
got a large shot in the arm. This group that believed they
had with God's help defeated the Russians became inspired
to again regain the Muslim glory of the reborn establishment
of the Caliphate. To do this they would keep up a fiction of
being independent of the Afghanistan government who would
give them sanctuary and possibly also from Pakistan.
From this base of operations they would carry out their
mission. Today this group is known as Al Qaeda.


[edit on 28-7-2005 by MajorCee]

Major, you beat me to the punch. Charlie Wilson's War is a stellar book and I have been touting here since it came out (not only because my former client wrote).



One of the frightening things I found in the book was that many of the mujhadeen we armed and trained are now on the most wanted terrorist list. There are photos in the book, showing many of these "warriors" with a caption that names them and gives the place and date and then it says so and so is now wanted by the us for the september 11 attacks or for some other attack on US interests.

The book is non-fiction but reads like fiction, what with all the women and partying involved. It should make an amazing movie. Tom Hanks optioned the movie rights shortly after the release of the book.

Although "al-Qaeda" is the name of the organization used in popular culture, the organization rarely uses the name to formally refer to itself. The origin of the name "al-qaeda" is disputed; some allege it was coined by the United States government based on the name of a computer file of bin Laden's that listed the names of contacts he had made at the MAK in the Bait al-Ansar guesthouse during the late 1980s. Bin Laden himself says of the origin, saying "We used to call the training camp al Qaeda [meaning "the base" in English]. And the name stayed."

en.wikipedia.org...