You still seem to be mixing your facts up.
Originally posted by Egotosum
there's little to no evidence of direct or even indirect contact between the CIA and bin Laden's group of foreign fighters.
There's plenty of evidence regarding indirect contact by way of the Pakistani ISI. That's how the majority of funding, training techniques, and
weapons were funneled to the Afghan fighters (of which bin Laden was a "member/participant")
Originally posted by Egotosum
In fact, as you'd probably know, the CIA only began to take serious interest in "Al Qaeda" in the closing stages of the Afghan War.
Incorrect, "Al Qaeda" did not exist untill the late 90's. However, The C.I.A. did take serious interest in the "Afghani freedom fighters" from
the begining of the Soviet/Afghan war.
Originally posted by Egotosum
Hell, CIA officers/operators rarely, if ever, ventured into Afghanistan to meet with insurgent leaders or gather intelligence on the Soviet
military.
Debatable but likely, thus the multitude of
indirect contact through the Pakistani ISI and Brittish intelligence. The direct C.I.A. contact
that I've researched occurred in the Afghan/Pakistani border regions where Mujahideen fighters took refuge from Soviet forces. As this area is kind
of an "inbetween"; your statement of "ventured
into Afghanistan" may
technically hold true (depending on where you consider the true
border to be, although even the locals often have a hard time defining it). However your point is somewhat irrelevant as it still does not negate the
multitude of support and indirect contact provided by the C.I.A. and U.S. gov.
Originally posted by Egotosum
As for the myth that it was the CIA that attributed the "Al Qaeda" label to Osama bin Laden's terrorist group...
I never stated that the C.I.A. directly named them "Al Qaeda"; however, the name "Al Qaeda" was chosen/decided upon by the U.S. gov. in order to
be able to hunt/prosecute the group under existing anti-organized crime laws (since the group had "no flag" or specific country which they
represented). The name "Al Qaeda" (trans. "The Base") was created in direct reference to the "data-base" (of names) of the Afghani/Mujahideen
fighters involved in the Soviet/Afghan conflict.
Sidenote: Last year we traced the first public appearance of the name "Al Qaeda" to
08/28/98 in reference to the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. As it stands, this
is the first public reference to the term "Al Qaeda" that we've found.
The CNN article uses the term "Al Qaeda" to describe bin
Laden's group, however, they never directly quote Odeh using the term. An important distinction in my opinion. Odeh's lawyer is only directly
quoted using the term "the organization", not "Al Qaeda". The only direct reference using the term "Al Queda" is attributed to "U.S.
officials" with the statements:
Source
Odeh told the FBI that he had trained in a number of camps affiliated with al Qaeda, an international terrorist group allegedly led by bin Laden, U.S.
officials told CNN.
and:
Odeh also told the FBI that he believed al Qaeda had carried out the Nairobi bombing and another blast at the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania.
Further, since you like Wiki as a reference, I'll point you to the lines below the selection you selectively chose to quote:
Source
Robin Cook, former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom and member of the House of Commons representative,
claimed that "Al-Qaeda" states "literally ‘the database' and was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited
and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians."
And:
An alternate theory, presented in the BBC film series "The Power of Nightmares" states that the name and concept of al-Qaeda was first used by
the U.S. Department of Justice in January of 2001 at the New York City trial of four men accused of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East
Africa. By alleging Osama bin Laden's leadership of said organization, it became possible to charge bin Laden in absentia with the crime using the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act also known as the RICO statutes.
Personally, I believe it's a combination of both of these theories, and I'd take the word (and credability) of Robin Cook (a "former Secretary of
State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom and member of the House of Commons representative") over that of a "bin Laden
quote", in an Al Jazeera journalist's interview, anyday.
Although, if you find bin Laden/Al Jazeera to be more credible than a qualified Brittish official that is your choice.
However, I'd point out that in the first quote that you chose to use, bin Laden only states that they "used to call the
training camp al
Qaeda", not the organization itself.
[edit on 10/29/06 by redmage]
