posted on Jul, 31 2005 @ 08:23 PM
Why does the US government refuse to admit its central role in creating the vicious movement that spawned Osama, the Taliban and Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists. The mass media has also down-played the origins of Bin Laden and his brand of Islamic fundamentalism. Lets backtrack a few
steps.
In the 70’s and 80’s Washington, feared the spread of Soviet influence (and worse the new government's radical example) to its allies in
Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states. So what did they do? – The immediately offered support to the mujaheddin, (which were at war with the USSR) in
the eyes of many Afghanis the reactionary jihad now gained legitimacy as a “national liberation” struggle.
So many people seem to forget sooo quickly that; between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$6 billion (some estimates range as high
as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the mujaheddin factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich Saudi Arabia,
kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama bin Laden, provided millions more.
Washington's policy in Afghanistan was shaped by US President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and was continued by
his successors. His plan went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; rather it aimed to foster an international movement to spread
Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim Central Asian Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union.
After the mujaheddin took Kabul in 1992, Hekmatyar's forces rained US-supplied missiles and rockets on that city — killing at least 2000 civilians
— until the new government agreed to give him the post of prime minister. Osama bin Laden was a close associate of Hekmatyar and his faction.
Backing of the mujaheddin from the CIA coincided with a boom in the drug business. Within two years, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was the world's
single largest source of heroin, supplying 60% of US drug users. Funny how this stopped when the Taliban took control in 2000, and in 2001 when the
US invaded is started again? Did you know that CIA black-ops are funded by drug-money, hmmm… Would now be the right time for me to say that 9/11
was a black op.
Back tot he mujaheddin…. The muslims recruited in the US for the mujaheddin were sent to Camp Peary, the CIA's spy training camp in Virginia, where
young Afghans, Arabs from Egypt and Jordan, and even some African-American “black Muslims” were taught “sabotage skills”. These
“operatives” were recruited at the al Kifah Refugee Centre in Brooklyn, New York, given paramilitary training in the New York area and then sent
to Afghanistan with US assistance to join Hekmatyar's forces.
In 1986, bin Laden brought heavy construction equipment from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan. Using his extensive knowledge of construction techniques (he
has a degree in civil engineering), he built “training camps”, some dug deep into the sides of mountains, and built roads to reach them. These
camps, now dubbed “terrorist universities” by Washington, were built in collaboration with the CIA. The Afghan contra fighters, including the tens
of thousands of mercenaries recruited and paid for by bin Laden, were armed by the CIA. US and Britain provided military trainers.
Tom Carew, a former British SAS soldier who secretly fought for the mujaheddin told the August 13, 2000, British Observer, “The Americans were
keen to teach the Afghans the techniques of urban terrorism — car bombing and so on — so that they could strike at the Russians in major towns ...
Many of them are now using their knowledge and expertise to wage war on everything they hate.”
Bin Laden has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in Afghanistan during the 1980's — fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has
changed is his primary customer. Then it was the CIA. Today, his services are utilised primarily by the reactionary Taliban regime.
Bin Laden only became a “terrorist” in US eyes when he fell out with the Saudi royal family over its decision to allow more than 540,000 US troops
to be stationed on Saudi soil following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. When thousands of US troops remained in Saudi Arabia after the end of the Gulf
War, bin Laden's anger turned to outright opposition. He declared that Saudi Arabia and other regimes — such as Egypt — in the Middle East were
puppets of the US, just as the PDPA government of Afghanistan had been a puppet of the Soviet Union.
In an August 28, 1998, report posted on MSNBC, Michael Moran quotes Senator Orrin Hatch, who was a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee
which approved US dealings with the mujaheddin, as saying he would make “the same call again”, even knowing what bin Laden would become.
“It was worth it. Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union.”
Hatch today is one of the most gung-ho voices demanding military retaliation.
Another face that has appeared repeatedly on television screens since the attack has been Vincent Cannistrano, described as a former CIA chief of
“counter-terrorism operations”. Cannistrano is certainly an expert on terrorists like bin Laden, because he directed their “work”. He was in
charge of the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras during the early 1980's. In 1984, he became the supervisor of covert aid to the Afghan mujaheddin for the
US National Security Council.
The last word goes to Zbigniew Brzezinski: “What was more important in the world view of history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A
few stirred up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”