zim
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Registered: Dec 2002
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Posts: 3063 |
The real story is well known to anyone who bothers research it outside the bounds of the internet, and only moderately difficult to determine using the Internet as your sole research medium.
Bin Laden was not trained, nor was he financed by the United States of America. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the United States had reason to wish for the Soviets to fail. To see to it that this came to pass while maintaining a semblance of plausible deniability, the US limited it's forces in Afghanistan to covert observers and sent no funding directly into the nation.
The funding that the US sent into Afghanistan went by way of two different paths. Many Islamic Americans sent money in via a network of charity organizations; many of those same organizations were recently closed by the US. The remainder of the financing, the financing sent by the US government itself, was sent not to bin Laden, but to Pakistan.
The US sent money into Pakistan and Pakistan was given the task of diseminating the funds within Afghanistan. Pakistan was not directed who to and who not to grant US finances to. Their intelligence services saw fit to assist a group known as the 'afghan arabs' who were not of afghan origin. While bin laden was one of the afghan arabs, and a prominent one at that, the funds were most likely not diverted to him by Pakistan's ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) because he, as is well known, is independently wealthy.
So it all comes down to what euphorbia said. Contrary to popular belief, the US did not create bin Laden. Also contrary to popular belief, we were not his original target. With all the anger he has for us has even more for Saudi Arabia, the nation he calls 'the land of the two holy places.'quote:
Steve Coll, Washington Post, July 19, 1992.
In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166*,...[which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal. The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, ... as well as a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels.
Sorta sums up the relationship. We gave the ISI funding and training and reccomended paramilitary operations for them to in turn reccomend to the afghan arabs, the mujahadeen. They then finances, armed, and trained the Afghan's themselves. Bin Laden was unaware of any assistance being provided by the US.quote:
Weekend Sunday (NPR); Eric Weiner, Ted Clark; 16 August 1998.
In the words of bin Laden (quoted by Beardman): "neither I, nor my brothers saw evidence of American help"
And now here's where I run the risk of being edited: ** If you want to continue spouting on with your statist rhetoric shut your eyes, place your fingers firmly in your ears and commence the audible assertion of the usual mantra "im not listening, im not listening, im not listening." If instead, you wish to educate yourself as to the truth of the situation, go to a book store or a library and start reading some history. I'd reccomend Peter Bergen's Holy War Inc. for starters. It outlines the way that the terror cells work, shows bin laden's work in many different international incidents, and puts his assertions in a more neutral light.
*It's interesting to note that I did a little research on NSDD 166, and it seems that as of yet "the document has not been reviewed for release or release has been denied in full."
**edited for her pleasure
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Last edited by CHiPsJr on 11-09-2006 at 08:23 AM
Last edited by zim on 05-17-2004 at 03:10 AM
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05-16-2004 01:48 AM
