Let's forget all the silliness that has grown up around 9/11.
Those wild eyed fairy tales of holograms and mini-nukes are not taken seriously by those of us with common sense. Some of us even wonder if these
ridiculous ideas are being actively promoted as a smoke screen to keep everyone from taking a hard look at the reasons behind the attack. The powers
that be love for the world to see these stories of ghost planes and Nostradamus and shapeshifting reptilians That way, anyone who speaks of 9/11
without piously standing shoulder to shoulder with this administration's policies and declarations on the matter can be wrote off as another
It's downright unpopular to ask certain questions. Just to wonder if 9/11 was the result of US policies in the '80s and '90s can be a problem. Ron
Paul said that it was "blow back", and he was immediately attacked as being unpatriotic. It is political suicide to ponder, out loud anyway, if the
years of meddling in Islamic governments business resulted in them bring the fight home to American shores. But the question won't just go away,
because a lot of people ask themselves if America played a role in the radicalization that portion of Islam that became Al Qaeda. Did America play
Russian roulette with Islamic fundamentalists?
The Mudjahadeen Connection and the USSR's "Vietnam"
On July 3, 1979, President Jimmy Carters administration took a step towards ending the stalemate of the Cold War. A then secret directive was issued
to funnel support to some anti-soviet "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan. It was all part of the game between the western powers and the old USSR.
Just another move where pawns bled and died in proxy wars, as each side sought some advantage or the other.This time the idea was that America could
use the growing civil unrest in Afghanistan to draw the Soviets into their own version of Vietnam. A war they couldn't win.
Western leaders felt safe in pushing a war half a world away. These "freedom fighters" could bait the Russian bear into open fighting, thereby
draining the USSR of resources and the will to struggle. It would cost the Americans very little, and if it worked, the payoff would be a greatly
weakened Soviet Union. It's doubtful that the planners of this venture were sure it would even work at all. But these were the days of the likes of
Oliver North, and any plan was worth a shot.
Surprisingly, it worked like a charm. Before the year was out, the Russians came to Afghanistan to spread their form of Christmas cheer. The
government in Kabul had been on the verge of losing control, and as a good client state, had invited the USSR to come and restore order. We may never
know just how the CIA, America's chosen "front man" for this covert action, spent their money, but it's a pretty safe bet most of it went into
destabilization of the Afghan government and causing civil unrest.
The US War Machine Playing Both Sides Against the Other
This was the start of an almost decade long war, and the CIA was hip deep in making sure it was a bloody one. Within weeks, then Secretary of Defense
Harold Brown was dealing with China for weapons to be sent to Pakistan, and on to Afghanistan, to be used on Russian "peace keepers". To be sure
that there was no shortage of arms, an additional $15 million was soon spent with Egypt for arms and ammunition, and ferried on US planes to the
We should take a moment to look at just who all these arms were being sent to. The group we were arming to the teeth in an effort to extract some
"payback" for our own humiliation in Vietnam was a group calling themselves the mujahadeen. Taken as a whole, these "freedom fighters" were far
from being upstanding citizens, by any stretch of the imagination. They were scarcely more than gangs, led by self-styled war lords. Gangs which for
years had been fighting among themselves for control of the lucrative opium trade.
Mujahadeen translates into "holy warriors", a misnomer if ever there was one. While religion was a part of their overall life concept, it seems that
money and power was as great a motivating force. Calling them holy warriors is like saying the L.A. gangs are Catholic Conservatives just because some
of them wear crosses. A good example is is one well known leader of the time, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He was most widely known for throwing acid in the
faces of women who refused to wear the veil, according to a report by Tim Weiner.
Historically, Afghanistan has been an isolated crossroads. Despite some modernization in the cities, it remains on a feudal level even today. In such
an atmosphere religion too often is a tool of oppression and control. War lords use these kinds of tools to control their domain. The more brutal the
slant taken by the clergy, the better the tool for the leaders. In such a setting, it is small wonder that Islam would be bent to use of these
Radicalizing Islam for Strategic Benefit
But radical religion fit well with the goals of the US. Russia could be seen as a decadent society, and battling them could be seen as a holy work.
Compared to the lifestyles of most people in Afghanistan, the Russians were too modern, too open, too evil. And with the money and guns that America
supplied through the CIA, the power base of the war lords was growing. And as they grew, their ideas on what was right in a religious context grew. It
was a vicious circle that America was feeding.
In a 1998 interview, Zhigniew Bresenski, one of the players of those days, spoke in an interview. He said, "What was more important in the world view
of history?... A few stirred up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and an end to the Cold War?" Only a few short years later the WTC would
fall at the hands of those same "stirred up Muslims". One has to wonder how he felt about it by that time.
The Plot Intensifies in The Reagan Years
During the Reagan years money and arms flowed like water. According to Ronald Spiers, then ambassador to Pakistan, the CIA sent a river of men and
money, along with arms from China and Egypt, and even Iran. Assault rifles, land mines, antiaircraft guns, and grenade launchers; they sent anything
and everything to keep the heat on the Russians. Pakistani General Mohammed Yousaf estimated that he saw over 10,000 tons of these items pass through
Pakistan in 1983 alone.
And in March of 1985, the Reagan administration upped the ante some more by signing the National Security Decision Directive # 166,29. Now the CIA
sent satellite data, even intercepted Soviet communications to the mujahadeen. America sent targeting devises for mortars, long range sniper rifles,
and later even stinger antiaircraft rockets. And tons of the urban terrorists friend, C-4 plastic explosives.
It goes without saying that the US didn't just hand these over to a bunch of feudal barons barely out of the horse age without training them in how
to get the biggest bang for the buck. While there isn't a much available information, logic assures us that there must have been a lot of training in
the use of all these things. The CIA spooks surely spent time prepping this army of radical Islamic fundamentalists before aiming it at the Russian
The US Created and Trained Radical Islamic Terrorists
In their short-sighted desire to extract some "payback" from the USSR, America armed and trained an Islamic force, infused with a radical religious
viewpoint, to fight, and win, a guerrilla war against a modern regular army that was much like our own army. The CIA would rather we thought that
everything was aimed at military targets during this time, but there can be no doubt that some of these arms, and the training to use them, were used
in assassinations and car bombings as well. The US could hardly avoid being in the terrorist training business.
Now every army needs recruits, and this one was no exception. Pakistan journalist Ahmed Rashid has said that in the decade between 1982 and 1992, some
35,000 Muslims, from over 40 countries, answered the call to join up. Thousands more poured in to the religious schools set up near Pakistan's
western border. In all, over 100,000 radical Muslim extremists were culled from the from the world's most radical groups. Common sense tells us that
the overwhelming majority were already committed to the fundamental ideology before they ever left home for the hinterlands of Afghanistan. Osoma bin
Ladin was one of these recruits.
The CIA Connection to bin Laden and Al Qaeda Takes Shape
CIA officials steadfastly deny past knowledge of bin Ladin, or at least of a paper trail. But in the trial of the Kenya embassy bombings evidence was
shown that in at least 1989 he was the one they shipped a load of high powered rifles to. According to the Boston Globe, this was confirmed by the
manufacturer of the weapons, a firm out out of Tennessee. But a paper trail is hardly the point anyway. The CIA ran this operation, and bin Ladin
was on the team.
Just because the Grand Wizard says he never saw some of the KKK members, it doesn't lessen his connection to them. The CIA
produced this show, and bin Ladin was in the chorus line.
Around 1988, Al Qaeda (The Base) was born. Then as now, it was a terrorist network led by CIA trained men like bin Ladin. Men trained for war in
Islamic fundamentalist religious schools in Pakistan. While the radical Islamic message was a wonderful bond for men facing the "godless
communists", it was one that cunning leaders of the movement could aim at anyone. When the USSR tucked it's tale and headed north in 1989, an army
of religious fanatics were left behind with no enemy worthy of their talents as a reason to go on.
The Weapon Turns on its Creator
It is small wonder that the better documented '90s saw Al Qaeda turn on the west, eventually declaring war in the only way they knew how, in the
way they had been trained by the CIA to wage war.
Without the USSR to fight, they needed some other high profile foe, and the "great Satan" of
America was perfect for the role. Al Qeada took control of the Taliban, those returning orphans of war that had been raised on bloodshed and Islam,
justifying it's existence by finding a reason to attack the west.
Consolidating power, terrorist attacks against western targets went on the rise, reaching a crest with 9/11. By attacking America at home Al Qeada
showed the world that it was a power to be reckoned with. A well trained army, which these radical Muslims were and likely still are, is a danger to
peace if they have no real ties to a home and hearth. A soldier without a war or a true home is like a mad dog.
In the final analysis, the western powers set themselves up for this war of terror. In a desire for revenge and an arrogance unworthy of of our
people, our leaders led us into an ambush just as surely as Custer led the 7th cavalry into one at Little Big Horn. We have yet to see if the piper
has been paid in full.
ADL Osama bin Laden profile
Centre for Research on Globalisation: Who Is Osama Bin Laden?
Centre for Research on Globalisation: Cover-up or Complicity of the Bush
CNN: Bin Laden, millionaire with a dangerous grudge
BBC: Who is Osama Bin Laden?
Osama Bin Laden