Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden

Claims have been made that the American government, and in particular the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), are responsible for enabling "Afghan Arabs," and in particular Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

Following the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Army, the United States gave several hundred million dollars a year in aid to the Afghan Mujahideen insurgents fighting the Soviet Army and Afghan Marxist government in Operation Cyclone. Along with native Afghan mujahideen (fighters of jihad or "holy warriors") were Muslim volunteers from other countries, popularly known as "Afghan Arabs". The most famous of the Afghan Arabs was Osama bin Laden, known at the time as a wealthy and pious Saudi who provided his own money and helped raise millions from other wealthy Gulf Arabs.

Overall, the U.S. government looked favorably on the Arab recruitment drives. ... Some of the most ardent cold warriors at [CIA headquarters at] Langley thought this program should be formally endorsed and extended. ... [T] he CIA "examined ways to increase their participation, perhaps in the form of some sort of international brigade" ... Robert Gates [then-head of the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence] recalled. ... At the [CIA's] Islamabad station [station chief] Milt Bearden felt that bin Laden himself "actually did some very good things" .... [Steve Coll, "Ghost Wars" (Penguin, 2005 edn), pp.145-6, 155-6.]

As the war neared its end, bin Laden organized the al-Qaeda organization to carry on armed jihad in other venues, primarily against the United States, the country that had helped fund the mujahideen against the Soviets.

A number of commentators have described Al-Qaeda attacks as "blowback" or an unintended consequence of American aid to the mujahideen. In response, the American government, American and Pakistani intelligence officials involved in the operation, and at least one journalist (Peter Bergen) have denied this theory. They maintain the aid was given out by the Pakistan government, that it went to Afghan not foreign mujahideen, and that there was no contact between the Afghan Arabs (foreign mujahideen) and the CIA or other American officials, let alone arming, training, coaching, indoctrination, etc.

Allegations

In an article on American "weapons deals", "Der Spiegel" called Bin Laden "one of the CIA's best weapons customers." [ Der Spiegel Online International, August 6, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,498421,00.html] The Russian journal "Demokratizatsiya" has described U.S. support for the Afghan Mujahideen as "the model for state-sponsored terrorism." [Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003, re-published at Find Articles, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200304/ai_n9199132] A BBC article on al-Qaeda claims, "some analysts believe Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA." [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1670089.stm Al-Qaeda's origins and links] bbc.co.uk, July 20, 2004]

According to ABC News correspondent John K. Cooley, the Carter Administration allowed Sheik Abul Rahman, later revealed as one of the conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets. [ [http://www.webcitation.org/5YbRc1utg Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003] ; "Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism," by "ABC News" correspondent John K. Cooley]

Andrew Marshall, a journalist for "The Independent" newspaper describes the Al Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn - which raised money and trained foreign volunteers for Afghanistan - "a place of pivotal importance to Operation Cyclone, the American effort to support the mujahideen," and also the place where several of those "connected" with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were "recruited." [ [http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/1990s/independent110198.html America's spies paid and trained their nation's worst enemies, reveals Andrew Marshall in Washington] Andrew Marshall, "The Independent", November 1, 1998 (accessed 10-31-2007)]

Robin Cook, former leader of the British House of Commons and Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001, believed the CIA had provided arms to the Arab Mujahideen, including Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. [cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523838,00.html|title=The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means|author=Cook, Robin|publisher=Guardian Unlimited|accessdate=2005-07-08]

In conversation with former British Defence Secretary Michael Portillo, two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto said Osama bin Laden was initially pro-American. [Benazir Bhutto, "Dinner with Portillo", BBC Four] This view is corroborated by Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, who when questioned by CNN's Larry King, divulged that Osama bin Laden was appreciative of his personal efforts in bringing the United States to Afghanistan to help him fight the Soviets. [ [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0110/01/lkl.00.html America's New War: Responding to Terrorism] CNN Larry King Live October 1 2001]

Bandar bin Sultan: This is ironic. In the mid-'80s, if you remember, we and the United - Saudi Arabia and the United States were supporting the Mujahideen to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviets. He came to thank me for my efforts to bring the Americans, our friends, to help us against the atheists, he said the communists. Isn't it ironic?
Larry King: How ironic. In other words, he came to thank you for helping bring America to help him.
Bandar bin Sultan: Right.

Besides bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the Afghan Mujahideen of the 1980s have been alleged to be the inspiration for terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia. [Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003, re-published at Find Articles, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200304/ai_n9199132] Many of the Arab Mujahideen who gained combat experience in Afghanistan were later involved in terrorist acts against the U.S.

Monte Palmer, senior fellow at the al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, believes that "it now appears that the American-sponsored jihad in Afghanistan was the first step in transforming the jihadist movements of Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan into an international network capable of challenging the United States. A coalescing of the jihadist movement would have occurred with or without Afghanistan, but the Afghan experience accelerated this process by years if not decades." [Monte Palmer and Princess Palmer, "At the Heart of Terror: Islam, Jihadists, and America's War on Terrorism" (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004) p. 97.]

Opposing views

The U.S. government officials and a number of other parties maintain that the U.S. supported only the indigenous Afghan mujahideen. They deny that the CIA or other American officials had contact with the Afghan Arabs (foreign mujahideen) or Bin Laden, let alone armed, trained, coached or indoctrinated them. They argue that with a quarter of a million local Afghans willing to fight there was no need to recruit foreigners unfamiliar with the local language, customs or lay of the land; that with several hundred million dollars a year in funding from non-American, Muslim sources, Arab Afghans themselves would have no need for American funds; that Americans could not train mujahideen because Pakistani officials would not allow more than a handful of them to operate in Pakistan and none in Afghanistan [Peter Jouvenal quoted in Bergen, Peter, "Holy War Inc." New York: Free Press, c2001., p.65] ; that the Afghan Arabs were militant Islamists, reflexively hostile to Westerners, and prone to threaten or attack Westerners even when they knew the Westerners were helping the mujahideen.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri says much the same thing in his book "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner".cite web
title=Did the U.S. "Create" Osama bin Laden?
date=2005-01-14
publisher=US Department of State
url=http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/24-318760.html
accessdate=2007-01-09] Bin Laden himself has said "the collapse of the Soviet Union ... goes to God and the mujahideen in Afghanistan ... the US had no mentionable role," but "collapse made the US more haughty and arrogant." ["Messages to the World", 2006, p.50. (March 1997 interview with Peter Arnett]

According to CNN journalist Peter Bergen, known for conducting the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997,

The story about bin Laden and the CIA -- that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden -- is simply a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. In fact, there are very few things that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the U.S. government agree on. They all agree that they didn't have a relationship in the 1980s. And they wouldn't have needed to. Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently.The real story here is the CIA did not understand who Osama was until 1996, when they set up a unit to really start tracking him.August 15, 2006.cite news
title=Bergen: Bin Laden, CIA links hogwash
date=2006-09-06
url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/15/bergen.answers/index.html
accessdate=2007-01-09]

Bergen quotes Pakistani Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, who ran ISI's (Inter-Services Intelligence) Afghan operation between 1983 and 1987:

It was always galling to the Americans, and I can understand their point of view, that although they paid the piper they could not call the tune. The CIA supported the mujahideen by spending the taxpayers' money, billions of dollars of it over the years, on buying arms, ammunition, and equipment. It was their secret arms procurement branch that was kept busy. It was, however, a cardinal rule of Pakistan's policy that no Americans ever become involved with the distribution of funds or arms once they arrived in the country. No Americans ever trained or had direct contact with the mujahideen, and no American official ever went inside Afghanistan. ["Holy War Inc." by Peter Bergen, New York: Free Press, c2001., p.66]

Other sources also dispute the notion that the CIA had any contact with non-Afghan mujahideen [Sageman, Marc, "Understanding Terror Networks", University of Pennsylvania Press (2004), p.57–58]

Vincent Cannistraro, who led the Reagan administration's Afghan Working Group from 1985 to 1987, puts it, "The CIA was very reluctant to be involved at all. They thought it would end up with them being blamed, like in Guatemala." So the Agency tried to avoid direct involvement in the war, ... the skittish CIA, Cannistraro estimates, had less than ten operatives acting as America's eyes and ears in the region. Milton Bearden, the Agency's chief field operative in the war effort, has insisted that " [T] he CIA had nothing to do with" bin Laden. Cannistraro says that when he coordinated Afghan policy from Washington, he never once heard bin Laden's name. ["New Republic", "TRB FROM WASHINGTON, Back to Front" by Peter Beinart, Post date 09.26.01 | Issue date 10.08.01]

Other reasons for the lack of any CIA-Afghan Arab connection, let alone one regarded as of "pivotal importance," was that the Afghan Arabs themselves lacked importance, being a "curious sideshow to the real fighting." [Wright, Lawrence, "Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," by Lawrence Wright, NY, Knopf, 2006, p.107] Estimates are that there were about a 250,000 Afghans fighting 125,000 Soviet troops, while only 2000 Arab Afghans fought "at any one time", [interview with Arab Afghan fighter Abdullah Anas and Afghan CIA station chief Milt Berden. Wright, Lawrence, "Looming Tower," Knopf, 2006, p.105]

Marc Sageman, a Foreign Service Officer who was based in Islamabad from 1987-1989, and worked closely with Afghanistan's Mujahideen, says

Contemporaneous accounts of the war do not even mention [the Afghan Arabs] . Many were not serious about the war. ... Very few were involved in actual fighting. For most of the war, they were scattered among the Afghan groups associated with the four Afghan fundamentalist parties. [Sageman, Marc, "Understanding Terror Networks", University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p.57-58]

According to Milton Bearden the CIA did not recruit Arabs because there were hundreds of thousands of Afghans all too willing to fight. The Arab Afghan were not only superfluous but "disruptive," angering local Afghan with their more-Muslim-than-thou attitude.(Peter Jouvenal). [Bergen, Peter, "Holy War Inc." New York: Free Press, c2001., p.66] Veteran Afghan cameraman Peter Jouvenal quotes an Afghan mujahideen as saying "whenever we had a problem with one of them [foreign mujahideen] , we just shot them. They thought they were kings."

Many who traveled in Afghanistan - Olivier Roy, [Roy, Olivier "Globalized Islam : the Search for a New Ummah", Columbia University Press, 2004, p.293] Peter Jouvenal. [Bergen, Peter, "Holy War Inc." New York: Free Press, c2001., p.65] - reported of the Arab Afghans' visceral hostility to Westerners in Afghanistan to aid Afghans or report on their plight. BBC reporter John Simpson tells the story of running into Osama bin Laden in 1989, and with neither knowing who the other was, bin Laden attempting to bribe Simpson's Afghan driver $500 - a large sum in a poor country - to kill the infidel Simpson. When the driver declined, Bin Laden retired to his "camp bed" and wept "in frustration." [Simpson, John, "A Mad World, My Masters: Tales from a Traveller's Life", London, Macmillan, 2000, p.83]

Agreements

One allegation [ [http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/1990s/independent110198.html America's spies paid and trained their nation's worst enemies, reveals Andrew Marshall in Washington] Andrew Marshall, "The Independent", November 1, 1998 (accessed 10-31-2007)] not denied by the US government is that the U.S. Army enlisted and trained a cashiered Egyptian soldier named Ali Mohamed, and that it knew Ali occasionally took trips to Afghanistan, where he claimed to fight Russians. [Wright, "Looming Tower" (2006)] According to journalist Lawrence Wright who interviewed U.S. officials about Ali, the Egyptian did tell his Army superiors he was fighting in Afghanistan, but did not tell them he was training other Afghan Arabs or writing a manual from what he had learned from the US Army Special Forces. Wright also reports that the CIA failed to inform other US agencies that it had learned Ali, who was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was an anti-American spy. [Wright, "Looming Tower" (2006)]

Bergen and Wright also agree it is noteworthy that Islamist Sheik Abul Rahman was allowed into the United States, although Wright suggests this lapse incompetent rather than sinister. [Bergen, Peter, "Holy War Inc." New York: Free Press, c2001., p.66-7]

ee also

*Afghan Arabs
*Central Intelligence Agency
*Mujahideen
*Soviet war in Afghanistan
*Allegations of British assistance to Ruhollah Khomeini

References

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523838,00.html The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means Cook, Robin] "The Guardian", Friday July 8 2005,
* [http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,498421,00.html The Checkered History of American Weapons Deals] "Der Spiegel Online International", August 6 2007
* [http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/24-318760.html Did the U.S. "Create" Osama bin Laden?] US Department of State, 2005-01-14