James Ridgeway: The Bin Laden Back Story: Destroying the Monster We Created

[seafan]

In a treasure trove of information, James Ridgeway details the rise of Osama Bin Laden over the past 30 years. Suddenly, so many things that have subsequently happened, begin to make sense.



The Bin Laden Back Story: Destroying the Monster We Created

By James Ridgeway
May 7, 2011

Back in the 1980s, before the Cold War gave way to the War on Terror, American money and supplies helped Osama Bin Laden create Al Qaeda and build it into one of the world’s most successful terrorist organizations. And without the close alliances between Al Qaeda and our “allies” Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the attack on the World Trade Towers could not have been carried out. What follows are the bare bones of what we know of this world as it existed in the days before September 11, 2001.

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In August 1998, shortly after the Al Qaeda bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, Osama Bin Laden was interviewed by Agence France Press. In grandiose but concise terms, he described his own rise to power in the early 1980s, during the years of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. “To counter these atheist Russians, the Saudis chose me as their representative in Afghanistan,” he said. “I settled in Pakistan in the Afghan border region. There I received volunteers who came from the Saudi kingdom and from all over the Arab and Muslim countries. I set up my first camp where these volunteers were trained by Pakistani and American officers. The weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis. I discovered that it was not enough to fight in Afghanistan, but that we had to fight on all fronts, communist or western oppression.”

In spite of its self-serving message and self-aggrandizing tone, the basic facts of Bin Laden’s account are not inaccurate. The terrorist organization that would one day launch the most devastating attacks ever to take place on American soil owes its existence, in large part, to U.S. covert operations and U.S. allies. At its inception, Al Qaeda was trained and supported by Pakistani agents, funded by Saudi sympathizers, and supplied by the CIA.

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From deep in the article:

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The Taliban was largely the creation of the ISI. The Pakistani intelligence agency shepherded its rise, participated in its councils, kept away the CIA in order to protect it, and together with the Saudis appear to have warned the Taliban and Al Qaeda when an American attack was coming. It seems impossible that a major strategy debate could take place within the Taliban leadership, without ISI having some knowledge of it.

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Osama bin Laden in happier days, when he was on the US CIA payroll (via above link)




Seemingly, in increments of 30 years, long-suppressed truths manage to break free.

[villager]

1. so in other words, given the Saudi support, our oil companies/addiction made him possible

The oil leads to the funding of terrorists, the terrorists lead to more wealth transfer to the military/industrial complex...

Those suffocating democracy thrive, continue Kabuki theatre of "two" party system, while the rest of us...

[leveymg]

2. As much as I like Ridgeway's work, this account completely omits the period '91-'96, when UBL was

still working with (more or less) the CIA carrying out terrorist operations in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kosovo. That was a particularly important time for US-UBL relations, as it was the time that Bin Laden had his falling out with CIA. It was during this period that bin Laden had his headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan and the CIA Chief of Station there was J. Cofer Black. See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/04/810764/-Erik-Prince:-American-Bin-LadenCIA-Asset,-MoneyGunmen

Black was the then CIA Chief of Station in Khartoum who was promoted in '98 to head the CIA Counterterrorism Center. He headed that unit when the CTC videotaped the al-Qaeda meeting in Kuala Lumpur in January 2000 at which both the 9/11 and USS Cole attacks were mapped out. On January 15, 2000, the Flt. 77 hijackers were literally let into the U.S., and a warning memo drafted to FBI was ordered withheld by Black's #2). As Black tells it, he and UBL had a run-in with each other shortly before they both left Sudan in late '95 or early 96. That would make Black the last CIA officer who admits to meeting bin Laden face-to-face.

Black later headed Blackwater's intelligence collection and analysis division. Also, see, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/438

[PufPuf23]

3. Yeah leveymg. I read the article and thought of some additions.

The USA sent agents into Afghanistan to de-stabilize a secular social society supported by the USSR.

The USSR entered by invitation of a controlling government under violent and regressive attack and we supported the rebels.

You noted cooperation the operations in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Kosovo.

A great book is "A Peace to End all Peace - The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of of Modern Middle East" (Fromkin).