From: Subject: Bin Laden comes home to roost; His ties are only the beginning of a woeful story Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 11:47:14 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/war/binladen.html X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1807 Bin Laden comes home to roost; His ties are only the = beginning of a woeful story

We are posting this documentation here as proof that Osama Bin Laden = was a=20 CIA asset, and that he was built and funded by the U.S. government. The=20 apologetic spin that the controlled media puts on the scenario is to be=20 expected. History is replete with examples of how the U.S. funds and = arms our=20 "enemies" before they become our "enemies".

This article fails to = mention=20 the very cozy business relationship that the Bush family has with the = Bin Laden=20 family. The Bushes and the Bin Ladens are joint partners in an = investment=20 banking venture called the Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group makes money = from=20 lucrative military contracts with the government. Hence, the continuing = military=20 operation that was the result of the "attacks" of September 11th, finds = both the=20 Bush and the Bin Laden families profiting from the war on "terrorism".=20

Prior to all of this, president George W. Bush founded = an energy=20 company called Arbusto Energy with Salam Bin Laden, Osama's brother. = George=20 Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States was the = director of=20 the CIA prior to his presidency.=20

If one attempts to excuse all of this as just one big irony, it is a=20 monstrous irony indeed. At a particular point, the turf must be surveyed = and a=20 determination made that when you're coughing and gasping from smoke, a = fire must=20 be somewhere in your vicinity.=20

= =20 = =20 - Darren Weeks=20

Bin Laden comes home to roost

His CIA ties are only the beginning of a woeful story =

By=20 Michael Moran | MSNBC

NEW YORK, Aug. 24, 1998 =97 At = the CIA,=20 it happens often enough to have a code name: Blowback. Simply defined, = this is=20 the term that describes an agent, an operative or an operation that has = turned=20 on its creators. Osama bin Laden, our new public enemy Number 1, is the=20 personification of blowback. And the fact that he is viewed as a hero by = millions in the Islamic world proves again the old adage: Reap what you = sow.=20

BEFORE YOU CLICK on my face and call me naive, let me concede some = points.=20 Yes, the West needed Josef Stalin to defeat Hitler. Yes, there were = times during=20 the Cold War when supporting one villain (Cambodia=92s Lon Nol, for = instance)=20 would have been better than the alternative (Pol Pot). So yes, there are = times=20 when any nation must hold its nose and shake hands with the devil for = the=20 long-term good of the planet.=20

But just as surely, there are times when the United States, faced = with such=20 moral dilemmas, should have resisted the temptation to act. Arming a=20 multi-national coalition of Islamic extremists in Afghanistan during the = 1980s -=20 well after the destruction of the Marine barracks in Beirut or the = hijacking of=20 TWA Flight 847 - was one of those times.=20

BIN LADEN=92S BEGINNINGS=20

As anyone who has bothered to read this far certainly knows by now, = bin Laden=20 is the heir to Saudi construction fortune who, at least since the early = 1990s,=20 has used that money to finance countless attacks on U.S. interests and = those of=20 its Arab allies around the world.=20

As his unclassified CIA biography states, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia = to=20 fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan after Moscow=92s invasion in 1979. = By 1984,=20 he was running a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar - the = MAK -=20 which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the = Afghan=20 war.=20

What the CIA bio conveniently fails to specify (in its unclassified = form, at=20 least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan=92s state security = services, the=20 Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA=92s primary conduit = for=20 conducting the covert war against Moscow=92s occupation.=20

By no means was Osama bin Laden the leader of Afghanistan=92s = mujahedeen. His=20 money gave him undue prominence in the Afghan struggle, but the vast = majority of=20 those who fought and died for Afghanistan=92s freedom - like the Taliban = regime=20 that now holds sway over most of that tortured nation - were Afghan = nationals.=20

Yet the CIA, concerned about the factionalism of Afghanistan made = famous by=20 Rudyard Kipling, found that Arab zealots who flocked to aid the Afghans = were=20 easier to =93read=94 than the rivalry-ridden natives. While the Arab = volunteers=20 might well prove troublesome later, the agency reasoned, they at least = were=20 one-dimensionally anti-Soviet for now. So bin Laden, along with a small = group of=20 Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian = refugee=20 camps all over the Middle East, became the =93reliable=94 partners of = the CIA in its=20 war against Moscow.=20

WHAT=92S =91INTELLIGENT=92 ABOUT THIS?=20

Though he has come to represent all that went wrong with the CIA=92s = reckless=20 strategy there, by the end of the Afghan war in 1989, bin Laden was = still viewed=20 by the agency as something of a dilettante - a rich Saudi boy gone to = war and=20 welcomed home by the Saudi monarchy he so hated as something of a hero.=20

In fact, while he returned to his family=92s construction business, = bin Laden=20 had split from the relatively conventional MAK in 1988 and established a = new=20 group, al-Qaida, that included many of the more extreme MAK members he = had met=20 in Afghanistan.=20

Most of these Afghan vets, or Afghanis, as the Arabs who fought there = became=20 known, turned up later behind violent Islamic movements around the = world. Among=20 them: the GIA in Algeria, thought responsible for the massacres of tens = of=20 thousands of civilians; Egypt=92s Gamat Ismalia, which has massacred = western=20 tourists repeatedly in recent years; Saudi Arabia Shiite militants, = responsible=20 for the Khobar Towers and Riyadh bombings of 1996.=20

Indeed, to this day, those involved in the decision to give the = Afghan rebels=20 access to a fortune in covert funding and top-level combat weaponry = continue to=20 defend that move in the context of the Cold War. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a = senior=20 Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee making those decisions, = told my=20 colleague Robert Windrem that he would make the same call again today = even=20 knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently. =93It was worth it,=94 he = said.=20

=93Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an = important role in=20 the downfall of the Soviet Union,=94 he said.=20

HINDSIGHT OR TUNNEL VISION=20

It should be pointed out that the evidence of bin Laden=92s = connection to these=20 activities is mostly classified, though its hard to imagine the CIA = rushing to=20 take credit for a Frankenstein=92s monster like this.=20

It is also worth acknowledging that it is easier now to oppose the = CIA=92s=20 Afghan adventures than it was when Hatch and company made them in the = mid-1980s.=20 After all, in 1998 we now know that far larger elements than Afghanistan = were=20 corroding the communist party=92s grip on power in Moscow.=20

Even Hatch can=92t be blamed completely. The CIA, ever mindful of the = need to=20 justify its =93mission,=94 had conclusive evidence by the mid-1980s of = the deepening=20 crisis of infrastructure within the Soviet Union. The CIA, as its deputy = director Robert Gates acknowledged under congressional questioning in = 1992, had=20 decided to keep that evidence from President Reagan and his top advisors = and=20 instead continued to grossly exaggerate Soviet military and = technological=20 capabilities in its annual =93Soviet Military Power=94 report right up = to 1990.=20

Given that context, a decision was made to provide America=92s = potential=20 enemies with the arms, money - and most importantly - the knowledge of = how to=20 run a war of attrition violent and well-organized enough to humble a = superpower.=20

That decision is coming home to roost.=20

Michael Moran is MSNBC=92s International Editor =