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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (185425)	4/20/2006 3:58:01 PM
From: Noel de Leon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"But the groundwork for Al Qai'da took place during the '90s" Wrong. Abdallah Azzam used "Al Qaeda=the base" before 1988. OBL set up a militant group in August 1988. Source: Jason Burke, Al Qaeda, 2003. So if you want to distribute "blame" then Bush I had 4 years to deal with OBL. But the problem is far more subtle. Al Qaeda was off the radar until 1996 when in a CIA report Al Qaeda was mentioned once "by 1985 bin Laden had...organized an Islamic Salvation Fron, or al-Qaeda, to support mujahideen in Afghanistan." many details about OBL's activities but no mention of Al Qaeda again. Clinton called his 1998 retaliatory attack an attack on " The network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Usama bin Laden...." Bush II didn't react to Clinton's advisors on the Al Qaeda question until after Sept. 11. That subject has been discussed here by many. From your source: "Wolfowitz fidgeted and scowled ... "Well, I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden." "We are talking about a network of terrorist organizations called al Qaeda, that happens to be led by bin Laden, and we are talking about that network because it and it alone poses an immediate and serious threat to the United States," I answered. ... Wolfowitz turned to me. "You give bin Laden too much credit. He could not do all these things like the 1999 attack on New York, without a state sponsor. Just because FBI and CIA have failed to find the linkages does not mean they don't exist." I could hardly believe it, but Wolfowitz was actually spouting the totally discredited Laurie Mylroie theory that Iraq was behind the 1993 truck bomb at the World Trade Center, a theory that had been investigated for years and found to be totally untrue. Clarke's book also recounts a conversation on September 12, 2001, in which President Bush himself said: "Go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way..." I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. "But Mr. President, al Qaeda did this." "I know, I know, but ... see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred ..." "Absolutely, we will look ... again." I was trying to be more respectful, more responsive. "But, you know, we have looked several times for state sponsorship of al Qaeda and not found any real linkages to Iraq. Iran plays a little, as does Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Yemen.""

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (185425)	4/20/2006 8:12:25 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

But the groundwork for Al Qai'da took place during the '90s. Actually, AL and the T are the evil spawn of Ray gun and his CIA, but I'll give you another two points for trying.... The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when a cadre of non-Afghani, Arab Muslim fighters joined the largely United States and Pakistan-funded Afghan mujahidin anti-Russian resistance movement. Osama bin Laden, a member of a prominent Saudi Arabian business family, led an informal grouping which became a leading fundraiser and recruitment agency for the Afghan cause in Muslim countries; it channelled Islamic fighters to the conflict, distributed money and provided logistical skills and resources to both fighting forces and Afghan refugees. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 many committed veterans of the war wished to fight for Islamic causes elsewhere. The invasion and occupation of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990 saw U.S. and coalition troops sent to Saudi Arabia in preparedness for expelling Iraqi occupying forces from Kuwait. Al-Qaeda was strongly opposed to the secular regime of Saddam Hussein and bin Laden had offered use of his fighters' services to the Saudi throne, but the deployment of 'infidel' forces to Islamic sacred territory was seen as an act of treachery by bin Laden. He placed the grouping in militant opposition to the United States and its allies. Al-Qaeda came to claim the U.S. military presence in several Islamic countries (particularly Saudi Arabia), the U.S. support for Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and more recently the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq as reasons for militant action. en.wikipedia.org The origin of Taliban takes us back to the madrassas started in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan by the mullahs from the Deobandi sect. These mullahs were barely literate and had little knowledge of original Deobandi reformist movement. The madrassas were set up in the Pukhtun belt of Pakistan across Afghanistan border and the students were called 'Taliban'. The Saudi funds and scholarships and the obscurantist mullahs transformed these Taliban into ultra conservative Wahhabis. These Deobandis in Pakistan had earlier set up a political party, Jamiat-ul-Ulema(JUI), with a strong anti-American stance. However, during the war against USSR in Afghanistan, the madrassas, started by JUI mullahs, grew into hundreds, where thousands of Afghan and Pakistani youth were trained. They were given free food, shelter, education (religious) and military training. It is again a political irony that the CIA worked at a tangent with JUI, besides ISI of Pakistan and the Saudi regime in building up the Taliban force -their common baby- as an Islamic militia. After the Soviets left Afghanistan, a civil war ensued in Afghanistan and Pakistan sided with the radical Mujahideen against the pro-Iranian and pro-Central Asian military commanders from the North. Taliban, as a militant movement, was started in early 1990s by Mullah Omar, who had joined Jihad against the Communist regime in the 1980s in favour of Harkat-e-Inquilab-i-Islami of Mohammed Nabi Mohamadi. He had chosen Kandhar as the nerve centre of his movement. Pakistan, through ISI, extended all overt and covert support to Taliban, as it did not approve of the liberal policies of Rabbani, who wanted to pursue a policy independent of Pakistan. Detested by pro-communist regime of Najibullah, the traditionally religious Afghan supported the Taliban movement, which swore by a just and benevolent Islamic administration. The poor, illiterate, ignorant, famished and war ravaged Afghan fell to the propaganda of clerics who assured heaven on earth and a divine cause to fight for. They all came under the banner of Taliban to fight a second Jihad. The West also threw its weight behind ISI supported Taliban. In April 1996, 1000 Muslim Clergymen choose Mullah Mohammad Omar as Amir-ul-Momin(Commander of the faithful). In September 1996, the Taliban's assault, organized and guided by ISI Army of Pakistan, captured Kabul and threw Rabbani out of power. JUI of Pakistan, which remained politically isolated till 1993, came on the political centre stage after its active involvement with Taliban. It became the main recruiters if Pakistani and foreign youth to fight for Taliban. About one lakh Pakistani were reportedly trained between 1994 and 1999 and majority of them fought in Afghanistan. The JUI Taliban influence in Pakistan started overflowing Pukhtun area. It got entrenched in Punjab and Sindh as well. The majority of 6,000 to 8,000 Pakistani militants who took part in the July 1999 Taliban offensive against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan were Punjabis. In Afghanistan, Taliban are now controlling 90% of the territory. Their government is recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. jammu-kashmir.com