Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden

October 31, 2007 - 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 [Osama bin Laden] came to thank me for my efforts to bring the Americans, our friends, to help us against the atheists, he said ...

May 15, 2013 - In a 1993 interview, bin Laden himself said, “Personally neither I nor my brothers saw evidence of American help.” · Several independent journalists and authors who have extensively researched and written about the CIA’s involvement in ...

June 7, 2023 - On October 10, 2001, Osama bin Laden was added to the newly-launched Most Wanted Terrorists List. The U.S. and other nations joined military operations in Afghanistan to find him and other al Qaeda terrorists, but bin Laden managed to elude capture.

January 8, 2022 - The Americans enlisted Afghans and Pakistanis to help them but aborted the operation. The US activity in Peshawar helped persuade Bin Laden to move to the safer confines of Kandahar.

From 1984, bin Laden, along with Ayman al-Zawahiri and others, ran the Maktab al-Khidamat, which was set up by the ISI to provide resources to the mujahideen. Also known as the Afghan Service Bureau, the organisation was the forerunner of al-Qaeda (founded in 1988), the terrorist network responsible for the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. “Operating from Karachi at first and later from his strongholds in Afghanistan, bin Laden’s financial and construction empire set about building the bases and training camps and landing strips in Afghanistan—under attack in the winter of 2001-02 by the United States, which had originally encouraged their building—for private jets of warlords of the anti-Soviet jihad, and for visiting Muslim and Arab dignitaries”, Cooley writes.

In the third part of his book, Coll describes the CIA's reengagement in Afghanistan and the Clinton Administration's two-track policy to pinpoint Bin Laden's location and to either capture and try him in U.S. courts or kill him while trying. Coll also describes the role of General Ahmed Shah Masood, the creator and leader of the Northern Alliance, who was assassinated immediately prior to September 11, 2001.

2 weeks ago - A number of political commentators have described Al-Qaeda attacks as "blowback" or an unintended consequence of American aid to the mujahideen. The lion's share of funding given to mujahideen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was also criticized, with one U.S. expert of the mujahideen telling the Washington Post: I'd like to see the looks on their faces now over at Langley. They backed the wrong pony. They helped create Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Several sources have argued that bin Laden and al-Qaeda were beneficiaries of the CIA's assistance program to the mujahideen.

1 day ago - During his lifetime, Bin Laden ... and American interventions in Afghanistan. In the West and elsewhere, he is widely seen as a global symbol of terrorism and reviled as a mass murderer due to his orchestration of numerous terrorist attacks. Bin Laden's name is most frequently rendered as "Osama ...

With the help of the CIA and the U.S. Armed Forces intelligence services he began to organize in the early 1980s and network to raise money and to recruit fighters for the Afghan mujahidins that were fighting the Soviets. He did this from the city of Peshawar in Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan.

world to come and defend Afghanistan from these “godless brutes.” In 1983, Azzam met · Osama bin Laden and the two quickly became close allies.

The U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons is an institutional repository that brings together a variety of news reports, research publications, books and journals. Whether you’re a scholar, military leader, government professional or an independent researcher, we hope you’ll find the wide ...

As al-Qaeda threats to American interests multiplied in the late 1990s, U.S. government officials had various opportunities to act against Osama bin Laden. In 1998, a series of bombings in Afghanistan killed dozens of terrorists at training camps but missed bin Laden.

ISIS' growing foothold in Afghanistan is captured on film.

July 29, 2016 - Less known, however, is that nearly a decade earlier, and just three months after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the United States had found and cornered Osama bin Laden in the eastern mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, only to then watch him and his al Qaeda and Taliban affiliates escape into Pakistan.

ISIS' growing foothold in Afghanistan is captured on film.

Perhaps the most important of those alliances was with the Taliban, who rose to power in Afghanistan largely on the strength of Bin Laden’s aid, and in turn provided him refuge and a launching pad for holy war. Long before Sept. 11, though the evidentiary trails were often thin, American officials considered Bin Laden at least in part responsible for the killing of American soldiers in Somalia and in Saudi Arabia; the first attack on the World Trade Center, in 1993; the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia; and a foiled plot to hijack a dozen jets, crash a plane into the C.I.A.

Published sources reveal President Clinton tried unsuccessfully on a number of occasions to utilize American military forces to target and kill bin Laden. He also called off proposed operations in a couple of instances for fear of massive collateral damage and the inevitable media backlash that would reflect negatively on the United States. 2006-1700-F This collection consists of records dated March 3, 1997 to January 20, 2001 between Richard Clarke, Samuel Berger, and the President referring to Osama bin Laden, al Qaida, Pakistan, Afghanistan, or the Taliban.

The U.S. military began operations in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. By early November, approximately 100 CIA officers and 300 U.S. Special Forces were on the ground. International partners also provided troops. By December 2001, intelligence and military ...

TORA BORA REVISITED: HOW WE FAILED ... across Afghanistan. The leaders who sent murderers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon less than a month earlier and the rogue government that provided them sanctuary were running for their lives. President George W. Bush's expression of America's desire to get Osama bin ...