Reminder ... the CIA created "Jihad"

[doc mercer]

Links to articles on how the CIA created the Taliban and supported Osama bin Laden as a way of fighting the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980's

Though the mainstream media seems to have forgotten, it is well documented that the CIA created the Taliban and supported Osama bin Laden as a way of fighting the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980's.

The Sept. 26, 2001 edition of "The Hindu" of India says, "[T]here is lot of weight in the thesis that the modern Jehadi-Islam is a by-product of intrigues by the West to keep the Islamic world under its suzerainty, devoid of any kind of democratic processes. And also to use it as a whipping boy occasionally whenever attention needs to be diverted from issues raised by anti-globalisation campaigners." [ Human Rights Online reprint of article ]

According to the Afgha press agency, "For ten years (1979-1989), the CIA and the Pakistan army trained and equipped mujahideen and Muslim mercenaries from around the world to fight the Soviet infidels... Once the Soviet forces left, the mujahideen turned on each other. The Taliban were the creation of the US with the active support of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as an alternative to the warring mujahideen." This article gives good background on the Afghan-Russian war, the CIA involvement, and the aftermath.

Tom Turnipseed, writing in Z Magazine, says, "[T]he mujahedeen were recruited by the CIA from across the Arab world to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Many of those same Arabs are now Taliban or al-Queda..."

Ahmed Rashid, in an article called "The Taliban: Exporting Extremism" and published in "Foreign Affairs", writes: "With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI [Inter Services Intelligence], who wanted to turn the Afghan jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad." [As quoted by Michel Chossudovsky in "Islamic 'Jihad' links to US foreign policy"]

So does the U.S. regret supporting the Taliban and Osama bin Laden? Apparently not: "Prior to the devastating September 11 attack on the twin towers of World Trade Center, US ruling-class figures remained unrepentant about the consequences of their dirty deals with the likes of bin Laden, Hekmatyar and the Taliban. Since the awful attack, they have been downright hypocritical. In an August 28, 1998, report posted on MSNBC, Michael Moran quotes Senator Orrin Hatch, who was a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee which approved US dealings with the mujaheddin, as saying he would make 'the same call again', even knowing what bin Laden would become. 'It was worth it. Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union.' Hatch today is one of the most gung-ho voices demanding military retaliation."

Jihad textbooks for Afghani children, courtesy the U.S.A.
The CIA was not the only player involved in creating the Taliban and an anti-American culture in Afghanistan. The U.S. Agency for International Development (US AID) produced thousands of textbooks that became the "core curriculum" in Afghan schools in the 1990s, according to the Washington Post. These books were "were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines". Since then, the U.S. AID has started sending new books, but apparently only the pictures have been replaced, and the same fiery rhetoric remains. [Source: Washington Post, as quoted by Emporer's Clothes ]

The Cascadia Media Collective's Wartime News adds, "One page illustrates an Afghani Mujaheddin fighter (then recipients of US aid) with a rifle slung over his shoulder. Below him are words explaining that such men are obedient to Allah and will sacrifice life to impose Islamic law on the government. Humanitarian workers say the books are a crude tool that steeped a generation in violence."

SOURCES:

Human Rights Online, reprinting "The Hindu" article: sexual harassment workplace racial discrimination at humanrightsonline.net
"Born in the CIA" By Amjad Hussain, for Afgha press agency: http://www.afgha.com/sections.php?op...icle&artid=128
"A Continuum of Terror From Mujahedeen to al-Qaeda" By Tom Turnipseed: War
"Islamic 'Jihad' links to US foreign policy" by Michel Chossudovsky: http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/jihad.htm
"How the CIA created Osama bin Laden" BY NORM DIXON: Green Left - Cover Story: How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
"BUSH & THE MEDIA COVER UP THE JIHAD SCHOOLBOOK SCANDAL" from Emporer's Clothes: Bush & the Media Cover-Up the Jihad Schoolbook Scandal
"Jihad Text for Children" from Wartime News, #7: http://www.cascadiamedia.org/wartimenews/WTN07.html
If you have more information, please add it here! __________________

[4625]

"Jihad" loosely translates into "war against the infidels." With all due respect, the CIA may have at one time facilitated "jihad" against the former Soviet Union, but by no means did the CIA "create" jihad. In actuality, "jihad" has existed since day one of the Qur'an.

[doc mercer]

Bin Laden is one of the CIA's "special projects"