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leaders, "{c]hildren were taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines". USAID stopped this funding in 1994.° eaders, "{c|hildren were taught to count with other areas in the Persian Gulf, and was funnelled illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines". through his charity fronts to arm and fund the USAID stopped this funding in 1994.” Mujahideen in Afghanistan.” In the 1980s, the British Special Forces (SAS) were The Rise of the Taliban training Mujahideen in Afghanistan, as well as in secret When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, | camps in Scotland, and the SAS was largely taking e fighting continued between the Afghan government, orders from the CIA. The CIA also indirectly began to backed by the USSR, and the Mujahideen, backed by the arm Osama bin Laden.” Osama bin Laden's front US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. When the Soviet Union charity, the MAK, "was nurtured” by the Pakistani ISI.” collapsed in 1991, so too did its aid to the Afghan Osama bin Laden was reported to have been government, which itself was overthrown in 1992. personally recruited by the CIA in 1979 in Istanbul. He However, fighting almost immediately broke out had the close support of Prince Turki bin Faisal, his between rival factions vying for power, including friend and head of Saudi intelligence, and also Hekmatyar. developed ties with Hekmatyar in Afghanistan,” both of In the early 1990s, an obscure group of "Pashtun whom were pivotal figures in the CIA-Safari Club country folk" had become a powerful military and network. political force in Afghanistan, known as the Taliban.” General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, the head of the The Taliban "surfaced as a small militia force operating Pakistani ISI from 1980 to 1987, would meet regularly near Kandahar city during the wan osama bn Laden in spring and summer of 1994, Pakistan, and they formed a carrying out vigilante attacks ..throughout 1995 the partnership in demanding a tax inst mi lords". A . . th i trade f peor mine wares, | relationship between fo",°"s, 27" Loss, "on warlords grew, so too did he the Taliban and the ISI Laden and the ISI were splitting reputation of the Taliban.® the profits of over million The Taliban acquired an accelerated and "became per year.” In 1985, Osama bin alliance vith os i in es and more and more of a aden brother, Salem, stated roughou e relationship A qe . fn at Osama was "the liaison between the Taliban and the ISI direct military alliance". between the US, the Saudi accelerated and "became more government, and the Afghan and more of a direct military rebels". alliance". The Taliban ultimately became “an asset of In 1988, bin Laden discussed "the establishment of a he ISI" and "a client of the Pakistan army". Further, new military group" which would come to be known as "{b]etween 1994 and 1996, the USA supported the Al-Qaeda [Al-Qa’ida].” Osama bin Laden's charity front, faliban politically through its allies Pakistan and Saudi he MAK, (eventually to form Al-Qaeda) founded the Al- Arabia, essentially because Washington viewed the ifah [Refugee] Center in Brooklyn, New York, to recruit faliban as anti-Iranian, anti-Shia, and pro-Western".” uslims for the jihad against the Soviets. Al-Kifa Selig Harrison, a scholar with the Woodrow Wilson Center was founded in the late 1980s with the support nternational Center for Scholars and "a leading US of the US government, which provided visas for known expert on South Asia", said at a conference in India that errorists associated with the organisation, including Ali he CIA worked with Pakistan to create the Taliban. ohamed, the "blind sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman and Harrison has "extensive contact" with the CIA, as "he possibly the lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta.” ad meetings with CIA leaders at the time when Islamic This coincided with the creation of Al-Qaeda, for whic orces were being strengthened in Afghanistan" while he —_Al-Kifah Center was a recruiting front. Foot soldiers for was a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Al-Qaeda were “admitted to the United States for nternational Peace. raining under a special visa program". The FBI had been As he further revealed in 2001, "[t]he CIA still has — surveilling the training of terrorists; however, "it close links with the ISI".” By 1996, the Taliban had erminated this surveillance in the fall of 1989". In 1990, control of Kandahar, but, still, fighting and instability he CIA granted Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman a visa to continued in the country. come and run Al-Kifah Center; he was considered an “untouchable” as he was “being protected by no fewer Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda han three agencies" including the State Department, the Between 1980 and 1989, roughly $600 million was ational Security Agency (NSA) and the CIA.” passed through Osama bin Laden's charity front Robin Cook, a former British MP and Foreign organisations, specifically the Maktab al-Khidamat — Secretary, wrote that Al-Qaeda, "literally 'the database’, NERA alan beens an AL VIER LK ThA wana wantle ..throughout 1995 the relationship between Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda Between 1980 and 1989, roughly $600 million was passed through Osama bin Laden's charity front organisations, specifically the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), also known as Al-Kifah. The money mostly originated with wealthy donors in Saudi Arabia and NEXUS ¢ I5 the Taliban and the ISI accelerated and "became more and more of a direct military alliance". Continued on page 80 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com