You are aware that Osama Bin Laden was NOT trained, equiped or supplied by the US Government in Afghanistan? Well of course you are not cause you just made that statement. We worked with the Northern groups which did not have ARAB contingents.
That is very much disputed since the notable documents have not been declassified because then we would have evidence for the indictment of even more Reaganites who carried out his policy of organizing, funding and using as proxies international terrorist organizations who carried out crimes against humanity as an extension of American foreign policy. If you are under 30 and live until 100, you may live long enough to know what our government knows of the truth.
What we do know is nothing like RetiredGySgt has expressed.
Firstly the "northern groups" did not formalize any alliance until 1996 out of necessity due to the oncoming onset of the Afghan civil war. These ethnic Afghans did not work necessarily inside the same organization as the Arab groups to which the poster mentioned, known as the "Afghan Arabs," but they certainly were unified in opposition to the Soviet forces, the only reason why the CIA was funneling money and training into Afghanistan. This relationship model used between the Afghans and the Arabs has been used all over the world, for example in Algeria. It was that model that bin Laden used as the basis for al-Queda. A unified effort without necessarily being aware of other cells working for and loyal to the main effort. Just like bin Laden's call today for jihad, the Mujahideen (derived from the arabic word Jihad) were answering a general call to resistance. Like today, there was no central command.
Secondly, there is no documentary evidence that bin Laden's weapon trafficking network did not receive the benefit of US funding and training exercises. The CIA, as well as Chinese Intel services were funding the Afghanistan effort through Pakistani intell (ISI). It is well known that ISI absolutely did not discriminate against the Arab factions, and in fact it would make sense that they would be partial to them because they were not native. For instance, if bin Laden was receiving the benefits of that funding, he is more likely to go back to Saudi Arabia and not be a threat to Pakistan, whereas the Afghan networks were much less likely to leave, and thus be armed and organized on Pakistan's border. Notably, Bin Laden has said he never saw any benefits of American funding, but that isn't credible. His interest is in promoting Islamic Unity. Saying the Americans helped benefit the Mujahideen's great victory in Afghanistan doesn't serve his interests.
So basically no, we don't know that the CIA funded or trained bin Laden's network, but its basically irrelevant because bin Laden was a small player who was trafficking weapons into Afghanistan. If I was to speculate, I would say he did not see CIA benefits. However, and in my view much more important, is that we do know that the networks established by the money being supplied by ISI into groups resisting the Soviet invasion was EXACTLY what bin Laden exploited after the Soviet withdrawal to establish what we have come to know as al-Queda.
Of course the term al-Queda (literally "the base") is basically a boogie man word, but thats another story all together.
