NY Times: Saudis And U.S. Have Ties To Funding Terror
The Saudis deny it, but they are accused of funding al Qaeda. And the United States, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, funded the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, many of whom became fighters under bin Laden.
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[su_thin_right_skyscraper_ad]Throughout the 1980s, Saudi Arabia and the United States were partners in bankrolling the mujahedeen, hailed as freedom fighters by President Ronald Reagan, who were battling the Soviet military in Afghanistan.
Some of those fighters coalesced under the leadership of Bin Laden in 1988 to form Al Qaeda, which soon put the Saudi state on its list of enemies along with the United States. While private Saudi support for Bin Laden’s organization continued to flow, experts who study the kingdom said they doubted it would have come from top officials like those named by [former Qaeda operative, Zacarias] Moussaoui, at least after 1994.
…the kingdom has continued to support militant groups other than Al Qaeda and armed tribes that it sees as advancing its policies in Libya, Syria and elsewhere. And at home, the kingdom’s traditional religious establishment promotes and enforces a strict interpretation of Islam.
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arc99 February 5th, 2015 at 10:41 am
The foreign policy blunders of President Reagan are not news. However they are not widely discussed thanks to the efforts of the RDS (Reagan Deification Society)
They pretend that the policy for which they so viciously condemn the current President, would have never happened under their messiah St. Ronnie. The fact is that just as with tax increases and immigration amnesty, President Reagan implemented policy far more radical than anything President Obama has attempted in regards to sending aid to Islamic countries.
The original Washington Post link seems to be gone. But a copy of the article can be found here.
Thanks to the Reagan administration, American taxpayers were funding propaganda which fueled Islamic extremism in Afghanistan. The program continued through the presidency of George H.W. Bush and was finally stopped during the administration of President Clinton.
Personally, I consider the Reagan worshipers and others screeching about prisoners released from Guantanomo as having about as much credibility as the secret Muslim/birther brigade. The facts documented below are a primary reason I hold that opinion.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/abc.htm
“”THE ABC’S OF JIHAD IN AFGHANISTAN * Courtesy, USABy Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway
Washington Post, 23 March 2002
[Posted 3 April 2002]
Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university’s education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.
During that time of Soviet occupation, regional military leaders in Afghanistan helped the U.S. smuggle books into the country. They demanded that the primers contain anti-Soviet passages. Children were taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines, agency officials said. They acknowledged that at the time it also suited U.S. interests to stoke hatred of foreign invaders.
“I think we were perfectly happy to see these books trashing the Soviet Union,” said Chris Brown, head of book revision for AID’s Central Asia Task Force.
fahvel February 5th, 2015 at 1:22 pm
remember the images and the morality from Rambo III?
William February 5th, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Who woulda thunk it?
fahvel February 5th, 2015 at 1:19 pm
wasn’t MZ encouraged to give lots of really important info while hanging out at gitmo? Seems that the info is only good when fit into the appropriate box of the day- can’t make those princes angry now!
Bunya February 5th, 2015 at 1:42 pm
What?? The Saudis and the US have ties to funding terror? Whodathunkit?
Sorry boys, but that’s old news.
fancypants February 5th, 2015 at 1:58 pm
this must mean we found UBLs birth certificate !
I knew he wasn’t an orphan
anothertoothpick February 6th, 2015 at 9:34 am
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, at 59 is a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder, King Abdulaziz, and is chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and the wealthiest member of the royal family.
Guess what? He is a major contributor to Al Qaeda,
Guess what else? Up until Tuesday he was half owner of Fux News.