posted on May, 31 2009 @ 06:29 PM
reply to post by Dark Jester
QUOTE FROM WIKI
History
Jihad in Afghanistan
Main articles: Soviet war in Afghanistan and Afghan Arabs
The origins of the group can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The United States viewed the conflict in Afghanistan, with the Afghan
Marxists and allied Soviet troops on one side and the native Afghan mujahedeen on the other, as a blatant case of Soviet expansionism and aggression.
The U.S. channelled funds through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to the native Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation in a
CIA program called Operation Cyclone.[41][42]
At the same time, a growing number of foreign Arab mujahedeen (also called Afghan Arabs) joined the jihad against the Afghan Marxist regime,
facilitated by international Muslim organizations, particularly the Maktab al-Khidamat,[43] whose funds came from some of the $600 million a year
donated to the jihad by the Saudi Arabia government and individual Muslims - particularly wealthy Saudis who were approached by Osama bin
Laden.[44][page needed]
Maktab al-Khidamat was established by Abdullah Azzam and Bin Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1984. From 1986 it began to set up a network of
recruiting offices in the United States, the hub of which was the Al Kifah Refugee Center at the Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue. Among
notable figures at the Brooklyn center were "double agent" Ali Mohamed, whom FBI special agent Jack Cloonan called "bin Laden's first
trainer,"[45] and "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, a leading recruiter of mujahideen for Afghanistan.
/END QUOTE
Yep I was right, right around 5% for the over/under..