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Originally posted by GODFLESH
UN? Oh, you mean France and some token third world spokes person?
Originally posted by GODFLESH
UN? Oh, you mean France and some token third world spokes person?
Originally posted by GODFLESH
I was under the impression Al-Qaeda was created by a group of folks who wanted to create an united Islamic empire, from the Sudan to Pakistan. They wanted to reintroduce the Calphrate or however you spell it.
I believe this group was created by Osama Bin Laden and friends soon after USSR abandoned Afghanistan, not the CIA?
Anyone have sources or links... RELIABLE sources?
Originally posted by GODFLESH
I was under the impression Al-Qaeda was created by a group of folks who wanted to create an united Islamic empire, from the Sudan to Pakistan. They wanted to reintroduce the Calphrate or however you spell it.
I believe this group was created by Osama Bin Laden and friends soon after USSR abandoned Afghanistan, not the CIA?
Originally posted by arnold_vosloo
Originally posted by GODFLESH
I was under the impression Al-Qaeda was created by a group of folks who wanted to create an united Islamic empire, from the Sudan to Pakistan. They wanted to reintroduce the Calphrate or however you spell it.
I believe this group was created by Osama Bin Laden and friends soon after USSR abandoned Afghanistan, not the CIA?
Anyone have sources or links... RELIABLE sources?
The CIA & Pakistan created Al Qaeda and similar terrorist group through the funding and training of bin laden and others to fight the soviets in afganistan. They also set up and funded the fundamentalist islamic schools in pakistan to teach the kind of extreme islam which is being preached by bin laden and his followers.
[edit on 19-9-2004 by arnold_vosloo]
Originally posted by Relentless
Oh, did you miss the request for links and reliable sources? Are you saying they actually developed/invented and promoted Islamic Fundamentalism? Are you saying they would do this without foreseeing how it would backfire?
Oh really.
National Security Archives
Religion as a Propaganda Asset
Militant interpretations of Islam as espoused by groups like al-Qaeda terrify Americans today, but for decades the Middle East's religious tradition was viewed as a valuable asset that could be exploited to achieve American ends: as President Eisenhower said in a letter to a confidante, "the religious approach offers . . . a direct path to Arab interest."(17) [Doc. 133] The NSC said in 1952 that "The three monotheistic religions in the area have in common a repugnance to the atheism of communist doctrine and this factor could become an important asset in promoting Western objectives in the area." [Doc. 59] A USIE program for Iran recommended "Development of specialized materials which tend to instill among religious elements a friendly attitude toward the West and antipathy for Communism," although "In the case of religious leaders (mullahs)" American influence "cannot be direct and it may never be appreciable." [Doc. 6] (Soon thereafter, the embassy reported that two mullahs had begun public anticommunist sermons in Tehran, and that others had been sent to the Tabriz and Kurdish areas for the same purpose.) Plans called for playing up "Moslem prosecutions by Communist satellites and Soviet and Soviet-Communist attitudes toward religion." [Doc. 10] The U.S. expected to be able to rely on anti-Communist religious leaders in Iraq as well. [Doc. 76]
The State Department arranged for Radio Jidda in Saudi Arabia to broadcast religious programming in the Tatar, Uzbek, and Azerbaijani languages. After sponsoring (evidently) the composition of a Christian-themed oratorio, it planned to approach Beirut's Armenian Seminary to obtain lyrics. [Doc. 53] Identification of a "common moral front" among various faiths and American values was encouraged: in Iran, the embassy distributed an eclectic brochure with a mosque on its cover called "Voices of God", containing quotations from the Koran, the Muslim poet Hafez, Jesus Christ, the Biblical prophet Isaiah, the Chinese philosopher Mo Tzu, the Buddha, the Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita, Abraham Lincoln, and Mahatma Gandhi. [Doc. 96]
To demonstrate U.S. religious tolerance, the American embassy in Iraq utilized posters, including photographs of the construction of Washington, D.C.'s Islamic center. [Doc. 21] One member of a working group on Middle East propaganda speculated, "maybe we could get the children of Washington to do a competition painting of that Mosque in some of the art classes and develop something along that line." [Doc. 58]
The IIA organized an Islamic colloquium for American and foreign Muslim scholars, that "On the surface" looked "like an exercise in pure learning. This in effect is the impression that we desire to give. IIA promoted the colloquium along these lines and has given it financial and other assistance because we consider that this psychological approach is an important contribution at this time to both short term and long term United States political objectives in the Moslem area." Government officials even saw a role for the U.S. in guiding Islam's modern-day evolution and revitalization: "Among the various results expected from the colloquium are the impetus and direction that may be given to the Renaissance movement within Islam itself." [Doc. 89] The American embassy in Egypt recommended that a member of the Muslim Brotherhood be invited to attend, because his position "makes it important that his desire for an invitation be considered carefully in light of the possible effects of offending this important body." [Doc. 103]
Princeton lecturer (and former president of the American University of Beirut) Bayard Dodge met with William Eddy (of the CIA and ARAMCO) about financial support from oil companies for the colloquium, to supplement a grant from the State Department, while the printing in Arabic of conference papers was to be paid for by Franklin Publications. [Doc. 90] [Doc. 94]
William Eddy also discussed a Christian-Muslim "common moral front" against communism with New York Herald Tribune columnist Dorothy Thompson: "As you know, there have been very few signs that the Western Powers place any value upon Muslims and from the point of view of psychological warfare alone, we need desperately some common ground to which we welcome the Muslims and the Arabs as respected and valued friends."
Perhaps Saudi Arabia could be especially useful: according to Eddy, its profligate King Abd al-Aziz, "as head of the puritanical Wahhabi movement to restore the pure faith and practices of Islam" was "without any doubt the most representative and influential Muslim in the world today." [Doc. 26]
Abd al-Aziz's son shared his thoughts on these matters with U.S. representatives. In 1952, the future King Saud, campaigning to ensure his succession, obtained elaborate press equipment, an innovation in his then undeveloped desert domain. To please the influential ulama allied with the Saudi royal family, he planned to initially publish religious tracts. He also planned the first publication in Saudi Arabia of the Koran, according to the State Department, and asked ARAMCO to get him radio broadcasting equipment. A department official was helpful: "It was pointed out to him" that he needed to get people used to tuning in. "It was suggested that at the outset the reading of religious material would probably be the best means of introduction." Prince Saud also confided that he foresaw giving more tangible form to Saudi leadership, including "plans which he did not wish to discuss in detail now to spark plug a pan-Islamic movement. He said it could do a great deal of good in the Muslim countries by causing them to work together as a unit." The U.S. official assured Saud that "his information about Islamic unity was very interesting and we would be very glad to know more about it when his plans were more clearly formulated. In general, however, I told him that we would welcome such a movement under his leadership because we could be sure that it would be friendly and wisely led." [Doc. 55]