Of course they did. Pakistan wanted a pakistan-friendly Afghanistan, and S. Arabia, in the collusion with the USA, want to secure access to energy sources. Funny. I didn't know that Afghanistan had oil. Guess my education was worthless :(

>>During the Afghanistan war, this multi-ethnical Afghan people had been unificated by Islam, as the enemy was christian.<< Technically the enemy during the Soviet invasion/occupation was aetheist in its religious leanings officially. In reality, the Soviet troops deployed in the country were the full hodgepodge of religious leanings found in the former Soviet Union, to include plenty of Muslims from the central Asian SSRs. >>So the distinction between Arab and Afghan Mujahidins, DURING THE CONFLICT, has no place to be.<< Actually it remained a very significant one, with the Arabs mainly tying into the Pakistani effort and so coming to line up primarily with the religious radicals in the Pashtun areas (predecessors of the Taliban). Mohammed Shah Massoud and what would be the Northern Alliance some years later were slighted by the Pakistanis for various reasons, and had much less to do with the Arab mujaheddin. The lines for what would be the subsequent civil war were being drawn quite noticably, in hindsight, during the Soviet invasion/occupation, but even at the height of the war cooperation among Mujaheddin factions was limited and very much prone to the sort of warlordism we tend to associate with the post-Soviet era in Afghan politics.

>>"Um, no. It started after the war as an organization made up of Arab veterans of the war, not during. This is basic fact checking stuff." "The organisation grew out of the network of Arab volunteers who had gone to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight under the banner of Islam against Soviet Communism. << If I recall correctly, you are not a native speaker of English, so perhaps you can be forgiven for missing the significance of tense indicated by "had gone" in the statement you quoted. All it does is support my earlier statement -- al Qaeda was a post-war organization of veterans from the fighting, not an organization formed during the war against the Soviets. >>During the anti-Soviet jihad Bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Some analysts believe Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA"<< Some analysts have never managed to actually produce any proof of such, and so it remains every bit as valid as saying "some analysts believe bin Laden made a pact with the devil to receive riches and power in exchange for his soul no later than 1984, if not earlier." As for bin Laden receiving US funding, I suspect that directly he did not receive a dime from the US government. He may have, in fact quite likely, received funding of US origins by way of the Pakistanis, who had discretionary access to much of the US cash supporting the effort. But it hardly matters, since most accounts agree that bin Laden was an absolute zero as a battlefield commander and his main contribution to the fight was digging holes in the ground and shaking down his family's contacts in the Saudi super-rich social strata for cash donations. Nor does it in any way excuse the errors and logical fallacies you've thus far brought to the table. >>HorseSoldier just because you try to sound smart does not make you so. It is transparent, people can see right through it. << Which is a curious observation from someone who has, thus far, betrayed a rather minimalist understanding of the subject matter at hand. You may see through whatever you want, but it does not change the fact that you've managed to be both wrong and simulataneously support the counter-argument you are opposing all in the space of less than 100 words. This is a fairly significant accomplishment, though not a praiseworthy one.

>>"It started after the war" The organization was named after the war; it was basically same people. << The Nazi party started after WW1 and was largely made up of veterans. This does not mean that the Nazi party took any role in the First World War. Likewise claiming al Qaeda did anything during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is simply anachronistic.

>>Of course they did. Pakistan wanted a pakistan-friendly Afghanistan, and S. Arabia, in the collusion with the USA, want to secure access to energy sources. Funny. I didn't know that Afghanistan had oil. Guess my education was worthless :( << It's the Michael Moore tested, Michael Moore approved natural gas pipeline story I suspect he is alluding to, as it usually creeps into the conspiracy story somewhere along the way.

Talk to the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia. He will tell you who bin Laden was thanking for getting him in touch with useful America Operatives during the Afghan War.

Research the National Security Decision Directive 166 signed by Regan.

How do you think Al Qaeda morphed into an Organization that is taken seriously by most Nations of the World? -Afghan Arabs received sophisticated training by the CIA.

LK, 1. Care to share your excerpts of NSDD 166? Obviously you must have it since you are claiming it to be the smoking gun that reveals all. Don't worry about prosecution - just claim that you're a NYTimes reporter and you should be okay . . . 2. Is what AQ really does that sophisticated as to have required CIA assistance? Please tell me those skills that required the CIA to jump start. Let's review those skills that were used during their most effective attack to date: 1) Use of box cutters - I'm sure this is the foundation to any CIA SAD trainee 2) Flying jet airliners - this is another one of those CIA only skills 3) Booking e-tickets - my stepmother still has trouble doing this, maybe I should give the CIA a ring and see if they can rush an operator to her house for some one-on-one training 4) Applying for visas - here's another rough task that requires the CIA 5) Opening a bank account and paying for items using cash and debit cards - I'll cut the CIA some slack here and allow my wife to be a primary instructor instead AQ is a threat because they are funded quite well through petrodollars and were able to operate and train with impunity in host countries. While explosives isn't an everyday skill, if a disgruntled soldier can pull off the Oklahoma City bombing without the backing of millions of petrodollars, my guess is that some radicalized Muslims can be just as capable, if not more, when given their own training ranges. AQ has been very effective at devising innovative operations to exploit security gaps and then leveraging their attacks through exploiting the internet and information operations, essentially hijacking the internet and globalisation towards their cause.

"Obviously you must have it since you are claiming it to be the smoking gun that reveals all." Not claiming it to be the smoking gun, merely discussion material relevant to a discussion being made in a public internet chat room. Research it on the net. I am not saying the CIA helped in the 9-11 attack. I am saying that Afghans received training that helped them bring down a Super Power at the time. Look at some of the tactics currently being used by the insurgents in Iraq. They resemble tactics used in the Soviet/Afghan War and the Russian/Chechnya War.