No CIA links with bin Laden?

[DroppinScience]

CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen says no.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/15/bergen.answers/index.html

The quote...

Q: If it's true that bin Laden once worked for the CIA, what makes you so sure that he isn't still?
Anne Busigin, Toronto, Canada

BERGEN: This is one of those things where you cannot put it out of its misery.

The story about bin Laden and the CIA -- that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden -- is simply a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. In fact, there are very few things that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the U.S. government agree on. They all agree that they didn't have a relationship in the 1980s. And they wouldn't have needed to. Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently.

The real story here is the CIA didn't really have a clue about who this guy was until 1996 when they set up a unit to really start tracking him.

I dunno, man. Wasn't bin Laden a mujahadin (sp?) in the '80s to fight the Soviets? And these guys were trained and funded by the U.S. Maybe the reality of what Mr. Bergen is trying to convey is that they trained these guys to fight the Soviets (and bin Laden just happened to be one of many fighters), so any CIA connections are merely indirect?

Can someone help clarify, please. :confused:

[EN[i]GMA]

Now that I think about it, I seem to remember that the CIA funded the Mujahadeen, but not specifically bin Laden.

This is all very fuzzy, and it may be bollocks, but I do remember hearing that somewhere.

I've certainly seen no evidence that the CIA actually did directly fund bin Laden.

It very well could be one of those that most people just accept as true because it fits in with their world view.

But I mean, I kind of doubt that the CIA didn't know who he was until '96. Or at least, I hope we knew about him before that.

[Echewta]

His group, during the 80s I believe, fought in the Afgan war against the Russians. The U.S. didn't give money directly to Afgan fighters but instead to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to then give it to who they thought fit. A lot more to it than that but it does allow the CIA to turn around and say "We didn't give money to him."

[SobaViolence]

deniability.

of course they knew where the money was going and who would get it and for what ends.

just like the contras in latin america.

[drizl]

i agree. they knew where the money was going and they supported it not for anyones freedom, but in a covert action against russia. our government buys and uses people as they need them, then dispose of them when they dont.

[Qdrop]

i agree. they knew where the money was going and they supported it not for anyones freedom, but in a covert action against russia. our government buys and uses people as they need them, then dispose of them when they dont.
but, according to you...bin laden had nothing to do with 9/11 right? it was an inside job?
right?
he's harmless.