Osama bin Laden Was Once Praised http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-freedom-fighter-osam a0919sep19.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines By MORT ROSENBLUM AP Special Correspondent September 19, 2001, 1:25 PM EDT PARIS -- Osama bin Laden, now America's public enemy No. 1, was the type of Soviet-hating freedom fighter that U.S. officials applauded when the world looked a little different. Though not singled out specifically for Washington's praise, Western and Middle Eastern sources say, bin Laden received U.S. support to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan as he was shaping his al-Qaida terrorist network. "I warned the CIA about getting involved with this sort of Muslim extr emist," said Pierre Lacoste, the admiral who headed French intelligence at the time. "This business of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' can be very dangerous." During the 1980s, the United States supported several ragtag rebel groups eager to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Americans provided funds and arms, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles. "Bin Laden was just emerging as a leader, but he was already an Islamic idealist, clearly with no love for the West," Lacoste said in an interview, one of several with veterans of that period who sketch a similar picture. Although bin Laden insists he never took any CIA funds directly, he was heavily funded by Saudi interests and received American logistical and political support, Lacoste said. U.S. officials at the time say aid was given first under President Carter and then under President Reagan. Reagan once praised the Afghans and Arab guerrillas who helped them as "freedom fighters." Herman Cohen, who in the 1980s was deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence and then on the National Security Council, said aid was c hanneled through Pakistan and given to groups selected by Pakistanis. "We didn't understand at that point what was happening," Cohen said. "I don't think any analyst back then thought these were bad guys in Afgha nistan. We were thinking about the Cold War and the Reagan Doctrine." Some of the Pakistanis involved were themselves Islamic fundamentalists, he added. Cohen is now a private consultant in African affairs. Ed Girardet, a writer and humanitarian aid specialist who has covered Afghanistan since 1980, first met bin Laden a decade ago when the wealthy Saudi set up camps where combat-hardened Afghans trained Arab fighters. "He was always after some purist Islamic state which exists nowhere in the world," Girardet said. "He had a deep hatred of anything from the West. Unlike the Afghans, his radical Arab followers wouldn't even shake your hand." Bin Laden made ample use of the American equipment lavished on rebel groups during the Soviet resistance, he said. When Moscow retreated in 1989, CIA operatives departed, leaving splintered factions to fight for supremacy. "The United States really blew it," Girardet said. "They dropped Afghanistan like a hot potato." Bin Laden was lionized when he returned to Saudi Arabia but soon ran afoul of the kingdom's ruling family. He moved to Sudan, building up his org anization, and then to Afghanistan when the Taliban Islamic militia took power in 1996. Robert Korengold, a retired senior U.S. information officer, laughs bitterly as he looks back at what he calls hard realities of foreign entanglements. "It happens all the time," he said. "People who are your allies at one time turn out not to be when things change. Unfortunately, that's the way of the world." At the Afghan Embassy in Paris, which is in the hands of the anti-Taliban northern alliance, Ambassador Masstan Mehrabodin insists history would have turned out better if Americans had instead helped the more moderate Afghans. Because of Pakistan's opposition, he said, Americans gave almost no help to Ahmed Shah Massood, the northern alliance's military leader, who held out for years against the Taliban from a mountain redoubt in northern Afgh anistan. Massood was mortally injured by suicide bombers only days before terrorists struck in the United States. Mehrabodin blames bin Laden, saying he wanted to eliminate the logical candidate when Western allies seek a new leader. France's Lacoste agrees that Massood's more secular politics might have prevented the rise of extremists. "We thought Massood should have had a bigger role, and I felt a certain regret when the Americans passed him over," he said. "He might have provided a moderating influence." He said that although some CIA officials shared his misgivings at the time, they were bound by orders. "Intelligence people don't make policy," he said. Lacoste, now a professor of international strategic affairs, said the United States went wrong by allying itself too closely to Pakistan. "Pakistan is playing a double -- maybe a triple -- game," he said, "They are allied with the United States, but they also recognize the Taliban, and they are close to China." What Pakistan wants, he concluded, is a weak Afghanistan. Copyright C 2001, The Associated Press THE END ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrHhl.bVKZIr Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
