CIA-trained Afghan militants constituted direct blowback against US empire

Evidence

In a 1985 speech, Reagan described the mujahideen as “freedom fighters.” With the help of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, the Reagan administration armed and trained the mujahideen from Afghanistan and elsewhere. He justified such support through the 1980s by stating that the mujahideen are “our brothers,” and “we owe them our help.” One such brother was the Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, whose family had benefited from Saudi state contracts and US funding. Bin Laden became interested in Afghanistan after the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979. He had contacts with Afghan mujahideen leaders and moved to the country in 1982. Working with his former teacher Abdullah Azzam, he brought in and trained thousands of volunteers. By the mid-1980s he had established several camps of his own and in 1988 he created a database of the volunteers who passed through his camp; the file was named al-Qaeda. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 396 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: CIA-trained Afghan militants later turned their violent skills against the United States — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 411; US imperial operations generate the very blowback they then label terrorism; US-trained Afghan militants produced blowback against America as imperial power (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• US-trained Afghan militants produced blowback against America as imperial power #corroborates (0.98)
• CIA-trained Afghan militants became the later anti-US threat #corroborates (0.95)
• The US trained the mujahideen from which al-Qaeda later emerged #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 396
• CIA-trained Afghan mujahideen produced the terrorist attacks against America #corroborates (0.92) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 269
• Jihadists believed their Afghan war defeated the USSR and emboldened attacks on the US #expands (0.80) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1787
• U.S. covert support in Central America produced blowback against the United States. #exemplifies (0.80)
• The CIA deliberately cultivated Islamist groups as Cold War counterweights to Nasserism #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 389
• Soviet defeat in Afghanistan legitimized Islamist militancy in the region #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 399
• American arms, Saudi funding, and Muslim demographics defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan #qualifies (0.75)
• The US once allied with Islamist forces before treating them as enemies #expands (0.75)