In 1979 Jimmy Carter was the president in America and he was very furios when Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. The Soviet army killed the Afghan President and chose a President who was Communist and was a friend of Soviet. By invading Afghanistan Soviet Union managed to have control over an area which was closed to the oil sources in the Middle-East and the Persian Gulf. Americans waited to know more about invading Afghanistan in order to react, and they called it a threat to the peace and asked Bresjnev to withdraw the army from Afghanistan. The invasion of Afghanistan and Carter's decisions against the invasion are important to understand the attack on September 11th. The decisions which the USA took in 1979 were going to cause a lot of events which encouraged people in America, Asia and in the Middle-East and gave them important roles and resulted in the attack on September 11th.

1979 was a very difficult year for America because there was a revolution in Iran and 63 americans were taken as hostages. In Iran Ayatollah Khomeini, who was the leader of sjiamuslims, came to Iran and he established a islamic regime in Iran after he and his supporters threw out the king. This revolution was a very important event in the world's history because it woke up Muslims around the world and the oilprice increased dramaticly and changed the world's economy.

Iran was a modern and pro-western country in many years and with Saudi-Arabia it was alies with America in war against communisms in the Middle-east.

The revolution in Iran occured because the iranian king tried to create a weastern country of Iran and poeple did not like that. and they became Anti-America.

When President Carter was able to get CampDavid-agreement between Israel and Egypt later it caused to the radicalizing av Muslims in Egypt, Saudi-Arabia and other Muslim countries.

After the Secound World War Saudi-Arabia had closer relationship with the USA. American oil companies and capitalisms were the main reason that Saud-family(the king) became so rich. The American oil companies extracted (utvinne) oil, refined (raffinere) and gave it to western countries. America guaranteed the security of the Saudi-Arabia. This country has been America's most important ally in the Middle-East, and after the revolution in Iran Saudi-Arabia has become more and more important in the Gulf-region.

Carter and Brzezinski

The national security adviser to President Carter was Brzezinski. There were three reasons which made Carter very angry:

A) Carter realised the consequenses of the Soviet invasion for his career, and that the invasion had ruined the disarmament agreement, which they had worked hardly to achieve that.

B) He understood that he could loose the election, which he did against Ronald Reagan. Reagan and other republicans called him naive without understanding the threat of Soviet invasion.

C) Bresjnev had sent a letter to America and in the latter he asserted that Soviet Union was invited to Afghanistan by afghan government. For Carter it was a lie and an offence. Brzezinski suggested to make a secret plan to help anti-Soviet movement in Peshawar and provide them with medicines, propaganda means and weapons. In 1979 the plan was put into the action and a huge number of weapons came to Pakistan in 1980. They also agreed to send help to America's allies in south-Asia, specially Pakistan, and Brzezinski confirmed that Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia were willing to support the anti-Communist groups in Afghanistan and to support USA against Soviet. Some of these afghan groups were nationalist and non-religious and some other were islamic groups, and they were in exile in Pakistan. These islamic groups believed that Soviet Union was Evil and they were prepared to die and start a holy war, Jihad, against this Evilness.

By helping afghan groups America would make it difficult for Soviet army. At the same time the USA hoped that Muslims who lived inside Soviet Union in Usbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tadsjikistan would join this holly war and the USA hoped to make a hell for Soviet army by spreding the Jihad inside Soviet Union against Communism.

CIA had the responsibility to plan the help to the Afghan groups. In the past America had supported many anti-communist groups in different parts of the world, but they had only supported the democratic groups. Of course in Afghanistan exsisted democratic groups, which were against Soviet occupation, but America decided to support islamic groups, which were very fanatic islamic groups . The USA believed that these islamic groups would fight better with better results. The support to these groups approached(nærmet) America to Pakistan and strengthened their relationship.

Pakistan in 1970s

Zia, who was a General, had the power in Pakistan and he had little support from the international community. In 1979 he gave Jamiat-e-Islami, which was a islamic party, political power and established an Islamic regime, and that made him more unpopuler in the international community. Zia forbade other parties and introdused censorship in the newspaper, radio and tv. He was not so populer amongst poeple, but he had huge support in army and he had controll over ISI, which was intelligence service, the inter-services Intelligence Agency. The western countries did not accept his policy and stopped all kind of help to Pakistan, and Congress in America refused to sell military equipments to Pakistan. In this difficult moment Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and Zia realized that this was the best chance to use the situation to his advantage. To get support from other Muslim countries Zia condemned the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet, and he stressed that it was important to help Afghans. To western countries he acted as an anti-Communist. Zia was prepared to organize the afghan refuges, who had escaped to Pakistan since 1973, to fight against the Soviet. He provided them with all kinds of support and he refered to Koran which demanded to help other Muslims in need. At the same time he made sure that Sunni-Islamic leaders, who were originaly Pushtunsk, could recruit fighters from refugee camps in order to war against Soviet.There were four major afghan leaders: Hekmatyar, Rabbani, Abdul Rasul and

Sayyaf. They started to organize the fighters and refuges.

Zia asked America for help, training of warriors and money for afghan groups. America answered positively.

Angry Muslims

America secured the security of Saudi-Arabia during the cold-war and Saudi-Arabia gave huge support in return to America in war against Communisms. But Saudi-Arabia did not support America in everything. For example when the USA (in 1979) asked Saudi-Arabia for support to the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt they recieved no help, but later they recieved help when Soviet invaded Afghanistan. This invasion was a very important event during the cold war which caused to a lot of warrings and tension between America and Soviet, and it started a new period. During this time CIA cooperated closely with Intelligence Agencies from Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia. This cooperation created conditions for the attack on America on September 11.

Soviet Union collapses

The main reason for the cooperation and allianse was the cold war.

Brzezinski's policy was to support the islamic groups in Peshawar and he has always defended this policy.

The invasion lasted 10 years and it costed a huge money to Soviet and the country could not bear that anymore. In the end Sovie Union collapsed and they had to withdraw the army from Afghanistan.

Now we can wonder if it was right of America to cooperate with Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia, and the support they gave to islamic groups. We can ask if this support contributed to create the movment of fanatic islamic groups which later have regarded America as an Evil country and have had the goal to destroy.

Why would Brzezinski support islamic groups?

Brzezinski said that these groups were well organised and effective. But that is not true, and many other americans disagreed with him. In 1979 these groups were not effective and they were not so trained to fight against Soviet. They were not well organised either, and there have been conflicts between these groups in many many years.

And in 1979 there were many other political groups, movements and parties in Afghanistan. Some of them were not religous and some were as I said before. There were many options which America had.

Could Brzezinski make mistake about these groups and parties? The answer is no because he examined these groups in many years and he knew them very well. Brzezinski had access to CIA's information about these groups in Islamabad and he knew very well that these groups were fanatic and dangerous islamic groups.

It is possible that Brzezinski did not have the freedom to choose between these groups and he was forced to choose Islamic groups. There were groups which were much better trained and much better effective.

Brzezinski could not support any group he wanted because Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia wanted to support some espesiffic groups and they were not willing to support any groups. That means that(Zia and Saud- family) they decided which groups could get supports, and Zia would not accept support to any parties and groups which were not islamic parties.

Pakistan helped three groups from before, and Saudi-Arabia supported 2 other groups.

Brzezinski believed that these islamic groups could serve America's interests and as I said before these groups were Sunni-Muslims which could be used against the Sjia-Muslim movements which had started in Iran and were spreading in the Middle-East. Brzezinski believed that by supporting these groups he could effect the balance of power between the USA and Soviet Union and that he could controll the balance of power between the countries in the Muslim world.

In 1980s Americans were worried that so much money and support went to these islamic groups. Especially after 1985 when America learned that there was a chance that Soviet would withdraw their soldieres from Afghanistan. In this time Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party, Hezb-e-Islami, was becoming dominent amongst mujahedin.

The americans ment that when they payed half of the expenses they should also decide which group was going to get the money and support. But the pakistani leader, Zia, disagreed and did not accept that and it caused to conflict between the two countries.

Three conditions for the attack on September 11th

Lets summerize a few things. One of the conditions we can find in the cold war and the competition between America and Soviet Union.

A) The invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet Union in 1979.This invasion led to destroy of Afghanistan and caused to the death and flight of millions of people. The war proved another important fact. Before the invasion everybody thought that it was impossible to defet Soviet Union. Everybody thought that Soviet Union had a invincible(uovervinnelig) army. But mujahedin proved that it was possible and they caused enomers damege to the Soviet army and thus it contributed to the dissolution process(oppløsningsprossessen) which led to the collapse of the Soviet. At the same time it contributed to radicalizing of Muslims and islamic groups which led to the attack of september 11th.

B) The american support to Afghan groups to fight against Soviet. It is important to mention that one of the reason which led to invation of Afghanistan by Soviet was that Soviet Union was worried beacause of the increasing american influence amongst anti-communist groups in the region.

C) America used Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia, and their roles during the cold war.

The dicisions which Soviet and America made must be understood in the context(sammenheng) of the cold war, and which controlled their foreign politics. it was the competing of power between the two powers which made Bresjnev worried, believing that America was winning more influence and power in Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle-East. Therefor Soviet wanted to win more influence and power in the region in 1979.

The alliance between America, Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia is a very important fact. This alliance made sure that America could provide the Afghan fighters with weapons and money. The three countries shared/dele the job of providing these groups. America had the responsibility of money and weapon. Saudi-Arabia had the responsibility of materiel resourses. Pakistan's job was to let the Afghan fighters use its territory. Saudi-Arabia took the responsiblity to give money as much as the USA did. Saudi-Arabia also sent people to Afghanistan to help fighters. These people were instructors and organizers, and they were active islamic people who helped to recruite other active islamic people from the middle-east to fight. They came voluntary to join the Afghanistan-war and to fight for islam against Communism. These instructors and organizers who came from Saudi-Arabia, contributed to that the war in Afghanistan became a big and encouraging factor in developing of political(politisk) Islam in 1980s. Afterwards political Islam became a common and international case amongst Muslims against Communisms and Soviet occupation av Afghanistan, and thus the war in Afghanistan had many islamic activists.

There were seven afghan groups which afterwards became known as Mujahedin. Their leaders settled in Pakistan near the border to Afghanistan, and they had something between 175000-250000 soldeirs in 1980s, and 25000-35000 voluntary soldiers from other muslim countries.

In this time Pakistan was worried to have so many foreginer soldiers inside the country carrying weapons, and insisted that the supports and providings from other countries had to be delevered first to Pakistani etterretningstjeneste, ISI, than ISI could give these supports to the afghan groups.

President Zia wished that Saudi-Arabia would bind itself(forplikte seg) to the Afghan groups and their war against Soviet. Therefor he asked the Saudi-Arabian king for a 100% garanti. A good garanti for Zia was that Saudi-Arabia would send a prince to Peshawar. Saudi-Arabia did not send a prince. Instead they sent a young muslim and religous man who was closed to the king's family. His name was Osama bin Laden.

Did Bin Laden cooperate with America?

As I said before many afghan refugies escaped from Afghanistan after the invasion and they came and settled in Pakistan, in Peshawar. The town was totely changed after the invasion. There were many afghan groups and fighters, weapon sellers, humanitarian organisation, jornalists, spies, and many inteligent agents from Soviet, the USA, Pakistan and other countries. Afterwards in Peshawar you could find different kinds of weapons. It worried the government in Pakistan.

Bin Laden and many CIA agents were in Peshawar in 1980. Now we are sure that Bin Laden was Saudi-Arabia's man. But the question is: Was he America's man too? Did Bin Laden cooperate with America? If so What kind of relationship did they have?

It is difficult to answer to these questions, but the questions and their answers are very important facts. There are many questions which are difficult to answer. The only way to get the answers to these question is that the CIA and government in Saudi-Arabia publish the facts and tell the truth to the world. They only publish what they want.

The change in relationships between America and Saudi-Arabia

A month before the invasion of Afghanistan some armed men from the Ikhwan took control over the biggest mosque in Mekka and held speech to the pilgrims. They critisaized the king family and said that the king's family had no moral and were sinners and they were not good Muslims. They demanded that the Saud-family must quite all contacts with western countries and society and that american's military advisers had to leave the country. The rumour said that it was not the Saudi military which had removed the occupants, but the french soldiers.

Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia and the USA

Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia wanted that the support that America gave had to be kept secret and the three countries agreed that America was going to help with instructors and weapon, but the american instructors had not to be used in Pakistan, and they agreed that weapons should not go directly to the Mujahedin. The American supports should be indirect. America would help with experts and trainers, but the training would occure in the USA . America had to train mujahedin indirectly. It means that America should train the mujahedin instructors. These instructors were mostly officers from Pakistan who came to America to get training. After three months training they went back to Pakistan and trained the mujahedin. The training started in 1980.

As I said before America was going to support with weapons. But since the American presence had to be kept secret Mujahedin were not going to receive american weapons but should be armed with weapons from Soviet. If there were question or doubt about the increasing weapons which mujahedin had the answer would be that the weapons came from Soviet stock and from dead Soviet  soldiers. In this way they could hide any track from America and it would make a heroic and strong picture of mujahedin.

To provide mujahedin with Soviet weapons America organized international partners to cooperate with. Egypt, Polen, Israel and Chaina helped America to secure Soviet weapons. Egypt was the country which Soviet had sold weapons to in many years, and Egypt had many different Soviet weapons. In return Egypt got american weapons and Chaina got money and modern american weapons, Polen sold weapons and got money instead. These weapons were flown to Pakistan and delevered to mujahedin. If there were not enough weapons America made some which resembled to Soviet weapons. The weapons came from all over the world to Pakistan and CIA took care of them and later ISI gave the weapons to the afghan groups and leaders. CIA did not give the weapons direcly. ISI divided the weapons to sunni-islamic groups, which were of pushtunsk origin and which Pakistan had supported them since 1977.

Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia wanted to keep the cooperation with the USA secret. They did not wish to be understood as America's allies in the Arab and muslim world. They wanted to be seen as fighters and protectors of islam and as supporters of afghan mujahedin. Saudi-Arabia was interested in spreading their strictly interpretations of sunni-islam, and Pakistan was interested in controlling Afghanistan. These two countries did not informe America about their plans and goals. Zia supported several afghan groups, which were sunni-muslims and belonged to pushtunske tribes. We can conclude that mujaheddin did not represented the whole afghan people and Afghanistan. Mujaheddin represented Zia's goals to controll pushtunske people who lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Zia was the reason that the pushtunske tribes and the most fanatics sunni-muslim groups grew. During the war in Afghanistan he gave locals and different supports to these groups in Peshawar. As i said before zia gave them the permision to organize the afghan refugies who came to Pakistan. Zia represented these groups and leaders as humanitarian organizations to the USA and the rest of the world, and he made sure that these pushtunske groups became more powerful than other afghan groups in the war against Soviet. These pushtunske groups and tribes could decide who were refugies and who were not, and who could get help and who could not. Thus they could recruit new members and make up(utgjøre) most of Mujaheddin.

In the end of 1979 Bin laden came to Pakistan and he wanted to teach people about Islam and train them. His goal was to make a common feeling amongst many groups which always were in conflicts with each other, and to increase their motivations to fight. He picked up muslim priests from Saudi-Arabi, and people who had a lot of knowledges about islam. He created training camps in Peshawar to train the islamic groups and parties, and he recieved financial support from Saudi-Arabia. By givining him instructors and allowing him to use territory in Pakistan he recieved political support from Pakistan. As I said before these instructors were trained by american and British instructors.

Bin Laden explained his plan to the king's family in Saudi-Arabia. His plan was to recruit voluntary muslims to a big international military unity. They liked his plan and promised money and other supports to create an international islamic organization to help the afghan mujaheddin.

One of Bin laden's closest colleague was Azzam. He was a palestinian who came voluntary to Peshawar, and helped Bin Laden. His job was to recruit and organize young Arabs, and Bin Laden's job was to pay for everything, weapons, food, giving money to the families of these young fighters, establish training camps, training of young fighters and other things. Azzam created several arabic organizations which supported the afghan groups in their war against Soviet. Azzam and Bin Laden established a service office for mujaheddin. This serviceoffice was called Makhtab al-Khdemat al-Mujaheddin(MaK). This was an office to recruit people. Later they had offices in different countries in the Middle-East and later in Europe and America. From these offices or nettwork Azzam and Bin Laden established al-Qaida al Sulbah in 1987. Al-Qaida al Sulbah was a nettwork of Muslim soldiers who were willing to die for islam and their goal was to create a islamic society. These were jihad-soldiers.

CIA knew that Bin Laden and Azzam were recruiting people, but they did not nothing because America were to much concentrated on Soviet and Communism and the cold war. Bin Laden and Azzam's activity served America's interests and what came to America's advantages America accepted. In the mean time good cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia was developing. This cooperation was beyond America's controll.

As I said before there were two providing sources. 1. Saudi-Arabia helped with money and voluntary people who wanted to take part in jihad against Soviet and Amin who had taken the power in Afghanistan via coup. He was a communist. 2. The USA's help were money and weaons. This providing system was under care of Pakistan, but Pakistan did not control it. Saudi-Arabia for instance sent money through banks to some islamic organizations. As the result of these two providing sources in Peshawar it developed two sorts of opposition movements. A) the afghan mujaheddin which were seven competing groups B) the other movement contained a mixture of Afghans and Arabs. Arabs who came voluntary to Afghanistan. But Afghans did not want foreigners(Arabs) to interfere in their problemes even if the interference was from Muslims and islamic groups.These two opposition movements were dependet on support from abroad, and they could not cooperate easly because A) Afghan groups were suspicious towards foreigners B) Most Afghan people did not speak Arabic and could not communicate with Arabs, but their leaders could speak Arabic.

Who recruited Bin Laden

The  conclusion is that America did not create Bin Laden, and there is no evidence that shows connections between Americans and Bin Laden. There are just some speculations. Some people assert that America could recruit anybody in war against Soviet and communism, and some other poeple believe that America did not need to recruit anybody. It is possible that some money and weapons that America sent to Pakistan ended at Bin Laden or other arabic groups.

When Turki, the Saudi-Arabian prince, was the head of intelligence service(etterretningstjeneste) in Saudi-Arabia it was he who gave Bin Laden the mission in Pakistan in war against Soviet and its regim in Afghanistan. Prince Turki supported and financed Bin Laden's activities. After September 11th Prince Turki was fired as the head of etterretningsorganisasjon. The prince was not the only one who supported Bin Laden. Many powerful menn in Arabic countries sent huge amount of money to Bin Landen. Some of them were from Saudi-Arabia. Thus Bin Laden could establish many organizations in the Middle-East and other muslim countries.

After September 11th Saudi-Arabia has been blamed and criticized because of the country"s support to Bin Laden.

There is no point to accuse America or CIA for creating the al-Qaida network. A-Qaida network was established from Azzams and Bin Laden's organizations Bait-ul-Ansar and MaK, which were financed by Saudi-Arabia and other donations from Muslims. But it does not mean that CIA has no responsiblity. CIA made several mistakes: A) CIA let ISI decide all management of money and providing of weapons to Mujaheddin. Thus money and weapons went to the wronge hands and groups. For instance Gulbuddin Hekmatyar wanted to establish a islamic republic in Afghanistan, and early it was clear that his party was anti-America. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party, Hezb-e-Islami, recieved a lot of supports from America and Saudi-Arabia, and it became the biggest and strongest party amongst the seven parties and mujaheddin. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar followed his own policy and had his own goals than fighting against Soviet. If he felt it necessary he could kill members of other afghan movements and parties who were fighting against Soviet. He was a dictator.

We cannot exclude connections between CIA and Bin Laden. It is possible that they had a direct or indirect connections. We cannot prove anything.

Reagan as President and from containment to the rollback policy

The head of CIA, Stansfield Turner, told Reagan that Soviet Union had become weaker and its economi was weak too. The population In Soviet Union was redused because of birth-rate and Soviet would lack labourers in the future. Reagan was very anti-communist, and the supports to Mujaheddin continued with more money. But there were some dissatifactions with the USA's policy toward Soviet Union. Now America wanted to force Soviet to move back from different parts of the world, stopp Soviet expansion and to make it expensive for Soviet to expand its influence. This new policy was a very important change, and it got a new and bigger meaning. Now the American support to Mujaheddin could be described as a confrontation policy towards Soviet Union.The change from containment to the rollback policy is important to understand the attack on september 11th.

The government in Afghanistan was dependent on th support from Soviet Union, but it had to fight the mujaheddin too. Reagan called mujaheddin freedom's fighters and mujaheddin was described in other countries as fighters who died for freedom. But it was clear that it was a competition between America and Soviet Union to win strategic positions in the world beyond West Europe.

Wheeler Dr. Jack Wheeler

He began in the early 1980s a series of extensive visits to anti-Soviet guerrilla insurgencies in Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Laos, and Afghanistan, and to democracy movements in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, becoming an unofficial liaison between them and the Reagan White House. Based on this, he developed the strategy for dismantling the Soviet Empire adopted by the White House known as the “Reagan Doctrine.”

Wheeler believed that America should break or destroy the Soviet empire. He was one of the supporter of the Reagan's administration when they decided to help all anti-communist groups in different continents to destroy Soviet empire and force it to move back, first of all in Afghanistan. If Reagan hadn't changed the old policy(containment), towards Soviet, to rollback policy America would never increase the involvement in Afghanistan after 1985. Thus Mujaheddin received huge amount of money and support from America and Saudi-Arabia, and without these money and support Bin Laden was not able to carry through(gjennomføre) his plan and project.

President Reagan had no problem to convince the Congress and get support from Congress to increase the support to afghan mujaheddin. The reasons that Congress agreed to support mujaheddin were that mujaheddin kjempet directly with Soviet army, and Reagan and his administration had given good arguments to support mujaheddin. By encouraging to the revolutions in the third world Reagan and his administration believed that Soviet Union tried to compete with the USA's containment policy therefore it was nødvendig to change the policy to rollback-policy in the third world. It was America's responsibility to help the freedom's fighters who were opressed. But rollback-policy had some negativ consequenses. This policy ment more wars, conflicts, destructions in Afghanistan and other countries and people suffered more. People in the countries which were affected directly by rollback-policy(Nicaragua, kambodsja and Afghanistan) started to hate America, and anti American attitude increased in many other countries too. In America too people criticized Reagan and his policy.

Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbatsjov

Mikhail Gorbatsjov became the leader of the party in Soviet Union in 1985, and when he took the power Soviet Union had huge economic problems, and the country was in the crise. He realised that somethings had to be done. The country's militry used a very huge expenses and the expenses had to be redused. The country did not have the capacity to carry such a huge burden. He emphesised that they had to negotiate with the USA again about reducing weapons and war in Afghanistan. When America increased the support to the mujaheddin in 1985 it was the opposite of what Mikhail Gorbatsjov wished and hoped. Soviet Union answered by sending special helikopters and forces. It was not a good solution. America answered again by increasing the support to mujaheddin. The Soviet army was under huge pressure. In 1986 everything changed when America gave special rockets to Mujaheddin. Now they were able to shoot down Soveit flies and helikopters every day, and Soviet army suffered a lot and Mikhail Gorbatsjov was desperate . In 1987 America was informed that Mikhail Gorbatsjov had decided to withdraw the Soviet troops from Afghanistan and other parts in the third world.

Afghanistan after Soviet withdrawal

In 1988 Soviet Union started to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan, but it was not an easy job. They wanted to stopp mujaheddin to enter where their troops were before because this would destabilize the Communist government which Soviet had established in afghanistan. When Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan they left a lot of weapons and ammunitions. Thus the local people who had the power were strengthened. Soviet Union continued to provide the Communist government of Muhammed Najibullah with weapons.

Mujaheddin thought that Muhammed Najibullah was dependent on Soviet's support to maintain and his Communist regim would be removed after Soveit withdrawal. As I said before Soveit troops left a lot of weapons and ammunitions. The different groups which made up Mujaheddin started to be suspicious of each other and the cooperation between them stopped. Instead of cooperation they had conflicts with each other and they could not agree how to replace Communist regime with another alternative. The United Nation demanded that all groups in Afghanistan had to start to negotiate and establish a government consisted of all parties. This demand was not acceptable to Mujaheddin, but Muhammed Najibullah supported the demand. When Mujaheddin realized that Muhammed Najibullah's Communist regime was not going to break down or fall they started in 1989 to attack him without having knowledge about his strength. By using all the weapons and ammunitions left from Soviet troops Muhammed Najibullah managed to defeat Mujaheddin in Jalalabad. It was a catastrophe for Mujaheddin. Mujaheddin received no support from America and the defeat proved the conflicts between Mujaheddin and their inferiority. America prefered that Muhammed Najibullah remained in power.

The defeat of Mujaheddin in Jalalabad resulted in anger and bitterness within the Mujaheddin. The islamic groups had now more conflicts between them, and they accused each other for deceit(svik). The relationships between Bin Laden and Azzam started to be bad. Bin Laden went to Afghanistan and Azzam went back to Peshawar. They both called on Jihad, but they saw the situation differently and they had different thoughts about how Jihad had to be carried out. Bin Laden's supporters believed that the main enemy was America which used Islamic groups and Muslims to get its interests in competition with Soveit Union. Now they wanted to start a new jihad outside of Afghanistan where the enemies were America and its allies. But Azzam disagreed. He wanted to establish an Islamic country in Afghanistan with Mujaheddin. In 1989 Azzam was killed and the problem was solved. In the end of 1980s Bin Laden came undder the influnce of his friend and colleague Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Ayman Al-Zawahiri came to Peshawar in 1986 and met Bin Laden.

When Azzam was dead Bin Laden became the leader of the organizations which Azzam had created, specially MaK, other training camps, the centres in other countries which recruited people, and Al-Qaida al-Sulbah. Azzam created this organization before he died and the plan was to make it as a militant organization which was going to fight for Islam and Jihad. Sjeik Omar Rahman, who was a blind man, became the spiritual leader of Al-Qaida and Bin Laden had the responsiblity of the organization's job.

America stopped all supports to Afghan groups. Al-Qaida's picked troops(kjernetropper) would be people and veterans who took part in war in Afghanistan against Soviet Union. Most of them were from Saudi-Arabia and Jemen. So they started to recruit people for Al-Qaida from the Arab countries. As I said before during the war against Soviet it was the government in Saudi-Arabia and donations from private persons who financed for Bin Laden. To secure Al-Qaida's economy it was important to convince these people, who gave money, that even if the war in Afghanistan was finished the holy war for Islam had to continue, and it was Bin Laden's new duty. Bin Laden sent all militry and other financial resources from MaK to Al-Qaida, and he went to Saudi-Arabia in 1990.

America's mistake

When Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988-1989 the USA was not interested in Afghanistan anymore, and americans withdrew too. The USA and Soviet Union had used Afghanistan in 10 years to obtain their goals and interests. When they left the country was destroyed and had many conflicts. Everbody in Afghanistan had weapons, and now Afghans were alone and had to choose how to survive and how to rule. In countries like Nicaragua and kambodsja America was activ to help to make peace or establish a government. But the USA did nothing for Afghanistan. Americans left Afghanistan when Afgan people needed them more than any time. The country was destroyed, was in civil war, and full of weapons. There were many afghan groups and parties, and there were many Arabs from Saudi-Arabia, Jemen and other countries in Afghanistan or near Afghanistan. Many people have agreed that America's withdrawal from Afghanistan and not helping them to establish a government and peace was the USA's biggest mistake because it was the civil war in Afghanistan in the beginning of 1990s which opened the way for Mulla Omar's Taliban-regime and his close connections with Bin Laden and Al-Qaide.

Afghanistan became a good place for Bin Laden and Al-Qaide because the people who had power in the country was not economiclly dependent on the USA. They could attack and damage the USA's economi without being economiclly affected from that. In addition Afghanistan was in chaos which made it possible for terror organizations to establish in Afghanistan and have activities, and people could buy different modern and advanced weapons there.

Another fact that made Afghanistan especial was political islam. Presidents Carter and Reagan did not have enough knowledeg about political islam, and they were very engaged and concentrated on Soviet Union and communism. It was the Soviet Union and communists which were the main enemy. Islam was not so important and the USA did not concider Islam as a threat. By helping the sunni islamic groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan America wanted to make a balance against sjia islam or stop spreading sjia islam from Iran. Mujaheddin was a anti-communist group, but it was more a islamic group which fought and died for islam. When Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan the war for islam did not finish, and the attack on september 11th must be understood from this fact.

The structure of Al-Qaide

Bin laden was/is the emir or the leader of the Al-Qaide organization. There was a council(shura majlis) under him which consisted of dozen men. This council was the Al-Qaide's topp organ which made the last and important decisions. Bin laden's effort in Afghanistan had made him to a symbol for other muslim activists, but he id not have all the power in Al-Qaide organization. In fact the council(shura majlis) had more power than Bin laden because the members of the council(shura majlis) were people who had studied Islam and Jihad in many many years, and they had authority in interpretation of Koran and islamic laws. But Bin laden did not have this authority in interpretation of Koran and islamic laws, and he did not have the approved religious education. Al-Qaide organization had four committees, the militry committee, the finance committee, the religion committee and the media committee. The council recieved reports from the leaders of the four committees.

In the religion committee existed the Al-Qaide's religious members who were educated and most of them were from Egypt. As I said before they interpreted Koran and islamic laws. The militry committee had the responsibility for Al-Qaide's most important tasks. Most of the members in the militry committee were from Egypt too. It had the responibility of Al-Qaide's training camps, arming, training of the soldiers and arming and providing of weapons to other islamic and terror groups in other countries.

Al-Qaide had two sub-departments or sections, the foreign section which planed the attacks and operations in other countries. The second section had the responsibility for the security within Bin laden's organization. The media committee had the responsibility for spreading informations and news about Al-Qaide's activities. In 1994 Al-Qaide established a pressoffice in Europe with headquarter in London.The finance committee had the responsibility for financing Al-Qaide's operation and was dominated by people from Saudi-Arabia.

During 1990s Al-Qaide had established itself in different countries in the world. CIA managed to construct a picture of Al-Qaide in order to understand it. CIA found out that there were two generations of terrorists. The first generation consisted of Afghan veterans around Bin Laden and Azzam. They were people who took part in the war in Afghanistan and created al-Qaide when the war was finishing. Most of these people stayed in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the war and organized the voluntary Muslims who were still coming to get training for Jihad. The second generation consisted of members of radical groups which get training from the Afghan veterans or had connections with Al-Qaide after the war was finished in Afghanistan. These people were fanatics opposition groups which were spread around the world. De had recieved weapons and money from Al-Qaide, and many of them got militry and religious trainings in Bin Laden's camps. They were in the USA, Canada, Britain and Germany and so on.

Bin Laden in Saudi-Arabia

When he went back he was recieved as a hero and the politicians in the country represented him as an example for the young people. He became richer because the Arabic leaders gave him more and more contracts to build. But they did not know that Bin Laden was the leader of a brotherhood or community which their goal was to remove them from power. By cooperating with other Islamic leaders in Afghanistan Bin Laden became very radical and fanatic. In 1990 he traveled around the country and held speeches in mosques and his speeches were spread. The leaders in Saudi-Arabia did not notice that his speeches contained criticisms of the king and his family and their foreign policy. They did not know that Bin Laden sent money to Afghanistan and Pakistan to finance Al-Qaide and to Afghan-Arabs who were in border district between Afghanistan and Pakistan. These Afghan-Arabs could not go back to their countries. Many of them had no education or job to return, and they were radical and fanatic muslims who criticized the regimes in their countries. Some of them came to Afghanistan because they believed in islam and wanted to die for islam, and some of them escaped from their countries to avoid being arrested. The governments in these countries were happy to see them leave. When te war in Afghanistan was finished they did not dare to go back to their countries, and no other country wanted them. They became soldiers for Al-Qaide, and Al-Qaide took care of them and their families. These Afghan-Arabs were going to defend islam in the world.

The turning point for Bin Laden and the rest of world came in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. This invasion gave Bin Laden the chance to criticize the king's family more. When Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait Saudi-Arabia felt threatened. The king did not believe that the militry was strong enough to defend the country. The country's security was in danger. Bin Laden suggested to the king's family that his Afghan-Arabs soldiers could defend Saudi-Arabia against Saddam's threat, but the king's family refused his suggestion and asked America for help. For Bin Laden and many other Muslims it was unacceptable that none-muslims should defend the holy country.This inquiry created internal problems within the country and threatened the security of the Saudi-Arabia. Later Bin Laden became the main person who criticize the king and his inquiry, and Al-Qaide concidered the government in Saudi-Arabia, the USA and its allies as Islam's enemies.

Saddam and the Muslim world

Even if Saddam Hussain invaded another country he got supports from Arabs and Muslims. He got supports because he resisted the big Satan, the USA, and the West and because he represented himself as a muslim leader and an arab who fought against Arab's enemy Israel, USA and the Arab regims who supported Israel and USA. His support increased when America and its allies placed militry in Saudi-Arabia. Islamic groups joined and condemned the USA and the installation of so many non-Muslims soldiers on the holy ground of Saudi-Arabia. This created anti-american and anti-western feelings among people. After the first Gulf-war Iraq was destroyed and many people suffered in Iraq. Therefore sympathy and supports grew amongst Arabs in other countries. In addition Muslims did not like that American army defended the Islam's sanctuaries(helligdommer) in Saudi-Arabia. Muslims believed that America's motives to interfere were to win economic advantages and security politics.

Saddam's attack gave the chance to Bin Laden to dissociate himself from(ta avstand) the king's family in Saudi-Arabia and became Anti-America, and Bin Laden used Saddam's attack and the USA's reaction to Saddam's attack to mobilize his warriers from Afghanistan to an army to fight and defend Islam from West and American influence, their injustices and war. At this time many people in the Middle-East became Anti-America, and Bin Laden used this to recruit people for Al-Qaide and push Al-Qaide forward to plan attack against America and the western countries.

The growth of Islam and Anti-America

In the end of 1970 and in 1980s several events happend which contributed to the growth of Islam and fanatics Muslim in the Middle-East:

A) The revolution In Iran which resulted that Khomeini took the power in Iran and established a Islamic regime with stricts Islamic rules. Khomeini used the Iranian king's dependency on America and his relationship with Israel to bring down(styrte) the king. This revolution shocked the whole world and woke the other Muslims up, Muslims who wished to establish a islamic state in their countries. Khomeini was very Anti-American and Anti-Europe and Israel, and his revolution resulted in the growth of political Islam from 1980 in other parts of the world.

B) The foundation of Israel in 1948 created Anti-American movements among Muslims and contributed to the growth of Islamic groups.

C) The war between Israel and some Arab countries(Syria-Egypt..)

D) In 1960s and 1970s many leaders in the Middle-East tried to modernize their countries like European countries. This meant the seperation between the politics and religion. People did not like that and the result was the growth of Islam and islamic culture.

E) Soviet invasion of Afghanistan contributed to the growth of Islam.

F) The first Gulf-war contributed to the growth of Islam and created Anti-Americans feelings amongst Muslims.

G) Saudi-Arabia became richer from the oil, but they became more dependent on America. In 1990 the United States sent about 500,000 troops to Saudi-Arabia(http://cfrterrorism.org/causes/saudiarabia.html) to protect Saudi-Arabia from Iraq. The Muslims around the world reacted towards America's presence in the holy country Saudi-Arabia and they hated America's presence there. New Islamic groups were created during the Gulf-War and after the Gulf-War.These new Islamic groups were against Saudi-Arabia and its relationship with the USA.

Muslims believed that the USA and the western countries were destroying muslim society in Saudi-Arabia and their goals were to abtain control over the muslim countries. The king in Saudi-Arabia gave order to supervise the political activists. Bin Laden was one of them. Bin Laden criticized the king and his family and their policy. He became a threat to the king's family. In other Arab countries the number of Islamic groups increased. In Saudi-Arabia they found out that Bin Laden provided these Islamic groups with weapons and training. The government agents beat Bin Laden up and he was grounded, but he was not afraid. Bin Laden realized that if he did not communicat with his group and contacts his network of Afghan-Arabs would be dissolved. Al-Qaide was dependent on Bin Laden's money and if Al-Qaide would continue its works he had to move from Saudi-Arabia.

Bin Laden moves to Sudan

Bin Laden's goal was to establish a islamic republic in Afghanistan and other countries in the middle-East. When he was gone from Afghanistan war and chaos ruled the country. The communist regime was still in power in Kabul, but their power was getting weaker and they were losing the influence in other parts of the country. When communist regime lost the power in a part of Afghanistan there were many other groups which were prepared to take the power and each of these groups claimed to have the right to the power. This was the big problem.

Al-Qaide had good relationship with Sudan and the spiritual leader in Sudan, Hassan al-Turabi, had asked Al-Qaide's leader to give training to the Sudan's forces in order to fight against the Sudan People's Liberation Army(SPLA).

Pakistan started to make it difficult for Al-Qaide, and ISI did not want to cooperate with Al-Qaide's leader anymore. Al-Qaide's leader wished to move the headquarters of the organization to a country in the Middle-East. They believed that Sudan was a good country. Bin Laden, the whole Al-Qaide's leaders and the best warriers moved to Sudan in 1991. The camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan continued to work.

Sudan was a islamic republic and Bin Laden and other Al-Qaide's leader were welcomed and Sudan was like their home. Bin Laden had brought the most of his money with him to Sudan and he started to invest these money. He established several companies and lived in Khartoum. He started to work in the building branch. He recieved help from the government in Sudan and established many companies. For example he established an export-import company and Taba Investment Company which specialized in international trade with agricultural products. Bin Laden did not own these companies alone. Many of them were established with the Sudanese state, several businessman from Saudi-Arabia and also Bin laden's brothers. These companies financed Al-Qaide's activities. In Khartoum Bin laden bought huge lands to establish training camps and to develop farming and domestic animal(husdyrhold). He picked up the veterans from Afghanistan. Al-turabi gave these veterans new identities and they became Sudanese citizenship with passport and work permits. Al-Qaide contributed training and weapons and thus Al-Turabi could strengthen his domestic policy. Al-Turabi strengthened his position in foreign politics in the muslim world. He started to hold islamic conference IPC (Islamic People's conference) in Sudan and he invited Muslims to this conference.

Muslims from all the world came to Sudan and many of them were fanatics Muslims. The countries in the west and the USA concidered Al-Turabi as the leader of this international islamic conference. With Bin Laden's money and help Al-Turabi could have enough money to gather muslim leaders and organizations. Bin Laden and Al-Turabi had the same goals. They wanted to remove the regimes in muslim countries and establish islamic republic instead. They agreed that they could use and kind of means in order to obtain their goals. They wanted to reestablish the caliphate in the Arab world. Bin Laden helped by money and Al-Turabi gave him a territory to do the job. But Al-Turabi's cooperation with Bin Laden costed him political after 1995. Al-Qaide's activities and attacks resulted in that the USA and the Western countries started to concider Sudan like Libya and Iran which were seen as terrorist states. The USA and other countries started to put pressure on Sudan to extradite Bin Laden and other terrorists. Al-Qaide's Egyptian leaders had turned the guerilla organization, which Azzam had established, to a terrorist organization.

Bin Laden had many partners and contacts from Saudi-Arabia, and by Al-Turabi's help and his companies Al-Qaide created an international financial nettwork. They had accounts in banks in London, Hong Kong, Dubai. Wien and othe places. Bin Laden still had contacts with other islamic groups and Al-Qaide's members in saudi-Arabia and Jemen. In 1993 Saudi-Arabia started to arrest many members of radical groups and some of these members escaped and some of them settled down in London, which became the headquarter for radical islamic organizations.

IPC-conferences gave Bin Laden the chance to establish connectins and contacts with the leaders of radical islamic movements. Many agreements were signed between Al-Qaide and these islamic organizations, which came from different parts of the world, and friendships were created. In IPC-conferences they agreed that Al-Qaide could provide islamic groups in other countries with money and weapons or send Al-Qaide's soldiers. For example the islamic guerilla group in Philippine got training in Bin Laden's camps in Sudan, Al-Qaide sent weapons to Muslims in Bosnia, sent Al-Qaide's soldiers to Tsjetsjenia and Al-Qaide got involved in Somalia.

Somalia

There was wars and chaos in Somalia. General Aidid had annonced that his goal was to establish a islamic republic in somalia. Sudan was intersted in Aidid and in 1992 Hassan al-Turabi decided to help him. Bin Laden sent weapons and soldiers. The United Nation's Security Council agreed to send an american troops to establish peace and order. Bin Laden compared the troops with american troops in Saudi-Arabia and interpreted it like invasion of Somalia and invasion of a muslim country. He decleared that America's goal was to invade Jemen and Saudi- Arabia. He contacted the Al-Qaide's menn and leader in Jemen and they decided to attack the american's presence in Aden. In 1992 Al-Qaide attacked a hotel where american soldiers used, but no body was there that day and nobody was killed. CIA discoverd that there was a connection between the Afghan-veterans and Bin Laden. In the end America decided to withdraw from Somalia. It was understood as a victory for Bin Laden.

America reacts

In 1993 the USA realized that Bin Laden was a great danger for America's security. The same year a bomb exploded under the New York World Trade Center and six person got killed. CIA found track of Al-Qaide and Bin Laden. FBI and CIA found out that the attackers were Arabs who took part in Afghan war against Soviet. They were from Saudi-Arabia, Jemen, Egypt and other arabic countries. Some of these people had left Afghanistan after the war and went back to their countries and some other came to Europe and America and settled down. Some other stayed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. America started to press Sudan to get information about Bin Laden and other Afghan-Arabs who were in Sudan, and later CIA wanted Bin Laden extradited(utlevert). By press from America, Saudi-Arabi took from Bin Laden his Sudanese citizenship and closed his bank account. America investigated his companies in order to carry out international sanctions against them. Now was Bin Laden wanted in America. In 1995 the USA's pressure on Sudan increased when the USA started to increase the providing of weapons to Sudan's neighbours Uganda, Eritrea and Etiopia. These countries were Sudan's enemies. In 1996 Hassan al-Turabi had to give up. But he informed Bin Laden about the pressure from America so that he could escape from Sudan.

In 1990s there were several attackes on american targets and interests in Saudi-Arabia, the Us embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Many people got killed. All these attackes were carried by Arabs who took part in war in Afghanistan. After 1995 the americans had a better survey(oversikt) of Al-Qaide and they had some informations which helped them to understand how Al-Qaide was organized and who was the leader and how Al-Qaide worked.

Bin Laden moves back to Afghanistan

When Russia stopped financing the Communist regime in Kabul(Afghanistan) the regime collapsed. In 1990 and 1992 the local warlords, leaders of the militia and the old war veterans controlled different parts of Afghanistan. Al-Qaide decided to move its headquarter to Sudan. Al-Qaide was now a terror organization.

The Communist regime was replaced by a coalition government which was established from Mujaheddin. The coalition government was unstable and nobody was satisfied with it. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was one of them. He attacked the government and the government was powerless. In 1992 each minister had his own army, and the chaos ruled the country. Everbody fought with each other. In 1996 Bin laden came to Afghanistan. The country was in chaos and there was no order, no law and no institution. It was a wild and chaotic country, and Bin Laden could hide and work in this chaos. He still had supporters and warriers in Afghanistan. Lawlessness made sure his security.

Mulla Omar and Taliban (http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1010/p1s4-wosc.html)

When Bin Laden came to Afghanistan a new movement or group, which was Taliban, was conquering the capital of Afghanistan. Mulla Omar wanted to establish a islamic state in Afghanistan with strict islamic law based on interpretation of Sharia. Bin Laden was excited for his idea. But many other people were happy for his idea because the country had no order and law or institution. Not everbody was agree with him, but the local people saw Mulla Omar as the only chance to reestablish law and order. People were tired after 20 years with war.

Taliban movement started when two girls were raped by men who belonged to the local warlords in the area. Mulla Omar in the village saw how people suffered because of the behavior of former mujahideen commanders.They were kidnapping and raping boys and girls, stealing from Afghans at gunpoint on the road. He saw lack of morals with local warlords and his men. Mulla(priest) gathered some of his talibs(students) and killed the men and saved the girls. We are not sure that this story is true or false, but the event started a new movement. Another reason for the Taliban movement's growth was that many young people became his supporters in Afghanistan's Madrassas(small religious schools where a small group of students only learned Koran). After many years war there was no school or other education system. These Madrassas were like a social nettwork. In refuge-camps in Pakistan and in Afghanistan these Madrassas were the only school for the young people. These young people were a new generation and they grew up in poverty, had no future and had to learn Islamic laws in many years.These young talibs had never seen peace and they did not belong to any tribe. Bin Laden built many Madrassas, and they contributed to the Taliban movement. Thousands of these talibs in short time became a militry organization under leadership of Mulla Omar. In 1994 Pakistan stopped to support Hekmatyar and his group, and he became weaker and weaker. Instead Mulla Omar and his Taliban-soldiers got help from Pakistan. The new government in Pakistan wanted to have influence on politicians in Afghanistan.

One of the reason that Mulla Omar succeeded was because of Bin Laden's support. Mulla Omar and Bin Laden liked each other and Omar welcomed him. Al-Qaide had sent money and soldiers to support Taliban. Al-Qaide had to be differently reestablished in Afghanistan. it had to be small and closed. The leadership had to be redused and the leaders had to hide, and only the top leaders were taken into the organizations.

In 1996 Bin Laden gave two fatwas. he announced war against America and Jihad against Jews and crusaders(korsfarere). Bin Laden sweared to kill civilian or militry americans everywhere in the world. Bin Laden announced that the regims in the Middle-East were corrupt, supported by the USA and he wanted to replace them by true islamic regims. His goal was to throw America out of muslim countries and reunite the muslim world and reestablish caliphate(Kalifate). He declared that several islamic organizations were united and created WIF(World Islamic Front) to obtain the goals. This development worried Washington and CIA tried to find out where Bin Laden was and what he was doing.

When two bombs exploded in Dar-es-Salam and Nairobi against americans, president Clinton ordered to fire rockets from warship in Gulf against Al-Qaide's places in Sudan and Afghanistan. CIA had informed Clinton that Al-Qaide used a factory in Sudan to produced deadly nervegas. The rocket destroyed the factory, but the factory produced aspirin, not deadly nervegas. It was a scandal for America. In Afghanistan the rocket hit Bin Laden's camp, but nobody was there. To kill Bin Laden CIA was dependent on informations from agents from Pakistan, Russia and Saudi-Arabia. The USA did not have reliable agents in Afghanistan. In 1999 CIA recruited 30 agents to watch Bin Laden's movement, but it was not easy to kill or capture him.

Saudi-Arabia and Pakistan supported the Taliban-regim and they were the only countries in the world which acknowledged Taliban as Afghanistan's government. Pakistan supported Taliban-regim with militry advisers and Saudi-Arabia with money and other materials.

Conflicts between Bin Laden and Mullah Omar

The relationship between al-Qaide' men and Taliban's men got worse. Omar's men complained that Bin Laden demaned too much and he was arrogant and liked to show off. Bin Laden's soldiers treated Taliban's soldiers badly and they complained that Kandahar was primitiv withou civilization. The situation worsened when there were conflicts innside al-Qaide too. Many of al-Qaide's members agreed with Mullah Omar's criticism of Bin Laden, and they tried to reduce Bin Laden's influence and power. Mullah Omar was dissatisfied with Bin Laden's attacks in Saudi-Arabi, his fatwas against the king and his family and his announcment of war against America. Saudi-Arabi and Pakistan were the only countries which acknowledged and supported Taliban . Bin Laden's attacks on Saudi-Arabia could stop the supports from Saudi-Arabia to Taliban regim. Omar wanted peace and needed time to strengthen his islamic regim. He did not want America and other countries to notice to his country which had countless problems. He did not want attention, and enmity with America could have serious consequenses for Taliban regim. For instance America could support the North-alliance, which was in war with Taliba, with money and weapons, and America could press Saudi-Arabia and Pakistan to stop any support to Taliban. In 1997 the relationship between Bin Laden and Omar was so bad that Bin Laden wanted to move to Jemen. The leaders of theTribes welcomed him, but they demaned him to stop all attacks against other countries. Mulla Omar was pressed by Saudi-Arabia to extradite(utlevere) Bin Laden. In return Omar would get militry and economic supports. Omar agreed to extradite Bin Laden, but when two bombs exploded in Dar-es-Salam and Nairobi against americans and America fired rockets from warship in Gulf against Al-Qaide's places in Sudan and Afghanistan Mullah Omar changed his mind.

Close to September 11th

After 1995 the Al-Qaide's reduced its activities and started to support and provide other islamic groups. Al-Qaide shared its resources with other groups. CIA tried to find out about the groups which belonged to Al-Qaide, but they did not know how many of these groups existed and they did not know that hidden groups i Germany and the USA were planning to hijack american planes and attack american goals. These two groups did not use any electronic equipment like computer or phone to communicate with each other. They met each other or sent messages to each other via massenger in order to not leave any track. The group in America were young people from Saudi-Arabia who had close relationship to Al-Qaide's leaders. All of them were trained in camps in Afghanistan and had experiences from war in Tsjetsjenia. The american group was established in California and the German group was established in Hamburg. The members of group in Hamburg finished their training in Afghanistan in the year 2000 and went back to Germany. They got visa to the USA without any problem and they took course and got training in order to fly plane.

My opinion

Many people believe that if Soviet Union hadn't invaded Afghanistan and America hadn't provided the mujaheddin with weapons and money September 11th would not happen. Bin Laden and other Muslims say that they hate America because America is helping the corrupt regimes and governments in muslim countries. They hate the USA because the USA have invaded muslim countries like Saudi-Arabia and Iraq, and the USA suppress Muslims for example by helping Israel, or the US-led economic sanctions on muslim countries, like Iraq, punish civilians and many Muslims suffer. Some people say that it is America's fault that attack on September 11th happened because America trained terrorists in 1980s and gave them weapons which later they used against America.

I believe that even if Soviet Union hadn't invaded Afghanistan, and America, Saudi-Arabia and Pakistan hadn't provided mujaheddin with weapons and money attack on the USA on September 11th would happen anyway . As I said before Bin Laden expressed himself as anti America in the beginning of 1980. Most Arabs do not hate America because America support Israel and Israel kill Palestinians, or because america has troops in Saudi-Arabia. Many Arabs have used these excuses to attack the USA and European countries, and I believe that Arabs have lied. The truth is that Islam demands that all Muslims must fight and spread Islam to the world and conquer the world. If they conquer the world you and i who are not muslims got two alternatives: A) whether we become muslim and "embrace" the true religion. If we do not want to become muslim B) They will kill us. whether you want to believe me or not this is the truth. I am not just making up this. Here is my argument: Abdullah Assam, the Man Before Osama Bin Laden said: The Jihad in Afghanistan will broaden until the entire world will be conquered because Allah has promised the victory to Islam" declared Abdullah Azzam.(http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/239). Notice the sentence "until the entire world will be conquered". You want to believe or not it is a war between Muslims (Arabs) and the non-Muslim people. They will continue to attack us.

References

http://www.historic-battles.com/Articles/soviet_invasion_of_afghanistan.htm

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/082498attack-afghan.html

http://www.lossless-audio.com/usa/index0.php?page=1242812435.htm

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/A/Al/Al-Qaeda1.htm

http://www.slimer.org/d/a/al/al_qaida.html#History%20of%20al-Qaida

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/239