Editing Osama bin Laden (section)

=== Afghan–Soviet War ===
{{See also|Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden}}After leaving college in 1979, Bin Laden went to Pakistan, joined Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and used money and machinery from his own construction company to help the [[Mujahideen]] resistance in the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet—Afghan War]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/155236.stm |title=Who is Osama bin Laden? |work=BBC News |date=18 September 2001 |access-date=28 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224201012/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/155236.stm |archive-date=24 December 2008 }}</ref> He later told a journalist: "I felt outraged that an injustice had been committed against the people of Afghanistan."<ref>Interview with Robert Fisk, 22 March 1997, ''The Great War For Civilisation'', 2005, p. 7.</ref> From 1979 to 1992, the U.S. (as part of [[CIA activities in Afghanistan]], specifically [[Operation Cyclone]]), Saudi Arabia, and [[China]] provided between $6–12 billion worth of financial aid and weapons to tens of thousands of mujahideen through Pakistan's [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] (ISI).<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Steve Coll|last=Coll|first=Steve|title=[[Ghost Wars|Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to 10 September 2001]]|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|year=2004|isbn=978-1-59420-007-6|pages=144–145, 238}}</ref>

British journalist [[Jason Burke]] wrote: "[Bin Laden] did not receive any direct funding or training from the U.S. during the 1980s. Nor did his followers. The Afghan mujahideen, via Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, received large amounts of both. Some bled to the Arabs fighting the Soviets but nothing significant."<ref>{{cite web |last=Burke |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Burke |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/03/osama-bin-laden-10-myths-cia-arsenal |work=[[The Guardian]] |title=The 10 key myths about Osama bin Laden |date=11 May 2011 |access-date=10 October 2020 |archive-date=28 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228020631/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/03/osama-bin-laden-10-myths-cia-arsenal |url-status=live }}</ref> Bin Laden met and built relations with [[Hamid Gul]], who was a [[Three-star rank|three-star]] [[Lieutenant General (Pakistan)|general]] in the [[Pakistan Army|Pakistani Army]] and head of the ISI agency. Although the United States provided the money and weapons, the training of militant groups was entirely done by the [[Pakistan Armed Forces]] and the ISI.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hiro|first=Dilip |author-link=Dilip Hiro|date=28 January 1999 |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/cost-afghan-victory?page=0,1 |title=The Cost of an Afghan 'Victory' |magazine=[[The Nation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302090727/http://www.thenation.com/article/cost-afghan-victory?page=0%2C1 |archive-date=2 March 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, the person in charge of the ISI's Afghan operations at the time, it was a strict policy of Pakistan to prevent any American involvement in the distribution of funds or weapons or in the training of the mujahideen, and the CIA officials stayed in the embassy in [[Islamabad]], never entering Afghanistan or meeting with the Afghan resistance leaders themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bergen |first1=Peter L. |title=The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden: The Biography |date=2021 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=43 |isbn=9781982170530 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=anp5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |access-date=18 May 2023 |archive-date=18 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518155937/https://books.google.com/books?id=anp5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to some CIA officers, beginning in early 1980, Bin Laden acted as a liaison between the Saudi [[General Intelligence Presidency]] (GIP) and Afghan warlords; no evidence of contact between the CIA and Bin Laden exists in the CIA archives. [[Steve Coll]] states that although Bin Laden may not have been a formal, salaried GIP agent, "it seems clear that Bin Laden did have a substantial relationship with Saudi intelligence."<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Steve Coll|last=Coll|first=Steve|title=[[Ghost Wars|Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to 10 September 2001]]|publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|year=2004|isbn=978-1-59420-007-6|pages=72, 87–88}}</ref> Bin Laden's first trainer was [[US Special Forces|U.S. Special Forces]] commando [[Ali Mohamed (double agent)|Ali Mohamed]].<ref name="Cloonan">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline//////torture/interviews/cloonan.html Interview with FBI special agent Jack Cloonan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321123520/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/cloonan.html |date=21 March 2012}}, ''Frontline'', PBS, 18 October 2005.</ref>

By 1984, Bin Laden and Azzam established [[Maktab al-Khidamat]], which funneled money, arms, and fighters from around the Arab world into Afghanistan. Through al-Khadamat, Bin Laden's inherited family fortune<ref>{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=145 "Lawrence Wright estimates his share of the Saudi Binladin Group circa fall 1989 as amounted to 27&nbsp;million Saudi riyals – a little more than [US]$7&nbsp;million."}}</ref> paid for air tickets and accommodation, paid for paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihadi fighters. Bin Laden established camps inside [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] in Pakistan and trained volunteers from across the Muslim world to fight against the Soviet-backed regime, the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]]. Between 1986 and 1987, Bin Laden set up a base in eastern Afghanistan for several dozen of his own Arab soldiers.<ref name="Bergen49">{{Harvnb|Bergen|2006|pp=49–51}}</ref> From this base, Bin Laden participated in some combat activity against the Soviets, such as the [[Battle of Jaji]] in 1987.<ref name="Bergen49" /> Despite its little strategic significance, the battle was lionized in the mainstream Arab press.<ref name="Bergen49" /> It was during this time that he became idolized by many Arabs.<ref name="Fisk-p4">{{cite book |last=Fisk |first=Robert |title=[[The Great War for Civilisation]] |year=2005 |page=4 |author-link=Robert Fisk}}</ref>