Operation Cyclone
Afghanistan
 | |
| Date | 1979 - 1992? |
|---|---|
| Location | Afghanistan |
| Description | The first time the CIA officially met Osama Bin Laden, they deemed him part of the hero movement to protect the world against Soviet influence. In Operation Cyclone, the CIA funded him and allowed entire cities to become death traps with the narrative of giving Soviets their own Vietnam. |
| Participants | US, CIA |
Operation Cyclone was a covert program carried out by the United States during the Cold War, specifically during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The primary objective of Operation Cyclone was to provide cover support, including financial and military assistance, to Afghan mujahideen rebels who were fighting against the Soviet Union's invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.
Operation Cyclone dramatically increased the amount of opium grown in Afghanistan from around 100 tonnes/year to 2000 tonnes.[1]
Official Narrative
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, officially with the idea of aiming to prop up a communist government in Kabul. This invasion was met with resistance from Afghan rebel groups known as mujahideen, who opposed the Soviet occupation. The United States and other Western countries saw this as an opportunity to confront the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they decided to support the Afghan resistance. The United States, in coordination with other Western countries, including the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, initiated Operation Cyclone to provide covert assistance to the Afghan mujahideen.[2]
The program was managed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and used a variety of channels to deliver aid to the Afghan rebels. The support provided to the Afghan mujahideen under Operation Cyclone included funding, weapons, ammunition, training, and other forms of assistance. The CIA worked with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI agency to facilitate the delivery of these resources to the Afghan rebels, who were based in refugee camps along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.[3][4]
Legacy
The Afghan mujahideen, with the support of Operation Cyclone, played a significant role in resisting the Soviet occupation. Over time, the Soviet Union faced increasing challenges in Afghanistan, and it eventually withdrew its forces in 1989. However, the prolonged conflict in Afghanistan had long-term consequences, including the destabilisation of the country and the emergence of various mujahideen factions, some of which later contributed to the Afghan Civil War and the rise of the Taliban.[5]
Divide and Conquer
President Jimmy Carter initiated a program to arm the mujahideen through Pakistan's ISI and secured a pledge from Saudi Arabia to match U.S. funding for this purpose. U.S. support for the mujahideen accelerated under Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, at a final cost to U.S. taxpayers of some $3 billion. The decision to route U.S. aid through Pakistan led to massive fraud, as weapons sent to Karachi were frequently sold on the local market rather than delivered to the Afghan rebels; Karachi soon "became one of the most violent cities in the world." Pakistan also controlled which rebels received assistance: Of the seven mujahideen groups supported by Zia's government, four espoused Islamic fundamentalist beliefs—and these fundamentalists received most of the funding.[6] Dozens of tonnes of opium were suddenly produced during the wars, even in areas were the CIA trained "rebels".[7]
Gladio B Set-up
Several CIA officers trained Osama Bin Laden his divisions and financed them. Milton Bearden, the CIA's Islamabad station chief from mid-1986 until mid-1989, took an admiring view of bin Laden at the time. Some of the CIA's greatest Afghan beneficiaries were Arabist commanders such as Haqqani and Hekmatyar who were key allies of bin Laden over many years.[8]
This party contributed to the political power Bin Laden was allowed, and made his image surge to enemy image and leader of "radical Islam." This is alleged to be the plan of a NATO-US plan known as Gladio B, where, according to Sibel Edmonds senior US intelligence agents were regularly meeting Ayman al-Zawahiri (then leader of Al Qaeda) at the U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan and Baku, starting in 1997 and continuing right up to the 9/11 attacks. They were also meeting members of the bin Laden family (including Osama Bin Laden) and other mujahideen who were transported by NATO aircraft to Central Asia and the Balkans to participate in false flag "destabilization operations". Other people were also flown, on US Intelligence orders, to Turkey, a major base of the operations where agents were trained and prepared to participate in these operations. Edmonds specifically reported that some of the 9/11 hijackers were being trained there.[9] This fits with Michael Springmann's testimony that his visa denials to the majority of the 19 hijackers were regularly overruled by the US State Department.[10]
References
- ↑ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/politics-profit-poppies-how-cia-turned-afghanistan-failed-narco-state
- ↑ https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297a/Afghanistan,%20the%20United%20States.htm
- ↑ https://www.brookings.edu/books/what-we-won/
- ↑ http://www.millat.com/democracy/Foreign%20Policy/Briefing_Paper_english_11.pdf
- ↑ https://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interview
- ↑ https://www.brookings.edu/events/what-we-won-americas-secret-war-in-afghanistan-1979-1989/
- ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768089
- ↑ http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB389/
- ↑ http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/01/07/a-real-9-11-cover-up/
- ↑ https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Operation_Cyclone#Allegations_of_CIA_assistance_to_bin_Laden