Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,810
They cannot even get their dates correct when cooking up nonsense like this..
"...Daniel Boyd is accused of being the ringleader of the supposed conspiracy. “In the period from 1989-1992,” the indictment states, Boyd “traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.” It adds that, “Following the training, Boyd fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union.”
There are a number of incongruent elements in these claims that deserve careful examination. First, Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in February of 1989, before Boyd, then 19, had even arrived in Pakistan.
The US government and the Central Intelligence Agency had poured billions of dollars worth of arms and aid into backing the Afghan mujahedeen—or holy warriors—against the Soviet Union over the previous nine years. Their jihad had been sponsored from the outset by Washington, with the aim of luring the Soviet military into an unwinnable war in Afghanistan.
The so-called “terrorist training camps” were funded and advised by the CIA in partnership with the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency. During this period, President Ronald Reagan hailed those in the “terrorist” camps as “freedom fighters.” Among those receiving support was Osama bin Laden.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the CIA continued to promote a civil war against the government in Kabul, backing—among others—the Hezb-e-Islami movement of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid.
It was during this period that Boyd—who had converted to Islam as a teenager—arrived in Peshwar, Pakistan, then a center of Afghan refugees and of the mujahedeen, apparently to work for a Muslim relief organization with connections to Hezb-e-Islami.
His role during this period was widely reported in the US press when, in 1991, he and his brother Daniel, who had also come to Afghanistan, were arrested on charges of robbing a bank in Peshwar and sentenced under Sharia law to having their right hands and left feet amputated.
Steve Coll, then a reporter for the Washington Post in Pakistan—and subsequently the author of “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001”—interviewed both Daniel Boyd, then in a jail cell, and his wife. While his article described their life in Pakistan in some detail, there was no reference to Daniel Boyd having trained and fought as a mujahedeen, something which at that point in Pakistan would have raised his stature and presumably helped his defense against the criminal charges.
In the end, the charges were dropped and Boyd was allowed to return to the US. As the Associated Press reported this week, “A former CIA official stationed in Pakistan at the time said the agency intervened and quickly persuaded the Pakistani intelligence service to help free the Boyd brothers. The former official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the incident.”
So, whatever Boyd was doing in Pakistan in 1989-1991—the first and foundational point in the terror indictment—it was apparently with the blessings of the US government, given the CIA intervention on his behalf.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/ncji-j31.shtml
Comrade Stalin of Gori
"...Daniel Boyd is accused of being the ringleader of the supposed conspiracy. “In the period from 1989-1992,” the indictment states, Boyd “traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.” It adds that, “Following the training, Boyd fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union.”
There are a number of incongruent elements in these claims that deserve careful examination. First, Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in February of 1989, before Boyd, then 19, had even arrived in Pakistan.
The US government and the Central Intelligence Agency had poured billions of dollars worth of arms and aid into backing the Afghan mujahedeen—or holy warriors—against the Soviet Union over the previous nine years. Their jihad had been sponsored from the outset by Washington, with the aim of luring the Soviet military into an unwinnable war in Afghanistan.
The so-called “terrorist training camps” were funded and advised by the CIA in partnership with the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency. During this period, President Ronald Reagan hailed those in the “terrorist” camps as “freedom fighters.” Among those receiving support was Osama bin Laden.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the CIA continued to promote a civil war against the government in Kabul, backing—among others—the Hezb-e-Islami movement of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid.
It was during this period that Boyd—who had converted to Islam as a teenager—arrived in Peshwar, Pakistan, then a center of Afghan refugees and of the mujahedeen, apparently to work for a Muslim relief organization with connections to Hezb-e-Islami.
His role during this period was widely reported in the US press when, in 1991, he and his brother Daniel, who had also come to Afghanistan, were arrested on charges of robbing a bank in Peshwar and sentenced under Sharia law to having their right hands and left feet amputated.
Steve Coll, then a reporter for the Washington Post in Pakistan—and subsequently the author of “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001”—interviewed both Daniel Boyd, then in a jail cell, and his wife. While his article described their life in Pakistan in some detail, there was no reference to Daniel Boyd having trained and fought as a mujahedeen, something which at that point in Pakistan would have raised his stature and presumably helped his defense against the criminal charges.
In the end, the charges were dropped and Boyd was allowed to return to the US. As the Associated Press reported this week, “A former CIA official stationed in Pakistan at the time said the agency intervened and quickly persuaded the Pakistani intelligence service to help free the Boyd brothers. The former official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the incident.”
So, whatever Boyd was doing in Pakistan in 1989-1991—the first and foundational point in the terror indictment—it was apparently with the blessings of the US government, given the CIA intervention on his behalf.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/ncji-j31.shtml
Comrade Stalin of Gori
