Quote Originally Posted by Gold9472
Well, it's completely obvious that Osama Bin Laden had PLENTY of CIA ties during the Afghanistan/Russia War. He would recruit soldiers FOR the CIA, through the Pakistani ISI, and they kept a tally of them through the database literally known as "Al-Qaeda".
Of course! You didn't think I knew that? (I'm insulted) What I meant was that there was, and is no proof that bin Laden is a CIA asset as of right now. I mean, after the Russian war he went back home and over a period of time became very critical of the U.S. At which point he waged a jihad against America. And like we've discussed before, maybe he kept in contact with a small faction in the CIA and collabortated for 9/11 not knowing the Bush team was involved. Just a theory of mine, makes sense if you think about it.

And regarding the fact that bin Laden "recruit soldiers FOR the CIA, through the Pakistani ISI". I don't think that's factually true. The way the story goes is that bin Laden went with his mentor Abdullah Azzam to Afghanistan and they formed al-Qaeda to keep track of the fighters coming in from around the world. (bin Laden was orginally only a finacier and supporter before joining the war himself). The role the CIA and ISI was supplying weapons and harbor and so forth. That's the only known/proven tie that would directly connect bin Laden with the CIA. As far as the French newspaper which reported that bin Laden meet with CIA guys in 2001, I don't think there's any solid proof to support that.