america's devil's game with islam

8/9/2019 America's Devil's Game With Islam

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America's Devil's Game with Islam

A Timeline of US-Cold War Politics and the Rise of Militant Islamism

It is often difficult to trace the history of the United States' involvement

with—and responsibility for—the evolution of radical Islamism around the

world; many of the CIA's activities in support of Islamist groups were

often covert, and a great deal of misinformation exists. Robert Dreyfuss'

new book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash

Fundamentalist Islam, is an attempt at a comprehensive overview of this

story, recounting how the CIA, guided by the belief that radical Islamist

forces could act as a bulwark against communism, helped fuel the rise of

political Islam and militant fundamentalism in the Middle East and Central

Asia. Below is a timeline of major events in the U.S. government's 70-year

flirtation with and support for the militant forces that would, in the late1990s and on September 11, 2001, come back to haunt the United States.

Below : Mr. Abdullah Sulaiyman, Saudi Finance Minister, and Mr. Llyod N.

Hamilton, lawyer and negotiator for Socal, signing the historic oil

concession agreement on May 29, 1933 in Khuzam Palace, Jeddha. Photo

by Karl S. Twitchell. Source: Saudi Aramco

1933 – Saudi Arabia grants oil exploration rights to the United States, and

the two countries enter into a profit-sharing ownership of the Arabian-

American Oil Company, which discovers the first commercial oil well in

Saudi Arabia in 1938. Feb. 18, 1943 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares the defense of

Saudi Arabia of vital interest to the United States and makes the country

eligible for Lend-Lease assistance.

1945 – The United States and Saudi Arabia sign an agreement that

establishes an American military base in Dhahran, which houses American

troops until April of 2003. The Saudis also give the United States

permission to conduct a thorough survey of the Arabian Peninsula—which

recommended establishing an air base.

Feb. 14, 1945 – Roosevelt meets with King Abdel Aziz ibn Saud, the first

meeting of an American President with a Saudi monarch.

1951 – An accord between the two countries allows the United States to

establish a permanent military training mission in Saudi Arabia.

1951 – The CIA sets up Radio Liberty to broadcast anti-communist

programs around the world. In Central Asia, the station is used to incite

local groups, many of them Islamic, against the Soviet Union.

1952 – The Saudi-American oil company, Aramco, pays for the printing of

religious propaganda in Riyadh.

1952 – In Iran, the CIA offers money to Ayatollah Abol-Ghassem Kashani,

who had formerly opposed foreign influences in Iran, to encourage Kashani

to split from Mohammed Mossadeq's National Front. Kashani was the

mentor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the future leader of the Islamic

Revolution, who in the meantime would become a leader of the Devotees

of Islam, an Iranian terrorist group.

Aug. 19, 1953 – The CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6 direct a

coup against Iran's democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammed

Mossadeq and restore the pro-Western Shah to power. Mossadeq's

nationalization of Anglo-Persian Oil, along with his alliance with the

Soviets, had threatened Western interests in Iran.

ran’s deposed prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, at his trial

Operation TPAJAX was the CIA-sponsored overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq in Iran .

For some time, Iran had been considered by the U.S. as a British responsibility, if not an actual client

state. It was a British-backed coup that had made it possible for the Pahlavi dynasty to be founded in the

1920s; then, during World War II, the British and Soviets invaded the country and deposed the Shah,

putting his son on the throne. Iran 's oil industry was entirely in British hands and there was a large and

active U.K. embassy in the middle of Tehran . By contrast, although the United States also had a

presence in Iran , providing economic advice and military training, the scale of its activities was, at least

through 1952, considerably less than that of Britain . In particular, the U.S. had no oil investments in Iran.

Sept. 1953 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower dines at the White House

with Said Ramadan, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the popular

Islamist group which since the late 1940s has been notorious for its

extensive ties to fanatics, assassins, and terrorists in the Middle East.

Oct. 26, 1954– A member of a secret wing of the Muslim Brotherhood

attempts to assassinate Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of a 1952 military

coup against King Farouk. The group is officially banned in Egypt, forcing it

underground. June 23, 1956 - Nasser officially becomes President of Egypt. Nasser's left-

leaning ideology alarmed U.S. officials who worried that Egypt would be

lost to Soviet control.

Jan. 1957 - The "Eisenhower Doctrine" is laid out in a speech to Congress.

President Eisenhower declared that the United States would provide

military and financial assistance in the Middle East to protect against

Communist aggression in the region. Under the doctrine, Saudi Arabia

became the primary beneficiary of American aid.

June, 1967 – The Six-Day War is fought between Israel and its Arab

neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Israel's victory leads most Arab

nations to close their American embassies, leaving Saudi Arabia as the

Arab world's primary liaison with the United States.

1970s – Alongside the traditional Islamic fundamentalist movement, a

more radical strain of Islam begins to develop in the Middle East, including:

the Islamic Community in Egypt, and later the Egyptian Islamic Jihad led

by Ayman al-Zawahiri; militant Shiite fundamentalism in Iran; and

Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.

Oct. 1970 – In Egypt, Nasser dies and is succeeded by Anwar Sadat, who

promises that sharia will be implemented as the law of the land. Political

Islam begins to emerge in Egypt, and an Islamic banking system is

created, both of which would become essential in assisting militant, radical

Islamic movements.

May 1971 – Sadat consolidates his power, purging government of

Nasserites and freeing Muslim Brotherhood prisoners.

1972 – The CIA founds the Asia Foundation to fund leaders of the Afghan

Islamist movement at Kabul University. Beneficiaries include Rabbani

Sayyaf and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, two Afghans who would cultivate ties

with Osama bin Laden. The two run a secret group that infiltrates the

Afghan armed forces and will later lead jihad forces against the Soviet

Union in the 1980s.

1972 - A secret military cell is created within the Organization of Muslim

Youth, a student group in Afghanistan. The organization requests covert

aid from the CIA for its anti-communist activities, including the killing of

four "leftists." Although the entreaty is denied, the CIA offers its sympathy

to the OMY.

Jul. 17, 1973 – Afghanistan's Soviet-friendly prime minister, Sardar Daoud,

overthrows the Afghan royalty, establishes a democratic republic, and

becomes President. The United States quickly begins funding Afghan

dissidents and supporting the radical Islamic Party against Daoud.

Oct. 1973 – Israel fights and eventually wins the Yom Kippur War against

Egypt, Syria after a surprise attack by the latter two nations. In response

to U.S. support for Israel, OPEC reduces oil production. Oil prices will

eventually quadruple, enriching the Saudi Arabian government, which uses

the profits to foster Wahhabism in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sept. 1973 - The CIA partners with Iranian and Pakistani intelligence—the

latter of which is loosely associated with fundamentalist Islamic Afghan

groups—to run raids in Afghanistan and stage a failed coup against

President Sardar Daoud. The effort is repeated in December of 1973 and

June 1974.

1974 – In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood issues an official statement

ordering members to support the economic reforms carried out by

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, in partnership with the International

Monetary Fund. Throughout the 1970s, at the behest of the United States,

the IMF will require countries in the region to adopt a variety of pro-

market reforms as a condition of receiving loans—reforms which will often

help destabilize Middle Eastern politics and society.

1975 - A State Department analysis identifies members of the Muslim

Brotherhood as leaders of an insurgency against Afghan President Sardar

Daoud. After the rebellion failed, Brotherhood leaders, including Gulbuddin

Hekmatyar and Sayyaf, flee to Pakistan and find support from ISI, the

Pakistani Intelligence Service.

Richard J. Kerr, the Deputy Director of CIA at that time, meeting with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Islamabad in 1988.

1975-76 - Under pressure from the United States, Pakistan, and Iran,

Daoud begins purging and assassinating leftists and communists from the

Afghan government.

1976 – The Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE) is established to fund

activities of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the 1970s, the Islamic banking

system, funded by Saudi Arabia and often aided by western banks and

governments, will spread throughout Egypt, becoming the financial

backbone for militant Islamist groups. In 2001, US Department of Treasury

will designate several of these Muslim banks "terrorist financiers."

Nov. 19, 1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem and

begins negotiations with Israel that lead to the Camp David agreement

between the two countries. Egypt also breaks its ties with the USSR,

quickly becoming one of the United States' foremost allies by 1980.

1978 – Israel backs the Islamic Association, a militant group led by Ahmed

Yassin—later the spiritual leader of Hamas—as a bulwark against the

Palestinian Liberation Organization. The United States turns a blind eye as

Israel provides military training to terrorist groups.

1978-79 - The United States becomes fully aware that it was backing the

Muslim Brotherhood by supporting various anti-communist organizations

in Afghanistan. This knowledge was recorded by many State Department

and embassy memos, including one from CENTO that directly warned that

the Muslim Brotherhood was a rebellious threat to new regimes.

Late-1978 – Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski presses his "arc of

crisis" thesis, which argues that the United States can reassert its power in

the Middle East by encouraging political Islam as a counter to Soviet and

Arab nationalist movements.

Jan.-Feb. 1979 – Islamists, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, overthrow

the Shah and install a theocratic dictatorship in Iran. The Iranian

Revolution is seen as a threat to American interests, not least by depriving

the United States of one of its staunchest allies in the Middle East, but also

threatened the Soviet Union by disrupting the economic alliance between

the two countries and provoking irredentist forces near the Soviet border.

Jul. 3, 1979 - President Carter issues the first secret directive that formally

authorizes the CIA give direct aid to the Afghan muhjadeen, opponents of

the pro-Soviet Afghan regime. The Soviet invasion invades Afghanistan in

December.

Nov. 1979 – Ayatollah Khomeini coordinates the forced seizure of the

American Embassy in Tehran, precipitating the Iranian hostage crisis.

Jan. 23, 1980 – The Carter Doctrine states that the United States will use

military force in the Persian Gulf to protect its interests if necessary,

although at this time it is mostly an empty threat, since the US lacks

sufficient forces in the region.

Jan. 1980 – Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski visits Egypt to gather

Arab support for the Afghan war. Within weeks Egyptian President Anwar

Sadat mobilizes arms and recruits fighters from the Muslim Brotherhood,

and allows the US to station its air force base in Egypt. U.S. Special Forces

train Islamist militants in bomb making, sabotage, arson and guerilla

warfare. Many of the Islamist Arab recruits, including Osama bin Laden,

who were trained as fighters by Green Berets and Navy Seals for the

Afghan War, would go on to form the backbone of Al-Qaeda.

Mar. 1980 – As a deterrent to the Soviet threat, Carter establishes RDF, a

military force for rapid deployment into the Persian Gulf in a crisis. Regan

later expands RDF into Centcom, the first peacetime joint headquarters for

military combat operations, which later serves as the American base of

operations in the 1990 Persian Gulf War, the 2001 war in Afghanistan, and

the 2003 Iraq war.

Oct. 6, 1981 - Egyptian President Sadat is assassinated by radical Muslim

fundamentalists who view the Camp David peace accord with Israel as a

betrayal of Islam.

1984 – Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Assam—who was central to US

recruit efforts for the Afghan War—together establish the Services Bureau

(MAK), a nascent incarnation of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan that coordinated

Islamist jihad-fighters to foreign wars. As American goals evolve from

draining Soviet resources to winning the Afghan war, CIA funding to

Afghan militants increases rapidly, which is matched, dollar for dollar, by

funds from Saudi Arabia.

1987 – Hamas is founded, growing out of radical elements of the Egyptian

Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. intelligence reports show that the Israeli secret

service is giving covert support to Hamas—as a counterpoint to Palestinian

nationalism—but the US turns a blind eye.

1989 – The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) is established in Algeria as a new

political party, out of elements of the American-supported Islamist

movement in the 1980s. FIS includes many Muslim Brotherhood members

and Afghan fighters, among them Abdallad Anas, who joined the proto-Al

Qaeda organization, MAK.

1992 – In Algeria, FIS wins the parliamentary elections in a landslide but is

prevented from taking power by the ruling FLN party, which uses the

military to arrest FIS leaders, precipitating a FIS terrorist campaign. This

culminates in the Algerian civil war (which lasts until 1999), and provokes

the United States to review of its policy towards political Islam.

Feb. 26, 1993 - Following the bombing of the New York World Trade

Center, Omar Abdul Rahman, a co-founder of the Faisal Islamic Bank of

Egypt who helped the CIA recruit militants for the anti-communist crusade

in the Afghanistan war, was convicted in 1995 involvement in conspiracy.

1994-1998 – The US maintains a cooperative relationship with the Taliban,

who are increasingly dependent on Osama bin Laden’s financial support.

1996 – The Taliban provides refuge to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan,

after he is exiled from Sudan.

1997 and 1999 – Members of the Taliban vacation in Nebraska, where they

visit Thomas Gouttierre, a CIA-funded propagandist who produces

children’s textbooks stocked with Islamic fundamentalist and jihadist

rhetoric for supposed State Department educational programs in

Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Aug. 7, 1998 – Islamic terrorist groups bomb the Kenyan and Tanzanian US

embassies.

Oct. 12, 2000 – Islamic terrorist groups attacks the USS Cole off the coast

of Yemen.

Sept. 11, 2001 – Al-Qaeda terrorists attack the World Trade Center and the

Pentagon with suicide bombers.

Le Nouvel Observateur's Interview with Zbigniew

Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National

Security Adviser

Published 15-21 January 1998,

Translated by Jean Martineau

Le Nouvel Observateur: Former CIA director Robert Gates

states in his memoirs: The American secret services began

six months before the Soviet intervention to support the

Mujahideen [in Afghanistan]. At that time you were president

Carters security advisor; thus you played a key role in this

affair. Do you confirm this statement?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version,the CIA's support for the Mujahideen began in 1980, i.e. after

the Soviet army's invasion of Afghanistan on 24 December

1979. But the reality, which was kept secret until today, is

completely different: Actually it was on 3 July 1979 that

president Carter signed the first directive for the secret

support of the opposition against the pro-Soviet regime in

Kabul. And on the same day I wrote a note, in which Iexplained to the president that this support would in my

opinion lead to a military intervention by the Soviets.

Le Nouvel Observateur: Despite this risk you were a

supporter of this covert action? But perhaps you expected

the Soviets to enter this war and tried to provoke it?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: It's not exactly like that. We didn't push

the Russians to intervene but we knowingly increased the

probability that they would do it.Le Nouvel Observateur: When the Soviets justified their

intervention with the statement that they were fighting

against a secret US interference in Afghanistan, nobody

believed them. Nevertheless there was a core of truth to

this...Do you regret nothing today?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Regret what? This secret operation was

an excellent idea. It lured the Russians into the Afghan trap,

and you would like me to regret that? On the day when the

Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote president

Carter, in essence: "We now have the opportunity to provide

the USSR with their Viet Nam war." Indeed for ten years

Moscow had to conduct a war that was intolerable for the

regime, a conflict which involved the demoralization and

finally the breakup of the Soviet Empire.

Le Nouvel Observateur: And also, don't you regret havinghelped future terrorists, having given them weapons and

advice?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: What is most important for world

history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? Some

Islamic hotheads or the liberation of Central Europe and the

end of the cold war?

Le Nouvel Observateur: "Some hotheads?" But it has beensaid time and time again: today Islamic fundamentalism

represents a world-wide threat...

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Rubbish! It's said that the West has a

global policy regarding Islam. That's hogwash: there is no

global Islam. Let's look at Islam in a rational and not a

demagogic or emotional way. It is the first world religion with

1.5 billion adherents. But what is there in common between

fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, moderate Morocco, militaristicPakistan, pro-Western Egypt and secularized Central Asia?

Nothing more than that which connects the Christian

countries..

america's devil's game with islam

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