Did President Bush (the first one) and President Reagan really send weapons to Al Qaeda?

Question

Did this really happen, or is it a lie? And if they did send weapons to Al Qaeda, why? Was it a good idea or not?

Answer 1

i am from south asia and this all happened in south asia.
when USSR attacked Afghanistan, USA was there to help the prople aganist USSR, (USA was not interested to help the freedom fighters but the motive was the cold war. USA provided funds and weapons to freedom fighters through Pakistan. (the freedom fighters were mujahiddens at those days now called the taliban or al-qaeda etc) who made tora bora caves, USA made the caves of tora bora where freedom fighters used to hide,
u thinks just for a while but with open mind "How freedom fighters who had just AK-47 rifles can defeat the super power USSR", it was USA who funded al-qaeda and other freedom fighters for its own objectives.
at one stage of the war when freedom fighters were badly defeated bu USSR using helicopters in hills USA provided stinger missiles to hit helicopters and thus USSR was wondered how these men who had just AK 47can hit.
(for linkage between Bush and Usama please watch documentary "foreinheigt 9/11)

Answer 2

the u.s. supported afghanistan in the early 80s with weapons and intelligence after the former soviet union invaded and tried to annex the territory. reagan was president and bush the first was vice president (and former head of the cia).
the support was given to stop the spread of communism. it turned out to be a pretty bad move because all those weapons stayed in the country and now are being used in the afghanistan and iraq insurrections. kalashnikovs are excellent weapons with an amazingly long life span.
osama bin laden was one of the leaders of the afghani fighters. and he was given direct support by the u.s. military.

just a note: the iran-iraq war and the iran contra affair have NOTHING to do with al qaeda.

Answer 3

In the past the US supported really any organizations that fought Soviets, communist states or other big enemies. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in the past when Al Qaeda wasn't openly declaring war on the US. We once trained Iranian scientists in nuclear technology so they can use less oil and sell their oil to us. I think Sadaam was once also aided by the US as well in chemical/biological warfare. So I think people knew/assumed he had good capability without strong intelligence since we supplied him with materials for chem/bio weapons in the past.

Answer 4

They sent weapons to freedom fighters in Afghanistan. One of those freedom fighters was Osama Bin Ladin. It was a good idea at the time because they were fighting the Soviet Union. It however did not work out great because the US was supplying the country they would eventually have to fight a war against. The same thing happened in Iraq. Saddam was fighting the Iranians and the US supplied him as well.

Answer 5

The USA actually made Al Qaeda.Regan gave Binladen a lot of arms in the eighties to fight against the Russians occupying Afghanistan.Back then they were called freedom fighters!At about the same time the USA was giving arms to Saddam Hussain to fight Iran ( Rumsfield himself was involved and met Saddam Hussain for that purpose) .Back then he was America's darling !

Answer 6

Yes they sent weapons and they also sent instructors to special camps in Pakistan to show Al Qaeda how to use them properly.

Answer 7

i in my opinion do no longer understand the obsession in this us of a over Reagan. some human beings think of he's the terrific and a few think of he's the worst. To me he became basically an common president who became an above common communicator. i think of Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and the 1st Bush have been worse presidents than Reagan. yet to each and each his very own.

Answer 8

They did it by proxy. At the time the United States was changeing the reigime in Iraqi with one that was more supportive of the United States. They did this by funding the rebals and giving them weapons to use.

Answer 9

No, they were sent to the Mujahideen, which later developed into al-Qaeda. The Mujahideen were our allies against the Soviets.

Answer 10

During the cold war the US did some dumb things. The blinders were narrowly focused. Many people today look at what they US did without look thru those same blinders.