The relationship between the Cold War and the War on Terror has been batted around quite a bit in the blogosphere. Some believe that the War on Terror is the result of, the fallout of, or was at least aggravated by the Cold War. Evidence (true and false) for this includes the claim that Osama bin Laden was trained and financed by the United States, assertions of the relationship (usually including pictures) between Saddam Hussein and various American leaders, military aid to Israel and Egypt, the overthrow of the Mossadegh regime in Iran in the 1950’s which was apparently fomented by the United States, and so on.
Others believe that the War on Terror is a re-emergence of a struggle that has been going on much, much longer pointing to the invasion and occupation of North Africa by Muslims in the years following the death of Mohammed, the Battle of Tours, the Crusades, the fall of Constantinople, the ejection of the Moors from Spain in 1492, the siege of Vienna by the Ottoman in the 17th century, etc. and that the end of the Cold War allowed old embers to be re-kindled.
Much of the evidence for the prior view points the finger at the United States. Here’s a little evidence that that the other guy may have had something to do with it, too. From the Russian online journal Mosnews:
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), formerly known as the KGB, gave terrorist training to Ayman-al-Zawahiri, the second most wanted member of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, Asian News International reported Sunday.
The Pakistani newspaper The Dawn quoted a report in the Polish newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” that before deciding to join Osama, Zawahiri received terrorist training in 1998 at an FSB camp in Dagestan.
Thereafter, he shifted his base to Afghanistan to become Osama bin Laden’s deputy, the paper quoted a former FSB agent as saying.
The agent also claimed that Zawahiri was not the only link between the FSB and al-Qaeda.
Hat tip: Free Thoughts via David MacDuff.
