Flashback: Al Qaida means "the database"

[Nikki Stone1]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/08/july7.development

...Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably, and with disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden's organisation would turn its attention to the west...

[Nikki Stone1]

1. kick (just in case)

:kick:

[ixion]

2. hmmm... interesting...

I had never actually heard what Al-Qaida translated to. Thanks for posting!

[Nikki Stone1]

5. This goes back to 2005

The author of the article was a British government official.

[mogster]

8. Robin Cook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Cook

One must see the comment in the light of the date of publishing, July 8, 2005. This was one day after the terror attacks on London, and Cook was in the know on AQ related matters, having been in the UK govt. for years until he resigned in protest before the Iraqi invasion in 2003.
One month later, on August 6, he died of a heart attack while out on a walk. Makes you wonder.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4127676.stm

[Nikki Stone1]

9. +1

:kick:

[BuyingThyme]

18. What's more interesting is that we've always been taught to beleive it translated to "the base."

This would explain a few things, if accurate.

[Nikki Stone1]

24. A later poster on this thread pointed out that Robin Cook died a month after he wrote this

in the Guardian. He was a British official, an insider, who left the government in 2003 in protest of the Iraq war.

[AllentownJake]

3. Most of our enemies in the world

are people we put in power or trained.

[Vincardog]

4. Do you want to mention that most of the weapons used against us in Afghanistan are ours? We sent

them to be used against the invaders.

[Nikki Stone1]

6. Sure.

Blowback is a bitch.

[AntiFascist]

7. K&R, people should really see the film "Charlie Wilson's War"...

Perhaps even the Religious Right (certain Evangelists) were instrumental in raising funds for the covert operation to arm the mujahadeen, but after the Soviets pulled out and Afghanistan then needed funding for schools and other projects, these so-called Christians were nowhere to be found.

[Nikki Stone1]

10. You might want to put a synopsis here

Thanks

[AntiFascist]

12. Here's a good review...

http://catharticreviews.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!48920781E1560168!492.entry

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), from Lufkin Texas, was the Congressman from the Second Congressional District of Texas from 1973 until 1997, and also was a member of the Defense Appropriations Committee. He was a reputed womanizer and drug user. If one was to believe Charlie Wilson’s War, with the assistance of Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), the honorary consul to Pakistan and Morocco and also the sixth wealthiest woman in Texas, and Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a CIA agent who specialized in Middle East operations, Charlie Wilson almost single-handedly was responsible for covertly supplying the Mujahideen with the arms necessary to defeat the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan. Joanne, a hard drinking sophisticate and born again Christian, apparently was motivated to assist Charlie by her hatred of Communism.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. Thanks!

..

[Democracyinkind]

16. Just don't think that seeing the film will give you an adequate narrative of the whole story.

[Nikki Stone1]

25. Gotcha

Thanks

[Politicalboi]

11. I don't remember where I heard it

I heard Al Qaida meant "toilet". I believe it's just another "monster in the closet" we are told about, but doesn't really exist.

[Eric J in MN]

13. I've seen it translated as "The Base" not "the database" anywhere else. NT

NT

[Nikki Stone1]

15. This was Robin Cook, a British official (see below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Cook

Robert Finlayson Cook (28 February 1946 – 6 August 2005) was a politician in the British Labour Party. He was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2001.
He resigned from his post as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council on 17 March 2003 in protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the time of his death he was president of the Foreign Policy Centre and a vice-president of the America All Party Parliamentary Group and the Global Security and Non-Proliferation All Party Parliamentary Group.

[Democracyinkind]

17. But it means only "the base". "Database" would have another word added. (Nafeez Ahmed Mossadeqh)

And yes, it refers to a databse or at least a databook.

There are several stories about it. America first came into contact with the term (documented, officialy that is) in 92' when they stopped Ramzi Yousef's bogey-man travelling partner while letting Ramzi slip.

[Nikki Stone1]

20. "And yes, it refers to a databse or at least a databook." You are correct.

:)

[Cruzan]

27. Or maybe Facebook, or Myspace

I think it depends on how you translate social networking websites from the Koran.

[Nikki Stone1]

28. Thanks for your humor.

:)

[Democracyinkind]

19. Plus. It didn't really stop after the Soviets left. We used him or at least his resources

for the Balkans and we tacitly approved the rise of the Taliban to which the same infrastructure was (peripherally) connected.

[Nikki Stone1]

21. I'd love the proof on that

Thanks!

[Democracyinkind]

22. Enroll yourself in a history course on the Balkan wars. Or read the NIOD report on Srebrenica.

[Nikki Stone1]

23. NIOD?

Thanks

[Democracyinkind]

26. Make NIOD your starting point. Feel free to mail me if you want an extended reading list ...

... nice to see someone interested ! Have a good day!

[Nikki Stone1]

29. Thank you. I didn't answer any questions and I clicked off it as soon as I saw the survey

I might just do that.