Shorter U.S. government
on how Osama bin Laden got his start in armed action with the forces
it was backing against the erstwhile Communist Afghan government:
- Hey, we never gave him any money. Not directly. Every cent that we gave anyone on the ground there was funneled through the Pakistani government. And we also brokered a deal with the Saudi government to get them to match every dollar we weren't giving the anti-government forces, so that makes us even less responsible for anything that was done with the cash. We were diverting that money through cutouts to get plausible deniability --- so when we deny any moral responsibility for the consequences now, you're supposed to find that plausible. That's how the world works, and you shouldn't let anyone tell you different.
And for heaven's sake, don't read this...
Incidentally, lest one get too partisan about these affairs, it's worth noting that the Saudi deal was brokered by the Carter administration, whose reputation for pious scruples was more than a little exaggerated...
