The Soviet Roots of Islamic Terrorism

Americans have been conditioned to fear Islamic terrorism, but most Americans have been told little about how much of the international terror web was created by the former Soviet Union. The roots of Soviet sponsorship of international Islamic terrorist organizations go all the way back to the beginning. And the beginning of “Islamic” terrorism can be laid at the feet of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Former Romanian intelligence officer Ion Pacepa claimed outright that in 1964:

The PLO was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for “liberation” organizations. There was the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created by the KGB in 1964 with help from Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Then there was the National Liberation Army of Colombia, created by the KGB in 1965 with help from Fidel Castro, which was soon deeply involved in kidnappings, hijackings, bombings and guerrilla warfare. In later years the KGB also created the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which carried out numerous bombing attacks on the “Palestinian territories” occupied by Israel, and the “Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia,” created by the KGB in 1975, which organized numerous bombing attacks against US airline offices in Western Europe.

…The PLO/Fatah movement remains true to its communist roots today, with Moscow-trained Mahmoud Abbas serving as chairman of the PLO. Abbas studied for a doctorate from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, finishing in 1982. KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov explained back in 1984 that Patrice Lumumba University was “under the direct control of the KGB and [the] Central Committee, where future leaders of the so-called ‘National Liberation Movements’ are being educated and selected carefully…. They were dispatched back to their countries to be leaders of the so-called ‘National Liberation Movements,’ or, to be translated into normal human language, leaders of international terrorist groups.” Abbas then defended his thesis at the Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was then headed by former KGB General Yevgeny Primakov.

…Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had been a student communist in the 1970s, a member of the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and jailed for two years for his role in killing a member of a Maoist factional split in the party. Hekmatyar was pardoned by Daoud Khan after Daoud staged a 1973 coup d’état while his cousin King Zahir was in Italy receiving medical treatment. Daoud proclaimed himself “president” of a republic, but the coup had been backed by the Soviet-sponsored PDPA. Hekmatyar’s loyalty to the PDPA got the young communist out of prison, but he soon professed a conversion to Islam and, after joining up with radical Muslim youth organizations, fled to exile in Pakistan.

…From the Taliban’s Afghanistan, Osama had state sponsorship for worldwide terrorist financing. But some of his associates had other state support. His second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, trained in Russia in 1996, according to Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, who said “Ayman al-Zawahiri trained at a Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) base in Dagestan in 1998.” “He was then transferred to Afghanistan,” the defector said, “where he became Osama bin Laden’s deputy.” Litvinenko was killed in November 2006 after being poisoned in London with radioactive polonium 210, presumably by the Russian FSB (the KGB successor).

… Although Hamas’ ties to Moscow are not as transparent as those of the PLO, they are considerable nonetheless, for a supposedly fundamentalist Islamic organization. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, as well as other top Hamas leaders, lives in the terror-sponsoring state of Syria, which has long been one of the most important surrogates in the global (Soviet) Russian terror war. Meshaal and his lieutenants have made repeated visits to Moscow, where they are regularly accorded high honors by Putin and the Kremlin hierarchy. Russian Internet providers host Hamas’ Internet sites, and Putin’s intelligence operatives have helped make Hamas websites effective recruiting and propaganda outlets. Hamas’ role should be viewed as a current adaptation of the earlier example we cited of Abu Nidal. It serves as a more militant variant of Fatah, which makes the PLO/Fatah look moderate, while at the same time also appealing to religious Muslims who would avoid a secular party like Fatah.

via The Soviet Roots of Terrorism.