Nothing seems to rally bipartisan support in the United States like the threat of al-Qaeda. Fear of the terrorist group has become so ingrained in the psyche of the American public that any mention of it prompts support for even the wildest of policies.

For more than a decade this threat has justified almost every military action, negation of civil liberties and recently, the killing of American citizens with drones.

Al-Qaeda is currently making headlines as France, with U.S. aid, continues its military intervention in Mali. France and the United States say the goal is to prevent Mali from becoming a “safe haven” for al-Qaeda.

The situation is reminiscent of Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda maintained a safe haven until the United States intervened.

That safe haven was made possible by our own CIA, whose organizing, training and funding helped to create al-Qaeda in order to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

This fact has been reinforced by countless credible officials in the U.S. intelligence community. Even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confirmed it on multiple occasions. Yet it is still seen as a myth by many wishful thinkers, mainly because it was officially denied by both al-Qaeda and the U.S. government.

Our government is not being truthful about its current connection to al-Qaeda, either.

Under the Bush administration, the decision was made to support Sunni Muslim extremists such as al-Qaeda in order to undermine the Shiite government of Iran. In his 2007 article titled “The Redirection,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh said intelligence officials decided to take part in such clandestine operations toward Iran and ally Syria.

While al-Qaeda and its associates have killed more Americans and civilians worldwide, the government decided regime change in Iran was a higher priority.

Hersh quoted Flynt Leverett, a former Bush administration National Security Council official, who said, “The idea is that at some point, the Iranians will respond and then the Administration will have an open door to strike at them.”

As a part of this strategy, the United States maintained ties with al-Qaeda and also the Muslim Brotherhood, which shares al-Qaeda’s hatred for the West and was the basis of their ideology. A 2007 article in The New York Times showed how we used this link to help spark the continuing uprising in Syria.

The Muslim Brotherhood members who we coordinated with in Syria in 2007 are the ones we continue to support there today. Recently, the government also began outfitting Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood regime with our own fighter jets and tanks.

In Libya, NATO’s 2011 intervention was said to be for “humanitarian” concerns. In reality, our efforts were aiding the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, long recognized as a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, in the overthrow of that government.

U.S. prior knowledge of these “freedom fighters’” true identity is evident in a 2007 report by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center, which showed the fighters we aided in Libya were the same al-Qaeda fighters killing American troops in Iraq for years.

Nonetheless, the Obama administration recognized members of the LIFG as the legitimate government of Libya, which is known to have funneled weapons to its “affiliates” in Syria, and likely elsewhere.

A 2012 article in The New York Times shows President Barack Obama secretly allowed Qatar, a known sponsor of terrorism, to arm rebels in both Syria and Libya.

And so we continue to help Islamic extremists achieve legitimate diplomatic stature with the arsenals of entire nations at their disposal. At the same time, we increase our presence in other nations to go after these same groups as they hide in caves.

And you lose your rights so you can be safe from the threat.

Nick Smith is a junior broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can been reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Nick_X_Smith.

Published on February 13, 2013 at 1:30 am