>Your facts and mine are apparently different. The Afghan detainees I refered to are Taliban.

>1. The Taliban was first formed in 1994
>2. Russia left in 1989
>3. The United States has not supported the Taliban.

>One reference:

>http://www.afghan-info.com/TALIBAN.HTM

Thanks for that summary URL - encapsulated things nicely (and certainly with less waffle than my posts....)

There's a bit of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" here. While the Taleban and Al-Qaeda are not joined in name, I doubt that many would deny the informal (at least) connections between the two.

It would be my supposition that Al-Qaeda helped train and supply Taleban as the Taleban showed themselves to be a proficient fighting force. In return, Al-Qaeda have had a safe base of operations.

Against the USSR, the US helped the "freedom fighters" of Afghanistan, many of whom later became the "terrorists" (seeds?) of Al-Qaeda along with Mr bin Laden. When the USSR left Afghanistan, a vacuum was left, and the US were not then that interested in helping to fill it - after all, their main job as they saw it was done in keeping the country out of Soviet hands. It is my suspicion that as history is written, nobody will shed a tear for the pre-Taleban Afghan government and that this is partially why the Taleban, with ostensibly a purer, more virtuous and anti-corruption message were able to initially gather so much support.

So, enough waffle John - did the US help the Taleban? Yes - in two ways: firstly they trained and armed people who would become allies of the Taleban and secondly they helped create a power vacuum that would ultimately result in the formation of the Taleban as a populist movement and their transition into a military and governmental presence.