During the 1980’s the CIA funded Jihad in Afghanistan in order to protect the country from Soviet occupation. One of the major ways the CIA helped was the financing of a giant tunnel complex 35 miles west of Jalalabad.
Here is an excerpt from a New York Times article in 2006:
The first time bin Laden had seen the Tora Bora caves, he had been a young mujahedeen fighter and a recent university graduate with a degree in civil engineering. It had been some 20 years before, during Washington’s first Afghan war, the decade-long, C.I.A.-financed jihad of the 1980’s against the Soviet occupation. Rising to more than 13,000 feet, 35 miles southwest of the provincial capital of Jalalabad, Tora Bora was a fortress of snow-capped peaks, steep valleys and fortified caves. Its miles of tunnels, bunkers and base camps, dug deeply into the steep rock walls, had been part of a C.I.A.-financed complex built for the mujahedeen. Bin Laden had flown in dozens of bulldozers and other pieces of heavy equipment from his father’s construction empire, the Saudi Binladin Group, one of the most prosperous construction companies in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Persian Gulf. According to one frequently told story, bin Laden would drive one of the bulldozers himself across the precipitous mountain peaks, constructing defensive tunnels and storage depots.
Here is a picture I retrieved from Wiki Leaks official twitter account that highlights the important parts of the article:
So in recap, the tunnel system destroyed by the MOAB has ties to the CIA. They funded the building of it to help the mujahedeen fight off Russian occupation in the 1980’s.
