>Mostly the camps seem to have been training cannon fodder for Al-Quaeda's
>various wars, but those wars are important to Al-Queda. It wasn't just an
>armed force, but also a trainer for the shock troops of the Islamic jihads
>(Kashmir, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia in the future?).
>
>> Besides, I don't believe Afghan training camps were useful for the
>> 9.11 hijacking. The hijackers learned to fly planes in Florida, not
>> in Afghanistan.
>
>But they all went to the camps in Afghanistan, which if nothing else were
>useful for creating a common sense of purpose, camardery etc. There does
>seem to have been some training in terrorist techniques, though how
>effective they would have been... I think those camps were also a powerful
>propoghanda tool, judging by those ridiculous videos that they produced. GI
>Joe for good little muslim boys.
I'm sure they trained and built camaraderie on actual battlegrounds, in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, etc. (Cf. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A9947-2002Jul15¬Found=true>). -- Yoshie
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