Because most of the secular regimes in the Middle East, the largest being Egypt under Gamal Nasser, were mildly socialist and there fore aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, these two groups started looking for a charismatic Muslim leader who could stir up religious Muslim against the secular rulers in the Middle East as well as foment rebellion in the Muslim Central Asian Republics of the Soviet Union.

When they could not find a single figure to accomplish this, they looked towards the Muslim Brotherhood, expecially after they used religious extremists in Iran to overthrow the democratically elected head of Iran, Mossedegh, they decided to back the Muslim Brotherhood, which originated in Egypt but had branches in every one of the secular states of the Middle East, and the links between the fanatical Muslim Brotherhood started in 1956, with Eisenhower meeting the head of the Egyptian Branch at the White House.

By 1972, the CIA had forged links in Afghanistan by founding the Asia League which funded leaders of the Islamist movement at Kabul University,including Rabbani Sayyaf and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, two Afghans who would cultivate ties with Osama bin Laden. By 1973 the CIA partners with Iranian and Pakistani intelligence to run raids against the secular and Pro Soviet Afghani President Sardar Daoud. This fails and is repeated in 1974 and 75.

In 1975 the CIA identifies members of the Muslim Brotherhood raising an insurgency against Daoud in Afghanistan, it fails and its leaders flee to Pakistan where they find support from the ISI, the Pakistani Security service, notoriously pro Islamic fundamentalist, which is already allied with the CIA.

The Blind Sheik, Omar Abdul Rahman, was a co founder of the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, which was a front for money being tranfered to support the pro Islamic, anti secular/socialist government of Egypt and which also found recruits for the CIA’s anti communist insurgency in Afghanistan.

This goes right up until about 1999, when members of the Taliban go to Nebraska, where a CIA funded progagandist who produces childrens books for the international market produces textbooks for the Taliban stocked with Islamic propaganda and jihadist rhetoric for the State Departments educational programs in Afghanistan. This while Bin Laden is in Afghanistan, which is increasingly dependent on Bin Laden for economic support. While Bin Laden is assisting Afghanistan economically, the U.S. is also cooperating with the Taliban to resist various secular/socialist parties which are rising in popularity in Afghanistan.

From the mid 1950’s until just before 9/11 the United States was backing and funding Islamic extremists to block the rise of various nationalist secular groups that wanted to come to power in the Islamic world, and nationalize their resources as well as their pipelines from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean or Arabian Gulf areas.

For about 50 years, the Islamic Fundamentalists were basically cultivated by the United States as opposition groups to any secular government that tried to control its own national resources and assets rather than allow American businesses to suck large amounts of profit out of their nations.

Its not unusual that religious fundamentalists in the United States behave in this Taliban like sort of way. There is a long history of many American conservatives backing up religious fanatics in other countries in the belief that they would be able to control them

France’s Oft-Derided Largess Insulates Many From Slump

MENTON, France — In recent years, Jean Beaufranqui and his wife have spent most of their time in Menton, enjoying the sunshine and gentle Mediterranean breezes that have made this little town into a retirement haven, France’s version of Miami Beach.

And now, even as the world reels from its most painful economic crisis since the 1930s, Beaufranqui’s thoughts have turned not to budget cuts but to buying an apartment here and settling in full time. As a retiree — he stopped working almost 19 years ago, at the standard age of 60 — the former metallurgist has sailed smoothly through the economic storm as the French government regularly deposited his monthly pension payments.

“Not really,” he responded when asked whether the financial crisis had affected his standard of living, a question that seemed to interest him less than the petanque bowling tournament he was watching from a park bench beside the beach.

For Beaufranqui and millions of other French people dependent on tax-financed largess, this country’s cozy social protections, vast numbers of bureaucrats and unhesitating government intervention have proved to be a shelter from want. Denounced for decades as a millstone preventing growth and competitiveness, particularly by free-market advocates in the United States, the French government’s dominant role in economic activity has suddenly found new favor at home and grudging respect abroad.

The crisis has landed hard in France, just as it has elsewhere. European Union specialists estimated last week that the number of unemployed is likely to rise to more than 3 million by next year as factories close. But the French economy is expected to shrink by just 3 percent, markedly less than in Britain or Italy, largely because of the country’s traditionally high level of government spending, they added.

More significant in human terms, broad sectors of the population — bureaucrats, retirees, teachers and the millions of others whose livelihood depends directly or indirectly on public outlays — find themselves surrounded by a government cushion. The effects are easy to see: As the crisis grew and began to obsess French officialdom in Paris, for instance, Alpine ski resorts reported full bookings for the winter and spring seasons…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052402042.html?hpid=moreheadlines

This is repeated almost worldwide. The nations that have traditionally had very high levels of government spending, more towards the social spending end than the defense end are seeing far less of an effect from the current economic downturn

Fact is that any small business owner who says Obama has done nothing to help them is basically either lying, or too ignorant to notice that their taxes have gone down.

The price of oil will remain suppressed as long as the economy is contracting and will start to slowly rise as the economy starts exiting a recession. Because demand for oil rises as more of it is used.