The US covertly funded and armed Afghan mujahideen through Operation Cyclone to resist the Soviet invasion, often working via Pakistan’s ISI.

During the Cold War, the US covertly funded and armed Afghan mujahideen through Operation Cyclone to resist the Soviet invasion, often working via Pakistan’s ISI. While some fighters later joined groups hostile to the US, historians emphasize this as unintended blowback, not a deliberate strategy to create terrorism. Hillary Clinton has acknowledged the consequences of these policies but never claimed the US intentionally created terrorist organizations.