14 February 2021: al_Ka’ida, al_Qaeda, al_Qaida, al_Qa'idah

al Qa’idah

August 1988 The first documented reference to al Qa'idah is in the notes of a meeting held in Peshwar, Pakistan where the leaders of the international mujahideen who’d just helped defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan were making their future plans. When discussing different training camps, recruit selection and duration of training the meeting notes say:

“Initial estimate, within six months of al-Qa'idah* al-Askariya**,
314 brothers will be trained and ready.”

 * al-Qa'idah is the standard transliteration from Arabic script of ‘the Base’
** al-Askariya translates as ‘the soldier’s place’ or ‘the barracks'

Most people accept that that original “al-Qa'idah al-Askariya”, “the soldier’s place by the base”, was the intended name of the group, later shortened to just “The Base”, “al-Qa'idah”, but going by a new transliteration of "al-Qaeda”. 

They are mistaken, hoodwinked by a CIA disinformation campaign dating back to when the Central Intelligence Agency co-opted al Qaeda in Yemen in 1993.

al-Qaidah is a town in Yemen; al-Askariya is a secluded valley one-mile from al-Qaidah town that was used as a training camp - “the soldier’s place by the base” was in reality the training camp next to al-Qaidah town



30 May 1993 The first public reference to ‘al Ka'ida’ was on  French wire service Agence France-Presse on this day entitled “Jordanian Militants Train in Afghanistan to Confront Regime” uses the term, although it is spelled “Al-Ka’ida.” The article quotes a Jordanian militant who says he has been “trained by Al-Ka’ida, a secret organization in Afghanistan that is financed by a wealthy Saudi businessman who owns a construction firm in Jeddah, Ossama ibn Laden.”

Truly, for some of us nothing is written, unless we write it 
© Anthony C Heaford - The Quiet Mancunian