Much of the stuff that I've read about Al Queda leads me to believe that Al Queda never would have come into being without the CIA to build it up in the first place. They did that in order to destabilize the Russian presence in Afghanistan and the Caspian region. Their intention was to use extreme Muslim fundamentalism to break up and exhaust the Soviet empire, and they eventually succeeded in that aim.

"Al-Queda" literally means "The Database". The reason for that is probably linked to an enormous database that the CIA kept of all the names and identities of all the Muslim fighters they had recruited and trained and assisted in the 70's and 80's to do damage to the Russians.

So the USA basically inspired and trained both the forerunners of the Taliban and Al Queda through the efforts of the CIA.

As for the Northern Alliance, they were just a bunch of vicious warlords who were fighting for turf with the Taliban and I suspect that they are just as nasty a bunch of people as the Taliban...but for the USA the "enemy of my enemy is my friend"...and the same went for the Northern Alliance.

I think that Al Queda, as it was originally marketed to the American public, is for the most part a mythical entity...in this sense: it is not nearly as united, large, powerful, and well organized a group as it has been presented to be. The worldwide Al Queda network that the media has been blathering about in order to scare people and create a justification for an endless war is probably a myth for the most part...but it's a very powerful myth that is also believed by Muslims. Therefore you now have a vast number of disaffected and angry young Muslim men who would like to join "Al Queda" because the world media has convinced them that there IS such an Al Queda to join.

It becomes a case of life imitating "art" (propaganda in this case). ;-) Then too, you have a few quite serious characters who were in it from the start, and it is in their interests also that the world should imagine that Al Queda is this huge, powerful organization with cells all over the place...because that helps them recruit more foolish young jihadists from the Muslim population worldwide.

Now all of that is absolutely great if you want an endless war. By all accounts, Bin Laden wants such a war. So does the USA military industrial complex. Therefore I would say that they are both in it together, and they share the blame for it. They are enemies who need each other and whose existence is mutually convenient for each other in various ways...although they also detest one another and try to kill each other whenever possible.

The world would be far better off if both of them just went away to some other planet and let the rest of us alone here to build a peaceful community of nations. But they won't. Things are never that easy.