Apparently the same story with Bin Laden you know, I had a lecturer on third world development at university, he was a refugee too as his government or corporations had repeatedly tried to shoot him for meeting with trade union organizers, and he used to say about how that part of the world had tried repeatedly to trade bin laden to the CIA before 9/11 but the CIA didnt want him. He said there was no conspiracy, they just didnt think he was a threat, they just were more suspicious of the state actors saying "take this guy, he is a trouble maker" than they were of bin laden himself. This is likely to be the same story.
Plus, these days, I just think that there are a lot of people who want a sectarian death spiral of political islam versus far right ethno-nationalism, maybe it simplifies things for them, I definitely could see how politicians would want it, makes their job much easier if all they need to do is make the right sort of noises and they benefit from the echo chambers, dog whistles and the like come what may and regardless of how they actually perform in public office. Its now things have been in NI for the whole of my life and there sure are people who would love to see the return of that particular "business as usual", arguably westminister has tried really hard to engineer, or take advantage, of similar sentiments in england, brexit was a result.
The irony, I find, is that while ostensibly opposing each other, the two adversaries within this kind of pairing share more in common with one another than the average member of gen pop. Some of them know that, play on it, are pretty cynical and could care less, others dont.
apnews.com
amp.cnn.com
