The U.S. government maintains that they supported only the indigenous mujahedeen, and that bin Laden's participation in the conflict was unrelated to CIA programs. Al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri says much the same thing in his book Knights Under the Prophet's Banner.[43] The U.S. was actively recruiting internationally for Muslim radicals. Sheik Abul Rahman, one of the conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was allowed to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets.
