green men and green belts

for someone who had to study the cold war for the hsc, i sure find this interesting:

" In Turkish public opinion and the Turkish media, the Green Belt project is known as a U.S. Cold War-era policy designed to contain the USSR with the surrounding Islamic states. This policy is believed to have been in effect from the 1950s through the 1980s, when the U.S. supported Islamic governments and nurtured anti-Communist Islamist sentiment in Muslim countries such as Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Later, some Arab countries, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, became part of this "belt." "
(http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=80&contentid=2680&page=2)

but anyways, what drew me to the article is that some turkish intelligentsia dude reckons that al-qaeda is in fact a cia operation to foster international ill-will towards islam and muslims, no matter whether they are terrorists or not. the fact that i found the link on the 'conspiracy planet' site suggests a few things, but you gotta admit, its a pretty cool explanation. sure beats anything else the media and hence the international govs are giving out.

mels