ISIS/Boko Haram Created by CIA/Mossad Claims

The Claim

A set of interrelated claims holds that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and/or Boko Haram were deliberately created, trained, funded, or directed by the CIA, Mossad, or both. Proponents cite the documented history of U.S. intelligence working with Islamist fighters during the Soviet-Afghan War, point to foreign policy failures and proxy dynamics in Syria and Iraq, and argue that western intelligence agencies benefit geopolitically from Middle Eastern instability.

Historical Background: What Is Documented

The United States government did provide covert support to Afghan mujahideen fighters from the late 1970s onward during the Soviet-Afghan War under Operation Cyclone — one of the most expensive CIA covert programs in history. This support involved channeling funds and arms through Pakistani intelligence (ISI) to a range of Afghan factions, some of which were deeply Islamist in orientation. This is not disputed; it has been confirmed by congressional testimony, declassified documents, and detailed in multiple histories.

Some figures who later became prominent in jihadist movements — including figures associated with al-Qaeda — had links to networks that intersected with U.S.-supported Afghan resistance. This historical overlap between CIA-era anti-Soviet programs and later jihadist networks is real, documented, and legitimately debated by historians.

However, the specific operational claim — that the CIA or Mossad created ISIS or Boko Haram as instruments of foreign policy — has no documentary or forensic basis.

ISIS: What the Record Actually Shows

ISIS traces its origins to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), founded by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who traveled to Afghanistan before 9/11 and established a network that entered Iraq in 2003 following the U.S. invasion. AQI evolved through successive phases: it was decimated during the 2007-2008 U.S. surge and subsequent Sunni Awakening, reconstituted during the chaos of the Syrian civil war beginning in 2011, and declared itself the Islamic State in June 2014 under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The conditions enabling ISIS's rise are well-documented: the disbanding of the Iraqi military under Paul Bremer's de-Baathification orders in 2003 (which put 400,000 armed men out of work), sectarian violence and Sunni marginalization under the Nouri al-Maliki government in Baghdad, and the power vacuum opened by the Syrian civil war. These are structural and policy failures — not evidence of deliberate creation.

ISIS openly fought U.S. forces, killed U.S. citizens and journalists, attacked U.S. allies, and drew the United States into a costly counter-campaign that resulted in approximately 5,000 coalition airstrikes. No rational account of CIA or Mossad interests explains voluntarily creating an organization that then required massive resources to destroy.

Boko Haram: What the Record Shows

Boko Haram was founded in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria around 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf, a Nigerian cleric drawing on local Salafist traditions and grievances over poverty, corruption, and government neglect of the north. Its name is a Hausa phrase roughly translated as "Western education is forbidden." Yusuf was killed in Nigerian custody in 2009 following a security crackdown. The group radicalized further under successor Abubakar Shekau.

No credible evidence links Boko Haram's founding or operations to CIA or Mossad involvement. The group's structure, financing, and ideology have been extensively documented by researchers at institutions including the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Brookings Institution, and Nigerian academics. Its roots are in local religious and economic grievances, not foreign intelligence operations.

Why the Claim Spreads

The claim is appealing because it bundles genuine historical facts — Operation Cyclone, documented blowback, U.S. foreign policy failures in Iraq — with an unfounded operational conclusion. The inferential leap from "the U.S. created conditions that enabled extremism" (partially true, contested in degree) to "the CIA created ISIS" (unsubstantiated) is large. The claim is also difficult to falsify by its proponents: absence of documentary evidence is interpreted as proof of successful concealment.

Israeli intelligence services are invoked without any specific mechanism or document — the claim functions as a way of bundling grievances about Middle Eastern policy with general distrust of both the U.S. and Israel.

The Verdict

Unsubstantiated. The documented history of CIA support for Afghan mujahideen during the Cold War is real and legitimate to study. The claim that this history extends to the operational creation of ISIS or Boko Haram has no documentary basis, contradicts the organizational histories of both groups, and is contradicted by the substantial military and financial resources the U.S. subsequently expended fighting both organizations.