Not to mention the terrorists that planned 9/11 were, decades earlier, "freedom fighters" to the State Department as they were denying control of Afghanistan to the Soviet Union.
Funny how quickly the prevailing winds can change.
AQ has been and continues receiving DoD contracts in Afghanistan[1]:
“I am deeply troubled that the U.S. military can pursue, attack, and even kill terrorists and their supporters, but that some in the U.S. government believe we cannot prevent these same people from receiving a government contract,”
I don't even know if you can call this blowback any more, because it sounds like some people in power are playing a big game of red team vs blue team and take everyone else along for the ride… which goes along with "So, by the definition of a terrorist as being someone who controls a population through fear, or in fact the fear of fear... you can see where I'm going."
Funny how quickly the prevailing winds can change.