I read about this a few years ago, but don't think its ever gotten mentioned here.

Legal 'Creation' of Al-Qaeda

In January 2001 a trial began in New York of four men accused of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa . The U.S also wanted to prosecute Osama bin Laden in his absence under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). To be able to do this under American law, the prosecutors needed evidence of a criminal organisation, which would then allow them to prosecute the leader, even if he could not be linked directly to the crime.

Jamal al-Fadl was taken on as a key prosecution witness, who along with a number of other sources claimed that Osama bin Laden was the leader of a large international terrorist organisation which was called "al-Qaeda"

However, there is no evidence that bin Laden used the term "al-Qaeda" to refer to the name of this 'group' until after the September 11 attacks when he realised that was the term the Americans had given it. Instead of a connected organisation with bin Laden at the head, there was in fact a loose association of Islamist militants who planned their own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance.

Jamal al-Fadl was on the run from bin Laden, having stolen money from him. In return for his testimony, the United States gave him witness protection in America and hundereds of thousands of dollars. Many lawyers at the trial believed al-Fadl exaggerated and lied to give the Americans a picture of a terrorist organisation they needed to prosecute bin Laden.

The September 11 attacks were the brainchild of Islamist militant Khalid Sheik Mohammed who had come to bin Laden for funding and help in finding volunteers, but he did not take orders from him.

The name "al-Qaeda" was first coined by the U.S. federal government based on the name of a computer file of bin Laden's that listed the names of contacts he had made in Afghanistan, which talks about the organisation as the al-Qaeda-al-Jihad ("the base of the jihad"). In neither Osama bin Laden's declaration of war, or the fatwa he issued in 1998, does he mention an organisation called "al-Qaeda."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_al-Fadl

In December 2000, Richard Clarke wrote a document about Al-Qaeda and it's leader bin Laden.

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/clarke%20attachment.pdf



Here is a breif history of Al-Qaeda:

http://www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=74