I thought "al" was a "definite article" the way "the" is in English.
So I thought al Qaida was "the base".

I'm not sure it even rises to the level of irony. But I gather, during the Soviet / Afghan War, since the U.S. were helping the insurgents, and bin Laden was among the insurgents, that bin Laden was to some substantial degree a U.S. ally.
This pattern is repeated again and again.
Noriega; at one point a "CIA asset". I gather he's still doing time.

"when the bigots of this world have been privileged for as long as they have, to them equality feels like discrimination." shiftless2