"for the very first time in history..."? Seriously?
Someone's full of it. It may not be common knowledge, but it's hardly unknown that the United States basically created  al-Qa'ida as organized, armed resistance to the Russian occupation of Afghanstan in the 1980s. The very name derives from arabic, meaning "the base," for the database of resistance fighters the CIA recruited, armed, financed and supported in Syria, er, I mean in Afghanistan.

Obviously they mean for the very first time in the memory of the average brain-dead American - meaning the author of the article.