Supported by US-NATO: Thousands of Al Qaeda terrorists arrive in Syria

“The attacks by terrorists against civilian targets”…
Just like in Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Guatemala, Honduras, Yemen, and on and on.
The goal is to create terror. This isn’t a war that fights against military targets. This is about destroying nations and bombing people back to the stone age. Who does that? Who has the resources on such a massive scale to accomplish that so that resources can be stripped?
Cui bono?
Stand down, soldiers of Western nations. If you believe in freedom and democracy, stand down. And citizens of Western nations, particularly America, stand up.
Global Research, May 04, 2016
FARS News Agency 2 May 2016

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi informed on Tuesday that thousands of terrorists have crossed the border into his country in the last few days.

Around 6,000 terrorists have crossed the border and entered Syrian territories in recent days,” the Arabic-language media outlets quoted al-Zoubi as saying on Tuesday.

Late in April, Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi also warned that more than 5,000 fresh militants crossed the border into the Northwestern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib from Turkey, stressing that the ceasefire agreement was being violated by certain parties.

“In the end we see that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, as well as Western countries such as Great Britain and France have no real desire to move the process of the political settlement in Syria forward,” al-Halqi said.

The Syrian prime minister stressed that it’s “just the opposite, they are aiding in the escalation of terrorist activity and arming terrorists. Over the last week, more than 5,000 troops crossed the border with Turkey into the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib.”

As terrorist groups continue to target residential areas in Aleppo city, al-Zoubi stressed that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are responsible for the bloody acts of Takfiri militants against innocent civilians.

Turkish and Saudi commanders have issued the order for targeting Syrian civilians and army troops in Aleppo,” the Syrian information minister said.

Al-Zoubi also criticized the international bodies and countries for keeping mum about the crimes of the Takfiri terrorists in Aleppo, calling it as “suspicious and questionable”.

Violence in Syria, and particularly in Aleppo, has intensified in recent days, despite a partial truce.

Almost a dozen civilians were killed and several more wounded in the terrorist groups’ rocket attack on a hospital inside Aleppo earlier today.

“The terrorist groups’ shelling of the hospital of al-Deet in the Central part of Aleppo city has ended in a large number of civilian casualties,” local residents said on Tuesday.

“The number of civilian casualties is on the rise,” they further added.

Meanwhile, The Takfiri terrorist groups’ rocket units, once again, targeted two neighborhoods and a hospital in Aleppo, inflicting heavy casualties on the civilians, patients and hospital staff.

At least 11 civilians were killed and many more were wounded in over 65 cases of terrorists’ rocket attacks on residential areas along the streets of al-Neel, al-Sabeel, Mocambo and al-Razi hospital,” the sources said, adding, “The terrorist groups also detonated a tunnel-bomb near Air Force Intel before launching attacks on the army-controlled Jam’iyat al-Zahra area.”

The attacks by terrorists against civilian targets come as Syrian Army forces and their allies are surging in Aleppo to begin a massive operation against the Takfiri militants that are mostly from the Al-Nusra Front – the Al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria – and a number of other allied terrorist groups, including several units of the Free Syria Army (FSA) that has been branded by the US and the West as “moderates”.

U.S. delivers 3,000 tons of weapons and ammo to Al-Qaeda and Co. in Syria

By Moon of Alabama
Global Research, April 08, 2016
Moon of Alabama

The United States via its Central Intelligence Service is still delivering thousands of tons of additional weapons to al-Qaeda and others in Syria.

The British military information service Jane’s found the transport solicitation for the shipment on the U.S. government website FedBizOps.govJanes writes:

The FBO has released two solicitations in recent months looking for shipping companies to transport explosive material from Eastern Europe to the Jordanian port of Aqaba on behalf of the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command. Released on 3 November 2015, the first solicitation sought a contractor to ship 81 containers of cargo that included explosive material from Constanta in Bulgaria to Aqaba. … The cargo listed in the document included AK-47 rifles, PKM general-purpose machine guns, DShK heavy machine guns, RPG-7 rocket launchers, and 9K111M Faktoria anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) systems. The Faktoria is an improved version of the 9K111 Fagot ATGW, the primary difference being that its missile has a tandem warhead for defeating explosive reactive armour (ERA) fitted to some tanks.

Screenshot of Jane’s Report

The Jane’s author tweeted the full article (copy here).

One ship with nearly one thousand tons of weapons and ammo left Constanta in Romania on December 5. The weapons are from Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. It sailed to Agalar in Turkey which has a military pier and then to Aqaba in Jordan. Another ship with more than two-thousand tons of weapons and ammo left in late March, followed the same route and was last recorded on its way to Aqaba on April 4.

We already knew that the “rebels” in Syria received plenty of weapons during the official ceasefire. We also know that these “rebels” regularly deliver half of their weapon hauls from Turkey and Jordan to al-Qaeda in Syria (aka Jabhat al-Nusra):

Hard-core Islamists in the Nusra Front have long outgunned the more secular, nationalist, Western-supported rebels. According to FSA officers, Nusra routinely harvests up to half the weapons supplied by the Friends of Syria, a collection of countries opposed to Assad, ..

U.S. and Turkey supported “rebels” took part in the recent attack on Tal al-Eis against Syrian government forces which was launched with three suicide bombs by al-Qaeda in Syria. This was an indisputable breaking of the ceasefire agreement between Russia and the U.S. It is very likely that some of the weapons and ammunition the U.S. delivered in December were used in this attack.

Millions of rifle, machine-gun and mortar shots, thousands of new light and heavy weapons and hundreds of new anti-tank missiles were delivered by the U.S.. Neither Turkey nor Jordan use such weapons of Soviet providence. These weapons are going to Syria where, as has been reported for years by several independent sources, half of them go directly to al-Qaeda.

From historic experience we can be sure that the consequence of this weaponizing of takfiris will be not only be the death of “brown people” in the Middle East, but also attacks on “western” people and interests.

Skyscrapers falling in New York and hundreds of random people getting killed in Paris, Brussels, London and (likely soon) Berlin seem not be enough to deter the politicians and “experts” that actively support this criminal war on Syria and its people.

The original source of this article is Moon of Alabama

Copyright © Moon of Alabama, Moon of Alabama, 2016

http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-delivers-3000-tons-of-weapons-and-ammo-to-al-qaeda-and-co-in-syria/5519413

Israeli IDF Colonel leading ISIS terrorists is captured in Iraq

Global Research, October 22, 2015
Fars News Agency 22 October 2015
The security and popular forces have held captive an Israeli colonel,” a commander of Iraq’s popular mobilization forces said on Thursday.“The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group’s terrorist operations,” he added.

Noting that he was arrested along with a number of ISIL terrorists, the commander said, “The Israeli colonel’s name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade of the Zionist regime’s army with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434.”

He said that the relevant bodies are now interrogating the Israeli colonel to understand the reasons behind his fighting alongside the ISIL forces and the presence of other Zionist officers among ISIL terrorists.

The Iraqi security forces said the captured colonel has already made shocking confessions.

Several ISIL militants arrested in the last one year had already confessed that Israeli agents from Mossad and other Israeli espionage and intelligence bodies were present in the first wave of ISIL attacks on Iraq and capture of Mosul in Summer 2014, but no ranking Israeli agent had been arrested.

Political and military experts told FNA that the capture of the Israeli colonel will leave a grave impact on Iraq’s war strategy, including partnership with Israeli allies.

In a relevant development in July, Iraqi volunteer forces announced that they had shot down a drone that was spying on the Arab country’s security forces in the city of Fallujah, Western Iraq.

Iraq’s popular forces reported that they had brought down a hostile surveillance aircraft over the Southeastern Fallujah in Anbar Province.

They said that the wreckage of the ISIL’s spy drone carried ‘Israel-Made’ labels.

This was not the first Israeli-made drone downed in Iraq.

In August an Israeli Hermes drone was shot down in the vicinity of Baghdad Airport.

U.S. and coalition warplanes strike and kill Iraqi Popular Forces near Baghdad; U.S. delivers military aid to ISIS terrorists

From Farsi News, March 4, 2015
EXCLUSIVE: US Warplanes Strike Iraqi Popular Forces’ Position near Baghdad

The US-led coalition warplanes hit an arms production workshop of the popular forces near the Iraqi capital, destroying the workshop and its ammunition completely.

Two members of Iraq’s popular forces were killed in the attack.

The US has repeatedly struck the popular forces’ positions in different parts of Iraq.

On March 29, the US fighter jets struck the positions of Iraq’s popular forces during their fierce clashes with ISIL terrorists near Tikrit, injuring a number of fighters.

The US and coalition forces conducted eight airstrikes near Tikrit, but they hit the popular forces’ positions instead of ISIL.

In February, an Iraqi provincial official lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that the US airplanes still continue to airdrop weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL terrorists.

“The US planes have dropped weapons for the ISIL terrorists in the areas under ISIL control and even in those areas that have been recently liberated from the ISIL control to encourage the terrorists to return to those places,” Coordinator of Iraqi popular forces Jafar al-Jaberi told FNA.

He noted that eyewitnesses in Al-Havijeh of Kirkuk province had witnessed the US airplanes dropping several suspicious parcels for ISIL terrorists in the province.

“Two coalition planes were also seen above the town of Al-Khas in Diyala and they carried the Takfiri terrorists to the region that has recently been liberated from the ISIL control,” Al-Jaberi said.

Meantime, Head of Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee Hakem al-Zameli also disclosed that the anti-ISIL coalition’s planes have dropped weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL in Salahuddin, Al-Anbar and Diyala provinces.

In January, al-Zameli underlined that  the coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq.

“There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid to ISIL terrorists through air (dropped cargoes),” he told FNA at the time.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940214001224

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-and-coalition-warplanes-strike-iraqi-popular-forces-us-delivers-military-aid-to-isis-terrorists/5447303

WSJ report: Israel treating Al-Nusra terrorists wounded in Syrian conflict

From Farsi News Agency, March 14, 2014

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israel has opened its borders with Syria in order to provide medical treatment to al-Nusra terrorists wounded in the ongoing war, a new report said.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported that al-Nusra Front, which is currently fighting the Syrian government, “hasn’t bothered Israel since seizing the border area last summer” along the Golan Heights.

“Those (Takfiri) elements who control some two-thirds to 90% of the border on the Golan aren’t attacking Israel. This gives you some basis to think that they understand who their real enemy is – maybe it isn’t Israel,” Amos Yadlin the former military intelligence chief said.

Back in January, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Israeli military is obviously supporting terrorist groups in Syria by conducting airstrikes in the crisis-hit country.

“Whenever we make advances in some place, they (the Israelis) attack in order to undermine the army. It’s very clear,” Assad stated.

“Some in Syria joke: “How can you say that al-Qaeda doesn’t have an air force? They have the Israeli air force,” he added.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13931223001274

Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2015

Al Qaeda a Lesser Evil? Syria War Pulls U.S., Israel Apart;
Mountaintop on edge of Golan Heights illustrates complexities

[Requires a subscription]

http://www.wsj.com/ articles/ al-qaeda-a-lesser-evil-syria-war-pulls-u-s-israel-apart-1426169708

From Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2015

Israel has opened its borders with Syria in order to provide medical treatment to Nusra Front and al-Qaida fighters wounded in the ongoing civil war, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The prominent American newspaper reported that Nusra Front, the Sunni Muslim al-Qaida offshoot which is currently fighting the Iranian-backed axis of Bashar Assad and Hezbollah, “hasn’t bothered Israel since seizing the border area last summer” along the Golan Heights.

While Israel views al-Qaida and its allies as enemies, it is far more disturbed by what it views as an even bigger menace – Iran and its proxies. According to The Wall Street Journal, this attitude has caused tension with the United States, which has also targeted al-Qaida and Nusra Front fighters in Syria.

Amos Yadlin, the former military intelligence chief who is currently in the running to be defense minister should the Zionist Union, led by Isaac Herzog, succeed in defeating incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the elections next week, told the Journal that Hezbollah and Iran “are the major threat to Israel, much more than the radical Sunni Islamists, who are also an enemy.”

“Those Sunni elements who control some two-thirds to 90% of the border on the Golan aren’t attacking Israel. This gives you some basis to think that they understand who is their real enemy – maybe it isn’t Israel,” Yadlin is quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying.

The fact that the Israel-Syria border area along the Golan Heights has remained largely quiet has sparked accusations among supporters of embattled President Bashar Assad that the Sunni Islamist alliance, which includes al-Qaida, is backed by Israel.

“Some in Syria joke: ‘How can you say that al-Qaida doesn’t have an air force? They have the Israeli air force’,” Assad told Foreign Affairs magazine earlier this year. “They are supporting the rebels in Syria. It is very clear.”

Israel has denied actively aiding al-Qaida, though it makes no secret of its determination to thwart Hezbollah’s attempts to establish a foothold near the Golan frontier from whence it could harass the North.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has stated repeatedly his contention that Iran is seeking to open a new front against Israel from the Syrian Golan Heights.

Earlier this year, an air strike attributed by international media reports to Israel struck and killed 12 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah operatives in Quneitra, Syria, near the Israeli border.

In retaliation, Hezbollah guerillas launched a missile attack near the Har Dov region straddling the Lebanon-Israel border weeks later, killing two Israeli soldiers.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, which has claimed the lives of upwards of 200,000 people, Israel has provided medical assistance to nearly 2,000 Syrians.

The Wall Street Journal quoted “an Israeli military official” who said that most of those treated were armed rebels fighting the regime.

“We don’t ask who they are, we don’t do any screening,” the official said. “Once the treatment is done, we take them back to the border and they go on their way.”

Report: Israel treating al-Qaida fighters wounded in Syria civil war
http://www.jpost.com/ Middle-East/ Report-Israel-treating-al-Qaida-fighters-wounded-in-Syria-civil-war-3 93862

 

Senior MP: Washington’s role in ISIL creation proven by capture of US military advisors; Israelis also captured

Last year, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Mossad of training ISIL terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria.

Alexander Prokhanov said that Mossad is also likely to have transferred some of its spying experiences to the ISIL leadership, adding that Israel’s military advisors could be assisting the Takfiri terrorists.

Farsi News Agency, March 11, 2015

TEHRAN (FNA)- Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the recent capture of the US military advisers who were aiding the ISIL in Northern Iraq is a compelling proof that Washington has created the Takfiri terrorist group.

“The capture of the American advisers by the Iraqi army leaves no doubt that ISIL has been created by the US,” Boroujerdi told reporters on Wednesday.

He underlined that the American people who will never forget the beheading of their journalists by ISIL now blast Washington officials as the main culprits in the crime.

On Saturday, Iraqi Special Forces declared that they have apprehended several foreign military advisors of ISIL, including American, Israeli and Arab nationals, in an operation in Mosul in the Northern parts of the country.

The Iraqi forces said they have retrieved four foreign passports, including those that belonged to American and Israeli nationals and one that belonged to the national of a Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member-state, from ISIL’s military advisors.

The foreign advisors were arrested in a military operation in Tal Abta desert near Mosul city.

On Monday, a senior Iraqi legislator lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, and said he is in possession of irrefutable intelligence documents showing that ISIL is receiving arms aids from Israel as well as a number of western and Arab countries.

“We have intelligence which shows Israel and some major western and regional states have supplied weapons to ISIL,” Al-Qad news website quoted member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee Abbas al-Khazali as saying.

Meantime, the Iraqi legislator stressed that his country needs more weapons to fight the ISIL, and said Baghdad is willing to purchase weapons from East European countries, Russia and China.

Iraqi provincial officials and statesmen have repeatedly lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that US and Israeli-made weapons have been discovered from the areas purged of ISIL terrorists.

In late December, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee disclosed that US planes were supplying the ISIL terrorist organization with arms and ammunition in Salahuddin province.

MP Majid al-Gharawi stated that he had intelligence to prove that US planes were supplying ISIL organization, not only in Salahuddin province, but also other provinces.

He added that the US and the international coalition are “not serious in fighting against the ISIL organization, because they have the technological power to determine the presence of ISIL gunmen and destroy them in one month”.

Gharawi added that “the US is trying to expand the time of the war against the ISIL to get guarantees from the Iraqi government to have its bases in Mosul and Anbar provinces.”

Salahuddin security commission also disclosed in December that “unknown planes threw arms and ammunition to the ISIL gunmen Southeast of Tikrit city”.

Later in December, another senior Iraqi lawmaker complained that the terrorist group still received aids dropped by unidentified aircraft.

“The international coalition is not serious about air strikes on ISIL terrorists and is even seeking to take out the popular (voluntary) forces from the battlefield against the Takfiris so that the problem with ISIL remains unsolved in the near future,” Nahlah al-Hababi told FNA.

“The ISIL terrorists are still receiving aids from unidentified fighter jets in Iraq and Syria,” she added.

Also in late December, the US-led coalition dropped aids to the Takfiri militants in an area North of Baghdad.

Field sources in Iraq told al-Manar that the international coalition airplanes dropped aids to the terrorist militants in Balad, an area which lies in Salahuddin province North of Baghdad.

Then in January, Head of the Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee Hakem al-Zameli disclosed that coalition planes had dropped weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL in Salahuddin, Al-Anbar and Diyala provinces.

Al-Zameli underlined that “the coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq”.

“There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid to ISIL terrorists through air(dropped cargoes),” he told FNA in January.

He noted that the members of his committee have already proved that the US planes have dropped advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft weapons, for the ISIL, and that an investigation committee had been set up to probe into the matter.

“The US drops weapons for the ISIL under the excuse that it doesn’t know about the whereabouts of the ISIL positions and it is trying to distort the reality with its allegations.

He noted that the committee had collected the data and the evidence provided by eyewitnesses, including Iraqi army officers and the popular forces, and said, “These documents are given to the investigation committee … and the necessary measures will be taken to protect the Iraqi airspace.”

Also in January, another senior Iraqi legislator reiterated that the US-led coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq.

“The international coalition is only an excuse for protecting the ISIL and helping the terrorist group with equipment and weapons,” Jome Divan, who is member of the al-Sadr bloc in the Iraqi parliament, said.

He said the coalition’s support for the ISIL is now evident to everyone, and continued, “The coalition has not targeted ISIL’s main positions in Iraq.”

Then, on February 21 al-Zameli announced that he had documents and photos showing that the US Apache helicopters airdropped foodstuff and weapons for the ISIL in the Southern parts of Tikrit.

Two days later, the senior official declared that the Iraqi army has shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province.

“The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” al-Zameli said, according to a report released by the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq on February 23.

He said the Iraqi parliament has asked London for explanations.

The senior Iraqi legislator further unveiled that the government in Baghdad is receiving daily reports from people and security forces in al-Anbar province on numerous flights by the US-led coalition planes that airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIL in terrorist-held areas.

The Iraqi lawmaker further noted the cause of such western aids to the terrorist group, and explained that the US prefers a chaotic situation in Anbar Province which is near the cities of Karbala and Baghdad as it does not want the ISIL crisis to come to an end.

Earlier on the same day, a senior Iraqi provincial official lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that US and Israeli-made weapons have been discovered from the areas purged of ISIL terrorists.

“We have discovered weapons made in the US, European countries and Israel from the areas liberated from ISIL’s control in Al-Baqdadi region,” the Al-Ahad news website quoted Head of Al-Anbar Provincial Council Khalaf Tarmouz as saying.

He noted that the weapons made by the European countries and Israel were discovered from the terrorists in the Eastern parts of the city of Ramadi.

Two days later on February 25, another Iraqi provincial official revealed that the US airplanes still continued airdropping weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL terrorists.

“The US planes have dropped weapons for the ISIL terrorists in the areas under ISIL control and even in those areas that have been recently liberated from the ISIL control to encourage the terrorists to return to those places,” Coordinator of Iraqi popular forces Jafar al-Jaberi told FNA.

He noted that eyewitnesses in Al-Havijeh of Kirkuk province had witnessed the US airplanes dropping several suspicious parcels for ISIL terrorists in the province.

“Two coalition planes were also seen above the town of Al-Khas in Diyala and they carried the Takfiri terrorists to the region that has recently been liberated from the ISIL control,” Al-Jaberi said.

And eventually on February 28, the Iraqi popular forces who had shot down a US helicopter carrying weapons for the ISIL forces in Al-Baqdadi region released the photos of the downed chopper on the Internet.

A group of Iraqi popular forces known as Al-Hashad Al-Shabi (mobilized forces) had shot down the US Army helicopter that was carrying weapons for the ISIL in the western parts of Al-Baqdadi region in Al-Anbar province on February 21.

Last year, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Mossad of training ISIL terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria.

Alexander Prokhanov said that Mossad is also likely to have transferred some of its spying experiences to the ISIL leadership, adding that Israel’s military advisors could be assisting the Takfiri terrorists.

Prokhanov said ISIL is a byproduct of US policies in the Middle East.

“ISIL is a tool at the hands of the United States. They tell the Europeans that if we (the Americans) do not intervene, ISIL will cause you harm,” he said, adding that Iran and Russia are the prime targets of the ISIL.

“They launched their first terror attack against us just a few days back in Chechnya,” he said, stressing that the ISIL ideology has got nothing to do with the Islam practiced in Iran and some other Muslim countries in the Middle East region.

Prokhanov said the United States and Israel are one and the same when it comes to supporting a terror organization like the ISIL.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13931220000903

From Tasnim News

Reports of the arrest of American military advisors assisting ISIS militants in Iraq constitutes evidence of cooperation between the US and the ISIS terrorist group in the Arab country, an Iranian lawmaker said.

Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency on Sunday, Mohammad Saleh Jokar said the US and the coalition it leads are not after tackling the ISIS, but pursue other objectives.

On Saturday, Iraqi sources reported that the Arab country’s counter-terrorism forces in an operation in an outlying area in the province of Nineveh have arrested four foreign advisors -three of them from the US and Israel- who were employed as military advisors to the ISIS fighters.

The arrest of American advisors made it clear for the world public opinion that the ISIS is a product of the US and Washington backs it, Jokar explained.

The detained foreign advisors have been transferred to a security center in capital Baghdad.

Since March 2, the Iraqi troops, backed by voluntary forces, have launched an offensive to recapture Tikrit and the surrounding areas.

The offensive is the biggest military operation in the province since the ISIS terrorists seized swaths of north Iraq last June and advanced toward the capital Baghdad.

http://www.tasnimnews.com/english/Home/Single/678699

The relationship between Washington and ISIS: the evidence

The UN peacekeeping force based in the occupied Golan has reported its observations of Israel’s Defence Forces ‘interacting with’ al Nusra fighters at the border. At the same time, Israeli arms have been found with the extremist groups, in both Syria and Iraq. In November 2014 members of the Druze minority in the Golan protested against Israel’s hospital support for al Nusra and ISIS fighters. This in turn led to questions by the Israeli media, as to whether ‘ Israel does, in fact, hospitalize members of al-Nusra and Daesh [ISIS]‘.

From Global Research, March 8, 2015
by Prof. Tim Anderson

obama-isis

Reports that US and British aircraft carrying arms to ISIS have been shot down by Iraqi forces have been met with shock and denial in western countries. Few in the Middle East doubt that Washington is playing a ‘double game’ with its proxy armies in Syria, but some key myths remain important amongst the significantly more ignorant western audiences.

A central myth is that Washington now arms ‘moderate Syrian rebels’, to both overthrow the Syrian Government and supposedly defeat the ‘extremist rebels’. This claim became more important in 2014, when the rationale of US aggression against Syria shifted from ‘humanitarian intervention’ to a renewal of Bush’s ‘war on terror’.

A distinct controversy is whether the al Qaeda styled groups (especially Jabhat al Nusra and ISIS) have been generated as a sort of organic reaction to the repeated US interventions, or whether they are actually paid agents of Washington.

Certainly, prominent ISIS leaders were held in US prisons. ISIS leader, Ibrahim al-Badri (aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) is said to have been held for between one and two years at Camp Bucca in Iraq. In 2006, as al-Baghdadi and others were released, the Bush administration announced its plan for a ‘New Middle East’, a plan which would employ sectarian violence as part of a process of ‘creative destruction’ in the region.

According to Seymour Hersh’s 2007 article, ‘The Redirection’, the US would make use of ‘moderate Sunni states’, not least the Saudis, to ‘contain’ the Shia gains in Iraq brought about by the 2003 US invasion. These ‘moderate Sunni’ forces would carry out clandestine operations to weaken Iran and Hezbollah, key enemies of Israel. This brought the Saudis and Israel closer, as both fear Iran.

While there have been claims that the ISIS ‘caliph’ al-Baghdadi is a CIA or Mossad trained agent, these have not yet been well backed up. There are certainly grounds for suspicion, but independent evidence is important, in the context of a supposed US ‘war’ against ISIS . So what is the broader evidence on Washington’s covert links with ISIS? Continue reading