How the US Armed-up Syrian Jihadists

The West blames Russia for the bloody mess in Syria, but U.S. Special Forces saw close up how the chaotic U.S. policy of aiding Syrian jihadists enabled Al Qaeda and ISIS to rip Syria apart, explains ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke.

By Alastair Crooke

“No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort”, a former Green Beret writes of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian insurgents, “they know we are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘Fuck it, who cares?’”. “I don’t want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans,” the Green Beret added.

In a detailed report, US Special Forces Sabotage White House Policy gone Disastrously Wrong with Covert Ops in Syria, Jack Murphy, himself a former Green Beret (U.S. Special Forces), recounts a former CIA officer having told him how the “the Syria covert action program is [CIA Director John] Brennan’s baby …Brennan was the one who breathed life into the Syrian Task Force … John Brennan loved that regime-change bullshit.”

Journalist James Foley shortly before he was executed by an Islamic State operative.

Journalist James Foley shortly before he was executed by an Islamic State operative.

In gist, Murphy tells the story of U.S. Special Forces under one Presidential authority, arming Syrian anti-ISIS forces, whilst the CIA, obsessed with overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad, and operating under a separate Presidential authority, conducts a separate and parallel program to arm anti-Assad insurgents.

Murphy’s report makes clear the CIA disdain for combatting ISIS (though this altered somewhat with the beheading of American journalist James Foley in August 2014): “With the CIA wanting little to do with anti-ISIS operations as they are focused on bringing down the Assad regime, the agency kicked the can over to 5th Special Forces Group. Basing themselves out of Jordan and Turkey” — operating under “military activities” authority, rather than under the CIA’s coveted Title 50 covert action authority.

The “untold story,” Murphy writes, is one of abuse, as well as bureaucratic infighting, which has only contributed to perpetuating the Syrian conflict.

But it is not the “turf wars,” nor the “abuse and waste,” which occupies the central part of Murphy’s long report, that truly matters; nor even the contradictory and self-defeating nature of U.S. objectives pursued. Rather, the report tells us quite plainly why the attempted ceasefires have failed (although this is not explicitly treated in the analysis), and it helps explain why parts of the U.S. Administration (Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and CIA Director Brenner) have declined to comply with President Obama’s will – as expressed in the diplomatic accord (the recent ceasefire) reached with the Russian Federation.

The story is much worse than that hinted in Murphy’s title: it underlies the present mess which constitutes relations between the U.S. and Russia, and the collapse of the ceasefire.

“The FSA [the alleged “moderates” of the Free Syria Army] made for a viable partner force for the CIA on the surface, as they were anti-regime, ostensibly having the same goal as the seventh floor at Langley” [the floor of the CIA headquarters occupied by the Director and his staff] – i.e. the ousting of President Assad.

But in practice, as Murphy states bluntly: “distinguishing between the FSA and al-Nusra is impossible, because they are virtually the same organization. As early as 2013, FSA commanders were defecting with their entire units to join al-Nusra. There, they still retain the FSA monicker, but it is merely for show, to give the appearance of secularism so they can maintain access to weaponry provided by the CIA and Saudi intelligence services. The reality is that the FSA is little more than a cover for the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra. …

“The fact that the FSA simply passed American-made weaponry off to al-Nusra is also unsurprising considering that the CIA’s vetting process of militias in Syria is lacklustre, consisting of little more than running traces in old databases. These traces rely on knowing the individuals’ real names in the first place, and assume that they were even fighting-age males when the data was collected by CTC [Counterterrorism Centre] years prior.”

Sympathy for Al Qaeda

Nor, confirms Murphy, was vetting any better with the 5th Special Forces operating out of Turkey: “[It consisted of] a database check and an interview. The rebels know how to sell themselves to the Americans during such interviews, but they still let things slip occasionally. ‘I don’t understand why people don’t like al-Nusra,’ one rebel told the American soldiers. Many had sympathies with the terrorist groups such as Nusra and ISIS.”

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Others simply were not fit to be soldiers. “They don’t want to be warriors. They are all cowards. That is the moderate rebel,” a Green Beret told Murphy, who adds:

“Pallets of weapons and rows of trucks delivered to Turkey for American-sponsored rebel groups simply sit and collect dust because of disputes over title authorities [i.e. Presidential authorities] and funding sources, while authorization to conduct training for the militias is turned on and off at a whim. One day they will be told to train, the next day not to, and the day after only to train senior leaders. Some Green Berets believe that this hesitation comes from the White House getting wind that most of the militia members are affiliated with Nusra and other extremist groups.” [emphasis added.]

Murphy writes: “While the games continue on, morale sinks for the Special Forces men in Turkey. Often disguised in Turkish military uniform, one of the Green Berets described his job as, ‘Sitting in the back room, drinking chai while watching the Turks train future terrorists’ …

“Among the rebels that U.S. Special Forces and Turkish Special Forces were training, ‘A good 95 percent of them were either working in terrorist organizations or were sympathetic to them,’ a Green Beret associated with the program said, adding, ‘A good majority of them admitted that they had no issues with ISIS and that their issue was with the Kurds and the Syrian regime.’”

Buried in the text is this stunning one-line conclusion: “after ISIS is defeated, the real war begins. CIA-backed FSA elements will openly become al-Nusra; while Special Forces-backed FSA elements like the New Syrian Army will fight alongside the Assad regime. Then the CIA’s militia and the Special Forces’ militia will kill each other.

Well, that says it all: the U.S. has created a ‘monster’ which it cannot control if it wanted to (and Ashton Carter and John Brennan have no interest to “control it” — they still seek to use it).

U.S. Objectives in Syria

Professor Michael Brenner, having attended a high-level combined U.S. security and intelligence conference in Texas last week, summed up their apparent objectives in Syria, inter alia, as:

Video of the Russian SU-24 exploding in flames inside Syrian territory after it was shot down by Turkish air-to-air missiles on Nov. 24, 2015.

Video of the Russian SU-24 exploding in flames inside Syrian territory after it was shot down by Turkish air-to-air missiles on Nov. 24, 2015.

–Thwarting Russia in Syria.

–Ousting Assad.

–Marginalizing and weakening Iran by breaking the Shi’ite Crescent.

–Facilitating some kind of Sunni entity in Anbar and eastern Syria. How can we prevent it falling under the sway of al-Qaeda?  Answer: Hope that the Turks can “domesticate” al-Nusra.

–Wear down and slowly fragment ISIS. Success on this score can cover failure on all others in domestic opinion.

Jack Murphy explains succinctly why this “monster” cannot be controlled: “In December of 2014, al-Nusra used the American-made TOW missiles to rout another anti-regime CIA proxy force called the Syrian Revolutionary Front from several bases in Idlib province. The province is now the de facto caliphate of al-Nusra.

That Nusra captured TOW missiles from the now-defunct Syrian Revolutionary Front is unsurprising, but that the same anti-tank weapons supplied to the FSA ended up in Nusra hands is even less surprising when one understands the internal dynamics of the Syrian conflict, i.e. the factional warfare between the disparate American forces, with the result that “Many [U.S. military trainers] are actively sabotaging the programs by stalling and doing nothing, knowing that the supposedly secular rebels they are expected to train are actually al-Nusra terrorists.”

How then could there ever be the separation of “moderates” from Al-Nusra – as required by the two cessations of hostilities accords (February and September 2016)? The entire Murphy narrative shows that the “moderates” and al-Nusra cannot meaningfully be distinguished from each other, let alone separated from each other, because “they are virtually the same organization.”

The Russians are right: the CIA and the Defense Department never had the intention to comply with the accord – because they could not. The Russians are also right that the U.S. has had no intention to defeat al-Nusra – as required by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2268 (2016).

So how did the U.S. get into this “Left Hand/Right Hand” mess – with the U.S. President authorizing an accord with the Russian Federation, while in parallel, his Defense Secretary was refusing to comply with it? Well, one interesting snippet in Murphy’s piece refers to “hesitations” in the militia training program thought to stem from the White House getting wind that most of the militia members were “affiliated with Nusra and other extremist groups.”

Obama’s Inklings

It sounds from this as if the White House somehow only had “inklings” of “the jihadi monster” emerging in Syria – despite that understanding being common knowledge to most on-the-ground trainers in Syria. Was this so? Did Obama truly believe that there were “moderates” who could be separated? Or, was he persuaded by someone to go along with it, in order to give a “time out” in order for the CIA to re-supply its insurgent forces (the CIA inserted 3,000 tons of weapons and munitions to the insurgents during the February 2016 ceasefire, according to IHS Janes’).

U.S.-backed Syrian "moderate" rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is held aloft triumphantly in a later part of the video. [Screenshot from the YouTube video]

U.S.-backed Syrian “moderate” rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is held aloft triumphantly in a later part of the video. [Screenshot from the YouTube video]

Support for the hypothesis that Obama may not have been fully aware of this reality comes from Yochi Dreazen and Séan Naylor (Foreign Policy’s senior staff writer on counter-terrorism and intelligence), who noted (in May 2015) that Obama himself seemed to take a shot at the CIA and other intelligence agencies in an interview in late 2014, when he said the community had collectively “underestimated” how much Syria’s chaos would spur the emergence of the Islamic State.

In the same article, Naylor charts the power of the CIA as rooted in its East Coast Ivy League power network, its primacy within the intelligence machinery, its direct access to the Oval Office and its nearly unqualified support in Congress. Naylor illustrates the CIA’s privileged position within the Establishment by quoting Hank Crumpton, who had a long CIA career before becoming the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism.

Crumpton told Foreign Policy that when “then-Director Tenet, declared ‘war’ on Al-Qaeda as far back as 1998, “you didn’t have the Secretary of Defense [declaring war]; you didn’t have the FBI director or anyone else in the intelligence community taking that kind of leadership role.”

Perhaps it is simply – in Obama’s prescient words – the case that “the CIA usually gets what it wants.”

Perhaps it did: Putin demonized, (and Trump tarred by association); the Sunni Al Qaeda “monster” – now too powerful to be easily defeated, but too weak to completely succeed – intended as the “albatross” hung around Russia and Iran’s neck, and damn the Europeans whose back will be broken by waves of ensuing refugees. Pity Syria.

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat who was a senior figure in British intelligence and in European Union diplomacy. He is the founder and director of the Conflicts Forum, which advocates for engagement between political Islam and the West.

41 comments for “How the US Armed-up Syrian Jihadists

  1. Mike Carroll
    October 5, 2016 at 09:22

    Foreign policy should be keep the shipping lanes open. End of foreign policy.

  2. John Yin
    October 3, 2016 at 11:27

    I’ve been following the conflict in Syria since 2012. I just wished I saved all the research information to share in a large file. I even went as far as contacting personnels around the world. I have always suspected this of happening. One thing a lot of independent journalist don’t mention is how the conflict in Syria has spread to the borders of Lebanon. That fact itself confirms General Wesley Clark’s statement of the 7 countries to be overthrown, which includes Lebanon. The climax of the war for the Syrian Army wasn’t now, but it was in 2013. 2013 was their worst when terrorists were kilometers from Assad’s home. They were kilometer from the center of Syria’s capital. Here is what I found interesting at the time. In 2013, the CIA did a study that clearly stated 70% of Syrians still support Bashar Assad. That finding itself shows how Assad is still able to stand as Syria’s president. If the people didn’t support him, he would be gone already. It just says that everything the media and US government has been saying has been 1 big fat lie. Their initial motive was to overthrow the government of Syria from the beginning like this article mentions. Sponsoring terrorism to overthrow a government of a sovereign nation is a violation of international laws. The US has broken so many laws domestically in America and international laws. It’s unconstitutional to not seek congressional approval to declare war, but how are they bypassing this? Easy. Dating as far back as the 1950s, the US doesn’t need to seek congressional approval for declaration of war because their activities abroad are called “operations.” They justify this by claiming that their full military resource are not being used, so it’s not a full scale war for them to seek congressional approval. That’s their loophole. To me, it’s sort of like a puzzle doing research on Syria and where the US is involved around the world. One thing I’ve noticed is that the US creates these fake NGOs and media groups around the world for the mainstream media to quote as their source. I suspect the mainstream media is just as involved in working with the government too. My reason for believing that is due to the NDAA amendment 114 that Obama signed. It legalized propaganda to be used against the American population. If you don’t know what it is, look it up. The MSM quotes these sources as legitimate news, but they can’t be that dumb to not know that the US created these groups. The US has even admitted that they gave $23 million to the White Helmet that the media constantly uses as their source. I’ve found about a dozen NGOs and media groups that have ties with the US government and George Soros as their biggest supporters. StopFake, White Helmet, Aleppo Media Center ect just a few. One thing that stands out for me for Syrian based NGOs and media groups is their American-made equipment. White Helmet is Aleppo are driving brand new US-made BobCat tractors. If humanitarian aids are impossible to reach Aleppo, how are they getting these new equipments? That just shows that the humanitarian aid deal was a lie, and that whole thing was a lie. The US orchestrated the bombing of the humanitarian aids to frame Russia. I’ve noticed some very expensive equipments such as Hughes BGAN, brand new Panasonic tough books (commonly use by contractors and the military), VSAT equipments, modems, MotoTrbr radios ect. With the sanctions on Syria, how are they getting these stuff? Syrian government cannot even buy medicine for their own citizens because of the US’ sanctions. If it wasn’t for Russia, it would be a lot worse. Face it, the US is the new axis of evil. It seems to me that Russia is in the right on every scenarios including Ukraine. There’s a lot not told about Ukriane too, but that’s another story. Russia and their allies is the only terrorist fighting force in Syria. Americans should be ashamed of their government. This is beyond evil

  3. tony
    October 3, 2016 at 09:17

    Yes. The US is a ‘State-Sponsor’ of terrorism by arming and training them.

    Another thing. Call them what they are. TERRORISTS. Don’t use sugar coated euphemisms like ‘insurgents’ or ‘jihadists’.

    • John Yin
      October 3, 2016 at 11:33

      Yeah. That’s very true, but nobody wants to admit it. Why? Because a lot of westerners believe that their country is supposed to be the “good guys.” Not anymore. Haven’t been for a long time

      • Mike Carroll
        October 5, 2016 at 09:24

        Haven’t been good guys since August 6th 1945.

  4. jacl
    October 2, 2016 at 21:47

    why have the fake beheading video of James Foley – adds no credibility to this article.

    • John Yin
      October 3, 2016 at 11:32

      I don’t think that was fake. I believed he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. He happened to be a victim of the US government’s policy of sponsoring terrorism. The situation in Syria is complicated now. Even the Kurds have their own agendas. Even the mainstream media we watch has an agenda

  5. NBrady
    October 1, 2016 at 13:36

    Jerry, you are correct, of course. But the financiers at the top dictate this policy. Not wall street or Obama, they’re pimps, but the zionist Rothschild financiers to whom the planet is subservient. All should ask a simple question, which country benefits from US treasure and power spent on destroying Syria? Not the USA, we have zero interest in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Tunisia or any other country we have destroyed. One country benefits and is quite silent on the matter publicly because it has exactly what it wants – no need to cry and demand to the west. The ode yinon plan is in place as we speak and the US taxpayer is footing the bill, using our blood and treasure to fulfill the agenda. Ask how it is possible that Libya has no functioning government, but has a central bank in place where there was none before Hillary killed Gadaffi. If your economy cannot be controlled by the financiers then they have the USA attack you until you have one they can profit from. Syria will become a wasteland like Iraq if they can knock Russia out of the way and then Iran is next. This was planned long ago and is coming to fruition in front of us. Russia can stop it as it has vested interest in both Syria and Iran, which is why the Ukraine lie was created to thwart Russia from interfering. WW3

    • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
      October 3, 2016 at 15:47

      I don’t want any anti-Semitism.

    • Mike Carroll
      October 5, 2016 at 09:39

      Yep. The Rothschilds and the other banksters are evil SOB’s. Leave out the Zionist label and you will get no argument from anyone with a brain.

  6. October 1, 2016 at 01:56

    The level of truly criminal harm, destruction and resultant suffering inflicted upon the innocent people of Syria since violence was initiated in 2011 to present is incalculable. The question now is who and how many are the men and women on Earth with sufficient raw courage to come forward, speak the truth, and demand without relenting that those responsible become prosecuted in line with the magnitude of their immensely horrific war crimes? Such morally repugnant actions are absolutely unacceptable in the year 2016, and every remaining presidential candidate must become forced to answer all questions on the horrid situation.

    • October 3, 2016 at 10:00

      The carnage in Syria for no valid reason is indeed criminal and reprehensible. Yet until we grasp the reality that American foreign policy is being directed by demon-possessed psychopaths and pathological liars in suits all corrective actions suggested are meaningless. Our political and legal systems are totally corrupt and ruled by a cabal of Khazar impostors posing as Jews who secretly serve the devil. We should all know this by now.

      The bottom line is that we are at the end of God’s prophetic Biblical timeline. Sometime during the next 44 days, the second coming of Christ occurs to gather the elect to Himself, and shortly after November 15, the real carnage begins. it will be horrible beyond words. Because God has just about had enough of man’s wickedness and endless folly. Anyone who cannot yet see this, will soon find themselves on the receiving end of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Let it be so. This insanity is soon going to be brought to an abrupt end.

      • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
        October 3, 2016 at 15:46

        The Jews are not Khazars, and no one was talking about Jews. I have said this before to another commenter, don’t deviate from the topic.

      • Mike Carroll
        October 5, 2016 at 09:41

        I am an atheist, so I don’t think it is the devil. But the banksters are evil. Anyone that can hurt innocent people are evil. I do agree this Ponzi scheme cum World Order is going to end soon.

  7. Abe
    September 30, 2016 at 22:30

    “As the US continues leveraging the downing of MH-17 over Ukraine against Russia, it simultaneously attempts to all but ensure the most dangerous terrorist organizations on Earth gain access to anti-air weaponry. It is a clear indicator that the US, not Russia nor the Syrian government, pose a threat to global peace and stability.

    “The same US who knowingly created and wielded Al Qaeda against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s before claiming to be victimized by this mercenary force on September 11, 2001 – precipitating a decade and a half of “War on Terror” – is hereby standing up a terrorist mercenary force larger and better armed than ever before. The US is sowing the seeds of global terrorism for decades to come by doing so.”

    US Threatens to Arm Al Qaeda, ISIS with Anti-Air Missiles
    By Tony Cartalucci
    http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2016/09/us-threatens-to-arm-al-qaeda-isis-with.html

  8. September 30, 2016 at 13:42

    the Quote below is from RT article,Published time: 30 Sep, 2016 13:13
    Edited time: 30 Sep, 2016 15:31 See link at bottom.

    “…it seems to me that everything the US and its so-called allies have done since the very beginning has been what I would call the ‘Kissingerian’ double-track diplomacy – pretending that they are against ISIS when they in fact they are arming ISIS,…”
    William Mallinson, a former British diplomat and professor at Marconi University told RT….
    [read full article at link below]
    https://www.rt.com/op-edge/361194-us-russia-diplomacy-syria/

  9. h
    September 30, 2016 at 10:39

    Jay – I agree with your frustration that you can’t read the entirety of Murphy’s eyeopening article. There was a copyright kerfuffle two weeks ago when the article first appeared on FB without Murphy’s permission. Those who got to the page before the post was removed, which I and many others did, learned quite a bit about the the ground game in Syria. The article should be made public and should be required reading for every U.S. voter. That said, trust Mr. Cooke captured many of the key details in the article.

    The one item he did not mention, however, was under what legal authority the CIA is operating under throughout their covert destruction of the Middle East. As you know, there is no war authorization from congress to be using military resources/assets anywhere other than Iraq in the Middle East, yet such assets have been used in Libya, Yemen, Syria. Ask yourself, under what legal authority is the USAF operating under when bombing say the Syrian Army compound in Deir Ezzor two weekends ago? Or the drones in Yemen and the bombings in Libya? The answer is there is none. The only entity who has legal authority under the U.S. Constitution to declare war is the U.S. Congress, but very few write about this fact. VP nominee Tim Kaine, Obama’s third term, lays out these facts in his keynote address to the graduates of the Virginia Military Institute at their graduation ceremony – Fast forward to 55:00 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VepVwTfKBoI

    The authority under which the CIA is operating its covert wars in the Middle East is Title 10, which I know zilch about.

    And Albert Champion, you may want to read Wayne Madsen’s work on John Brennan.

  10. Jurgen
    September 30, 2016 at 00:39

    I am just curious … There’s no secret that USAF air campaign has been going on in Sirte (Libia) for quite a long time, BUT there’s no coverage of such a sizable operation anywhere in the US media. None. What I am rather curious about is why they keep to completely ignoring it as if it never happened (?). Is there no civilian population in Sirte? Are there no hospitals, kindergartens, schools? Where are pictures of women and children of Sirte after USAF air strikes? Oh, I see, american bombs never kill none but ISIS fighters, stupid me, those bombs only bring down flowers for libian women, teddy bears for libian kids and food for libian elderly of Sirte. As usual – the quintessence of hypocrisy, arrogance and ignorance.

  11. ALBERT CHAMPION
    September 29, 2016 at 23:49

    you just cannot stop yourselves from repeating a misspelling.

    i think that the dcia is john brennan.

    a wahhabist you became a house of saud acolyte when he was stationed in riyadh some years ago.

    as i recall, he is the only western intelligence officer that attended the haj in the company of saudi princes.

    which makes you think, whose script[agenda] is he following?

  12. Realist
    September 29, 2016 at 21:49

    The other key ingredient: make sure the American public is completely kept in the dark about all of this by micromanaging all the American media from behind the scenes to publish and broadcast only self-serving lies, starting with the New York Times–which today ran another scathing condemnation of Putin and Russia’s participation in the Syrian conflict. According to the Times, it’s all Russia’s fault and Putin is the Devil incarnate who needs to be put in his place by real American heroes. Forget about the genuine war crimes that America perpetrated in Fallujah, another city under seige, when absolute scorched earth was the order of the day, but that was okay because of our exceptionality. Actually, it came closer to genocide than anything that Serbia ever did in Bosnia or Kosovo.

  13. Jim Hannan
    September 29, 2016 at 21:37

    I do think that the CIA was okay with ISIS for quite some time. There was a recognition that the only result of the Iraq war was to hand Iraq over to Iran. So, ISIS was a counterweight to Iranian control of Iraq. At some point, perhaps the beheadings of Americans, the US was forced to say that we were against ISIS. This put us at odds with Saudi Arabia, other gulf states and Turkey.

    So, now the compromise position is to say that we are fighting ISIS, while covertly supporting the Al Nusra forces.

    The recent US military air attack on the Syrian army, which effectively destroyed the cease fire agreement, says that Ashton Carter apparently believes that he is the Commander in Chief.

  14. evelync
    September 29, 2016 at 19:41

    Yes it is confounding!
    My observations:
    I don’t know what planet either CIA Director John Brenner or Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter came from. When they are speaking publicly, I don’t know who they are speaking to or who they represent, cause they sure don’t make sense to me. I somehow can’t shake the CSPAN video of Brenner scratching his head nervously as he lied to Congress about the unconstitutional mass surveillance and then later acknowledged reality (and faced no repercussions from Congress for the lies).
    Who do these people work for? We are all paying their salaries.
    It seems like their end game, if they even think about it at all, is a world cauldron.
    If they are indeed purposely thwarting Obama’s efforts to work with Russia and Iran to help solve the disaster in Syria – which seems to be the case – how is it that they can get away with that? Is there no oversight in the Senate? And how do they keep their jobs?
    And Obama, himself, seems miserable, discouraged, just going through the motions till January…….
    After reading Alastair Cooke’s extremely well written piece – skillfully sorting through the confusing complexity of it all – I feel like I have been immersed in a John Le Carre story. Theater of the absurd with a heavy dose of violence, mayhem and betrayal.

    • Abe
      September 29, 2016 at 20:52

      The planet CIA Director John Brenner, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and their ilk came from:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giedi_Prime

      • evelync
        September 29, 2016 at 21:35

        Thanks!
        Hmmmm…….I think Eisenhower warned us of this too…

    • Realist
      September 30, 2016 at 01:40

      According to Paul Craig Roberts, who was Asst. Sec. of the Treasury in Reagan’s administration, EVERY high ranking or critical official of EVERY country is bought off and paid millions of dollars by the American government, mainly the CIA, to get their cooperation on EVERY issue. They are delivered pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills, or probably gold bullion if they demand it. According to PCR, there is no vote, no decision, no favor that the company is not owed by the powers that be in every power center, back alley and dark crevice on this planet. The Russians, Chinese, Iranians and a scattering of South American and Central Asian countries may have the only central governments not yet part of the Borg, though there are some wealthy and powerful individuals in all these states (including Russia) with allegiance to Washington who never stop trying to gain ever more influence for their Atlanticist masters.

      So, the short answer is, pallets of hundred dollar bills are what make these confounding policies possible and also keep them from your notice in the media (also owned down to the bolts in the office chairs).

      • Vierotchka
        October 3, 2016 at 16:58

        That, and threats against the lives of their family members and of themselves if they don’t comply.

  15. Abe
    September 29, 2016 at 19:00

    “With a sectarian extremist political party like the Muslim Brotherhood, an armed force comprised of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups, and an array of complicit alleged NGOs including the “White Helmets,” the US and its allies have attempted to create a parallel state within Syria – a parallel state it hopes will eventually inherit the entirety of Syria’s territory, just as violent sectarian terrorist factions have assumed control over Libya – deconstructing it as a functioning nation state and plunging its people into open-ended, perpetual catastrophe that is reverberating across the planet in the form of terrorism and migrant crises.

    “The US and its partners are posing as fighting against terrorism, while carving out entire nations for Al Qaeda and its affiliates everywhere from the North African nation of Libya, to the ?Levantine nation of Syria. It is a foreign policy in reality that cannot be sustained with the unraveling rhetoric used to promote and perpetuate it on the global stage, particularly in front of the UN.”

    US in Syria: How to Build a Terror-State
    By Tony Cartalucci
    http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2016/09/us-in-syria-how-to-build-terror-state.html

  16. Jay
    September 29, 2016 at 17:58

    Too bad one can’t read the Jack Murphy article sans an account, not clear if I have to pay. But clearly not controlled by ConsortiumNews.

  17. September 29, 2016 at 17:26

    I believe what we are seeing is treachery in high places. See info below.
    “The Trail of Blood, Bodies, Destruction and Death, That Leads to the War Criminals in Our Midst”
    This diabolical “plan” is described in the must listen to video below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCwCgthp_E

    They–a well dressed, degenerate bunch of war criminals–posture and proclaim from the world stage. These people and their head-chopping allies are responsible for the wars and infamous war crimes of the 21st century. [1]…
    [read more at link below]
    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/09/the-trail-of-blood-bodies-destruction.html
    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2014/10/are-establishment-now-terrified-of.html

    • Joe B
      September 30, 2016 at 08:46

      Your views of the situation appear to be substantially correct, although videos are not useful evidence. Leaders and high officials usually become criminals against humanity by incompetence and failure to understand the making of good policy in complex matters, as well as by personal selfishness, ignorance, hypocrisy and malice, the most common human faults. That is the story and major lesson of history.

      Our institutions have become too corrupt to support democracy, because economic power was not concentrated when the Constitution was written. It needs amendment now to protect the tools of democracy from money, and to fix checks and balances. But it may be too late, as our nation is little more now than an empty suit of armor, blundering around the planet swinging its sword madly. The tools of democracy are in the hands of the worst of madmen.

    • William
      October 4, 2016 at 18:09

      Stephen,
      Thank you for your honest appraisal of the current situation in the U.S. Indeed there is “treachery in high places.” It seems shamefully apparent that congress is bought, body and soul, with money from U.S. arms manufacturers and Israeli firsters, who make up a large percentage of those war criminals who have infiltrated every level of govt.

      • pdj
        October 7, 2016 at 21:44

        no one is saying why they want a regime change in Syria in the first place. that’s because there is no excuse for it. it’s absolutely wrong and against the law. that is States has no business going into other countries telling their government what to do. especially trying to assassinate its president’s order a regime change and replace it with what? it is destabilize the whole Middle East and it’s not stopping it just keep going. The US is the terrorist Nation.

  18. Noizpots
    September 29, 2016 at 15:40

    I am confused by some of the comments about Obama: “So how did the U.S. get into this “Left Hand/Right Hand” mess – with the U.S. President authorizing an accord with the Russian Federation, while in parallel, his Defense Secretary was refusing to comply with it?”
    Should not this read, his “CIA Director” refusing to comply with it? But then what about a later statement, that “then-Director Tenet, declared ‘war’ on Al-Qaida as far back as 1998”? If the CIA backs the anti-Assad forces, meaning, the FSA/al-Nusra (AKA the al Qaida affiliates, which, BTW, have also received aid and comfort from our “allies” the Israelis), then whose on first, what’s on second…
    It’s all so very confounding!

  19. Pablo Diablo
    September 29, 2016 at 14:42

    Gotta keep the “war machine” well fed.

    • Herman
      September 30, 2016 at 12:11

      Two things come to mind. Creating a CIA operating arm has been a big mistake. They should be an intelligence agency, as their name implies. There are a source of endless troublemaking. Better to have to deal with only one set of troublemakers in the Pentagon, as dangerous as they are.

      Two, with our two presidential candidates being forced by their paymasters to commit to putting an end to Assad the world is on very dangerous ground. Then there is Russia standing in the way and along with a likely more energized Cold War after the election, things don’t look good.

      Meanwhile Europe obediently follows our lead like docile lambs waiting for a visit from the butcher.

      We could look back a long for the good old days with President Obama, however impotent he appears to be.

    • October 5, 2016 at 08:51

      Doesnt matter how many children, women, seniors are killed and maimed – only thing that matters is MONEY. May GOD quickly and powerfully avenge all responsible for the gross taking of innocent lives in Syria (Romans 12:19 – “It is MINE to AVENGE; I WILL REPAY).

    • ali
      October 7, 2016 at 16:26

      Nothing new in this article.

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