US support for al-Qaeda

This article tends to bear out information about direct western support for the insurgents in Syria

USA and Al Qaeda: Holy Alliance

Igor Ignachenko

Strategic Culture Foundation,

17 July, 2012

Syria is flooded by terrorists of all kinds. Al Qaeda has committed a number of terrorist acts. According to former Commander of Turkish Naval Academy Admiral Turker Erturk it gets support from the USA. He says that the West and its Arab allies have decided to repeat the “Salvadorian scenario” counting on terrorist groups stepping in instead of the opposition. The suicide bomber raids in Damascus corroborate the fact. Let me remember the operation aimed at destabilization of Salvador with the help of suicide bombers was headed by John Negroponte, who later became US ambassador to Iraq, and would be US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford. 

Peter Oborne, a Daily Telegraph commentator, confirmed that the USA and Great Britain have intensified clandestine cooperation with Al Qaeda recently joining efforts in fight against the Syrian government. In its article Syria's Crisis is Leading Us to Unlikely Bedfellows he points out that the terror acts committed in Damascus before the New Year had all earmarks of the ones committed by the terrorist organization in Iraq. According to the British journalist the Al Qaeda militants had come to Syria from Libya across the “Turkish corridor”. Peter Oborne sees “the triple Washington-London-Al Qaeda alliance” as a great menace for the UK. 

Omar Al-Bakri, a religious extremist residing in Lebanon, confessed in an interview to the Daily Telegraph that Al Qaeda militants supported by Al Mustaqbal headed by Saad al-Hariri have already infiltrated into Syria from Lebanon. At a press-conference held in Baghdad Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari confirmed the fact that Al Qaeda does infiltrate into Syria across the Iraqi border in order to commit terror acts and bring in weapons. 

The Guardian has recently published an article called Military Intervention in Syria Would Be Disastrous for Its People. The author Sami Ramadani points out the fact an alliance between the USA and Al Qaeda has taken shape. The USA and Turkey intensively destabilize Syria using the oil funds provided by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. While Hillary Clinton is trying to persuade the world community an intervention in Syria is a necessary step, the CIA is actively involved in providing support and training to the militants. As is known the USA and NATO allies have recruited heads of terrorist organizations and common criminals from different countries of the world as mercenaries to make them go through special drilling course in the training camps located in Turkey and Lebanon. 


For instance, while in Homs a member of the League of Arab states observer mission working for Iraqi special services was very much surprised to see Pakistani, Iraqi and Afghan mercenaries. Especially striking was the fact that some of them had been his kidnappers in Iraq. It’s important to note that over a hundred of hirelings from Arab and other countries, including a significant number of French legionaries, were captured by Syrian authorities after freeing Homs. 

Hala Jaber, a Sunday Times correspondent, is sure religious extremists and foreign mercenaries infiltrating Syria from the territories of adjacent countries contributed to the exacerbation of violence to make international observers terminate their mission. Hala Jaber emphasized the calls of Saudi sheikhs to cross the Syrian border were followed by dozens of people coming from Lebanon, Tunisia, Algiers, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait full of fanatic aspiration to create an Arab caliphate in Syria and the region. 

The British Times published an article in January this year that said Saudi Arabia and Qatar joined in a covert deal to fund weapons acquisitions by the Syrian opposition to topple the regime of Bashar Assad. A secret accord between the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Syrian opposition was reached after the Arab League of Nations foreign ministers Cairo meeting in January. A representative of the Syria opposition told the British newspaper that Saudi Arabia offered any assistance. He added Turkey also took an active part in supporting the opposition by delivering arms across the Syria-Turkey border. 

Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, a deputy from the province of Hatay, said to a United Arab Emirates outlet the National there were great quantities of Turkey-made fire arms in Syria. Ediboglu was part of the Turkish Republican People's Party team coming to Syria in September 2011. The Syrian officials showed the delegation truckloads of weapons unloaded in deserted buffer zone between Syrian and Turkish checkpoints. According to the Turkish deputy’s interview the weapons were delivered by the Muslim Brothers. 

Pro-Israeli Debka internet-outlet close to the Israeli Intelligence Mossad reported as far back as August 2011 that NATO delivered shoulder-fired air defense systems, anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to the opposition forces across the territory of Turkey. “Syrian rebels have been receiving training inside Turkey” Debka reported. NATO and the USA organized a campaign to recruit thousands of Muslim volunteers from different countries to boost the might of Syrian “rebels”. The Turkish army provided them with training and safe passage across the Turkey-Syrian border. 

According to the Guardian Saudi Arabia is ready to offer any financial assistance to the Free Syrian Army militants to incite mass defections from the Syria’s military ranks and increase pressure on the Assad’s government. Riyadh has already discussed the far-going plans with Washington and other Arab states. As the British outlet notes referring to the sources in three unnamed Arab capitals the idea didn’t originate from the Saudis but rather from their Arab allies willing to eliminate the Syrian statehood. The encouragement of Syrian defectors coincided with arms deliveries to Syria. The Guardian says the discussions with Arab countries officials make it clear the arms supplies from Saudi Arabia and Qatar (including automatic rifles, grenade launchers and anti-tank missiles) started since the middle of May. The Guardian’s Arab interlocutors said the final agreement to move weapons from storage points inside Turkey into rebel hands was hard won, with Ankara first insisting on diplomatic cover from the Arab states and the US. 

The authors of the article said Turkey had also allowed the establishment of a command centre in Istanbul which is coordinating supply lines in consultation with FSA leaders inside Syria. The Guardian witnessed the transfer of weapons in early June near the Turkish frontier.

As the influential New York Times has reported, the CIA has already organized arms and equipment supplies to the opposition. According to the source experienced CIA operatives are “working” involved in distributing illegal assault rifles, anti-tank rocket launchers and other ammunition to Syrian opposition. Arms and ammunition are being brought over into Syria mainly with the help of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood network says Eric Schmitt, the author of the article. Expenses for rifles, grenade launchers and anti-tank systems are being shared by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The CIA operatives provide assistance on spot to deliver the cargo to the desired destination. The agency operatives might be helping the rebels with organizing a rudimentary intelligence and counterintelligence organization to fight Bashar Assad. Andrea Stone from the Huffington Post confirms this information. He notes Central Intelligence Agency officers have been working from southern Turkey since March to advise Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates which elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) they should arm. Besides, the Vice-President of the Turkish Labor Party, Bulent Aslanoglu, confirmed that about six thousand people of Arab, Afghan and Turkish nationalities have been recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to commit terrorist acts in Syria. 

The USA and Al Qaeda’s alliance doesn’t confuse Reuel Marc Gerecht, former CIA operative and a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. On the pages of the Wall Street Journal he argues for “a muscular CIA operation launched from Turkey, Jordan and even Iraqi Kurdistan”. He thinks the limited in scope CIA undertaking against Assad coming into public view thanks to Western media will not lead to anything in concrete terms for those who strive to topple the ruling regime in Syria. Gerecht puts special importance to the fact that “Assad, who depends upon his Shiite Alawite minority (roughly 10%-15% of the population) for his military muscle, does not have the manpower for a multiple-front counterinsurgency”. The scholar of Foundation for Defense of Democracies thinks “a coordinated, CIA-led effort to pour anti-tank, antiaircraft, and anti-personnel weaponry through gaping holes in the regime's border security wouldn't be hard. The regime's lack of manpower and Syria's geography-low-rising mountains, arid steppes and forbidding deserts—would likely make it vulnerable to the opposition, if the opposition had enough firepower”. The former CIA operative is sure this Syrian action would not be a massive undertaking: “Even when the CIA ramped up its aid to Afghan anti-Soviet forces in 1986–87, the numbers involved (overseas and in Washington) were small, at roughly two dozen. An aggressive operation in Syria would probably require more CIA manpower than that, but likely still fewer than 50 U.S. officers working with allied services”.

According to Gerecht most importantly, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has irreversibly broken with Assad. Jordan, the country enjoying the most intimate Arab liaison relationship with the USA, is also set against Damascus. Moreover the former CIA veteran assures Iraqi Kurdistan, always eager for more U.S. officials on its soil, would likely give the CIA considerable leeway provided Washington promised to stand by the Kurds in any dispute with Baghdad and Tehran.