“The Americans are on our side.”

Last week German newspaper Köelner Stadt-Anzeiger published an interview with Abu Al Ezz, a commander in the Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

According to Al Ezz, U.S. materiel has been key in turning the tide against Syrian army forces:

“Due to these rockets [American-made TOW anti-tank missiles], we reached a balance with the regime. Our tanks came from Libya via Turkey, joined by the [BM-21] multiple rocket launchers.”  

“The [Assad] government forces have an advantage because of aircraft and missile launchers, but “we have the American-made TOW missiles, and the situation in some areas is under control,” Al Ezz added.

When asked if the TOW missiles were initially intended for Jabhat Al-Nusra or if the group obtained them from the moderate Free Syrian Army, the jihadist clarified: “No, the missiles were given to us directly.”

But Al Ezz went on to add that training on how to use these weapons came directly from the US and its allies. When Jabhat Al-Nusra was besieged, Al Ezz said they “had officers from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and America here… Experts in the use of satellites, rockets, reconnaissance and thermal security cameras.”
The German journalist asked if US instructors were really present among the jihadists’ ranks. Al Ezz replied: “The Americans are on our side.”

Increasingly, the so-called "moderates" are drawing closer to al-Qaeda. In fact, they're so “intermingled” that the State Department has admitted that it can't separate them.
Fifteen years of so-called GWOT is still seems amazing to think that we would be directly arming al-Qaeda, yet that appears to be exactly what is happening.
This was shown in no uncertain terms in a report from last week.

A new report citing former CIA officers has revealed that the agency was knowingly providing weapons, including tow missiles to fighters that were effectively part of al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, continuing to arm “moderates” so long as they at least nominally kept their moderate names.

The report reveals that the vetting process amounted to little more than checking the names of fighters they were given against outdated terrorist databases, and that often they didn’t even have real names to check in the first place. It was in this way that the “moderate” Free Syrian Army (FSA) started getting arms in the first place.

But as the war continued, the FSA fighters were defecting en masse to the Nusra Front. Even being directly affiliated with al-Qaeda’s affiliate didn’t stop the arms flow to these groups, either, so long as they retained their FSA name so the CIA could feign arming “moderates.”

The report concludes that the FSA was quickly becoming a cover name for Nusra, a fact which apparently didn’t phase the CIA, which was just as eager to use this pretense, so long as they were arming a group that was fighting against the Syrian government.

Russian Deputy FM Mikhail Bogdanov warned against Washington's plan to arm Syrian rebel factions with shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles, saying that the rebels the US are backing are liable to do the same thing that al-Qaeda did to America on 9/11.
That doesn't seem to bother those in Washington.

Two weeks ago, Secretary Kerry demanded Russia and the Syrian government stop bombing al-Qaeda occupied areas.
Yesterday Russia warned the United States against bombing Syrian troops, like we did a few weeks ago.

The rhetoric has really turned up in recent days.
Kerry admitted that he is in the pro-war in Syria camp, much like the rest of the State Department and the entire Hillary Clinton campaign.

It's beyond ironic that the pro-war people are claiming the moral high ground, while also arming al-Qaeda terrorists.
Who do they think are allies are? Who do they think will take over in Syria once we overthrow Assad? What do they think al-Qaeda will do to the minority groups there once Assad is gone? Why do they think this will turn out any better than Iraq?
And why does no one talk about Iran, who will not tolerate the overthrow of the Assad government?

Or is this just a game of make believe?

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sojourns's picture

Anymore, methinks this is about the U.S. trying to save face.

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

terriertribe's picture

Face is certainly involved but I think the stink at the core is money.

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Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.

sojourns's picture

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

Trying to remember who it was that had posted the telling article about Russian discovery of huge amounts of oil/natural gas just off Syria last year?

Of course, they'd signed a 2013 agreement with Syria to do so and weren't just bursting in to kill people and steal their stuff.

Aha! Had a note on that - it was dewley notid

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2015/9/22/russian-company-begins-...

Alex Wright
Russian company begins oil prospecting off Syrian coast

So what you smell is a dirty fossil fuel coating on to-be-stolen wealth, ignited by flaming lunacy, greed, murder and banditry - in other words the 'protection' of 'American business interests', alias the corporate mafia soon to be directly running governments management everywhere.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

USA, USA, US. . . fuck this shit. These assholes just want to blow shit up and kill people as long as they make money off of it. No wonder they militarized the piglice. The edges are fraying and the center will not hold and they don't realize we all occupy the same boat, Mothership Earth.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, Imperial Japan, Pol Pots' Cambodia. Now, there's us.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

lotlizard's picture

Drastic de-industrialization and population decrease.

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reading a LTE after 9/11 in which a WW2 veteran wrote something like "give us a few years and we'll be doing business with al-Qaeda just like we did with the Japanese. (he used the shorter version and put "damn" in front of it). Guess the old guy was right... Anyway, one would think the republicans would be making hay with this. "Obama doing business with al-Qaeda!" "Terrorist helping the Terrorists!" but all you hear are crickets. The MIC trumps politics every time...

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that no politician of either party is making this an issue.
It reminds me a little of 2002.

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and we still don't learn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
Mujahideen - armed by CIA, to fight "invading Russians" in Afghanistan, and they then became what?
no points awarded for correct answer. Wiki has good info on the monetary costs of this too.

We armed Hussein in Iraq - to warn off the Iranians - and they we bombed Iraq to oblivion, managed to alienate the Bathists, so nothing left.

How come, no points here either, we never did anything to Saudi Arabia, was Wahhabism too important to us - ok, oil, still no points.

How does the USA manage to fuck up the world, kill so, so, so many people, and still try to hide behind "exceptionalism." Can't even list all the violations. Still, the "myth" of "democracy." Makes me cry.
Only thing which could be worse, Her Heinious & Bill back in the White House.

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snoopydawg's picture

Is why aren't more people aware that we have done all those things and much, much more yet people still believe that the troops are fighting to defend the country and our freedoms?
The football player not standing for the national anthem only got the freedom to do that because of all the military members that died to give him that freedom. ?!?
And they believe that our military is spreading freedom and democracy all over the world or policing it and don't know how many governments the CIA has overthrown starting with Syria in 1949.
The comments I read on certain topics would be funny to read if they didn't point out how naive people are.
And everyone is now buying that Putin and Russia are the bad guys in Syria, Ukraine and Crimea.

I thought they were still deciding whether to arm them with the TOW missles.
Yep, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?
But what makes me the most upset is those that make these decisions have no empathy for the people caught between all these forces!
ETA Thanks for the link to the wiki page. Great information.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

solublefish's picture

"why aren't more people aware that we have done all those things"...

Because they are not taught it. Americans have notoriously short memories for facts; and the media is terrible at placing things into historical context: raw emotion is so much better for ratings, and context takes work, which most TV reporters are 1. too uneducated and 2. too busy/lazy/discouraged to pursue.

For some years now, I have been giving my students in Modern US history classes the book All the Shah's Men (by Steven Kinzer) - a book which details the 1953 US coup of Iranian PM Mohamed Mossadegh - a democratically elected leader of a parliamentary democracy, mind you. Invariably, to a person, they are completely unaware that any such event ever occurred. Nor do they know about the 1954 coup in Guatemala; nor that Vietnam War was utterly illegal, the 'nation' of South Vietnam a fiction of our devising, etc etc. As far as they know, the Cold War was all about Good Americans fighting for liberty against Bad Commies - pure unadulterated propaganda.

And these are just the superficial phenomenon: what my students are REALLY ignorant of is the underlying economic and social structures that bring these events to life. They have little conception of the nature and role of CLASS or RACE in the history of the US (or any other nation); they have no conception of Empire and the forms it has taken historically under the aegis of Europeans and Americans since the 1500s, etc.

And so OF COURSE, like the vast majority of Americans - including the idiot media - when they see strange looking people attacking US interests or personnel with actual weapons, they can only think "what evil bastards, what did we ever do to them?" Their conclusion is thoroughly rational - given what they know - and completely wrong.

And so it goes: another generation signs up to be cannon fodder for a tiny group of wealthy elites who make money from every bullet fired, every drop of oil drawn out of the desert, etc.

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Short of that, I would greatly appreciate a diary (or whatever it is called here), with a class reading list.

If you don't have the time, a reading list in a comment would work as well. Thanks.

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elenacarlena's picture

well aware of what's really going on with our country.

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

Roger Fox's picture

Thats so Bill Clinton like. So now we have gone full circle. Or was it Ronald Reagan?

Conspiracy theorists have alleged that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were beneficiaries of CIA assistance. This is refuted by experts such as Steve Coll—who notes that declassified CIA records and interviews with CIA officers do not support such claims—and Peter Bergen, who concludes: "The theory that bin Laden was created by the CIA is invariably advanced as an axiom with no supporting evidence."[9][34] U.S. funding went to the Afghan mujahideen, not the Arab volunteers who arrived to assist them

And the difference was?.......

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

thanatokephaloides's picture

declassified CIA records and interviews with CIA officers do not support such claims

That's almost certainly because the records and CIA officers' memories which do "support such claims" are still classified....

Sad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

was, the Arab volunteers were not allowed to fire any of the weapons we gave the mujahideen. They could look at them and even carry them around but when a Russian helicopter came close in they had to give the Stinger they were carrying to the nearest Afghan so he could fire it.....or some shit like this they'd want you to believe...

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elenacarlena's picture

to the Arab volunteers who were assisting them.

The difference being direct versus indirect support, I suppose.

The first time I listened to this Jill Stein video I wondered, "WTF? She sounds crazy." But she has had their number. I fact checked it then and see more and more evidence all the time.

http://caucus99percent.com/content/video-news-open-thread-jill-hill-trum...

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

GreatLakeSailor's picture

...I'd get thrown in an off-the-books hole (see 1021/1022 of NDAA 2012) never to be heard from again.

That's some Exceptionalism right there.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

You see all of the U.S. "vetted" TOW recipients have to video tape every time they use a TOW and turn said tape over to the U.S. gov, now not every single TOW has been used on a major AQ offensive, but every single major AQ offensive has had one of the U.S. vetted militias fighting right along with AQ using TOWs. Again it had to be video taped, is was getting embarrassing because the militias would post the shit to YouTube, that's why the U.S. rolled back the program, but not financial and other weapons support.

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Solidarity forever

how did it go? "When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be true" is it?
It is impossible TPTB don't know genocide is certain to follow the overthrow of Assad. That, as with bin Laden, we are setting the stage for jihadis turning what we give them on the US, Europe, and the entire "arc of instability."
Therefore, these are desired outcomes.
In short we've got monsters and lunatics deciding foreign policy, and there is nothing of good from their efforts for the USA nor anyone not enthralled to their evil and madness.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

Amanda Matthews's picture

It's thousands of miles away from their mansions, golf courses, and country clubs. But, they're preparing for the future.

***
Billionaire Bunkers: Exclusive Look Inside the World's Largest Planned Doomsday Escape

Vivos founder and CEO Robert Vicino announced Vivos Europa One which will be an invitation only, five star, underground survival complex, similar to an underground cruise ship for the elite. Each family will be provided a private 2,500 square foot of floor area, capable of two story improvements for a total of 5,000 square feet of private living quarters. With fit and finish comparable to a mega-yacht, each member family will hire their own architect and contractor to build out their living quarters to the custom standard they desire.

The expansive shelter is located in Germany and is one of the most fortified and massive underground survival shelters on Earth. Originally built by the Soviets during the Cold War, this shelter was a fortress for military equipment and munitions. After the DDR was merged with Germany, the German government inherited this relic and intended to use it for the same purpose of weapons storage. However, due to a law prohibiting the storage of ammunition near a major highway, the German Government soon realized they could not continue with their plans and decided to auction this 76 acre complex. A wealthy investor purchased the entire property, along with all of its improvements, both above and below ground. Vicino says “We are proud to bring this epic project forward in these increasingly dangerous times.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2015/06/12/billionaire-bunkers-exc...

***
EDIT: Strange extraneous stuff showed up. Took it out.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

solublefish's picture

Very glad you posted this. Of course, this is not the first time that the US has supported the 'terrorists' (Islamic fundamentalism) in the region: we have done so as a deliberate matter of policy since the 1950s, in order to prevent the rise of strongly nationalist anti-colonial states determined to control their own resources for the benefit of their own people. Please read Robert Dreyfuss' Devil's Game for details. And if anyone here knows a better primer than that on the historical role and consequences of US actions in the Mid East, please tell me! I will want to read it.

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Bisbonian's picture

about giving shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles to Al Queda.

But the bigger, and more likely threat is that they shoot down a Russian military jet over Syria. With our missiles.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Starting to think that TPTB are kinda eager to see North America vaporized in some highly radioactive fashion. The other countries of the world won't wait to be picked off/nuked one at a time...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.