{"id":95063,"date":"2017-07-10T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=95063"},"modified":"2017-07-05T12:57:47","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T11:57:47","slug":"how-al-qaeda-became-an-american-ally-in-the-war-on-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/07\/how-al-qaeda-became-an-american-ally-in-the-war-on-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"How al-Qaeda Became an American Ally in \u2018The War on Terror\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 16 years since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, the United States is inexplicably finding itself in bed with al-Qaeda, its alleged sworn enemy. The group\u2019s efforts to terrorize the population of Syria have been rewarded with U.S. arms, training and other military aid. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Members of al-Nusra Front gesture as they drive in a convoy touring villages in the southern countryside of Syria\u2019s Idlib province, Decembe, 2014.
(Photo: Khalil Ashawi\/Reuters)<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Jul 2017 – <\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>Despite ostensibly being the United States\u2019 \u201cPublic Enemy No. 1\u201d following the 9\/11 attacks, the international terror group al-Qaeda has instead been a beneficiary of U.S. military aid in the post-9\/11 world, particularly in Syria. With the Syrian conflict well into its sixth year, al-Qaeda\u2019s active branch in that war, widely known as Jabhat al-Nusra or the al-Nusra Front, has continually received arms and military protection from the United States, an outcome that is clearly counterproductive to the U.S.\u2019 global \u201cWar on Terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, while the arming and propping up of al-Qaeda in Syria may not serve the U.S.\u2019 fundamental goal of eradicating terrorism, it certainly has helped the U.S. political establishment pursue a decades-old goal of regime change in regionally strategic Syria.<\/p>\n

Gareth Porter, an award-winning independent investigative journalist, and historian told MintPress News that such tactics are part of the U.S. government\u2019s long-standing \u201cbureaucratic habit of mind that really privileges short-term advantages against state adversaries over the long term, fundamental interests of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this case, U.S. counter-terrorism efforts have been usurped by the government\u2019s broader geopolitical interests in reshaping the Middle East. While Washington politicians and bureaucrats may be content with having helped extend Syria\u2019s \u201ccivil war\u201d to their benefit and the benefit of their allies, this reality has had the ugly consequence of the U.S. willfully sponsoring terrorists who torture civilians to death<\/a>, regularly conduct mass executions, kidnap children and mutilate the bodies of their victims.<\/p>\n

U.S. funneled Libyan arms, chemical weapons to \u201crebels\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S.\u2019 arming of al-Nusra began when the conflict in Syria was in its infancy. In September 2011, the Obama administration began providing logistical assistance to anti-Assad forces \u2013 namely the Free Syrian Army, Syrian Revolutionaries Front, the Democratic Forces of Syria and related groups \u2013 who were then supported by U.S. allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. These groups received an estimated $1 billion<\/a> from the CIA every year from 2012 until the program was scaled back in 2015. In addition, the U.S. government gave another $500 million<\/a> to the \u201crebels\u201d in 2014 which was intended to train thousands of opposition fighters \u2013 an operation that turned out to be remarkably ineffective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Syrian rebels aim during a weapons training exercise outside Idlib, Syria. (AP Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

A year later, the CIA initiated weapon shipments to these foreign-funded \u201crebels\u201d by funneling weapons<\/a> that once belonged to the fallen Gaddafi regime in Libya to anti-government militias in Syria.<\/p>\n

As Gareth Porter details in his recent piece \u201cHow America Armed Terrorists in Syria<\/a>,\u201d the CIA continued to connect U.S. regional allies directly arming the opposition with weapons from Libya and former Soviet bloc countries, resulting in an estimated 8,000 tons of weapons being poured into Syria in less than four months, from December 2012 to mid-March 2013. The quantity of weapons that flooded into Syria from 2011 until that time undoubtedly dwarfs this figure.<\/p>\n

In addition, the U.S. secured more than just conventional arms being shipped to Syria. For instance, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh exposed<\/a> how the Gaddafi regime\u2019s chemical weapon stores were also sent to foreign-backed opposition forces in Syria, including sarin gas. Hersh has suggested that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the chemical weapon transfers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Israel Accepts Billions from the US, but Maintains Ties with Al-Nusra<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the U.S. was not directly arming al-Nusra specifically at this time, the terror group\u2019s effectiveness at combating the Syrian government, along with their ruthlessness, quickly made them the darlings of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who were funding the \u201crebels\u201d with their own money and with U.S. assistance.<\/p>\n

By late 2012, the U.S. was well-aware that most of the arms it was sending into the country were going to Syria\u2019s al-Qaeda offshoot. As the New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> in October 2012, U.S. officials acknowledged off the record that \u201cmost\u201d of the arms shipped to Syrian \u201crebels\u201d with U.S. support had ended up in the hands of \u201chardline Islamic jihadists.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, internal government communications reveal that the government knew that such \u201cjihadists\u201d were al-Nusra. A now-declassified U.S. government internal report<\/a> from 2012 stated that the \u201cthe Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria.\u201d However, no efforts were taken to halt the U.S.-supported flow of arms to such groups, which continued years after this surprisingly frank admission.<\/p>\n

Other evidence from that same year has suggested that this \u201coversight\u201d was intentional. For instance, a 2012 email<\/a> written by Jacob Sullivan and sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that \u201cAQ [al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria,\u201d implying a tacit alliance of sorts between the U.S. government and known terrorist elements that dominated the Syrian armed opposition.<\/p>\n

Download the PDF file<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the true nature of the foreign-funded opposition being well-known to U.S. officials, the arming of these so-called \u201crebel\u201d groups only became more rampant in the years that followed, with the U.S. supplying them<\/a> with heavy weaponry, such as anti-tank missiles<\/a> and anti-aircraft weapons<\/a>, while also providing them with training<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The advantage of such substantial support from the U.S. and its regional allies has only led to the rapid growth and strengthening of al-Nusra, enabling them to out-compete and eventually absorb nearly all groups belonging to the U.S.-backed \u201cmoderate rebels\u201d active within Syria.<\/p>\n

As al-Nusra\u2019s influence grew, many \u201cmoderate\u201d groups who shared similar ideas began to work alongside the terror group and eventually became part of it or directly allied with it. Among the first to do so were U.S.-supported groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam, whose cooperation and close relationship with al-Nusra has been documented<\/a> by the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).<\/p>\n

But the U.S. had no complaints when Jaysh al-Islam led the Syrian opposition<\/a> at peace talks in Geneva in 2016. In addition, the U.S. has consistently refused<\/a> to add al-Nusra collaborators to the UN terrorist list, prompting some journalists to call<\/a> such a refusal an \u201cunwitting U.S. admission\u201d regarding who really leads the \u201crebellion\u201d in Syria.<\/p>\n

According to the Russian Defense Ministry<\/a>, the vast majority of Syrian opposition groups supported by the U.S. form \u201can integral part\u201d of al-Nusra front. Even the mainstream press in the United States has admitted that most \u201crebel\u201d groups have been overtaken by al-Nusra. For instance, in February, the Washington Post<\/em> quoted<\/a> an official with the U.S.-backed Fastaqim rebel group as saying \u201cAl-Qaeda is eating us\u201d and that al-Qaeda\u2019s influence and power led his group chose to join the al-Nusra affiliated group Ahrar al-Sham.<\/p>\n

As University of Oklahoma Center for Middle East Studies Director Joshua Landis told Sputnik last year<\/a>: \u201cThe United States has placed itself in a very difficult situation because many of the rebel groups that it wants to become principal holders of state power in Syria work hand and glove with Al-Qaeda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporting al-Qaeda from the shadows<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the arming of Syrian \u201crebels\u201d that are either members of or affiliated with al-Nusra should be controversial enough, the U.S. government has also managed to aid the terror group in other ways, offering them protection and covert tools to bolster their ranks.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department and the U.S. military have long justified<\/a> the presence of U.S. military personnel and assets within Syria as being directly aimed at fighting terrorists within that nation, namely Daesh (ISIS). However, on repeated occasions, the U.S. has worked to protect al-Nusra by asking the Russian military<\/a> and Syrian government to avoid targeting the terror group.<\/p>\n

Such requests have led Russia to call the U.S.\u2019 commitment to fighting al-Nusra into question, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating in October<\/a> last year that the Russian government \u201cdoesn\u2019t see any facts that the U.S. is seriously battling al-Nusra.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A Jabhat al-Nusra fighter talks on a radio while carrying his weapon in the front line of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, May, 2014. (Photo: Hamid Khatib\/Reuters)<\/p><\/div>\n

However, the words of al-Nusra members themselves paint an even more disturbing picture of direct U.S. involvement in aiding the group. In an interview<\/a> with German newspaper Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger<\/em>, an al-Nusra unit commander named Abu Al Ezz stated that when al-Nusra was under siege from the Syrian and Russian governments that \u201cwe had officers from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and America here\u2026Experts in the use of satellites, rockets, reconnaissance, and thermal security cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to confirm the presence of U.S. instructors within its ranks, Al Ezz replied \u201cthe Americans are on our side,\u201d echoing a 2012 email exchange between Hillary Clinton and her advisor Jacob Sullivan regarding al-Qaeda in Syria.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this explains why the \u201cStop Arming Terrorists Act\u201d introduced by Hawaiian Democratic Senator Tulsi Gabbard, which would bar federal agencies from using taxpayer-backed funds to provide weapons, training or any other type of support to terrorist cells such as al-Qaeda, Daesh or any other group associated with them, was only supported by 2 percent<\/a> of U.S. congressmen.<\/p>\n

U.S.\u2019 history of flirting with terrorist groups for geopolitical gain<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the strategy of arming al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists and extremists in Syria may seem bizarre, it is actually part of a long-standing U.S. government practice that led to the terror group\u2019s founding in the first place. Indeed, al-Qaeda is the textbook example of the U.S. creating and arming a terror group for political purposes.<\/p>\n

Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the U.S. government sent billions of dollars in military aid<\/a> to the mujahideen in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-supported \u201cjihad\u201d against the Soviet Union. These extremist fighters, led by Osama bin Laden, would soon become known as al-Qaeda. Gareth Porter told MintPress that the creation of al-Qaeda under the Reagan administration \u201cset the precedent for the U.S. to support jihadi forces where and when it is deemed to serve broader U.S. political and diplomatic aims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ronald Reagan meeting in the White House with leaders of the Afghan mujahideen, which would later morph into al-Qaeda .March, 1985.<\/p><\/div>\n

Years later, al-Qaeda\u2019s relationship with the U.S. is best described as a love-hate affair. As Garikai Chengu wrote<\/a> in Counterpunch<\/em> in 2014: \u201cDepending on whether a particular al-Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, al-Qaeda is just one example of the U.S.\u2019 aiding and abetting of terror groups in order to realize broader geopolitical aims targeting \u201cenemies\u201d of the U.S. political establishment. Latin America, for instance, is rife with examples of how the U.S. trained and funded terror groups to destabilize or topple leftist governments, particularly in Nicaragua<\/a> and El Salvador<\/a> in the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n

Colombia is another example that bares an uncanny resemblance to the U.S.\u2019 policy in the Syrian conflict. Colombia, the U.S.\u2019 closest ally in South America, has received over $4 billion<\/a> in U.S. military assistance since 2000. Much of that assistance has gone to elements of the military \u2013 including right-wing paramilitary groups \u2013 that the U.S. State Department had \u201cvetted\u201d and \u201cdetermined had complied with human rights requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

While that vetting was taking place, Colombia reported a surge in the Colombian military murdering civilians in cold blood, resulting in 329 civilians killed in 2007. The Los Angeles Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that 47 percent of those murders had been conducted by the very army units previously \u201cvetted\u201d by the State Department.<\/p>\n

Iraq is another example where, for civilians, the line between \u201crebel\u201d terrorist and \u201carmy\u201d terrorist is becoming increasingly thin. There, the U.S. recently doubled down, promising to continue sending aid to elements of the Iraqi Security Forces that have documented carrying out human rights violations and war crimes. Many of the more notorious units within the Iraqi Security Forces were trained by<\/a> former U.S. special forces operative James Steele, who first made a name for himself training U.S.-backed paramilitary forces that terrorized El Salvador in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The U.S.\u2019 well-documented history of supporting and using terror groups to fulfill geopolitical goals is so convincing that even Lt. General William Odom, director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, has noted that<\/a> \u201cBy any measure, the U.S. has long used terrorism. In \u201878-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism \u2013 in every version they produced, the lawyers said the U.S. would be in violation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, little has changed, especially given the true nature of U.S. involvement with the \u201cmoderate\u201d opposition in Syria. Now, the Trump administration has taken to inventing chemical attacks to blame on the Syrian government before they even happen<\/a>, again hoping to justify Western intervention in Syria. The timing couldn\u2019t be better, as only Western intervention<\/a> is guaranteed to save Syria\u2019s struggling al-Qaeda \u201crebels\u201d and create the next failed state in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Whitney Webb is a<\/em> MintPress contributor who has written for several news organizations in both English and Spanish; her stories have been featured on<\/em> ZeroHedge, the Anti-Media, 21st Century Wire, and<\/em> True Activist among others – she currently resides in Southern Chile.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mintpressnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 16 years since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, the United States is inexplicably finding itself in bed with al-Qaeda, its alleged sworn enemy. The group\u2019s efforts to terrorize the population of Syria have been rewarded with U.S. arms, training and other military aid. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}