CIA-Armed “Moderates” VS Pentagon-Armed “Moderates”

Clearly, handing out guns to all and sundry, as long as they’re willing to depose Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, isn’t such a great idea. The L.A. Times recently reported on a peculiar example of one Syrian “moderate” opposition facing off against another “moderate” rebel group – one armed and supplied by the Pentagon… and the other armed and supplied by the CIA.

L.A. Times:

“CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other while maneuvering through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.”

“In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.”

Knights V. Democrats? This has a Batman V. Superman plot written all over it, aside from the names having absolutely no bearing on their abilities, or ideology.

“This is a complicated, multi-sided war where our options are severely limited,” a U.S. official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told the Times. “We know we need a partner on the ground. We can’t defeat ISIL without that part of the equation, so we keep trying to forge those relationships.”

So much for properly “vetting” your candidates… the Pentagon and the CIA can’t even figure out if the groups they support will attack Assad, ISIS or each other… let alone confirm their ideological leanings… and they’re desperately seeking partners, any partners… they’re just so lonely…

But is this really an example of mistakes being made, or  did it ever really matter to them? Chaos would work just as well as a cohesive “moderate” opposition, which would work just as well as an extremist opposition, as long as it was potent enough to remove Assad.

Indeed, removing Assad is the real priority – we’ve noted before that Wikileaks’ leaked diplomatic cables and Judicial Watch’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) declassified documents have provided strong evidence that the US government had always wanted Assad overthrown, orchestrating the civil war, and recognizing that they were backing extremists from the get-go. For example, the DIA was willing to consider the “the possibility of establishing a declared, or undeclared, Salafist principality in Eastern Syria.”

The DIA doc also noted that  “the Salafist [sic], The Muslim Brotherhood and AQI are major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” and that despite knowing this,”the West, Gulf countries and Turkey” supported them.

AQI is al-Qaeda in Iraq, the branch that would transform into ISIS after consuming parts of Syria, forming the predicted “declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria.”

While some in the mainstream media will claim that the DIA report does not represent official policy, and that only “conspiracy theorists” would think that the US was supporting al-Qaeda (other than that one time it supported the mujaheddin who would become al-Qaeda in their fight against the Soviet Union, and that one time it sent Afghan children extremist-indoctrination textbooks), it does seem awfully coincidental that nearly everything seems to be following the predictions/proposals in the report.

Regardless, intended or “not,” Jeffrey White, a former DIA official who spoke with the L.A. Times says it best. He predicts that the mess will just keep on getting messier.

“Once they cross the border into Syria, you lose a substantial amount of control or ability to control their actions. You certainly have the potential for it becoming a larger problem as people fight for territory and control of the northern border area in Aleppo.” 

In summary, OOPS (again, and again).

Sources:  L.A. Times, Zero Hedge, The Intercept

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