Nafeez Ahmed
Insurge Intelligence
Anti-ISIS coalition knowingly sponsored violent extremists to ‘isolate’ Assad, rollback ‘Shia expansion’.
This story is published by INSURGE INTELLIGENCE, a new crowd-funded investigative journalism project.
A
declassified secret US government document obtained by the conservative
public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western
governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist
extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
The
document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey,
the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize
Assad, and that these “supporting powers” desired the emergence of a
“Salafist Principality” in Syria to “isolate the Syrian regime.”
According
to the newly declassified US document, the Pentagon foresaw the likely
rise of the ‘Islamic State’ as a direct consequence of this strategy,
and warned that it could destabilize Iraq. Despite anticipating that
Western, Gulf state and Turkish support for the “Syrian
opposition” — which included al-Qaeda in Iraq — could lead to the
emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the document
provides no indication of any decision to reverse the policy of support
to the Syrian rebels. On the contrary, the emergence of an al-Qaeda
affiliated “Salafist Principality” as a result is described as a
strategic opportunity to isolate Assad.
Hypocrisy
The
revelations contradict the official line of Western governments on
their policies in Syria, and raise disturbing questions about secret
Western support for violent extremists abroad, while using the
burgeoning threat of terror to justify excessive mass surveillance and
crackdowns on civil liberties at home.
The
DIA provides military intelligence in support of planners, policymakers
and operations for the US Department of Defense and intelligence
community.
So
far, media reporting has focused on the evidence that the Obama
administration knew of arms supplies from a Libyan terrorist stronghold
to rebels in Syria.
Some
outlets have reported the US intelligence community’s internal
prediction of the rise of ISIS. Yet none have accurately acknowledged
the disturbing details exposing how the West knowingly fostered a
sectarian, al-Qaeda-driven rebellion in Syria.
Charles Shoebridge, a former British Army and Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism intelligence officer, said:
“Given
the political leanings of the organisation that obtained these
documents, it’s unsurprising that the main emphasis given to them thus
far has been an attempt to embarrass Hilary Clinton regarding what was
known about the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in 2012. However,
the documents also contain far less publicized revelations that raise
vitally important questions of the West’s governments and media in their
support of Syria’s rebellion.”
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