We’ve reported on how the Obama administration has been secretly arming Syrian jihadists since 2012. Now reports are coming out that the Central Intelligence Agency, headed by Muslim John Brennan, has been delivering light machine guns (something the Obama administration does not want in the hands of ordinary Americans) and other small arms to Syrian rebels for weeks. This is the same agency that wants to keep their operative’s mouths shut and threatening them and their families if they testify about the jihadist attack in Benghazi.
According to the Associated Press:
The agency has also arranged for the Syrian opposition to receive anti-tank weaponry like rocket-propelled grenades through a third party, presumably one of the Gulf countries that has been arming the rebels, a senior U.S. intelligence official and two former intelligence officials said Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified program publicly.
…take our poll - story continues belowCompleting this poll grants you access to DC Clothesline updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.The officials said the aid has been arriving for more than a month, much of it delivered through a third party, which could explain why the rebel commander Idris does not believe the U.S. directly delivered the aid. The officials said the aid is delivered to commanders who have been vetted by the CIA, and the path of the weaponry is tracked through trusted parties within the country — though eventually, once they’re in the hands of fighters, the U.S. loses sight of where the weapons go.
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The CIA program is classified as covert, which means it would be briefed to Congress’s intelligence committees but not its defense committees. That explains why some senior lawmakers on the defense committees have complained the lethal aid was not arriving, two of the officials said.
Rebels are denying that they are receiving aid (as if they would admit it). Rebel commander General Salim Idris told NPR that no such aid had been provided, and the CIA declined to comment.
The rebels have requested quite bit of aid from the US, including anti-aircraft. Officials say they don’t want such arms in the hands of the Syrians, believing that they might fall into the hands of al-Qaeda, which I’ll remind you are part of the factions that make up the Syrian rebels.
The Washington Post said that the shipments of light weapons and other munitions “can be tracked.” This immediately raises a red flag with the current administration who failed to track any of the nearly 2,500 weapons they authorized to walk across the southern border of the United States. Wait, one ATF agent did make a homemade tracker and used a 40 hour battery. I guess these weapons being sent to Syrian rebels are in capable hands, and we’ll be able to keep our eyes on them, right?
Beyond that, the Post also reports non-lethal gear to the rebels as well. That aid includes vehicles, sophisticated communications equipment and advanced combat medical kits.
However, on page three of the WAPO report the claims of Mark S. Ward, the State Department’s senior adviser on assistance to Syria, who coordinates nonlethal aid to rebels from southern Turkey.
“We feel we’re able to get these local councils off to a good start,” said Ward, a veteran U.S. Agency for International Development official who has worked in Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “We vet individuals who are getting our assistance to make sure they are not affiliated with terror organizations.”
The assistance to local communities includes training in municipal management as well as basic infrastructure such as garbage trucks, ambulances and firetrucks. The areas receiving this aid are carefully selected, U.S. officials said, noting that extremist groups, including Jabhat al-Nusra, are delivering services to communities newly under rebel control.
“If you see new firetrucks and ambulances in places where al-Nusra is trying to win hearts and minds, this might not be a coincidence,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to explain details of a sensitive strategy.
The initiatives are part of a $250 million effort to support moderate factions of the Syrian opposition. Of that, the United States has earmarked $26.6 million in aid for the Supreme Military Council. The delivery that began this week does not include items that the rebels have long identified as priorities: night-vision goggles and body armor.
So Ward is telling us that Jabhat al-Nusra along with other jihadist groups is delivering services to communities under rebel control. They aren’t being stopped. They are being encouraged, and Ward tells the American taxpayer that we are going to send tens of millions of dollars to those that put up drawings like the one below where jihadists are marching on Washington.
The American people and Congress should be up in arms about this treasonous spending of taxpayer money.
Tim Brown is the Editor of Freedom Outpost and a regular contributor to The D.C. Clothesline.
