So, among the rebel fighters, and prominent among their leadership you have guys who have blown up cars in public places in Iraq and have killed American soldiers too. So, to facilitate what once was called the war on terror, (now it's just the eternal war) "we" contemplate sending weapons to guys who fight shoulder to shoulder with these other guys. AS it is we send "non lethal" stuff like night vision goggles, body armor, etc. Our good friends the Sunni absolute petro monarchs have been sending the stuff that goes "band" and goes "boom". That's so Syria can have a democracy like we don't have (read the constitution and the Declaration of Independence and show me the word "democracy"> You'd be the first to find it in either document.
Among other things the Assad regime was a rendition recipient, meaning the US sent terror suspects to be interrogated by special Syrian methods having to do with stretching people's spines in unpleasant ways. This was believed to help suspects remember things and express them, but violated our notions of "who we are" so had to be assigned to regimes like the Syrians who didn't have these notions of who they were.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/54-countries-rendition/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-tied-to-al-qaeda-play-key-role-in-war.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Money flows to the group, the Nusra Front, from like-minded donors abroad. Its fighters, a small minority of the rebels, have the boldness and skill to storm fortified positions and lead other battalions to capture military bases and oil fields. As their successes mount, they gather more weapons and attract more fighters.
Among other things the Assad regime was a rendition recipient, meaning the US sent terror suspects to be interrogated by special Syrian methods having to do with stretching people's spines in unpleasant ways. This was believed to help suspects remember things and express them, but violated our notions of "who we are" so had to be assigned to regimes like the Syrians who didn't have these notions of who they were.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/54-countries-rendition/
Iran’s proxy Syria did torture on behalf of the United States. The most famous case involves Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen snatched in 2002 by the U.S. at John F. Kennedy International Airport before the CIA sent him to Syria under the mistaken impression he was a terrorist. In Syrian custody, Arar was “imprisoned for more than ten months in a tiny grave-like cell, beaten with cables, and threatened with electric shocks by the Syrian government,” Singh writes.
But it wasn’t just Arar. At least seven others were rendered to Syria. Among their destinations: a prison in west Damascus called the Palestine Branch, which features an area called “the Grave,” comprised of “individual cells that were roughly the size of coffins.” Syrian intelligence reportedly uses something called a “German Chair” to “stretch the spine.” These days the Obama administration prefers to call for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, the murderer of over 60,000 Syrians, to step down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-tied-to-al-qaeda-play-key-role-in-war.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Syrian Rebels Tied to Al Qaeda Play Key Role in War
Sana Handout, via European Pressphoto Agency
In May in Damascus, Syrian workers removed debris from two car bombs that were linked to the Qaeda-backed Nusra Front.
By TIM ARANGO, ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD
Published: December 8, 2012
Multimedia
Money flows to the group, the Nusra Front, from like-minded donors abroad. Its fighters, a small minority of the rebels, have the boldness and skill to storm fortified positions and lead other battalions to capture military bases and oil fields. As their successes mount, they gather more weapons and attract more fighters.
The group is a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi officials and former Iraqi insurgents say, which has contributed veteran fighters and weapons.
“This is just a simple way of returning the favor to our Syrian brothers that fought with us on the lands of Iraq,” said a veteran of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who said he helped lead the Nusra Front’s efforts in Syria.
The United States, sensing that time may be running out for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, hopes to isolate the group to prevent it from inheriting Syria or fighting on after Mr. Assad’s fall to pursue its goal of an Islamic state.
As the United States pushes the Syrian opposition to organize a viable alternative government, it plans to blacklist the Nusra Front as a terrorist organization, making it illegal for Americans to have financial dealings with the group and most likely prompting similar sanctions from Europe. The hope is to remove one of the biggest obstacles to increasing Western support for the rebellion: the fear that money and arms could flow to a jihadi group that could further destabilize Syria and harm Western interests.
When rebel commanders met Friday in Turkey to form a unified command structure at the behest of the United States and its allies, jihadi groups were not invited.
The Nusra Front’s ally, Al Qaeda in Iraq, is the Sunni insurgent group that killed numerous American troops in Iraq and sowed widespread sectarian strife with suicide bombings against Shiites and other religious and ideological opponents. The Iraqi group played an active role in founding the Nusra Front and provides it with money, expertise and fighters, said Maj. Faisal al-Issawi, an Iraqi security official who tracks jihadi activities in Iraq’s Anbar Province.
