Notice al-Qaeda standing in the USAID tent. This picture sums up Obama foreign policy in a nutshell.
What is the response from the Obama administration? State Department
official: This just shows the necessity of helping the “rebels”.
Unbelievable.
From The Blaze:
Terrorist fighters with an Al
Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria seized weapons and other supplies meant
for the secular Syrian Supreme Military Council, U.S. State Department
and other western officials confirmed to TheBlaze.
According to reports from Syria, small
arms and ammunition stashed at a warehouse located along the border town
of Azaz supplied by Saudi Arabia and Qatar were taken more than a week
ago by the Al Qaeda affiliate.
A State Department official with
knowledge of the incident confirmed to TheBlaze that U.S. ready-to-eat
meals, known as MREs, and other non-lethal supplies were taken by
fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. The
group is extremely dangerous and threatened this month to “cleanse”
towns along the border of any secular Muslims and pro-western opposition
groups, according to reports.
“We can confirm that ISIS has seized
control of a warehouse containing a small number of U.S. MREs intended
for the Supreme Military Council,” a State Department official told
TheBlaze.
The clashes between the Free Syrian
Army and the Al Qaeda affiliate in the town of Azaz, where the supplies
were stolen from, “illustrates how vitally important it is that we
continue to provide assistance to moderate opposition forces who share
our deep concerns over the threat that extremists pose to the
communities within Syria and to their country’s future,” the official
said.
In an interview with TheBlaze’s TV “For The Record,”
Free Syrian Army ground commander Col. Riad El Asaad said his men would
fight Al Qaeda factions that have penetrated Syria. El Asaad said he
and many of his men are targets of the foreign Al Qaeda factions in his
country.
The State Department official said that
despite “extensive vetting to mitigate the risk,” non-lethal assistance
can end up in the hands of unintended recipients, such as terrorist
groups.
“We continually stress the importance
of all countries channeling non-lethal assistance through [the Syrian
Opposition Coalition] and [the Supreme Military Council],” the official
added. “We are working with our allies to marginalize terrorist
organizations and prevent material support from outside the country
reaching these groups.”
Still, deciphering between opposition forces and terrorist groups is not simple.
James Carafano, a senior defense
analyst, with the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
said the administration’s failure to handle the Syrian crisis early on
has led to major failures in current policy.
“The administration is essentially
managed to be fueling both (Syria President Bashar Al) Assad’s regime
and the terrorist groups in this civil war simultaneously,” Carafano
said. “We’re strengthening Assad’s hand and we’re sending non-lethal aid
— which is supposed to be aiding the secular fighters — and watching it
get funneled into the hands of the terrorists.”
According to a report from the Long War Journal website,
two brigades with the Free Syrian Army that operate in Syria’s Raqqah
province have joined the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant,
the other major Al Qaeda group in Syria.
The Raqqah Revolutionaries Brigade and
the God’s Victory Brigade abandoned their secular command and pledged
loyalty to the Al Nusrah last week, Reuters reported.
The Raqqah Revolutionaries Brigade is
believed to have more than 700 fighters in its ranks.
According to the
Long War Journal, the “size of the God’s Victory Brigade, which
announced its merger with the Al Nusrah Front on Facebook, was not
disclosed, but it is said to have 15 battalions.” Those battalions can
have dozens to hundreds of fighters, according to the website.
Earlier this week, TheBlaze reported on a photo
of ISIS-linked Commander Muhajireen Kavkaz wa Sham, who along with
other rebels, appeared to be donning battle gear and a rocket-propelled
grenade inside a U.S. Agency for International Development tent.
“It looks like they got the tent from
the raid on the depot,” said a U.S. official, who asked not to be named
due to the nature of their work. “It’s not surprising – it happens in
war zones – bad guys sometimes get their hands on weapons not intended
for them.”
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