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Pause In CIA Arms Program Has Syrian Rebels Worried
Since at least 2012, the United States has been supporting armed groups trying to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. It has always been a difficult alliance because many of the rebel groups have ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. The program has principally been run by the CIA.In 2013, President Barack Obama waived a provision of the Arms Export Control Act that prevented arming terrorist organizations in order to arm Syrian rebels. Nonetheless, the weapons fell into Al Qaeda’s hands, first by accident, then on purpose after some marketing. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly bashed the program and said, "We have no idea who these people are." He suggested the government was arming people who may see the U.S. as an enemy. A recent pause in the program has many rebels worried that the CIA has gotten new orders from President Trump. According to Reuters, the program has been frozen since January after one rebel faction known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) came under attack by the more dominant Al Qaeda-linked group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as the Al Nusra Front). The FSA has repeatedly proved to be a (seemingly unwilling) source of new weapons for Al Qaeda. Previous U.S. weapons given to FSA quickly fell into the hands of Al Qaeda-linked rebels when FSA fighters abandoned them on the battlefield. Beyond the FSA’s forced donations to Al Qaeda’s war chest are its new conscious alliances. The FSA has now aligned with a rival Islamist rebel group backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, known as Ahrar al-Sham. Though not Al Qaeda or ISIS-linked, al-Sham is also a Sunni jihadist militant group promoting a Salafist ideology. Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 2017-03-02 |
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