Why Washington Took Al-Qaeda in Syria off the Terrorist List [1]
by Daniel McAdams [2]
It might come as a surprise to many Americans that their government does not classify al-Qaeda in Syria as a terrorist organization. The reason it refuses to make the determination would shock them even more.
The Syrian franchise of the organization involved in the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington has long gone by the name Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front), and was sent into Syria by the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Baghdadi went on to launch the rival breakaway group ISIS, while Nusra maintained its status as al-Qaeda’s boots on the ground in the war against the Syrian government.
In 2015 the group decided to re-brand itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham while, as reported [3] by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, continuing to incorporate smaller organizations into its structure. This is one of the reasons for the failure of last year’s cessation of hostilities in Syria: the “moderate” fighters and the legitimate terrorists were so inter-mingled that it was impossible for the US to separate them. But the State Department did not buy into the PR makeover of al-Qaeda and designated al-Sham a terrorist organization as well.
Then, early this year, al-Shams decided on a new rebranding and decided to name itself Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The leader of the new group is the same old leader, and is listed [4] by the US as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” with a $10 million bounty on his head.
But strangely enough, the US has not designated the new organization a terrorist organization even as it warns off other groups seeking to join the newly branded al-Qaeda in Syria.
Why is that?
Again from the Canadian state news agency:
The reasons for the reluctance to list the new al-Qaeda formation may have to do with one of its new members, the Nour ed-Dine Zenki Brigade, a jihadi group from the Aleppo governorate.
The Zenki Brigade was an early and prominent recipient of US aid, weapons, and training. …
For the US to designate HTS now would mean acknowledging that it supplied sophisticated weapons including TOW anti-tank missiles to “terrorists,” and draw attention to the fact that the U.S. continues to arm Islamist militias in Syria.
You read that right: The reason the US cannot designate al-Qaeda in Syria as a terrorist group is because that would make the US legally responsible for having supplied a terrorist group with extremely sophisticated weapons and training. The US is arming and training terrorists in Syria, but instead of just getting out it is pretending that al-Qaeda is not a terrorist organization.
h/t Josh Landis [5]
Written by daniel mcadams [2]
This article was originally published by the RonPaul Institute For Peace and Prosperity [6]. Click the link to access that site.