From FOIA records on secret memos in 2012 .. no surprise to me as that was my analysis all along. Question to be asked, why is U.S. Congress spending time on Benghazi deaths and not on the failure of policy in Syria and costs in human lives of regime change!
In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.”
Amazingly, Michael Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question–Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”
EXCERPTS FROM DIA MEMO – 2012 [links added are mine – Oui]
8. THE EFFECTS ON IRAQ
A. < B L A N K > SYRIAN REGIME BORDER FORCES
RETREATED FROM THE BORDER AND THE OPPOSITION FORCES (SYRIAN FREE
ARMY) TOOK OVER THE POSTS AND RAISED THEIR FLAG. THE IRAQI BORDER
GUARD FORCES ARE FACING A BORDER WITH SYRIA THAT IS NOT GUARDED BY
OFFICIAL ELEMENTS WHICH PRESENTS A DANGEROUS AND SERIOUS THREAT.B. THE OPPOSITION FORCES WILL TRY TO USE THE IRAQI TERRITORY AS A
SAFE HAVEN FOR ITS FORCES TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE SYMPATHY OF THE
IRAQI BORDER POPULATION, MEANWHILE TRYING TO RECRUIT FIGHTERS AND
TRAIN THEM ON THE IRAQI SIDE, IN ADDITION TO HARBORING REFUGEES
(SYRIA).C. IF THE SITUATION UNRAVELS THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING
A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA
(HASAKA AND DER ZOR) AND THIS IS EXACTLY WAHT THE SUPPORTING POWERS
TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME, WHICH
IS CONSIDERED THE STRATEGIC DEPTH OF THE SHIA EXPANSION (IRAQ AND
IRAN).D. THE DETERIORATION OF THE SITUATION HAS DIRE CONSEQUENCES ON THE
IRAQI SITUATION AND ARE AS FOLLOWS:–1. THIS CREATES THE IDEAL ATMOSPHERE FOR AQI TO RETURN TO ITS OLD
POCKETS IN MOSUL AND RAMADI, AND PROVIDE A RENEWED MOMENTUM
UNDER THE PRESUMPTION OF UNIFYING THE JIHAD AMONG SUNNI IRAQ AND
SYRIA, AND THE REST OF THE SUNNIS IN THE ARAB WORLD AGAINST WHAT IT
CONSIDERS ONE ENEMY, THE DISSENTERS. ISI COULD ALSO DECLARE AN
ISLAMIC STATE THROUGH ITS UNION WITH OTHER TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN
IRAQ AND SYRIA, WHICH WILL CREATE GRAVE SANGER IN REGARDS TO UNIFYING
IRAQ AND THE PROTECTION OF ITS TERRITORY.
- ○ Washington Confesses to Backing “Questionable Actors” in Syria | New Eastern Outlook | by Tony Cartalucci
