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Russian airstrike in Syria targeted U.S.-backed rebels, U.S. officials say

Oct 1, 2015 11:45 am By Robert Spencer

Because the mainstream media hates Putin (not entirely without cause) and will do anything to prop up Barack Obama, it is presenting this as a manifestation of Russian perfidy. It may be that, but the fact is that these US-backed Syria rebels are al-Qaeda. Former Defense Intelligence Agency director Michael Flynn recently confirmed that the Obama Administration knowingly decided to support al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, and directly enabled the rise of the Islamic State. The rebels are not by any stretch of the imagination “moderates”: they’re pro-Sharia Islamic jihad terrorists. Remember, the Obama Administration spent $500 million to find and train “moderates” in Syria, and could only come up with fifty trainees.

Britain US Russia Ukraine

“Russian Airstrike in Syria Targeted CIA-Backed Rebels, U.S. Officials Say,” by Dion Nissenbaum, Adam Entous, Nathan Hodge and Sam Dagher, Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2015 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Russia launched airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday, catching U.S. and Western officials off guard and drawing new condemnation as evidence suggested Moscow wasn’t targeting extremist group Islamic State, but rather other opponents of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The arrival of Russian warplanes and helicopter gunships catapulted the Syrian crisis to a new level of danger and uncertainty. Moscow’s entry means the world’s most powerful militaries—including the U.S., Britain and France—now are flying uncoordinated combat missions, heightening the risk of conflict in the skies over Syria.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Russia’s approach to the Syrian war—defending Mr. Assad while ostensibly targeting extremists—was tantamount to “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

“I have been dealing with them for a long time. And this is not the kind of behavior that we should expect professionally from the Russian military,” Mr. Carter said, in a Pentagon news conference.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and said he raised U.S. concerns about attacks that target regime opponents other than Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. In Syria’s multi-sided war, Mr. Assad’s military—aided by Iran and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah—is fighting both Islamic State and opposition rebel groups, some of which are supported by the U.S. and its allies.

Mr. Kerry said the U.S. and Russia need to hold military talks as soon as possible and Mr. Lavrov said he agreed.

The U.S. and its allies were angry at the Russians on many scores: that they are supporting Mr. Assad; that they aren’t coordinating their actions with the existing, U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition; that they provided terse notice only an hour before their operations; that they demanded the U.S. coalition stay out of Syrian airspace; and that they struck in areas where anti-Assad rebels—not Islamic State—operate.

“It does appear that they were in areas where there probably were not ISIL forces, and that is precisely one of the problems with this whole approach,” said Mr. Carter, the U.S. defense chief.

The combination of unpredictable, unilateral action that flouted Western exhortations posed an unmistakable resemblance to Ukraine, where Mr. Putin moved to annex the Crimea region and has defied international demands to halt its support for separatists….

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Filed Under: Al-Qaeda, Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Moderate Muslims, Russia, Syria Tagged With: Bashar Assad, John Kerry, Sergei Lavrov


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Comments

  1. Don McKellar says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    A simple bit of logical deduction:

    Al Qeda is an Islamic terrorist group.

    Al Qeda comited Sept 11/01 and many other deadly jihad attacks on the US, declaring themselves at war with the United States.

    Obama ordered support for Al Qeda “rebels” who are fighting Asad.

    Asad has never declared war on the United States or made any attacks or threats to the United States.

    Russia has attacked Al Qeda, an enemy at war with the United States — whom the United States has armed and backed.

    The U.S. and its allies were angry at the Russians.

    OKAY…

    Trying to compute this one…

    AHAH! I get it now! This is MOSLEM LOGIC! Barack Obama is using MOSLEM LOGIC as his foreign policy! The mystery has been solved for me. Now it’s going to be EASY to understand Obama and his insane backwards flip-flopping foreign policy — he’s using moslem logic!

    • Angemon says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 12:44 pm

      And a bit of commie logic: “you see, we can have a nice utopia where people of all races and ideologies can hold hands and share a meal – as long as it’s not pork because it’s offensive to muslims, or beef because it’s offensive to hindus, or meat because it’s offensive to vegetarians – and the only thing separating us from PerfectLaLaLand is the mean, old, stinky Assad. We must get rid of him for the greater good – and given the goal we’re trying to achieve I say screw laws and proceedings because the ends justify the means.”

  2. ich says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    “Obama ordered support for Al Qeda “rebels”

    I guess now the liberals cant whine about republicans doing the same thing

    Liberal , Conservative who cares
    They are all politicians.

    Hard to trust any of them

  3. Victor Redlick says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    So that’s two Russian sorties for the price of borscht.
    Crimea deja vu .Putin gets to physically attack America’s necessary interests in toppling his Syrian ally, Assad, and rendering the US immobile; and combined with that, firing a missile right at Obama’s unworthy community-organizer to president head; letting it be known to one and all that the weak American eagle has submitted to the great Russian bear.

    • Jay Boo says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 9:46 pm

      Wrong
      The American eagle has not submitted to the great Russian bear.

      Muslim Brotherhood’s Obama has submitted to supporting supposed Muslim friends who give up their weapons to ISIS.

      Of course even politicians who should know better have done similar things like giving stinger missiles to the Osama Bin Laden affiliated mujahidin in order to shoot down Russian warplanes over Afghanistan or to be used to target and kill hundreds of unsuspecting Russian soldiers while the slept in their forward operations base.

      • Jay Boo says

        Oct 1, 2015 at 9:48 pm

        PS Osama Bin Laden thanked us for supplying those Stinger Missiles with 911

  4. somehistory says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    Listening to ash carter was not easy…he stumbled and rambled and spoke gibberish.
    Will there be mid-air *dog fights*? If so, what will he say then?

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 1:56 pm

      You sound to me like a deconflicted person.

    • Dr. Divinity says

      Oct 2, 2015 at 4:40 pm

      Perdition….Russia will lead a muslim army against Israel

      • Jeremiah says

        Oct 2, 2015 at 5:26 pm

        Carter should not have been confirmed by Congress as Secretary of Defense. Why would anybody want to take any position under Obama. Carter cannot handle Obama, let alone the war.

  5. Plutarchus7 says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    BAIT AND SWITCH, RUSSIAN-IRANIAN STYLE

    When Obama’s prediction that Bashar al -Assad would share Moammer Kaddafy’s fate and fall from power didn’t materialize why, nevertheless, was he so optimistic that he would eventually partner with Putin and Iran in removing him? The likely answer is that Putin and Khamenei made Assad’s removal contingent on a nuke deal beneficial to Iran. Once that was finalized Putin and Khamenei did a bait and switch as they had no intention of replacing Assad-a trusted and loyal ally. After yesterday’s bombing of US allies is there anyone who still doubts that the Iran nuke deal is worthless, like Putin’s and Khamenei’s promises to oust Assad?

    Click http://www.apollospeaks.com for more on this subject.

    • Jay Boo says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 9:54 pm

      (no need to visit your link at appollospeaks)
      because:

      Assad is not the problem
      Putin is not the problem

      Muslim Brotherhood’s Obama, the Arab Spring, the Cairo Speech all part of the problem .

  6. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 1:53 pm

    In these times a guy will take what he can get. Slim pickins’ makes almost anything edible. With that thought I extend my appreciation to Vlad-the-Commie for bombing the CIA-backed rebels. After all, these Freedom Fighters are the same guys who only a few short months ago were raping and mass murdering Christians in Syria, so killing them is a good thing to do with positive results to follow.

    • Jay Boo says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 9:55 pm

      Vote Putin for PREZ 2016

    • Peggy says

      Oct 2, 2015 at 6:04 am

      And let’s not forget that it was Assad’s army who saved a Christian village from Islamists.
      That must be really p!ssing Obama off.

  7. Sam says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    Simple conclusion: America should not send even one American soldier to anywhere in the world to fight under this idiot Obama. He will do anything in his power (knowingly or being clueless as usual) to harm our soldier versus the enemy.

  8. 11B40 says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    Greetings:

    I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but it looks a bit like President Putin pulled a page out of President Erdogan’s Turkish playbook, no ??? The latter was supposedly going to go after the ISIS horde but took a wrong turn and jumped the Kurds.

  9. Brunokraiske says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 4:14 pm

    In 1941 America was attacked by the most disciplined, most advanced, most sophisticated military force on earth at that time, battled them for 3 years and won.
    In 2001 America was attacked by the most backward, most primitive, ill-equipped band of filth bags on earth at that time, battled them for 11 years and lost.
    Trump is right, all of our elected leaders (including military leaders) are stupid.
    Russians will fight to win, America is no longer superpower, and our stupid leaders instead of criticizing Putin should sit back, watch, and learn how it’s done.

  10. The awful truth says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    Granted that Assad is a brutal dictator who “will murder his own people” the West wants to topple him. Assad irks the West’s best ally – the Saudis who were thinking of putting a pipeline through Syria that Assad blocked. Now even if Assad were removed who does the West propose to occupy the leadership vacuum? Already it has sucked in brutal branches of Al-Quaida and ISIL. I get the impression the West is C L U E L E S S. They went to Iraq and Libya to introduce in GWB’s words “freedom’moxy”. French sponsored ousting of Gadaffi has proven a tragedy and disaster. What kind of human rights, freedom and democracy do the West expect to introduce now that Mubaarak’s replacement is an even heavier handed dictator. Putin makes NATO look like – well like the EU swamped by refugees – a bunch of retards.

    • Jay Boo says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 10:08 pm

      Nice try with a selective history rendition
      What one sided BS
      Assad — bad / GWB — bad / Mubaarak — bad / al Sisi — bad / Putin — bad
      blah, blah, blah

      Suspiciously No mention of Obama, Hillary, Morsi, or even John McCain

      Let us not forget Democratic Party leadership Obama / Hillary abomination Morsi presented as their so called New & Improved Muslim Brotherhood answer to Egypt or Obama / Hillary fiasco of abandoning US Embassy personnel while apologizing to their MUSLIM murderers in Libya.

  11. David, Thailand says

    Oct 1, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    Whoever thought the day would come when the guy in the Kremlin is more trusted than the guy in the White House?

    Could be the difference in motivation; one is a Communist while the other is obliged to protect and promote his brothers.

    • umbra says

      Oct 1, 2015 at 11:42 pm

      Also, one is a grown man while the other appears to be a child-man.

  12. Jeremiah says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 12:21 am

    Perhaps Russia had information that Obama’s Brotherhood were about to transfer more Obama weapons to ISIS?

  13. Baucent says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 3:40 am

    So Obama and Kerry are concerned that Russian air strikes may kill the five “fighters” trained by the US,… the ones who haven’t yet made it to Croatia.

    I tend to follow the Russian logic: ISIS,FSA, al Nusra…,they are all Islamists of some description. Assad may be a nasty fellow but he is not an Islamist. In a choice between evils, Assad is the better option. In Homs where Russian strikes occurred, we know the Christian population was persecuted by muslim “rebel” groups. not by the Assad regime.

    Today’s “moderate” Syrian rebel is tomorrow’s jihadist.

  14. gEOFF rICHES says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 5:00 am

    One of the most used sayings today is, We will learn by our mistakes, the biggest mistakes made was to get rid of DESPOT leaders, they kept TRIBES under control, by the only means they know, and understand in the Middle East, and Africa, so to get rid of Assad would be stupidity in the highest degree, it was handing Syria to the ISIS on a plate, we would really consider the USA to an intelligent Nation… But there just a load of COWBOYS.

  15. barthis says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 5:07 am

    This stand-off is both comical and sad. Islam does not have the welfare of humans at heart except if you convert. Apart from US and Russian ideology the common enemy is supposed to be Islam. I never thought in my life I’d root for Russia. The US seem to be anti non-Muslim which confuses the heck out of me and reading threads it seems everybody else…

  16. Gamaliel says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 9:53 am

    Putin may be attacking Al Qaeda but he is making Iran invincible by selling them S300s.

  17. Enragedsince1999 says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 8:28 pm

    Among the “us-backed rebels” is al-nusra, which is al-Qaida: the guys who did 9/11. Now the US State Dept. sociopaths are angrily denouncing Russia for hurting al-Qaida. The severely degenerate Western democracies have no moral compass, no human decency, no dignity whatsoever. Until Russia stepped up to the plate, US and NATO were cheating on their so-called “war” on the Islamic State. And Turkey has been bombing the very same Kurds who have been the main on-the-ground popular Resistance against the IS, and while murdering Kurds, Turkey has been lying that it was “bombing the IS”, whom Turkey is actually aiding.

    Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.

  18. Jon says

    Oct 2, 2015 at 8:40 pm

    The US doesn’t want the anti-Assad Al-Nusra/Al Quaeda front damaged, only ISIS!

    Russia correctly takes the POV that they’re all internationally proscribed terrorist groups and are legitimate targets. Putin is hardly likely to back the anti-Assad Al-Nusra crowd just to appease the US who want to topple Assad,

    What school of strategic warfare did John Kerry attend?

    • Angemon says

      Oct 3, 2015 at 6:46 am

      The “don’t shoot, here’s my weapon and equipment, I’d like my Genevra rights now” school.

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