With the Obama administration preparing to green light direct U.S. intervention in Syria, this is another reminder of where Americans’ tax dollars will be heading – to support gangs of brutal extremist Muslim terrorists whose behavior is no better than the often vilified Bashar al-Assad.
“New footage posted on the Internet appears to have been filmed by a Syrian rebel who points the camera along the barrel of his gun as he shoots 10 unarmed prisoners,” reports Reuters.
The graphic clip shows prisoners lying on the ground begging for their lives before they are gunned down. One pleads, “I swear to God that we are peaceful,” before being slaughtered.
The massacre occurred in Ras al-Ain, a town close to the Turkish border that has seen fierce clashes between rebel forces and government troops in recent weeks.
“It certainly is a very disturbing video, and it is important to establish what happened,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.
As we have previously documented at length, the Obama administration is funding and helping to arm Muslim extremists in Syria who openly display their contempt for the United States by burning American flags in public. Many of these militants are not even Syrian – they are foreign mercenaries led by Al-Qaeda terrorists that killed U.S. troops in Iraq.
Western leaders have completely failed to condemn the plethora of bombings, assassinations, massacres and brutal acts of torture carried out by these “rebels” and in some cases have all but lauded their acts of savagery.
WASHINGTON – Robert S. Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, says it’s possible that arms and munitions paid for by the United States are finding their way into al-Qaida hands in Syria.
It was at a panel discussion held by the Middle East Institute in Washington that he declared, “We strongly, strongly, strongly support the efforts of the Syrian opposition coalition to develop its organization….we think they are absolutely…they are a legitimate representative of the Syrian peoples’ aspiration and we will work with them, we will cooperate with them.”
But there has been evidence of growing activity by al-Qaida and Islamic extremist elements inside Syria as part of that opposition coalition, officials note. And they may be getting some of the military supplies.
Ford acknowledged that there is no way to be able to track the destinations of all of the weapons help that is going into the region, and it’s possible al-Qaida – or other anti- American jihadist groups – could be collecting some.
He said, “We do not want arms to get into the hands of extremists.”
However, the ambassador said the U.S. wants the region to achieve a political solution, rather than a military solution. Therefore, he said, the administration will help provide weapons so long as it “plays into enabling the Syrian people to achieve a political solution.”
He said the Syrian opposition members “have a vision of Syria in the future that we strongly support, in a country that would be democratic and would support human rights.”
This democratic and humanitarian nature of the opposition is often contrasted by the Obama administration against the barbarous and murdering regime of Assad.
Yet two days ago, a suicide bomber of the anti-Assad coalition, in a Christian suburb of Damascus that was considered loyal to Assad, detonated himself in a market, killing 20 innocent people.
Analysts also express concern that what started off as a protest in opposition to Assad’s regime may turn into a catalyst for extremist actions against Christians in Syria.
Ford also played down the presence of al-Qaida.
“There is an al-Qaida front in Syria,” he said. “I do not think by any means it is the majority of the opposition.”
However, he said such extremists “pose a real danger to the political solution Syria needs.”
This is not the first time that concern over the U.S. funding or supplying al-Qaida has been raised.
In the Libyan uprising against Moammar Gadhafi, American arms and supplies did fall into the hands of al-Qaida-affiliated groups that were even potentially responsible for the attack on the consulate in Benghazi.
The United States, the European Union and the Arab League have yet to officially recognize the Syrian opposition, but the United Kingdom, France and Germany have.
Russia Concerned Over Syrian Opposition Possessing Mobile Air-Defence Missile Systems
Russia is concerned over the fact that the Syrian opposition has mobile air-defence missile systems which arrived there from Libya, Head of the Kremlin Administration Sergei Ivanov said in Vienna.
Where they will find themselves later and whose civilian plane will be shot down by them is unknown.
This is dangerous and very serious, Ivanov stressed, adding that Russia was not supplying offensive arms to Syria.
Al-Qaida forces join Syrian rebels in airbase attack
--CLIP-- The attacked base is Taftanaz airbase from where government forces have been launching air attacks on rebel-held towns.The ability to launch such attacks has given President Bashar Assad's forces the upper hand during recent weeks in the Syrian civil war. Both warplanes and helicopters have been used from the airbase.
The civil war continues apace with thousands of deaths still occurring as Qatar prepares to host an international conference to help unite opposition to Assad's regime with the support of major powers such as the United States. It is hoped by many that opposition leaders currently in exile can be brought to the fore and lead a united front against the Syrian government. What might be of concern for the west is that the rebels seem to have been joined by fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militant group made up of foreign jihadis.
It would seem impossible for the US to offer backing to the rebels if they are indeed now aligned with al-Qaida. Any backing or actual arming of such an alliance would be seen as hypocritical by most and perhaps even stupid by those who remember the US backing for the Taliban when they were fighting to get rid of the Russians from Afghanistan.
