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| US Passed Secret Intelligence To AQ-Linked Rulers Of Syria: WaPo |
| 2025-01-26 |
| [ZeroHedge] Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which rules Syria from Damascus under Jolani, is still a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization under US law. The only change which happened at the end of the Biden administration was that the US $10 million bounty on Jolani's head was removed, at a moment Western officials have engaged the new regime in Damascus on a diplomatic level. But The Washington Post has just revealed that American intelligence officials met with HTS representatives and passed them classified intelligence information. This happened during the tail-end of the Biden White House. The Washington Post report begins, "In the chaotic days after the fall of [Bashar] al-Assad, the Biden administration began to engage cautiously with HTS and its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani." "The intelligence exchange with HTS has occurred in direct encounters between US intelligence officials and representatives of HTS, rather than via third parties." The Post continues. The report adds that this "has involved exchanges between the two sides, in Syria and a third country. It began roughly two weeks after HTS came to power on Dec. 8." This is being presented by US officials as to combat threats being presented by a resurgent ISIS. For example, there have been recent reported plots against a key Shia religious pilgrimage site on the outskirts of Damascus, the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque. "In at least one case, the U.S. intelligence helped thwart an ISIS plot to attack a religious shrine outside Damascus earlier this month, according to the officials," the WaPo report says. The serious contradiction in all of this is that American companies and citizens are still unable to do business or any interactions with Syrian entities under US counterterrorism laws and due to the long-existent sanctions. And yet, US intelligence is passing on classified information to Syrian leaders despite the terror designation and ongoing sanctions. To an ongoing intelligence collection effort, a "contradiction" is simply an opportunity. The other glaring contradiction is that the separation between HTS and ISIS ideology is thin and slim. Jolani himself was once the personal emissary of ISIS chief pf Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the early days of the anti-Assad war for regime change. We've documented previously that in some cases ISIS fighters have simply changed out their black flag patch for a HTS logo: Watch: Syrian 'Moderate Rebel' Removes ISIS Patch At Prompting Of American Journalist. Foreign fighters have also continued to thrive in post-Assad Syria, with reports of global jihadists terrorizing and pressuring Christians, Alawites, and Druze - most often in the countryside and far away from international media cameras. The US State Department in the early years of the Syrian war acknowledged that tens of thousands of foreign jihadists poured across the borders of Iraq, Jordan, and Iraq to fight Assad forces. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #6 Title should read: US Passed Secret Intelligence to WaPo: WaPo |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2025-01-26 12:04 |
| #5 I'll admit I'm ambivalent about her politics (anti-2A, then flip flopped, the whole Assad thing) but her other attributes means I'll give her a chance to show her stuff. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2025-01-26 10:52 |
| #4 Apparently someone tried too hard |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2025-01-26 10:46 |
| #3 The war hawks intend to tank Tulsi if they think they can get away with it. She was certainly right about our Syrian involvement likely ending like our foray in Libya. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2025-01-26 10:01 |
| #2 That would be the MI6 that employed Christopher Steele and helped build the Russian Dossier hoax? Excuse me if I think Trump won't take this asshole's advice |
| Posted by: Frank G 2025-01-26 09:55 |
| #1 Spy chief issues chilling warning to Trump over one of top Cabinet pick [MAIL] A top spy chief has issued a chilling warning to Donald Trump, cautioning him over Tulsi Gabbard's nomination as Director of National Intelligence. Former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in Britain, Sir John Sawers, described Gabbard's possible ascension to the top espionage post as 'difficult', and said there appears to be no 'overall global plan' behind Trump's pick. 'I think senators have got a lot of responsibility to ensure that only people who are suited to top jobs get through to them, especially those in the most sensitive areas,' Sawers told CNN on Saturday. 'The United States is the most powerful intelligence community in the world, and one of its biggest challenges is Russia, and another (of its) biggest challenges is China.' The spy chief raised concerns over Gabbard's 'pro-Russian' positions through her career, with critics also pointing to her past remarks on former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad as 'not an enemy' after she controversially met with him in 2017. 'To have someone who's a director of national intelligence who basically takes a very pro-Russian approach, well, that strikes me as very difficult, and it makes it difficult for America's partners as well,' Sawers continued. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-01-26 07:57 |