US is funding and arming terrorists in the Middle East

Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by Lucas Leiroz, research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro…

In recent years, Syrian authorities have captured several weapons, ammunition, communication equipment and medical supplies enough to equip a real army. Most of these weapons were reportedly sent to the country from abroad, having been paid for by governments seeking to overthrow Assad by armed means.

On May 19, in southern Syria, local authorities found another large stockpile of weapons and ammunition, including American-made TOW anti-tank missiles, as reported in a recent publication by the SANA news agency. The reported images show more than a dozen heavy machine guns, a hiding place for rocket-propelled grenade launchers, some still sealed in the protective casing, hundreds of ammunition boxes of various calibers and at least six TOW anti-tank missiles, as well as TOW bazookas, Israeli-made M72, among other armaments that include automatic and sniper rifles and hand-launch grenades.

A government informant told SANA (Arabic media outlet) that the seizure of such weapons is common in the region, with the capture of American and Israeli equipment being extremely frequent. In addition, the government source reported that Syrian security forces have already found several complex systems used by terrorists that evidence the receipt of logistical aid and material support from foreign armies, such as large underground tunnels and command and control headquarters.

Interestingly, a similar operation was carried out on the same day, in Iraq, by Shiite militias – if they were coordinated actions, it is not officially known. In the operation, Iraqi forces destroyed 6 ISIS bases and killed 4 terrorists. A large network of foreign involvement with ISIS was discovered in the action, report the officers involved in the case.

Not much information has been provided about the case in Iraq, mainly because it is still an intelligence investigation and, therefore, under secrecy. However, Qasim al-Ma’amouri, commander of Hashd al-Shaabi, gave some preliminary information on the issue: “The Americans (the Deep State) and the ISIL terrorists are repeating the same scenario they played during the collapse of Mosul in 2014, in Babel, Salahuddin and Diyali provinces and they are attempting to distort security and stir instability in those regions. (…) We have intelligence showing that the terrorist group has summarized its activities in several Iraqi provinces, including Babel, with the US help”.

Apparently, it is increasingly clear that a part of the American government – whether its external face or the Deep State – has some degree of involvement in the financing and armament of terrorists in the Middle East, both in Syria and Iraq and probably elsewhere. These are not the first evidence presented on this, only the most recent.

This American funding should not be secret for anyone since Washington openly provides support, financial and intelligence material to a lot of groups that are formed in line with their interests in the Middle East. This is one of the measures of the so-called “regime change operations”, on which the American government has invested trillions of dollars in recent years supporting subsidiary groups of very powerful terrorist organizations, such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, demanding support from them to overthrow of anti-American governments in the Middle East.

This type of financing is illegal under American law. An American citizen who sends money to a terrorist group is arrested and prosecuted by the State. However, apparently, law is not the same for everyone. The American government itself may be involved in these hidden terrorist financing networks, as well as figures such as bankers, politicians, businessmen and high-ranking military personnel involved with the Deep State.

At first, American support for armed groups in the Middle East would be on the condition that they are not terrorist groups, but simply “armed rebels”. It turns out, however, that these supported groups are nothing more than “outsourced terrorists” from much larger organizations. Groups that, in fact, did not originally have direct links with terrorists but began in the context of wars to establish such relations, forming armed coalitions against common enemies.

The American press itself has repeatedly denounced its country’s involvement in terrorist networks abroad. In this Wall Street Journal article, the relationship between Syrian rebels and Al-Qaeda terrorists – called Al-Nusra in Syria – is denounced; in this one, from The New York Times, it is explained how rebel groups are approaching terrorists to fight common enemies.

In this way, directly or indirectly, American funding is being targeted at terrorists. It is an undeniable and indisputable fact that is already known by the American press itself and, therefore, by a good part of American and western civil society. How, then, has Washington not yet been subjected to international sanctions? After all, what standard of international law allows the United States to finance and arm terrorist groups around the world with impunity?