This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5798

Obama Adminstration Considering Arming Muslim Brotherhood Jihadists In Syria

May 1, 2013

Obama Inc Considering Arming Muslim Brotherhood Jihadists in Syria

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On April 30, 2013 @ 9:29 pm In The Point

Weapons of war don't belong in our streets. They belong only in the hands of Syrian terrorists

It's not that big of a leap considering that Obama Inc. is already shipping jets and tanks to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The only difference is that the Brotherhood does not yet completely control the Egyptian military and any weapons shipped to the Syrian Jihadists will inevitably end up in the hands of terrorists around the world.

The threat is mostly academic though, because Qatar, Turkey and the Saudis have already been shipping weapons to everyone from Al Qaeda to the Brotherhood with a wink and a nod from Obama. This seems more like the lamest attempt to pressure Putin ever.

Obama is preparing to send lethal weaponry to the Syrian opposition and has taken steps to assert more aggressive U.S. leadership among allies and partners seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, according to senior administration officials.

Naturally these senior officials are staying anonymous and selectively leaking this trial balloon slash threat to WaPo.

The officials emphasized that supplying arms is one of several options under consideration and that political negotiation remains the preferred option. To that end, the administration has launched an effort to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that the probable use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government — and the more direct outside intervention that could provoke — should lead him to reconsider his support of Assad.

But Obama, who spoke by telephone with Putin on Monday and is sending Secretary of State John F. Kerry to Moscow in the coming days, is likely to make a final decision on the supply of arms to the opposition within weeks, before a scheduled meeting with Putin in June, officials said.

Once again we have "options" on Obama's table that he might be considering if Russia doesn't do what he says. Putin and Obama have been playing this game for a bit and Obama still hasn't figured out that you can't play chicken, when everyone knows you are a chicken.

Russia is hedging its bets on Assad, but it doesn't really give a damn where Obama begins handing out the weapons that the Qataris have been handing out until now. It's useless as a pressure point.

Confirmation of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government, Obama said Tuesday, would mean that "there are some options that we might not otherwise exercise that we would strongly consider."

That's some impressive trash talk right there. If Obama ever decides that Assad crossed a red line, which other administration officials now say he regretted setting, then might "strongly consider" exercising some options.

Putin is no doubt shaking in his galoshes while staging a photo op in which someone drops a dead alligator right next to his boat.

At a news conference, he emphasized the need to "make sure I've got the facts. . . . If we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, we can find ourselves in a position where we can't mobilize the international community to support" additional action.

Terrifying. Obama will be considering whether to strongly consider some options without rushing to do anything or abandon the mobilization of the United Nations.

Oddly enough Obama wasn't worried about getting all the facts when he lied and claimed that Gaddafi was about to commit genocide in Benghazi.

Yet even as Obama voiced caution in responding to what he has called the "red line" on chemical weapons use, officials described him as ready to move on what one described as the "left-hand side" of a broad spectrum that ranged from "arming the opposition to boots on the ground."

"We're clearly on an upward trajectory," the senior official said. "We've moved over to assistance that has a direct military purpose."

So at this rate, Obama will eventually drag us into a war in Syria, but not after he finishes giving the world the impression that he has no idea what he's doing.

Assuming he gets far enough down the left hand side of Assad without tripping over his tongue.

Officials did not specify what U.S. equipment is under consideration, although the rebels have specifically requested antitank weapons and surface-to-air missiles.

Can't see any possible way that giving terrorists those weapons could possibly backfire on us.


Obama to Rely on Syrian Leader Who Claims Al Qaeda Aren't Terrorists to Keep Weapons Out of Al Qaeda's Hands

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On April 30, 2013 @ 9:46 pm In The Point

How could you not trust this man?

In case you missed the big news, Obama may be considering giving weapons to this lovely secular fellow who is not at all involved with Al Qaeda terrorists.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Free Army led by Gen. Salim Idriss are seen as increasingly cohesive. Idriss, one of the few leaders who is acceptable to both the opposition and its range of international backers, impressed Kerry and other foreign ministers who attended a meeting with the Syrian opposition in Istanbul last weekend and pledged that he would keep weapons out of the hands of extremists.

Sounds good. Let's take a closer look at the Syrian rebel command.

Syrian rebel groups have chosen Brigadier Selim Idris, a former officer in President Bashar al-Assad's army, to head their new Islamist-dominated military command, opposition sources said on Saturday.

The joint command named Islamist commanders Abdelbasset Tawil from the northern province of Idlib and Abdelqader Saleh from the adjacent province of Aleppo to serve as Idris's deputies, the source said.

The unified command includes many with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Salafists, who follow a puritanical interpretation of Islam. It excludes the most senior officers who had defected from Assad's military.

Its composition, estimated to be two-thirds from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies,

And let's take a closer look at Idriss, who is currently swearing up and down that he has nothing to do with the Al Nusra Front. Nope, not a thing.

Idriss was emphatic about his break from the al-Nusra Front, which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq. "We don't work with al-Nusra. We don't share anything with them." He said fighters from the extremist group had fought alongside some of his battalions, "but they were not invited."

Sure, Dad. They just showed up. We didn't invite them.

Back in Feb, Idriss said that he is absolutely not working together with Al Qaeda… not that there's anything wrong with that because they're not even really terrorists.

However, he said he had no evidence that the Al Nusra group, which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, had been involved in terrorist operations in Syria or outside the country.

Then in March, he said that sure the Al Nusra front, which he totally is not allied with, is very helpful, but extremist.

General Idris said he could work with most of the Islamist factions fighting in Syria, putting their number at about 50 percent of the rebels. The exception was al-Nusra Front, blacklisted by the United States. He said that they were helpful in the fight — estimating that they had 3,000 men — but it was the only group he labeled extremist.

And at the end of last year, Idriss made it 100 percent clear that he utterly rejects the Al Nusra Front.

But rebel activists in Syria are opposing a move by the United States to designate the radical Islamist al-Nusra Front as a terrorist entity linked to al Qaeda.

"All rebels are fighting to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and before we designate anybody or accuse anyone of being a terrorist we should tell what they have done to terrorize others," the Free Syrian Army military command's Brigadier General Salim Idris, told al-Jazeera television. "Not everyone wearing a beard is an extremist."

And then he made it crystal clear that he kicked out the Al Nusra Front and that he denounces them.

Idris said Nusra chose not to be part of the rebel command.

He estimated that about a fifth of Nusra's fighters are foreigners, but said he believes they will leave Syria once the regime has been toppled. He said the Syrians in the group, which is believed to number several hundred fighters in all, could be brought back to a more mainstream Islam after the war.

"They are not terrorists," he said of the Nusra Front.

Give the man his weapons right now. He will absolutely not allow them them to fall into the hands of the extremists whom he rejects as of three months ago.


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URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-to-rely-on-syrian-leader-who-claims-al-qaeda-arent-terrorists-to-keep-our-weapons-out-of-al-qaedas-hands/

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/5798