Did Someone Order Bin Ladens? Washington’s Money Is Arming the CIA and al-Qaida in Syria

A growing body of evidence suggests that Washington has decided to re-enact in Syria the script that was perfected in Afghanistan in the 1970s. What happened to the CIA’s more diligent Afghan students — and their leader, Osama bin Laden — is well known to everyone.

There are thousands of articles, dozens of doctoral dissertations and at least one Hollywood blockbuster out there that show how the CIA helped destroy Soviet soldiers on the battlefields in Afghanistan. Also common knowledge is the fact that following the Red Army’s retreat, a sizeable portion of the Afghan militants quickly reconfigured themselves into al-Qaida cells. Cultivated by Washington, Osama bin Laden became the world’s number one terrorist whose sole mission became planning the attack on New York’s Twin Towers.

Though one would expect the majority of the American political elite to be able to draw the right conclusions from history, recent events in Syria and the surrounding area clearly indicate that Washington has yet again decided to step on the same old rake. The assistance plan, which the Americans showed to the Syrian rebels today, already too closely resembles the CIA’s Afghan campaign from 40 years ago.

In that distant past, large numbers of arms were purchased through third parties, the President of the United States made numerous secret orders and supplies of American man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) were sent to Afghanistan so that rebels could shoot down Soviet helicopters. Now, we will see similar reports emerging from Syria in the coming days.

In an article published on August 1, a source revealed to Reuters correspondent Mark Hosenball that Barack Obama signed an order allowing U.S. Special Forces and other American agencies to provide assistance to Syrian rebels. The document, called a “finding,” essentially gives the CIA practically unlimited powers to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime by using external means, which in this case happen to be the Syrian Free Army.

Moreover, Washington green-lighted funding for the Syrian Support Group, which provides financial support to the Syrian armed opposition. The implication is clear: American taxpayers are essentially purchasing arms for the militants.

The day before Hosenball’s article was published, information surfaced that 20 MANPADS have already been flown across the Turkish border into Syria. The CIA manages the overthrow of Assad’s regime from a command center in the southern Turkish city of Adana, located only 100 kilometers from the Syrian border. There is no doubt that now Syrian military helicopters will be shot down with such regularity that Syrian cities by the Turkish border will be de facto drawn into the conflict without the approval of the UN Security Council.

However, there are still those in Washington willing to warn Obama that flirtation with the Syrian militants will inevitably usher in a new generation of bin Ladens. “Other lawmakers have suggested caution, saying too little is known about the many rebel groups,” Reuters reported. “Recent news reports from the region have suggested that the influence and numbers of Islamist militants, some of them connected to al-Qaida or its affiliates, have been growing among Assad’s opponents.” The concerns are worth consideration before it gets too late.