US covert war on Syria


 * ''This article is about the US war against the Syrian government. For the US war against ISIS, see U.S. Air Strikes in Syria.



What we know

 * ''First, let’s establish what we do know. Based on multiple reports over the past three-and-a-half years, we know that the Central Intelligence Agency set up a secret program of arming, funding and training anti-Assad forces. This has been reported by major outlets, including the New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and, most recently, the Washington Post, which—partly thanks to the Snowden revelations—detailed a program that trained approximately 10,000 rebel fighters at a cost of $1 billion a year, or roughly 1/15th of the CIA’s official annual budget.


 * ''In addition to the CIA’s efforts, there is a much more scrutinized and far more publicized program by the Department of Defense to train “moderate rebels,” of which only a few dozen actually saw battle. The Pentagon program, which began earlier this year and is charged with fighting ISIS (rather than Syrian government forces), is separate from the covert CIA operation. It has, by all accounts, been an abysmal failure.


 * ''One thing the DoD’s rebel training program hasn’t been a failure at, however, is helping credulous reporters rewrite history by treating the Pentagon program as the only US effort to train Syrian rebels–now or in the past. As the US’s strategy in Syria is publicly debated, the CIA’s years-long program has vanished from many popular accounts, giving the average reader the impression the US has sat idly by while foreign actors, Iranian and Russian, have interfered in the internal matters of Syria.
 * — Down the Memory Hole: NYT Erases CIA’s Efforts to Overthrow Syria’s Government, FAIR, September 20, 2015


 * ''The Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, whose fighters have attended military training organized by the Central Intelligence Agency in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, was also hit last week by Russian raids as Moscow began its air campaign in support of Damascus. New strikes targeted the group's main weapons depots in western Aleppo province and completely destroyed them late on Tuesday, its commander Hassan Haj Ali told Reuters on Wednesday via an Internet messaging service.
 * — Russian warplanes in Syria destroy U.S.-trained rebels' weapons depots: commander - Reuters, October 7, 2015


 * ''The Defense Information Agency report from August 2012 confirms that weapons were flowing to the Syrian armed opposition after the overthrow of the Libyan government in Fall 2011. The claim that the U.S. was only supplying communications equipment and other non-lethal supplies in 2012 and 2013 was for public consumption and ‘plausible deniability’. In reality the U.S. was supplying great quantities of weapons. The ‘dark side’ included a huge budget for CIA operations including training and arming the Syrian armed opposition.
 * — Rick Sterling, Faulty Analysis and Conclusions on Syria - CounterPunch, October 21, 2015


 * ''That’s not to say that the CIA effort was bootless. Run from secret operations centers in Turkey and Jordan, the program pumped many hundreds of millions of dollars to many dozens of militia groups. One knowledgeable official estimates that the CIA-backed fighters may have killed or wounded 100,000 Syrian soldiers and their allies over the past four years. By the summer of 2015, the rebels were at the gates of Latakia on the northern coast, threatening Assad’s ancestral homeland and Russian bases there. Rebel fighters were also pushing toward Damascus.
 * — David Ignatius, What the demise of the CIA’s anti-Assad program means - Washington Post, July 20, 2017

Timeline

 * 1986. Syria: Scenarios of Dramatic Political Change, CIA’s Director of Global Issues/ division’s Foreign Subversion and Instability Center.
 * Reflects the main standoff against USSR, with other issues largely tools in the game. Have similarities with our time, despite the cold war ending.


 * CIA Interventions in Syria: A Partial Timeline - Michael S. Rozeff, October 3, 2015
 * WikiLeaks Reveals How the US Aggressively Pursued Regime Change in Syria, Igniting a Bloodbath, Robert Naiman, truthout reprint of chapter 10 of the book "The WikiLeaks Files", Verso Books, 2015
 * How the CIA Helped Fuel the Rise of ISIS - Jeremy R. Hammond, Jan 29, 2016
 * How the CIA Helped Fuel the Rise of ISIS - Jeremy R. Hammond, Jan 29, 2016

Prior to 2011

 * Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria- Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Politico, February 22, 2016, pp 1-4 (aka 'history of proxy wars over a pipeline')
 * The War Against the Assad Regime Is Not a "Pipeline War" - Gareth Porter, Truthout, 21 September 2016
 * ''The massive, direct and immediate power interests of the US war state -- not the determination to ensure that a pipeline would carry Qatar's natural gas to Europe -- drove the US policy of participation in the war against the Syrian regime.
 * U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show - Washington Post, April 17, 2011
 * ''Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles. Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group since 2006 to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities inside Syria. The channel is named after the Barada River, which courses through the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
 * Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State - The New York Times, May 14, 2011
 * ''The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.
 * ''The Colombians, along with South African and other foreign troops, are trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, according to the former employees and American officials.
 * ''The former employees said that in recruiting the Colombians and others from halfway around the world, Mr. Prince’s subordinates were following his strict rule: hire no Muslims. Muslim soldiers, Mr. Prince warned, could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims.

2011

 * White House: Syria regime has "lost legitimacy" CBS/AP/ July 12, 2011
 * The United States said Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has failed to prove himself a worthy leader nearly two months after being challenged by President Obama to guide his country toward a democratic transition or leave power.
 * In endorsing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's declaration that Assad has "lost legitimacy," the Obama administration moved closer to openly declaring its desire for regime change in Syria.


 * BFP Exclusive: Syria- Secret US-NATO Training & Support Camp to Oust Current Syrian President, Sibel Edmonds, November 21, 2011
 * BFP Exclusive: US-NATO-Chechen Militia Joint Operations Base, Sibel Edmonds, November 22, 2011
 * BFP Exclusive: Developing Story: Hundreds of US-NATO Soldiers Arrive & Begin Operations on the Jordan-Syria Border, Sibel Edmonds, December 10, 2011
 * Say Goodbye to Regime Change in Syria - Scott Ritter, The American Conservative, July 24, 2017
 * ''The train and equip mission of the CIA in Syria can be traced back to the spring of 2011, when a revolution broke out in Libya against the dictatorial rule of Muammar Gadhafi. Backed by NATO airpower, anti-regime fighters were able to establish control over large areas inside Libya. The CIA began a program to train and equip these fighters, supplying weapons to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who in turn shipped these weapons to Libya, where they were turned over to Libyan rebels. (This circuitous route was chosen to avoid the U.S. being in violation of a UN embargo against weapons deliveries to Libya.)
 * ''In August 2011, in the aftermath of the capture of the Libyan capital of Tripoli by rebel forces, Qatar began diverting arms originally intended for Libya to Turkey, where they were turned over to rebel forces that had, since June of 2011, been fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. These rebels were grouped together under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an ostensibly secular resistance group that was in reality controlled by the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that had been crushed by Bashar al-Assad’s father back in the early 1980’, and was operating in exile in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. While the CIA was not directly involved in this activity, CIA personnel in Libya and Turkey monitored these shipments to make sure no sensitive weaponry, such as hand-help surface-to-air missiles, made their way into Syria. This effort, which involved billions of dollars of arms, including those provided by the United States for the express purpose of aiding Libyan rebels, continued through 2012 and into 2013. (The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, who was killed in an attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi in September 2012, was involved in coordinating these weapons transfers.)
 * How CIA and Allies Trapped Obama in the Syrian Arms Debacle - Gareth Porter, The American Conservative, July 27, 2017
 * ''Obama said no to heavy weapons, a no-fly zone, and an official U.S. role in arms supply. What he did agree to, however, was a covert CIA operation designed by Petraeus to load weapons from Libyan government stocks in Benghazi on ships and arrange for them to be shipped to the war zone. That program, which began in October 2011, was halted abruptly by the attack on the embassy annex in September 2012. But by that time the Obama administration already knew that the weapons were falling into the hands of al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise al Nusra Front, as administration official revealed to the New York Times. Meanwhile the Saudis, Turks and Qataris were pushing arms to groups with military arrangements with al Qaeda’s al Nusra Front at a feverish pace, and the Saudis had begun making deals in Eastern Europe for the heavy weapons, clearly intending to equip a large conventional army.

2012

 * Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors’ money, U.S. coordination - Karen DeYoung and Liz Sly, Washington Post, May 15, 2012
 * ''Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.
 * August 12, 2012: date of a now-declassified Defense Intelligence Agency memo outlining the state of and goals in the evolving Syria conflict.
 * It says in part "THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…”. (see Levant Report)
 * The list of "supporting powers" is comprised of the US and several allies.
 * Sept. 11, 2012, US Ambassador Stevens killed in Benghazi, Libya while organizing transfer of Libyan arms to Syria via Turkey.
 * Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria - David E. Sanger, The New York Times, October 14, 2012
 * ''Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.
 * ''That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.
 * ''“The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” said one American official familiar with the outlines of those findings, commenting on an operation that in American eyes has increasingly gone awry.
 * U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands - The New York Times, December 5, 2012
 * ''The Obama administration (not the CIA, not the State Department) secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats. But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported.
 * ''The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from Qatar and other countries. The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants.
 * Obama Blocked Rebel Arms - Adam Entous, WSJ, February 12, 2013 (published in 2013, but discusses events in 2012 and 2011)
 * ''White House Opposed Pentagon, CIA, State Plan to Ship Weapons to Syrian Resistance
 * ''A proposal to (OVERTLY?) arm Syrian rebels was backed by the Pentagon, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, but the White House decided not to act on the plan.
 * ''Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed publicly for the first time at a Senate hearing on Thursday that they supported the proposal last year (2012) by senior officials including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA director David Petraeus.
 * ''In the months after the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA began presenting the White House with multiple options for intervening with force, covert action or arms supplies. Options have included establishing a no-fly zone, bombing Syrian aircraft in their hangars, and funneling light arms and actionable intelligence to a select group of American-vetted rebels.
 * ''In the months after the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA began presenting the White House with multiple options for intervening with force, covert action or arms supplies. Options have included establishing a no-fly zone, bombing Syrian aircraft in their hangars, and funneling light arms and actionable intelligence to a select group of American-vetted rebels.

2013

 * 75 Planes With 3,000 Tons Of Weapons Left Croatia For Syria - Croatia Week, March 8, 2013
 * Open War Crimes: US and British-Backed Weapons Airlift From Croatia to Terrorists in Syria - Patrick Henningsen, 21st Century Wire, March 10, 2013
 * U.S. Employs Straw Purchaser to Transfer Lethal Weapons to Syrian Rebels: Another Violation of the Arms Export Act? - Kathleen Millar, Foreign Policy Blogs, March 18, 2013
 * Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A. - C. J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, March 24, 2013
 * BFP Syria Coverage Track Record: What & When We Exposed, and the MSM- Quasi Alternative Culprits Who Fought Our Exposés, Sibel Edmonds, August 29, 2013
 * Syrian rebels get arms and advice through secret command centre in Amman - Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh, The National (AE), December 28, 2013
 * Aid to Syrian rebels flows through a complex maze - Phil Sands, The National (AE), December 28, 2013
 * The rise and fall of a US-backed rebel commander in Syria, Erika Solomon, Financial Times, February 9, 2017
 * Long story about fixer "Abu Ahmad" who worked two years for the CIA starting with their opening of the "Müşterek Operasyon Merkezi (MOM)" operation room in Turkey in 2013, modeled after the one in Jordan.

2015

 * Exclusive: Obama Cuts Off Syrian Rebels’ Cash - The Daily Beast, January 27, 2015
 * Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq - Seumas Milne. The Guardian, June 3, 2015 20.56 BST
 * Secret CIA effort in Syria faces large funding cut - Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post, June 12, 2015
 * ''The House Intelligence Committee recently voted unanimously to cut as much as 20 percent of the classified funds flowing into a CIA program that U.S. officials said has become one the agency’s largest covert operations, with a budget approaching $1 billion a year.
 * U.S. military pays Syrian rebels up to $400 per month: Pentagon - Reuters, June 22, 2015
 * ISIS members were trained by CIA - Australian National Review, July 10, 2015
 * Dodgy Turks: ‘NATO Ally’ Helped al Qaida To Kidnap New US-trained Rebel Fighters - 21WIRE, August 26, 2015
 * ''The House Intelligence Committee recently voted unanimously to cut as much as 20 percent of the classified funds flowing into a CIA program that U.S. officials said has become one the agency’s largest covert operations, with a budget approaching $1 billion a year.
 * 'The devil made me do it': Obama's foreign policy just reached a new low - Michael B Kelley and Brett LoGiurato,  Business Insider, Sep. 19, 2015
 * Down the Memory Hole: NYT Erases CIA’s Efforts to Overthrow Syria’s Government, Adam Johnson, FAIR, September 20, 2015 (Radio interview with the author about the article)
 * Obama's Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down - Josh Rogin & Eli Lake, September 22, 2015
 * David Petraeus urges Obama to credibly threaten Assad’s air force in Syria - Spencer Ackerman. The Guardian, September 22, 2015
 * Western backers end support for Syrian rebels attempting to seize Daraa, Middle East Eye, September 25, 2015
 * The most recent offensive, dubbed Operation Southern Storm, began on 25 June. It was planned, equipped and directed by the [Military Operations Centre (MOC) in Amman], which is staffed by senior military figures from 14 countries including the US, Europe and the Arab Gulf. The MOC provides approved rebel groups with weapons, ammunition and salaries for fighters, and in return, the MOC directs the actions of the groups it supports.


 * NY Times, "Obama Administration Halts Program to Train Syrians to Combat ISIS", 9.10.2015
 * ''A senior defense official said that the remaining training “will be much more minimal” than the previous program. The Central Intelligence Agency runs a separate program to train and arm selected groups, many of which are now battling Syrian army units backed by Russian air power.
 * Officials: Before Russian bombs, CIA rebels had Syrian gains - Ken Dilanian, AP, Oct. 10, 2015 (NYT)
 * ''CIA-backed rebels in Syria, who had begun to put serious pressure on President Bashar Assad's forces, are now under Russian bombardment with little prospect of rescue by their American patrons, U.S. officials say.
 * ''The CIA began a covert operation in 2013 to arm, fund and train a moderate opposition to Assad. Over that time, the CIA has trained an estimated 10,000 fighters, although the number still fighting with so-called moderate forces is unclear.
 * ''The effort was separate from the one run by the military, which trained militants willing to promise to take on IS exclusively. That program was widely considered a failure, and on Friday, the Defense Department announced it was abandoning the goal of a U.S.-trained Syrian force, instead opting to equip established groups to fight IS.
 * CIA went to Moscow 10 days before the air campaign.
 * "Wie "Bild am Sonntag" unter Berufung auf US-Geheimdienstkreise berichtet, trafen sich bereits in der vergangenen Woche führende Delegationen der CIA und des russischen Auslandsgeheimdienstes SWR in Moskau"


 * Did U.S. weapons supplied to Syrian rebels draw Russia into the conflict? - Liz Sly. The Washington Post, October 11, 2015
 * ''American antitank missiles supplied to Syrian rebels are playing an unexpectedly prominent role in shaping the Syrian battlefield, giving the conflict the semblance of a proxy war between the United States and Russia, despite President Obama’s express desire to avoid one.
 * ''The U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW missiles were delivered under a two-year-old covert program coordinated between the United States and its allies to help vetted Free Syrian Army groups in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad. Now that Russia has entered the war in support of Assad, they are taking on a greater significance than was originally intended.
 * ''The TOW missile program overseen by the CIA is entirely separate from a failed program run by the Pentagon that was intended to influence the outcome of the other war being waged in Syria, the one in the northeastern part of the country against the Islamic State.
 * ''The CIA program got underway before the Pentagon one, in early 2014, with the goal of propping up the flagging rebellion against Assad’s rule by delivering training, small arms, ammunition and the antitank missiles, which have proved instrumental in eroding the government’s key advantage over the lightly armed rebel force — its tanks and heavy armor.
 * (Note, other weapons were delivered by the CIA starting in 2011.)
 * US sending 'specialized expeditionary targeting force' to Iraq - KSL.com, December 1, 2015
 * Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter: "We're sending on President [Barack] Obama's orders … Special Operations Forces personnel to Syria to support the fight against ISIL," Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told the US Congress on 1 December. The SOF force will help "garner valuable ground intelligence, further enhance our air campaign, and enable local forces that can regain and then hold territory occupied by ISIL", he said- Jane's, and a video on Yahoo News. "Next, in full coordination with the Government of Iraq, we're deploying a specialized expeditionary targeting force to assist Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and to put even more pressure on ISIL," Carter said. "These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders." The force is in addition to the "less than 50" Special Operations forces Obama authorized in October to aid in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
 * U.S. deploying new force to Iraq to boost fight against Islamic State, Reuters, December 1, 2015:"Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the deployment of such a force was not acceptable without Iraq's approval, raising questions over how closely Washington coordinated the plan with Baghdad. Powerful Shi'ite Muslim armed groups pledged to fight any new deployment of U.S. forces to the country."


 * Airstrike on SAA Saeqa military camp near Deir ez-Zor, December 6, 2015, + talk page. Responsibility disputed.
 * US Reportedly Constructing Airbase in Northeastern Syria for Airstrikes, Sputnik News, Dec. 18, 2015
 * US forces setting up airbase in northeast Syria: Sources, Hurriyet daily news/AFP, Jan. 24, 2016. (Rmeilan airbase: US military does not confirm/contradictory info)
 * Vzgliad.ru-similarly contradictory account.

2016

 * Daraa rebels ordered to stop fighting Syria regime: report - NOW (Lebanon), January 20, 2016
 * ''Al-Akhbar claimed that the foreign powers operating the MOC promised rebels renewed aid in return for them agreeing to change tracks and launch a major campaign against Nusra. “Each faction that joins the campaign will receive five tanks with full training for their crews as well as other incentives related to salaries and armament,” sources told the pro-Hezbollah daily.
 * ''The rebel leaders present in the Amman meeting all agreed to the MOC’s new plan, except the Youth of Sunnah Brigade chief, who eventually consented following further guarantees of support. According to Al-Akhbar, the rebels were also promised training in a US-prepared base that will be staffed by military experts from Britain, Jordan and other Western states.
 * Defense Secretary Carter: Accelerate fight against ISIS, CNBC, Jan.22, 2016. 'Leading from behind' ground operation?
 * ''We're looking for opportunities to do more, and there will be boots on the ground — I want to be clear about that — but it's a strategic question, whether you are enabling local forces to take and hold, rather than trying to substitute for them.
 * TASS relays Ash Carter interview to CNN, promising to 'liberate Mosul and Raqqa, to debunk the myth itself of the possibility of the existence of a state based on this ideology'
 * Carter explains to 101 airborne their revised mission


 * The United States Is Waging 2 Contradictory Wars in Syria - James Carden, The Nation, Jan 26, 2016
 * Syria rebels say get more missiles from Assad's enemies - Tom Perry, Reuters, February 13, 2016
 * ''Facing one of the biggest defeats of the five-year-long war, rebels have been complaining that foreign states such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey have let them down by not providing them with more powerful weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles.
 * ''Assad's enemies have been supplying vetted rebel groups with weapons via a Turkey-based operations center. Some of the vetted groups have received military training overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The Syrian government says it aims to seal the border to cut rebel supply routes from Turkey.
 * Russia concerned over Soviet-type weapons delivery to Syrian opposition — foreign ministry - TASS, April 21, 2016
 * US airstrike on SAA in Deir ez-Zor, Sept. 17, 2016; on a separate page.
 * Plans to send heavier weapons to CIA-backed rebels in Syria stall amid White House skepticism - Washington Post, October 23, 2016
 * ''One senior U.S. official said that it is time for a “ruthless” look at whether agency-supported fighters can still be considered moderate, and whether the program can accomplish anything beyond adding to the carnage in Syria.
 * ''The CIA units are “not doing any better on the battlefield, they’re up against a more formidable adversary, and they’re increasingly dominated by extremists,” said the U.S. official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive operation. “What has this program become, and how will history record this effort?”
 * Army Special Forces soldiers killed in Jordan were working for the CIA - Washington Post, November 12, 2016
 * ''The three Army Special Forces soldiers killed at a Jordanian military base this month were working for a CIA program to train moderate Syrian fighters when they were shot at a checkpoint under still-unclear circumstances.
 * ''The soldiers were among roughly 2,000 U.S. troops working in Jordan while participating in the U.S.-led campaign fighting the Islamic State. Some of the troops have been assigned to mobile artillery units along the Jordanian border while others assist CIA-led training programs for Syrian opposition fighters.

2017

 * Inside the 'Blackwater of Jihad': The private security company training extremists in Syria - Kim Sengupta, The Independent, March 13, 2017
 * Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow - Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, July 19, 2017
 * ''President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials.
 * ''The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later.
 * America Had Already Lost Its Covert War in Syria—Now It’s Official - Sam Heller, The Century Foundation, July 21, 2017
 * ''Trump’s decision is, on some level, an admission of defeat. But it is also a concession to reality, and an acknowledgement that America’s covert military program in Syria was misconceived from the start.
 * ''The covert arms program was going to end—this was inevitable, even if its precise timing was a surprise, and its execution appears haphazard. By the time Trump took office, the program no longer made sense, if it ever did. The United States couldn’t just keep fueling a war that had no definable end and feeding a rebel host body from which al-Qaeda could suck blood.
 * Trump Got This One Right - Weekly Standard, August 7, 2017
 * ''Earlier this year, President Donald Trump was shown a disturbing video of Syrian rebels beheading a child near the city of Aleppo. It had caused a minor stir in the press as the fighters belonged to the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, a group that had been supported by the CIA as part of its rebel aid program.
 * Trump Saw A Disturbing Video, Then He Shut Down The CIA's Covert Syria Program - ZeroHedge, August 1, 2017
 * The Tweet That Is Shaking the War Party - David Stockman, Antiwar.com, July 31, 2017
 * Behind the Sudden Death of a $1 Billion Secret C.I.A. War in Syria - Mark Mazzetti etc. The New York Times, August 2, 2017
 * Journalist Interrogated, Fired For Story Linking CIA And Syria Weapons Flights - ZeroHedge, August 28, 2017 (see also).
 * Russia accused US of creating a “New Syrian army” to fight Assad - Voice of the People Today, December 16, 2017
 * ''“Under the guidance of the American Special Operations Force instructors from disparate groups of militants, new armed groups are being formed at the training center near the refugee camp, called the ‘New Syrian Army.’ American instructors, according to refugees who returned to their homes, announced that after the completion of the training course formations will be transferred to the south of Syria to fight Syrian government troops,” the Center said. This refugee camp is located 20 kilometers north-east of the city of Jisr al-Shaddad, in the province of El Hasakeq.
 * Brace for Impact: Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US are About to Invade Syria - Alexander Orlov, New Eastern Outlook, December 19, 2017
 * ''It’s believed that this force will be used in an attempt to topple the the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad. What is even more curious is that militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra are going to form the backbone of this military force.
 * U.S.-Backed MOM Operations Room Ends Support for FSA Groups - Sada al-Sham (opposition website) via The Syrian Observer, December 19, 2017
 * US Fully Suspends Its Support For Free Syrian Army, Shuts Down Operation Rooms In Turkey And Jordan – Report - South Front, December 21, 2017
 * ''The US even closed its infamous Military Operation Center (MOC) in Jordan. The MOC is known for its major role in providing financial, military and intelligence support for the FSA and radical Islamist groups in southern Syria. The MOC even planned and commanded some of the biggest attacks on the SAA in the southern province of Daraa. The June offensive in the city of Daraa was described as one of such advances. The US also shut down another Military Operation Center in Turkey, named by Turks “MOM”. The MOM played a similar role in the MOC. However, it supported FSA groups and al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (former al-Nusra Front) in northern Syria for years.
 * How Obama manipulated sensitive secret intelligence for political gain - The Washington Times, December 21, 2017
 * ''The CIA’s covert “Train and Equip” program was crafted to aid forces seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad after the 2011 Arab Spring protests exploded into a civil war in Syria. Train and Equip began with a flow of “nonlethal aid” to certain Syrian rebel groups, but as its budget ballooned to some $1 billion, the program morphed into an unwieldy and ineffective effort to assist an unconventional military campaign.
 * ''One former senior intelligence official said the program was badly undermined because the White House was constantly leaking details of efforts to build a Free Syrian Army with cash, weapons and intelligence. “Obama had drawn a red line on Syria over chemical weapons, but then he didn’t do [expletive],” the former official told The Times. “The White House was facing a lot of political pressure to show they had policy for Syria, so they leaked the CIA’s covert action plan. They leaked it for purely political reasons, so they could say, ‘Look, look, we have a Syria strategy.’”
 * US lets militants train, mount attacks from its Syrian bases – chief of Russian General Staff - RT, December 27, 2017
 * ''The US forces have effectively turned their military base near the town of al-Tanf in southeastern Syria into a terrorists’ training camp, Gerasimov said. The general also said the US has been using a refugee camp in northeast Syria, outside the town of Al-Shaddadah in Al-Hasakah province, as a training camp for the remnants of the Islamic State terrorist group, including those evacuated from Raqqa, and other militants.

2018

 * Report Confirms Israel Has Been Secretly Funding Syrian Rebels For Years - ZeroHedge via Mint Press, January 19, 2018. Based on "Israel Gives Secret Aid to Syrian Rebels" -The Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2017.
 * ''The Israeli army is in regular communication with rebel groups and its assistance includes undisclosed payments to commanders that help pay salaries of fighters and buy ammunition and weapons... Al-Joulan is the main rebel group coordinating with Israel... support began as early as 2013 ... with the goal of creating a ‘buffer zone’ free of radical militants such as Isis and Iranian-allied forces along Israel’s border.... Fursan al-Joulan – Knights of the Golan (receive) an estimated $5,000 (£3,900) a month. The group of around 400 fighters receives no direct support from Western rebel backers and is not affiliated with the Free Syrian Army...In total, there are roughly 800 rebel fighters across more than a dozen villages in this area, where thousands of civilians live, fighters said. Many of the rebels and civilians in this area rely on some level of support from Israel...
 * ''Israel Defence Forces said in a statement that it is “committed to securing the borders of Israel and preventing the establishment of terror cells and hostile forces… in addition to providing humanitarian aid to the Syrians living in the area.”

Response to Russian airstrikes

 * Obama Won’t Admit the Real Targets of Russian Airstrikes - Gareth Porter, October 16, 2015 (mirror) - Links

"The debate over the proposed steps, which would for the first time position a limited number of Special Operations forces on the ground in Syria and put U.S. advisers closer to the firefights in Iraq, comes as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter presses the military to deliver new options for greater military involvement in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan."
 * "Obama weighs moving U.S. troops closer to front lines in Syria, Iraq", Washington Post, 26.10.2015


 * John Kerry Says Iran Is In on Syria Talks US News and World Report, 27.0.15
 * commented on by John McCain


 * "You either do it or you don't "-Trump (CNN).


 * "US Senator (Graham) attacks Defense Minister...", for "not planning a war" -a Russian Insider titled  video from CSpan
 * in fact, raises an important question, 'what does an average Syrian citizen want'(with respect to Asssad)--how do they know? --They seem to take the answer for granted.
 * Senator Graham: "is it smart to have Russians fight IS, and we stay out of the fight?" (Answer provided to him was not affirmative).


 * US brings aerial combat F-15C planes to a base in Turkey
 * US Special Forces Allegedly Start Training Rebels in Syria - Sputnik, November 4, 2015
 * ''US military advisors are alleged to have started training so-called moderate rebels near the city of Salma in the Latakia province in what amounts to breaking a pledge not to put US boots on the ground in Syria, Lebanon's satellite television channel al-Mayadeen reported, citing an unnamed military source.
 * ''"American officers began training Turkmen militants around Salma in the Latakia Province," the media outlet noted, adding that the mission was previously carried out in Turkey.

Weapon deliveries

 * ''Moved to US weapon deliveries to Syrian rebels

Timber Sycamore program

 * U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels - Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, January 23, 2016 (mirror)
 * ''When Mr. Obama signed off on arming the rebels in the spring of 2013, it was partly to try to gain control of the apparent free-for-all in the region. The Qataris and the Saudis had been funneling weapons into Syria for more than a year. The Qataris had even smuggled in shipments of Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-fired missiles over the border from Turkey.
 * ''The Saudi efforts were led by the flamboyant Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at the time the intelligence chief, who directed Saudi spies to buy thousands of AK-47s and millions of rounds of ammunition in Eastern Europe for the Syrian rebels. The C.I.A. helped arrange some of the arms purchases for the Saudis, including a large deal in Croatia in 2012.
 * ''By the summer of 2012, a freewheeling feel had taken hold along Turkey’s border with Syria as the gulf nations funneled cash and weapons to rebel groups — even some that American officials were concerned had ties to radical groups like Al Qaeda.
 * ''The C.I.A. was mostly on the sidelines during this period, authorized by the White House under the Timber Sycamore training program to deliver nonlethal aid to the rebels but not weapons. In late 2012, according to two former senior American officials, David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director, delivered a stern lecture to intelligence officials of several gulf nations at a meeting near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He chastised them for sending arms into Syria without coordinating with one another or with C.I.A. officers in Jordan and Turkey.
 * ''Months later, Mr. Obama gave his approval for the C.I.A. to begin directly arming and training the rebels from a base in Jordan, amending the Timber Sycamore program to allow lethal assistance. Under the new arrangement, the C.I.A. took the lead in training, while Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, provided money and weapons, including TOW anti-tank missiles.
 * ''The Qataris have also helped finance the training and allowed a Qatari base to be used as an additional training location. But American officials said Saudi Arabia was by far the largest contributor to the operation.
 * Investigation Exposes How Saudi Arabia has Been Tasking and Directly Funding CIA Black Ops - Andrew Emett, The Free Thought Project, January 24, 2016
 * ''After decades of accepting bribes from the Saudi government, the CIA is currently funneling guns and money to Syrian rebels and terrorists.
 * Operation „Timber Sycamore“: Wie die USA islamistische Aufständische in Syrien unterstützen - RT, January 25, 2016
 * Visas for Al-Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World - Sputnik, Jan 26, 2016
 * ''Under the "Timber Sycamore" program the Saudis provide funding and purchase weapons for Syrian rebels, while the CIA trains them in secret camps in Jordan.
 * Washington’s Secret War in Syria Uncovered - Vladimir Odintsov, New Eastern Outlook, February 1, 2016
 * ''As for the war in Syria, the CIA and Saudi Arabia back in 2013 agreed to conduct a joint operation under the codename: Timber Sycamore, the prime goal of which was the toppling of the legitimately elected Syrian president. Under this agreement, the Saudis have been providing arms and resources, while the CIA trained “insurgents” before deploying to the battlefield. The newspaper names other “sponsors” of the CIA campaign: Turkey, Jordan and Qatar. Although the exact amount of the “contribution” of each of the states to the secret operation in Syria remains unknown, it is mentioned that Saudi Arabia has been one of the main sponsors, providing billions of dollars.
 * US Special Forces sabotage White House policy gone disastrously wrong with covert ops in Syria - Jack Murphy, SOFREP, September 14, 2016
 * ''“Nobody believes in it. You’re like, ‘Fuck this,’” a former Green Beret says of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian militias. “Everyone on the ground knows they are jihadis. No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort, and they know they are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘Fuck it, who cares?’”
 * ''“I don’t want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans,” the Green Beret added. A second Special Forces soldier commented that one Syrian militia they had trained recently crossed the border from Jordan on what had been pitched as a large-scale shaping operation that would change the course of the war. Watching the battle on a monitor while a drone flew overhead, “We literally watched them, with 30 guys in their force, run away from three or four ISIS guys.”
 * Say Goodbye to Regime Change in Syria - Scott Ritter, The American Conservative, July 24, 2017
 * ''In an effort to control the flow of weaponry into Syria, President Obama authorized the CIA to formally take over the process of training and equipping Syrian rebels. This operation, known by its codename, Timber Sycamore, was run out of Turkey and Jordan with the full support of both governments.
 * ''From 2013 through 2015, Timber Sycamore oversaw the purchase of billions of dollars of modern weaponry from Balkan suppliers, primarily in Croatia, and their shipment to ports in Turkey and Jordan, where the CIA, working with Turkish and Jordanian intelligence agencies, trained and equipped thousands of rebel fighters from more than 50 groups inside Syria that had been vetted by the CIA
 * Why Petraeus, Obama And Brennan Should Face 5,000 Years In Prison - Moon of Alabama, August 03, 2017
 * ''The NYT story is largely a whitewash. It claims that the CIA paid "moderate" FSA rebels stormed Idleb governate in 2015. In fact al-Qaeda and Ahrar al Sham were leading the assault. It says that costs of the CIA program was "more than $1 billion over the life of the program" when CIA documents show that it was over $1 billion per year and likely much more than $5 billion in total. The story says that the program started in 2013 while the CIA has been providing arms to the Wahhabi rebels since at least fall 2011.

Double Standard
US sanctions on Russia in July, 2017 strengthened (art. 225, 226) those previously imposed on Russia in Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014. The latter sanctions those who knowingly manufactures, or sells or transfers, or brokers or otherwise assists, or provides financial, material, or technological support, for   defense articles transferred into Syria or into the territory of a specified country without the consent of the internationally recognized government of that country. This funny language makes it illegal to transfer 'goodies' to Syria (agreed by Assad or not), or to Ukraine but only if it is not approved by the government of Ukraine. In addition to double standard in treating Ukraine vs. Syria, the above activity like Timber Sycamore, as described, does the very thing Russia is sanctioned for, regarding Syria.

Supporting Kurds

 * Exclusive: U.S. pilots provide first account of tense Syrian jet encounter - Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, August 25, 2016

Guerrilla attacks and targeted assassinations
Several sources say the training given to Syrian rebels consisted of guerrilla attacks and targeted assassinations. I wonder what rebel group would use or need this kind of tactics. Actually these are the terror tactics used by Al-Nusra Front.
 * Syrian colonel plots guerrilla attacks against Assad regime - Justin Vela, The Independent, October 9, 2011
 * ''The most senior officer to defect from Syria's armed forces is plotting a series of guerrilla attacks and targeted assassinations from self-imposed exile in Turkey in an attempt to topple the regime.
 * Leaked Memo Says U.S. Special Operation Forces in Syria Since - Bryant Jordan. Military.com, March 09, 2012
 * ''U.S. Special Operation Forces reportedly have been in Syria since December training groups to conduct guerrilla attacks and assassinations to bring down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a leaked Stratfor memo published by WikiLeaks.
 * Syria rebels vow to adopt guerrilla tactics as Assad forces seize two thirds of east Aleppo - Raf Sanchez, The Telegraph, December 3, 2016
 * ''Faced with almost certain defeat in the city of Aleppo, Syrian rebel groups have promised to continue their war by adopting the guerrilla tactics of assassinations, armed raids and roadside bombs.
 * ''“We’ll use all the forms of resistance: guerrilla fighting, assassinations, explosions. We won’t rule out any form of fighting against the regime.”

Ukraine
Nato has been giving similar training to Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage groups.
 * Audio Recording of NATO Instructors Found on the Phones of SBU Saboteurs Detained in Lugansk - News Front via StalkerZone, March 13, 2017

Weapon Drops

 * 21st Century Wire US Airdrops 50 Tons of Ammo to ‘Rebels’ After ISIS Loses Most Supplies in Russian Airstrikes
 * Despite cancelling their ‘rebel’ training program, the US has now airdropped 50 tons of ammunition for smalls arms, along with grenades, into the ISIS hotbed of Northern Syria.


 * Fox News, October 12 reports the drop included (only?) ammunition for personal rifles, and "originally was intended for the U.S. military's "train and equip" mission, the official said. But that program was canceled last week." As for where:
 * The 50 tons of supplies were airdropped into Al-Hasakah province, home to Syrian Kurds, Arabs and a minority Assyrian community. ... "All the pallets reached friendly forces," the official said, adding that the drop "looked similar to what we did in Kobani."

According to Van Linge's Situation in Syria map, ISIS has minimal presence in Hasakah (northeast corner), but there are some government-held areas and even areas of joint Kurdish-government/loyalist control (like in the capitol, and Qamishli on the border). Otherwise it's held by Kurdish YPG militias, not in cooperation with FSA as is the case in Kobane. This is interesting given the Kobane precedent, where weapons were delivered to FSA and not Kurds, to avoid rifling Turkey (mentioned in above report). The likely recipients this time will be YPG, depending on where, either to push ISIS south or to attack the last government-held areas.


 * Saleh Moslem: 50 tons of ammunition delivered, more are underway, Firat News Agency, October 14, 2015
 * Moslem said “These weapons have been given not only to us but also to the Arab groups we act together. ... PYD co-chair lastly stated that operations against Raqqa and Jarablus are on the table and that they are working only for the timing of the operations at the moment. He added that Russia would be positive about the operation.

Both mentioned cities are well to the west, adjascent to areas of joint PYD-FSA control, so the pattern is not much different. Still, Turkish Prime Minister Davutoğlu's threatened that “we could intervene (against) the PYD”, to which Moslem responded they would defend themselves if attacked by Turkey, but had no plans to attack them or transfer weapons to the PKK.

A day later, the YPG spokesperson Redur Xalil released a statement saying that Saleh Moslem doesn't speak for the YPG and hasn't detail knowledge of military operations. The US, he says, "knows to who they sent weapons", likely referring to US statements insisting that "Arab groups" had received the ammo. Curiously on the same day, a new coalition of YPG and some regional Arab groups was announced and named Syrian Democratic Forces. In their founding declaration they thanked the US-led coalition for their support.
 * Russian volunteer Timur, in Syria with Kurds, and a regular contributor to Rusvesna, describes NATO sponsored shipments of Soviet design weapons, produced under license in Bulgaria and smuggled to (all) anti-government forces via Turkey rusvesna, 26.10.15. He refers to Kurdish intelligence sources and also says that recently Syrian government forces were capturing suspiciously new Soviet design weapons from the rebels. He indicates that FSA as well as extremists are receiving weapons (but does not make much distinction between those anyway).

Striking Syrian forces

 * ''Moved to US military action against Syria

US needs a new strategy?

 * Henry Kissinger, A Path Out of the Middle East Collapse, WSJ, 16.10.15

"With Russia in Syria, a geopolitical structure that lasted four decades is in shambles. The U.S. needs a new strategy and priorities."

"The destruction of ISIS is more urgent than the overthrow of Bashar Assad"

"it is preferable for ISIS-held territory to be reconquered either by moderate Sunni forces or outside powers than by Iranian jihadist or imperial forces."

"For Russia, limiting its military role to the anti-ISIS campaign may avoid a return to Cold War conditions with the U.S."


 * Stephen Cohen: 'There is no Alternative' to Putin's Strategy in Syria' sputniknews.com, 17.10.15.

"US has three options. The first one is to do what American hawks, including Senator John McCain, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and some other Republicans are advocating. They essentially urge to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria and shoot down Russian planes if they violate it. The second option is to stand aside and see what Putin could accomplish with his allies. The third one, according to the Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics at NYU and Princeton, is to join Russia. Cohen sees the third option as the best choice for the Obama administration"

Western Coalition
France and its allies have agreed on the need for a "precise timetable" for the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as they met ahead of international talks, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said -Daily Mail, 28.10.2015 --Resup (talk) 16:46, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

ACLOS and Related

 * Robert Ford, Weapons Inspector: The Rebellion Begins in Hama, Part 2 Adam Larson (Caustic Logic) Monitor on Massacre Marketing, July 26, 2015. Detailed relation of US. ambassador Robert Ford, arrived just ahead of the first protests, met with ... activists, egged them on, emphatically denied or glossed over their first militant victories (of great barbarity, by the way...)
 * Exactly where Ford needs a certain effect, he conjures the right words, even when those words are the most opposite of true. As soon as he saw clear evidence in the July 31 attacks that the violent insurrection in Hama was really underway, he needed all the cover he could find to help the seeds take root. So as soon as there were armed gangs running streets and bridges in Hama, he became more vocal than ever about this being a regime lie, by definition. 

Interaction with Russia

 * Proposed document "Terms of Reference for the Joint Implementation Group' Washington Post, and an op-ed on the issue, 13 July, 2016
 * "The Case for (Finally) Bombing Assad" (op-ed), NY Times, Aug. 3, 2016
 * Highly recommended by John McCain

Analysis

 * “US Special Forces sabotage White House policy gone disastrously wrong with covert ops in Syria” - TTG - Sic Semper Tyrannis, September 20, 2016
 * A review of the subscription only (mirror) article by Jack Murphy.
 * Watch this US special forces insider reveal the ugly truth about covert action in Syria (Part III) - Brad Hoff, The Canary, November 7, 2016