Quote
It Was Something I Was Not Meant To See
Snip from article
On Syria's frontlines there are now about 100 rebel formations, up from roughly 70 just a few months ago. These range in size from a handful of combatants to groups of hundreds of fighters. Given such a mix just who, exactly, gets what in the way of CIA weapons handouts is fraught with danger and the possibility of creating "blowback", as intelligence community parlance calls the unintended consequences of any covert operation.
Think of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the monstrous anti-Sandinista Contra rebels along the Honduran-Nicaraguan frontier that received CIA guns and support and you will understand what I'm getting at.
Among the dangers too is how things will play out among Syria's rebels once the common enemy, the Assad regime, falls.
According to one arms distributor based in the Turkish city of Istanbul and quoted in a recent Time magazine interview, the question of controlling the weapons after the regime's demise has been something of a priority in the decision making of the current arms supply jamboree.
The distributor said: "We know the men on the street. We know that this man will return to his work, surrender his weapons to the new command, and that another will not.
We know who we are giving weapons to."
But just how can he or others like him be so sure? ...read more
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/us-leaks-show-syria-is-a-new-afghanistan-in-the-making.18138533
It Was Something I Was Not Meant To See
Snip from article
On Syria's frontlines there are now about 100 rebel formations, up from roughly 70 just a few months ago. These range in size from a handful of combatants to groups of hundreds of fighters. Given such a mix just who, exactly, gets what in the way of CIA weapons handouts is fraught with danger and the possibility of creating "blowback", as intelligence community parlance calls the unintended consequences of any covert operation.
Think of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the monstrous anti-Sandinista Contra rebels along the Honduran-Nicaraguan frontier that received CIA guns and support and you will understand what I'm getting at.
Among the dangers too is how things will play out among Syria's rebels once the common enemy, the Assad regime, falls.
According to one arms distributor based in the Turkish city of Istanbul and quoted in a recent Time magazine interview, the question of controlling the weapons after the regime's demise has been something of a priority in the decision making of the current arms supply jamboree.
The distributor said: "We know the men on the street. We know that this man will return to his work, surrender his weapons to the new command, and that another will not.
We know who we are giving weapons to."
But just how can he or others like him be so sure? ...read more
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/us-leaks-show-syria-is-a-new-afghanistan-in-the-making.18138533
