Phantom ReportThe Free Syrian Army commander, head of a moderate rebel force fighting just across the border in southern Syria, watched helplessly for months as better-funded Islamist militant groups peeled off half the 2,000 fighters from his brigade.
That changed in February when an intelligence operative from a country he refuses to name handed him an envelope full of cash — salaries for his remaining combatants.
“It’s a good amount of money; I can keep my fighters,” the commander said, as scented smoke from his arghileh [water pipe] obscured a scar across his face, the product of a battle in Syria, just 16 miles north of this drab Jordanian town.
The foreign powers are hoping to re-energize what remains of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army as a “moderate” alternative to extremists with such groups as Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front — deemed a terrorist organization by Washington — that seek to impose militant Islamic rule.
The cash-stuffed envelopes meant to secure the loyalty of rebel fighters are an essential component of the embryonic southern campaign, according to interviews in Jordan with opposition commanders. All insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about operational matters.
[…]Rebel chiefs also downplay the effect of a “Joint International Operations Room” in Amman, Jordan, an opposition nerve center reportedly staffed with operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency and regional allies.
(The CIA declines to comment on reports that the agency is training rebels in Jordan, but current and former U.S. officials say agency operatives train opposition fighters and also coordinate intelligence with them.)
Read Entire Article at: LA Times
Image Credit: Defense.gov – DIA
“…CIA operatives giving cash-stuffed envelopes to rebel fighters”
In the first place, to be a rebel, you have to actually BE from the country you’re rebelling against, and obviously these clowns don’t meet that simple criteria.
“That changed in February when an intelligence operative from a country he refuses to name handed him an envelope full of cash — salaries for his remaining combatants.”
Straight from our pockets to theirs.