Remember Timber Sycamore
Yeah, I’ll admit up front I never heard of Timber Sycamore until I caught a brief video clip with Jeffrey Sachs this morning:
Kevork Almassian @KevorkAlmassian
Make no mistake, the war in Syria is not an uprising which turned into a civil war. The truth is, the CIA engineered an armed insurgency using radical takfiris just like it did in Afghanistan in the 80s.
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Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil @ivan_8848
CIA in Syria - Operation Timber Sycamore - Professor Jeffrey Sachs
https://x.com/i/status/1863187835471163874
I highly recommend the 3 minute video with Sachs that’s linked in the tweet. It’s a credit to Sachs that, although he’s definitely no fan of Trump, he’s willing to suggest that Trump’s effort to withdraw from Syria—ignored by the people under his direction as CinC—was Trump expressing his instincts. Trump gets a mulligan on that, starting in January.
Here’s the basic idea of Operation Timber Sycamore, from Wikipedia’s intro (also linked in the tweet above). This is basic to understanding what’s going on currently in Syria—it’s been going on for 14 years or more, back to Hillary’s Arab Spring insanity:
Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by the United Kingdom and some Arab intelligence services, including Saudi intelligence. The aim of the programme was to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power. Launched in 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to Syrian opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. According to US officials, the program was run by the CIA's Special Activities Division[6] and has trained thousands of rebels.[7] President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria's embattled rebels in 2013.[8] The program became public knowledge in mid-2016.
One consequence of the program has been a flood of US weapons including assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades into the Middle East's black market. Critics of the program within the Obama administration viewed it as ineffective and expensive, and raised concerns about seizure of weaponry by Islamist groups and about Timber Sycamore-backed rebels fighting alongside the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and its allies.[9]
…
Creation
CIA director David Petraeus first proposed a covert program of arming and training rebels in the summer of 2012. Initially President Obama rejected the proposal, but later agreed, partially due to lobbying by foreign leaders, including from King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[13]
Timber Sycamore began in late 2012 or early 2013, and was similar to other Pentagon or CIA-run weapons routing and training programs that were established in previous decades to support foreign rebel forces.[7][11] Greg Miller and Adam Entous of The Washington Post stated that "The operation has served as the centerpiece of the U.S. strategy to press Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside."[16] The program's principal backers were the United States and Saudi Arabia, but it was also supported by some other regional Arab governments, and by the United Kingdom.[7][4] While Saudi Arabia provides more money and weaponry, the United States leads training in military equipment. The program was based in Jordan, due to that country's proximity to the battlefields in Syria.[7]
According to The New York Times, the program initially allowed US forces to train Syrian rebels in use of military equipment, but not to directly provide the equipment itself. A few months after its creation, it was amended to allow the CIA to both train and equip rebel forces.[8] Saudi Arabia has provided military equipment, and covert financing of rebel forces has also been provided by Qatar, Turkey and Jordan.[8]
Some of this has changed in the last few years, especially with the return of Russia to Syria and the rise of Iran and BRICS. For example, Saudi Arabia has, seemingly, reconciled with Syria, along with Egypt—both pillars of the Sunni Arab world. However, the US, UK, Turkey, Israel, the UAE, and Qatar remain in the terror coalition.
Concurrent with the actual hot war on Syria and its people, a sanctions war was launched. Most readers will be familiar with Trump’s crass claims that the US is in Syria for the oil. That happens to be true, in a partial sense. The reality, of course, is that much of the Syrian oil that the US rips off is diverted to Israel. What? You thought it came to refineries in the US? But here’s the longer version of the US ripoff policy, enunciated by arch Zionist Dana Stroul—check out the video linked in the tweet:
REMINDER: US interest in Syria are simple:
- Hold hydrocarbons rich areas
- Hold the economically rich regions
- Hold the agricultural rich areas
- Rest of Syria is rubble, so prevent reconstruction
Explains former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for the Middle East, Dana Stroul
With that background, readers won’t be surprised at the latest version of US “diplomacy”, which, as usual, amounts to the cynical use of proxy violence without regard for the killing and other atrocities—we no longer even pretend. Notably, the US refuses to speak to Russian diplomats, but our “diplomats” meet regularly with the most rabid jihadist terrorists. Al Qaeda is America’s ally and Syria is only one of several countries where we’re supporting terrorism of the most horrific sort:
Jake Sullivan Says US Won’t ‘Cry’ About the Pressure Syria Is Facing from Al-Qaeda-Linked Fighters
Sullivan acknowledged that the group leading the offensive in Aleppo, Hayat Tahrir a-Sham, has been designated a terrorist group by the US
by Dave DeCamp
…
But he added, “At the same time, of course, we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure.”
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US officials have not been shy in the past about their preference for HTS and its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, over other factions in Syria. James Jeffrey, an American diplomat who served as a special envoy to Syria under the Trump administration from 2018-2020, said in a 2021 interview that HTS was “an asset” to the US’s strategy in Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province that’s been under HTS control since 2017.
“They are the least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places right now in the Middle East,” Jeffrey said.
Julani was formerly the leader of al-Nusra Front, which was the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. In 2016, Julani publicly announced he was splitting with al-Qaeda and changed his group’s name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which merged with other Islamist groups to form HTS in 2017.
Julani’s rebranding campaign was part of an effort to gain more support from the West. Jeffrey said he was in regular contact with Julani and HTS while he was working as the US envoy to Syria. Jeffrey said a typical message from al-Julani was like this, “This is what we’re doing. These are our goals. We’re not a threat to you.”
Jeffrey said he responded to Julani by saying, “I couldn’t agree more. … Keep me informed as often as possible.”
Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups always made up a significant portion of the opposition to Assad after the war broke out in 2011. In 2012, Jake Sullivan, who worked as an aide to then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at the time, told his boss in an email released by WikiLeaks that “AQ (al-Qaeda) is on our side in Syria.”
In the last day or two there have been a few interesting developments in Syria. Yesterday we learned that the US is providing air support for ISIS, using A-10 Thunderbolts. Today …
NEW:
Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi: "If the Syrian government asks, Iran will send troops to Syria"
I have to believe that this announcement was made after consultation with Russia and, perhaps, China. So, with that in mind … Russia just demonstrated, for anyone who might be interested, their latest anti-shipping missiles, launched from Syria, where Russia has a massive naval base at Tartus:
Messrs Zircons, Onyxes, Kalibrs, Kinzhals.
Russian Navy demonstrating the force in Eastern Med. The Bastion launch of P-800 Onyx (it is capable of launching 3M22 Zircons too) is ominous. For NATO... Houthies, you know, other people with an axe to grind.
[Video]
Such an easy system to deploy and receive targeting from Liana... Mind you, Russian version of P-800 Onyx flies to 800+ km at the speed near Mach=3. Latest version flies to 1,000+ km. 3M22 Zircon flies at 1,500 km. 3M54 Kalibr anti-shipping missile at 700+ km with acceleration at the terminal to Mach=3 while performing a violent maneuvering. Just a regular training...
As Martyanov suggests, the Russians could decide to share more advanced missiles with people who would love to have the chance to use them against US naval assets.
Brief Kash Update:
Kash Patel thinks the FBI’s priority should be helping Israel. Why would the FBI want to help a country that flaunts most standards of international law? No, I’m not just talking about genocide—this is a long, very detailed article that describes what’s below the tip of the iceberg:
Israeli authorities routinely rebuff overseas calls for help
Israelis nabbed in Philippines are tip of iceberg in alleged fraud gone global
As police raid Israeli-operated boiler rooms in Asia and Eastern Europe, local law enforcement [i.e., Israeli LE] has yet to indict a single operative from an industry that has stolen billions
If Israeli prosecutors decided to indict the seven binary options operatives, it would be a first. In the ten years that the largely fraudulent industry operated, there have been only a handful of arrests and not a single Israeli prosecution for binary options and related investment fraud.
The Times of Israel has learned that foreign governments that have sought help from the Israel Securities Authority and Israeli police in investigating alleged binary options fraud perpetrated against their citizens have consistently encountered a slow and uncooperative response, even after Israel outlawed the binary options industry.
Law enforcement authorities in countries that are trading partners and allies of Israel have received a brushoff, The Times of Israel was told, when they tried to obtain information or help in investigating Israeli binary options and forex operatives.
As many readers will be aware, Israel refuses to extradite Jewish criminals—such as Samuel Sheinbein—who have a “residential connection” to Israel:
Samuel Sheinbein (25 July 1980[1] – 23 February 2014) was an American-Israeli convicted murderer. On 16 September 1997, Sheinbein, a 17-year-old senior at John F. Kennedy High School in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Aaron Benjamin Needle, a former classmate, killed Alfredo "Freddy" Enrique Tello, Jr.[2] They subsequently dismembered and burned the corpse in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Sheinbein fled to Israel, where his father who had Israeli citizenship was born. At the time, Israeli law prohibited extradition of Israeli citizens.
The case strained U.S.–Israeli relations and prompted an overhaul of Israeli extradition policy, which now requires a defendant seeking to avoid extradition to also demonstrate a "residential connection" to Israel.
Perhaps Kash should make it a priority to obtain routine law enforcement cooperation from Israel.
Good news:
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday rejected a White House request to pass $24 billion in additional aid for Ukraine by the end of the year, saying any further assistance for Kyiv would be decided by President-elect Trump when he assumes office in January.
Explains Benghazi, too? And why nobody really wanted to talk about why it happened, let alone hold Obama and his administration responsible, because it was brush fire incidental to a CIA operation going forward no matter who occupied the White House?