• IHRC urges Obama to take closer look at whom U.S. is arming
By Richard Walker
When the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) says the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is nothing but a bunch of terrorists, one might expect the Obama White House to take note, but instead it has remained silent. The reality is that the United States and its allies, including Israel and major Arab states like Saudi Arabia, have continued to arm, train and fund Arab revolutionary terrorists trying to overthrow the secular Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad. At the same time, Washington has turned a blind eye when confronted with proof that the same revolutionaries have employed the kinds of terror tactics frequently used by our supposed enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The IHRC has not been alone in trying to encourage Washington to look more closely at the militias it has encouraged to lay waste to Syria. Christian churches for the past two years have warned that many of the Syrian opposition groups represent a dangerous mix of Islamists determined to transform Syria into a strict Islamic state. Some of the Islamists have publicly beheaded both Christians and members of the ruling Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The condemnation of the FSA by Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan, head of the IHRC, has made people around the globe sit up and take notice. He pointed an accusing finger at Turkey, Qatar and the Saudis for arming and funding the Arab revolutionaries, claiming their strategy was having a destabilizing effect on other Muslim countries. In his opinion, Syria was being subjected to the same kind of terrorism one associated with Pakistan and Afghanistan. The countries he singled out for criticism, however, are merely a front for the bigger players in the mix, namely the U.S., Britain, France and Israel.
Khan also accused the Western media and Arab nations of deliberately distorting the truth about the Syrian conflict. There is clear evidence D.C. and its allies have deliberately obscured the horror inflicted by Arab revolutionaries operating under the FSA, which is now controlled by an umbrella group, the National Council for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. It received Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s blessing in December 2012.
The umbrella group is comprised of a motley bunch of organizations, the most powerful being the Muslim Brotherhood. There are also bodies like the Syrian Liberation Front representing numerous Islamist brigades and the Syrian Islamic Front that controls a variety of extreme, radical
militias.
President Barack Obama has consistently refused to respond to legitimate concerns raised by a variety of organizations about the dangers of replacing the Assad regime with one led by sectarian extremists funded by the Saudis and Qataris. In September 2012, a Pew Research poll showed a majority of Americans were opposed to the policy of arming Syrian opposition groups. The Barnabus Fund has warned if Washington and its allies turn away from atrocities committed against Christians by elements of FSA, the Christian church in Syria, as happened in Iraq, could quickly decline and never recover.
Richard Walker is the pen name of a former N.Y. news producer.
