{"id":14755,"date":"2012-12-11T16:29:04","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T23:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14755"},"modified":"2012-12-11T16:29:04","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T23:29:04","slug":"the-duplicitious-behavior-of-the-usg-in-syria-arm-the-rebels-then-make-war-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14755","title":{"rendered":"The Duplicitious behavior of the USG in Syria – Arm the rebels then make war with them"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. blacklists al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria<\/strong>
\nBy Agence France-Presse – 11 December, 2012 – Raw Story<\/p>\n

Washington blacklisted an Al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria Tuesday, warning extremists could play no role in building the nation\u2019s future as the US readies to recognize the new Syrian alliance.<\/p>\n

The move against the Al-Nusra Front came ahead of talks in Morocco on Wednesday, when the United States is expected to give full recognition to the Syrian National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.<\/p>\n

Though a minority, Al-Nusra has been one of the most effective rebel groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, raising concerns that hardline extremists are hijacking the 21-month-old revolt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is important is to understand that extremists fighting the Assad regime are still extremists and they have no place in the political transition that will come,\u201d a senior State Department official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtremists should not dictate that political transition,\u201d he insisted on a conference call with journalists, asking to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

The State Department designated the group linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) a foreign terrorist organization, while the Treasury also slapped sanctions on two of its leaders, Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi and Anas Hasan Khattab.<\/p>\n

\u201cExposing the operation and the identities of Al-Nusra\u2019s leaders is a key objective here,\u201d another top US official said.<\/p>\n

Topping the agenda at the Friends of Syria meeting in Marrakech will be two key issues \u2014 the political transition after Assad\u2019s fall and mobilizing humanitarian aid as winter sets in amid a growing refugee crisis.<\/p>\n

Declaring Al-Nusra a terrorist group freezes its assets and bans Americans from any transactions with it, but US officials said it would also help ensure that vital aid is falling into the right hands.<\/p>\n

Countries wanting to support the opposition need to ensure they are helping \u201cthose opposition groups who truly have the best interest of Syria and Syrians in mind,\u201d State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.<\/p>\n

They should not back \u201cgroups coming from the outside who want to hijack what the Syrian people have started for their own means, and have a very different future in mind, a future that is based in Al-Qaeda-based values and principles, not democratic-based principles and values.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has claimed responsibility for recent suicide bombings that killed scores of people, and has said it hopes to replace the Assad family\u2019s four-decade hold on power with a strict Islamic state.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s talks could mark a step forward for the Syrian opposition, which had struggled for months to unite until a new coalition arose from November meetings in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that there is a new opposition formed, we are going to be doing what we can to support that opposition,\u201d US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Brussels last week. …source<\/a><\/p>\n

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U.S. blacklists al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria By Agence France-Presse – 11 December, 2012 – Raw Story Washington blacklisted an Al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria Tuesday, warning extremists could play no role in building the nation\u2019s future as the US readies to recognize the new Syrian alliance. The move against the Al-Nusra Front came ahead more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2000],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14756,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755\/revisions\/14756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}