Al-Qaeda in Iraq admits role in Syria war

[Bosonic]

Last edited Tue Apr 9, 2013, 06:30 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: AFP

DAMASCUS — Al-Qaeda in Iraq confirmed on Tuesday long-held suspicions that Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, is part of its network, an admission likely to sharpen debate on arming rebels.

"It is time to declare to the Levant and to the world that the Al-Nusra Front is simply a branch of the Islamic State of Iraq," ISI's chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said in an audio message posted on jihadist forums.

The groups would be combined and called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Baghdadi said, describing Al-Nusra front leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani as "one of our soldiers".

"We chose al-Jawlani... as well as other fighters to go from Iraq to Syria... We prepared plans and work policies. We gave them money and personnel support," said Baghdadi.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iCdlZlFbLl5xqZk5x5YfHsybKQsw?docId=CNG.e1686bf590f01073b4ec9e47639896fe.01

[Arctic Dave]

1. So the US government is guilty of of their own laws about aiding terrorist?

LOL.

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

[TwilightGardener]

2. How so?

[Arctic Dave]

3. They have been aiding the terrorist by giving them training and materials.

Doesn't get anymore clear cut then that.

[TwilightGardener]

4. You have proof that the CIA and whoever is training the rebels in Jordan

and/or Turkey were aiding AQ-linked guys? Because I thought the whole point of CIA involvement was based on ensuring that the "good" (non-AQ) guys were getting the arms and training (we were supposedly afraid of a flow of arms we can't really control passing into the wrong hands). I don't think we would deliberately arm terrorist groups. Though I should note that we haven't been directly arming anybody, or so the story goes--just controlling the flow to some extent.

[Arctic Dave]

7. LOL.

By the standards of our "anti-terrorism" rules, it doesn't matter.

As for arming any of them and training them with CIA assests , then that goes WAY beyond what is being presented in the media and would really be breaking the rules of aiding terrorist.

[bemildred]

5. Al Nusra is fighting Little Assad, and we have I believe declared them Terrorists. Ah here is one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/business/global/national-bank-of-greece-and-eurobank-suspend-talks.html

The West has been wary, and in December the United States announced it was labelling Al-Nusra Front a "terrorist" organisation because of suspected ties to ISI.

[TwilightGardener]

6. I realize that, but were we knowingly and deliberately arming or training them?

[bemildred]

8. I think we still have plausible deniability on that.

No guns directly from us. I would wager we have trained some. They have probably acquired some of our weapons indirectly. Hard to prevent that in the situation there now.

"We" is by no means a monolithic entity in which all obey the central authority anyway, lots of free-lancers in the US government pursuing their own interests.

There has been a good deal of hand-wringing about it too, as in this thread. What does seem clear is that we are not hunting them with drones, or otherwise trying to interfere with them, for the moment anyway.

I'd say we have conflicts over what to do about Al Nusra Front.

[L0oniX]

10. Knew this was happening.

[L0oniX]

9. I brought this up a long time ago. We need to stay out of it.

[PolitFreak]

11. They didn't thank us for creating them when we invaded Iraq?

How rude!

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. Despite labeling these guys terrorists...

our interventionist foreign policy is creating space for them to operate.

And while we may not be arming them, there is a division of labor: We arm the good rebels and our glorious democratic allies, the Gulf States emirs and the Saudi sheiks, arm the bad rebels.

Does no one in the State Department or the Pentagon (or the White House) remember how well our arming Islamist rebels worked in Afghanistan in the 1980s? We're still paying for that, to this very day.

[Bosonic]

13. Syria jihadist rebel group commits to Al-Qaeda

(AFP) – 41 minutes ago

BEIRUT — The head of Syria's jihadist Al-Nusra Front on Wednesday pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message, but distanced his group from claims it had merged with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"The sons of Al-Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri," Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said in the recording.

But, he added, "we were not consulted" on an announcement by Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Tuesday of a merger with Al-Nusra Front.

"We inform you that neither the Al-Nusra command nor its consultative council, nor its general manager were aware of this announcement. It reached them via the media and if the speech is authentic, we were not consulted," Jawlani said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jJsiDTgeofbbZFLCsUOnp8w2IiFg?docId=CNG.c4eff9e2f2c1e3de9739407de5d03a48.351