Days ago, Nawaf al-Fares, the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq who has become the country's highest-level diplomatic defector, told CNN that Shawkat had run an al Qaeda in Iraq training camp. A U.S. official said al-Fares' claim was "broadly consistent with our understanding" of the Syrian regime's cooperation with al Qaeda "elements." - CNN
Anybody who supports the islamofascist Assad supports al-Qaeda and the Baathist led insurgency killing Americans in Iraq. It's no coincidence that all the people who support Assad are the same people who were against overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Assad isn’t an islamofascist. He’s a secular Arab Strongman who has blood on his hands but he has no choice in order to protect his ethnic minority, the Alawites. They will get slaughtered if the Sunni wins the Civil War. And then, it’ll be open season on Christians in Syria.
The problem with Syria is that we have a leftist leadership in the US that was against invading Iraq. They are now promoting the invasion of Syria. The US (Obama/Hillary) tried to get the UN to put sanctions on Syria. Russia and China stopped that. Then the US (Obama/Hillary) tried to get NATO to attack Syria after the Turkish jet was downed. They failed because NATO is pretty much spent and cannot handle Syria. So now they are forced to back Assad into a corner by trying to assassinate him and his officials. The US (Obama/Hillary) are doing this for the Sunni House of Saud.
I used to do SIGINT for the U.S.Navy.
Hafez Assad, like his father before him, played all sides. Did he support Saddam Hussein. Hell yes; he lived next door! Did he have agreements with the Russians? Yes. Did he have secret agreements with the U.S.A.? Again, yeas. Has he protected Syrian Christians? Yes.
There is no more terrible place on earth to live surrounded by those who would murder you than in the Middle East.
The choice is Ba’athists or Muslim Brotherhood; all thinks considered, I’d pick the Ba’athists. They just plain ol’ fascists, which are several steps up from Islamists...
Still the ideal outcome is mutual annihilation and civil collapse.