#BREAKING Turkey, US sign deal to train Syria rebels, officials say

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 19, 2015

Two days ago reports began to hit the media about the U.S. providing “Moderate Syrian Rebels” with equipment and technology to enable them to call in air strikes. The Wall Street Journal reported:

WASHINGTON—The U.S. has decided to provide pickup trucks equipped with machine guns and radios for calling in U.S. airstrikes to some moderate Syrian rebels, defense officials said. But the scope of any bombing hasn’t been worked out—a reflection of the complexities of the battlefield in Syria.

Military officials point to U.S. airstrikes, called in by Kurdish fighters, that helped drive Islamic State fighters from the city of Kobani as the model for the new campaign. (link)

The term “moderate” has been a source of contention amid those who have followed the ideology of the Syrian uprising since the fighting began around August/Sept of 2011.
When Syria first erupted there was a general sense of opposition to the leadership of Bashir Assad. However, as time progressed more and more severe jihadists flocked to Syria from battlefields in surrounding nations.
Eventually this power struggle led to the rise of the most powerful among them forming what is now known as ISIS.
In 2012 the UK Guardian presented an on-the-ground outline of what was happening at the time, and for those who wish to understand the evolution it remains one of the best articles written at a time when it was safe for reporters to construct an understanding of what was actually occurring.

It becomes critical to a larger understanding to read the substantive portion of the Guardian’s report in 2012:

(JULY 2012) As they stood outside the commandeered government building in the town of Mohassen, it was hard to distinguish Abu Khuder’s men from any other brigade in the Syrian civil war, in their combat fatigues, T-shirts and beards.

But these were not average members of the Free Syrian Army. Abu Khuder and his men fight for al-Qaida. They call themselves the ghuraba’a, or “strangers”, after a famous jihadi poem celebrating Osama bin Laden’s time with his followers in the Afghan mountains, and they are one of a number of jihadi organisations establishing a foothold in the east of the country now that the conflict in Syria has stretched well into its second bloody year.

They try to hide their presence. “Some people are worried about carrying the [black] flags,” said Abu Khuder. “They fear America will come and fight us. So we fight in secret. Why give Bashar and the west a pretext?” But their existence is common knowledge in Mohassen. Even passers-by joke with the men about car bombs and IEDs.

According to Abu Khuder, his men are working closely with the military council that commands the Free Syrian Army brigades in the region. “We meet almost every day,” he said. “We have clear instructions from our [al-Qaida] leadership that if the FSA need our help we should give it. We help them with IEDs and car bombs. Our main talent is in the bombing operations.” Abu Khuder’s men had a lot of experience in bomb-making from Iraq and elsewhere, he added.

[…] Abu Khuder split with the FSA and pledged allegiance to al-Qaida’s organisation in Syria, the Jabhat al Nusra or Solidarity Front. He let his beard grow and adopted the religious rhetoric of a jihadi, becoming a commander of one their battalions.

“The Free Syrian Army has no rules and no military or religious order. Everything happens chaotically,” he said. “Al-Qaida has a law that no one, not even the emir, can break.

“The FSA lacks the ability to plan and lacks military experience. That is what [al-Qaida] can bring. They have an organisation that all countries have acknowledged.

“In the beginning there were very few. Now, mashallah, there are immigrants joining us and bringing their experience,” he told the gathered people. “Men from Yemen, Saudi, Iraq and Jordan. Yemenis are the best in their religion and discipline and the Iraqis are the worst in everything – even in religion.”

At this, one man in the room – an activist in his mid-30s who did not want to be named – said: “So what are you trying to do, Abu Khuder? Are you going to start cutting off hands and make us like Saudi? Is this why we are fighting a revolution?”

“[Al-Qaida’s] goal is establishing an Islamic state and not a Syrian state,” he replied. “Those who fear the organisation fear the implementation of Allah’s jurisdiction. If you don’t commit sins there is nothing to fear.” (link – more)

Taken in the abstract it would be alarming enough to recognize that back in 2012 the group now known as ISIS was smart enough to understand they needed to carefully navigate the position of America to insure President Obama carried out actions that advanced their overall goals, the establishment of an “Islamic State”.
However, when you add to that complex dynamic the fact we were simultaneously training ISIS leadership through a covert CIA operation approved in August 2012 by President Obama, things become even more sketchy:

A U.S. government source acknowledged that under provisions of the presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies.

Last week, Reuters reported that, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey had established a secret base near the Syrian border to help direct vital military and communications support to Assad’s opponents.

This “nerve center” is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60 miles (100 km) from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence.  (link)

How does this pertain to now, 2015 ?

Going back to the recent  Wall Street Journal Report:

[…]  A team of four to six rebels will each be given a Toyota Hi-Lux pickup, outfitted with a machine gun, communications gear and Global Positioning System trackers enabling them to call in airstrikes.

The fighters will also be given mortars, but the administration hasn’t decided whether to provide the teams with more sophisticated antitank weapons. (link)

You see, we already did this.  We did EXACTLY THIS.
Back in 2012 and 2013 the Obama administration did this exact thing.   We provided the Syrian forces, those “moderates” we supported, with the exact same equipment through our covert CIA operation in Turkey.
We gave those identified “Syrian moderates” Toyota Hi-Lux pickup’s outfitted with machine guns, arms and GPS tracking.
….And where is that equipment today?



Parading through Libya.
The only thing the “moderates” needed to add -to the equipment we gave them- was their non-moderate flags of ISIS.
FUBAR