Syrian Opposition’s Amazing CIA Credentials

Daniel McAdams
Lew Rockwell.com
July 14, 2012

Thanks once again to the indispensable Moon of Alabama blog for highlighting, among other interesting facts, the amazingly open ties of the Syrian opposition to their Western paymasters. As the astonishing Guardian story linked in the MoA piece outlines, down to the person these Syrian engines of regime change are products of the US empire and its interventionist, Trotskyite foreign policy of “global democratic revolution.” I urge interested readers to click on the original piece for the full story. I am paraphrasing and quoting the Guardian story below by way of summary:

Syrian National Council (SNC):

Bassma Kodmani — member of the executive bureau and head of foreign affairs, Syrian National Council. Two-time Bilderberg meeting attendee. Director of governance and international co-operation program for (CIA-front) Ford Foundation in pre-”Arab Spring” Egypt. Executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) — a research programme initiated by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Radwan Ziadeh — senior fellow at the federally funded Washington think tank, the US Institute of Peace (the USIP Board of Directors is packed with alumni of the defense department and the national security council; its president is Richard Solomon, former adviser to Kissinger at the NSC). In February he joined an elite bunch of Washington hawks to sign a letter calling upon Obama to intervene in Syria: his fellow signatories include James Woolsey (former CIA chief), Karl Rove (Bush Jr’s handler), Clifford May (Committee on the Present Danger) and Elizabeth Cheney, former head of the Pentagon’s Iran-Syria Operations Group. Close allies in US House of Representatives and Senate.

Ausama Monajed — Commentator on Al Jazeera, owned by the dictatorship of Qatar. Blogger for Huffington Post. Adviser to SNC president and “the Founder and Director of Barada Television”, a pro-opposition satellite channel based in Vauxhall, south London. In 2008, a few months after attending Syria In-Transition conference, Monajed was back in Washington, invited to lunch with George W Bush, along with a handful of other favoured dissidents. Recipient of large amounts of State Department funding through its front organization The Democracy Council.

Others:

Hamza Fakher — co-author of Revolution in Danger, a publication of the extremist neo-con “Henry Jackson Society Strategic Briefing,” in February of this year. He co-wrote this briefing paper with the Henry Jackson Society’s communications director, Michael Weiss.

Michael Weiss — One of the most widely quoted western experts on Syria — and an enthusiast for western intervention. Director of communications and public relations at the neo-con Henry Jackson Society. The Henry Jackson Society’s international patrons include: James “ex-CIA boss” Woolsey, Michael “homeland security” Chertoff, William “PNAC” Kristol, Robert “PNAC” Kagan, Joshua “Bomb Iran” Muravchick, and Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle. The Society is run by Alan Mendoza, chief adviser to the all-party parliamentary group on transatlantic and international security.

Tikun Olam Blog founder Richerd Silverstein calls “friend of Syria” Michael Weiss a “Pro-Israel Neocon” who “Authors Blueprint for Western Military Intervention in Syria Approved by Syrian Ex-Pats.”

Concludes the Guardian piece:

This is not to suggest that the account of atrocities must be untrue, but how many of those who give it currency are scrutinising its origins?

And let’s not forget, whatever destabilisation has been done in the realm of news and public opinion is being carried out twofold on the ground. We already know that (at the very least) “the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department … are helping the opposition Free Syrian Army develop logistical routes for moving supplies into Syria and providing communications training.”

The bombs doors are open. The plans have been drawn up.

This has been brewing for a time. The sheer energy and meticulous planning that’s gone into this change of regime — it’s breathtaking. The soft power and political reach of the big foundations and policy bodies is vast, but scrutiny is no respecter of fancy titles and fellowships and “strategy briefings”. Executive director of what, it asks. Having “democracy” or “human rights” in your job title doesn’t give you a free pass.

And if you’re a “communications director” it means your words should be weighed extra carefully. Weiss and Fakher, both communications directors — PR professionals.