Better headline: Some Non-Syrians Still Naïve Enough To Believe U.S. And Assad Arent Allies... Many Syrians Will Still See Redacted CIA Report As Proof U.S. And Assad Are Allies 10-12-2014: ...Syria was a secondary member of the Bush administration’s infamous “Axis of Evil.” Yet previous reports have detailed at length how Syria was a key player in the CIA’s rendition program. A 2013 study from the Open Society Foundation noted that Syria was among the “most common destinations” for CIA rendition. The study added: “Syria detained, interrogated, and tortured” the suspects the CIA rendered to its custody. The report’s release — and the renewed focus on torture and rendition — comes at a time when many Syrians are increasingly angered by a perceived cooperation between the U.S. and the regime as they share Syria’s skies. After years of ignoring calls to do more to help the U.S.–backed opposition topple Assad, the Obama administration instead sent warplanes to bomb the extremist militants of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. The regime, meanwhile, has continued using its aircraft to punish rebels and civilians alike. The U.S. has denied coordinating with the regime — but Syrians often ask how that can be so as planes from both sides patrol overhead. The answer they often come to echoes one put forward by a Syrian pharmacist in an office near the Turkish border on Monday, as a conversation among colleagues about medical supplies erupted into a debate on U.S. policy: “America supports Assad.” ...“Average Syrians do believe there was cooperation in the past between the Assad regime and the Americans on a number of levels. The majority of them still believe it’s there,” says Adnan Hadad, a Syrian activist and journalist who heads the Aleppo Media Center. “Looking at it in the context of the airstrikes targeting ISIS and excluding Assad, with all the brutality he has brought, I think this [report] will further support that belief.”
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 02:16:52 +0000
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