Who Is Listening To The Syrian People?
By Hussein Al-Alak
14 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Throughout the whole Syria crisis, one thing which has been striking, is the clear absence among British political circles, to actually listen to the points being raised by the Syrian people.
Ordinary Syrian’s have repeatedly warned both the US and UK about the presence of foreign fighters in their country, which by US estimates alone, number over 10.000 people, who have joined the war against President Assad.
Many of the foreign fighters in Syria, come from those countries who have been threatening military action against the Syrian Government, for the use of Chemical Weapons and even includes an estimated 150 British nationals.
Ignoring Intelligence
The United Nations warned in June, that the ongoing turmoil inside of Syria and Iraq has formed a situation, where “the battlefields are merging” into one.
One of the reasons for this, were expressed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who stated, that the borders between the two countries, were still “quite open for movement by terrorist groups, or weapons.”
In June, the intelligence agency MI6 warned the British Government, that US and UK support for the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi has turned Libya into the “Tesco for world terrorists”, with over 3000 surface to air missiles having disappeared.
That same month, a Libyan from the British northern city of Manchester, boasted to Reuters, how with the support of Libya’s new democratic Government, his family was shipping weapons over to arm the rebels in Syria.
An International Jihad
Among the “Syrian rebels” included the British national Ali Al-Manasfi, who after being slain, emerged in the Guardian, that his background included a drunken assault, for which he served prison time, drugs, theft and involvement with criminal gangs.
Other British supporters of the foreign fighters, being warned of by Syrian’s, include Michael Adebolajo, the killer of Woolwich based soldier Lee Rigby. According to the media, before the brutal and very public murder of Rigby, Adebolajo was enthusiastically “encouraging an audience to go to Syria to fight”.
The reported flow of Jordanian jihadists also joining ranks with Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria, threatens to undermine their future security and stability, political analysts warned The Jordan Times.
Hassan Abu Hanieh an analyst and expert on Islamic groups, said that Jordanians are considered among the most prominent foreign nationalities fighting alongside Islamist forces in the anti-Assad rebellion.
According to the Arabic newsgroup Al-Hayat, Kuwaitis, who belong to Islamist movements, including former MPs, political activists or clerics, are leading one campaign after another to arm the Syrian opposition’s armed fighters.
They have been raising banners in public places calling for jihad and armament, not to mention campaigns on social networking sites, including Facebook, calling for preparing mujahedeen and supplying them with financial support.
According to Middle East based journalist Liz Sly, Syrian rebels, including some affiliated with al-Qaeda, swept through Maaloula, renowned as the oldest Christian community in the world and entered the convent.
They demanded the nuns appear in a video to declare that they had not been harmed and according to the convents Mother Superior, the rebel who negotiated with her spoke with a Saudi accent, while others appeared to be from Afghanistan or Chechnya.
Several spoke no Arabic, and all of her comments were interpreted from Arabic into English by one of the fighters to the others, leading her to suspect that some were even Americans.
Hussein Al-Alak is a British based journalist and is chairman of the Iraq Solidarity Campaign UK. Hussein is also a member of the Royal British Legion and a mental health advocate for Combat Stress. You can follow him on Twitter @TotallyHussein. He blogs at http://totallyhussein.blogspot.co.uk
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