Reuters on how U.S. backed rebel groups in Syria are fighting alongside ‘Al Qaeda’.

by afghanistanwatch

As here:

Hardline Islamists fighting side-by-side with groups backed by the United States have made gains in northern Syria in recent weeks while showing rare unity, which some fear may be short-lived . . .

. . . The alliance, which includes al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, known as the Nusra Front, and another hardline militant group, the Ahrar al-Sham movement, is edging closer to the coastal province of Latakia, President Bashar al-Assad’s stronghold.

Fighting alongside them, although excluded from a joint command center, are groups which reject the jihadists’ anti-Western aims and say they receive covert support from the CIA. Two of these are called Division 13 and Fursan al-Haq . . .

. . . Sitting in Istanbul with Division 13 and Fursan al Haq commanders, a representative of Ahrar al-Sham’s political office, Abu Mohammed, stressed unity . . .

. . . Abu Hamoud, a commander from Division 13, said his group coordinated with Nusra Front, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, but this does not mean it is aligned to it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/us-syria-crisis-opposition-islamists-idUSKBN0NL21620150430

Anyone remember when ‘Al Qaeda’ were the most evil and depraved ‘terrorist’ group ever to walk the face of the Earth?

So dangerous and threatening that we had no choice but to invade and occupy Afghanistan, and invade and occupy Iraq, and bomb Pakistan, and bomb Yemen, and bomb Somalia?

Now they’re fighting alongside and working with the U.S. and U.K.’s ‘moderate’ (a propaganda term meaning ‘groups who’ll toe our line’, regardless of their actual behaviour) rebels in Syria.

And corporate media generally be like:

I personally never bought into the hype about ‘Al Qaeda’ (or groups labelled as such)  being some homogenous, supra-threatening, omnipresent menace.

But given the context of the last 15 years of incessant anti-‘Al Qaeda’/’war on terror’ propaganda, you might think the fact that U.S. backed groups are now openly working with them would be treated as a major news story. A bit of a scandal even, and certainly worthy of newspaper headlines. Yet more evidence that the ‘war on terror’ is a demonstrable sham, designed to give cover to the same old Imperial machinations.

But no. It’s mentioned in passing, and we’re just supposed to move on like it’s no big deal.

https://interventionswatch.wordpress.com/