Via Diane Mantzaris US foreign Policy on Syria.. horrifying doublespeak https://facebook/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/10152037118755665 Meantime, the U.S. is about to open a big spigot of non-lethal assistance to rebel forces in Syria. Our story: The State Department is about to begin delivering tens of millions of dollars worth of new assistance into Syria, including ambulances, communications gear and Toyota pickup trucks for the countrys beleaguered rebels... despite the violence and fighting across large swaths of the country, State Department officials say that opposition forces have managed to open the supply route into Aleppo from the Syrian-Turkish border that will allow Washington to send in more aid. In January, rebel forces began a more concerted campaign against al Qaeda militias that managed to push the extremists out of strategically important areas. Now, even as the city of Aleppo itself remains under siege by the Assad regime, the route into the city is for the first time in many weeks free of militants. As a result, U.S. assistance for rebel forces and the Free Syrian Army can get into Aleppo once again, American officials said...The shipments are part of an $80 million non-lethal assistance package to the FSA, underway since 2012, that has largely come to a halt in recent months because of the countrys poor security situation. About one-third of that total aid package has already been delivered to rebel forces; that leaves the remainder of the existing U.S. commitment, more than $53 million of equipment and supplies, that is expected to begin to flow into the country in coming days, weeks, and months, according to a State Department official. This will be one of the largest shipments weve ever put across, Mark Ward, the State Departments senior advisor for non-lethal assistance in the region, told FP. ...Some of the shipments now in trucks in the queue along the Syrian border include ambulances, forklifts, trucks, communications gear, mattresses and blankets for the Free Syrian Army. It also includes a few of the Toyota Hilux pickups that Oubai Shahbandar, a senior adviser to the Syrian Opposition Coalition in Washington, described as one of the most critical types of equipment the rebels could have. We need them in the hundreds, not in the onesies and twosies, he said. ...one congressional staffer believes that Americans are in the dark about the true nature of the Syrian rebels, many of whom are moderates that the administration knows and quietly trusts. [The administration] doesnt want people to know that because if the public finds out, they may say, why arent you doing more to help them? And there is no good answer to that question, the staffer said.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 22:41:03 +0000
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