Thursday, October 3, 2013

CIA Steps Up Training For Moderate Syrian Rebels

Syrian rebel fighters pose for a picture in Hama July 20, 2012. REUTERS/Shaam News Network/Handout

CIA Ramping Up Covert Training Program For Moderate Syrian Rebels -- Washington Post

The CIA is expanding a clandestine effort to train opposition fighters in Syria amid concern that moderate, U.S.-backed militias are rapidly losing ground in the country’s civil war, U.S. officials said.

But the CIA program is so minuscule that it is expected to produce only a few hundred trained fighters each month even after it is enlarged, a level that officials said will do little to bolster rebel forces that are being eclipsed by radical Islamists in the fight against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The CIA’s mission, officials said, has been defined by the White House’s desire to seek a political settlement, a scenario that relies on an eventual stalemate among the warring factions rather than a clear victor. As a result, officials said, limits on the agency’s authorities enable it to provide enough support to help ensure that politically moderate, U.S.-supported militias don’t lose but not enough for them to win.

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My Comment: The CIA better hurry up .... because Al Qaeda is winning their war over these "moderate" rebel groups.

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