US-Backed Syrian Opposition Demands Support for Al Qaeda

US-handpicked opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib wants US to reconsider terror listing for Al Qaeda's al-Nusra front.

Al-Khatib (r) demands support for Al Qaeda.

December 13, 2012 (LD) - As part of the US' charade in declaring support and recognition of the so-called "Syrian" opposition, it added one of the more extreme groups that make up the militant front operating inside Syria to a list of sanctioned terrorist organizations. The idea was to have a scapegoat to pin atrocities on while the West armed, funded, and provided military support for the rest of the extremist groups ravaging Syria. 

The ploy quickly fell apart however, when the US' own handpicked opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib spoke out in protest. Reuters quoted al-Khatib as saying:

"The decision to consider a party that is fighting the regime as a terrorist party needs to be reviewed. We might disagree with some parties and their ideas and their political and ideological vision. But we affirm that all the guns of the rebels are aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical criminal regime." 

Al-Khatib himself openly declares his intentions of establishing an "Islamic state" upon the ashes of the currently secular Syria, and has ties with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood. He was also a representative of Western big oil interests, in particular Royal Dutch Shell. Al-Khatib had worked at the al-Furat Petroleum Company for six years, according to the BBC, which is partnered with Shell Oil. Al-Khatib is also said to have lobbied for Shell in Syria between 2003-2004, and has likewise taught classes in both Europe and the United States, this according to his biography featured on his own website.

The implications of the US-backed "opposition coalition" in Syria clearly collaborating with and acting in support of the terrorist Jabhat al-Nusra front, identifies it as providing material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, as per USC § 2339B which reads:

"Whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. To violate this paragraph, a person must have knowledge that the organization is a designated terrorist organization (as defined in subsection (g)(6)), that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorist activity (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act), or that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorism (as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989)."

Clearly, at the very least, the US cannot "recognize" such a group as the "representatives" of the Syrian people, nor can it support them in any manner, financial, militarily, or politically. To do so would implicate the US government itself as in violation of its own anti-terror laws. 

The so-called "Syrian" opposition has been an increasing embarrassment to the Western interests that have maliciously arrayed them against the Syrian people, as far back as 2007. And while NATO is willfully utilizing Al Qaeda's own regional networks to flood terrorists into Syria, to have the leaders of their own contrived opposition front openly demand that Al Qaeda be given support and recognition gives the world's public insight into the depths of illegitimacy from which the West is operating in pursuit of regime change in Syria.