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The Case Against John McCain
In May, earlier this year, Senator John McCain went on a secret trip to Syria to meet with
rebel leaders of the Free Syrian Army fighting in opposition to Bashar al-Assad's Syrian
Government. Once McCain returned home photos surfaced of his trip claiming that he met
with 'known terrorists,' members of the 'rebel' group, Northern Storm brigade, some say an
adjunct of the Free Syrian Army, and responsible for kidnapping 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims
in Syria.
Lebanon's Al Jadeed TV station, which is viewed as sympathetic to Hezbollah, a Shiite militant
group fighting FOR Assad in Syria, broke the original story. 9 of the 11 Shia kidnapped
are still being held, but one of the released captives identified Mohammed Nour, chief spokesman
and photographer and Ammar Al-Dadikhi as part of Northern Storm's leadership and again as
the two men standing beside John McCain in this picture.
The story made headlines in the United States and tough questions awaited.
[Fox News CLIP]
Obviously the question wasn't answered. So on Friday of last week, September 6th Christopher
Greene and I went to Prescott, Arizona for a town hall event and followed up with the
Senator from Arizona.
[VIDEO]
[RED: "al-qaeda newspaper in lebanon"]
The allegation came from "an al Qaeda newspaper in Lebanon?" While Al Jadeed TV might be known
as 'sympathetic,' the story was also contributed to by The Daily Star, a Lebanese newspaper
who was from 2000 to 2009 a representative of the New York Times in the Gulf region - hardly
al-Qaeda. But more importantly "Al Qaeda" was founded by one-time CIA asset Osama bin-Laden
a Sunni Muslim of Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda is a radical Sunni muslim movement and still
heavily funded and trained by the Sunni Gulf States and Saudi Arabia to this day. McCain
obviously confuses the two.
Now whether it was intentional - using 'al Qaeda' as an umbrella term (which many unfortunately
do in America) for all terrorist organizations including Hezbollah, or a flippant reminder
McCain has no idea what he's talking about is unclear; none the less he has conflated
the two - sunni whabbists and shia militants - as if they are one in the same - they are
not and are in fact in bloody opposition in the War over Syria and backed by global powers.
What McCain is doing is tantamount to confusing protestants and catholics in the 17th century
religious wars of Europe. This either speaks volumes of his ignorance or indifference to
the fact that al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Syria are doing most of the fighting, are
strategically aligned with Assad's enemies including the West and stand the most to benefit
from a U.S. lead strike against Assad's assets not the Free Syrian Army whom John McCain
met with clandestinely just a few months ago.
The Daily Star thankfully cleared the air on one name, Ammar Al-Dadikhi or Abu Ibrahim,
the former leader of the Northern Storm Brigade, was actually wounded and allegedly died in
Turkey months before the photo was taken. And Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of
the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an American nonprofit that helped organize the McCain
trip said "Nobody self-identified as Nour, and none of the guys who were standing outside
were in the meeting with [John] McCain." The only problem is while Abu Ibrahim the OLD
leader of Northern Storm, was missing and presumed dead as The Daily Star reported its
NEW leader, Samir Aluan, who's organization still holds the 9 Shia Muslims WAS in the
meeting with Senator McCain - just not in the picture outside. And as far as Mohammed
Nour and his lack of self-identification are concerned, it's hard to envision a scenario
in which he would be toting around his "I am a known terrorist" badge.
This of course is not the first time John McCain has been caught "literally palling
around with terrorists" as The Daily Show's host Jon Stewart put it comically. For years,
Global Research notes, McCain has advocated, as he is in Syria, for groups either directly
affiliated with or tacitly connected to al Qaeda franchises and arguably in blatant violation
of international law as well as in breach of US anti-terrorism legislation.
In April of 2011 on a visit to Benghazi, Libya, John McCain claimed that the "brave fighters'
he met with were "not al Qaeda. To the contrary. They are Libyan Patriots who want to liberate
their nation." In an NPR interview that same month McCain said, 'They are my heroes." AFP
reported not a year later, after Gaddafi was overthrown and Libya was in shambles, that
Senator McCain and Lindsey Graham met with Abdel Hakim Belhadj one of the rebellion's
leading figures and then head of the Tripoli military council. Belhadj prior to and during
the revolution lead the now defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group a confirmed affiliate
of al-Qaeda and responsible for the deaths of U.S. military personnel in Iraq during
the occupation according to an authoritative 2007 US Military Academy report.
LIFG is a terrorist organization on both the UN Security Council and the US State Department
lists. And as Tony Cartalucci points out "McCain was not only rhetorically supporting listed
terrorists, but calling for material support including weapons, funds, training, and air
support in direct violation of USC ยง 2339A & 2339B, "providing material support or resources
to designated foreign terrorist organizations." This 'material support' McCain had sought
for Libyan rebels most of whom were from Benghazi, a hotbed of Islamic militancy, of which claimed
the lives of three Americans and a U.S. Ambassador a little over a year after his gushed about
his new found friends.
In the end. claiming ignorance is no excuse, but it is a clear example of the prevailing
wisdom or lack thereof in Washington and why American foreign policy is in perpetual failure.
But John McCain's trip also reveals the larger more interested powers behind the effort to
oust the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The NGOs involved in both Libya and Syria are just
the tip of the iceberg. More in our next video.