By FINIAN CUNNINGHAM
In a twisted sort of way, we should thank Michael J Morell, the former CIA deputy director. At last, we have official clarity on what has up to now been a US policy of deception over its criminal, covert involvement in Syria’s conflict. He says US policy should be to kill Russian military personnel. No qualms, no quibbles. Kill them.
Morell made his macabre recommendation during an interview on CBS last week.
Nearly six years of Western-backed death and destruction in Syria for regime change, and yet Washington somehow has gotten away with maintaining that it is «fighting terrorism» in the Arab country.
And to think, too, Morell’s candid admission of US criminality was fittingly broadcast on prime-time American TV.
That there wasn’t an immediate furor among the Western media and public over Morell’s Murder Inc machinations just goes to show how debased Western moral and legal standards have become. Probably due to inurement from decades of barbarity and lawlessness of Western governments waging criminal wars in the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and Latin America.
We can be sure that Morell was not primarily doing it for the benefit of public disclosure when he told Charlie Rose on CBS that US policy in Syria should be henceforth to assassinate Russian and Iranian forces. Rather, it seems more likely that the ex-CIA chief was pitching for a cabinet job in a Clinton administration, if she is elected in the November presidential ballot. Morell’s ambition for reward seemed to impair his judgment, and so the CIA’s former top spook was trying his best to sound all macho.
Michael J. Morell, former CIA Director
Only days before his CBS interview, Morell had authored an obsequious oped in the New York Times extolling Hillary Clinton as the best qualified candidate to be commander in chief. He also endorsed her stated desire for more aggressive American intervention in Syria’s war.
Morell’s macho performance on CBS calling for Russia and Iran to «pay a price» for their intervention in Syria had the obvious purpose of advertising his application for a Clinton appointment.
But beyond his squalid self-serving motivations, Morell unwittingly performed a service to public disclosure on what US involvement in Syria is all about.
His candid comments can only have one conclusion. The US is prepared to openly side with terrorists in Syria by arming and directing militants to kill Russians. In short, the US is on the side of the terrorists.
For many observers of the Syrian conflict this is not a revelation. Since the onset of the conflict in March 2011, informed observers have known that the US and its NATO and regional allies have infiltrated mercenary groups into the country in a covert war for regime change against President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Despite Western fictive narratives about the anti-government militants being competitively divided between «moderate rebels» and «extremists», it is understood that Washington and its allies have been waging their covert war by secretly and indiscriminately supporting the full gamut of illegally armed groups, or terrorists.
Washington has covered its terrorist connections with a seeming «war on terror» by declaring a mission to defeat such internationally proscribed groups as Jabhat al-Nusra (renamed Fatah al-Sham) and Islamic State. So, while Washington claims that it is supporting «moderate rebels» against the Assad government it is also flying warplanes to apparently strike the «terrorists». But those strikes beginning in September 2014 evidently had little damaging impact on the supposed terror targets.
However, the intended effect was that Washington’s dual policy provided a convenient cover. It allowed the US government to claim that it was fighting terrorists, and therefore deny any covert connection with such groups, while also seeming to be on the side of «legitimate» rebels.
For the people of Syria, this Western dichotomy of moderates and terrorists is a risible fabrication. The anti-government forces are dominated by extremists who profess a death cult ideology. Even the so-called Free Syrian Army championed by Western governments is fully integrated with the death-cult mercenaries, chopping heads off their victims, including young children.
The charade began to collapse dramatically when Russian forces were ordered into Syria by President Vladimir Putin last October. In support of the sovereign Syrian state and its Syrian Arab Army, Russia’s military has completely overturned the five-year war.
American political and military leaders may recently proclaim heavy losses for the extremists in Syria – as if they had something to do with that – but the fact is that it was Russian forces that have created the present situation in which the various terror brigades are facing ultimate defeat.
The battle for Aleppo led by the Syrian army and Russian allies has exposed the vile truth about the nature of the conflict. The anti-government militias are cornered in the northern city, and quite possibly facing their last stand. In this showdown, there are no «moderates» to be seen. The terrorist composition of the Western-backed «rebels» is fully, irrefutably, on display.
Tellingly, as the Syrian and Russian forces tighten the noose on the terrorist brigades holed up in eastern Aleppo, the Western media convey reports from the «rebel» side of alleged atrocities. Notably, CNN, BBC and France 24 broadcast video footage apparently supplied by «rebels». Rarely, if ever, do the Western media report from the Syrian government’s side.
At last, by doing so, the Western media are revealing their true stripes. They are reporting from the hold-outs of terror groups, the main one in Aleppo being Jabhat al-Nusra (Fatah al-Sham). It is a remarkable – if perhaps inadvertent – admission of where Western allegiances are embedded in the Syrian conflict.
Michael Morell’s call for the assassination of Russian forces is another landmark disclosure of Western policy. Apart from grave legal issues of countenancing war crimes, Morell is plainly saying: US-backed terrorists are being defeated and we have to do something drastic about that by rearming them and directing them to murder Russian servicemen.
Only a few weeks ago, US Secretary of State John Kerry went to Moscow ostensibly with a proposal to Putin from President Obama for American and Russian forces to form a joint anti-terror combat front in Syria. This is after months of the Americans refusing to share information with Russia on terrorist locations, or even helping in clarifying which groups Washington considers terrorist and which it considers «moderates».
Kerry’s «offer» was only a ruse to inveigle Moscow to betray its Syrian ally. Moscow wasn’t buying the stupid American duplicity. And Moscow’s skepticism is vindicated.
Ex-CIA chief Michael Morell is now, in effect, giving the long overdue clarification. Washington is on the side of the terrorists in Syria. It is so displeased with the strategic defeat that Russia has inflicted on the Americans’ regime-change terror assets that Washington is contemplating taking the war to Russia.
For observers wearied by the American deception and duplicity in Syria over the past five years, Morell’s explicit endorsement of Washington-sanctioned murder is a welcome confirmation.
The disclosure is particularly apt. Morell served in the CIA from 2010-2013 and worked closely with Hillary Clinton on Syria policy when she was Secretary of State. His recent public support of state-sanctioned terrorism is therefore nothing more than covert American business-as-usual.
Syria and Russia need to wipe out the terrorist remnants in Aleppo in the next three months. Because if Clinton becomes president, with Murder Inc people like Morell in her cabinet, the Syrian conflict may very well escalate into an all-out war with Russia.
************
ER recommends other articles by Strategic Culture
About the author
Finian Cunningham, former editor and writer for major news media organizations, has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages
Find out about our great (WOW)TLB Project Membership package and benefits, add your voice and help us to change the world!
