Quote from: abasin on August 09, 2015, 09:23:31 AM

In Al Jazeeras latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the Wests backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White Houses sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was a willful decision. [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo begins at the 8:50 mark.]

Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the questionFlynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera

Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasnt listening?

Flynn: I think the administration.

Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?

Flynn: I dont know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.

Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?

Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what theyre doing.

Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynns frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.

Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release, Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he paid very close attention to this report in particular and later adds that the intelligence was very clear.

Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the Syrian regime:

Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why did you not stop that if youre worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?

Flynn: I hate to say its not my jobbut thatmy job was towas to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be.

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/07/rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-former-dia-chief-michal-flynn/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3j8OYKgn4&feature=youtu.be

The institutional logic of governments is to increase "state security" even at the expense of "national security".

"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":

Earlier in our history such an assertion by such a highly placed intelligence official would result in congressional curiosity about additional details but not today. How in the hell can leftists declare that they and this particular administration have high standards of integrity and simultaneously keep a straight face?