Syria's Assad accused of boosting al-Qaeda and ISIS with secret oil deals

This is from January. I searched and couldn't find this posted already though I have yet to master the search function here. I became curious after reading recent media reports that ISIS/ISIL was receiving money from oil production in Syria which made no sense to me. So this (if true) has Assad who was allegedly funding Shia insurgents in Iraq during the U.S. occupation now helping Sunni insurgents who are targeting Shia. It seems like a hopeless mess.

The Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has funded and co-operated with al-Qaeda in a complex double game even as the terrorists fight Damascus, according to new allegations by Western intelligence agencies, rebels and al-Qaeda defectors.
Jabhat al-Nusra, and the even more extreme Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS), the two al-Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria, have both been financed by selling oil and gas from wells under their control to and through the regime, intelligence sources have told The Daily Telegraph.
Rebels and defectors say the regime also deliberately released militant prisoners to strengthen jihadist ranks at the expense of moderate rebel forces. The aim was to persuade the West that the uprising was sponsored by Islamist militants including al-Qaeda as a way of stopping Western support for it.

Link

a reply to: DelMarvel

Didn't they do the same thing with Saddam Hussein when they say he was connected with Al Qaeda.

So assad is suposed to be funding the people is army fought during there civil war, that makes no sense.

a reply to: starwarsisreal

And that he was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Yeah the stench alone on this one should be enough.

However, it won't be the first or last time members of ATS have willingly fallen for propaganda.

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
So assad is suposed to be funding the people is army fought during there civil war, that makes no sense.

Indeed it makes absolutely no sense at all. It's highly ironic that this information is based on "new allegations by Western intelligence agencies", when in fact Western governments have been the major player funding these extremists in Libya in Syria. They provided them with money and weaponry to bring down the regimes in Libya in Syria and several other places, and in doing so they've created a strong and powerful army of extremists who now have extensive battle experience, and they turn around and blame it on the regimes who have been trying to fight the very same extremists... I don't think I've ever seen a better example of hypocrisy. These Western intelligence agencies know no bounds, they will do and say anything, twist the truth as far as it can be twisted, and never feel an ounce of remorse.

a reply to: DelMarvel

As you say, "It seems like a hopeless mess", prophetic words indeed. How it will un-mess itself and who will prevail really is a worrying thought.

In support of your OP, I have linked the following article;

Is Al Qaeda Aiding Bashar Al-Assad

Now you can take it on face value but the report claims;

Moderate rebels say the Syrian president is secretly working with a rogue al-Qaeda group in the country’s brutal civil war. But are Sunni jihadists really in bed with the Assad regime?

The article also continues further to suggest that Assad effectively setup ISIS. He may well have.

Kind Regards
Myselfaswell

originally posted by: DelMarvel
This is from January.

Yet here it is in a timely fashion..

Suspicious..

a reply to: myselfaswell

I wouldn't trust a word from the rebels regarding Assad and his alleged cooperation with extremists...there is an obvious conflict of interest in the assertions. I don't think it would make too much sense either, unless the extreme groups actually had control of all the oil fields, and forced Assad to purchase through them. But i assume Assad could have gotten better deals through allied states anyway...

Also, i am fairly certain that Assad never established ISIS:

The group has used several different names since its formation in early 2004 as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, "The Organization of Monotheism and Jihad" (JTJ).

In October 2004, the group's then leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden. Zarqawi then changed the name of the group to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, "The Organization of Jihad's Base in the Country of the Two Rivers" (TQJBR), more commonly translated as "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" (AQI). Although the organization has never used the name "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" to refer to itself, this has frequently been used to describe the group through its various incarnations.

In January 2006, the group merged with several smaller Iraqi insurgent groups under an umbrella organization called the Mujahideen Shura Council.

On 12 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council joined with four other insurgent factions and representatives of a number of Iraqi tribes in a pact called Hilf al-Mutayibeen, "The Oath of the Scented Ones".

This was followed the next day, 13 October 2006, by the announcement of the establishment of the Dawlat al-'Iraq al-Islamiyya, "Islamic State of Iraq" (ISI).

On 9 April 2013, after the group expanded into Syria, it adopted the name "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant", also known as "Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham". It is abbreviated as ISIS or alternately ISIL. The final "S" in the acronym ISIS stems from the Arabic word Sham, which in the context of global jihad refers to the Levant or Greater Syria.

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: daaskapital
a reply to: myselfaswell

I wouldn't trust a word from the rebels regarding Assad and his alleged cooperation with extremists...there is an obvious conflict of interest in the assertions. I don't think it would make too much sense either, unless the extreme groups actually had control of all the oil fields, and forced Assad to purchase through them. But i assume Assad could have gotten better deals through allied states anyway...

I certainly don't know much about what's going on. But as I said, there are recent reports in the MSM that ISIS is profiting from oil fields they have seized in Syria. If that is true, it's hard to imagine that it could be getting to market without using infrastructure controlled by Assad's regime.

originally posted by: Tucket

originally posted by: DelMarvel
This is from January.

Yet here it is in a timely fashion..

Suspicious..

If I might ask, what are you saying is suspicious?

originally posted by: DelMarvel

originally posted by: Tucket

originally posted by: DelMarvel
This is from January.

Yet here it is in a timely fashion..

Suspicious..

If I might ask, what are you saying is suspicious?

The fact that you posted western propaganda in the wake of a few ISIS threads in which many people suggest the West is funding the group. OP could be entirely true, but it just strikes me as dis info.

originally posted by: Tucket
The fact that you posted western propaganda in the wake of a few ISIS threads in which many people suggest the West is funding the group. OP could be entirely true, but it just strikes me as dis info.

So, there's a company line here and looking at other sources makes me a shill, perhaps? Is that what you're getting at?

The OP could be true or partially true and ISIS could still be a product of western intelligence agencies or partially so or not at all or any one of a number of other combination of explanations. Looking into this there are clearly a lot of players involved with a lot of conflicting and/or overlapping objectives. It's almost a certainty that the claim that the CIA is behind this is an oversimplification of one sort or another.

And as far as disinfo goes a lot of the sources (domestic and foreign) claiming western funding for ISIS/ISIL are hardly objective and trustworthy either.

What can be said for sure at this point is that some funding at least came from individuals and/or groups and perhaps governments of gulf states like Saudi Arabia and that those countries are to some extent American allies.

originally posted by: DelMarvel

originally posted by: Tucket
The fact that you posted western propaganda in the wake of a few ISIS threads in which many people suggest the West is funding the group. OP could be entirely true, but it just strikes me as dis info.

So, there's a company line here and looking at other sources makes me a shill, perhaps? Is that what you're getting at?

I apologize for the implication. It was a knee jerk reaction.