The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...sed-terrorism-offences-collapse-bherlin-gildo
The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.
That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.
Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva convention.
But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
Latest NATO Arms From US Found in Daesh Depot in Al Mayadin - Syrian General
MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE
(updated 18:59 24.10.2017)
Brigadier General of the Syrian Arab Army shows reporters the weapons they captured after the liberation of the Syria's city of Al Mayadin. A NATO official has denied the information.
The largest Daesh storehouse captured by the Syrian armed forces in the city of Al Mayadin, in the east of Syria, contained the latest examples of NATO weapons from the United States, Belgium and the United Kingdom, Brigadier General of the Syrian Arab Army Hasan Suheil told reporters.
"It will take us at least six days to take out all these trophies left here by Daesh fighters after their escape. There are a lot of weapons and various foreign made means of communication, "Suhail said.
https://sputniknews.com/military/201710241058484627-syria-nato-us-arms/