Crossposted on my personal blog
If you've been paying any attention to the news lately you've no doubt heard about the Siniora (US friendly) government in Lebanon fighting hard against al-Qaeda tied group Fatah al-Islam (remember this name!) in norther Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp.
I mentioned that this Sunni extremist group sounded familiar: That I was sure I had seen an article a few months back that told us how the US and UK were stupidly funding Sunni extremist groups in norther Lebanon (many with al-Qaeda ties) in order to harm Shia Iran and Shia Hezbollah's interests in Lebanon, and thus help the Siniora government.
Well I found it!! The US and UK have indeed been funders of not only Sunni extremist groups in Lebanon, but the precise Sunni al-Qaeda group (Fatah al-Islam) that is battling the Lebanese troops. A battle that is not going too well for Lebanon and if defeated will empower Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Get that? We funded sunni extremists to help us undermine Iranian and Hezbollah influence in Lebanon (already bad that we funded terrorists), yet we ended up arming groups who are now taking up arms against the government we wanted to support!! Such blowback! How could they be so damn near-sighted!?
Read Here the article that details the US aid to Fatah al-Islam
The United States has also given clandestine support to the Siniora government, according to the former senior intelligence official and the U.S. government consultant. "We are in a program to enhance the Sunni capability to resist Shiite influence, and we're spreading the money around as much as we can," the former senior intelligence official said. The problem was that such money "always gets in more pockets than you think it will," he said. "In this process, we're financing a lot of bad guys with some serious potential unintended consequences. We don't have the ability to determine and get pay vouchers signed by the people we like and avoid the people we don't like. It's a very high-risk venture."
American, European, and Arab officials I spoke to told me that the Siniora government and its allies had allowed some aid to end up in the hands of emerging Sunni radical groups in northern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and around Palestinian refugee camps in the south. These groups, though small, are seen as a buffer to Hezbollah; at the same time, their ideological ties are with Al Qaeda.
With friends like these...Anyways please read on
"The Lebanese government is opening space for these people to come in. It could be very dangerous." Crooke said that one Sunni extremist group, Fatah al-Islam, had splintered from its pro-Syrian parent group, Fatah al-Intifada, in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, in northern Lebanon. Its membership at the time was less than two hundred. "I was told that within twenty-four hours they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government's interests—presumably to take on Hezbollah," Crooke said.
So it appears that the Lebanese government and the US and UK governments really dropped the ball here. I mean REALLY messed up. Ironic how Hezbollah may just gain from boneheaded and misguided US attempts to undermine Hezbollah.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are ruled by morons with no capacity to think things beyond short-term gain. Long term consequences matter little. Although their behavior during the run up and aftermath of war in Iraq should have demonstrated that chracteristic all too well.
Some one needs to inquire deeper into this aspect of the story, I don't think I've seen this connection just yet....