If Congress approves it this will bring the publicly announced amount provided to the 'moderate' Syrian opposition by the US to almost $400,000,000.
But on the other hand that's only about $40 per displaced Syrian civilian. Some might think it's good value for money.
New Non-Lethal Assistance for the Syrian Opposition
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 13, 2015
As Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced today at an event marking the fourth anniversary of the Syrian revolution, the U.S. Department of State is working with Congress to provide nearly $70 million in new non-lethal assistance. Deputy Secretary Blinken told Syrian opposition and Syrian-American participants in the event that with this additional funding, the United States will have committed nearly $400 million in assistance that supports the Syrian opposition since the start of the revolution.
This new non-lethal assistance includes:
- Nearly $30 million to continue and enable the opposition and local governance structures inside Syria to provide basic services and governance to their communities, as well as ongoing support for civil defense workers who play a critical role in emergency first response in Syria.
- $25 million in non-lethal support to vetted units of the armed opposition to help enhance their operational capabilities as they seek to protect their communities from the duel threat posed by the Asad regime and extremist groups.
- Digital security training and tools to keep activists, civil society members, journalists, and other opposition actors safe as they seek to network with each other and share information, including about regime and other atrocities.
Support for the documentation of war crimes, human rights violations, and abuses by the Syrian regime, as well as armed and extremist groups in Syria, in order to facilitate accountability. Looking ahead, these efforts will help inform future reconciliation initiatives and engender a lasting peace.
http://www.state.gov/...
Just a few notes of my own:
About this paragraph:
- Nearly $30 million to continue and enable the opposition and local governance structures inside Syria to provide basic services and governance to their communities, as well as ongoing support for civil defense workers who play a critical role in emergency first response in Syria.
I'm sure that they hope that no one finds out that the areas which are under 'moderate' opposition control in Syria are tiny and not very populated, much of this tiny area is uninhabited or very sparsely populated.
But that $30 million will pay for quite a few nice hotel rooms in Istanbul and other places, and for quite a few airplane tickets, too.
About this paragraph:
- $25 million in non-lethal support to vetted units of the armed opposition to help enhance their operational capabilities as they seek to protect their communities from the duel threat posed by the Asad regime and extremist groups.
Are there even any 'vetted units of the armed opposition'? There aren't any in Turkey, the program designed to create them has been postponed again and again.
According to this article, it seems that there aren't any of them anywhere else yet either.
"It is clearly part of our plan, that not only we will train them, and we will equip them with the latest weapons systems, but we will also protect them when the time comes," Allen told AFP.
...
According to sources in the US military, training for the volunteers, which number about 1,500, is scheduled to begin in four-to-six weeks and will take place in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Though only 100 have been vetted so far, the goal remains to train about 5,000 battle ready fighters in 2015 and approximately 15,000 combatants over the course of the next three years.
http://www.jpost.com/...
Note: The Hazim Movement mentioned in the article announced that it was dissolving about two weeks ago.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
About this paragraph:
- Digital security training and tools to keep activists, civil society members, journalists, and other opposition actors safe as they seek to network with each other and share information, including about regime and other atrocities.
'Keep [them] safe' ... yea, in hotels in Turkey, but someone has to keep trying to feed the bullshit
('share information') to a lazy media.
And 'regime and other atrocities' ... 'other'?!? Just who is this 'other'? Could it include these 'vetted' 'moderate' opposition groups you want to give $70 million more to?