A joint investigation by the New York Times and Al Jazeera revealed a messy scheme of arms theft that Jordanian intelligence service (the General Intelligence Directorate, or GID) officers used to smuggle weapons provided by the US and Saudi Arabia for Syrian rebels trained on Jordanian soil.
The CIA reportedly conducted Syrian rebel training programs for decades. One, the less effective, was intended to train Syrian fighters to fight against Daesh. This program was shut down after it reportedly managed to train only a handful of fighters. The second one, though, trained fighters to fight against Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad. This one, reportedly, was way more effective.
Since 2013, both the United States and Saudi Arabia shipped weapons, which included assault rifles, RPGs and mortars, to Jordan, to arms the rebels. However, a group of Jordan intelligence officers siphoned truckloads of the weapons worth millions of dollars from the stocks, and they ended up on a black market, where criminal networks and rural Jordanian tribes, as well as foreign smugglers, provided a stable demand.
These weapons were used in a recent shooting when Anwar Abu Zaid, a Jordanian police captain, gunned down two American contractors. The FBI investigation into the shooting included weapon numbers tracking, which led to the revelation of the whole scheme.
The existence of the rebel training program is classified, as are all details about its budget. It is โ or was, apparently โ also a state secret in Jordan.
Representatives of the CIA and FBI declined to comment.
Mohammad H. al-Momani, Jordan's minister of state for media affairs, however, said allegations that Jordanian intelligence officers had been involved in any weapons thefts were "absolutely incorrect."
He said GID is "a world-class, reputable institution known for its professional conduct and high degree of cooperation among security agencies." It is unclear whether the current head of the GID had knowledge of the theft.
Comment: This is entirely true. In other words, Jordanian intel never goes behind its master's back. If these weapons were smuggled, it was done at the behest of the CIA, all 'above board', so to speak. And just so happens to provide plausible deniability for the Americans.
Notably, news of the weapons theft and eventual crackdown has reportedly been circulating inside Jordan's government for several months. Husam Abdallat, a senior aide to several past Jordanian prime ministers, said he had heard about the scheme from current Jordanian officials.
The theft scheme ended a couple of months ago, after the Americans and Saudis complained about the theft. Investigators at the GID arrested several dozen officers involved in the scheme, but they were ultimately released from detention and fired from the service, but were allowed to keep their pensions and money they gained from the scheme, according to Jordanian officials.
According to the New York Times/Al Jazeera report, Jordan provided grounds for US covert operations for decades, thanks to its key position in the Middle East, in exchange for massive monetary support provided to the Jordanian government since the second half of twentieth century.
This organization cannot continue to exist without constant supply of weapons and ammunition. This is the proverbial elephant in the room.
Who is doing this? It's not just Turkey. They have no longer have any supply lines from Turkey, since the Kurdish forces have cut of much of them. And the Russians have had no shame about bombing their oil trucks, even though most of them were driven by poor random buggers that just wanted a job within the 'Islamic State'.
See here: [Link]
ISIS no longer have any direct supply from Turkey any more (that area between Jarablus and Azaz (where the US/Turkey anxiously wanted to declare a no-fly zone, but was scotched by Russia and China). And where Sultan Erdogan declared his own 'red line' if the Kurds went beyond the Euphrates (Tishrin Dam). So much for that.
And yet they trashed a Syrian Army thrust towards the Taqba air-base? Largely due to inclement sand-storms that neutralized the Russian/Syrian air forces, and, as they do best, attack at the weakest point. They are smart, is ISIS, largely led by ex-Baathist Iraqi generals and intelligence people. Far from stupid, and not just nut-case jihadists. Left-overs from the amazingly clever and legally justified invasion of Saddam's Iraq (/sarcasm off). But they still get crap-loads of fighters and ammo and weapons, even as they try to resist the US/Kurdish onslaught on Manjib?
I can only think that they continue to be supplied from 'friendly forces'. From other Islamic/Jihadist groups contesting against the legally and internationally recognized government of Dr. Bashar Al-Assad. Who is not a dictator, as the western media constantly claim, since he won multi-party democratic elections back in Feb 2014, overseen by UN observers, who had no complaint about the process, and won by a margin (88%) that western leaders would literally kill for.
This is a Sunni revolution. Backed and financed by Sunni states (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, all of them other than Oman, which continues to maintain a neutral course).
I can only think that ISIS get their supplies via 'moderate forces'. Those supplied by the US, EU, UK. And monarchic Arab states. In other words, western states are indirectly and deliberately supporting ISIS, for their own wicked reasons.
Nothing else makes sense.