Al-Qaeda group in Syria left off Canada's list of terrorist groups

[Moonlight Graham]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/terror-list-omission-1.4114621

This makes it harder to prevent Canadians leaving to fight for them, or send money to them, or prosecute their supporters.  But why leave them off the list, we all ask?

Quote

 

The reasons for the reluctance to list the new al-Qaeda formation may have to do with one of its new members, the Nour ed-Dine Zenki Brigade, a jihadi group from the Aleppo governorate. The Zenki Brigade was an early and prominent recipient of U.S. aid, weapons and training. Zenki was cut off by the State Department only after Amnesty International implicated them in killings of Orthodox Christian priests and members posted a video of themselves beheading a young boy.

For the U.S. to designate HTS now would mean acknowledging that it supplied sophisticated weapons including TOW anti-tank missiles to "terrorists," and draw attention to the fact that the U.S. continues to arm Islamist militias in Syria.  Canada's longstanding reliance on U.S. listings exposes it to the increasingly politicized nature of those listings, which are influenced by the U.S. strategy of backing groups fighting the Syrian government and its Russian allies.

 

More info about this splinter group, a Sunni Islamist rebel group (as al-Qaeda's al-Nusra is also) fighting against ISIS in the Syrian civil war:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nour_al-Din_al-Zenki_Movement  This shows the unpredictable dangers and ramifications of western powers taking sides with so-called "lesser evils" in the middle-east.

[DogOnPorch]

Can't wait for the first Bin Laden stamp from the post office. 

Part of its Great Canadians and Friends series. 

[GostHacked]

See the problem does not lie with Islam here, it is with how our government views that those terrorists working for us are called 'freedom fighters'.  This always turns out well ... right?????

[Moonlight Graham]

27 minutes ago, GostHacked said:

See the problem does not lie with Islam here, it is with how our government views that those terrorists working for us are called 'freedom fighters'.  This always turns out well ... right?????

I don't think we ever saw them as "freedom fighters", just pawns we could use to get the political end result we want in Syria.

[eyeball]

7 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

I don't think we ever saw them as "freedom fighters", just pawns we could use to get the political end result we want in Syria.

...blech...

I tried to come up a more constructive reply but that's the best I can do I'm afraid.

[Guest]

One man's terrorist is another man's terrorist. 

[GostHacked]

1 hour ago, Moonlight Graham said:

I don't think we ever saw them as "freedom fighters", just pawns we could use to get the political end result we want in Syria.

True, that is what it really comes down to. With that and sending arms to the Kurds which Turkey is trying to get rid of .. totally inconsistent in approach.  But that seems to perpetuated on purpose. More turmoil is good for the arms industry.

[Goh Shenas]

Those "freedom fighters" whatever you wanna call it is lesser of the two evils. It works to have them there and serve our interest for now. Turkey needs to remain in check to counter balance the rise of Islam.

[Wilber]

On 2017-05-15 at 4:59 PM, bcsapper said:

One man's terrorist is another man's terrorist. 

Or his cardiologist.