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Monday, January 25

Kerry as much admits U.S. still supporting terrorist groups in Syria

"The position of the United States is and hasn’t changed, that we are still supporting the opposition politically, financially and militarily."

-- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vientiane, Laos, commenting today, January 25, on planned negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition forces, as reported by David Brunnstrom for Reuters 11:10am GMT, Kerry hopes for clarity on Syria talks within 24 to 48 hrs.

Kerry later added to the above statement, "We completely empowered them. [the opposition] I don't know where this is coming from." This according to an Associated Press report, filed today at 7:51am EST, Syria peace talks delayed, "the war does not end".

Kerry's statements back up one made by U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden in Istanbul, Turkey on January 23, as reported by David Dolan and Asli Kandemir for Reuters, 5:56pm EST; U.S. says prepared for military solution against Islamic State in Syria
Biden added that he discussed with Davutoglu how the two allies could try and work together to support Syrian rebel groups who oppose President Bashar Assad.
Yet Mr Biden and all members of the Obama Administration are well aware that Erdogan's Administration is deeply involved with Islamic State and other terrorist groups -- and that more evidence for this continues to surface. From a MEMRI report, January 15, 2016, More On The Turkey-ISIS Connection:
In recent months, further information about the AKP government's support for ISIS and other jihadis in Syria has come to light. Turkish journalists who have documented their government's support for terrorists and who have published evidence of truckloads of arms and ammunition, as well as fighters, being sent into Syria have been threatened, arrested, and imprisoned by Turkish authorities.[1] 
Foreign media have also extensively covered Turkey's sponsorship of ISIS and other terrorist organizations, and documented the ease with which thousands of foreign and Turkish jihadis enter and exit Syria under the eyes of Turkish officials.
However, Western governments have refrained from criticizing Turkey's conduct in this matter, and continue to call Turkey "a partner in the fight against terrorism."
Many in Turkey, including Mehves Evin, columnist for Turkish opposition dailyDiken, have asked, in light of this heavy media coverage of Turkey's sponsorship of jihadi terrorists, "Why isn't there a peep from the West?"[2]
The following report presents further evidence of the Turkish government's support and sponsorship of ISIS and other jihadi terrorist organizations:
[...]
It is the same with opposition groups that continue to fight in Syria; time and again they have been exposed as being terrorist, or closely allied with such groups, and/or so alike Islamic State or al Qaeda that they differ only in details or over territorial disputes.  

Yet John Kerry seems to be experiencing a North Vietnamese moment all over again with his insistence that Assad's Administration must work out compromises with opposition groups. 

If Mr Kerry is indeed drawing on his experience with the North Vietnamese, he is studiously overlooking that the situation bore no relation to the one in Syria. There are several opposition groups that the Assad Administration has no objection to negotiating with -- but these are ones that now refrain from taking up arms against the government, and they are actually Syrian not foreign fighters representing foreign governments or receiving their support.

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