Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, was featured on Press TV News Analysis discussing US foreign policy toward Syria. The program aired on December 30, 2011., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
‘US Central Intelligence Agency trains, arms anti-Syria death squads’
To watch the Press TV World News interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, just log on to the URL below:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/06/25/247933/us-central-intelligence-agency-trains-arms-anti-syria-death-squads/
Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:6PM GMT
A report has quoted some US and Arab intelligence officials as saying “CIA officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey,” helping anti-Syria opposition groups.
The New York Times report noted that CIA officers are helping to decide which gangs inside the Arab country will “receive arms to fight the Syrian government.”
The report added that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have paid for the transport of weaponry into Syria.
Syria has recently said in a statement, “The US administration is pushing forth with its flagrant interference in Syria’s internal affairs and its backing of armed terrorist groups.”
The statement also condemned Washington for “distorting the truth and what is happening on the ground while encouraging armed terrorist groups to carry out more massacres… throughout the country.”
Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, director of the Pan-African News Wire from Detroit, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Let’s start off with the news of Syria forming a new government. In your views do you see these steps by the government in Damascus as a move in the right direction to quell the unrest?
Azikiwe: Yes, this is a very positive development on the part of the Syrian government to bring in peaceful, legitimate opposition forces into the national government of that country.
It’s very important that this is being done because what has happened is that the United States and NATO forces have skillfully attempted to apportion blame for all the violence that is taking place in Syria and surrounding Syria because now it’s spilling over into Lebanon as well, to blame all of this on the Syrian government, and apportioning no blame in fact on the so-called Free Syrian Army and the so-called Syrian National Council which is still outside of the entire reform process, which has rejected the entire reform process, because their real agenda is the same agenda as Washington, as London and as Ankara and that is an agenda of regime change.
We see that being played out on a daily basis of course with the recent shooting down of the F-4 Phantom jet, the Turkish jet that was shot down in Syrian airspace. This of course provides a clear indication that Turkey, which has been a member of NATO since 1952, is working right alongside the United States and the other NATO countries to destabilize Syria, support these armed groups and to bring about regime change.
Press TV: Mr. Azikiwe, the brutal killing of the people in Syria is going on. In this latest case the government has slammed the armed opposition for a fresh massacre. My question is this, even some of the United Nations Security Council members have come to acknowledge that they can’t call the Syrian unrest in black and white anymore, there may be a grey area, a third element looming, basically. When will the United States or the West acknowledge or let this come to light that there is a third element in the unrest in Syria?
Azikiwe: Their strategy is to blame the Syrian government for all the violence that is going on inside the country. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Syrian government or the armed forces there have been responsible for these massacres. They don’t fit the pattern of a conventional military force that is fighting an insurgency.
In all likelihood, these are elements that are being supported by outside interests, the United States, possibly Turkey, and possibly other elements within the monarchies of the Persian Gulf states. These elements have openly admitted that they are supporting the so-called Free Syrian Army as well as the Syrian National Council.
I don’t believe for one minute that the Syrian government is responsible for these massacres. These massacres fit the pattern of death squads that we’ve seen operating in many parts of the Middle East as well as other parts of the world, and these death squads are often trained and of course armed by the Central Intelligence Agency and other elements within the Western imperialist states.
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