Despite warnings about the consequences from senior U.S. officials, the Obama administration made a “willful decision” to support al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other jihadist terror groups in Syria, according to former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) chief Michael Flynn (shown). That deliberate aid to Islamic terrorists battling Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad played a crucial role in the rise of the "Islamic State” (ISIS or ISIL). While multiple top U.S. officials have already admitted that Obama’s so-called anti-ISIS coalition helped create, arm, and fund ISIS, Flynn is the highest-ranking administration official to publicly discuss the U.S. role in spawning the savage terror group now slaughtering Christians and other minorities across the Middle East. Almost incredibly, the establishment press and Congress have largely ignored the explosive revelations — even as the White House steps up its military aid to jihadist “rebels” in Syria with air support and training.

Speaking during an in-depth interview on Al Jazeera, the Qatari government-sponsored broadcaster, DIA chief Flynn was asked about a 2012 report produced by his agency. The document, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch, contained a number of revelations that should have seen a wide array of senior administration officials prosecuted under U.S. anti-terrorism laws. The secret report confirms what The New American has been reporting almost from the start of the war in Syria: The globalist-backed “revolution” against Assad was a “holy war” being led by al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other jihadist terrorists. The document also highlights the fact that the West and its Sunni Islamic dictator allies were supporting those same forces, and that they wanted to see the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic state in parts of Syria.

“The West, Gulf countries [the Islamic regimes ruling Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, etc.], and Turkey support the Syrian opposition,” it explains, adding that al-Qaeda and other terrorists are the “major forces driving the insurgency” against the Syrian despot. “There is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist [fundamentalist Islam] principality in Eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.” (Emphasis added.) Of course, that is exactly what happened when ISIS declared the establishment of its “caliphate” in Eastern Syria and parts of Iraq during its war on Assad and his allies. The report also warns of the potential consequences — though there is no mention of genocide against Middle Eastern Christians facilitated by those same policies, which is ongoing.

During the Al Jazeera Head to Head interview, Lieutenant General Flynn (Ret.), who also served as a commander of the shadowy terror-war assassination squad known as the “Joint Special Operations Command” (J-SOC), confirmed the enormity of the revelations in the document. Despite attempts to downplay the 2012 document by the establishment media, Flynn said he “paid very close attention” to the report when it crossed his desk, and that “the intelligence was very clear.” He also said he had warned the administration against supporting jihadists in Syria. But the White House ignored the warnings, and instead continued providing material support — weapons, PR, communications, funding, training, international legitimacy, and more — to those officially designated terrorist organizations. An everyday U.S. citizen could face decades in prison, or worse, for doing the same actions.

Flynn was not shy about admitting what by now is almost common knowledge — the Obama administration supported Islamic terrorists, including al-Qaeda, in the rebellion against the Syrian regime. “I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision,” the former DIA chief said. “I think it was a willful decision.” The interviewer, Mehdi Hasan, sounding surprised at the frankness and the enormity of the revelation, said: “A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?” Flynn replied: “It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.” What “they” — the administration — are doing, and have been doing, is supporting barbarians who are butchering their way through Iraq and Syria while overthrowing “apostate” rulers and slaughtering or enslaving non-Sunnis.

Official U.S. documents released by WikiLeaks showed that the U.S. government had been secretly bankrolling Syrian opposition forces for years before the war began — even while Assad was still a terror-war ally, actually. Going back to at least 2012, Obama was already unlawfully helping to send weapons to al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other jihadist forces. “Why did you not stop that if you were worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?” Hasan asked Flynn during the interview. Flynn, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the unfolding carnage now devouring the region, tried to distance himself from the pro-terror policy. “I hate to say it’s not my job, but that, my job was to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be.” Flynn also emphasized repeatedly that he argued against the policy of supporting terrorists that was deliberately adopted by the administration.

Flynn’s comments also shed new light on previous admissions by senior U.S. officials about the giant role of Obama’s “anti-ISIS” coalition in spawning ISIS. Speaking at Harvard, for example, Vice President Joe Biden admitted that “there was no ‘moderate middle’” among the Syrian “rebels,” flatly contradicting Obama, who claimed to be arming and training “moderate” jihadists to fight Assad. Biden also admitted that the “anti-ISIS” coalition armed ISIS. “What my constant cry was that our biggest problem was our allies.... What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands, of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight,” Biden said. “Except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.” Those terrorists went on to become ISIS, Biden said. When asked in Senate testimony whether any “major” U.S. allies supported ISIS, meanwhile, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey noted that it is even worse than that. “I know major Arab allies who fund them,” he said.

While most of the establishment press continues to conceal the facts, more than a few analysts did highlight the significance of the latest revelations. “As Michael Flynn also previously served as director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) during a time when its prime global mission was dismantling Al-Qaeda, his honest admission that the White House was in fact arming and bolstering Al-Qaeda linked groups in Syria is especially shocking,” explained Brad Hoff with the Levant Report, one of the alternative online journals seeking to shine a light on Obama’s pro-jihad machinations in Syria. “Consider further the dissonance that comes with viewing the Pentagon’s former highest ranking intelligence officer in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden now calmly and coolly confessing that the United States directly aided the foot soldiers of [al-Qaeda chief and Russian-trained terrorist] Ayman al-Zawahiri beginning in at least 2012 in Syria.”

During the Al Jazeera interview, Flynn was careful to avoid pinning all the blame for ISIS on Obama’s pro-jihad designs in Syria. Among other policies cited by the former defense intelligence chief that contributed to ISIS was the Iraq war. Flynn also conceded that the prison system in Iraq during the U.S. occupation — first under U.S. control, later under Iraqi control — served as a breeding ground for the jihadists and terrorists now chopping off the heads of infidels across the region. Another factor contributing to the terrorist threat is the Obama administration’s mass murder-via-drone-fired-missiles policy, which Flynn concluded creates more terrorists than it eliminates. Despite all of that, Flynn seemed to argue that the U.S. government should have actually done even more in the region, rather than less.

Syria was not the first place the Obama administration allied itself with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups to take down a former terror-war ally. In fact, shortly before the war in Syria began, Obama and his allies were providing weapons, air support, funding, and international support to proud al-Qaeda leaders in Libya who were battling against “apostate” dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The bloody results of that are now clear: Libya is in ruins and has become a haven and an arms bazar for terror groups ranging from ISIS to al-Qaeda. Now, the jihad has simply moved over to Syria. And the Obama administration, apparently undeterred by the historic tragedy it unleashed on the people of Libya, has now announced even deeper military support for jihadists in Syria — including air strikes on Assad’s forces.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Syria, countless innocent people — especially Christians, who are being systematically exterminated by the same jihadists that Washington, D.C., has been aiding and abetting for years — are paying the ultimate price for Obama’s globalist pro-terrorist “foreign policy.” Congress must rein in Obama, reclaim its constitutional authority over war-making, and follow the advice of America’s Founders regarding non-intervention in foreign nations. Until that happens, the horror and the death toll abroad will get worse as the U.S. decline accelerates.

Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is normally based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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