WASHINGTON, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – Exactly ten years after the release of the 9/11 Commission Report, its former members met Tuesday to warn of the current dangers that arming rebels in the Middle East may pose.
The event hosted on July 22 by the DC-based Bipartisan Policy Center think-tank was marked by a new report that sought to address the current homeland security challenges and “oversight obstacles” facing US policy makers nowadays.
Former commissioners recalled Washington’s Cold-War era decision to finance and train Afghan Mujahedeen fighters, a movement would later evolve into al-Qaeda.
“We, in looking forward, need to learn from history,” said Richard Ben Viste, a member of the 2004 independent 9/11 Commission.
“The question of support for the Mujahedeen in opposing our then-rival and enemy, the Soviets, is instructive. That once aid is given, once weapons are transferred, there’s no guarantee about how they will be used,” she stressed.
Ben Viste continued that arming different factions in current Middle East conflicts, including in Libya and Syria, does not guarantee a positive outcome.
He stated that “arming various factions does not guarantee how those arms and training will ultimately be used in an area that is so intensely nuanced and difficult to predict.”
The conflict in Syria and Iraq, and the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has brought attention back to the Obama administration’s proposal for $500 million fund to arm what the administration has called “moderate rebel” groups in Syria’s ongoing civil war.
Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton, openly stated the danger of US financing and training given to different factions in Syria.
“There are 1,500 opposition groups in Syria. You sort through those for a while and see who’s going to help you and who is not,” Hamilton said.
He continued, “There is no one in the US government who wants to facilitate an enemy. But you’re caught in an exceedingly complex world.”
The 9/11 Commission members addressed the changes in US national security which have occurred since the Commission’s recommendations were published in 2004. Ultimately, the committee concluded that, while they believe domestic terrorist attacks have been significantly thwarted, the world is not a safer place overall.
