"Everybody knows that [Americans] are using [their] allies," he said. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to the German journalist, "was coordinating the weapons' delivery from Turkey." The arms brought to the border with Syria were distributed among rebels, including so-called moderate groups.
In other words, even if weapons were initially transferred to moderate groups, they ended up in the hands of the terrorists soon after.
Todenhöfer further noted that some terrorists received weapons by simply saying that they were members of a moderate group or the US-backed Free Syrian Army. "They even changed the name of their group to get the weapons. This is a game everybody knows," he said.
"It's very clear that the Americans know that their weapons will in the end be in the hands of terrorists," Todenhöfer concluded. "They know that. They know that clearly."
Earlier this month an unnamed senior al-Nusra Front commander told the journalist that his group received the BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles "directly" from the US, with no intermediaries involved in the deliveries. Al-Nusra Front is considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States, as well as Russia and the United Nations.
The journalist mentioned that radical groups active in Syria have received money and support from the Western allies, specifically the Gulf states, who "were backed by the United States." These assertions have also been backed by the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) documents released in 2012. The DIA is the Pentagon's external intelligence service.
The interview with the al-Nusra Front commander took place in "the no man's land between eastern and western Aleppo" on September 17.
The al-Nusra Front commander essentially said what many have already known. "He said what we all were thinking about al-Qaeda. He is completely convinced that he does not want a secular state. He does not want an agreement or democracy. He wants an Islamic state," the journalist explained.
The commander also told the journalist that their group was not ready to accept any ceasefire, but was instead willing to fight until the end. The interview prompted Todenhöfer to observe that it was hard for him to imagine how the Syrian rebels and Damascus could find common ground because "they are so far from each other" at a time when there is "no strong peaceful opposition."
Todenhöfer also said that "the rebels started this war and they bear responsibility" for what has happened.
