Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva and her Arms Watch website have uncovered perhaps some of the most incriminating evidence yet linking the Pentagon to al-Qaeda*-affiliated jihadi groups across the Middle East.
In a feat of investigative reporting carried out over the past two years, Arms Watch has pieced together an entire network of covert arms dealing orchestrated by the Pentagon. The devastating implication is that such a global syndicate involving US arms contractors, American government officials acting as buyers, and the use of hundreds of civilian airliners given "diplomatic clearance" – all of these logistics must have had top-level authorization in Washington.
So when President Trump crows about "defeating terror" in Syria or fighting against "Iran-backed proxies" in Yemen, he is either a liar or he has not a clue about what his military and intel chiefs are really up to. Up to their necks in supporting terrorism on an industrial scale.
The giant gun-running scheme operates to purchase non-standard US weaponry from arms companies in the Balkans – Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia. The cargos comprising millions of weapon pieces, including assault rifles, mortars and rockets, are usually flown to the US airbase, Al Udeid, in Qatar. From there, the arms are transported to various terrorist outfits in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
How are the weapons tracked back from the terrorists to US government buyers?
As Arms Watch explains, the serial numbers on individual weapons recovered in hauls by the Syrian Arab Army from former militant bases show an exact match with order and lot numbers on documents that Arms Watch received from anonymous leaks. Other leaked documents (emails, passport scans) reveal US government officials purchasing inventories of weapons bearing the same serial numbers from arms companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia.
Another method of identification is a close examination of propaganda videos released by so-called Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh)* and other Al Qaeda affiliates such as Nusra Front (rebranded as Tahrir Hayat al-Sham). From the weapons displayed in the videos being handled by militants, the serial numbers can be identified and tracked back to the Balkans and the US buyers.
We are talking here about millions of weapons and tens of millions of dollars. This could not be carried out by rogue American intel agencies acting without authorization. It must have top-level clearance, perhaps even from President Trump’s national security council headed up by John Bolton.
As journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva comments: "The documents expose the biggest lie in the US foreign policy – officially fighting terrorism while secretly supporting it."
This is by no means the first time that Washington has been accused of covertly sponsoring terror groups for regime-change machinations.
In Syria, US and other NATO weaponry has been recovered over and over again in former terrorist dens. There have also been several reports of American military helicopters making secretive arms drops or transporting militants to safe havens.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai made damning claims in a media interview in 2017 in which he said that he was convinced US special forces were aiding and abetting the ISIS network in Afghanistan.
The Russian Ministry of Defence has also reported suspicious movement by US helicopters and arms drops to militants in Syria and Afghanistan.
However, the latest investigative findings by Arms Watch expose an international weapons supply chain to internationally proscribed terror groups – all under the direction of Washington.
The evidence cannot be clearer: the US government is arming, sponsoring and directing terror networks as a proxy force in several countries. Remember these proxies have committed unspeakable barbarities against hundreds of thousands of civilians, including decapitating women and children, across the Middle East.
That means that when the US air force is bombing countries like Iraq, Syria and Yemen (vicariously with regional allies' warplanes), Washington is really serving as the air command for terrorist ground forces.
Since the 9/11 terror attacks on the US in 2001, the world has been utterly changed by constant American warmongering. Whole countries have been demolished, civilizations desecrated, millions of civilians have been killed or maimed, millions of children orphaned, millions of refugees on the move. This astounding record of de facto criminality and state terrorism by Washington has been repeatedly justified or concealed by its claims of conducting a war on terror.
If the US is not fighting terrorism but rather actually mobilizing it and weaponizing it, as the above investigation demonstrates, then the conclusion is truly awesome.
The world is being held hostage by the biggest terror syndicate ever – which masquerades as a democratic government in Washington.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Sputnik's position.
* Daesh, also known as ISIS, Islamic State and al-Qaeda are terrorist groups, banned in Russia