Press TV
August 27, 2014
US may use spy flights over Syria to help militants: Rick Rozoff
Audio
The United States may use its surveillance flights over Syria to gather intelligence information and provide it to pro-US militants, a peace activist says.
Rick Rozoff, manager of the Stop NATO international network, made the remarks during a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday, after US President Barack Obama ordered reconnaissance flights over Syria to prepare for airstrikes on ISIL forces inside the country.
He said that Obama’s authorization of carrying out surveillance flights over Syrian territory “adds another dimension to the US involvement in the ongoing conflict in Syria.”
Rozoff stated that the US is involved in similar activities in Yemen, Somalia and Libya and “one cannot be assured that the United States is not gathering intelligence information for purposes others than strictly striking” ISIL militants “and that the US is not accumulating intelligence which can be provided on the ground to terrorist formations supported by the US, its NATO allies and select (Persian) Gulf states.”
“That’s the first concern that any reasonable person would have,” he stated, adding that the second concern is “the US supposedly bombing, with or without the permission from the government in Damascus, alleged extremist sites inside Syria as well Iraq may while they’re at it” target Syrian government installations.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
“What we have to worry about is that if the US, either with the approval of Damascus or without it, begins the campaign of surveilling ISIL forces on the ground, it could get out of hands, and the US can certainly overstep its mandate as it has known to be done,” he noted.
“So we have this added degree of danger following the duplicity of US involvement in Syria. The best thing, of course, is the US should stay out of the Middle East entirely,” Rozoff emphasized.
The ISIL has captured large swaths of territory across northern Iraq after seizing the city of Mosul on June 10.
The militants, who have posted pictures of their atrocious acts against Iraqi citizens online, have vowed to continue their offensive towards Baghdad.
However, the United States has used the situation as a pretext to increase its military presence in the Arab country and the Middle East region and exert pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to form what Washington calls an “inclusive government”.
A recent report shows that the ISIL terrorists were trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012. The report said that the militants were initially trained at the time as part of covert aid to the militants operating inside Syria.
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