The Syria Intervention Plan Is Being Pushed by Oil Interests, Not Concern About Chemical Weapons

Alternet.org: “Whatever the case, few recall that US agitation against Syria began long before recent atrocities, in the context of wider operations targeting Iranian influence across the Middle East. In May 2007, a presidential finding revealed that Bush had authorised CIA operations against Iran. Anti-Syria operations were also in full swing around this time as part of this covert programme, according to Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. A range of US government and intelligence sources told him that the Bush administration had ‘cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations’ intended to weaken the Shi’ite Hezbollah in Lebanon. ‘The US has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria,’ wrote Hersh, ‘a byproduct’ of which is ‘the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups’ hostile to the United States and ‘sympathetic to al-Qaeda.’ He noted that ‘the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria,’ with a view to pressure him to be ‘more conciliatory and open to negotiations’ with Israel. One faction receiving covert US “political and financial support” through the Saudis was the exiled Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.”