What Is The Difference Between An ISIS Terrorist And A Freedom Fighter: "Appropriate Vetting" By Walrus

Lifted unashamedly from Zerohedge comes the news that the applicants for the new rebel force we will be training for action against ISIL will be screened - "appropriately vetted" to weed out possible ISIL members.

"TAMPA, Fla. - The U.S. military and partner forces have begun training the initial class of appropriately vetted Syrian opposition recruits this week to support the effort to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL in Syria.

This multinational and interagency program involves coalition military and foreign ministries, intelligence agencies, and civilian investigative services. The training curriculum is designed to meet the specific needs of the Syrian opposition forces and may be tailored to specific mission and personnel requirements.

Training will cover a range of critical combat skills, including marksmanship, casualty care, land navigation, communications, leadership, and law of armed conflict and human rights principles.

The training phase is a critical step in the Syria train and equip mission designed to build the capability of the appropriately vetted Syrian fighters so that they can defend the Syrian people from attacks by ISIL and secure territory controlled by the Syrian opposition; protect the United States, its friends and allies, and the Syrian people from threats posed by terrorists in Syria; and promote the conditions for a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Syria."

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I am starting to have trouble maintaining doublethink here. We are fighting against ISIL, who are fighting against the Syrian Government as well as the Government of Iraq. However we don't like the  Syrian Government, so we support yet another bunch of rebels who are fighting against the Syrian Government but aren't ISIL.

I suppose a political science graduate from an Ivy League University  could explain the subtleties of our position here and I am sure some committee of similarly trained folks will develop a suitably nuanced and politically correct vetting questionnaire.

I can  then imagine a gender and minority balanced selection committee suitably sitting in Washington, composed of  highly trained political, behavioural and social science graduates poring over the applications, Myers Briggs scores and MMPI results to select the chosen few.

The mind boggles at the template used to screen applicants and I invite other SST readers to suggest our ideal recruit.

http://www.centcom.mil/en/news/articles/initial-class-of-syrian-opposition-forces-begin-training

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-08/what-difference-between-isis-terrorist-and-freedom-fighter-appropriate-vetting

 

Comments

[mbrenner]

A friend now working at INR who is personally involved in policy-making re Syria tells me - informally and contrary to rules - that the training program from the outset was seen strictly as a public relations ploy aimed at those who really believe that there is a 3rd force. That also is the logical inference from the simple fact that it's taken 8 months to get the thing started.

As to staffing the vetting committee, it seems that a prior requirement is to identify the algorithms best suited to sifting the metadata and the microdata. The ones they used to identify the Al-Jazeera reporter declared a dangerous al-Qaeda member because he interviewed OBL is deficient for this purpose. Surely, though, among the IC's 831,000 employees/contractors who hold security clearances to see highly classified material, there should be one or two who at least know how to spell algorithm.

[confusedponderer]

"The ones they used to identify the Al-Jazeera reporter declared a dangerous al-Qaeda member because he interviewed OBL "

Don't you know that evil is like a germ? The man obviously must have been radicalised, else Al Qaeda would never had let him in, let alone out!

That is to say, they let Peter Bergen go though, which either means Mr. Bergen is - *ghasp* - a dangerous sleeper agent, or it doesn't matter because Mr. Bergen is a white man.

[Fred]

Nice trailer at the bottom of that link: "Editor's note: The safety and security of these new trainees and the trainers are our top priority. For operational security and force protection reasons, specific details regarding the class size, training course length of time, and the locations of the training will not be provided."

Good thing to know that an effective force that will go in harms way is a secondary priority.

[different clue]

mbrenner,

But since "algorithm" itself is an Arabic-derived word, is there a danger that someone among these 831,000 IC employees/contractors might decide that anyone who knows the word "algorithm" may be culturally suspect?
Or would such insights only arrive from Obama's inner circles of Space Kidettes, neoWilsonians and neoConservatives?

[BabelFish]

Well, the US Navy experimented with dolphins. A lot of loyalty for a mullet or two.

[Marcy]

Sir,
i humbly offer myself as the ideal recruit. I am young, the daughter of ethnically confused immigrants (anglo-indian-portugese-french), Catholic but with Muslim and Jewish best friends. i have taken political science and Womens studies classes so I do know the jargon somewhat. I truly believe this can offset my lack of physical conditioning, my height challenges and my inability to shoot. Basically I need a job to stop my father looking at me with sadness and shaking his head in sorrow.

[b]

http://www.karlremarks.com/2013/06/an-ingenious-plan-how-cia-vets-syrian.html

---

Listening to Sec Def Carter the training is just a sham to have a reason to bomb the Syrian Army

/quote/
He added later that if the newly trained Syrian force found itself in a battle with government forces, “we would have some responsibility to help them” – an assurance that could draw the United States into a civil war that has claimed more than 200,000 lives since 2011 and sent millions of refugees into Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and other countries.
“We have not decided yet in detail how we would exercise that responsibility, but we have acknowledged that we have that responsibility,” he said.
/endquote/
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/07/265967/us-training-90-syrian-fighters.html#storylink=misearch

[steve]

Would be hard to make all of Washington happy, but I guess you could take a one from Column A and one from Column B approach. So maybe...

Transgendered AND homosexual

Minimum 1/32 minority heritage, or at least good family stories claiming a minority ancestor.

Hates all of the other transgendered and homosexuals

Thinks the Earth is 6000 years old.

[turcopolier]

Marcy

I am not the right person to handle your application. You can write to John Brennan at "Christians In Action," PO Box (any will do), Langley, VA. Do you wish to apply to be a kind of "cantiniere" for the trainees or a member of the selection committee to be co-headed by Dr. Brenner and Walrus? I am a relic of a bygone time and unsuited to this brave new world. pl

[William R. Cumming]

WALRUS! Thanks for this post. Documents the shambles that is Washington policy making.

IMO of course.

[Bill H]

Sorry, WRC, there is no "policy making" in Washington. "Policy" today is whatever pattern emerges from the chaotic thoughtless reactivity that occurs in Washington. As such, it changes from day to day.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

I don't generally come to SST and find comic relief but every now and then here it is.

[pat_s]

I think the application already exists. pat_s

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/moderate-syrian-rebel-application-form

[William R. Cumming]

IMO to some extent the PROCESS IS POLICY theorem is correct. But in Washington there is a complete absence of orderly process.

BTW how is the DNI doing coordinating the 17 members of the Intelligence Community?

[J]

Colonel, TTG,

Seymour Hersh has a 'review' of the White House he-said/she-said regarding the OBL neutralization.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden