US backing terrorists in Syria to destabilize Middle East: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, an author and Middle East expert from Madison, Wisconsin, about a video that purportedly shows foreign-backed militants beheading a Palestinian boy in Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The video and the images that have come out are harrowing indeed; however, it does go to show the inherent flaw in Washington's policy when it comes to Syria, where these “moderate rebels” are the ones who are absolutely not different from Daesh.

Barrett: Oh, yes, I guess people in the United States would be shocked if they learned that these so-called moderate head choppers are doing their dirty work funded by the CIA, because our mainstream media hasn’t done its job and explained what’s really happening. And I think the American people would ask why is this? And the answer of course would be a history lesson.

The United States, in tandem with the real rulers of the Western empire who are Zionist banksters, has been creating and funding so-called Islamic terrorism, and also creating illusions of Islamic terrorism by way of such false flag spectacles as the September 11 demolitions of condemned buildings in New York falsely blamed on Arab Muslim hijackers. This whole business of creating the illusion, and to some extent the reality of, so-called Islamic extremist terrorism has been very much the business of the CIA and to some extent other Israeli-influenced intelligence agencies in the West.

This has all been done to destabilize the region in pursuit of strategic objectives, and these so-called moderate head choppers in various parts of the world have also been acting as militias for the West, attacking the designated enemy de jure of the West and all sorts of places along the border of Russia, in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, in various countries where they want to either attack an enemy or destabilize that country or region.

Press TV: If you set aside the role of the mainstream media, let’s not forget that the Syrian officials have time and again pointed out that the existence of moderate opposition or rebels in Syria is a myth. Why isn’t this issue raised more or is more prominent in international fora when they’re talking about Syria?

Barrett: Well, I think there is a lot of actual confusion about the situation on the ground in Syria. It is partly a propaganda operation from the US to try to paint this so-called moderate opposition, the people who are taking American money as good guys. There is a lot of Americans and American corporations who are making money off this, and their strategic policy is being pushed through this; but let’s face it, the situation is very very chaotic in Syria. The country has been grossly destabilized and people have suffered horrendously.

There is a civil war. In civil wars horrible things happen. Different sides are often guilty of these things. So, I think that the confusion to some extent has allowed the US to propagandize and lie about what’s going on. And... regardless of who is committing which atrocities, where, which, who’s moderate, who’s extremist, who’s Takfiri and so on, the bottom line here is that this is a destabilization operation and none of the suffering would have happened if the Western powers led by the Zionists hadn’t sat down and decided to impose regime change on Syria. And they need to stop. They need to get on board with the side of the government of Syria and its international backers, who are willing to find a way to bring stability to Syria without regime change. The regime change agenda has failed.

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