3:41:00 PM
The leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, Ayman al-Zawahiri has joined the anti-Syrian campaign, reports say.
Many believe the terrorist group has entered a strategic alliance with Washington against the Syrian government.
Despite slogans that are being against the Israeli regime, al-Qaeda has never taken any action against Tel Aviv’s interest while it has carried out hundreds of deadly bomb attacks in Muslim countries.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Stephen Lendman, author and radio host, to share his opinion on this issue.
The following is a transcript of the interview:
Press TV: Your take Stephen on this latest news about al-Qaeda terrorist actually joining in against the Syrian government, fighting against the Syrian government?
Lendman: Well I am not at all surprised because go back to Libya, the so-called Libyan Islamic fighting group was composed largely of al-Qaeda members. At the same time what’s never reported in the West is that al-Qaeda was a CIA creation and America uses al-Qaeda strategically as both enemy and ally.
It is amazing. That is exactly what goes on. So America can vilify al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization and at the same time for many years it used al-Qaeda strategically, it did in Libya and it appears it is doing it again in Syria, just a replication of the Libya model.
Press TV: What does that mean exactly Stephen? How can you be friend and foe at the same time? Or does it mean they are friends but in a disguise of foe? What exactly does this mean?
Lendman: It is mainly a rhetorical difference. The public stance of my country, the United States is al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization, covertly al-Qaeda is used as an ally as it was done in Libya, it was done in the 1990’s, it is being done against Syria.
So the rhetoric on the one hand you have the enemy and the policy on the other hand you have the ally. I think that is the basic division.
Press TV: Okay, well in the story I just read also there was a reference to the fact that al-Qaeda though claiming to be anti-Israeli has never attacked Israeli interest but has caused a lot of chaos in Islamic or Muslim countries.
What does that say about the organization itself which claims to be a Muslim organization but it seems that it attacks, many, many attacks in the Islamic world? So what does that say about this organization itself?
Lendman: Well I think it exposes, it shows that it seems to be more allied with the Western interest than the interest of human rights, civil liberties and freedom for people in Muslim states.
I mean that is exactly right. Israel might claim that some kind of an attack was done by al-Qaeda, it does not mean that it was, but I think in fact what you said is exactly right. Al-Qaeda has not gone after Israel. It is not really going after America. It seems to go after the enemies of America and Israel. It is a terrible situation.
Press TV: And also with al-Qaeda and this creation, hasn’t it serve the interest let’s say more of the West and Muslim countries in creating a very negative image about Muslims in general when as a matter of fact actually they are the antitheses of Islam?
Lendman: Well post 9/11 in America my country declared war on Islam. It does not say that but that is exactly what it is, both abroad and at home. I mean Muslims have been vilified at home; there are congressional committees that look into investigating Muslims like they are a fifth column threat to America.
Muslims are no different than anybody else but you would never know it following the US media and the extremist that infest the US Congress and promote hate. And there are other independent organizations with former government officials, of people related to them and they literally fuel hate against Muslim people characterizing them as terrorists and so on and so forth.
This is a post 9/11 phenomenon. They really have gotten completely out of control and then you extend it to what is going on abroad and you list all kinds of organizations that have nothing to do with terrorism like the Hezbollah in Lebanon, like Hamas in Gaza and you call them terrorist organizations because Israel wants the State Department to do this and when Israel makes a demand of the State Department or the Congress or the administration they go along.
So again you got al-Qaeda on the one hand, you got all other groups and you have got the worst despotic states in the Middle East- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen- I mean these regimes, I mean they are all part of this business of going after the enemies of America.
