Trump Describes CIA Program to Support Armed Groups in Syria as “Massive, Dangerous and Wasteful”
US President Donald Trump has seemingly backed a decision to halt support for foreign-backed armed groups in Syria, inadvertently confirming the existence of a covert CIA program to fight the Syrian government, Press TV reported.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Trump attacked The Washington Post in connection with a story about the termination of US efforts to aid so-called “moderate rebels” fighting the Syrian government.
Trump said the newspaper had “fabricated the facts” about his decision to end the “massive, dangerous, and wasteful” CIA program.
“The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad,” Trump wrote on Twitter, according to press TV.
Trump accused The Post of reporting “fake news” and suggested that the newspaper was being used as a “lobbyist weapon” to help Amazon avoid taxes. Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos purchased The Post in 2013.
The newspaper reported last week that Trump had decided to end a covert CIA program that has been arming, training and funding anti-Damascus militants since 2013.
US officials said that ending the CIA operation reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia. Moscow had long pushed Washington to end the program, which was started by the administration of former President Barack Obama.
However, the CIA effort had failed to achieve its goals and some US lawmakers had proposed cutting its budget. By some estimates, the CIA trained some 10,000 militants.
Some reports suggest that the US switched off the aid program amid Syrian army gains and victories over foreign-backed militants.
Despite halting the CIA program, the US is still militarily involved in Syria. In May, Trump authorized arming the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces using Department of Defense funds.
H.M