A letter sent by Syrian lawmaker to Speaker of the hHouse John Boehner nearly over a week ago has been largely ignored by the media but makes a number of explosive claims that, if true, would poke significant holes in the Obama administration narrative. The open letter, originally sent December 4th, also paints a picture of the dangers of a “Wahhabi Jihadist Ideology”; a concern that bolsters the skepticism of those concerned about the rebel coalition fighting Syria.
The letter was written by Jihad Allaham, the speaker of the Syrian People’s Assembly and posted without fanfare on the New York Times website on September 9. It was linked to in a Times article entitled On Both Sides, Syrians Make Pleas to U.S.
Each side has increased efforts to connect with Americans on what it sees as common values, with the opposition stressing the fight for political rights in the face of a violent state crackdown and Mr. Assad’s supporters stressing the secularism of his government.
The Syrian government is pushing hard, too. Parliament members have sent letters to their American counterparts in Congress, and Mr. Assad used a television interview with Charlie Rose to assert that his government was not behind the chemical attacks that have ignited international outrage.
In case you missed it, the Times mention of the open letter from the speaker of Syria’s People’s Assembly to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives making a number of serious allegation that directly impact U.S. foreign policy came in the form of a link in the middle of a story about both sides making accusations.
That’s called ‘burying.’
The letter, which encourages the U.S. ‘not to rush into any reckless irresponsible action’ includes a number of bullet points about the danger of jihadism, concluding with an underlined sentence stating that the common enemy of Syria and United State is ‘wahhabi jihadist ideology represented by Al Qaida, the Al-Nusra front and its affiliates.’ The points raised in the letter about Islamic extremist are accurate but they would be a intelligent public relations move to attract Americans concerned about the dangers of Al Qaeda and terrorism.
The letter then goes on to make a number of counterclaims about the use of chemical weapons, accusing the rebel coalition both of possessing sarin gas and having used the weapons a number of times. The allegation about the rebel coalitions use of chemical weapons in a March 2013 battle in Aleppo was also made in a 100 page report given to the United Nations by Russia on September 3rd. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made himself a major power player in the Syrian conflict in the past week, eclipsing President Obama and the Unites State’s role.
The tenor of the letter from Syrian speaker Allaham is friendly towards United States and concludes:
Instead of fighting each other, we should be working together to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions 1373 and 1724 against terror. Instead of being enemies, we should be walking the road to peace and truth together.”
Both pro Assad media and pro rebel coalition media have been engaged in a long time war of spin in the Syrian conflict. Still, the letter is from a prominent enough Syrian politician and makes enough specific claims that it should have received more media attention. It began making the rounds on social media after it was mentioned by website The Minority Report Blog on September 11th.
The complete text of the letter can be found here.
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