PRESS RELEASE

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Chas Freeman Tells Sputnik, CIA Program Stoked Violence in Syria

July 25, 2017 (EIRNS)—Former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman told Sputnik yesterday that President Trump’s decision to end CIA support of the anti-government opposition in Syria will enable the United States to concentrate on destroying ISIS.

"This was a program only its managers could love. Its premises were flawed. The ’moderates’ it postulated either did not exist or were moderate only in their war-fighting abilities,"

Freeman explained.

"The [CIA] program stoked the violence in Syria. It was thus a contributor, at least indirectly, to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and the displacement of many millions more,"

he said.

The removal of U.S. backing from the insurgents in Syria would help to reduce the mayhem in that country and reduce friction with the Assad government’s Russian and Iranian defenders, Freeman predicted.

"It represents an important but incomplete step toward realistic policies in Syria and paves the way for some sort of political solution to the turmoil in the country,"

he said.