Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced forty-five million dollars in additional aid for Syrian opposition activists in
the latest US push for influence in the civil war. Clinton announced the new
aid package prior to meeting with visiting Syrian dissidents at the gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.
Clinton has admitted that groups on the US terror list are
aiding and supporting the Syrian rebels: "We have a very dangerous set of actors in
the region, Al Qaeda, Hamas, and those who are on our terrorist list, to be
sure, supporting claiming to support the opposition."
As US Solicitor General, Elena Kagan,
currently a Supreme Court Justice, agreed with
the Supreme Court's upholding the broad sweep of the federal law
banning "material support" for foreign terrorist organizations and
with permitting the prosecution of anyone who gives any support to a terrorist
group. She also discounted the "supposed First Amendment claims" raised by
human rights advocates. Justice Antonin has also said that he sees no constitutional
problems with the antiterrorism law. "If you provide any aid" to them, it "furthers their terrorist activity,"the Justice said.
In addition to that, Obama is allowing a US Syrian group to arm rebels, including al Qaeda:
"Administration officials say that outsourcing the supply of money and arms to the rebels maintains a crucial distinction that keeps American military fingerprints off a conflict that has already turned into a bloody civil war. 'It's not for us to determine what the donations are used for,' said one official, who requested anonymity to discuss administration thinking, describing a plausible deniability that might not be plausible to all. 'It could be for medical supplies.'"
The addition of forty five million dollars will bring the
grand total of U.S. humanitarian aid for Syria to more
than one hundred and thirty two million, this year alone.