A former FBI whistleblower says the U.S. is training and arming Syrian rebels:
A former employee with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that American and NATO forces are training Syrian rebels in southeastern Turkish city of Hakkari.
Sibel Edmonds also said that she had received information from Turkish and US sources indicating that training Syrian opposition forces, led by defected Syrian colonel Riad al-Assad, had started in May, the Turkish daily Milliyet reported.
Edmonds further added that the US is involved in smuggling arms into Syria from Incirlik military base in Turkey in addition to providing financial support for Syrian rebels.
A political analyst believes that NATO is creating a pretext for war:
Outside forces are trying to destabilize Syria by funding and supporting an armed insurrection which does not represent the majority of Syrian society, says Michel Chossudovsky from the Center for Research on Globalization.
He drew a difference between the opposition within Syrian civil society and the insurgency, which is largely funded by Islamists. [...]
“This insurgency is there to destabilize and create a pretext for responsibility to protect NATO intervention in Syria,” he claimed.
On Friday, Reuters confirmed that Western countries are supplying arms to the Free Syrian Army:
Western and other countries are turning […] weapons purchases by Syrian exiles who are already smuggling light arms, communications equipment and night vision goggles to rebels inside Syria, a Syrian opposition source said Friday.
Syrian opposition supporters were also trying to find ways to bring anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to the Free Syrian Army, which is composed mainly of Syrian soldiers who have defected and volunteer civilians, the source said.
"We are bringing in defensive and offensive weapons... It is coming from everywhere, including Western countries and it is not difficult to get anything through the borders," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.