After coming into the White House with statements about being the most transparent administration in history, the Obama administration has done anything but operate with transparency.
The CIA has been operating a covert weapons program in Syria, buying Kalashnikov assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in Eastern Europe for delivery to “moderate” Syrian rebels, with the ultimate intent of toppling the Assad government. It was recently revealed that truckloads of these weapons have been systematically stolen in route to the rebels by Jordanian intelligence officers.
According to a report by Reuters:
Weapons shipped into Jordan for Syrian rebels by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia were stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, the New York Times reported, citing American and Jordanian officials.
Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, according to a joint investigation by the New York Times and Al Jazeera.
A Jordanian officer shot dead two U.S. government security contractors, a South African trainer and two Jordanians at a U.S.-funded police training facility near Amman before being killed in a shootout, Jordanian authorities had said in November.
Incredibly, when a U.S. State Department official was questioned about these revelations by the White House press corp, she refused to comment on the situation, citing an ongoing investigation. When the journalists pushed back and asked who is conducting the investigation, the official again stonewalled the media, claiming that she couldn’t even divulge who was investigating the allegations.
The awkward press conference was more reminiscent of a Saturday Night Live skit than an official press briefing by the U.S. State Department. When society has gotten to the point at which there is trouble discerning between a comedy entertainment show and an official press briefing by a federal government agency, it may be time to do something different.
Jay Syrmopoulos writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.