Daniel McAdams: ‘Lawless’ Washington committing crimes against Syria – and the US Constitution

RT: Assistant Secretary of State for Near-Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson admits that some of the “moderate” rebels have joined the Nusra Front. Is it surprising that the US government continues to use the term “moderate” to describe rebel fighters?

Daniel McAdams: Well, I think as Patterson said they have moved over. Look, this new Syrian Democratic Force that is supposedly being armed in Eastern Syria – doesn’t exist. Even The New York Times which is no oppositionist to the war and US actions in Syria has said it is a figment of the imagination; just like the Syrian Arab Coalition was a figment of America’s imagination; just like the so-called Khorasan group was a figment of imagination.

These are propagandistic terms that the US uses to justify a policy that continues in an active phase after four years and actually much longer if you look at the 2006 decision to overthrow the Assad government. Anne Patterson said it herself before the House Foreign Affairs Committee just this week. The US goals are exactly the same as they have been before Russia joined – which is to overthrow ISIS and to overthrow Assad. So these things haven’t changed and there is no US strategy to do these things and there cannot be, because the two are opposed in logic.

RT: The US is due to send 50 special operatives to Syria to train and assist anti-government fighters. How can they know which rebels will prove reliable? 

DM: If I can just step back for a second, I think one thing that is very important to understand is the legality of what the US is doing versus the legality of what the Russians are doing – and this is not to endorse either. But the fact of the matter is, because Syria is a sovereign country, and the sovereign government is opposed to having US troops on its soil and US flights in its air, the US is breaking international law; it is violating Syrian sovereignty, and it is committing aggression and an international crime against Syria.

And also don’t forget President Obama committed a crime against the Constitution, because he has no legal authority in the US to send the US military into harm’s way. So the US administration is operating absolutely outside of the law. Here’s an administration that goes around the world lecturing other countries about the rule of law when it is absolutely lawless.