Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has withheld at least $50 million
worth of aid to Sunni rebels in Syria.

The reason: neither Congress nor the administration of President Barack
Obama can find rebel militias not linked to Al Qaida.

“It’s not clear to me that the administration has a workable policy,” Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, said.

The sources said the CIA has provided a marginal amount of aid and training to Sunni rebels since November 2012.

But over the last six months many of the Syrian rebels have stopped fighting and were replaced by foreign militias linked to Al Qaida.

“As noted at the time we announced the expansion of our assistance to the [rebel] Supreme Military Council, we will continue to consult closely with Congress on these matters,” National Security Council spokeswoman
Bernadette Meehan said.

In June, Obama said the United States would begin relaying aid to
the Sunni rebels amid an offensive by the regime of Syrian President Bashar
Assad. But the sources acknowledged that no additional aid or training has
been delivered since then, something acknowledged by some in the
administration.

“I’m not going to inventory when and how that might be occurring, but
that’s the stated intent of this administration, and we will continue to
pursue ways of doing that,” Defense Department spokesman George Little said
on July 9.

In briefings over the last few weeks, members of the House Intelligence
Committee and the Senate Select Committee expressed frustration over the
lack of Syrian rebel militias that operated without Al Qaida support or
coordination. The sources said CIA deputy director Michael Morelland other
officials acknowledged that much, if not most, of the revolt has been taken
over by two rival Al Qaida militias — the Nusra Front for the Defense of
the Levant and a recent splinter group, Islamic State in Iraq and Sham. Both
groups appear on the State Department list of terrorist organizations.

“If we are going to arm, we have to make sure we have control of what
arms are out there and how people are trained to use those arms so they
don’t fall into the hands of our enemy Al Qaida,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger,
the ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, said.

Another concern expressed by members of the congressional committees was
that several of the non-Al Qaida militias identified by the CIA were
fictitious. The sources said the House and Senate members wanted guarantees
that Sunni rebels would not seek to sell U.S. weapons and equipment to
either the Assad regime or use them against Syrian civilians.

“We don’t have a clear picture of what the decision is by the
administration,” Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking Republican of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, said.

Congress appears divided over U.S. military support to the rebels. House
and Senate members have been writing to Obama to both accelerate as well as
halt weapons transfers to aid the Syrian revolt.

“Assad’s survival would strengthen terrorist organizations and
state-sponsors of terrorism,” Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen.
Carl Levin said on July 10. “We will be less secure here in the United
States if Iran and Hizbullah succeed in keeping Assad in power, increasing
their ability to bring their terrorist tactics to the borders of Israel and
to the rest of the world.”

  Administration’s Syria problem: U.S. can’t find non-Al Qaida rebels, Bashar Assad, Islamic State in Iraq and Sham, Michael Morelland, Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant, Sen. Susan Collins