Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has maintained cooperation with Sudan despite atrocities in Darfur and weapons shipments to the Hamas regime, a report said.

A leading U.S. analyst asserted that the administration of President Barack Obama has maintained cooperation with the Khartoum regime amid continued human rights violations and the killing of civilians in Darfur.

The analyst, Eric Reeves, said the U.S. intelligence community also tolerated Sudan’s role in transferring Iranian weapons to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“Indeed, there seems to have been a general loss of moral balance in how the intelligence community thinks and operates, even as its influence in domestic and foreign policy continues to grow rapidly,” Reeves said.

In a report titled “Khartoum: Really Out of the Terrorism Business?” Reeves, an author on Sudan, said Obama changed his position on Khartoum. In 2008, Obama, running for president, criticized the Bush administration for what he termed a “reckless and cynical initiative [that] would reward a regime in Khartoum.”

“Obama’s intelligence community seems to have made a convert of the
president [Obama] himself,” the report said.

Dated March 21, the report said Sudan has not reduced its support for
those on the State Department terrorism list. He cited State Department
cables in 2009 that reported Washington’s warnings to Sudan not to allow
Iranian weapons to Hamas. Iranian ships were said to have delivered weapons
for Hamas via Port Sudan for the overland trip through Sudan and Egypt.

“The disparity between this strenuous rhetoric and the reality of the
past five years has been striking…,” the report said.

The report determined that Sudan has maintained its support for Iran and
Hamas. Reeves cited the Israel Navy interception of an Iranian weapons ship
off the coast of Sudan on March 5.

“This painfully cynical attitude toward Khartoum as a valued partner in
the ‘war on terrorism’ is just as prevalent in the Obama administration as
in the Bush administration,” the report said. “Indeed, in terms of deception
and disingenuousness, the Obama administration may have an edge.”

  Analyst: Obama working with Sudan regime despite continued Darfur atrocities, continues cooperation with Sudanese regime, Darfur, Eric Reeves, Khartoum