‘Saudi spymaster behind US war plan’

New information has emerged, indicating that Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar Sultan has been playing a key role in convincing the US administration to develop and execute a plan for attacking Syria.

“The Saudis…were brought, by members of the Free Syrian Army – which is the Western-backed rebel group – a Syrian who had been exposed to an agent, a chemical agent. The Saudis arranged for that Syrian to be flown to Britain for treatment and to be tested,” the Wall Street Journal correspondent Adam Entous said in an interview with Democracy Now television on Friday.

He added, “That was sort of the first case that was offered credible evidence that chemical weapons had been used.”

“And what you saw in the months that followed was, first, Saudi intelligence, … Bandar’s intelligence agency, concluded that chemical weapons were being used on a small scale by the regime. Followed by that, the Brits and the French were convinced of the same conclusion. It took US intelligence agencies really until June to reach that conclusion. And that’s what led the Obama administration… At least publicly it was cited by the Obama administration as the trigger for Obama’s decision to instruct the CIA and authorize the CIA to start arming the rebels at this Jordan base,” he added.

Entous added that Prince Sultan is already leading a covert campaign with the CIA to support the Takfiri militants operating in Syria.

He added that the Saudi prince is making frequent visits to Paris and Moscow as part of his efforts to undermine the Syrian government.

Entous also said that Sultan has been very aggressively involved in arming and funding the militants in Syria since 2011.

“Really what he’s doing is he’s reprising a role that he played in the 1980s, when he worked with the [former US President Ronald] Reagan administration to arrange money and arms for Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan and also worked with the CIA in Nicaragua to support the Contras,” the Wall Street Journal correspondent added.

“So in many ways, this is a very familiar position for Prince Bandar, and it’s amazing to see the extent to which veterans of the CIA were excited to see him come back because, in the words of a diplomat who knows Bandar, he brings the Arabic term wasta, which means under-the-table clout. You know his checks are not going to bounce and that he’ll be able to deliver the money from the Saudis,” Entous added.

A Mint Press News report said earlier this month that Syrians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta stated that Saudi Arabia provided chemical weapons for an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, which they blame for the August 21 chemical attack in the region.

The article co-authored by a veteran Associated Press reporter, said interviews with doctors, residents, anti-government forces and their families in Ghouta suggest the terrorists in question received chemical weapons via the Saudi spymaster.

Also, more than a dozen militants interviewed said their salaries came from the Saudi government. They reportedly said Prince Bandar is referred to as “al-Habib (the beloved)” by al-Qaeda militants fighting in Syria.

The recent war rhetoric against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the Middle Eastern country and its foreign-backed opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

The Syrian government categorically rejected the accusation.

Nevertheless, a number of Western countries, including the US, France, and the UK, quickly started campaigning for war.

Blatant calls for war by the US President Barack Obama administration have not faded despite reluctance by some of its closest allies to engage in any military intervention in Syria.

Obama has sought authorization for strikes on Syria from a skeptical Congress.

The UN, Iran, Russia, and China have warned against war.