CIA, NSA& FBI to Syrian-Americans: Stop Calling Our Best Terrorist Friend a Terrorist-And A priest challenging them.
In a striking display of what is being termed “institutional evolution,” major U.S. counterterrorism agencies have begun quietly informing Syrian-Americans that labeling “Ahmad al-Sharaa” a terrorist or an Islamist is now considered an “outdated and unhelpful mindset.” The very man who fought U.S. forces in Iraq, founded the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, and spent years on the U.S. terrorist watch list—with a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head—has completed his official transformation into our “terrorist partner,” having been removed from terrorist designations. Accuracy is no longer the objective; instead, the requirement is adherence to a security narrative that supports terrorist organizations.
One agent summarized the new policy: “We hunted the network that attacked New York for two decades. Now that one of its senior alumni runs a country we’re talking to, insisting on the old résumé is the real threat to national security.”
However, Father Spyridon Tanous holds a different view—one that seeks to expose and challenge the hypocrisy of these American counter-terrorism agencies. The Orthodox priest has refused to update his vocabulary, continue calling the former al-Qaeda emir what his résumé once required, and is preparing a book and documentary to open what he calls the “black box” of the Syrian revolution. Although these agencies have not yet classified this “clerical obstinacy” as an imminent threat to the implementation of their own covert agendas that support terrorism—sources indicate that the matter is currently under study and review.
