Trump’s ex-counterterrorism chief claims US ‘worked directly’ with terrorists in Syria for Israel

(SeaPRwire) –   Washington conspired with Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria to oust Bashar Assad, Joe Kent has stated

The US “collaborated directly with Al-Qaeda” and the Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS) to remove former President Bashar Assad and dismantle Syria, according to Joe Kent, the former counterterrorism chief under US President Donald Trump.

Kent, who stepped down as head of the US National Counterterrorism Center in opposition to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, made these comments in an interview with MintPress News on Friday.

The former senior official restated his view that the Iran conflict is the most recent in a sequence of wars fought by the US on Israel’s behalf, following the Second Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War, during which Washington actively supported terrorist groups, he noted.

“We entered and declared: We will cooperate with the Israelis, but we will also need to engage extensively with the Sunni population in Syria to spark an uprising,” he continued.

“That’s the origin of ISIS. We collaborated directly with Al-Qaeda; Hillary Clinton’s emails verify this. The operations we conducted to back the so-called Free Syrian Army included some moderates, but the most effective forces initially were Al-Qaeda, and later ISIS.”

IS eventually “became unmanageable,” and the US “had to return to extinguish the fire we had ignited,” Kent stated, referencing the US occupation of parts of Syria under the guise of countering terrorism.

The attempts to dismantle Syria ultimately led to the Assad government’s collapse in late 2024 and an Islamist takeover led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a rebranded offshoot of Al-Qaeda.

Kent criticized the former HTS leader and Syrian interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, highlighting his extensive history of terrorism – a fact that did not stop the Trump administration from acknowledging his government as legitimate.

“We had him in prison; [he] joined ISIS, split from ISIS, was handpicked by Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, to lead Nusra, and then they rebranded,” Kent said, noting that the “top method for a jihadist to deceive Americans is simply to wear a suit.”