By Nat Wilson Turner

Last week at the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit in New York City, Ahmed al-Sharaa, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, appeared as one of the speakers.

The summit bills itself as “the largest and most inclusive nonpartisan forum alongside the UN General Assembly” where “top movers and shakers of today’s world to spark dialogue, promote collaboration, and collectively pave the path toward a more equitable, sustainable future.”

Al-Sharaa, is perhaps better known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani (or Al-Jawlani), the al-Qaeda veteran who formed the al-Nusra Front in 2012 to overthrow the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Here is what the U.S. State Department had to say about him when they designated him a terrorist in 2013:

Al-Jawlani is considered the leader of al-Nusrah. …

Under al-Jawlani’s leadership, al-Nusrah Front has carried out multiple suicide attacks throughout Syria. These attacks have been primarily in Damascus but the group has targeted other areas of the country as well. Many of these attacks have killed innocent Syrian civilians. Al-Nusrah’s claimed operations since the group’s December 2012 designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization have included a January 26, 2013 suicide attack on a military base in Syria’s Quneitra Province, near the Golan Heights; a February 15, 2013 statement claiming responsibility for early February suicide attacks on regime targets in Damascus and the nearby town of al-Shadadi; and a March 20, 2013 statement claiming responsibility for two separate suicide attacks that targeted a bridge and bunker near the city of Homs on March 6, 2013.

Let’s contrast that with what former U.S. CIA director General David Petraeus had to say to al-Julani in New York. It should be noted that when Petraeus was commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, al-Julani was arrested and jailed for five years for his al-Qaeda activities.

Let’s hear how Petraeus characterized their history on stage last week:

It is obviously my privilege to interview His Excellency Ahmed al-Sharaa, president of the Syrian Arab Republic since January 2025. Born in Riyadh in 1982 and raised in Damascus, President Al-Shar rose to prominence as a rebel commander during the Syrian civil war and ultimately built and then led the force that toppled the Assad government in late 2024. His trajectory from insurgent leader to head of state has been one of the most dramatic political transformations in recent Middle Eastern history. Today he presides over nearly 25 million people in a country at a crossroads, navigating the demands of establishing security and governance and also overseeing reconstruction, the return of displaced Syrians and the challenges of reconciling deeply divided communities.
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The fact is that we were on different sides when I was commanding the surge in Iraq. You were, of course detained by US forces for some five years including again, when I was the fourstar there.
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Your skills again in organizing and then leading that force are hugely impressive. But despite all that you have achieved as a military leader, and it is extraordinary and now as a statesman, there are understandably some who are skeptical.
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Mr. President, I have some sense of how tough your job is right now. How much is riding on you personally and I know you have to be keenly aware of that. The pressure has to be enormous.

When people ask me what was it like to command the surge in Iraq, I would respond by saying it was the most grinding experience of my life, but it was also the most important one. So, this next one is about you personally. How are you holding up under all this pressure? Are you getting time to do some thinking? Are you getting enough sleep at night? Again, I’ve been there and it is so very, very hard. And your many fans, and I am one of them, we do have worries.

I’m ignoring al-Julani’s answers because who cares what that monster has to say?

I’m just here to document Petraeus’ nauseating sycophancy and to provide a little more history on al-Julani and his relationship with the United States government.

It’s Ian’s annual fundraiser. We cover a lot of ground on this blog and those who read it regularly know what is going to happen before most who don’t: the end of American Empire, the end of dollar hegemony, that Russia was going to win the war, the new Hegemon China, and even minor things like Tesla’s oncoming collapse. It’d be great if you can help out (please don’t donate if your financial situation is dire.) You can Subscribe or Donate here or contact me at ian-at-fdl-at-gmail-dot-com if mail or another method would be better. (Most US cash apps do not work in Canada.)

Human Rights Watch chronicled some of al-Julani’s work in 2013 in their report “You Can Still See Their Blood” Executions, Indiscriminate Shootings, and Hostage Taking by Opposition Forces in Latakia Countryside.”

Johannes Stern summed up that report for WSWS thusly, “organised massacres in rural areas of the Syrian governorate of Latakia between 4 and 18 August 2013, killing at least 190 civilians and taking more than 200 hostages. At least 67 were allegedly executed in the operation near villages of the Alawite religious sect.”

Amnesty International took a turn with their 2016 report titled “Syria: Abductions, torture and summary killings at the hands of armed groups.”

I’ll allow Stern to sum that one up, too: “Amnesty International accused al-Nusra of torture, child abduction and summary executions. In December 2014, for example, al-Nusra fighters executed a woman on charges of adultery and stoned to death women accused of extramarital relationships. Overall, they had “strictly interpreted Sharia law and imposed punishments for alleged violations that amount to torture…”

And in case you think al-Julani has changed his stripes since taking power, please see “Syrians describe terror as Alawite families killed in their homes” (BBC) and “Hundreds massacred in Syria, casting doubt on new government’s ability to rule” (France 24).

In 2022, Aaron Mate documented the long relationship between al-Julani and the Obama/Biden regime in the U.S. for Real Clear Investigations. Some highlights:

In waging a multi-billion dollar covert war in support of the insurgency against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, top Obama officials who now serve under Biden made it American policy to enable and arm terrorist groups that attracted jihadi fighters from across the globe. This regime change campaign, undertaken one decade after Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11, helped a sworn U.S. enemy…

A concise articulation came from Jake Sullivan to his then-State Department boss Hillary Clinton in a February 2012 email: “AQ [Al Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”

Sullivan, the current national security adviser, is one of many officials who oversaw the Syria proxy war under Obama to now occupy a senior post under Biden. This group includes Secretary of State Antony Blinken, climate envoy John Kerry, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, and State Department Counselor Derek Chollet.

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The outbreak of the Syrian insurgency in March 2011, coupled with the fall of Gaddafi, offered the U.S. a historic opportunity to exploit Syria’s vulnerabilities. While the Arab Spring sparked peaceful Syrian protests against the ruling Ba’ath party’s cronyism and repression, it also triggered a largely Sunni, rural-based revolt that took a sectarian and violent turn. The U.S. and its allies, namely Qatar and Turkey, capitalized by tapping the massive arsenal of the newly ousted Libyan government.
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Although the Obama administration claimed that the weapons funneled to Syria were intended for “moderate rebels,” they ultimately ended up in the hands of a jihadi-dominated insurgency. Just one month after the Benghazi attack, the New York Times reported that “hard-line Islamic jihadists,” including groups “with ties or affiliations with Al Qaeda,” have received “the lion’s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition.”

….designating al-Nusra as a terror organization allowed the Obama administration to publicly claim that it opposed Al Qaeda’s Syria branch while continuing to covertly arm the insurgency that it dominated. Three months after adding al-Nusra to the terrorism list, the U.S. and its allies “dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels” to help “rebels to try and seize Damascus,” the Associated Press reported in March 2013.

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Obama administration officials continued to publicly insist that the U.S. was only supporting Syria’s “moderate opposition,” as then-Deputy National Security Adviser Antony Blinken described it in September 2014. But speaking to a Harvard audience days later, then-Vice President Biden blurted out the concealed reality. In the Syrian insurgency, “there was no moderate middle,” Biden admitted. Instead, U.S. “allies” in Syria “poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad.” Those weapons were supplied, Biden said, to “al-Nusra, and Al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.” Biden quickly apologized for his comments, which appeared to fit the classic definition of the Kinsley gaffe: a politician inadvertently telling the truth. Biden’s only error was omitting his administration’s critical role in helping its allies arm the jihadis.

PressTV had more on al-Julani’s journey, and how Petraeus, in particular, has played a long-running part in the new President’s journey:

Released in 2009, he became the Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in Mosul, before moving to Syria in 2011 to create the Nusra Front on orders from the ringleader of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A year later, al-Nusra joined other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Although the US State Department listed al-Jolani as a terrorist in 2012 and placed a $10 million bounty on him, the CIA covertly supplied weapons and funds to the HTS.

Journalist Seymour Hersh has reported that Petraeus created a “rat line” from Libya to Syria to move weapons to the HTS and other militants seeking to overthrow the former Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

The CIA program, called Timber Sycamore, had an annual budget of more than $1 billion. It ultimately enabled al-Jolani to oust Assad and set up an extremist regime in Syria in December.

Former French intelligence officer and analyst Thierry Meyssan stated that Petraeus continued supporting Al-Qaeda groups, including the HTS, even after resigning from the CIA in 2012 following a sex scandal.

Petraeus later joined private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), led by billionaire Henry Kravis, which Meyssan said financed HTS for the CIA through unofficial channels.

So I guess it’s fitting that the General and the terrorist turned President are having an on-stage love-in. Al-Julani is a creation of the American state, it’s only right that he should be publicly celebrated by others of his ilk.

Other things I’m reading and watching: