Thread by @KevorkAlmassian

THREAD: Between 2011 and 2017, the CIA funneled over $1 billion annually to Syria to arm jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda, replicating its 1980s Afghanistan playbook.

Here's what really happened 🧵

1/ For decades, the term "conspiracy theory" has been cynically deployed as a rhetorical weapon to silence dissent and discredit legitimate skepticism. Its origins as a tool of psychological manipulation trace back to the CIA’s efforts to quash scrutiny of the JFK assassination.

2/ Today, the same tactic is used to dismiss well-documented covert operations—such as the CIA’s billion-dollar war in Syria—as mere "conspiracy theory."

3/ But when a figure like Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs cites declassified realities like Operation Timber Sycamore, it’s time to ask: Who benefits from this gaslighting?

4/ At the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Sachs dismantled the mainstream narrative surrounding Syria’s destruction. Between 2011 and 2017, the CIA funneled over $1 billion annually to arm jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda, replicating its 1980s Afghanistan playbook.

5/ This wasn’t a "theory" but a conspiracy—a deliberate, funded, and executed regime-change operation. Yet when Sachs stated this fact, journalist Abdelhamid Siyam reflexively dismissed it as "conspiracy theory."

6/ The irony? Siyam works for Al-Quds al-Arabi, an outlet bankrolled by Qatar—a major non-NATO ally for the U.S., deeply enmeshed in Washington’s regional projects.

7/ The panel moderator was Wadah Khanfar, former director of Al-Jazeera Arabic. Khanfar was forced to resign in 2011 after WikiLeaks exposed his CIA liaisons in Doha, where he allegedly coordinated coverage to align with U.S. interests.

This is the real conspiracy: a media-industrial complex that launders state propaganda while smearing truth-tellers.

8/ The U.S. operates with two foreign policies: one official, articulated by diplomats; the other clandestine, executed by the CIA and its proxies.

9/ Operation Timber Sycamore exemplifies this duality—a shadow war that destabilized Syria, killed hundreds of thousands, and birthed the refugee crisis. The goal? To fracture the region, sustain the military-industrial complex, and entrench U.S. hegemony.

10/ Sachs was unequivocal: "Do not be naive. Wars require billions. This was a conspiracy." Yet Western media outlets, particularly those funded by Gulf regimes (Qatar and Saudi Arabia), parrot the "Assad the butcher" narrative while ignoring the CIA’s fingerprints.

11/ These regimes are complicit in the destruction, their media arms serving as stenographers for empire.

12/ As Sachs noted, the Middle East has been a playground for Anglo-French-American machinations since the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The 2003 Iraq War, Libya’s destruction, and Syria’s agony are not isolated tragedies but chapters in a deliberate strategy of chaos.

13/ The same forces behind Timber Sycamore—neocons, arms dealers, and Wall Street—profit from perpetual war.

The solution? Sachs is right: The region will never stabilize until U.S. interference ends.

14/ But this requires dismantling the deep state’s grip on policy and exposing its media accomplices. When journalists label documented CIA ops as "conspiracy theories," they’re not just lying—they’re enabling the next war.

15/ The truth is no longer hidden. It’s in the declassified files, the whistleblower testimonies, and the ruins of nations like Syria. The question is: Will geopolitical "enthusiasts" confront reality or keep swallowing the lies?

THE END.