US Passed Secret Intelligence to Al-Qaeda-Linked Syrian Government

US intelligence officials met with officials of the new government in Syria and passed secret information. The Syrian government is now controlled by Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The Washington Post reports, “In the chaotic days after the fall of [Bashar] al-Assad, the Biden administration began to engage cautiously with HTS and its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani.”

“The intelligence exchange with HTS has occurred in direct encounters between US intelligence officials and representatives of HTS, rather than via third parties.” The Post continues, “[this] has involved exchanges between the two sides, in Syria and a third country. It began roughly two weeks after HTS came to power on Dec. 8.”

In late November, Julani’s HTS began an offensive against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad’s forces were quickly overrun, and Julani seized power in Damascus within weeks.