There is so much here about how US wittingly or unwittingly has been helping Al-Qa`idah in Syria. Furthermore, it seems that Jamal Ma`ruf (who at one point was hailed as the last hope of US foreign policy in Syria and who was hailed as a moderate and secular rebel leader by David Ignatius and Liz Sly among many others in the Western press) had pledged allegiance secretly to Abu Muhammad Julani.