................he was pressed into retirement for questioning the Obama administration’s public narrative that Al Qaeda was close to defeat.[32]
Flynn told Seymour Hersh that his agency "had sent a constant stream of classified warnings ... about the dire consequences of toppling [Syrian President] Assad."
Flynn recounted that the Obama administration's efforts to arm "moderate" Syrian rebels benefited extremists such as Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, stating: "If the American public saw the intelligence we were producing daily, at the most sensitive level, they would go ballistic."
According to former DIA official W. Patrick Lang: "Flynn incurred the wrath of the White House by insisting on telling the truth about Syria ... they shoved him out. He wouldn't shut up."[33]
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Flynn has criticized the Obama administration its delay in supporting rebels in Syria, thereby allowing for the growth of Al Nusra and other extremist forces: "when you don’t get in and help somebody, they’re gonna find other means to achieve their goals" and that "we should have done more earlier on in this effort, you know, than we did..............