The presence of foreigners among the ranks of Syria's rebels has been seized on by nearly all sides to suit their purposes.
The Syrian government says they are proof the rebels are extremists and terrorists. The rebels sometimes point to them as a sign that they haven't had the outside help NATO gave their Libyan counterparts and have instead had to rely on foreign militants with genuine experience of battle, and sometimes let in people who they would not normally have asked to fight alongside.
Among the rebel ranks are, according to who you listen to, al Qaeda, foreign jihadis, Salafis seeking a radical Islamist state, and then plain old freedom fighters - Muslims seeking to support their Arab brothers in this brutal battle.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh and James Foley talk to one rebel who staunchly rejects claims that foreign fighters are radicals or have links to al Qaeda.
"I'm only a student. I left my money, my student, my family. We are not al Qaeda. We are not coming to break this country, we're coming to help," said Libyan Feras.
Read Nick and James reporting here.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Few days back, there was an interesting article on Pakistan "The bubble of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has burst in our faces". It made me to do more research on the subject and on grave political conditions in Pakistan, and possibility of another military coup. We here in the United States, continue to monitor the political and cultural turmoil in Pakistan and are very concerned with the continued state of deterioration, and it's nuclear stockpile. At this point, we restate our view that Islamic Republic of Pakistan is in a precarious situation and that a geo-political implosion is imminent (if not already in process) and the need of the hour. As you will recall, along the Afghan/Pak borders, Pakistan has an unmanageable large fundamentalist Taliban population mired in poverty and we are spinning our wheels trying to prop it up. Additionally, it is also too big of a geographical units of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for Pakistani weak government to govern. In 2001 the Pakistani military entered the FATA for the first time in history, and returned home with heavy casualties. We Americans now need to focus on our own people and cannot afford to handout more financial and technological aid to Pakistan. We believe that this de-fragmentation of Pakistan along 13 FATA agencies (see the list below) will unleash boundless opportunities and uber economic demand that will be beneficial to US and our allies in extracting rare earth minerals along Afghan/Pak borders, and help pull ourselves out of current recessionary trends. Knowing presence of hard core islamic fundamentalists, war lords, drug cartels, and Russians and Chinese involvement, in the region, We pray for the events to unfold peacefully and in a harmonious manner for the poverty stricken people of Pakistan and its global future economic super power neighbors China and India. For the sake of long lasting peace and to break the cycle of violence in Pakistan, a potential solution for out of control militancy in Pakistan is to break down the Pakistan along the FATA agencies, like creation of Bangladesh in 1972:
Bajaur Agency
Mohmand Agency
Khyber Agency
Frontier Region Peshawar
Frontier Region Kohat
Orakzai Agency
Kurram Agency
Frontier Region Bannu
North Waziristan Agency
Frontier Region Lakki Marwat
Frontier Region Tank
South Waziristan Agency
Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan
My prayer and good wishes are with militancy infested Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Oh yes thank you for all your lies and colabration with our enimies.You rember hiding benladen for years in a big fancy compound less than a mile away from the police station.
Thank you Pakistan for helping Taliban, Haqqani network, Al Qaeda leaders, if we don't forget providing Osama a million dollar house in Abbotabad. The travesty is that the American policy makers bought lies and BS by Musharraf and his cronies. With a population of over 180 millions, with majority of Sunni Muslims, there was no value that this nation could bring to the table. Pakistani army (ragtag) continue hiding in the trenches scared from Taliban and al Qaeda, while milking American tax payers for technical support and training to fight these Muslim terrorists. A few teenage Taliban invaded the Pakistani Naval Base and held it hostage for days on end showing how useless Pakistan is. It was embarrassing for the world to observe this humiliation of a nation that was being touted as a front line ally on War on Terrorism (WOT). The Taliban brought them down in a few days with some BB guns. It is all over for Pakistan. Its demise is in process and should be completed with Afghanistan stabilization.
GETTING A GOOD SIZED BEATING FROM IRAN THE VERY VERY BAD MUSLIMS CRY OUT FOR FREEDOM FROM FREEDOM LONG LIVE THE DICTATORS
It is no secret that Hitler and his Nazi cronies sought inspiration from Indian extremist groups including the branding of his Nazi Party by adopting the Swastika, a traditionally Hindu symbol and representation of Hindu god Ganesha, as its marketing tool. The thesis being that like the Norwegian massacre the Jewish holocaust orchestrated by Hitler was inspired by the inherently violent cult of Indian Hindus and the manifesto of its then extremist/terrorist groups still in existence today. These groups are now the successors to and carrying out the vision of Al Qaeda all over the world albeit in a clandestine manner.
That guy with the hammer looks like he could handle Assad all by himself.
Besides emerging as a regional power, the time has come for Pakistan to take the leadership role in the Islamic World and lead them to the path of progress, prosperity and glory. The only nuclear nation in the Islamic World, Pakistan has shown the world that it can stand up to the nuances of world politics on principles and partake in global affairs. Also, that it can equally contribute to the progress of this planet called Earth. The sacrifices of the Pakistani nation in making this world safe are unmatched and deserves a seat at the table of the permanent members of The UN Security Council.
The sacrifices of the following muslim fighters in making this world safe are unmatched and muslim country deserves a seat at the table of the permanent members of The UN Security Council. Support Pakistan for the permanent member of the UN Security Council my friends.
Osama Bin Laden
Atiyah Abd Al-Rahman
Abu Ayyub Al-Masri
Mustafa Al-Yazid
Abu Qaswarah
Abu Laith Al-Libi
Muharib Abdul Latif Al-Jubouri
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah
Baitullah Mehsud
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
Amjad Farooqi
Ali Qaed Senyan Al-Harthi
Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh
Abu Zubaydah
Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri
Muhammad Atef
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso
Anwar al-Awlaki
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Thirwat Salah Shirhata
Rifa'i Taha Musa
Mustafa Hamza
Mohammed Atef aka Abu Hafs al-Masri
Saif al-Adel
Abd al-Aziz al-Jamal
Abu Zubaydah
Abu Jafar al-Jaziri
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi aka Abu Ahmad
Abu Zubair al-Haili
Tawfiq Attash Khallad
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abu Hazim aka Khalid Al Bin Ali Al-Hajj
Abu Mohammed al-Masri aka Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad
Mohammed Salah
Yasser al-Jaziri
Mahfouz Ould al-Walid aka Abu Hafs the Mauritanian
Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi aka "Riyadh the Facilitator"
Zaid Khayr
Safwan al-Hasham
Ahmed Said al-Khadr
Amin al-Haq
Abdallah Tabarak
Saif al-Din al-Ansari
Abu Ubeid al-Qurashi
Abu Bashir al-Yemeni
Saad bin Laden
Mahammed bin Laden
Hamza bin Laden
Saif bin Laden
Yeslam Bin Ladin
Saif Alwahid
Khalid al-Zawahiri
Thamr Mohammad Sharifi
Najwa Ghanem
Abdallah Al-Halabi
Abdul Rahim Riyadh
Abu Salah al-Yemeni
Hamza al-Qatari
Sheik Mohammed Al Hasan Al-Moayad
Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed
Mamoun Darkazanli
Abu Yasir al-Jaziri
Abdallah Muhammed Rajab Abd al-Rahman
Munib Zahiragic
Enaam Arnaout
Haroun Abed
Osailly Darwish
Allie Darwish
Ibrahim Bah
Samih Ossaily
Aziz Nassour
Ibrahim Bah
Youssef Mustafa Nada
Ali Ghaleb Himmat
Ahmed Idriss Nasreddin
Yousuf Abdullah Al-Qaradawi
Mariam Al-Sheikh A. Bin Aziz Al-Mubarak
Huta Bin Laden
Iman Bin Laden
Ahmed Huber
Hassan el-Banna
Thank you Pakistan for helping us track down these bad elements. The travesty is that the American invasion of Afghanistan brought to the forefront the irrelevance of India as a nation. With a population of over 1.2 billion people there was no value that this nation could bring to the table. Their soldiers (ragtag) 1.2 million continue hiding in the trenches scared from Talibans. A few teenage Talibans invaded the country and held it hostage for days on end showing how useless India is. It was embarrasing for the world to observe this humiliation of a nation that was being touted as a regional power. The Talibans brought them down in a few days with some BB guns. It is all over for India. Its demise is in process and should be completed with Afghanistan withdrawal.
Thank you Pakistan for helping Taliban, Haqqani network, Al Qaeda leaders, if we don't forget providing Osama a million dollar house in Abbotabad. The travesty is that the American policy makers bought lies and BS by Musharraf and his cronies. With a population of over 180 millions, with majority of Sunni Muslims, there was no value that this nation could bring to the table. Pakistani army (ragtag) continue hiding in the trenches scared from Taliban and al Qaeda, while milking American tax payers for technical support and training to fight these Muslim terrorists. A few teenage Taliban invaded the Pakistani Naval Base and held it hostage for days on end showing how useless Pakistan is. It was embarrassing for the world to observe this humiliation of a nation that was being touted as a front line ally on War on Terrorism (WOT). The Taliban brought them down in a few days with some BB guns. It is all over for Pakistan. Its demise is in process and should be completed with Afghanistan stabilization.
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Good footage.