Analysis: Study shows rise of al Qaeda affiliate in Syria
By Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank
A jihadist group with links to al Qaeda has become the most effective of the different factions fighting the regime, according to a new analysis, and now has some 5,000 fighters.
The group is Jabhat al-Nusra, which was designated an al Qaeda affiliate by the United States government last month. It is led by veterans of the Iraqi insurgency "and has shown itself to be the principal force against Assad and the Shabiha," according to the study.
CNN obtained an advance copy of the analysis, set to be released Tuesday by the Quilliam Foundation, a counterterrorism policy institute based in London.
"The civil war in Syria is a gift from the sky for al-Nusra; they are coasting off its energy," the lead author of the report, Noman Benotman, told CNN.
Benotman, a former prominent Libyan Jihadist who was personally acquainted with al Qaeda's top leaders including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, consulted Western and regional intelligence officials as well as jihadists in Syria, including "al-Nusra sources."
And at a time of optimism that the global threat from al Qaeda terrorism has crested, the study will fuel anxiety in Western capitals that a powerful al Qaeda affiliate may become entrenched in the heart of the Arab world, creating deep challenges in any post- al-Assad Syria, and a new threat to international security.
What's next for Syria in 2013?
Founding meetings
Al-Nusra, according to the report, is a Syrian offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq, aka AQI, the terror outfit founded by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
AQI was rebranded the "Islamic State of Iraq" after al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. missile strike in 2006. Since the pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq, ISI has regained strength, feeding off the continued political and sectarian turbulence in Iraq.
When designating al-Nusra a terrorist group in December, the U.S State Department cast the group as "an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes."
"AQI emir Abu Du'a is in control of both AQI and al-Nusra. Du'a also issues strategic guidance to al-Nusra's emir, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, and tasked him to begin operations in Syria," the State Department said.
Benotman says that while Abu Du'a still has significant influence over al-Nusra, the key player in the group is al-Jawlani, a veteran Syrian jihadist who he says appears to have almost certainly been a former close associate of al-Zarqawi.
Al-Jawlani's "leadership is uncontested because of his experience in Iraq," the Quilliam Foundation report found. According to Benotman, al-Jawlani has taken painstaking measures not to reveal his real identity - including wearing a mask to meetings with some of al-Nusra's senior operatives. He was also masked when al-Nusra released a video in January 2012 to announce its formation.
AQI had built up an infrastructure in Syria, establishing safe-houses in Syria from which thousands of volunteers - including many Syrians - traveled to fight in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi's Syrian commanders were also the key channel for financial contributions from the Saudi and Gulf region.
Nada Bakos, a former CIA agent who for several years was the chief targeting officer tracking al-Zarqawi, told CNN that from the early days Syrians were amongst the inner circle of his network. "Some of these commanders are probably now part of al-Nusra," she said.
One Syrian among the inner circle of AQI was Sulayman Khalid Darwish. He's been reported killed in Iraq, but intelligence sources tell CNN his fate remains uncertain, raising the possibility he may now be playing a leadership role in al-Nusra.
According to Benotman, the ultimate aim of al-Nusra is the creation of an Islamic State in Syria and the Levant. To begin with, it set about recruiting fighters and training them, collecting weapons and creating safe havens.
The group suffered a severe setback in April 2012 after the arrest of an operative led to a significant number of members being detained in Damascus, but the group subsequently rebuilt its operations, placing greater emphasis on operational security, Benotman told CNN.
One precaution al-Nusra has taken is communicating through messengers rather than electronically, according to Benotman. "Their operational security is some of the best I've ever seen," he told CNN.
In addition, al-Nusra is "very selective about initiating new members, requiring "tezkiyya," or personal assurance, from two commanders on the front line stating that the recruit has the necessary skills, religious commitment and attitude to join the group," the Quilliam study says.
Morsy backs Syrian calls for al-Assad to face war crimes trial
From clandestine cells to insurgency
According to the U.S State Department, al-Nusra has claimed responsibility for nearly 600 attacks - "ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations - in major city centers including Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr al-Zawr."
Benotman says the group has also carried out executions of media professionals and assassinations of military officers and members of the pro-al-Assad Shabiha militia.
Al-Nusra also focuses on taking control of towns near major highways to control movement; it controls the highway between Aleppo and Hasakah, an important route to Iraq, according to the Quilliam report.
So far the group has only claimed one attack on Syrian government planes and helicopters which "would seem to demonstrate a lack of man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADs), consistent with the international effort to keep these weapons out of jihadist hands," according to the report.
Last month al-Nusra launched two of its most ambitious operations to date. On December 10, the group occupied parts of a military base near Aleppo and two days later claimed responsibility for a coordinated suicide and car bomb attack on the heavily guarded Interior Ministry in the capital.
Al-Nusra's signature tactic, like that of AQI, is using large car and truck bombs driven by suicide bombers. The group has launched several such attacks against security installations in Damascus and Aleppo, sometimes as part of a coordinated assault involving gunmen.
Benotman says that last Summer al-Nusra launched a recruitment drive for suicide bombers and began stockpiling trucks and explosives. He says that weapons shortages among rebel groups means that al-Nusra's campaign of suicide bombings has allowed it to punch above its weight.
Last week al-Nusra demonstrated the lethality of a new tactic - driverless car bombs operated by remote control, Benotman told CNN. He says the technology was used to destroy a gate at an airbase in Idlib and will raise fears that it could one day be used in an attack in the West.
If al-Nusra's fighting strength is some 5,000 members, as the Quilliam report estimates, that would be comparable to U.S. government estimates of AQI at the peak of the Iraq insurgency. But rebel commanders say that the group makes up less than 10% of the brigades fighting the regime.
While al-Nusra is mainly made up of Syrians, it includes a significant number of fighters from other Arab countries. In recent months a growing number have arrived from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but Iraqis and Jordanians constitute the majority of foreign fighters.
Al-Assad says enemies of Syria 'will go to hell'
Cooperation with other rebels
In recent months, videos featuring rebels fighting in Syria have increasingly featured joint-operations between al-Nusra and other rebel groups.
According to the Quilliam Foundation report, al-Nusra often cooperates with other jihadist and Islamist groups such as Sukour al-Sham, which has several thousand fighters, and even with the Free Syrian Army, in a number of strategic battles, though joint operations between these two groups have not been widespread.
According to Benotman, a significant number of Jihadists fighting with other rebel outfits are wary of al Qaeda's hard-line ideology, but al-Nusra has sought to allay concerns by keeping its brand separate from al Qaeda, avoiding targeting civilians, and refraining from spelling out its true agenda.
"Preserving good relations with the other groups and treating them well and turning a blind eye to their mistakes is the foundation in dealing with the other groups, as long as they don't change," al-Nusra leader Mohammed al-Jawlani said in a December audio tape, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Al-Nusra and nine other local Jihadist brigades announced last month they were forming a regional unified command structure called the Mujahideen Shura Council in Deir el-Zour.
Yet according to Benotman's report, al-Nusra has not yet formed any such coalitions with larger Islamist rebel outfits such as Ansar al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Deir Ezzor Revolutionary Council, three groups which previously joined together to form the "Liberation Front."
A counterproductive designation?
According to the Quilliam study, "the designation (by the U.S.) of al-Nusra as a terrorist organization has only served to reinforce jihadist support for the group.
Nada Bakos, the former CIA agent agreed, telling CNN the designation may elevate al-Nusra's status amongst Jihadists worldwide, increasing funding and recruitment for the group.
Benotman's study describes relations between al-Nusra and the FSA as mixed, with both realizing they need each other in the short term to topple al-Assad.
"Some FSA brigades threaten to work with al-Nusra if the West does not provide enough weapons while others see al-Nusra as trying to exploit the revolution for their own ends, instead of working for the good of the country. Jabhat al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army are wary of one another, as they are already vying for popularity amongst the population," Quilliam says.
Strategy
Bakos, the former CIA official says AQI and al-Nusra are likely replicating the flexible, decentralized, and resilient external operations networks established by al-Zarqawi in the region, and that makes them a force to be reckoned with. Benotman says the al-Zarqawi networks never really went away.
Analysts believe al-Nusra's hostility to the West could create an "over-the-horizon" threat to the United States and its allies if the group is able to secure a foothold in Syria and across the Levant.
In such a scenario al Qaeda aligned groups would be operating within touching distance of borders of Israel, improving their potential to launch a direct attack against the country, long a key proclaimed objective of the terrorist network's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The Quilliam Foundation report is sobering reading at a time when increasing sectarian tension and regime brutality in Syria are playing into al-Nusra's hands.
Benotman believes al-Nusra doesn't want a quick end to the al-Assad regime.
"The longer the conflict goes on, the stronger they will get," he told CNN.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Here is the story how Bashar Assad became a "president":
On 21 January 1994, Basel assad (Bashar's brother) was driving his Mercedes at high speed through fog to Damascus International Airport for a flight to Germany in the early hours of the morning, Bassel is said to have collided with a motorway roundabout without wearing a seatbelt, and he died instantly. Bassel Assad's death led to his lesser-known brother Bashar al-Assad, then undertaking sub-speciality training in ophthalmology in London, assuming the mantle of President-in-waiting. Bashar Assad became President following the death of Hafez Assad on 10 June 2000. Bassel Assad's posters and his name were also used to secure a smooth transition after Hafez Assad through the slogan "Basil, the Example: Bashar, the Future." Why some americans support this guy is just absurd.
Would't you agree that even more absurd is the American support for absolute monarchs od Arabia, Qatar, UAE etc. ?
At least these countries don't shell cities with tanks and don't use their air force against civilians. Assad shelled syrian cities with artillery and bombed cities with his air force.
What is the America's business. Should we go in and bomb them to hell also.
@future123
Bahraini regime kills, imprisons and abuses civilians almost on a daily basis, Saudis persecute, kill torture their opponents and the minorities such as Shia Muslims, Christians and Jews have absolutely no right whatsoever, women are treated worse than animals.
The Syrian government forces are fighting terrorists and civilian casualties are inevetable, so we are told by the American government when civilians in Afghanistan Pakistan and the yemen are killed.
What other regime in that entire region killed 60,000 citizens and had 1,000,000 refugees out of its borders beside assad's. There is no way you can compare assad regime atrocity with any other regime over there. A headache and cancer are both painful, but they cause for sure different kind of pain.
America in Iraq! But we killed oh so many more than a mere 60,000 Men Woman & Children Civilians...Now didn't we?
Bush = Obama = Wall Street!
Demand the Impeach of Obama if he gets US into one more "Not War" merely for his Corporate Masters on Wall Streets Profits!
future123,
get your facts right, 60,000 have been killed during a civil war, Assad has not killed them, people are dying because Alqaeda terrorists are using car bombs in most cities, and also the majority of the dead have been government soldiers. You need to revisit you facts.
I have my facts right. Assad himself admitted that the first eight months of the demonstrations were peaceful. He used military against civilians. What do you expect? The syrians had to fight him back. He is a ruthless dictator.
Sorry there future123 the Syrian War started to get bloody after Al Qaeda Fighters from Libya and Iraq started being shipped in to Syria using Obama's Secret (but acknowledge) Aid and Saudi Arabian & Gulf States Money.
Remember the so called Arab Spring and Clinton offering the Free Syrian Army (UN declared Al Qaeda Associates) 40,000,000 of Our Tax Money?
Nope probably not....It just doesn't fit the Narrative of the American "Good Guy" Fantasy that these Wall Street Controlled Corporate Media Outlets Spew!
MUW, Did you lose all of your money and assets in 2008 or something?
@future123: You will see same or worse shellings and killings if Saudi Arabia and Qatar dictators have ever to face terrorists who wanted to throw them out of the power. By the don't forget, what happened when people in Baharin protested peacefully against their tyrant? Saudi Arabia sent tanks and soldiers to kill and arrest Baharinis!!! So don't compare Saudi or Qataris with Syrians........there is country in the Middle-East worthy of praises!
Future, Israel is the only other country engaged in mass murder using air power.
Ekram, What you mentioned are assumptions. No government around the world used its air force and tanks against its own cities and people. The syrian regime is the exception here.
We shouldn't support either. The "Rebels" Obama support are Terroist. Both are evil no less then eachother.
But is it any more absurd than Americans supporting a Mass Murderer like George Bush Jr or Barrack Obama both of which have killed far more "innocent Civilians" than has Bashar Assad?
It truly amazes me how much self centered justification and egocentric nonsense spews endlessly forth from these Plutocratic Propaganda and Disinformation Posters looking to starting the next "Not War" for Corporate Profits!!
Now days "We The People" have become the Terrorists in the World! Every since the "Wall Street" sponsored False Flag Operation of 911 this War of Terrorism has been waged against all of US World Wide by the Oligarchs!
And any honest American able to "Startpage their own Research knows that statement to be true!
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and hence clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."~ Henry Louis Mencken
What does all what you mentioned have to do with the idea that oppressed people are fighting a dictator. So if the people of North Korea somehow started a revolution against the communist party there, would you start yapping about the US financial system and Wall Street?
Psst perhaps because we are supporting Al Qaeda the exact same Organization that supposedly attack US on 911 and that the then VP George Bush Senior created to fight the Russians in Afghanistan under Ronald Regan using "Funds" Laundered by Wall Street.
And yet now the same Al Qaeda "Bogeyman" is working for US under Obama once again?
Come on if it was a Hollywood Script (like Oh Dark Thirty) you would walk out to the Theater Laughing Your Head Off at their Unrealisticly Stupidly" plot thinking that we would believe that "Silly" nonsense!
But kind of like bin NOBODY these Plutocratic Corporate Supporting Posters still keep "Popping Up & Out" claiming that the Tooth Fairy the Easter Bunny and Al Qaeda are "Real"!
Be afraid of these Evil Wall Street Corporate Oligarchs and their Corrupt Political Minions for they are the REAL enemy of We The People World Wide!
But Gee you know that already....Don't you!
Out of curiosity, did you lose all what you have in 2008?
No I lost almost 3,000 of my fellow Americans and a large part of my Countries Freedom on 911 not counting the Thousands of Americans who died in Iraq & Afghanistan and the Trillions of dollars of my Children's Future wasted chasing "Bogeymen" that Wall Street Oligarchs who control Our Country who created Al Qaeda and used them against US.
And now Obama attempts to rewrite "History" by using Al Qaeda once again just as he did in Libya....Any honest American knows those facts to be true and all of the rest of this "Noise" is nothing but Corporate Media Disinformation & Propaganda!
Only a "Fool" would believe the Syria Bad Guy Al Qaeda Good Guy "Not War" Nonsense!
We now have Children living on the Street who cannot get Medical Treatment because we "Have No Money" yet Obama's Masters on Wall Street gets paid Billions of more of OUR Dollars every Month to be "Blown Up" and then the Wall Street Oligarchs come back for more!
A million dollar missile here a million dollar missile and some America child / family suffers........
That is NOT Democratic Republic....That is Corporate Plutocracy!!
MUW, I doubt that you are an american. What about the american soldiers who were killed by groups supported by assad in iraq.
Assad? Don't you mean the "Groups" of Americans kill by Al Qaeda in Iraq? Hmm seems to be some more "Revisionist History" going on here!
And Frankly Charlotte I don't give a Damn if you think I am or are not an American! But we all know you are a UN American Wall Street Plutocracy Corporate Supporter....Obviously!
Actually I do support the US financial system and I do invest in its stock market. What is wrong with that???? No body is forcing anyone to invest in the market. It is a free country and that is the beauty of it.
Well it is a "Free" Country except when it comes to Our 401K and Obama's continuing threats to Nationalize them...Right?
Or is that like Obama's Support of Gun Control to Disarm the American People or is that too merely another "Myth"?
Oh well..........Some prefer to be Intentionally Naive when it comes to their Plutocratic Masters!
What is really crazy is most Americans don't even know where Syria is on a map of the world. They think we need to support the rebels and the rebels are full of our enemy Al Qaeda or any other radical religion. America has a very bad history of deciding who is friend and who is enemy and then the sheep follow.
I respectfully disagree. America stood by the free world against the Nazi and the Soviets. Right?
No body is in love with Assad don't worry , but no one want to see Syria in Islamist darkness , that's why we support him
Terrorists should get out of Syria and let Syrians to decide
The free syrian army guys are not terrorists though. they are defending their people from a dictator. Assad is trying to link them to terrorist groups to get sympathy from the west. Isn't it enough to know that assad supports hizbullah and actually this terrorist group is supporting assad by sending its owm fighters to syria.
Isn't it interesting that the following countries support assad: Russia, Iran, China and North Korea. Apparently a lot of people here – I hope they are not americans – share these countries their points of view
You cannot oppose a point of view just on the basis that those that you dislike share the same view.
When those are these countries, then we need to ask ourselves why. Not one of these countries show any respect to human rights.
@future123
Iran opposed the Taliban and nearly went to war with them well before the Taliban went into American governments bad book, Iran also opposed Saddam who was a ruthless dictator well before the Americans saw him as an enemy, Iranian forces along with the Afghanistand Northern Alliance started fighting the Alqeda well before the US forces enterred the fight.
In Syria also, the US government will come to agree with Iran but not untill they have wasted Billions of Dollars and hundreds of American Lives.
Iran supposedly Americas worse enemy has not caused a single American death. Americans should take a hard look at their government's policies in the ME.
Iran is threatening to wipe off israel from the planet. Iran's government came into power by an islamic revolution. Iran is saying that the US is the greatest devil. Iranians had american hostages for more than a year in Tehran. Iran is threatening to block strait of hurmuz at any time. Iran is supporting the terrorist group hizbullah in south of lebanon. Iran is supporting a dictator (assad) to oppress his people. Iran is buying North Korean missiles technology to threat its neighbors.
@future123
That propaganda line has already been over used. Iran never threatened to wipe Israel off anything. Iran has always maintained that the Zi0nist regime will be wiped out, in exactly the same way as South African regime and the Soviet regimes were. Iran is home to the largest community of Jews in the ME outside ISrael, Iranians have never been, are not and never will be agaist JEwish people and no Iranian regime (of any kind) will ever harm Jews.
If you want to label facts that you don't like as propaganda that is up to you. Ahmadi Najad's (Iranian president) words were clear.
Wasn't assad the one who trained jihadist groups and sent them to iraq to fight the US army. Assad is a terrorist and as bad as alqida. We should focus on the idea that oppressed syrian people there are fighting for there freedom.
Are you advocating revenge by training Jihadists against Asdsad then? (assuming what you say is right, which is not)
The free syrian army are not terrorists. They are defected syrian soldiers who were brave enough to refuse shooting at civilians. These kind of people deserve respect and support.
future123 Even the Wall Street Propaganda and Disinformation Outlets acknowledge that 80% or more of the "Effect" (whatever that means) Fighters of the Free Syria Army are "Al Qaeda.
So why are you making such Absurd "Claims" about this so called Free Syrian Army that can so easily be fact checked using Startpage?
Hmm and yet you continue.........
MUW, when did wall street start issuing political reports and classifying who is a terrorist and who is not !!! Stop yapping about wall street already.
Ah yes let US not talk about the Not War "Puppet Masters" only about the "Approved" subject of that "Bad Guy" Assad!
Excuse me but I refuse to drink Your "Flavor Aid" on command or to shallow your little Blue Pill.....I prefer the Red one and reality instead!
Psst and Please do not attempt to belittle until you can justify Wall Streets Political Minions new Indefinite Detention without Trial, Warrant-less Searches and Spying Killer Drones Flying in America Laws and Presidential Kill Lists!
And let US not mention the SCOTUS Ruling of Citizens United that made Corporate Bribery all nice and "Legal"......
Like I said before in 2013 you have to be "Intentionally Naive" to believe ANY of Wall Streets or its Minions BS!
Recent report show that when it rains the ground often gets wet. More funding is sought before a final report can be issued.
"Former Jihadist himself and now a think tank"..
Gee, and he walks freely in London?
Did we need a report to know this?
Many years ago now, in Afghanestan there were UAE and Saudi money, help from Pakistani Military Intelligence and the CIA that created the Taliban, what happened afterwards you all know about.
Today Money from Qatar and Saudi, Turkish Intelligence together with the CIA and Mussad are doing the same thing all over again !!!
mind you, all in the name of 'stopping Iran's growing influence'
This just confrims what Bashar al-assad has claimed all along, that the majority of the rebels are foreign terrorists , and I also believe Gahdaffi said the same thing about the rebells in Lybia.
does that justify anything that he has done. I wont deny that terror groups could grow there like now but should we ignore a peoples plea for freedom. Libya was a dictatorship just as Syria is as well
Good post becaus this helped me
This realy helped me in a current event
They are there because we neglected to help the Syrian people. Of course they accepted their help! It's a life/death situation. I'd bet money there would be no "terrorist" type faction/s had we given assistance to the peaceful protesters turned freedom fighters.
are you kidding me?!?! THEY HAVE BEEN THERE. you can find articles on this very website from months back about a known Al Qaeda presence in Syria. They are there because that is what Al Qaeda does you genius. They help over throw governments all through the ME and Africa to implement a more extermists friendly rule. you are completely NAIVE. Do you think the Syrian rebels, during all this fighting, sat down and were like "if the Americans don't help us by X amount of months then we're turning to Al Qaeda" NOOOOOO!!!! Al Qaeda crosses into the country, dressed like civilains because they are not a standing army, and fights the Al Assad loyalists alongside of the actual Syrian rebels. These people will take help anyway they get it. Quit blaming this crap on the lack of American/Western intervention instead of the simple nature of the beast. We helped the Mujhadeen fight the Soviets, look how that turned out. Helped the Libyans get rid of Gaddafi, look how that turned out. WAKE UP. THESE PEOPLE USE THE UNITED STATES FOR THEIR MILITARY STRENGTH AND GURANTEE EMPTY PROMISES, THEN TURN THEIR BACK ON THE WEST WIN THEY GET ON TOP. ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID?!?!?!
does that mean we ignore the voices of many more people just because the acts of few. Not everyone is a terrorist you know
Excuse me...What do you think the Secret Aid from Obama / Clinton was all about? Al Qaeda is in Syria because we did not support Al Qaeda in Syria?
Wow talk about Circuitous Corporate Justifications!
Again Obama / Clinton created this latest Wall Street UN-Humanitarian Not War in Syria using Al Qaeda forces from Libya & Iraq by US yet do NOTHING about Bahrain Qatar or the 15 y.o girls being forced into marriage to 70 y.o. Men in Saudi Arabia....Don't you read the News?
Let US Restore Freedom in America FIRST!
haha Obama/Clinton...conveniently leaving out the 8 years of a Republican in office. quit rambling you conspiracy psycho. get a job. "uhhhh i read it on this right wing website that obama and clinton support al qaeda, but somehow not bush" you sound real intelligent. saddest part, I'm a Republican and can't even reason with what you said
Right just out spewing a little more Corporate Disinformation and Propaganda to cover up for the Obomination are we?
Bush = Obama don't you pay attention?
Psst there are no Democrats or Republicans and haven't been for years....There are ONLY Wall Street Owned and Corrupted Political Minions Ruling America and the few fools still left that believe there are Democrats and Republicans or that we live in a Democracy instead of a Plutocracy!
Judge them not by what nonsense they spew, only by which Master they answer to!
Democrats, Republicans: puppets! In a blind test you will not be able to tell the difference: because there is none! They spend millions in election campaign to create the impression that they disagree on something. And it is getting harder and harder: so they have to spend more money each time!
And that, of course, was Barry the Butcher's plan, all along. ALLAH AKBAR AMERICA!
Exactly! Next the Free Syrian (Al Qaeda) Army will "Drop A Few Mortar Rounds"bought with Obama's Secret Aid and that Bumbling Barry magically now has stationed on the Turkish Border and instant "Not War" for his Corporate Masters Profits!
For every new Drone Attack and No Fly Zone thousands of America Disabled Adults & Children will do without proper Medical Care! But Wall Street Oligarchs will be getting Billions!
Oops sorry for the "Misfire" Disqus allows edits.........
They have already sent the victims to the Turkey-Syria border! They need an excuse to go into Syria to secure its chemical weapons before peace-loving pro-democratic rebels (aka al-Qaeda) get it and use against American or Israeli civilians!
Ah, I am just kidding about "victims": that would be far too obvious and primitive. I believe they are smarter than that!
The free syrian army is not al qida. The FSA is the brave soldiers who defected from assad's army and joined the syrian people to get their freedom from assad.
Exactly! Next the Free Syrian (Al Qaeda) Army will "Drop A Few Mortar Rounds" bought with Obama's Secret Aid on Our American troops that Bumbling Barry now has stationed on the Turkish Border and another instant "Not War" for his Corporate Masters Profits will appear!
For every new Drone Attack and No Fly Zone thousands of America Disabled Adults & Children will do without proper Medical Care! But Wall Street Oligarchs will still be getting Billions!
Islams violent ugly head is spreading like wildfire....the world is dumb to not deal with this.....some loser lefties are even helping to facilitate this by their inaction and wimpy resolve....
Neo-conservatisms vile, ugly, facist head is spreading like wildfire...........the world is smart to deal with this........some loser righties are helping to facillitate this with their shrill chickenhawk calls to perpetual war and imperialism.
Speaking of head, I heard your pretty good at giving it.
Look, Lamont – just because that wh0re Margo says something, doesn't mean that it's true, alright?
Who cares, let them kill eachother....Syria the terrorist supporting state is now reaping what it sowed....and throw some left wing liberal limp wristed losers in there as well...
The biggest sausage-fest in the world is in the US military.
Your just jealous they won't let you play, you know you Waant it.
Yeah........but I want Shrevvy more.
Quillam Foundation employs neo cons, that pretty much sums up the validity of the article.
The protests were peaceful during the first eight months and Assad used military forces to stop the people who wanted freedom. Now after all of his murders he wanted to talk.
We need to help the free syrian army before terrorist groups dominate there. We didn't help afghans after defeating the Soviets and simply left the country to be dominated by these groups. Didn't we learn the lesson.
dude, we don't need to help anyone. we NEED to let these people fight thier own wars. why do you think we need to help them? to prevent the spread of jihadists and extremists that are anti-west? yea...thats not going to happen. we will NEVER win in the Middle East because we are not the same. you cannot kill an ideology. we do not practice complete destruction of a specific population like the conquerers in early history. quit buying into the "we need to help bc ppl are dieing" BS. you wanna help in inner African continent too? probably not because the media doesn't cover those issues. the Middle East will NEVER be on our side. deal with it. you want to help these ppl now? you think the CIA and other intelligence agents weren't aware of an Al Qaeda presence way before this? we've been supporting them the entire time while Al Assad has stated time and time again hes fighting terrorists not from the Syrian nation. jokes on the US citizens that support this BS
I very much like what you said. Just lets keep out of the whole ME quagmire. We need to take care of own problems. Keep our youth alive and defend our borders. We are not the policemen of the world. We shed too much blood and too many broken US lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and look what we got in return. a thankless population and local leadership.
Let us keep our resources here in our country and let the people there take care of themselves.
Your Afghan/Syrian comparison doesn't hold up. Apple, meet orange.
Ha-ha-ha! "Free Syrian Army" IS the terrorist group!
The Free Syrian Army are not terrorists. I don't see how you find that funny accusing someone else of being a terrorist. That is a very serious accusation.
This cant be, Obama personally decimated Al Queda
Right and his new head of the CIA he just appointed said we defeated Al Quada in 2009!
It must be a mistake. I mean, otherwise it means Al-Assad told the truth about it being foreign terrorists they're fighting.
Let's send more guns to Syria. Al Queda will have them to take other countries and goverments. Maybe even European Countries. What a blind politic by USA and Europe to suport anybody who figths regimes. Total ignorance of reality.
this is done by design not ignorance
The blind politics was when not supporting the free syrian army in the first place during the first one year of the conflict. The regime in Syria facilitates the presence of such a terrorist group in Syria so it can gain sympathy from the west. Smart move though by the dictator assad. Didn't the syrian regime train such groups and send them to Iraq to fight the American army there. Now it is using them to its benefit again.
This is exactly what the President wants. The Muslim Brotherhood in charge and Sharia law for everyone.
Please, READ HIS BOOK !!!!!
The Caliphate is under way and Barack loves it
Bingo!
Ridiculous nonsense.
Yo, READ HIS BOOK !!! See his history in the movie 2016....Don't be DENSE !!!! Try thinking for yourself and utilizing
the information that is available....Remember, Karl Marx, Hitler, Chairman Mao all wrote what they thought and where they were coming from and going...so did Barack...READ IT !!!!
So do I. Once it takes form, we can crush it utterly and have EVERY justification for doing so. No more whack-a-mole.
It is all going according to plan.
How many times have we read "Assad is killing his own people" and how many times must we repeat that he is fighting and killing "armed" opponants many of them terrorists from outside Syria. Does anyone know of any government in the world that would not use force when being attacked by armed oppositions especailly from abroad. No i don;t think so.
I'm glad what you said made perfect sense to you but for the rest of us not so much.
It made sense to me. Are you sure it isn't just you who is confused?
Assad has offered to talk but opposition refuses, translates into opposition responsible for increasing death toll now.
Why should he negotiate with radical Jihadists ? Would you ?
Careful. Obama's new CIA director said that its insulting to Muslims to call them Jihadists. He said Jihad is a legitimate tenant of ISLAM. That is NO JOKE either. That should make you all sleep comfy for the next 4 years huh?
They want us all dead and our CIA director is concerned about hurting their feelings!
Assad offer was a way to extend its presence in power. The only countries supported this offer were Iran and Russia.
It appears that the right-wing news media is again trying to scare the public. Even if this report was true, I say anything beats another U.S. backed pseudo-democracy in the Middle East by a mile and a half!!!
GP, where do you buy your acid to throw on little girls??? Towel Heads R Us????? Hahahahahahhaha
Agreed
Well Georgey boy your already a mile and half closer to Syria, so just keep walking.
Right or is that Left? We don't need no more stinking Al Qaeda Sponsored Bailout Syria plans!
Just say NO to another "accidental" humanitarian Aid "Not War" like Libya for Wall Streets Fun & Profits!
We have enough Indefinite Detention without Trial, Killer Drones, Warrant-less Searches & Spying and Presidential Kill Lists in America as it is!
Let US focus on Restoring OUR FREEDOM for a while!
Thank you, George. I couldn't agree more! We definitely don't need any more U.S. backed pseudo-democracies in the Middle East to serve the selfish interests of the right-wing thugs in both Washington and London!
If you lie with al-qaeda dogs, you will get a lot more than fleas.
Something the Pentagon and CIA can't seem to comprehend.
Linked to Al Qaeda? Now it make sense why Obama and his ilk support them.
What a dumb comment but why let reality get in the way of your beliefs. Why let facts like more AQ and Taliban commanders have been killed since Obama came into office than while GW was in charge. Yeah lets not look at facts lets just run off at the mouth and sound foolish cause that makes this world a better place. I mean if your an Obama hater than cool I really don't care but hate the man for something real and please stop making up silly crap like Obama loves AQ yeah while he is ordering Drone strikes on them cause that's how friends treat one another.
It was so obvious from the start that the "al-Qaeda Spring" was instigated by jihadist using social media. US expected that it could somehow go buy enough opposition to turn that revolt into something more acceptable and even use it to push its own agenda. But with al-Qaeda getting huge economical and people resource from the countries it controlls now and using it to obtain Syrian chemical weapons: the stakes in this gamble simply skyrocketed!
Anyway this article only means that al-Qaeda is getting too strong in Syria and US considers temporary swithching sides: till Syrian side gets stronger and "rebels" weaken enough that US could switch back again to supporting them and thus ensuring the war continues till there is no Syria left. That seems to be a logical strategy in the fight where you have no friends.
The headline shows why we need to be careful who we support in the Middle East.
We will never learn as long as we (1) buy their oil and (2) insist that they denominate their oil in our dollar.
I am not surprised at all. The people of syria has been waiting for almiost 2 years now and no one is willing to help them from the misleadingly called civilized world. The deaths figure is now 60000+ (butchered in the most ugliest way). Do you think they gonna wait until that number hit the 6 figures and see what the international community will do to help them ???? I do not think so. As one journalist mentionned a year ago, if we do not help the people of syria now at one point they will search for help else where even if the devil who is offering this help. This point has been reached (I think)
US decided to help Afghanistan and Iraq and we saw how well that went for us. A bunch of money, about a 1000 casualties, and neverending terrorist attacks.
"Help"?
That's a good one.
What indeed are you talking about? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not motivated by any "help"! The invasion in Iraq was started on false excuse of securing the WMD it did not have, and the war in Afghanistan: for fighting terrorist Talibs and capturing Osama (who was later killed in Pakistan without any massive invasion or anything!). "Help" has never been even mentioned by Bush: can you remember?
So thank you for sharing your false memories and totally imagined considerations!
seems like the disease is spreading with no solutions in sight. Nothing positive is surfacing anywhere in these countries....wars...killings...insanity.
I am going to take a lot of flak for stating this but a lot of the problem is the West is too naive. The Human Rights culture doesn't work. Al Quada and groups like this would not have survived had they dealt with Europe and US in 1700 and 1800s when these groups would engage in geonocide, conquest, and enslavement. The idea of civilians and non-combatents does not work and never has. A civilization like Rome, Napoleonic France, Hapsburg Spain, or US in 1800s would be far more better suited to fight Al Quada then our nation today.
interesting
Interesting indeed, considering that sociopaths and psychopaths ran things back then as well, and weren't fettered by such things as "public opion".
Opinion, too.
I disagree. West seems too naive: but that is a ruse to disguise the fact that it is more interested in fighting terrorism than in defeating it. It learned from Soviet Union fiasco: when so many people nearly lost their jobs and it became difficult to justify huge military budget. But what we have now: two presidential candidates arguing about Defense budget being simply ridiculous and promising each will do upmost to further inflate it! And that is with US sort of finishing two 10-years long wars! Talking about naive: the war must go on! So if your enemy seems to be losing it: help him!
I, too, find Matthews take interesting, but I feel that yours is closer to the truth. War is extremely profitable for those who pull the strings. Smedley Butler, a USMC Major General who at the time of his death (1940) was the most decorated Marine in US history, became an outspoken advocate of war profiteering. His 1935 expose; "War Is a Racket" should be mandatory reading in our schools.
Should've said "critic", not "advocate."
We can't end the wars and dump healthy men and women TRAINED TO FIGHT into a workforce that cannot absorb them. What do you think will happen when they come home en-masse and find no jobs – at least none that pay enough to raise a family?
That's their f****n; probem, Rich. Not ours.
obama fails again,The communist obama is doing all he can to support Al Queda
You mean by refusing to involve us in their fight?
@Obama funding Al Quidea, how is President Obama supporting the Taliban?
Why we keep supporting other countries? And America is going down the toilet.
You mean by authorizing the assassination of Bin Laden and dozens of his lieutenants by throwing us off his trail?
So Assad IS fighting terrorists after all!
10% of the rebels are AQ affiliated.
What is the surprise? When hasn't AQ taken advantage of an armed struggle in the ME recently?
It's not like anybody else is helping Syrians and it was only matter of time before they accepted help.
Lack of intervention caused this to happen and will cause a 2nd phase of rebels fighting extremists. This could have been prevented if the international community didn't abandon the rebels against a 40 year dictatorship
You get Al Qaeda when the military and economic help to the so called rebels comes from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Egypt and Turkey, all of these countries do not respect minority rights just like Al Qaeda. In these countries anyone who is not a Sunni Muslim is an infidel. I just do not understand why the West is still supplying arms to the rebels? Wait after Assad just like the downfall of Mubarak in Egypt, the Muslim brotherhood will be running Syria, which for a long time now is the recipient of S.Arabian and Gulf state funds .
soooo AQ is fighting against the Syrian gov't and we are helping the rebels.........so were are working to support AQ??? awesome!
Who didn't see this coming?
Hopefully it stays a stalemate for the next few decades and the U.S. will be smart enough not to try and get involved like it stupidly did in Egypt.
Of course that was coming. According to Gen. Wesley Clark's statement back in 2007, the plan of the U.S govt was to invade 7 countries in 5 years. Syria was one of them. All you need now is more and more excuse for the United States to enter Syria. Listen to Wesley Clark's statement on youtube. he was very direct and upfront about what he was saying. With that said. Al Qaida certainly should be removed. But look at the intention of the U.S govt. Keep your ears and eyes open America!
You just won stupid post of the day.
You can say what you want. Just don't be a BLIND PATRIOT. List to Gen. Wesley Clark's statment. Have some guts to listen.
And ken, you've just won mindless, d!ckless, state-worshipping Clover post of the day.
obama fails in another country
So you think the US gov't were sitting around and one day they said "Hey let`s invade 7 countries in 5 years". That would be the most stupid thing anyone in the WH would even consider whispering to themselves.
True watching it on YouTube. It's there. Sorry.
Did you listen to what the General had to say? you keep on arguing but don't want to listen to the United States Military general. What are you afraid of?
Ken. You are either an honestly ignorant person. Or you are working for CNN.
GW and the Republicans changed the world forever by taking the fight to AQ. Now the whole ME is being taken over by AQ and it's affilliates. I hope the Republicans never get in power again but it might be too late, they may have started ww3 already..
So what would your response to 9/11 have been?
They are only trading the devil for the witch and getting hell to boot.
Vultures always follow the dead.
Are the authors out of their minds? The Syrian "rebels" were always Islamist Sunni terrorists from day one!!!! lol do they think we're idiots?
Yes, Jocho, they do. Sadly, they're often right.
Not again. Al Qaeda bogeyman.
No matter what you call it, al-Qaeda, or fundamentalist Sunni Islam, it has the same goals of genociding all non-Sunni Muslims, forcing women into bizarre clothings, and Sharia Law.
Al. Qaida is fake
"al-Queda" is convenient shorthand for "Osama Bin Laden-inspired wahhabiist terrorists"
Go say that in Afghanistan.
Ah now see it's semantics – if Al-Qaeda are HELPING the overthrow of Assad then we have to call them by their old Afghan/Soveit moniker The Muhadijeen – sloppy CNN very sloppy
al-Qeada flooding into Syria calling themselves "rebels" ??? Gee, I never saw that comming
It's ok, Kevin – we believe you.
Moe ham mud, take the other towel heads unit out of your mouth and look up, its coming for you stooge. 🙂
UN is helpless without Russia and China. We need to have direct talk with them to resolve this conflict. By the way why have we not send out Drone looking for Asad yet.
If Assad has connections within Rheinmetall Germany Drones wont be a threat to him
Did you bother reading the f#*@&*% article? The "good guys" we're funding are 100 times worse than Assad.
And had the loons and liars in the media told the truth A YEAR AGO (the "rebels" (sic.) have been made up almost entirely of Islamic terrorists SINCE THE BEGINNING, with some Kurdish separatists here and there), how many tens of thousands of deaths would have been avoided?
CNN has blood on its hands.
Incorrect. The Kurds are fighting on Assad's side. That fact doesn't give one much comfort that the rest of your post holds any truth either.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
When evil fights evil, evil will win. It's stupid to pick one side over the other; just let them go at it unimpeded and clean up the mess afterwards. Not our fight.
This is all part of the master plan of the New World Order,
anarchy followed by Police State
We already live in an increasing police state, but most Amerikans like to delude themselves into thinking that they're "free" and "safe" as long as they have mountains of processed GMO "food" to cram into their morbidly-obese yaps while washing it down with buckets of high-fructose corn syrup as they beat-off to Honey-Garlic Boo-Boo.
Hey Mohammud, that's right and you can spell mud backwards can't you Mohammud. Go back to the your mud hut and rolls around with the swine, you belong with the pigs, at least when your not molesting sheep. You can't copy the snowflake ye of backward faith. Dum dum dum ah Idiot. That's all folks. 🙂
Hey you turd wrangler still using my handle I see, can't fake the snow flake, now back, back, back into your cave with the rest of the targets, when you come out next time look up and say hello to your friendly neighbor hood drone. 🙂
You either watch too many movies or too many cartoons, hard to tel which.
@the CORE
more lies, spin and how does it feel out of cnn! sorry dont care about what feels, but do care about WHAT IS! tax payers here pay to support these al CIA duh rebels, same rebels who killed troops in iraq but are somehow heroes now on cnn, sorry the people are tired of funding fake wars, tired of believing in the boogie man and tired of being lied to! the rebels tell fathers to do suicide bombings to blame assad and if the fathers wont they kill their families, which gives cnn dead people to parade around in its never ending circus of drama and feelings instead of WHAT IS! STOP PAYING FOR FAKE WAR WITH YOUR MONEY!
Right on. CNN's HEROES are the same folks who were beheading civilians in Iraq 18 months ago.
You're right – mostly. The problem is that gullible American flag waving nationalism allows any sort of military indescrection to take place. It's all in the name of freedom, right? Wrong! The American people will back their debauched government no matter what criminal action it embarks upon. We will send our innocent sons and daughters (and tax money) into whatever bloody caldron the pentagon chooses and we'll applaud it every inch of the way.
The Syrian issue is a civil war. Regardless of how unjust, it is none of America's business.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
This reminds me of that movie Fahrenheit911.
Assad said he was fighting terrorism. Al Qaeda is helping the rebels. Shouldn't we be helping Assad to beat down Al Qaeda?
The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.
Just get a bowl of popcorn and watch from a safe distance – Assad was not friend to the US so let his buddies in Moscow bail him out....
If US just want to listen to you, but unfortunately they supply those guys with weapons and support.
Now they are good guys, all happening again. US support terrorist all over the world. It will bite them again, i am sure.
They did not provide weapons. The election is over so quit spreading propoganda. Where is your proof that the US supplied weapons?
@ken: the theory is that we sold weapons to Qatar, and THEY gave them to the Free Syrian Army. I don't know if we actually did sell weapons to Qatar, but it wouldn't surprise me.
This once again illustrates:
arab spring = nuclear winter (with time juxtaposition factored in)
All is going well in Syria from my stand point. Let's rehash it... Russia,Iran and Hezbollah are supporting Assad with guns, troops and missiles. The resistance/rebels are surviving off of the land using the guns dropped by Assad's forces while swelling the ranks with jihadists and fundamentalist psychos. Those stuck in the middle should have left town along time ago. The perfect storm, with evil killing evil in a no-holds-barred cage match.... now if they'd only let the cameras in.
You are funny, look at just the way u wrote it. Same people that are terrorists when they attack US are rebels when they are fighting somebody else. It makes me lough how you brain works.
Had another nightmare? Or too much booz, buddy?
For over a year now, I have been posting comments about the truth of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and how they are a bunch of fanatic Islamists made of Al-Qaeda, Salafists, Wahhabies and Muslim Brothers ...... The Western and Wahhabi media have tried their best to hide this truth portraying these Al-Qaeda terrorists as "freedom fighters" and "activists" seeking "freedom" and "democracy"..... I am glad that the media is now forced to wake up and smell the coffee....... But it's too late as the Western and Wahhabi media programmed propaganda campaign against Syria have caused a lot of sufferings for the Syrian people.
Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that "I am glad that the media is now forced to wake up and smell the coffee"
"For over a year now, I have been posting comments"
So, do you finally realize that posting comments is just to kill time? Nothing on any board will have a result in the real world. Welcome to Never Never Land..
You didn't watch the elections did you? Obama and Romney were both changing their tactics based on social media. If were waztching the blogs and then watch the cmpaigns the following days you would realize how important these blogs were to their campaign. So strategists from all parts of the world are reading these blogs.
@ken: message boards =/= social media. Message boards ARE just to kill time and provide advertising impressions. No one actually cares what is written here but those who comment. It's a time sink.
Why would anyone worry about any of this. Obama said al Qaeda was decimated months ago. They can't really be there.
He said that about decimating Al Qaeda in Pakistan. That was sweet!! Now somebody needs to do that in Syria.
We are so stupid to want to see the end of secular dictatorship for an Al-Qaeda style theocracy in Syria. All because we have a problem with Iran.
You are so stupid sirtoye.....this has nothing to do with iran.(other then iran supports the murderous assad)..has to do with the terrorist assad slaughtering his own people like dogs in the street...go blame the muslims...do not try and blame any of this on the US or the west....this has nothing to do with the west.......dumb a$$ muslims trying to put this on the west........99% of all conflicts in the world INVOLVE MUSLIMS......get the point yet you idiots...
the definition of "decimation" is the lose of only one tenth of the original number... the Roman's way of teaching troops not to loose. So 90% of Al-Queda is doing just fine. And Obama says he went to college... B.S.
HEE HAW SO MUCH FOR THAT FANCY YANKEE BOOK LERNIN A'HYUCK
ROLL TIDE
No, he knew exactly what it means. The american public doesnt. Thats why he said it.
He can tell the truth (He decimated alqueda – ie killed 10%), and to the american public it sound slike he is saying he has almost eradicated them. he is a slick one.
You still find terrorist neo Nazi's ( aka the Tea Party ) living throughout the USA. How do you explain John Boehner being elected ? So why would anyone be surprised that al-Qaeda has groups in every country- as we found out in the past there were members of al- Qaeda living in the USA.
& Now that's minus alciada 5,000 fighters. Thank you Pres Assad, Sir!
Its amazing the Al Qaida boogeyman is everywhere these days...what exactly does "Al Qaida linked" mean anyways?
They share some of the same goat herds.
Still no Americans to blame or kill....This is a good thing.
except the Americans are funding the "rebels".. prolonging the conflict.
Always good to see the middle east 'hate zombies' dusting each other. Hopefully the 'league of arab nations' aka 'the sons of incest' provides arms sufficient to keep the "male population reduction program" going strong for years to come.
I beg your pardon. are you perhaps a dike Milagros ?
"A jihadist group with links to al Qaeda has become the most effective of the different factions fighting the regime"
Perhaps Assad is correct in that thinking his enemies are foreign terrorists... however, this does NOT excuse his response of excessive military force against the civilian population of Syria.
what about our unwarranted excessive military drone bombings in Yemen, Pakistan etc? I'm sure you can justify that right?
Why do you say "perhaps"? And what do you mean excessive: CNN tells us that he is loosing his country to al-Qaeda and you say "excessive"?
Militants shoot dead 11 Syrian civilians in Homs
Militants fighting against the Syrian government have shot dead at least 11 civilians in the western city of Homs as the fighting rages on between army troops and foreign-backed militants.
The slaughter took place in a village near the western city of Homs on Tuesday. A woman is reported to be among the victims.
Heavy clashes also broken out between militants and Palestinian refugees in the capital, Damascus, as the terrorists tried to enter the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp.
There are also reports of clashes between government troops and militants in several parts of Syria, including Aleppo and near Damascus.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces managed to defuse at least 8 explosive devices in Hama.
Army Unit Kills Terrorists Firing Locally-made Missiles on People of Mhardeh in Hama
A unit of the Armed Forces on Tuesday eliminated an armed terrorist group that was firing locally-made missiles on residential houses and neighborhoods in Mhardeh city in Hama.
A military source told SANA reporter that terrorists Suleiman Ibrahim Suleiman and Murhaf Ahmad Shniyeh were identified among the killed.
The Syrian Army has killed a large number of militants during clashes in the Idlib governorate in the country’s northwest as fighting continues between government troops and foreign-backed armed groups.
The militants were killed in the al-Mastoumeh town of the governorate on Monday, the official SANA news agency reported.
Government troops also destroyed the militants’ hideouts and confiscated their weapons.
The Army also killed and wounded many members of armed terrorist groups in the Taftanaz, Taoum, and Binnish towns in the Idlib countryside.
In addition, the security forces engaged militants on the outskirts of Damascus and killed several armed men on Monday. The Syrian troops also destroyed their hideouts and confiscated weapons.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.
ANyone who wants to know who fund this FSA rebels.. cannot miss interview done by the cameras of PressTV to turkey politicians and journalist.. who have solid evidence of whats going on in Syria.. and who infiltrated Alqaeda.
http://youtu.be/q388wcsGitc
Thank you very much for posting this video to show the truth that the Western and Wahhabi media are hiding.
Well, it will probably go to the dogs just like the other Arab Spring nations did.
UN says a million Syrians will go hungry. Don't worry though, we blamed it on the Jews.
Don't worry, Israel will just turn around and blame it on the Iranians.
It looks like they'll be everywhere, people like it or not.
They are reality. They exist. Worldwide revolutionaries, in like fashion of Che Guevarra.
Revelation 21:3 and 4 talks of a time when there will be no more morning, outcry, or pain.....something man cannot promise....only God
Shove your f*****g gawd up your filthy @ss, imbecile.
Are we having anger management issues today??
You First Heathen!
Perhaps if you knew the difference between "mourning" and "morning" it would lend some credence to your point. Hard to take someone serious how fails to understand the difference. Perhaps a dictionary and some spelling lessons would be appropriate?
Maybe if you knew the difference between who and how, we might take you more seriously, really!
jjajajaja good one !!
Al Qaeda or Assad. I think Assad is the better of the two evils. I knew it all along, AQ infiltrated the opposition early and it is not the Western power's fault, it is the fault of the Syrian people.
What do you mean it's not our fault. It is no one else. It certainly is NOT the syrians people's fault as unlike us they don't get to get a word in edge ways. It's OUR fault and no one else if w promote, arm and fund terrorists just as it was our fault we created Al Quaida in Afghanistan to oust the 'godless communists' who we could take to and pushed for the most fanatical religious nut jobs on the planet; based in the nation (Suadia Arabia) that gets the most money from us for weapons after Israel, Another mess funded by us.
WE are responsible for OUR decisions and they for theirs. THis basci 101 for all but the most fanatical racsists (frowhoem any factual critisism of 'white' behaviour is impossible while endless abuse is heaped on those least powerful and responsible, Grow up and get a brain moron!
al-Qaeda didn't infiltrate the opposition so much as the opposition has NEVER just automatically been the good guys. It's not as if this is some agrarian power-to-the people revolution. The rebels have mostly been gaining ground by kidnapping workers and demanding that business leaders side with them or they'll kill all the hostages and destroy their shops and factories. That's their version of bombing civilians.
So who is the Evil Empire now!
Assad wants a "political solution" now that his neck is in the noose and the floor he is standing on will soon give way. The west wants Assad out, but only if replaced by someone they approve of. Those opposed to America find fertile ground to sow their vision in Syria, and already experienced from their other activities involving conflicts the Americans had a huge hand in creating, are bringing those skill to bear against Assad. And while many pay lip service to "letting the Syrian people decide", none appear to really mean it.
The devil you know isn't always better than the devil you don't know – not when it comes to a butcher like Assad. Assad brought this on, the west is helping it along and once again the civilian population suffers.
Excellent. Let's hope this bumps along for another 20 years.
Oh goody!!! More Towel Heads!!!!!!! Hahahahhahahaa
This is Russia and China's fault had they actually come on board and demanded that Assad step down these terrorist group's would have never gained traction in Syria. But instead they protect the own interests and sit back and watch 60000+ people die, and only pipe in once in a while to say a political solution is the only solution...How is that working out Russia. Hopefully Syria can recover from this war but I doubt it, it will just be another unstable country Iraq or Afghanistan. And because of the extremists the West can't get involved resulting in, a population that feels abandoned (why did the West help the Libyan rebels but not the FSA they will ask) making it easier for terrorist organizations and the Crazy Iranian regime to recruit new members/recruits for terrorist activities and proxy wars.
Sadly now the Syria situation is a damned if you do-damned if you dont situation for the West!
This is USA and the West fault by supporting them in Afghanistan during the eighties and now in Syria, Egypt, Libya and Yemen!
And just for your info. smart arss these groups are sleeping cells and they already existed long time back and before this happened, they were waiting for the moment to appear and show us their ugly faces, RUSSIA and China knew from the very first moment that organization as such will ultimately take control if Assad is gone, we know in the west at least the governments that this is going to happen, just like it happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Libya, Yemen and even the central Asian countries like Azerbaijan, Kirghistan etc.
Russia and China are just protecting their own interests, they had no idea what the aftermath of this situation would be, do they have a crystal ball. Assad could have stepped done and held new elections had Russia and China but pressure on them, and their would have been very few civilian deaths. See the terrorists are taking advantage of the current situation where the FSA needs military help or are forced to watch their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters get slaughtered by airstrikes. The reason it got to this point is Russia and China's support of Assad period.
I must be a smart arss cuz ur a dumb arss.
You are talking more like a brainwashed American: you have got an answer even before you hear what the question is. That is why nobody wants to know what you think!
Many burqas await you.
whoever believes that there is a war within the war or that al qaeda could show up in such force in syria so rapidly is deniying reality. all these fighters are coming through turkey or jordan where they are trained in training camps by the best western special forces trainers. Suddenly all these groups can come and go through airports without getting arrested ? and the funding ? how is it passing through now ? also you can get a proof from the western media coverage, including this same article. suddenly suicide bombings are not such bad actions, and these groups ARE NOT TARGETING CIVILIANS !!!! no westen media covers the huge amounts of videos all over the web showing massive execution of civilians.
what is happening in syria is simply a revival of the soviet era network of islamic terrorism. Commander in chief: United States; funding: oil rich gulf pupet regimes; technical assistance: Turkey.
let us not forget that al Qaeda is an amercian invention that turned bad and will do the same again. just look at lybia. just please, next time the west is attacked, don't make it a drama.
Your crazy is showing. Terrorist elements want their own State so they can implement Sharia Law and destroy all other religions. Syria seems like a good place for them to recruit because the FSA needs help from someone, and some of the fighters are most likely sick of watching Assad slaughter thousands of people with no remorse. But the terrorist groups see an opportunity just as they have seen in North Africa to gain a foothold, when they have lost support in other countries due to the deaths of innocent civilians.To suggest that the West is training people they designate as terrorists is by far the most outlandish claim Ive heard, it goes...first they train them because they serve a purpose and then when they realize the groups true intentions (Sharia Law and death to all non muslims) that they brand them insurgents/terrorists like the Taliban after the battle between the ME and the Soviets.
As far as your comment about the terrorists coming into the country without getting arrested, if they haven't done anything to be arrested for why would they get arrested on arrival. Also the borders of those countries are pretty easy to sneak out of...because that is how refugees and defectors have been fleeing the country.
As far as media coverage you cant always believe want you hear/see civilians are dying on both sides of the conflict. But seeming Assad Gov media twists the facts more than the Western Media outlets to keep support up, and the fact they will kill any foreign journalists that are painting their picture means your stuck with what little unreliable info you can get, unless you are actually in Syria. A few years back CNN went as far as to have a news conference giving some creditability to a Bigfoot con that was going on (turned out to be a costume in a freezer with roadkill stuffed inside) but CNN still jumped on it.
Nice try though!
I think canuck is an US funded writer here to admire US-Al Queda friendship.
No, he's just another smug, sanctimonious, self-righteous Canadian who thinks that Jack Layton was a man of character and who cannot acknowledge the fact that their PM, Stephen Harper, has his tongue planted so firmly up Bibi's facist @ss that it makes him a honorary member of Likud.
You're right, it's not the western media showing the rebels killing civilians, it's the Syrian civilian crowd sourced media themselves showing how the rebels are holding them hostage until they join them, just like the Viet Cong did, and the Mahdi Army in Iraq. These guys have been waiting for years for their chance, stockpiling weapons and training people to overthrow al-Assad so they can be the next al-Assad.
The Jihadists are, and always have been, the opposition to President Assad.
Syria’s President Bashar Assad delivered his first speech since June last year on the situation in the country Sunday.
Assad has announced a new peace plan at the same time rejecting any dialogue with the opposition. “We will not have dialogue with a puppet made by the West,” Assad said.
The President also claimed that Syria is not seeing a conflict between the state and the opposition, but between the “nation and its enemies”.
“We are interested in a political solution, but we haven’t so far found a partner,” Assad said.
“The first step towards a political solution would require no funding and arming of the opposition, which carries out terrorist operations and controls the borders,” he added.
"They call it a revolution, but it has nothing to do with revolution. A revolution needs thinkers. Those are a bunch of criminals."
Mr Assad called for a "full national mobilisation" to fight against the rebels, whom he branded Al-Qaeda "terrorists" militarily supported by other countries.
After watching what occurred in Libya with horror, how can we say that he is not telling the truth? Of course he is. This is a set up to bring down this country not that one! wake up... please.
al assad go to hell
and usa not help people in syria
so U.S.A and al Assad all go to hell
Here is a idea just leave a trail of bread crumbs when you go so he can find the way.
Reblogged this on World Chaos.
I wonder who is funding and supporting the foreign extremist rebels ? This reeks of desperation from the ministry of propaganda. Prior to this proxy war in Syria their was no Al Queda in Syria so they were imported in,and are probably the same extremists who were imported into Libya prior to the "NATO" "Humanitarian Intervention" , where the NATO Coalition was formed consisting of American Missiles and French Jets and Norwegian bottled water.
I have some news for you, Massoud... Al Qaeda members are not missiles, jets or bottled water. Unlike there items Al Qaeda members are capable of moving themselves from one place to another. They are even capable of using automobiles and public transportation.
what an ignorant response, The son of the head of the chechen militias didn't arrive by car to Syria , nor the brother of Al-Zawahiri . These people could have been caught easily. well they say they manage to destroy several planes , tanks , etc... these weapons doesnt travel easily using public transportation.
you missed the point think again
A war within a war isn't what the Free Syrian Army was looking for, but now they have one and will have to tread carefully in order not to be hijacked by the Al Queda groups. This isn't good for the people of Syria on the whole and the people of Syria will have to make it clear to this other group that once the task is completed of deposing Al Assad, they will no longer need to stay around, its not a good turn of events for the middle east or the world. Just hope the Russians have the sense not to supply weapons to these idiots.
the ordinary citizens have the most to loose and can win only now if they get up, as they outnumber the terrorists, and do what someone asked them to do... go out and secure their own boarders and towns. yes street by ... street.
There is a very blurry line between the AQ per se and Syrian who are with that AQ group, even when Assad falls, the Syrians affiliated with AQ will just continue with the same ideology