The opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting constitution, which will be broad-based and secular with respect to the future of Syria

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/5/californian-syria-video-what-america-hates-i-love/#ixzz2e5RSWho6
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An Al-Qaeda-linked group attacked a predominantly Christian village sympathetic to the Assad regime in western Syria on Wednesday while rebel and government forces clashed in Damascus.

The attack began at dawn when a Jabhat al-Nusra fighter blew himself up at a government checkpoint near the entrance to the  village of Maaloula, according to a Syrian official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information from anti-regime activists.

Maaloula – a mountain village of 2,000 residents 60km northeast of Damascus - is home to some of the most ancient Orthodox Christian relics and is a major pilgrimage destination. It’s also one of the very few places in the world where people still speak Aramaic, a biblical-era language Jesus is believed to have spoken. 

Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government.

Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

Among the most extreme groups is the notorious Al Nusra Front, the Qaeda-aligned force declared a terrorist organization by the United States

Of most concern to the United States is the Nusra Front, whose leader recently confirmed that the group cooperated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and pledged fealty to Al Qaeda’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s longtime deputy. Nusra has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings and is the group of choice for the foreign jihadis pouring into Syria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/world/middleeast/islamist-rebels-gains-in-syria-create-dilemma-for-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Syrian Army crushes U.S.-backed rebel assault from Jordan

Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — President Bashar Assad has defeated a U.S. effort to use
Jordan as a launching pad for the overthrow of his regime.

Western diplomatic sources said Assad’s military and security forces
crushed a U.S. campaign to send hundreds of trained and equipped Sunni
rebels from Jordan to regain a key city in southern city.

A Syrian military soldier holds his AK-47 with a sticker of President Bashar Assad that reads “Syria is fine.” /AP

The sources said a force sponsored by the Western-backed Free Syrian Army failed to reach even 10 kilometers within Syria before the rebels were detected and attacked by the Syrian Army.

“This was a well-trained and equipped force meant to eventually reach Damascus and overthrow the regime,” a source said. “Instead, the rebels crossed the Jordanian border and within hours were on the run.”

The sources said the FSA force, with fighters from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, consisted of two battalion-size units, or nearly 600 fighters.

The sources said the fighters, trained by the CIA as well as Jordan’s Special Operations Force Command, were equipped with anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles as well as night-vision systems.

Most of the equipment was said to have come from the former Yugoslavia. Since late 2012, Jordan has served as the main venue for the U.S.-sponsored project to train and equip Syrian rebels.

On Aug. 17, the two FSA units crossed the Jordanian border for the nearby Syrian city of Dera, a distance of fewer than 15 kilometers. But the sources said the FSA fighters were immediately besieged by Druse and Bedouin
militias and refused help by Al Qaida-aligned units.

“Nobody wanted them, and even those who have been fighting Assad saw them as a threat,” another source said.

Within hours, Syrian Army units arrived and pursued FSA fighters west toward the Golan Heights and the frontier with Israel. The sources said discipline broke down within the FSA units and some of the fighters tried to attack a United Nations peace-keeping force in the Golan in an attempt to
acquire human shields.

“The CIA plan was simple: To establish an FSA presence in southern Syria that would serve as a magnet for other opposition forces to march on to
Damascus,” the second source said.

By Aug. 20, the sources said, the FSA force, which contained Western mercenaries disguised as rebels, was routed, with elements besieged by Syrian Army units. They said the FSA defeat ended U.S. hopes of using Jordan for a rapid rebel advance that could decide the Syrian war in 2013.

The sources said the defeat highlighted the increasing isolation of
Washington in directing the rebel campaign in Syria. They said the U.S. strategy drew from the revolt against Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya in 2011, in which NATO allies used Benghazi as a launching pad for attacks.

“The Americans have been pursuing this Benghazi strategy for more than a year despite the fact that Syria is not Libya, Assad is certainly not Gadhafi, and that Damascus has powerful allies that are fighting to save
the regime,” the second source said. “But the feeling among the allies is that America is not listening.”

Personally, I hope that Russia responds to any US strikes by flattening both Riyadh and Doha. If nothing else, that would be an actual strike against known sponsors of jihadi terrorists.

Here's one of the latest exploits of this "moderate" group:

Quote:

http://rt.com/news/rebels-syria-christian-village-428/

Big Dave wrote on Sep 6^th, 2013 at 3:51pm:


The Syrian regime is also targeted by those Jews because the regime has consistently supported pro-Palestinian organisations.

True Colours wrote on Sep 7^th, 2013 at 1:38pm:


Mind you the gas masks are only for the jews not for the Palestinians.

Israel also has secret nukes and is a non signatory of the NNP treaty and FORBIDS international inspections of its nuclear activities and sites.

One needs to keep these things is perspective.