I have to agree with Assad at least on the point that the rebels are a lot worse then he is. Nevertheless I want us to keep out of this conflict! There are no “good guys” in this conflict (despite what John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio claim) and we can only benefit if the war there goes on indefinitely.
by Anne Barnard
DAMASCUS, Syria — As Islamists increasingly fill the ranks of Syrian rebels, President Bashar al-Assad is waging an energized campaign to persuade the United States that it is on the wrong side of the civil war. Some government supporters and officials believe they are already coaxing — or at least frightening — the West into holding back stronger support for the opposition.
Confident they can sell their message, government officials have eased their reluctance to allow foreign reporters into Syria, paraded prisoners they described as extremist fighters and relied unofficially on a Syrian-American businessman to help tap into American fears of groups like Al Qaeda.
“We are partners in fighting terrorism,” Syria’s prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, said.
Omran al-Zoubi, the information minister, said: “It’s a war for civilization, identity and culture. Syria, if you want, is the last real secular state in the Arab world.”
Despite hopes in Damascus, President Obama has not backed off his demand that Mr. Assad step down. [……..]
But the United States has signaled growing discomfort with the rising influence of radical Islamists on the battlefield, and it remains unwilling to arm the rebels or to consider stepping in more forcefully without conclusive evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, as some Israeli officials assert.
There is frustration with the West’s inability to help nurture a secular military or political opposition to replace Mr. Assad.
It is difficult to see behind the propaganda of either side because government officials or the rebels — depending on the territory — control access. [………]
The government’s new strategy was on display during a two-week visit to Damascus by journalists for The New York Times.
Exhibit A was a group of blindfolded prisoners who shuffled into a dimly lighted courtyard one recent evening, each clutching the shirt of the man in front of him. Security officials billed them as vicious Islamic extremists who came from all over the world to wage jihad in Syria.
The men turned out to be five Syrians, a Palestinian and an Iraqi, and they described a range of goals, from Islamic rule to representative democracy.
In Damascus, officials and supporters sounded several themes: They believe they can win the war, and see no need to moderate the military crackdown. They expect Mr. Assad to run for re-election next year, and some say he can win, brushing off doubts about how voting will work in a country where nearly half the people have been forced from their homes.
Some officials and members of the Syrian elite even say — however far-fetched — they can persuade the West to embrace their president as a champion of common values and interests, even as he presses a military strategy widely criticized as striking civilian targets indiscriminately.
Most of all, the war seems to have inspired some of Mr. Assad’s supporters. Some prominent Syrians, long frustrated by corruption and favoritism, say they have a newly compelling reason to stick by the government.
[…….]
And they see themselves, with their well-traveled, secular lifestyles, as ideally equipped to connect to the West.
That is the mission of Khaled Mahjoub, a Syrian-American businessman.
At the nearly deserted Four Seasons Hotel, Mr. Mahjoub ordered Lebanese rosé. Syrians, he said, embrace joy at the hardest times. He smoked a thick cigar as Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” played softly in the background, mixing with the clap of mortar rounds headed for the Damascus suburbs.
[………]
For Mr. Mahjoub, who builds environmentally sustainable housing, blames “Bedouin petrodollars” for rising extremism and quotes from “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Mr. Assad is fighting an enemy driven by the ideology of Al Qaeda, “the same enemy that did 9/11.”
Mr. Mahjoub, who has known Mr. Assad since attending the Syrian capital’s Lycée Français with Mr. Assad’s brother, Basil, said the president and the system he inherited from his father, Hafez, bear some responsibility for the tumult. Economic stagnation sent too many Syrians to work in Saudi Arabia, where they absorbed extremist views, he said, and security forces have made mistakes, too.
“But that,” he said, “doesn’t justify burning the farm.”
Government officials said America and its allies orchestrated the uprising to punish Syria for opposing Israel. They also spoke of common interests. Syria, the prime minister said, is defending moderate Islam against “the dark Islam.”
Opponents say the government itself has fueled sectarianism, first by favoring Mr. Assad’s Alawite sect, now by using code words like “Wahhabis” and “Al Qaeda” to blame the Sunni Muslim majority for the violence.
Officials said that if Mr. Assad fell, Europe would face an arc of Islamist-led states from Turkey to Libya. They urged Washington to investigate whether Turkey was funneling jihadists to Syria in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, which mandates international cooperation against terrorism.
Their biggest priority, though, was the visit with the prisoners.
[………]
One prisoner called for global Islamic rule; others spoke of being brainwashed to kill for money. Another wanted democratic representation in the government.
At first, a wiry senior security official had promised his American guests something less ambiguous. “They will tell you they’re against you, ” he said. He declined to identify himself, or to specify what percentage of prisoners were foreigners. He said that as of August, the government had identified 600 slain foreign fighters. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.
Few dispute that foreign fighters who want Islamic rule — and many more Syrians joining them for ideological or pragmatic reasons — are influential in Syria’s armed opposition. The United States has blacklisted as a terrorist organization one rebel group, the Nusra Front, which merged with Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Still, foreign fighters form a fraction of the tens of thousands of rebels. Powerful rebel commanders in Aleppo and Idlib say they took up arms to defend their homes and villages after security forces fired on peaceful protesters. From the start, many fighters reflected the traditional piety of their communities. Ideological jihadists became prominent later, after the opposition had trouble gaining arms — while the jihadists have had willing donors.
The prisoners were interviewed in front of their jailers. One limped. They denied being coerced — or mistreated, except, one said, when he “made mistakes.” But there was no way to know whether their stories were true, evasive or scripted.
The first prisoner presented was Bahaa Mahmoud al-Baash, a Palestinian resident of Syria. He called for a Muslim caliphate “not only in Syria, but in the whole world.” He said he had trained suicide attackers in Iraq and added, smiling and glancing at security officials, “I will fight the Americans to my last.”
He has made similar remarks on Britain’s Sky News and Syrian state television.
Three Syrians described a transition they could not fully explain: They had no opinions on the uprising, but were later brainwashed by preachers who paid them to demonstrate, then to kidnap, rape and kill. Two said they followed orders to rape and kill female relatives of government employees, fearing that otherwise their leaders would kill their families.
They expressed love for Mr. Assad, and urged associates to surrender.
A fourth Syrian, Abdulmoneim Mohammed Tayura, used to sell walnuts in a heavily bombarded Damascus suburb, Barzeh. He said he demonstrated, and later fought “to topple the regime.”
What did he want next? “To be represented in the upcoming government.”
Ali Hussein al-Shumarri, from Iraq, said he fought the United States there, then came to Syria for “jihad for the sake of God” and to “topple the regime.”
To Syrian officials, the conclusion is obvious. Mr. Zoubi, the information minister, asked if Washington “really believes” the rebels are “revolutionaries,” not “terrorists.”
“If they really believe, that is a disaster,” he said. “If they know they are not revolutionaries and consciously support Al Qaeda, that is a bigger disaster.”
Update – Israel shoots down a Hezbollah drone.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached the country’s northern coast, the military said. Suspicion immediately fell on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
The incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed the infiltration attempt with “utmost gravity.”
“We will continue to do everything necessary in order to protect the security of the citizens of Israel,” he said.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the unmanned aircraft was detected as it was flying over Lebanon and tracked as it approached Israeli airspace.
Lerner said the military waited for the aircraft to enter Israeli airspace, confirmed it was “enemy,” and an F-16 warplane shot it down.
The drone was flying at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) and was downed roughly five miles (eight kilometers) off the Israeli coast near the northern city of Haifa. Lerner said Israeli naval forces were searching for the remains of the aircraft.
He declined to say who sent the drone. But other military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to the media, said they believed it was an Iranian-manufactured aircraft sent by Hezbollah. Hezbollah sent a drone into Israeli airspace last October that Israel also shot down.
Netanyahu was informed of the unfolding incident as he was flying north for a cultural event with members of the country’s Druse minority. Officials said his helicopter briefly landed while the drone was intercepted before Netanyahu continued on his way.
Netanyahu repeatedly has warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighboring Syria, a key Hezbollah ally, to obtain what he calls game-changing weapons.
Israel has all but confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in Syria early this year that destroyed a shipment of sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah.
A senior Lebanese security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Lebanon had no information on Thursday’s incident.
Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi also said he had no information, adding the group would put out a statement if it had something to say on the issue.
When Israeli military shot down a Hezbollah drone on Oct. 6, it took days for Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to confirm it in a speech. He warned at the time that it would not be the last such operation by the group. He said the sophisticated aircraft was made in Iran and assembled by Hezbollah
