Al-Qaeda leader in Syria speaks to Al Jazeera

Al-Qaeda leader in Syria speaks to Al Jazeera – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

Thanks to inaction by the Obama Administration and other Western leaders, Al-Qaeda now has made a pulpit and an operational base for herself in the Holy Land of Syria. Sunni Jihadis will listen and will flock to her, just as Shia Jihadis are listening to Nasrallah and are flocking to fight for Assad. But those who think that the showdown will be contained within Syria’s borders, or the region’s, are fooling themselves. Soon, the same Jihadis will realize the importance of the “external dimension” of this war and will take the fight to all corners of the world. This is a war of identity now, and the 1.5 billion Muslims on this Earth don’t all live in Syria and the Middle East. The different conditions they live under will not shield them from the fallouts, one way or another, the identity of each Muslim is at stake now. This moment in time has been long in the making. But we are here now. Welcome to the really Hot Phase of the Islamic Reformation.

The New Power On The Ground In Syria

The New Power On The Ground In Syria.

There is no denying at this stage that Zahran Alloush, his Jaish Al-Islam and his Islamic Front, are among the main power brokers on the ground at this stage. Working in tandem with Jabhat Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham, they have managed to isolate ISIS, but ISIS, in a sense, always wanted to be isolated. Their uncompromising stands make them impossible to work with on a consistent basis. Every now and then, the two camps will cooperate, but most of the time they will compete. Groups like the Syrian Martyrs Brigades and Al-Farouq are not taking direct part in this development, but their fight will be more to protect the niches they have already caved out for themselves in the central parts of the country, than, to posit any direct challenge to either IF, Al-Nusra or ISIS. The turfing of the “liberated” areas is almost complete now. All that is left to do is kick pro-Assad militias out, before pushing further into regime-held territories. Regime advances have been halted and reversed, but so long as the regime maintains loyalist militias in opposition territories, and so long as it continues to control parts of Aleppo and Damascus, this war will continue. It’s about carving out territories now, and the regime will not be allowed to maintain the huge chunk of territory currently under its control.

Far Right in Eastern Europe Makes Gains as Syrians Arrive

Far Right in Eastern Europe Makes Gains as Syrians Arrive – NYTimes.com.

Indeed, fascists are making a comeback in Europe, and the main drivers are economic woes and high rates of unemployment among the youth. But, in typical fashion, it’s the presence of immigrants and refugees that will be used as the convenient vehicle for venting frustration. Over the next few years, the Middle East, especially Syria, will be a major supplier of both, which makes continued dithering by European leaders on intervention in Syria rather baffling. Europe is not in a position to shield herself from meltdown in the Middle East, and yet, her leaders stood by and watched on helplessly as the genocide in Syria unfolded. Sooner rather than later, the political price for this lack of foresight and backbone on part of Europe’s leaders will be exacted, and the consequences will haunt all. Meanwhile, fascists of the world may not be uniting yet, but they are finding ways to cooperate with and support each other. That’s why they hold rallies and events in support of Assad throughout Europe, and that’s why few made them made the trip all the way to Syria to fight with his militias. While Western intelligence services will be watching all those European Jihadis after they come back home, their real security nightmares in the future might come from their native kith and kin on the far right.

Ignore the conspiracy theories: Assad was behind the Syrian chemical weapons attack

Ignore the conspiracy theories: Assad was behind the Syrian chemical weapons attack – Telegraph Blogs.

While the world currently focuses on Al-Qaeda’s rise in Syria and the growing role of Islamist rebels and foreign Jihadists and the assortment of war crimes they are committing, the fictitious and the real, we should not lose sight of certain well-established facts, facts that remain indisputable to those with sound minds and souls, namely: that the Assad regime and its sectarian militias (Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Afghan), now assisted by foreign mercenaries from Russia and Greece (that we know of), are the major perpetrators of atrocities in Syria, in fact, they are the purveyors of genocide. And that chemical attack in Ghoutah that left close to 1,500 dead, it’s has their fingerprints all over it, so stop believing lies.

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