Nir Rosen speach on Syria

On the LSE site there is an interesting soundtrack of a speech by the journalist Nir Rosen. The speech of 75 minutes tries to give an overview of the situation in Syria.

The case against drones

Anatomy of an Air Attack Gone Wrong. This article how in the past the Yemen president has taken responsibility for US attacks that killed civilians. A nice way to keep the collateral damage figures low...

Drones are fool's gold: they prolong wars we can't win.

Dronestagram – the website exposing the US's secret drone war

Drones in our time: An article that focuses on the more theoretical questions. It has some useful links too.

'Signature Strikes' and the President's Empty Rhetoric on Drones

The Taliban of Timbuktu

From the NY Times: The Taliban of Timbuktu.

The article describes the Taliban-style reign of the Islamists in North Mali.

Split starting between FSA and Al Nusra?

Guardian has an article (Syria crisis: al-Qaida fighters revealing their true colours, rebels say) in which it writes that there is increasing tension between Al Nusra and the FSA. Some quotes:

Over the past six weeks a once co-operative arrangement between Aleppo's regular Free Syrian Army units and al-Nusra has become one of barely disguised distrust.

A week of interviews with rebel groups in north Syria has revealed a schism developing between the jihadists and residents, which some rebel leaders predict will eventually spark a confrontation between the jihadists and the conservative communities that agreed to host them.

Some already talk of an Iraq-style "awakening" – a time in late-2006 as when communities in the Sunni heartland cities of Fallujah and Ramadi turned on al-Qaida groups in their midst that had tried to impose sharia law and enforce their will through the gun barrel.

"We'll fight them on day two after Assad falls," a commander said. "Until then we will no longer work with them." In recent weeks Liwa al-Tawhid and other militias who form part of the Free Syrian Army have started their own operations, without inviting al-Nusra along.
[..]
"They see stealing things that used to belong to the government, like copper factories, or any factory, as no problem," said the rebel commander. "They are selling it to the Turks and using the money for themselves. This is wrong. This is money for the people." On Monday al-Nusra units went to a state-owned water factory on the Euphrates river. They invited regular rebel units to go with them as they picked through parts inside the factory for selling to whoever wanted them. One unit did join the jihadists. Others refused.
[..]
Another rebel approached, this time to complain that young girls in his village had been pledged as brides to anyone who joined al-Nusra. "This is part of the employment benefits," he said. For now, community leaders seem to be able to say no to al-Nusra suitors who come calling, but fear these rights might be whittled away if the group consolidates its influence.

The parties in the Mali uprising

Al Jazeera has an overview (Making sense of Mali's armed groups) of the parties involved in the fighting in north Mali.

Breeding terrorists

Both Debka-news and Assad claim that Washington and Moscow may be encouraging the rush to Syria of al Qaeda and other radical Islamist fighters so as to put them in harm’s way on the Syrian battlefield instead of their staying home to make trouble in Asian, European and other Middle East countries.

That seems to me a very bad strategy. Al Qaeda thrives on fights that are popular and seem justified. Sure, some of its fighters may be killed, but the fighting enhances the battle skills of the rest and brings in new recruits. There are already reports that Al Nusra is asking recruits to be sign that they are prepared to fight for it anywhere in the world. And don't discount all those youngsters in Libya and Syria, who after a period of fighting can't fit in in civil society again. In the past they might have opted for the French Foreign Legion. Now they are more likely to choose Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates.

To me the best strategy to get rid of Al Qaeda is to have them stay in Waziristan playing ping-pong. They will get bored and sooner or later most will go back home.

The four business gangs that rule the US

The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting article based on the book "The Price of Civilisation" by Jeffrey Sachs: The four business gangs that rule the US. It lists the four main business complexes that rule the US:
- the military industrial complex
- the Wall Street-Washington complex
- the Big Oil-transport-military complex
- the health care industry

Religious warfare haunts Syria's villages

The Telegraph reports (Religious warfare haunts Syria's villages: despatch about Beit Swelheh in Latakia province. This village used to be mixed Sunni-Alawite, but now the village is destroyed and all Alawites have left. According to the Sunnites still living there relations started to deteriorate when they took part in the protests against Assad; security was increased with roadblocks, house searches, arrests, etc. First the Sunnites left and then they came back with rebels to conquer the village and drive out the Alawites: "We had no choice," [a Sunni] said. "By this stage it was either defend our homes or be arrested."

Similar things happened in neighboring villages.

The article looks one-sided: Alawite input is missing. I quote it because it is the first report from this region. The questions it raises for me are:
- that increased "security" had very likely to do with increased rebel activity. Not a word about that in the article.
- all Sunni's leaving because of increased security sounds a bit brass to me. It may be that they were asked to leave by the rebels in preparation for an attack.

Assad's speech

Many newspapers report about Assad's speech in the Opera House. But I have yet to find the first that links to it so that people can read it for themselves. Here you can find the full text