Epstein Secrets

ch and to whom. The administration could change course and decide that living with Assad is better than the danger of a fragmented Syria overrun by Al Qaeda- backed jihadists. (Former CIA Director Michael Hayden endorsed that option last week, telling a Washington audience that it might be "the best ...

again dashing the hopes of pro-U.S. factions in the opposition. Meanwhile, other forces were competing for influence in the Syrian snake pit, too. Al Qaeda and its allies sponsored jihadist groups that imported aspiring terrorists from Iraq and other countries. Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Persian Gu

Front. And that brings us to the situation in Syria today: a civil war among four main factions, in which the group supported by the United States, the Free Syrian Army of Gen. Salim Idriss, appears to be the weakest. Last weekend, the headquarters and main warehouse of the FSA were overrun by troops of the Saudi-f

time. Today, the Muslim Brothers are repeating the mistake they made then by resorting to terror with the aid of foreign Salafists, including some Al-Qaida fighters flowing into EFTA00701768 Syria from Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and other countries further afield. The liberal members of the Syrian

TA00701760 ineffectual, and lacks legitimacy among popular local opposition organizations on the ground. Nor does the SNC have any authority over the Free Syrian Army — itself a catch-all term for a wide array of localized military structures — or other insurgent groups, many of them openly sectarian. The absence

al community might now be grateful to them again. There is concern in the US and Israel that Syria's chemical weapons might fall into the hands of al-Qaida or Hezbollah. Just imagine if the danger now involved what proliferation experts call "loose nukes". The unspoken motivation of both attacks was t

Ali Akbar Salehi, who paid a surprise visit to Ankara to discuss Syria and seek Turkish help for the release of 48 Iranians abducted by members of the Free Syrian Army on Saturday. Davutoglu said he had explained all of this to Salehi in a "frank and friendly manner." A visibly irked Erdogan also had harsh words

mic Front, with around 50,000 part-time fighters, seems one of the stronger and more coherent entities and seeks an Islamic state with shariah law. Al-Qaeda's local affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, is a more disciplined but smaller organization, and has been more careful than most about collateral damage. EFT

ing that word anywhere in the Middle East), are now awaiting events, fatigued by ineffective internecine combat. It is hard to figure out who is in the Free Syrian Army, Supreme Military Council, and the Syrian Revolutionaries' Front and where each ends and the other begins. The Islamic Front, with around 50,000 pa

n 2005. Crown Prince Nayef had been minister of interior since the 1970s. He helped shape the ministry's countertenor program and the crackdown on al Qaeda, both moves that won him praise from the West. President Barack Obama, in a statement, offered the U.S.'s condolences and said that under Prince Na

andard SeeingSyria Clearly Lee Smith June 15, 2012 -- The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is helping to coordinate logistics for the Free Syrian Army, but not providing arms. "U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats have stepped up their contacts with Syrian rebels in part to help organize the

cy in the region. Salafism enjoys an intermediary position between the conservative House of Saud and the revolutionary al-Qaeda movement. Part of al-Qaeda's appeal over the years has been its argument that secular dictatorships are unreformable and can only be brought down through armed struggle, which

urkey and Jordan have the military capability to defend such zones from the Syrian army, and there are indications that Turkey, which already hosts the Free Syrian Army, might be willing to do more if it received American support — which hasn't been forthcoming so far. In addition, the U.S. and our NATO allies coul

look like a torrent. In October, the number was around 800. The best total now available is about 17,000. The defectors have organized themselves as the Free Syrian Army and are creating credible command-and- control structures. Since September, the FSA has carried out a number of symbolic attacks against the regime.

on treaty with Russia, the NATO intervention in Libya, the withdrawal from Iraq, ongoing trade negotiations with China, and of course, the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Overview: Obama is a much different candidate today from the senator who distinguished himself by his opposition to the "dumb