Several Interesting Videos from Syria Over the Weekend

Not much time to write anything, but here are several videos out of/about Syria from over the weekend.

Al Jazeera Video Report on Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra

This video is from a few days ago, but still interesting . . .

Bonus Video: additionally, I also found this video, which includes the Arabic-language (with English subtitles) of the Al-Jazeera video above, as well as a CNN report on Jabhat al-Nusra. Note that the final third of this video comes from Syria's al-Ikhbariya news channel and is *pure Syrian regime propaganda* - it contains such ridiculous gems as "[The US] is promoting the [al-Nusra] terror organization and producing a new justification for the US administration to continue its invasion of the countries of the world, under the pretense of the so-called 'War on Terror.' "  If I could have found another copy of the CNN report somewhere else, I would have posted that; but I couldn't, so . . .   

Today's Interesting Links

Lots of interesting links today . . .

General Middle East:

• "The GCC in the Mediterranean in Light of the Arab Spring" (German Marshall Fund & Instituto Affari Internazionali)

Syria:

• "Assad's Public Appearance On Sunday Could Be His Last" (Business Insider)
• "Insight: Aleppo Misery Eats at Syrian Rebel Support" (Reuters)
• "Syria 'Has Chemical Weapons That Could Be Used Within Two Hours'" (The Telegraph)
• And the Quilliam Foundation has an interesting new strategic briefing on Jabhat al-Nusra (aka the al-Nusra Front) (جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام‎), which was covered be the BBC HERE.
• Also on the topic of the al-Nusra Front, I noticed a series of Tweets today from CNN's Arwa Damon (@arwaCNN) about how the al-Nusra Front is assisting civilians in the areas under its control with food and fuel aid.  This seems to further verify the humanitarian aspects of al-Nusra's program that I described in my earlier blog post, here. 

Turkey:

• "To End Kurdish Conflict, Turkey Calls on Archenemy" (IHT Rendezvous/NYT)
• "Turkey, Ocalan Map Out Steps to End Kurdish Conflict" (Reuters)

Jordan:

• "Will Jordan Be the First Arab Monarchy to Fall?" (The Atlantic)

Iraq:

• "US Defence Contractor Pays $5 Million to Iraqis Who Alleged Torture at Abu Ghraib" (Yahoo News)

Egypt:

• "Iranian Spy Chief's Visit to Cairo Was Meant to 'Send a Message to America'" (The Times)
• "Do Salafi Splits Signal Weakness, Or a Different Kind of Strength?" (Atlantic Council)
• "Egypt Finance: Qatar Steps in to Ease Cairo Cash Crisis" (BBC)
• And, finally, we have a couple videos from Wolf Blitzer's CNN interview with Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi.  Hope to get the full interview up eventually, but for now we just have to settle for these three clips: 

First, Morsi would like to see Omar Abdel-Rahman (aka the "Blind Sheik") freed, or, at least, granted better privileges/accommodations by the US:

Next, Morsi discusses his support for the Free Syrian Army and the other Syrian opposition groups fighting against Bashar al-Assad, as well as his support for trying Assad as a war criminal after the Syrian opposition is victorious:

Finally, Morsi discusses his opinion of President Obama and his plans to visit the United States before the end of the first quarter of this year:

What is the al-Nusra Front? (Part 3 - Why is the al-Nusra Front Important?)

Returning, once again, to our discussion of the al-Nusra Front, I'd like to (hopefully) conclude with a post about why the al-Nusra Front is important in the grand scheme of the Syrian conflict.

Why is the al-Nusra Front So Powerful/Important?

The al-Nusra Front is powerful and important for several reasons.  First, to put things very bluntly, al-Nusra is powerful because it's good at what it does.  While it is a fairly new group (having only been formed in January of this year), it is, as has been elaborated in one of my earlier posts, responsible for some of the most significant attacks against the Assad regime and the Syrian Army that have occurred since the beginning of the Syrian uprising.  In total, the group has claimed credit for over six hundred (600) attacks over the past year.

In addition to the group's sheer ferocity and the frequency/scale of its attacks, the al-Nusra Front is also significant due to its jihadist connections and its association with al-Qaeda.  The group has been described as the "next big al-Qaida franchise," and it is thought to be an offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) - the umbrella organization of Iraqi terror/insurgent groups that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).  Indeed, al-Nusra's connections to AQI proved to be one of the main justifications provided by the US State Department when it blacklisted the al-Nusra Front as a "foreign terrorist organization" in early December 2012.  The State Department press release stated that while "al-Nusrah has sought to portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition," its attacks are, instead, "an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes."

Al-Nusra's connection to AQI and the ISI provides the group with a distinct advantage over other Syrian factions in terms of expertise, experience, and foreign resources.  Additionally, as Aaron Zelin has written in Foreign Policy, the al-Nusra Front benefits from its al-Qaeda connections through its access to online jihadi media forums:

"Jabhat al-Nusra is also plugged into al Qaeda's transnational online media echo system. Its official media outlet, al-Manara al-Bayda ("the White Minaret"), maintains ties with al Qaeda's web forums Shamukh al-Islam and al-Fida' al-Islam. On Shamukh, there is even a dedicated section for Jabhat al-Nusra's releases -- a status only shared with the ISI."

This access provides al-Nusra with a ready audience of jihadi/Islamist sympathizers to whom it publishes its statements and videos, some of which are fairly well-edited and heavily produced.  It also provides a platform for glossy "terrorist-training-camp-fun-time!" photos like these:

Finally, in addition to the frequency/ferocity of its attacks, its connections to al-Qaeda, and its . . . slick(?) . . . online advertising, the al-Nusra Front is important because it seems to be employing a strategy that other Islamist groups have used to significant affect in other areas of the Arab world.  This strategy is to use the provision of social services to bolster the group's prestige and to ingratiate it to the local community in the areas under its control.

Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, and Hamas before it, the al-Nusra Front has already begun to employ this tactic, taking over important agricultural and energy operations in Deir Ezzor (Dayr al-Zawr) and the nearby city of Abu Kamal.  As Hassan Hassan writes (again in Foreign Policy), the al-Nusra Front is "perceived to be more disciplined and concerned with local communities' needs" than its secular counter-parts in the Syrian opposition, and the group has taken it upon itself to provide security for local businesses, affordable fuel distribution, and a host of other relief services.  Many Syrians, Hassan writes, "are drawn to the group by virtue of its effectiveness in fighting the regime and delivering public services."  The more firmly entrenched the al-Nusra Front becomes in the areas under its control, and the more public goodwill the group can accrue through its dispensation of social services, the more difficult it will be for more moderate, secular factions of the Syrian opposition to uproot it after the Syrian conflict has concluded.

What is the al-Nusra Front? (Part 2 - What Has the Group Done?)

Continuing our discussion of the al-Nusra Front, we'll now turn from a more general discussion of the group and its mysterious leadership to its actions and its growing strength within the cadre of Syrian rebel groups fighting against the Assad regime.

What Has the al-Nusra Front Done?
Early in the year, during the first weeks/months of the al-Nusra Front's existence, it is somewhat difficult to determine precisely what attacks the group was responsible for.  Indeed, because some of the early attacks that were later claimed by, or attributed to, the al-Nusra Front - for instance, a suicide bombing of a trio of buses carrying Syrian riot police in a Damascus neighborhood in early January - occurred before the group was well known, rumors were rampant that al-Nusra was, in fact, a front created by the Syrian government to discredit the Free Syrian Army and other rebel factions.

Regardless of the truth or falsity of al-Nusra's claims on early attacks, the rest of 2012 demonstrated the group's grim expertise, its power, and it authenticity.

For a more complete list of (claimed) attacks by the al-Nusra Front than you will ever likely need, I'd recommend consulting the group's Arabic-language statements, which have been gathered on the Jihadology blog by the inimitable Aaron Zelin.  However, the following is but a brief list of al-Nusra's most significant attacks:

• May 29, 2012: al-Nusra claimed responsibility for the mass-execution of 13 people in Deir Ezzor.  (NOTE: al-Nusra was also allegedly responsible for further such massacres in Deir Ezzor later in the year, such as this video from early December that supposedly shows al-Nusra fighters executing bound captives).
• October 3, 2012: al-Nusra claimed responsibility for a triple suicide car-bombing in Aleppo's Sa'adallah al-Jabiri Square.  The group claimed to be targeting Syrian command centers at a nearby officer's club, two hotels, and the local municipal offices.
• Early October 2012: al-Nusra allegedly partnered with the Free Syrian Army to seize control of an airbase in al-Ta'aneh outside of Aleppo.  This joint operation supposedly allowed the group to obtain a number of anti-aircraft missiles.
• Early December 2012: al-Nusra and several associated Islamist groups seized control of the Sheik Suleiman military base outside of Aleppo.  Allegedly, this base houses a scientific research facility connected to Syria's chemical weapons program.

Additionally, here is a map depicting the locations and relative frequency of al-Nusra's attacks between January and September 2012:

Source: Elizabeth O'Bagy, "Jihad in Syria," Middle East Security Report 6, September 2012.

Finally, the al-Nusra Front's terrorist output is prolific.  The group has claimed credit for hundreds of attacks, large and small - ranging from small-arms battles and attacks on traffic checkpoints to major suicide or car/truck bombings - including, in one instance, claiming credit for forty-five (45) attacks in four separate Syrian provinces in a single day.  In total, al-Nusra is allegedly responsible for nearly 600 attacks against Syrian forces and Assad loyalists since November 2011 (Time Magazine and State Department Press Statement Designating al-Nusra as a Terrorist Organization).

And . . . I was going to make this post a bit longer and discuss the importance of the al-Nusra Front within the larger context of the Syrian conflict/civil-war, but . . . I think this is long enough for now.

What is the al-Nusra Front? (Part 1)

As the Syrian conflict/civil-war continues to spiral into a bloodier and bloodier mess, I want to take a moment to write about a group that is playing a central role in the conflict: Jabhat al-Nusra (جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام), aka the al-Nusra Front. The al-Nusra Front was big news about a week ago when the US government designated the group as a terrorist organization.

So what is the al-Nusra Front?  Who are its members?  And what is the role that the group has played, is playing, and may eventually play in the larger Syrian conflict of which it is but one small (albeit powerful) component part?

As a general introduction, the al-Nusra Front is one of the most - if not the most - powerful factions involved in the Syrian conflict.  It was founded in January 2012.  The group's religious bent is Sunni Islamic, and its ideology is, more specifically, Salafist: as one military commander of the group has stated,

"Our first goal is to get rid of Assad. Then we want a state where the Quran is the only source of law . . . . Sharia is the right path for all humanity - all other laws make people unhappy."

Indeed, as the International Crisis group has pointed out, the al-Nusra Front views the deposition of Bashar al-Assad and his regime as "only half the battle."  Full success for al-Nusra will "come only once the entire regime was replaced with an Islamic state following Salafi principles."  (See International Crisis Group, "Tentative Jihad: Syria's Fundamentalist Opposition").

Leader(s): The leaders of the al-Nusra Front are largely unknown.  An unidentified man using the nom de guerre of Al-Fateh Abu Muhammad al-Jolani (transliteration differences online sometimes render this as "al-Golani," "al-Jilani," or "al-Jawlani") narrated the group's initial video release (main portion of video w/ subtitles beginning around 4:02), announcing its formation, describing the rationale for its coming to Syria, and outlining its aims. Al-Jolani has been identified as the al-Nusra Front's leader, or, in some instances, as its "General Secretary."  Whatever that means.  I don't have a picture of this mysterious al-Jolani to show you. Sorry.  Or maybe I do . . . here's a picture of general khafiya-clad al-Nusra Front members from their video.  Maybe he's one of them - like, say, black-hooded-executioner-guy in the bottom corner?

The number and identities of other senior al-Nusra Front officers are equally unknown.  Allegedly, however, much of the top leadership is made up of non-Syrians: specifically, Lebanese and Palestinian militants - some of whom are linked to the Palestinian Fatah al-Islam organization.  This analysis of al-Nusra's leadership seems to have found some level of confirmation from the testimony of Syrian fighters who have fought or interacted with the al-Nusra Front in various ways.  For instance:

A rebel soldier who briefly joined JN [e.g. Jabhat al-Nusra] before opting to join with the rebel Suqour al-Sham Brigade stated that, "Most of the young men I worked with were Syrian revolutionaries who joined JN because they were stronger and more effective. Yes we are mujahideen, but we didn’t think of it as al-Qaeda."  He added, "There was a lot of secrecy surrounding the leadership.  I left JN when I discovered that many of the leaders were not Syrian but Lebanese or Palestinians that used to work with the Syrian intelligence agencies."

 The general consensus is that the ranks of the al-Nusra Front's leadership are filled with a number of experienced jihadists who have fought on various battlefields throughout the Arab World and Central Asia.

I am going to cut this off here for length purposes, but will post more on al-Nusra within the next several days.