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This photo of an opposition banner hung on a dormitory at the University of Aleppo shows the growing reach of the opposition in Aleppo. Another sign of the growing capability of the opposition is its ability to set off car bombs with growing regularity near intelligence offices and in Syria’s major cities, such as this one: Car bomb hits Syrian city of Deir al-Zour<\/a>, killing 9 instantly and wounding 100. An intelligence headquarters was the target.<\/p>\n But the assassination of Syria’s six top security officials and Baathists seems beyond the capabilities of the opposition just yet.<\/p>\n According to the Guardian<\/a>, Heavy clashes were reported in Damascus<\/a> overnight and in a video message (Arabic)<\/a>, the Free Syrian Army claimed to have killed six key figures in the Assad regime.<\/p>\n The six men killed are reportedly: <\/a><\/p>\n 1) Asif Shawkat (Head of Syrian intelligence) But it is safer to doubt these claims until they are proven true. The opposition has no coordinated information outlet and many competing news sources, so exaggeration and disinformation seems to be the order of the day. For example, the opposition continues to insist that every car bomb and explosion at an intelligence headquarter is set off by the Syrian military itself in order to blacken the reputation of the pacifist opposition.<\/p>\n This does not make sense for many reasons.<\/p>\n 1. Why would the mukhabarat kill itself? No mater how evil one presumes Syria’s intelligence agents are, it remains unlikely that they would kill themselves in such great numbers. This is a bit like believing that the CIA is so evil that it killed the people in the World Trade Center to give President Bush the pretext to invade the Middle East and kill Muslims.The willingness of Western news agencies to repeat these opposition claims demonstrates that Westerners are just as prone to conspiracy theories as are Arabs. All it takes to believe in conspiracy theories is to demonize your enemies to the point that you can believe they will carry out any operation in order to advance their devilish aims.<\/p>\n 2. It makes sense for the opposition to set off car bombs in down town areas. Classic stage-two insurgency tactics call for terrorist acts in public places to make the regime look weak and to provoke it to lash out in rage, killing innocent people and provoking more and more neutrals to hate the regime and side with the insurgency. Targeting intelligence headquarters is smart as it accomplishes all of these opposition goals.<\/p>\n Addendum<\/strong>: MM<\/strong> writes in the Comment Section: Your conclusions are all wrong.<\/p>\n The connections make complete sense to the outside observer, however, to the internal Syrian, even those pro-Regime (within their heart of hearts) \u2013 the truth is evident.<\/p>\n \u20131. Why would the mukhabarat kill itself?<\/p>\n They\u2019re not. All the important Allawites on-site left well before the attacks. Show me the list of martyrs and show me who\u2019s who. Do they contain high ranking Allawite officers? There have been no funerals in the Allawite neighborhoods in Damascus for any Allawite Intelligence officers. No CCTV footage was captured, nothing \u2013 cameras were dismantled the week before (they learned this after the first bombing almost blew their cover \u2014 and to some extent did).<\/p>\n \u20132. It makes sense for the opposition to set off car bombs in down town areas.<\/p>\n No, it doesn\u2019t. It provides fodder for bloggers like you and Syrian TV commentators to point fingers at the opposition, insinuating that the opposition is entirely or significantly radical, which justifies and warrants regime response. There\u2019s no benefit here to the opposition \u2014 we don\u2019t want to be in the position of having to explain to the world stage that this is a regime tactic as opposed to Al-Qaeda elements potentially fighting alongside us. Killing a few intelligence officers, even if we wish death upon them, won\u2019t win the war here. This regime has a repertoire of Intelligence buildings \u2014 the ones attacked are nothing and sacrificing a few for their cause is worth it in their view.<\/p>\n We all know that the regime is not dumb (in certain respects) \u2013 they have smart people concocting PsyOps measures to subdue the population and other strategies to ward off western military intervention. They are effective. They got the American administration to say Al-Qaeda has a presence in Syria. They fooled certain elements in the Obama administration. You can\u2019t get any better than this result as a regime plotter. You got the only nation capable of removing you from power to state that the enemy they have been fighting since Sept 11, 2001 is involved in Syria\u2019s unrest. You can\u2019t sell the idea of intervention to the American people at this point.<\/p>\n My own personal assessment was that I was initially unsure of the first couple of car bomb attacks \u2014 was this indeed a \u201cthird force\u201d that was intervening in the Syrian conflict? However, there was no doubt who dunnit when I saw the aftermath of the most recent car bomb attacks (or bus bomb?). The crater is larger than anything ever seen in Iraq. My personal assessment, based on my Engineering training, is that it would require a significant force \u2014 the types of explosives not available in the Terrorists\u2019 kitchen which requires a Government\u2019s complicity. Some pro-Regimites may implicate Gulf nations, however, they would have no interest in undermining our cause. The first car bomb had a deleterious effect on the Opposition and subsequent bombs were progressively worse on us.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the true military wing of the Opposition \u2013 the Free Army, has consistently denounced each bombing. The political wing of the Opposition has done the same. Which branch of the Opposition are you implicating here? If it is a third force, then it\u2019s not part of the genuine opposition movement in Syria \u2013 it is out of our hands and we wish for them to stop. But it\u2019s not \u2014 all these bombs seem to have found their mark. Bonafide suicide terrorists detonate early more than half the time, but we haven\u2019t seen any of this (I hope I\u2019m not giving the regime ideas here, I\u2019d rather not). These attacks are carried out with quite some precision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ghalioun to Saudi paper: no recognition of Israel<\/a> – YNET news<\/p>\n Syrian National Council head Burhan Ghalioun tells Saudi paper that Syrian opposition has no intention to normalize relations with Israel after fall of regime…<\/p>\n “We are convinced that the Syrian regime’s strongest ally is Israel,” he told the paper, adding that the international community’s lack of action in Syria<\/a> stems from concerns for the Jewish State’s safety<\/p>\n Ghalioun reiterated the Syrian opposition’s position by which “the continued occupation of the Golan Heights severely undermines Syria’s national sovereignty, which it will only regain after the occupied territories are returned.”<\/p>\n Asked about a recent statement made by a member of the opposition, by which Syria will establish relations with Israel after Assad’s fall, Ghalioun said: “Who is the fool who said such a thing?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Swiss investigate Syrians, Libyans over money-laundering<\/a>, 2012-05-20<\/p>\n World Bulletin\/News Desk The Swiss state prosecutor said on Sunday it had opened criminal proceedings against Syrian and Libyan citizens on suspicion of money laundering. Jeannette Balmer, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor, said Swiss authorities had …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Syria diary – 19 May 2012<\/a> – (h\/t War in Context)<\/p>\n Layla Al-Zubaidi writes: \u2018Welcome to Assad\u2019s Syria,\u2019 the signpost at the Lebanese-Syrian border still says, letting the visitor know who owns the country. The ceasefire had just been announced, but few Syrians I knew held out much hope that three hundred UN observers could keep an eye on the whole army. The journey from Beirut […]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Two Obama Administration Scandals on Syria?<\/a>,\u00a0 By Barry Rubin – Meria<\/p>\n When a delegation of Syrian Kurdish rebels recently visited Washington, D.C., the State Department met them to ask for a favor. What was it? The Obama administration urged them to join the Syrian National Council (SNC), the organization created by the U.S. government through Turkey to lead the opposition movement and receive Western aid for […]<\/p>\n But the Turkish Islamist regime, which Obama put in charge of forming the SNC, put the Muslim Brotherhood in control, a fact I pointed out within hours of the announcement of the SNC leadership\u2019s names.<\/p>\n Now that several SNC leaders have resigned complaining about Brotherhood domination, followed by some Arab journalists pointing out the obvious Brotherhood domination at the SNC\u2019s last meeting, that reality is clear. But the implications of such an incredibly foolish policy\u2014America putting an anti-American, antisemitic group into the \u201cofficial\u201d leadership of Syria\u2019s rebels \u2014 have never been properly examined as a case study for Obama\u2019s disastrous Middle East policy.<\/p>\n The Kurds had walked out of the talks that formed the SNC last year when they saw how Islamists would be in control. Not only do they oppose Islamism itself but they also see the Brotherhood as an Arabizing and centralizing group that would impose a regime oppressing the non-Arab Kurds.<\/p>\n The new U.S. effort so backfired \u00a0that, with the Obama administration ignoring their concerns, the enraged Kurds in the delegation spoke for the first time of\u00a0breaking up Syria<\/a>\u00a0altogether!…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\n2) Mohammad Shaar (interior minister)
\n3) Dawood Rajha (defence minister)
\n4) Hassan Turkmani (vice president’s deputy)
\n5) Hisham Bikhtyar
\n6) Mohammad Saeed Bkheytan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Syrian Kurdish Dissident: Break Syria Into Pieces<\/a>,