l*****7
发帖数: 8463 | 1 Item 1:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?227126-1500
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2
In an article on the death of Nicole Lynn Mansfield, I found this odd
paragraph:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that some 1,500 to 2,000 American
fighters may be in Syria. "It's hard to get a peg on the exact number," he
said at a joint news conference in Washington with German Foreign Minister
Guido Westerwelle.
Has anyone seen a number this high given as an estimate anywhere else?
Because if so, that's an awful lot of foreign volunteers. All of them from
the American Muslim community? Or your normal contingent of mercenaries/
gunrunners that find a place in any chaotic civil war?
Item 2:
http://www.sacouncil.com/blog/call-for-volunteers/
sac-logo
Government Relations Inquiries: 202-507-6318
Media Inquiries: 657-777-3191
Email: i**[email protected]
Call for Volunteers
by admin on March 30th, 2012 in Blog
Action needed to help improve SAC PR efforts and media outreach
To help SAC reach a wider audience and better convey our message in support
of the Syrian revolution, volunteers are urgently needed as part of our
media outreach efforts.
We are looking for young professionals and college students with a passion
for the Syrian cause who are willing to contribute and learn. SAC is
currently working with a Public Relations firm and Marketing Consultants to
help raise awareness about the situation in Syria. As part of our media
outreach, we have already secured earned media placements in top-tier
national newspapers, magazines, TV and radio outlets.
Volunteer work will include, but not limited to, the following capacities:
Monitor media coverage
Write Op-Ed articles
Write Letters to the Editor
Write blog posts to publish on popular blogs or ‘webzines’
Identify personal stories to pitch to local/national media
Get SAC videos/press releases published on SNC and Syrian revolution
Facebook pages
Organize interfaith and intercultural campaigns to educate and engage
various groups on Syria
Organize ‘Syria Awareness Day’ on college and high school campuses
Social media campaigns
Got other ideas? Let us know
To get involved and for more information please contact us here.
Item 3:
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/16/british-mercena
British volunteers fighting in Syria
August 16th, 2012 | by Maeve McClenaghan | Published in Bureau Reviews,
Bureau Stories | 3 Comments
Please support our work - share this article
Syrian 2
Free Syrian Army fighters stand on alert in Damascus. (Flickr/FreedomHouse)
An investigation by BBC’s Radio4 Today programme has revealed a growing
number of British men going to fight in Syria.
The report revealed that dozens of men have traveled from London and the
Midlands to assist the Syrian rebels, in what some fear is a ‘theatre of
jihad’.
Security Correspondent Frank Gardner was tipped off to the movement by
testimony from British photographers kidnapped by the Free Syrian Army last
month. The photographers reported hearing British accents among their
captors. Gardner traveled to Birmingham to investigate and found that scores
of young men had already made the trip.
The concept of volunteer fighters from the UK is not new. Last year saw many
British based Libyans, particularly from Manchester, going to join the
uprising. However, those traveling to Syria are not Syrian and have no
national or ethnic connection to the struggle. Instead, Gardner suggested,
they are taking part in an international jihad.
Birmingham Labour MP Khalid Mahmood worries about the long term consequences
of the rebel movement, likening the conflict to British support of the
Afghanistan war, which toppled the Russian invasion and led to the
implementation of the Taliban.
‘I am extremely concerned at the moment because I see similar things to
what has happened during the initial stages of the Afghanistan war, where we
were supporting the Mujahideen against the Russians. We wanted to get the
Russians out and we encouraged people, and armed people, to go out there and
fight. To go and fight for the jihad,’ he told Gardner.
The British government is adamant that it is not arming anybody, and
officials said they would discourage Britain thinking of fighting.
Help or hindrance?
Syrian freelance journalist Malik Al-Abdeh explained to Gardener how
outsider help isn’t always welcome.
‘People inside Syria, they don’t necessarily want those people coming to
fight,’ he said in an interview. ‘I head from Free Syrian Army contacts
that actually we’re not in great need of foreigners coming to fight.
Actually these foreigners hamper the effort inside Syria, because you’ve
got language barrier, different culture, they don’t have knowledge of the
local area and so on.’
Theatre of jihad
Experts now worry that the Syrian conflict could become an Al-Qaida training
camp for international jihadists.
Peter Neumann, professor of Security Studies at Kings College London, told
the Today Programme, ‘Certainly Al-Qaida is trying to take advantage of the
situation in Syria. When the Arab revolutions first happened early last
year Al-Qaida was fairly silent… it was not the sort of this that was
supposed to happen, because Al-Qaida is about armed revolution and these
revolutions are peaceful. Now with the situation in Syria Al-Qaida a
suddenly perceives an opportunity.’
In a Russian television interview posted by the Guardian Syrian president
Bashar al-Assad confirms the presence of foreign fighters saying, ‘Yes
there are some foreign mercenaries, some of them are alive. They were
detained and we are going to expose them.’ He goes on to explains that the
Free Syrian Army is obtaining weapons from outside the country, mostly from
Lebanon and Turkey, but that their governments are not necessarily involved.
Meanwhile an article in the Washington Post earlier this week examined how
US economic sanctions on the Syrian government may inadvertently be harming
the resistance movement. Sanctions put in place by the Obama administration
have lead to many Western technology firms breaking relations with Syria.
However this has also had consequences for the rebel movement as it has
restricted online tools, such as e-mails, blogs and anti-tracking software
that could be used to covertly coordinate rebel groups. Social media proved
a key tool in many of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings last year.
The conflict in Syria is far from over. Bloody images of destruction,
inflicted by both sides of the conflict, are hard to ignore. But the impact
of foreign influence is yet to be fully seen.
Listen to the Today Programme here. | l*****7
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