Talk:Syrian National Council

Ahmed al-Jarba
Let's act as if the guy matters and give him a section - but not a page. That's for worthwhile people who live and die in Syria.

Ahmed Assi al-Jarba. Born: Presumably. Spent years between then and now running around, using his little rodent brain to scrape by and even flourish. Elected head of SNC in July, 2013. Re-elected for another 6-moth term in January.

The serious dirt on him seems to come mainly from this article in al-Akhbar, as cited in this Syrian Free Press piece. Trafficking unspecified drugs, running brothels, misrepresenting himself as a tribal elder in Libya and Lebanon to gain access, using access to accept money from Qatar's Hammad to assassinate his father's deposed former intel chief, fled to Syria. Instead, Jarba just kept the money, exposed the plot, and got paid again in reward. This is all from an official Syrian source, who "maintains that Ahmad al-Jarba’s trek to the highest post in the Coalition was planned from A to Z in the corridors of Saudi intelligence. The man, the source said, has a big rap sheet kept by Qatari, Saudi, and Syrian security services, for acts involving all three countries, and in the past, the three intelligence agencies had even coordinated operations in his pursuit." --Caustic Logic (talk) 00:56, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

He posted the faked Saudi artist's "orphan" photo on his Twitter account, as Press TV noted, but only for 30 minutes. He stands by the Holocaust-ish Caesar photos presented more recently in Geneva. --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:04, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Election of Ahmad al Jarba
Adam, if you have time, you might want to make a composite panorama view of this video: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 00:21, 25 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Leaked Video of the overwhelming majority that elected Ahmad al Jarba to the presidency of the SNC…


 * You know he's posting as @PresidentJarba at twitter? LOL. The parody account @PrezJarba is much better. I bet even the hapless moron John Kerry despises this guy. --CE (talk) 00:37, 25 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I don't know about Jarba yet, so that's all new. As for a panorama, it would be cool, but I don't know how here. I usually work off still frames, which here have a big play sign in the middle. Is there a way to download LL videos? Didn't figure one out yet. If it's much more pain than that, never mind. Would've been fine with the camera turned the other way. --Caustic Logic (talk) 00:58, 26 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I use Firefox with "Flash Video Downloader" extension to get LL videos. The extension is quite clever.--Charles Wood (talk) 01:40, 26 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Hm. My system is way dated, and almost anything new I try fails. Is the flv you'd get small enough to e-mail me a copy? I can work with FLVs. caustic_logic and it's a yahoo.com, if so. --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:59, 26 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I've got the video. For once Firefox extension didn't work so I used Chromium and right-click download video. It was mp4 so I extracted it to jpeg images @ 4 frames per second. Is that useful? If so, your email address? --Charles Wood (talk) 02:20, 26 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I believe the video file would be more useful than extracted images. 1) The video file is smaller than the jpeg files put together. 2) @4fps is not a good frame rate. The video is most likely 15 fps. In shaky videos is is best to go through all the frames and use the most stable ones. Often you get one good frame in 10 or 15.
 * What is the size of the video file? What extension do you use on Chromium / Chrome to download the video? -- Petri Krohn (talk) 03:17, 26 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Video file is 500k, There are 546 jpeg frames of between 3kB and 4kB each. Download video format is mp4 (update: H.264 and AAC). I didn't use a Chrome extension - it's native to Chrome. The Firefox extension works on LL and YT and on YT offers 5 or more video formats to choose from. --Charles Wood (talk) 03:55, 26 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I only need the right 10 or so frames actually. It's just a visualization anyway, nothing forensic. Pre-extracted, cool, less than the perfect frames, probably fine. A little overlap to verify the seams and it's good. E-mail, I tried not typing it out above. See there. --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:00, 26 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Use . It includes every frame (I-Frame, B-Frame, P-Frame whatever) in the video as a jpg. --Charles Wood (talk) 06:21, 26 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Worked. V2 is split in half and the halves stacked. But this shows the emptiness better. I cheated a little with obscuring the logos, and left one token instance as a nod. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:01, 26 January 2014 (UTC)



Jarba Mashup Video
(not really but...) Syria TV Broadcasts Jarba’s Speech alongside Opposition Terrorist Crimes
 * Syrian state television on Wednesday broadcast a speech by opposition chief Ahmad Jarba at peace talks in Switzerland alongside footage of the militants' terrorist crimes in Syria.


 * The state broadcaster did not identify Jarba as he began his speech at the conference in the Swiss town of Montreux. In a split screen, it showed Jarba on the right, under the heading "Montreux, Switzerland," and on the left footage of death and destruction under the heading "Terrorist Crimes in Syria."


 * It left up quotes from Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who spoke before Jarba, in a breaking news alert on the bottom of the screen as Jarba spoke.


 * State television used the same format when Turkey and Saudi Arabia's foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Saud al-Faisal spoke.

Note sure if I can find the actual video, but here's one about it My country's rep, John Kerry, got the same words vs. actions contrast. --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:59, 26 January 2014 (UTC)