Talk:Zahran Alloush

Just saw this in a comment:
 * There exists a report on prior knowledge of the chemical attack on the rebel side.


 * http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/06/obama-warned-on-syrian-intel/


 * "... we have learned that on August 13-14, 2013, Western-sponsored opposition forces in Turkey started advance preparations for a major, irregular military surge. Initial meetings between senior opposition military commanders and Qatari, Turkish and U.S. intelligence officials took place at the converted Turkish military garrison in Antakya, Hatay Province, now used as the command center and headquarters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and their foreign sponsors. Senior opposition commanders who came from Istanbul pre-briefed the regional commanders on an imminent escalation in the fighting due to “a war-changing development,” which, in turn, would lead to a U.S.-led bombing of Syria. ..."


 * ''That report of prior knwledge fits quite well with a facebook post of Zahran Alloush from August 13 where he announces "final steps" for a "surprise" of (for) the regime are prepared. Screenshot here:


 * http://urs1798.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/zahran-mit-c3bcberraschung.jpg --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:15, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Someone should ask him "hey, what was the surprise? Did we miss it? I think you flaked out and didn't do anything, Zahran. You're such a loser. No? Prove it. What was this "surprise?"" --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:15, 30 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Interesting snippet from the book The Roads to Damascus by Chesnot and Malbrunot. They speculate on what would have happened if the US-led air strikes had gone ahead after the Ghouta attack, and note that the opposition fighters were positioned for a massive attack on Damascus. They report:
 * 'Moktar Lamani, UN representative in Syria, sent moreover on this point a confidential note to Lakhdar Brahimi in which he revealed that "The Salafist rebel group Liwa-al-Islam, close to Saudi Arabia, held a secret meeting indicating that they had positioned 8000 combatants in Ghouta supported by 4000 men from the al-Nusra Front to take the offensive against the Syrian capital in case of [US-led] strikes".'


 * The most likely source for this is Lamani as they have at least one other quote from him in the book. The authors don't comment on the implications of Lamani's note (their book is mainly concerned with French policy) but I think it's been documented elsewhere that this build-up of fighters in Ghouta occurred just before 21 August: so if Lamani's information is accurate, Liwa-al-Islam knew in advance that something would happen to provoke US strikes.   It's also interesting that Liwa-al-Islam and JAN were apparently working in close coordination.  This makes sense, given that all the evidence points to JAN as the group with access to sarin in 2013 and (as Urs1798 argues) to Liwa-al-Islam as the group managing the Ghouta massacre on site.   Pmr9 (talk) 22:25, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

The timing of the new Islamic alliance is interesting in this context. One month and a few days after the Ghouta attack. It's as if the Islamists decided "okay, one final test. We cross Obama's redline right on its birthday, report thousands dead, hundreds of children, show a lot of genuine gassed bodies, get it inspected by the inspectors, and the first verified CW attack - if there are still no NATO bombs falling one month after that, we break off. No more efforts to even act moderate in the vain hope of help. We just do our thing, al-Qaeda style." A few days to finalize talks and terms and bam, Aloush/Alwash might be the most powerful man in Syria. He probably deserves a whole page, not just a picture. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:15, 30 September 2013 (UTC)


 * For what its worth, I believe the US invasion was imminent. It was only stopped by Russian nuclear deterrence. (and of course, our work here.) I still do not know how much above or below the Cuban Missile Crisis levels of tension and danger the world was. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 15:10, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure of that. These kind of clues say that was someone's plan, so maybe. But OTH, air defenses are the same as they have been - the main deterrent. Why escalate? Part of some bigger drama show with lots of tough posturing. I don't know.--Caustic Logic (talk) 23:22, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm just reading through Robert Fisk's reporting from the last two weeks. Fascinating. In this piece I just finished he tries to puzzle together the events that led to the CW destruction deal from his Syrian and Russian sources. I still think Kerry didn't "slip" with his "offer" to spare Syria a carpet of bombs, but that would likely not be known to Fisk's sources. According to him, the story ends like this: Afterwards, Muallem told Lavrov that the agreement took from Syria its “No 1” weapon. And Lavrov replied: “Your best weapon is us.” And that was it. Syria’s strategic deterrent had become Moscow. Kremlin rules. --CE (talk) 23:46, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

November 2014
SyrPer is lately boasting about Alloush hiding in his "spider hole" and SAA closing in. Like today. Yesterday he was top nominee for the prestigeous Jacques Clouseau award (If you don't know about Clouseau, make sure to check the classic movies ;oD). Will be interesting to see if it is as portrayed. It sure seems like Islamic Front is quite doomed with the Ahrar Al-Sham decapitation and even US airstrikes against them recently. The still remaining threat (besides ISIS of course) seems to be from the south, as Edward Dark has outlined two days ago. --CE (talk) 21:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Interesting piece yesterday on Al-Monitor confirming the SyrPer info from the other side, so to say. Apparently Alloush also has to face a mutiny and public protests against his rule as local dictator. A failed mass murder of local council guys is unisono attributed to him. Via food poisoning. Still, now even more so, my main suspect for the nasty events of last year. --CE (talk) 10:48, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Latest details of the turf war in East Ghouta: “War of Corruptors” in al-Gouta … Alloush Executes “Army of Nation” --CE (talk) 18:11, 10 January 2015 (UTC)