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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><b>From:</b> ufpj-activist <ufpj-activist-bounces+karenaram=hotmail.com@lists.mayfirst.org> on behalf of Robert Naiman <naiman@justforeignpolicy.org><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 16, 2016 8:46 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> medea benjamin<br>
<b>Cc:</b> syriadiscussion@googlegroups.com; UFPJ Activist List; Fuki Ozaki; Bruce Cronin; Gail Daneker<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [ufpj-activist] [syriadiscussion:4714] Re: Question of Nusra Front likely to bedevil Syrian cease-fire talks</font>
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<div dir="ltr">If you can find one mainstream national Jewish group that will call for a cease-fire with Al Qaeda, I'll donate $500 to your favorite charity. </div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all">
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<div dir="ltr">Robert Naiman<br>
Policy Director<br>
Just Foreign Policy<br>
<a id="LPlnk978352" href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 3:36 PM, medea benjamin <span dir="ltr">
<<a href="mailto:medea.benjamin@gmail.com" target="_blank">medea.benjamin@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div style="-ms-word-wrap: break-word;">Yes, Kathy Kelly, Ann Wright and I were talking about this same thing, and I second the need for faith-based groups. Medea<br>
<div>
<div>On Feb 16, 2016, at 11:58 AM, David McReynolds <<a href="mailto:davidmcreynolds7@gmail.com" target="_blank">davidmcreynolds7@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div><font size="4">I agree, Michael. A proposal long overdue. I had tried, surely over a year ago, to urge the peace and religious groups to send delegations to all the UN Missions and Embassies of those involved - on any side - to make direct appeal for an
end of using Syria to advance political objectives. But I have no "<span>ba</span><span>se</span>", in my retirement.<br>
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</font></div>
<font size="4">The problem up to now has been that each group has made proposals that only supported the side they had chosen.<b><br>
<br>
</b></font></div>
<font size="4">It would be essential to get religious groups to come into this. I can guarantee that if this is adopted by the sectarian groups it will be dead on arrival - but if we can involve groups such as the AFSC, some key Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish
groups, I think it can take off.<br>
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<font size="4">I'm with you on this.<br>
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<font size="4">David<br>
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<div class="h5">On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 2:20 AM, Michael <span>Eisenscher</span> <span dir="ltr">
<<a href="mailto:m_eisenscher@uslaboragainstwar.org" target="_blank">m_<span>eisenscher</span>@<span>uslaboragainstwar</span>.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div>I expect there's enough in this article to piss everybody off. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>The people who are victims of the Russian and Syrian government bombs, the American and allied missiles, and the Turkish, opposition militia, ISIS and Nusra Front mortar and artillery shells do not likely give a crap whose dropping or firing them. No matter
whose flag is painted on the ordnance, they end up just as dead, maimed and displaced. And everyone, on all sides of this barbaric conflict, is pointing fingers at someone else.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I agree with Raed and others who say that we in the US have a special responsibility to respond to the transgressions of our own government. But, as he also points out, that does not relieve us of the responsibility to respond to the transgressions of
others. We can continue to debate whose hands are bloodier, which party bears the heaviest responsibility. Continuing to do so as some point makes those who feel compelled to engage in that argument complicit in the continuing slaughter.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>My question is what are the most effective steps we can take to hold all parties to account to end the slaughter? </div>
<div> </div>
<div>The antiwar movement has been paralyzed by this conflict and as a consequence ineffectual.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Can we put aside our differences long enough to consider what we can do together to demand that the slaughter must cease and serious political negotiations must take place to reach an agreement that ends the bloodletting?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I'll throw out a proposal to get that discussion going.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Would it be possible for all the organizations to call for a massive demonstration at the United Nations to which we invite delegations from all over the world to participate or ask that they organize comparable actions in their own countries to demand
of all our governments that the killing must stop and serious negotiations begin?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>On February 15, 2003, the whole world said no to war. Is it possible for us to be a catalyst for a call for all those who remain committed to that demand to once again take to the streets in a global action?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Michael</div>
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<h1><span style="font-size: 24pt;">Question of Nusra Front likely to bedevil Syrian cease-fire talks</span></h1>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5em;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-width: 2px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">A move toward a possible break in fighting in Syria faces many hurdles</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-width: 2px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Among them: What constitutes a terrorist group?</span></p>
<div style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Syria protagonists have yet to say they’ll go along with U.S.-Russia announcement</span></div>
<br>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5em;"><img width="600" height="399" alt="" unselectable="on" src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/p6ps64/picture60125636/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/Germany%20Syria%20%282%29"></div>
<br>
<div style="padding: 10px 0px; min-height: 40px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span>U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announce an agreement for a possible cease-fire early Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, in Munich.<span> </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Matthias
Schrader</span><span> </span><span><span>AP</span></span></span><br>
<div style="font: 10pt/normal sans-serif; width: 1px; text-align: left; text-transform: none; overflow: hidden; min-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Read more here: <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article60125646.html#emlnl=Evening_Newsletter%23storylink=cpy" target="_blank">
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article60125646.html#emlnl=Evening_Newsletter#storylink=cpy</a></span></div>
</div>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5em;"> </p>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 12pt; display: block;">BY HANNAH ALLAM</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-transform: none; line-height: 1.5em; font-style: italic;">
<span style="text-transform: none; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; display: block;"><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="mailto:hallam@mcclatchydc.com" target="_blank">hallam@mcclatchydc.com</a></span><br>
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<span style="text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; float: left; display: block;">WASHINGTON<span> </span></span>
<div>
<div>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">After four years of carnage in Syria, the bar for good news is so low that the word “cease-fire” sounded encouraging when Secretary of State John Kerry announced early Friday in Germany that world powers had reached an agreement
intended to pause fighting in the conflict.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Within a day, however, professional observers of the war had concluded that the development is fragile at best, with make-or-break issues left unaddressed, starting with whether both the Syrian government and the rebels would
even accept the terms.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Supposing it makes it past that basic hurdle, the agreement then faces an even tougher challenge: the determination of which fighting groups are terrorists and which are acceptable partners to implement the deal, which doesn’t
cover terrorist groups. A task force co-chaired by Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to tackle that issue, a perennial dispute that threatens the viability of peace talks.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The “cessation of hostilities” deal hammered out in Munich under United Nations auspices excludes the Islamic State and al Qaida’s Nusra Front by name. While the Islamic State has few friends among rebel factions, the Nusra question
is more complicated, given the group’s entrenchment in eight of the nine areas rebels control and its record of cooperation with Western-backed rebels.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nusra Front, known in Arabic as Jabhat al Nusra, operates in or has access to virtually every rebel-held area, and its leader has vowed to keep fighting the government of President Bashar Assad no matter what peace plan foreign
powers attempt to impose. The Munich agreement doesn’t stop Russia – or the United States, for that matter – from attacking Nusra positions. With Nusra fighters scattered across so much territory, it’s hard to imagine even a brief cessation of hostilities,
much less a broader cease-fire.</span></p>
<div style="margin: 40px 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(205, 160, 30); text-transform: uppercase; clear: both; font-family: "McClatchy Sans Cond","Roboto Condensed Medium",HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold,sans-serif; font-weight: 600; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-top-width: 2px; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-style: dotted; border-bottom-style: solid;">
<p style="margin: 20px 0px; line-height: 1.2; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 20px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">NUSRA IS COMPLETELY EMBEDDED WITHIN THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION AND THEREFORE RETAINS THE ABILITY TO SPOIL EVEN LOCALIZED CEASE-FIRE AGREEMENTS.<span style="text-transform: none; font-family: "McClatchy Sans",Arial,"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 5px; display: block;">Jennifer
Cafarella, a Syria specialist</span></span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“It all depends on what the intentions are of the Russians,” said Fred Hof, who led the State Department's early response to the Syrian uprising and is now with the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council.
“If the Russians decide the central interest is continuing the military campaign and marginalizing or neutralizing all alternatives to Assad and ISIS, then the fact that Nusra elements are spread all over – Idlib and Aleppo provinces – gives them kind of a
permission to do what they want.”</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The State Department doesn’t dismiss the steep challenges ahead. Spokesman Mark Toner reiterated to reporters Friday that a “cessation of hostilities” is not the same as a durable agreement to end the war. Echoing Kerry, Toner
called it “a pause” in hostilities and sounded sober about its prospects for success.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“A cease-fire is more the end of a conflict in most people’s minds and judgments – that’s not where we are,” Toner said.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/PLANEX%20Report%203%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">Institute for the
Study of War released a report<span> </span></a>this week assessing the Nusra Front’s strengths and the problems it presents for U.S. strategy in Syria. Researchers found that Nusra is uniquely positioned for longevity, its strength derived from perceived
legitimacy as a primarily Syrian group with religious credentials, a reputation for mediating rebel disputes, control of humanitarian aid, well trained and disciplined forces and a willingness to ease its heavy handedness when it senses locals becoming uneasy.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“The issue here is that Nusra is completely embedded within the Syrian opposition and therefore retains the ability to spoil even localized cease-fire agreements,” said Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria specialist at the institute and
one of the authors of the report.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Nusra can access almost any piece of terrain that the Syrian opposition holds. It is present on almost every front line in some way,” she added.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The picture gets even murkier with a section of the Munich agreement that excludes not only Islamic State and Nusra but unspecified “other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council.”</span></p>
<div style="margin: 40px 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(205, 160, 30); text-transform: uppercase; clear: both; font-family: "McClatchy Sans Cond","Roboto Condensed Medium",HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold,sans-serif; font-weight: 600; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-top-width: 2px; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-style: dotted; border-bottom-style: solid;">
<p style="margin: 20px 0px; line-height: 1.2; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 20px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">WESTERN REFINED EXPERTS MUST KNOW THAT NOT ALL TERRORISTS IN SYRIA ARE WALKING WITH BLACK FLAGS AND WRITINGS ON THEIR BACKS ABOUT BELONGING TO A TERRORIST GROUPING.<span style="text-transform: none; font-family: "McClatchy Sans",Arial,"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 5px; display: block;">Russian
Defense Ministry</span></span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">On the ground, that reads as a threat to ultraconservative Islamist groups such as Jaysh al Islam, also known as the<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaysh_al-Islam" target="_blank">Army
of Islam</a>, and<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article24773947.html" target="_blank">Ahrar al Sham</a>, perhaps the
largest rebel group whose founders had ties to al Qaida. Syrian regime ally Russia considers them terrorist groups, and<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article48058665.html" target="_blank">the
United States has deep misgivings about their ultimate goals for Syria</a>, but they enjoy popular support from the ground and, in strategic areas, are vital to the rebel cause.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“If Russia continues to strike these groups, the cessation of hostilities is likely to collapse,”<a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="https://medium.com/@ChathamHouse/syrian-ceasefire-five-things-you-should-know-90cd49ab82b8#.7u6unw5ue" target="_blank">warned
Chatham House</a>, the London-based foreign policy institute, in a statement on the Munich deal.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="http://eng.syria.mil.ru/en/index/syria/news/more.htm?id=12078017@egNews" target="_blank">Russian Defense Ministry<span> </span></a>on
Friday rejected criticism that its targeting in Syria is overly broad, saying in a statement on the ministry’s website that Moscow conducts a multi-layered intelligence assessment before identifying a target. It also acknowledged, however, that its targets
extend beyond the Islamic State, suggesting that it would be unrealistic to expect Moscow to stop hitting the groups it considers terrorists.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Western refined experts must know that not all terrorists in Syria are walking with black flags and writings on their backs about belonging to a terrorist grouping,” the Russian statement said.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The confusion over terrorist labels plays right into Moscow’s hands, analysts warned, and there’s little Kerry could do to save the Munich deal if Russian strikes help derail it.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“He is asking Russia, Iran and the Assad regime to set aside the strategy and tactics they’ve been pursuing for the sake of saving lives and starting a real diplomatic process that leads to real transition in Syria,” Hof said.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“More power to him if he can talk them out of doing what they’re doing,” he added. “But it’s going to be problematic because leverage-free diplomacy doesn’t have a history of success.”</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">MATTHEW SCHOFIELD CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE FROM BERLIN.</span></p>
<div style="margin: 35px 0px; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; display: block;">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Lyon,Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hannah Allam:<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="tel:202-383-6186" target="_blank">202-383-6186</a>,<span> </span><a title="" style="background: none; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none;" href="https://twitter.com/HannahAllam" target="_blank">@HannahAllam</a></span><br>
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