Syrian Hackers Running Amok

So who is in charge of the Syrian Electronic Army and what are they trying to accomplish?

It’s the question of the moment inside the murky realm of cybersecurity: Just who — or what — is the Syrian Electronic Army?

The hacking group that calls itself the S.E.A. struck again on Friday, this time breaking into the Twitter accounts and blog headlines of The Financial Times. The attack was part of a crusade that has targeted dozens of media outlets as varied as The Associated Press and The Onion, the parody news site.

But just who is behind the S.E.A.’s cybervandalism remains a mystery. Paralleling the group’s boisterous, pro-Syrian government activity has been a much quieter Internet surveillance campaign aimed at revealing the identities, activities and whereabouts of the Syrian rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Now sleuths are trying to figure out how much overlap there is between the rowdy pranks playing out on Twitter and the silent spying that also increasingly includes the monitoring of foreign aid workers. It’s a high-stakes search. If researchers prove the Assad regime is closely tied to the group, foreign governments may choose to respond because the attacks have real-world consequences. The S.E.A. nearly crashed the stock market, for example, by planting false tales of White House explosions in a recent hijacking of The A.P.’s Twitter feed.

The mystery is made more curious by the belief among researchers that the hackers currently parading as the S.E.A. are not the same people who started the pro-Assad campaign two years ago.

Experts say the Assad regime benefits from the ambiguity. “They have created extra space between themselves and international law and international opinion,” said James A. Lewis, a security expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The S.E.A. emerged during the Syrian uprisings in May 2011, they said, to offer a pro-Assad counternarrative to news coming out of Syria. In speeches, Mr. Assad likened the S.E.A. to the government’s own online security corps, referring to the group as “a real army in a virtual reality.”

We'll probably start seeing more and more of these types of 'loosely associated' groups, especially when cyber warfare is largely independent of geography.

By: Brant

Monday Video: Syrian Opposition Armor

Following the recent capture of a Syrian Army base outside of Damascus, the Syrian opposition is starting to field their own armored force.
h/t Rex
By: Brant

War Crimes, Syria, Israel, and Indiscriminate Rocket Fire

Note from Brant:  Rex Brynen has kindly allowed us to repost his excellent summary of 'war crimes' that he originally had up over at Facebook.  He also recommended this link for many of legalisticisms that people may want to dig into.

At the risk of upsetting just about everyone on all sides of every conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere, some clarity on what is--or is not--technically a "war crime":

1) Attacking a military commander or rocket launching site in a way that results in civilian casualties. Usually not a war crime, if the force use was appropriate to the military advantage gained (a very fuzzy/elastic concept) and the civilians were not deliberately targeted. Whether it is a sensible thing to do is another issue.

2) Imposing an embargo on key economic goods for the purposes of collective punishment of a civilian population. Usually yes. An embargo is permissible for other purposes, however.

3) Declaring a naval blockade, and stopping ships in international waters. Perfectly legal. However, the actual policy being supported by the blockade might be illegal (see #2).

4) Firing inaccurate rockets at civilian areas. Definitely a war crime. If they were accurate rockets fired at a military target it would probably not be a war crime, even if civilians were hit too (proportionality/military advantage).

5) Syrian army firing at FSA in a residential building that also contains civilians. Usually not a war crime (see #1).

6) FSA firing at Syrian troops in a residential building that also contains civilians. Usually not a war crime (see #1).

7) Indiscriminate Syrian aerial or artillery bombardment of rebel-held civilian neighbourhoods. War crime (see #4).

8) Denying Palestinian right to self-determination. Immoral, politically-short sighted, a violation of other aspects of international human rights law, but not a war crime per se.

9) Settlement activity in occupied territories. Yes, a war crime (Rome Statutes, Art 8.2.b.viii)

10) Deliberately using civilians as human shields. Yes, a war crime.

11) Conducting military operations in built-up areas where there are lots of civilians around. No. The difference between this and #10 is hard to discern in practice, of course, since it hinges on intent.

12) Hiding rockets in the basements of houses. Not a war crime. Bombing those houses is also not a war crime. Shooting those rockets is a war crime if they aren't really aimed, or are aimed at a civilian target. It is not a war crime if they are aimed at a military target or a strategic economic target.

13) Deliberately bombing UN facilities. Yes, war crime. Ditto Red Cross facilities, hospitals. Deliberate targeting of religious establishments and cultural institutions is a war crime too--UNLESS those installations have lost their protection by being used for military purposes (like weapons storage or firing positions). In that case bombing them is permitted.

14) Accidentally bombing UN facilities, etc. No, unless one could show some willful disregard for the presence of such facilities.

15) Car bombs and suicide bombers. Depends on the target (and hence proportionality/military advantage). See #4.

In general, international law clearly allows military forces to kill civilians. However, it places limits on that killing: it must not be deliberate, the use of force may not be indiscriminate, and the use of force (and collateral damage caused) must be proportionate to the military advantage gained.

Finally, the extent to which actions are or are not technically "war crimes" is a separate issue from the morality (and legality) of the larger purpose for which military force is employed (although that can get fuzzy if notions of aggression vs legitimate self-defence are introduced).

By: Rex Brynen

Syrian Military HQ Targeted in Damascus

Large blasts were heard in Damascus as bombers attack Syria military HQ.

Rebels have targeted Syria's army headquarters with two large bomb blasts in the centre of Damascus.

Military officials said one of the bombs had caused damage to the main building of the General Staff.

The anti-regime Free Syrian Army said they had carried out the attack and claimed dozens had been killed. The army said no-one had died.

A BBC reporter in the city said gunfire could still be heard, amid reports that a fierce gun battle had broken out.

Syrian state TV quoted a military source saying no senior personnel were harmed by the explosions, but some of the building's guards were wounded.

It said "terrorist attackers" had opened fire inside the perimeter of the compound and in nearby streets, and security forces had confronted them.

The blasts happened just before 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT) in an area dominated by government buildings.

By: Brant

Jet Shot Down By Rebels in Syria

In addition to all the ground equipment destroyed or captured, the rebels have now shot down a fighter jet in northern Syria.

Rebel fighters trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad shot down a fighter jet as it flew over the northern Syrian town of Atarib in Idlib province, a witness said.
The witness, an independent journalist who asked to remain anonymous, said rebel fighters were attacking a military base near the town when the jet flew over and rebels shot it down with anti-aircraft guns.
Vastly outgunned, rebels say they need surface-to-air missiles to take down planes and helicopters used by the Syrian military to bombard opposition strongholds.
Fighters use outdated anti-aircraft machine guns that are welded to pickup trucks but they are inaccurate and useless if the military aircraft fly above a certain altitude.
On August 27 fighters shot down a helicopter on the outskirts of Damascus and three days later rebels said they had brought down a jet in Idlib, near the Turkish border.

By: Brant

Rebels Attack Army HQ in Damascus

Syrian rebels have managed to attack the army headquarters in Damascus.

Syrian rebels said they planted bombs inside the Syrian army's General Staff headquarters in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad's forces bulldozed buildings to the ground in parts of the capital that have backed the uprising.
Syrian state television said four people were wounded in what it called a terrorist attack on the General Staff compound in the highly guarded Abu Rummaneh district, where another bomb attack killed four of Assad's top lieutenants two months ago.
"The operation targeted officers in the Assad army who have been planning and giving the go ahead for the massacres against the Syrian people," said a video statement by the Grandsons of the Prophet brigade, a division of the Free Syrian Army.
"Bombs were planted inside the army headquarters," said the video statement, which was broadcast on Arab satellite channels.
But as the rebels demonstrated they could strike at the heart of the security apparatus, residents said army bulldozers moved on al-Zayat and Farouk neighborhoods to the west, and destroyed at least 20 buildings in the Sunni Muslim areas that have sheltered the insurgents.
In the eastern Damascus neighborhood of Hazza, footage taken by activists on Sunday showed several buildings on fire. Opposition sources said the army had earlier stormed the area and executed 27 young men.
"Any youth of fighting age seems to have been captured and killed," said activist Obadah al-Haj, who had fled the area.

By: Brant

Syrian Civil War Changing Dimensions

As Assad has lost control of more ground, his forces are operating above it more and more. And the Syrian rebels have started countering this threat.

Rebels seized an air defense facility and attacked a military airport in eastern Syria on Saturday, a monitoring group said, hitting back at an air force which President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly relying on to crush his opponents.
The attacks in eastern oil-producing Deir al-Zor province follow rebel strikes against military airports in the Aleppo and Idlib areas, close to the border with Turkey.
Assad, battling a 17-month-old uprising in which 20,000 people have been killed, has lost control of rural areas in northern, eastern and southern regions and has resorted to helicopter gunships and fighter jets to subdue his foes.

By: Brant

Syrian Rebels Claim Helicopters Destroyed

FSA (or someone affiliated with them) are claiming they destroyed 5 choppers on the ground in a raid. The Syrian government, predictably, denied it.

Syrian rebels said they destroyed five helicopters in a raid on a military airport between the northern cities of Aleppo and Idlib on Wednesday, while state television said the attack was repelled.
Abu Mossab, a rebel who said he took part in the attack, told AFP via Skype that rebels shelled Taftanaz military airport with two tanks captured from the army and destroyed five helicopters.
"We destroyed five helicopters as well as buildings in the airport," Abu Mossab said, although the facility remained in army hands after the raid in which the rebels lost two men before pulling back.
"The regime's MiG planes continue to bomb houses in Taftanaz, which has been emptied of its inhabitants," the rebel added.
Syrian state television said the military repelled the attack with the airport suffering "no material damage."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights earlier reported fierce fighting near the airport and helicopter raids on the nearby town of Taftanaz.

Now, the Syrian government has lost a lot more equipment than they're admitting to, so it's not a surprise they brushed it off. But their army is down more than a brigade's worth of tanks/BMPs, so it's not like you expect them to man up about this one.

By: Brant

An Information War We're Losing

If Syrian jihadist-wannabe's think we're keeping Assad in power, then it's clear that US information flow in the MidEast is pretty dicked up.

Among those volunteering for the frontline was a young Iraqi from Falluja, a bastion of the Sunni insurgency against U.S. occupation and Shi'ite-led governments that followed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003: "For me, it's the same battle," said the man, who gave his first name as Jawad.
Though he had written his will and was ready for martyrdom, he said, he also did not want any trouble if he did return to his regular job - as an accountant for a Japanese firm in Dubai.
"America planted its Shi'ite stooges in Iraq, and America and Israel are now keeping Assad in power to stifle the awakening of the Sunnis," asserted Jawad, who said his infant sister had died in a U.S. raid in Falluja in 2004 and an elder brother was tortured to death by suspected Shi'ite militiamen.
"I am here," he said, "To avenge my sister and brother."

While I can admire his passion - even if it is directed against my country - it would be nice if he had an occasional fact in his hip pocket.

By: Brant

"Lightly Arming" Syrian Opposition - Good Idea?

Doctrine Man thinks this is shades of Afghanistan in the '80s. I think the suggestion that we "lightly arm" the Syrian Opposition shows that we're just trying too hard to hedge our bets: if it goes well then we can claim we 'helped' and if it goes to shit someone unfriendly to the US takes over then we can claim 'we really didn't do much'. The problem is that if it's true in one direction, it's true in the other, and if the opposition wins, they can claim 'we really didn't do much' and that's not going to do much for US foreign policy.

Arming the Syrian opposition is a better option. The Assad regime has shown no hesitation in using artillery and armor against the Syrian people. Equipping Syrian rebels with light anti-tank weapons such as RPG-7s will allow them to combat the regime’s T-55 and T-72 tanks. RPG-7s and lighter anti-tank weaponry are not capable of penetrating U.S. M1 Abrams tanks.

The Middle East is already awash in such weaponry so America wouldn’t be introducing anything new. Getting them quickly and directly into the hands of Syrian resistance fighters will bring the timely turning point needed to end the violence. Keeping an eye on the future after the Assad regime falls, America should stop short of providing small-arms weaponry, such as machine guns which may be used in the turmoil after the regime falls.

By: Brant

Video Footage From Free Syrian Army

Free Syrian Army ambush that nets them a pair of captured T72s.



h/t Rex

By: Brant

Syrian Civil War Now Officially a... uh... "Civil War"

Red Cross declares Syrian conflict to be civil war - Yahoo! News

Syria's 16-month bloodbath crossed an important symbolic threshold Sunday as the international Red Cross formally declared the conflict a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions.
The Red Cross statement came as United Nations observers gathered new details on what happened in a village where dozens were reported killed in a regime assault. After a second visit to Tremseh on Sunday, the team said Syrian troops went door-to-door in the small farming community, checking residents' IDs and then killing some and taking others away.
According to the U.N., the attack appeared to target army defectors and activists.
"Pools of blood and brain matter were observed in a number of homes," a U.N. statement said.
Syria denied U.N. claims that government forces had used heavy weapons such as tanks, artillery and helicopters during the attack Thursday.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the violence was not a massacre — as activists and many foreign leaders have alleged — but a military operation targeting armed fighters who had taken control of the village.

By: Brant

Defections from Syria Speeding Up

Another mass defection to Turkey.

Eighty-five Syrian soldiers, including one general and at least 14 lower-ranking officers, fled into southern Turkey’s Hatay Province on Monday, Turkish news agencies reported. It was one of the largest mass military defections since the Syrian conflict began 16 months ago.

A Turkish broadcaster, T.R.T. Haber, said the defectors entered the town of Reyhanli as part of a group of 293 refugees “fleeing atrocities in Syria.” It said the defectors were placed in the Apaydin refugee camp, where there are already about 2,000 former members of the Syrian military who have abandoned allegiance to President Bashar al-Assad. The civilians in the group were sent to another camp along the shared border with Syria.

Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said the 14 lower-ranking officers included a colonel and a lieutenant colonel.

The once-close relationship between Turkey and Syria has badly frayed with Mr. Assad’s harsh repression of an uprising that began last year in March as a peaceful political protest and has since evolved into an armed insurgency.

Turkey’s government is now allowing the insurgent Free Syrian Army to operate from bases inside the Turkish border and is housing more than 35,000 Syrian civilians who have sought refuge from the conflict. The Turks also have sent antiaircraft batteries to the border in response to the June 22 downing of a Turkish military plane by Syrian gunners. On Monday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it scrambled warplanes from its Incirlik air base in southern Turkey when three Syrian military helicopters were seen approaching the border.

By: Brant

Fighting around Syrian capital

Attacks around Damascus have includeda military barracks.

State forces and rebels were locked in heavy fighting in several areas outside Damascus on Tuesday, activists said, in the worst violence to hit the suburbs of the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 16 months ago.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy fighting near the Republican Guard headquarters in Qudsiya, and in the suburbs of al-Hama and Mashrou' Dumar, just 9 km (6 miles) outside Damascus.
Samir al-Shami, an activist in Damascus, said tanks and armoured vehicles were also out on the streets of the suburbs and some activists reported that one tank had been blown up.

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More High-Ranking Syrian Defections

Heading to Turkey: Syrian general and two colonels.

Several high-ranking Syrian military figures have defected to Turkey, reports in Turkish media say.

A general, two colonels, two majors and about 30 other soldiers are said to have crossed into Hatay province on Sunday night.

They were part of a group of some 200 people who crossed the border overnight into Monday, Anatolia news agency says.

By: Brant

Next Steps For NATO After Syria Shoot Down Turkish Jet

NATO consultations are coming. What will the reaction be?

Turkey said on Sunday Syria had shot down its military aircraft in international airspace on Friday without warning and declared it would formally consult its NATO allies on a reaction.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking some 48 hours after the jet was shot down near both countries' sea borders, told state broadcaster TRT the plane had been clearly marked as Turkish and dismissed Syria's earlier statement it had not known the plane belonged to Turkey.
He said the downed jet was unarmed and had been on a solo mission to test domestic radar systems and that the flight had no connection to the crisis in neighboring Syria.
"Our plane was shot at a distance of 13 sea miles from Syria's border in international airspace," Davutoglu said.
"According to the radar images, our plane lost contact with headquarters after it was hit and because the pilot lost control, it crashed into Syrian waters after making abnormal movements," he said.
"Throughout this entire period no warning was made to our plane."

By: Brant

Syrian Shoots Down Turkish Plane

Syria is blundering around like a mean drunk in a bar, and they just landed a stray punch on the neighborhood badass that'd been staying out of the fight.

Syria shot down a warplane from Turkey on Friday that it said had violated its airspace, an event that illustrated the potential for the Syrian conflict to spill across its borders and risked a further deterioration in relations between neighbors that once were close allies.

In a terse statement after midnight, the office of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syria had downed a Turkish plane that disappeared about midday off the Syrian coast. The fate of the two pilots was unknown.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency, known as SANA, said the aircraft, flying low and fast, violated Syrian airspace over the Mediterranean Sea and was shot down by ground fire. It said the plane was hit about half a mile from the Syrian coast and crashed into the sea.

The incident appears to be another example of how the Syria conflict has elevated regional tensions. Syria sits in the heart of the volatile Middle East and its instability has already had ramifications in Turkey, Lebanon and elsewhere.

Will this become the pretext NATO needs to invoke Article 5 and intervene without bothering with the UN and Russian/Chinese obstructionism?

By: Brant

Syrian Military Defections Continue

This one's a little more high-profile, too, since he's a pilot, a high-ranking pilot, and requesting asylum after flying his Syrian jet to another country.

The pilot of a Syrian MiG 21 fighter jet who flew his plane to Jordan on Thursday asked for political asylum on landing, Jordanian Minister of State for Information Samih al-Maaytah said.
"He requested political asylum in Jordan. He is being debriefed at the moment," Maaytah told Reuters.
Syrian state television named the pilot as Colonel Hassan Hamada, saying communications were lost with his plane while he was on a training mission near the border with Jordan.

By: Brant

Russia Shipping Weapons / Troops to Syria? And for What?

Are they headed there to 'cause trouble'? Or are they there to help defend the Russian naval base there?

The United States says it is tracking a Russian military cargo ship as it makes its way to Syria carrying weapons, ammunition and a small number of Russian troops.

U.S. intelligence believes the Russians are sending the ship to help fortify its naval base in Syria as the situation in country continues to spiral out of control, Pentagon officials told CNN Friday.

The presence of the ship was first reporting by NBC News.

Classified U.S. imagery shows the ship, called the Nikolay Filchenkov, began loading in the port of Sevastapol on the Black Sea on June 7 and is headed for the Syrian port of Tartus, where the Russians have a naval facility. The port is vital for Russian naval access to the entire Middle East.

Under maritime rules, Russia should declare what the ship is carrying when it enters the Mediterranean, U.S. officials said.

The sources could not say how many troops are on board, though it is not believed to be a large number. In addition, the officials said, it is not clear if the troops are only to help secure and transport the weapons and equipment or if they will stay in Syria.

For now, the United States believes Russia's intention is to defend its naval base. But it is not clear how much of a threat the Russians really are facing from Syrian opposition forces. There have been no reports of significant fighting in the area lately.

Is the naval base here in the port?


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By: Brant

Syria Lashed Out At US "Interference" - And Accepts Russian Choppers for Delivery

Syria tells the US to stop interfering.

The rebel pullout came as Syria lashed out at the United States after Washington warned of possible mass killings in Haffa.
Syria's foreign ministry said the remarks by a State Department spokeswoman warning that President Bashar Assad's forces could commit massacres in Haffa coincided with stepped-up attacks by rebels in the area. The ministry's statement was reported Wednesday by the state-run news agency, SANA.
"The U.S. administration is continuing its blatant interference in the internal affairs of Syria, its open support for the terrorists, covering up the terrorists' crimes," the statement said.
Haffa is one of several areas where Syrian government forces are battling rebels for control. It is particularly important, because the town is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Assad's hometown of Kardaha in Latakia province along the Mediterranean coast. Latakia is the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad and the ruling elite belong, although there is a mix of religious groups.

But Russian interference? We don't mind so much.

"There's no doubt that the onslaught continues, the use of heavy artillery and the like," Clinton told a discussion with Israeli President Shimon Peres hosted by the Brookings Institution.
Washington had pressed Moscow, a longstanding ally of Damascus, to stop what Clinton called "continued arms shipments to Syria."
"They have from time to time said that we shouldn't worry, that everything they're shipping is unrelated to their actions internally. That's patently untrue," the top US diplomat insisted.
"We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically," Clinton added.

By: Brant