Gray Lady's New Focus on Jihadi Role in Syrian Civil War

Over the last couple months a shift has been apparent in the way the New York Times covers the Syrian civil war. No longer is the conflict covered solely through the prism of al-Assad's demonization. Where before the rise of Al Qaeda and Wahhabism as dominant forces among the rebels received mention, if at all, at the bottom of the story, now, it is the lede. (To give credit where credit is due, Anne Barnard, the Gray Lady's Beirut Bureau Chief and principal reporter on the civil war, fell out of love with the Syrian National Coalition at the end of summer about the time of the Ghouta gassing.)

What this undoubtedly reflects is a shift in the official United States Government position. Once the plan to attack Syria was aborted due to overwhelming public and Congressional opposition, the Obama administration has embraced a position -- at least for public consumption -- that is a polar opposite of one that it espoused just a few months ago.

Despite caterwauling by the Saudis, the U.S. now sees Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al Nusra Front as far more significant threats than the Syrian government. Today's frontpage story, "Private Donors’ Funds Add Wild Card to War in Syria," by Ben Hubbard is the most recent example of the Obama administration's "pivot" to deal with the jihadi domination of pockets of Syria.

Most private donors shun the Western-backed Supreme Military Council, undermining a body meant to unify the rebels into a moderate force. And they dismiss the opposition’s political leadership as well as calls by the United States and other powers for peace talks. With funds estimated to be at least in the tens of millions of dollars, they have contributed to the effective partition of Syria, building up independent Islamist militias that control territory while espousing radical ideology, including the creation of an Islamic state.

Hubbard focuses on the funding network operating in Kuwait. Most of its support goes to Al Nusra.

The Kuwaiti government has played down the importance of the funds, saying Kuwait’s charitable contributions dwarf any cash sent for arms.

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American officials disagree. 

“The Kuwaitis could be doing a lot more on this issue,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. He said that Kuwait posed the region’s biggest problem of financing linked to extremists in Syria, and that American efforts to press the issue with the Kuwaiti government had yielded limited results. 

Mr. Cohen declined to estimate the amount of private funding flowing through Kuwait to Syria, but said it was enough to equip extremist fighters with ample light arms and supplies.

This kind of reporting represents a significant change. The Gulf monarchies will take note. American public opinion is already strongly anti-sheikhdom, running far ahead of what is allowed in the mainstream media. If this point of view gets a toehold in the prestige press, watch out.