{"id":6869,"date":"2011-05-14T10:55:51","date_gmt":"2011-05-14T06:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=6869"},"modified":"2011-05-14T10:55:51","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T06:55:51","slug":"a-glimpse-behind-syrias-curtain-of-secrecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/a-glimpse-behind-syrias-curtain-of-secrecy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glimpse Behind Syria&#8217;s Curtain of Secrecy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/syria_protest.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6870\" title=\"syria_protest\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/syria_protest-e1305197313157.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/syria_protest-e1305197313157.jpg 498w, https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/syria_protest-e1305197313157-145x92.jpg 145w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a>A Times (UK) reporter, Martin Fletcher, has just spent six days undercover in Syria, and he\u2019s been speaking to Sky News.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/fieldproducer\">@fieldproducer<\/a> (Neal Mann) has posted his report <a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/nealmann\/times-correspondent-martin\">here<\/a>. It\u2019s worth listening to in its entirety. In his quite incredible report, he says that the regime will not fall, for two reasons: people are scared of the regime, and so only tens of thousands \u2013 not hundreds of thousands \u2013 of people are on the streets. But people are ALSO scared of sectarian violence if the regime falls.<\/p>\n<p>He says that 15% of the country hates Assad and 20% love him. The rest are indifferent, but they are angry with the protestors for bringing this chaos to their country. The economy is suffering badly.\u00a0He was the only tourist in his hotel \u2013 massive news for a country that relies on foreign visitors.<\/p>\n<p>Fletcher says there are hundreds of tanks on the streets, four at each road junction. There are police everywhere, sandbags outside government buildings and the fear is palpable.<\/p>\n<p>He was pulled out of a taxi at a checkpoint and taken into a basement detention centre. He found scores of young people there \u2013 young men of fighting age are being rounded up and detained.<\/p>\n<p>Go and listen to the three minute report. <a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/nealmann\/times-correspondent-martin\">It is incredible<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYRIA NEWS WIRE: There is real fear of the regime but also a great fear about a possible descent into sectarian chaos without it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":6870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,83,60],"tags":[628,4233,18330,18337],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}