The Syrian regime and `Aqraba

Nothing is facilitating the stupid Free Syrian Army propaganda on `Aqraba (after its thugs kidnapped some survivors from the village and forced them to claim that they were killed by other `Alawites and for no apparent reason--and this is the account that has been repeated robotically by the New York Times and most Western media) more than the silence of the Syrian regime.  The Syrian regime is terrified of any sectarian talk in its media and you never hear or read the word Sunni or `Alawite: and this is not due to strict standards of secularism but to a stupid assumption that if all sectarian talk is avoided, the regime can still win Sunni political support and that Syrians would not notice the sectarian makeup of most of the ruling elite in Syria.  I have just received note from an inside source in Syria that the regime has instructed all its members to not talk about `Aqraba.  This is very much like the stupid policies of Hizbullah: they think if they avoid open and public sectarian talk, the sectarian campaigns of their enemy would just wither away.