Where do New York Times correspondents get their insights and information from? Abe Foxman?

"It also appeared to be a call to jihad — a marked departure for Mr. Assad, who has always sought to portray himself as secular and tolerant. He has often denounced the Sunni extremist calls to jihad against him propagated by some elements of the insurgency."  1) Bashshar never ever presented himself as secular and never used that word ever in his speeches in the last two years.  Not once.  This is a Western assumption about Ba`thist rule, which does not shy away from exploiting religion for its own ends.  2) He never ever referred to the sect of the armed groups and never talked about their "Jihad".  So this entire paragraph is really manufactured for extra propaganda effect.