US State Department: Syria Regime Change Must Be ISO Certified

U.S. training opposition how to administer ‘liberated’ Syrian towns
By Jill Dougherty – CNN

As more areas in Syria slip from control of the Syrian military, the United States is training local opposition members how to run a local government free from the grip of the Assad regime.

The State Department says it is running “training programs” for the members of opposition local coordinating councils in “liberated” areas who are beginning to re-establish civilian authority. The programs help them on issues of civil administration, human-rights training and other services.

The council members are learning “the kinds of things that they might need from the international community as they begin to rebuild their towns,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in her Wednesday briefing.

“They’re asking for help in how to budget. They’re asking for help in how to keep utilities running. How to ensure that the institutions of the state that, you know, provide services to the population, come back up and running. So we are open to supporting all of those kinds of needs,” she explained.

Nuland called it a “first round” of training, tailored to help form a nascent democratic society, even before President Bashar al-Assad is gone.

“It also gives us an opportunity,” she said, “to talk to them about inclusion and protection of minorities and all those things.” The first step is to assess the need, she explained. Training could get more detailed as the opposition requests what it needs from the international community.

Concerned for the security of the new administrators, State Department officials are reluctant to provide details of the training programs, but Nuland said the department is running the programs outside of Syria for those who can exit and return to Syria. For those who remain inside Syria, there are what she called “pretty extensive contacts.”

In addition, the department runs programs in Istanbul that train Syrian student and women leaders, as well as members of the media, in areas like justice and accountability.

Just how much of Syria is out of regime control is unclear. Nuland said it is a “mixed picture.”

“Great swaths” of the country have now been wrenched away from the regime in the north and the east and, increasingly, between some of the major towns, she said, but the fighting is intense in Aleppo, Damascus and some of the major population centers. …more