E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Reports Say Asir Changed His Looks as Clerics Say He's in Syria
[An Nahar] Islamist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, on the run since the Abra battle, has likely appeared in an audio and not a video recording due to the fact that he had to change his physical appearance in order to be able to flee the military crackdown, reports said on Friday.

LBCI television said Asir's wife Amal and some of the holy mans relatives and close aides in Sidon have confirmed the authenticity of the audio message.

In a recording uploaded Thursday to YouTube, SoundCloud and gulfup.com, a defiant Asir described the deadly Sidon festivities as a plot aimed at ending his presence in the area, accusing Hizbullah of leading and supervising the fighting in the southern city and its suburbs.

"These people are trying to give the impression that this recording is their first evidence that Asir is still alive, although security officials have doubted that, saying the family had received other proofs," LBCI said.

It quoted sources close to Asir as saying that "he did not appear in a video because the requirements of hiding maybe forced him to change his appearance, such as having to shave his beard, and therefore he won't appear audio-visually before he regains his previous looks."

Quoting "some holy mans who are close to Asir and who tried to mediate during the festivities," LBCI said the runaway holy man had managed to leave Leb and enter Syria.

Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
"security authorities continued to analyze the content and technical aspect of Asir's recording to verify if the voice is that of the holy man, although the military judiciary is confident that Asir is still alive and that's why he was mentioned in the lawsuit," LBCI added.

"Security agencies are also trying to determine how the recording was uploaded to some websites in a bid to identify its source or the individuals who published it, but no progress has been made in this regard," the TV network said.

Posted by: Fred 2013-07-06
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=371657