Fast forward: 'Repackaging Jabhat al Nusra as Godzilla: Not bad, but misunderstood!'

"... There are signs of fights among the various Islamist groups, too, both those within the F.S.A. and those outside its broad umbrella. In a recent audiotape to mark the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri told ultraconservative Islamist factions fighting in Syria to avoid alliances with Western- and Gulf-backed rebel fighters—an instruction that Jabhat al-Nusra has now failed to heed. This move could be viewed through the prism of its own recent dispute with the leadership ofISIS. Jabhat al-Nusra has chafed against ISIS’s attempts to envelop it into its organization, and the feud has splintered Al Qaeda’s affiliates in Syria. The new alliance, should it last, might be the seeds of a coalition that opposes ISIS. By stressing its strong Islamist character, it is trying to preëmpt any claims by ISIS that it is made up of “unbelievers.”..."