Syria's Voices of Change

Each day, he and his staff of four receive submissions, scour Syrian, Lebanese, pan-Arab and other foreign newspapers, cover news conferences and browse Web sites. (Abdel Nour purchased software for $1 that allows him to circumvent government controls and reach Web sites banned in Syria.) Spending six to seven hours a day, he whittles nearly 200 pages of material to less than half. In all, he uses about two dozen articles in Arabic, with an occasional contribution in French or English.

In two years, he said, he has never taken a day off.

"We didn't even have a holiday on Christmas," said Abdel Nour, who is from an Orthodox Christian family.

The topics run the gamut from corruption and globalization to the government's ability to introduce sincere change and the prospect of cooperation between Islamic and secular opposition groups. One writer asked bluntly: "Is it possible for Syria to reform?" Another entry quoted U.S. congressional testimony this year that decried Syria "as an oppressor state in every sense."

"You can know everything going on in Syria better than the ministers themselves," he said.

Many in opposition circles believe Abdel Nour is protected by President Bashar Assad, whose own reformist impulses are a subject of considerable debate. Abdel Nour remains loyal to the party and doesn't doubt a desire for reform on the part of some within the government. But he said he worries over what they face: a sclerotic establishment and an oblivious old guard.

"They are out of date. The last book they read was in the 1970s. All of them are educated in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and they don't know what the Internet means," he said. He shook his head, his arms flailing. "Is this believable?"

Frustration often marks Abdel Nour's words, as if he is preaching to the inconvertible. Like many, he is sober, even pessimistic about the future. But as he often does, he offers an answer in the form of a question: What's the alternative?

"You have to be inside. You have to persuade the people of reform. You have to lobby them and have them join you. This is the best way to facilitate transition, to not have chaos like you have in Iraq," he said. "The smoothest way is to change from inside."

An Eclectic Opposition

"Let this regime go to hell," answers Riad Turk, an anti-government opposition leader.

The most adamant dissidents in Syria remain an eclectic lot: the Muslim Brotherhood, groups representing Syria's Kurdish minority, and a generation of leftists and nationalists in and out of jail. The leadership of the Brotherhood, whose battle with the government in the late 1970s and '80s bordered on civil war, largely fled into exile. The Kurdish parties are still mainly dedicated to fighting for ethnic rights. Anti-government leftists are searching for a vision and a leadership to pronounce it.

Turk, 75, a communist leader, is perhaps the most iconic of the dissidents, respected by many for his conviction and trials.