How The Syrian Dissidents Are Organizing Themselves

Robert Fisk:

The Independent can reveal that a system of committees has been set up across the cities of Syria, usually comprising only 10 or 12 friends who have known and trusted each other for years. Each of them enlists 10 of their own friends — and they persuade 10 more each — to furnish information and pictures. Many were put in touch with each other via the cyber kings of Beirut — many of them also Syrian — and thus “circles of trust” have spread at the cost of the secret police snooping that has been part of Syrian life for four decades.

Sounds like an offline version of Facebook. I wonder what kind of Lebanese support the “Cyber kings of Beirut” are getting. They are uploading Youtube videos as they get them, but at the connection speeds we have in Lebanon, this seems like torture, unless they have access to fancy internet connections which they cannot possibly get without a proper paper trail.