CrowBat, I agree we have information asymmetry here, but I'm not saying who is at the disadvantage. While not my intent, I suspect this post is going to make you want to pull your hair out. You may have a much better understanding of nuances of who's who and what group is more dominant, but there is little in the media to support your counter arguments, at least as I understand them. It does seem based on your comments I am misreading some of your posts, so my apologies if I'm misconstruing your intent. Using media sources I'm going to attempt to make a link between AQ affiliated groups in Libya and AQ affiliated groups in in Syria.

I'll will digress to Libya briefly, and then back to Syria. I'll caveat the following statements with first I agree with your comment that this is all gray, never black and white. I'll add it is my observation (my perception) that the relationships between these groups and its members change frequently. It is a bloody kaleidoscope, and if you focus on day to day reporting instead of the trends it is beyond comprehension. I think the trends are currently positive for AQ, but I also think AQ will pull defeat out of the jaws of victory in short order like they always do because the bottom line is no one really wants their form of oppressive governance. It still leaves open the question in my pea brain on how they're so successful in exploiting these existing conflicts and rapidly gaining a dominant position, even if it is ephemeral.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-group-leaders

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – from al-Qaida to the Arab spring
The Libyan anti-Gaddafi group with past links to al-Qaida has been the focus of British intelligence interest for 20 years

Founded in 1990 in eastern Libya and accused of attempting to kill Gaddafi three times – according to unconfirmed claims with help from MI6 – the LIFG was effectively defeated on its home turf by 1998. Its cadres fled first to Sudan and Afghanistan and Iraq where hundreds joined al-Qaida. It was officially disbanded in 2010.
Other top ex-LIFG figures remain in al-Qaida. Its chief of operations, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a Libyan, was killed two weeks ago in a CIA drone strike. His likely successor, Abu Yahya al-Libi, is also Libyan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...eda-links.html

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links
Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

In my opinion there are clear links between many Libyans and Al-Qaeda, and some Libyans actually became part of Al-Qaeda core. Now I'll transition to linking them to Syria.

The following article on AQ is actually worthy of its own thread, so I'll probably start one focused on this article without focusing on Syria, but a couple of excerpts to facilitate the promised transition from this article are helpful.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/2612201...-qaeda-primer/

The Three Versions Of Al Qaeda: A Primer


Ansar al Sharia in Libya: 2012 – 2013

In the wake of Muammar al Gaddafi’s fall, the security vacuum in Libya not only enabled the rise of AQIM in the Sahel but also freed previously suppressed extremist elements in the country. Ansar al Sharia, a grassroots extremist group sharing the name of AQAP’s insurgent organization in Yemen, emerged in the former bastions of eastern Libya previously home to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and known for supplying numerous foreign fighters to Iraq. The group rose to international prominence after being connected to the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, killing a U.S. ambassador, among others. The group has been challenged locally but appears a natural conduit for al Qaeda activities in Libya.
Jabhat al Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham in Syria: 2011 – 2013

No battlefield presents a greater opportunity to al Qaeda than Syria. Syria’s revolution has endured for two years allowing a small group of al Qaeda-connected extremists to emerge as a dominant force against the Assad regime. To date, the Syrian jihad has likely produced the largest migration of foreign fighters in history, eclipsing the supplies of both Afghanistan in the 1980s and Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2000s. Jabhat al Nusra initiated the first jihadist effort in Syria but has since been matched by a creeping al Qaeda in Iraq that has challenged both Nusra and al Qaeda’s leader Zawahiri by creating the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) in an attempt to take control of the jihad in Syria. This public rift provides the only buffer to a jihadist movement unmet by Western counterterrorism efforts.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat...ar_al_sh_1.php

Social Media Jihad: Ansar al Sharia Libya's new Twitter feed

Ansar al Sharia Libya, the al Qaeda-linked group that was involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, has a new Twitter feed. The Twitter page, which can be found here, was apparently launched in the last 24 hours. The group announced its new Twitter presence on its Facebook page.
SITE reports:

Although the Facebook posts did not document the content of the speeches or reading materials passed out at the event, the group's past publications and statements have resolutely rejected democracy and praised al Qaeda. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the group is helping to funnel foreign fighters to Syria where they link up with al Qaeda's affiliates there.
http://freebeacon.com/u-s-al-qaeda-l...-rebel-groups/

U.S.: Al Qaeda-linked Group Behind Benghazi Attack Trains Jihadists for Syrian Rebel Groups

Ansar al-Sharia running training camps in Benghazi and Darnah

U.S. intelligence agencies believe Libya has produced more jihadist rebels for the Syrian conflict than any other outside nation. Some 20 percent of foreign jihadists in Syria came from Libya and that several hundred are currently in the country.

Over 100 Libyans were reported killed in Syrian fighting for such rebel groups as Al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Umma Brigade, Muhajirin Brigade, and Ahrar al-Sham, an Al-Nusra offshoot.
Now some good news as you pointed out above.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25606370

Al-Qaeda-linked Isis under attack in northern Syria

Isis is fighting Free Syrian Army groups as well as the Islamic Front, a coalition of Syrian rebel factions which also wants to build an Islamic state in Syria.
Other rebel groups say Isis has attempted to hijack their struggle for its own ends.
This makes perfect sense since the U.S. and other nations will put pressure on foreign donors to limit support to the resistance if it is perceived to be linked to, or dominated by AQ. Killing off the ISIS operatives in Syria may open the flood gates for effective military aid to the resistance.

I'll end with a commentary from the Washington Post today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...df2_story.html

The slow-motion conflagration around Syria

STATE DEPARTMENT officials have been warning for nearly two years that Syria’s civil war, if not brought to a prompt end, could blossom into a regional conflagration that consumes Iraq and Lebanon and threatens vital U.S. interests. Their predictions have been coming true, but in slow motion, enabling those who hope to ignore the growing danger — notably President Obama — to remain complacent.

This week brought another potential wake-up call, in the form of a disturbing escalation of terrorist violence in both countries. In Iraq, al-Qaeda launched an offensive to take control of two cities, Fallujah and Ramadi, that U.S. troops sacrificed heavily to clear of terrorists between 2004 and 2008. In Lebanon, a car bomb exploded in a Hezbollah-controlled suburb of Beirut just days after a prominent critic of the Shiite movement was assassinated in another bombing.