A few weeks ago, Manaf Tlass was known more for whom he knew than what he was. Few people saw in the playboy son of a former defense minister, buddy of President Bashar al-Assad, and brother of a famed Paris hostess a poten-tial Syrian leader. Yet Tlass has recently been anointed in the media as his coun-try's great tousled hope-a development that reveals much about the desperation of those trying to contain the widening civil war, even as they step up covert efforts to over-throw the regime.
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