"They are in sync with what has defined the Arab uprisings," says a Western analyst who asked not to be named. "They flooded the place with [satellite] phones and computers, and they have their own contacts with the Western media and connect the two."

Much of the drive for this new kind of activism that expands the traditional role of nongovernmental organizations comes from founder and current president, Ricken Patel, a 35-year-old Oxford and Harvard-educated Canadian. Patel has done his share of work for NGOs in war-torn countries, from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan.

In an interview in New York, he told NPR's Kelly McEvers the lessons he drew from working with the public sector "when you're in war zones with crying human needs." He believes other aid organizations are often too slow and offer too little, and are "process-obsessed."

"It's risk-adverse, it's controversy-allergic," he said, "and there is one overriding principle, often it's 'cover your ass,' that governs the way these organizations function."

Traditional NGOs are severely constrained by the Syrian government, which has prevented international organizations from delivering humanitarian aid to "armed terrorist gangs" in cities besieged by the army.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was heavily criticized by Syrian activists in a Twitter campaign for what they said was the ICRC's failure to evacuate civilians in Baba Amr, during a military assault.

"We were furious," says Jabri, the Syrian activist in Lebanon, when the ICRC worked with the Syrian Red Crescent, which is an agency of the Syrian government.

Avaaz's fundraising campaign characterized the assault on Baba Amr as a "murder machine to crush the Syrian spring once and for all." Avaaz's aid operation is carried out without Syrian government approval.

The Right Role?

Perhaps the riskiest operations came in February, when Avaaz announced it had coordinated the evacuation of British photographer Paul Conroy from the city of Homs.

Conroy was wounded as government troops bombarded the city, an attack that killed his colleague Marie Colvin of the London Sunday Times and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Thirteen Syrian activists died in the extraction operation.

Seven others linked to the operation were arrested by security forces and then "shot in the back of the head with their hands tied behind their backs," Avaaz's Patel said in an interview with the BBC.

The death of so many Syrian activists in the operation led many to ask if Avaaz has crossed a line, not just a border.

"I am not questioning their motives," says Randa Slim, a research fellow at the New America Foundation who specializes in the Syrian opposition. "But lives are at stake. Are they the right entity to do it? Is an NGO the right outlet?"

The group's website says the organization was responding to requests from the journalists, their families and colleagues to get them out and "worked with over 35 heroic Syrian activists each night who volunteered to help in the rescue."

As the most recent funding appeal makes clear, Avaaz continues to smuggle medical supplies and cameras across the border, as well as foreign journalists.

Syrian Regime Takes Note

In this most brutal chapter of the Arab revolts, the battle for Syria is also a war of words and competing narratives. Since March, Avaaz has become the target of a fierce propaganda campaign inside Syria and on the Web as the Assad government spins the story through outlets the state controls.

Al-Dunia TV, a private television channel with close ties to the president, broadcast a "documentary" claiming Avaaz trained journalists to "fake war propaganda from Syria."

The Al-Dunia video was also posted on YouTube. Websites linked to the Syrian regime allege Avaaz is part of a foreign conspiracy to overthrow Assad.

The Syrian ambassador to Lebanon has demanded a halt to smuggling operations.

Slim explains that Lebanon is under intense pressure for "allowing Lebanon to become a base for the opposition." Damascus now sees Avaaz as an arm of the opposition, she says.

In the power struggle over Syria, says Slim, "the question is, how long will they be able to operate in Lebanon."

Copyright NPR 2021.