More on Syria

[loudnconfident]

While we're on Islamic splits, this latest:

https://www.memri.org/reports/isis-laun ... dawi-saudi

"In the last few days, propagandists and supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a widespread organized campaign against prominent Muslim clerics in the Arab world and the West who are accused of collaborating with the Arab regimes and with the international coalition that is combating ISIS. The campaign, titled "Fight the Imams of Unbelief" (a quote from Koran 9:12), explicitly targets senior figures such as prominent Egyptian cleric Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, Saudi chief mufti 'Abd Al-'Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, former Egyptian chief mufti 'Ali Gum'a, Iraqi chief mufti Mahdi al-Sumaidaie and Syrian chief mufti Ahmad Hassoun, popular preachers on Arab satellite channels such as the Saudi Muhammad Al-'Arifi, and clerics associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda, as well as prominent clerics in the West, such as Australian sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman and U.S.-based cleric 'Omar Suleiman. "[my emphasis]

ISIS are turning on Sunni sellouts. Interesting to hear Yousuf Al-Qaradawi called an apostate! The Saudi Grand Mufti who is also a sellout (according to ISIS). Seems a bit harsh, as he himself, In September 2016, ruled that all Muslims living in Iran are actually unbelievers, enemies of Islam, and "sons of the magicians"

[rowan]

& your point is . . . ?

(Most of what you just wrote/quoted is fictional, but I'm interested to know anyway).

[rowan]

Oh dear, I've just checked out the source LoudnConfident was referencing:



The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is a not for profit press monitoring and analysis organization with headquarters in Washington, DC. - Wiki

Norman Finkelstein Exposes
MEMRI As Mossad Op
MEMRI Is A 'Propaganda Machine,' Expert Says And
Why You Need To Know About Them
http://www.rense.com/general77/norm.htm

Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is a Israeli propaganda organization that selectively translates materials from the Arab/Muslim/Iranian press purportedly demonstrating hostility against Israel/Jews. According to the MEMRI web site: "MEMRI emphasizes the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel."[1]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mi ... _Institute

The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon. Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

The organisation that makes these translations and sends them out is the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), based in Washington but with recently-opened offices in London, Berlin and Jerusalem.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/ ... anwhitaker

MEMRI-TV is an Israeli propaganda outlet http://investmentwatchblog.com/memri-tv ... da-outlet/



MEMRI was co-founded by Meyrav Wurmser and its founder is Colonel Yigal Carmon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence, “both of whom were early critics of the Oslo accords.”. The source of their critical opposition to the Oslo accords has unfortunately been removed from “The Jewish Daily Forward”

https://islamthought.wordpress.com/2010 ... a-machine/

[loudnconfident]

Memri is indeed an excellent resource, an eye into the Arab world which we otherwise don’t get. Rowan the clips I listed (the mosque bombing, Egyptian TV row) are real. I can't say that the translations were not Perverted by the Evil Zionist Entity as I don’t speak Arabic but it seems unlikely. Do you have better translations?

The human disaster and backwardness of the Arab nations has been fully documented by the UN (part of the Zionist Conspiracy too?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Huma ... ent_Report

From the 2002 report (at http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files ... 002_en.pdf )

“The figures for translated books are also discouraging. The Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth of the number that Greece translates. The cumulative total of translated books since the Caliph Maa’moun’s time (the ninth century) is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year (Galal, S., 1999)."

Blaming The Jews is not a solution. (Which is not to excuse Israel, of of course Western acts in the Middle East. But the underlying problem is Muslim/Arab and can really only be fixed internally)

[rowan]

& as for Amnesty International . . .

The West’s vast propaganda machine has pulled in many formerly respectable groups, such as Amnesty International, which just released a dubious “human rights” report aimed at stoking the war in Syria, reports Rick Sterling.


By Rick Sterling

Amnesty International (AI) has done some good investigations and reports over the years, which has won the group widespread support. However, less well recognized, Amnesty International has also carried out faulty investigations with bloody and disastrous consequences.

One prominent example is in Iraq, where AI “corroborated” the false story that Iraqi soldiers were stealing incubators from Kuwait, leaving babies to die on the cold floor. The deception was planned and carried out in Washington to influence the U.S. public and Congress.

A more recent example is from 2011 where false accusations were being made about Libya and Muammar Gaddafi as Western and Gulf powers sought to overthrow his government. AI leaders joined the campaign claiming that Gaddafi was using “mercenaries” to threaten and kill peacefully protesting civilians. The propaganda was successful in muting criticism of what became an invasion and “regime change.”

Going far beyond a United Nations Security Council resolution to “protect civilians,” NATO launched sustained air attacks and toppled the Libyan government leading to chaos, violence and a flood of refugees. AI later refuted the “mercenary” accusations but the damage was done.

Now, on Feb. 7, Amnesty International released a new report titled “Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison,” which accuses the Syrian government of executing thousands of political prisoners, a set of accusations that has received uncritical treatment in the mainstream news media.

Like the Iraq/Kuwait incubator story and the Libyan “mercenary” story, the “Human Slaughterhouse” report is coming at a critical time. It accuses and convicts the Syrian government of horrible atrocities against civilians – and AI explicitly calls for the international community to take “action.” But the AI report is deeply biased and amounts to a kangaroo-court conviction of the Syrian government.

AI’s Standards Ignored

The Amnesty International report violates the organization’s own research standards. As documented by Professor Tim Hayward here, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, claims that Amnesty does its research “in a very systematic, primary, way where we collect evidence with our own staff on the ground. And every aspect of our data collection is based on corroboration and cross-checking from all parties, even if there are, you know, many parties in any situation because of all of the issues we deal with are quite contested. So it’s very important to get different points of view and constantly cross check and verify the facts.”


A heart-rending propaganda image designed to justify a major U.S. military operation inside Syria against the Syrian military.
But the Amnesty report fails on all counts: it relies on third parties, it did not gather its information from different points of view, and it did not cross-check with all parties. The report’s conclusions are not based on primary sources, material evidence or AI’s own staff; the findings are solely based on the claims of anonymous individuals, mostly in southern Turkey from where the war on Syria is coordinated.

Amnesty gathered witnesses and testimonies from only one side of the conflict: the Western- and Gulf-supported opposition. For example, AI consulted with the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which is known to seek NATO intervention in Syria. AI “liased” with the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, an organization funded by the West to press criminal charges against the Syrian leadership. These are obviously not neutral, independent or nonpartisan organizations.

If AI were doing what its Secretary General claims the organization always does, AI would have consulted with organizations within or outside Syria to hear different accounts of life at Saydnaya Prison. Since the AI report has been released, the AngryArab has published the account of a Syrian dissident, Nizar Nayyouf, who was imprisoned at Saydnaya. He contradicts many statements in the Amnesty International report, the type of cross-checking that AI failed to do for this important study.

Amnesty’s accusation that executions were “extrajudicial” is exaggerated or false. By Amnesty’s own description, each prisoner appeared briefly before a judge and each execution was authorized by a high government leader. We do not know if the judge looked at documentation or other information regarding each prisoner. One could argue that the process as described was superficial, but it’s clear that even if AI’s allegations are true, there was some kind of judicial process.

Amnesty’s suggestion that all Saydnaya prisoners are convicted is false. Amnesty quotes one witness who says about the court: “The judge will ask the name of the detainee and whether he committed the crime. Whether the answer is yes or no, he will be convicted.” But this assertion is contradicted by a former Saydnaya prisoner who is now a refugee in Sweden. In this news report, the former prisoner says the judge “asked him how many soldiers he had killed. When he said none, the judge spared him.” This is evidence that there is a judicial process of some sort and there are acquittals.

The Amnesty report includes satellite photographs with captions which are meaningless or erroneous. For example, as pointed out by Syrian dissident Nizar Nayyouf, the photo on page 30 showing a Martyrs Cemetery is “silly beyond silly.” The photo and caption show that the cemetery doubled in size. However, this does not prove hangings of prisoners who would never be buried in a “martyrs cemetery” reserved for Syrian army soldiers. On the contrary, it confirms the fact which Amnesty International otherwise ignores: Syrian soldiers have died in large numbers.

The Amnesty report falsely claims — based on data provided by one of the groups seeking NATO intervention — “The victims are overwhelmingly ordinary civilians who are thought to oppose the government.” While it’s surely true that innocent civilians are sometimes wrongly arrested, as happens in all countries, the suggestion that Saydnaya prison is filled with 95 percent “ordinary civilians” is preposterous. Amnesty International can only make this claim without facing ridicule because AI and other Western organizations have effectively “disappeared” the reality of Syria.

Missing Facts

Other essential facts, which are completely missing from the Amnesty report, include:


King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his entourage arrive to greet President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
–Western powers and Gulf monarchies have spent billions of dollars annually since 2011 to recruit, fund, train, arm and support with sophisticated propaganda a violent campaign to overthrow the Syrian government;

–As part of this operation, tens of thousands of foreign fanatics have invaded Syria and tens of thousands of Syrians have been radicalized and paid by Wahhabi monarchies in the Gulf to overthrow the government;

–More than 100,000 Syrian Army and National Defense soldiers have been killed defending their country. Most of this is public information yet ignored by Amnesty International and other mainstream media in the West. This “regime change” operation has been accompanied by a massive distortion and cover-up of reality.

–Without providing evidence, Amnesty International accuses the highest Sunni religious leader in Syria, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, of authorizing the execution of “ordinary civilians.” While the Grand Mufti is a personal victim of the war’s violence – his son was murdered by terrorists near Aleppo – he has consistently called for reconciliation. Following the assassination of his son, Grand Mufti Hassoun gave an eloquent speech expressing forgiveness for the murderers and calling for an end to the violence.

What does it say about Amnesty International that it makes specific personal accusations, against people who have personally suffered, yet provides no evidence of guilt?

In the report, Amnesty uses sensational and emotional accusations in place of factual evidence. The title of the report is “Human Slaughterhouse.” And what goes with a “slaughterhouse”? A “meat fridge.” So, the report uses the expression “meat fridge” seven separate times, presumably in an attempt to strengthen the central metaphor of a slaughterhouse.

Even the report’s opening quotation is hyperbolic: “Saydnaya is the end of life – the end of humanity.” The report is in sharp contrast with fact-based objective research and investigation; it appears designed to manipulate emotions and thus create new public support in the West for another escalation of the war.

Yet, Amnesty International’s accusations that the Syrian government is carrying out a policy of “extermination” are contradicted by the fact that the vast majority of Syrians prefer to live in government-controlled areas. When the “rebels” were finally driven out of East Aleppo in December 2016, 90 percent of civilians rushed into areas under government control.

In recent days, civilians from Latakia province who had been imprisoned by terrorists for the past three years have been liberated in a prisoner exchange. [This video shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife meeting with some of the civilians.]

A Video

The Amnesty report is accompanied by a three-minute propaganda cartoon that reinforces the narrative that Syrian civilians who protest peacefully are imprisoned and executed. Echoing the theme of the report, the animation is titled “Saydnaya Prison: Human Slaughterhouse.” Amnesty International appears to be in denial that there are tens of thousands of violent extremists in Syria, setting off car bombs, launching mortars and otherwise attacking civilian areas every day.


Journalist James Foley shortly before he was executed by an Islamic State operative in August 2014 somewhere in Syria.
Given the national crisis – with so many violent jihadists to confront – it makes little sense that Syrian security or prison authorities would waste resources on non-violent civilians although that does not mean that the Syrian government has clean hands either. Mistakes and abuses surely happen in this war like all wars.

But the AI report is more like the propaganda that has surrounded the Syrian conflict from the beginning, lacking in balance and reminiscent of the “perception management” used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the West’s assault on Libya in 2011. AI’s hyperbole is also contradicted by the fact that Syria has many opposition parties that compete for seats in the National Assembly and campaign openly for public support from both the right and left of the Baath Party.

AI’s claim that Syrian authorities brutally repress peaceful protests further ignores the Syrian reconciliation process. For the past several years, armed opposition militants have been encouraged to lay down their weapons and peacefully rejoin society, a program largely unreported in Western media because it contradicts the “black hat” narrative of the Syrian government. [A recent example is reported here.]

The Amnesty report cites the “Caesar” photographs as supporting evidence for its “slaughterhouse” accusations but ignores the fact that nearly half those photographs show the opposite of what was claimed. The widely publicized “Caesar photographs” was a Qatari-funded hoax designed to sabotage the 2014 Geneva negotiations as documented here.

While the Amnesty report makes many accusations against the Syrian government, AI ignores the violation of Syrian sovereignty being committed by Western and Gulf countries. It is a curious fact that big NGOs such as Amnesty International focus on violations of “human rights law” and “humanitarian law” but ignore the crime of aggression, also called the crime against peace.

According to the Nuremberg Tribunal, aggression is “the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” Former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister and former President of the U.N. General Assembly, Father Miguel D’Escoto, is someone who should know. He says, “What the U.S. government is doing in Syria is tantamount to a war of aggression, which, according to the Nuremberg Tribunal, is the worst possible crime a State can commit against another State.” Amnesty International ignores this reality.

Background and Context

The co-author of this Amnesty International report is Nicolette Waldman (Boehland), who was uncritically interviewed on DemocracyNow on Feb. 9. The background and previous work of Waldman shows the inter-connections between influential Washington “think tanks” and the billionaires’ foundations that fund “non-governmental organizations” – NGOs – that claim to be independent but are clearly not.

Waldman previously worked for the “Center for Civilians in Conflict,” which is directed by leaders from George Soros’s Open Society, the Soros-funded Human Rights Watch, Blackrock Solutions and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

CNAS may be the most significant indication of political orientation since it is led by Michele Flournoy, who was expected to become Secretary of Defense if Hillary Clinton had won the election. CNAS has been a leading force behind neoconservative and liberal-interventionist plans to escalate the war in Syria. While past work or associations do not always define new or future work, in this case the sensational and dubious accusations seem to align with those political goals. [Soros’s Open Society has also provided funds to Amnesty International.]

So what to make of Amnesty International’s new report? The once widely respected human rights organization has, in the recent past, let itself be used as a propaganda tool to justify Western aggression against Iraq and Libya, which seems to be the role that AI is playing now in Syria.

The Amnesty International report is a mix of hearsay accusations and sensationalism that tracks with the Western propaganda themes that have surrounded the Syrian war from the start. Because of Amnesty’s undeserved reputation for independence and accuracy, the report has been picked up and broadcast widely. Liberal and supposedly progressive media outlets have joined in dutifully echoing the questionable accusations.

Little or no skepticism is applied when the target is the Syrian government, which has faced years of foreign-sponsored aggression. If this report justifies another escalation of the conflict, as Amnesty International seems to want, the group will again be serving as a rationalizer for Western aggression against Syria, just like it did in Iraq and Libya.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/11/a ... yrian-war/

[rowan]

Meanwhile, America is considering sending a ground force to Syria, ostensibly to fight ISIS - you know, that shadowy organization they now have troops in several Middle Eastern nations to fight. If that's not a fairly blatant definition of colonization, I don't know what is. Anyway, if this is confirmed, it'll be interesting to see how Damascus and Moscow react.

[rowan]

Interesting article on the White Terrorists:

Funding for the White Helmets comes principally from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who have committed at least $23 million to the group since 2013. In addition, the organisation have received £22m from the UK rising to a probable £32m and £7m from Germany. Other substantial funds come from Holland and Japan. Conservative estimates suggest that some $100m dollars in total have been donated to the group.

Essentially, the White Helmets are the most prominent manifestation of what is a highly sophisticated propaganda campaign by the UK government comprising a complex interwoven web that connects the various government departments, NGOs, opposition groups and activists with the corporate media who facilitate and amplify the propaganda in order to help achieve the ultimate objective of regime change in Syria.

High profile advertising campaigns and public relations exercises that involve the production of videos, photos, military reports, radio broadcasts, print products and social media posts, have unfortunately persuaded many well-meaning activists that the White Helmets are an independently funded bi-partisan humanitarian group, when in reality they are Salafist sectarian extremists who operate as a front for Al-Qaida, ISIS and their various affiliates. Many of the fighting groups tied to the White Helmets are branded with the logos of fighting groups by contractors hired out by the Foreign Office and overseen by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The evidence outlined by Dr Barbara McKenzie is compelling:

“The role played by the British Foreign Office and other government departments in the unremitting propaganda against the Syrian government is unquestionable. The British government is determinedly pursuing its policy of regime change in Syria, and sees gaining public acceptance of that policy through propaganda that demonises the Syrian government and glorifies the armed opposition as essential to achieving that goal.”

Given the extent to which the Foreign Office financially and logistically support the White Helmets in Syria, it was fitting that they congratulated them on their ‘success’ at the Oscars. As Dr Barbara McKenzie put it on Twitter, the Foreign Office were, in effect, congratulating themselves.

Saving Syria’s Children
The fake BBC documentary, Saving Syria’s Children, painstakingly critiqued by Robert Stuart, whose principle purpose was to attempt to persuade British parliamentarians to vote for military intervention, represents the apex of this propaganda process. But having failed in that objective, the propaganda effort was stepped up. In the autumn of 2013, the UK government embarked on behind-the-scenes work to influence the course of the war by shaping perceptions of opposition fighters.

It was during this time that the media narrative began to shift. Where previously Islamist extremist beheaders were described as ‘Jihadists’ and ‘terrorists’ the more benign terms, ‘rebels’ and ‘Syrian opposition’ were preferred. Speaking on UK Column News (February 27, 2017), Vanessa Beeley, who was one of only a handful of independent investigative journalists on the ground in Syria, said this about the attempts to glorify the White Helmets exemplified by their Oscar ‘success’. I want to quote Beeley extensively because her impassioned plea was emotionally powerful and clearly sincere. What she had to say is of extreme importance:

“Terrorism gets given the red carpet treatment in Hollywood which demonstrates very clearly who we are dealing with. In fact, one positive that comes out of this is that it fully exposes the elite cartel behind the attempt to dismember Syria. This cartel is essentially Zionism, along with Saudi extremist ideology funded, of course, by the US-UK deep state and supported by the illegal state of Israel, Turkey and various other nations in the region.

“The intention is to whitewash terrorist atrocities that are being committed on a daily basis inside Syria and facilitated by the organisation that has just been given one of the highest accolades that can be given in the film industry. So for that reason, it is also extremely fitting that they are all effectively some of the best actors around at the moment.

The celebration of The White Helmets movie is tantamount to celebrating the use of children for war porn, the killing of more children in Syria, the support and celebration of the rape of Syrian women, the massacre of entire families, the ethnic cleansing of minorities, the kidnapping and abuse of children and the selling of them to paedophile rings, drug traffickers and pimps. In other words, the Oscars are basically celebrating every evil that has been created by our regimes.

“We can no longer sit back and pretend that it’s happening somewhere else and we don’t have an obligation to take a stand against it. It’s time to stand up and be counted. It’s time to stop sitting on the fence. It’s not only about Syria, but about Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Ukraine – about every country that is being infested by this terrorist plague that is being created by our regimes. We are responsible for that and we need to start taking that responsibility seriously and to actually express that outrage.

“If you are at a party where people are celebrating the Oscars – speak out! Because until your voices are heard, this is going to continue and these children in Syria – these orphans – are going to continue suffering. We are responsible for that, and that same plague is not that far off from being on our doorsteps. So we need to start making a stand – right now.”

https://sciscomedia.co.uk/al-qaeda-win- ... ary-short/

[rowan]

Bravo!

Russia’s Defence Ministry claims its forces played a decisive role in the recapture of Palmyra.

The Syrian Army, backed by Russian and Iranian troops, retook control of the ancient city two months after it fell to ISIL for the second time in a year.

Moscow says its military advisers planned and oversaw the operation, in which over a thousand Islamist militants were reportedly killed or wounded.

The extent of any fresh damage to the UNESCO World Heritage site is not yet known, but Syria’s antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said it may be less than earlier believed.

ISIL left several mines in the area, which Syrian forces are working to disarm.

“The Syrian Army is still clearing neighbourhoods of mines and has not spread out into the whole city yet,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, Director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to the UK-based war monitor, the jihadists have completely withdrawn eastwards of the desert city.

http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/03/syri ... of-palmyra

[rowan]

Interesting development (& a little bit scary)

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to handover a massive area of territory they control to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to create a buffer zone against the Turkish Army and other Turkish-led forces in Syria.

The map you see at the top of this article is an estimation provided by Al-Masdar News and not official.

Recently a coalition of Turkey-led armed rebels, backed by the Turkish Armed Forces, launched an offensive against the SDF to capture the city of Manbij. This new operation against the SDF has been so brutal that it caused the Manbij Military Council (MMC) to adopt a military cooperation agreement with the SAA.

The MMC released the following on this decision:

“To reach these objectives [the defense of Manbij] we have transferred, after reaching a new alliance with Russia, the defence of the line to the west of Manbij – where the villages between us and the gang groups [FSA, Ahrar al-Sham] affiliated to the Turkish army are – to Syrian state forces.”
On Tuesday Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had announced that Turkish Armed Forces would move toward the northern Syrian town of Manbij after completing their operation in al-Bab. Erdogan also ruled out any chance of working with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Ja’afari, who also serves as the head of the Syrian delegation to current peace talks, said on Thursday that Damascus reserves the right to use force against Turkish Armed Forces invading Syria.

Will Erdogan choose to continue the Turkish offensive in Manbij if it’s against the Syrian Arab Army? We’ll soon find out.

https://wearechange.org/syrian-democrat ... ffer-zone/

Also, interesting. But after Obama's litany of broken promises, this is not so surprising: http://geopoliticsalert.com/op-ed-trump ... ance-farce

[rowan]

This all seems to be winding down now anyway. Mashallah! Thank god Clinton didn't get in...

It'll be interesting now to see if Syria can stabilize, or whether the US will try and turn it into another outpost for military training exercises. The difference between Syria and the likes of Iraq and Libya is that the regime is still in tact, though there are those (war criminal states themselves) who continue to believe they have a god-given right to change that...which certainly would see Syria become another permanent hell-hole of chaos, terrorism & suffering

The Syrian army has expanded its control over former Islamic State-held villages in northwest Syria, gaining more territory as it pushes back the jihadists from more pockets in Aleppo province, state media said on Saturday.

The army has made steady progress in recent weeks in eastern Aleppo countryside toward the Euphrates River where it now occupies more villages, state-owned Ikhbariyah quoted a military source as saying.

The army's gains follow a push to the south and east of the city of al-Bab, which was captured by Turkey-backed rebels late last month.

Earlier, rebels said they had thwarted a large assault by the Syrian army and Iranian-backed rebels on their remaining strongholds in the western Aleppo countryside near Rashdeen.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKBN16B0NZ

[rowan]

Robert Stuart, a tenacious blogger, has been picking away at a scab the BBC would rather leave firmly in place.
His forensic research concerns an edition of the BBC’s flagship investigative current affairs show Panorama called Saving Syria’s Children. It was broadcast more than three years ago, as many in the media were trying to push the British government into intervening in Syria with bombing raids against the Syrian government – in a move that would effectively have bolstered ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria.
The Panorama programme was one important piece of evidence advanced for such intervention. The footage it included was broadcast in several different formats, and purported to show the victims of a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian military on a school. The BBC reporter for Panorama was Ian Panell.
From the outset, there were concerns about the authenticity of the footage, as I noted in a piece on my own blog in October 2013.
But Stuart’s sustained research and questioning of the BBC, and the state broadcaster’s increasing evasions, have given rise to ever greater concerns about the footage. It looks suspiciously like one scene in particular, of people with horrific chemical burns, was staged.
Rather than confront these concerns and dispell them, the BBC and Pannell have tried a mixture of going to ground, stonewalling and misdirection. That has included trying to remove the footage from both the BBC and social media sites where it had been available.
Even by the BBC’s current dismal standards, its behaviour has been, on the best view, outrageously arrogant. Remember that the BBC is a publicly funded broadcaster. And yet the corporation appears to think it is not even minimally accountable to the British taxpayers who fund it.
In a fascinating new development, a leading freelance TV and radio producer Victor Lewis Smith – and one with a rare conscience and backbone – has intervened after viewing the footage.
He raised troubling questions with the BBC about the Panorama programme and threatened to tear up his contract for a forthcoming radio comedy pilot unless the corporation provided satisfactory answers.
For the first time, the state broadcaster was flushed out of its hiding hole. First, it tried more misdirection, telling him that Ofcom had reviewed the programme and sided with the BBC. But the Ofcom decision was about an RT investigation into the footage – note that Ofcom has hardly been impartial in its treatment of RT – and not a ruling on the accuracy of the BBC footage’s, which Ofcom admitted it was not in a position to assess.
When Lewis Smith didn’t roll over, as the BBC clearly expected, the corporation offered up Panorama’s editor, Rachel Jupp. She would talk to Lewis Smith to placate him. But she had second thoughts and cried off. Lewis Smith then upped the stakes by asking for Panorama’s rushes and again threatened to terminate his contract.
Finally Jupp issued a feeble statement that did nothing to address the concerns Stuart and others have raised.
The BBC has made clear it isn’t willing to be transparent, open or accountable. British taxpayers wondering whether their money was used by the BBC to support a deception – one designed to bolster the case for a decisive political intervention in an extremely volatile conflict – still have no answers.
Lewis Smith has torn up his contract and announced his intention to make a crowd-funded feature documentary investigating the Panorama programme. Let’s hope he does so. This could prove to be a vital case study to help the British public and others judge whether the BBC is really there to serve them or to serve the British political elite.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2017- ... OSUsQ.dpuf

[rowan]

The Western media's silence is deafening:

The Syrian army, supported by Russian airstrikes, continued to advance against the Islamic State group as unknown militants killed dozens in Damascus.

http://europe.newsweek.com/syria-army-r ... 8481?rm=eu

[rowan]

Pretty damning . . .

the US, Israel and other regional components in the US empire have fueled the conflict by derailing negotiations, levying sanctions, bombing the country and arming, funding and training fighters including murderous sectarians.

urthermore, a US-led coalition has bombed Syria more than 7,100 times since the fall of 2014 in the name of defeating the Islamic State, killing between 914 and 1,361 civilians in the process. Earlier this month, the US sent hundreds of troops into northern Syria as part of the effort against the Islamic State.

It’s possible that the Syrian government will benefit from a campaign that rids the country of the Islamic State. However, it is a mistake to see the US-led war on the group as designed to keep the Syrian government in power.

For example, the Americans have armed the Syrian opposition in the period since the US began bombing the Islamic State. The American effort against the group and the more general regional war is about the American ruling class seeking to enrich itself via the military industrial complex while simultaneously deepening the American capacity to influence what happens in Syria in both the short and long term by, for example, building military bases in the country.

The Washington Post reports that, from at least 2013 to 2015, the CIA spent $1 billion per year – or about one-fifteenth of its budget – to train and equip “nearly 10,000 fighters sent into Syria,” combatants the paper describes as “anti-Assad rebels.”


https://electronicintifada.net/content/ ... gees/19886

[rowan]

A US military presence in Syria was the plan all along http://europe.newsweek.com/us-military- ... 9042?rm=eu

[rowan]

Oops! Wrong target again . . .

The US military said on March 16 it carried out a deadly air strike on an Al-Qaeda meeting in northern Syria and would investigate reports that more than 40 civilians were killed when a mosque was struck in the raid.

"We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target -- which was where the meeting took place -- is about 50 feet (15 meters) from a mosque that is still standing," said Colonel John J. Thomas, spokesman for US Central Command.

According to a Centcom statement, "US forces conducted an airstrike on an Al-Qaeda in Syria meeting location March 16 in Idlib, Syria, killing several terrorists."

The Centcom spokesman later clarified that the precise location of the strike was unclear -- but that it was the same one widely reported to have targeted the village mosque in Al-Jineh, in Aleppo province.

"We are going to look into any allegations of civilian casualties in relation to this strike," he added, when asked about reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that 42 people had died, most of them civilians.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Defaul ... sCatID=352

[rowan]

Oops! Wrong target again . . .

The US military said on March 16 it carried out a deadly air strike on an Al-Qaeda meeting in northern Syria and would investigate reports that more than 40 civilians were killed when a mosque was struck in the raid.

"We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target -- which was where the meeting took place -- is about 50 feet (15 meters) from a mosque that is still standing," said Colonel John J. Thomas, spokesman for US Central Command.

According to a Centcom statement, "US forces conducted an airstrike on an Al-Qaeda in Syria meeting location March 16 in Idlib, Syria, killing several terrorists."

The Centcom spokesman later clarified that the precise location of the strike was unclear -- but that it was the same one widely reported to have targeted the village mosque in Al-Jineh, in Aleppo province.

"We are going to look into any allegations of civilian casualties in relation to this strike," he added, when asked about reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that 42 people had died, most of them civilians.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Defaul ... sCatID=352

The death toll currently stands at 58 and is likely to pass 60

[rowan]

No hysterical ranting about this then, no accusations of genocide or such-like. One country kills 10 million people and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with it, another kills a few thousand in the process of resisting the former, and suddenly their leader is Hitler reincarnate. Such is the extent of racism and hypocrisy in the West.

In the evening of March 16, 2017, reports came in that a mosque in a Syrian village in the western part of the Aleppo governorate was targeted by an airstrike, killing over 50 attendees of the evening prayer. Most posts on social media blamed either the Russian or the Syrian Air Force for the attack. Some reports, however, accused the United States (US) and the Coalition (CJTF-OIR) it leads, or said that the planes could not be identified. In this investigation, Bellingcat aims to see what we can establish using open source information.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/20 ... e-bombing/

[rowan]

No hysterical ranting about this then, no accusations of genocide or such-like. One country kills 10 million people and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with it, another kills a few thousand in the process of resisting the former, and suddenly their leader is Hitler reincarnate. Such is the extent of racism and hypocrisy in the West.

In the evening of March 16, 2017, reports came in that a mosque in a Syrian village in the western part of the Aleppo governorate was targeted by an airstrike, killing over 50 attendees of the evening prayer. Most posts on social media blamed either the Russian or the Syrian Air Force for the attack. Some reports, however, accused the United States (US) and the Coalition (CJTF-OIR) it leads, or said that the planes could not be identified. In this investigation, Bellingcat aims to see what we can establish using open source information.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/20 ... e-bombing/

Je suis Syrie!

[kk67]

Western companies will profit from the slaughter that is occurring. I'm tempted to rephrase that but I can't be arsed.
The whole Syria situation is a farce. It's an entirely engineered war.

[rowan]

Western companies will profit from the slaughter that is occurring. I'm tempted to rephrase that but I can't be arsed.
The whole Syria situation is a farce. It's an entirely engineered war.

Absolutely. People have been so easily duped once again, even after the WMD lies and nonsense about Gaddafi planning a genocide of his own people. That extent of gullibility goes beyond stupidty, it requires a certain degree of evil.

[rowan]

Even more than its genocidal war on Iraq & wanton destruction of Libya, it is America's proxy war in Syria, with all its lies and hypocrisy and denials, which has exposed the true extent of evil it is capable of. & that this has continued now over several regimes, clearly indicates a deep state is running US foreign policy, not the circus clowns that trot out as presidents.

Activists and first responders say the building that was targeted was a part of the mosque complex — and that the charred rubble shown in the photo was where 300 people were praying when the bombs began to hit.

More than 42 people were killed and dozens more injured, according to monitoring groups and local activists. First responders with the Syrian Civil Defence — known as the “White Helmets” — rushed to treat the wounded and dig corpses out of the rubble.

An administration official told the Washington Post that two armed, Reaper drones fired “roughly [the] entirety of their Hellfire payload and followed up w/ 500 lb bomb.”

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/17/pen ... at-it-did/

[rowan]

An excellent article which illustrates the roles of all the major players in the Syrian conflict, as well as explaining just why this conflict, like the ones in Iraq, Aghanistan & Libya, is unlikely to end any time soon:

The “Great Game” being played in the Middle East with Syria and Iraq as the center rings bears a superficial similarity to the power political maneuverings of the dominant European states in their African and Asian periphery during the 19th century. There is a somewhat closer resemblance to the Spanish civil war in the mix of multiple local parties, external powers, and ideological militancy. Yet, what we are witnessing today is quite different in some crucial respects – adding to our confusion in trying to make sense of the plot. Complexity and confusion reinforce each other. That is true for the actors themselves.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/20/ ... free-play/

[rowan]

No screams of "genocide" here??

'The strike was carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.'

At least 33 people were killed in an air strike that hit a school sheltering displaced people near the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, a group that monitors the war in Syria said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it believed the strike was carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Observatory activists had counted at least 33 bodies at the site near the village of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters. The air strike took place on Monday night, he said.

The nearest Islamic State installation to the site of the air strike was a religious school 3 km (1.9 miles) away, he said.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition has previously said that it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and that it investigates those that are reported as a result of its air strikes.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led group of militias backed by the U.S.-led coalition, is fighting to isolate Raqqa ahead of an anticipated assault on the city, which Islamic State has used as a command node to plan attacks abroad.

The head of the YPG militia, the strongest in the SDF, said last week that the offensive to retake Raqqa would begin in early April but a spokesman for the U.S. Pentagon said no decision had yet been made.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKBN16T0RV

[rowan]

No screams of "genocide" here??

'The strike was carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.'

At least 33 people were killed in an air strike that hit a school sheltering displaced people near the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, a group that monitors the war in Syria said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it believed the strike was carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Observatory activists had counted at least 33 bodies at the site near the village of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters. The air strike took place on Monday night, he said.

The nearest Islamic State installation to the site of the air strike was a religious school 3 km (1.9 miles) away, he said.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition has previously said that it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and that it investigates those that are reported as a result of its air strikes.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led group of militias backed by the U.S.-led coalition, is fighting to isolate Raqqa ahead of an anticipated assault on the city, which Islamic State has used as a command node to plan attacks abroad.

The head of the YPG militia, the strongest in the SDF, said last week that the offensive to retake Raqqa would begin in early April but a spokesman for the U.S. Pentagon said no decision had yet been made.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKBN16T0RV

The silence around here is deafening . . .

[canta_brian]

Maybe just tough to get a word in edgeways.