The western mainstream media’s reporting of the recent conflict in Syria can best be described as a fiction. They have sourced their information from a combination of fake NGO’s, the White Helmets and terrorist organisations. However, while the unquestioning use of controlled western government backed sources for so called ‘news’ is bad enough, sadly, in their desperation to promote perpetual global war and regime change, some sections of the MSM have stooped to disgusting levels of depravity.
One of the ironies of the MSM’s propaganda war regarding Syria as that the genuine opposition, who legitimately protest the Assad’s Ba’athist government, have been entirely sold out by the western establishment. Abandoned by the political class who support only terrorist organisations they have found themselves at the mercy of the Islamist extremists backed by the U.S led coalituion. Any genuine, peaceful ‘oppositions activists’ were apparently silenced by the terrorist groups who controlled th so called ‘opposition territory.’ For example, according to the Independent, a 24-year-old media activists called Issa said:
“……they [Jabhat al Nusra et al.] are in control of what we can and cannot say. You either agree with their social rules and policies or you disappear.”
In 2015 a seemingly genuine opposition activist called Ibrahim tried to organise a peaceful demonstration against the Assad government inside terrorist held territory. He reported the U.S. coalition backed terrorists took him and tortured him for doing so without their permission:
“I was taken to the torture room. They placed me in the shabeh position, hanging me from the ceiling from my wrists so that my toes were off the ground. Then they started beating me with cables all over my body… after the shabeh they used the dulab (tyre) technique. They folded my body and forced me to go inside a tyre and then started beating me with wooden sticks.”
The information coming out of these areas was tightly controlled by the Islamist extremists. Yet their reports were palmed off by the Western MSM without critique or acknowledgement of who was creating this ‘news.’ In part this was because the Western MSM were directly supporting the terrorist propaganda.
You may not have heard of them, but you will certainly be familiar with the work of the Aleppo Media Center. They gave the world possibly the most iconic image of the 21st century to date. The picture of a bewildered, bloodied young Syrian boy sitting alone, covered in dust, in the back of an ambulance, almost instantly went viral. For most people, trapped in the enclosed sphere of Western MSM influence, it encapsulated their view of the desperate plight of the Syrian people, under constant attack from their own government. As CNN put it, ‘Little Boy in Aleppo a Vivid Reminder of War’s Horror.’
Indeed it was, and if you took time to find out more about this image, and the Aleppo Media Center (AMC) that distributed it, it was also a vivid reminder that ‘the first casualty in war is the truth.’ The AMC reported the little boy, whose name was Omran Daqneesh, was pulled from under the rubble by the White Helmets following ‘Russian and Syrian regime air strikes.’
Some people immediately started to wonder why a child, who had just been pulled from under a pile of masonry, covered in blood and dust, didn’t receive any medical attention. Rather, he was just left on his own in the back of pristine ‘new’ ambulance in the middle of a war zone. No one checked his injuries, standard medical procedures, such as placing him in a neck brace, were conspicuously absent and he appeared to have been ‘placed’ there for the benefit of a bank of cameramen. All of these ‘journalists’ were working inside terrorist controlled territory, with their express permission.
This image had a massive impact upon Western attitudes. It made CNN’s U.S. anchor Kate Bolduan burst into tears on live national television. As Veterans For Peace stated:
“Recently, a compelling photo of a bleeding and seemingly confused young Syrian boy seated in an ambulance in Aleppo was widely distributed and commented upon in domestic and international news media. In response, some journalists have called for the Obama Administration to “take action,” including bombing government military targets in Syria.”
Odd that an image ostensibly revealing the horror of war should prompt many in the MSM to call for more of it. The man who took the photo was Mahmoud Raslan who described himself as an ‘activist photojournalist.’ Following the photo’s worldwide acclaim, he briefly became a bit of a celebrity, providing a number of interviews describing the Assad regime’s atrocities to a willing MSM. His social media posts showed him to be a firm supporter of a terrorist group called ‘Nour al-Din al-Zenki.’ He took smiling selfies with a group of them who committed an appalling atrocity which we’ll discuss shortly. He was also linked to the AMC who the New York times journalist Anne Barnard described as:
“A longstanding group of anti-government activists and citizen journalists who document the conflict…”
In the same article Anne Barnard also wrote an emotional testimonial, published in the New York Times, for an ISIS suicide bomber called Abu Bilal al-Homsi who, like Mahmoud Raslan, described himself as an ‘activist journalist.’ However, she forgot to mention who was funding the AMC. Their resources came largely from two groups. The Syrian Expatriates Organisation, a group of wealthy Syrian exiles based in the U.S, and the French state broadcaster Canal France International (CFI.)
CFI proudly announced the AMC were to broadcast their reports, with Canal France International assistance, across the largely al Nusra (Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – whatever) strongholds in Syria. With CFI support, these ‘citizen journalists,’ like Mahmoud Raslan, were given media training and top end equipment (good enough for them to shoot their own Oscar winning feature documentary) at the ‘Syrian Media Incubator’ in Gazientap, Turkey. CFI is essentially the media operator for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
What the coalition backed MSM were less eager to report was Omran’s return to east Aleppo, once the likes of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Nour al-Din al-Zenki had been chased out by the Syrian Arab Army. You would think, given all the public displays of emotion, they would be delighted to tell the world that Omran was alive and, though traumatised by his experience, like so many other Syrian children, was safe with his family. Yet their coverage was distinctly muted. Why?
Possibly it was because Omran and his family had fled to the protection of the Syrian government whom the MSM claimed were trying to kill them. As did an estimated 7 million of their fellow Syrians. So whatever the MSM have told you, millions of Syrians would have rather lived in temporary shelters in Syrian government controlled territory, than stay in their homes in ‘liberated’ areas held by the ‘opposition.’
Like many in terrorist controlled East Aleppo, Omran’s father said he had remained a supporter of the Syrian state and its army. He said he and his family were effectively used as human shields by the terrorists; he recounted that on the night their home was destroyed their were no jets or helicopters flying overhead; he claimed that his daughter wouldn’t speak to the ‘activist journalists’ because she thought they were terrorists; he told how he and his family, including Omran, had received death threats from ‘opposition activists’ since the family’s escape (this was corroborated by the social media posts made by these morons.) He also said that U.S. journalist, and close al Nusra associate Bilal Abdul Kareem, was one of two men who had offered him $8000 to say the Syrian government were behind the attack, but he refused because he won’t support the terrorists.
The MSM reports, that did come out in the coalition controlled media about Omran’s survival, consistently included the allegation that his father was forced to make his statements by the brutal dictator. For example, the Guardian said:
“It was unclear if the family had been coerced into conducting the interview. The Syrian government has carried out similar disinformation efforts in the past, promising benefits to defectors or displaced civilians if they speak out against alleged rebel crimes.”
Omran’s father strenuously denied this:
“I am not under house arrest as promoted by the Western media. What bothers me is that the world is still misled about what happened to us and some [are] exploiting it. I will publish the threats of armed groups sent to me since my 1st media appearance through the Syrian and Arab channels. Threats that now reach me and my family – because I have exposed the lies of the gunmen who were controlling eastern parts of Aleppo.”
There was no evidence that Omran’s father had been coerced, which is why the Guardian could make the allegation by saying it was ‘unclear.’ Equally, therefore, you could say the Guardian were lying. Though that remains ‘unclear.’
If the family of the boy, who’s abject terror was exploited by the MSM to ramp up almost hysterical calls for more bombing, are afforded any credibility then it suggests a rather disturbing conclusion. Activist journalists, working closely with terrorist groups, were financed by the U.S. coalition member France (and others) to provide emotive, quite possibly faked footage of children they were effectively holding hostage and mistreating in the most horrendous way. These contrived images were then used, by coalition controlled media ‘assets,’ to convince an unsuspecting public to support further military action, in order to achieve the geopolitical objective of regime change. All of which was opposed by the Syrian people.
You simply weren’t informed about of this. Even the West’s most treasured media organisations have been co-opted as ‘regime change’ propaganda assets. National Geographic released a short film called ‘Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS.‘ They had been urged to release it early to reinforce the false Khan Sheikhoun allegations. The opening scene showed a missile strike on an apartment block. The footage was marked with the annotation ‘Aleppo, Syria.’ This was a total fraud. The footage was filmed in Gaza in 2014 during Israel’s bombardment that killed more than 2000 Palestinian people trapped within its enforced confines. The opening scene then immediately cuts to footage of the White Helmets in Syria. It was a complete fabrication.
To fully grasp the desgusting depths to which the Western MSM have sunk, in order to maintain the Syrian deception, we need look no further than the UK’s leading MSM broadcasters. Both the publicly funded BBC and the corporate sponsored Channel Four have demonstrated shocking levels of obscene propaganda and disinformation.
In 2016 members of Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, a Turkish backed Islamists extremist terrorist organisation, described as one of the most influential groups in East Aleppo during its occupation, were filmed cutting the head off Abdullah Issa with a knife. Abdlullah was 12-years-old. I am not willing to provide the evidence for this. On this occasion I’m asking you to take my word for it. You can easily find the video in question if you require the proof. According to Omran Daqneesh’s father the murder was filmed by Mahmoud Raslan. It seems likely Mr Raslan was the cameraman. Partial corroboration exists in the form of an apparent celebratory selfie Raslan took of himself with the individuals responsible.
Fortunately for them the BBC were able to defend the child decapitating, psychopaths in their wonderful article ‘Syria Conflict: Boy Beheaded By Rebels Was A Fighter.’ So that’s OK then, according the BBC who reported a description of 12 year old Abdullah Issa as ‘a son of al Assad.’ Let’s be very clear about this. Although the report stated the al Zinki movement were accused by Amnesty International of ‘a series of violations,’ the BBC were offering an apologist justification for men who cut a child’s head off. For very obvious reasons, the article was written by anonymous BBC scum.
Originally part of the Free Syrian Army Nour al-Din al-Zenki were heavily backed by the CIA who supplied them with TOW missile launchers, among other weapons. Two weeks after the murder of little Abdullah Issa, U.S. State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner, was asked if the U.S. would continue arming and funding the terrorists who had posted a video of themselves murdering a child. He said:
“I can’t say what that consequence will be, but it will certainly give us, as I said, serious pause and we’ll look at, frankly, any affiliation or cooperation with this group we may have going forward”
Clearly it was a difficult moral decision for the U.S. to make because they did continue their support for the group. Obviously decapitating children was no impediment to receiving cash and weapons from the U.S. led coalition.
A couple of months later, the UK’s Channel Four, one of the most avid MSM propagandist ‘fake news’ outlets, broadcast a report called ‘Aleppo: Up Close With the Rebels.’ The report was narrated by senior correspondent Krishnan Guru Murthy. During the report he said:
“We all know about the siege of East Aleppo. This is the story of one small but famous victory as rebels fought back against the forces of Bashar al Assad. These men are all Syrian. Once farmers and factory workers they are now Islamist fighters. This group is well-equipped. Paid for and supplied by the Gulf States. Mainly Qatar…… In the midst of battle there is always a camera and a director. Everyone here filming their version of the truth.”
The small group of famous rebels who fought back against the forces of Bashar al Assad included the men who had recently filmed themselves decapitating a child. Not just the same organisation, but the same individuals who had murdered Abdullah Issa. However, Channel Four ran their little promotional film for them anyway. Of course Krishnan Guru Murphy hadn’t been anywhere near the fighting, and probably didn’t have a clue what he was narrating. He was simply regurgitating the report that Channel Four had been handed by the terrorist psychopaths. At one point he observed the Syrian people ‘liberated’ by the rebels, who he admitted had joined forces with ‘Islamist fighters,’ didn’t look very pleased to see them.
In fact, they looked absolutely terrified. Yet apparently this didn’t give Krishnan Guru Murphy pause to consider whether he should lend any credibility to this propagandist filth. As he pointed out, ‘there is always a camera and a director’ he just didn’t bother questioning if that director was likely to be a terrorist. Channel Four were literally trying to tell the public that war criminals were ‘moderate rebels.’ Simple farmers and factory workers thrust into the chaos of war. A perverse version of reality. It is however, the version of reality you have been given by the Western mainstream media in a centrally controlled, extensive, systematic Syrian psyop.
That Mahmoud Raslan captured both the staged image of Omran Daqneesh and is also likely to have been the cameraman who filmed the brutal slaying of Abdullah Issa is a sickening irony. The disgusting disparity between the way the media treated both little boys illustrates the huge problem we have with our mainstream media.
It appears to be wholly untrustworthy, infested with propaganda agents and largely incapable of providing any objective, investigative journalism. The very few decent, investigative journalists who cling on to the MSM are increasingly being squeezed out by a bunch of vapid, ill-informed state spokespersons.
It is so twisted it seems incredible, unbelievable, beyond imagination. We have a free press, don’t we? How can it possibly be true that government can so completely control the information given to us by these corporate owned media giants? Surely we live in a free and open democratic society? Freedom of speech and an objective, free press, able to question authority without fear of reprisal, is vital to our democracy. If we don’t have that, if we simply have a state propaganda machine, masquerading as a critical media, then we truly have nothing.
We owe it to ourselves and our children be critical of the media. We currently have no option other than to look for the evidence ourselves. The conduct of the MSM in regard to Syria suggests we are not living in a democracy. If everything we are told is simply designed to reinforce the establishment’s desired narrative then we are perilously close to living in a dictatorship.
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