Syria

Earlier this evening, Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) television news featured a chilling report by BBC journalist Ian Pannell who rode with a group of Syrian rebels as they attacked the town of Alleppo in Syria. The report featured groups of captives being threatened at close range with automatic rifles. At one point a gun seemed to discharge and wound one of the captives. Ian Pannell did not inform his viewers of the fate of the captives. Shortly after I found on Land Destroyer a comprehensive dissection of the deceit and hypocrisy in Ian Pannell's report. It is republished here.

Article by Tony Cartalucci. Originally published on Land Destroyer

BBC Covers Up War Crimes - Misleads Over Syrian Security Operations.
by Tony Cartalucci

July 25, 2012 - When big lies must be told, BBC is there. From Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya and now Syria, BBC has paved the way for Western disinformation meant to mange public perception around a war the public would otherwise never support or tolerate.

The BBC, caught on record producing entire "documentaries" on behalf of corporate-financier interests, has already been caught in immense lies regarding the NATO-fueled destabilization of Syria. This includes the disingenuous use of photos from Iraq, to depict a so-called "massacre" in the village of Houla, Syria.

Now, as NATO's Al Qaeda mercenaries operating under the banner of the so-called "Free Syrian Army" flow over the Turkish-Syrian border in an attempt to overrun the city of Aleppo, BBC is there, attempting to manipulate the public's perception as the conflict unfolds.

BBC's Ian Pannell admits he rode with a convoy of militant fighters into Aleppo at night. He claims many are desperate for the FSA to succeed, "clamoring for freedom denied by their president," but concedes many others fear an "Islamic takeover" and sectarian "division and bloodshed." The latter of course, is self-evident, while the former is the repeated, unfounded mantra of the Western media used to cover up the latter.

Pannell poses amongst staged settings, claiming a single burning tire equates to a barricade set up by the militants (see more on the use of burning tires as propaganda here and here). He concedes that militants are taking to the rooftops with sniper rifles in the districts they claim they control - begging one to wonder where else terrorist snipers have been, and how many "sniper" deaths have been mistakenly blamed on the government.

Covering Up FSA War Crimes

Pannell then attempts to cover up serious war crimes committed by the FSA militants he is traveling with, claiming that men the FSA arbitrarily rounded up while "seeking revenge" were "suspected Shabiha," harking back to Libya's NATO-backed terrorist death squads rounding up and killing Libya's black communities in orgies of sectarian genocide - which outlets like the BBC defended as simply rebels targeting "suspected African mercenaries." Pannell papers over what he just reported with the unqualified claim that there is "little justice" on either side. What became of the FSA's victims is not revealed.

Image: From BBC's Ian Pannell - young men "suspected" of being "Shabiha" are rounded up as the FSA "seeks revenge." BBC fails categorically to explain how NATO-backed terrorists can "liberate" a city that is admittedly pro-government - but it appears it will be done through terrorism, brutality, mass murder, and intimidation. 

BBC reporter Ian Pannell's failure to report on the war crimes he admitted witnessing, smacks of endorsement and complicity - an attempt to preserve the romanticism the West has desperately tried to associate with their FSA death squads. Pannell's report also confirms earlier descriptions of widespread atrocities committed by the so-called "Free Syrian Army."

In Libya, when the government of Muammar Qaddafi collapsed, and as Libyan terrorists overran the last of the nation's security forces, entire cities of Libya's blacks were overrun, their populations either mass-murdered, imprisoned, or forced to flee to refugee camps. These are people who had lived in Libya for generations. A similar fate awaits Syrians should NATO prevail.

BBC Confirms Syrian Army Use of Heavy Weapons ARE Proportional to FSA Threats

Pannell's propaganda in Aleppo continues, where he admits FSA militants possess tanks they allegedly "captured" from the Syrian military, but then, showing video of what is clearly an anti-tank SU-25 aircraft rolling in with machine guns, claims it marks a "dramatic escalation" and a sign of "desperation."

Image: From BBC's Ian Pannell -FSA tanks are positioned in or around Aleppo, according to BBC. The myth that NATO-backed militants are "lightly armed" is unraveling as they attempt to take on large cities flush with cameras and media from both sides. Eager propagandists attempting to portray victories have more than once shown "captured tanks" in the hands of militants. Heavy militant weapons beget heavy government weapons. 

In reality the Syrian army is using force directly proportional to the threats NATO-backed militants have presented. Tanks and heavy weapons mounted on trucks, also featured in the BBC report, are legitimate targets for government heavy weapons. The precision an SU-25 lends the battlefield verses heavy artillery bombardments when neutralizing FSA heavy weapons is the only conceivable way to minimize civilian casualties.

Images: (Top) From BBC's Ian Pannell - BBC and other Western media outlets have claimed "MIGs" are bombing Aleppo's civilian populations. This all based on a single "tweet" made by BBC's Ian Pannell. Pannell now reports this video depicts what he saw - which in reality is an anti-tank SU-25 deploying machine guns, not bombs, verses what Pannell already admits are FSA heavy weapons, not civilian populations. (Bottom) Several orthographic views of the SU-25 for comparison. 

And as the Western media is so found of reminding its viewers, Aleppo is decidedly pro-government, and pro-President Bashar al-Assad. Therefore to indiscriminately use disproportionate force serves no purpose for the Syrian government, who has gone through extraordinary lengths and placed its soldiers at great risk to minimize damage to the city and its inhabitants - a city and population that serves both an important role economically and culturally for all Syrian people.

Remember Fallujah, Iraq

A government is put in a difficult position when armed gangs enter a city "seeking revenge" as BBC's Ian Pannell puts it, when these gangs have trucks mounted with heavy weapons as well as tanks in their possession. For the West, to berate the Syrian government and portray its security operations as unmitigated "brutality" is disingenuous at best, especially considering the militants are there solely because of years of financial, military, and political support from the US, Israel, and the Gulf State despots.

Image: Western hypocrisy - Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 was bombarded by artillery and airstrikes for weeks leading up to the final invasion. When over 10,000 troops entered the city, they were accompanied by tanks, and supported by heavy artillery and airstrikes. When the West is subjugating others, heavy weapons seems acceptable - but not when another nation attempts to defend itself from admittedly Western-backed terrorists. 

The West might want to also revisit the lessons it learned from flattening the Iraqi city of Fallujhah, twice. The US bombarded the city for weeks prior to its final invasion in 2004, where over 10,000 troops entered with heavy artillery and air support. Apparently it is acceptable for the West to subjugate others using such tactics, but nations are prohibited from using similar tactics to defend themselves. The Syrian uprising was a foreign-plot stretching back as far as 2007, foreign militants admittedly flowing over the border from across the Arab World, admittedly armed and funded by the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

The Battle of Fullujah is considered a notch in the belt of Western military prowess, while the West condemns Syria's attempts to defend one of its most important cities from foreign-subversion and destruction. While NATO believes it can still win the geopolitical battle it is waging against the Syrian people, it has already long lost the battle for moral superiority.

Originally published on Land Destroyer

On Tuesday 24 of July I phoned Jon Faine's ABC local Melbourne Radio 774 program in an attempt to put a view about Syria to his listeners that was different to what had so far been put to them by Jon Faine and the corporate newsmedia. I was eventually told to ring back tomorrow. I intend to do so, but have decided to also put this letter to Jon Faine on the public record on the Internet. Updates: Jon Faine does not have a view on Syria!? does not consider Syria important!? - 8:40AM; My anti-war views censored by ABC 'talk-back' radio, 10:00AM See also: Who is fighting in Syria? of 24 July by Thierry Meyssan on voltairenet.com, US Prepares For Direct Intervention in Syria of 22 July by Tony Cartalucci on candobetter.

On Tuesday 24 of July I phoned Jon Faine's ABC local Melbourne Radio 774 program in an attempt to put a view about Syria to his listeners that was different to what had so far been put to them by Jon Faine and the corporate newsmedia. I had phoned once earlier in the morning and was told to ring back at 10:20AM. When I did I was put on hold for 20 minutes until the listeners' open line ended at 11:00AM . I was then told to ring back tomorrow. I intend to do so, but have decided to also put this letter to Jon Faine on the public record on the Internet.

Dear John Faine,

On your ABC Local Melbourne Radio 774 Morning program you have depicted the long-running conflict in Syria, as you did the Libyan conflict of last year, as a popular uprising against the supposedly brutal supposed dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.

For my part, I have extensively researched the Syrian conflict, for example on the site Global Research, the URL of which I texted you on Wednesday 18 July[1]. I have found all of the claims made against the Syrian government to have been fabrications conjured up on behalf of the US Government, NATO, Arab dictatorships, Israel and the corporate interests they serve.

The truth about Syria is that its government enjoys the support of most of its people. It seems more than likely to me that this is because, unlike the governments of its enemies including the US, Canada, and their European NATO allies, the Arab dictatorships and Israel, it has acted in past years to put the interests of its people ahead of international corporations.

Given that the leaders of the countries sponsoring the so-called "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) terrorists in Syria are known have lied repeatedly[2] through the past two decades in order to provide pretexts to wage illegal wars against Iraq and Afghanistan in which many hundreds of thousands have died, I fail to understand how you have come to so uncritically accept the latest collection of fabrications by these same proven liars.

Even if you are unable to see through the lies against the Syrian government at least you cannot be unaware that others, including me, hold views which are different to yours. So why not give others a chance to express a different view to your listeners and let them make up their own minds? Surely, if you are confident that your own point of view is backed up by evidence and logic then what have you to fear from free and open discussion on your program?

See also

Who is fighting in Syria?

of 24 July by Thierry Meyssan on voltairenet.com

Though the Western press portrays the Free Syrian Army as an armed revolutionary group, for more than a year Thierry Meyssan has affirmed that it is on the contrary a counter-revolutionary body. According to him, it would have progressively passed from the hands of reactionary monarchies in the Gulf to those of Turkey, acting for NATO. Such a non-mainstream affirmation needs demonstrative proof...

US Prepares For Direct Intervention in Syria of 22 July by Tony Cartalucci on candobetter.

Updates

Unsuccessful attempt to put my anti-war view to ABC listeners

8:40AM, 25 July 2012: I have posted this open letter to the ABC radio contact form. Then I phoned 1300 222 774 and spoke to Jon Faine's telephone receptionist. I was told again to ring the open line at 10.35AM unless Jon Faine chose the Syrian conflict as a topic of interest for discussion on his program before then. My name and the topic I wished to discuss would be listed on his computer screen and should Jon Fain decide that Syria was of interest I would be given an opportunity to speak. I pointed out that people who wanted to discuss topics that I consider far less pressing than the threatened breakout of war in Syria, which could easily cost tens of thousands of lives, had been selected by Jon Faine in preference to me yesterday.

If the Syrian Charge D'Affairs Jawdat Ali -- has been expelled from Australia as a consequence of the fabricated claim that the Syrian government had committed the massacre at Houla and if Australia has applied economic sanctions against Syria how could Faine consider the Syrian conflict not of concern to him and his audience?

She also claimed that Jon Faine had not expressed a personal view on Syria, an absurd claim in my view given that he has uncritically conveyed to his listeners misleading reports about Syria and has, so far, only allowed people who supported the mainstream media deception to speak on his program. A specific example is a Syrian Australian "Michael", who repeated the mainstream lies about Syria. Members of the Syrian Australian community who support their government have not been able to put their views on Jon Faine a far as I am aware. According to Blogger Syd Walker Syrian Australians who have expressed support for the Assad government have face death threats and drive by shootings.

Anti-war views censored by ABC 'talk-back' radio

10:00AM: As instructed, I phoned in at 10:38AM and was put on hold. As I feared, Jon Faine did not allow me to speak. Instead, during the ensuing 18 minutes until the 10:00AM news he spoke to: past Olympic gold medallist, Cathy Freeman, four people about the problem of foxes in urban Melbourne, one person about the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.

Footnotes

[1] I texted to Jon Faine on the 18 July: Why not inform yourself & and your listeners of the facts about Syria @ globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=newsHighlights&newsId=55 ?

[2] Two such lies include the incubator babies' lie of 1990, which was used to gain public acceptance of US plans to wage war against Iraq in 1991 and the Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction lie used to provide a pretext to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (Of course, it is beyond the pale, in the respectable circles in which Jon Faine mixes, to even dream of questioning the pretext used to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.)

As the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) proxies fail and psychological operations falter, US prepares more direct approach for long-sought regime change. Tony Cartalucci reports on how the government of Syria, under attack from terrorist proxies of Arab dictatorships, Israel, the US and its NATO allies has, not for the first time, defied Western media pronouncements of its imminent collapse following the recent terrorist killing of four senior government ministers. Embedded in this article is a moving tribute by French journalist Thierry Meyssan (pictured) to the heroism and fortitude of the Syrian people that allowed them to keep the government operating almost without interruption following the latest terrorist outrage.

Previously published on Global Research and Land Destroyer on 22 July 2012.
See also: The battle of Damascus has begun of 25 Jul 2012 by Thiery Meyssan

As the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) proxies fail and psychological operations falter, US prepares more direct approach for long-sought regime change. Tony Cartalucci reports on how the government of Syria, under attack from terrorist proxies of Arab dictatorships, Israel, the US and its NATO allies has, not for the first time, defied Western media pronouncements of its imminent collapse following the recent terrorist killing of four senior government ministers. Embedded in this article is a moving tribute by French journalist Thierry Meyssan to the heroism and fortitude of the Syrian people that allowed them to keep the government operating almost without interruption following the latest terrorist outrage.

Previously published on Global Research and Land Destroyer on 22 July 2012.
See also: The battle of Damascus has begun of 25 Jul 2012 by Thiery Meyssan

by Tony Cartalucci

As it becomes increasingly clear that last week's "surge" by NATO-backed so-called "Free Syrian Army" terrorists was a failed psychological operation, coordinated with meticulously timed assassinations the day of the UN Security Council vote designed to stampede the Syrian government out of power, the FSA's foreign sponsors are preparing the public for a more direct intervention while desperately attempting to maintain the illusion of chaos and the imminent collapse of Syria's government.

Video: Thierry Meyssan in Damascus, Syria. Please choose from "choose language" to see English subtitles.

Contradicting NATO's narrative, was Thierry Meyssan in Damascus, Syria who reported that Syria's continuity of government seamlessly moved forward after the assassinations last week, and that state institutions are still standing and very much functional. He describes Syria's latest unrest as the result of a coordinated NATO-backed terrorist operation aimed at creating confusion and panic, coupled with Western propaganda - and warns that more operations are likely on the way.

The Telegraph's, "Bashar al-Assad's Syria is now in a death spiral," and the Guardian's "Syria endgame: who and what will emerge from the ruins?" both desperately attempt to write off the Syrian government as already finished, an unsubstantiated reoccurring narrative being repeated daily by the West. Both articles however, categorically fail in qualifying their premises with subsequent facts - instead they depend on rehashing the initial violence that accompanied last week's assassinations - violence that has already been adequately dealt with by Syrian security forces.

In New York Times' article, "US to Focus on Forcibly Toppling Syrian Government," is all but an admission that indeed NATO's FSA terrorists have failed, and that what is in reality imminent, is the restoration of order by the Syrian army after over a year of foreign subversion and armed infiltration. Essential to the West's plan, is now fabricating a justification the US, Israel, and the Gulf despots currently do not have - to more directly intervene before the limitations of NATO's proxy forces are irrevocably exposed.

To achieve this, the Western media has decided to continue depicting Syria as "collapsing" even as security has been fully restored in Damascus, border crossings retaken after NATO-harbored terrorists struck from across Syria's borders, overrunning small platoon-sized garrisons, and now it is confirmed that bolstered Syrian border defenses near Daraa on the Jordanian-Syrian border, entirely balked FSA terrorists.

Despite this, the Western media is still reporting "battles" in Damascus, that have "spread" to Aleppo. Aleppo being another relatively unscathed city, is being purposefully attacked in order to enhance NATO's campaign to terrorize, panic, and divide the Syrian people. Already, however, Syrian troops have begun security operations to surround and neutralize terrorist elements, just as they have done already in Damascus.

But before the violence ebbs, at least, before the Western media finds it no longer tenable to report battles that have subsided days ago, the West has stampeded through several declarations. New York Times' article, in addition to admitting more direct military intervention is being prepared, admits that the US and France are putting their proxy "Syrian National Council" in place to lead a "transitional government."

The West's problem is that not a square-inch of Syrian territory is held by NATO's terrorist proxies - unlike in Libya where NATO proxies were operating out of Benghazi - raising the specter that some larger military intervention emanating from Syria's borders will take place. The most likely location of such an operation would be via Turkey to establish a seat of power for the Western client regime.

To justify more overt Western intervention, an incredible amount of time and energy has been invested in preparing the general public for the prospect of a "chemical attack."Syria has never deployed its chemical weapons, nor does it stand to gain from any such deployment, tactically, politically, or geopolitically. The only beneficiaries of such an attack would be NATO, Israel, and the Gulf despots, who could then use it to justify the "forcible toppling" of the Syrian government they now openly seek. If chemical weapons are deployed in Syria, it will most certainly be the work of NATO and its FSA proxies, using Libya's admittedly pilfered and proliferated arsenal.

The announcement that indeed the US and France are maneuvering their client regime into place, while they plan on openly intervening on behalf of the so-called "Free Syrian Army," is the final nail in the "opposition's" legitimacy, exposing them as place holders of Western geopolitical aspirations in Syria, and in the Arab World. Earlier it was reported that the Syrian opposition was literally being coached and tutored by the US State Department, via the US government-funded US Institute of Peace (USIP) who is literally writing Syria's "new" constitution, as well as engineering the entire "transitional" process on their behalf.

Syria and its allies, should they remain resolved and react only to the actual conditions on the ground can continue to balk Western ambitions by standing united, as they have throughout their history. For now, it appears the West will be happy to divide Syria along sectarian lines, forcing the government's supporters to flee to ethnic enclaves. This means that NATO death squads will be focusing primarily on attacking minorities - a campaign that seems to have already begun.

Above all, skepticism and vigilance is needed to objectively analyze further developments, with further NATO machinations all but assured to follow.

Tony Cartalucci is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Tony Cartalucci

Republished from PressTV. See also: Saudi Arabia's Princess Sara claims asylum in the UK of 8 July in The Telegraph, Russia should demand regime change in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, ... of 8 July, Kofi Annan: International Community Has Failed Syria of 8 July by Tony Cartalucci in Land Destroyer, Saudi regime forces kill two demonstrators in Eastern Province, Bahrainis rally to support Shia cleric detained in Saudi Arabia, Protesters to gather outside Saudi Embassy in London of 9 July in PressTV.

Editorial comment: The Saudi Arabian monarchy, from which Princess Sara is seeking asylum, is one of the Arab dictatorships which is supplying weapons and funds to the terrorist mass-killers of the so-called "Free Syrian Army". Should these Saudi/Israeli/NATO proxies win in Syria, the conditions from which Princess Sara fled will be the conditions that Syrian women will also have to endure.

Saudi Princess Sara bint Talal bin Abdul Aziz (pictured) is seeking political asylum in Britain, alleging physical and mental abuse at the hands of Saudi authorities.

"I've been physically abused. I've been mentally abused. My assets have been frozen," she said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph at a secret location in London.

She said that she was assaulted outside the Saudi embassy in London by an official, who tried to grab her arm.

"I am very scared right now," said the princess. "They know I can't go back now. There is a threat. That's a slap in the face of the Kingdom."

The embassy has turned down the princess' extended stay request in coordination with British authorities.

On Friday, her lawyers notified the Home Office of her intention to seek asylum.

Her allegations must be assessed by UK officials so the 38-year-old can be offered a safe haven, in spite of Saudi authorities' insistence on her return.

The princess went to the UK in 2007 after she fell out with her 80-year-old father Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

She also claimed that she has been subjected "to a litany of serious crimes, including threats, assault, an attempted kidnapping, and the attempted abduction of my children."

The motives are political, she argued.

"I am a threat because I am a reformer from within. My way is the modern Islamic way," she told the paper.

The political asylum request, which came weeks after the death of her uncle and main supporter Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, who was an opponent of her father, offers an insight into the tensions within the Saudi royal family.

Political analysts have predicted that the kingdom will experience instability in the near future as the poor health among the aging royal family augments the power vacuum amid a wave of protests over the persisting brutal crackdown on the Saudi people.

Michael Moore, producer of Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Sicko (2007), and Capitalism: A Love Story in his YouTube broadcast of 20 March 2012 entitled WHAT IS GOING ON IN SYRIA? has shown himself to be an apologist for NATO military aggression.

Michael Moore, producer of Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Sicko (2007), and Capitalism: A Love Story in his YouTube broadcast of 20 March 2012 entitled WHAT IS GOING ON IN SYRIA? has shown himself to be an apologist for NATO military aggression and a phony progressive. Michael Moore lies about Syria on YouTube. Broadcast dated 20 March is entitled WHAT IS GOING ON IN SYRIA?. Note how there is no mention of Libya in which more than 30,000 were killed during NATO's invasion last year in this broadcast, nor any other broadcast on YouTube by Michael Moore which concerns Libya.

The respect I once had for Michael Moore has now vanished.

The link to the video embedded below was provided in one of the many posts harshly critical of Michael Moore's anti-Syrian propaganda.

Syria - The REAL Story -- MUST SEE -- CIA & MOSSAD Death Squads Exposed

1 January 2012

Amnesty International, which covered for NATO's 2011 invasion of Libya in which at least 30,000 died and another 50,000 were wounded, has also been covering for NATO's current proxy war against Syria with fabrications and distortions. Amnesty's lies can easily be seen by comparing their reports with the facts of the Syrian conflict such as which are to be found on alternate news sites such as Global Research, Veterans Today and landdestroyer.com and even a leading German newspaper.

The embedded Youtube report from the Syrian Girl shows how Amnesty and Avaaz are only demanding that the side to the conflict, which which happens to enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of Syrians, including Christian Syrians, who face ethnic cleansing by the al-Qaeda Islamist fundamentalist insurgents, ceases violence.

Editorial comment: Another facet of the deceit against Syria, not addressed by the Syrian Girl in this broadcast, is that originating from ostensibly socialist organisations such as the British Workers Liberty group. That group supported NATO's invasion of Libya and is now campaigning for stronger NATO action against Syria. Nonetheless, this broadcast, embedded from Youtube, covers very succinctly and accurately the equivalent criminal damage that is being caused to Syria by phony human right groups.

See also: Michael Moore pushes NATO propaganda against Syria of 28 June, Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May.

The participation and death of Spanish mercenaries in armed actions in Syria was revealed by local media today. By Claudie Gomez. Originally published on Global Research on 16 June 2012.

The Syrian news agency SANA quoted reports from the Spanish dailies El Pais and El Mundo, which reported the death of the first Spanish terrorist in this country.

Both publications indicated that Spanish citizen Rachid Hussain Mohamed or Rachid Wahbi, born in Ceuta 32 years ago, who had worked as a taxi driver, died somewhere in Syria.

The circumstances of his death are unknown. Certainly, another two residents from Ceuta, Mustafa Mohamed Abselam, alias "Tafo" and Mustafa Mohamed Layachi, alias "Piti", traveled to Syria through Turkey to join the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, said El Mundo.

It added that one of them is still missing and it was the third one who called to find out what had happened to his partners and raise the alarm.

For its part, El Pais assured that authorities are investigating how they were recruited, who paid for their trip, which route they followed and whether they coordinated with young Moroccans from Castillejos and Tetouan from which at least a dozen would-be jihadists also departed. It also added that all apparently travelled through the eastern provinces of Turkey, where the militia of the so-called Syrian Free Army (ESL) have a wide margin in which to maneuver.

See also: Syrian Intervention Matter Of When And Not If of 17 June by Rick Rozoff. (Let's hope that this pessimistic outlook is not realised. - Ed)

Syrians despair as chemical weapons, advanced Javelin surface-to-air missiles and depleted uranium rifles have been smuggled in to the 'rebels'. The Syrian government says it now has no choice but to do what it has been deceitfully accused of in the past by the Western newsmedia. It has given the terrorists 24 hours to disarm or else face artillery bombardment in urban areas. This article benefits from the modern-day phenomenon of serious real-life observers reporting via the Internet. Have you heard Syrian Girl yet? She is a major credible independent source on Syria.

The western media have been deceitfully accusing the Syrian government of bombarding urban areas for over a year, without evidence. Now the Syrian government faced with a terrorist insurgency within its cities armed with more deadly weapons says that it has no choice but to bombard its own cities at the greater risk of civillian casualties. In the video, Russian news sources are cited asserting that Israel is smuggling weapons through Iraqi-Khurdistan (currently dominated by US corporate forces).

The United States and its NATO allies and the Arab dictatorships and Israel may have finally succeeded in getting the Assad government what it has so far avoided having to do. Mim Al Ahram, the Syrian Girl states that she holds NATO and its leaders, and not the Syrian government, responsible and she cites several sources for her broadcast. Please listen to it because she is warning us all that the Third World War is about to break out if Western populations continue to allow their governments to go after oil in a war-like manner. This outcome has been widely feared since oil-depletion scares began to resurface in the 1990s.

Why would the West promote instability in the Middle East?

If it had not occurred to you before, please consider the motives the West has for stimulating instability in the Middle East in order to take that area over. Consider that there is a competition between Western and Eastern (Russian and Chinese) powers for the Middle East. This area is the backyard of Russia and China, but it was long been managed as colonies for the benefit of British, US and French petroleum companies. Before the 1980s China was too riven by poverty to pose much of a challenge to Western hegemony over world resources. Nor did she pose much competition as a consumer of resources then. Now she does. After the two World Wars Russia was pretty much put out of action and, with the fall of the iron curtain, the rise to power of the USSR failed. Initially the countries in the Middle East were colonies and the oil companies exploiting them were National companies belonging to the UK, France and the USA. Since the first oil shock in the 1970s, many of these countries became independent. Since then there has been a battle to bring them back to 'heal'.

Role of Saudis

As often happens in colonisation, elites are given special privileges and immunity by colonial powers in return for managing their countries on behalf of those foreign powers. This is the way that the relationship between the Saudi Arabian royal family and the governments of the United States, the UK and even France is often interpreted. The Saudis are seen as oppressors of other Middle Eastern oil producing states or states located strategically near the oil producing ones.

West desperate to maintain economic growth

The competition for the Middle East and its oil reserves over the past few years has assumed a war-footing because, due to the declining availability of cheap oil, it is becoming extremely difficult for the US, the UK and the rest of Europe to maintain economic growth needed to maintain consumer economies and control over their growing populations. (Note however that the populations in the English speaking countries are growing much faster than in continental Europe, which, sensibly, is not stimulating population growth.)

Isolating Iran seems to be the major objective

The immediate objective of the West seems to be to isolate Iran, which has relatively good reserves of accessible oil, and, since February 2008 has been encouraging an oil-trade that avoids using US dollars. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Oil_Bourse. This is part of a trend among lesser powers, some more familiarly thought of as 'undeveloped' which include South American and African petroleum producers to retain or take charge of their own economic destinies. Ghadaffi was a part of this. It is a movement similar to the 'third world' political alignment that created in the late 1960s OPEC - the Organization of. Petroleum Exporting Countries which creation was also accompanied by revolutions (but real ones) in the early 1970s. The control by OPEC of oil supply caused the 1972/3 oil shocks that also caused a 'revolution' in Western economics and a sharp divide between the more socially oriented policies of Western Europe and the savage capitalism of the Anglophone economies, led by Thatcher and then Reagan.

China and the US

Peak-oil discussions have long anticipated a show-down between China and the US over oil and have interpreted US military incursions in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq to be an attempt to beat China to the 'prize' before China becomes too strong to beat or the US becomes economically too weak to maintain military control of this part of the world. The late Mark Jones was a petroleum expert and lived for a long time in Russia. This final stand between China and the US is the subject of his "The Battle of the Titans," in Sheila Newman (Ed) The Final Energy Crisis2nd Edition, Pluto Press, 2008.

Australia and the US

Australia depends a lot on the US for economic and military security.
The world is becoming very insecure because we are beginning to run into real problems maintaining our economies. Although Australia is currently apparently economically buoyant, what usually happens is that we start to go into recession and depression six months to a year after Europe and the US do. A theory as to why is that it takes that long for us to suffer from loss of buyers for our commodities. 'Emerging countries', notably Asian ones, tend to purchase our commodities for a while before they too lose their buying impetus and this delays our decline.

Why we have to abandon economic and population growth ASAP and start peaceful negotiations

If Australia and her Anglophone allies don't start to allow population growth to slow, land prices to fall (which will then greatly alleviate the cost of production and the need to produce and work so much) and production to reduce we will be forced into continuous wars which we can only lose, since neither we nor our allies have the local energy capacity to win them. To endorse the take-over of the Middle East is mad, in my opinion. What we should be doing is negotiating peacefully with Syria and her neighbours for long-term economic fair-sharing.

According to a report on VoltaireNet.org, at two recent meetings in Qatar and a further meeting in Riyadh, operatives of the Arab dictatorships and NATO met to coordinate a disinformation campaign including interference with satellite broadcasts to conceal a coup against the Syrian Government. As the article notes, the actions proposed, including the planned complicity of the international newsmedia violate intentional law. Nazi German propagandists were tried at Nuremburg for committing similar crimes.

Previously published in Land Destroyer as URGENT: Expose NATO Dirty Tricks in Syria BEFORE They Happen and originally on Voltaire.net as NATO preparing vast disinformation campaign on 11 June 2012.

Source of cartoon: www.historians.org/projects/giroundtable/Propaganda/Propaganda3.htm Another, better source for discussion on the nature of war propaganda is http://www.globalissues.org/article/157/war-propaganda-and-the-media#PropagandaandWar.

In a few days, perhaps as early as Friday, June 15, at noon, the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, President Al-Assad fleeing, the rebels gathering in the big city centers, and a new government installing itself in the presidential palace.

This operation of disinformation, directly managed from Washington by Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, aims at demoralizing the Syrians in order to pave the way for a coup d'etat. NATO, discontent about the double veto of Russia and China, will thus succeed in conquering Syria without attacking the country illegally. Whichever judgment you might have formed on the actual events in Syria, a coup d'etat will end all hopes of democratization.

The Arab League has officially asked the satellite operators Arabsat and Nilesat to stop broadcasting Syrian media, either public or private (Syria TV, Al-Ekbariya, Ad-Dounia, Cham TV, etc.) A precedent already exists because the Arab League had managed to censure Libyan TV in order to keep the leaders of the Jamahiriya from communicating with their people. There is no Hertz network in Syria, where TV works exclusively with satellites. The cut, however, will not leave the screens black.

Actually, this public decision is only the tip of the iceberg. According to our information several international meetings were organized during the past week to coordinate the disinformation campaign. The first two were technical meetings, held in Doha (Qatar); the third was a political meeting and took place in Riyad (Saudi Arabia).

The first meeting assembled PSYOP officers, embedded in the satellite TV channels of Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox, France 24, Future TV and MTV. It is known that since 1998, the officers of the US Army Psychological Operations Unit (PSYOP) have been incorporated in CNN. Since then this practice has been extended by NATO to other strategic media as well.

They fabricated false information in advance, on the basis of a "story-telling" script devised by Ben Rhodes's team at the White House. A procedure of reciprocal validation was installed, with each media quoting the lies of the other media to render them plausible for TV spectators. The participants also decided not only to requisition the TV channels of the CIA for Syria and Lebanon (Barada, Future TV, MTV, Orient News, Syria Chaab, Syria Alghad) but also about 40 religious Wahhabi TV channels to call for confessional massacres to the cry of "Christians to Beyrouth, Alawites into the grave!."

The second meeting was held for engineers and technicians to fabricate fictitious images, mixing one part in an outdoor studio, the other part with computer generated images. During the past weeks, studios in Saudi Arabia have been set up to build replicas of the two presidential palaces in Syria and the main squares of Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. Studios of this type already exist in Doha (Qatar), but they are not sufficient.

The third meeting was held by General James B. Smith, the US ambassador, a representative of the UK, prince Bandar Bin Sultan (whom former U.S. president George Bush named his adopted son so that the U.S. press called him "Bandar Bush"). In this meeting the media actions were coordinated with those of the Free "Syrian" Army, in which prince Bandar's mercenaries play a decisive role.

The operation had been in the making for several months, but the U.S. National Security Council decided to accelerate the action after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, notified the White House that he would oppose by all means, even by force, any illegal NATO military intervention in Syria.

The operation has a double intent: the first is to spread false information, the second aims at censuring all possible responses.

The hampering of TV satellites for military purposes is not new. Under pressure from Israel, the USA and the EU blocked Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian TV channels, one after the other. However, no satellite channels from other parts of the world were censured.

The broadcast of false news is also not new, but four significant steps have been taken in the art of propaganda during the last decade.

• In 1994, a pop music station named "Free Radio of the Thousand Hills" (RTML) gave the signal for genocide in Rwanda with the cry, "Kill the cockroaches!"
• In 2001, NATO used the media to impose an interpretation of the 9/11 attacks and to justify its own aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. At that time already, it was Ben Rhodes who had been commissioned by the Bush administration to concoct the Kean/Hamilton Commission report on the attacks.
• In 2002, the CIA used five TV channels (Televen, Globovision, ValeTV and CMT) to make the public in Venezuela believe that phantom demonstrators had captured the elected president, Hugo Chávez, forcing him to resign. In reality he was the victim of a military coup d'etat.
• In 2011, France 24 served as information ministry for the Libyan CNT, according to a signed contract. During the battle of Tripoli, NATO produced fake studio films, then transmitted them via Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, showing phantom images of Libyan rebels on the central square of the capital city, while in reality they were still far away. As a consequence, the inhabitants of Tripoli were persuaded that the war was lost and gave up all resistance.

Nowadays the media do not only support a war, they produce it themselves.

This procedure violates the principles of International Law, first of all Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relating to the fact of receiving and imparting information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Above all, the procedure violates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, adopted after the end of World War II, to prevent further wars. Resolutions 110, 381 and 819 forbid "to set obstacles to free exchange of information and ideas" (like cutting off Syrian TV channels) and "all propaganda provoking or encouraging threats to peace, breaking peace, and all acts of aggression". By law, war propaganda is a crime against peace, the worst of crimes, because it facilitates war crimes and genocide.

Appendix: War propaganda from Australian newspapers which violate international law.

The misreporting of the Syrian conflict in order to overcome public opposition to NATO's planned war against Syria, examples of which are shown below, are no less violations of Interntional law than was Nazi Propagandist Hans Fritzsche who was tried at Nuremburg for his crimes.

From The Age newspaper

Syria escalation worries UN, US

More than 100 people have been killed in violence across Syria, as international mediator Kofi Annan says he is "gravely concerned" by the ...

Syrian army using kids as human shields of 9 June 2012

The Syrian army has killed at least 23 civilians in two protest cities, a watchdog says, as international outcry mounts over a massacre in a central village. ...

Syrian army using kids as human shields of12 June 2012

Syrian troops have tortured children, executed them and used children as young as eight as "human shields" during military raids against ...

Murder of children tops UN's shame list of 12 June 2012

Syrian troops have tortured children, executed them and used children as young as eight as "human shields" during military raids against rebels, according to a UN report to be released today.

The United Nations named the Syrian government one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame" of conflict countries where children are killed, tortured and forced to fight.

Syria army kills 23 civilians

The Syrian army has killed at least 17 civilians, including nine women and three children, in the flashpoint southern town of Daraa, the Syrian ...

From The Australian newspaper

Syrian army 'uses kids as human shields' of June 12, 2012

SYRIAN troops have tortured children, executed them and used children as young as eight as "human shields" during military raids against rebels, according to a UN report.

US fears new Syria massacre

The United States voiced fears that Syria's government is planning a new massacre, as regime helicopters fired on rebel stronghold towns and raging violence killed over 100 people. ...

Syrians suffer - UN paralysed of June 11, 2012

As the bloodbath in Syria continues, with grotesque new atrocities being committed on a daily basis, the international community must not allow itself to be frozen into inaction or acquiescence by the veto wielded at the United Nations by President Bashar al-Assad's two protectors, Russia and China.

Tyrants the world over - be they Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or North Korea's Kim Jong-un - rest easier knowing that when it comes to human rights and decency, they can count on support from Moscow and Beijing. Mr Assad is no exception. ...

Further editorial comment: The contents of all the items listed above are demonstrable fabrications of which their authors cannot be unaware. These lies are certain to be paid for in coming days with Syrian lives. In a fair trial those who authored and edited these lies would almost certainly be convicted and jailed for violating international law.

On 9 June Russia Today reported how Alex Thomson, the Chief Channel 4 News correspondent accused Syrian insurgents of having deliberately set him up to be killed by Assad government forces.

The embedded broadcast included the following testimony from Alex Thomson:

We were deliberately led out of that town a way which ... the rebels knew was dangerous. We were led there in a car full of four men, two of whom were armed. They told us to go down a route which looked dangerous to us, but we trusted them and we said that we would go down the road and turn. We turned and found the road was blocked. That was a roadblock that they had to have known was there. There was nobody around and at that point we were forced to ... turn the vehicle around in a free fire zone and one round was duly fired. We were definitely exposed to a dangerous situation and I am in no doubt that they did it deliberately. My point is that dead journalists are bad for Damascus. Now that's going to reflect all the way to Moscow and all the way to Beijing. ... You don't have to be very clever to work out that the death of any journalists at the hands of the Syrian Army are going to be an appalling blow again for president Assad. So the motivation for the rebels to pull as stunt like that seems to be very obvious.

See also: Syrian rebels tried to get reporter killed in anti-Assad propaganda bid of 9 June on RT, VIDEO: US-NATO "Humanitarian Intervention" in Syria: Towards a Regional War? on GRTV- by Michel Chossudovsky of 8 June, New Round of Civilian Massacres: US-UN Maneuvers Against Syria Upon Baseless Activist Hearsay
of 8 June by Tony Cartalucci on Global Research.

Those who want to know the truth about the recent Houla massacre, blamed by the corporate newsmedia on the Syrian government, should consider these chilling words said in 2005 by Ziad Abdel Nour, a corporate-financier and founder of "Blackhawk Partners" as well as chairman of the Neo-Conservative run "United States Committee for a Free Lebanon" :

"This Bashar Al Assad-Emil Lahoud regime is going to go whether it's true or not. When we went to Iraq whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, the key is — we won. And Saddam is out! Whatever we want, will happen. ... Whether we lie about it, or invent something, or we don't ... I don't care. The end justifies the means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is right.[1]

See also: LIES AND FABRICATIONS: The Houla Massacre - Full text of Syria's Ambassador to the UN Dr Bashar Al-Ja'afari's Press Conference - 2012-05-29, BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre' in The Telegraph of 27 May, SAVE SYRIA: Demand An End to US-NATO Supported Sectarian Terrorists in Global Research of 2 June.

Those who want to know the truth and want peace and global justice should consider these chilling words said in 2005 by Ziad Abdel Nour, a corporate-financier and founder of "Blackhawk Partners" as well as chairman of the Neo-Conservative run "United States Committee for a Free Lebanon" :

"This Bashar Al Assad-Emil Lahoud regime is going to go whether it's true or not. When we went to Iraq whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, the key is — we won. And Saddam is out! Whatever we want, will happen. ... Whether we lie about it, or invent something, or we don't ... I don't care. The end justifies the means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is right."[1]

A vast amount of evidence has shown the Western media claims about the Houla massacre and other aspects of the Syrian conflict, shamefully repeated by Australia's 'Labor' Foreign minister Bob Carr to be a pack of barefaced lies. The claims don't withstand any critical scrutiny[2] and yet Western Governments, including Australia's, are resolved to continue their war
against Syria, whether though proxies or directly just as they did in the past in their illegal invasions of Iraq, based on the lies of "incubator babies" and WMD's, which resulted in 2 million deaths.

Presumably Carr, who cannot be unaware of the truth of the Houla massacre, also believes that "the end justifies the means" and that "might is right".

Appendix: Factual information about the Houla Massacre

Syrian Girl Partisan's Channel on YouTube

SYRIA: Killing Innocent Civilians as part of a US Covert Op. Mobilizing Public Support for a R2P War against Syria - by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-05-30

LIES AND FABRICATIONS: The Houla Massacre - Full text of Syria's Ambassador to the UN Dr Bashar Al-Ja'afari's Press Conference - 2012-05-29.

The assault on Syria: Australian justice trashed May 30th, 2012 by Syd Walker.

West's Houla Syria Narrative Crumbles, Expels Syrian Diplomats Anyway of 29 May.

See also, response to Houla massacre by Syria's close ally Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad published on two sites at Iran's leader: Punishment for Syria massacre and Punishment for Syria massacre: Ahmadinejad [3] on 31 May, BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre' in The Telegraph of 27 May, SAVE SYRIA: Demand An End to US-NATO Supported Sectarian Terrorists in Global Research of 2 June.

Footnotes

[1] Quoted from "Might Makes Right" Says Conspirator of Syrian-Iranian Conquest in Land Destroyer.

[2] See, for example, discussions in the The Punch, Crikey and Somaliland Press. Wherever free discussion has occurred the claims against the Government of Bashar al-Assad have been decisively rebuked and those pushing them have fallen silent.

[3] Ahminejad is hardly likely to be calling for the punishment of his Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad.

On the You Tube channel www.youtube.com/SyrianGirlPartisan, Mimi al-Laham, an articulate young English-speaking Syrian has taken on the lying corporate and phony left newsmedia which is providing cover for NATO's proxy war against her homeland as they did last year when NATO bombed and invaded Libya. James Corbett[1] has interviewed the Syrian Girl on his Channel. We have also embedded this interview on candobetter.

See also: Syrian Girl interviewed on Infowars of 21 May, Carr tries to justify Australian support for NATO war against Syria of 12 Apr 12, Syria: NATO's Next "Humanitarian" War? of 5 May 12, Foreign troops inside Syria: The Failed UN Brokered "Peace Plan" Sets the Stage for War? of 29 Mar 12, Syria: CIA-MI6 Intel Ops and Sabotage of 7 Feb 12, The Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria: Recruiting Jihadists to Wage NATO's "Humanitarian Wars" of 2 Sep 11 and other Global Research articles on Syria.

On the You Tube channel www.youtube.com/SyriangirlPartisan, Mimi al-Laham, an articulate young English-speaking Syrian has taken on the lying corporate and phony left newsmedia which is providing cover for NATO's proxy war against her homeland as they did last year when NATO bombed and invaded Libya. James Corbett[1] has interviewed the Syrian Girl on his Channel. We have also embedded this interview below on this page.

Above broadcast is also to be found on the Corbett Report and at youtube.com/watch?v=y8-4nz6KvXA

See also: Syrian Girl interviewed on Infowars of 21 May, Carr tries to justify Australian support for NATO war against Syria of 12 Apr 12, Syria: NATO's Next "Humanitarian" War? of 5 May 12, Foreign troops inside Syria: The Failed UN Brokered "Peace Plan" Sets the Stage for War? of 29 Mar 12, Syria: CIA-MI6 Intel Ops and Sabotage of 7 Feb 12, The Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria: Recruiting Jihadists to Wage NATO's "Humanitarian Wars" of 2 Sep 11 and other Global Research articles on Syria.

FootNotes

[1] Whilst James Corbett has contributed enormously to fighting mainstream media lies in order to make known the truth about the cause of recent and ongoing wars, he has, unfortunately, in other broadcasts, and articles condemned those opposed to human population growth, presumably including the late Martin Luther King and 9/11 Truth advocate Barrie Zwicker, as anti-human 'eugenecists'. Examples of Corbett's unfortunate nonsense on population can be found on a previous broadcast (which, thankfully, I can no longer find) and here on Global Research.

Australia's new Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr continues his predecessor's enthusiastic volunteering of Australia in the Coalition of the Willing, this time against Syria. Between 1991 and now, the Coalition caused the deaths of possibly 1,500,000

Iraqis and 20,000 Afghan civilians. A copy of the interview in which Carr repeated corporate media lies to justify action against Syria can be found on YouTube and is embedded in this article. Readers may wish to contrast Carr's words with facts about the Syrian conflict to be found on Global Research. See also: Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May 2012, Syria -70% vote to end one-party state - why aren't we celebrating? of 1 Mar 2012, Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 12 Apr 2012 on candobetter, AN ONGOING DISASTER: Libya, Africa and Africom - More than 50,000 Deaths of 26 May.

Australia's new Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr continues his predecessor's enthusiastic volunteering of Australia in the Coalition of the Willing, this time against Syria. Between 1991 and now, the Coalition caused the deaths of possibbly 1,500,000

By Geoffrey Taylor with Sheila Newman

Australia's new Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr, has wasted little time in rekindling Australia's participation in the Coalition of the Willing, this time against Syria. In 2003 the Coalition illegally invaded Iraq using, as a pretext, the fraudulent claim that Iraq posed a threat to the world with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). This followed Australia's participation in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, based on an inadequate official investigation of the events of 9/11. As a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq one million Iraqis may have died according to one study in the British Lancet medical journal. In the ten years prior to that invasion a further one million Iraqis had died from hunger as a result of sanctions imposed upon Iraq by the US, Australia and its allies after the conclusion of the 1991 war against Iraq[1] in which a further 130,000 Iraqis were killed.

Since the Afghan War in 2001, a further 20,000 civilians have died.

Embedded below is a YouTube broadcast of a recent interview with Bob Carr in which he uses inflammatory corporate newsmedia reports about the Syrian conflict to justify the imposition of sanctions on Syria. The journalist in the interview asks Carr if he would consider expelling the Syrian ambassador and Carr does not rule this out.

Carr says nothing of the 2011 invasion of Libya, shamefully supported by Australia's previous foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, nor, of course, anything about Australia's past participation in the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, mentioned above.

Nor does the interviewer. This is a failure of journalism to situate our current policy and actions in their historic context where our recent actions turned out to be entirely wrongly based. For instance, the fact that many Australians remain unaware that the excuse used by the US to invade Iraq, that it had weapons of mass destruction, was proven to be a CIA fabrication is a complete failure of journalism and national education. This is despite the clear accessibility of the truth in this case. (See Fair Game and the book of the same name.)

These continuing failures of accurate reporting by the Australian mass media - commercial and public - are shunting Australians and the rest of the world blindfolded towards a third world war with the Middle East.

In response to growing competition for ultimately scarce oil resources, world blocs have formed in an effort to get favorable terms for long-term access to Middle Eastern oil. What is going on now represents attempts to isolate Iran by disorganising and possibly invading its neighbours. Iranian oil reserves have been of great interest to the world since the early 20th century, beginning with Anglo-Persian oil. Iran continues to hold a disputed but considerable volume of remaining accessible oil reserves in the world and this is the reason that world attention is currently focused in this area. Iran's position on the Caspian Sea is critical. See "What's in it for Russia? Georgia, Ossetia, & Caspian oil and gas". Multi-national oil companies tend to be aligned with particular national blocs and rely on governments in their negotiations. Access to oil is never left to the international market alone.

Growth economics, combined with population growth in the first world has made us hungry for oil at almost any cost.

Above broadcast embedded from http://youtube.com/watch?v=0H9H2XsvS20

Australians seeking a more three dimensional view of these conflicts will find other views on Russia Today's media internet media outlet. The video, "Judging Syria," for instance, talks about how US allies, Saudi Arabia, are engaging in repressive violence that goes almost completely unreported in the media. Other videos ask why the media have lost interest in humanitarian causes in Libya when the country has now dissolved into armed gang warfare. The answer to that question probably resides in the very close cooperation between the Western political blocs and its mass media.

Get more background on Syria from the articles listed below

Here are links to articles about Syria from Global Research and Global Research TV, where readers can get more information than the Anglophone mainstream press provide. Please feel most welcome to add your comments below, whether critical or supportive.

SYRIA: NATO's Next "Humanitarian" War? - by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-05-11

SYRIA: WESTERN POWERS ARE SUBVERTING THE PEACE PROCESSPress Conference, Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations - 2012-04-09

BREAKING NEWS, SYRIA: Imperialist Powers Manipulate Syrian "Peace Plan" to Prepare for All Out War - by Johannes Stern - 2012-04-09

VIDEO: Syrian Journalist: CNN, Al-Jazeera Falsifying Events in Syria Get all the info on GRTV - by Rahshan Saglam, Rafik Lutf - 2012-04-08

SYRIA AND THE UN: Diplomatic Confrontation at the UN regarding The Kofi Annan Syria "Peace Plan" - by Ronda Hauben - 2012-04-08

US-led conference backs Syrian puppet group, threatens war - by Niall Green - 2012-04-02

Shocking Report Reveals Terrorists' Crimes in Syria - 2012-03-28

Syria Denounces Foreign Support for Terrorism - 2012-03-25

VIDEO: US/NATO Proxy War in Syria Follows Precedent Set in Bosnia Find out more on GRTV- by Benjamin Schett - 2012-03-22

Syrian opposition accused of "human rights abuses" - by Chris Marsden - 2012-03-22

Bahrain Medics Show Trial: This Is Not Syria, Therefore No Western Outcry

MEDIA LIES: Deaths in Syria: Counting them (politically) correctly - 2012-03-19

SYRIA OPPOSITION TARGETS CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: Christians Expelled from Homs by "Opposition" Al Qaeda Gunmen - 2012-03-18

SYRIA: Testimonies from Homs Reveal Identity of Terrorists and Mercenaries involved in Atrocities

Foiling Peace: The Imperial “Friends” of Syria - by Ben Schreiner - 2012-04-11

SYRIA: THE WINDS OF WAR - by Stephen Lendman - 2012-04-11

SYRIA’S "ROGUE ISLAMIST OPPOSITION": US-NATO’s New Lie in its Bid for Regime Change

Syrian Peace Deal: UN's Cloak to NATO's Dagger - by Tony Cartalucci - 2012-04-09

"RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT" SYRIA: A US-NATO "TROJAN HORSE" - by Carla Stea - 2012-04-09

Kofi Annan is the "War-maker" in Syria Interview- by Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-04-08

THE HISTORY OF "REGIME CHANGE": Putting Syria into some perspective - by William Blum - 2012-04-06

“Friends of Syria”—the Antechamber of a Wider Mideast War - by Bill Van Auken - 2012-04-04

VIDEO: Free Syrian Army Foot-Soldiers of Western Military Alliance - by Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-04-02

See also: Syria -70% vote to end one-party state - why aren't we celebrating? of 1 Mar 2012, Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 12 Apr 2012 on candobetter, AN ONGOING DISASTER: Libya, Africa and Africom - More than 50,000 Deaths of 26 May.

Footnotes

[1] Iraq had been set up by US Ambassador to Kuwait, following Kuwait illegally slant drilling for oil under Iraqi territory. As shown in the transcript of the interview April Glaspie assured Hussein that there would be no adverse consequences from the US were Iraq to invade Kuwait in retaliation for the slant drilling.

As the US was preparing to attack Iraq in reprisal for the invasion, the Public Relations firm Hill and Knowlton manufactured the lie of the "incubator babies" to overcome opposition to the war. See YouTube broadcast, embedded on candobetter in this comment.

70 per cent of Syrians voted in referendum to end one party rule and to have elections but have been hit by EU sanctions anyway. Aljazeera reported that no-one would vote, but it seems that a lot did. Basically the world is dividing into an Eastern and Western bloc over this, with Russia and China supporting Syria's right to settle its own affairs and the US and other Anglophone western nations and the EU are looking for a pretext to intervene and threatening crippling sanctions. Further down we might expect EU imposition of a no-fly zone to give them an excuse to invade, as has already happened in Libya. Is the end-objective to isolate Iran for its oil reserves? What's up? Here are some views. (Incidentally, a shock inside for Australians - we are 2nd highest ranking weapons importers. What are we doing with them? Are we on-selling? And who's making money out of this?)

Western leaders ignore majority of Syrians

Republished from "West Regards Majority of Syrians as "Non-People"by grtv"

"Syria has successfully held a referendum on a constitution, but been hit with new sanctions by the EU anyway.

Neil Clark, a journalist and contributor to The Guardian, believes Western leaders are being highly hypocritical when they criticize the Syrian regime for being undemocratic, and yet fail to respect the views of the majority of Syrians.

“Fifty-seven per cent of Syrians have voted and an overwhelming majority of them have said yes to it,” he told RT “It’s a great day for democracy in Syria. And yet what’s the reaction been by the Western leaders? Well, Hillary Clinton denounced it as a cynical ploy. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, said that it was a sham, but in fact what is a sham is the West’s approach because the reaction to this referendum shows us that they’re not really keen on democracy in Syria.”

Clark said the West tends to cast a blind eye on huge pro-Assad demonstrations and the fact that 55 per cent of Syrians want President Assad to stay.

“The reality is that the majority of Syrians support Assad, but for the West these are non-people, their views don’t count”.

He noted the symbolism of the announcement of new sanctions against Syria by the EU.

“On the very day that Syria, after five decades of one-party rule, votes for democracy, what does the EU do? It announces tough new sanctions on Syria. It’s highly symbolic.”

Clark expressed his opinion that the EU was hardly a democratic body itself.

“I think that it’s quite ironic on this very day we also have the French President Nicolas Sarkozy explaining why we, the European people, are not going to be allowed to vote ourselves on the EU fiscal treaty. He says it’s too hard for us to understand. So the EU, which is claiming to be in favor of democracy, is actually working against it.”

He concluded by saying that the majority of Syrians do not want their country to disintegrate like Iraq or Libya and see President Assad and the Ba’ath party as the preferred solution to hold the country together."

The Manila Times on Friday 17 February gave details of the referendum before it was voted on and treated the matter with less optimism:

A day after rejecting United Nations (UN) allegations of crimes against humanity, the Syrian leader set the referendum for February 26, in a move aimed at placating growing global outrage over the bloodshed.

The proposed charter drops Article 8, which declared the ruling Baath Party as the “leader of the state and society,” allowing for a multi-party system, state television said.

The president must be a Muslim man and may serve a maximum of two seven-year terms, although it is unclear if this would apply to Assad, who is already on his second term.

In April, Assad scrapped emergency rule—in force since 1963—when the Baathists took power in a coup d’etat. But he has repeatedly promised reforms that have failed to materialize since the uprising erupted in March.

The embattled 46-year-old president, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000, said that the Constitution would usher in a “new era” for Syria, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, the Anarchist Weekly gives this opinion:

"Syria Bleeding"

"The butcher Assad, the so called President of Syria, has made his name by butchering his own people, not by invading Israel. Assad and the reactionary Israel government are two peas in the same pod. Violence is their stock in trade. Murder and destruction is their legacy. Human beings are mere objects to be prodded, gutted, slaughtered for the glory of the state.

These modern day Aztec Priests don’t even use the fig leaf of religious belief to justify their atrocities. Syria is a classical example of what happens when rulers who are faced with peaceful protest use their monopoly on the use of force to derail that protest. The world looks on while the autocrats in China and Russia block United Nations intervention in Syria and the United States uses the Arab League to try to unseat an autocrat they don’t control to insert one they do control.

The people of Syria in 2012, like the people of Spain in 1936, need the help of ordinary people to halt these atrocities. More so than ever before they need to see the very soldiers who are involved in the slaughter turn their guns against their officers. These Syrian soldiers, as many before them have done, need to use the arms they have brought to the struggle to protect Syrians who have used their bare hands to dismantle a regime that has a track record of brutality that is only matched by the Israeli states’ treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."

Candobetter Peak Oil Politics author view:

Our resident Peak Oil Politics writer, Sheila Newman, said:

"Since the establishment of the Anglo-Persian oil company in Iran, and the dismantlement of the Ottoman empire during the First World War, Western industrial interests have used governments and warfare to colonise and destabilise the tribes and nation-formation and government of countries in the Middle East (and South America, Asia and Africa) that could possibly have an association with oil. These machinations include the control of countries bordering the oil producers, like Syria (although it does have some oil, important to its economy), Somalia and the Sudan. In 1970, the United States - which had built its modern industrial, military and political strength on its own oil production - became a net oil importer. With the oil shocks of the early 1970s, Arab and other third world oil-producing colonies[1] organised through OPEC (0rganisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries - started by Gadaffi) to become independent and better represent their own interests on the global oil market instead of those of foreign national oil companies and public and private corporations. Australia, under Prime Minister Whitlam almost took this route, when Whitlam's Minister for Minerals and Energy, Rex Connor, nearly made Australia energy-self-sufficient. The Khemlani loan was mostly for that purpose with the ancillary purpose of supporting full employment of Australians during the 1970s oil shock period.

The Eastern bloc took a different route from the capitalist-industrialist bloc, seeking to bring a communist outlook to the oil-producing countries of the world, which would then align them to its philosophy and to its membership countries. Historically communism is a reaction to capitalism.

The Western and Eastern blocs each supplied arms to oil producing countries and those countries became global 'hot-spots'.

Western counter-shocks sought to weaken this alliance by reducing oil-demand, with the intended effect of drastically reducing the incomes of the OPEC members. These actions brought about new negotiated prices in a newly formed global petroleum market. OPEC has continued to hold its own on this market, with the stated purpose of keeping prices relatively smooth and looking after the interests of its members. This approach has probably maintained fairly benign oil-pricing, but the stakes are rising, both for oil exporters and oil importers, who are mutually dependent - one for income and the other for fuel.

The reason that the stakes are rising is because world population and industrial activity is continually breaking its own records and is now completely hooked on the economic growth model, which relies utterly on petroleum supply to survive in current proportions. Obviously both sides of the global oil market - the exporters and the importers - would like to increase the certainty of their positions. For the oil-exporters the way forward must seem to be to diversify their national economies and produce and consume locally whilst conserving their fuel for their own welfare. This may not mean that they would withhold all their petroleum, but it would throw a spanner in world economic growth and cause poverty in previously wealthy countries that have used up much or all of their local fossil fuel supplies. For the oil-importers the way forward must seem to be to get control (as in colonial times) of Middle Eastern oil and use it to prop up their own economies and manufacturing. Quite a few of the oil-producing members of OPEC want to conserve world oil supplies and this flies in the face of many of the oil importing economies' desire to continuously increase population, production of goods, and consumption. These opposite interests can have only two outcomes - warlike competition as the world separates into blocs or world cooperation. World cooperation would require the world to abandon both growth economics, world economic development and the current division of world population into poor commodity-producing economies and wealthy consuming countries. It would also, in my view, require empowering people at a local level in all countries who would then delegate power upwards, instead of the top-down corporate politics that have evolved since the 18th century.

There are other notable sub-interests affected. One of these is weapons production - in which the US and most governments invest heavily. Astonishingly, little Australia is second in world ranking for importing arms! (Candobetter must look into this.)

Another is industries profiting from increasing world immigration as an economic stimulator of development and redevelopment in established industrial economies which would otherwise slow down as their populations stabilised and demand for housing, roads etc diminished. This drive to import people to stimulate growth economies only applies strongly in the Anglophone powers - Western Continental Europe does not have the same reliance on immigration as an economic stimulant. (Australia, Canada, the US, and Britain are well-known for unsustainable population growth in the service of speculative industries known as the Growth Lobby.)

Modern Oil politics and Resource Wars

Greg Muttitt, in his brilliant book, Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq, Bodley Head, UK, 2011, p.xxv, writes:
"One of the lessons of this book is that we must revise our notion of a resource war. We have tended to think of the conquistador loading up his ship with stolen New World gold, but a single shipload of any commodity is worth relatively little to a world power, or even to a corporation. A far more valuable prize can be carried in a briefcase or on a laptop computer: contracts, laws and policies that ensure the flow of resources over decades.

It would be wrong to simply equate US and UK energy security with the interests of their corporations. But they do overlap. After all, if those corporations were to gain contracts entitling them to extract more oil, that would help provide the secure, increased supplies their governments seek.

Enforceable rights to extract resources confer not just wealth but power. Less visible than tanks in the streets, the more abstract forms of power asserted through documents and institutions last far longer. The outcome of the oil struggles recounted in these pages will in large part determine the nature of the West's relationship with Iraq and the wider Middle East for decades to come. This book is a warning of the fate that may befall other parts of the world as the competition for resources becomes more intense, if we do not learn form this experience."

What do you think? Please send us your comments.

See also: comment Are we being lied to any less than in 1991, 2003, 2011, ... ? of 5 March - Ed.

[1] "OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 12 oil-producing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965,[2] and hosts regular meetings among the oil ministers of its Member Countries. Indonesia withdrew in 2008 after it became a net importer of oil, but stated it would likely return if it became a net exporter again." (Wikipedia)

The events of “Arab Spring” have given the United States an opportunity to reevaluate our entire foreign and military policy. That reevaluation has not yet happened, but it must. End the empire!

See also: thepatriots.us.

The events of “Arab Spring” have given the United States an opportunity to reevaluate our entire foreign and military policy. That reevaluation has not yet happened, but it must.

Candobetter Editor: We welcome essays and papers from Dr Robert Bowman. Robert Bowman was in charge of the program to build an outer space missile defense shield in the early 1970s under Presidents Ford and Carter. He retired in 1978. In 1980, when President Reagan took over the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) it was put into the hands of a group of people who wanted to turn it into a means to launch a first strike nuclear attack against the Soviet Union. Many of the top brass under Reagan were opposed to this but could not speak out publicly. Robert Bowman, as he was already retired, was free to speak without incurring any penalty. Because he was free to speak, the top generals, who themselves felt unable to speak up, appealed to Robert Bowman to use his voice to stop the SDI. Bowman gave thousands of public speeches against the SDI and, of his own efforts, turned American public opinion around, so that the SDI, as a first strike weapon, had to be abandoned.

Arab Spring

Most of the revolts of 2011 have been popular uprisings against aging dictators who have for decades kept their people in poverty and without a voice in their governance. The successful revolt against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt is a good example. It was a genuine popular uprising of ordinary people. The protesters were unarmed and mostly peaceful. They quickly gained the support of people all across the country and from all walks of life. Even the Army refused to fire on them. The media called them “pro-democracy” forces, but most of the demonstrators had little interest in “democracy” as such, and little understanding of what it is. What they wanted was a better life. They were demonstrating against unemployment, poverty, and hunger. And they succeeded. It is doubtful that any meaningful democracy will result, but the Egyptian people at least have a chance for a better standard of living. The dictator they overthrew, Hosni Mubarak, was an ally of the United States and Israel. But he was not deemed essential to our elites. We did not interfere. After all, puppet dictators come and go. Once in a while, you have to throw one of them under the bus.

It’s another story in Yemen and Bahrain, where the local dictators have given us military bases and active cooperation in our “War on Terror.” In these countries, the dictators are brutally repressing the demonstrators and killing unarmed civilians, with our tacit approval and probably with the assistance of the CIA. Having armed these dictators, we don’t have to send troops in to help them (that the American people would not stand for). But we certainly won’t help the “pro-democracy” demonstrators. For them, “Arab Spring” is nothing but a long, hard winter of discontent.

Libya

So what’s goin on in Libya? Why are the vast majority of the Libyan people standing behind Moammar Khaddafi? And why are we sending the full air power of NATO to assist a small band of armed revolutionaries in Libya?

The answers are simple. First, Khaddafi has been, for the most part, a benevolent dictator. He has enormously bettered the lives of his people until their standard of living is the highest in the Arab world. Education is free. Medical care is free. Housing is free. Automobiles are heavily subsidized, as is the gasoline to run them. Young married couples start wedded life with a $50,000 subsidy. Every Libyan man, woman, and child gets something like $500 a year directly from the oil profits. Khaddafi has built the world’s largest public works project, pumping rivers of fresh water from aquifers under the desert of southern Libya north to the cities along the Mediterranean where the people live. This has allowed the people to have clean drinking water, and has enabled agriculture. In short, the economic factors behind most of the revolts of “Arab Spring” are absent in Libya. No wonder the people, for the most part, support him (democracy or no).

Then who are the armed rebels, and why are we supporting them? Easy. They are Islamist malcontents. Some of them are unhappy that Khaddafi is taking a leading role in uniting African countries. They look down on black Africans, and want Libya to align itself with Europe. Some have long been CIA operatives, fighting against the Russians in Afghanistan, and now against the Americans (like so many “Al Qaeda”). Having no political loyalties, they are happy to accept CIA and NATO help in taking over Libya as an Islamist state.

For our part, we are using them to get rid of a thorn that has long been in our side. All of the dictators (former puppets of ours or not) that we have turned on (Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, all the way back to Mossadegh in Iran) have committed one of these two cardinal sins: (1) they have nationalized the oil industry, denying the Western oil companies billions in profits, or (2) they have declared independence from the global banking cartel, refusing to borrow from the IMF and World Bank. This has cost the banks billions in interest, and prevented them from imposing harsh austerity measures which impoverish the people and make them permanent debt slaves. Khaddafi committed BOTH of these cardinal sins. First, he nationalized the oil industry, kicking out the western corporations. Instead of having a central bank under the thumb of the Rothschilds (like the US, Greece, Ireland, etc), Khaddafi printed his own money, backing it with gold from oil sales. He used the money to better the lives of his people.

These actions sealed Khaddafi’s fate. The West has been waiting decades for an opportunity to take him out. The NATO “no fly zone” and the incessant bombing of Tripoli have nothing to do with protecting civilians from the Libyan army. They, like all our military adventures since World War II, have to do with protecting the global financial interests of multinational corporations and banks and the billionaires who own them. It’s a desperate attempt to maintain the financial empire which owes no loyalty to this or any other country, which pays no taxes to our government, but which somehow has gotten control of our government and both major political parties, uses our sons and daughters as cannon fodder in their wars of aggression, and (believe it or not) gets us taxpayers to pay for it all!

Are we stupid or what?

Syria

As we write this in mid-June, it appears that Bashar al-Assad of Syria may be the next dictator to feel the wrath of US military power. He and his father Haffez al-Assad before him have been closer to Russia than to the West, allowing Russia access to Naval bases on the Mediterranean. They have also been supporters of Hezbollah and Hamas. But they have (like their fellow Ba’athist in Iraq, Saddam Hussein) also opposed militant Sunni Islamists, and allowed significant religious freedom to their Christian minority (about 10%).. That did not save Saddam, and it won’t save Assad.

Afghanistan

Our ten-year war against Afghanistan has nothing to do with 9/11 or our national security. It is a war to secure the oil pipeline through Afghanistan that the Taliban refused to give to Unocal. It was planned in detail before the attacks on 9/11 (which the Taliban had nothing to do with). (According to the FBI, we don’t even have any evidence that Osama bin Laden had anything to do with 9/11.) Like all the others, it is a war of Empire.

Iraq

The war against Iraq had even less justification than that on Afghanistan. Since there was no connection whatsoever between Iraq and 9/11, the G. W. Bush administration invented the WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) excuse — one they knew was false. Would our generals have massed 150,000 troops in one spot in Kuwait if they thought there was any chance Saddam had even one WMD that could wipe out our entire force with one attack? No. But Iraq was the centerpiece of the grand plan of the Empire to establish 14 permanent military bases in Iraq, from which they (according to their own PNAC document) could control the entire Middle East and its tens of trillions of dollars in oil and gas.

End the Empire

We have hundreds of thousands of troops on over 700 bases in nearly 200 countries. After 56 years, we are still occupying Germany and Japan. It’s time to end the Empire, bring all our troops home, end the corporate wars of aggression, give up our foreign military bases, abolish the CIA, and adopt a Constitutional foreign and military policy that uses our Armed Forces to protect our borders and our people — period. No more puppet dictators. Let the corporations and banks protect their own financial interests, and pay for it out of their own ill-gotten profits. We must take political power away from the corporations, banks, and billionaires so we can, once and for all, end the Empire!

By Dr. Bob Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.
National Commander, “The Patriots”
[email protected]

See also: thepatriots.us. (In spite of not being as current as Dr. Bowman would wish, it is, nevertheless, a fantastic resource.)