NEO – The Role Played by the Propaganda Steamroller in the Syrian Conflict
"...As the war in Syria and Iraq is turning against NATO, a
number of “public relations challenges” have arisen:
- Turkey is now the proven oil partner and financier of ISIS terrorism with a flood of satellite intelligence making any attempt at denial laughable.
- The “moderate rebels” and Free Syrian Army are now proven to have been a figment of propaganda and all trained jihadists and advanced weapons intended for these imaginary groups have always gone straight to ISIS and her sister organizations.
- Turkey has been involved in the manufacture and transit of chemical weapons used by terrorists in Syria, a fact proven over and over, now a major area of investigation..."
Propaganda, the war of cowards and sneaks, isn’t as faceless as many assume. Today we will take a look at a face or two, perhaps make someone “famous.” As the war in Syria and Iraq is turning against NATO, a number of “public relations challenges” have arisen:
- Turkey is now the proven oil partner and financier of ISIS terrorism with a flood of satellite intelligence making any attempt at denial laughable.
- The “moderate rebels” and Free Syrian Army are now proven to have been a figment of propaganda and all trained jihadists and advanced weapons intended for these imaginary groups have always gone straight to ISIS and her sister organizations.
- Turkey has been involved in the manufacture and transit of chemical weapons used by terrorists in Syria, a fact proven over and over, now a major area of investigation.
Terror leaders like Zahran Allosh and dozens of others, have been targeted by the renewed and invigorated Syrian/Russian capability, giving hope to many that, combined with Baghdad’s offensive in Anbar, ISIS and her “sisters” outside Libya can be defeated.
However, as Turkey, Israel and Iraq’s Kurdish leadership are increasingly shown to be in bed with these terrorists, all backed by Saudi cash, the sleazy propaganda war, just as dangerous as the Paris terror attacks, has entered high gear.
Cited as prominent among the cheerleaders for terrorism are Kareen Shaheen of the Lebanon Daily Star and UK Guardian and, of course, Rami Abdul Rehman, the “Syrian Human Rights Observatory,” exposed by Russia Today as a “one man factory of deceit.” Today we look at Sheen’s work.
This week, Zahran Allosh, leader of the powerful terrorist group, Jaysh al Islam, while attending a reconciliation meeting with leaders of ISIS groups brokered by the Mossad, was killed by Syrian, not Russian, bombs as mis-reported. Hours later, Syrian Special Forces “Tiger” units stormed the headquarters of Allosh’s successor, Abu Hammam Bowydany, who may well be dead also.
But who was Alosh and what does his death mean?
The clear goal of the two, Shaheen and Rami Abdul Rehman, the entire “Syrian Human Rights Observatory,” is to fabricate stories of gas attacks, sarin, mustard, chlorine and blend them in with equally fabricated mass killings and “barrel bombings” in order to deflect blame from Turkey, ISIS and other terror groups like Jaysh al Islam and Jabat al Nusra, for the estimated 250,000 Syrian civilian deaths.
So, when Jaysh al Islam actually placed video showing them using the same heavy mortars used in daily attacks on Damascus delivering sarin gas shells as well, Shaheen blamed the Damascus government.
He repeated this bizarre charge even in light of charges by Turkish parliamentarians that their own government, now hosting Shaheen as a “guest” was responsible. From an unsourced, typical for Shaheen, article dated December 25, 2015, published in the UK Guardian:
There is a reason Shaheen brackets the SOHR reference with “a network of wide contacts in Syria.” You see, Rami Rehman lives in Coventry, a bleak city in the British midlands and hasn’t visited Syria in 15 years, a fact brought out in a Russia Today investigative piece debunking Rehman and his imaginary “SOHR” group, now defended by Shaheen, who no one seems to know either.
Alhamadee is a classic example of the new mainstream journalist. A simple trip to YouTube shows Alhamadee, seated in front of a series of terrorist banners incoherently ranting anti-government conspiracies. Identified as an activist tied to anti-Assad groups which include ISIS and al Qaeda affiliates, Ahamadee barely speaks English much less qualifies as independent or unbiased. He is a full time spokesman for groups clearly identified as terrorist.
They read the available blogs, get their daily emails and, sadly, get “talking points” from the special interest think tanks that help direct their articles and interviews with organizations like Press TV onto the world stage. Where, in the past, known journalists of “standing,” answerable and with “something to lose” made pronouncements that defined careers of lasting value, an endless army of faceless, nondescript “thugs with keyboards” tasked by “handlers” with covering for Erdogan’s ties to the Turkish Mafia or with using “Assad” and” barrel bomb” in the same sentence and $500 a crack, are the norm.
Here is how it worked in recent months in Syria. Whenever a bomb fell on ISIS, it hit a hospital or the “Free Syrian Army” instead. The BBC was caught in two separate efforts, one dubbing the term “chemical weapon” onto a video of a doctor discussing wounded in Syria and the other, and you just can’t make things like this up, hiring actors to play gas attack victims for BBC video documentaries.
One might ask how terrorists can so easily get their version of events on BBC or published by McClatchy, the Washington Post or Guardian?
It isn’t just the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, its Reuters and Associated Press, using “stringers” who are known Israeli intelligence agents, former Muslim employees of the Jerusalem Post or Times of Israel typically, or would-be activists like Ahamadee, who can travel freely, with no fear of kidnapping or beheading, who, when more carefully examined, might well better be working in an ISIS media center than writing stories for small town American newspapers.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.