Coverage of the breakdown of the partial ceasefire in Syria illustrated the main way corporate news media distort public understanding of a major foreign policy story. The problem is not that the key events in the story are entirely unreported, but that they were downplayed and quickly forgotten in the media’s embrace of themes with which they were more comfortable.
In this case, the one key event was the major offensive launched in early April by Al Nusra Front—the Al Qaeda franchise in Syria—alongside US-backed armed opposition groups. This offensive was mentioned in at least two “quality” US newspapers. Their readers, however, would not have read that it was that offensive that broke the back of the partial ceasefire. On the contrary, they would have gotten the clear impression from following the major newspapers’ coverage that systematic violations by the Assad government doomed the ceasefire from the beginning.
Framing the Breakdown Before the Fact
Corporate media heralded the ceasefire agreement when it was negotiated by the United States and Russia in February, with the LA Times (2/2/16) calling it “the most determined diplomatic push to date aimed at ending the nation’s almost five-year conflict.” The “partial cessation of hostilities” was to apply between the Syrian regime and the non-jihadist forces, but not to the regime’s war with Nusra and with ISIS. The clear implication was that the US-supported non-jihadist opposition forces would have to separate themselves from Nusra, or else they would be legitimate targets for airstrikes.
But the relationship between the CIA-backed armed opposition to Assad and the jihadist Nusra Front was an issue that major US newspapers had already found very difficult to cover (FAIR.org, 3/21/16). US Syria policy has been dependent on the military potential of the Nusra Front (and its close ally, Ahrar al Sham) for leverage on the Syrian regime, since the “moderate” opposition was unable to operate in northwest Syria without jihadist support. This central element in US Syria policy, which both the government and the media were unwilling to acknowledge, was a central obstacle to accurate coverage of what happened to the Syrian ceasefire.
This problem began shaping the story as soon as the ceasefire agreement was announced. On February 23, New York Times correspondent Neil MacFarquhar wrote a news analysis on the wider tensions between the Obama administration and Russia that pointed to “a gaping loophole” in the Syria ceasefire agreement: the fact that “it permits attacks against the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate, to continue.”
MacFarquhar asserted that exempting Nusra from the ceasefire “could work in Moscow’s favor, since many of the anti-Assad groups aligned with the United States fight alongside the Nusra Front.” That meant that Russia could “continue to strike United States-backed rebel groups without fear…of Washington’s doing anything to stop them,” he wrote.
On the same day, Adam Entous of the Wall Street Journal reported that Obama’s “top military and intelligence advisers don’t believe Russia will abide by a just-announced ceasefire in Syria and want to ready plans to increase pressure on Moscow by expanding covert support to rebels fighting the Russia-backed Assad regime.” For two of the country’s most prominent newspapers, it was thus clear that the primary context of the Syria ceasefire was not its impact on Syria’s population, but how it affected the rivalry between powerful national security officials and Russia.
Contrary to those dark suspicions of Russian intentions to take advantage of the agreement to hit US-supported Syrian opposition groups, however, as soon as the partial ceasefire agreement took effect on February 27, Russia released a map that designated “green zones” where its air forces would not strike. The green zones, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, corresponded with Syrian opposition groups that had signed on to the ceasefire. Furthermore, Russia stopped bombing the Nusra-controlled areas of northwest Syria, instead focusing on ISIS targets further west, as Pentagon spokesperson Jeff Davis confirmed on March 14.
But instead of separating themselves from Nusra Front, the US-supported armed opposition joined with Nusra and its jihadist allies in a major offensive aimed at destroying the ceasefire. Charles Lister, a leading British specialist on the jihadists in Syria, has recounted being told by the commander of a US-backed armed group that around March 20, Nusra officials began a round of meetings with non-jihadist opposition groups from Hama, Latakia and southern Aleppo—including those supported by the United States—to persuade them to participate in a major offensive against the Assad regime, rather than in a ceasefire and political negotiations.
The LA Times (4/4/16) initially highlighted the role of a “punishing attack” by jihadists in the collapse of the Syrian ceasefire.
News media did not ignore the offensive launched on April 3 by Nusra Front and its “moderate” allies. The Los Angeles Times (4/4/16) described a “punishing attack” by Nusra and several “so-called moderate rebel factions” on the town of Al Eis, southwest of Aleppo, “overlooking the M5 highway, a vital artery connecting the Syrian capital, Damascus, in the southwest of the country, with the government-held city of Homs, in west-central Syria, and Aleppo in the north.”
Associated Press (4/3/16) reported that Nusra Front’s closest ally, Ahrar al Sham, together with US-supported factions had simultaneously “seized government positions in heavy fighting in northwestern Latakia province.” The story quoted Zakariya Qaytaz of the US-supported Division 13 brigade as telling the agency through Twitter: “The truce is considered over. This battle is a notice to the regime.”
The Vanishing Nusra Offensive
The Nusra-led offensive was a decisive violation of the ceasefire, which effectively frustrated the intention of isolating the jihadists. It led to continued high levels of fighting in the three areas where it had taken place, and Russian planes returned to Nusra Front-controlled territory for the first time in nearly six weeks. Yet after the first reports on the offensive, its very existence vanished from media coverage of Syria. No US newspaper followed up over the next two weeks to analyze its significance in terms of US policy, especially in light of the role of “legitimate” armed opposition groups in trashing the ceasefire.
Wall Street Journal correspondent Sam Dagher (4/4/16) suggested in his initial report on the offensive that it was a response to a Syrian air force airstrike in an opposition-controlled suburb of Damascus two days earlier, which activists said killed 30 civilians. But the offensive was so complex and well-organized that it had obviously been prepared well in advance of that strike. None of the other papers sought to portray the offensive as the result of a pattern of increasing military pressure on the Nusra Front or its allies. In fact, after the initial reports, all four major newspapers—the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post—simply ignored the fact that the offensive had been carried out.
On April 19, three separate articles presented three variants of what became the broad media approach to explaining the fate of the ceasefire agreement. The Journal’s Nour Malas and Sam Dagher wrote:
A limited truce in Syria, brokered by the US and Russia in late February, has unraveled in recent weeks, with government forces escalating attacks on several fronts and rebels relaunching operations around the northern city of Aleppo.
That formulation clearly suggested that either the regime had moved first, or that government and rebels had somehow both taken the offensive at the same moment; the former interpretation was encouraged by the headline, “Syrian Government Steps Up Airstrikes.”
As fighting continued following the opposition offensive, blame shifted to government airstrikes (New York Times, 4/19/16).
On the same day, New York Times Beirut correspondent Anne Barnard wrote a piece focused mainly on regime airstrikes in two Idlib towns, Maarat al Numan and Kafr Nable, that had killed as many as 40 civilians. Barnard’s piece was headlined, “Ceasefire Crumbles as Bombings Kill Dozens”—suggesting that the airstrikes had somehow led to the “crumbling.” Barnard did refer to an otherwise unidentified “insurgent offensive” that preceded the strikes, but did not draw any causal relationship between it and the bombing.
The article cited the opposition claim that the government had repeatedly violated the partial ceasefire, but didn’t cite a single concrete instance of such a violation. And it appears to contradict that argument by observing that the Idlib airstrikes had ended “the relative respite from airstrikes that had lasted nearly two months”–i.e., from the time the ceasefire had gone into effect.
Yet a third article to appear that day, published by Reuters, explicitly asserted that the regime airstrike on a crowded market by Syrian planes to which Barnard referred was the cause of the failure of the partial ceasefire. “Syrian peace talks appeared all but doomed on Tuesday,” it said, “after airstrikes killed about 40 people in a crowded vegetable market in rebel territory, with the opposition saying a truce was finished and it would keep out of negotiations indefinitely.”
Parroting the Pentagon/CIA Narrative
The Washington Post (4/27/16), looking back on the collapse of the ceasefire, cited Syrian government bombing of towns held by jihadists who were never part of the ceasefire.
Finally, on April 27, Karen DeYoung, associate editor of the Washington Post, wrote a news analysis piece looking back on what happened to the ceasefire. The piece never mentioned the major Nusra Front offensive in which US-supported armed groups had played a key role, passing on instead the distorted explanation of the fate of the ceasefire offered by national security bureaucrats. “Some Defense Department and intelligence officials,” she wrote, “think Russia and its Syrian government client are clearly violating the ceasefire and provoking the opposition into doing the same.”
Like the three April 19 articles, DeYoung focused entirely on military moves taken by the regime more than two weeks after the joint Nusra/opposition April offensive. She cited the Syrian government bombing of Kafr Nabl and Maarat al Numan the previous week, asserting that the towns were “heavily bombed by Assad after rebel forces threw out Nusra occupiers and civilians took to the streets in anti-Assad demonstrations.”
But that characterization of the situation in the two towns, clearly aimed to support the notion that they were free of Nusra control, was false. In fact, Kafr Nabl had formerly been the home of the US-backed Division 13, but far from having been thrown out, Nusra Front had reasserted its direct control over the towns in mid-March, kicking Division 13 out of its base and seizing its US-supplied weapons after a fight over the larger town Maarat al Numan.
DeYoung went so far as to embrace the CIA/Pentagon bureaucrats’ argument that the United States should not have agreed to allow any attacks on Nusra Front in the ceasefire agreement. “The Nusra ceasefire exception had already left a hole big enough for the Syrian government and Russia to barrel through,” she wrote, “and they have not hesitated to do so in pursuit of regaining the initiative on the ground for Assad.”
The implication of the argument is that the United States should do nothing to interfere with Nusra’s capacity to strike at the Assad regime. Thus DeYoung quoted an analyst for the Institute for the Study of War, which favors a more belligerent US policy in Syria, dismissing the military collaboration by US-supported groups with Nusra Front as not really significant, because it is only “tactical,” and that Nusra merely offers to help those allies “retaliate” against regime attacks, rather than seeking a military solution to the conflict. Such arguments are merely shallow rationalizations, however, for the preference of hardliners in Washington for pitting Al Qaeda’s military power against Russia and its Syrian client, enhancing the power position of the US national security state in Syria.
As more time passes, the media version of why the partial ceasefire failed has become even more simplistic and distorted. On July 12, DeYoung revisited the issue in the context of the Obama administration’s negotiations with Russia on military cooperation against Nusra Front. This time she portrayed the ceasefire quite starkly as the victim of Syrian and Russian bombing:
Despite a ceasefire ostensibly in effect since February, Syrian planes have kept up a steady bombardment of both civilian and opposition sites—where they have argued that Al Nusra forces, exempt from the truce, are mixed with rebel groups covered by the accord. After observing the early weeks of the ceasefire, Russian planes joined the Syrian forces, including in an offensive last weekend that took over the only remaining supply route for both rebels and civilians hunkered down in the northern city of Aleppo.
Playing the role of ultimate media arbiter of how the attentive public is to understand the pivotal issue of why the ceasefire failed, DeYoung has deleted from memory the essential facts. In her narrative, there was no Nusra Front plan to destroy the ceasefire, and no April Nusra offensive to seize strategic territory south of Aleppo with the full participation of US-supported opposition groups.
The lesson of the Syrian ceasefire episode is clear: The most influential news media have virtually complete freedom to shape the narrative surrounding a given issue simply by erasing inconvenient facts from the storyline. They can do that even when the events or facts have been reported by one or more of those very news media. In the world of personal access and power inhabited by those who determine what will be published and what won’t, even the most obviously central facts are disposable in the service of a narrative that maintains necessary relationships.
Gareth Porter, an independent investigative journalist and historian on US national security policy, is the winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. His latest book is Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, published in 2014.
Porter: But instead of separating themselves from Nusra Front, the US-supported armed opposition joined with Nusra and its jihadist allies in a major offensive aimed at destroying the ceasefire.
—
What in god’s name is “separating” supposed to mean in the context of Syria? Various militias have built up a base in East Aleppo over the past five years. If separating yourself from al Nusra meant abandoning East Aleppo, that would have left 500,000 people with only al Nusra to defend it from Assad’s genocidal onslaught of barrel bombs, Russian jet bombers and the Grozny type siege that would have sealed its fate. That FAIR publishes reactionary tripe like this is no surprise. There was a time when it had some credibility. Too bad it functions as a branch office of RT.com.
It’s ‘leftists’ like you who make the world of trump exist. You are the reactionary neocon apologist.
Dear Howard,
If it is “reactionary” to oppose barrel bombing, firing missiles at hospitals, killing more Palestinians in Syrian jails than were ever killed in Israel’s, collaborating with the CIA in its extraordinary rendition torture program as Assad did, backing the USA in the first Gulf War as Assad’s daddy did, letting jihadists out of jail in 2011, siding with Israel against al Fatah in the Lebanese civil war, then go ahead and call me reactionary.
This is disingenuous to the point of disbelief, and hypocritical to the point of derision, as well as reactionary. Genocidal onslaught of barrel bombs=rockets raining down on Israeli cities.
Louis Proyect is notorious for his “left” support of CIA and NATO rape of Libya (he calls it “revolution”).
Now he does his best(!) to made Syrians as happy, free, democratic and prosperous as Libyans are now.
Louis Proyect is just a left boot of USA imperialism
u
Can you tell me why Russia and/or Assad have the right to bomb schools and other civilian targets with impunity?
Can you explain to me why can Russia and/ or Assad can use cluster bombs, chemical bombs, phosphorus bombs and other internationally forbidden arms on civilians with impunity?
Can you tell me why Assad and/or Russia have the right to besiege thousands of civilians in Madaya for two years and prevent humanitarian aid from entering including food and medicine so children and elderly people have to eat the dry grass and leaves of the trees and die from starvation? Long before this offensive
Can you tell me the reason that Assad and Russia can use ballistic missiles launched from hundreds of miles ( for Assad) and thousands of miles ( for Russia) on civilians when they know that the deviation error can be 1-3 miles even if they intended to attack the opposition, long before the offensive?
Did you see the pictures of thousands of civilians tortured by Assad that was brought by Caesar and presented to congress and to the security council?
You can side with the people of Syria or with their butcher
If you are not aware of these facts please contact the Syrian American council and they will provide you all the details.
On the other hand if you actually know these facts, I urge you to search your conscious and heart and reevaluate your position, because “what would anyone gain if he gained the whole world and lost himself or his conscious ”
Sincerely
Dr Sakkal
I wouldn’t expect too much from Gareth Porter who wrote propaganda supporting the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
I know that Louis Proyect had backed CIA coups and called it “revolutions”. Incidentally, USA imperialists are bombing Libya now too, I guess it is a revolution getting on.
Do you still believe that USA/ Cia is against Assad ?
Have you not realized yet thatUSA/ CIA did not want to intervene against him in spite of all the propaganda and the lip service about his illegitimacy? If they wanted they could have done what the did in Lybia long time ago and not waited for 5 years and still not intervened
Even after Obama threatened Assad if he used chemical weapons against his people and Assad stupidly crossed he red line, they found him a way to back off by presenting he issue to the congress which he knew well will be against this decision and the media and the peace movement thought they prevented a war they even managed to get Russia involved to save Obama,s face when he backed of his own “red line”
The USA rushed to bomb Isis without hesitation for example when they wanted to do that and the genicide that Assad is doing is much worse than the bad crimes of Isis
Assad knew he was not a target of USA , just to remind you , when USA was serious and asked him to pull the Syrian army from Lebanon within a month he pulled most of it in 1 week and the last soldier was pulled in Less than 3 weeks
When USA was serious about Saddam Husain they started their interve and got rid of him in two weeks
So if they wanted to get rid of Assad they would have done that long time ago and not waited for five years
In fact most Syrians are telling us now they believe Iran, Hezbollah and Russia got the green light to intervene for Assad from USA in return for Assad’s and his father’s many services he provided to USA and Israel as mentioned in another comment above they actually wanted to destruct any power near Israel that could fall in the wrong hands if Assad falls and can become a threat to Israel.
To them the CUA game is now clear : encourage people to revolt against Assad which they knew it will be coming sometime soon anyway , then allow him to kill his opponents and destruct the whole country, and possibly can divide Syria into small sectarian / religious/ ethnic states or federations, so Israel can claim a Jewish state and not be singled out as an apartheid/racial state
Then after everyone is completely deseparate , and want any solution to stop the slaughter of civilians intervene and come up with an apparent regime change but leave the deep government structure intact and their boys in control so they can continue to serve their interests for another century or so .
As a matter of fact Syria for USA imperialism is just a place to harm Russia, Iran and China, and to back Zionist colonizers of Palestine. Anything else is just propaganda. The same is true about Libya and Ukraine, and USA rulers are not giving a damn about the peoples of these states. Of course, CIA plays very important role in backing Syrian “moderate” Wahhabies, along with other USA bodies, and Zionist colonizers of Palestine too.
By your “logic” CIA was NOT against Qaddafi too – who had also helped USA, but USA rulers have no qualms about murdering their “allies” – see the history of South Vietnam, for ex.
UK and USA rulers defended Khmer Rouge after they had been defeated and even saved their place in UN.
Sorry there were some typos
Corrected please read the next comment
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/04/the-caesar-photo-fraud-that-undermined-syrian-negotiations/
These Caesar photos?
The Assad regime and his supporters have denied the events in Syria completely for 6 months and said it was all fabrication
There are people until now who deny the existence of the holocaust and say it was not a reality
If you are not familiar with the Assad regime you will underestimate his propaganda supported by Iran and Russia
There are so many peace activists in this country deceived by him and ignore the real facts on the ground
More than 500,000 innocent civilians are killed and more than 2,000,000 injured that is 1 out of every 40 Syrians killed and 1 every 10 injured
If you have any doubt listen to an eye witness deposition. a western journalist who stayed in Syria for a while and just gave her eyewitness findings in front of the social security council
Mrs Clarissa ward I think was her name her deposition was about a week or so ago
I can find you he link if you can not find it her is the link https://www.facebook.com/trtworld/videos/1756751731261642/
Her account of what is going on in Aleppo is just a glimpse of the ongoing genocide in Syria
There are still people who deny CIA role in many coups or call them “revolutions”.
I am very much familiar with Zionist anti-Iran propaganda and USA’s one too. ‘Rebels” in Syria are backed by USA imperialists , Saudi royals and Zionist colonizers – openly.
You got it right %100 in the first part %0 in the second and %50in the last
For the first part
There is no doubt in most people’s mind that CiA has evaluated injustices in that area of the world and felt that people will revolt eventually against their oppressors and wanted to accelerate that and use it in a controlled but destructive way and that was well done .
For the second part :
The propaganda against Iran has been the smoking gun to cover the intricate cooperation between the three Iran , Israel , and CIA/USA
Just few points to clarify this :
1. The declassified information from the khumaini time showed important communication between khumaini and his team and the carter administration team where khumaini requested USA to interfere withe the army generals and secret service of the shah so they will not obstruct the return of the khumani to Iran , and carter objected initially but the. Someone in his administration contacted the khumaini and gave him the ok to return while the khumaini team promised to serve their interest in the area and asked them not to bother about anti American slogans they will be using for local consumption
2. Do not consider this as a political issue for or against one of the parties in USA: During the Iraq/ Iran war : the official position of USA and the west was to support Iraq , yet who was providing g Iran with the much needed arms ?
If you remember the Iran/ contra affair or Irangate : much more emphasis was put on diverting money to the contra in Nicaragua than to the support given to Iran by USA government and through whom? none other than the famous “Iran enemy” Israel !
3. Then jw bush went to war with Iraq : when Iran could not destroy Iraq Paul wolfowitz wrote a paper in 1997 that we should interfere in Iraq and tried to convince bush to attack Iraq immediately after 9/11 events but no connection could be established between Iraq and the events so he waited for a while and then with certain false intelligence !!!? And media support about the wmd he attacked Iraq to destroy the formidable enemy of Iran and Israel : Iraq with the intelligence information based on israeli intelligence and Iraqi defectors with clear Iranian ties
4. If that was not enough evidence to whose benefits we intervened , once saddam was removed we insisted on giving the government to non other than the famous Maliki who has known and clear relations with Iran and made Iraq an Iranian territory of excellence . Even when he lost the parliamentary majority and should give the position to Alawi who is from the Shiaa sect but less friendly to Iran than Maliki, Alawi was advised to be ” flexible ” to avoid confrontation and Maliki remained in his position . Effectively turning Iraq into an Iranian colony
5. The USA/ USA controlled UN as well as the media initially ignored/ covered the Iranian, Hezbollah and Maliki’s militias participation Within the Syrian war for years Concentrating on other foreign fighters even after both Hezbollah and Iran announced their participation no one in the us administration condemned or objected to that
6. USA and USA controlled UN ignored the advances of Iranian extension : the Houthies in yemen and kept convincing the Yemeni president that he should continue he negotiations until they took over the whole country including all the arms and arm supplies of the Yemeni army
Only then the Saudis realized the extreme cooperation and support between the USA and Iran and that their position is very secondary and not important anymore to USA strategic planning except now as consumers and buyers of American arms and it seems they were given the green light to fight back so their money reserves can be consumed spent on war and arms instead of on infrastructure and other profitable projects
Finally to the last point :
You may be right about support of USA to the opposition, but that was part of the big picture to divide the area into small sectarian and racial federations and cantons fighting among themselves dos Israel will become the superpower
They will not give anti aircraft air missiles to the opposition to stop the destruction of the civilians and civilian neighborhoods and win the conflict and will not punish or stop Assad from attacking civilians or doing whatever he wants to do so he can regain control and power or control part of the country and do die the rest into two or three separate cantons with continued infighting .
the only caveat is to realize that Assad the father gave Israel the Golan heights as a gift in the 1967 war when he was mi jäger of defends and gave orders to the army to leave their weapons and withdraw claiming that the Israeli army was in qunaiterah ( a city behind Golan heights on the Syrian side ) 24 hours before this actually happened , so he was promoted after the defeat of the Syrian army to become a president for life
He kept the Israeli/ Syrian borders safe for 30 years and his son kept it safe for 10 more years , so they gave their share of service to Israel and that is why he is still able to survive in spit of all the massacres and war crimes he is committing , also meta yahoo went to Russia and coordinated with them . Their intervention to help him when the Hezbollah and Iran failed to do that
Can you tell me why Russia and/or Assad have the right to bomb schools and other civilian targets with impunity?
Sorry Shgomo, we are STILL engaged in explaining why your crooks may shell an UN-school in Gaza ;-)
So… just sh*t up.. And WHO told you that Russians bombed hospitals? That Syrian Observer”, a little mag.got in COVENTRY that annouces what the MI6 and Downin Street 10 tells him to blubber? We know this game you try to play, Trolly -dear. It was conceived by Mr. Ra’anan Gissin, The only problem is that YOU, small mag.gots, are too s*u.id to put it in practice. Avigdor shall ask his money back :-)
Dear Gareth
I have read your article with interest expecting to find more information than the general media will provide but was extremely surprised that a respected investigational journalist could fall for he Assad and Russian propaganda
I am an American physician of a Syrian descent and I have been following the events in Syria almost daily for the past 6 years
Can you please explain two me why did Russia bomb 5 Hospitals Abdul a blood bank in one day in one city called Aleppo, before the offensive of the opposition takes place?
Can you please explain to me why did Russia bomb a refugee camp with cluster bombs long before the offensive took place?
Can you please tell me why Russia and/or Assad can bomb farmers markets more than once and in different places
Can you tell me why Russia and/or Assad have the right to bomb schools and other civilian targets with impunity?
Can you explain to me why can Russia and/ or Assad can use cluster bombs, chemical bombs, phosphorus bombs and other internationally forbidden arms on civilians with impunity?
Can you tell me why Assad and/or Russia have the right to besiege thousands of civilians in Madaya for two years and prevent humanitarian aid from entering including food and medicine so children and elderly people have to eat the dry grass and leaves of the trees and die from starvation? Long before this offensive
Can you tell me the reason that Assad and Russia can use ballistic missiles launched from hundreds of miles ( for Assad) and thousands of miles ( for Russia) on civilians when they know that the deviation error can be 1-3 miles even if they intended to attack the opposition, long before the offensive?
Did you see the pictures of thousands of civilians tortured by Assad that was brought by Caesar and presented to congress and to the security council?
You can side with the people of Syria or with their butcher
If you are not aware of these facts please contact the Syrian American council and they will provide you all the details.
On the other hand if you actually know these facts, I urge you to search your conscious and heart and reevaluate your position, because “what would anyone gain if he gained the whole world and lost himself or his conscious ”
Sincerely
Dr Sakkal
Your listed “facts” are nothing more than mainstream media lies. If you have been using mainstream media to “follow the events in Syria for the past 6 years,” it appears you have been grossly misinformed. I urge you to seek out independent media sources to research the rest of the story.
It is not mainstream media that I have followed
It is eyewitnesses, and various media outlets both in the area and on the Internet
If you saw what Russia today broadcasted on the city of Homs
You will probably understand what is happening in Syria
My Son volunteered to teach kids in the refugee camps twice and heard the horror stories first hand , I have extended family that is now w dispersed over many countries due to the bad situation
If you have any doubts please make a new effort to see what is going on yourself
Unless you want to close your eyes and lock your heart , then it is up to you but the stories are horrible and the facts are worse than the imagination
If you are sincere just contact the Syrian American council and you will find the truth but if you have a hidden agenda or prejudice I have told you the truth and it is up to you and again ” what would a human being gain if he got the whole world and lost himself”
I have no doubt the conditions in Syria are dire. What I DO doubt is Western media’s claims of WHO is to blame. And I’m urging you to be more discerning, as well.
I will
And I agre with you that the media is actually biased and distorting many facts but they are more biased against the Syrian population who are suffering UN imaginable injustice and atrocities of no equal in recent history both at the hands of Isis , but much more at the hands of Assad, Hezbollah, Iran , Maliki’s militias and now Russia with near destruction of the whole country
Sorry there were few missing words
Corrected please read the next comment
r
Dear Gareth
I have read your article with interest expecting to find more information than the general media will provide but was extremely surprised that a respected investigational journalist could fall for he Assad and Russian propaganda
I am an American physician of a Syrian descent and I have been following the events in Syria almost daily for the past 6 years
Can you please explain two me why did Russia bomb 5 Hospitals Abdul a blood bank in one day in one city called Aleppo, before the offensive of the opposition takes place?
Can you please explain to me why did Russia bomb a refugee camp with cluster bombs long before the offensive took place?
Can you please tell me why Russia and/or Assad can bomb farmers markets more than once and in different places
Can you tell me why Russia and/or Assad have the right to bomb schools and other civilian targets with impunity?
Can you explain to me why can Russia and/ or Assad can use cluster bombs, chemical bombs, phosphorus bombs and other internationally forbidden arms on civilians with impunity?
Can you tell me why Assad and/or Russia have the right to besiege thousands of civilians in Madaya for two years and prevent humanitarian aid from entering including food and medicine so children and elderly people have to eat the dry grass and leaves of the trees and die from starvation? Long before this offensive
Can you tell me the reason that Assad and Russia can use ballistic missiles launched from hundreds of miles ( for Assad) and thousands of miles ( for Russia) on civilians when they know that the deviation error can be 1-3 miles even if they intended to attack the opposition, long before the offensive?
Did you see the pictures of thousands of civilians tortured by Assad that was brought by Caesar and presented to congress and to the security council?
You can side with the people of Syria or with their butcher
If you are not aware of these facts please contact the Syrian American council and they will provide you all the details.
On the other hand if you actually know these facts, I urge you to search your conscious and heart and reevaluate your position, because “what would anyone gain if he gained the whole world and lost himself or his conscious ”
Sincerely
Dr Sakkal
Sorry there were some typos
Corrected please read the next comment
r
Dear Gareth
I have read your article with interest expecting to find more information than the general media will provide but was extremely surprised that a respected investigational journalist like you could fall for he Assad and Russian propaganda
I am an American physician of a Syrian descent and I have been following the events in Syria almost daily for the past 6 years
Can you please explain two me why did Russia bomb 5 Hospitals Abdul a blood bank in one day in one city called Aleppo, before the offensive of the opposition takes place?
Can you please explain to me why did Russia bomb a refugee camp with cluster bombs long before the offensive took place?
Can you please tell me why Russia and/or Assad can bomb farmers markets more than once and in different places
Can you tell me why Russia and/or Assad have the right to bomb schools and other civilian targets with impunity?
Can you explain to me why can Russia and/ or Assad can use cluster bombs, chemical bombs, phosphorus bombs and other internationally forbidden arms on civilians with impunity?
Can you tell me why Assad and/or Russia have the right to besiege thousands of civilians in Madaya for two years and prevent humanitarian aid from entering including food and medicine so children and elderly people have to eat the dry grass and leaves of the trees and die from starvation? Long before this offensive
Can you tell me the reason that Assad and Russia can use ballistic missiles launched from hundreds of miles ( for Assad) and thousands of miles ( for Russia) on civilians when they know that the deviation error can be 1-3 miles even if they intended to attack the opposition, long before the offensive?
Did you see the pictures of thousands of civilians tortured by Assad that was brought by Caesar and presented to congress and to the security council?
You can side with the people of Syria or with their butcher
If you are not aware of these facts please contact the Syrian American council and they will provide you all the details.
On the other hand if you actually know these facts, I urge you to search your conscious and heart and reevaluate your position, because “what would anyone gain if he gained the whole world and lost himself or his conscious ”
Sincerely
Dr Sakkal
Sorry there were some typos
Corrected please read the next comment
Dear Gareth
I have read your article with interest expecting to find more in depth information than the general media will provide but was extremely surprised that a respected investigational journalist like you could fall for the Assad and Russian propaganda
I am an American physician of a Syrian descent and I have been following the events in Syria almost daily for the past 6 years
Can you please explain two me why did Russia bomb 5 Hospitals And a blood bank in one day in one city called Aleppo, before the offensive of the opposition takes place?
Can you please explain to me why did Russia bomb a refugee camp with cluster bombs long before the opposition offensive took place?
Can you please tell me why Russia and/or Assad can bomb farmers markets more than once and in different places with impunity?
Can you tell me why Russia and/or Assad have the right to bomb schools and other civilian targets with impunity?
Can you explain to me why can Russia and/ or Assad can use cluster bombs, chemical bombs, phosphorus bombs and other internationally forbidden arms on civilians with impunity?
Can you tell me why Assad and/or Russia have the right to besiege thousands of civilians in Madaya for two years and prevent humanitarian aid from entering including food and medicine so children and elderly have to eat grass and dry leaves of the trees and die from starvation,Long before this offensive took place ?
Can you tell me the reason that Assad and Russia can use ballistic missiles launched from hundreds of miles ( for Assad) and thousands of miles ( for Russia) on civilians when they know that the deviation error can be 1-3 miles even if they intended to attack the opposition forces , long before the offensive?
Did you see the pictures of thousands of civilians tortured by Assad that was brought by Caesar and presented to congress and to the security council? Those who saw it said there was nothing comparable to what these pictures show except what they saw In the holocaust , actually they were kept in the holocaust museum for a while and they may be still there for you to see if you haven’t .
Dear Gareth
You can either side with the people of Syria or with their butchers
If you are not aware of these facts please contact the Syrian American council and they will provide you all the details.
On the other hand if you actually know these facts, I urge you to search carefully in your conscious and heart and reevaluate your position, because “what would anyone gain if he gained the whole world and lost himself or his conscious ”
Sincerely
Dr Sakkal
Dr Sakkal,
Your intervention here is about the most dishonest piece of rhetoric I’ve ever read. It is not up to Gareth Porter to answer for Syria or Russia; it’s up to you to provide proof of your charges; and I mean some kind of documentary proof; not just the garbage coming from Western and Saudi propaganda prostitutes.
I will answer one question for you, though. Russia is in Syria at the invitation of the legitimate government of Syria. Answer if you please, who invited the Saudi, Libyan, Tunisian, French, Chechen, Uigher etc…criminals to come and kill Syrians, terrorize religious minorities, and plunder the wealth of Syria ?
BTW, Porter article was on Western media’s dishonest reporting about the ceasefire, a topic you all but ignored.
Also, who invited USA and UK terrorists (aka “troops”) and and NATO bombers to invade Syria?
You are right 100%
But from my interaction with the Syrians
No one wants us troops
The US/Israel knows that the opposition is much more strong than Assad on the ground so
they tied the hands of the opposition by allowing them the minimum support that they will survive but not be able to win and created a balance of destruction :
The opposition controls the land and Assad controls the air and is allowed to bomb civilians with impunity
They will not allow the opposition to take over and they will keep Assad superiority in the air as long as they can
This is the evil balance of destruction they have in place ongoing now for more than three full years
An opposition that requires support from the west is not an opposition. Why do they need arms from people like the Saudis ? It’s because they have no popular support. If arms were cut off from the west, the rebel/terrorists would collapse in a minute.The population centers are solidly behind the government.
https://www.facebook.com/trtworld/videos/1756751731261642/I agree with you and with Gareth that the media is dishonest
But they have been dishonest in hiding what is happening on he ground and only showing glimpses of the ongoing genocide and not reporting the whole mayhem
If you want a more honest report here is an eyewitness report if he events a western journalist that just gave her report from what she witnessed first hand carlissa ward just made his deposition in front of the UN Security Council
Here is the link
If you do it beliieve what I said may be you will trust her more Than me
https://www.facebook.com/trtworld/videos/1756751731261642/
George
I hope you are not a supporter of tyranny
I know most Syrians initially did not mind Assad (the son)being a president as they were looking for him to be an educated reformer , until he ordered the killing of peaceful demonstrators asking for simple reforms , then majority of people changed their position.
Assad missed a golden opportunity to quell all the opposition by takingmeasures to improve freedoms and provide some reforms to improveme the condition of the average citizen . It was not until thousands of peaceful demonstrators were shot dead by Assad’s militias that people started asking for his removal . He gambled on suppressing the demonstrations through terror and lost his legitimacy after killing so many tens even hundreds of thousands of innocent demonstrators and other civilians
Assad and his supporters idenied there was anything taking place in Syria for more than six months claiming it was only studio fabrications done by al jazeerah news .
Talking about minorities ?
Assad (the father) was the one who created sectarianism in Syria, he excluded any one who is not from his sect from any important position, the left overs were distributed to his supporters and other minorities , but only after he killed,or detained all minority leaders who could compete with him on power . Read the history of Syria and you will see how he ascended to power .
Also If you know the history of Syria prior to Assad’s rein of terror , you may realize that all majority and minority worked together to get rid of the French occupation (with the exception of Assad,s GF who wanted the French to stay ) and you may not know that Syria had an elected parliament and an elected president after independence from the French occupation, and you may not know that all minorities and majority Were equal so that the first Syrian representative to the UN who later became a prime minister of Syria was a Christian called Farris khoury . Qualifications, not sectarianism was the rule, all citizens were treated equally ,It was only after the Baath party came to power and especially when Assad took over, sectarianism started to become a problem in Syria .
Needless to say that a man who killed 500,000 of his people and displaced 14 million of his own people ( more than half the population of the country ) is not a legitimate president he has no right to invite the Russians to come, as far as the word you used “invited the Russians ” it is not his own farm or his private house that he is inviting them to, although it seems that he considers the country to be his own farm and The citizens his slaves , he is not bringing the Russians build but to bomb civilians , houses, farmers markets and destroy homes of iinnocent people who happen to live in areas that are under the opposition control the Russians are not innocent guests a ruthless super power using internationally forbidden arms including cluster bombs , phosphorus bombs, vacuum bombs and today the napalm bombs as well as chemical weapons (sarin gas initially and chlorine gas after he gave up his pile of sardine gas) to attack civilian targets
Assad could have become the beloved reformer of Syria when he took power after the death of his father but he chose to follow the footsteps of his father and became the new butcher of Syria
But remember no tyrant ever survived his people
And he will not. Inspite of all the overt support from Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Iraqi militia and the covert support of many other super powers ttat paid lip service to the Syrians and provided him support behind the curtains.
Finally I want to remind you
Desmund tutu one said ” if you do not help the oppressed then you are effectually siding with the oppressor “
The government of Syria led by Bashar al Assad is the legitimate government, whatever my opinion of him is. You claim he killed 500,000 ; so he killed everybody including his own soldiers ? Why are the religious minorities supporting him, not the head chopping rebels ?
You are just spouting mindless propaganda.
You are incorrect. The demonstrations in Syria were peaceful until CIA covert operatives infiltrated them in order to sow division among the unified protesters. This is a page out of the CIA’s playbook – Destabilization 101.
George
I hope you are not a supporter of tyranny
I know most Syrians initially did not mind Assad (the son)being a president as they were looking for him to be an educated reformer, it was when he ordered the killing of peaceful demonstrators asking for simple reforms , then majority of people changed their position and mind .
Assad missed a golden opportunity to quell all the opposition by taking measures to give some freedoms and make reforms to improveme the condition of the average citizen . It was not until thousands of peaceful demonstrators were shot dead by Assad’s militias that people started asking for his removal . He gambled on suppressing the demonstrations through terror and he lost his legitimacy after killing so many tens even hundreds of thousands of innocent demonstrators and other civilians
Assad and his supporters denied there was anything wrong taking place in Syria for more than six months claiming it was only studio fabrications done by al jazeerah news .
Talking about minorities ?
Assad (the father) was the one who created sectarianism in Syria, he excluded any one who is not from his sect from any important position, the left overs were distributed to his supporters from the majority and other minorities , but only after he killed,or detained all minority leaders who could compete with him on power . Read the history of Syria and you will see how he ascended to power .
Also If you know the history of Syria prior to Assad’s rein of terror , you may realize that all majority and minority worked to get rid of the French occupation together (with the exception of Assad,s GF who wanted the French to stay ) you may not know however that Syria had an elected parliament and an elected president after independence from the French occupation, and you may not know that all minorities and majority Were equal so that the first Syrian representative to the UN who later became a prime minister of Syria as well was a Christian called Farris khoury . Qualifications, not sectarianism was the rule, all citizens were treated equally ,It was only after the Baath party came to power and especially when Assad took over, sectarianism started to become a problem in Syria .
Needless to say that a man who killed 500,000 of his own people and displaced 14 million of his own people ( more than half the population of the country ) is not a legitimate president and has no right to invite the Russians to come, as far as the word you used “invited the Russians ” it is not his own farm or his private house that he is inviting them to, although it seems that he considers the country to be his own farm and The citizens his owned slaves , he is not bringing the Russians to build but to bomb civilians , houses, farmers markets and destroy homes of iinnocent people who happen to live in areas that are under the opposition control the Russians are not innocent guests but a ruthless super power using internationally forbidden arms including cluster bombs , phosphorus bombs, vacuum bombs and today napalm bombs to destroy everything they and Assad have also used chemical weapons (sarin gas initially and chlorine gas after he gave up his pile of sarine gas) to attack civilian targets
Assad could have become the beloved reformer of Syria when he took power after the death of his father but he chose to follow the footsteps of his father and became the new butcher of Syria
But remember no tyrant ever survived his people, not the pharaoh,and the Israelites Hitler, and Germany Mussolini and Italy Ceaușescu and Romania
And he will not. Inspite of all the overt support from Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Iraqi militia and the covert support from many other super powers ttat paid lip service to the Syrians and provided him support behind the curtains.
Finally I want to remind you
Desmund tutu once said ” if you do not help the oppressed then you are effectually siding with the oppressor
Sorry I did not realize my comment went first time but there were some typos that were corrected anyway so this should be the corrected version
Propaganda, pure and simple. Misinforms, distracts, lies by omission, insinuates. The electorate are denied the ability to make informed choices.
EMPIRE USA — EXPANSION IN A WORLD AT WAR
I hope you started to read these comments from the bottom up, as there is no moderation here and all is hopeless garbage, all designed to burn up your emotional capital.
For example, Empire USA is the world’s largest manufacturer of cluster bombs, Saudi Arabia is now saturating Yemen with cluster bombs made in USA, yet posters try to destroy this place with the fiction that cluster bombs are a dirty trick of Russia.
Bottom line, Russia has a market economy and needs a world at peace, Empire USA has a war economy, loves to trade war materials for Middle-East oil and can only expand in a world at war.
I hope you are not a Russian propagandist
Both have an interest in selling their arms and are competing in that
Russia also is now promoting their new arms and selling more of them after they are showing their effectiveness in Syria
Russia is in Syria at the invitation of the legitimate government of Syria.
—
Sure, everybody knows that when Assad ran unopposed as the hand-picked successor to his daddy in 2007 and got 98.2 percent of the vote that should be proof enough that he is universally beloved. Just ask Richard Daley.
I do not know if you are familiar with the elections under tyrants like Assad and his father ?
The father used to win by 99-99.99%
Whoever votes no , can be interrogated by his secret service and could end up in prison or tortured for that, even if you vote know there are already boxes ready to replace the actual votes where they expect any deficiencies.
Assad the son as he was educated for a couple of years in Britain improved in the voting process by making the results only in the range of 98-99%
So much for voting
Actually he was the only candidate and you do not have the option to vote for anyone else anyway !
Yes, I’m sure after your head chopping terrorists take over, there will be fair elections ; just like in Saudi Arabia, their beloved sponsor.