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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Foreign Affairs / Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria (1691 Views)
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Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 9:59pm On May 30, 2012 |
in the leaked video below,an auction takes place in jeddah,saudi arabia for a suicide bomber.the goods on auction is human flesh and blood to be blown up into pieces in syria and to kill others as well.several suicide bombings have occurred in syria by wahhabi terrorists targeting the syrian government and syrian civilians.also the wahhabi terrorists backed by the wahhabi kingdom of saudi arabia and qatar (both US allies and bases of American forces in the persian gulf) have carried out beheadings of syrian civilians who support their president,bashar al-assad.the wahhabi kingdoms are best described as "zionist arabs" and slaves of the west.their sectarian mission is to destabilize syria and topple its alawite-led regime.bashar al-assad is an alawite (an offshoot sect of Shia Islam) while the saudis are wahhabis (an offshoot movement of the sunni branch of Islam).this comes at a time when majority of syrians support their president and want to avert the scenario earlier seen in libya.bashar al-assad's regime remains the only one in the arab world actively supporting the palestinians and lebanese and their right to resist israeli occupation much to the anger of israel and the west. in the below video,the father of the would-be suicide bomber sold his son,Khaled,for 1.5 million riyals (an equivalent of 400,000 dollars).the video shows a happy father at the high bids placed for Khaled,the second son he has sold.Khaled would end up blowing himself up in Baba Amro,in syria.this is the way the west and their zionist-arab puppets are destabilizing syria by supplying terrorists and weapons to the armed opposition aka The Free Syrian Army.the worse part the video reveals are the children present in a very joyous and festive occassion in selling human flesh by the allies of the west. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ha94Xz59dg&feature=player_embedded |
Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:08pm On May 30, 2012 |
[size=18pt]Phony ‘Houla Massacre’: How Media Manipulates Public Opinion For Regime Change in Syria[/size] Intelligent skeptics should see through the media’s smoke screen in order to work out what is really going on in Syria Patrick Henningsen Infowars.com May 28, 2012 If you are still needing an academic tutorial on exactly how the mainstream media is able to generate a completely phony public consensus to support foreign intervention projects, you need look no further than the dangerous, fictional narrative currently being rolled out regarding Syria. This past Saturday and Sunday morning, almost every major corporate mainstream newspaper and TV network in North America and in Europe ran with the average headline, “Massacre of the children as Syrian forces hit rebels”, giving hundreds of millions of readers and viewers to artificial impression that it was Syrian government forces – and not western-backed terrorist groups, who carried out a massacre on children and others days ago - even though, the true culprit of these attacks has not yet been determined – a fact which was only briefly mentioned later on in these very same media reports. One of the UK best-selling weekend papers and most widely read online journals, Guardian media group’s The Observer, ran such a headline – one which shamelessly implied that the Syrian government carried out a massacre in Houla. This was used to shape public opinion in Europe, a reality which is later shaped for the North American market. Corporate Journalism: The Art of Deception It shouldn’t take a genius to see through this relentless western effort to takeover Syria, but not having learned their lesson from Libya, so many hard working and well educated westerners are bound to fall for it all over again. Cui bono? Who benefits… from another civilian massacre? Clearly not the Syrian government. But western-backed terrorist groups who have been working to destabilize the country for over one year now, do clearly benefit. Who would be the chief suspect for this latest massacre? How about the western-backed terrorists in Syria – the very same terrorist groups admitted to their own bombing campaign that killed many innocent people in Syria only weeks ago. Important to add here also, that the latest child massacre in Syria has been reported as being “done with knives” – which doesn’t sound like a government attack to any intelligent reader. Do not underestimate for one second just how pivotal the western corporate media is in advancing an agenda of global destabilization: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u54hFGlJchA As we have seen used before in Syria and Libya, the alleged massacre in question is based entirely on unsubstantiated evidence, in this case its more uploaded ‘Youtube’ footage: “Videos uploaded to the Internet and purporting to be from Houla show many dead and badly mutilated infants. Residents say some victims were killed with knives, while many more died from 18 hours of relentless shelling that left buildings wrecked and homes destroyed in a large residential area near the centre of town.” Origins of these ‘Youtube video’ are still unknown, but the media machine and certain UN officials have already cited them as “evidence”. Also note that in the YouTube videos, many of the dead children appear to be shot in the heads with fire arms at close range, but this has not stopped certain ‘UN observers’ from accusing the Syrian government from killing children with tank shelling. Mainstream Media 101 In order to shape consensus reality, first you need to frame the event. Here the story begins by laying soft blame on the Syrian government… “Syria‘s fragile peace process is in shreds after what was claimed to be a regime-backed massacre…” … and then proceeding to carefully cover themselves, so to speak, but retracting the allegations deeper into the article: “Major General Robert Mood, head of the UN team in Syria, deplored the attack, which began at midday on Friday, as “indiscriminate and unforgivable” but did not say who had been to blame.” Notice how the article itself states clearly that the persons responsible for the massacre is yet to be known, but The Observer has already framed the conclusion within the headline and in the beginning of the story, in order to fit a pre-determined conclusion. This conclusion happens to be directly in line with Washington and London’s foreign policy objective of regime change in Syria. Take notes. Because this is how it’s done, time and time again – another clear example how large media outlets can effectively drive reality in the direction of their choosing, and this is why so many millions of public media consumers are left misinformed and dis informed, eventually leading to a marginal public endorsement of Washington, London and Tel Aviv’s interventionist foreign policy objectives. Hours after this fake story was circulated in the GMT timezone, it made its way to EST, as the New York Times picks up the ball and runs it down the field. Here the story is further refined to streamline it with regime change policy objectives, codifying reality within North American sector, claiming that: “More than 90 people, including at least 32 children under the age of 10, were killed in a central Syrian village, top United Nations officials said Saturday, accusing the government of perpetrating the “indiscriminate” shelling of civilian neighborhoods.” And finally, the Washington Post weighs in with their attempt to corner Russia and China on the issue, rounding out the artificial verdict today with their headline, “U.N. Security Council blames Syrian government for civilian massacre”, claiming that: “The U.N. Security Council on Sunday blamed the Syrian government for most of the deaths in a massacre of 116 civilians in the village of Houla, issuing a unanimous statement condemning the killings that was supported by Syria’s staunch allies Russia and China.” Shortly thereafter, the UN’s Ban Ki Moon and Save the Children charity weigh in with carefully-craft statements, but statements that are obviously framed and directed towards Syria’s Assad government, and not Gulf States, Washington and London-backed terrorist gangs currently operating under an all but official western mandate within Syria and from their NATO-sanctioned base over the border in southern Turkey. Reality is further shaped by the London Guardian’s Observer and others, with an official “international outcry”: “The international community was united in its condemnation. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the killings were a “flagrant violation of international law” while the White House called the violence acts of “unspeakable and inhuman brutality.” Arab League head Nabil Elaraby said the killings were a “horrific crime” and urged UN action. Save the Children’s chief executive, Justin Forsyth, echoed calls for intervention. He said: “This indiscriminate killing must stop now. The world cannot sit back and allow this to happen. Children are suffering terribly in this conflict.” Even the BBC have gone so far as to run 9 year old photographs from Iraq, and sell them as from this latest massacre of children in Syria. Any other foreign media outlet in the UK would have its broadcasting license pulled for such a propaganda stunt. In the face of such damning manipulation, why then would so many people still believe the mainstream media’s version of reality in countries like Syria? But what is a more closer version of reality is this: Western-backed terrorists, many of whom are al-Qaida, mostly hailing from outside of Syria, are fomenting civil war and carrying out a series of attacks on UN observers and civilians, in order to create the preferred western narrative that “Assad must go.” Western readers should be under no illusion – your government operators are sanctioning civilian killing in places like Syria, and your corporate media are being used to place the blame on the west’s political enemy in the region – and therefore influence western public support for regime change. After over one year of intervening through their own favored terrorist guerrilla proxy fighters and running arms into Syria – arms that are admittedly for going into the hands of western-backed al-Qaida groups there, the west has not yet succeeded in toppling the Assad government and installing a new puppet regime, as they did by using NATO military force in Libya last autumn. But western project managers like Hillary Clinton and William Hague have not given up, and if their corporate media outlets are allowed to determine their version reality in Syria, they will eventually get their “humanitarian intervention”, and the country will slowly be destroyed from within. Then regime change will happen. It’s as simple as that. The Syrian people are the ones who will eventually lose if Washington, London, Tel Aviv and the Gulf States succeed in destroying that country, as they have done in Libya and Iraq. When this is done, then they will move on to destabilize Lebanon in order to unseat and neutralize Hezbollah. After that, the door to attack Iran will be wide open. There’s your World War Three in earnest. source: Infowars.com |
Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:13pm On May 30, 2012 |
two other threads on nairaland about the situation in syria worth reviewing to get a clearer picture of what is really happening in syria.the threads were created in the Islam section.the posts in those threads will certainly expose the zionist plot supported by the west and the wahhabi kingdoms to create instability in syria and topple the regime of bashar al-assad by formenting violence and faking a revolution manufactured outside of syria. "Muslim Scholars Issue Verdict On Syria" https://www.nairaland.com/877711/muslim-scholars-issue-verdict-syria "Silence Is Betrayal #houlamassacre #syria" https://www.nairaland.com/948839/silence-betrayal-houlamassacre-syria |
Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:23pm On May 30, 2012 |
"From Misurata we came to free Syria!" [size=14pt]Homs in the hell of armed groups[/size] A direct testimony from the Syrian city of Homs collected by the Swiss journalist Silvia Cattori, who paints a very different picture than that spread by a majority of western media. Since 6 February Cattori has lost contact with her local informants, terrorized by armed groups "wildly shelling, killing to kill”, as reported in an interview with an inhabitant of Homs. 29 FEBRUARY 2012 | Homs, now, is nothing but a sinister battlefield where government soldiers face armed groups which, according to independent witnesses about the true nature of the rebellion, are blindly firing cannon shots to sow terror and death, then pretending that only government forces are bombarding the city. The Western media continue, for its part, to adduce as evidence the statements of local committees which spread propaganda of the armed "opponents", in coordination with the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a London-based body created and funded by the rebellion-allied forces[The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights - which collects the statements of various local committees in Syria - has been repeatedly denounced as nothing but a vulgar instrument of disinformation in the service of the revolt. Despite ample evidence of that, it remains the principal source of information from Syria - together with the famous "great reporters" – and the entire Western media are referring to it, spreading day after day the reports by this rip-of observatory. [1] To understand what happens in Syria, it is therefore not possible to rely on the Syrian Observatory or on bloggers who are part of this rebellion. We also cannot rely on foreign correspondents who are, as we can see, systematically and from the heart and soul on the side of the armed "opponents", qualifying them as "heroes" and presenting the battle that divides the Syrian people in an entirely Manichaean way: On one side the opposition which "struggles for democracy", and on the other the terrible dictator. Things are not like that. As demonstrated by a recent poll, as well as by the massive demonstrations in support of the Russian and Chinese veto at the UN, the vast majority of the Syrian people do not want this armed revolt, which seeks solely to legitimize NATO powers and several Arab states - notoriously known as champions of democracy, such as Qatar. If you want to speak of "heroes" in Syria, then you should refer to all parties who are suffering, not only to the "heroes" recognized by the West ... How many Milan missiles were handed over to the rebels? The number of Syrian citizens appealing to to their president for intervention of government forces is very high. This is especially true in Homs, where the situation is alarming because large sections of the population are held hostage by these groups occupying entire areas of the city - the neighborhoods of Baba Amr, Khaldiyeh, Karm el-Zeytoun - where the people have been calling for months for Damascus to rescue them [2]. Their fate has become even more a source of anxiety since the same Milan anti-tank missile launchers delivered to the Libyan rebels during the Libyan campaign, less than a year ago, by France and Qatar, began to be used. We can remember how at the time Sarkozy and Bernard Henry Levy misled public opinion by putting the blame on forces loyal to Gaddafi for the use of these Milan missiles, which were taking a heavy toll on the people of Syria. This is the same disturbing scenario repeating itself in Syria. Politicians, journalists and NGOs are once again taking a firm stand concerning the war, provoked by groups exploited by foreign powers. They attribute to the government forces, as was done in Libya and without proper inspection, the acts of barbarism perpetrated by the armed ’opponents’ who are terrorizing the majority of the population. For three weeks correspondents have been repeating that Homs has been unilaterally shelled by the Syrian army. On the contrary, the loyalist contingents attacked by the Milan missiles have suffered heavy losses since the beginning of their intervention. It is not clear whether the authorities in Damascus will be able to dislodge these groups with heavy weaponry from all quarters of the city. Could the Syrian government not respond? From the beginning of these battles it has been repeatedly demonstrated that the armed ‘rebels’ are trained, drilled and formed by foreign special forces; and that among their ranks the opponents have elements acting on behalf of foreign powers whose presence in Syria is self-evident. Syrian television has recently disseminated pictures of Homs taken by a foreign "war photographer" who followed and filmed these armed "opponents" - the same ones glorified by the "great reporters" – who wildly launch rockets and missiles. An image has attracted attention: In a building, whose stairs are dirty with blood and destroyed furniture, a surprising graffiti with heavy meaning stood out on a wall: "From Misurata, after we have freed Lybia, we came to free Syria!" Who is responsible for the massacres of Homs, and which objectives does he pursue? These armed groups, whose most violent actions are attributed to Al Assad soldiers facing them, are systematically presented by the Western press as "foes" fighting for "democracy." Why do "great reporters" not bring evidence of Syrian victims of abductions, tortures and murders by these armed "opponents"? Why has the President of " Doctors without Borders" recently contributed to this process of intoxication, showing as credible the testimonies of anonymous Syrians with covered faces - standing side by side with the rebels, and attributing to Al-Assad forces and to the hospitals’ doctors unspeakable acts of torture and injury of children? [3] Who would believe in Bashar Al Assad’s interest in torturing his people, in raping children and girls? Who would believe that the majority of the Syrian people would continue supporting Bashar Al Assad if he was really such a bloody torturer as painted in the West for the purpose of war propaganda? These incessant campaigns which defend the violent opposition, and not the people terrorized and oppressed by these rebels, are dangerous. They aim to bring grist to foreign power’s mill - France, Great Britain, the United States, backed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia – which have been preparing for months the ground for a military intervention in Syria, and are just waiting for the green light by Obama. http://www.silviacattori.net/article2898.html |
Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:27pm On May 30, 2012 |
see for yourself syrian support for their president and how the wahhabis and foreign terrorists backed by foreign countries have wrecked havoc in damascus killing close to 50 people including security personnels through suicide bombing,boko haram style:
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Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:30pm On May 30, 2012 |
[size=18pt]1 million Syrians support Assad in Damascus [/size] Some one million people are taking part in a demonstration in support of President Bashar Assad and the programme of reforms he has declared. The square opposite the government building complex is crowded with people. This is the largest-scale manifestation in Syria in the past six months, with participants holding national flags and portraits of the Syrian leader. Posters urge Syrians to consolidate national unity in the face of hostile plotting. Later in the day, the 46-year old Assad is expected to announce the setting up of a commission to draft a new constitution. http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/10/12/58600828.html |
Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:32pm On May 30, 2012 |
[size=18pt]US, Israeli, Saudi involvement in Syrian uprising .[/size] By Tahir Mustafa It was only a matter of time before protests erupted in Syria like elsewhere in the Muslim East. In fact, informed observers were surprised that Syrians had not joined the movement for change sooner when long-entrenched Western-backed dictators like Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Ali Abdullah Saleh were already ousted or under intense pressure to go. The Arabic word, irhal (go or more accurately translated as get lost) has become the standard slogan in the region. Thus last month’s eruption of protests in Syria starting in Daraa and duly projected and amplified by al-Jazeera has focused attention on the situation in the region. But al-Jazeera refuses to reveal the true identity of those behind the uprising. In fact, the Doha-based network is part of the US-Zionist-Saudi conspiracy to undermine the Syrian regime so that a major challenge to American-Israeli hegemony can be removed and the Saudis can breathe a little easier under the protective umbrella of their Western masters. The protests in Syria are not entirely indigenous even if people have legitimate grievances. A much larger game is underway that has little to do with the rights of the people. The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia as well as exiled Syrian politicians are all involved in undermining the regime of President Bashar al-Assad for their own nefarious ends. This is not to argue that Assad is a democrat or that he does not rule with an iron fist. Syria’s importance lies elsewhere: unlike regimes in the rest of the Muslim East, it is not an American-Zionist puppet. In fact, it is part of the resistance alliance that includes Islamic Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas against US-Zionist aggression. Add to that the US-Zionist agents in Lebanon whose machinations to undermine Hizbullah have been frustrated by the steadfastness of the resistance movement, and the picture begins to get clearer. Unlike Libya, Syria would be an even bigger prize for the West and the Zionists. Colonel Muammar Qaddafi of Libya is a two-bit player compared to Bashar al-Assad. Syria is a major plank in the resistance alliance against US-Israel. As long as it remains part of the Iran-Hizbullah-Hamas front, Israel feels insecure because its ill-gotten gains can be challenged and undermined. The uprising in Syria is part of the ongoing US-Zionist conflict that was first checkmated by Hizbullah’s valiant resistance in the Zionist-imposed war of July–August 2006. Instead of crushing Hizbullah, the Zionist invaders suffered a humiliating defeat. The psychological trauma was even greater than their military defeat. The Zionists then tried to eradicate this shame by assaulting and perpetrating a bloodbath in defenseless Gaza in December 2008–January 2009. There too, despite inflicting massive casualties and destroying much of Gaza’s dilapidated infrastructure, Hamas stood its ground and the Zionists failed in their mission to obliterate the resistance movement. Behind these maneuvers lies the US-Israeli plan to isolate and ultimately destroy the Islamic government in Iran. In this, they also have the backing of the Saudis because they feel vulnerable when Islamic Iran supports Hizbullah’s resistance to Israel and Hamas’ standing firm in Gaza — while the Saudis do not lift a finger to help them. Islamic Iran also exposes the Saudis’ claim to being leaders of the Muslim world. Instead, the Saudis stand exposed as agents of the West and the Zionists, hardly credentials that can earn them laurels among masses in the Muslim world. The uprising in Syria is part of this chain of events. Recent revelations confirm the deep conspiracy being hatched by the US-Zionist-Saudi nexus to undermine and overthrow the government in Syria. A number of exiled Syrians are involved in this including Abdul Halim Khaddam, the former vice president of Syria, Abdul Razzaq Eid, chief of the Damascus Declaration National Council Abroad, former Syrian opposition MP Mamoun Homsi, Farid al-Ghaderi, leader of the self-styled Reform Party, Saad Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, his Saudi paymaster, Bandar bin Sultan and even an Emirati crown prince. Al-Ghaderi, like Bandar, has the dubious distinction of visiting in 2007 the Israeli Knesset while the Saudi did it secretly in the summer of 2009 to urge then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to attack and eliminate Hizbullah. He said Saudi Arabia would pay for all the costs of Israeli aggression. Given their experience of three years ago, the Zionists refused to oblige. Websites and social communications networks like Facebook and Twitter were not the only means used to coordinate demonstrations in Syria, especially Darra. Scores of UAE-supplied Thuraya mobile satellite handsets to specific activists in Syrian districts were also utilized. An Emirati crown prince, owner of Thuraya mobile handsets facilitated dispatch of these phones, which enabled users to communicate directly via satellite without using land lines or mobile Syrian networks, in addition to using Jordanian and UAE SIM cards. Weapons are being smuggled to Syrian rebels from Jordan using pack animals. These are paid for by Bandar who had tried, unsuccessfully, to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Syria for disbursement among anti-government groups. Dressed in disguise and travelling on a fake passport, Bandar thought he could slip through Syrian immigration and customs. He was caught, interrogated and detained for several months. At that time, Bandar claimed his mission was to organize a “coup against King Abdullah” who had become senile. This led to his return and disappearance in the kingdom for nearly 18 months. He re-appeared only last October. Given recent revelations, it would appear Bandar’s plan was to finance anti-government groups in Syria. He has now organized these through Jordan. Early last month, Nasser Qandil, a former Lebanese MP, revealed that Syrian opposition figures had met in Lebanon to plan and coordinate “sabotage” operations in Syria. Qandil said “On January 18, Hariri’s consultant Hani Hammoud went to Paris where he met with US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffery Feltman, and former Lebanese minister Marwan Hmedeh who is part of the March 14 alliance. It is reported that during this meeting, Fares Khashan, who works for Hariri’s Future newspaper, was tasked with coordinating with the Syrian opposition groups abroad. It was after this meeting that the Syrian conspirators flew to Beirut in private jets to avoid detection. Immigration and customs procedures were also bypassed, courtesy of Hariri. Dr. Haytham Mannaa, spokesman for the Arab Commission for Human Rights confirmed in discussions with al-Manar television website that he was invited to a meeting in a Paris cafe with a Syrian businessman who had dual Syrian-French nationality. He was accompanied by three other Syrians and a reporter for al-Jazeera. The talks focused on Syria and “…the needs of the youth in Daraa, Syria. The Syrian businessman with the Western nationality offered to arm Syrian opposition groups both qualitatively and quantitatively.” Dr. Mannaa has reported that he and the other Syrians were stunned at what they had heard. The offer was categorically rejected, according to Dr. Mannaa. He then informed the movement leaders in Daraa, his hometown, that under no circumstances should they accept offers of arms regardless of their origin, and no weapons should be used. This would be a disaster for the opposition, fully aware that any regime confronted with this kind of challenge would come down hard and easily crush the uprising. The reply he received was that no weapons would enter the district of Daraa. It is, however, clear that while those leading the movement in Daraa may not have accepted arms from Syrian agents working for the West, there have been several instances of unidentified men driving in fast moving cars shooting at demonstrators. Some policemen have also been shot and wounded. Who are these people? The Syrian government insists these are foreign agents. Given the discussions in the Parisian cafe, could this not be a possibility? Dr. Mannaa has also revealed that the Paris cafe arms offer was not the first its kind. “There were two other armament offers, one of them came from a Lebanese party that is currently at odds with Syria,” Dr. Mannaa was quoted as saying. This was an indirect reference to Hariri’s Future Movement that is backed by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Once again, there is proof of the trio’s dirty tricks. It is not difficult to identify the parties anxious to resort to armed struggle in Syria and who their foreign sponsors are. These are groups financed by the Americans, Lebanese groups and parties that lost out in the recent power-struggle, and rich Syrian exiles sidelined in the political process. It is the same groups that have spread rumors about Hizbullah members being in Daraa, a charge categorically rejected by the Islamic resistance group. Syrian opposition groups are hoping the US and its NATO allies would come to their aid the same way they have done in Libya. What they forget is that Syria and Libya are very different situations and if the West is feeling such great difficulties in Libya despite its being a soft target, Syria would be a lot worse. http://www.crescent-online.net/component/content/article/3092-us-israeli-saudi-involvement-in-syrian-uprising.html |
Re: Suicide Bomber Auction In Saudi Arabia To Destabilize Syria by LagosShia: 10:56pm On May 30, 2012 |
Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media Assad's popularity, Arab League observers, US military involvement: all distorted in the west's propaganda war Jonathan Steele guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 January 2012 18.40 GMT ![]() A demonstration in support of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in Damascus. 'Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war.' Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP Suppose a respectable opinion poll found that most Syrians are in favour of Bashar al-Assad remaining as president, would that not be major news? Especially as the finding would go against the dominant narrative about the Syrian crisis, and the media considers the unexpected more newsworthy than the obvious. Alas, not in every case. When coverage of an unfolding drama ceases to be fair and turns into a propaganda weapon, inconvenient facts get suppressed. So it is with the results of a recent YouGov Siraj poll on Syria commissioned by The Doha Debates, funded by the Qatar Foundation. Qatar's royal family has taken one of the most hawkish lines against Assad – the emir has just called for Arab troops to intervene – so it was good that The Doha Debates published the poll on its website. The pity is that it was ignored by almost all media outlets in every western country whose government has called for Assad to go. The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war – a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria's borders. What is less good news for the Assad regime is that the poll also found that half the Syrians who accept him staying in power believe he must usher in free elections in the near future. Assad claims he is about to do that, a point he has repeated in his latest speeches. But it is vital that he publishes the election law as soon as possible, permits political parties and makes a commitment to allow independent monitors to watch the poll. Biased media coverage also continues to distort the Arab League's observer mission in Syria. When the league endorsed a no-fly zone in Libya last spring, there was high praise in the west for its action. Its decision to mediate in Syria was less welcome to western governments, and to high-profile Syrian opposition groups, who increasingly support a military rather than a political solution. So the league's move was promptly called into doubt by western leaders, and most western media echoed the line. Attacks were launched on the credentials of the mission's Sudanese chairman. Criticisms of the mission's performance by one of its 165 members were headlined. Demands were made that the mission pull out in favour of UN intervention. The critics presumably feared that the Arab observers would report that armed violence is no longer confined to the regime's forces, and the image of peaceful protests brutally suppressed by army and police is false. Homs and a few other Syrian cities are becoming like Beirut in the 1980s or Sarajevo in the 1990s, with battles between militias raging across sectarian and ethnic fault lines. As for foreign military intervention, it has already started. It is not following the Libyan pattern since Russia and China are furious at the west's deception in the security council last year. They will not accept a new United Nations resolution that allows any use of force. The model is an older one, going back to the era of the cold war, before "humanitarian intervention" and the "responsibility to protect" were developed and often misused. Remember Ronald Reagan's support for the Contras, whom he armed and trained to try to topple Nicaragua's Sandinistas from bases in Honduras? For Honduras read Turkey, the safe haven where the so-called Free Syrian Army has set up. Here too western media silence is dramatic. No reporters have followed up on a significant recent article by Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer who now writes for the American Conservative – a magazine that criticises the American military-industrial complex from a non-neocon position on the lines of Ron Paul, who came second in last week's New Hampshire Republican primary. Giraldi states that Turkey, a Nato member, has become Washington's proxy and that unmarked Nato warplanes have been arriving at Iskenderum, near the Syrian border, delivering Libyan volunteers and weapons seized from the late Muammar Gaddafi's arsenal. "French and British special forces trainers are on the ground," he writes, "assisting the Syrian rebels, while the CIA and US Spec Ops are providing communications equipment and intelligence to assist the rebel cause, enabling the fighters to avoid concentrations of Syrian soldiers …" As the danger of full-scale war increases, Arab League foreign ministers are preparing to meet in Cairo this weekend to discuss the future of their Syrian mission. No doubt there will be western media reports highlighting remarks by those ministers who feel the mission has "lost credibility", "been duped by the regime" or "failed to stop the violence". Counter-arguments will be played down or suppressed. In spite of the provocations from all sides the league should stand its ground. Its mission in Syria has seen peaceful demonstrations both for and against the regime. It has witnessed, and in some cases suffered from, violence by opposing forces. But it has not yet had enough time or a large enough team to talk to a comprehensive range of Syrian actors and then come up with a clear set of recommendations. Above all, it has not even started to fulfil that part of its mandate requiring it to help produce a dialogue between the regime and its critics.The mission needs to stay in Syria and not be bullied out. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/17/syrians-support-assad-western-propaganda |
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