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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 6/17/12

The First Casualty

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A PRO-Assad rally in Damascus, Syria, 3/29/11, globalresearch.ca
A PRO-Assad rally in Damascus, Syria, 3/29/11, globalresearch.ca
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A PRO-Assad rally in Damascus, Syria, 3/29/11, globalresearch.ca

by Joe Giambrone  


The big lie concerning Syria is the most significant and outrageous myth that we are living under today.  As previous big lies fade into history, this particular crisis holds the most potential to flare up into a life-ending catastrophe across the planet.  Russia has now approved a shipment of attack helicopters to their ally Syria, and China remains highly skeptical of the western narrative regarding the massacre of women and children in Houla.  Iran has offered to come to the aid of Assad in fighting the various Sunni militias, which have opened up multiple fronts across rural parts of the country.

In Military-Industrial-Media-Speak the president of Syria, Bashar Assad, is a "butcher" who massacres his own people, defenseless "activists" and "protesters" who cry out for his ouster across Syria; if only the benevolent western democracies would send more weapons and money to destroy the Syrian army, on their behalf, the world would be right again.  This lie has been exposed numerous times, and yet persists as if previous revelations had never occurred.  This requires a gullible, amnesic public that refuses to dig beyond surface headlines and corporate perception management.

Armed foreign fighters have been perpetrating a coordinated military assault on Syria since March of 2011

Back in the middle of March, 2011, while the world's press was enraptured by the uprising in Egypt, clashes in Daraa, Syria led to violence.  Not covered by US news sources, but reported in Israel and Lebanon, are the following facts on the ground: 

Seven police officers and at least four demonstrators in Syria have been killed in continuing violent clashes that erupted in the southern town of Daraa last Thursday" On Friday police opened fire on armed protesters killing four and injuring as many as 100 others"  In an uncharacteristic gesture intended to ease tensions the government offered to release the detained students, but seven police officers were killed, and the Baath Party Headquarters and courthouse were torched, in renewed violence on Sunday. (Gavriel Queenann, Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests, Israel National News, Arutz Sheva, March 21, 2011, emphasis added)

Jump ahead to May of 2011 (13 months ago), and Al Jazeera's reporter in Lebanon runs into blatant censorship by his own employer.  The Qatari media organization disallows the broadcast of video footage showing heavily-armed fighters crossing the border from Lebanon into Syria.  Ali Hashem and other journalists at Al Jazeera, Lebanon, will resign in protest because of this blatant cover-up of a military incursion.  Al Jazeera's reputation as an impartial news source is forever damaged. A terror campaign then launches, by the armed opposition fighters, who use bombs, snipers and sabotage.

7/24/11 -- Saboteurs blow up and derail a passenger train from Aleppo, Syria

8/14/11 -- Report that NATO plans to send large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns to the Syrian rebels

12/23/11  - Syrian government blames al-Qaida after two car bombs kill dozens in Damascus

By December of 2011 Reuters reports: 

"The United Nations says at least 4,000 people have died, with about a quarter of the dead from the security forces." (Reuters UK , Dec. 8, 2011, emphasis added)

That's some so-called "protest movement" that can kill 1,000 armed police and soldiers.  Of course it was nothing of the kind.  Protest was the premeditated cover story to launch an aggressive, pre-planned assault against the Assad regime. Western news media have relied extensively on the impressively named Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. This steadfast organization, according to Reuters, consists of one guy who runs a clothing shop in Coventry, England.  For some reason calling one's self the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights entices the world's corporate press to call in 24 hours a day seeking counsel.  That's how it's worked out so far for Rami Abdulrahman.

Perhaps I should set up the American Monitoring Station of International Bullshit?  The US press clearly needs the guidance.  Even this week the Christian Science Monitor used Rami Abdulrahman as a "source" of what's happening on the ground in Syria, printing his speculation as an eyewitness account.  He lives in London.

"[Rami Abdulrahman] said the use of tanks and attack helicopters to smash residential buildings and city infrastructure indicated they wanted to destroy areas, not just chase out rebels." (CS Monitor,  UN Monitors find stench of death in Syrian town, 6/14/2012)

The CS Monitor is forced to concede further escalating violence by the rebels as well, even as its language attempts to paint the Syrian government as the party most responsible, relying on unverifiable "activists" repeatedly.

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Joe Giambrone is an American author, freelance writer and filmmaker. Non-fiction works appear at International Policy Digest, WhoWhatWhy, Foreign Policy Journal, Counterpunch, Globalresearch, , OpedNews, High Times and other online outlets. His science fiction thriller Transfixion and his Hollywood satire (more...)
 
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