Article: THE REVELATIONS OF WIKILEAKS: No. 8 -- Busting the Myth WikiLeaks Published Nothing on Israel & Syria

As is its customary practice, WikiLeaks divided "Syria Files" into categories. It indexed the email and classified traffic by date of document and date of release. These entry points are not currently operative, however. The navigation tool it provided, found on the "Syria Files" home page, consists of a search mechanism operated by inserting key words or phrases. This is effectively the front door to the inventory of email comprising the publication.

A typical entry, located using the search term "military," is dated August 14, 2010, and concerns Syria's financial support for a study of the Golan Heights question developed by the American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee -- in Washington. The ADC, founded by James Abourezk, a former U.S. senator of Arabic descent, identifies itself as "a civil-rights organization" and "the largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the U.S." Official Syrian support for the Golan report had not previously been disclosed.

The emailed note was from the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and appears to have been addressed to President Assad. Among the report's intended recipients were the White House and the State Department. The British email address in the upper right of the document is not identified. The email appears in "Syria Files" as follows:

2010-08-14 08:19:26 Fwd: Report from ADC b.shaaban@mopa.gov.sy buthainak1@hotmail.co.uk Fwd: Report from ADC
Your Excellency: RAMADAN KARIM! As you will remember, I had previously mentioned to you that I am sponsoring the costs of researching and printing a report on the Golan Heights to be done by ADC of Washington DC (American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee) and sent you on April 19th a copy of their preliminary proposal. The report will be sent to: White House Â � State Department Â � Congress Â � U.S. and International media, Arab-American media Â � Church groups and Peace and Justice Organizations and
Activists Â � Library of Congress/Congressional Research Service Â � Middle East Studies Departments at Universities Â � ADC Members and Chapters and posted on the ADC website. Now they have sent their final draft, enclosed please find same for your perusal. I realize that you personally have very limited spare time, but perhaps you could have one of your expert staff take a careful look and let me know soonest (by latest August 20th as they will start publication on August 25th) if any change.

Also among the significant revelations contained in "Syria Files" are those related to the Damascus government's business with Western corporations. Email messages dated 2011 and 2012 -- reveal that Finmeccanica, an Italian manufacturer of aerospace, defense, and security equipment (and now called Leonardo S.p.a.), increased sales of mobile communications gear to Syria a few months after the outbreak of hostilities in March 2011.

The following year it dispatched personnel to train Syrians in the use of Finmeccanica equipment. Diplomatic traffic WikiLeaks made public -- in its "Cablegate" releases revealed that the Obama administration had begun covertly supporting anti-Assad militias at the time of the Finmeccanica transactions.

During this same period, Brown Lloyd James, a controversial public relations firm -- with offices in Washington, New York, London, and Doha (and now known as BLJ), was offering the Assad government advisory services on "perception management" -- that is, how to project a sympathetic, reformist image while waging war against insurgent jihadists the U.S. portrayed as "moderate."

These and other transactions revealed in "Syria Files" indicate that Western companies were doing or seeking business with the Assad government while the U.S. and its allies were beginning their long campaign to depose it, an effort that included a rigorously executed anti-Assad propaganda campaign.

As is WikiLeaks' customary practice, it worked with various news organizations to disseminate "Syria Files." For this release, these outlets were Al-Masry Al-Youm, an Egyptian daily newspaper; Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese daily; L'Espresso, the Italian newsweekly; Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Germany's public broadcaster; OWNI, a French news website, and PÃ �blico\. es, a Spanish news site.

When announcing its partner relationships for "Syria Files," WikiLeaks initially included The Associated Press among them; it subsequently announced that it had no advance agreement with The AP. No major American media were therefore partnered for the "Syria Files" release.

In a story dated July 8, 2012, two days after "Syria Files" was published, Al- Akhbar confirmed that the emails released were genuine and the identities of those named in them accurate. Translating from Arabic, Wikipedia quotes the Lebanese paper saying the documents "illuminate -- often in small ways -- the nature of power within and the inner workings of certain political and economic elements in Syria." The link to this story no longer functions.

Ignored by Media

equipment. Diplomatic traffic WikiLeaks made public in its "Cablegate" releases revealed that the Obama administration had begun covertly supporting anti-Assad militias at the time of the Finmeccanica transactions.

During this same period, Brown Lloyd James, a controversial public relations firm with offices in Washington, New York, London, and Doha (and now known as BLJ), was offering the Assad government advisory services on "perception management"that is, how to project a sympathetic, reformist image while waging war against insurgent jihadists the U.S. portrayed as "moderate."

These and other transactions revealed in "Syria Files" indicate that Western companies were doing or seeking business with the Assad government while the U.S. and its allies were beginning their long campaign to depose it an effort that included a rigorously executed anti-Assad propaganda campaign.

Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).