by John Parker
So, now Snopes is buckling from the barrage of pressure from the U.S. ruling class and challenges anyone who dare say that the U.S. is manufacturing lies about Syria, specifically Aleppo.
Well, here’s my answer to them: It’s too bad your Snopes reporter Bathanie Markus didn’t come to the meeting held at the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice on December 17th with special guest Eva Bartlett – yep the same journalist you tried to discredit. She was joined by Syrians who all addressed your accusations.
What about Aya?
Let’s start with Aya, the little girl who was apparently saved by White Helmet volunteers. Bartlett said Aya’s story was being adapted to various locations multiple times. Snopes says there are rescue stories with different girls named Aya. Well, Bartlett never said there weren’t different children being used with the same name, probably are. The Aya she was talking about WAS the same girl being used more than 3 times in different locations, kind of weird huh? Why does Snopes think that since their sources are more trusted by the U.S. government, they are therefore more credible than actual people on the streets in Syria or other very credible investigative journalists? Did they go to Syria to find out for themselves?
Other Sources on the Elections
Much of what Bartlett is saying is also echoed by Vets for Peace who sent a delegation to Syria. It’s also echoed by me, who went there, and many others in regards to the nature of the rebel groups and the popularity of Assad in Syria. Snopes implies that the presidential elections where President Assad won 88.7% of the vote weren’t real because they weren’t held in “rebel” controlled territories. Markus doesn’t also say that the majority of people live in the non-“rebel” controlled areas and that those areas controlled by ISIS, Al Qaeda, El Nusra and various mercenaries would not allow elections in the territories they held.
Apparently she also didn’t see this report from the U.S. government-funded NGO, USAID, about the turnout. They even had to admit that 73% of the Syrian population turned out for the elections. Compare that to this year’s election turnout in the U.S. of 55%. Here’s the link to the USAID-funded report:
USAID Election Guide: https://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/208/
Markus also refuses to look at the findings of international delegations that monitored the elections. And, even western-biased polls run in Britain and the U.S. admit that Assad has majority support. By the way, they don’t have an electoral college in Syria, it’s one person, one vote – a little more democratic … but what am I saying an Arab country could never be more democratic than the U.S., right? Often chauvinism and arrogance gets in the way of truth telling when it’s about non-European peoples and their right to self-determination.
Corporate Media Doesn’t Lie about U.S. Wars?
Snopes also seems to laugh at the idea of a western manufacturing of news when there are countless examples historically and currently in Syria. Here’s one by a reporter whose picture of an Iraq scene was used by the BBC to say it was the result of a Syrian massacre, until he exposed it as not:
Telegraph, UK – BBC Falsely Blames Syria: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9293620/BBC-News-uses-Iraq-photo-to-illustrate-Syrian-massacre.html
Did Snopes not know about this before they say ideas of manufactured evidence are, to paraphrase – typical of conspiracy theorists? What about the incubator story manufactured widely by all corporate media regarding Iraq, or the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq equally gobbled up by western corporate media? There are many examples of distortions in Homs, Syria and the chemical weapons that supposedly the Syrian government had used on civilians, right around the same time President Obama was trying to push a war on Syria in 2013.
Eyewitness Syria with Ramsey Clark and Cynthia McKinney
That is when I joined a fact-finding delegation to Syria including former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, KPFK Radio Host Dedon Kamathi, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, International Action Center Co-coordinator Sara Flounders, and member of Arab Americans for Syria Johnny Achi. While there I spoke to a Sun Times, UK reporter who was so frustrated because the evidence she had pointing the finger at the “rebels” was rejected by her editors. Guess what, and you should research this for yourself Snopes and Markus, in a UN mission report the UN even admitted that when the Obama administration first accused Syria of chemical weapons use it was much more likely that those chemical weapons were used by the “rebels.” In fact, at the time of the accusation this would be the second time the so-called rebels used them. And, regarding the White Helmets you can see here how blatantly they are being used and their real origins and funding in the west:
Off-Guardian.org – White Helmets Exposed
Snopes needs a better fact checker, and when they can’t actually prove something is false, they can’t just get away with saying it’s kinda not likely. And, they did such a good job of making it appear like they had evidence – shame on them.
And Snopes and Markus, believe it or not, yes, even Democracy Now buckles under the weight of U.S. war lies. They’re apparently allowed to get it right regarding domestic news, but when it comes to challenging U.S. imperialist war aims, perhaps some of their funders don’t allow it. Did you check their coverage of the U.S./NATO war on Libya and how they parroted the same lies about government atrocities (now discredited) as the U.S. State Department and the British government? Have you looked at Libya today? You might want to do that before unwittingly encouraging U.S. bombings of Syria – oops it’s too late. The U.S. has already bombed Syria with scores of atrocities and killings of civilians, all well documented. – I didn’t see that in your piece though, just to add needed context for why us crazies feel the way we do about the U.S. in Syria.
Before you add to the U.S. war propaganda whose aim is nothing less than U.S. war and occupation of Syria, why not check out some other real investigations that have been done on the subject. Here’s one from Global Research about hospital bombings in Syria:
Global Research – Aleppo Hospital: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-wests-silence-about-the-bombing-of-russias-hospital-in-aleppo-is-shameful/5560807
Why would the U.S. start a proxy war with Syria and aim for all-out war? Consider this: the so-called rebels qualitatively escalated their violence, which included violence against the non-violent opposition in Syria who were in active negotiation with the government, in 2011. That’s when major changes were being negotiated with the opposition around ending Martial Law, which occurred, and other economic changes. In particular, ratified changes to the constitution in 2012 mandate that major economic industry remain public property in the interest of Syrian people as a whole, not western banks and interests. Western monopolies could no longer make a profit off of the most profitable sections of the Syrian economy. In addition, social rights like security against sickness, disability and old age and free education at all levels were now mandated in the constitution. Making it impossble for western initiatives like NAFTA and TPP to wipe away the country’s social benefit legislation for the sake of free trade. That constitution must have ate at the ruling class here like the nationalization of oil did by then President Hussein in Iraq, and the “rebels” acted accordingly, as mandated by thier masters and funders.
*John Parker is the co-coordinator of the International Action Center, was a U.S. Senate candidate in 2016 and traveled to Syria in 2013
