Syria watch...

[raspberry-blower]

There was no "civil war" in Syria before the funding, by outside forces, of the head choppers.

Yes - for further details:

Steven Gowans: The revolutionary distemper in Syria that wasn't

[Little John]

Syria is a country, Iraq was a construction

How do you substantiate this assertion?

I accept that Iraq was constructed from three different Ottoman Provinces and is a patchwork of ethnic groups. How does Syria differ?

Observe, good people, how our very own Mr Hemming is about to alight on a secondary issue and now milk it for all it's worth in order to derail any substantive debate.

With a superpower like that, he should have been a politician.

[johnhemming2]

It does help to understand the history and culture of other countries.

[Mr. Fox]

Steven Gowans: The revolutionary distemper in Syria that wasn't

Good article - helped to fill in a few blanks for me.

Thanks.

[johnhemming2]

The revolutionary distemper in Syria that wasn't [/quote]

This is a good article. It explains how the civil war grew. However, I think the analysis should really be seen as a conflict between the Shi'a and Sunni in the Middle East. It also ignores the Russian aspect. Druze can conflict with Wahhabis and hence would align with Shi'a.

My view is that the west should have tolerated Russia having a base on the Med because although the Syrian regime is pretty awful the conflict is much worse. Then again I have sympathy with Russia's thesis about Crimea.

The article is flawed in believing that the question of human rights does not feature in international matters. Governments are always coalitions in some ways, the coalitions are not limited to the elected officials. For example there can be pressure from particular departments for particular outcomes regardless of who is actually in office.

Hence when a state acts it tends to act because the interests of different elements are satisfied by a particular action.

There is an interesting question as to whether or not human rights and political freedom also require at least to some extent economic freedom. I think there is some truth to that assertion and property rights are part of the european convention on human rights.

This comes to the key question as to what extent direct economic issues drive international policies. I don't think they take that much of an interest today although resource scarcity is more likely to change that over time.

However, it is nice to see a well written article about Syria even if I don't agree with everything it says. I think support from other Arab countries had more of an effect on adding to the conflict than from the "West". Obviously Kurdish support was also important.

In the end it is clear that Syria moved from a relatively calm country to a civil war at least in part as a result of over reactions from a powerful regime.

[Mr. Fox]

11 year old Hassan Diab at the OPCW, The Hague.


Syria, Russia bring 17 eyewitnesses to OPCW HQ in The Hague to prove that the alleged chemical attack in Douma is a fabricated play (SANA)

(Video on RT)

It got reported by the BBC thusly:

The UK, US and France boycotted the event, which a UK official dismissed as a "despicable" stunt.

"The OPCW is not a theatre," said Peter Wilson, UK envoy to the watchdog.

"Russia's decision to misuse it is yet another Russian attempt to undermine the OPCW's work, and in particular the work of its Fact Finding Mission investigating chemical weapons use in Syria," he said, ahead of the event...

"The director general (of the OPCW) has asked states to supply information about the Douma attack to his fact finding mission. Russia and Syria should do so, instead of waging a propaganda campaign of misinformation," said Mr Wilson.

The French ambassador to the Netherlands, Philippe Lalliot, said: "This obscene masquerade does not come as a surprise from the Syrian government, which has massacred and gassed its own people for the last seven years."

Wankers.

[johnhemming2]

I am not a massive fan of the BBC's reporting and news editing.

However

1. They did report the Russians taking people to the OPCW.

2. The article includes a lot more than the parts you have taken out of it. Those in any event are quotations.

[Automaton]

I am not a massive fan of the BBC's reporting and news editing.

However

1. They did report the Russians taking people to the OPCW.

2. The article includes a lot more than the parts you have taken out of it. Those in any event are quotations.

With regard to 1., they reported it to use it as a platform to further discredit Russia and Syria (note for example the perennial reference to the 'history of chemical attacks' as though this is somehow meaningful evidence about this particular event).
With regard to 2., don't forget that they choose which quotes to include (e.g. quoting the French ambassador to the Netherlands? Why? Only because it was inflammatory). The quote from the director general of the OPCW is misleading because it suggests these witnesses were not presented for interview; but in fact they were.

Note too that the article stated Russia delayed the OPCW investigation by 2 weeks - this was not a quotation, just a straightforward lie. The BBC know it to be a lie, as they have stated the real reason in other, more balanced articles prior to this one. But they said it anyway.

It truly saddens and frustrates me that RT seems more reliable these days than the BBC... what a ridiculous situation. No surprise then that RT is under attack...

[Mr. Fox]

BBC HARDtalk (Stephen Sackur) | Fares Shehabi, Syrian MP for Aleppo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQApnriV0kw

[raspberry-blower]

BBC HARDtalk (Stephen Sackur) | Fares Shehabi, Syrian MP for Aleppo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQApnriV0kw

Stephen Sackur reminds me a lot of Chris Morris on The Day Today. It's War!!!!

[Mr. Fox]

I thought I saw a jump/edit in that interview... after appearing, Shehabi twote:

@ShehabiFares

As expected, BBC only cut off the piece where I revealed some names of known terror bosses who received funding from the UK’s Foreign Office as solid evidence proved.

[Mr. Fox]

U.S. freezes funding for Syria's "White Helmets"

Now they are not getting any U.S funding as the State Department says the support is "under active review." The U.S had accounted for about a third of the group's overall funding.

"This is a very worrisome development," said an official from the White Helmets...

..Having not received U.S. funding in recent weeks, White Helmets are questioning what this means for the future. They have received no formal declaration from the U.S. government that the monetary assistance has come to a full halt, but the group's people on the ground in Syria report that their funds have been cut off.

Maybe the US figure they don't need it, since a ride on the green bus is free.

[raspberry-blower]

The Syrian Arab Army has achieved two major successes - liberating Yarmouk camp from ISIS and, with hardly firing a shot, caused the al-Rastan pocket to collapse.

A good summary of events here:
Moon of Alabama: Syrian Sitrep - Liberating the M5 economic lifeline

From that article - the Elijah Magnier article: Russia is in the Middle East to stop the war, not take part in an Iran-Israel conflict

[raspberry-blower]

Remember the alleged chemical attack in Douma?

Well the OPCW have just published their interim report - there was no chemical attack.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) send a Fact Finding Mission (FFM) to Douma and investigated the incident. Today it published an interim report and some technical results:

OPCW designated labs conducted analysis of prioritised samples. The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties.
Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody. Work by the team to establish the significance of these results is on-going. The FFM team will continue its work to draw final conclusions.

The "Sarin" organophosphate use the 'rebels' claimed is thereby debunked. No degradation products of such chemicals were found. The "various chlorinated organic chemicals" are unsurprising. Chlorine is widely used for water purification and cleaning and "chlorinated organic chemicals" will be found in any household.

Source

[Mr. Fox]

And yet the shitweasles at the BBC report that:

A chemical weapons watchdog has found that chlorine gas was used in April's attack on the Syrian city of Douma.

The interim report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said "various chlorinated organic chemicals" had been found but there was no evidence of nerve agents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44746147

Gas? Where did they get that from? Not from the OPCW report, as far as I can see.

They're just making it up as they go along. Again. As always.

Isn't household bleach a "chlorinated organic chemical"? Does this mean I should surrender myself to the Hauge next time I clean the toilet?