The
Syrian people are suffering under the ‘moderate rebels’ and
‘opposition forces’ backed by the US, NATO member states and
their allies in the Gulf states and Israel. Yet their suffering is
largely ignored in the mainstream media unless it furthers the agenda
dictated by the State Department.
This
article is the first in a two-part series of one Western journalist’s
journey to Aleppo, a city ravaged by an insurgency supported by the
United States, NATO member states, and their allies in the Gulf
states and Israel. In Part I, Vanessa Beeley lays out the mainstream
narrative on Syria, revealing a neoconservative agenda promoted by
NATO-funded NGOs. These NGOs paint the destruction of the historic
city as being caused by the Syrian government under Bashar Assad, not
the violent armed insurgents which receive arms, funding and training
from Western governments and their allies.
Aleppo
has become synonymous with destruction and “Syrian state-generated”
violence among those whose perception of the situation in the
war-torn nation is contained within the prism of mainstream media
narratives.
The
NATO-aligned media maintains a tight grip on information coming out
of this beleaguered city, ensuring that whatever comes out is
tailored to meet State Department requirements and advocacy for
regime change. The propaganda mill churns out familiar tales of
chemical weapons, siege, starvation and bombs targeting civilians–all
of which are attributed to the Syrian government and military, with
little variation on this theme.
The
purpose of this photo essay and my journey to Aleppo on Aug. 14 was
to discover for myself as a Western journalist the truth behind the
major storylines in the U.S. and NATO narrative on Syria.
The
activist groups and citizen journalists
Media
pundits outside Syria rely on “activist groups” and “citizen
journalists,” who are invariably embedded in areas occupied by
groups such as the Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, assorted Free Syrian
Army brigades, and even Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the terrorist
group known in the West as ISIS or ISIL). Whether they are individual
activists or groups like the White Helmets or Aleppo Media Center, it
is hard to define them as independent or objective when they are
known to receive funding from the United States, NATO member states,
and state-funded institutions like USAID–all of which have a vested
interest in the “regime change” road map in Syria. The “evidence”
these sources produce rarely deviates from the official U.S.
narrative and reinforces the propaganda that drives the train of lies
that justifies intervention.
A fairly
rudimentary investigation into the roots of the Aleppo Media Center
reveal that it is funded by the French Foreign Office, which
celebrates NATO- and Saudi-armed mercenaries as revolutionaries. The
Aleppo Media Center is a member of the Syrian Expatriates
Organization, and it also receives “support” from the Syrian
Media Incubator, a creation of Canal France International, “the
French cooperation agency and media operator of the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.” The French foreign ministry announced in
January 2014:
“In April
2014, CFI will open a media centre, the Syrian Media Incubator, in
the Turkish city of Gaziantep, 60km from the Syrian border, to the
north of Aleppo. This collective workspace aims to provide modern
telecommunication tools and support Syrian journalists who are
determined to continue relaying news from their country, whatever the
cost.”
France can
hardly be considered an impartial player in the neocolonialist game.
In July 2015, the country’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, was
taken to court by a group of Syrian plaintiffs who accused him of
stoking the Syrian conflict in 2012.
The case
cited several incidents in which Fabius was perceived to have praised
the Nusra Front, including one in which he told Le Monde that the
group was “doing a good job.” The grieving families consider his
refusal to designate the the Nusra Front a terrorist organization in
2012 and his move to condone the group’s actions on the ground as
major contributing factors in maintaining the brutal war on Syria and
its people.
It is the
duty of journalists to question the impartiality of reports from
these organizations claiming to be independent. Western journalists
are quick enough to dismiss reports that run against the grain of
their narrative as being “pro-Assad.”
After the
Aleppo Media Center posted the video of Omran Daqneesh on Aug. 17,
the image of the Syrian boy covered in dust and blood was broadcast
across global media networks without a single question regarding some
glaring anomalies surrounding this incident. The Guardian,
Al-Jazeera, The Associated Press and its many, many subscribers, the
Los Angeles Times, The Telegraph, CNN, and Time are just some of the
mainstream media outlets which reproduced this video and images from
it without hesitation.
A Google
search for “Fox News and Aleppo Media Center” returns an
astounding number of results. So, Fox News relies upon a French
Foreign Office-funded organization which produces propaganda from
pro-NATO “activists” planted in Aleppo. Hardly “fair and
balanced” reporting.
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