UK Gov Ignore Pro-Assad Civilians; But Al Qaeda Confirmed In Opposition

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced today at the fluffily named “Friends of Syria” conference, that Britain will only recognise the anti-Assad side of the conflict, as “legitimate representatives” of the country [1]. This means hundreds of thousands of citizens who support the Assad Government will now be ignored and possibly treated as enemies. Hague fails to address evidence that members of the opposition include Al Qaeda style terrorists, and that these “rebels” are being covertly armed and aided by the West and regional allies.

Since the beginning of the violence, Western media have been reluctant to report any deaths at the hands of these rebels, preferring to categorize them as brave activists looking for freedom from the Assad regime. Anyone loyal to Assad is cynically labelled part of the “regime” and those who pick up weapons are “Assad’s forces”.

In fact the West are going directly to the opposition for death statistics and information, which is only going to produce a biased conclusions. Wikpedia for example states:

The number of fatalities in the conflict, according to sources in the Syrian opposition, was 8,976, updated to 22 February 2012. The number includes 887 military defectors, and does not include members of the government security forces [2].

This has two major problems. Firstly the opposition are obviously going to have a pro-opposition bias. Secondly it seems to brush aside the deaths of civilians on both sides of the civil war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (one of the few groups that do count pro-Assad deaths), is a complete shambles and cannot be trusted. Apart from professing their opposition to Assad, suggesting immediate bias, they’re also based in Britain and meet with the government [3], who has demanded regime change. This is a conflict of interest. On top of that, it’s not even clear who operates the organization to begin with.

Initially the media claimed it was run out of a two-bedroom terraced home in Coventry by one man alone, who would otherwise run a clothes shop. This gentleman’s name was said to be Rami Abdulrahman (or Rami Abdul Rahman, or Rami Abdelrahman)[4]. The website Syriahr.org now claims that he is in fact called Osama Ali Suleiman and he merely used the name Rami Abdulrahman, a pen-name that the website claims to have been initially used by all “SOHR members” [5]. Syriahr.org claims that Abdulrahman was able to wrest control of the SOHR website Syriahr.net in August 2011 by changing all the passwords and that he proceeded to make himself the chairman of the SOHR, upon which an organisation claiming to be the ‘real’ SOHR created the rival website Syriahr.org [6]. This new website Syriahr.org then proceeded to launch a smear campaign against Abdulrahman, claiming he only had a “very modest level of education”, condemning his “lack of professionalism” and even alleging that he is a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [7].

Yet the media still go to these people as a reliable source for statistics and intel!

Here’s whats-his-name standing proudly outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in November, after meeting Mr. Hague:

In reading between the headlines it’s clear that there is a substantial number of regular citizens who support Assad and are not being fairly represented in life or death. Those who have picked up arms to defend their country and government are invariably labelled by the media as “militiamen” or “Assad’s regime forces.” When compared to terms like “opposition,” “activists,” or the manipulative Free Syrian Army it’s clear objectivity is not the name of the game.

Is the point where they pick up a gun, the point where their opinion and death no longer counts?

Nir Rosen a reporter for Al-Jazeera, who spent time with the opposition fighters states [8]:

“Every day the opposition gives a death toll, usually without any explanation of the cause of the deaths. Many of those reported killed are in fact dead opposition fighters, but the cause of their death is hidden and they are described in reports as innocent civilians killed by security forces, as if they were all merely protesting or sitting in their homes.”

This misinformation has a deep impact on the psyche of the Western public, who are essentially told Assad is using an army against peaceful activists and random civilians.

Rosen makes it clear that deaths are on both sides:
“Every day, members of the Syrian army, security agencies and the vague paramilitary and militia phenomenon known as shabiha [“thugs”] are also killed by anti-regime fighters.”

How often do we hear about these deaths on the hourly news cycles? And why have we so strongly picked a side in a complex civil war?

In today’s briefing Hague vowed to “…intensify our links with the opposition.”

“We, in common with other nations, will now treat them and recognise them as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”

This implies that the majority of the Syrian people are with the opposition. But with biased death-tolls and a lack of anything tangible, it’s more likely Hague’s wishful thinking, rather than a fact.

While this meeting of Western leaders was taking place, about 200 pro-Assad demonstrators approached the hotel to make their voices heard. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided not to turn up on time because of the commotion [9].

Does that sound like unanimous support for the opposition?

In October 2011, The Telegraph reported on a rally of thousands of pro-Assad civilians, although they chose to use the sly wording of “Syrian state television has shown pictures of thousands of pro-government demonstrators…” , perhaps to imply some trickery was going on.

In November Euro News were a little less cynical when reporting on more mass, pro-Government rallies:

Mirroring these 2011 protests, last month hundreds of thousands of pro-government citizens took to the streets to reject calls from the Arab League and UN for Assad to step down before the planned elections [10].

One protester, Malek Ali said [11]: “We are here to denounce the Arab League decision that came in compliance with the Western schemes against our country.”

What Western schemes might that be?

As documented many times on this site, prior to 9/11 an Israeli linked clique within Right-Wing US politics, known as the Neo-Conservatives, wrote of an ideology known as Full Spectrum Dominance. The idea was to promote US hegemony over the Middle-East [12]. As outlined by General Wesley Clarke, the Bush Administration which contained Neocons Dick Cheney (Vice President) and Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense), had decided that countries such as Iraq, Iran and Syria were to be invaded, long before there was any evidence to warrant such aggression. Evidence eventually presented against Iraq by the Anglo-American establishment, turned out to be lies, and we see the same lies being perpetuated against Iran today, over their nuclear program.

General Wesley Clark

Although Obama plays the role of a Democrat, his actions speak louder than words. At no point has he changed the path set by the Neocons. Not only did he continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but along with other Western allies he oversaw the campaign against Libya, yet another country on the empire’s list. A nation that is now struggling with Islamic extremists who are filling the void left behind by the bombing campaign and murder of Gaddafi.

In this context it makes sense why the West are happy to use dodgy death stats and have pledged their sole support for the Syrian opposition, despite what seems to be hundreds of thousands of Syrian citizens vocally backing Assad. It’s an agenda and not one of peace.

There’s no doubt that there was and still is a peaceful protest movement within Syria that wants reform. The fact that there is real opposition, makes a Coup d’état by those behind the Full Spectrum Dominance agenda less conspicuous, and helps draw wider support from the Western public, who have a very superficial view of the conflict. Now the conflict is in full swing both sides are gunning it out, promoting reactionary responses that we simply must go in and help. The problem is, Western interventions usually turn in to a cloaked form of imperialism, where the once sovereign state, ends up a satellite of the West and beholden to Western corporations.

Although there is anecdotal evidence of a tough state crackdown early on, which has become the crux of the argument against Assad, what the Western media initially ignored were Assad’s claims in his interview with Barbara Walters, of “terrorists” and “extremists” fomenting the violence.

“Not everybody in the street was fighting for freedom,” says Assad [13]. “You have different components, you have extremists, religious extremists…like-minded people of Al Qaeda…from the very first few weeks we had those terrorists they are getting more and more aggressive, they have been killing. We have 1,000– over 1,100 soldiers and policeman killed, who killed them? peaceful demonstrators? This is not logical.”

While the word of Assad alone should be considered biased, this idea that there are extremists within the opposition stirring up violence is a continual theme that is now acknowledged by leading Western officials, which should add weight to Assad’s claims.

On February 16th, the Washington Post reported:
Members of al-Qaeda have infiltrated Syrian opposition groups, and likely executed recent bombings in the nation’s capital and largest city, the United States’ top intelligence official said Thursday…comments came just days after al-Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahiri released a video message urging fighters in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to mobilize against Assad.

If Al-Qaeda are present within the opposition, isn’t it careless to support the opposition? When did we start trusting Al Qaeda? Do we replace Assad with a fundamentalist Muslim regime like is now torturing citizens in Libya [14], or attacking Iraq?

“…The remarks by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper are the most definitive to date from a senior Obama administration official on al-Qaeda’s efforts to insert itself into the Syrian uprising.”

Rather than inserting themselves, what if they’ve been there since the beginning like Assad stated? Surely a proper investigation should take place before we make the grave mistake of backing an armed extremist regime over peaceful opposition and pro-Assad citizens?

But then again perhaps this was the Western imperialist’ plan all long.

According to former CIA officer Phil Giraldi [15], the Western leaders have been seeking a coup the whole time, right in-line with the Full Spectrum Dominance agenda. It’s the West that are partly responsible for the bloody civil war playing out right now!

NATO is already clandestinely engaged in the Syrian conflict, with Turkey taking the lead as U.S. proxy. Ankara’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davitoglu, has openly admitted that his country is prepared to invade as soon as there is agreement among the Western allies to do so. The intervention would be based on humanitarian principles, to defend the civilian population based on the “responsibility to protect” doctrine that was invoked to justify Libya….Unmarked NATO warplanes are arriving at Turkish military bases close to Iskenderum on the Syrian border, delivering weapons from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals as well as volunteers from the Libyan Transitional National Council who are experienced in pitting local volunteers against trained soldiers, a skill they acquired confronting Gaddafi’s army. Iskenderum is also the seat of the Free Syrian Army, the armed wing of the Syrian National Council. French and British special forces trainers are on the ground, assisting the Syrian rebels while the CIA and U.S. Spec Ops are providing communications equipment and intelligence to assist the rebel cause, enabling the fighters to avoid concentrations of Syrian soldiers.

…The frequently cited United Nations report that more than 3,500 civilians have been killed by Assad’s soldiers is based largely on rebel sources and is uncorroborated…Syrian government claims that it is being assaulted by rebels who are armed, trained, and financed by foreign governments are more true than false.

His intelligence is further backed up by DEBKA File, an Israel based independent intel outlet [16]. They claim MI6 and British forces “manage rebel communications lines and relay their requests for arms, ammo, fighters and logistical aid to outside suppliers, mostly in Turkey.”

Israel of course are not off the hook, with reports of Israeli made arms reaching the opposition [17].

What appears to be taking place is a hijacking of a legitimate protest movement by Western imperialists, who are covertly fomenting a civil war by arming and directing opposition rebels; some of whom are Al Qaeda terrorists. As this escalates the international community are seeking some kind of intervention, or at least a stepping down of Assad, so the goal of regime change can be reached.