Syrian information controversy: who to trust?

Published time: December 29, 2011 21:07
Edited time: December 30, 2011 01:07
AFP Photo / HO-Sana
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The presence of Arab League observers in Syria has revealed an information controversy in the country. With activists claiming new casualties every day and the observers reporting “nothing frightening,” the question arises: who should we trust?

After the report from Homs, the epicenter of nine months of violent clashes between government forces and the opposition, where Arab League observers did not find anything shocking, it has been reported that the observers have split into groups and are now visiting three more hotspots. Meanwhile, opposition have activists reported some more 30 civilian deaths on Thursday.

Afshin Rattansi, a journalist who has worked in the region, says that Syria should definitely allow journalists in to cover the events because the Western media’s view is that we should believe the opposition groups.

Thousands of Syrian soldiers are dying and they haven’t died because of peaceful protests,” he pointed out.

Speaking of the credibility of the Arab League reports, Rattansi said that although “we had great hopes for the Arab League,” the delegation of this body has “its own politics.”

Rattansi believes that the key reason the conflict is unfolding in Syria, and not in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia where there are plenty of human rights violations, is because the country has been a strong supporter of liberation movements in the Middle East.

Syria has stood up for the human rights of Arab peoples in the region,” he stated.

Comments (9)

European 31.12.2011 03:41

Send Hans Blix to Syria, the only one who spoke the truth about Iraq WMD.

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Stephan Ossenkopp 30.12.2011 20:57

British Intelligence is Writing Script for Military Intervention into Syria

December 30, 2011
http://larou chepac.com/node/2099 3

A posting on The Cable, a blog of Foreign Policy magazine, Dec. 28, headlined the creation of a secret committee by the Obama Administration, which is preparing "options" for aiding the Syrian opposition. The process, led by NSC Senior Director Steve Simon, involves only a few select officials from State, Defense, Treasury, and other relevant agencies. It is unusually small, presumably to prevent media leaks, and bypasses the normal channels of Interagency Policy Committee, Deputies' Committee, and Principals' Committee meetings. A key participant is Fred Hof of State, who called the Syrian government a "dead man walking" earlier this month. After reviewing the fact that intervention in Syria is likely to be much more "complicated" than that in Libya, the post suddenly shifts to the options paper produced by the Syrian National Council, the London-based "opposition" which has recently called for international military intervention. Lo and behold, that policy paper, entitled "Safe Area for Syria," ends up as a virtually word-for-word reprint of the call for military intervention issued earlier this month by London's Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a Round Table descendant committed to the Empire program of perpetual war and the end of the nation state. The Henry Jackson Society piece was more explicit, titled "Intervention in Syria?
Full article see link above

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PR1oh1 30.12.2011 15:29

"TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that it is delusional to think that the United States is stage managing the popular uprisings occurring in the Arab world."

There you have it. The answer that settles this question for all time. End of Story.

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