Saturday, May 20, 2017


   














Syrian Prison Executions – Anatomy of a Smear Campaign 
Ted Faison, May 20, 2017

“…The public has become accustomed to media and government stories peddled without evidence, playing on shear emotion…the headlines stick in our minds. It’s not what’s true, it’s what people believe, and headlines are great indoctrination tools. Who cares about proof anymore?...

Syria is in the throes of a CIA-backed insurgency. Islamist extremists of every extraction, not to mention ISIS, with the common goal of replacing al-Assad with an extreme form of Sunni Islam. Everyone armed with American weapons supplied directly by the US or indirectly through Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and others…

Syria has since been the target of a massive, relentless disinformation campaign…the US government needed total, uncompromising public support. What better way to get that support than to depict your enemy as a sadistic, barbaric dictator?...

The smear campaign against Syria in general – and Bashar al-Assad personally – has been ongoing for years. We’ve seen nothing but horror stories come out of Syria. Allegations of chemical weapons, barrel bombing of civilians, terrible crimes against humanity. We’re seldom presented with evidence, yet the headlines stick in our minds. It’s not what’s true, it’s what people believe, and headlines are great indoctrination tools. Who cares about proof anymore?...

The smear machine is again in high gear, with reports of mass executions in a Syria prison accompanied by ghastly headlinesThe mass media stories on Syrian prison exterminations conjure up images of people tortured to death in dark, dingy rooms.

They turn our stomachs.
They cry out for justice.
If only they were true.

If my mother taught me anything, it was "don’t believe everything you read"…so let’s look at the stories more carefully to see if they merit our belief... In a court of law, one would immediately demand proof. Where is the evidence?... 

As it turns out, they’re all based on a single report published by Amnesty International. On the surface, the report is formatted to look like a scholarly paper, with footnotes, dates, methodologies, procedures. All very impressive to the layman…

But Amnesty’s purpose wasn’t to present facts but rather to sway opinion, and at the highest levels: The US Congress, the US courts, the US presidency, the United Nations, not to mention the western public in general

…And what to say about recent reports of a crematorium inside the Saydnaya prison grounds?... With a little digging, we discover that all the stories are tied (again) to a single source: a newly declassified satellite image of Saydnaya prison… No other proof. Not even a single witness, alleged or otherwise…

…The public has become accustomed to media and government stories peddled without evidence, playing on shear emotion. The pseudo-journalists of today are heavy on accusations and light on facts, especially when dealing with perceived foes of the United States.

We’re all still waiting for the evidence about Russia’s tampering with the US elections, Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Convention servers, Russia’s secret ties with Trump. Given what’s at stake, if evidence existed it would have been presented long ago, and the massive US smear machine would have had a field day.”

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Edmund "Ted" Faison is a software architect living in Southern California. With an electrical engineering degree from California State University, Fullerton, he has published several books on computer and software technology. He also…developed a keen interest in international affairs, with special emphasis on American foreign policy.

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Read the complete article: 

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A statement from the article with which I would disagree:
Syria is an enemy of the Saudis, who are America’s best friend. No foreign country has more control of the US government than Saudi Arabia.”  I believe that role is shared with, if not exceeded by, Israel.


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This may come as a great shock to many people, but multiple evidence shows Amnesty International is no longer the ethical champion of human rights that it may once have been.



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