Truth and Lies of the Syrian Conflict: Conversations with Eva Bartlett, Tom Duggan and Patrick Henningsen. Global Research News Hour episode 212

Recently, I spoke with Michael Welch of Global Research News Hour, for his episode, “Truth and Lies of the Syrian Conflict”.

Michael Welch’s introduction includes:

“The Syrian crisis is once again making headlines. In particular, humanitarian agencies like UNICEF, AVAAZ, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are blaming Syrian and Russian airstrikes for civilian deaths in East Ghoutta while completely ignoring the carnage meted out by rebel factions in the area.

While such respected agencies, as well as supposedly independent media outlets like Democracy Now may fall short of actually endorsing war, the distorted coverage and one-sided humanitarian narratives they relay play into the hands of the military interventionists.

This week’s installment of the Global Research News Hour returns its gaze to Syria and attempts to provide a fuller picture of what’s happening on the ground and why.

First up is Eva Bartlett. She has visited Syria frequently over the last several years, interviewing numerous people in all parts of Syria. She can attest to the important stories that are being deliberately weeded out of the corporate press. In her conversation with the Global Research News Hour (transcribed below) she details missing reporting about terrorist activities in the country. She also corrects the record on the meme of her being on Russia’s payroll, while disclosing areas where the objectivity of UN and other humanitarian agencies are compromised.

We next hear from Damascus-based journalist Tom Duggan. He speaks about the shelling of schools, hospitals and other non-military targets by militants in East Ghouta and the suffering that has resulted. He also elaborates on the way Western sanctions against Syria have contributed to the humanitarian disaster in the city.

Finally, Patrick Henningsen returns to the program. The geopolitical analyst has been to Syria in the last year. He addresses the actual reasons for U.S. interest in the overthrow and undermining of President Assad. He also gets into Washington’s ‘Plan B’ for Syria and interprets Turkish operations in Afrin, Israeli involvement near Damascus, and Kurdish activity within the north of Syria within that context.”

“Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine.

She’s a recipient of the international journalism reward for international reporting from the Mexican Press Club in 2017. Bartlett maintains that the major press have based their assertions about the Syrian conflict on unreliable and partisan sources.”

RELATED LINKS:

*Bio & Mexican Press Club Award

*On Bilal Abdul Kareem & Bana al-Abed:

• Absurdities of Syrian war propaganda
• CNN Normalizes Suicide Bombers and Embeds Reporters with ISIS and Al Qaeda (by Vanessa Beeley)
• Exploitation of Bana al-Abed: Parents use child to whitewash terrorists in Aleppo

*On doctors in Aleppo: Western corporate media ‘disappears’ over 1.5 million Syrians and 4,000 doctors

*On Madaya and east Aleppo:

• Order Returns To Western Cities, Civilians Recount Horrors Of Rebel Rule (on/from Madaya, al-Waer)
• Madaya Bomb Factory (video)
• Men from Madaya speak on terrorists hoarding food, starving civilians (video)
• Madaya prison and torture room (video)
• Terrorists-Wounded Buqayn employee, near Madaya (video)
• Inside Besieged Madaya: ‘Militants sold us 1 kg of rice for $250’ (Murad Gazdiev report)
• Waer: Traces of Terrorists (emblems and signs of occupation) (video)
• What Life Is Like Under ‘Moderate’ Rebel Rule (from/on eastern areas of Aleppo, including the Quds hospital which MSF claimed had been “destroyed”)
• Aleppo civilians find food stockpile at abandoned rebel depot (Reuters)
• Man from Bab al-Hadid, Aleppo, speaking on Syrian army bringing safety, and on all the factions are terrorists (video)
• Aleppo shop owner speaking (June 2017) about renewed safety, and losing many friends to terrorists’ bombings (video)
• Syrian MP Fares Shehabi confronting war propagandist from Channel 4, who refuses to “get into history” over his lies on Aleppo (video)

*UN War Propagandizing:

• UN Feigns Outrage Over Ghouta While Terrorist Rockets Rain Down on Damascus
• Scoundrels & gangsters at UN: Silencing the Syrian narrative
• Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Ja’afari on Sovereignty, Terrorism, and the Failure of the UN
• UN covers up war crimes in Syria, citing U.S. backed Al-Qaeda propagandists
• Not-Tweetworthy: UN Selectively Tweeting Syrian Villages, Ignores Foua, Kafarya, Nubl, Zahara Besieged by US Sponsored Terrorists

*On terrorists attacks on humanitarian corridor (Castello road) while I was there in November 2016

*On Omran Daqneesh:

• Meeting Omran and his father in June 2017:
• The father of Omran Daqneesh, on his 11 year old, Mohammad Ali (video)
• Omran Daqneesh father supports Syrian army (video)
• Father of Omran Daqneesh speaks to me about son’s mild injuries (video)
• The ‘other’ Omran: Aleppo civilians expose MSM lies & child exploitation (by Vanessa Beeley)

*On terrorism that is whitewashed in corporate media:

• Aleppo: How US & Saudi-Backed Rebels Target ‘Every Syrian’
• The Terrorism We Support in Syria: A First-hand Account of the Use of Mortars against Civilians
• University Hospital, Damascus: Meeting Victims of Western-backed Mortar and Rocket Terrorism
• Where is the West’s compassion & condemnation following terror attacks in Middle East?
• Media Black-Out on Arab Journalists and Civilians Beheaded in Syria by Western-Backed Mercenaries

*Rebuttals to MSM claims and smears:

• Those Who Transmit Syrian Voices Are Russian Propagandists? Monitors of ‘Fake News’ Negate Syrian Suffering
• A Personal Reply to the Fact-Challenged Smears of Terrorist-Whitewashing Channel 4, Snopes and La Presse
• How the Mainstream Media Whitewashed Al-Qaeda and the White Helmets in Syria
• Imperialism on Trial: writers and activists convene in Derry, Ireland

*On War Propagandizing Human Rights groups:

• Human Rights front groups (“Humanitarian Interventionists”) warring on Syria
• Conversation With Professor of International Law, Dr. Francis Boyle (video)
• Amnesty International: Imperialist Tool (by Prof. Francis Boyle)
• Amnesty International is US State Department Propaganda (by Tony Cartalucci)
• Amnesty’s Shilling for US Wars (by Ann Wright and Coleen Rowley)
• Seven Steps of Highly Effective Manipulators White Helmets, Avaaz, Nicholas Kristof and Syria No Fly Zone  (by Cory Morningstar)
• HRW’s Kenneth Roth Continues Unfounded Accusations With Another False Picture (by Moon of Alabama)
• “Doctors” Behind Syrian Chemical Weapons Claims are Aiding Terrorists (by Tony Cartalucci): “Doctors Without Borders is fully funded by the very same corporate financier interests behind Wall Street and London’s collective foreign policy, including regime change in Syria and neighboring Iran….”
• “The Syria Campaign”:  Seven Steps of Highly Effective Manipulators White Helmets, Avaaz, Nicholas Kristof and Syria No Fly Zone (by Rick Sterling)

*Democracy Now & Counter Punch Shills For War:

• “Democracy Now” and the “Progressive” Alternative Media: Valued Cheerleaders For Imperialism and War (by Finian Cunningham)
•  The Revolutionary Distemper in Syria That Wasn’t (by Stephen Gowans)
• Check links in this interview

*On Foua and Kafraya, besieged by terrorists, starving and bombarded:

• The Children of Kafarya and Foua are Crying in the Dark
• Untold Suffering in Foua and Kafarya: Two Northwestern Syrian Villages Under Siege and Assault by NATO’s Terrorists
• Untold Suffering in Foua and Kafarya, Part Two