Observer wants us all to forget 9/11 and embrace al Qaida as the friendly face of mass murder
The Graun captions this “A woman and her children run for cover from Assad air strikes on Damascus” – but is that what it is? The days when we could take their word for anything like that are long gone.
The Graun’s recent (anonymously authored) “Observer view on…” reads like sullen teenage grafitti. Rddled with ignorance and misinformation, it would more fittingly be scribbled in the back of an exercise book, accompanied by an unflattering cartoon of a maths teacher. The introduction:
The Kerry-Lavrov pact is as shot full of holes as an Aleppo block of flats
sets the tone for the rest. Crude brutalism, psychopathic indifference to truth and human suffering. Nothing new here. Except for this gem, which, we believe, must qualify for the Orwell Revisionism Award.
The position of the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, also excluded, is more nuanced. If left alone, they could conceivably join Assad’s more moderate opponents in upholding a truce,
Yes, you read that right. “the al-Qaida-linked al Nusra Front”, or “al Qaida in Syria” as they were previously known, are now people we can work with apparently. The gentlefolk at Graun HQ are under orders to repackage the allege perps of 9/11 as the friendly face of mass murder.
The frightening thing about editorials such as this is the insight into the collective mind of those currently steering western foreign policy. Not just profoundly ignorant and profoundly arrogant, but frankly unhinged. They really do seem to believe they create reality by simply saying it is so. And that is genuine, Strangelovian, nuclear-armed insanity.
The comments section says it all. And reminds us why these same lunatics want to close down comments sections. Like the serial killer who tapes up the mouths of his victims, they need to shut off the reminders of their own crimes and delusions.
One comment in particular cites a really rather good analysis of “this sort of journalism”, from the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog. It’s worth repeating here:
1- Corporate leadership is integrated into the world-wide informal group think network of governments, media. academia, think-tanks and mega-capitalists that I have shorthanded as the Borg. Such corporate stakeholders are easily pushed in editorial directions desired by governments and special interest groups. The tools are always the same; money for sponsorship of programs and access to supposedly key people.
2- Media people at the operational level (especially in TV) are generally not well educated. They are typically products of schooling and experience in the communications arts (including journalism). Such people are often woefully ignorant of the Humanities (history, languages, area studies, etc.) and lack any context with which to understand events on the world scene. They are easy prey for the editorial policy given them by the corporate leaders.
There are occasional moments of comedy created by the dissonance brought to the fore by confrontations with reality. Yesterday, CNN’s Jake Tapper was distracted from the primary election circus long enough to show us all film done recently by a CNN reporter in government occupied Aleppo neighborhoods. Life looked quite normal. There was a lot of food in the markets. Children played in the streets. Women walked around without their faces covered. Taxis drove up and down picking up and discharging fares. Several older men were interviewed and they attributed their good conditions to the hard fighting and victories of the Syrian Army. Tapper did not know what to say and changed the subject.
The Graun journos could view the endless flood of dismayed and angry comments their increasingly strident propaganda articles incite as some sort of wake up call and reminder to start doing their jobs. But sadly, their groupthink makes it impossible. They simply call the commenters “putinbots” and go back to sleep.
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Rather than 9/11 where the official account is as warped as some of the conspiracy theories, the better known fact of al-Nusra (with more than ample Turkish assistance) gassed the 1,400 Syrians that died at Ghouta in August 2013 would have been the better pitch:
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2015/11/29/whereas-the-enemy-of-your-friend-is-your-favorite-fk/
^ Obscene ‘info-satire’ (with plenty of damning links)
“Who would ever have thought that they’d live long enough to see the Guardian calling for Jabhat al-Nusrah ( al-Qaeda in Syria) to be given sophisticated weaponry which would be inevitably turned against Western aircraft and other interests.”
So weird to see a nominally left website attracting comments referring protectively to “Western interests”. It simply confirms that the Christopher Hitchens mindset of 10 years ago has been dusted off and deployed on behalf of the Syrian Baathist “war on terror”. The obsession with al-Qaeda is identical to what we heard from George W. Bush when he invaded and occupied Iraq. One can only conclude that when it is Russian bombers rather than American bombers killing thousands of civilians, simple-minded “anti-imperialists” write it off as collateral damage. In fact the rhetoric being used against “jihadis” on this website sounds like IDF press releases with Aleppo standing in for Gaza.
You misunderstand the intent and meaning of the post.
The point is to highlight the sharp U turn in the press attitude – where as before al-Qaida were greatest evil known to man, they can now be worked with. That is hypocrisy that cannot go un-commented upon.
Russian bombers have not killed “thousands of civilians”, that is a complete fabrication. The highest death toll attributed to Russia is around 1500 people, and number is from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – a one man operation working out of the UK, known for his strident anti-regime bias and total unreliability of his figures.
What a telling statement. “Only” 1500 killed since Russia began bombing on Sept. 30 2015, just about four and a half months ago. If the USA suffered the same amount of wartime deaths on a proportional basis, this would be 24,000 dead. Of course since these are takfiri terrorists bent on imposing Sharia law on the West and banning Madonna videos, this is the unfortunate but necessary consequence of defending Western values.
Just so that the trolls know I didn’t make it up:
Al Qaeda from Wiki:
It has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, the United States, Russia, India, and various other countries (see below). Al-Qaeda has carried out many attacks on targets it considers kafir.[33]
Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating sectarian violence among Muslims.[41] Al-Qaeda leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and have attacked their mosques and gatherings.[42] Examples of sectarian attacks include the Yazidi community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the Ashoura massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings.[43]
These would be the same “moderate terrorists” we (the brain deficient and morally defunct western “civilised” countries and the Atlanticist partnership) “could work with”.
Indeed. At what level? From under a rock upwards or from the bottom of a manure pile upwardly mobile?
louis: you just don’t get it – do you? The Guardian is not even nominally left-wing in nature. It was set up as – and continues as – a purely centrist capitalist Liberal newspaper, with huge sympathy for the zionist cause – just like the neo-traitor AIPAC lobby in the USA. Do they think neo-traitor AIPAC are “nominally” left-wing too?
You need to recall that Al Qaeda barely existed prior to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
They were – at the time – operating from inside Afghanistan, where the US had provided weapons, money and training.
Do you remember that – how the US gave support to terrorists in order to defeat the Soviet Union forces?
All that money, weaponry and training ended up being turned against the USA. Just how stupid were the Yanks?
It was your “darling” Bush who provided the terrorists with the best recruitment campaign they ever knew.
It is tragic if Russian bombers inflict collateral damage on civilians as a result of having to support legitimate Syrian government actions in freeing their country and land from US-supported terrorist forces. The only people to blame at all in any of this are the US, various Gulf State petty kings and emirs, as well as the lunatic Erdogan and wily zionists.
If you lot will stop supporting terrorism, I am sure the conflict in Syria will rapidly come to a peaceful conclusion.
That is what you want – isn’t it? Isn’t it? Isn’t it?
Louis understands it perfectly. He has been marching shoulder to shoulder with Al Qaeda ever since the beginning of the CIA planned operation against Syria. He was equally committed to the No Fly Zone in Libya and- on the basis that he was not “a simple minded anti-imperialist” but a sophisticate who can discern no difference between imperialists and their victims- he was happy to see the destruction of Ghadaffi.
To Louis the millions killed in this rolling war to maintain US hegemony are co-lateral damage, the unfortunate victims of wars in which neither side has the good taste to subscribe to the parody of neo-Marxist scholasticism which Louis, who lives in New York far away from ‘regime changes’ and colour revolutions and scratches together a living on the margins of Academia, studies and promotes.
At least Hitchens had the honesty to desert openly, Proyect defends the Empire by claiming, in the best tradition of the CIA Cold Warriors, that it is only one among several Empires in a world in which rival imperialisms compete. The Damascus based Assad Empire being the current adversary, just as yesterday the Empire of Libya and Emperor Saddam’s Iraqi Empire were at issue.
This is the way the Cliffite world ends not with a revolution but a whimper: “Neither Washington nor Damascus but a cushy billet in old Academe.”
“He was equally committed to the No Fly Zone in Libya.”
Actually I was not. You have me confused with Gilbert Achcar whose position was actually not quite that either. I am absolutely opposed to any kind of American intervention anywhere and at any time. Of course, you people get this business confused because I am not opposed to rebels getting weapons wherever they can. I am sure that nothing would please you more than if Assad was capable of exterminating defenseless people who opposed him, just like Pinochet did in Chile or Suharto did in Indonesia. But then again, you can’t see Assad in the same fashion because you have this confused idea that Baathism means socialism or some such thing. In fact, the regime had much more in common with Pinochet’s Chile or Suharto’s Indonesia than you can begin to imagine.
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer262/syrian-regimes-business-backbone
After Bashar al-Asad succeeded his father in 2000, the architects of Syria’s economic policy sought to reverse the downturn by liberalizing the economy further, for instance by reducing state subsidies. Private banks were permitted for the first time in nearly 40 years and a stock market was on the drawing board. After 2005, the state-business bonds were strengthened by the announcement of the Social Market Economy, a mixture of state and market approaches that ultimately privileged the market, but a market without robust institutions or accountability. Again, the regime had consolidated its alliance with big business at the expense of smaller businesses as well as the Syrian majority who depended on the state for services, subsidies and welfare. It had perpetuated cronyism, but dressed it in new garb. Families associated with the regime in one way or another came to dominate the private sector, in addition to exercising considerable control over public economic assets. These clans include the Asads and Makhloufs, but also the Shalish, al-Hassan, Najib, Hamsho, Hambouba, Shawkat and al-As‘ad families, to name a few. The reconstituted business community, which now included regime officials, close supporters and a thick sliver of the traditional bourgeoisie, effected a deeper (and, for the regime, more dangerous) polarization of Syrian society along lines of income and region.
Sounds just like the corporatism of the US and UK only on a much, much smaller scale and without the corporatism (more like a mix of tentative capitalism. How monstrous.
The Guardian made a mistake, they said they would (as good Stasi officers tend to do when the public gets vocal) close the comment section on this article:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/15/syria-ceasfire-fails-isis-russia-iran-saudi-arabia-vengeful-assad#comment-68758833
…but i guess one of the robotniks forgot to press the red button. Now they are up in arms removing and blocking even the most innocent comments. Calling The Guardian a propaganda-outlet is a reason for removal. At least they follow their Master
s principles: Democracy and Freedom of speech for everyone, ifeveryonemeansus`.I’m very glad to have eventually found this site – way too late.
The Guardian view dissected above really does illustrate that the Guardian is now the most unquestioning porte-parole of the trans-Atlantic neoliberal establishment among the British broadsheets. The degree of the publication’s kowtowing to Nato’s ad-hoc policies and initiatives in Ukraine and Syria has increased significantly since Rusbridger’s departure. I suspect the prime enemy of sovereign European states, George Soros, has upped his pay rolling of these sycophantic presstitutes.
Love todays article by Patrick Wintour the Guardian’s Diplomatic Editor.
Wintour cites Phillip Hammond the UK foreign secretary’s speech to security conference calling on Islamic leaders to lead fight against extremism in their countries.
“The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has accused a majority of Muslim nations of either ignoring the threat of Islamic extremism altogether or turning a blind eye to what is going on in their mosques, schools or prisons.”
Pretty rich from the representative of a country that has spent years training, funding,arming and providing intelligence to ISIS and Al Qaeda/Al Nusra and other extremists, to destabilise and then bring down the Libyan and now Syrian Governments. Has no one told Hammond that the UK had SO special operations agents in Syria in 2010 helping train terrorists. Does he not know that along with NATO his Government provided air cover and bombed Libyan tanks and airfields to assist terrorist groups destroy Libya and turn it into a country occupied by oil thieving terrorist groups.
Either Hammond is the most badly informedmember of cabinet or he is the UK’s most blatant bloody handed liar and war criminal since Jack Straw was a foreign secretary.A few days ago Hammond was complaining that Russia was killing the Islamic extremists workin for NATO and the Arab States.
Come on Wintour your supposed to do some research and ask a few hard questions not kiss the arse of war criminals.
Truelly Orwellian times we are living in. History repeats itself . Sykes Picot and Balfour circa 1916 when the western exceptionalist created these present countries out of thin air for their corporate greed are now coming back to haunt them be it by proxie or by true indiscriminate planning (divide and conquer) and now these corporate exceptionalist are touting to re draw the boundaries balkanize tthe whole region and viola here comes the greater Israel project right up to the euphrates. Dangerous times we r living. The banking Ponzi scheme is finished trillions of dollars and euros just being vaporised as we speak so the NWO cabalist have one option left thermal nuclear world war . History repeats itself one exception I think the world will be non inhabitable . Morally and intellectually bankrupt west is pushing to this end. Yesterdays news gets wrapped in todays fish.
There is additional complicating factor, which is that Erdogan clearly fancies his chances of becoming the next Caliph of a restored Ottoman Empire and is determined to tear-up Sykes-Picot and all other post-1914 agreements.
What this means in terms of his imperial ambitions for the areas now known as Iraq, Jordan and Syria is hard to say.
There is, of course, also the historical question of an unresolved Palestine.
It is at least arguable that there is a real and present danger that Erdogan will drag the US and NATO into a real war against Russia, Iran and Syria. Hezbollah in Lebanon will likely also become involved in a Third World War too.
Erdogan’s delusional, John .. he’ll never be able to resurrect the Ottoman Empire or the Caliphate of the 15th Century. Those who built those Empires were not delusional men; they were rational, level-headed men who set their course and put locals in charge in the conquered territories who ensured that tribute was paid and the populations educated in their various trades .. in other words, these territories were granted a certain degree of autonomy. Erdogan cannot even rule his own country, much less others .. all he can do is throw childish tantrums when events don’t go his way.
I agree with what you say but I still cannot help feeling that a delusional idiot like Erdogan could well drag NATO into direct conflict with Russia, Iran and Syria in the mistaken belief that doing so will bring about a restoration of the former Ottoman Empire. Don’t take my word for it – look at some of the speeches he and his PM Davutoglu have been making about tearing-up Sykes-Picot and the Balfour Declaration over the last two or so years.
Of course, what neither of them realise is that it is the sly zionists who are behind everything that is taking place and is ethnically cleansing the local Arab populations from the area covered by the 1919 Eretz (Greater) Yisrael pretensions.
Right on falcemartello. I noticed that Netan Yahoo made a statement that Israel was considering permanently annexing the Golan Heights. note that it is an area with promosing oil fields and one company, Genie Energy Corporation, wanting to get its hands on the area.It is owned by such lovely people as Rupert Murdoch, Dick Chaney and Lord Jacob Rothschild.
https://theinterpretor.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/murdoch-cheney-and-golan-oil-a-genie-out-of-the-bottle/
Should the Guardian not now be nostalgically renamed the Guderian – after one of Hitler’s generals?
It is after all to the fore in a racist anti-Russian information blitzkrieg.
The memory hole isn’t confined to Syria. It seems to include pretty much all of the UK’s history. Today there is an article that both ignores the horrendous crimes committed by the Brits in India and argues that we shouldn’t bother trying to address historic grievances because it might be difficult. Even Shaun Walker would struggle to write a worse article.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/16/koh-i-noor-diamond-britain-illegally-india-pakistan-afghanistan-history-tower
It all seems part of the same trend where the media ignores history so the behaviour of the rich and powerful doesn’t seem so monstrous.
C. P. Scott – a major Editor of the original Manchester Guardian – was – like David Lloyd George and that other one-time Liberal Government minister Winston Churchill – an unashamed zionist sympathiser.
This is why The Guardian even today remains a zionist stooge front outfit.
They have NEVER EVER been impartial or independent on the question of backing zionism.
Whenever they were told to jump by the zionists, their only question was “How high”?
The Syrian Army has intercepted arms being supplied to the terrorists by the zionist military across the occupied Golan.
This is why The Guardian narrative is so supportive of terrorists and terrorism in Syria and more globally.
It is hard to caricature the Guardian’s stinking hypocrisy. At the start of the Syrian horror story their cheer-leading for rebel onslaught was justified by the “humanitarian record” of Assad’s “brutal dictatorship”. Now the crocodile tears are for the “civilian suffering” cause by the war they helped create in the first place.
Disgusting.
It is difficult to see any reason for our determination to destroy secular Arab regimes and replace them with Islamic extremist ones other than this is what Israel wants of us.
Strange, is it not, that our ‘Islamic extremist’ proxies attack everybody, even Hamas….but never Israel.
Enough of these wars for the Jews.
Reblogged this on The Stoker's Blog and commented:
UK, where brains come to die and thieves, murderers, war criminals and psychos prosper amongst the wankstators.
UKakos news for BSE UKabos. The same country that worked and died for Stalin and his mass murder army from 41-45, The same psycho army that planned to Katynwoodead UKakos in Epping Forest in 1941. Stockholm syndrome has nothing on UKakos spongiform encephalISIS. Wherever mass murderers are wanted UKabos will finance them. CHEKA=AlCIADuh=fill in latest marketing wheeze MLA. UKakos UKabos will disinterestedly cheer the murdering scum wherever they are killing innocents that London City doesn’t like. UKabos will believe anything, even that they are their own enemy. Mooooo. Big Heifer loves you.
Reblogged this on wgrovedotnet and commented:
Many thanks for the article and all the comments.
Sic Semper Tyrannis, Col. Lang’s blog, is excellent. I heartily recommend it to all Off-Graun readers: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/
There was an even worse editorial on Syria in last Wednesday’s Guardian: The Guardian view on the battle for Aleppo: a rebuke to America and the world
This quote from thae article was particularly eye-opening –
Who would ever have thought that they’d live long enough to see the Guardian calling for Jabhat al-Nusrah ( al-Qaeda in Syria) to be given sophisticated weaponry which would be inevitably turned against Western aircraft and other interests. It’s as if nothing was learned from the experience of arming the mujahideen in Afghanistan with advanced weaponry.
Notice how the Guardian tries to rebrand al-Nusrah as “moderates” by not even referring to them by name – just simply as “rebels”. Also, by comparing Aleppo to Sarajevo there is no doubt in my mind that the Guardian is softening its readers for Western invasion under R2P.
When the critical comments BTL started the editorial was quicly removed from the front page and buried.
Reblogged this on Siem Reap Mirror.