Media Lens skewers Monbiot’s Syria nonsense
The always incisive people at Media Lens have just done an excellent job exposing the most recent media campaign for a NATO invasion of Syria as the dangerous, sub-intelligent nonsense it is.
George Monbiot
The particular focus of Media Lens’ recent piece – “An Impeachable Offence” is – deservedly – the prize nincompoop George Monbiot, who shall forever be remembered for declaiming in a cringeworthy tweet “Do those who still insist Syrian govt didn’t drop chemical weapons have any idea how much evidence they are denying?” – and then linking to a Medium article citing Eliot Higgins, aka “Brown Moses”, ex-admin for an underwear firm, as the source of incontrovertible proof!
Do those who still insist Syrian govt didn't drop chemical weapons have any idea how much evidence they are denying? https://t.co/wb6GawR8KI
— GeorgeMonbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) April 13, 2017
(Note to George: don’t skim read before going public). But in case Monbiot doesn’t yet realise the depths of foolishness he has plumbed, Medla Lens reminds him and us:
a blogger who, although he has been widely quoted as an expert in the American mainstream media, has changed his facts every time new technical information has challenged his conclusion that the Syrian government must have been responsible for the sarin attack [in Ghouta, August 2013]. In addition, the claims that Higgins makes that are correct are all derived from our findings, which have been transmitted to him in numerous exchanges’
There’s no excuse for anyone of Monbiot’s public stature giving credit to the entirely discredited Higgins, whose work has been repeatedly debunked. He’s – at best – an ungifted amateur with no training and little ability, promoted by the media and government intel agencies in need of a willing patsy to push stupid claims they don’t want to author directly. Even the full backing of the Establishment can’t conceal his ineptness, which continues to be manifest every time he releases another “analysis.” His bungling attempts to use the free photo analytic programme Foto Forensics to “prove” his claims of Russian fakery were heavily criticised and described as “how not to do image analysis” by the creator of the programme.
The tragi-comedy that is “Brown Moses”
Why Vault 7 Tools Used by Private Contractors etc…
Bellingcat: the Dead Cat Factory
Higgins himself doesn’t allow any such reality-based critiques to get him down. He lives happily in the media bubble created for him and believes his own nonsense. When Theodore Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology, and national-security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, challenged the claim that the Assad government had perpetrated the chemical attack on Ghouta in 2013, Higgins, unemployed office admin, apparently dismissed the criticisms as “amateurish”. Perhaps ultimately he can’t be blamed for such extremes of narcissistic delusion, but those – like Monbiot – who persist in quoting him and using his MS Paint-based “analyses” as an argument for a very dangerous war, have no such excuse.
Postol issued a very damning analysis of the recent White House claim regarding the alleged sarin attack in Idlib. As with the Ghouta incident it so closely resembles, Postol points up the numerous flaws and failures of the official position that rules Assad’s guilt beyond doubt.
But neither Monbiot nor any western journalist who happily source Higgins, appears aware of those criticisms, or the comparable sceptical analyses published by Philip Giraldi, Scott Ritter and Hans Blix. To quote Media Lens again:
‘Blix’ and ‘Syria’ = 0 hits
‘Ritter’ and ‘Syria’ = 0 hits
‘Jerry Smith’ and Syria = 1 hit
‘Giraldi’ and ‘Syria’ = 0 hits.
Is there any better evidence that our press is not free and what we see in our feeds and on our TVs is not “news” but absolute uniform and state-generated propaganda?
SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN
If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.
For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.
Monbiot. Oh that would be the one who flip flopped and said the nuclear industry would be the saviour of the people of the earth.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/05/tunnel-with-radioactive-waste-collapses-no-real-solution-in-sight.html#more
Wrong on this and wrong on Syria.
A look at the bigger picture of “Washington’s long war on Syria”
Stephen Gowans’ book launch of his new book named above.
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/stephen-gowans-launches-his-new-book-washingtons-long-war-on-syria/
Mr. Monbiot must have relied on the declassified evidence provided to humanity by the Trump administration “proving” Syrian forces gassed their own people.
Oops… Forgot… The Trump administration still hasn’t declassified its “without a doubt… proof”.
A twitter poll on Assad gassing his own people that backfired!
:large
So given a choice between a former women’s underwear salesman (Eliot Higgins) and a professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at MIT who has worked for the US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and as a scientific adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations (Theodore Postol), the mainstream Free Press considers the former underwear salesman a more credible and citable source.
Welcome to the Idiocracy!
In fairness Higgins didn’t sell underwear, he worked as an admin in a firm that sold underwear 🙂
So he couldn’t even sell underwear but was sort of like the backup boy who did the sums and made sure the consumers were being overcharged for substandard undergarments.
You mouth the usual silliness about the exploitative consumer economy where the helpless, witless consumer is cheated by mean owners.
Why do you waste my time so?
I’ve responded twice on my blog to Monbiot’s Idlib tweets – see <a href="http://steelcityscribblings.uk/wp/2017/04/28/french-intelligence-monbiots-silliness/" target="_blank". In his blog post, ‘Disavowal’ – which Jonathan Cook dissects at – Monbiot cites Linus Beach on forensics, a Guardian piece by Lebanon based journalist Kareem Shaheen for eye witness acounts damning of Damascus he says he collected shortly after he arrived at Idlib.
Anyone know about Beach and/or Shaheed? What’s their credibility?
Don’t know Beach. Kareem Shaheen is as biased as you can get. Another Guardian journo who like Monbiot & Co repeatedly stating Syrian government guilt on previous claims which even the UN hadn’t attributed.
If you remember just after the Omran story, it didn’t have the desired effect of overt intervention so they tried to keep the pressure up with the media claiming his older brother had died from his injuries. An older brother who no one had even mentioned previously. The claim rested solely on good ole ‘activists’ and who came to verify this claim? – Kareen Shaheen, saying in a Tweet that Omran’s doctor had confirmed this to him. A doctor who apparently had no name or face.
Just go to his Twitter feed and you’ll see all you want to know about this compulsive liar.
Thanks Sav
Kareem Shaheen is up to his neck in it and in bed with Ahrar al-Sham, IMO. He was the first Western journalist to visit Khan Shaykhun, entering Syria illegally (according to Vanessa Beeley) and traveling freely through rebel territory. If that is not enough to indict, his report is. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/06/the-dead-were-wherever-you-looked-inside-syrian-town-after-chemical-attack
I checked your blog writerroddis. With the above link to it, stuff is missing. I arrived at your blog, but got an Oops message. Jonathan Cook is indispensable.
Apologies Arrby – <a href="http://steelcityscribblings.uk/wp/2017/04/28/french-intelligence-monbiots-silliness/" target="_blank"
Agree on Cook.
Er … here’s the link
Thanks. I will have a look when I’m conscious. Just came off of 3 12 shifts and have to recuperate. I’m no longer a young fellow.
There are now many, many reliable sources debunking the narrative Monbiot espouses, eg http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/27/intel-vets-slam-trumps-chemical-weapon-fraud-in-syria/
Since we mentioned Elliot Higgins aka The Brown Noser, we might as well mention his buddy Dan Kaszeta the self-styled chemical weapons expert and find out what qualifications he has to pronounce judgement on incidents involving or not involving the use of CWs.
Dan Kaszeta’s LinkedIn profile:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dankaszeta
His biography at Strongpoint Security’s website where he is Managing Director:
http://strongpointsecurity.co.uk/about/staff-bio/
Anyone think he might have more than just an objective interest in “seeing” CWs where others advise more caution?
Kazseta ‘was heavily involved in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 Anthrax incidents.’
http://www.wikistrat.com/experts/daniel-j-kaszeta/
…and thinks that Ivins was guilty.
[note the ‘declared interest’ that is, in truth, no such thing]
…
http://www.cbrneworld.com/_uploads/download_magazines/When_you_believe.pdf
Kaszeta did a contracted piece to counter Assad’s comments on ‘kitchen sarin’ by citing the Japanese cult who killed commuters on the subway. His argument was that the cult were still raising money to create a multi-million dollar laboratory to produce it, therefore this was not something in the capability of the rebels to produce.
I pointed out to him that the cult had been able to create it, albeit crudely, so his argument was nonsense. He came back with claims that I was too aggressive or some other crap and refused to answer. Usual format of the sociopath. You see it all over Twitter…instead of answering they’ll claim harassment.
Kaszeta mixes apples and oranges when he conflates the experience of the Aum Shinrikyo cult with the task faced by the rebels , and he does it to convey the ( false ) notion that only state actors ( i.e. Assad ) could possibly obtain and weaponize sarin. The cult started with far more basic and easily obtained raw materials , then using a quite challenging ( for them ) multi-step chemical synthesis to produce their sarin precursor material. For the rebels , the assumption is that they’ve obtained the precursor via black markets in either remaining stockpiles from Libya or Syria CW programs , or from newly-manufactured precursor obtained from a manufacturer in Turkey , Saudi Arabia , or wherever. Once this essential precursor is obtained , it’s a simple matter of combining it with easily-obtained isopropyl alcohol and you have your sarin. There are safety considerations , of… Read more »
Or the other possbility is that there has never been sarin used anywhere. Only the by-product of sarin deployment used in a staged scene for when UN inspectors arrived.
The 2013 UN report came from an area then controlled by the rebels so they had full control of what the inspectors would see and swab. It also states the scenes they went to, to get samples, had been disturbed.
And towards the initial staging of these incidents rebels have simply used cheap household chemical agents to produce chloramine or the like?
Thanks to Sav and Mog for interesting and useful info on Dan Kaszeta!
I was just listening to a Scott Horton interview with Theodore Postol, and he claims that Kaszeta has obviously “manufactured his credentials,” that he is every bit as much an “expert” on “sarin” as Brown Noser Higgins.
You can listen to the interview here, with the relevant bit beginning some 12 minutes and 17 seconds into the conversation.
Postol is confident that Kaszeta has zero qualifications to pronounce judgement on incidents involving or not involving the use of CWs, declaring him to be an out-and-out ‘fraud.’
I’ve just finished listening to that interview, Norman. Very useful. Would recommend for others to check it out.
Here is a link to .pdf document by Theodore A. Postol, titled:
A Brief Assessment of the Veracity of Published Statements in the Press and Elsewhere Made by Dan Kaszeta, A Self-Described Expert on the Science and Technology of Chemical Weapons
Lets be honest the west and all their propaganda sources of information are all living in total dystopia. When has the west in the last 25 years ever resembled anything real or factual with relations to news. Orwellian times we r living in the west. Just look at how they portray the North Koreans as aggressors and dangerous to humanity. The United States of Amnesia has been in existence for circa 270 years of which they have been at war for circa 220 years. Since the 20th century western colonial aggression on the rest of the world has been ever so omnipotent until this day but hell why mention facts to the ever so obvious echo chamber we are all getting used to. Yes it is some sort of parallel universe we live in. One based on facts evidence ,reason and logic and one based on fabrications lies and denial.… Read more »
Using Higgins and the so grandly labeled Syrian Observatory on Human Rights as credible or authoritative sources allows people like Monbiot and others in the media to claim ‘plausible deniablity’ if at some point they are challenged about the quality of their articles. They can always ‘claim’ not to be directly responsible because the relied on and believed their sources Higgins and SOHR, so the stories and the consequences, just like in Iraq, weren’t their fault, they were ‘misled.’ The security services in the UK are clearly linked to Higgins and SOHR. They are using them as channels to feed propaganda to journalists who would not be willing, I hope not, to accept such material directly from the SS, at least this is how it works, probably, with people like Monbiot. It is though, extraordinary that someone like Monbiot, with his status and reputation, and I suppose intelligence, would go… Read more »
The other problem is that TPTB are straining at the leash to start a war over this, or plausibly an even greater CW massacre yet to come, in order to precipitate an intervention. Bojo FM let it slip that the UK could go to war by Royal Prerogative, without Parliamentary approval, especially after May 23rd when Parliament dissolves. It would be “difficult not to” and the approval would have to be “tested.” Apart from the areas of Syria already Balkanised, the SAA seem to be doing rather well – having recently liberated the al-Shaer gas field (for the third time?) Although the war is far from over, the mood seems more optimistic – looking to the future with their chosen rebuilding partners – Russia, China and Iran. To the psychopathogenic puppet masters that pull the likes of Mattis and McMaster’s strings – this will not be an acceptable outcome, I… Read more »
But has Putin abandoned Assad?
Putin knows that it’s better to fight the US mercenaries in Syria than (eventually) in Russia (another Chechnya?). Even committing (more) Russian ground forces seems a better bet. But this is a “secret war” that the US public know little about, not that they would protest if they did, being too preoccupied with domestic problems, so public opinion can’t be swayed. Putin’s smart but his forces are limited. He must inflict maximum damage with low losses and demonstrate that the US game is too expensive. Supporting Assad seems the only practical, survivable course.
Are you referring to the recent Russian pull-out of fighter jets from the Khmeymim airbase in Syria? This withdrawal would have been planned in advance and agreed on by the Syrian government and probably Iran as well. The withdrawal comes because a number of strategic goals have been fulfilled. Of course the news would have been spun in the Western media to insinuate that Russia is an untrustworthy partner to the Syrians. Had the Russians decided not to withdraw the jets, that in itself could be deliberately misconstrued to imply something equally sinister in Russian political intentions for Syria or equally defective in Russian aerial strategy. “Russia has withdrawn almost half of its aviation group based on Hmeymim airbase in Syria” http://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12120736@egNews Russia has withdrawn almost half of its aviation group based on Hmeymim airbase in Syria, stated Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the… Read more »
Why should Russia waste money keeping fighter aircraft there when they are no longer needed? The US Shirat bs has give Russia unambiguous requiremnt to use the S-400s from now on as it has to assume any US asset heading their way is actually offensive. The Russians need bombers and have sent in four more Su-34s. That is not mentioned in the west as it does not fit the propaganda position.
https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/diana-mihailova.livejournal.com/535623.html
For what it’s worth, Pat Lang, at Sic Semper Tyrannis said it is a routine rotation, and has been done before.
I refer to nothing specific Jen. I don’t know details such as those all who responded to my comment relay. It just looked to me like Syrian terrorists, despite the news that Syrian armed forces, together with Russians, are ‘not’ running scared and still need to be dealt with. And I thought that with Russia forces attacking them, they’d be ‘very’ defeated by now. And I recall Putin meeting, cheerily, with Netanyahu (forget exactly who) during this crisis. Okay, We all want dialog. But when we here of such high level meetings and then we watch terrorists conducting operations with confidence and success…
Do you have a link Doug. I’m not that lazy but I seem to recall trying to find that site before and not having success for some reason. Or there was some issue or another.
You can find his blog at Sic Semper Tyrannis. I’m not familiar with that article or comment in particular.
Sic Semper Tyrannis meaning ‘such always to Tyrants’, as Brutus was murdering Julius Caesar. “Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets).” In his ‘about’, Colonel Lang goes on to list all of the departments of American Empire he worked in and never says anything along the lines of ‘and I apologize’. Perhaps he’s going to let his further words, and actions, making up the content of his blog stand in for such an apology.
George has been at it for a while. Here’s his take on the film Loose Change, facets of which have also been criticized by 9/11 researchers. (Guardian, February 6, 2007) “A 9/11 conspiracy virus is sweeping the world, but it has no basis in fact. Loose Change is a sharp, slick film with an authoritative voiceover, but it drowns the truth in an ocean of nonsense.” And going on: “There is a virus sweeping the world. It infects opponents of the Bush government, sucks their brains out through their eyes and turns them into gibbering idiots. First cultivated in a laboratory in the US, the strain reached these shores a few months ago. In the past fortnight, it has become an epidemic. Scarcely a day now passes without someone possessed by this sickness, eyes rolling, lips flecked with foam, trying to infect me.” Further down is Monbiot’s explanation for how… Read more »
Feb 2007 was when I got off the Monbiot train.
He celebrates the careful scepticism of the scientific process and the adversarial challenging of evidence when it suits his argument, but when they don’t, he readily throws them down the shitter.
Ultimately he cannot mentally escape his upbringing within the political establishment, he cannot accept that the people who run the empire are not ‘mistaken’ or ‘error prone’, but evil.
I’ve been collecting articles about fake Leftie, and Guardian tool, George Monbiot, for a little while now. The CounterPunch link is interesting, seeing how I was spit on, verbally, by Jeffrey St Clair, for seemingly no reason. But I did mention to him that I was simply collecting articles about Robert Reich (who I can’t help but dislike because of his service to the Clintons, but who may not actually be that bad), Juan Cole and George Monbiot (who Edward S. Herman has a thing or two to say about). I visit CounterPunch, infrequently, but I actually avoid articles by St. Clair and his colleague Joshua Frank (who seems to be on the ‘Putin did it whatever it is’ bandwagon (but haven’t investigated that thoroughly).
For years, CounterPunch was my favorite website. I used to visit them almost daily, and often donated money to them. Unfortunately though, the site seems to have gone downhill after Alexander Cockburn’s death in 2012. To be sure, Cockburn had a bit of a prejudice against ‘conspiracy theory’ as well, even though he himself was a global warming skeptic. But I still preferred him to Jeffrey St. Clair.
idiot, or corporate shill, i can never make up my mind.
Sly corporate shill? Do these craven stenographers lose sleep over their lies? How do they face their families?
The thing is, we all know that Monbiot is the very opposite of sub-intelligent – so there is something else going on in his mind. I’m not going to speculate what it is – but he has a new career as a travelling troubadour – soon to be appearing at the Brighton Festival if anyone fancies it. My suggestion is that he gives up the pro-terrorist journalism for music. That is if he has one ounce of moral rectitude left.
He presents himself as a zero-carbon-footprint, pushbiking, organic-veg-growing, holier-than-thou eco-puritan – which is all very laudable – but ethical living extends first and foremost to human life. Ahimsa, above all, do no harm. Siding with the terrorists is siding with murder and death. There is a direct correlation between Khan Shaykhun and the child massacre at Rashideen. Surely as our number one lifestyle choicer he can see that?
In my experience the best shills are those too stupid to understand why the narrative they are selling is garbage, or too narcissistic to care or too insane for rational thought, or all three. Intelligence is a hindrance for the purveyors of bullshit.
I know someone whopersonally knows him and once remarked how intelligent they thought George Monbiot.
He is well read, and was taught the arts of rhetoric and sophistry from an early age at one the country’s most elite schools. That doesn’t make him ‘intelligent’ in my book.
It is a sad fact that so many liberal brits fall for this ‘cleverness’ posing as genuine wisdom or insight, and are decieved by it. For me the hallmark of genuine intelligence is some kind of self reflection and humility – traits that are revealed to be lacking in Monbiot at certain juntures.
The spelling in that post reveals my ‘poor’ schooling.
That’s all of us here. Don’t feel bad. Until we get an edit feature (one day, when the site is redesigned), we will continue to look worse than we are. 😉
At school we would separated the “bright” (intelligent) from the “clever” (manipulators). Only a few were bright but many were clever and went on “great careers in commerce”.
Entirely agree, mog. Christopher Hitchens’ sycophants fall for the same nonsense.
Yes Catte, but my POV is that his narrative is not garbage; it is worse than that – it is deeply dangerous and complicit with murder and maiming. I question whether he has enough real
insightful ‘intelligence’ to know this and suggest that if he really is who he says he is (some sort of self-styled anti-establishment-eco-truth-warrior) that by rights, he should. That leaves the option that there is something deeply dark going on inside his mind. That is something for him and his analyst, or more likely, him and his mirror to decide. 🙂
nothing laudable about veganism. it does the opposite of what it says on the tin and i think he’s shilling for fossil fuel with that ”meat causes climate change” myth.
Brownmoses got the nick of Brownnoser on CIF because he was so up Guardian arse. Pet of Brian Whitaker, he helped bring him to the fore. Then across mainstream media, without anyone even scrutinising his logic or his work, he was announced as this amazing citizen journalist. The usual spin – tell the plebs the emperor’s clothes are amazing and they will all chime along.
In his defence, Higgins’ investigations are no worse than one by Amnesty or HRW. They’re just as ludicrous.
Finding Syria/Russia guilty is what puts money his account. Simple as that. The idea that he’s out to find the truth is comical.
Reblogged this on wgrovedotnet.
On Tim Haywards article as linked above is a sad but much needed artwork commemorating the deaths of the children lured by terrorists towards the buses in Kafaryha and Fouha. I cannot reproduce it here, but OffG could, so I request that you visit Tim’s article and perhaps reproduce it on a post, as a reminder of what these monstrous terrorists are capable of.
Susan O’Neill, Mohandeer, wgrovedotnet.
The only one that I know who got any media attention was Scott Ritter in the Huff post.
Tim Hayward.George Monbiot, about Syria…Posted on April 28, 2017 by timhayward https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2017/04/28/george-monbiot-about-syria/comment-page-1/#comment-682 “I write this open letter, George, because you have been using your public platform to defend claims about Syria that I fear may be damaging for its people. Most recently, you blogged a note about the 4th April chemical incident in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, and you related this to the more general issue of competing narratives. Professor Postol of MIT criticised the NATO/Gulf State account of the incident, and you say his claims ‘should be treated with great caution’. That’s fair enough. Shouldn’t we apply a similar standard of scrutiny to claims made on both sides?[1] You replied to the Media Lens article reporting Postol’s claims without acknowledging that it also mentioned that ‘former and current UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix, Scott Ritter and Jerry Smith, as well as former CIA counterterrorism official Philip Giraldi, had all questioned… Read more »
Louis Proyect is warmly welcomed at ZNet I see.
Haven’t seen him much here or at Moon of Alabama – maybe we were too hard on him and chased him away?
🙂
I’ve rejigged my ‘3 Fakers’ project. Instead of Reich, Monbiot and Cole, it’s now Proyect, Monbiot and Cole.
He did his trolling and was given plenty of chances.
While not wanting to sound as narcissistic as Louis, I think my last remarks to him on his NPD and his ridiculous funding of his biography might have shaken him up a bit.
He seems busy networking with his fellow NPD mates on Twitter like Dan Kaszeta and Eliot Higgins. Schmoozing with all the MSM, the way they like it.
The most recent ‘intelligence’ on the gas bombing from the French claiming Assad dun it is based on claims by Higgins. You could not make it up.
The western cabal of terrorist states and their proxies are to be destroyed and then they will be tried for international war crimes in multiple theatres……The Axis of Evil uk/yank/qatar/saudi/zionist/ isis/ al nusra / al qaeda/ukronaxis….
Hang all the neocons and their zionist Wahhabi collaborators.
The brazen assumption that Syria used Sarin is adopted not just by Rightwing neocons but Democrats and Liberals. On Newsnight last night the 2 guests, both Democrats and the presenter congratulated Trump on his missile offensive in the conviction that Assad did it. Trump they felt had “come good”. The fact it was a unilateral and illegal attack on a sovereign state wasn’t mentioned at all. It is all very much part of the campaign to back the absolute monarchs of the Gulf in their war against the Shia with the aim to destroy Iran.
Including the ruling Kuwaiti clique – and to think that we all sent troops there to help them get power back!