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Comment Set Free: "Feras Fayyad: 'I never thought as a film-maker that I would feel endangered’"

The Guardian bills this appallingly dishonest promo piece as “The director of the Oscar-nominated documentary Last Men in Aleppo speaks of ‘trauma and paranoia’ over the extreme lengths some are taking to stop him from telling the truth”. Feel free to use the comment space below to remind the Guardian and Feras Fayyad of what the truth actually is…

Feras Fayyad: ‘I never thought as a film-maker that I would feel endangered’


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chasingthesquirrel
chasingthesquirrel
Apr 29, 2018 8:35 PM

Anybody care for some propaganda 101? Then see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feras_Fayyad
No history before 2013 though in web investigation I learned he had been imprisoned by Assad in 2011. The wikipaedia entry says Years active 2010–present at the top, that is all.
Assad released prisoners in 2011 and I think Fayyad was one of them. Not a fact you’d want to be known about your fiddle player, or in this case a talented pawn in a geopolitical chess game with his own agenda.
Fayyad seems like a man without a past, as if anything that could obstruct the narrative he pushes has been wiped from the net. Finding info on him, the man, is hard.

Rev. Spooner
Rev. Spooner
Mar 16, 2018 5:05 PM

The Lord is truly a shoving leopard. Every time I went to the Guardian, my frustration and blood pressure shot up because of the lies and idiotic propaganda and drivel they put out and don’t let you challenge by shutting down comments.
I was unaware of this website until a couple of days ago when I saw a link on zero hedge. I would really like to make this website known to more Guardian readers-this will be like a breath of fresh air for the. Any ideas?

wardropper
wardropper
Apr 24, 2018 11:25 PM
Reply to  Rev. Spooner

I found it simply because somebody on a rare Guardian comments section recommended it.
Whichever moderator allowed it through must have lost his job, of course…

Mikalina
Mikalina
Mar 5, 2018 6:57 PM

And it couldn’t have been Abacus because………..
A documentary about the prosecution of a bank serving Chinatown’s community exposes the racism of the US judicial system.
Or Faces, Places because………
It can be funny, it can be melancholy. All that Varda and JR seem to care about is that it is honest.
Or Strong Island because………….
Yance Ford’s extraordinary documentary on the murder of his brother is part journalistic examination, part devastating essay on grief for one black US family.

Mikalina
Mikalina
Mar 5, 2018 6:50 PM

And the winner of the Oscar for a documentary is……..
Icarus! The story of state orchestrated doping of athletes by…………….. Russia!
Oh, Lord, give me strength.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Mar 3, 2018 4:38 PM

Must not of liked the ‘tasty’ dishes of human livers and organs prepared–lovingly–by the head choppers AKA White Helmets.
There is a direct line from Hollywood, to Israel to Syria, involving the same blood-thirsty land thieves.

Alan
Alan
Mar 3, 2018 1:44 PM

Mr Fayyad has the right to his beliefs, his experiences cannot be dismissed lightly. The context and platform he chooses come with responsibilities. The bias of his message; which he must be aware of, yet whose criticism he dispels with crude state department logic, negate that responsibility to all except the state department and proven terrorists. The Guardian’s complicity in running this piece without balance is thoroughly irresponsible.

John Marks
John Marks
Mar 8, 2018 9:21 PM
Reply to  Alan

The Grauniad has now sunk so low it’s no better than Pravda in Soviet times.
Unfortunately, the contagion has spread to the Indie which, unlike the Graun, still allows comments. However, the Indie has taken to blocking posters of which it doesn’t approve, so one can no longer access the comments even when advertized.

Rev. Spooner
Rev. Spooner
Mar 16, 2018 5:14 PM
Reply to  John Marks

I have not been banned outright by the Indie. Two years ago I was able to comment and then without any intimation blocked. Try however hard, I cannot log in.

Michael Skoruppa
Michael Skoruppa
Mar 3, 2018 10:40 AM

Just another sentimental liar

Jerry Alatalo
Jerry Alatalo
Mar 2, 2018 10:22 PM

The spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department Heather Nauert publicly recommended “Last Men in Aleppo” recently while conducting a press conference. Dr. Bashar Jaafari mentioned a film to be presented at the United Nations in the next few days; he didn’t mention “Last Men in Aleppo” or any film specifically, but one might assume he was referencing the film. Mr. Jaafari in the same address warned of false flag chlorine attack(s) by terrorists operating in Idlib before March 13, after large quantities of chlorine were delivered via truck from Turkey to Idlib..
French President Macron recently drew a “red line” on chemical weapons use in Syria (think Barack Obama), stating France would act militarily if the Syrian government were proven to carry out chemical weapons attack(s). A spokesman for the White Helmets appeared on France24 English days ago. Politicians and media commentators have relentlessly repeated the “Assad chemical weapons…” lies, highlighted by Trump’s criminal launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles, and, in supreme irony, followed by Mattis’ recent admitting of “no evidence…”
Expect one or more imminent false flag chemical/chlorine attacks in Syria. It seems all they have left.

Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson
Mar 2, 2018 8:45 PM

“I’m betting that someone at The Fraudian wrote the puff piece on Fayyad’s behalf. It certainly reads like one of its editorials.”
I’m starting to think this kind of thing and certainly all the heartbreaking tweets from Bana and the many other Bana types are manufactured by PR firms outside Syria, probably in London.

Sav
Sav
Mar 2, 2018 10:08 PM

See this article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/23/children-omran-daqneesh-madaya-syrian-aid
An ‘Aunt’ supposedly concerned about her niece’s injuries wants to write an article detailing the political dynamic in Madaya rather than focusing on the girl being treated & recovering. Claiming she had been shot by the Syrian government – yes the same evil govt that she also apparently wanted to evacuate her daughter to for treatment!
In fact all previous articles about this girl mentioned the aunt as being based in the UK. Her name being Fadah Jassem. But you’ll see right at the bottom of the article that Fadah Jassem is simply credited with ‘additional reporting by’. Also the previous story had said the girl was going to the chemist for her Aunt. This one changes it to getting water.
The article, that also wanted to collect for a GoFundMe (run by Jassem) for the girl’s treatment, also failed to mention she had already been treated in a government hospital.
I put all this in Guardian comments and each time this was deleted. When I confronted Jassem on Twitter all she said the money was needed for later treatment at a private hospital for physio. No comment on this new Aunt writing articles.
Jassem’s background shows her as a freelance writer that has done work for ITN and the Guardian.
All this stuff, like you say, is being spun out of a psy-ops boiler room.

Jen
Jen
Mar 2, 2018 8:35 PM

One possible reason not to believe Feras Fayyad’s opinion piece in The Fraudian: most likely, he didn’t write it (or most of it) himself.
It’s as much of a hit piece on the Trump government as it is on the people FF accuses of trying to shut him up. Why would FF and his co-director be so concerned that they cannot travel to Los Angeles to attend the Oscars when they could arrange for others to collect the award on their behalf, were they to win it? In the past, other people who won Oscars in absentia had others collect the awards and deliver the statuettes to them.
The concern about Russian interference in the Academy Awards ceremony is laughable and indicates the level of hysterical concern (in The Fraudian) that the White Helmets propaganda is failing.
I’m betting that someone at The Fraudian wrote the puff piece on Fayyad’s behalf. It certainly reads like one of its editorials.

Mikalina
Mikalina
Mar 2, 2018 11:01 PM
Reply to  Jen

The articles from this guy, plus the article from the hero of the White Helmets plus all the postings from our friend Kareem in Istanbul are very, very similar in tone, insinuation, framing and content. It looks like a professional PR company and my money would be on Avaaz – they have form:
https://www.alternet.org/world/inside-shadowy-pr-firm-thats-driving-western-opinion-towards-regime-change-syria
Most newspaper articles/journalists frame work and obviously are guilty of omission, one sided interviews, biased opinions, etc., but this group actually give factually incorrect content which think most journalists, even the functionaries, would avoid.

Peter
Peter
Mar 6, 2018 1:02 PM
Reply to  Mikalina

Thanks for the link to the very informative (though from 2016) alternet article.

John Marks
John Marks
Mar 8, 2018 9:48 PM
Reply to  Peter

Yes, an excellent link.
Opened my eyes to the venality of Avaaz.com

Vidner Ferkov K. (@zdravoslovenija)
Vidner Ferkov K. (@zdravoslovenija)
Mar 2, 2018 6:07 PM

How can Fayyad even utter words such as “extreme lengths of stopping him” while children and families are blown to pieces and refugees are frozen in their tents? People in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are facing guns every day and he can’t handle A CRITICAL ARTICLE, he is not even forced to read. How heartless can one be actually?

Sav
Sav
Mar 2, 2018 5:31 PM

Narcissistic sociopath with persecution complex. Seen it over and over. Every word is total bullshit.
No one is stopping this dick from making his movie. He wants to stop people questioning him and his piece of theatre.

vanessa beeley
vanessa beeley
Mar 2, 2018 5:27 PM

“The director of the Oscar-nominated documentary Last Men in Aleppo speaks of ‘trauma and paranoia’ over the extreme lengths some are taking to stop him from telling the truth” – sheer narcissism from the Channel 4/BBC/Guardian promoted, supported & manufactured director of one of the most appalling examples of propaganda so far in the Syrian conflict and that is a pretty diverse and extensive collection to choose from.
Last Men in Aleppo presents an entirely Nusra Front-free narrative of life in East Aleppo that was a helllish occupation by Nusra Front-led militants and extremists, many of whom were foreign mercenaries who tortured, executed, imprisoned, raped & brutalised the Syrian people under their control. When this poppinjay whines that he is being attacked, he should perhaps ponder on the lives of the most vulnerable among the Syrian people that were preyed upon by the organisation that he is lionizing for this year’s Oscar awards.
He is a traitor to those people. When Fayyad claims he is being attacked by those exposing the White Helmets for the Al Qaeda auxiliary that they really are, he is perhaps giving us an insight into the next smear plans for the neocon shape-shifters in Syria Campaign – will we see the movie take a turn and Fayyad being “attacked”, then blame being laid at the door of the honest journalists who have refused to swallow the propaganda pills on Syria and who have spent time, energy and resources investigating this most obvious of US/US/EU intelligence assets on the ground in Syria with a multitude of roles – all serving NATO’s regime change war effort, none serving the people of Syria whose voices are buried under the rubble along with the lies spewed on a daily basis by a sectarian bunch of faux first responders who think putting a White Hat on their heads will disguise their black intention.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Mar 2, 2018 6:40 PM
Reply to  vanessa beeley

‘Last Men in Aleppo presents an entirely Nusra Front-free narrative of life in East Aleppo that was a helllish occupation by Nusra Front-led militants and extremists, many of whom were foreign mercenaries who tortured, executed, imprisoned, raped & brutalised the Syrian people under their control.’ – very, very difficult to find any MSM reports about conditions in Aleppo when it was controlled by Salafist groups.
This is all part of the pathology – the western media appear to have zero curiosity about the way Syrians were treated in rebel-held enclaves during the occupation.
As you know Fayyad’s co-director, Hasan Kattan, is a cheer leader for al-Nusra as is the director of photography, Fadi Al-Halabi.
How could it be otherwise – if you want to take a film crew into a place where most western journalists fear to tread (and for good reason) it is impossible to imagine that key protagonists involved in such a project are not all drinking from the same ideologicall well.
In short we have partizan film makers apparently backed by western cash (French) pushing a heavy handed pro-western, anti-Assad narrative – and yet Fayyad still has the temerity to whinge about the fact not everybody is thrilled with this form of ultra-biased film making.
Perhaps Fayyad needs to be reminded that his controllers don’t care a fig about about him, nor the fate of Syrians caught up in the fighting – from a US perspective he is just a useful idiot that will be dumped as soon as attention gravitates toward the next state the US wish to undermine (? Iran ? Korea ? Russia ? Venezuela)

candideschmyles
candideschmyles
Mar 2, 2018 8:39 PM
Reply to  vanessa beeley

“I start to wonder if it’s worth it to tell another story. But that’s what the people in power want”
That statement says it all. He is being directed to produce this dismal shit. Perhaps the parties, the groupies and the thousand fake smiles just don’t satisfy after the bloodlust of decapitating innocents. He wants more money to make it worthwhile? It can be read that way too.
Thanks in large part to you Vanessa there are now millions who do not swallow this swill. Meantime we can only hope that this prick will one day be held accountable as an accesory to mass murder.

MLS
MLS
Mar 2, 2018 5:12 PM

About 10 days ago we learned that the Syrian government had denied Mahmoud’s request for a passport.

How many terrorist groups is Mahmoud al Hattar associated with?