Doubts raised as to responsibility for ‘Assad regime’ atrocities
I hear from Sloggers that German intelligence reckons some ninety terror attacks in Syria (for which the Assad regime has been blamed) can be attributed to jihadist groups, over the last six months, perpetrating the atrocities for purely propagandist reasons. The statistic was revealed after the German government responded to a Bundestag member’s question.
Have you seen that reported in the UK or US MSM? No, neither have I.
The Merkel government did, however, refuse to give answers to a question on the subject of the May 25 massacre “by forces loyal to President Assad” in the Syrian town of Houla. The answer was to remain classified, said a foreig relations spokesman, “by reason of national interest”. Germany expelled Syria’s ambassador immediately after the massacre, maintaining that the Syrian government was 100% responsible for the atrocity. This time, though, three MSM titles – Die Welt, the FAZ, and Bild – have run pieces suggesting that the real responsibility for the massacre lies with anti-government rebel forces.
We should not reject this out of hand as bonkers conspiracy theory: for nearly 50 years the Soviet Union blamed the Nazis for the Kataryn mass murder of hundreds of Polish officers during the Second World War. But when the Soviet empire collapsed, the papers pertaining to the incident revealed conclusively that it was a Russian atrocity.
I make no apology for using that particular parallel: the Nazi/Soviet 1939 pact that swallowed up Poland was a grubby, psycho deal betwen two forms of evil. I find it equally hard to choose between Assad’s pro-Iranian murder squads, and Jihadist terrorists who use schools as hostages…and then bleat to the world’s media about Israel bombing innocent children. Ethics-free propaganda is not exactly a new phenomenon. The reaction of most reasonable people (ie the Troll-free 90%) is that a plague should descend on both their houses.
In Bild, longtime German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer described this anti-Assad “massacre-marketing strategy” as being “among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict”
In turn, Alfred Hackensberger of die Welt noted that Taldo, the sub-district of Houla where the massacre occurred, has been controlled by rebel forces since December 2011: so how, he asks – given a flat plain stretching for dozens of kilometres surrounds the rebel stronghold – did dozens of Government troops arrive unseen to commit mass murder? And equally important, WTF would the point of such a suicide mission have been? All the victims, it seems were Sunnis: they were killed, local witnesses told Hackensberger, for refusing to support the rebellion.
France, Great Britain, and the US have made it abundantly clear that they want Assad out. As reported here last week, the US State Department under Hillary Clinton has bet the farm on the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s a foolish and venal decision aimed at increasing American influence in the region. But The Slog has consistently asked, “Will Assad’s successors be any better?” I hold no candle for Assad, I hold no candle for jihadists and their fellow travellers. What we are seeing here is a dual-purpose Islamic sect civil war and geopolitical energy race pretending to be the ejection of a dictator in favour of a new democratic dawn. It is complete bollocks.
See also: Milosevic followers regain power in Serbia – what of the War Crimes Court now?
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