Pullin’ their Counterpunches? (you decide)

Taken from the comments below ‘US and imperialist allies launch strikes against Syria’ april 14, wsws.org, april 14:

“i know I shouldn’t do it because it’s bad for my health but I sometimes tune in to Louis Proyect to see what spin he is giving these events. His latest is jaw-dropping:  https://www.counterpunch.or… [‘Chemical Attacks, False Flags and the Fate of Syria’ by Louis Proyect]
“Apart from the slimy tactic of drawing a parallel between the false flag interpretation of the alleged Syrian chemical attack and the theory that the moon landings were faked, he also says this:

“One argument against Assad’s guilt is the often-heard claim that since he was winning the war, why would he use a tactic that would give the USA an excuse to intervene. Perhaps the muted response of both Obama and Trump was enough to persuade Assad’s military to go full steam ahead.”

[wd here: I’ll add more Proyect bits]:

“Syria, Russia and Iran dismissed such reports as a “false flag” in which jihadists used fraudulent photos and videos to pressure American imperialism into taking their side in an all-out attack such as the one that took place against Iraq in 2003. For those of a conspiracist bent, this was a con job just like the Apollo Moon landing hoax when film simulations supposedly substituted for the real thing.”

“And also as has happened in the past, much of the left accepts the “false flag” narrative. In an interview with teleSUR, Max Blumenthal dismissed reports of casualties as untrustworthy because they have been furnished by what he called jihadist-supporting elements such as the White Helmets and the mainstream media. His advice to the audience was to trust the much more reliable Russian media. At the risk of sounding like a reactionary goon, I prefer the NY Times to Sputnik especially for Melissa Clark’s recipes.”

“The Bellingcat website is perhaps the only place where you can find fact-based reporting on chemical attacks in Syria. It was launched by Eliot Higgins, a British citizen-journalist who relies heavily on open source material and field reports from the affected areas. In an April 11 entry, [referencing reports from the now-infamous Syrian Network for Human Rights] there is an attempt to ground the Douma incident in verifiable data such as the characteristic yellow cylinders in which weaponized chlorine gas is delivere. There are also videos of corpses in the basement of a building that was within the impacted area, each with the tell-tale sign of white foam around the nose and mouth.”…and a whole lot more.

From another commenter:

 “Your initial instinct was correct: reading the increasingly unhinged scribbling of Proyect, especially at such a time, is not good for one’s mental health. It’s like reading the late Hitchens at the time of the invasion of Iraq. I won’t even glance at Counterpunch either ever since its editor, Jeffery St. Clair begged WAPO to be removed from the bogus “#propornot” blacklist. Since then the site has been censoring critics of the anti-Russia campaign like Diana Johnstone, while opening itself to pro-imperialist cranks like Proyect. If you can’t stop watching the “train wreck” just take a gander at his internet list serve to count the percent of postings written by none other than the jumped up wannabe film critic himself.”

From Alexander Cockburn’s (Rest in Power; his oeuvre) younger brother at CP, a few paragraphs from ‘Big Noise: Apocalyptic Tweets, Limited Strikes’ by Patrick Cockburn, April 13, 2018:

“The attacks may or may not deter Assad from using poison gas in the future, but they will not change the balance of power against him. Chemical weapons are only a small part of his arsenal and have played only a minor military role in the war. Out of the half million Syrians who have died in the conflict over the last seven years, just 1,900 are estimated to have been killed by chemical weapons.”

“Possibly it was the Syrian government’s frustration at the continued resistance of part of Jaysh al-Islam, the Saudi-backed jihadi movement in Douma, that led it to use chlorine gas. It had done so before without provoking an international reaction, but this time authentic-looking video was broadcast around the world showing dying children gasping for breath. The pictures provoked a wave of international fury which culminated in the US-led airstrikes on 14 April.

If the Syrian government’s purpose in launching a chemical weapons attack was to force the final surrender of the Douma rebels, then it succeeded. Within hours of it happening, Russian military police moved into Douma to supervise the departure of rebel fighters and to suppress looting by government forces. On 12 April, the Syrian national flag was finally raised over a building in central Douma and the long siege was over.”

Or how about this from Nick Pemberton, a student at Gustavus Adolphus College who  is currently employed by Gustavus Dining Service: ‘Did The Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria Happen? We Need A Different Question’, April 16, 2018

Lurking within his ‘regardless, Syria needs no more war’ analysis:

There has been a lot of debate other whether the chemical weapons attacks in Syria “really happened”. On the one side, you have the corporate media for the West, on the other side you have the corporate media for the Russians, as well as the conspiracy-oriented fringe in the U.S. Obviously one side is correct, and the truth does matter, but it really is the wrong question to be asking.”

In their extremely lengthy Jan. 2018 mea culpa explaining some hood-winking by a ‘fake writer’ Alice Donovan in their ‘Ghosts in the Propaganda Machine’, I was disappointed to see this from Jeffrey St. Clair and his co-editor Joshua Frank:

“CounterPunch did not receive the “terrorist financing” submission, but we were approached by Mangal on December 21, 2016, with a piece that attempted to discredit Bana al-Abed, an eight-year-old Syrian girl, who, with the help of her English speaking mother, became a Twitter sensation during the battle for Aleppo.  Assad-friendly writers were quick to push back against al-Abed’s version of events and her growing popularity. Mangal’s piece mimicked these talking points and wasn’t exceptionally groundbreaking, so we passed.

No doubt there were grounds to be suspicious of al-Abed’s overnight rise, but the counter-propaganda campaign was equally as shallow. [wd here: < the link goes to Vanessa Beeley at 21stcenturywire.com] In retrospect, the fact that Mangal was writing about the alleged fake identity of al-Abed (she had a habit of trying to expose fakers) — who is a very real girl now living in New York  [<NYT:Bana al-Abed: From a Syrian War Zone to New York City] — is a bit comical. It seems Mangal has done her best to vanish, while al-Abed is still promoting herself and her family’s plight in Syria.”

It’s hard to imagine ‘believing’ that Bana Alabad is anything but one outrageous psyop, save for the fact that the soulful eyes of chirren sell R2P wars so well.  Emotional reaction trumps reason, doesn’t it, allowing so many to disbelieve their own lying eyes.  Caitlin Johnson has some of the evidence, as does Barbara McKenzie.

OTOH, CP has published Robert Fisk’s ‘The Search for the Truth in Douma’, April 17, that’ seemed to rip the veil off the many lies and obfuscations of the Western Imperium and their MSM scribes.  This may indeed be in response to Fisk’s exposé at the Independent, which includes video.  And Paul Street’s new column is good, including the fact that

“It has not been proven that Assad or his military ordered the chemical attack”  and that “It is distinctly possible that aysh al-Islam, the jihadist group in control of Douma at the time of Assad’s alleged chemical attack, staged the alleged chemical attack as part of its propaganda campaign against the Assad government.”

‘Syrian medics ‘subjected to extreme intimidation’ after Douma attack; Doctors say those who treated patients after attack have been told they and their families will be targeted if they speak out’, the Guardian, April 17

Is the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM) a new White Helmets?  Anyhoo: buyer beware, methinks.

More ‘leftists’ and ‘leftist organizations’ pullin’ their punches, and/or advocating for war; these are just a few such from wsws.org:

‘Pseudo-left parties promote US-French-British bombing of Syria;  Will Morrow, 16 April 2018

“A number of political parties that call themselves socialist proved they are nothing of the sort by lending support to Friday night’s illegal US, French and British bombing of Syria.

Groups like the American International Socialist Organization (ISO), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the French New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) are pro-war organizations. They are participating in a propaganda campaign with the capitalist press organs and the intelligence agencies to spread the lie that the bombings are justified on a “humanitarian” basis and that additional military force is required. Socialists reject these attempts to cover imperialist intervention in a fraudulent “left” veneer.

First, these pseudo-left groups attack those who question the legitimacy of the CIA and MI6 claims that Assad used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta last week. They accept the claims produced by the same military intelligence agencies that spread the lie of “weapons of mass destruction” to justify the invasion of Iraq, which led to the deaths of over 1 million people.” and so on.

‘A new “left” appeal for imperialist intervention in Syria’, Bill Van Auken, 2 March 2018

“On February 27, the New York Review of Books published an open letter signed by some 200 people, many of them identifying themselves as activists, academics, writers and journalists. Originally titled “Stop pretending that you can’t do anything to save Syrians,” the headline was subsequently changed to “The World Must Act Now on Syria.”

The letter was published with no introduction. Who wrote the text of the letter, who changed its title, how the signatures were gathered and indeed all other information about the document is left in the dark.

Its purpose, however, is crystal clear. Issued in the midst of a massive war propaganda campaign in the Western media over the Russian and Syrian government assault on the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, one of the last strongholds of the Islamist militias backed by Washington and its regional allies, the letter constitutes an open appeal to the US and the other imperialist powers to launch a full-scale military intervention.

Like the media propaganda campaign of which it is an integral part, the “open letter” constitutes a thoroughly one-sided, false and deeply hypocritical portrayal of the Syrian developments.

It protests solely “the crimes that the Assad regime has committed against Syrians, aided by local and foreign militias, by Iranian strategic and financial aid, by Russian airpower and mercenaries.” [major snip]

All of these pseudo-left elements are aligning their politics directly with those of US imperialism and in particular with those sections of the US military and intelligence apparatus that are demanding a more aggressive confrontation with Russia. Not only are they functioning as direct accessories to the crimes committed against the masses of Syria, but they are helping to pave the way to world war.”

‘Chomsky’s pro-imperialist Afrin petition’, Nick Beams, Feb. 6, 2018

I do love the hell outta this one though: ‘Glenn Greenwald: Evidence That Assad Used Gas ‘Overwhelming’ – Amy Goodman Agrees!’ via Russia-Insider

But the quote of the month comes from this new report by Will Morrow at wsws: ‘As lies on Syrian gas attack unravel, US and UK shift to claims of Russian “cyber war”:

“The FBI report is no doubt also aimed at fuelling the ongoing campaign by the intelligence agencies and the Democratic Party demanding that Trump further escalate the confrontation with Russia. The Times and the other Democratic Party-aligned media denounced the Trump administration’s announcement yesterday that the US will not at this time impose further sanctions on Russia, contradicting the statements of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, over the weekend.

The Times quoted Democrat Eliot Engel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who said, “I am outraged that President Trump pulled back sanctions on Russia for its support of the Assad regime.” Times columnist Nikolas Kristof, who has made his career promoting imperialist wars in the name of “human rights,” praised the arch-reactionary Haley against Trump in an appearance on MSNBC, declaring that she was “much better regarded than almost any other member of the administration in foreign policy.”

(if you like what i copy/paste together, please consider making a small and painless donation)

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

(when i try to embed tweets, i get an error message, even if i add one at at time. i'll try
again later, as the message advises (smile).

however many hours and tries later, let's try it this way instead:

bana albed

bana alabed

the guardian

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@wendy davis thanks that made me LOL. "We've detected your reluctance to join the Surveillance Economy, would you like to proceed?" The only option is Yes! LMAO
legacytwitteryes.jpg

good luck

I feel mired in local bullshit, it's hard for me to get whipped up about international meltdowns when massive problems exist right outside my door. It's all connected. The status quo is shite, I don't believe anything totally, feels like transition time and the status quo must go. Assad is an evil bastard, I hope he does fall from power but by his own people not by the US. NOPE

peace

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wendy davis's picture

@eyo

but it's bana alabed thanking emmanuel macron in 2017 and adding: "I want to request you to build schools for millions of children who run away from wars" with a praying hands emoji. bana speaking w/ follower jk rowling is also funny as hell. but bana's's the 'where's there's waldo?' of the syrian war effort, as is the boy in the tweet that finally embedded.

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ggersh's picture

but in reality tptb are doing nothing but using
Syrians as pawns in their never ending game of war,
maybe someday that hopefully get's reversed.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-rob...

“I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred metres from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened. There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over Douma at night – but on this night, there was wind and huge dust clouds began to come into the basements and cellars where people lived. People began to arrive here suffering from hypoxia, oxygen loss. Then someone at the door, a “White Helmet”, shouted “Gas!”, and a panic began. People started throwing water over each other. Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia – not gas poisoning.”

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh

i'd included it in the OP.

"OTOH, CP has published Robert Fisk’s ‘The Search for the Truth in Douma’, April 17, that’ seemed to rip the veil off the many lies and obfuscations of the Western Imperium and their MSM scribes. This may indeed be in response to Fisk’s exposé at the Independent, which includes video.

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CB's picture

Bellingcat is crap.

Changed title

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wendy davis's picture

@CB

which is what i'd asked for. thank you.

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CB's picture

@wendy davis

I retract my statement about WSW. It was based on reading some of their articles back in 2011-12. I've just perused it and consider it a good site for information.

Sorry about that. I was rushed and in a foul fowl mood.

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wendy davis's picture

@CB

i like that the wsws has journalists on the ground in several nations, and in the US speak to labor strikers and other activist actions. they collectively do believe that the strikes are the beginning/s of an actual global workers' revolution, and from their mouths to the gods' ears. but they also note when union leaders sell out the rabble.

they've also been heavily covering assange's silencing with petitions, interviews, etc. and have rightfully noted that his silencing at this time...is not accidental. WikiLeaks is still publishing both currently relevant and vintage things (pompeo, say) on their Twitter account, so i do check there every day, as i do w/ my favorite tankie, both feature things i would have missed otherwise.

on edit: i just spent some time on their account, and this popped out among others:
This is the First War Since the Iraq Invasion Where the World Hasn’t Heard From Julian Assange’, Adam Garrie, eurasiafuture.com, 2018-04-15

and news on the further right wing drift of lenin moreno via telesur english. 'Ecuador to Seek Colombian Border 'Security' Cooperation With US; The move would signal a further shift away from the policies of left-wing former President Rafael Correa, who expelled a U.S. military base.'

dang, i wish we could just lay in a tweet's url here...arrggh.

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@CB I had to go look now, fuckinb! Thanks I haven't wasted the etherspace between my ears there. Blah blah blah "social media". I am mostly anti-social media.

About

Bellingcat uses open source and social media investigation to investigate a variety of subjects, from Mexican drug lords to conflicts being fought across the world. Bellingcat brings together contributors who specialise in open source and social media investigation, and creates guides and case studies so others may learn to do the same.

But I do visit https://www.wsws.org/ for the socialist viewpoint, they are in my "Censored by Google bookmarks", what's wrong with reading censored material? Some of it is pretty good I think.

peace

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wendy davis's picture

@eyo

and antiwar, as assange is, by the by. "if lies bring us war...perhaps the truth will bring us peace."

but fancy that the US made RT register as a foreign agent, and now as per the tweetie above: '‘RT faces seven new investigations in aftermath of Salisbury poisoning’; Ofcom is examining instances where Kremlin-backed news channel potentially breached UK broadcast laws on impartiality', april 18, the guardaian ...

just as RT brings a virtual roundup of 'VIP' or some such, agreeing with robert fisk.

amended: jeffrey sachs' narrative is a bit different:

"The economist, UN special adviser, and Colombia University professor told MSNBC's Morning Joe program that the current situation in Syria is a "US mistake that started seven years ago."

Those seven years have been a "disaster," he said, recalling a covert CIA operation called ‘The economist, UN special adviser, and Colombia University professor told MSNBC's Morning Joe program that the current situation in Syria is a "US mistake that started seven years ago."

Those seven years have been a "disaster," he said, recalling a covert CIA operation called ‘Operation: Timber Sycamore.’ The US "started a war to overthrow a regime."

"This is what I would call the 'Permanent State.' This is the CIA, this is the Pentagon wanting to keep Iran and Russia out of Syria, but we have no way to do that. And so we have made a proxy war in Syria.

"And so, what I would plead to President Trump is: Get out, like your instinct told you... Get out. We've done enough damage in seven years," he said.

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CB's picture

@eyo
Their articles are fully in tune with my viewpoint. I hadn't looked at that site since 2011-12. They have fully distanced themselves from some of the other pseudo-left "socialists".

I will have to retract my statement above.

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wendy davis's picture

@eyo

here w/ easycopyinging. this is the bellingcat 'analysis' he'd linked to, featuring the white helmets, and syrian human rights observatory, pretty silly all in all, but...also dangerous in his complicity.

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@wendy davis they sure throw that phrase around a lot, from their closed source proprietary computer keyboards. Reminds me of all the Linux devs who own MacBooks, "Do as I say, not as I do."
opensourceteaparty.jpg
Brought to you by RedHat, Inc.

oink

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wendy davis's picture

@eyo

likely not. great graphic.

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Alligator Ed's picture

The first issue which is well made by wd is that the "Syrian CW attack" is pure bullshit (if I am misinterpreting this essay, please club me over the head). To believe that a man under continuous violent attack (Assad) from multiple sources, who is successfully defeating his foes (with help of course) would then do something so insane as to be incomprehensible. Insanity is not conducive to winning wars of survival. Trump knew this was bullshit and every of his advisors, including Boiling John Bolton, knew this is crap--but, hey, any excuse to push for a bigger and better war. An injection of common sense would necessarily lead to this conclusion--if one is interested in the truth. Obviously many are not.

This brings up the second point. Why are so many heretofore respectable journalists now going to the dark side? Cenk was bought out for $12M, so no mystery there. But why Amy Goodman? Why Glenn Greewald? Why the other rags (or blogs) listed? Are they too being paid off? Money? Is that the sole reason? Intimidation? Possible. Whatever the reason, it will be long forthcoming before it is revealed. The foci of realism remaining in the media are becoming continuously constricted.

As more people are allegedly becoming "woke" every day, why and how is this perversion of logic AND humanity becoming more and more prominent?

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@Alligator Ed

. . . possibility as well (we can file that under "intimidation.")

I suspect that many, many people in both the government and the media, have had it explained to them by very powerful and influential interests that if they don't play along with certain agendas, there are certain "secrets" about them that will be revealed that will destroy their careers/livelihoods. (Today, for example, a piece came out on Russia Insider about the independent journalist Wayne Madsen and how he publicly alleged that Lindsey Graham is being blackmailed into taking his ardent neocon/warmongering positions by the threat of revelations about his homosexuality. I don't know if that allegation is ultimately true, but it appears plausible enough that I just can't dismiss it; it would certainly explain a lot.)

As for Louis Proyect, I've never followed this doofus closely, but I've read enough to conclude that his opinions and perspectives on so many issues have been completely full of shit. Why pay him any mind? Because he bills himself as some kind of a Marxist? I'm not sure I buy it.

And let me ask one more question: Is it possible that Proyect, like so many "liberal interventionists," is just another Israel-firster? Remember: The first generation of neoconservatives were all Trotskyite Marxists.

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wendy davis's picture

@SoylentGreenisPeople

is the worst-kept secret on the planet, lol. (i mean 'alleged' homosexuality, of course.) john aravosis and friends at americaBlog always referred to him as 'aunt pittypat'. so i dunno about madsen's formulation, but graham's always been a warmonger as far as i remember it. he and mcCrankypants were birds of a feather war hawks.

proyect does seem anti-semitic commenting at other sites, but then...counterpunch carries his columns, even when he writes rubbish like the above. and i've always admired CP and st. clair's clever word-smithing, save for some authors they feature, notably a creepy liar on trade unions, although i can't recall his name...past 'cal' something.

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@wendy davis

. . . of you and me, but how about those conservative southern voters in his Bible-belt dominated state? Even if they suspect that he's gay (I'm sure that the thought has crossed many minds down there), I'm sure that the way Lindsey has managed to comport himself in public is such that he can allow them to engage in various forms of denial about his sexuality, or ignore it altogether. What if, suddenly, irrefutable evidence about his (alleged) homosexuality were to come out publicly? What if Lindsay has been backed by religious right preachers in his state? What happens if it is proven that he's gay? Don't you think he'd lose a lot of support among the people that voted for him?

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wendy davis's picture

@SoylentGreenisPeople

but levity aside, lindsey's never met a war he didn't recommend as far as my morning bingling showed. most recently, bomb north korea, and in march after he returned from israel, he seems bullish on an israeli war on iran. now did masden out him in that russia-insider piece?

lol. i just found it. 'israel is black-mailing him'. well, guess that's why he went to israel. ach, color me skeptical.

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

and thank you. i hope you're right about increasing numbers of 'woke' citizens, i'm agnostic on that at this point, myself.

and yes, you’ve got the gist, gator (smile). as to the many reasons underpinning the notions of PEP (progressive except palestine) or kinda socialist/anti-imperialist except assad, the reasons may be ideological...or otherwise. most assume george soros funds amy goodman, and both she and the (cough) Intercept glorified the dark white helmets netflix agitprop un the wazoo.
but for GG himself, i’d have to look straight to pierre omidyar. remember that he put a lot of lucre into the putsch in ukraine, another proxy war w/ russia. did he buy a lot of land there as monsanto had? well, i’ve forgotten. and as ukraine is working its way ever closer to being accepted into NATO (it’s just ‘under the nato umbrella or some such designation now... but russia’s only warm water port is in crimea at sevastapol. georgia is also close to joining nato, and sakashvili (sp?) is in and out of power in both george and ukraine like a bad penny returning ahmed chalabi, no?

as a not-quite side note, ooof, i am such a great idjit! i’d mentioned the guardian’s bilgewater in the OP ‘syrians medics claim intimidation’, yada, yada, first at the café. i’d looked up that vaunted organization, saw it wasn’t usaid-funded SAMS, looked at the medic w/ the glasses...as familiar, and almost went and watched robert fisk’s video. but oy; bernhard at MoA saw in his 'Syria - Who Is Stalling The OPCW Investigation In Douma?' today. i hadn’t even noticed the red crescents!!

“The piece begins:
The head of the largest medical relief agency in Syria claims that medics who responded to the suspected gas attack in Douma have been subjected to “extreme intimidation” by Syrian officials who seized biological samples, forced them to abandon patients and demanded their silence.
Now look at the picture. It shows Syrian Red Crescent personal. The caption is false. It says: "Medics take a wounded man into hospital in Damascus after rockets were fired in Douma on 7 April." The picture is actually from a series published by the Syrian news agency SANA.

The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations was founded in 2012, works from Reyhanli in Turkey and claims to have 600 staff. It consists of the Syrian American Medial Society (SAMS), which is funded by the CIA front USAID and lobbies for regime change in Syria, the British-Syrian Medical Society which only works in 'rebel' held areas, as well as British and U.S. p.o.-box 'charities' which collect donations. SAMS and UOSSM are said to be Muslim Brotherhood fronts.

The Guardian shows a Syrian Red Crescent/Red Cross picture in the context of ridiculous claims made by an organization on the side of the Jihadis. The Syrian Red Crescent has no relation to that organization.”, and so on.

so...if one wants to know...one looks about, yes? when we see bana alabed with the white helmets...and at the oscars, lol and OMG! but propOrNot worked pretty well, even for the 'fearless journalists' at Pierre's place.

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zett's picture

and I do wonder why the hell any "left" outlets that I usually respect are going along with the propaganda, I'd also caution against trusting too much every outlet that says what we want to hear.

The comment section of Russia Insider is one gigantic pool of anti-Semitism.

As for Greenwald, I suspect he's just fell for it this time and can be convinced if presented different evidence.

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wendy davis's picture

@zett

i disagree w/ your hope on GG, as per my comment below. as a fearless investigative journalist, he can read where he likes, analyze as he...whatevers. but no, i shouldn't go polemical on GG; this isn't the time or place.

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Big Al's picture

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

may i ask if you happened to have clicked into my 'small and painless donation' link at the end of my diary?

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Big Al's picture

@wendy davis I was going to bring that up. Ya got me on that. I was like, what? Classic. I've actually been looking for that clip.

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

alive... i even read a book that either she or gene wilder had written as she was succumbing to cancer.

"you know what's funny about cancer, gene?"
"what, my darling?"

"absolutely...nothing".

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ZimInSeattle's picture

Paul Street
CJ Hopkins
Andrew Levine
Ted Rall
Rob Urie

and several others. Some authors are looney tunes though. WSWS.org is excellent. I also like moonofalabama.org, consortiumnews.com, and nakedcapitalism.com. Bellingcat is garbage.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

wendy davis's picture

@ZimInSeattle

and i used to like your site list, save NC most of the time, and yes to CN when robert parry was still alive. ted rall, not so much, though, but a few others, like colin todhunter and recently jonathan cook who writes from nazareth.. too blue team, lol. i'll add 'dissident voice', esp andre vltchek and his photo journalism, although they carry many columnists you see elsewhere.

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wendy davis's picture

this will serve as tonight's kinda/sorta lullaby. you may remember janelle and co.'s 'hell you talmbout', say her name say his name (assassinated by the po-po).

this is janelle and pynk a lifestyle diarist at the guardian feted as: 'Wide awoke: Why Janelle Monáe’s vagina pants make me cheer'

"The pop star’s video for Pynk gives us Vagina Monologues for a new generation. It’s joyous, uplifting – and about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

The video of Pynk, Monáe’s new single, directed by Emma Westernberg and featuring the equally bonkers Grimes, is a queer, arch and deliciously sexy ode to the vagina. Those pants are essentially chaps reconfigured as hot-pink labia – and it doesn’t get gayer than that. In the video, Monáe and her gang of women romp around the desert, drive pink convertibles and wear knickers bearing slogans such as “I grab back” on them. We really need to come up with a female equivalent of “phallic” to do all this justice. Vulvic?"

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaYvlVR_BEc]

night all.

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