It shouldn’t be surprising that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has become an idol among white nationalists in the United States.
During the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally several weeks ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, Baked Alaska, an infamous far-right YouTuber, livestreamed an encounter with a demonstrator wearing a T-shirt that read “Bashar’s Barrel Delivery Co.” The shirt alluded to the Assad regime’s frequent, horrific use of barrel bombs — weapons employed to indiscriminately target rebel-held areas of Syria.
That rally-goer shouted, “Support the Syrian Arab Army!” and “Assad did nothing wrong!” They gloated over how Assad can “solve this whole ISIS problem” with just two chemical bombs. James Fields, the 20-year-old white supremacist who allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer, posted a portrait of Assad, in military regalia and aviator sunglasses to Facebook. A superimposed caption read: “UNDEFEATED.”
There’s a simple explanation for how the American far-right became curiously infatuated with the Arab totalitarian leader: Their hearts were won over by the Assad family’s years-old propaganda campaign at home in Syria. Assad’s authoritarianism uses the same buzzwords as the far-right to describe the society he’s trying to build in his own country — a pure, monolithic society of devotees to his own power. American neo-Nazis see Assad as a hero.
As the chaos of Charlottesville and its aftermath was unfolding, Assad addressed a group of diplomats in Damascus about the ongoing war in Syria. “We lost many of our youth and infrastructure,” he said, “but we gained a healthier and more homogenous society.”
Whereas white nationalists aim to create a healthy and homogeneous society through racial purity, for Assad it means a society free of any kind of political dissent, excluding any Syrian living outside the territory his regime controls. Anyone who does not fit Assad’s specific definition of what it means to be Syrian is up for execution.
Alexander Reid Ross, a lecturer of geography at Portland State University and author of the new book, “Against the Fascist Creep,” said Assad is a figure that is central to a realization of “Eurasianism.” The notion “holds that Russia will lead the world out of a dark age of materialism and toward an ultranationalist rebirth of homogenous ethno-states federated under a heterogeneous spiritual empire,” Reid Ross said.
In other words, the Assad dynasty, with the strong backing of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian state in Russia, is the Middle East’s leading force toward creating a society that is spiritually, socially, and politically “pure.” Cosmopolitanism, with diversity in political thought and social identity, is an obstacle for those aiming to realize this vision.
Assad is a key figure in confirming the white nationalist worldview. “Holding on to Syria,” Reid Ross said, “marks for them a crucial foothold in a larger geopolitical mission — one that has everything to do with that spiritual purity associated with family, tradition, and nation.” To the far right, Assad is at the front lines in the fight against the Islamic State and, more broadly, the forces of “Islamic terrorism” in the Middle East under a nationalist banner that looks very much like their own.
And the admiration doesn’t run in only one direction. The Assad regime has cultivated relationships with far-right white nationalists for decades. One of these was allegedly Alois Brunner, who actually died in Damascus in 2010. There is reason to believe that Brunner advised Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad on torture techniques used in Syria’s infamous prison system, even as the regime has denied ever harboring Bruner.
In spite of the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war — which has likely left half a million dead and spurred a massive exodus of refugees — the United Nations, the United States, and certainly Russia are all looking for solutions to the Syrian crisis that keep Assad in power. Assad’s relationship-building and connections with fringe politicians in the West has contributed to creating international legitimacy for his continued rule, as well as fueling a propaganda machine that paints the dictator as one of the final Arab leaders standing up against American imperialism and “Islamic extremism.”
Radwan Ziadeh, a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, and a prolific, longtime Syrian dissident, said that the Assad dynasty’s central strategy in forging international legitimacy was to cultivate an image as a guardian of Christians in Syria and the wider region.
This mythos he built around himself has worked well in garnering support for the Assad family from outside Syria. Aside from Brunner and other Nazis taking shelter in Syria, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke visited Damascus in 2005, addressing a “demonstration” in support of Assad’s fight against Zionism, propping up Assad’s image as an anti-imperialist. (Palestinian refugees within Syria have suffered greatly under Assad’s sieges.)
Even more recently, as journalist Alex Rowell recently pointed out, far-right politicians from the French National Front, Golden Dawn in Greece, and Vlaams Belang in Belgium, among many others, met with Syrian government officials in Damascus over the past few years. The meetings came as the regime began to gain momentum against opposition forces with the help of Russian military intervention and support.
The Ba’ath Party, a multi-national party which was led by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Hafez al-Assad in Syria, held meetings with international far-right parties. The Iraqi Ba’ath Party met with the National Front in France and Die Republikaner in Germany, both far-right parties in the E.U., according to Reid Ross. “The radical right and fascists see them as nationalists like them,” he told The Intercept.
Though Assad has also won some support from international political forces on the left, Reid Ross argued that the support from the right is crucial to Assad’s success. “The most important international support for Assad stems from a white supremacist base and a white supremacist administration in the U.S.,” he said.
Assad’s vision of creating a “healthy” and “homogenous” society is what white nationalists have aspired to create for themselves. We don’t need to look as far back as Hitler’s Third Reich to see what their world vision could be. We only need to look at Syria today.
“He destroyed Syria,” Ziadeh said. “The population of Syria dropped before 2011 from 23 million people to into 17 million and you have millions displaced inside the country. It’s a country in ruin.” What’s left, Assad hopes, is a society that uniformly supports his rule.
Correction: Sept. 8, 2017, 2:36 p.m.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the death toll of the Syrian civil war as being in the millions. Around half a million people have died in the war.
Top photo: Syrians walk past a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 7, 2017.
Myopic juxtaposition, well done, Mariam Elba and Intercept Inc.
See Danny Haiphong’s excellent piece:
The Intercept’s Attack on the Oppressed is Why I Write
https://www.blackagendareport.com/intercepts-attack-oppressed-why-i-write
This Intercept (hit) piece is total conflation: meant to stir misdirection within the Anti-war movement. I will continue to source my information from Black Agenda Report. Thank you, Mariam Elba and the Intercept for your continued/consistent reputation for spouting the narrative put forth by Empire and absolute lack of dissecting power structures and their modes to divide us into race and class.
There is no doubt that the Assad regime is authoritarian and did in 2011 responsd to peaceful protests with violence from his security police. But it’s also obvious that other forces in the region capitalized on this internal struggle and transformed it into a full blown civil war being carried out by proxies that have no interest at all in a truly democratic Syria.
The use of fundamentalist foreign fighters from several Arab and non-Arab countries has been well documented. So trying to draw an equivalence between Assad as an authoritarian figure and right wing elements in the US is an analogy that only works if you freeze Syria in time and also only see the Batthists in overly simplistic terms. Authoritarian equals authoritarian, so one is the same as the other. This is not only sloppy thinking but dangerous as well.
The Syrian conflict has shifted dramatical over the last five years and characterizing ‘good guys and bad guys’ is silly labeling, not analysis. The Russians are using Syria to maintain their only warm water port on the Mediterranian, but also to block Syria as a pathway for jihadists to infiltrate the Caucuses.
A little research will show that the CIA began just such an infiltration process in 1983 under then Director Casey. The US has no interest in Syrian democracy and this has been demonstrated by our totally ignoring the on the ground movements of the Arab Spring. Remember, we love elections, as long as they can be controlled, but we’re not to keen on popular democracy.
So support for, or opposition to Assad involves multiple, complex international forces, most of which frankly have nothing to do with the white nationalist movement in the US. Good journalism really requires better than this.
I am curious to know why be made aware of the translation mistake which is the cornerstone of this piece, The Intercept has yet to post either a “Correction” or at very least a “Clarification”. I know for certain they have been made aware by e-mail, web board, and comment section. A search on Google will even yield knowledgeable and well thought out interpretations of the Assad speech in question. Very disappointed with the editorial staff for publishing this piece and for not being proactive concerning needed corrections.
Monolithic society? You are either a complete imbecile who knows nothing about the subject matter for which you are writing or a paid propaganda artist. Syria is one of the few places in the entire Middle East where secular religious and cultural practices can be exercised without fear of persecution. Or perhaps you prefer the monolithic “allies” like Saudi Arabia where homosexuals are butchered in public and women are brutally oppressed?
I’ll take both door #1 and #2 in combo imbecile and propaganda artist, Robert.
Now we have all the evidence we need to know for a certainty that the DoD and its commercial weapons dealer adjuncts in the senate have been arming ISIS since their CIA inception as provided by the Pentagon itself.
So, what exactly is this piece doing here at the Intercept? Why, it appears to be mere quid pro quo for CIA funding of the Intercept. Payback is a bitch, eh?
about the “expert” for this
The case of Radwan Ziadeh and the lies of Ambassador Robert Ford (the known Zionist propagandist for House of Saudi)
http://angryarab.blogspot.coml/2017/06/the-case-of-radwan-ziadeh-and-lies-of.html
Is the interecpt becoming another neocon megaphone? http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/how-the-intercept-smears-syria-by-mistranslating-an-assad-speech.html
Just imperialist one, no matter what sort of imperialist.
Check their propaganda (“article”) on North Korea.
Seems like it (p.s. I think a new term of “neolibcon” or “neoconlib” since both parties just love warmongering. And I love MOA, but “is MOA becoming another biased subjective bullshit site?”
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/the-rohingya-of-myanmar-pawns-in-an-anglo-chinese-proxy-war-fought-by-saudi-jihadists.html#more
Not nearly as pathetic as this article, but also not good. At all.
Umm. Glenn. What the fuck is this?
By the way of “Nazi salute” by Syrian children
One could google “FSA Nazi salute” and got some pictures. But I am not as ready as intercept to publish something I am not sure about.
However, the oath of allegiance by the Lebanese army, and the salute to the flag utilizes the Roman salute – possibly influenced by Vichy France shortly before independence was officially gained in 1944 – still continues to be used by the state today. (Wikipedia)
At 0:06 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbYBZhbxpU
I hope someone is held accountable for making the decision to publish such bilge.
Hal C
Funny to read how the inhabitants of the country call themselves an exceptional nation surprised the manifestations of Nazism))))
This article is full of crap! Immediately, it suggests the author is a Neo-Liberal/Neo-Con; which are indistinguishable. If Mariam Elba is saying that the recent liberation of Dir Ez-zor by the SAA and Russia, from a bunch of US Regime supported ISIS murderers, is an act of totalitarian terror; then she is either psychologically unhinged or she is being paid by one of those ‘Lobby Think Tanks’, sponging off the US taxpayer. This doesn’t even bode well for young people, especially women.
I can tell this young troll, that there are many Indigenous people around the World, who have cheered on Assad and the people of Syria. As Indigenous people of the Pacific here in New Zealand, Maori activists have seen the US Military Regimes colonial expansion turn to mush; thanks to its Indigenous populations. We also supported the ‘Standing Rock’ people; against the corporate stooges of the US Military Regime.
All amounts of propaganda by the West to demonize the people of Syria and Assad’s Govt, are starting to unravel. The so called ‘White Helmets’, have been exposed as a PR (made in the West) wing of the Al Qaeda Terror Network. The White Helmets presence at executions, have been dismissed. Their images are lies that Ms Elba and co, wish to pass off as real. Like the images of young Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh, who was exploited by the White Helmets for Western propaganda purposes. All phony, all fake and all lies. What a frigg’n joke! Its no wonder they got nominated for an Oscar.
There is an obvious disconnect between this unfortunate individual Ms Elba and the real World.
And do not forget Zionist colonizers of Palestine (and Syria) publicly preferring IS to Iran – all out of care for Syrians, sure.
Great post. And yes, I think folks like the Maori, the Rohingya, the Aborigines, Native Americans, innocent Syrians, Palestinians, can commiserate with each other.
Jewish people (some in Israel, more in the US) and Black Americans also commiserate. And I’m sure many others who have been subject to horrid persecutions. Indigenous people in Central America, Armenians, Cossacks, Romani, etc.
If you haven’t read Black Agenda Report, it’s authors are in solidarity with Palestinians, Native Americans, Syrians, Yemenis, and other folks under the thumb, killed and used by the millions, from Imperialism. Which didn’t end after the British, Dutch, Spanish empires. It just now wears a new face.
That photograph of the children doing the eerie salute. I’m assuming just like the swastika that hand and arm gesture had others meaning prior to amoral groups adopting it?? OR is the simpleton teen or young adult shown in the photo with the children really this brainwashed?
It’s the Roman salute, Wendell, not the Nazi salute.
The Roman Salute was a symbol of fealty in antiquity. Unsaid in that caption is the fact Assad’s army had recently saved all those women from almost certain death. So the adulation demonstrated is not exactly unwarranted.
Shame on the Intercept for printing such nonsense. Who the hell loves Bashar but the fact is that he still has the support of a large segment of the Syrian population. I am not a supporter of the leader but I support a secular type of government which the Baath party represents which by the way was founded by a Christian Arab let that sink in. It seems to me that since the US invasion of Iraq one secular Arab government after another has fallen only to be replaced with either a failed state or a more uniformly religious i.e. Muslim state and Bashar is the last hold out I suppose Miriam would like to see this happen in Syria as well. I’m sure she’d love to be in a hijab someday. I know that the Ba’ath government is seen by Christians as the protector of their survival which predates Bashar. Let’s see who would it serve for Bashar to fall and Syria to fracture well none other than the usual culprits Saudi Arabia, the USA, Israel, Turkey you get the picture. This article seems like a paper like something I might have written in a high school current affairs class rather than an aspiring serous and insightful news Web site. Oh and by the way I’m not a white nationalist but a secular left wing guy from the Middle East.
Great post. You hit the nail on the head when you said – “since the US invasion of Iraq one secular Arab government after another has fallen only to be replaced with either a failed state or a more uniformly religious i.e. Muslim state”. Bingo. That is Israel’s (and accordingly USA’s) main objective: to eliminate all Baath secular Arab regimes surrounding them and replace them with Balkanized, hyper-religious Muslim fiefdoms which are constantly at war with one another, posing no threat. Secular Arab regime’s like Assad’s must be eliminated as they are so much stronger.
What happened to that Christian Arab that co-founded the Baath party?
Why does the “secular” gov’t not allow Christians to run for President?
What the hell is wrong with you, Gil? Are you actually trolling people suggesting the Syrian government oppresses Christians?
I asked two questions. I am suggesting that Allen only told part of the story about the Syrian Baath party and that the govt is not totally secular. Please explain how that is trolling.
Conservatives, nationalists (i.e., anti-globalists, including white ones), are tired of adventurous, aggressive Bushes and Obamas and Clintons trying to wreck stable civilizations to create havoc.
The Intercept and the rest of the progressive left appear to want the latter.
Sure, if they are for a segregated society/nation, they are more than welcomed to do so. These groups may have to find their own land (or Planet) to get started, because guess what?? They are severely outnumbered, if they or YOU think, you will forcibly take a nation meant for all races and and turn it into your own. You’ve had several centuries to do this and succeeded for some time… times up. Humdrum white nationalists, Neo-clowns, KKK losers, are on borrowed time . They will faded away, losing more influence and power in the coming decades. As for the non-white nationalists, separatist, anti-globalist, same thing (although I understand globalism can be bad in some instances). They might last longer but ultimately they to will phase out as well.
Yeah, as if Killary is ANY better than Trump. Libyans could politely disagree.
And, anyway, it is not “globalism”, it is imperialism, and Obama had not for nothing been named “the deporter-in-chief”
KKK are just small-time thugs, USA prezes are murdering wholesale all over the world and then calling it nice names.
Anyway, racism is just a side effect of colonialism – “founding fathers” ahd been colonizers, ethnic cleansers and slavers – so, naturally, they had been racists. Today’s imperialists need racism to murder non-white people without too much problem. Obama had also mass-murdered a lot of non-whites.
Only the end of imperialism(capitalism) will end racism. NOT imperialist lies and crimes.
It’s just bizarre to me how many people, who clearly know next to nothing about this civil war on the other side of the planet, insist on picking a side. I suppose once your government gets involved you have a responsibility to educate yourself, but you don’t have to give yourself over to irrational tribalism. It seems that the Sunni majority never accepted the Alawite led dictatorship of the Assad family, but it also seems clear that had the Sunni’s won they would have put in place a brutal theocratic regime. It was basically a coalition led by National Socialists versus a coalition led by Jihadists. As is often the case, it was not a conflict of good versus evil, but a contest of lesser evils.
Good post.
No wonder that G the Zionist like a post full-chock of lies.
W started with the good advice to educate yourself, and then went on repeating the imperialist/Zionist propaganda.
The majority of Syrian army are Sunni, and they fight Wahhabi terrorists, supported by USA/GCC/Zionist colonizers of Palestine.
These Wahhabi murder not only Alawites, but also ALL non-Wahhabis, including Sunnis.
And also equates Syrian governments with Nazis (while USA/Zionist colonizers back very real Nazis, for ex, in Ukraine)
In short, W parrots stupid lies.
Team Assad Fan
The majority of the Syrian army are conscripts (led by mostly Alawite commanding officers) and it has suffered massively from defections which is why they were losing badly until the Iranians and Russian showed up to save them.
Team USA imperialists/Gulf Royals/Zionist colonizers of Palestine.
1) Proof for such claims (ie about mostly Alawite commanders)
2) Sure, and deserters were all because they did not liked Alawites, not by any other reason . And how “massively”? NN, please.
3) Syrian army had held several years against forces backed by USA imperialists/Gulf Royals/Zionist colonizers of Palestine and many others. Still, the majority of Syrians (and Sunnies) still lived in land under As’sad rule, because they fled “moderate” AQ and IS, if they were able. As’sad got support even from many of his former foes in Syria- ie liberals, after they saw what does “liberation” by AQ/IS meant. And now the great majority of Syrians hate USA and other backers of “moderate” AQ/IS.
4) Lies about Syria being =Hitler’s Germany still are lies.
It is a fight NOT of Sunni against Allawi, but USA imperialists/Gulf Royals/Zionist colonizers of Palestine, AQ and IS against the majority of Syrian people, other anti-Zionist resistance (Iran, Hezballah, Palestinian fighters) and Russia.
By the way, Palestinian fighters if they are Muslims all are Sunni, and they fight against “moderate” Zionist pals -AQ and IS
1)”The majority of the Syrian military are Sunni, but most of the military leadership are Alawites. Alawites make up 12 percent of the Syrian population but are estimated to make up 70 percent of the career soldiers in the Syrian Army.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Armed_Forces
2&3) The proof is they were losing badly for years to bunch of amateurs. No functioning national army could lose more than half the country if they really had the support of their people. I don’t care how much money the Gulf States were throwing at these people, that’s nothing compared to the overt aid rendered by the Russians and Iranians to prop up Assad.
4) I didn’t say he was Hitler, but Baathism is a form of National Socialism
1) “estimated” by whom? By the same “authorities” who gave us “Saddam WMD”?
2-3) “bunch of amateurs”? Armed, trained, promoted and helped by NATO and Zionist colonizers of Palestine? Sure, and I am a Queen of England
4) NO , Baathism is NOT a form of National Socialism. It is a typical anti-colonial nationalism with more or less leftist program. Nazis were a tool of imperialist/colonizing capitalism . Of course, real Nazis, like Ukrainian ones are celebrated officially and USA ruler had nothing against it.
You can’t argue with faith and you can’t tell someone who’s love that they aren’t…
W has NOT proved the propaganda lies he(?) had posted.
No wonder that W is trying to change the subject.
That wikipedia entry’s source on the SAA’s massive “defections” cites the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, whose mission is the following (bold mine):
Established in 1985,[1] the institute’s mission statement says that it seeks “to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them.”[2]
Also, that defector mentioned in the article who says he fled to Lebanon-how do we know he’s really Syrian? And where was this report filed from? It’s not clear whoever wrote it even set foot in Syria to talk directly to military officials.
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1670515/syria-increasing-efforts-build-military-after-substantial-loses
Huh? The state did have quite a bit of support from the citizenry. Sharmine Narwani went to Syria in 2011 and she found that even some members of the opposition wanted the current government to remain in power, just with reforms and changes.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syrian-snapshot-i-view-capital
Hm. Wikipedia says Ba’athism is unrelated to National Socialism (Nazism). Are the Ba’athists scientific racists? Eugenicists? Backed by Wall Street and the British empire to take on the Soviets/Communists?
NO, they are not. Unlike the Nazis, who were.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialism_(disambiguation)
You’re just making crap up and making lazy generalizations. And you’re also lecturing people about taking a side, when you obviously came here to troll us and spread lies that support one side. You should learn something about this conflict instead:
https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/RobRothSyriaPrimer-whats-really-happening.pdf
“…it seems…”
Based on what?
“…irrational tribalism…”
It is not irrational to side with the Syrian people when they’re the ones being attacked by the West, idiot.
Just as the minority of israelis in Palestine murder the citizens of Palestine who protest against the jihadist leader of israelis. Perhaps your geniousity could explain how this identical situation is a lesser of 2 evils…
Just another tribal conflict on the other side of the planet. The only reason I have to care is that members of one tribe have conned the American government into funding their brethren.
Another “knowledge” of W.
It is NOT a ‘tribal”, but a colonialism by Zionists (who are, by the way. NOT a “tribe”, but an ideology ) and resistance by colonized Palestinians, who resist colonization just like any other people had.
Holy goddamn hell, you’re a sociopath, aren’t you?
News Flash. Sunni’s make up the majority of the Syrian Arab Army. Bashar Al-Assad’s wife is is Sunni, this naive and divisive mentality is indicative of how ignorant you are of the conflict.
The Intercept – solidly in the camp of the governments of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Gulf States, Israel, the U.S. CIA, the U.S. All opponents of imperial intervention in Syria are not lovers of Bashad Assad. In fact, on the left, almost none are. But the policy of destroying another middle-eastern state by the U.S. has resulted in a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. Both refugee and death.
“Democratic” jihadis unite, you have nothing to lose but your place in heaven.
The Intercept – owned by an American billionaire, who has fooled 3 really good reporters – Scahill, Greenwald and Turse – into fronting for his site.
If they were “fooled” by the obviously fascist Omidyar, they aren’t very good journalists, especially since others were not fooled at the time.
Now I don’t know about you fellow reader but I can only speak for myself, I have never seen any Syrian propaganda before in my life (though now I’m curious). However, I have seen endless amounts of anti-Assad propaganda from the Fake News mainstream media here in the United States. Where to begin?
I could go on but the message is clear: Assad is a big evil Bogeyman and the United States has to take him out. Where have we heard this narrative before? Iraq. After the Iraq War, let’s just say I am a little skeptical of this narrative. Also, how do we know that replacing Assad will be better for Syria? Look at Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. Arguably, these countries are now worse off than before our intervention and nation-building.
Yes, you’re spot on: the idea is to make Syria just like Iraq or Libya, i.e. failed states controlled by extremist Muslim fiefdoms like ISIS, al-Queda, etc. Notice how the media, as in this article always demonize the target for removal, but never offer any replacement leadership. The country is left to dissolve into chaos and self-destruct. Seems that this is by deliberate design courtesy of USA, Israel, EU, etc.
Assad destroyed Syria? So, if a bandit broke into your house and made a chaos, that is you who is guilty? Is it the logic of the author?
Assad did nothing wrong, your article is poop-tier propaganda.
There are so many falsehoods and blatant inaccuracies in this Assad hatchet job hit piece is defies imagination. One obvious ridiculous claim is that Syria is, or wants to be homogenous: utterly, completely the opposite of what Syria is, i.e. a mixed bag of Christians and Muslims of different faiths. What’s more, you know this article is laughably bad when the author glibly cliams “IN SPITE OF the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war “… What? Says who? Says Ms. Elba nobody? No references, just a hollow bullsh!t claim. Might as well listen to Nikki Haley at the UN for other comical factoids pulled out of either woman’s backside. I mean, the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel certainly don’t have anything to do with perpetrating Syria’s civil war….do they. No, of course not. Saudi Arabia? LOL!
As has been remarked upon by others, the Intercept is one odd duck of a ‘news’ website. Sometimes a good article pops up; but more often than not you come across a piece of sh!t like this turd hit piece by Ms. Elba, regurgitating the Russia is evil doer mantra along with Assad is now a neo-nazi. Jesus christ what nonsense propaganda. Ms Elba should find a new job methinks. Maybe Wendy’s is hiring smiling faces?
this propaganda piece is getting trashed in multiple places, as it deserves. she is apparently basing it on mistranslating one word as homogeneity and then claiming that assad and white racists share the same concept, which would be extremely sloppy if it weren’t intentional.
It’s sloppy, but there may be something to it. His name is an advertisement for the SS. A SS ad. You can’t get more Nazi than that.
How about NATO’s new headquarters ? An aerial view says it all….
How’s Pierre?
Tool.
These threads uncovers the illogical arguments of most of commenters who come to TI. They start by questioning the author’s professional integrity and even her education. Then they attack her for writing what they disagree with.
When we (really two of us) push those commenters to refute the article by challenging the facts the author presents, they start talking about Zionism, Deep State, Israel, Palestinians etc. issues that have absolutely nothing to do with the article. Finally, a few explains that the sources used by the author are not credible. That could be a fair argument, but none of them could tell us which organization we should trust in handling and validating evidence of atrocities in Syria. We should not trust the evidence presented by the UN, Western powers, human rights groups or News organizations. So, who should collect, validate and present the evidence? None of them have an answer.I have that feeling those same commenters would trust the UN or any news organizations that present evidence of atrocities against Western powers.
So, basically they are just resorting to unnecessary exercises instead of clearly stating their view that atrocities from the enemies of Western powers should not be reported. At least a commenter have the courage to state it. His baffling argument is that it’s not “socially responsible ” to report on Assad because, although Assad is “bad”, he is an official enemy of the US. We still do not know how he would conclude Assad is “bad” without those types of articles since he does not trust Western governments reports, and I seriously doubt he has been to Syria.
S is lying one more time. The critics of this piece of imperialist propaganda pointed to many lies in it (starting with “millions” victims of As’sad), with the mistranslation of As’sad words used as a basis.
No wonder that S and G the Zionist are main defenders of this hasbara.
And when a well-know bordello owner claims some woman is not decent it is not very smart to believe in such “authority”.
And, of course, S lies too when claims that the position of us is “atrocities from the enemies of Western powers should not be reported”. Me, for ex, had named a source (anti-imperialist one) whose report I would believe.
We just say that the backers of imperialist/Zionist crimes are NOT credible and had been caught many times , and that their lies already had helped to start many imperialist wars and ruin many states.
Of course, G the Zionist defends this hit peace NOT because it could help to made Syria another Libya, but because G cares SO much about Syrians (who are victims of both Zionist colonizers’s crimes and crimes of their favs – AQ and IG).
“S is lying one more time.”
There has to be a least a first time in order to use the term “one more time”
“Me, for ex, had named a source (anti-imperialist one) whose report I would believe.”
He is a professor who gives his opinion and analysis on political situations. That was not what I asked you. Let me ask again to the rational readers, not to you, because you are (like Gladio and Harrell) so full of nonsense that you cannot comprehend rational views.
1) Syrians accuse Assad for using chemical weapons on them. That is a serious crime.
2) Tell us who according to you guys, are supposed to collect, study, evaluate and present the evidence of that crime. And what kind of evidence would be necessary to prove such a crime.?
3) That’s set. (2) above is all I asked. I am not interested in your opinion of Israel, Palestinians, Zionists etc. I would like to know because according to you guys, the UN, Western governments, human rights organizations, global news networks are not credible. I am not interested in why you guys think there are not credible. I am not interested in what a political commentator thinks about Assad neither.
Let’s see where the UN, Western government, human rights organizations, global news networks also got things wrong (I mean…besides Syria). Perhaps Kosovo? Too long ago? How about Libya? That too recent and painful a memory? These are both excellent examples and proof that this has happened before.
The UN is only as strong as its internal opposition and outward leadership to oppose US control of the organization. Some administrations it is heavily US controlled, sometimes less so. This is not blanket condemnation of the UN, so don’t accuse me of that. Or sure, go ahead and do, but you know you are full of shit. The UN does do some great work and usually has good intentions, but consistency is not its strong suit.
And many human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights are easily duped and manipulated. Recently such groups were used as tools to enhance a more bellicose approach with Russia (2012 was a particularly bad year for such human rights organizations), but if you look at the history, many human rights organizations have gotten worse and worse since the end of the Cold War. They have strayed from their purpose of defending specific political prisoners and now often simply just condemn whole governments as being in violation of human rights. And they are very inconsistent about it. The United States government, a much bigger instigator of human rights violations than any nation on Earth, is mostly ignored but all of Syria and the Assad government is nearly universally considered human rights violators. Ditto Maduro in Venezuela (while the coup-driven opposition is ignored). We see the same thing with Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia (while any opposition was ignored even though it probably had greater crimes against humanity). China is another example, while Saudi Arabia is mostly ignored, or only occasionally brought to attention.
Another minor example to proves the point — Pussy Riot disrupts a church service (imagine that happening in this county — the reaction would be to put Pussy Riot to death) while being almost completely nude and screams obscenities to the audience. Now, I am sure Pussy Riot had some real points to be made, but getting nearly naked and swearing during church service ain’t the best approach. And of course they got arrested. The western circus media, with the help of Amnesty International turned this into a Russian suppression and Putin is a Nazi festival, even though the Pussy Riot protest had nothing to do with Putin and everything to do with the Russian Orthodox Church. The US and Amnesty acted as if Putin was the cause of the protest and that his reaction (he didn’t order the arrest, people) was indicative of how oppressive RUssia is and how they have so many political prisoners, like Pussy Riot. Now, once again, I like Pussy Riot. I also am not a fan of Putin. Just like I am not a fan of Obama or Trump. But, I like to try and be a little honest when I criticize a leader. Amnesty International, doesn’t seem to be on the same page as me. They were happy to go marching off with Hillary Clinton in demonizing Russia for any little thing possible.
And recently in Syria we have this story, reminiscient of the story of the iraqis pulling the plug of baby incubators in Kuwait — https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/human-slaughterhouse-mass-hangings-and-extermination-at-saydnaya-prison-syria/
This story was easily picked apart by anyone with two or more brain cells. This was a propaganda piece, much like the White Helmets “saving the day stories.” Just follow the money.
Swisscheese:
“I am not interested in why you guys think they (UN, Western governments…) are not credible.”
You:
“Let’s see where the UN, Western government, human rights organizations, global news networks also got things wrong”
You wrote a long comment about the point that I am not interested in. I have very serious questions for you:
Did you even read what I wrote? Or if you did, did you understand it at all?
Why? How can you expect to discuss these things in good faith then?
Do you think these institutions are credible? Why?
Why?
1) Because I do not have to have any interest in what you are talking as you do not have to have any interest in what I am writing. BUT I am willing to answer your questions if you answer mine. You have not answered my question:
WHAT ORGANIZATION SHOULD GIVE YOU THAT EVIDENCE?
2) You believe there are not credible. And?
1) “Syrians” could be bought or just Wahhabis and hate As’sad for other reasons
2) Not somebody who had given us such great “evidence ” of “Babies thrown out of incubators”, for ex. And NOT “Bellingcat” either.
3) And I have nice bridge to sell, all I ask is to believe me. And, unlike AI, I had NOT been caught lying about bridges for sale.
By the way, AI had not even apologized, they just “regretted” their leis, which helped to ruin a country.
Of course, S is lying when he says that there were NO arguments against this hatched job of an article.
And sure, S is not interested in anything relevant, because all what is relevant is against him.
Hitler accused communists of setting fire to Reichstag. S would NOT be interested in why Hitler could lie.
Dreyfus had been persecuted as a spy by the French army. S would NOT be interested to know who was Dreyfus and who were his accusers (and his defenders too).
In BOTH cases it had been NOT “proper authorities” who helped to defend these innocent people. They defenders were journalists, novelists, just common people. they had not believed the accusers, because they knew better. Unlike S.
“And when a well-know bordello owner claims some woman is not decent it is not very smart to believe in such “authority”.”
I think you should leave your personal life out of this and stick to the facts.
No one backed any Zionist crime. You repeatedly make this charge and have been challenged to back it up with evidence. I will not assume all Assad supporters lie just because you do Lidia. The claim of millions of deaths was corrected before I even read the article. There have indeed been millions of victims. That you would deny this only proves your lack of knowledge about the situation in Syria. As for the supposed mis-translation I have no idea if that is indeed the case. The only evidence given is a link to a twitter user who is anonymous.
I’m curious, where are you from?
G the Zionist could not refute my arguments, so he(?) turned to attacking my character. Usual for Zionsits, I have a lot of experience with hasbarists
Of course, G the Zionist has another “arguments” , ie lies as he breathes. “There have indeed been millions of victims.”
The mistranslation fact had been supported much more than “a link to a twitter user who is anonymous”
In short, G is a typical Zionist.
You didn’t present any arguments you just wrote a bunch of disjointed nonsense. There have in fact been millions of victims. Victims don’t only include those killed but those wounded or displaced. Regardless of who you have experience with you must lose a lot of arguments if you don’t understand basic things like that.
If you have another source for the mistranslation claim provide it. otherwise you have nothing.
Why are you so embarrassed to admit where you are from lidia?
I have to leave G the Zionist with his “There have in fact been millions of victims” claims.
Even among Zionist G is something.
Here is my proof the fact that you are unaware of this speaks volumes.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/number-syrian-refugees-passes-million-170330132040023.html
G the Zionist cannot read? Just being curious.
“An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the death toll of the Syrian civil war as being in the millions. Around half a million people have died in the war.”
And the displaced Syrian fled because of NATO/GCC/Zionist colonizers crimes and crimes of their pals -AQ and IS.
As soon as AQ and IS is being booted out, Syrians return in mass – to live under As’sad, who this piece of propaganda calls a Nazi
“Almost 500,000 refugees return in 2017 – UN
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says more than 440,000 internally displaced Syrians and about 31,000 of those who fled abroad have now come back.
Most of them have returned to Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus …”
All the places cleaned up by Syrian army and its allies.
There were over 5 million refugees, didnt they teach math where you grew up lidia.
The intercept bleeding credibility FAST holy shit what’s happened to them since trump? Smells bad, real bad
Assad is The Lion of The Desert. He has cemented his place in History. Avirtual David vs Goliath. His Army is one of the most cohesive loyal battle hardened armies in the whole region equipped with modern hi tec weaponery which has been tested on the battlefield. His local enemies are worried. There is nothing not to admire. He and his struggle was utterly Demonized and dismissed by the MSM Fake News. Is he an angel a ” Gandhi”? no.. but he’s displayed courage steadfastness and an idomitable Will. Should we be so lucking in he west to have a leader like him.
@john anderson
John, you’ve been active in the space where Greenwald writes for some 7-8 years, and had at one point stated you found his readers and supporters arrogant, or something along those lines. As a primary Greenwald supporter in the past, I guess I was a target of this critique.
Look below you. See how Gil G, swisscheese, and the obvious hasbara troll, Jack Green, have just run rampant here now, and almost all of Greenwald’s highfalutin (that is, intelligent & well-informed) readers who perturbed you are now gone. For myself, I won’t participate here very much at all any more.
Glenn has abandoned this site to corporate control and whatever Betsy Reed et al wish; whatever they want he goes along with and defends. Oh, his own work is still very good, but you won’t see him opposing the gross decline in commenting quality or article quality: He hasn’t the guts or honesty. These are things I should have recognized and said well before now. I did know, very well, he was capable of such immoral and blinkered behavior.
Let me add this: This site, with Glenn’s full knowledge, permitted swisscheese to drive Sufi Muslim away. She’s a fine, intelligent and thoughtful woman, but that jerk would not leave her alone and was and is incapable or unwilling to understand anything she wrote.
She politely asked this swisscheese person to leave her alone, and he refused. Glenn and the powers that be would not ask that he do so, so it appears she has left. That is just one reason I now despise this site and what Glenn has let himself become.
Mona-
So- you came back because why?/
Like the rest of us, dear Sufi could just change her nym once in awhile, and have some fun.
Oh, that’s right “wordz hurtz” in the crybully crowd full of “safe spaces,” where only they get to slander, malign, and play unfairly.
Or did you come back cuz this article that explains CLASSIC GANG STALKING cause and effect; practice and practitioners (on both sides)?
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/06/how-right-wing-extremists-stalk-dox-and-harass-their-enemies/
“Like the rest of us, dear Sufi could just change her nym once in awhile, and have some fun.”
Sufi Muslim -swisscheese
September 4 2017, 12:11 p.m.
I am sure you have a good sense of humor in real life, but here, I say, lighten up!
I mischievously needled you today to get a reaction out of you, and I succeeded.
There is nothing less or more to it.
Live your life joyfully and with a sense of humor.”
Fully agree. Longtime GG fan and intercept fan, but the change is undeniable. They started asking for money and maybe they saw that the money coming in had strings attached. Such a shame but its yet another example of the state of things.
Ironically the actual meaning of highfalutin fits you and your sycophants to a tee, and just like a self proclaimed intelligent and well informed person to get it so wonderfully wrong.
Adjective[edit]
highfalutin (comparative more highfalutin, superlative most highfalutin)
(informal) Self-important, pompous; arrogant or egotistical.
i’m your huckleberry
Your ad hom, non sequitur again detracts from what you, as a Zionist, will not face about the horror and violence YOU support: Zionism and anti-Semitism aren’t flirting. They’ve been in a committed, long-term relationship. Zionism is a disease and Zionist are racists who have slaughtered thousands. None of which has shit to do with the tragic betrayal Glenn has done.
My comment was neither a non sequitur,i commented on what you wrote, or an ad hom, i only called you what you called yourself. However your reply is both. Too too funny. You really are highfalutin Mona.
To come to a private organization and demand that a commenter who did not violate any rules be banned because another commenter does not want her arguments be challenged shows a matchless level of arrogance. Then, she exposes her irrational behavior by coming here continuously while thrashing the site, the authors’ private lives, and of course even the commenters who ignore her.
That commenter’s absurdity is not worth of the attention she scavenges for.
i will miss your participation as i have already
s.f.
Gil and swisscheese are lovingly now welcome here– Glenn Greenewald protects their participation and does not care, at all, about the loss of his many, many original supporters. (I have his emails abjuring us to go elsewhere, and his abandoning Sufi Muslim.)
As Gil glommed on to, Glenn lets us be regarded as “highfalutin” disposables. Isn’t that great and noble of such a faithful guy, who has no loyalty to those with him when he was small? Glenn is now beloved by such as Gil.
In the evolution of progress, the path diverged. I would challenge the shapers to ofer their perspectives for some debate here and see how the good people, the commenteers, respond. There is too much talent and too many professionals here to simply abandon.
thanks for reply.
Uh-huh. Reason dictates parameters, and you don’t seem included.
Humans who will destroy others without reflection should not be looked to for “evolutionary progress.” Glenn Greenwald destroys lives on a personal level — he cannot, literally cannot, look at or accept that. My moral error was failing to say so much earlier.
“Glenn Greenwald destroys lives on a personal level — he cannot, literally cannot, look at or accept that” Imagine that sort of behavior coming from an anti zionist.
so Im guessing he still won’t talk to you Mona.
Huh? Where did I say I love Glenn? Wow I not sure what this place will miss more, if you really ever go Mona, your propensity for telling lies or you repeated claims about what a big brain you have. Glenn didn’t let you be regarded as ” “highfalutin” disposables” you regarded yourself as such. Do you ever get embarrassed by what you write. Do yourself a favor Mona instead of taking that next drink just go to bed.
A drink, Gil? Well, that would be nice if it could fix things.
But no, Glenn stole the money paid to me after a wrongful death suit when my son died. Alcohol isn’t going to fix that. But that’s just how he rolls.
I shut up about it for about a decade because he’s so damn good on issues I care about. That was a bad choice on my part. It left other vulnerable people with no warning.
And here you are, and others like you, taking over comments (and Betsy Reed running content above). He’s content with that because he never actually was about truth *if it got in the way of his goals. This I did really know from the outset when he began blogging, but kept it to myself, which I never should have done.
well my more or less constant finger pointing at those i deemed arrogant was in the context of commentary that was mostly intelligent and usually made sense, which is no longer the case here
Yes, I figured you thought that. As you know, I never called you a troll, and disagreed with those who did.
What’s happened here is regrettable. Glenn is still 95% correct and, frankly, a genius, in what he posts above the line. But as a human being he’s an asshole, throwing anyone under the bus to follow the path of least resistance, including a corporate path. This came home to me when, last fall, he pridefully explained that they got this site’s “social media director” from the Wall Street Journal. I mean, I didn’t even know what to say to THAT.
People change even as they remain the same.
I can understand that. Near to taking this site off of my own list. This article is just so much lower than low it’s almost unimaginable for what this site claimed to start as. Completely ridiculous, no appreciation for actual facts, asserting things akin to “17 agencies agree”. Not just disappointed with this article, but any editor or e-i-c who would ever green-light it. Does such an editor here double as the editor of Kurt Eichenwald? If not how would one ever know, having green-lit this utter piece of shit article.
I’ve ignored within milliseconds any “Omidyar controls this site’s narratives” claims for years. Since, at least originally, it was “fearless”. But now–well I’m too tired to even also find any connection, or dismiss such.
But 1/20 or so “fearless” articles (and some of the long-form and numbered things are still good), or one GG a month about media manipulation (please take thine plank out of the thyne own eye, unless it’s in your contract to never criticize this site or any writers on it)? Might even be a lesser hit:miss ratio than a Salon or Huffpost. Or hell, Fox News or MSNBC.
Anyway, I’ve appreciated reading your posts over the years.
But sure, go go White Hats (Hussain). Destroy Assad (this shit) because White Nationalists love him for dubious reasons, and also who cares if the point is peace instead of WAR.
Do pedophilies love Assad? Next Intercept article–YES!! Look at these coincidences instead of objectivity!
Anyone who even acknowledges that Assad is a dictator, yet Syria is still a sovereign nation, will be next slammed as a white nationalist, or next a pedophile. Do serial killers love Assad? What a journalistic scoop if so!
Heather Heyer was not killed by a car, she didn’t even get hit by one.
She died of a heart attack. She was a severely obese smoker, yet the media uses pictures that make her look barely overweight.
A shocking new low in what is allowed to pass for ‘journalism’ at The Intercept. The US, under Obama/Clinton/Kerry and its regional allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Jordan etc., bear full responsibility for the total destruction of Syria, half a million (at least) deaths, millions more lives utterly ruined and this salute to total ignorance and cheap propaganda is a profound disgrace to decent people everywhere.
Great defense. Are the Dreamers any worse off than they were before Donald felt compelled to punch down for a little love from his base. Yes they are. But what he did can be undone in a second. Has he bothered to undo it?
A reminder to everyone left of fascist: Donald betrays everyone if he feels like it. He is, and has always been, completely untrustworthy.
He declared open season on the Dreamers. The GOP got the message and Donald will never do anything to mitigate the harm he caused.
This is bad propaganda.
This Elba character needs to be fired and shipped back to CNN/MSNBC where propagandists like her belong, and then Glenn Greenwald needs to write a proper journalistic article on Syria.
If author worries about ““homogenous” society”, she should rather turn her attention to countries like Somalia, India, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Sudan….
USA or Europe are the most diverse countries and societies that can be.
Has she really been worried about homogeneous ideologies she would turn to areas where it really exists, not attacking societies where it doesn’t.
It’s extraordinary to read through this comment section – especially finding a desiccated old propaganda chestnut like “Zionists made the desert green” rearing its zombie head from the muck. The article itself is such a cheap piece of specious logic and cheap shots that it hardly deserves the more cogent responses here: I concur with those who’d expect to find this kind of thing in Breitbart News rather than The Intercept (although possibly it was included here as a kind of token gesture to those charging The Intercept with lack of “breadth” for not publishing this kind of tripe, the editors being fully aware that it was garbage and letting it suffer the inevitable denunciations as such). Otherwise, it may be worth noting what characterizes most of this comments section: the Manichean bias, ubiquitous in the West, to assume that that all conflicts involve a struggle of good against bad, that one side therefore has to be a good guy, and that if evil neocons are attacking someone or some regime then it must be that good guy. This is false reasoning. Two things can simultaneously be true: (1) the Asad regime is a nasty piece of work, long prone to torture and repression and extra-judicial killings (hardly a new discovery), and (2) if human rights are really the issue, then international efforts to overthrow that regime are objectively a far worse piece of work in killing hundreds of thousands and generating unprecedented refugee flows, smashing the ancient mosaic of the society probably past repair, and generally ramping up the scale of human suffering to a horrifying degree. It’s also not irrelevant that efforts to overthrow the regime threaten the whole UN Charter in blatantly violating international law, even under the dubious mantle of R2P (the “responsibility to protect” doctrine that waves the flag of humanitarian righteousness but whose real potential stands before us in the figure of smashed Libya). Finally, it takes only a broad appreciation of the region’s geopolitics and history to recognize how these US/Israeli-fostered efforts aim to reduce Syria to the status of Iraq – that is, a broken state that can pose no threat to Israel’s hegemony in the region, whether in limiting Israel’s parameters of action in southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights or by providing sanctuary and supplies to Hezbullah and Hamas. It was exactly that kind of dangerous maneuver that the Charter was written to preclude, so we must worry if it’s heading for the ash heap of history. I’d therefore suggest that principled observers can oppose Asad’s authoritarianism and denounce his human rights abuses (those actually documented, that is) AND oppose the neoconservative aims behind efforts at his regime’s overthrow. One doesn’t preclude the other. If the real question is whether the regime should “be allowed” to stand, that’s no debate, as international law provides no legal way to overthrow it. But defending Asad’s regime against illegal attack by nefarious forces need not extend to denying that it is one seriously ugly regime.
Your post just here should’ve been the actual above-line post. This particular author is either ignorant, so should try tackling things she knows about first instead of vomiting forth mainstream lies and propaganda; or cognizant so trying to push forth a BS narrative. Either way–imo the utter worst article this site has ever produced. It’s almost the opposite of what good journalism is supposed to be about.
Judith Miller would be touched. Maybe there should be an award for this type of “journalism”.
One point should be differentiated and cleared. Western powers have created the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the offshoot. have armed them, and financed them under false pretenses as ” supporting the rebels” and then for 6 years with the accumulative force of the west, navy, air, and ground, claiming to be fighting ISIS when public opinion turned against the so called “rebels”, although with this infiltration ISIS grew more in power and areas in Syria and Iraq lost regions to them, until the direct penetration by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah.
Now comparing the Assad government to those of the western backed “False rebels” ISIS, and Al-qaeda affiliates, clearly defines the difference.
This article is dressing and generalizing this war and this western interference as the fault of the Assad government. Then comparing and tying the resistant axis to those who represent racism, poorly educated, and hate criminals while white washing the western crimes in this war.
The Assad government is not the bell of the ball, but Syria before the war had all religious factions, Christians and all their different dominions, Muslims and their different dominions living in peace and away from danger. This should be taken in consideration.
The difference is clear. from Western backed genociders, and thuggery in the name of religion versus an iron fisted ruler that the country flourished and was in peace ( take in consideration the west has sanctioned Syria for more than 40 years).
What has the Intercept become?
It was a beacon of real news and a thorn in the side of US foreign policy ambitions and now it’s nothing more than this leftist opinion cum rag.
“White supremacists support an Alawite Muslim Dictator that allows for a secular multi-cultural society because of Syrian propaganda.”
Where is Glen Greenwald?
Like, what the fuck is going on?
Indeed. This is easily one of the most disingenuous, crap hatchet job articles to show up here in a long time. Mariam Elba is really, really bad.
Take a look around: I’ll bet you can find this article on other “news” sites like-
-National Review
-Drudge
-Weekly Standard
-Council on Foreign Relations
So much for the Intercept being a ‘Left’ or liberal news website :-D
We are talking about an Islamic nation here. Assad runs a secular regime. The alternative is something like al Qaeda. The neocons and DC don’t give a damn about these people, it’s all about the continuing campaign of world domination and destruction.
Assad is the ideal BiggerHammer to get things done his way– the bottom low for leadership and abuse of the public trust. No accountability, lots of control, no reason ability, no decency, no fairness, lots of power and funds, no honesty, no care for anyone else, just kill and kill and kill– the epitome of what every mean person aspires to.
R’s rant is the ideal parroting of USA imperialist propaganda. No accountability, lots of control, no reason ability, no decency, no fairness, lots of power and funds, no honesty, no care for anyone else, just lie and lie and lie to whitewash USA imperialist/GGC/Zionist colonizers of Palestine mass-murder.
And, of course, who needs facts, when R and others are ready to repeat such righteous nonsense
What a disgraceful piece of war-mongering propaganda. Fake news at its worst. Mariam Elba should be fired IMMEDIATELY.
This, another in a long line of BS neoliberal pieces published at the Intercept, has drawn some interesting responses – not just idiotic, it’s also dishonest:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/how-the-intercept-smears-syria-by-mistranslating-an-assad-speech.html
Time to move The Intercept over into the dancing PR monkey bin, I think. American media in general, across the entire spectrum, is hitting rock bottom these days. It’s turned into a wholesale plutocratic enterprise devoid of honest analysis, historical context, and factual basis.
What worries me more than the few crazy people described in this piece, is the fact that readers of the Intercept are confronted with such pieces of delusional worldviews by socalled ‘journalists’. It all smells so much of total brainwashed activism camouflaged as freedom of speech.
Why don;t U do an expose of your boss, that Pierre guy of EBay fame and show us all the ‘color revolutions’ he’s donated money to?
BTW, still waiting for that Ed Snowden info on Israel, but I understand you don’t want to PO your close buddies!
Go to the search function here. Search “Israel”.
“a small inaccuracy can save hours of explanation.” — Saki
I’m gay and I am a big fan of Glenn Greenwald, I would even go as far as say I have a crush on him, I would follow him into the bowels of hell to fight the army’s of hell, but this article is psyco and It’s obvious that there is something wrong with Mariam Elba. I never dreamed as a gay person that I would be labeled a white nationalists. I guess this is what it’s come to. Dear Intercept, this place is a mess you need to clean this crap up it’s all over the place.
Just curious. Why do you think you have been labeled a white nationalist?
I think what he means is that he supports Syria’s right to defend itself from the US-backed Islamic terrorists and/or US-backed, supposedly moderate “rebels” trying to overthrow the (secular) Syrian government with the support of a massive US aerial bombardment campaign launched by Obama and continued by Trump, despite earlier suggestions that he would abandon it.
Assad is Syria’s (elected) head of state, and thus responsible for national defense. You don’t have to be a Nazi to believe in a semi-colonial country’s right to defend itself from imperialist terror, and in fact, if you look at the track record of most fascist movements and regimes, you will see that in general, sooner or later, they support imperial terror and are inspired by it. That’s one of the facts that makes Mariam Alba’s article so uniquely depraved, and I think “It’s Me” would mostly agree with that assessment, and is alarmed, as I sort of am, to see Glenn Greenwald’s name being dragged through the mud by association with a news source that would publish something like this. Of course, the Guardian publishes plenty of imperialist propaganda, and Greenwald used to write for it, but somehow that wasn’t the same. He was just an employee there, and the Guardian existed long before he was even born, whereas The Intercept is new, and its reputation thus far has been about 80% built on Greenwald’s prestige. Laura Poitras is a part of this picture as well, but she seems to have already sold out on her own with her recent smear job on Wikileaks…
Thanks for the reply Alan but even if what you suspect It’sMe meant by his comment none of what you wrote explains how anyone labeled him a white nationalist. The article doesn’t claim Assad is a white nationalist. It’s main point is that Assad seems to have attracted a bunch of white nationalists to his cause. I am hoping you put the words elected and secular in parenthesis because both terms are questionable as it applies to Assad and Syria.
As for Greenwald’s name being dragged through the mud, who is doing the dragging? As for imperialist propaganda, are the pro Russia articles imperialist propaganda? And why is propaganda no matter where it comes from acceptable?
Also, if It’sMe is a gay man as he claims, I wonder why he supports a ruler in whose country homosexuality is crime.
Maybe because by Syrian law (usually such laws are “heredity” of colonizers, by the way) a gay man could(!) be sentenced to 3 years in jail. But It’sMe is aware “moderate rebels” (IS and AQ) are sure welcome gay man and treat them much better!
Of course, during the times (not SO long ago) when gay men had been prosecuted in Western imperialist states, a lot of gay men defended imperialism and served in imperialist armies.
Why does it need to be a zero sum game? Why can’t one be opposed to both Assad and IS? While some laws may have been left over from colonial days very doubtful that this one is. It more likely the result of Islamic law being the basis of Syrian law.
1) G the Zionist, amid other lies, lies about my position
I said before that there are people who are anti USA imperialism/GCC/Zionist colonizers and their puppets AQ and IS AND against As’sad.
2) Of course, such people do not believe in propaganda of USA imperialism/GCC/Zionist colonizers and their puppets AQ and IS
3) As a matter of course, I have found this “article” by link of the blog of one of such people – the Angry Arab aka As’ad Abukhalil, and it was not recommendation, but a ridicule.
4) A LOT of such laws in many states are left over from colonial rulers.
“The majority of the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly known as the British Commonwealth, still criminalise sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
This has been described as being the result of “the major historical influence” or legacy of the British Empire. In most cases, it was former colonial administrators that established anti-gay legislation or sodomy acts during the 19th century and even earlier. The majority of countries have retained these laws following independence.”
I wasn’t quoting what you said. I asked why it had to be a zero sum game and why one can’t be against both.
I know English is probably not your first language, you still have not admitted where you are from, but I in no way lied about your position.
You continue to use slander as the basis of your attacks on my position. Is this something they team in school where you are from.
G the Zionist “asked” without reading my stated opinion. I would call it being lazy. Or being a liar. And it is a fact, not a “slander”.
Yes, English is not my mother tongue and also not my only one. I know better or worse 3 more.
You think asking a question is lying? Sorry but the country where you received your education should be as embarrassed about their educational system as you are about admitting where you are from.
You are talking to a Zionist. Zionism is a settler colonization of Palestine (and Syria too). So your anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist arguments would be futile.
Not gay but have an intellectual crush on GG for his past work. His recent work? I forget the excuse he made for not posting as much (writing a new book?)
But he’s a founder, even if not currently an editor (?) of this site. This article is completely totally psycho as you note. Even if breach of contract anyone such as GG should put $ lost if such a breach behind integrity.
Agreed, total mess. I think the clowns are now in control. Maybe if I write a nice essay about how Turkey is soooo good and the Armenian Genocide never happened I’d be hired too. Standards are apparently out the window. Truth–bye bye. Anything can be published here, with zero push-back by the Editors or Founders or anyone. Completely fucking ridiculous. Complete abandonment.
And I still think GG may still be intellectually honest, even moral. His silence about terrible articles on the own site he co-founded though? Big, big “hmmmm”. Big “why not write a comprehensive article skewering the other shitty ass writers here”? Why not? Champion of puncturing bad media, yet this is his own dream of such, yet no criticism?
If GG ever writes an article about WHY he didn’t, now, or in past, write such an article, it would be an octopus of bad logic. Or of course, just selfishness, which would justify everything. But as a supposed logician not concerned with money? No. And SHAME.
Whatever GG, dude. $$ or a contract more important I guess. Please retweet this article GG with “oh so cogent!” or retweet with “these views do not reflect the Intercept” or whatever legalese which doesn’t include you’re actual thoughts (assuming even that you have a problem with this article).
What a load of steaming crap. This is the dumbest thing I’ve read this week.
“Assad’s authoritarianism uses the same buzzwords as the far-right to describe the society he’s trying to build in his own country — a pure, monolithic society of devotees to his own power.”
This is totally untrue. Assad’s government are, with foreign backing (mostly from Iran and Russia), taking back parts of Syria overrun by groups aspiring to this. Syria was, and will remain under Assad, a secular country with a diverse society.
Then this fabrication gets linked to American neo-Nazis? That is insane.
The author of this propaganda piece should be ashamed, as should The Intercept for publishing it. This really is a new low.
At least try to separate opinion pieces from journalism — not everyone needs someone telling them what to think.
After some considering a few past articles which sounded like msm blather, this wtf piece has the familiar miasma of neocon spin it has convinced me to cancel my subscription to The Intercept. Even Mr. Greenwald whose past insight was so refreshing, seems to have been compromised.
You were wasting your time here anyway. “Neocon spin”?
You failed reading comprehension.
Your gratuitous blather reveals the lure of trolling is beyond your ability to control.
According to the article the Alt-right rejects “Cosmopolitanism, with diversity in political thought…”
This is the most laughable statement in the entire article.
Today’s cosmopolitans reject any thought that do not conform to their extreme left wing views. They call for safe spaces from thought, try to prevent rallies of other political thought holders, ban websites with non-conformist views.
As a good piece on this article on Altright. com pointed out, the author thinks that the Alt-right wanting “a healthy and homogenous society” is evil and Hitlerian. I assume then that she thinks the societies of the Japanese, the Chinese, the Koreans are also evil. Of course I understand her thinking: Every country can remain homogenous except White countries.
There is a twitter with responses on this “article” I suppose it could be interesting
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/906509239375552512
Thank you, Lidia! The discussion you linked to and the discussion in this comment section here are both so much more insightful than Elba’s rant of plagiarized imperialist hysteria that I am starting to really wonder about The Intercept.
My impression was that it was created to be some sort of cutting-edge news source that goes where the Guardian no longer dares to tread, a last bastion of free speech for those in the know, and yet here it proves itself equal to the Washington Post, but without offering even the reassurance that you are at least getting the official lies straight from the mouthpiece of the CIA. Publishing stuff like this on an obscure site like The Intercept… It just makes no sense at all!
Many thanks for the link….is being read by my friends and colleagues who were horrified when they saw the title of the article and read its contents….. still can not believe this on The Intercept!
you are welcome. Not surprise that the most keen defender of this “article” is a Zionist. After all, Syrian army and its allies are just booting out the darlings of Zionist colonizers – AQ and IS.
Wow Intercept, what happened to you? I am incredibly sad this story is spewing the same propaganda the mainstream news used to portray what is going on in Syria is a civil war, when its really a foreign instigated conflict waged under the cover of a civil war. Am very disappointed.
Syria under Assad is diverse. Where do these interventionists suppose all these Yazidis, Christians, Alawites, Assyrians and Circassians came from? All the fighting rebels are Sunni Islamists that are completely intolerant to these other Syrian identities. The rebels are the ones slaughtering Syria’s minorities. Assad isn’t pushing for a “pure” and homogeneous Syria. That would be the Islamist Rebels who seek a theocracy. Assad supports secularism and has overseen a relatively pluralist state.
Frankly, I could care less. Assad has been in an existential battle against the forces aligned against him, with the US orchestrating the Zionists, the Saudis, and other assorted guardians of evil. Your reference to the “barrel bombs” thing leaves me to wonder how you feel about nice expensive bombs made in US and dropped on women and children in Yemen. Your time would be better spent trying to convince the US to pull out of Syria, where it has no justification or legal right to be, instead of smearing the alt-right and Assad in the same blow. Who are you trying to help, anyways? The headchoppers? Neocons? Fascists Zionists? Give me a break.
This article is absolute nonsense. Sorry, but when you talk about Assad and Syria, you should be talking about heterogeneity and the mosaic of cultures and religions that have been nurtured and have thrived.
I don’t know where the Intercept finds these commentators or why it is doing such a wretch job on more and more of these issues.
I used to look forward to reading Greenwald’s work, but now I read his journal with deep skepticism.
Congratulations on making The Intercept even more irrelevant than it already is. Syrian children giving the “Nazi” salute? Your editor should be ashamed.
USA under Obama/Clinton bangs war drum against Assad. Trump comes in and shows sympathy to Syria. Nazis support Trump. Russia is sympathetic to Syria.
I can understand stuff like this happening very easily.
Trump came in and demonstrated sympathy to Syria how? By bombing its airbases?
You sound a tad like an apologist for this pathetic story. “Trump…shows sympathy to Syria”. Really? Maybe you should switch to analyzing news on Candy Crush blogs.
You’re a dumbass not paying attention engaging in apologetics for yet another dumbass (Elba) who’s not paying attention (or lying).
From the NYT on the death of Hafez al-Assad (bold mine):
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/world/hafez-al-assad-who-turned-syria-into-a-power-in-the-middle-east-dies-at-69.html?mcubz=0
“The bloodless power grab he staged in November 1970 brought stability and the first modern construction of roads, schools and hospitals. Mr. Assad followed the Soviet model…”
Also…(again, bold mine):
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/the-real-defenders-of-democracy-syria-and-the-struggle-against-the-international-despotism-of-wall-street/
“For over half a century, Syria has been governed by the Baath Arab Socialist Party, which is guided by the party’s motto of unity (of the Arab world), freedom (from Western domination), and socialism (in contrast to Washington’s preferred paradigm of free enterprise, free markets and free trade.) The party presided over the drafting of Syria’s constitutions, which mandate government ownership of the commanding heights of the economy and a significant role for government in the guidance of the economy, i.e., socialism.
Ba’ath Arab Socialists have been seen in Washington as “Arab communists” [9] and the state they lead as “socialist Syria.” [10]
Or are you one of those nimrods who thinks communism/socialism=Nazism?
Trump ….”sympathetic to Syria”? You’re either delusional, ignorant or an inept apologist for this lousy story.
Shouldnt it be the adults who taught the salute that should be ashamed?
Shouldn’t G the Zionist be ashamed of many Zionist crimes, including, of course, support for real(!) Nazis, like today’s Ukrainian rulers whose troops include quite open Ukrainian Nazis?
But, of course, being a Zionist means one does not need to be ashamed
I havent defended any Israeli crimes. I havent taught any little kids a Nazi salute. What do you think I should be ashamed of?
G the Zionist just does not see any Zionist crimes. G is too busy caring about Syrians (not because of Zionist crimes against Syria, of course)
By the way, today’s queen of England had BEEN taught the real(!) Nazi salute. (There is a film )
Unlike what G the Zionist calls “Nazi saute” by Syrian children.
I said I haven’t defended any of Israels crimes. I did not say there weren’t any.
Is it that you don’t read English well or are you just obtuse?
G has said that he(?) is a Zionist. Of course, Zionists always try to spin the truth, and to attack the opponents, because they could not admit the simple facts – that Zionism is a settler colonization of Palestine, with all crimes usual for colonialism.
And it should be pointed out that’s the Roman salute, not the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute has the arm completely rigid motioning upward, the Roman salute allows for the arm simply to be extending straight out, not up. You can see some kids in the photo with their arms simply extended forward.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-the-Roman-salute-and-the-Nazi-Fascist-salute
It’s not the kind of thing most people are aware of; thought I’d mention it.
My conclusion from this piece is that the Deep State tentacles have reached inner body parts of The Intercept.
Amazing, I do not expect such a neocon assassination piece from the Intercept. But I guess I was wrong.
Presumably the author would have preferred that Assad was not helped by the Russians or the Iranians so that Syria could not be in the hands of ISIS an AlQaeda. Great job.
Where is Ms Iona Craig? She should be writing about Syria!
At first I thought the author was just deluded. Then, when she quoted the words of cretinous Alexander Reid Ross, I realized she is actually quite insane.
Mr. Ross looks like he has solid ant facist cred. What is it that you think make him cretinous?
I am Assyrian. I am a supporter of President Dr Assad. I want you to get your troops out of my Freaking country. We don’t want you there! Stay out! You’re the terrorists that are destroying our country with every dollar you gave the terrorists.
Take this news from an Assyrian. And stay the hell off my land.
And no. I’m not white. My People are related to Israel and The Arabs in terms of Genetics. So non of the “Nazi” bashing will be accurate.
I used to think much more highly of The Intercept, even though I did not agree with the political orientation of some of its writers. The articles seemed to be based on facts.
But this piece is an embarrassment. It is drivel. What on earth has happened to The Intercept? Does it no longer have standards? This “article” really ought to have been published in the New York Times, a publication known for slanted, factless opinion pieces passing as “news” articles. Indeed, the guilt-by-association element of this article, which forms its core, is very much the stuff that NYT and WaPo articles are made of.
Look up the owner of theintercept.com
So, Assad = white supremacists in Charlottesville, so time for regime change?
It is as if people are losing their minds. Forget the idea that he is fighting ISIS and al Qada, but hey, I guess women, gay, etc rights only count in Western countries.
Propaganda nice to see the author of this article using Hitler’s strategy.
This piece is simply a regurgitation of one written on this Alt-right-Assad-bro theory almost a month ago on August 14 in WaPo.
Is this what The Intercept is becoming? A rehash of mainstream articles already in existence, yet done more poorly? .
Whoa. Seems these articles come out in rush everything the Syrian military is close to critical victories. Man, rehash is is right.
Greenwald and company have lost their moral compass. Obviously they know about all the Deep State and media colluding propaganda ploys being used against Syria…..like Bana Albed, the White Helmets, the FSA being al-Nusra Front terrorists….they make not a mention of it in this ‘article’. This is absolutely disgusting reporting. Those terrorists sawed the head off a 12 year old boy last summer. Do folks seriously think Greenwald had no idea what that was all about. This article ignores all that and instead looks like the crap that Langley might pay a fresh out of school student to write. Heck she had the death count off by half a million people. That, in itself, is shameful.
From WaPo……
In a video posted on Twitter, three men who participated in the Charlottesville protests hailed Assad’s use of barrel bombs to subdue communities that turned against him. One is wearing a T-shirt that says: “Bashar’s Barrel Delivery Co.”
From this article……
During the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally several weeks ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, Baked Alaska, an infamous far-right YouTuber, livestreamed an encounter with a demonstrator wearing a T-shirt that read “Bashar’s Barrel Delivery Co.”
Just a coincidence??
Sometimes you can replant a propaganda meme, and it will germinate in new, more fertile soil. It has been difficult to generate new enthusiasm in the US public for regime change in Syria, after the somewhat mixed results of regime change in Iraq and Libya. Antifa, however, might be persuaded to fight the fascists in Syria. The Washington Post is probably not a good conduit to antifa, but based on the comments, The Intercept doesn’t appear to be either. The only people expressing enthusiasm for the article are a few neocons who long ago were already sold on the idea of a war in Syria.
For this reason, I don’t think the CIA had anything to do with this article. Part of what makes propaganda effective, as the CIA knows very well, is the bond of trust between the author and the reader. The author should start by writing a couple of articles that pander to prejudices of the readers. This convinces them the author is on their side. Then, and only then, you plant the propaganda meme. If you fail to do the groundwork, the readers may rebel, and the article has the opposite effect to that intended.
Therefore, I can only conclude the author is an amateur, clumsily trying to do her own propaganda. This only makes things tougher for the professionals. So I hope in future, the Intercept will stick to publishing articles that have been approved by the CIA.
as a fellow amateur i really wonder what this author is trying to accomplish
it’s one thing to slag on russia for fun but quite another to promote regime change with anything less than a major tv network on board
sure antifa might be recruited but without drugs and sex ops it’s a futile undertaking
I agree totally. I recommended The Intercept run this through the CIA for a reason.
Are you sure you’re an amateur?
Rank (adj), “amateur”..
Johnny Turdburgla’ was the postman who got caught ‘meadow muffing’ the hedges of a private residence out in the great PacNorWest..
https://youtu.be/dTc_ax5f4Q4
untrue … i was arrested for living in a house i didn’t own, which was plead down to a misdemeanor
everyone makes mistakes, however taking a dump in someone’s yard was not one of mine … why you’re hanging on to that stupid news story for so many years is weird to say the least
also, i was a government analyst not a postman … rrheard was the postman, before he became a lawyer
I looked into Asad and his war crimes. When you read about his war crimes, there is a lot ominous implications and foreboding but little in terms of actual specific crimes and very little when it comes to actual numbers.
Crimes that are actually pinned down actually pretty mild even when compared to our bombing during Vietnam war where we deliberately targeted hospitals
There is a Wikipedia article on list of massacres during Syrian civil war. This is the list of massacres by all sides, it seems to include millitary as well as civilian casualties. It also includes cases where civilians died but may not have been specifically targeted.
Assad got a lot of blame on for chemical attacks and this was widely reported and hyped. Later investigations quietly absolved Syrian government for chemical attacks, but this was not reported in the US, leaving people with mistaken impression that Assad gassed his own people.
Don’t get me wrong, Assad is no angel. But for a dictator, Asad is not that bad. Here are some crimes that I found:
Early in the war some militias associated with Syrian government committed some atrocities against civilians. As far as I can tell, the number of victims is in low hundreds.
Syrian government forces have targeted civilians for bombing, but it is unclear how much because media in the US treats any use of a barrel bomb as some sort of horrible crime. Barrel bomb is just a primitive bomb dropped out of the helicopter. There is nothing especially heinous or horrible about barrel bombs vs. some other.
There are reports of Syrians government arresting and torturing people. The number of those is in tens of thousands.
“Later investigations quietly absolved Syrian government for chemical attacks”
What investigations absolved Syrian government for chemical attacks?
I have yet to find evidence to substantiate said claim, but if true, here’s hoping that they weren’t the same investigations that accused the Syrian Government of using ‘chem weapons’, on a hunch..
What evidence would you accept?
What organization should give you that evidence?
1. Truthful evidence.
2. Any organization that provides number 1.
What the hell is “truthful” evidence? Pictures? Videos? Signed documents? Eyewitness statements? Medical reports?
Well, a better way to ask the questions is:
What would make a former Syrian government official statement truthful?
What would make medical reports confirming that chemical weapons have been used truthful?
What would make pictures from Syrian prisons scientifically proven to be real truthful?
What would make retrieved Syrian government documents truthful?
re: “What would make..”
1. Validated evidence.
2. See above.
3. See above the see above.
4. See above the see above the see above.
Spicoli: accept only truthful evidence. Truthful evidence means evidence that is validated. Validated by whom?
Who must validate the evidence to make it truthful?
Example:
Individuals claim chemical weapons have been used on them. Doctors in the area performed tests on those individuals and concluded that chemical weapons have been used on them. Who must validate the doctors’ findings in order to use the doctors’ findings as “truthful” evidence that chemical weapons have been used on those individuals?
(According to many commenters here, validation from the UN, AI, HRW, and many international news organizations cannot be used. Hence why I am asking)
Actually, there was plenty of dissenting opinion on the veracity of the story that Assad was responsible for the attack. Thing is here on the US, where search results on Google are scrubbed or deprioritized so as to for the narrative our deep state wants you to believe, you have to know what you are looking for to find it. And I do.
First off, you have to be able to remember that this is exactly the same narrative that was tried in 2013 and was admitted to be completely false. But Americans aren’t good at that remembering thing, look how easily we forgot that we were less into the Iraq war.
Another, most obvious reason to doubt that Assad committed this gas attack was: why the hell would they do the one thing that could endanger the sure path to victory that they were on, with U.N.chemical weapons due to show up and, up till the attack, very successful peace negotiations under way? And no, “Assad is just a horrible monster” is not a valid answer, it is a stupid answer.
Beyond that, seymour hirsch, who blew the lid off the fraudulent 2013 accusations, and Ted Postol, MIT Professor emeritus in weapons science and technology, both cast the second attack into serious doubt. Here are numerous sources:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/seymour-hersh-casts-doubt-on-aprils-syrian-gas-attack/I
https://americanfreepress.net/seymour-hersh-assad-innocent/?print=print
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-19/mit-scientist-debunks-false-flag-nerve-agent-attack
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-chemical-weapons-attack-in-syria-is-there-a-place-for-skepticism/
https://amp.ibtimes.co.uk/mit-expert-claims-latest-chemical-weapons-attack-syria-was-staged-1617267
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/04/66712.html
That is a long comment without answering the question:
What evidence would you accept?
What organization should bring the evidence?
I looked into it again, and I guess I was wrong about Syrian government being absolved (although Russian investigations did absolve them), but UN reports that I saw did not assign blame.
“UN reports that I saw did not assign blame.”
Are you sure? This the last UN report:
“Government forces continued to deliberately target civilians, including through the use of chemical weapons against civilians in opposition-held areas. As part of an aerial campaign in northern Hama and southern Idlib, on 4 April the Syrian air force used sarin in Khan Shaykhun, killing over 80 people, most of whom were women and children. The aerial campaign also targeted medical facilities throughout the area, resulting in a severe weakening of their ability to provide assistance to victims of the sarin attack and a consequent increase in the number of civilian casualties. In Idlib, Hamah, and eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syrian forces used weaponized chlorine. These attacks constitute clear violations of international humanitarian law and the Convention on Chemical Weapons, the report notes, which the Syrian Arab Republic ratified in 2013 following a previous sarin attack.” 2017
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22030&LangID=E
And another in 2016
“The Panel found what it described as “sufficient evidence” of three cases of chemical weapons use – two chlorine gas attacks on civilians by the Syrian air force, and another use of “sulphur-mustard” gas by the terrorist group ISIL, or Daesh – in Syria between 2014 and 2015.” 2016
The UN is not credible.. They have Saudi as the head of Human rights council and are known to be corrupt. Any country who has money can buy them.
And “Al qaeda” is NOT opposition. It’s a terrorist organization. So it was held by terrorists.
“The UN is not credible”
Okay. I did not ask anybody whether the UN is credible or not. I asked the following questions
What evidence would you accept?
What organization should bring you that evidence?
The report about Khan Shaykhun has been discredited. There was no deliberate use of sarin gas by Syrian government forces. In fact, the reports from civilians in the affected area show that a) sarin was not used at all and b) the alleged explosion was ground-based.
So, we should not accept evidence from the UN? Is that what you are saying? If yes, then tell us
1) What evidence should we accept?
2) What organization should provide us that evidence?
The UN investigation into the Ghouta chemical attack published on 16th Sept 2013 did not aportion blame. The OPCW investigators were on the spot of Ghouta within a couple of days and were able to take samples and investigate in person (which they couldn’t do in the case of Khan Sheikoun because the local rebels wouldn’t let them), they found that the rockets used in the chemical attack were fired from the north, were Russian made and that they had a range of about 2 to 3 miles, and hence they were fired from inside rebel held territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_investigation_of_chemical_weapons_use_in_Ghouta
Those who still blame the Syrian govt for the attack argue that SAA forces sneeked unseen into rebel held terrority, fired the rockets and then quickly left.
Whom the UN blamed in the following reports?
“Government forces continued to deliberately target civilians, including through the use of chemical weapons against civilians in opposition-held areas. As part of an aerial campaign in northern Hama and southern Idlib, on 4 April the Syrian air force used sarin in Khan Shaykhun, killing over 80 people, most of whom were women and children. The aerial campaign also targeted medical facilities throughout the area, resulting in a severe weakening of their ability to provide assistance to victims of the sarin attack and a consequent increase in the number of civilian casualties. In Idlib, Hamah, and eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syrian forces used weaponized chlorine. These attacks constitute clear violations of international humanitarian law and the Convention on Chemical Weapons, the report notes, which the Syrian Arab Republic ratified in 2013 following a previous sarin attack.” September 2017
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22030&LangID=E
And another in 2016
“The Panel found what it described as “sufficient evidence” of three cases of chemical weapons use – two chlorine gas attacks on civilians by the Syrian air force, and another use of “sulphur-mustard” gas by the terrorist group ISIL, or Daesh – in Syria between 2014 and 2015.” October 2016
I’m sure.. well, at least until the ‘Official Report’ is released on September 18th and I can scrutinize its findings instead of relying on their current unsubstantiated rhetoric..
ps – Please provide a reference w/ respect to the panel’s “sufficient evidence” claim.. Much Appreciated..
You said you would only accept truthful evidence. You describe truthful evidence as evidence that is validated. I asked you who should validate the evidence.
You can scrutinize whatever you want. That is not what I ask you. I asked you a simple question: who should validate the evidence to make it truthful?
A report from 3 days ago. I stand corrected.
About the one in 2016?
http://www.mintpressnews.com/former-department-of-defense-science-adviser-debunks-claim-assad-behind-syrian-chemical-attacks/226993/
These false flags have been described in detail by Seymour Hersch and others. For starters, see Hersch’s London Review of Books article, “The Red Line and the Rat Line” that also links Libya to Syria via Hillary.
“see Hersch’s London”
I am not interested. I would like just an answer to my questions.
Such junk from a junk web site. You betcha. WN just love Assad. In fact it’s in their creed to worship Assad for….. some reason.
Silly garbage.
I’m not a WN but I am very happy Assad is killing the jihadi rats trying to overthrow him.
I promise you I swear to God this is Paid Political Propaganda. Surprised anyone at all would believe it.
And likewise Kim Jong-Un would only target areas without asians.
presenting, NATO to the rescue…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4867212/Nato-chief-World-dangerous-generation.html
“In spite of the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war — which has likely left half a million dead and spurred a massive exodus of refugees — the United Nations, the United States, and certainly Russia are all looking for solutions to the Syrian crisis that keep Assad in power.”
Either the author is totally ignorant or lying……
No mention 1000+ factions, ISIS, so called Rebels and all the other countries helping them directly or indirectly….
People DO READ and get their information from more reliable sources!
This is probably the most confused, fact-free article in the Intercept I have ever read. It is so Orwellian and so close to being pure propaganda that it resembles the slander against the democratically elected government and president of Syria that has been routinely issued by the CIA and Al Qaeda, Isis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other international terrorist groups that are still harassing the peaceful Syrian people. This kind of CIA and terrorist propaganda is fictional and designed to demonize the elected government of Syria for the purpose of illegal regime change, as in Iraq and Libya. The main reason is that Syria has a social democratic government that puts the welfare of its people before the welfare of international banks and corporations, so the US wants to put a stop to this situation and open Syria up to foreign investment and economic exploitation, including the building of a gas pipeline from Qatar to Europe that would go across Syria. Because Assad resists economic imperialism, refuses to support any one religion, and asserts Syria’s sovereignty and independence, he is demonized by the US and by conservative, authoritarian theocracies like Saudi Arabia.
Almost everything about Syria in this article is fact-free. Ms. Elba is just as misinformed about Syria as are the white supremacists. For example, Assad is not calling for neo-Nazi-style “homogeneity.” Syria is one of the most heterogeneous, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith societies in the Middle East, and citizens of all faiths and ethnicities are treated equally and have an equal right to National Health Insurance, robust Social Security, and free education, including college. When president Assad spoke of a “homogeneous” nation (if that translation is in fact correct) he was presumably referring to ordinary Syrian citizens as opposed to the many tens of thousands of international terrorists, including ISIS and Al Qaeda, who invaded Syria solely for the purpose of overthrowing the secular Syrian government and establishing a theocratic fascist state in which all Syrians who do not believe in the Wahhabist Sunni religion would be killed or otherwise “ethnically cleansed.” Here, as elsewhere, Ms. Elba’s article has things precisely backwards. It is the CIA- and Saudi-supported terrorists who want a fascist-style homogeneity, and it is Assad who welcomes home all kinds of Syrian refugees, even former terrorists if they formally renounce terrorism. There are in fact 6 million internal Syrian refugees, and almost all are people who fled from terrorist-held areas and came to government-held areas. In the first six months of 2017 alone, 600,000 refugees from the formerly Al Qaeda-held part of Aleppo returned home from Turkey to now-liberated Aleppo.
Equally fact-free is the claim by Ms. Elba that Assad uses chemical weapons. No objective, clear proof has ever been provided to support any of the allegations that Assad has used chemical weapons. And that is only natural, since Assad has nothing to gain by them and doesn’t need them. Just look at the news: Syria is winning decisively using conventional weapons! Only Al Qaeda and ISIS have anything to gain by using chemical weapons, and they are known to possess them. Assad has nothing to gain and everything to lose with chemical weapons, and he is an intelligent man.
Did an editor even look at this article? I am losing respect for the Intercept.
Syria was founded on Secular Arab Nationalism, a post-colonial form old Arab socialism meaning nationalization of natural resources and economic egalitarianism.
What it means is that there is no dominant state religion like it was in Ottoman Empire Saudis, Iran or U.K.before and Now and instead Interests of different religions, desert tribes or ethnic groups are represented via certain political key, with overall leader as a arbiter of fairness of the political arrangement.
That was a political prescription for Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, North Yemen etc., in 1960-ties as it was in Lebanon before 1975 as a response to arbitrary British partition of MENA aimed to create religious conflicts a flagship of those conflict became Palestinian conflict with Zionists even before WWII.
Arab nationalism suppose to be an antidote for sectarianism.And it worked for decades as Yugo-nationalism worked in Yugoslavia.
Those facts make any connection between White supremacists ideology borrowing from Nazi race theory that itself comes from US developed theory of eugenics and genetic purity of WASP race and Arab Nationalists an impossibility since Arabs are neither Arian nor of Nordic type that makes for pure white race.
In case of MENA Arab nationalism means nothing else but realpolitik a recognition preference of many smaller post colonial, in their artificial boundaries, Arabic nation states to be created instead of one unified Arab Empire unifying all Arabs regardless of their religion and politics, an idea Saudis and their British master opposed since West wanted arabs weak and divided.
Moreover, all Arab nationalists, Syria was founded on Secular Arab Nationalism, a post-colonial form old Arab socialism meaning nationalization of natural resources and economic egalitarianism.
What it means is that there is no dominant state religion like it was in Ottoman Empire Saudis, Iran or U.K.before and Now and instead Interests of different religions, desert tribes or ethnic groups are represented via certain political key, with overall leader as a arbiter of fairness of the political arrangement.
That was a political prescription for Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, North Yemen etc., in 1960-ties as it was in Lebanon before 1975 as a response to arbitrary British partition of MENA aimed to create religious conflicts a flagship of those conflict became Palestinian conflict with Zionists even before WWII.
Arab nationalism suppose to be an antidote for sectarianism.And it worked for decades as Yogo nationalism worked in Yugoslavia.
Those facts make any connection between White supremacists ideology borrowing from Nazi race theory that itself comes from US developed theory of eugenics and genetic purity of WASP race and Arab Nationalists and impossibility since Arabs are neither Arian nor of Nordic type that makes for pure white race.
In case of MENA Arab nationalism means nothing else but realpolitik a recognition preference of many smaller post colonial, in their artificial boundaries, Arabic nation states to be created instead of one unified Arab Empire unifying all Arabs regardless of their religion and politics, an idea Saudis and their British master opposed since West wanted arabs weak and divided.
Moreover, all Arab nationalists aligned themselves after WWII with Soviet Union a champion of anti-colonialism meaning being anti “western colonial forces” that enslaved them, Hafez Assad (father) was one of those leaders who aligned himself with staunchly anti Nazi global forces hence neither he or his son raised and living in anti Nazi, multi ethnic London can be Fascist or Nazi ideology sympathizer unless he belongs to self-hating Arabs.
The TIC piece is an Orwelian CIA made to order propaganda with twisted hijacked meaning of sounding similar words with no analytical or historical thought behind it.
Arab nationalists aligned themselves after WWII with Soviet Union a champion of anti-colonialism meaning being anti “western colonial forces” that enslaved them Hafez Assad (father) was one of those leaders who aligned himself with staunchly anti Nazi global forces hence neither he or his son raised and living in anti Nazi, multi ethnic London can be Fascist or Nazi ideology sympathizer unless he belongs to self-hating Arabs.
The TIC piece is an Orwelian CIA made to order propaganda with twisted hijacked meaning of sounding similar words with no analytical or historical thought behind it.
Sorry for double copy of text of two paragraphs in the end.
Sorry another post. As for the intentions of the Russians to keep Assad in power. Well, of course that is the propaganda slant of the neocons. But Putin recently said the Russian interest was in keeping the Syrian government intact, not keeping Assad in power as the primary motivation. Maybe Putin saw what happened when the US decapitated the governments of Libya and Iraq.
And not much publicized in the neocon controlled press is the fact the Russians offered early on a plan to gradually push out Assad rather than let the country fall into total bloodshed.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/west-ignored-russian-offer-in-2012-to-have-syrias-assad-step-aside
West ‘ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria’s Assad step aside’
I believe at the time of the Russian proposal something like 10,000 people were tragically killed. The refusal by the Western powers to negotiate a peace looks to have been more a factor in the mass of people who died by supporting ISIS and Al Queda (moderate rebels is a myth created to cover support for jihadists.)
Holy shit. Who knew that Billy Bob Joe basement living gamer and member of the Aryan Brotherhood closely followed the pronouncements of a Arab Shia dictator? So the ideologies of American neo-Nazis align with the ideology of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party?!?! What the heck has McKay been giving out private lessons on journalism?
As for White posting a picture of Assad calling it “undefeated” is simply stated without context, and nobody can verify the context. But there is a much simpler explanation if there is in fact very wide spread approval of Assad among the neo-Nazis and aligned groups that has absolutely nothing to do with the ridiculous notion that they are ideological brothers.
The extremists hate anything and everything associated with Jews and Israel. And Assad is fighting the forces of “Zionism”–and still standing. And you know the old cliched adage about the enemy of my enemies. Fill in the rest from there….
1) Zionists (without “”) are backing ISIS and AQ in Syria and bomb Syrian army and its allies
2) So yes, As’sad is fighting Zionists or their proxies
3) http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/WATCH-Alt-right-leader-asks-for-Israelis-respect-as-white-Zionist-502699
Zionist colonizers of Palestine had long history of collaboration with racists, including Nazis. Of course, Zionists are racists too, as any colonizer usually is.
But the article is b…s… anyway
Palestinians say “The Jews are our dogs!”
Palestinians say “The Jews are the descendants of apes & pigs.”
Palestinians have been oppressing Jews for centuries.
In 1839, the British consul, William Young, said that the poor Jew in Jerusalem…lives from day to day in terror of his life….Young attributed the plight of the Jew in Jerusalem to “the blind hatred and ignorant prejudice of a fanatical populace,”
JEWS IN JERUSALEM.
New York Times December 29, 1878
Crowded together in the worst lodgings, or in the dark cellars under a synagogue building, without food, fuel, or water –even water at Jerusalem being a commodity of price – numbers died of starvation and various diseases, while others went raving mad. Those who could labor were denied employment by the bigotry of the Mussulmans and of the Oriental Christians.
Notice the date. This was before the first Zionists arrived in Palestine. Notice the word bigotry.
JG is parroting Zionist propaganda to try and spin the facts – that Zionists are colonizers of Palestine.
And in 1878 Jews were very much discriminated upon in USA.
lidia
What facts do you think I’m spinning?
What’s wrong with colonizing?
What is wrong with colonizing? Really, and what is wrong with slavery? Or with ethnic cleansing? Or with mass murder, or with robbery of natives’ land?
To colonizers colonizing is OK, of course, as to a robber robbery is OK.
I’m going to move into your house, Jack, eat your food, use your electricity, wear your clothes, etc. If you do what I want I might not kick you out.
That’s what’s wrong with colonizing, you phenomenal ass.
lidia
Zara
The Zionists started arriving in 1882. They did not eat anyone’s food, use anyone’s electricity, wear anyone’s clothes.
They did drain the swamps thereby reducing the mosquito population thereby reducing malaria thereby increasing the life expectancy of both Jew & gentile. They did bring poor quality land into production thereby improving the economy for both Jew & gentile.
Your “drain the swamps” argument is nonsensical. Mussolini made the trains in Italy run on time while also using those trains to deport Jews to extermination camps. Using your economic rationale, he must have been a great guy, right?
Draining the swamps helped the Arabs.
Making the train run on time didn’t help the Jews.
“Draining the swamps helped the Arabs”
The first thing Zionist colonizers did, they evicted Palestinians tenant farmers from the land they bought (often using very dubious means). Palestinians (who JG calls “Arabs) lost their livelihood which they had had for many generations.
Then, of course, Zionist colonizers ethic cleansed 90% of Palestinians from their colony in 1947-48, and the reminding Palestinians had been living under different kinds of aparteid ever since.
So much “help” for Palestinians, sure.
Palestine was an ancient and well-developed culture, the western arc of the Fertile Crescent, with 11 cities, over 500 villages, olive groves, fruit orchards and a prosperous agricultural export economy when the Zionist terrorists ethnically cleansed Palestine and expelled 3/4 of its population of almost a million into UNRWA refugee camps in 1948-49 and have since prohibited their return in violation of international law and their own pledge as a condition of their 1949 admission to the UN.
http://www.al-nakba-history.com/origins1948/pixofarablifebefore.html
This article is obscenely dishonest and based purely on misleading false equivalencies that pander to the dominant centrist American consensus. The author seems to herself believe that American white nationalists have a coherent worldview and a firm understanding of what is happening in Syria that should be of consequence for informed analysis in the west. The answer to her question – which is why do a handful of the more nerdy substratum of online white nationalists profess to support Assad – could simply have to do with the fact that he has blue eyes and pale skin, is vilified by ad nauseum by the mainstream press, and that his government is fighting and Islamist insurgency backed by most of the developed world. I doubt it is much more complicated than that. Much of the far-right online discourse in America revels in basic contrarianism. Just because some racists and neo-nazis are anti-intervention does not make Assad’s Syria a white nationalist ethnostate. The irony here of course is that Assad’s militant enemies are in fact the ones fighting for a mono-ethnic (Sunni Arab) quasi-fascist state based on puritanical reference to a lost age. Assad and his backers are fighting to preserve a pluralistic, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional society. Furthermore there are what one could easily identify as ethno-nationalist soldiers in the European fascist mould fighting in Syria – but they are fighting against Assad – as in the case of Turkish Grey Wolves bolstering various rebel brigades in north Aleppo.
What is also truly shocking about the disingenuousness of this article is that this publication’s founder funded Ukrainian regime-change to the benefit of real-life, seig-heiling, neo-Nazis who now have prominent positions in key Ukrainian ministries. Apparently it is irrelevant to this discussion that Ukrainian neo-Nazis – now the most militarily and politically empowered group of white nationalists on the planet (by virtue of receiving US arms and diplomatic backing) are vocally anti-Assad and seek open collaboration with rebel groups fighting him in Syria. Of course it would be ridiculous to conclude from this that this makes their ideologies even remotely co-soluble. So why on earth should this assumption to be taken seriously when applied to American white nationalists and Ba’athists in Syria? What the author seems stubbornly unwilling to contemplate is the simple fact that there have repeatedly been times when isolationism on the right shares the same goals, with much different premises of course, with anti-imperialism on the left. Ba’athism is fundamentally an anti-imperialist political cause, based on Arab unity against western militarism and coercion. It is quite possible to be incidentally anti-imperialist, for misguided reasons, as much of the libertarian right is in the United States. This does not besmirch principled anti-imperialism.
This article is nothing more than a desperate attempt to smear anti-imperialism in the US, addressed myopically to a misinformed public for whom imperialism is a profound aspect of the status quo.
Ironically, the envisioned consequence of this smearing is the visiting of more violence and needless suffering on one of the parts of the global south most victimized by US aggression. This is in effect a plea for further white domination of the world in the form of US imperialism.
This article is obscenely dishonest and based purely on misleading false equivalencies that pander to the dominant centrist American consensus. The author seems to herself believe that American white nationalists have a coherent worldview and a firm understanding of what is happening in Syria that should be of consequence for informed analysis in the west. The answer to her question – which is why do a handful of the more nerdy substratum of online white nationalists profess to support Assad – could simply have to do with the fact that he has blue eyes and pale skin, is vilified by ad nauseum by the mainstream press, and that his government is fighting and Islamist insurgency backed by most of the developed world. I doubt it is much more complicated than that. Much of the far-right online discourse in America revels in basic contrarianism. Just because some racists and neo-nazis are anti-intervention does not make Assad’s Syria a white nationalist ethnostate. The irony here of course is that Assad’s militant enemies are in fact the ones fighting for a mono-ethnic (Sunni Arab) quasi-fascist state based on puritanical reference to a lost age. Assad and his backers are fighting to preserve a pluralistic, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional society. Furthermore there are what one could easily identify as ethno-nationalist soldiers in the European fascist mould fighting in Syria – but they are fighting against Assad – as in the case of Turkish Grey Wolves bolstering various rebel brigades in north Aleppo.
What is also truly shocking about the disingenuousness of this article is that this publication’s founder funded Ukrainian regime-change to the benefit of real-life, seig-heiling, neo-Nazis who now have prominent positions in key Ukrainian ministries. Apparently it is irrelevant to this discussion that Ukrainian neo-Nazis – now the most militarily and politically empowered group of white nationalists on the planet (by virtue of receiving US arms and diplomatic backing) are vocally anti-Assad and seek open collaboration with rebel groups fighting him in Syria. Of course it would be ridiculous to conclude from this that this makes their ideologies even remotely co-soluble. So why on earth should this assumption to be taken seriously when applied to American white nationalists and Ba’athists in Syria? What the author seems stubbornly unwilling to contemplate is the simple fact that there have repeatedly been times when isolationism on the right shares the same goals, with much different premises of course, with anti-imperialism on the left. Ba’athism is fundamentally an anti-imperialist political cause, based on Arab unity against western militarism and coercion. It is quite possible to be incidentally anti-imperialist, for misguided reasons, as much of the libertarian right is in the United States. This does not besmirch principled anti-imperialism.
This article is nothing more than a desperate attempt to smear anti-imperialism in the US, addressed myopically to a misinformed public for whom imperialism is a profound aspect of the status quo.
Ironically, the envisioned consequence of this smearing is the visiting of more violence and needless suffering on one of the parts of the global south most victimized by US aggression. This is in effect a plea for further white domination of the world in the form of US imperialism.
I have never read a more hateful piece of propaganda in my life. What the Intercept is saying is that if we don’t want to overthrow Assad — we adore him and are white supremacists. In reality the United States armed very racist jihadists to overthrow Assad:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
As we know these groups the US armed, like ISIS and Al Nusra, are the ones who want a homogeneous society. They kill gays, enslave women and regularly engage in ethnic cleansing. This article is really hateful propaganda to suggest that if you don’t support these hellish racist groups you somehow are a white supremacist. This disgusting doublethink is being exposed as you read this, the whole article was based on faulty translations:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/how-the-intercept-smears-syria-by-mistranslating-an-assad-speech.html
And if the author cheers the killing of hundreds of thousands to displace the horrible Assad, then why did she vote for a candidate that lionizes KKK grand wizards?
“Today our country has lost a true American original, my friend and mentor Robert C. Byrd.”
– Crooked Hillary on KKK Grand Wizard, Senator (D) – West Virginia
If white supremacist ideology is so horrible we can kill hundreds of thousands to stop it, why doesn’t the Intercept write a series of pieces on how the US funded white supremacist Nazi groups to overthrow the Ukraine?
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/12/u-s-house-admits-nazi-role-in-ukraine/
These groups, supported by Obama, were waving confederate flags after the coup.
Moral of the story: The author doesn’t care about white supremacists — it is only being used to attack anyone that did not support Obama’s idiotic regime change policy in Syria:
“Assad Must Go!”
– Dear Leader Obama
Obama’s policy was so stupid, Jihadists we armed began to fight each other:
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-cia-pentagon-isis-20160327-story.html
Ms. Elba and the whole of AI need a brain enema big time. These lieing sacks of pus need to be exposed as the propagandist they are end dissapear back into sewage pit from which they came.
Where’s my waitress? I need a double.
Perhaps the author of this piece is heavily confused and can’t seperate fact from fiction, but it is the editors who should really be ashamed that they ran this piece on TI.
The only thing that is good about this article is that it does the opposite of what was intended: it does not stain those who are critical to US interventionism (and journalists that do the necessary cheerleading), it stains the intercept with all its editors and journalists.
For more, just read the comments from your readers for once or go to
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-intercept-tries-to-conflate-opposition-to-us-syria-intervention-with-neo-nazism-8317d5fa2ec
Yeah, I thought The Intercept was supposed to be some sort of “alternative” or “independent” news outlet. People and institutions get co-opted so quickly these days!
My God, really? Yeah, I get the connection we children are supposed to make here. Nazis are bad! Assad is a Nazi lover! Therefore Assad “must go!” Next time shorten it up a bit, okay?
That syllogism is about right. I would extend it this way:
American Nazis like Assad.
This means Assad is a Nazi.
Anybody supporting Assad is a Nazi supporter.
NeoCon propaganda
This article is nonsense.
If a white nationalist thinks many apples are red and I also think many apples are red, does that make me a white nationalist? Or does it merely mean that we correctly and separately agree that many apples are red, with that having no bearing on the similarity of our political beliefs?
This entire article is one big logical fallacy. America, please start educating your children again.
can’t believe The Intercept published this…. what a disgrace to journalism.
Great essay. The author must have been paid by the US government, or maybe Israel.
1) US White nationalist support is in no way necessary for Assad to stay in power. He has his people, Russia, Iran supporting him.
2) The segment of the Left that supports Assad does so because it is against US Imperialism. The US has no right to dictate what goes on within other countries. And anybody that has been following the Syria situation knows that Israel and control of oil/gas resources are also at stake.
3) This strikes me as an odd piece of pro-war propaganda
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-intercept-tries-to-conflate-opposition-to-us-syria-intervention-with-neo-nazism-8317d5fa2ec
Caitlin Johnstone:
“Just as the tide turns in Syria and even the most virulently pro-establishment voices are forced to concede that the regime change they’ve been pushing for has failed, The Intercept has published a shockingly awful article titled “Why White Nationalists Love Bashar al-Assad”.
Nowhere in this insipid piece does the author once refer to any of the unforgivable evils that the west has inflicted upon Syria, its relentless anti-Assad propaganda campaign or its foundational role in fanning the flames of war and arming known terrorist factions against the Syrian government. Instead, The Intercept’s newly-recruited Miriam Elba opts to refer to Syria’s only legitimate government as “the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war”. The Intercept’s editors even initially allowed through the absurd and since-corrected claim that Assad is primarily responsible for “millions” of deaths, when even the most ridiculous establishment propagandists are aware that the total death toll in the Syrian conflict is around half a million.
Instead of even once acknowledging the role of US and NATO interventionism in perpetuating the Syrian conflict, Elba instead focuses exclusively on how evil the Assad “regime” is, on how much white nationalists “love” the Syrian leader, and on Assad’s arguably grossly mistranslated use of the single word “homogenized”.”
Shocking piece of echo chamber stupidity. Almost everything in this article is rubbish. But the telling thing is how she uses the world ‘homogenous’ against Assad – in the supremacist sense.
He, in conjunction with the Syrian Army, the Christian church, almost all Sunni organisations (Salfists and American-supported puppets aside) , Alawite and Shiite support, retook the country from the West and its Islamist allies. The only thing between a sort of totalitarian homogeneity and it’s destruction has been Assad – oh and about 85% of the population.
LOOKS LIKE A CIA DEEP STATE PLANTED STORY ON INTERCEPT!
This piece of ‘journalism’ regurgitates so many debunked regime-change-enabling propaganda lines about Syria that it destroys all credibility as to the opinion it expresses about white supremacists. Is the real purpose of the Intercept to slip this kind of propaganda through the letterbox together with the freesheets?
Sure, Assad is bad and the fact the neo-Nazis support him should tell us something. But see, every time you attack an official US adversary, you’re doing nothing more than carrying water for imperialists, and you help pave the way for another “humanitarian intervention” that will devastate yet another country. There’s no moral justification for this kind of reporting, plus it’s also banal/mainstream.
“Sure, Assad is bad and the fact the neo-Nazis support him should tell us something”
“There’s no moral justification for this kind of reporting, plus it’s also banal/mainstream.”
1) How would you know Assad is “bad” without “this kind of reporting.”? Do you go to Syria and find out yourself?
2) What the hell!!! Are journalists not supposed to attack a government because it is an official US adversary?
It’s a pretty simple argument, so I’m not sure why you fail to get it. Sometimes you are forced to choose between bad outcomes. However terrible Syria’s government might be, Syria is not a country that goes around invading and destroying other countries at will. It doesn’t pose that kind of global threat.
Journalists can do whatever they want, but ideally, they should act with social responsibility in mind.
If it is a simple argument then why are you incapable of explaining it.? Again, this is the point:
You describe Assad as “bad”. And then, you stated those kinds of articles are not justified. Explain to us how would we, the public, know whether Assad is “bad” without those kinds of articles that tell us what Assad has done.
Or let’s put it another way. How you Jose, know Assad is bad? Assad said he is not bad. Assad media says Assad is not bad. Iran, Hezbollah, Russia say Assad is not bad.
The US government and its allies said Assad is bad. So, do you trust the US government and its allies when it comes to Syria? If no, then tell us how do you know Assad is bad? Have you gone to Syria and discovered that Assad is bad or you have read articles from journalists like the one above telling you Assad is bad?
Or maybe you trust the journalists telling you and us that Assad is bad, but you think it is not a good idea for a journalist to inform the public about the atrocities that a government, a UN member is committing. In that case, how would you know whether Assad or the US is telling you the truth since you do not believe a third party should inform you about what Assad is doing?
“Journalists can do whatever they want, but ideally, they should act with social responsibility in mind.”
Yes, social responsibility by telling the public that country X is a very dangerous place and it is run by a very dangerous man. So, you Jose, can think whether it is a good idea to go on a vacations to country X. And yes, the Syrian government does invite foreigners to visit Syria.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/how-the-intercept-smears-syria-by-mistranslating-an-assad-speech.html#more
Wow…I could not finish it…I have read my share of fallacious articles, poorly researched ones and obviously both ignorant and biased but this one takes the cake. I like to say that the Syrian war is the greatest exposer of intellectual dishonesty I have found, and I keep being proven right.
I shoudl have known, whenever Murtaza Hussain retweets anything with the word Assad in it, know sight unseen that it is primarily an anti-Assad piece, and naturally an ignorant, poorly researched and downright deceptive one.
For all you Assad fans. From Amnesty International:
Between 2011 and 2015, every week and often twice a week, groups of up to 50 people were taken out of their prison cells and hanged to death. In five years, as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilians believed to be opposed to the government, were hanged in secret at Saydnaya.
https://tinyurl.com/ycgzrtkl
Yes, well I believe that Santa Claus visits a billion homes on Christmas Eve, thanks to his flying sleigh and reindeer. AI did not even follow its own rules for evidence in compiling that report from unreliable and biased second hand sources, and even then extrapolating it to five years based on a few months’ data. It’s part of the demonizing strategy designed to harness the gullible to the imperialist agenda (especially the left imperialists). Check Rick Sterling’s report in Consortium News. AI is not a trustworthy source.
No Paul, you believe what agrees with your politics. Is AI is only credible when it says bad things about those you hate?
Are you this Paul Larudee? http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2005-09-20/article/22355?headline=Joining-the-March-Toward-Freedom-By-JIM-HARRIS-and-PAUL-LARUDEE
Are you going to address the problems Mr. Larudee mentions wrt with the AI report, or not?
Address what exactly? He made charges but supplied no evidence to back up his claims. I accept that he may be telling the truth about how he feels about Santa.
He mentions Rick Sterling’s report on Consortium News that calls into serious question the AI report. I guess you’re too lazy to Google the damn thing yourself.
Furthermore, there’s this:
https://off-guardian.org/2017/02/10/amnesty-international-admits-syrian-saydnaya-report-fabricated-entirely-in-uk/
I suggest you google Rick Sterling and see who he is before promoting him as a reliable source Zara.
G the Zionist and S both promote as a reliable source source bodies about which one does not even need to google to list their (very deathly) constant lies.
What Amnesty International ( AI ) claims should be taken with more than a pinch of salt…… need to be sceptical…. lost credibility big time when supported NATO for Afghanistan and invited Madeleine Albright to talk on Afghan Women’s Human Rights.. yes the same one who justified killing of half a million babies in Iraq!!
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/asia/we-get-it/
This is a better way to solve your concerns:
What kind of evidence would you accept in order to believe that Assad is a violent murderous dictator? And tell us what organization should provide that evidence?
What kind of evidence would S would provide that USA/GCC/Zionist colonizers are NOT violent murderous aggressors against Syria? And that the same USA had NOT called “violent murderous dictator” and worse Chaves? And that USA had NOT attacked and ruined many states under some false pretexts?
And would S claim that AI is NOT known for some reporting falsely blaming foes of imperialists and whitewashing crimes of imperialists’ pals?
For ex, AI reaction on Zionist bombing of Gaza was “Israeli forces displayed ‘callous indifference’ in deadly attacks on family homes in Gaza”
While about Qaddafi AI said “al-Gaddafi forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including war crimes, and gross human rights violations,which point to the commission of crimes against humanity. They deliberately killed and injured scores of unarmed protesters; subjected perceived opponents and critics to enforced disappearance and torture and other ill- treatment; and arbitrarily detained scores of civilians. They launched indiscriminate attacks and attacks targeting civilians in their efforts to regain control of Misratah and territory in the east. They launched artillery, mortar and rocket attacks against residential areas. They used inherently indiscriminate weapons such as anti-personnel land mines and cluster bombs,including in residential areas”.
Of course, Zionist had committed all the crimes AI accused Qaddafi of and much more, but AI language about these crimes are quite different.
I will read your comment thoroughly if you answer the one simple question I asked.
S is trying to wiggle, no problem to me.
Peoples are not only could be pro-Assad or pro-imperialism.
I know some people whom I would believe about As’sad crimes, because he is anti-USA imperialism and not pro-As’sad
As’ad Abu Khalil is one such person. Of course, he could mistake too, and sometimes he does, but he then admits his mistake.
And he had been against As’sad long before USA rulers started to call As’sad names. Because As’ad Abu Khalil is an anarchist, and is against more or less any government in the world. But still he could admit that some governments are less bad than others. He sure knows that Iran is less bad than Saudi Arabia and that Russia is less bad than Zionist colonizers of Palestine. And, of course, he knows enough about Syria to tell. And he thinks about AI the same as me and other commentators here, because he knows.
“S is trying to wiggle, no problem to me.”
No. I asked simple questions. If we cannot accept evidence from AI, HRW, United Nations, News organizations, then tell us what kind of evidence should we accept and who should give us that evidence. Your first answer was a long comment about US, Zionist, Libya….that had nothing to do with my questions. Then now you gave the name of a professor, an academic and a political commentator. The professor is not the one going to Syria to investigate chemical attacks. He isn’t the one who goes to Syria to study air samples, to perform medical tests on those who claim they were victims of chemical attacks.
The professor does not have access to classified satellite imagery or Syrian military flights records. Basically the professor does not have neither the mandate, nor the capability to gather evidence of Syrian government chemical attacks and present it to us or to a court. The professor is just giving his opinion. You can agree with him, but that is not what I asked you.
For the last time these are the questions:
What kind of evidence would you accept in order to believe that Assad is a violent murderous dictator?
And tell us what organization should provide that evidence?
Feel free to ignore them if you are incapable of answering them.
As I have said, S is trying to wiggle.
AI, HRW, United Nations, News organizations are ALL deeply discredited, it is a fact, but S prefers to ignore that. G pretends that they are trustworthy, because they have the means. But to have the means does not equate not being caught many times on the same-directed lies . I have mentioned some of the lies which had helped to ruin several countries.
If a cop is a well-known murderer and got out Scot-free, he is not a cop, he is a murderer. If AI, HRW, United Nations, News organizations had been lied many times and had not changed at all, they are not trustworthy.
And, by the way, anti-Syrian propaganda have been also using one “bellingcat” who is much less qualified than As’ad AbuKhalil. And the methods of “gathering evidence of Syrian government chemical attacks” (mind you, NOT just gathering facts on the ground, but looking for Syrian gov guilt, how trustworthy ) and the conclusions of such gathering had been questioned by the experts too. By T.Postol, for ex.
In short, S ignores
1) the “trustworthiness” of his “authorities” on Syria, who had been many times wrong at the same case – when USA/Gulf royals/ Zionist colonizers of Palestine wanted to ruin some state. Libya was one such case, but G claims it is irrelevant
2) the many experts who had NOT been compromised, unlike G’s authorities, who had been right many times before, but had been ignored till the countries in question been ruined already.
In short, G is acting in bad faith.
I am sorry for the mistape.
“G” should be S (Swisscheese)
Do you have a reading comprehension?
“AI, HRW, United Nations, News organizations are ALL deeply discredited”
Yes, you already said it. Now tell us since you believe they are “discredited”, then
1) What kind of evidence should we accept?
2) Who should give us that evidence because you believe we should not accept evidence from AI, HRW, UN, News organizations.?
At this point if you have to ask this question, you might want to accept that you’re backing the wrong side.
You don’t need to back any sides to answer that question. If you believe AI, HRW, United Nations, News organizations reports do not prove Assad has committed atrocities, then please tell us what evidence should we accept and tell us who should give us that evidence?
I think you’re missing my point. You’re literally doing what desperate car salespeople do when they can’t sell their shitty wares on the merits with your “What would it take…” line. Maybe you should think about what that says about the validity of your position.
The neocons have lost, Swisscheese. People don’t believe Assad is a monster, because he isn’t one.
Why do you care about what the commenters on some pseudoprog rag think, anyway, if you’re so convinced you’re right?
I am willing to make it even easier for you:
Let’s say five Syrian refugees come to you and say Assad regime has used chemical weapons against us. That is a serious crime, right? Tell us
What kind of evidence would you need in order to conclude that the Syrian refugees are telling the truth or are lying?
What organization should give you that evidence?
At a minimum I would have to be certain they are not being sponsored by the Western powers, NATO, Israel or the Gulf States.
There would also have to be clear and documented means, motive and opportunity for the Syrian government to have done something like this. At some point Assad may have had the means and the opportunity to use chemical weapons against his own people, but the motive given has never made sense. So there has never been any reason for me to believe it.
WHAT ORGANIZATION SHOULD GIVE YOU THAT EVIDENCE?
OMG!!! This is the easiest way I can do it for you:
Let’s say five Syrian refugees come to you and say Assad regime has used chemical weapons against us. That is a serious crime, right?
What organization should give you that evidence?
Example:
Amnesty International. NO, it is not credible.
The UN. NO, it is not credible
The Japanese department of Justice: YES it is credible.
You must have a least ONE organization to provide us in order to determine who was responsible for such serious crime.
Also, maybe you want to think about familiarizing yourself with the substantive reasons people have given for not trusting these institutions and the reports they release, if you want an answer to your question.
I don’t care about why they don’t trust them. People trust or mistrust whomever they want. I want to know who should bring the evidence since they do not trust those institutions?
Well, then, this is why you’re so bewildered by the commenters here. You’re not paying attention to what they’re actually saying.
Seriously, swisscheese, you ask a question like “What will it take for you to believe X” and are surprised people aren’t responding to it? A question like this shows your bad faith; it reveals something about you–that you are not interested in what’s true, only what you can convince people of.
Why is Amnesty International using shoddy evidence-gathering techniques? Why is HRW taking money from the Qatari government, one of the worst human rights abusers in the world? Are you ok that these things are going on? Have you resolved these contradictions? One might wonder not why people don’t believe Assad is a monster but why you remain committed to the idea that he is. Why hasn’t the fact that these organizations are compromised swayed your opinion? And why, if invoking said compromised institutions is the best the regime change advocates in the political establishment can do to sell Assad=butcher to the masses, is it unreasonable to think maybe there’s no basis for believing Assad is bad at all?
“A question like this shows your bad faith; it reveals something about you–that you are not interested in what’s true, only what you can convince people ”
The question says what must be done in order to convince you. You must be able to provide us metrics in order for you to decide whether X is guilty.
Attacking me reveals your inability to solve problems, it does not reveal anything about me. You already stated human rights organizations are not credible. Then put them to the side. I am not interested in your opinion about them anymore. Put human rights organizations, Western governments, News networks, and the UN to the side, and tell us who should bring the evidence to you in order for you to be convinced that X is guilty of using chemical weapons.
Look, I just don’t care until they start dumping babies out of incubators or trying to purchase aluminum tubes.
That’s exactly what I’m saying. You don’t care about any babies unless when those babies are politically inconvenient for you. Thanks for confirming Mark.
Is G pretending not getting the hint – that the AI “report” on Syria is about as credible as USA imperialist propaganda about Saddam “dumping babies out of incubators” used to start first Gulf war or “trying to purchase aluminum tubes” used to start the second war against Iraq? Both were lies, of course.
Or is G really does not get them?
The testimony about Saddam dumping babies out of incubators was given by a Kuwaiti, Nayirah al-?aba?. Try getting your facts straight.
“Hanged to death?” You simpleton.
So the turn of phrase is what you find objectionable. Wow you really are smart.
The article you refer to is a well-known artifact of fake news that is not based on facts. Are you aware that Amnesty Intl., which began as an honorable organization, has degenerated into an organization that often issues propaganda that demonizes the countries that are the enemies of its largest donors, beginning with the US? This particular myth about Syrian prisons has been debunked many times. You can see an example of propagandizing by Amnesty Intl. on “Democracy Now!” at the end of 2016, I believe, where an Amnesty executive tries to demonize the Syrian troops liberating Aleppo from Al Qaeda. After the Amnesty executive gives a list of horrors allegedly done by the Syrian Army, Prof. Stephen Cohen of Princeton and NYU deconstructs each allegation and shows how it is fake news ultimately coming from Al Qaeda itself, which is often taken as a news source by the NYT and WaPo by way of the Human Rights Observatory of Syria in England, which is connected to MI5.
Please study up. Assad is young and smart, and he is constantly becoming more democratic year by year. Are you aware that Syria promulgated a new democratic constitution in 2012 and that under this constitution Assad was democratically reelected against two opponents in a free election in 2014? Foreign public opinion firms have also carried out polls in Syria, and Assad always gains a majority of support in each poll. When Aleppo was liberated from Al Qaeda last December, did you see all the crowds dancing and singing and celebrating in the streets of Aleppo? And four days ago, when the siege by ISIS of Deir Ezzor in Syria was broken by the Syrian Army, did you see the news clips of the people of Deir Ezzor dancing and cheering in the streets and waving signs showing pictures of Assad? If you didn’t see them, I suggest you learn more about Syria and about why Assad is popular in spite of the international terrorist war against the Syrian government sponsored by the CIA, MI5, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Are you aware that of the 24 people who attempted to run against Assad 21 were excluded some for being women or Christian?
If he was so popular why was no opposition allowed the first 2 times he stood for election?
Is that the same Amnesty International who gave an award to al-Nusra Front ‘reporter’ Bilal Abdul Kareem? The guy who praised Abdullah al-Muhaysini, the leader of al-Nusra Front, and was filmed praising a guy wearing a suicide vest during the Syrian army’s liberation of Aleppo last December? By the way, whatever happened to those “last Messages from Aleppo” campaign? Did Amy Goodman ever find those 100, 000 children she swore wear trapped under Russian bombs in the city? Try watching the “Tapestry of Terror” video on Live Leak for an idea about what Amy, Amnesty and Bilal were up to with the US backed terrorists.
The white nationalists support assad because they hate obama and he fully supported the rebels. Its as simple as that.
Obviously white nationalists need to be denounced, but the point should be made that we are only in syria in the first place in order to gain greater access to the regions natural resources. Not because “Assad is a bad guy”
This is without a doubt the worst article I have ever read on this site. When I come here, I expect, at the very least, honest journalism with the type of nuance one would expect to parse through the ever-complicated nature of international geo-politics.
Leaving aside the obvious contradictions of White Nationalists (implied racists and Muslim haters) finding a brown non-American Muslim in far off country to be their hero, Mariam’s attempt to connect the far right with Russia and America’s battlefield enemies is quite overt and transparent.
There is little that I can say here that hasn’t been said below. It is a relief, though not a surprise, that the majority of Intercept readers quickly saw through this canard. It is upsetting, however, to witness the further slide of the Intercept into Russophobia and pure propaganda. This used to be a source I highly respected. Now, not so much. The editors should be ashamed of themselves.
Yikes! “why” would you even write this article? Rather than reporting this is painting. Creative painting. Why?
Propaganda at its best, this reaks!
This is a hatchet job. I’m firmly opposed to White Nationalist/Purists of any kind. I am equally opposed to the regime change program led by the US in many nations including Syria.
The Syria “revolution” is yet another ploy funded by America to rid the Middle East of any ruler they do not like; always seemingly corresponding to Israel’s enemies.
The ruse is clear to see. Ms. Elba needs to delve more deeply into what is actually happening; she needs to hear Assad speaking about what his “regime” is all about and stop listening to American Exceptionalists’ explanations of the state of the world
by rehashing the past maybe we can fight the white supremacists on the Assad issue with a strong Clinton-style anti-Assad stance, or a weak Sanders-style anti -Assad stance
“In spite of the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war”
Statements like that need to be supported with facts. The author fails to do so. There are however some facts that directly dispute this statement:
1. The civil war was instigated by Jihadis financed by the West and Arab Gulf states.
“That the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood played a key role in the uprising that erupted three months later was confirmed in 2012 by the US Defense Intelligence Agency. A leaked report from the agency said that the insurgency was sectarian and led by the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner of Islamic State. The report went on to say that the insurgents were supported by the West, Arab Gulf oil monarchies and Turkey. The analysis correctly predicted the establishment of a “Salafist principality,” an Islamic state, in Eastern Syria, noting that this was desired by the insurgency’s foreign backers, who wanted to see the secular Arab nationalists isolated and cut-off from Iran.”
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/
2. The “moderate” rebels have repeatedly walked away from peace talks. So, when Assad has tried to deescalate the situation, the Jihadis (rebels) have walked away from the table.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/04/syrian-opposition-rejects-deal-to-create-safe-zones
3. Rebels have bombed people they agreed to protect. See the below linked suicide bombing of refugee children who were trying to evacuate cities under siege and for whom the rebels had guaranteed safety. I’m unsure what could more thoroughly “perpetrate escalation” than needlessly bombing people you specifically promised not to harm. The MSM tries to obscure the fact that this attack was carried about by rebel fighters, but it almost certainly was. The Jihadis have a long track record of using suicide bombs in Syria against both military and civilian targets. The Syrian army does not use suicide bombs. It has stockpiles of military-grade ordnance, an air force and tanks.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/syria-aleppo-bombing-evacuees-rebels-killed
Perhaps the writer of this piece could be bothered to learn a little bit more about the subject matter before penning pieces. It might save her the embarrassment of jotting down statements that are demonstratively false.
Thank you!
Wow how disappointing from The Intercept. Maybe white nationalists like coffee too so we should all stop drinking it? We have all seen how well regime change and oil industry imperialism after scare stories have gone in Iraq and Libya, really surprised that you are supporting more of this. The country is in ruins after the US funding Isis sympathetic militants. You really should be ashamed of yourselves for running this story :-(
The core of Mariam Elba’s screed is rotten.
Mariam’s core paragraphs are these two:
“Assad’s authoritarianism uses the same buzzwords as the far-right
to describe the society he’s trying to build in his own country —
a pure, monolithic society of devotees to his own power.
American neo-Nazis see Assad as a hero.
As the chaos of Charlottesville and its aftermath was unfolding,
Assad addressed a group of diplomats in Damascus about the ongoing
war in Syria. “We lost many of our youth and infrastructure,”
he said, “but we gained a healthier and more homogenous society.”
“bzzzz”, hit the buzzer. Mariam’s argument falls apart like rotten fruit.
Mariam said, “Assad uses the same buzzwords as the far right”.
And then she hit us with what Assad supposedly said.
Except Assad never said that.
Repeat
Assad never said that.
Mariam, the core of your screed falls apart from their. (The motivation
for your screed is an entirely different matter – supporting regime
change. But that is for another post altogether, and hopefully most
people see through you and realize your true motivation.)
Assad never said “homogenous society”. He spoke in Arabic and you handed us a
self-serving translation.
“we gained a healthier and more homogenous society” – a bad translation.
What he said would be better understood as “E Pluribus Unum” –
(The Motto of the United States of America, by the way.)
“When each person loves the other as much as himself, it makes one out of many” – Cicero
One out of many
From many one
Assad was talking about a society with social bonds. As opposed to
the balkanized territory Hillary Clinton has sought. (Balkanize –
shatter Syria into smaller mutually hostile states)
Assad wasn’t using “the same buzzwords as the far right” he was
expressing a vision we all know so well.
What we in the US want is a country where differences are respected;
though we have differences we are cohesive, we have a working society
bonded together through the ideas set down in our Constitution.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/how-the-intercept-smears-syria-by-mistranslating-an-assad-speech.html#more
The Golden Dawn opposed austerity in Greece, so obviously everyone opposing neoliberal economic policies must be nazi!
I support Black Lives Matter and Assad. What does that make me?
Inconsistent.
What is happening to The Intercept??? This article is godawful and sounds like something the Washington Post would write. You guys are really losing it.
I am fed up with this supposedly progressive publication’s promotion of imperialism and regime change. Iraq and Libya are in ruins and yet they want to repeat the process in Syria. Disgusting. Bashar al-Assad is the democratically-elected president of Syria with popular support, and the Western powers need to get over it. You can’t have it all.
The fact that white nationalists like Assad is the least important thing to know about both the white racists here and the Syrian civil war. It’s like emphasizing that Hitler was a vegetarian. It’s not terribly relevant. Yes, some racists like Assad, perhaps because they like the fact that he has killed a lot of Muslims. But that is no reason for thinking the rebels were the better choice.
The fact is that a great many non racist people opposed American support for the rebels because as bad as Assad is, a rebel victory would probably be worse, likely leading to genocide for religious minorities. And US intervention has a track record of making things worse. This article seems designed to demonize anti interventionism with the not terribly subtle approach of finding some white racists who like Assad.
A security state is the logical consequence of US co-opting of liberal regimes everywhere. It is the only way to maintain independence from US and western imperialism. At least Syria remains non-sectarian, defends women’s rights and equality, offers free education up to Ph.D. and MD, free health care and subsidized staple foods. There exist better governments, but I’m not sure the US would qualify as one of them.
How is a govt whos constitution syayes only a Muslim can be president secular.
Do you consider the UK to be a secular state? It’s constitution declares that the head of state (the monarch) must be a Protestant.
1) The UK does not have a constitution. You are referring to an act of Paliarment in the 18th century that even the current monarch disagrees with.
2) Tell us the powers of the British monarch compared to the Iranian supreme leader or the Syrian president.
1) The UK has a constitution based of several laws and customs that have developed over the ages, it doesn’t have a written constitution but written ones are not the only form. The prohibition on non-Protestants as head of state dates from the 1701 Act of Settlment which is still in effect.
2) Prince Charles who has called for reform is not in fact the sitting monarch, the sitting monarch has not expressed an opinion. The personal opinion of Charles is irrelvant.
3) The British monarch on paper still has significant executive powers, especialy in states of war and emergency, but it is customary not to use them. The royal prerogative is normally held by the PM giving him/her the powers of an elected monarch. The sovereign authority of the UK is invested in the ‘Crown in Parliament’ not in the people of the UK who are in fact subjects to the sovereign, everything the state does is in the name of the monarch not the people. Article 2 of the Syrian constitution defines the Syrian people as the holders of sovereignty and the President acts in their name.
1) That means it does not have a codified constitution as opposed to Iran or Syria that have a code (called Constitution), which possesses FUNDAMENTAL status.
2) Prince Charles is part of the monarchy. He is the heir apparent of the 85 year old Queen. He is the official representant of the Queen. Yes, you may have your opinion that his views are “irrelevant”.
3)” it is customary not to use them. ”
Compare that to Syria and Iran.
“The royal prerogative is normally held by the PM giving him/her the powers of an elected monarch. ”
Can the PM be Catholic/Muslim/Jew..?
“not in the people of the UK who are in fact subjects to the sovereign, everything the state does is in the name of the monarch not the people”
Is the Queen the ultimate authority to decide what candidates the people can vote for? Compare that to Syria and Iran.
1) All states have a constitution, some are specifically stated in a single document, others aren’t, it is simply wrong to state the UK doesn’t have one.
2) Prince Charles’s opinions do not determine the British constitution. Any reform to the Act of Settlement will face significant resistance, possibly even violent in the case of Ulster Protestants, but also in England because the monarch is also head of the Church of England which is an established church (unlike say the Church of Scotland). Ulster Loyalism is specifically based on the idea Britain is a Protestant state, the Act of Settlement is one of the main symbols of that claim, and therefore for N Ireland being part of the UK (since it has a Protestant majority).
3) It is customary for the monarch not to use executive powers they still have on paper in the UK, thus the UK has in practice a non-executive head of state, the US has an exective head of state like Syria.
“Can the PM be Catholic/Muslim/Jew..?”
Technically yes, in practice there hasn’t been any non-Protestant PM in the modern era. Tony Blair converted to Catholicism only after leaving office, he stated he delayed due to political considerations although he secretly practised catholicism while in office. Disreali was of Jewish descent however he converted to Anglicanism when he was 12.
To stand in elections a party must be registered with the Electoral Commission (and in conformance with it’s conditions) which answers to Parliament, it on occasion refuses to register a proposed party. Historically several Republican and Radical parties have been banned on royal authority (United Irishmen, United Scotsmen, Friends of the People), these powers still technically exist although not often used.
1) Let me rephrase it again: the UK does not have a CODIFIED constitution. Iran and Syria have a CODIFED constitution that has FUNDAMENTAL status. Do some research to determine what fundamental status means in law.
2) Prince Charles is part of the monarchy. The heir apparent of the 85 year old Queen. The official representative of the Queen. Yes, you can have the opinion that it is “irrelevant” that he thinks the monarch can be either Catholic or Protestant. Now compare his opinion to the supreme leaders of Syria and Iran?
“Any reform to the Act of Settlement will face significant resistance, possibly even violent in the case of Ulster Protestants”
So far none of the resistance to the reform has been violent. Can Muslim members of the Syrian or Iranian executives marry a Catholic under Syrian/Iranian laws?
3)”Technically yes” Example: Tony Blair. Now compare that to Syria and Iran? Would a Muslim officials allowed to convert to catholicism under Syrian/Iranian laws?
4) I notice you avoid clear comparison between the UK and Syria/Iran.
5) If you are suggesting that the UK and Syria/Iran are similar in terms of secularity then your argument is completely irrational. Not even rational Syrian/Iranian legal scholars would accept that nonsense. Iran and Syria have a CODIFIED constitution. You cannot run for office in Iran unless the RELIGIOUS SUPREME LEADER say yes. This is not a “custom” that can be ignored. In Syria, the people choice for the supreme commander must be Muslim. In the UK, the people choice for prime ministet can be Muslim, Catholic, Jew…and if the elected PM ( who has power to send British Special Forces to combat without the consent of neither the parliament or the monarch) has a majority, then the protestant monarch cannot even stop him/her from gaining power.
We have digressed, partly due to your whataboutery, and er … bravery in thinking you know enough about the British constitution, to take on all comers.
The question is not whether the Syrian constitution is desirable but whether the new requirement that the head of state be a Muslim by itself disqualifies Syria from being regarded as secular. I’m arguing it does not, I’m arguing it Syria is more secular than the UK, of which part (England) has an established church, whereas Syria does not have a state religion even if it requires the President to be of the same religion as the majority of it’s population. I have no idea why you keep bringing up Iran, which is neither part of Syria nor the UK. Iran is a Islamic Republic, it is in no way secular and makes no claim of being so. Why not bring in Saudi Arabia, which makes no claim to be seculer either, hell, what about Bhutan maybe we could throw that in.
I suspect the new Syrian constitution introduced the new Muslim President requirement as a sop to insurgent Islamism and to emphasise that Assad’s own Alawite sect are Muslim, something being denied by some Sunni Jihadi types, although some of them argue that Alawites are in fact worse than Kufr because they have betrayed Islam. It’s a retrogressive step, but doesn’t by itself disqualify Syria from being secular.
Iran? Fair enough. Let’s forget about Iran?
“thinking you know enough about the British constitution, to take on all comers.”
More than you, obviously. Syria has a CODIFIED constitution. It isn’t a matter of “custom” for Syrian main course of legislation to depend on ISLAMIC jurisprudence. That CODIFIED constitution ensures that ISLAMIC jurisprudence has FUNDAMENTAL status.
The U.K. does not have a codified constitution. Tomorrow the British parliaments and the commonwealth decide that the monarch’s religion is irrelevant, then no courts in the U.K. can say that decision is unconstitutional.
“The question is not whether the Syrian constitution is desirable but whether the new requirement that the head of state be a Muslim by itself disqualifies Syria from being regarded as secular. I’m arguing it does not, I’m arguing it Syria is more secular than the UK”
That is an irrational argument. The Syrian head of state’s tremendous powers come from a CODIFIED constitution that insists that he must be Muslim and enforces laws on the land based on ISLAMIC jurisprudence. Example: divorce laws that are more favorable to men than women are based on Islam. Legal proceedings for honor crimes are based on Islam.
The British PM’s (whether he is Catholic, Muslim, Jew…) powers do not come from a codified constitution. Example: a catholic PM can (and has) deploy special forces anywhere around the world without the consent of the British monarch who is commander in chief. The monarch cannot even prevent that PM from taking power if he/she has a majority.
Your argument is extremely simplistic: “UK is less secular than Syria because the UK parliament states the monarch who has extremely limited powers mostly based on customs must be protestant, and the U.K. has a state religion, which cannot even be used as a main source of laws.”
Syria must have a Muslim head of state with tremendous CODIFIED powers who must ensure that laws of the land are based on ISLAMIC jurisprudence.
Although the constitution was overwhelmingly approved by popular referendum, and although everyone agrees that it is a major improvement, this is a legitimate criticism, and one which is openly shared by many Syrians. It was intended as a concession to the Islamists and a means of taking the issue away from the Muslim Brotherhood, but it didn’t work and is widely considered to be a flaw. Virtually every other provision of the constitution, such as the outlawing of parties based on religion or ethnicity, is anti-sectarian.
The referendum was held at a time when huge numbers of Syrians living in rebel controlled areas were unable to vote. How is that overwhelming approval?
This constitution also states that law is based on Islamic law. It doesnt matter how these provisions made it into the constitution, the fact that they are there and are in practice disqualify the govt from being termed secular.
If all of the voters in “rebel” controlled areas had voted against the referendum, the result would still have been overwhelming approval. At least 80% of the population was in the government areas. In fact, that’s where most of the displaced voted with their feet, and where they voted.
No government in the world is completely secular. It is a matter of degree. The US chooses Sunday to be its “day off” and makes Christian holy days official holidays. There are plenty more examples. Syria is by far the most secular Arab country.
The US does not require Sunday to be the day off.
Syria may indeed be the most secular Arab country. That does not make it secular.
These ‘rebels’? The White Helmets Terrorists – Further Extensive Evidence of Direct Collusion with Islamic Terrorist Groups – (Set 4) https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/09/08/the-white-helmets-terrorists-further-extensive-evidence-of-direct-collusion-with-islamic-terrorist-groups-set-4/
The Intercept is so focused on white nationalist idolization of Assad, that it has apparently missed an even bigger story: white nationalist idolization of Kim Jong Un. Their concept for a white nation appears to be based on the Korean concept of ‘Juche’, which is defined on the DPRK website as:
Essentially, what the white nationalists dream of: setting up their own state and closing the borders to all other peoples – is what the DPRK has already achieved. It therefore follows that white nationalists must idolize Kim Jong Un.
I haven’t filled in the last piece needed to make this case: finding a post on Facebook where a known white nationalist says something nice about Kim Jong Un. I refuse to have anything to do with Facebook since it was taken over by white nationalists. This is therefore an opportunity for some young web savvy journalist at The Intercept to get a scoop. I’ve already done over half the work, but I will gladly relinquish any rights to this story and allow others to take all the credit.
You asked for proof of a white mationalist idolizing Assad and you received it. Nice attempt at moving the goal posts and moving the discussion away from the thread. Fail.
You’re guilty of thinking inside the box. White nationalists aren’t necessarily limited to idolizing Assad. They also idolize Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and as posited in my preceding post, Kim Jong Un. Maybe white nationalists are in the idolatry business. If so, my comment was overly conservative – white nationalists idolize everybody!
Want White Nationalists idolizing NK? Try this long (and funny) article!
https://www.nknews.org/2013/05/white-power-and-apocalyptic-cults-pro-dprk-americans-revealed/
Thank you for that. However, it’s a bit frustrating to make an attempt at satire, and then learn that if falls well short of reality.
Your article is pure propaganda and your blog should give credence that Bashar was elected in 2014 and your article goes back to 2005 to drum up crap about David Duke. You should be ashamed at publishing this hit piece-how much you getting from the CIA.. Oh BTW yes I am white not a christian and do not subscribe to white nationalism.. I suggest your just jumping on the divide and conquer bandwagon to clickbait your shite..
The prosecution of a Swedish national accused of terrorist activities in Syria has collapsed at the Old Bailey after it became clear Britain’s security and intelligence agencies would have been deeply embarrassed had a trial gone ahead, the Guardian can reveal.
His lawyers argued that British intelligence agencies were supporting the same Syrian opposition groups as he was, and were party to a secret operation providing weapons and non-lethal help to the groups, including the Free Syrian Army. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/01/trial-swedish-man-accused-terrorism-offences-collapse-bherlin-gildo
The real reason the West wanted Assad to fall was the ‘arc of resistance’ Iran, Iraq. Syria and Hezbolla. Syria was merely the ‘low hanging fruit’. Israel’s interest was permanent sovereignty over the Golan Heights plus all its oil and water. The Saudis did not want a strong Iran to have any hegemonic interests in the region, hence Israel is now teaming up with Saudi Arabia to confront Iran. The Islamists always said that after they had defeated Assad they would destroy Hezbollah, probably with the assistance of Israel. Enter the bear, and all these machinations have come to nothing. Thank goodness for that.
As someone who actually browsed /pol/ for some 5+ years now, I can tell you how absolutely off the mark you are. There is no overarching intellectual reasoning behind the “alt-right”‘s support for Assad. Nobody has been swallowing years-old Syrian propaganda written in Arabic. The support for Assad is not based on anything more than a simple knee-jerk reaction to the so-called Establishment’s opposition to him: The alt-right sees the Syrian question as one more instance of neocon/neolib hypocrisy, and a particularly glaring one at that.
In the scheme of things I’m guessing they judge Assad the lesser of two evils when compared to America and the West.
Really, this is journalism?
Appalling article. Full of generalizations, no facts, no sources. Just an empty opinion piece, one like many others propagated by the Islamist supporting “Syrian revolutionaries”. It’s a poor attempt to try and garner support in the West by painting Assad as an acolyte of the far right Neo Nazi fringe.
I am a Syrian Armenian and what Assad has protected in Syria is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society.
There has always been Muslim Brotherhood (Islamist fanatics) operatives with backing of foreign powers, seeking to undermine the harmonious inter-faith relationship in Syria.
In early 2000s, the Syrian government even funded the rebuilding of synagogues.
Deeply disappointing to see Glenn’s website post such authenticated crap. Someone who I respect for his sincerity and accurate journalism.
Look at those Nazi children in that photo! The children are white supremacists. The children are doing the Hitler salute. It’s the usual propaganda that’s focused on demonizing children. The so called “moderate rebels” routinely send suicide bombers to mass murder Syrian children in schools and Kindergartens. They routinely execute children. Sometimes the child victims are beheaded. But that’s okay in their view because the children are Nazis, non-believers, or what have you. These same children could also be portrayed as “Islamic terrorists” if the war party was talking to a different audience.
All you comment crabs took the bait lol …. Mariam Elba knows exactly what she’s fishing for …. this is a writer to keep up with. Well done, TI.
Certainly one to keep up with if you’re possessed of kindergarten-level credulity and type things like “lol”
“Kinder-gart-en”? What is that, some Nazi training camp shit? No thanks, Adolf!
I’m frankly astonished and appalled that The Intercept would trash its reputation publishing this flagrant neocon propaganda piece, scapegoating Assad for the attempted gang lynching of Syria by the US, NATO, the Saudis, Qatar, Turkey and Israel, each with its own nefarious motives, planned and prepared since 2008 including appointment of Rob’t Ford as US ambassador in 2011 fresh from collusion with infamous John Negroponte in destroying the secular, socialist, terrorism-free state of Iraq, transferring to Syria what the Pentagon calls “the Salvador option” launched by Hillary/Obama after destroying the successful, secular, socialist state of Libya and murdering Gaddafi who was threatening Western control of Africa, looting Gaddafi’s arsenals and shipping the weapons to Turkey to arm the mercenaries and Wahhabi fanatics assembled for the kill under the cover story of a “civil war.” Assad met with his legitimate domestic opposition, developed a revised constitution approved in 2012 by a large plebiscite majority that included massive turnout at Syrian embassies worldwide, and was re-elected in 2014 by a large majority that trusts Assad and the SAA to protect their treasured secular society. Knowing he was targeted as #3 behind Saddam and Gaddafi as an obstacle to imperial control of the Middle East, Assad responded swiftly to the predictable CIA infiltrator violence scenario used from Mossadeq to the Ukraine, and he with the SAA have battled to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity, diversity and fiercely secular society valued by the Syrian people against the invading Salafist ideologues and profiteers recruited, trained, funded and logistically supported by the above cabal. I suggest The Intercept solicit articles by honest and knowledgable journalists free of imperial warmongering taint who know and visit Syria such as Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley.
tl;dr “Jack” …. my god I’d kill to see your company’s playbook.
Micahel
Jack
Eric
Anne
(lol) “Pierre”
You guys have no fucking clue, do you? lol
It seems like Glenn was effectively removed from editorial responsibilities for a year now, and a series of quasi-journalistic CIA inserts ensued.
What’s ironic that TIC journalism stooped so law in many cases that reached levels of propaganda and willful ignorance and evidence free group-think, speculations and conspiracy theories Glenn recently embarked on a crusade to fight against in …NYT.
This piece is an example of such a pure conspiracy theory Glenn is fighting NYT for.
yep. OpMock might be in play here.
Now it’s NATO’s turn. The code name for their operation looks like DIY
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4867212/Nato-chief-World-dangerous-generation.html
unbelieveable.
Wait, so you are claiming the CIA has installed writers at TI AND you are accussing others of promoting conspiracy theory? Too funny.
Spot on, these peeps are paid propagandist..
Assad won partly because he represented a multi-ethnic, diverse, non-sectarian and pluralist society. All minorities flocked to government areas during the war because of Assad’s track record of offering protection to minorities. That includes the Coptic Christians, who were especially badly persecuted. The Syrian Arab Army is 70% Sunni. Mariam Elba is a fool who has been blinded by a toxic combination of bad (non-existent?) training, poor education, and white hatred.
This was quite possibly one of the worst one sided articles I have read on The Intercept. This author cherry picked details & blanetly lied at times to fit info into the narrative and left out huge portions of information that disproves their argument (such as China being a huge backer of Syria, the rebels groups consist of Al Qaeda linked groups who stone women, and the Palestinians actually fight in a militia for the Syrian govt). I except better from The Intercept than this poorly written article
Bye The Intercept.
So, Glenn, explain something to The Intercept readers: You refuse to publish Rania Khalek’s on the ground, investigative reports on Syria and from Syria, but you do allow the publishing of this drivel, this absolute drivel?
First TYT, now TI shows its true corporate propaganda colors. Glenn and Jeremy, you need to gtf out of there.
I have much more faith in the Intercept than the rest of you. I’m confident that Ms. Elba will not further embarrass its claim to journalistic excellence in the future.
“Paul” lol
At first the article says Assad doesn’t mean ‘ethnic homogenity’, but political, then it says he’s akin to white nationalism which does preach ethnic homogenity, the article doesn’t even make sense.
Assad is fighting to preserve a religiously diverse cosmopolitan Syria against violent sectarians who want to drive all minorities out, that is why the cities have stuck by Assad while the majority of his armed opponents are either foreigners (see below) or they come from poor rural areas on the drought striken peripheries (or from originally poor rural backgrounds but who have moved into some of the poor housing estates around Damascus in the last few decades). Assads supporters include the local religious minorities (Druze, Christians, Shia, Alawites) and many of the Sunni majority. The SAA is an overwhelmingly Sunni army, Damascus and Aleppo are both predominantly Sunni cities, yet they supported Assad.
According to the fairly anti Assad SOHR over 58 000 foreign anti-Assad fighters have been killed out of a total 115 000 anti-Assad fighters killed, that means up to 50% of all opposition fighters killed are not even Syrian. What kind of “revolution” is it that is half composed of foreigners, what kind of “civil war”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War#Foreign_anti-government_fighters_killed
Futher many opposition fighters, the ones that actually are Syrian, are poor folk paid by foreign sources to fight.
There is a peaceful opposition to Assad who for now support him in their disgust with the armed opposition, you can read an example below.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/syria-revolution-aleppo-assad.html
Aleppo didn’t rise up against Assad, it was invaded by fighters from the countryside, Damascus didn’t rebel. Cosmopolitan Syria has been fighting for Assad, the armed opposition is fighting for an exclusive Sunni theocratic state.
Why is the Intercept publishing such pityful disinformation?
next, the intercept ties support for bernie sanders to secret assad sympathies.
Ahh, that settles it now. There’s no longer any excuse not to line up behind the McCain-Clinton push for another painless regime change in the mideast.
What could possibly go wrong?
This article presents an interesting topic, but unfortunately the thread between Assad and white supremacists is bare. Maybe if parallels were explored between kids from the US supporting Assad and kids from the US rushing to join the fight against Assad then there would be a question worth pondering. Such as what draws American extremists on various political spectrums to causes that they should otherwise have zero connection? Now, I don’t want to pile on the author for a lack of understanding regarding this horrible “civil war”, but it is not that difficult to search a few WikiLeaks cables on Syria and Assad, the CIA in Syria, or simply read a few brief articles regarding regime change. Assad may very well be a monster, but perhaps his paranoia and barbarity is fueled by constantly worrying about invasion from Western Powers, and not being beaten and raped to death like Gaddafi. Either way, I hope her next article has some substantial reporting – if she writes another article for TIC.
Jesus, I can’t believe this tripe in The Intercept of all places…..and the author is off on the death count by over half a million people! Jesus, what were you guys thinking hiring her. To know that the US narrative on the Syrian war is all lies, sim ply look here: The White Helmets Terrorists – Further Extensive Evidence of Direct Collusion with Islamic Terrorist Groups – (Set 4) https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/09/08/the-white-helmets-terrorists-further-extensive-evidence-of-direct-collusion-with-islamic-terrorist-groups-set-4/ and here: Massive White Helmets Photo Cache Proves Hollywood Gave Oscar to Terrorist Group
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/02/27/massive-white-helmets-photo-cache-proves-hollywood-gave-oscar-to-terrorist-group/ and here: “Now You See Me” – Over 100 White Helmet Self-Posted Facebook Images Expose Fake Humanitarian Group as FSA Terrorists Linked with Al-Qaeda
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/05/01/now-you-see-me-over-100-white-helmet-self-posted-facebook-images-expose-fake-humanitarian-group-as-fsa-terrorists-in-bed-with-al-qaeda/
So if a white guy isn’t qualified to write about the Middle East because he isn’t ethnically Middle Eastern, how are you qualified to write about White Nationalism? You’ve got most things wrong btw, they mostly like him because he is a huge thorn in the eye of what white nationalists call the ZOG. A lot of it is about how they see Putin, Assad et al. as a bulwark against a great global Jewish conspiracy.
I like Assad with the understanding he is a tyrant among many tyrants. The Syrian state had a lot going for it before the manufactured dissent and the uncivil proxy war fought on Syrian soil. But more than Assad and all the other petty tyrants of the world, I really dislike the Alt-Right more than anything else. Let’s compare the Syrian state under Assad and Saudi Arabia under the rule of the house of Saud. Where would you want to live? I’ll play nice, the articles title is leading and lacking. Lastly, of course the Alt-Right would revel in any tyrants ugly acts, it is who they are.
What a shameful article. This was not a civil war. The Syrian govt did not ‘escalate’ this onslaught onto a civilian population. My friends have survived thid with grit and resilience. The destruction of infrastructure, schools, hospitals, sectors of industry like the pharmaceutical industry. Using water as a weapon of war, depriving millions in major cities. Shame on you Mariam Elba. Your reporting is disgusting
Knights in white helmets,
Feigning a friend,
Articles written…
Too bad you pressed ‘send.’
Oh, Intercept, you silly goose!
Or a cheer up gift for professional mourners from The Intercept’s new senior news editor.
Where to invade next?
covering for tyrants
while gassed children sob
I pretend to be progressive
but I support a Baathist slob
Just because someone doesn’t support corporatist, warmongering and imperialist propaganda, and mocks it openly, it doesn’t follow that the person supports Assad.
If you don’t want regime change in Israel or Saudi Arabia, your own flawed thinking would dictate that you support their atrocities and oppressiveness – an idiocy that even a muddled authoritarian like you wouldn’t embody.
Who said anything about regime change?
What have I posted that would make me an authoritarian? Or is that just your go to insult when you have no facts to present?
Why is criticizing Assad warmongering?
You must be confused with the tyrant that slaughters Palestinians.
Actually, Syria has integrated a half million Palestinian refugees, treated them better than has any other Arab country, and provided them full citizenship with all the benefits (health care, higher education) of their well-developed socialist state. Most Palestinians are Sunni, as are the majority of Syrians, and support Alawite Assad since the Baathist Party is resolutely secular, as it was also in Iraq, including gender equality. When we attacked Iraq, more women than men were enrolled in universities.
Over 3000 Palestinians have been killed in Syrian war. Why did you change your name barabbas? Where you banned?
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/05/01/now-you-see-me-over-100-white-helmet-self-posted-facebook-images-expose-fake-humanitarian-group-as-fsa-terrorists-in-bed-with-al-qaeda/
There are only a few choices here… The author is
1. a complete incompetent and ignoramus
2. a brainwashed, lazy, Leftoid zombie
3. CIA plant
This is the author’s retweet…. would one say she is totally biased against those who did not swallow all the “so called Syrian rebels
a. k. a. Al Nusra or Al Qaeda or whatever’s ” propaganda???
Mariam Elba Retweeted
???? ????
??Verified account @joeyayoub 8h8 hours ago
Again and again, ‘leftists’ who whitewash Assad are no different from the fascists and white nationalists https://theintercept.com/2017/09/08/syria-why-white-nationalists-love-bashar-al-assad-charlottesville/ …
Assad desired the war and the Western alliance had no hand in FUELING the long, devestating war? Uh huh.
And Assad is the primary perpetrator of the long war?
This has been neo-con narrative for many years. Has it not been the West that has been supporting the Jihadists?
lol … Ok, ohhhhhhhkay, everyone can stop the “most obvious alt-righter trying to be smart” comment contest now …. john “strong, generic white name; great choice” anderson has won the day. Well done, john! Or was it Eric? “Richard”? … “Michael”?! Oh no, not “Ann” too?!
lol gotta love those clearly fake FULL name choices! You guys suck! lol
What’s Wrong with Featuring Minority Journalists Because they are Minorities
Glenn Greenwald wrote the follwing in his recent piece about the NYT’s Op-Ed Editor, quoting Zaid Jilani, “The Times editorial page currently does not have a female minority columnist and, despite frequently writing about conflicts in the Middle East, employs no regular Arab American or Muslim American writers.”
It would seem that featuring this article could be in response to cries of hypocrisy against Greenwald and Jilani.
As we see here with this article and the glaring mistake of “millions killed” in the Syrian Civil War — not to mention other contentious issues raised — the primary reason to feature the work of a journalist must be the quality of that journalist’s work. The fact that a journalist is an Arab-American could add to the sophistication of that journalist regarding the Middle East if he/she had lived in the Arab world, grew up with race/gender-based experiences that offer unique insight into the Middle East, and so on.
From Elba’s biography page on the magazine she edits, there is nothing that distinguishes her qualifications or experiences from any other person who earned a master’s in Near Eastern Studies.
Please note: my apologies to Elba for taking the focus off the content of your article. I’ll be the first to acknowledge your race and gender are not necessarily related to the content of your article in the slightest. However I think it’s appropriate to raise this issue in the greater context of The Intercept.
Definitely the worst article I have ever read here and quite possibly one of the most underhanded and devious pieces I’ve read in any venue from which I expect reasonably honest discourse.
I mean… wow.
“Devious” … lol my god, Gladys, don’t faint from the vapors! … Ya drama queen …
Agreed. SO disappointing to read this on TI.
I totally agree, Michael. This is Washington Post-level bad.
BullShit I don’t care what the white nationalists do but if you think Assad is responsible for a civil war and not US, Israel and Saudi backed mercenaries I wish you would go work somewhere else: this is a great news source but this story is worthless.
This is one of the worst articles I have ever read at The Intercept. The way in which the author tries to link Syria to the villains du jour – white nationalists – makes this article come across as a propaganda piece aimed at liberals. I don’t see what the point is now, given that the Syrians have beaten back the West’s regime change operation.
“Du jour”? Good god, man, are you French, or Russian? Make up your mind!
So anyone who opposes deadly, illegal, US regime change operations is French, Russian, or a white supremacist now?
Oh yeah, for sure man. You hadn’t heard?
“It is impossible to get a man to understand something if his livelihood depends on him not understanding.”
? Upton Sinclair
So this is The Intercept’s idea of “diversity and the range of opinions” ? “ ….the goal is to critique, and then the task is to invent something ( cheap, easy, and superficial) to say. …”
non se . qui . tur
/ nän sekw?d?r /
A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.
Ex. We were talking about the conflicts in syria when she threw in some non sequitur about Alois Brunner.
We know that the USA/UK armed and pushed the original protests in Syria.
We know that the USA/UK, SA and The Gulf States armed and paid the “Rebels” creating yet another regime destabilizing Al Queda powered revolution. And we know that those “Rebels” fed into ISIS one way or another.
There were jihads from 8 countries fighting in Syria and Iraq. The intersection that the so called “White” nationalists have with the Syrian Regime is that they seem Assad defending Christians, Copts, Maronites and Catholics. All of whom existed in Syria before the Western supplied insurgency. They see them as fighting Radical Islam. Jihads or Assad? I’ll take Assad. Was it the NG pipeline? Or just the NeoCon’s, Israels and SA’s war with Iran?
Before the Arab Spring Syria was one of the most secular and pluralistic countries in the Middle East. Sure, it has had a family regime in power for the last decades. Most countries in the ME don’t fit our Western description of a democracy — especially notable among those are our Gulf States allies who are funding and supporting ISIS.
In 2013 the WP did an article that half of all Americans couldn’t identify Syria on a map; I doubt this percentage would be higher among white nationalists. The narrative we hear most about Syria in our country is that Assad is a brutal dictator. The most prominent counter narrative to this is that he is justified because he must fight ISIS.
If you are prone to not trust the MSM, as I’m sure most white nationalists are, I would hazard a guess that you would be more inclined to see Assad in this latter prevailing counter narrative, i.e.: a guy who is tough on “Islamic terrorists.” That kind of narrative seems like it would play great with white nationalists (along with the anti-Israel/Jewish stuff).
This makes more sense than the story Elba is telling that white nationalists like Assad because he is “…the Middle East’s leading force toward creating a society that is spiritually, socially, and politically ‘pure,'” — that’s the first time I ever heard that, and understanding the societal ethos that surrounds that statement starts to imply an understanding of Syria that would be lacking in someone who doesn’t know where Syria is on the map.
It would be enlightening for Elba to explain how the Assad regime, which has a long track record of ruling a relatively stable and pluralistic country (relatively!), who comes from the minority Alawites and maintains power by creating alliances with other groups, is now motivated by creating a society that is “pure.”
Elba doesn’t say “racially pure” in the context of Assad. But she should go to lengths to explain the difference between loyalty to the ruling regime — this is the kind of “purity” she’s talking about in Syria — and racial purity which is a white nationalist thing. She makes a tenuous link between the two primarily with the concept of purity; basically a link based on semantics.
I should clarify — I’m not saying the Arab Spring brought down secularism and plurality in Syria. It set the wheels in motion for the civil war, which did.
This is…actually really good. Most the Assadist defense on this site is comical in its stupidity, but this well articulated context.
It’s important to note that Assad is indeed a brutal tyrant who has massacred and tortured thousands of his citizens. But that is true along side what you said, not in opposition to.
Thanks — I agree with you.
What is CF calls “comical in its stupidity”?
Pointing to USA backing Wahhabi terrorists in Syria and beyond?
Pointing to non-sectarian character of As’ad rule?
Pointing to the mistranslation of As’sad words?
And USA rulers massacred and tortured thousands of their citizens. Even more. Would CF call them brutal tyrants?
So if Assad is a fascist does it make ISIS fighting fascimsm in Syria antiFa?
Just examine a video were hundred Muslim children are executed by ISIS by machine guns for refusing to fight Assad regime.
This whole piece is an absurd, an insult to journalism, and to considerable intelligence of those still remaining TIC readers. Every word in it is a lie, fabrication, conjectures, smears and innuendoes only enlightening us to uttered ignorance and devious intentions of the author.
Bashar Assad is a flawed man and is as a president in no small part responsible for fate if Syrian people under clear and present US aggression via ISIS/Al-Qeada proxies, but none of those flaws are discussed or mentioned here only black propaganda of hate, what while supremacists would have been proud of.
His biggest flaw is that as a British educated Eye doctor, husband of Palestinian Christian has been unwittingly and unwillingly trusted into vicious MENA politics after his father died, as fully westernized person with good standing within British elites he did not feel well enough a soul of Syrian nation and instead was infatuated with the neoliberal ideas of globalization, (his wife wanted to become an investment banker after STUDY at LSE) neglecting his nation built on Arab nationalism (not on fascism) with anti-colonial roots of Arab para socialism, meaning nationalization of natural resources and economic egalitarianism .
Commenters at Intercept always get into unecessary exercises instead of going directly the point. Instead of writing all that bs about the article they could simply say criticism of Assad is off limit.
You’re a fuckin’ idiot!
Attack the argument, not the commenter.
Example: refute the article with documented facts. Leave the author’s education alone.
Now I now why I don’t read The Intercept any more.
Very happy to now that we all know now what you now.
No what I mean?
I support The Intercept in publishing opinion pieces, even when they’re wrong. As long as it’s not a consistent pattern of publishing pro-war propaganda pieces, I understand the desire to give voice to the occasional misguided soul that thinks something like “Regime Change War in Syria is a Good Thing” and wants to use white nationalist support for Assad as a vector to make her case. That said, this article is dead wrong. So wrong. And the guilt-by-association tactic is extremely transparent.
For most of us that oppose the war, it’s not about supporting Assad, it’s about knowing that living under Assad is better than living in Libya or Iraq. The US has a habit of “helping” countries by utterly destroying them.
Those who like Assad do so for the reason that he is mean and nasty. He fulfills their fantasy of leaderships= mean/nasty.
The comments below are nothing but a nasty slough of whiny, anonymous opinions, and this is a paraphrasing of about ohhhhh about 99% of them:
“Wahh wahh wahh! The Intercept is biased, and doesn’t talk about X, Y, Z. Wahh Wahh Wahh!”
*scrolls through comments and reads alllllllll about X, Y, Z … realizes they haven’t been erased by The Intercept … wonders what the fuck are these commenters going on about … scans the comments again and finds mainly ad hominem attacks against Ms. Elba … makes an educated guess that most of this article’s commenters are either biased, irrational loud mouths or propagandists paid to be here*
lol …. You laid it on waaaaay too thick, guys, and for that, I’ll now read everything Ms. Elba writes. Thanks!
Miriam, you just propounded a conspiracy theory that can only build up in the minds of propagandists for the Saudi Wahabists and their Western enablers.
“the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war “,
You are really something. Is Saudi Arabia now funding “theintercept,” that is the only way I can make sense of this propaganda running on this website.
Wow. What a load of crap. Other posters have pointed out a lot of things wrong with this. It’s a shame they had to spend any time doing that instead of other productive things. I’ll just contribute by what I found was the most ridiculous assertion, which isn’t a quote of another but rather the author’s voice and apparent belief:
“Anyone who does not fit Assad’s specific definition of what it means to be Syrian is up for execution.”
Wow.
” It’s a shame they had to spend any time doing that instead of other productive things.”
Yeah the posters on these threads have so many productive things to do. too funny.
As for the statement about Assad executing anyone not fitting a specific definition of what it means to be Syrian, perhaps it is hyperbolic but not by much.
https://tinyurl.com/ycgzrtkl
Oh those so demonic ‘barrel bombs’, as opposed to the angelic American ‘solution’ to the problem of snipers using the roofs of buildings full of civilians to kill those trying to rescue the civilians and the civilians who are trying to flee, blowing up the entire building.
Now, as a bit of a MacGyver (solving problems with what is on hand) if faced with such a situation and actually caring about brown lives, I’d see that the problem was that all the usual military hardware was designed to take out the people in the entire building, and what was needed was a bomb that could be dropped on the roof and NOT penetrate it, then explode in a shower of shrapnel. So, I’d need a container, preferably metal, that was basically nothing but blunt or round edges, and easily obtainable in quantity. Guess what fills that bill to a t. Shove explosives (not too much, or too powerful, the need is for a spray of shrapnel across the roof, not making a crater or a lethal shockwave) and whatever is on around that will work as shrapnel, drop from a hovering helicopter, and guess what you have, and weapon that reduces civilian casualties.
And the people of Syria who have been rescued from the armed thugs who blitzed their way into cities and towns with waves of car bombs have been pretty clear that it wasn’t the barrel bombs or the forces who used them that they found demonic.
Yes indeed the defenders of Assad’s brutality “actually caring about brown lives” sheesh
Don’t forget the depleted uranium that the Pentagon promised not to use and used anyway.
highly recommended piece for everyone here:
Who Rules America? The Power Elite in the Time of Trump
http://petras.lahaine.org/b2-img/PetrasWhoRulesAmerica.pdf
Miriam:
the article from Bulgaria
https://trud.bg/350-diplomatic-flights-carry-weapons-for-terrorists/
Miriam: please do a story on Dilyana Gaytandzhieva’s report about weapons smuggling under diplomatic cover:
Journalist fired for exposing how CIA ran weapons to terrorists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD5VW_z6pG0
The ‘altright’ are not known for their ability to penetrate past a wall of propaganda to realize the truth. Indeed, the inability to do so is a prerequisite. A prerequisite that the author apparently meets, it’s likely that the only reason she isn’t part of that ‘movement’ is the other prerequisite, the right skin tone.
Syria is not Assad. Syria is millions of normal, none-too-rich people trying to get along with no great passion for either Israel or Iran or Amerikkka or Russia or the Global Kleptocracy that runs this sordid show.
They want dinner on the table, a roof over their bed and their loved ones to be safe.
Instead they have CIA-backed terrorists and mercenary-aided paramilitary groups supplied by their hostile neighbours looking to slice up their neck of the woods, whilst America and Russia test each others’ insanely-dangerous weapons systems over their back yards, destabilise the entire region, create millions of refugees pouring into a Europe that does not want them, cause insane hatred for these sorry victims of geo-political warcrimes and the pointless turd cherry on their crap cake is a bunch stupid idiot hacks at The Intercept too feebly incapable of any form of investigative journalism to even scratch the surface of a horror that has been running now for over six years and with no end in sight writing bollocks like this in their pathetic little war on whatever they are told to bitch about this week by their paymasters.
Watch out – Glennwald loves to write about sh!tty journalism. He might grow a conscience and realise what a sack of digital sh!t this website has become.
Mariam Elba has no conscience and sides with al Qaeda, Netanyahu, the CIA, the Saudis and Hillary Clinton.
Found the Nazi!
Being anti-fascist doesn’t make you Pro Neoliberal. That’s a false equivalency. Most Anti-fascists are, however, communists.
Take it from a fellow communist we are not friends with any of them. Not with Hillary and the CIA that oppress us at home. Not with the Saud and especially not the Turks who oppress our Kurdish brothers. And no, not with the Israeli’s who so many of whom define the word ‘bourgeoisie’.
That doesn’t mean we are your friends either. In this case enemy of my enemy is not my friend, because fascism and communism can never coexist.
Say, Roseanne Roseannadanna,
What The Heck
Just what are you talking about? And what are you smoking?
I am a Nazi because……?
Explain it to me.
The article is a pro regime change in Syria article.
Mariam Elba is trying to sell another reason to hate Assad and support regime change.
She is getting in bed with a lot of nasty characters which I named.
Where oh where did I mention Antifa? Where?
Honestly, I found your post spooky.
The regime changers have tried to enlist support for taking out Assad:
“Assad uses barrel bombs!”
“Assad is a dictator”
“Assad kills his own people”
“Assad uses chemical weapons”
“Assad is a White Supremacist”
The first four have lost traction, they haven’t got the job done.
Assad now has the upper hand against ISIS and al Qaeda.
They have been throwing the kitchen sink at Assad, anything
that enlists support for regime change. Now, in desperation,
those pursuing regime change have come up with another reason
to hate Assad, to support war to get rid of Assad – “Assad is a White Supremacist”.
It is as credible as warmonger Hillary saying she wants to protect
civilians by bombing the carp out of their country. Hillary would
have us believe that she is a great humanitarian as she rolls her war machine across the landscape. People should have long ago wised up to her. She has appealed to our sense of humanitarianism. Who doesn’t support humanitarianism? It is Hillary’s go-to pretext and call for war.
Mariam Elba is joining in, throwing anything, the kitchen sink, White Supremacy, whatever, to enlist support for regime change. Who isn’t against fascism? Who? White Supremacy is her pretext for supporting war in Syria. It is a pretext, don’t buy into her con game.
It is pretty pitiful isn’t it? Assad – who leads a country renowned for racial tolerance and has granted asylum to tens of thousands of African refugees despite being in the midst of a brutal war and subject to crippling economic sanctions – is a white supremacist.
And the Bilderbergs and the CFR and the illuminati and the lizard people
While I can imagine tenuous connections between some alt-right and some pro-Assad, I can’t for the life of me ascertain where this (fledgling?) theory that Ms. Alba promotes here is actually coming from, and she doesn’t explain her position of knowledge with enough corroboration well enough to convince me.
One commenter on Twitter went as far as saying Omidyar has “gone full Bezos” over at The Intercept.
This, despite assurances the “shadow editor” Omidyar hasn’t a job here.
Paraphrasing some commenters below:
The Intercept: “All the newbs that’re unfit to print.”
Pierre Omidyar doesn’t need labor power.
Who’s hired, and why. That’s all.
Good Christ, Sillyputty. The way media works and the way propaganda is disseminated in the US has been delineated over and over and over again. Why do you continue to claim ignorance on this matter? Richard Pryor talked about this shit in the 1970s ffs.
For a bunch of Chomsky fanboys/girls you people seem not to be all that familiar with perhaps his most famous work. Maybe read Manufacturing Consent, perhaps?
I have to say I’m shocked that the Intercept would publish such a deluded article. Not only does Ms. Elba fully accept the mainstream narrative about Assad but she seems to accept it for just about every other non western world leader all the while being completely oblivious as to what is happening in the west. It takes a special type of delusion to equate Bashir Al Assad, the leader of Syria, a diverse multi-ethnic, religious and cultural nation where people see themselves as Syrians before anything else and which Assad has helped to foster to white supremacists!?! As well as comparing the Syrian Army who are fighting against Islamic State, Al Queda et al which primarily consists of foreigners with only a very small group of native Syrians opposition groups all of whom are supported financially and logistically by the US and its allies!?! And comparing their false flag operations where they dropped chemical weapons or completely obliterated areas housing civilians by missile strikes from the US and its allies to the Syrian Army and its allies who have been successful in keeping the country together. Well all I can say is I feel truly sorry for Ms. Elba as it is abundantly clear that her delusions about what is actually going on in the world know no bounds.
Easy with the run-on sentences. Your main point was swallowed by your wordiness and use of exclamation points
This has to be the mother of all conspiracy theories!Not only was the death toll in the original version of this semi-book review of ReidRoss’s“Against the Fascist Creep” wildly exaggerated, but so is the influence of the minuscule “white nationalist” movement!.It shouldn’t then be surprising that someone so recklessly deluded as to believe that the Syrian death toll is “in the millions”could likewise believe that straggly US “white nationalists” are directly to blame. Or that she could seriously suggest that the US has been looking for ways to keep Assad in power! And then to drag evilly disparate forces from Golden Dawn to National Front to the ghost of Saddam Hussein into this spiraling web of Assad international intrigue! Guilt by association never reached such heights!And,of course, the predictable hysterical conclusion to this wild screed:Assad as Hitler!This whole rant simply has no credibility – let alone any solutions.
Laughable propaganda piece . . . . . . . . . . (of sh$%).
So the most secular regime in the Middle East is now associated with white skinheads? You extrapolate this because Assad refuses to kneel down before the West’s Banking cartel and hand over the keys to the country? Just step aside and allow US contractors to rape every natural resource from The Syrian People’s inventory? I refer you to of factual history of this: Afghanistan (minerals and opium), Iraq (oil and back to petro-dollar), Libya (Oil, gold now stolen, and now sticking to petro-dollar), Egypt, and Venezuela (currency manipulation and boycotting oil purchases until CIA gets congruent regime change).
And once again, US airstrikes in Syria until an entire nation is in rubble. Just forget about the fact that ISIS is actually a CIA operation to destabilize cities in the region and warrant massively destructive air strikes. Just as in the other ravished countries, the US policy is to destroy them to the point that the country has to accept the IMF’s usury loans to permanently enslave the people, while the billionaires steel the nations true wealth: gold, minerals, and energy production. What’s even more pathetic, the poor and lower middle class of the US are the one’s joining the military to go rape and steel from other poor people around the world. How patriotic.
So yes, some of us support a nation and a People’s autonomy. This is a part of being a patriotic Libertarian. Try to connect this belief to racism, skinheads, or whatever Leftist propaganda you wish. But the facts reveal the undeniable truth. The turmoil in Syria never was and never will be about “racism”. This “racism” has been the narrative by “The Empire” to denigrate, divide, and destroy most nations around the world. Syria is just fighting for independence, and Russia and the US are like two giants having a wrestling match on Syrian soil, destroying everything they touch. God bless Syria’s goal of being free to govern themselves, without the “take the silver or get the lead” US policy for diplomacy via the IMF.
“ISIS is actually a CIA operation to destabilize cities in the region and warrant massively destructive air strikes”
Really dude? Lay off that Infowars
Also, leftists (not liberals) actually tend to support (or at least tolerate) Assad and have been vocally opposed to US airstrikes. But I guess nuance is passe
What is this crap doing in The Intercept? This is an attempt to justify the British imperial doctrine of regime change wars with the purported justification of “Responsibility to Protect,” only with the added propaganda twist that if some right-wing redneck bozo supports a foreign leader, even a democratically elected one, then we are in our rights to bomb that nation and arm legions of terrorist mercenaries to destabilize it. Gag me.
Time for me to end my settings on FB that give priority to articles from TI, the writer Mackay made me think of it many times but now I’m removing TI from my FB followings list.
I hope GG gets this Wapoop level of disinformation removed from the site and apologies are offered for this pile of crap.
I wouldn’t bet on it, but it sure would be nice if that happened. As far as I know GG has never apologized for anything.
GG is the reason I’m a reader at The Intercept. I don’t think he would have a problem with other journalists at The Intercept expressing viewpoints that differ from his own, as long as those viewpoints/reports are backed up with facts that aren’t misrepresented. That said, the fact that Elba and the editor(s) at The Intercept missed the “death toll in the millions” part is quite alarming and a solid strike against a factual foundation for this article. If anything, this article needs more factual foundational support, not less!
I would only guess that GG and the others at the top are trying to help new journalists establish themselves. When an article with at least one demonstrable glaring flaw is published on The Intercept though there’s no arguing it takes away credibility, and your reaction to de-prioritize TI on FB is perfectly justifiable.
Why is the Intercept promoting smear by association –trying to link white nationalists and other loathsome groups with Assad — as a substitute for analysis of geopolitics?
What are the reasons that the US government has illegally pursued destabilization of Syria? Why has the US government sided with terrorist groups?
Great points
Do strongmen in the Middle East exist in a vacuum–in the absence of any involvement by the US ruling class?
Could a similar article be written about the Obamabots or the Trumpettes? American presidents are totalitarian misleaders and they have their unhinged followers who will defend their lies and terrorism.
“American presidents are totalitarian misleaders and they have their unhinged followers who will defend their lies and terrorism.”
and apparently so does Assad.
Implying that all white nationalists idolize Assad perpetuates negative stereotypes about white nationalists. Such stereotyping in general reflects our expectations and beliefs about this group, but stereotypes tend to be negative and prejudicial. It is unfortunate that white nationalists must cope with biases and beliefs that are potentially limiting.
In future, the author, rather than engaging in lazy generalizations, can attribute such idolization to specific individuals from the white nationalist community, rather than smearing an entire group of people.
You are correct. The author should of made it clear it is just the white nationalists in the TI comment section that support Assad.
So white nationalists are as stupid as I thought.Swallowing the bullshit propaganda about Assad.
This article is part and parcel of that propaganda.
Really, the Intercept has fallen lower than ever expected,not that I ever trusted Pierre Omidyar with all of his “interests” in Ukraine and India and elsewhere
But this takes the cake
For those who are interested, English translation of the Syrian Constitution (the latest version I could find):
https://www.scribd.com/doc/81771718/Qordoba-Translation-of-the-Syrian-Constitution-Modifications-15-2-2012
For all those claiming Syria has a secular government. From the document linked above:
Article 3
1. The President has to be part of the Muslim faith.
2. Islamic jurisprudence doctrine is a primary source of legislation.
And Article 3 of the 2012 Constitution was one of the demands of the rebels. The previous Constitution, implemented by Assad’s father, did not require the President to be a Muslim.
Please document that claim.
There were no presidential election under Assad’s father, and no opposition parties for that matter.
Wait, huh? I thought the accusation that Assad is a dictator was based on his persecution of Muslims…I’m soooo confused…
Are you, Fountain-of-Truth-Gil, trying to say Assad is running his country like a totalitarian Islamic state? The very thing the alt-right is, you know, paranoid about the US turning into? Can you guys get your stories straight?
Gah.
*ahem*
“Religiously pluralistic” is probably a more accurate term to describe Syrian society than “secular”. But with Syrian women free to wear or not wear the hijab and serve in the armed forces, with multiple Christian and Islamic sects coexisting in the country, by all means, GIL, continue your stupid pedantry.
Who said “Assad was a dictator based on his persecution of Muslims” Zara?
I have no guys that I need to keep my story straight with. If you have found inconsistencies with what I have posted then state them. If all you have is to put words in my mouth that I have never even said or implied then you have no argument. Nice to see you at least admit that the term secular to describe the Syrian gov’t is inaccurate.
President of Lebanon could be only a Christian (and Christians are minority in Lebanon)
So, Lebanon is as evil as Syria? Or even worse?
By the way, was there ever a non-Christian prez of USA?
I didn’t say Assad was evil because only Muslims can be president. I said the fact that only Muslims can be president exclude Syria from being considered secular. Assad is evil for reasons that have nothing to do with religion.
The reason why white nationalist support Assad is due to their love for Vladimir Putin, not any understanding of the Assad dynasty at all. If they were aware of the ethnic dynamics in Syria or the region more broadly, their heads would explode. Syria is ethnically, religiously diverse and it always will be, short of mass genocide that would be perpetrated by the likes of ISIL. The article is unfortunately poor, it is Russia, through their media outlets that encourage people to support Assad. Many Nazi’s tune into RT and Sputnik, that is where the white nationalist kids are getting these ideas.
That’s not true. I support Assad (if support means being against US intervention) and I am no fan of Putin (although I’d be against going to war with him too.) A lot of you try to speak for white nationalists rather than hear what they have to say themselves, probably because what they actually say goes against the narrative you want to create. White nationalists are against globalism and that includes any and all globalists war. I didn’t support going to war with Iraq, I didn’t support going to war in Afghanistan, and I don’t support intervening in Syria. Also against going to war with North Korea. It’s all nonsense and the only people who benefit from these wars are the rich corporate class who want a system of global capitalism that is controlled by them.
lol none of this is even accurate
Interesting article. Many of the comments take issue with the article but I don’t see any that actually refute with facts anything Ms. Elba has written. Hmmm.
Copying and pasting reams of UN reports that contradict the article is a bit of a chore, you know, to be fair. And shouldn’t be necessary on THIS web site.
Don’t copy and paste. Provide a link to a UN report that counters the claims in this article.
Not sure what you mean about ” necessary on THIS web site”.
Can you confirm that Assad has “become an idol among white nationalists in the United States”?
yep. check out James Alex Fields facebook page with the portrait of Assad and the words “Undefeated” under it.
https://tinyurl.com/y87s7kw9
most white nationalists probably think Assad is some sort of aftershave
Yes, very interesting. And stupid.
I just did a “Laugh In” reference. Appropriate for this article.
you might as well post sock it to me. It still doesn’t refute claims made by the article.
Gil rejects documented fact that Israel supports Al Qaeda, including in Syria (If Israel does it, Gil is fine with whatever it is). He’s an ardent Zionist which is why he is defending against critiques of this piece.
He didn’t reject anything. He’s looking for the documented fact” that you speak of rather than people saying things like “Gil rejects documented fact that…” without providing the documented facts. So how about it?
And don’t start with the “this site doesn’t warrant it” or “my time is too valuable” or “you’re not worth it” If this is an important issue to you, enough to call someone a “zionist” then back up your statements.
Well I am a Zionist, if you go by Mona’s definition which is anyone who doesn’t believe Israel should cease to exist.
Ask her to tell you about her claim the Glenn Greenwald stole money from her then kicked her to the curb.
You: “enough to call someone a “zionist”
Gil: “Well I am a Zionist”
Gil does, indeed, defend the existence of Israel is an ethno-religious supremacist state which ethnically cleansed the indigenous Arabs and pens them up in Gaza, which is the core of Zionism. Gil, as I said, is an ardent Zionist. And as such, very pissed at all who point out Israel’s loving on Al Aqaeda.
Yeah, ok. You have a nice night.
Huh? thanks for proving my point Mona. too funny.
or do you think you somehow just refuted something from the article. wow.
The article is self-refuting as a piece of war-mongering propaganda. Assad is a nasty of piece of work, and so the latest “Hitler” for neocons and Zionists who want Muslim-majority nations on everyone’s mind with thoughts of war and plunder. Pay no attention to that nasty, ethno-religious, apartheid state called Israel whom the United States uniquely and slavishly supports in its abominable atrocities.
NO! Let’s keep going after the latest Muslim reincarnation of Hitler: Saddam, Qaddafi, Assad. Over and over, endlessly. Once more into the breach!
Um, your the one that is saying pay no attention. For someone who loves to yell about whataboutery you are not shy about using it whenever it suits your politics to do so. Yes lets not talk about the war that has killed 500,000 people in the last 6 years not to mention over 3,000 Palestinians who you claim to care so much about. Are you saying that you and your moron friends here on TI are too stupid to pay attention to two issues at once ? Or is it that you put politics above human rights? It must be one or the other. Pointing out the support Assad is receiving from white nationalists is not asking for a war on Syria, you are going to have to find another excuse. BTW you still have not offered any refute to anything the author wrote. Too funny.
the special nature of zionist evil has been explained to you many times, try to pay attention
ha. thanks again for proving my point John.
Please tell me about the “special nature of zionist evil” John. The mask always drops.
i was hoping mona would jump in at this point
good one.
Mona can’t jump in because she has once again been exposed as a major hypocrite. Come on Mona how about some more whataboutery or at least a good excuse for your own exceptionalism that allows you to use it.
Why am I NOT surprised that G the parrot of USA imperialist propaganda is a Zionist? That is, a supporter of Zionist colonizers of Palestine, ethnic cleanser, mass-murderers, torturers, robbers and rapers. And, of course, Zionist colonizers of Palestine are also backing IS/AQ in Syria.
Sure, to be a friend of colonizers means one could be a friend of their Wahhabi puppets and a foe of their foes – ie the anti-Zionist resistance. Syria is a part of the later.
And, of course, the friend of Zionist colonizers of Palestine is also a very loose with the facts, as his friends are. Many commentaries pointed to open lies or simply fantasies published by the author
1) the 100% absence of facts about USA/GCC/Zionist role
2) the mistranslation of As’sad words
3) the inflated NN of Syrian victims
4) the usage of a known Zionist darling as a credible sourse
And so on.
But the colonizers’ friend G just ignore them, and prefers to “joke” and character smear people who point to abovementioned facts
What facts have I gotten wrong lidia?
Not surprised to see the defenders of the murderous Assad make up lies about those who call him out.
G ignored all the facts I have listed who had been pointed by other comments and claims that there were NO facts. So, G ignored the facts.
Of course, G the “humanitarian” is NOT going to call “murderous” USA prezes or their best pals – Saudi royals and Zionist colonizes of Palestine. No wonder.
You said I was “loose with the facts” either state what those facts I was loose with lidia , or admit you lied.
G the Zionist pretends not to read my comment or not to understand it.
OK, one more time to esp. gifted G
G has claimed that the critics of the article had not used facts to refute it. As a matter of fact, they had. I listed some of the facts, which G ignored. I call it being “loose with the facts” – that is, calling that something was absent while it was present.
“Refute” what “facts”? There are scant few facts to consider and the few there are, aren’t relevant to the core of complaints against this tripe of an article.
Sigh. Here’s a refutation:
Horseshit. Assad has talked about what constitutes political dissent in his view. (I also noted this 5 months ago in my response to TI’s April 12th podcast, so this is not new information. There is no excuse for people who are actually seeking the truth about Syria to remain unaware of what his position is.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ZU-r5sDeY#t=4m24s
Furthermore, the Syrian government has engaged in reconciliation efforts with its political opponents. You can see a report on the various reconciliation efforts here, along with an index of these reports below:
http://syria.mil.ru/en/index/syria/reconciliation_centre_bulletins/more[email protected]
http://syria.mil.ru/en/index/syria/reconciliation_bulletin.htm?objInBlock=25&blk=12079583
Say it with me now: #thatswhataNaziwoulddo
There are many reasons that the right and alt-right might have for admiring Assad (primarily for defying “liberal” regime change and imperialist intervention – the same reasons supporters from the left are maligned), but the uniculture fantasy presented here seems ridiculous. First, the Charlottesville demonstration was for preserving memorials to the Confederacy, that is, the REBELS. Second, Assad securing his authority is not a racist project but the simple requirement of absolute rule. If there has been any racist project afoot, it was obviously (inherently) that of the EU/US there. The rest of this piece is even more of a mess (eg, the author seems to imply that destroying ISIS is racist!).
Pierre News fully expresses Chomsky’s propaganda model. I thought a few years ago its coverage of Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela would be particularly sensitive acid tests, but it wound up quite a bit more naked than I imagined.
Please elaborate, as I don’t know what “Chomsky’s propaganda model” means.
The article does not make sense. How can you not point to the fact that external powers, the CIA and the US included, have tried to destroy Syria – and failed? How on earth can you make it to be about “white nationalists”? Are you out of your mind?
I’m willing to give the author of the article the benefit of the doubt of possibly being emotionally invested in the situation over there. But after how many times we’ve been exaggerated to, and outright lied to about governments in the Middle East, I’ve got a bit of a cynical eye toward this article. Blaming Assad for what foreign governments and insurgents did in Syria is absurd on its face. Not that he isn’t necessarily guilty of crimes but… I can’t name a living US president who isn’t, either.
Because that wasn’t the subject of the article. To go into all of the details you mention, it would be a 50 page article. There’s been plenty of other topics on those subjects. It’s fine to disagree with the article’s thesis but you can’t realistically expect the entire history of US foreign policy toward Syria to be covered in this one opinion piece about white supremacists
It shows the author’s glaring ignorance not to mention CIA / Gulf state war escalation when making statements like this, “In spite of the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war”
The primary perpetrators of escalation have been the West and the Gulf states. Indeed, there would be no civil war absent foreign meddling.
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/
Additionally, she fails to mention the numerous peace conferences from which the US-backed “moderate” rebels have simply walked out. It’s as if she has no interest whatsoever in examining the actual facts of the matter, but is instead pushing a narrative that she has decided on a priori. You know, propaganda.
Posting a link to Moon of Alabama here for reference. MoA concludes that “The publishing of the piece confirms again that the Intercept is in not the “fearless, adversarial journalism” it set out to be, nor is it a leftish-progressive outlet as some had expected. It is just a minor rag flogging narrow U.S. mainstream nonsense with pinches of neocon claptrap in-between.”
MoA claims also that this article is based on a misinterpretation of Assad’s speech:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/how-the-intercept-smears-syria-by-mistranslating-an-assad-speech.html#more
“The notion ‘holds that Russia will lead the world out of a dark age of materialism …'”
Russia will be a galactic hero if it does that. Overpopulation and overconsumption are BY far the biggest problem in the world, and one of the main things driving overconsumption is materialism.
I agree with the negative comments about this false story. This is American propaganda at its worst. Assad is no more of an asshole than 99% of the other leaders of countries. But he rubbed the U.S. the wrong way, so now we get bombarded with garbage like this.
Exactly! Almost every “leader” I can think of are borderline sociopaths.
I can’t believe I read that entire article. Terrible is all that comes to mind. And that would be a compliment.
This article makes me laugh.
Only thing funnier than this article is people who are just now realizing how shitty TI is on Syria. Guys, one of their founding editors and “star” journalists tried to censor a Syrian nun from speaking at an antiwar conference almost 4 years ago—that wasn’t a clue?
“We don’t need to look as far back as Hitler’s Third Reich to see what their world vision could be.”
Yeah- because it might look like “Israel.” Or any other apartheid state based in genetic nepotism.
(cough cough…. ahem) In the larger picture, the ROLE of this article is just another hit job to make Syria the enemy so that the deep state thieves predators and murderers can bilk Americans for more military money and prep the youth of America to be so-called heroes at the expense of their lives, which the political whores are willing to sacrifice for the benefit of their wallstreet pimps.
Bashar al-Assad is the leader of a country that allows for the co-existence of a variety of differences. Sadly, the revolters of Syria oppose differences and want an extreme state.
Anything pro AL-Assad is like being pro syphilis, however, not as bad as AIDS.
I am struck by the similarity of Al-Assad and the TV series “Tyrant.” When the old dictator was asked “Why do you not give your people freedom? His answer”Freedom to do what, kill each other.” Freedom in the Mideast may not mean what we think it does.
Oh, yeah, sure, certainly the reality in Middle East is as reductionist as a schlocky television show made by white people in a completely different hemisphere of the world.
Only wish raise the question of how the killing might end. How will there be any peace in Syria without a strongman backed by major power(s). Would the killing magically stop if AL-Assad fell and Russia and the US left (They should) or would different factions fight it out for ultimate control. Are dictators or occupations the only ways to achieve pacification if not real peace.
Would the victors embrace AL-Assad’s defeated forces or start digging mass grave? Is freedom to kill the opposition to the point of pacification victory? The US and Russia should get to hell out and let the people who live there make there own show under their own direction. Humanitarian aid is all we should provide. I would not expect a happy ending but would love to be proved wrong. It any case it is none of “white people in a completely different hemisphere of the world” business. Our intervention and arms only make it worse.
Like my mother always said, “love one another, with racist, gendered hate.”
And then she would shovel down whole bakeries full of chocolate pies, and loudly exclaim “these are delicious, but nothing tastes better than roasted Syrian babies!”
And sometimes, she would muse on about how if we don’t stomp on maggots, then they will grow into flies.
Which I always found to be sort of a weak excuse for her eating them after she stomped on them.
Is it lashon hara to speak of my mother thus?
https://muftah.org/author/mariamelba/
No disrespect intended Ms. Elba, but to put it rather bluntly, maybe this topic was a bit outside your professional or personal expertise.
And not to be critical of adjunct PSU professor Alexander Reid Ross, given PSU is one of my alma maters and I believe in many departments a fine public university [particularly school of government from which my degree was granted], and notwithstanding the possible merits of adjunct Prof. Ross’ book (which I have not read) published by AK Press (an anarchist press) with the following explanation for what they believe in:
. . . I can only guess that maybe it is outside Prof. Ross’ expertise given he’s teaching geography and given his PACT MA is from The European Graduate School which has been in existence since 1994, and a BA in International Studies from Trinity College (which I’ll concede is a fine college of longstanding).
In any event, this piece lacks nuance, insight, depth and historical context regarding the Assad regime, Syria and “Eurasianism” as a movement (its roots, reality, depth and breadth worldwide) and not sure what it adds to any dialogue on any topic to say Assad has fascist fans/supporters in the US just as Marine Le Pen of France has right-wing or fascist fans and supporters in US including one Donald Trump.
Seriously, I’m all for getting new blood in at The Intercept, but this piece smacks of Mackeyesque phoning it in level journalism instead of the long form in depth pieces we hoped would be on constant offer at The Intercept. Quality over quantity please.
It would be forgivable, if these were the only sins of this piece (and I can see that you’re doing your level best to be kind). What this piece really does is manufactures tenuous connections between groups and people, that in reality are non-existent connections. It makes assertions without providing any evidence of substance. She’s just making crap up.
Granted, that I’m not fully immersed in the politics of Syria, but from what little I do follow, this piece is a goddamn outrage, and should have been spotted as BS, by anybody working as an editor at The Intercept.
“What this piece really does is manufactures tenuous connections between groups and people, that in reality are non-existent connections. It makes assertions without providing any evidence of substance.”
This is more or less the model for The Intercept these days, as is a lack of any kid of editorial direction. It’s basically a blog host.
It sounds to me that Ms. Elba’s credentials make her far more qualified then you on this topic. Other than silly attempts at personal smears and hackneyed cliche do you have anything of substance to say that refute the articles claims?
@ GilG
Believe what you choose. I’m not trying to convince someone like you of anything because that would be futile and a waste of my time.
As far as refuting the author’s “claims” they are so poorly sourced as to amount to nothing more than thinly veiled guilt by association assertions and those aren’t worth refuting for your benefit or hers.
If a person has an MA in journalism from NYU I’m quite confident she knows the difference between specious crap and well-sourced and argued journalism. This piece is closer to the former than the latter.
Support your argument by telling us what is wrong with the sources and exposing the lack of sources. Even if the author had a C average in the lowest university in the world, that has nothing to do with the point of the article. Whether you were an A average student at Harvard Law School is completely irrelevant to the jury that has to decide based on evidence, not the education background of the prosecutor or the defender. You are telling us more about yourself than about the author by writing a bunch of bs about her education.
And seriously man, if you think it is a ” waste of time ” to argue with whomever disagrees with you. Then, just ignore those who disagree with you. That line is old and nonsensical. You keep answering them by attacking them and not their argument and then you claim it is a waste of time.
Someone like me? Would that be people who take issue with your post or do you have aomething more specific in mind.
You are very good at personal attacks on the author, the rest of your comment proves that is all you have in the way of argument.
Zionists are “like” G, because G is a Zionist. Why not say that Zionists (well-known for their “care” for Syrians and other non-Jews in the ME) are not credible in this (and not only this case).
Who ever taught you logic should be arrested lidia. Where did you receive your education?
Never mind who taught hasbara to G, hasbara is still just stupid lies, like claiming that Syrian children give “Nazi salute”. They sure do not.
ISIS is going down and Assad should be next. He’s earned it a thousand time over. He’s a mass murderer and torturer. Anyone giving this sicko Assad a pass needs their head examined.
Sure, and all USA prezes were/are NOT mass murderers and torturers.
And all Zionist colonizers of Palestine were/are NOT mass murderers and torturers.
I bet C has NOTHING to do against them.
A great example of Godwin’s law in action.
The Intercept will have a hard time unjumping this particular shark.
WHAT A HORRIBLE PRO-JIHADI, PRO-REGIME CHANGE PROPAGANDA, trying to smear multicultural secular nonsectarian socialist state as some Nazi heaven.
What a gross publication. This is where the owner of this news outlet shows himself.
Those are my thoughts as well. This does not even qualify as journalism. I had come to expect MUCH better of “The Intercept.”
One or two more pieces like this and I doubt I will ever even bother to look at this publication’s headlines again.
It is shockingly, brazenly bad. Maybe the worst I’ve come across at this seemingly lost website. It is almost like a deliberate joke intended to insult the reader’s intelligence.
Robert Ford was US Ambassador to Syria when the revolt against Syrian president Assad was launched. He not only was a chief architect of regime change in Syria, but actively worked with rebels to aid their overthrow of the Syrian government.
Ford assured us that those taking up arms to overthrow the Syrian government were simply moderates and democrats seeking to change Syria’s autocratic system. Anyone pointing out the obviously Islamist extremist nature of the rebellion and the foreign funding and backing for the jihadists was written off as an Assad apologist or worse.
Ambassador Ford talked himself blue in the face reassuring us that he was only supporting moderates in Syria. As evidence mounted that the recipients of the largesse doled out by Washington was going to jihadist groups, Ford finally admitted early last year that most of the moderates he backed were fighting alongside ISIS and al-Qaeda. Witness this incredible Twitter exchange with then-ex Ambassador Ford: http://www.globalresearch.ca/you-wont-believe-what-former-us-ambassador-robert-s-ford-said-about-al-qaedas-syrian-allies/5504906
What did I just read? What on the Earth did make you to publish this piece. This is the stupidest article I ever read on the Intercept. Seriously! Syria was a multi-ethnic and multi-denominational country and the only areas that still are under Assad’s control. It is the other, jihadist side, backed by the Obama’s administration and various warmongers in DC, that turned Syria into blood bath that is now.
Spot on. Something is rotten in Denmark at the Intercept. Or maybe it was meant as a joke? I mean, so obviously bad and full of sh!te as to see if you’d even notice? Testing the depths of stupidity amongst its readers?
What a blatant load of propaganda. I expect this from the Guardian, but not here. I was considering contributing as well. Not now though. Not until things improve.
The Intercept’s issue is while it is a strong libertarian, free speech outlet, it de-facto supports CIA/StateDep regime change policies in places like Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere where the owner of this outlet has invested his own money along with USAID, Soros and others.
What a shame. Greenwald is a highly intelligent guy who seems to have a firm grasp on state propaganda. I’ve heard him speak. Does he know about this article?
What a pathetic example of crude propaganda and nonsense standing reality on its head. The Syrian gov’t is fighting for an secular, multi-faith, semi-socialist government. The country has a diverse national assembly, many opposition parties, most of the Army soldiers are Sunni and the religious leaders are largely united against the jihadi bloodshed and chaos. Trying to over-turn that for the past 6+ years have been wahabi-supremacist Saudi Arabia, zionist supremacist Israel and US supremacist USA and its junior partners. How far can ISO and the Intercept descend?
How can you call a govt that requires one must be of a certain religion in order to run for PM secular? Not to mention the fact the rules effectively require Baath party approval for all candidates.
This article is extremely poor, The Islamist assault on Syria led and financed by Saudi Arabia and several GCC states plus Turkey, all backed by “the West” with the US sending large consignments of arms to Saudi Arabia then on through Turkey to the Wahabbi head choppers, one consignment consisted of 15,000 tow missiles all in order to regime change the Assad government, who, with almost 80% support from all segments of Syrian society, almost mirrors Putin’s support in Russia.
How naive this writer is, maybe if we all sat round a table and reasoned with Islamic State and AlQaeda they would all lay down their arms and sing kumbaya with her, I suspect she would lose her head.
Funny how both the alt left and alt right are attacking the intercept for giving a voice to Assad’s victims.
Who are the “alt left,” again?
There is no alt left. No one calls themselves alt left. It is a smear tactic invented to conflate the real left with the self-named alt right.
Which victims did the article give voice to?
Also, I’m not “alt-left”, and I despise con man Trump and his Nazi lackeys with a passion. So where are you getting this crap?
The first sentence sort of summarizes this article for me. It’s not at all surprising that White Nationalist authoritarians would agree with a nationalist authoritarian like Assad. I mean, these are people that believe all religions and races should be segregated into their own countries.
The part about them thinking Russia will take them out of “the dark ages” is kind of interesting though. I’ve heard some people beleive some weird nonsense connecting Russia to Revelations and Nostradamus, but haven’t really looked into it, because well, … it’s weird nonsense.
This seems preposterous. I don’t think one in a hundred Americans know *what* Assad’s politics is. The only thing they know is that he kept his unmentionables unmentioned. If Syria is a jailhouse, then these people generally don’t want the inmates getting loose. Just as with American jails, they couldn’t care what gang rules it.
Intercept, seriously?!
I can’t believe I just read this. Okay, the Intercept wants to show a variety of opinions but honestly, even an opinion must be based on something.
“IN SPITE OF the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war”
Let’s put it in a different way: Assad was in HIS country, with an uprising which could have been settled between the parties, within Syria and among Syrians. But someone, and we all know who, decided to sponsor militias, moderate rebels, ISIS, Al Nusra etc etc and illegally started bombing within Syria.
Id the war has started and has protracted for so long, blame the West. Don’t write this kind of ….
Whatever.
Folks, please e-mail Glen Greenwald, point out this article, and explain that not filtering such blatant propaganda from appearing on this website is ruining his brand that he so carefully cultivated.
So when I clicked through the link the Google translation actually says: “……saying that in return it has won a HARMONIOUS healthy society.”
Which interpretation is correct? It makes a huge difference.
The simpler explanation is that Russia supports them, and Russia is funding fascist movements across the globe, including those here in the US.
The simpler minds will fall for your McCarthyite clichés. Anybody paying attention will already know, Russia is operating in conformity with international law, the US and its co-conspirators are in violation thereof. The fact is, Syria, like Libya and Iraq, refused to play by the IMF’s rules. Moreover, they refused to allow the Qatar-Bulgaria pipeline to be built through their land, since this would hurt their allies, Russia and Iran, who have stood by them for many years. But the Anglo-American hegemony has pursued a predatory posture against Russia for 200 years, called “The Great Game” by Kipling. See “The Geographical Pivot of History” by Halford John Mackinder, 1904.
This is really infuriating, shoddy journalism. Doesn’t The Intercept have a supervisory editorial staff?
Basically the article’s entire premise is grounded upon an out-of-context inference of the meaning of “healthy” and “homogeneous” (the address of which if read in its entirety was a rather admirable statement of fact).
I’m no great fan of Assad but he’d probably make a better POTUS than our current balloonhead, or his ‘pragmatic’ war criminal election opponent.
And au contraire, “the Assad regime’s track record of being the primary perpetrators of escalating Syria’s civil war”, the ‘civil war’ is the direct result of NATO imperialism and the ‘Mediterranean Dialogue’ (look it up).
Can an Intercept post like this be deleted and apologized for after the fact?
Western media lies about Syria exposed (Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VNQGsiP8M
Excellent info. Eva, Vanessa and Carla Ortiz have been excellent at exposing the truth about Syria. If Glenn Greenwald wants to save his and the Intercepts reputation he would do well to cover the stories of these remarkable women who have been at the forefront of getting the truth out about Syria. It is also notable that the Intercept has never even touched upon the White Helmets terrorist scam. There’s no way Glenn Greenwald doesn’t know what is up with those murderous terrorists and the lies that are being foisted on the citizens of the world regarding them. Its disgusting. Glenn knows…and we know he knows. To see the horro of all the lies about Syria simply watch “Tapestry of Terror” which exposes the whole terrorist support scam that the US and western governments are orchestrating. Link here: https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b5a_1490533325
Not even ‘top shelf’ propaganda (no applause for those terrorists wearing the ‘White Helmets ?) but good for those thoroughly indoctrinated by western media.
I have no hope for the brainwashed author of this misinformation but maybe others would like to hear from a ‘credible’ source, one based on verifiable facts on the ground.Btw the way one will note many of te bs talking points of the above article debunked
Vanessa Beeley On Aleppo, White Helmets, MSM Lies and Syria’s Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evu9tuRB5hA
The Intercept had a good run for about half a year. Party’s over I guess.
As someone with seven members of my family who’ve been murdered by ISIS and “moderate rebels” in Syria who were enabled by the CIA, this article is trash.
This article may contain more misrepresentation than anything else.
Usually The Intercept brings pretty good information, but when you guys stoop to publishing this sort of propaganda, it tarnishes your halo somewhat.
Tying your enemies to the most odious and reviled groups and people in existence is a pretty transparent propaganda tactic, and it would be more effective I guess if most of the folks who are against regime change in Syria are simply admirers of Bashar al-Assad. I don’t really care who likes Assad or what contacts he’s had with the far-right in Greece, but I do care that Syria was a stable country before it was attacked by a conglomeration of countries seeking to destroy it.
If Syrians are ready to get rid of Assad, then that is THEIR prerogative, not Israel’s, not the United States’, not Saudi Arabia’s, not Turkey’s. This is the point the Mariam Elba’s of the world need to get through their exceedingly thick skulls.
So some “editor” at “The Intercept” read this article and decided it was worth publishing.
what a crock of total shit.
This is the kind of article that just makes one shake one’s head at the Intercept. I mean, this is a theme I’ve never heard before, entirely invented out of nothing. Anyone who bothers to look into Syria’s history over the past decade quickly realizes that Assad was being embraced by western countries around 2008, with plenty of puff pieces about his great record on modernization and democratic reforms and so on. However, Assad refused to cut economic ties with Iran – that’s why he became the bad guy. If there’s a single document that explains why the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia were so keen to overthrow the Syrian government, it’s this May 25, 2009 US State Department cable, in particular this bit:
All that aside, if there’s a foreign government that the “White Christian Pride” movement shares a lot with, it’s the neoNazis in Ukraine – but the Intercept won’t touch that issue, apparently because the Omidyar Network is backing the Ukrainian government that was installed by Victoria Nuland after the coup against the previous government. That’s a don’t-discuss issue, isn’t it? The only conclusion that makes any sense is that the Intercept’s editorial staff and owner corporation generally supports the neoliberal empire project; it’s kind of pathetic really, to read this kind of nonsense masquerading as journalism.
Sometimes everyone you don’t like isn’t in league against you. White supremacists generally aren’t big fans of Syrian refugees entering the US, and would probably admire anyone who promised to stop them. It is certainly possible that white supremacists are allied with Syria and Russia to take over the world, but I would like to see more evidence.
The Intercept needs a good night’s sleep.
This is one of the flimsiest articles I have ever read at the Intercept. You don’t like Assad? Why not try to hurt Assad’s credibility by saying some Charlottesville neo Nazi loser posted something nice about Assad on his facebook page? Nevermind the fact that they are white Christian supremacists and Assad is Muslim. If anything in this case, Trump has shown love to both white nationalists and Russia. And Putin has shown love to Trump and Syria. So there is a cousin’s cousin’s cousin thing going on here. But by the time you are 4th cousins twice removed, it ain’t a strong relationship.
This is a symbol of the Ur-Sinistra and The Cabal Propaganda.
Wowza..Propaganda-elite..yikes
I visited Syria and saw the country for myself. Mariam Elba is a lying liar who lies. Yes Assad is a dictator – but he is a dictator who fiercely protected, and continues to protect, a multi-ethnic and multi-denominational Syria while the US and its allies have backed Sunni jihadists who wanted to turn Syria into another Saudi Arabia. There is a reason that all of the Christians in Syria support Assad.
Mariam Elba is a lying liar who shills for sharia law while dishonestly pretending to oppose intolerance.
Yes, James, I’m SURE that you’ve “visited Syria”.
Syria was a top tourist destination for Christians until the US and its mercenaries, aka “moderate rebels” destroyed, plundered, looted its world heritage sites.
I’ve been to 72 countries. I’ve been to Colombia and watched 12 year old girls sell themselves in the streets while policemen watched (Colombia is the USA’s #1 ally in Latin America). I’m sure you won’t believe me on this either.
What is more important is the points I made about Assad staunchly defending freedom of religion while the US and its allies backed “rebels” that openly admitted they wanted to turn Syria into an islamo-fascist caliphate.
Not just Christians but in the areas that the Syrian regime have liberated from ISIS, al Nusra, al Qaida, etc there has been celebrations and people return to their homes. You don’t do that if you fear a “tyrant”. Also, the local tribesmen ally themselves with the Syrian regime against their foes and why not. The tribes have been living with the regime before this attempt at regime change by the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
I live in Australia, am Christian, and wish the Alawite Assad victory.
I wonder how the author reconciles her “Assad is Nazi” theory with the Left’s strong support for the Syrian government’s fight against Salafist and western imperialism. Does that make him simultaneously a Nazi ally and a Leftist? Maybe more nuance is warranted?
Also, Syria has been under assault by a very real and brutal transnational ideology of intolerance and social purity, namely the imperial Salafism promoted by Saudi Arabia et. al, so of course it has relied on a narrative of national unity and identity. Isn’t a “nationalistic banner” the right one when you are defending a by far more secular pluralistic nation-state against a genocidal transnational ideology? What kind of banner does the author suggest the Syrians rally behind in this situation? Just because an entity opposes a perceived transnational force of domination doesn’t make them a Nazi. There are different such forces, some imagined and some quite real.
Finally, if your question is why the Alt-Right guy likes Assad, shouldn’t you at least make an effort to ask himself or someone who thinks like him? Here we only see hypotheses meant to incriminate Assad by association.
Good comment, and thank you for bringing this up.
A parallel can be seen to the 1930s in Germany when both Communists and the early fascists opposed capitalism. For completely different reasons, of course. Communists did–and still do–oppose capitalism because it is exploitative and oppressive and ultimately homicidal. The early Nazis opposed capitalism because it created a complacent bourgeoisie that was unengaged in the fight to reinvigorate the German nation.
Of course, the early Nazis’ anti-capitalism does not make capitalism and exploitation and death squads good and worthy of support, nor does the alt-right’s present-day anti-imperialism, embraced for completely different reasons than, say, the Marxist-Leninists, mean that imperialism is good. But the author does indeed try to tarnish Assad by way of association. And to these imperial/ISO/counterrevolutionary twats all nationalism is seen as bad, I guess, even if it is embraced by a people who have been historically under attack from colonialists and Zionists (like the Syrian people) who want to take their resources and dominate them. From a revolutionary socialist perspective, however, nationalism is good for the oppressed; it leads to dignity and liberation.
But making Assad into a Nazi is all the colonialists and their allies in the MENA have got, really. He and the SAA have won this war.
non sense
Interesting you fail to mention one little thing that Assad regime also promote and that is secularism. A society void of Islamic sharia law!