Despite the big media names carrying this story we were suspicious about it from the outset.
A closer examination confirmed our doubts. Tucked away in the third paragraph of the following article is the giveaway: its real source is mentioned. It is none other than the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a one-man operation based in Coventry, England, and run by Rami Abdulrahman, a Syrian expatriate who hasn’t been back to his homeland in nearly twenty years.
Nonetheless, a host of big media names are carrying this report. Including the BBC, the Independent, the Washington Postand Sky News.
Whenever the Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR) releases a report it gets widespread coverage throughout the corporate media. This despite the fact that its reports are often uncorroborated and based on nothing more than the word of Rami Abdulrahman.
Only a week ago he was claiming that “ ten children were among 45 civilians killed by Syrian regime strikes“. That report was also unsubstantiated and remained so. Despite that, like the following report it also got wall-to-wall coverage in the corporate media and one has to ask why?
What makes reports from Abdulrahman so authoritative? Especially when he hasn’t been back to Syria in nearly twenty years; when he runs his one man operation from a house in Coventry, England; and when his reports usually remain unconfirmed and unsubstantiated. Making them little more than hearsay.
I run this website from a small house in the Scottish Borders but the corporate media don’t pay me any attention. So why are Abdulrahman’s reports getting blanket media coverage? Could it be because they invariably portray the government of President Assad and his Russian supporters in a negative light; with stories that are uncorroborated and remain so.
Let’s not forget that the West has been trying to remove President Assad for nearly four years now. Often using outright disinformation in efforts to drum up support against him. As when it was claimed that Syrian government forces had used poison gas in an attack on civilians at Al Ghouta. As it turned out the U.S. had drawn-up plans to launch an attack on civilians and blame the Assad regime for the carnagethat followed, just as had happened at Al Ghouta.
Some of the mainstream media outlets are now beginning to realise that elements in the alternative media suspect that Abdulrahman is not be what he claims. That he may indeed be a paid disinformation agent. So now, like the Independent report, they don’t mention Abdulrahman and they’ve disingenuously renamed their media source as Human Rights Watch rather than the SOHR.
Nonetheless, it’s no coincidence that these reports all appear within hours of each other so they probably all come from the same original source, which the following Washington Post report kindly names.
Moreover the Independent reportquotes eyewitnesses to the events:
One local resident, Sameh al-Muazin, said he had seen mangled bodies in the main Jalaa street of the city, adding that people feared a further round of intensive bombing. Residents say they distinguish Russian planes that fly at high altitudes in sorties from Syrian helicopters that mainly drop indiscriminate barrel bombs at much lower heights.
“Everyone is afraid that this is just the beginning,” he said.
Crucially however, the Independent fails to inform readers that these “eyewitness accounts” are being related by none other than Rami Abdulrahman. The Independent report goes onto claim that “at least 73 people” were killed when Russian warplanes struck using “cluster munitions”.
Again, the Independent makes no mention of Abdulrahman and the SOHR but that is where this information is probably coming from. These are moreover serious allegations of what are in effect War Crimes, but the now the Independent is being evasive about the origins of the report.
Worse still the following Washington report alleges that the Russians have been bombing court houses “full of civilians”, or so Abdulrahman would have us believe. However, we suggest readers wait before rushing to judgement as we suspect that confirmation of his claims will not be forthcoming anytime soon.
Russian air raids killed dozens of people in northwestern Syria on Sunday, activists and residents said, two days after the adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution backing a peace process to end the country’s devastating civil war.
The incident coincides with a report released Sunday by Human Rights Watch that accuses Russia and the Syrian government of using cluster bombs — indiscriminate scattershot munitions — that have killed dozens of civilians in Syria in recent weeks.
As many as nine airstrikes struck the rebel-held city of Idlib on Sunday morning, killing at least 36 civilians and insurgents, said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The warplanes hit a courthouse and an intelligence building used by opposition groups in the area, said Abdurrahman, whose monitoring group relies on activists inside Syria.
Russia, an important ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria against opposition groups since late September.
“The courthouse was full of civilians,” Abdurrahman said. “The Russians have been hitting everything, killing civilians and striking whatever they want.
Source: www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=126432