Syria is Becoming the Land of Massacres

 

John R. Houk

© July 2, 2012

 

Danny Jeffrey of Freedom Rings 1776 has uncovered a Western Media conspiracy to make Bashar al-Assad look like the only butcher in the Syrian civil war. The conspiracies involve utilizing photographs from other Muslim perpetrated atrocities and link it to the grisly massacre in Houla, Syria. Jeffrey has a point because in the process of looking for independent sources I found out that the BBC used a 2003 Iraq photo and implied this was a picture of the result of Assad’s forces slaughtering Syrians at Houla.

 

A few days have passed since the BBC irresponsibly passed off this 2003 picture of dead Iraqis as depicting dead Syrians in last week’s Houla massacre. The original photographer, who works for Getty Images, said “Someone is using someone else’s picture for propaganda on purpose.” The Telegraph:

 

Photographer Marco di Lauro said he nearly “fell off his chair” when he saw the image being used, and said he was “astonished” at the failure of the corporation to check their sources.

 

The picture, which was actually taken on March 27, 2003, shows a young Iraqi child jumping over dozens of white body bags containing skeletons found in a desert south of Baghdad.

 

It was posted on the BBC news website today under the heading “Syria massacre in Houla condemned as outrage grows”. (Read entire article: The BBC’s Photo Fib of a Syrian Massacre; by John Glaser, AntiWar.com, 5/29/12)

 

The photo Jeffrey uncovered was at Fox News (If Jeffrey’s uncovering gains traction, look to Fox News to remove photo at this story). Jeffrey goes through some very legitimate investigation which you can see by clicking HERE or going to the cross post below.

 

Jeffrey’s theme about the photo is that the Western Media is becoming a propaganda tool of the Western powers that are plugged into the United Nations’ concept of Responsibility to Protect:

 

The basic concept is that anytime a nation is being subjected to a forceful overthrow, the the UN affiliated members of the western powers are to intervene with a no fly zone over that nation. We did this in Libya along with providing arms to Al Qaeda in their effort to depose Qaddafi. The effort was perfect to enact R2P as Qaddafi was generally hated world wide so there was little outcry from the people of America. (From Jeffrey article cross posted at SlantRight 2.0 entitled “Israel’s Doomsday Scheme.”)

 

The R2P thinking in this light is a little practice of New World Order application under the auspices of the United Nations (think Agenda 21). Now I don’t know if Jeffrey thinks this is NWO stuff but I do. I do know that the R2P principle is a World Powers agenda to eliminate Israel (at least the EU and American Leftists) probably under the mistaken concept that no Israel means peace in the Middle East. After the Libyan R2P the Western powers then want to take down Assad.

 

The problem with taking down Assad is it is merely replacing a Jew-hating rogue Shia-Alawite regime with a Jew-hating Radical Islamic (al Qaeda influence) rogue Sunni regime. Israel – our chief ally in the Middle East – will not benefit in a regime change except perhaps Iran losing a chief ally in the Middle East.

 

Some short-sighted geopolitical thinking might see a National Security win for the USA with Iran losing its Syrian ally to a bunch Radical Islamic Sunnis. Historically there has been a bloody divide between Sunnis (90% of Islam) and Shias (10% of Islam). In Saudi Arabia the Wahhabi Clerics have often declared the Shias a bunch of infidels grouped with Christians, Jews and polytheists. On the other hand Iran has successfully crossed the Sunni-Shia divide by focusing on the modern enemy of Islam – Jewish Israel.

 

Hamas is a Sunni Muslim Brotherhood offshoot; however Iran has undoubtedly sent missiles to Hamas to use on Israel. Hamas has condemned the Assad regime for shooting Sunni Syrians; I believe that condemnation of Syria has more to do with traditional Sunni-Shia divide than insulting Assad-Hamas arms supporter Iran.

 

Jeffrey does not see the potential National Security benefit of screwing Iran by taking Assad out of Syria. Jeffrey sees only the R2P doctrine and Left Wing globalist conspirators like George Soros pulling the strings as part of an anti-Israel strategy. NOW I don’t discount Jeffrey’s thoughts about R2P, destroy Israel and globalism. It may very well be a part of multitudinous agendas that might have converged simultaneously in consensus to mess with Iran, but the agendas may part ways as far the end game of US Foreign Policy-Military Geopolitics. If I am correct on my convergence theory then Israel’s safety would depend largely who controls the White House after 2012. I am certain an Obama reelection will cement Jeffrey’s scenario!

 

Jeffrey starts his exposé on a false Houla photograph by throwing Senator McCain into complicity of knowingly supporting al Qaeda-like Sunni rebels as part of a greater R2P UN global strategy. Read the blog Friends of Syria which has a post specifically connecting Senator McCain, George Soros and the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

 

There is no doubt in my mind that McCain is a RINO; however I believe McCain was a brave American veteran who suffered in a North Viet POW camp. I also believe McCain is unduly influenced by his staff which ropes him into projects that he stubbornly protects because his name is attached to it. For instance I believe it was brilliant to choose Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. McCain’s mistake was not unleashing Palin to be the lightening rod on bringing Obama’s sketchy history into question. McCain instead listened to his advisors to pull the reins on Palin allowing the press to portray her as a buffoon. Instead of trying to shut Palin up, McCain should have unleashed her to attack Obama on some of the same issues of experience in a tit-for-tat that I doubt Obama could answer straight forwardly. I think McCain would have won in 2008 if that political strategy was followed. BUT again, McCain was a Republican establishment RINO. As a RINO I doubt he would have taken the Socialist path Obama has taken however I doubt he would have done anything to change big government or take steps to lower or eliminate the deficit. For that matter I am doubtful Romney will be the Tea Party Conservative our nation needs; however I am confident Romney will end Obama’s Socialist agenda to change America. We need to elect Romney to put a hiccup in the Obama-Dem-Socialist agenda currently in place for America’s future.

 

Let’s get back to the Houla Massacre.

 

The issue about Houla is: Was it perpetrated by FSA (SA Wikipedia) rebels or Assad’s Shabiha Militia (not Syrian regular army)?  

 

The United Nations version gravitates toward the Assad regime as the culprit or at the very least Assad’s irregular Shabiha Militia. A Reuters article dated June 27, 2012 reports the UN view:

 

(Reuters) – Syrian government forces have committed human rights violations, including executions, across the country “on an alarming scale” during military operations in the past three months, United Nations investigators said on Wednesday.

 

Their report, presented by investigation head Paulo Pinheiro to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, also listed multiple killings and kidnappings by armed opposition groups trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

 

“In the increasingly militarized context, human rights violations are occurring across the country on an alarming scale during military operations against locations believed to be hosting defectors and/or those perceived as affiliated with anti-government armed groups, including the Free Syrian Army,” the 20-page report said. (Emphasis Mine)

 

Syria’s ambassador dismissed the accusations and walked out of the debate after threatening to end cooperation.

 

The investigation’s report also said it was unable to determine who carried out a massacre of more than 100 people in Houla in late May but that forces loyal to Assad may have carried out many of the killings. This was based on its preliminary analysis of satellite images, videos and interviews with witnesses conducted either by telephone or Skype.

 

…

 

The U.N. investigators voiced concern that rebels were using children as medical porters, messengers and cooks, exposing them to risk of death and injury. Some had been going back and forth across the border with Turkey, they said.

 

Pinheiro, who made a first visit to Damascus at the weekend for talks with senior Syrian officials, presented the report to the U.N. Human Rights Council that set up the international inquiry last September.

 

…

 

“The evidence is incontrovertible. The Assad regime is waging a brutal campaign against the Syrian people, characterized by aerial bombardment, mass killings, rape and other atrocities,” U.S. ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said in her speech.

 

The U.N. team, which conducted nearly 400 interviews, said it had collected photographs, videos, satellite imagery and other documentary evidence during its recent investigative missions in the region.

 

It was updating its confidential list of identified perpetrators for possible use in future criminal prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 

“We provided a list of names and units of the military forces or security sections of the government of Syria that based on our evidence would be able to be investigated as being responsible for gross human rights violations and international crimes,” Pinheiro said. (Read Entirety: Syria government, rebels violate rights: U.N.; Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Toby Chopra; Reuters, June 27, 2012)

 

See also this NRO report John Rosenthal dated 6/9/12 stating “rebels” executed Christians and Shia Alawites and then proceeded to make it look like the Assad Regime were the culprits of mass murder.

 

Independent reports out of the influence of Western Media except a German periodical indicate that the FSA has been framed and that the Shabiha Militia (Assad supporters) executed the massacre in Houla:

 

…

 

The summary killing of 108 civilians in Houla, many of them children, raised an international outcry against Assad’s regime, with many countries, including Bulgaria, breaking diplomatic ties with Syria.

 

However, an analysis of what happened in Houla on May 25, as well as reports by locals, show that the atrocity was carried out by rebel forces, just as claimed by official Syrian news information agency SANA.

 

Tuesday reputed German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes the fact that the larger part of victims of the massacre were members of the Alawi and Shia minorities in teh (sic) village strongly points to the massacre being committed by armed Sunni rebels.

 

According to eyewitness reports quoted by FAZ, the atrocity began after rebel forces attacked three army checkpoints near the village to protect local Alawi communities.

 

During the skirmish, the massacre itself began, in which armed Sunni rebels turned on Alawi and Shia families and slaughtered them.

 

Then they filmed and photographed the victims to present them as Sunni victims of the Assad regime.

 

… (Read Entirety: Houla Massacre Likely Committed by Rebels, Not Syrian Govt; novinite.com; 6/12/12)

 

A Chinese News agency known as The 4^th Media runs a long detailed article absolving the Assad Regime and the Shabiha Militia of the Houla Massacre utilizing info from Western sources, but keep in mind China is supportive of the Assad Regime. I doubt The 4^th Media would engage in reporting that made Assad as culpable as the FSM in any massacre in Syria.

 

The best dissection of what happened in Houla are the enumerated details from a Muslim journalist Siraj Datoo. He quotes the German Newspaper FAZ which claims that 90% of Houla’s population were Sunni Muslims yet the more than 100 dead were Shia Alawites.

 

Datoo describes Assad’s army shelling Datoo. Then he writes while the shelling was going on the Sunni FSA rebels sought out the Shia living in Houla by going house to house and executing families (men, women & children) by gunfire and knife stabs. The FSA then took pictures and disseminated them to the Western press along with the verified shelling of Houla by Assad forces with the implication that the Shabiha Militia entered Houla after the shelling to massacre the people. The obvious wonderment is: Why in the world would the Shabiha massacre Shias rather than Sunnis?

 

Now let’s be clear though, Assad is far from a sainted Shia hero defending the innocent lives of his own faith and tribal affiliations. Assad has gone after Sunni population centers and indiscriminately killing them. So what we are seeing in the Syrian civil war is how Muslims in the Middle East conduct war. The Sunni-Shia divide and the ensuing murders of civilian populations based on a religio-ethnic cleansing is the modus operandi of Muslim war. Just think what will happen in Israel if there ever is a successful military assault that breaks through the IDF lines will begin a slaughter of Jews that will make the Nazi Holocaust look like a humane ethnic cleansing.

 

JRH 7/2/12

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