NP: Syria, part 6

[Thomas Eckhardt]

"Leaked documents show how UK government contractors developed an 
advanced infrastructure of propaganda to stimulate support in the West 
for Syria’s political and armed opposition.

Virtually every aspect of the Syrian opposition was cultivated and 
marketed by Western government-backed public relations firms, from their 
political narratives to their branding, from what they said to where 
they said it.

The leaked files reveal how Western intelligence cutouts played the 
media like a fiddle, carefully crafting English- and Arabic-language 
media coverage of the war on Syria to churn out a constant stream of 
pro-opposition coverage.

US and European contractors trained and advised Syrian opposition 
leaders at all levels, from young media activists to the heads of the 
parallel government-in-exile. These firms also organized interviews for 
Syrian opposition leaders on mainstream outlets such as BBC and the UK’s 
Channel 4.

More than half of the stringers used by Al Jazeera in Syria were trained 
in a joint US-UK government program called Basma, which produced 
hundreds of Syrian opposition media activists.

Western government PR firms not only influenced the way the media 
covered Syria, but as the leaked documents reveal, they produced their 
own propagandistic pseudo-news for broadcast on major TV networks in the 
Middle East, including BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and Orient TV.

These UK-funded firms functioned as full-time PR flacks for the 
extremist-dominated Syrian armed opposition. One contractor, called 
InCoStrat, said it was in constant contact with a network of more than 
1,600 international journalists and “influencers,” and used them to push 
pro-opposition talking points.

Another Western government contractor, ARK, crafted a strategy to 
“re-brand” Syria’s Salafi-jihadist armed opposition by “softening its 
image.” ARK boasted that it provided opposition propaganda that “aired 
almost every day on” major Arabic-language TV networks.

Virtually every major Western corporate media outlet was influenced by 
the UK government-funded disinformation campaign exposed in the trove of 
leaked documents, from the New York Times to the Washington Post, CNN to 
The Guardian, the BBC to Buzzfeed."

https://thegrayzone.com/2020/09/23/syria-leaks-uk-contractors-opposition-media/

"So, the U.S. [and the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, their 
allies from the Gulf etc., TE] helped create the war, helped create the 
destruction, created the so-called heroes (who want more destruction), 
created the award-winning documentary about the 'heroes,' and created 
the news reports about the documentary about the 'heroes.' That isn’t 
just wag the dog; that’s wag the whole fuckin’ kennel and the buildings 
next to the kennel and everything down the street and the whole city."

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/two-massive-new-leaks-show-dirty-underbelly-of-empire/

For those who enjoy shooting messengers (Counterpunch author Lee Camp 
works for RT, I am told, the Grayzone people are anti-imperialist, which 
some people don't like), you can always read the original documents. 
Their authenticity has been confirmed:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-uk-government-probing-cyber-attack-over-syria-propaganda-leaks

Author Ian Cobain used to work for the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/03/how-britain-funds-the-propaganda-war-against-isis-in-syria

See also Patrick Cockburn's and Stephen Kinzer's articles on the press 
coverage of the Syrian proxy war:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n03/patrick-cockburn/who-supplies-the-news

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/18/the-media-are-misleading-public-syria/8YB75otYirPzUCnlwaVtcK/story.html


Am 20.11.2019 um 08:38 schrieb Thomas Eckhardt:
> Lovely, if subtle, satire. Yes, this is precisely how atrocity 
> propaganda works. Stimulus, response. Thanks for the laugh!
> 
> On Mon, 18 Nov 2019 20:24:38 -0600
>    David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Portrait of a Monster
> 
>