NP: Syria, part 6

[David Morris]

You’ll notice that I deal in quips.  I won’t get into someone else’s
trenches. Take it or leave it.

David Morris

On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 6:43 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> David,
>
> I hope you have lots of time to waste. good luck.
>
> Mark
>
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 6:38 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Assad has been so maligned, poor dear!
>>
>> So the opposition was fake news?
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 4:09 PM Thomas Eckhardt <
>> thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > "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
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>