You know what is the second toughest test for progressive Western media these days?

The first test is always the question of Palestine, but now we can add this: it is ultimately a difficult test for progressive Western media to be able to resistant the dominant hegemonic narrative about the Syrian "revolution".

Zionists and their love for the Syrian people

This overwhelming love demonstrated (fairly) by American Zionists has led me to believe that they love the Syrian people as much as they love Israelis.  

The land of the French revolution

"“We don’t want them!” shouted the demonstrators in this village of 1,900 people, 80 miles from Calais, where the migrants were bused from a camp known as the Jungle on Monday."

This is what US media want you to believe about Syria

Where US bombs fall there are only terrorists.  But where Russian bombs fall there are only civilians.  Understand? 

Why aren't US journalists weeping for the Syrian civilians killed by US bombs in Syria?

"U.S. AUTHORITIES OVERSEEING the war against the Islamic State in Syria have failed to respond to evidence of hundreds of civilian casualties resulting from coalition airstrikes and potential violations of the laws of war, according to a startling new account from Amnesty International.  In a press release issued Tuesday night, Amnesty said it has presented the Pentagon with evidence that 11 coalition airstrikes in Syria over the past two years appear to have led to the deaths of as many as 300 civilians — and that so far that evidence has been met with silence. “U.S. authorities have provided no response to a memorandum Amnesty International sent to the Department of Defense on September 28 to raise questions about the conduct of coalition forces in Syria,” the group claimed."

Zionist threats to free speech

"Targeting students from a position of cowardly anonymity is only the latest — and ugliest — stage in the well-funded project to shield Israel from criticism on campus, and it fits into a larger pattern. Last spring and this month, lurid posters appeared on the UCLA campus naming specific students and accusing them of supporting “terrorism” because they are members of student groups that dare to criticize Israeli policy. David Horowitz’ ironically named Freedom Center claimed responsibility for the posters."

David Ignatius tells you what people in the Middle East want

According to him, the biggest beef people in the region have with the US is that it bombs them but it does not bomb them long enough and it does not occupy them long enough.  He cites this person as a conclusion: "“You’ll walk away,” said the priest. “That’s what you do.”"  Why can't the US bomb and occupy the region forever, so Arabs argue to David Ignatious.

John Allen and Charles Lister: their advice about Al-Qai`dah

This is actually their recommendation: that the US should help Al-Qa`idah in East Aleppo in order to avoid the spread of Al-Qa`idah later: "The city’s symbolism and strategic value are unmatched, and allowing it to fall would dramatically empower extremist narratives. Groups linked to al-Qaeda would reap the rewards of our shortcomings."

Oligarchs in the Putin regime

The Economist special section on Russia is rather hilarious in its crude propaganda content. They basically make it clear: they don't object to the rule of Oligarchs in the Putin regime but they argue that the Yeltsin's oligarchs were better and that Western-favored Oligarchs were: "But they also cultivated personal connections with the liberals in the government to gain privileged access to the most valuable assets.". That makes them better.

These war criminals, like Abdul-Rashid Dustum of Afghanistan, are the types of "liberals" the US supports and funds and arms

Really. This is the classic example of US clients and allies in the developing world.  I wonder how he is on the gender question. I bet he is very good given decades-long US support for him.

Shaykh Khalifh bin Hamad of Qatar: how he was eulogized in Western media

Read this obituary in the Times. They even talk to people who work in Qatar who can only offer praise.  You would not know that the man ran a tyranny.

Hillary Clinton's foreign policy vision

So Libya was the embodiment of Hillary's foreign policy vision. How did that go, by the way? Still going democracy strong? 

U.S. dropped depleted uranium bombs on Syria

"An Air Force congressional liaison officer replied in an email that American forces had in fact shot 6,479 rounds of “Combat Mix” in Syria over two days – “the 18th and 23rd of Nov 2015”. The officer explained the mix "has a 5 to 1 ratio of API (DU) to HEI". "So with that said, we have expended ~5,100 rounds of API," he wrote, referring to DU rounds. Update: On 20 October, CENTCOM officially confirmed to IRIN that the US-led coalition had fired rounds of depleted uranium (DU) munitions at targets in Syria on the 18 and 23 November 2015."

US-backed war in Yemen could leave an entire generation crippled by hunger

"More than 14 million people — about half the population — are going hungry, and as many as 370,000 children are at risk of starvation, the United Nations said this summer. Now, a new report from the UN's World Food Program says the problem is getting worse and is affecting women and children the most." "US President Barack Obama backed Saudi Arabia in its campaign in Yemen, and America's involvement recently deepened."

The liberal Center for American Progress (CAP)

"CAP, according to a report in The Nation, has received funding from war contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who make the bombers that CAP wants to rain hellfire on Syria. The Brookings Institute has taken tens of millions from foreign governments, notably Qatar, a key player in the military campaign to oust Assad. Retired four-star Marine general John Allen is now a Brookings senior fellow. Charles Lister is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, which has received funding from Saudi Arabia, the major financial force providing billions in arms to upend Assad and install a Sunni caliphate stretching across Iraq and Syria."

Saudi funding: no strings attached

This week, I have basically heard from pundits and writes in DC think tanks that--all worries to the contrary notwithstanding--Saudi funding in the US comes with no strings attached.  Interestingly, before the Saudi regime aligned itself with Israel and its lobbies in the US, Zionists used to raise alarm about Saudi funding in the US.  In fact, the functionary of the Zionist lobby scene and the early advocate against Muslims, wrote a whole book in the 1980s titled "American House of Saudi" about Saudi buying of influence in the US.  Suddenly, Zionists are no more worried about Saudi buying of influence in the US. 

I won't see tweets on this by Western correspondents in Beirut, despite their deep humanitarianism regarding East Aleppo

"The young Palestinian, later identified as Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr, 15, was reportedly shot by Israeli forces in the back, with the bullet exiting through his chest." "Bahr became the 235th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since a wave of violence spread across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in October 2015."

Racist group launches national offensive on U.S. campuses

"A notorious anti-Black and Islamophobic group has launched a national offensive against students and professors associated with the movement for Palestinian rights." "The David Horowitz Freedom Center has claimed credit for the campaign. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups and extremism, says that since the 1980s the group’s founder, David Horowitz, has “become a driving force of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-Black movements.” " (thanks Amir)

A trial in Saudi Arabia: this will not outrage Western journalists and human rights functionaries

A Saudi court convicts three Huthis of various crimes including "spreading rumors and harming" the Yemeni war coalition. Kid you not.

The mafia which rules the Syrian regime

The class mafia which rules the lousy Syrian regime has been ever since Bashshar came to power launching a war on the poor.  This war on the poor has not stopped.  I posted yesterday about there decision to lift subsidies on food necessities, like sugar, rice, and bread.  I noticed that the lousy Syrian regime is using the same language of the lousy Hariri family in Lebanon: they talk about "liberating the bread".  

Are there limits to the crudeness of the propaganda?

Syrian rebels are notorious for exploiting children in their propaganda campaigns.  But to come opening twitter accounts--in English mind you--on behalf of little girls in Syria? Is that not too much? Is there no decency left at long last?  

The alleged crook who posed as the toy smuggler of Aleppo and who was celebrated by all Western media

"but "may have exaggerated" the injury.".  "Just a little bit", as Robert De Niro says in one of his movies.  Can't you find decent heroes for your propaganda campaigns alas?

Do you even know what the views of Tawakkul Karman are?

Just see her twitter account. She is an unabashed advocate of Saudi and Qatari regime and a fierce advocate of the Muslim Brotherhood and a fan of sectarian agitation. Yet, in the West, she is honored as if she is some secular democrat.

This is hilarious: Saudi regime wants to appease the West but winds up causing more embarrassment to itself

So some US/EU PR firms (they basically run the dynasties in the Gulf nowadays) suggested to the Saudi regime to issue a statement about Muslims in non-Muslim countries.  So it was supposed to be a moderate Islam schtick. Yet, in this statement (available in English and Arabic) it says that "Muslims must obey the provisions of Shari`a even in non-Muslim countries". That should go well with US Islamophobes.  

US bombing: The Empire of Chutzpah

As US bombs in Syria and Iraq and Pakistan and Somalia and Libya, it offers condemnation for Russia for bombing in Syria.  US is the Empire of Chutpzah. 

Putin and Obama

Putin is a terrible person who has caused death and destruction in Syria and elsewhere.  But there is not contest: Obama is a far worse person who has caused far more death and destruction around the world.

Wikileaks and this election

Wikileaks has allowed itself to get involved in this US elections.  That was a mistake.  It could have waited before dumping the email batches and it could have done a better job in the selection.

US and elections around the world

I will maintain this: there has not been ONE election in the world since WWII in which the US did not interfere with money or with weapons or with other covert operations either to support one side or to undermine a side.  Not one.

What is the story about dropping leaflets over Aleppo? How Western media invent propaganda talking points

Every day, you see the same journalists and Western human rights types sticking to the same propaganda talking points on Syria, circulating the same propaganda youtube and items.  In the last few days, they have been feigning outrage that the Syrian regime has been dropping leaflets on Aleppo, and they consider that to be a human rights outrage.  They all commented on that.  But excuse me: in this article in this US military website, the US government BRAGS that it drops leaflets on cities that it bombs, and in fact it condemns the Russian government for not dropping leaflets.  And this one chronicles the dropping of leaflets by US bombers over the years.   But I get it: it is humanitarian when the US does it but savage when US foes do it.  

Reporters without Borders

This week it will award its Freedom of Speech award to the Saudi king. Congratulations.  

According to the Podesta emails, there is only ONE QUALIFIED MUSLIM IN THE ENTIRE USA

"2) There is only one candidate I thought was a viable one for a Secretary-level job among the Muslim Americans."

Secular and feminist leaders of the Syrian opposition

In this picture, you see leaders of the Syrian opposition: Voltaire to the right, and then Rousseau and Mills, meeting with their secular and feminist sponsor, the King of Saudi Arabia.

Where is the outrage about East Aleppo?

Why are there no Western media sharing footage of Syrian rebels shooting at civilians trying to flee East Aleppo?

Let me explain the crucial differences between the political recipes of a liberal think tank and a conservative tank in Washington, DC

The liberal think tank: US needs to bomb more in Syria.
The conservative think tank: US needs to bomb more in Syria.
The liberal think tank: US needs to do more to reassure Gulf tyrannies.
The conservative think tank: US needs to do more to reassure Gulf tyrannies.
The liberal think tank: US needs to provide more support for Israel.
The conservative think tank: US needs to provide more support for Israel.
The liberal think tank: US needs to do more to confront Iran.
The conservative think tank:  US needs to do more to confront Iran.
Welcome to the world of bipartisanship in US foreign policy.  

The grotesque sexism and misogyny of Huffington Post US (not to mention the grotesque sexism of Huffington Post of Arabic Qatari regime)

This is a disgusting misogynist and vulgar piece about Melania Trump.  In the US, liberal feminists don't get outraged over sexism against Republican women.  

Notice how difficult it is the for the UN to admit that Syrian rebels are not letting civilians leave East Aleppo

"It is deeply regrettable that no patients or accompanying family members could be moved. The evacuations were obstructed by various factors, including delays in receiving the necessary approvals from local authorities in eastern Aleppo, conditions placed by non-State armed groups and the Government of Syria’s objection to allowing medical and other relief supplies into the eastern part of the city."  This passage must have been edited by a US official to dilute the blame of Syrian rebels.  They just forgot to add to the factors the phenomenon of global warming.

Syrian rebel infighting

Syrian rebel infighting in East Ghutah

Those Syrian protest don't receive coverage in Western media: they just don't fit the dominant lazy narrative

Syrians have been protesting against the rule of the various Syrian rebel militias and there has never been a coverage of those protests in the last few years. The rebel militias in Ghutah have been engaged in bloody feuds and clashes and not a word about that in the Western media.  Western media are busy singing the praises of the non-existent Voltaire Battalion of Syrian rebels.

Reported STDs at unprecedented high in the U.S.

"Total combined cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reported in 2015 reached the highest number ever, according to the annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

The other side of cute Trudeau

"These days, Canada is the second-largest arms exporter to the Middle East."

Overwhelming majority of Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are tortured

"The “overwhelming majority” of Palestinian minors held in Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons have been tortured during their detention and interrogation, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said Tuesday, amid a marked increase in the incarceration and mistreatment of Palestinian children by Israel."

Compare the coverage of Mosul & East Aleppo

"The extreme bias shown in foreign media coverage of similar events in Iraq and Syria will be a rewarding subject for PhDs students looking at the uses and abuses of propaganda down the ages." (thanks Amir)

Western coverage of Mosul and East Aleppo: Is Patrick Cockburn the only Western correspondent who is free of propaganda burdens?

"But look at how differently the international media is treating a similar situation in Mosul, 300 miles east of Aleppo, where one million people and an estimated 5,000 Isis fighters are being encircled by the Iraqi army fighting alongside Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia and Sunni paramilitaries and with massive support from a US-led air campaign. In the case of Mosul, unlike Aleppo, the defenders are to blame for endangering civilians by using them as human shields and preventing them leaving. In East Aleppo, fortunately, there are no human shields – though the UN says that half the civilian population wants to depart – but simply innocent victims of Russian savagery. Destruction in Aleppo by Russian air strikes is compared to the destruction of Grozny in Chechnya sixteen years ago, but, curiously, no analogy is made with Ramadi, a city of 350,000 on the Euphrates in Iraq, that was 80 per cent destroyed by US-led air strikes in 2015. Parallels go further: civilians trapped in East Aleppo are understandably terrified of what the Syrian Mukhabara secret police would do to them if they leave and try to pass through Syrian government checkpoints."

Propaganda of Syrian rebels in Western media: The toy smuggler of Aleppo

"A story too good to be true – The toy smuggler of Aleppo’s jihadist connections, made-up stories and an orphan project run aground" (thanks Amer)

HILARIOUS: The most liberal think tank in DC offers its vision for the next US president: you need to bomb more in the Middle East

It is not amazing that the vision of the most liberal DC think tank is not that different from the vision of the Israeli lobby.  They basically want the next president to bomb Syria more and be more militarily involved in Syria; they want the US to fight Iran in the region and internalize Wahhabi doctrine; they want the next president to solidify the alliances with Gulf dictatorship; and they want the US to basically agree on the vision of Netanyahu for Middle East "peace".  The funny part is that they also mention human rights and democracy as it those goals are not in contradiction.

PS The Center has no Middle Eastern people among its experts, but managed to add Middle East sounding names as token signatories on its blueprint.