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Committee of Inquiry on Syria Propaganda Report

Committee of Inquiry on Syria Propaganda Report

by Stephen Lendman

The COI is an imperial tool, formed in September 2011 to wrongfully blame Syria for human rights abuses, downplaying atrocities committed by US-supported terrorists.

It lacks credibility, Syria's UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari earlier, saying it's "deliberately blowing things out of proportion when displaying its findings, also fully disregarding or downplaying core issues." 

"There are blood-curdling scenes that flagrantly contravene the Syrians' dignity and human rights regarding the crimes of the armed terrorist groups…" 

They "rang(e) from eating human flesh, cutting throats, mutilating bodies, beheadings on sectarian and confessional grounds, throwing bodies from rooftops to committing hundreds of suicide bombings using car bombs in populated areas, recruiting children, abducting and slaughtering clergymen, assassinating scholars in mosques, issuing instigative fatwas on 'sexual jihad,' killing children on the charges of infidelity, robbing factories and transporting them to Turkey."

COI reports largely ignore these horrors, focusing attention on vilifying Assad, wrongfully blaming his forces for atrocities committed by US-supported terrorists. 

Its latest report is as biased as earlier ones - despicable fake news about the battle for Aleppo, saying:

"(P)ro-government forces encircled eastern Aleppo city in late July and trapped civilians without adequate food or medical supplies. Between July and December 2016, Syrian and Russian forces carried out daily air strikes, claiming hundreds of lives and reducing hospitals, schools and markets to rubble. Syrian forces also used chlorine bombs in residential areas, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties."

Fact: COI failed to explain that US-supported al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria) and other terrorists captured Aleppo in 2013 - trapping its residents, terrorizing them, torturing or killing anyone caught trying to flee.

Fact: Syria and Russia alone supplied area residents with humanitarian aid - nothing from America, nothing from EU or regional countries.

Fact: Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted terrorists alone, taking great pains to avoid civilian casualties - polar opposite US terror-bombing, massacring civilians indiscriminately in all its war theaters, destroying vital infrastructure, hospitals, schools and other non-military related sites.

Fact: Russia halted bombing Aleppo in October 2016. Syrian warplanes avoided civilian areas. Its forces used no chlorine or other chemical weapons as falsely claimed. Nor were they responsible for "hundreds of civilian casualties."

COI reported Western Aleppo shelling by "armed groups" failed to identify them as US-supported al-Nusra terrorists - their weapons and munitions supplied by Washington, NATO and regional rogue states.

COI: "In a particularly egregious attack, Syrian air forces targeted a humanitarian aid convoy in Aleppo countryside, killing more than a dozen aid workers and destroying vital supplies for civilians in need. The convoy had been authorized by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, which was aware of its location at the time of the attack." 

"The attack led to the suspension of aid convoys throughout the Syrian Arab Republic, depriving civilians from access to essential goods."

Fact: Syria had nothing to do with the attack, nor Russia. It was carried out by US-supported terrorists on the ground. Clear evidence proved it. 

COI: "As pro-Government forces recaptured eastern Aleppo city in December, some executed hors de combat fighters and perceived armed group supporters. Hundreds of men and boys were separated from their families and forcibly conscripted by the Syrian army. The fate of others remains unknown."

Fact: Utter nonsense! Al-Nusra fighters were given safe passage from the city for surrendering their heavy weapons, allowed to keep small arms, transported by government-supplied buses to destinations of their choice. They weren't killed, separated from families or forcibly conscripted.

The COI report is despicable pro-Western fake news. Syria's UN envoy to Geneva, Hussam Eddin Ala, blasted it during a Human Rights Council session in the Swiss city, calling it biased, grossly inaccurate, lacking credibility.

Aleppo was liberated as part of a campaign to preserve and protect Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity. Hard truths contradict COI's propaganda.

Its report ignored how America, NATO, Israel and other regional rogue states aid terrorist groups in Syria and elsewhere.

Ala said "(w)e feel no surprise that the Commission has heard nothing about the Turkish attacks against people of al-Bab city in Aleppo or the Turkish air bombardment which caused dozens of casualties."

He explained COI's report was timed to undermine Astana and Geneva peace talks - likely ordered by Washington.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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