Houla massacre

22 June 2012, 18:00 PM

Billy I Ahmed

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a leading German daily, responsibility for the deaths of 108 people massacred in Houla on May 25 lies not with the Syrian army but with the Syrian 'rebel' forces. The newspaper reported the Syrian guerilla groups functioned as Sunni sectarian death squads, wiping out much of Houla's Shiite Muslim minority. It must also be pointed out the BBC has not written a word on the report by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The results of this disclosure go far beyond the atrocity in Houla. They undermine the rotten foundations of the US-led campaign for war with Syria. The media uncritically reports opposition accounts of the killings and Western denunciations of Assad to agnostically present arms support for the opposition , possibly, a US invasion of Syria as acts of conscience to halt a humanitarian disaster. Medias carrying out such blowhole reports are acting as nothing more than propaganda agencies for US intervention. The US and its allies aim to bulldoze Russia and China into abandoning their opposition to US-led intervention, then oust Assad and replace him with a pro-US proxy regime. BBC world news editor Jon Williams, datelined 16:23, June 7, chose a personal blog to make a series of frank statements explaining there was no evidence whatever to identify either the Syrian Army or Alawite militias as the perpetrators of the May 25 massacre of 100 people. By implication, Williams also suggests strongly that such allegations are the product of the propaganda department of the Sunni insurgents seeking to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. After preparatory statements of self-justification noting the "complexity of the situation on the ground in Syria, and the need to try to separate fact from fiction," and Syria's long "history of rumours passing for fact," Williams writes: "In the aftermath of the massacre at Houla last month, initial reports said some of the 49 children and 34 women killed had their throats cut. In Damascus, Western officials told me the subsequent investigation revealed none of those found dead had been killed in such a brutal manner. Moreover, while Syrian forces had shelled the area shortly before the massacre, the details of exactly who carried out the attacks, how and why were still unclear." Therefore, he finishes belatedly, "In such circumstances, it's more important than ever that we report what we don't know, not merely what we do." Only now does Williams state: "Given the difficulties of reporting inside Syria, video filed by the opposition on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube may provide some insight into the story on the ground. But stories are never black and white--often shades of grey. Those opposed to President Assad have an agenda. One senior Western official went as far as to describe their YouTube communications strategy as 'brilliant'. But he also likened it to so-called 'psy-ops', brainwashing techniques used by the US and other military to convince people of things that may not necessarily be true." Williams is able to know of what he speaks. On May 27, the BBC ran a report on Houla under a photo claiming to show "the bodies of children in Houla awaiting burial." In reality this was an example of opposition propaganda that was anything but "brilliant". The photograph of dozens of shrouded corpses was actually taken by Marco di Lauro in Iraq on March 27, 2003 and was of white body bags containing skeletons found in a desert south of Baghdad. Di Lauro commented, "What I am really astonished by is that a news organization like the BBC doesn't check the sources and it's willing to publish any picture sent it by anyone: activist, citizen journalist or whatever… Someone is using someone else's picture for propaganda on purpose." The Houla massacre was an intrinsic part of US campaign. Less than ten days before, it had been announced the US was coordinating a surge in weapons supplies delivered to Syrian opposition forces, paid by the Saudi and Qatari monarchies. After early reports of the massacre, the Western powers broke off relations with Syria. The United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, and Canada all expelled their Syrian ambassadors in protest at a massacre actually carried out by their own agents. These events highlights the hypocrisy of US diplomats' criticisms of Russia for arming the Assad regime, while Washington's wealthy Arab allies flood "rebel" guerrillas with weapons. The focus of the imperialist powers has been to further the colonial re-subjugation of the entire Middle East. Protests against pro-US regimes were to be crushed. As for protests in countries without close ties to Washington, like Libya or Syria, they were to be brought under the control of right-wing forces to divert protests along ethnic or sectarian lines. They would then serve as proxies in US-led civil warsas Washington posed as a friend of the "Arab spring" because it was trying to depose Middle East regimes. . In Syria, the US relied largely on Sunni elements like the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, financed by the anti-Shiite Saudi monarchy. The massacre in Houla is the predictable outcome of Washington's promotion of these reactionary forces. Above all, Washington relied on the subservience of the American and European media, and the dishonest parties of the bourgeois "left." The media, having first cynically echoed the line of Syrian "rebel" forces who carried out the Houla massacre, is now ignoring the FAZ report. Soon after the Houla massacre, the New York Times published an editorial titled "Assad, the Butcher" that denounced Assad. The newspaper cynically accused Moscow and Beijing of having blood on their hands for refusing to support a US-led military intervention. As for the petty-bourgeois ex-left parties who have promoted Syrian "rebel" forces, such as France's New Anticapitalist Party or the American International Socialist Organization, they stand disclosed as supporters of imperialist carnival killings in humanitarian guise. The writer is a Columnist and Researcher.