The fabrication of the myth
of the "Syrian revolution" by the United Kingdom
By Thierry Meyssan
March 02, 2020 "Information
Clearing House"
- New documents have leaked on the organization of
British propaganda against Syria. They provide
insight into how bona fide journalists could have
been permanently intoxicated by the myth of the
"Syrian revolution" and why the UK withdrew from
Syria despite the success of this operation.
Democracy presupposes the
ability to hold honest public debates. Therefore,
propaganda would be the prerogative of
non-democratic regimes. Yet history teaches us that
modern propaganda was conceived in the United
Kingdom and the United States during the First World
War, and that the USSR and Nazi Germany were pale
copycats.
During the war against Syria, we have often
explained that the reality on the ground did not
correspond in any way to the image that Westerners
had of it. We denounced the fabrication of evidence
by the US, British, French and Turkish secret
services to conceal Western aggression and to incite
a revolution against a dictatorship.
While the United Kingdom has not been present on
the ground since 2018, journalist Ian Cobain has
just published official British documents in the
Middle East Eye that shed light on how London
massively intoxicated bona fide journalists and then
withdrew (1) He had already published in the
Guardian, in 2016, revelations on the
organisation of MI6 in this matter (2)
Above all, it is important to remember that the
British were not pursuing the same objective at all
as their US ally. London hoped to regain its
influence from the colonial era (as did Paris). The
United Kingdom did not believe that the United
States intended to destroy the state structures of
the broader Middle East as a whole (Rumsfeld/Cebrowski
strategy). That is why it had conceived the "Arab
Spring" operation on the model of Lawrence of
Arabia’s "Great Arab Revolt" (the Muslim Brotherhood
now playing the role of the Wahhabi of World War I).
Their propaganda was therefore designed to create
New Syria around this Brotherhood and not to divide
it as the CIA wanted and still wants.
Westerners had already been convinced of
revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. It was
therefore easier to sell them a fourth field of
operations.
Good-faith journalists had been led by
revolutionaries (actually Turkish and NATO secret
services) to a Syrian village, Jabal Al-Zaouia, to
attend and film Free Syrian Army rallies. Many of
them were intoxicated and believed in a popular
uprising. When Daniel Iriarte denounced this
production in the Spanish daily ABC - because
he had recognized on the spot not Syrian but Libyan
fighters under the orders of Aldelhakim Belhaj and
Mehdi al-Harati (3) - the press refused to recognize
the manipulation to which it had been subjected. The
inability of journalists to admit their mistakes,
even when some of their colleagues confuse them,
remains the best asset of the masters of propaganda.
As always, the British RICU (Research,
Information and Communications Unit) had recourse to
a scientist, here an "anthropologist", to supervise
the manipulation. It entrusted its implementation to
several subcontractors, including a "former" MI6
officer, Colonel Paul Tilley; the word "former" is
important here, as it means that he could deny all
responsibility if the operation went wrong. To get
closer to the field, three ad hoc offices
were opened by MI6 contractors in Istanbul, Reyhanli
(Turkey) and Amman (Jordan), while the CIA operated
from Germany.
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
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This operation began in the wake of the
chemical weapons affair in the summer of
2013, when the House of Commons, scalded by
propaganda during the war against Iraq,
strictly forbade the Ministry of Defence
from deploying troops on the spot. As a
result, the initial budget of the Foreign
Office was increased and assumed by the
British Ministry of Defence and Canadian and
American agencies, as the military had no
other means of intervention.
It was placed under the command of an MI6
officer, Jonathan Allen, who became the number two
in the British diplomatic delegation to the Security
Council at the UN.
The originality of the operation, led inter alia
by Innovative Communications & Strategies (InCoStrat),
is that it is presented as a business
partnership with no links to the UK authorities.
The Syrians who participated did not feel that
they were betraying their country, just that
they had found an opportunity to make money to
survive despite the war. Indeed, in relation to
their standard of living, the salaries paid were
very high.
The system of "citizen journalists"
was very economical in relation to the £500,000
per month of the British budget ($50-200 for a
video, $250-500 for regular freelancers) to find
"information" or "evidence" of the regime’s
repression against its own population. These
materials, once sorted, were sent by MI6 to the
BBC, Sky News Arabic, Al-Jazeera (Qatar)
and Al-Arabiya (Saudi Arabia), four
stations that are fully participating in the
Western war effort, in violation of UN
resolutions banning war propaganda. The Syrian
collaborators had to undertake in writing to
remain anonymous, unless expressly authorized,
and not to divulge their links with any company.
Western bona fide journalists, unable to
trace Syrian "citizen journalists" and verify
the context of videos and other "evidence" -
which is the raison d’être of their corporation
- were convinced by the noise of the four
television stations.
Ian Cobain’s documents attest that in
addition to this international target, there was
also a target in Syria. London wanted to provoke
a change in the population’s attitude in favour
of the "moderates" in the face of the
"extremists". On this point, it does not seem
that Middle East Eye realised that these words
should not be interpreted in the ordinary sense,
but in the light of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s
decisions. He, during the elaboration of the
"Arab Spring" plan, had stated that His
Majesty’s administration should consider as
allies the "moderately anti-imperialist" leaders
such as the Muslim Brotherhood, while the
opponents were the "anti-imperialist extremists"
such as the nationalist regime of the Syrian
Baath (4)
The anthropologist who supervised the
programme also indicated the need to create
emergency services on the ground (the Free
Police and the White Helmets of the ’former’ MI6
officer James Le Mesurier) not so much to help
the population, but to give it confidence in the
institutions to come once the National Union
regime around the Baath is defeated. On this
point, he referred to the plan for the total and
unconditional surrender of Syria drafted by the
German Volker Perthes for the number 2 of the
UN, Jeffrey Feltman (5), which the British
therefore misinterpreted.
This disagreement is the main cause of the
scramble of this operation when Washington tried
to create "Sunnistan" with Daesh and "Free
Kurdistan" with the Turkish PKK and the Iraqi
KDP. The British, considering that this was no
longer their war, decided to withdraw.
The MI6 programme had three components:
Unite
Syria:
“Unite Syrians through positive affirmation of
common cultures and practices and to restore
trust between neighbours, while illustrating
Syrians’ strength in numbers”. Free
Syria:
“Seeks to build confidence in a future Syria
free from extremist rule". Undermine:
“Seeks to degrade the effectiveness of VE
[violent extremist] networks in Syria by
undermining the credibility of VE narratives and
actors and isolating VE organisations from the
populace”.
According to Ian Cobain’s documents, MI6
subcontractors also trained Syrian opposition
spokesmen, developed accounts on social networks
and organised press offices operating 24 hours a
day. They do not mention the logo design and
Hollywood staging that we have reported, such as
the military parade in the Ghouta with tanks
passing in front of the camera and with extras.
The press offices aimed to put Syrian
opposition spokesmen in touch with Western
journalists and brief them before interviews. In
this way, the Western press believed in good
faith that it was getting its information from
an independent source at low cost. If, at the
beginning, during the destabilisation phase
(until mid-2012), all the international media
sent reporters to the field (which the British
manipulated), there are none today. Westerners
have become accustomed to believing the news
agency set up by MI6 in London with the Muslim
Brotherhood, the Syrian Human Rights
Observatory, although it does not have the means
to know anything about some of the events it
reports on.
Thierry Meyssan Political consultant,
President-founder of the Réseau Voltaire
(Voltaire Network). Latest work in English –
Before Our Very Eyes, Fake Wars and Big Lies:
From 9/11 to Donald Trump, Progressive Press,
2019 - Translation -
Roger Lagassé - "Source"
(5) “Germany
and the UNO against Syria”, by Thierry
Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Al-Watan
(Syria) , Voltaire Network, 28 January
2016.
“Draft Geneva Communique Implementation
Framework”, “Confidence Building Measures”,
“Essential Principles”, “Representativness and
Inclusivity”, “The Preparatory Phase”, “The
Transitional Governing Body”, “The Joint
Military Council and Ceasefire Bodies”, “The
Invitation to the International Community to
Help Combat Terrorist Organizations”, “The
Syrian National Council and Legislative Powers
during the Transition”, “Transitional Justice”,
“Local Governance”, “Preservation and Reform of
State Institutions”, “Explanatory Memorandum”,
“Key Principles revealed during Consultations
with Syrian Stake-holders”, “Thematic Groups”,
United Nations Department of Political
Affairs (DPA), 2012-2014 (unpublished).
==See Also==
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Unite
Syria: 
