Media's Deafening Silence Over West's and Israel's
Alliance With al-Qaeda in Syria
By John Hilley
May 28, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - The strange and strategic
alliances of Middle East geopolitics never seems to surprise. But care
to suggest that the West and Israel are in deep cahoots with al-Qaeda in
Syria and expect a sharper look of incredulity.
Yet, two vital new articles now fully illuminate this very
reality.
The first is from
Dr Nafeez Ahmed, analysing the profound implications of a recently
declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document. It's key
finding, notes Ahmed:
‘Supporting powers want’ ISIS entity
In a strikingly prescient prediction, the Pentagon
document explicitly forecasts the probable declaration of “an Islamic
State through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and
Syria.” Nevertheless, “Western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey are
supporting these efforts” by Syrian “opposition forces” fighting to
“control the eastern areas (Hasaka and Der Zor), adjacent to Western
Iraqi provinces (Mosul and Anbar)”:
“… there is the possibility of establishing a declared or
undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor),
and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want,
in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic
depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).”
The secret Pentagon document thus provides extraordinary
confirmation that the US-led coalition currently fighting ISIS, had
three years ago welcomed the emergence of an extremist “Salafist
Principality” in the region as a way to undermine Assad, and block off
the strategic expansion of Iran. Crucially, Iraq is labeled as an
integral part of this “Shia expansion.” The establishment of such a
“Salafist Principality” in eastern Syria, the DIA document asserts, is
“exactly” what the “supporting powers to the [Syrian] opposition want.”
Earlier on, the document repeatedly describes those “supporting powers”
as “the West, Gulf countries, and Turkey.” Further on, the document
reveals that Pentagon analysts were acutely aware of the dire risks of
this strategy, yet ploughed ahead anyway.
If only 'the best' of our news outlets were leading the
way with such challenging and damning journalism. The fanciful idea that
we'd ever see these kind of revelations heading the BBC's Six O'Clock News,
or even Channel 4 News, says all we need to know about why the mass
population is still in the dark about the West's true, deceitful agenda in
Syria and the Middle East at large.
Secondly, consider the same deafening media silence on
Israel's particular role in this alliance, the details this
time forensically documented by independent journalist
Asa Winstanley:
For several years now there have been propaganda reports in
the Israeli press about how Israel is supposedly playing a purely
"humanitarian" role in the Syrian war, by treating civilians and sending
them back. But this has now been exposed as propaganda. If that were really
the case, Israel would be treating combatants from all sides in the Syrian
war and furthermore it would arrest suspected al-Qaeda militants. But in
reality, all reports confirm that the Israelis are treating only the "rebel"
side, including the al-Qaeda militants that lead the armed opposition in
that area of Syria (as indeed they do in much of the country). The key
difference that disproves the propaganda line, and proves an active
Israel-al-Qaeda alliance is that, after treatment, instead of arresting
them, the al-Qaeda fighters are sent back to fight in Syria. There is no
chance at all that, in the event that Israel captures injured Hamas,
Hizballah or Iranian combatants alive, it would send them back to Gaza or
Syria to "go on their way", as the unnamed Israeli official put it.
Winstanley provides multiple corroboration of Israel's
supportive role, including the testimonies of Israeli military figures and a
few braver field journalists.
Further sporadic pieces on these clandestine collaborations have
been
seeping through. (As for the supposedly more-favoured 'moderate rebels',
it's also worth noting that Netanyahu's recent re-election was warmly greeted
by leading FSA figures.) But it's still a far cry from any
headline narrative of Western-Israeli mendacity. So, again, why, with all
that accumulated evidence, is this not a major media story?
We can say with confidence that the mainstream press in
the West supports Israel, and so does not find it convenient to report
on this scandalous Israeli-al-Qaeda alliance in Syria. But it's crucial
to understand that this is part of a wider pattern in which the West's
alliances with (to say the least) morally-dubious regional actors are
ignored, downplayed or actively disguised by the media.
All of which lends continuing gloss to the pristine illusion
that the West is 'fighting the good fight' on 'civilization's
behalf' against the barbarian forces now controlling half of Syria and
laying waste to cradles of ancient culture like Palmyra.
Isis and al-Nusra Front have long constituted the key
anti-Assad opposition in Syria. We now have definitive proof that the West,
its Gulf allies, Turkey and Israel have been promoting and protecting those
very forces all along.
As millions of innocents in
Syria and Iraq continue to die and suffer, the core cause of that historic
carnage, Western invasion and proxy warmongering, remains an all-too awkward
and avoidable subject for serious media discussion.
Encouragingly, this kind of
independent, untainted journalism is serving to bring us the dual truths of
Western criminality and media complicity. Please help spread and support
that new media front.
John blogs at
http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/
