Rania Khalek abandons principled journalism to become hack for Assad regime

Khalek on RT re mass graves (Dec 30 2016)

Rania Khalek, well known for writing about the Palestinian struggle, discredited herself as a journalist by agreeing to speak at an Assad-sponsored conference in Damascus. When criticized for doing so, she replied by saying she had been negligent about the character of the conference. Not a judicious quality for an investigative reporter in a war zone.

She apparently did not attend the conference but instead proceeded to west Aleppo during the bombing offensive on east Aleppo to do investigative reporting. There is no evidence of that trip in reports from her or photos & no indication of how she traveled from Damascus to Aleppo. Was she escorted by any Assad officials & did she have Syrian military security like Beeley & Bartlett?

As her career as a reputable journalist was tanking, Russia Today (RT) recognized the value she could play in promoting their narrative about Syria, in particular Aleppo. She has been interviewed twice on RT as an expert, independent journalist, & someone who has been on the scene in Syria.

She exhibits no worthy investigative skills & relies mostly on Russian media, Assadist bloggers, & some quite freaky Muslim-hating sources. She ran with the story about the discovery of mass graves in east Aleppo, not exhibiting the investigative skepticism, tenacity or honesty of a grade school kid doing a book report. The story is that the Syrian army found recent mass graves of children mutilated & dismembered by the “jihadist head-choppers.” So that’s what RT interviewed her about, playing her like a fiddle to help salvage her career.

The story of mass graves is very consequential if it’s true but it only appears in Russian media & Assadist blogs. To explain that, Khalek says “US media is acting as a mouth-piece for Al-Qaeda.” She also claims there is “corroborating photographic evidence” of those graves. In fact, even if there were photos–& there are not–a scrupulous & honest reporter would require more proof than photos in the era of photoshopping & post-truth truthiness. But Khalek forges heedlessly ahead in the best traditions of fake news.

Did it dawn on our intrepid propagandist to suggest that Syria & Russia call on independent forensics investigators to examine those graves & verify their claims? Kashmiri investigators must be quite sophisticated in the forensics of mass graves as are Argentinians & others who have to deal with such horrors. Why doesn’t Khalek publicly call on Syria & Russia to get some real corroborating evidence? She could even suggest Assad allow foreign reporters to enter east Aleppo to do their own investigations.

It’s deeply troubling to see young journalists capitulate so early to the blandishments & rewards of writing hack. It’s a well-trodden path. But once you take it, betraying the principles of journalism rooted in freedom struggles, you have to expect the sharpest criticism. That’s the way it goes. So we prevail on Khalek to stop whining that she is victim of a bullying campaign. Maybe if she gets on Assad’s payroll like Beeley & Bartlett she’ll stop claiming the war in Syria is all about her.

(Photo is screen shot from RT interview with Khalek)

Doctor describes evacuated civilians of east Aleppo: “They looked almost like they were coming out of a concentration camp.”

David Nott, a British surgeon, just returned from several days in Syria’s Idlib province, the area Aleppo residents were forcibly evacuated to when the Syrian army took over after a six-month bombing offensive. He has taken several medical trips to Syria since 2011 & trained many of the doctors who worked the field hospitals in east Aleppo.

Dr. Nott said of those he treated: “They looked almost like they were coming out of a concentration camp” & “were really in a desperate state.” As he described them, their bones were jutting through skin, they had gangrenous limbs, shrapnel still buried in their wounds, & were “dehydrated, malnourished, & psychologically traumatized.”

These are the same people that Vanessa Beeley, Assad’s own Leni Riefenstahl, claimed were dancing in the streets. Her response, as dutiful & well-remunerated propagandist, will be that their desperate condition was a result of treatment by those “jihadist terrorists,” as if not just months but years of carpet bombing had never happened.

Article about David Nott: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/29/looked-like-coming-concentration-camp-british-surgeon-david/

No conversion therapy for Assadists

A woman I admired quite a lot in the antiwar movement unfriended me over Syria. Her wall is all Russia Today, Mint Press, Beeley & Bartlett rubbish, even Tulsi Gabbard crap: the stuff of Muslim-hating & war-mongering.

I’d kept her as a friend hoping she’d be persuaded though my style isn’t particularly ingratiating. I leave the fawning & silver-tongue to Assadists whose intention is to deceive.

Anyway it didn’t work & it likely never will. That’s life. It’s sad to lose those kinships. She isn’t the first over differences on war. But there are more important things in life. Like what you think about the bombing of other human beings.

One of the most pernicious methods of Assad propagandists like Vanessa Beeley & Eva Bartlett & all their followers, is that they work feverishly to discredit & marginalize the voices of Syrian opposition. According to them, all Syrians who oppose Assad & foreign military intervention are undercover “jihadists” or stooges of US-NATO.

That method can only work if the voices of Europeans & Americans are considered more authoritative than that of Arabs. It’s called racism.

Action Group for Palestinians of Syria

This website reports on Palestinian refugees in Syria. The activists do not support Assad’s dictatorship because they know the truth about his relationship to Israel & to Palestinians & don’t rely on conspiracy theories that are off the wall & anti-Semitic. They just issued a report on the number of Palestinians killed by torture in Assad’s gulag & the regime’s refusal (like Israel) to release the bodies to the families for respectful burial.

They also don’t support Syrian & Russian bombing because of the carnage it has wreaked on refugee camps & cities.

This is their website which is an invaluable resource: http://www.actionpal.org.uk/en/index.html

The price millions of children pay for the sectarian nature of the antiwar movement

Homeless child in Yemen Dec 2016

A homeless child in Yemen sleeping in a discarded plastic bag:
March 2017 will mark the second anniversary of the bombing campaign in Yemen by the Saudi coalition, armed & supported by the US & UK.

Nothing speaks more powerfully to the imperative of rebuilding the international antiwar movement than what war has done to millions of children just in the past 20 years.

There are no humanitarian wars. There is no legitimate rationalization for bombing civilians. War planes, mercenaries, & special forces will never be the methods of freedom struggles. Syria has confused so many on that score. It’s time the movement be rebuilt on historic antiwar principles. That doesn’t mean pacifism; people have a right to defend themselves against violence & tyranny by any means necessary. “By any means necessary” does not include bombing entire cities with hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians. That’s not a freedom struggle; it’s barbarism.

Somewhere the antiwar movement has gotten lost. It appears the forces of regeneration will come not from the countries with armies & bombers in the field but from those activists around the world who know justice in their bones, understand antiwar principles & don’t accept cheap discounts on them.

Our deepest regrets that millions of children have payed such a price for the historic failure of the antiwar movement to unite. There is urgent need to correct that.

The adorable things Duterte says that makes him so irresistible to Assadists

Duterte

Some of the adorable things president Rodrigo Duterte says that make him such a beloved & revered hero to Assadists:

–“Forget the laws on human rights.”

–“You drug pushers, hold-up men & do-nothings, you better go out. Because, I’d kill you.”

–“Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there is…3 million drug addicts in the Philippines….I’d be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have me.”

–“I will burn down the United Nations if you want. I will burn it down if I go to America.”

–“”If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila & I will throw you out. I have done this before, why would I not do it again?”

One of Duterte’s political critics said: “The purpose of the war on drugs is to stifle opposition & castrate dissent. It is working.” Of course. That’s why China is flooding the Philippines with drugs but Duterte calls it an ally & insists it is unfair to blame Beijing. Instead he sanctions vigilante death squads immune to prosecution to gun down thousands of poor, young Filipinos on the streets.

What affinity do Assad supporters feel with the death squads & these precious & endearing sentiments of Duterte? Is it because the psycho-killer calls himself a socialist? That might explain why so many Assad supporters have become renowned for incoherence & zombie politics & are ardent admirers of Joseph Stalin. The walking dead with assault rifles look like socialists to them.

There are political explanations for these affinities between Assadists, Duterte, Putin, & Trump but the real answer lies in abnormal psychology. It’s called demented.

Let’s resume detente with the Russians: Putin & Trump are both putzes

Teared me right up to hear Russians feel sad because they think we hate on them. Where’d they get that goofy notion? From Sputnik News? It’s not their fault Putin is a putz; we don’t hold it against them. When your president-elect is Donald Trump, who’s in a position to get snotty?

Now I read that Russians think Americans are stupid & simple-minded because our milk cartons & chip bags have directions like “Tear here” or “Open on the other side.” Well how do they know where to get at the milk & chips?

In the interests of resuming detente or entente or whatever the hell that thing was called & putting an end to this regrettable contretemps, let us make the first gesture for world peace. We love your literature & music. At least your classical music; your rock & roll stinks. We don’t hold grudges against you. We do think you should start reading alternative media like the NY Times or Washington Post because Russian mainstream media lies too much. And you might want to consider another revolution if you can’t get rid of this Putin gang.

The blunted emotional lives of humans who deny the emotional lives of animals

New born giraffe, Chester UK (Steve Rawlins:Chester Zoo) Dec 29 2016

This is a mother Rothschild’s giraffe with her newborn calf in the city zoo of Chester, UK. Is it anthropomorphizing to see love here? It was common not that long ago to think animals had no emotional life & those who recognized emotions in animals were accused of projecting our own emotions on to them.

Animals lovers consider that accusation peculiar & think only the most obtuse observer of animals could hold such a view. But the human capacity to deny animals emotional & social lives speaks profoundly to the cognitive disorders involved in racism & misogyny.
Rothschild’s giraffes (also known as the Baringo giraffe or as the Ugandan giraffe) were renamed after a member of the banking family who founded the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum at Tring UK in 1889. It was originally his private collection of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, insects. It is now renamed the Natural History Museum.

That was the era when anthropology museums were being established in the US & Europe to house not only stuffed animals but also, in many of the museums, the booty & artifacts from colonial expeditions of what were considered “primitive” tribal societies going extinct. In every way those museums highlight that “othering” phenomenon inherent to colonialism, the steadfast determination not to see other societies as human. Racism is not inherent but was invented to justify colonialism. If one can’t see the humanity of other humans one certainly won’t see emotional lives in animals. Natural history museums were part of constructing the ideology of superior & inferior beings & of white supremacy.

These Baringo or Ugandan giraffes are among the most endangered species of giraffes with only an estimated 1,500 left in the savannas of Uganda & Kenya. There are breeding programs for them in Kenya & in registered zoos around the world. Apparently the Chester city zoo is one of them.

Zoo keepers have the same ideological ancestry as keepers of anthropology museums. It is impossible for animal lovers to visit zoos except to investigate the abusive treatment of animals, especially giraffes, gorillas, & the big cats.

(Photo of Steve Rawlins/Chester Zoo)

The war on Black youth & the homicide rate in Chicago

In about 1991, I became very concerned by media reports about youth violence in the Black community allegedly related to drug gangs referred to as “narco-terrorists.” It was deeply disturbing because it meant a retreat or defeat of civil rights gains. I wanted to understand what was happening to Black youth & the Black community so I set out to investigate it.

It took me about seven months of studying using the new resources of the internet. There were no books written about it at that time. Using the internet, I went through media crime reports for 24 cities & what I learned was shocking & completely contradictory to the prevailing narrative in media. It was unmistakeable: the violence was not initiated by Black youth but was against them & gangs were not a substantial issue in most cities. In fact at that time, many police departments scoffed at the notion of drug gangs because they were not facing them as a problem. The drug war was imposed as policy on police departments.

When my article was first published in 1992 in a student journal at Harvard produced by two young men I worked with politically, most people thought I was nuts & writing apologetics for Black youth violence. When it was updated & published in 2007 in a Black community newspaper in Minneapolis, again it was treated with scorn by white progressives. But there was no doubt in my mind at all that there was a political war on Black youth to demoralize them & prevent them from organizing resistance to oppression. Since that time not only have other writers confirmed my analysis, including Michelle Alexander who wrote “The New Jim Crow” in 2010, but the Black Lives Matter movement makes it beyond dispute.

Now the homicide rates from the Black community in Chicago make it appear to be an exception & to be a “Black on Black violence” scenario. There have been 700 homicides so far this year, more than NYC & Los Angeles combined, & allegedly related to gangs & gun use. You can’t just accept that narrative without investigation. Impressions, speculations, rumors, prejudices about what is going on don’t cut it. There is a ruthless war on Black youth including violence, incarceration for minor offenses, economic misery. If you understand that then you need to examine the particular pressures & forms it takes in the city of Chicago. It just doesn’t happen in human society that a group of people in a particular ethnicity or city or neighborhood have extreme aggressions for no reason.

For those who would like to read the article on Black youth & gangs:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/mary-scully/the-war-on-black-youth/267267043287137?pnref=story