In the Now, which is part of RT, is circulating a video of Omran Daqneesh & his family whose older child was killed & apartment in east Aleppo hit by a Russian airstrike in August 2016. The image of traumatized 5-year-old Omran was iconic & condemned Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians more powerfully than a thousand polemics. Thus it enflamed Assadists, particularly Beeley & Bartlett who created an energy base producing rancid & unhinged tracts against the child, denouncing it as staged. They remained as obsessed with Omran as with the White Helmet rescue workers & actually attempted to associate his image with head-chopping.

The RT video is clearly the Daqneesh family living in quite comfortable accommodations as the father explains that Omran was used by the opposition to Assad for propaganda purposes & thanking the Syrian army for liberating Aleppo.

Maybe the father always was an Assad supporter; maybe, though not likely after the bombing death of his child, he is now. It doesn’t matter what his politics are & we are grateful Omran & the rest of the family are safe. But if anyone actually thinks Mr. Daqneesh was not muscled or coerced in some way to be part of this effort to undo the impact of the Omran image, then there is no hope for your sense of judgement or your understanding of the Assad regime. God save your sorry ass.