"I live in Tayr Filsey, not Madaya, and I am fine." - Marianna Mazeh; 'Starving Syria child' revealed as south Lebanon girl (article below)
This is a brief post with the intent of merely alerting people to the latest campaign to demonize the Syrian government and army, and also at the same time to depict the terrorists inhabiting Madaya as somehow noble or in the right... as somehow not the human shielding terrorists that they in fact are. Madaya is the new Yarmouk. [See this post regarding the lies and propanda that were put forth in the exact same manipulative manner on Yarmouk previously. I will be writing an update on Yarmouk, which I visited in December 2015, soon.]
See also this RT report, which includes: "Just passed by first aid trucks bound for #madaya. Water&flour. Judging by lack of markings, this is #syria govt aid ...Another fully loadef #syria govt food aid truck going in to #madaya. Looks like rice or flour. ..."
Jan 11 updates include:
- "#madaya civilians say rebels charged 100,000 SP ($250) for kilogram of rice"
- "Many #madaya civilians weeping for joy at finally leaving this place. Say #ISIS in town, fight together with rebels"
- "Fleeing #madaya civilians blame rebels for cruelty, theft.."
- "About two dozen journalists here. Can't see any Western press. Strange, given how worried they were about #madaya"
© Fars news
- occupied for many months by approximately 600 terrorists (60% Ahrar al-Sham, 30% Jebhat al-Nusra, and 10% "FSA") hold the village (according to a recent Hezbollah statement)
- residents number approximately 23,000, not the 40,000 being reported in MSM and social media (the same trick of inflating the numbers was used in the propaganda campaign on Yarmouk last year) (according to the Hezbollah statement)
- on Oct 18, 2015, the Red Cross delivered supplies to Madaya. ICRC statement here: (ICRC cannot confirm info being published re Madaya. ICRC was, however, able to bring medical and food supplies to Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kafarya in mid-October, 2015. ICRC concerned also very much about Foua and Kafarya, "where the people are telling us the same thing: they are lacking food, they have not been eating proper meals for months, they lack medicine...")
Murad Gazdiev
"More on #madaya: #syria military sent 42 tons of food there on 27 november. All of it was seized by Islamist rebels; the are reselling aid"
-at the end of Dec 2015, the ICRC, UN and SRC evacuated wounded from Madaya (no mention was made of "starving residents")
-residents have staged protests against the terrorists, demanding that they be allowed to access food and supplies. They have also staged demonstrations in support of the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army.
-residents complain that the terrorists have taken food sources and are selling it at extortionist rates. In this clip, an elderly man (89) complains of the terrorists' selling goods at highly-inflated prices, calls them thieves, says they "slaughtered our children, slaughtered our people..."
- photographs have been circulated, recycled from other propaganda campaigns and even from other countries, alleging to be Madaya. This has been done on social media but also by so-called news outlets like VICE, and particularly by Qatar's propaganda site, Al Jazeera. For example, Paul Antonopoulo noted:
"However, the case of Madaya was not reduced to one southern Lebanese girl, the propaganda was far and wide. Al-Jazeera published a photo of a man supposedly starved in Madaya, which turns out to be a photo of a refugee in Europe from 2009."
More on the blatant manipulation and recycling of photos here: Fact Check on Madaya Reporting
Foua, Kafarya, Nubl, al-Zahara... Don't Exist??
On the other hand, two villages in Syria's north, north of Idlib, have been surrounded by western-backed terrorists since 2011, and locked-down under siege since early 2015. Western and Gulf media have paid scant notice to the very real suffering of Kafarya and Foua (their lack of food, medical supplies, fuel...and the terrorist-fired rockets and mortars on the villages).
As Vanessa Beeley noted:
"In Kafarya and Foua 1700 have died since 2011, 300 since March 2015. In Kafarya and Foua, Red Cross have not been allowed in by the "moderate rebel" brigades, the same brigades occupying #Madaya.""I wrote earlier on Foua and Kafarya:
- Untold Suffering in Foua and Kafarya: Two Northwestern Syrian Villages Under Siege and Assault by NATO's Terrorists, Aug 18, 2015, Counter Punch
- Part 2, Aug 20, 2015, Counter Punch
Likewise, the villages of Nubl and al-Zahara have gotten no coverage in western or gulf media. Fars News noted:
"A look at the besieged regions of Kafria and Foua'a regions in Idlib province as well as al-Zahra and Nubl in Northwest of Aleppo province that are totally ignored by the Arab and western media shows that they aren't concerned about the humanitarian crises or human rights issues at all since these Shiite-populated towns have been besieged for years and photos show that the residents of Foua'a have resorted to eating grass and herbs, but the Saudi-led and western media outlets are mum. The Syrian army has several times tried to airdrop flour bags and bread to them after going through the terrorists' intensive fire. The Arab and western media have not released even one single report on the situation of these regions' residents.
The Saudi-affiliated and western media streams which enjoy abundant financial and technical possibilities compared with the resistance media have been playing with their audience's sentiments and cover reports based on their owners' desires and interests, while the least important issue for them is human rights.
Finally, the situation in Foua'a, Kafria, al-Zahra and Nubl as well as Madaya is for real vital, but the terrorists are the main culprits behind the situation and they are supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey...."
Comment: The lies and propaganda that the West and its allies have put out against Assad are now legion: