© Reuters/Toby Melville
MI6 building in London • August 25, 2010
Millions were spent clandestinely setting up and paying a network of 'journalists' to pump out
anti-Assad, pro-opposition content as directed by a shadowy firm run by the UK foreign intelligence service's counter-terrorism ex-head.
In July 2019, an arresting
image of two young Syrian girls entombed in rubble in opposition-occupied Idlib attempting to haul their sister to safety as she dangled off the precipice of a bombed out building, their panic-stricken father looking on from above, went viral the world over.
The photo, disseminated by Syrian news service SY24, subsequently featured in countless Western media outlets, and was even discussed during a United Nations Security Council session. What very few knew however, was
SY24 was created and funded by The Global Strategy Network, founded by Richard Barrett, a former MI6 Director of Global Counter Terrorism Operations. The photo had been
taken by one of the firm's trained "stringers" across Syria, who were charged with
creating "wildly impactful" and "engaging" content for "defined target audiences" both inside and outside the country.
© SY24
The faked image of a father trying to rescue children trapped under rubble in rural Idlib.
Comment: If the intent was to cause chaos, then the US & its allies have succeeded, if it was to bring peace to the region - and ostensibly that's what they were doing - then they have failed, wasting 20 years, costing taxpayers billions, shedding untold amounts of blood and traumatizing a generation of soldiers and Afghans in the process: The US' haphazard withdrawal from Bagram Air Base shows it never had any clear plan in Afghanistan