McCarthyism
2.0 – part 2
The
U.S. government is creating a new $160 million bureaucracy to shut
down information that doesn’t conform to U.S. propaganda
narratives, building on the strategy that sold the bloody Syrian
“regime change” war.
by
Rick Sterling
Propaganda
and Disinformation on Syria
Syria is a good case study in the
modern application of information warfare. In her memoir Hard
Choices, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that the
U.S. provided “support for (Syrian) civilian opposition groups,
including satellite-linked computers, telephones, cameras, and
training for more than a thousand activists, students and independent
journalists.”
Indeed, a huge amount of money has
gone to “activists” and “civil society” groups in Syria and
other countries that have been targeted for “regime change.” A
lot of the money also goes to parent organizations that are based in
the United States and Europe, so these efforts do not only support
on-the-ground efforts to undermine the targeted countries, but
perhaps even more importantly, the money influences and manipulates
public opinion in the West.
In North America, representatives
from the Syrian “Local Coordination Committees” (LCC) were
frequent guests on popular media programs such as “DemocracyNow.”
The message was clear: there is a “revolution” in Syria against a
“brutal regime” personified in Bashar al-Assad. It was not
mentioned that the “Local Coordination Committees” have been
primarily funded by the West, specifically the Office for Syrian
Opposition Support, which was founded by the U.S. State Department
and the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
More recently, news and analysis
about Syria has been conveyed through the filter of the White
Helmets, also known as Syrian Civil Defense. In the Western news
media, the White Helmets are described as neutral, non-partisan,
civilian volunteers courageously carrying out rescue work in the war
zone. In fact, the group is none of the above. It was initiated by
the U.S. and U.K. using a British military contractor and
Brooklyn-based marketing company.
While they may have performed some
genuine rescue operations, the White Helmets are primarily a media
organization with a political goal: to promote NATO intervention in
Syria. (The manipulation of public opinion using the White Helmets
and promoted by the New York Times and Avaaz petition for a “No Fly
Zone” in Syria is documented here:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/04/seven-steps-of-highly-effective-manipulators/)
The White Helmets hoax continues
to be widely believed and receives uncritical promotion though it has
increasingly been exposed at alternative media outlets as the
creation of a “shady PR firm.” During critical times in the
conflict in Aleppo, White Helmet individuals have been used as the
source for important news stories despite a track record of
deception.
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