January 27, 2012
Voltaire Network

Presidency of Arab League Seeks To Bury Own Experts' Report

[Computer translated from French]

Since the outbreak of the events that have cast a dark shadow over Syria, two interpretations stand in opposition to each other: for the West and their Gulf allies, the regime crushed the popular revolution in blood, while for Syria and its BRICS allies, the country is assailed by armed groups coming from abroad.

To shed light on these events, the Arab League created an Observer Mission composed of persons appointed by each Member State (except Lebanon which declined to participate). This diversity of experts constituted a guarantee against the possible manipulation of the outcome; their number (over 160) and the duration of their mission (one month) would provide a much broader picture than was previously available. To date, no other party can claim to have conducted a survey as comprehensive and meticulous, and therefore can not claim to know better the situation in Syria.

The Ministerial Committee of the Arab League, responsible for monitoring the Arab Plan and composed of five League members out of the 22 (Algeria, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Sudan) ratified the observer mission report by 4 votes against 1 (that of Qatar) and decided to extend the mission by one month.

The problem is that the report confirms the version of the Syrian government and demolished that of the West and the Gulf monarchies. In particular, it demonstrates that there were no lethal crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators and that all the commitments made by Damascus have been scrupulously honored. It also validates the important fact that the country is in the grips of armed groups, who are responsible for the death of hundreds of Syrian civilians and thousands among the military, as well as for hundreds of acts of terrorism and sabotage.

For this reason, Qatar now seeks to prevent the dissemination of the report by any means. Indeed, it is a real bomb that could explode in Qatar's face and against its communication device.

Qatar currently holds the Presidency of the League, not because it was its turn, but because it bought that of the Palestinian Authority which would have been next in line.

The presidency of the League has decided not to circulate the report of the Observer Mission, nor to translate, and not even to post the original in Arabic on its website. [Report now available in English]

The Wahhabi emirate is up against a huge risk. If by chance the Western public were to gain access to the report, it is Qatar and its proxies that could be held accountable in terms of democratic deficiencies and involvement in the killing of people.

ORIGINAL IN FRENCH

Tweet
Follow @wisdomfund

Gen. Wesley Clark, "Memo: Attack Seven Countries in Five Years," Commonwealth Club, October 3, 2007

Joan Juliet Buck, "A Rose in the Desert: Asma Al-Assad, Lady Diana of the Middle East," Vogue, February 25, 2011

M K Bhadrakumar, "Next, Regime Change in Syria," Voltaire Network, August 30, 2011

James Petras, "Washington's Alliance with 'Moderate Islam': Containing Rebellion, Defending Empire," Global Research, December 12, 2011

Sharmine Narwani, "Stratfor Challenges Narratives on Syria," mideastshuffle.com, December 20, 2011

"Report of the Head of the League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria for the period from 24 December 2011 to 18 January 2012," VOA News, January 27, 2012

"Arab League Suspends Observer Mission in Syria," VOA News, January 28, 2012

Boris Dolgov, "What Is Really Going On In Syria: Insider Update," voltairenet.org, January 30, 2012

"New York Times interview with Lizzie Phelan," lizzie-phelan.blogspot.com, January 31, 2012

Lizzie Phelan, Press TV, February 1, 2012

Bob Taylor, "On Syria: more junk journalism," REALnews, February 3, 2012

[When the over 160 monitors, after one month of enquiries, issued their report ... surprise! The report did not follow the official GCC line - which is that the "evil" Bashar al-Assad government is indiscriminately, and unilaterally, killing its own people, and so regime change is in order.--Pepe Escobar, "Exposed: The Arab agenda in Syria," atimes.com, February 4, 2012]

Alexander Higgins, "Syria Activists In Photos: Peaceful Protestors or Armed Terrorists?," alexanderhiggins.com, February 9, 2012

"Russia accuses West of arming Syrian rebels," Reuters, February 10, 2012

["Of the three main sources for all data on numbers of protesters killed and numbers of people attending demonstrations - the pillars of the narrative - all are part of the 'regime change' alliance. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, in particular, is reportedly funded through a Dubai-based fund with pooled (and therefore deniable) Western-Gulf money (Saudi Arabia alone has, according to Elliot Abrams allocated US$130 billion to 'palliate the masses' of the Arab Spring).

What appears to be a nondescript British-based organization, the Observatory has been pivotal in sustaining the narrative of the mass killing of thousands of peaceful protesters using inflated figures, 'facts', and often exaggerated claims of 'massacres' and even recently 'genocide'."--Alexander Cockburn, "Truth and Fiction in the News Business," counterpunch.org, February 10, 2012]

[For eleven months, the Western powers and the Gulf States have led a campaign to destabilize Syria. Several thousand mercenaries infiltrated the country. Recruited by agencies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar within the Sunni extremist community, they came to Syria to overthrow the "Alawite usurper" Bashar al-Assad and impose a Wahhabi-inspired dictatorship. They have at their disposal some of the most sophisticated military equipment, including night vision systems, communication centers, and robots for urban warfare. Supported secretly by the NATO powers, they also have access to vital military information, including satellite images of Syrian troop movements, and telephone interceptions.--Thierry Meyssan, "End of game in the Middle East," voltairenet.org, February 14, 2012]

[The new constitution would enshrine freedom of speech and worship and end the current monopoly on power held by Assad's Baath party, which has ruled for four decades.--Patrick J. McDonnell, "Amid violence, Syria's Assad sets date for vote on new constitution," Seattle Times, February 15, 2012]

[The war in Libya was purportedly to save lives. In fact, the killing intensified on all sides, including from Nato bombs. Estimates of the number dead reach 30,000.--Kevin Ovenden, "Western intervention in Syria will do more harm than good," Guardian, February 16, 2012]

John Pilger, "Let's learn from Blair's crimes, so we don’t repeat them in Syria," newstatesman.com, February 16, 2012

Alexander Cockburn, "Hypocrisy and Syria," counterpunch.org, February 17, 2012

Kim Sengupta, "Syria's sectarian war goes international as foreign fighters and arms pour into country," Independent, February 20, 2012

TheRealNews, Feb 22, 2012

Hannah Allam, "'Friends of Syria' group finds opposition from all sides to its work," mcclatchydc.com, February 24, 2012

"New Syria constitution won 89.4 percent approval: State TV," Reuters, February 27, 2012

Babich Dmitry, "Who profits from Qatari-Western 'Export of Revolutions'?," Voice of Russia, February 27, 2012

Afshin Rattansi, "The Monster in the Mirror," counterpunch.org, February 28, 2012

Martin Chulov, "Qatar crosses the Syrian Rubicon: £63m to buy weapons for the rebels," counterpunch.org, February 28, 2012

[We are not in the business of forcing 'regime change'. Nor do we want to get involved with arming the opposition forces in a country and violating international law and trashing its national sovereignty.--M K Bhadrakumar, "India's rethink on Syria is welcome," rediff.com, March 4, 2012]

Pierre Piccinin, "The Syrian Mirage," counterpunch.org, March 6, 2012

[The omnipresent "Danny" from Syria has been recently exposed in a video showing him relaxed, joking, and preparing off-camera staged- gunfire, before getting into character for a hysterical "casualty report" given to CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Danny" isn't the first fraud caught being used by a duplicitous Western media to sell military intervention in Syria, therewas also "Gay Girl in Damascus" who turned out to be a 40 year-old American man based in the UK.--Tony Cartalucci, "Syria: Game Over for Western Propaganda," activistpost.com, March 6, 2012]

[The outrage expressed by politicians in the West and Gulf State and in the mass media, about the 'killing of peaceful Syrian citizens protesting injustice' is cynically designed to cover up the documented reports of violent seizure of neighborhoods, villages and towns by armed bands, brandishing machine guns and planting road-side bombs.--James Petras, "The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance's War on a Sovereign State," voltairenet.org, March 11, 2012]

[Key staff from Al Jazeera's Beirut Bureau have resigned citing "bias" in the channel's stance on the conflict in Syria.--"Al Jazeera exodus: Channel losing staff over 'bias'," RT News, March 12, 2012]

Peter Beaumont, "Assad calls May elections in Syria: Poll announcement comes as former UN chief Kofi Annan presses for a response over ceasefire and aid proposals," Guardian, March 13, 2012

Afshin Mehrpouya, "Six Ways the Media Has Misreported Syria," voltairenet.org, March 17, 2012

"Syria intervention would spell end to international law - envoy," Russia Today, March 20, 2012

"Syria: UN Security Council agrees statement on Assad regime," Telegraph, March 21, 2012

"Syrian Rebels Caught Embellishing on Tape," thedailybeast.com, March 27, 2012

"Syrian government accepts Annan peace plan," BBC News, March 27, 2012

Anthony Gregory, "Noninterventionism: Cornerstone of a Free Society," fff.org, March 30, 2012

"Leaked emails show US security firm helping Syrian rebels," presstv.com, April 4, 2012

[The House of Saud and Qatar have institutionalized that motley crew known as the Free Syrian Army as a mercenary outfit; they are now on their payroll, to the tune of $100 million (and counting). . . .

Not missing a beat, Washington has set up its own fund as well, for "humanitarian" assistance to Syria and "non-lethal" aid to the "rebels"; "non-lethal" as in ultra battle-ready satellite communications equipment, plus night-vision goggles. Clinton's silky spin was that the equipment would allow the "rebels" to "evade" attacks by the Syrian government. No mention that now they have access to actionable US intelligence via a swarm of drones deployed all over Syria.--Pepe Escobar, "We want war, and we want it now," atimes.com, August 6, 2012]

[Brookings Institution, "Assessing Options for Regime Change," p4: "An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan's leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts."--Tony Cartalucci, "NYT Insults Intelligence in Latest Syrian Op-Ed," landdestroyer.blogspot.com, April 10, 2012]

[The conclusion for this week: We now have three principal power forces actively engaging each other across the region:

a) established conservative regimes that want to keep things as they are in the Gulf and other Arab monarchies (led by the United States and the GCC);

b) established autocratic regimes that want to keep things as they are in places like Syria, Egypt and Iran; and,

c) populist forces with democratic or Islamist tendencies that challenge both of the first two forces and seek to usher in a new period of democratic, accountable governance.--Rami G. Khouri, "The Counter-Revolution Is in Full Swing," middle-east-online.com, April 10, 2012]

"Syria UN-backed ceasefire holding amid tensions," BBC News.com, April 12, 2012

[This follows the twin bomb explosions on Thursday that killed 55 people and injured 372 in Damascus.-- "Terrorism, the last resort against Syrian resistance," voltairenet.org, May 13, 2012]

Karen DeYoung and Liz Sly, "Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors' money, U.S. coordination," washingtonpost.com, May 15, 2012

Stephanie Nebehay and Mariam Karouny, "UN report says both sides in Syria abuse rights," Reuters, May 24, 2012

Hannah Furness, "BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre'," Telegraph, May 27, 2012

[That massacre was indeed appalling, and apparently the work of rogue militias aligned with the regime. But in 1982, Bashar's father rolled his artillery up to the gates of Hama and, to crush an insurrection by the Muslim Brotherhood, fired at will into the city until 20,000 were dead.--Patrick J. Buchanan, "Syria's Insurrection Is Not America's War," antiwar.com, June 5, 2012]

Giorgio Cafiero, "Syria: America versus Israel," atimes.com, June 6, 2012

[But according to a new report in Germany's leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad--John Rosenthal, "Report: Rebels Responsible for Houla Massacre," nationalreview.com, June 9, 2012]

Mehdi Hasan, "Military intervention will only intensify the violence, not reduce it. There is another way," newstatesman.com, June 13, 2012

Sergei Lavrov, "On the Right Side of History," atimes.com, June 16, 2012

Robert Fisk, "Special Report: Need for oil routes buys time, claims key Damascus figure," Independent, June 29, 2012

"Syrian opposition rejects U.N. transition plan," usatoday.com, July 2, 2012