[dropcap]T[/dropcap]urkey and other supporters of the terrorists in Syria arranged for fresh Friday demonstrations by "civilians" in Idleb governorate. These are supposed to show the 'western' public that the population of the al-Qaeda controlled province is still in favor of the anti-Assad "revolution".

Add rampant hypocrisy now to these brutal fanatics. And there are idiots on social media who wittingly or unwittingly help to disseminate this crap in the name of "human rights" and "democracy". Isn't that a laugh?

Source video below

#Syria: anti-#Assad protest in the city of Azaz in northern #Aleppo.
After 7 years Syrians still sing the songs of freedom and heaven pic.twitter.com/kWnVjhAFPT

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) September 14, 2018

Some tweets from yesterday make clear that these demonstrations are a highly choreographed propaganda exercise:

TØM CΛT @TomtheBasedCat - 17:34 utc- 13 Sep 2018Supposedly, an array of European press agencies with security will enter Idlib city tomorrow to cover some demonstrations there.

Idelb is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), an internationally banned al-Qaeda organization. Turkey, which has friendly relations with al-Qaeda in Syria, will have arranged for the security of the foreign media.

Some prominent people also spoke about the event:

Harald Doornbos @HaraldDoornbos - 19:08 utc - 13 Sep 2018Interesting. Son of Al-Qaeda co-founder Abdullah Azzam, Huthaifa Azzam, calls on opposition in Idlib not to raise black/jihadi flags during tomorrow's protest but only revolution flags because there are international journalists on the ground reporting on the protests.

---

For once al-Qaeda does not want its flag to be seen. The demonstrations must only show "peaceful civilians".Sam Heller, now with Crisis Group, caught two voice recordings that were distributed via Telegram. It is not completely clear that these are legit, but they make sense:

Below are translations of two voice recordings purported to be of Tahrir al-Sham emir “Abu Akramah al-Urduni,” via anti-Jabhat al-Nusrah/Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group “JAN Violations.” The voice messages are notable for their apparently acute sensitivity to the optics of Idlib’s protests and those protests’ portrayal in foreign media ..

The first message is an advise similar to the one given by the son of al-Qaeda co-founder Abdullah Azzam: Do not let any HTS/al-Qaeda flags appear in the choreographed demonstrations. It seems that HTS fears that these could be used against it:

“Brothers, a very important issue: We don’t want it to be come out in the Western media that the people opposes us, and that the people brought down our banner and stomped on it. Pay attention: If the banner is raised, there will be people placed just to pull away the banner and stomp on it. And it will appear in the Western media that they stomped on the Hayah’s banner. This is a big issue, brothers. It means that the battle will be against us, in the future. They’ll say that the people is ready now to announce the battle in these protests. Because these protests are what, the people, the public. If the people and the public pull away our banner in front of the media and stomp on it, that means the battle is ready against us now.”

The second message is an order to accompany the demonstrations and to take care that everyone behaves:

“Peace and God’s blessings be upon you, something very important to say: Coordinate with those responsible for these protests and say to them, ‘We’re with you, your brothers, and whatever you need, we’ll walk with you. And for your protection.’ Talking is free, brothers. Why not speak to them kindly. They’ll say, ‘God reward you, we don’t need anything.’ Tell them, ‘Okay, we’ll walk with you. We’re Muslims, too, and we demand the toppling of the regime.’”

The demonstrations, arranged for the media, took place as ordered.

Now the regime change propagandists are out to promote the first videos from these staged events:

Thomas van Linge @ThomasVLinge - 12:41 utc - 14 Sep 2018. Once again protests against the #Assad regime have erupted all over rebel-held #Idlib and northern #Aleppo.
Syrians in the town of #Kafranbel sing "we want freedom!"

The demonstrations are similar to those staged in 2011-2013. Green-white-black French-colonial Syria flags and a few Turkish ones get waved -all new it seems- and a few dozens men and young boys, no women or girls in sight, chant some slogans. No black and white HTS/al-Qaeda flags visible and no weapons are in sight. The video shots are tightly controlled and concentrate on the civilian clothed men and children. Where a wider frame is shown one can see fighters in camouflage at the edge of the crowds.

The intended message of these stunts:

"Do you see us? There are only peaceful civilians in Idelb. No fighters are here. We are not terrorist. We only want freedom!"The message is false.

Idleb governorate is completely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (vid). HTS, foreign Jihadis, as well as 'moderate' Islamists affiliated with Turkey. These are terrorist who prevent civilians from leaving and oppress the population:

In the northern Syrian town of Harem, militants last week erected a gallows in a public square, saying it was for “frogs,” or traitors.
...
[O]pposition fighters linked to al-Qaeda are seeking to head off the kind of negotiated surrender that has sealed the fate of other opposition areas.The gallows, which the militants publicized on their official news website, was “set up to intimidate the traitors that worked on reconciliation agreements to the regime, so that they know that in the end their fate is death,” said an activist in the town, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “The purpose of its construction is to strike fear.”

Al-Qaeda has not vanished from Idleb. It still terrorizes the population. What would have been the punishment for not following the orders for these demonstrations. The gallows? A customary beheading? Or just some whipping of the soles of one's feet?

These videos of demonstrations are propaganda clips directed by Turkish president Erdogan, in co-production with al-Qaeda, to delay the liberation of Idleb.

No one should fall for them.

Posted by b on September 14, 2018 at 11:52 AM | Permalink 

Russia Insider

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]srael has evacuated hundreds of members of the controversial Western-backed White Helmets from Syria to Jordan to be resettled later in the UK, Canada, and Germany, according to statements from Tel Aviv and Amman.

Emmanuel Nahshon, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, had confirmed on Twitter that “Israel has completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization (“the White Helmets”) and [their] families.” He chose not to disclose further details, adding only that the evacuees have been brought “to a neighboring country.”

Amman acceded to give them temporary asylum in the country before they settle in the West.

Earlier, Al-Kayed said that Jordan had granted the request on purely humanitarian grounds after Britain, Canada and Germany each reportedly pledged to take in a share of the White Helmets fleeing what they describe as potential persecution by Damascus. Last month, Jordan, which already hosts some 1.3 million displaced Syrians, said it won't take any more in, stressing the need for a "political solution."

On Sunday morning, the IDF’s Twitter account confirmed that Israeli forces had evacuated “members of a Syrian civil organization and their families” at the request of the US and “additional European countries.” In a number of subsequent tweets, the military said that some “civilians” were rescued from southern Syria “due to an immediate threat to their lives,”and because Israel wanted to make “an exceptional humanitarian gesture.”

The civilians were evacuated from the war zone in Southern Syria due to an immediate threat to their lives. The transfer of the displaced Syrians through Israel is an exceptional humanitarian gesture

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 22, 2018

The civilians were evacuated from the war zone in Southern Syria due to an immediate threat to their lives. The transfer of the displaced Syrians through Israel is an exceptional humanitarian gesture

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 22, 2018

It did not clarify to which organization, if any, the evacuees belonged.

German tabloid Bild reported that hundreds of self-described aid workers operating exclusively in rebel-held areas crossed into Israel from southwestern Syria overnight on Sunday, citing its own correspondents in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Evacuation of white helmets plus families still ongoing here at syrian israeli border. Plan is to drive asap to jordan. @BILD pic.twitter.com/KcBOdduM2t

— Paul Ronzheimer (@ronzheimer) July 22, 2018

The White Helmets' passage has been facilitated by Israel, according to Bild, which reports they have been transferred through an Israeli military base. The evacuation kicked off at 9:30 pm local time on Saturday and was expected to continue into the night. Several roads were put on lockdown by the army and police as part of preparations for the exodus.

Israel previously admitted that it has been providing humanitarian assistance to Syrian militants, treating over 1,000 wounded rebel fighters in its hospitals. According to Israel's ex-Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, the assistance was granted under the condition that the militants would not let Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Qaeda affiliated fighters slip into Israel and would not do any harm to the population of Druze villages.

However, Israel has been adamant about not taking in Syrian refugees, with hawkish Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stating last month that while the Jewish state keeps providing "humanitarian aid to civilians, women and children" camped on the Syrian side of the border, it "will not accept any Syrian refugee to our territory."

It was supposed that the White Helmets will not stay in the Jewish state for longer than is needed to transport them to the Jordanian border.

Once in the Jordanian territory, the Syrians will be confined to a specially designated restricted area where they will stay for a maximum of three months until handed over to one of the Western countries, Al-Kayed noted, adding that the scheme should not place any additional burden on Jordan, as the organization of their passage has been arranged by the UN.

It's yet unclear how the members of the White Helmets, who have on multiple occasions been reported as dealing with Al-Qaeda-linked militants, will be distributed among the potential recipients, with Bild reporting that it is yet unknown how many of them will come Germany's way.

A looming evacuation of the White Helmets from Syria was first reported by CBS News on July 14. The broadcaster reported that the issue was raised by US allies in conversations with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the two-day NATO summit on July 11- July 12.

Select Comments (original thread)
Some of the comments are so good and spot on we could not resist bringing them to you, as well. 

By Alex Lantier, wsws.org

Tsipras: a prime example of today's treacherous non-left left.

Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the referendum on European Union (EU) austerity held by Greece’s Syriza (“Coalition of the Radical Left”) government. Syriza’s trampling on the resounding “no” vote by millions of Greek workers was a strategic experience of the working class, whose international relevance is only increasing as ever broader layers of workers across Europe and the world  come into struggle against capitalist austerity.

Syriza took power in January 2015 after a year of strikes across Greece by public-sector, port and television workers and mass student protests against EU cuts that had slashed living standards by over 30 percent since the 2008 Wall Street crash.

Syriza had promised to scrap the EU austerity Memorandum, renegotiate relations with the EU and improve people’s lives within the framework of the EU and capitalism. Six months later, its perspective had failed. It faced unrelenting EU demands to either make deep new cuts or face a cutoff of credit, plunging Greece into bankruptcy. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on EU austerity for July 5, 2015.

The events that unfolded provided a bitter lesson that the only way forward for the working class is a revolutionary socialist struggle for power. They comprehensively exposed the class gulf separating workers from an entire international layer of bankrupt anti-Marxist parties like Syriza—based on the affluent middle class and theoretically rooted in postmodernism and gender and racial identity politics.

The working class made clear by the referendum that it was ready to fight. It defied wall-to-wall media propaganda for a “yes” vote based on the claim that voting against EU bank bailouts would produce a catastrophe: the bankruptcy of the state and the banks, and Greece’s expulsion from the euro currency. Despite these threats, over 61 percent voted “no” to austerity.

Syriza responded, however, by betraying its own referendum. Tsipras announced that there would be no break with the EU and that he would meet with the other pro-austerity parties, the social democratic PASOK and the right-wing New Democracy. Less than a week later, he signed a bill making €13 billion in cuts to pensions, wages and health care, and privatizing ports and airports across the country.

The working class found itself in a political trap sprung by the pseudo-left Syriza. Having elected a party claiming to be “left,” it faced a government determined to impose right-wing policies of austerity, attacks on democratic rights and support for imperialist wars.

The referendum was based on lies. Tsipras had said he was calling it to obtain a “no” vote and strengthen his bargaining position against the EU. “Our aim is for the referendum to be followed by negotiations for which we will be better armed,” he declared.

In fact, as Tsipras began imposing draconian austerity, Syriza’s supporters internationally admitted that he had called the referendum as a cynical trick.

Tariq Ali, the British Pabloite ally of Spain’s Podemos and France’s New Anti-capitalist Party, wrote: “It’s no longer a secret here that Tsipras and his inner circle were expecting a ‘yes’ or a very narrow ‘no.’... Why did Tsipras hold a referendum at all? ‘He’s so hard and ideological,’ Merkel complained to her advisers. If only. It was a calculated risk. He thought the ‘yes’ camp would win, and planned to resign and let EU stooges run the government.”

Syriza’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who said during the referendum campaign that he would happily step down after a “yes” vote, recounts in his recent book Adults in the Room how fear, horror and anger spread over Syriza on the night of its ostensible referendum victory.

As he walked into the Maximos prime minister’s residence that night, Varoufakis writes, “Maximos felt as cold as a morgue, as joyful as a cemetery.” He met Tsipras, who referred to previous executions of Greek politicians. According to Varoufakis, Tsipras warned “that something like a coup might take place, telling me that the president of the Republic, Stournaras, the intelligence services and members of our government were in a ‘readied state.’”

With this reactionary threat—that if he failed to impose the EU diktat, sections of his own government might join in the first military coup in Greece since the CIA-backed 1967 military uprising that installed the fascistic junta of the colonels—Tsipras then charted a pro-austerity course.

This historic betrayal vindicated the warnings issued by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) even before Syriza took power.

As Tsipras took office, the ICFI wrote, “For working people, a Syriza government would not represent a way out of the crisis; on the contrary, it would represent an enormous danger. Despite its left-wing façade, Syriza is a bourgeois party that rests on affluent layers of the middle class. Its policies are determined by union bureaucrats, academics, professionals and parliamentary functionaries, who seek to defend their privileges by preserving the social order.”

While pseudo-left organizations the world over were hailing the referendum called by Tsipras as confirmation that he and Syriza were going to wage a fight, the World Socialist Web Site warned in a June 27, 2015 statement that it was “a reactionary fraud, designed to lend a veneer of democratic legitimacy to the looting of Greece by the banks at the expense of workers and broad sections of the middle class.”

Not a word needs to be changed. Since then, Syriza has pursued a thoroughly right-wing course, imposing tens of billions of euros in social cuts and selling arms to Saudi Arabia to wage a bloody, US-backed war in Yemen. It not only passed EU laws to prevent workers from taking strike action, but it has run “hotspot” prison camps, in line with the EU’s draconian anti-immigrant policy, in which thousands of refugees fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq are subjected to horrific conditions.

By hailing Syriza, the pseudo-left parties showed that they would only carry out similar policies. And indeed, Syriza’s closest ally, Podemos, is now the main prop of a minority social democratic government that is continuing the austerity policies, military buildup and jailing of Catalan political prisoners of the previous right-wing Spanish government.

In warning the Greek workers about Syriza, the ICFI fought for the building of a revolutionary alternative. The experience of Syriza has underscored that only a return to the traditions of the Bolshevik Party and the October 1917 revolution can provide a viable strategy for the working class. In its statement “ The Political Lessons of Syriza’s Betrayal in Greece ,” the ICFI stressed:

... the working class cannot defend itself by electing new, ‘left’ capitalist governments.

The only way forward is through a genuinely revolutionary policy, mobilizing the working class in Greece and internationally in struggle. It requires a direct assault on the capitalist class, the confiscation of their wealth, the seizure of the major banks and productive forces, in order to place them under the democratic control of working people, and the creation of workers states across Europe and the world. Such struggles require the building of Marxist parties to offer political leadership to the working class, in ruthless struggle against parties like Syriza.

This is the most fundamental lesson of the Syriza experience. However politically criminal the record of Syriza, it serves till this day as a model for a host of pseudo-left organizations in Europe, the US and internationally, who only await the summons of the capitalist ruling class to carry out similar betrayals.

The only way forward lies in building genuinely revolutionary Marxist parties to provide political leadership to the working class in an uncompromising struggle against pseudo-left parties like Syriza. The turn now is to building sections of the ICFI in Greece, across Europe and internationally.

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