In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, media coverage has seen familiar patterns: uncritically repeat government claims, defend expansive state power, and blame the Muslim community for the acts of a few. We discuss media fearmongering, anti-Muslim scapegoating, ISIL’s roots, and war profiteering with Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of The Intercept. "Every time there’s a terrorist attack, Western leaders exploit that attack to do more wars," Greenwald says. "Which in turn means they transfer huge amounts of taxpayer money to these corporations that sell arms. And so investors are fully aware that the main people who are going to benefit from this escalation as a result of Paris are not the American people or the people of the West —-— and certainly not the people of Syria — it is essentially the military-industrial complex."
19 Nov 2015
While the World Focuses on the Islamic State, Assad Keeps Bombing Doctors and Civilians
The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been bombing hospitals and civilian targets, a situation made worse recently by the arrival of Russian warplanes. Russian airstrikes hit medical facilities at least 10 times during their first month of bombing in Syria, making matters even worse for doctors, nurses, and patients who have already endured repeated bombardment from Syrian government forces, according to a report from the non-profit group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
PHR said the Russian strikes, which began on September 30, included several in the vicinity of Aleppo, where 45 healthcare facilities have been hit in the past three years. According PHR, almost all of the city's doctors — 95 percent — have been killed, detained, or fled the area. The group said it documented 329 attacks on Syrian medical facilities through October, leading to the deaths of 687 medical personnel across the country. It attributed 90 percent of those incidents to the Syrian government. "Each attack, whether the bombing of a hospital or the detention and torture of a doctor for providing health care, is a war crime," said the report's authors.
16 Nov 2015
Assange Reveals That The West is Behind ISIS And Ukraine Crisis And Israel Behind Hamas
Washington might hope that it has Julian Assange cornered, but despite the man’s inability to physically move anywhere, it would seem that it is he who is doing all the cornering. He explained to an Argentinian paper how US intervention in Ukraine had led to civil war, how the West had helped ISIS, and why Israel supported Hamas.
The United States has spent “A lot of time Trying to Bring Ukraine to the West,” the WikiLeaks Founder said in an Interview to Pagina / 12, Argentinian newspaper on Monday. The intervention of Western countries in the Middle East had also led to the creation of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), an Islamist group that is currently gaining a massive following across the wider Middle East and Africa, Assange said. “The IS is A Direct result of the adventurism of the West,” Said Assange.
He says the “adventurism” of Western countries has already destroyed the Libyan and Syrian society and now is “destroying Iraq for oil and other geopolitical reasons.” He said that most people are aware of the fact that arms are being funneled into Syria, and that the same agitators who provide these are also focused on reducing Iran’s influence on Iraq. But “what we don’t know is that in recent years in recent years Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have increased their power and managed to gain certain independence form the US.” As a result, Washington stopped being “the only geopolitical actor “pushing developments in the Middle East, claims Assange.
Assange claims that Israeli authorities had supported the Hamas group at its early stages in order to divide the Palestinian resistance. “Our cables reveal that Israel supported Hamas in its infancy, that Hamas was used as an instrument to divide the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] and the Palestinian resistance,” Assange said.
24 Oct 2015
Uyghur Families Colonize Syrian Village
Uyghurs fighting alongside ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra in Syria. A Syrian village was being transformed into "a settlement for hundreds of Uyghur Turkistani families who are fleeing China,"
9 Oct 2015
‘Which side are you fighting for?’ Russia blasts US for refusing to share intel on ISIS
Washington’s failure to share data with Russian intelligence about terrorist positions in Syria makes one question the goals that Americans have in their anti-ISIS campaign in Syria and Iraq, a senior Russian diplomat has said. The refusal to share intelligence on terrorists “just confirms once more what we knew from the very start, that the US goals in Syria have little to do with creating the conditions for a political process and national reconciliation,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday. “I would risk saying that by doing this the US and the countries that joined the US-led coalition are putting themselves in a politically dubious position. The question is: which side are you fighting for in this war?”
Earlier, the Russian military said they would welcome American intelligence on the forces of terrorist group Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) to help with Russia’s bombing operation in Syria. But the US State Department said it would not be possible because Russia and the US do not share the same goals in Syria.
27 Sept 2015
Why Won't Anyone Stop The War In Syria?
With so many countries involved in the fighting, it's no surprise that Syria's civil war isn't ending any time soon.
21 Sept 2015
The European Refugee Crisis and Syria Explained
Why is the refugee crisis all over the news? How is this related to Syria? Why should we care at all?
12 Sept 2015
Footage the Media Refuses to Broadcast
Why are mainstream media outlets like CNN and BBC only broadcasting footage which shows the migrants in a positive light?
9 Sept 2015
Why Are Gulf States Refusing To Take In Syrian Refugees?
The number of Syrian refugees that are trying to make it to the EU is rising fast. What is more surprising though is where they are not trying to go. They are not headed to the Gulf States because those countries are refusing to let any of them in.
4 Sept 2015
Vladimir Putin confirms Russian military involvement in Syria's civil war
Russia is providing “serious” training and logistical support to the Syrian army, Vladimir Putin has said, in the first public confirmation of the depth of Russia’s involvement in Syria's civil war. Commenting on reports that Russian combat troops have been deployed to Syria, the Russian president said discussion of direct military intervention is “so far premature,” but did not rule out that such a step could be taken in future.
“To say we're ready to do this today - so far it's premature to talk about this. But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency quoted Mr Putin as saying when asked about Russian intervention in Syria during an economic forum in Vladivostok.
"We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism," Mr Putin said. "To this end, we hold consultations with our American partners - I have personally spoken on the issue with US President Obama."
3 Sept 2015
Syrian refugee crisis is 'sickening'
Angelina Jolie slammed the U.N. for failing Syrian refugees during a briefing to the Security Council on Friday. "We cannot look at Syria, and the evil that has arisen from the ashes of indecision, and think this is not the lowest point in the world's inability to protect and defend the innocent," Jolie, a U.N. special envoy for refugees, told the council.
Jolie has travelled to the region 11 times since Syria's civil war began in 2011. Close to 4 million Syrians have fled the country and are living as refugees in the region and abroad. "Nearly 4 million Syrian refugees are victims of a conflict they have no part in, yet they are stigmatized, unwanted, and regarded as a burden," Jolie added.
1 Sept 2015
Where Are the Syrian Refugees?
After the tragic crisis in Syria, more than half of all Syrians have left their homes. Where are they?
25 Aug 2015
21 Aug 2015
Typhoid Outbreak Latest Catastrophe for Palestinians in Besieged Yarmouk Refugee Camp
A typhoid outbreak is just the latest catastrophe to be inflicted on Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria. They've endured a bombing campaign and siege by the government of Bashar al-Assad, and more recently an invasion by Islamic State militants. December 2012 fighting has driven out the vast majority of some 200,000 refugees that had made Yarmouk their home. The UN has been denied access to Yarmouk since late March. More than 90 percent of more than half a million Palestinian refugees in Syria rely on UN assistance for survival.
4 Aug 2015
Raqqa: An Inside Story
A firsthand account of how Islamic State militants took over the city of Raqqa in northern Syria, declaring it their capital.
Part of a larger multimedia story on Mashable.com
2 Jul 2015
Syrian children 'increasingly exploited' for labour
The conflict in Syria is pushing an ever increasing number of children into exploitation in the labour market, a new report revealed.
Children in the country were now contributing to the family income in more than three quarters of surveyed households, according the report released by Save the Children and UNICEF. Thursday's report (PDF) also showed that close to half of all Syrian refugee children in neighbouring Jordan were now the joint or sole family breadwinners in surveyed households.
In Lebanon, children as young as six years old are reportedly working, the report said. "As families become increasingly desperate, children are working primarily for their survival. Whether in Syria or neighbouring countries, they are becoming main economic players," Roger Hearn, regional Director for Save the Children in the Middle East and Eurasia, said.
Full story at Al Jazeera English
2 Dec 2014
1.7m Syrian refugees face food crisis as UN funds dry up
More than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt are facing a disastrous and hungry winter after a funding crisis forced the UN’s World Food Programme to suspend food vouchers to hundreds of thousands forced into exile by the conflict. Since the war began in March 2011, the WFP has brought food to millions of Syrians inside the country, and has used the voucher programme – which allows refugees to buy food in local shops – to inject about $800m (£500m) into the economies of those countries hosting them.
But after finding itself unable to secure the $64m it needs to support Syrian refugees in December, the WFP announced on Monday that it was halting the scheme. Severe funding shortfalls have already led the UN body to reduce rations within Syria, where it is trying to help 4.25 million people. Its executive director, Ertharin Cousin, issued a blunt and urgent appeal to donors, asking them to honour their commitments and warning that the suspension would have a devastating effect on the lives of more than 1.7 million people.
31 Oct 2014
UN: Foreign Fighters Joining Terror Groups On 'Unprecedented Scale'
A new United Nations report says the world faces a challenge of foreign fighters in terror groups on an "unprecedented scale," with about 15,000 in Syria and Iraq alone. The report by a panel of experts monitoring al-Qaida and the Taliban, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, has been submitted to the U.N. Security Council.
"Numbers since 2010 are now many times the size of the cumulative numbers of foreign terrorist fighters between 1990 and 2010 - and are growing," the report says. The panel was set up to support the council's al-Qaida sanctions committee. The panel says fighters from more than 80 countries working with al-Qaida associates in Syria and Iraq "form the core of a new diaspora that may seed the threat for years to come," and that domestic terrorism could rise as fighters return to their home countries.
The diversity of countries means wider sharing of skills and training on the ground in Syria and Iraq, the report warns. "There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together," it says.
Must see documentary:
25 Sept 2014
Syrian Woman Secretly Films Life in Raqqa under ISIL
A Syrian woman agreed to carry a hidden camera to film how life is like inside Syria's northern city of Raqqa, which has been under the control of the Islamic State (aka ISIL or ISIS). The report was aired on France 2. It shows some French women who decided to move indefinitely to Syria while abandoning their previous lives in France.