Aleppo – The recent adoption of a Canadian-drafted resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, calling for an ‘end to hostilities in Syria’ coincided with the launch of an already familiar propaganda campaign – unmistakably designed to evoke memories of Srebrenica.
The western PR machine went into overdrive, using both media and government channels to flood the airwaves with news of “hundreds of men and boys” disappearing after crossing into government-controlled areas of Aleppo.
The lack of creativity is perhaps most evident in the terminology used. The mass disappearance or killing of “men and boys” is the exact phrase used to describe those who reportedly perished in Srebrenica in 1995.
Chiming in to dispel any doubts over what may have happened to those who went ‘missing’ in Aleppo, the UN human rights spokesman reminded the world of Damascus’s “terrible record”.
“Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals,” Rupert Colville said.
As such, the western propaganda line – the disappearance of “men and boys” equates to genocide – is increasingly looking to liken the liberation of Aleppo with Srebrenica in the eyes of its target audience.
The campaign is in line with the agenda of western governments, which are constantly exploring ways to discredit Syria’s President Bashar al Assad, as well as his Russian and Iranian allies.
Our memories are long
The British ambassador to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft, delivered a dramatic presentation on December 9, when it became obvious that all efforts to save the terrorists in east Aleppo through ceasefires and ‘safe zones’, had failed.
Presenting no evidence to support his claims, Rycroft told the UN Security Council that, “hundreds of men and boys are disappearing as they flee eastern Aleppo, taken by the regime, their fate unknown.”
And although the previously mentioned findings by the UN human rights agency failed to include the word “boys”, Rupert Colville conjured up the memory of Srebrenica in other ways.
“As pro-government forces have advanced from the north into eastern Aleppo… men were being separated from women and children,” Colville told a news briefing in Geneva, on the same day that Rycroft delivered his monologue in New York.
Highlighting western ambitions to pin war crimes charges on Assad and Putin, Rycroft also issued a stark warning to both Damascus and Moscow.
“When I was Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the guns had been silent there for a decade. But in that time, Slobodan Milosevic, the architect of that conflict, of that genocide, was already behind bars facing justice. Make no mistake, the war in Syria, like the war in Bosnia, will eventually come to an overdue end. Our memories are long and whether in one year or in ten, there will be accountability for those responsible for all those deaths in Aleppo and across Syria,” the British diplomat said.
One can safely assume that Rycroft was not referring to his colleagues in the west and the Persian Gulf, who launched their ‘regime change’ campaign in Syria over five years ago, with all its catastrophic consequences.
The psychological effect
With the stage set, major global networks, including the BBC, quickly sprung into action.
The latest version of a BBC article titled, “Aleppo battle: UN says hundreds of men missing”, ends with a barley noticeable addition at the bottom of the page which reads: “Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly reported that the UN said boys as well as men were missing.”
But the damage had already been done.
From Nepal to Nigeria, from India to Canada, from the Netherlands to Latin America, countless news agencies cited the “previous version” of the BBC article as their source, reporting that both “men and boys” went missing in Aleppo.
The global circulation of this piece of news serves to complete the Srebrenica analogy, accompanied by all its psychological and moral connotations of genocide.
In fact, the campaign’s psychological impact on the international stage was masterfully delivered, making it almost impossible to accuse networks like the BBC of anything more than incompetence.
Amid the allegations of genocide, the media has also produced a wide variety of heart-breaking stories from east Aleppo over the last couple of months.
Some of these journalistic ‘masterpieces’ include an August 5 article by the foreign affairs editor at Scotland’s The Herald, David Pratt, titled “They said ‘never again’… then along came the siege of Aleppo”.
An article published on October 12 by the prestigious American magazine, The Atlantic, falls under the same category. In the piece titled “From Sarajevo to Aleppo: Lessons on Surviving a Siege,” author Janine di Giovanni opens with a dramatic introduction.
“In Bosnia and in Syria, the tactic has been used to destroy bodies-but it’s really an attempt to annihilate the spirit,” Giovanni writes.
Interestingly, both of these articles are loaded with familiar references to Srebrenica, suggesting that “indecision” in the west is obstructing an intervention that would forcefully prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Aleppo.
False flag massacres
One of the less obvious reasons for all the anxiety in the west over the liberation of Aleppo may have something to do with the western agents and ‘advisers’ planted into terrorist ranks. The media campaign tied to the “disappearances” in Aleppo may very well constitute a preemptive strike aimed at averting a fiasco over the capture of western clandestine operatives in the city.
Even more importantly, tying Aleppo to Srebrenica is designed to lay the groundwork and create the necessary emotional atmosphere for the next phase of the operation.
This will likely involve another false flag massacre, executed to mobilize international public opinion and fabricate a viable political and psychological environment for mounting a massive western military intervention in Syria, possibly before Donald Trump moves into the White House in January.
The ambitious objective of such an operation will not be focused solely on rescuing the terrorist groups, but also turning the tide of the war in the west’s favor.
Source: al-Ahed News
