BBC Producer Says Hospital Scenes After 2018 Douma ‘Chemical Attack’ Were Staged

BBC, however, is not interested! Nor is any other Mainstream Media

MSM has no interest in the truth unless it fits their agreed-upon narrative

A ‘victim’ of the alleged ‘chemical attack’ has his head washed in Douma hospital © Reuters

A BBC producer believes that scenes from a hospital in Syria’s Douma, which ignited a media frenzy in 2018 after showing children allegedly suffering from chemicals, were staged. But he says Assad did attack the town.

Emotive scenes of Syrian civilians, among them crying, choking, half-naked children, dominated the airwaves in April last year after rebel-affiliated mouthpieces reported yet another “chemical attack by the Assad regime” in the town of Douma. Disturbing reports, including some from the controversial White Helmets, claimed scores of people had been killed and injured.

I, for one, have seen no evidence whatsoever that this is true.

Mainstream media quickly picked up the horrific (but unverified) videos from a Douma hospital, where victims were treated after this “poison attack.” That hospital scene was enough to assemble a UN emergency session and prompt the US-led ‘coalition of the willing’ to rain down dozens of missiles on Damascus and other locations.

But Riam Dalati, a reputable BBC producer who has long reported from the Middle East, took the liberty of trying to sift through the fog of the Syrian war.

He believes Assad forces did attack the town, but that the much-publicized hospital scenes were staged.

After almost 6 months of investigations, I can prove without a doubt that the Douma Hospital scene was staged. No fatalities occurred in the hospital.

Anticipating further queries, he said no one from the White Helmets or opposition sources were present in Douma by the time the alleged attack had happened except for one person who was in Damascus.

Riam Dalati © Screenshot from Twitter

"However, everything else around the attack

was manufactured for maximum effect."

The journalist said Jaysh al-Islam, an Islamist faction (backed by Saudi Arabia) that fought the Syrian army there, “ruled Douma with an iron fist. They co-opted activists, doctors and humanitarians with fear and intimidation.”

Riam Dalati © Screenshot from Twitter

Dalati’s revelations could have become a bombshell news report, but instead it was met with a deafening media silence. His employer preferred to distance itself from his findings. The BBC told Sputnik in a statement that Dalati was expressing “his personal opinions about some of the video footage that emerged after the attack but has not claimed that the attack did not happen.” 

That is a pretty dramatic discrepancy from 'I can prove without a doubt'. Does the BBC have such a low opinion of its producers? Are they not the least interested in rectifying the discrepancy? What passes for journalism these days...

After a while, Dalati restricted access to his Twitter account which is now open only to confirmed followers.

Interestingly, his previous inputs did not sit well with the official narrative either. “Sick and tired of activists and rebels using corpses of dead children to stage emotive scenes for Western consumption. Then they wonder why some serious journos are questioning part of the narrative,” he said in a tweet which he later deleted over “the breach of editorial policy.”

In all, Dalati is not a lone voice in the wilderness. The Intercept has recently run a story that also cast doubt on the mainstream coverage of Douma, although it doesn't doubt that the attack itself happened. While a veteran British reporter Robert Fisk suggested there was no gas attack at all, saying people there were suffering from oxygen starvation. Witnesses of the “chemical attack,” for their part, told international investigators the story was a set-up. 

In April 2018, a German reporter with ZDF also declared that the incident was staged, the whole incident: The scene of the attack, which allegedly took place on April 7, was in fact the “command post” of a local Islamist group, the reporter said, citing the witnesses he was able to speak to at the refugee camp.

He went on to say that, according to the locals, the militants brought canisters containing chlorine to the area and “actually waited for the Syrian Air Force to bomb the place, which was of particular interest for them.” 

There is a huge difference between the views of reporters who actually visited Douma and those who simply got their stories second hand.

OPCW found no evidence of nerve gas, sarin, or any other banned chemicals except for traces of chlorine.

In April, 2017, the US, UK and France unleashed a bombing campaign on Syria. The airstrikes were carried out in response to an alleged gas attack in Douma on April 7, which the West blamed on Bashar Assad’s government. The operation started, one week after the alleged attack in Douma, and hours before a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was due to reach the city.

The three NATO countries did not wait for even the most cursory report from the OPCW before attacking Syria. Truth is the First Casualty in war!

Moscow, which supports Damascus in its fight against terrorists, has long stated the Douma incident was staged, calling for an international OPCW inquiry. Last year, the Defense Ministry presented what it said was proof the “provocation” was to trigger Western airstrikes against Syrian government forces.

This time, the military recalled a similar 2017 incident in Khan Sheikhoun, where an alleged chemical attack took place. The ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday that a closer inspection of footage from that location clearly shows this was a set-up as well.

Of course, Khan Sheikoun was spectacularly successful. Coming just days after Trump announced American troops would be pulling out of Syria, the knee-jerk reaction was to bomb a Syrian air base and planes, and forget the troop draw-down. Assad may be evil, but he is not so stupid as to provoke America at exactly the wrong time.

Now the Foreign Ministry has suggested Dalati is being silenced for voicing inconvenient views, with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asking on Facebook: “A telling story. How about Western advocates of rights and freedoms? Had they accused BBC of censorship and pressuring the journalist?”

British Intelligence Planning Fake Chemical Attack in Syria - US Senator

So, it appears Senator Black got his information from Assad, and therefore has questionable validity.

On the other hand, it makes no sense for Russia or Syria to warn the world in advance if it was they who were going to perpetrate a chemical attack. 

Remember, Douma was a false-flag operation and Ghouta was most likely as well.

U.S. Senator Richard Black walks with Syrian government negotiator Bashar Ja'afari (C), Damascus, Syria April 28, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

Virginia State Senator Richard Black has claimed UK intelligence was planning a chemical attack in Syria, which they would then blame on the Syrian government. Black made the claim after a meeting with President Bashar Assad.

“Around four weeks ago, we knew that British intelligence was working towards a chemical attack in order to blame the Syrian government, to hold Syria responsible,” Black said on the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen news channel.

Black later clarified that he meant the British were not planning to carry out the attack themselves, rather they intended to direct rebel forces to do so or stage a fake attack, with actors playing victims.

Russia, for over a month, has been warning that the surrounded rebels in Idlib province are preparing a false-flag attack to frame Damascus and trigger a US led-coalition intervention.

In turn, US Marine General Joseph Dunford says he's involved in “routine dialogue” with Donald Trump to keep him informed about “military options” for retaliation in case “chemical weapons are used.” In April, the US led a series of strikes against the Syrian government, avowedly in response to the Douma chemical attack which they blamed on Assad.

According to Black, previous alleged chemical attacks on the Syrian rebel-held area were also fakes concocted by the UK alongside the so-called ‘White Helmets,’ a group of first-responders who face numerous accusations of being linked to Syria’s Jihadist opposition.

There is a good probability that the White Helmets involved in the false-flag chemical attacks were actually impostors. On the other hand, they clearly are anti-Assad.

“From what I can tell, they have been planning a fake attack, not a genuine one, but one where they actually move people out of a town and they have trained people to portray victims of a gas attack,” Black told The Washington Post.

“And the plan is to use the White Helmets who have always been involved in these notorious deceptions, to portray an attack.”

Black’s assertion of British plotting, flies in the face of both the Obama and Trump administration’s claims that Assad has used chemical weapons against the Syrian people.

Respective claims from Russia and the US about planned chemical attacks, the latter accusing Assad of planning to use chlorine, come as Syrian forces are preparing to retake Idlib province, the last rebel-held stronghold. Three million people are thought to live in the area, which is controlled by various rebel groups, including Al-Qaeda linked Jabhat Al-Nusra, and remnants of Islamic State cells.

Despite Russia's warnings for more than a month, no Mainstream Media outlet has run the story. Nor are they interested in covering the Douma false-flag operation. MSM is clearly aligned with the war-mongers of the west.

The comments came after Black’s second visit to Syria. Explaining his visit in 2016, Black praised Assad for protecting Syria against Islamic fundamentalists.

As bad as Assad is, he is a thousand times better than IS, al-Nusra, or al-Qaeda. The west doesn't seem to realize this and appears determined to turn Syria into another Libya. 

On his recent visit, Black said of Assad: “There was sort of a spring in his step and a sense of joy and optimism, and looking out to the future and bringing the nation together.”

US Takes Away $230mn of Syria Stabilization Funding

People walk through debris in the ruins of Afrin, Syria © Khalil Ashawi / Reuters

The US has ended funding for stabilization projects in Syria, as President Trump looks to withdraw from the long-running conflict. The move comes as allies step up their contributions.

The US State Department said on Friday that some $230 million in funding for stabilizing Syria have been redirected elsewhere. The funding had been promised by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in February, but had been placed under review and frozen since then.

State Department Press Secretary Heather Nauert said that the withdrawal of funding comes on the back of military successes against the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS), and as America’s coalition allies have increased their contributions.

Following US intervention, and later Russian intervention in 2015, ISIS has lost roughly 98 percent of its territory throughout Syria and Iraq, and is now estimated to control only 400 square miles of desert.

America’s coalition allies in the Syrian conflict contribute $300 million to stabilization efforts. Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday that it would chip in $100 million to support the stabilization of the war torn country. Brett McGurk, an envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, told reporters that this funding “not only offsets what the US Government was going to spend but actually increases the amount.”

As the US takes away its own contribution, Nauert said that “stabilization and early recovery programming is critical to ensure ISIS cannot reemerge and use Syria as a base to threaten the people of the region or plot attacks against the international community.”

‘Final phase’ and ‘strategic goals’

The withdrawal of stabilization money does not mean a reduction of American presence in Syria. On the contrary, McGurk said preparations are under way for a “final phase” of the offensive against ISIS.

Trump has often stated a desire to extricate the US from the Syrian conflict. While he has ordered airstrikes on Syrian government targets, he promised in March that the US would “be coming out of Syria, like very soon,” and that the US would “let other people take care of it.”

Trump campaigned on ending the US’ role as the ‘world’s policeman,’ and had repeatedly warned his predecessor, Barack Obama, against intervention in Syria. He warned that intervention would be costly and had “no upside and tremendous downside.”

But in April, Defense Secretary James Mattis said the US would be deepening its involvement in Syria.

As the Trump administration continues to flirt with the idea of leaving Syria, Nauert told reporters that "This decision does not represent any lessening of US commitment to our strategic goals in Syria," which remain the military defeat of ISIS, and now involve ensuring the withdrawal of Iranian-sponsored, pro-Assad forces.

Nauert also said that Friday’s decision would not affect humanitarian assistance to Syria, or US support for the White Helmets, an ostensibly humanitarian civil-defense group that has been accused of working with extremist groups.

Enter Russia

In the US, the decision to pull stabilization support was met with criticism from some Democrats, who predictably deployed the Russian boogeyman to make their point.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) accused Trump of “rolling out the red carpet for Russia and Iran, who will seize the vacuum of US presence and assistance to double down on their support of the Assad regime.”

Russian forces have been providing military support to the Assad government, and have contributed to the fight against ISIS in Syria. After a bilateral summit in July, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to work together to resolve the Syrian conflict.

Beginning in 2011 when the Assad government quashed protests calling for his removal from power, the Syrian Civil War has grown into a multi-sided conflict that has pitted Assad and his allies against a hydra-headed gaggle of anti-government forces and extremist groups, some of whom are sponsored by the US. The US’ mission in Syria primarily involves carrying out airstrikes against ISIS targets, and providing support to Kurdish and anti-Assad fighters.

Islamic State still active in US controlled areas

Islamic State managed to regain access to Syrian oil fields and make profits from selling oil, a new UN report reveals. While the UN did not point fingers, the IS reemergence seems to occur in areas held by the US-backed forces.

“Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, having been defeated militarily in Iraq and most of the Syrian Arab Republic during 2017, rallied in early 2018. This was the result of a loss of momentum by forces fighting it in the east of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the recent report from the UN Security Council’s Sanctions Monitoring Team reads. The document is dated July 27, but was only released to the public this week.

The slow-down gave IS “breathing space to prepare for the next phase of its evolution into a global covert network.” As of June 2018, the terrorist group has been controlling “small pockets of territory in the Syrian Arab Republic on the Iraqi border,” effectively carrying on with its quasi-state ways.

“[IS] was able to extract and sell some oil, and to mount attacks, including across the border into Iraq,” the reports stated, adding that the terrorist group regained “access to some oil fields in northeastern” Syria.

While the report did not specify which forces exactly were having troubles with “momentum,” northeastern Syria is located on the left bank of the Euphrates river, controlled by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia backed by the US-led coalition.

The softening of resolve to annihilate ISIS is most unfortunate for the thousands of Yazidi women and girls still in the hands of ISIS. Nor will the withdrawal of funds from the stabilization fund do anything for the 350,000 displaced Yazidis in desperate need of help rebuilding Sinjar City, Iraq.

‘We don’t need the West’: Assad to Ban Foreign Money from Syria Reconstruction

"The West is not honest at all, they don’t give, they only take."

Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks to Russian NTV channel © Reuters

Syria will not allow Western investors to step into the rebuilding of war-damaged country as they only come to “take” from foreign economies, Syria’s Bashar Assad told Russian media, adding he will seek friendly aid instead.

Friendly aid would mean Iran and Russia, for the most part, and possibly a small Gulf State or two. They are going to need a ton of money as most of the country is completely destroyed and may regret closing the door, especially if the west tightens the screws on Iran again.

And Assad surely knows that if Iran is spending kazillions of dollars in Syria it is going to want stuff in return. It has already opened schools in Syria and are teaching children Iran's toxic version of Islam.

The US and its Western allies have been actively engaged in the seven-year long war in Syria, including the illegal stationing of troops in the country and backing anti-government militants such as Free Syrian Army (FSA) and “moderate” Islamist groups. The war has dealt billions in damage to the country, but President Assad is determined to rebuild without a single penny from the “dishonest” West. 

“They [the West] won’t be part of reconstruction in Syria, because very simply we won’t allow them to be part of it… we don’t need the West. The West is not honest at all, they don’t give, they only take,” the Syrian leader told Russian NTV channel on Sunday. 

The country was historically built without external help, the Syrian president stressed, adding that any loans would be allowed only from “friends.” On the other hand, European investors, who have been privately contacting the Syrian authorities on the matter, will be banned from Syrian markets. Assad says that Europe has eyes for Syria just to save its own “dire” economies.

“They need this market, they are in a very dire situation economically since 2008, most of the European countries. They need many markets, Syria is one of them, and we are not going to allow them to be part of this market, very simply,” he said.

During the interview, Assad lashed out at Western powers, which he believes are controlled by Washington and only have “the substitute of statesmen” and “fake politics.” He said this approach needed “fake stories,” including the alleged use of chemical weapons, which Assad was repeatedly accused of despite Damascus destroying the stockpile in 2013.

The Syrian leader also said that negotiating with US President Donald Trump would be fruitless as Washington always comes up short on its promises and things only get worse when it’s involved.

“The problem with the American presidents is that they are hostages to their lobbies, to the mainstream media, to the huge corporations, financial, oil, armaments, etc.,” Assad said. He described President Trump as a “very stark example” of American approach in politics – always saying “what you want to hear,” but doing the opposite, get things “worse and worse.”

“So, talking and discussing with the Americans now for no reason, without achieving anything, is just a waste of time,” the Syrian leader said, adding that Damascus is ready for productive dialogue, but it is unlikely to have it with Washington “in the foreseeable future.”

So, it would seem, the door is closed, but not necessarily locked.

At Last an MSM Personality Sees Through the Syrian Gas Attack Rhetoric

Tucker Carlson slams US foreign policy in no-holds-barred monologue on Syria, social media explodes

Finally, a powerful media personality gets on-board with what I have been writing for at least a year.

Be it known that I do not watch Fox News or Tucker Carlson. I haven't spent more than a couple hours watching Fox in my life and I have never seen Carlson. I may have to check him out soon.

© Fox News / YouTube

As US leaders and mainstream media push for the nation to go to war in Syria, Fox News host Tucker Carlson has slammed so-called "geniuses" who claim to know the truth behind the alleged chemical attack.

Speaking on his television show on Monday, Carlson spoke of the alleged attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma. However, he noted that while "genius" politicians, media, intelligence services, and think tanks seem to blame Syrian President Bashar Assad for the attack, they don't actually know what happened on the ground.

"All the geniuses tell us that Assad killed those children, but do they really know that? Of course they don't really know that. They're making it up. They have no real idea what happened," Carlson said.

"Actually both sides in the Syrian civil war possess chemical weapons," he said, noting that it wouldn't have benefited Assad to use chlorine gas, since his forces have been winning the war in Syria.

Still no proof Assad was complicit in Khan Sheikoun

He also discussed last year's sarin gas attack which the majority of US leaders also blamed on Assad. "But of course they were lying," he said, noting that US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis admitted two months ago that there is still no proof that Assad used sarin last year. Carlson called the story "propaganda."

Twitter exploded with support for Carlson following the broadcast, with many praising him for being the only American mainstream media personality to publicly challenge US foreign policy on television.

"Tucker Carlson is without question the greatest American in the mainstream media," tweeted the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, Daniel McAdams. He added that Carlson may have saved "thousands of lives, maybe more" through his comments.

I'm not sure you can call US foreign policy - policy. It seems more like knee-jerk reaction than policy.

Former US diplomat Jim Jatras called Carlson the "bravest man on television."

'Foreign Policy By Viral Video': Tucker Rips 'Geniuses' Claiming to Know Truth About Syrian Gas...

Tucker Carlson blasted those who feel the latest gas attack targeting Syrian civilians is a call to declare war on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

I wrote exactly the same thing yesterday - the US has no moral imperative to respond without significant proof of Assad complicity. 

Writer and consultant Beth Clay said that Carlson is "the only person so far to ask the tough questions and make real observations." Twitter user Jake Nelson expressed a similar sentiment, calling Carlson the "only person on TV with enough balls to call it like it is."

While the majority of tweets were positive and full of praise for Carlson, there were a few critics who didn't approve of his words on Syria and Assad.

Human rights advocate Rachel Andrews tweeted that Carlson's words resulted in "chills" going down her spine. "How are these people allowed to be on air?" she asked, while accusing Carlson of "defending" Assad.

Have you no interest in knowing the truth, Rachel?

Twitter user @USAF Vet accused Carlson of "spinning conspiracy theories on the Syrian gas attack," calling Fox News "trash TV."

Unfortunately, it is the Administration that is spinning the conspiracy theory. Blaming the least likely person for something that hasn't even been proven to have happened. 

That a chemical attack seems to occur every time Trump starts talking about removing US troops from Syria would make Assad the stupidest man on earth. Assad is many things, some of them quite horrible, but he is not stupid. 

This was most likely a false flag operation conducted by one or more of those who would benefit from the US remaining in Syria - rebel groups, Saudi Arabia, NATO, US military, arms merchants, etc., etc.

Both Syria and Russia have called for an on-the-ground investigation, with Moscow proposing to create an independent mechanism into the alleged attack in Douma. Russia is ready to serve as a guarantor of security for experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The Russian military has stated that it found no trace of chemical weapons at the alleged attack site, accusing the rebel-linked White Helmets of distributing "fake news."

And the White Helmets have certainly distributed fake news before. 

Also, I noticed in the videos from Douma that there were men running about through the dust and rubble without so much as pulling their T-shirts over their mouths and noses. Amazing!

UK Taxpayers Hand £200mn to Syrian Opposition & White Helmets, Journalist Tells RT

£200mn worth of propaganda. What the British paid to keep the war going in Syria and ensure many Muslim migrants continue to infiltrate Europe.

White Helmets in Syria © Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters

Almost £200 million of British taxpayers’ money has gone to supporting Syrian opposition groups, independent journalist Vanessa Beeley told RT. One of the groups to benefit from the funds are the White Helmets, which are alleged to have links with terrorists.

Speaking to George Galloway on his RT show Sputnik, Beeley said the funds were released from the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) to support the Syrian opposition. She said part of that money was used by the White Helmets to feed media outlets that are rarely in Syria and offer a false narrative of what is happening there.

“If we look at the narrative produced from Aleppo… it never came from the 1.5 million majority in West Aleppo that was government-held and government-protected, but who lost over 11,000 civilians from mortar fire from East Aleppo - so from the Western-backed terrorists in East Aleppo.

“The narrative came from East Aleppo and it came from affiliates of Nusra Front, which included the White Helmets and from citizen activists that had been produced in Gaziantep [in Turkey], with money coming in from the UK government,” she added.

“[The UK government] actually admitted very recently that almost £200 million [US$260 million] has gone from this public fund into funding the Syrian opposition inside Syria.

“So in other words, all of these journalists, media activists, who were trained in Turkey and then infiltrated back into Syria, to produce the propaganda, and that includes the White Helmets."

The White Helmets have been hailed by the Western media as “peace-bearing heroes” who save lives. A Netflix documentary film praising the group as “unarmed and neutral civilian volunteers” even won an Oscar for best documentary short feature in February.

However, the group has long been plagued by allegations of having ties with terrorist groups. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in April that the White Helmets are involved in covering up terrorist crimes.

“The White Helmets not only feel at home on territories controlled by Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State, but also openly express positive attitudes towards them, providing them with information and even financial assistance,” she said at the time.

Beeley has previously told RT that Aleppo residents, who have lived under terrorist rule for five years, “witnessed the White Helmets working alongside Al-Nusra Front as well as participating in executions and torture and working as an Al-Nusra Front civil defense unit.”

She went on to say that the “White Helmets is a major construct funded by the UK, the US, the EU and the Gulf States that promulgates the propaganda against the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army,” and that this can partly explain the media silence when such scandals emerge.

In June, a member of the White Helmets was caught on camera helping a group of unidentified militants disposing of bodies of beheaded Syrian Army or pro-government soldiers in Daraa province.

In another incident in May, footage emerged showing several members of the group’s rescue team helping to remove a body of a man shot dead by rebels in the town of Jasim, also in Daraa province.

Then there was the fact that several White Helmets videos featured the same girl.

In fact, many of the mainstream media videos of shocking suffering in Syria are fake and many were not even shot in Syria.

‘Lies are Their Agenda’: Canadian Journalist Blasts MSM Syria Coverage at UN Event

‘No One Shot at Evacuees’: Filmmaker Who Witnessed Aleppo Liberation

Another international journalist discredits MSM reporting in Aleppo. Admittedly, this comes from RT with it's built-in bias, but most of the words come from the Bolivian documentary maker herself. You won't see this on western MSM because that would insinuate that they were fooled by the fake news and guilty of very sloppy journalism.

What is Britain Doing, Sending More Troops to Iraq/Syria?

British military specialists arrive in

Middle East to train Syrian rebels

FILE PHOTO: Soldiers from the RECCE and PATROLS Platoon, Fire Support Company of The 1st Battalion The Royal Welch Fusilers (1 RWF) mount heli borne Eagle VCP's (Vehicle Check Points) near the southern Iraqi City of Basra. © The British Defense Ministry / AFP

More specialist UK soldiers have arrived in Iraq to train anti-Islamic State rebel forces to fight in Syria, joining the 500 already deployed to the region.

Their arrival was announced as the UK hosts a conference of defense ministers from countries involved in the coalition fighting Islamic State.

The 20 trainers – who are likely to be special forces soldiers – will teach so-called ‘moderate’ fighters infantry skills, combat first aid and other battlefield tactics.

The existing deployment is thought to be made up of around 500 soldiers from the 4 Rifles infantry regiment, which is based near the Kurdish-held city of Erbil alongside specialist soldiers from the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has previously stated that anyone receiving UK training would be vetted to ensure that no knowledge was passed on to jihadist groups.

The deployment of UK special forces has come under increasing scrutiny, with critics claiming that it has now become the basic form of UK military operations and as such should be brought under democratic oversight.

Thank you Britain for putting me in the position of agreeing with Jeremy Corbyn; I may never forgive you for that; but he is right on this issue. Parliamentary oversight just might be sufficient to help the government see that by supporting rebel fighters you are prolonging this dreadful war, killing more civilians, making their lives miserable, and creating thousands more migrants.

There is no 'moderate' opposition in Syria. There may be some groups of mercenaries who are not as bad as others, but, in the end, if Assad is overthrown, you have no way of controlling who takes power, whether a 'moderate group' or something far worse than Assad. In all probability it will require a coalition of several rebel groups, which means some of the worst elements of militant Islam will be involved.

Most Syrians don't want regime change, certainly to an unknown entity that could very likely impose Sharia upon the country. 

If the west, and Saudi Arabia stopped supporting these rebel mercenaries, the war in Syria would end in weeks and people could start to rebuild their lives. Eventually, some Syrian migrants might even decide to return home. But, of course, that wouldn't sell bombs and missiles.

The UK is one of the few countries which flatly refuses to comment on covert military activities to either the media or to questions by elected lawmakers in parliament.

Calls for a new war powers act have been backed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, among others, who made his case to the Middle East Eye website in August.

“I’m very concerned about this because [former Prime Minister] David Cameron – I imagine [Prime Minister] Theresa May would say the same – would say parliamentary convention requires a parliamentary mandate to deploy British troops. Except, and they’ve all used the ‘except,’ when special forces are involved,” Corbyn said.

His comments were immediately attacked by former soldier-turned-Tory MP Bob Stewart, who told the Times that the PM must have the opportunity to deploy troops “when they think it’s crucial.”

‘Lies are Their Agenda’: Canadian Journalist Blasts MSM Syria Coverage at UN Event

MSM - Main Stream Media has been called to task in the biased reporting of the American election. Here, they are chastised for their pro-western, anti-Assad coverage in Syria, based on lies and little more than 'gossip journalism'. This is a serious charge and it is not the first time it has been made, but this time it is made by a Canadian who has been there for years.

Boys stand amid the damage in the government-held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria December 13, 2016. © Omar Sanadiki / Reuters

Western mainstream media’s coverage of the Syrian war is “compromised” as their local sources are “not credible” and, in the case of Aleppo, not even there, a Canadian journalist said in an emotional speech at the UN.

Syrians support Assad

“I’ve been many times to Homs, to Maaloula, to Latakia and Tartus [in Syria] and again, Aleppo, four times. And people’s support of their government is absolutely true. Whatever you hear in the corporate media is completely opposite,” Eva Bartlett, a Canadian journalist and rights activist, told a press conference arranged by the Syrian mission to the UN.

video 3:45

“And, on that note, what you hear in the corporate media, and I will name them – BBC, Guardian, the New York Times etc. – on Aleppo is also the opposite of reality,” she added. The mainstream media narrative, she argued, is meant to mislead the public about what is really happening in Syria by demonizing President Bashar Assad’s government and altering the facts on Russia’s support for Damascus.

Bartlett’s statements did not seemingly play well with everyone in the room. A reporter from Aftenposten, Norway’s largest print newspaper, challenged her and demanded Bartlett explain what she thought was the “agenda” of Western mainstream media. “Why should we lie, why the international organizations on the ground should lie? How can you justify calling all of us liars?” he said.

Sources not credible

Bartlett, who has been covering Syrian events for several years since the outbreak of the civil war, noted that while there are “certainly honest journalists among the very compromised establishment media,” many respected media agencies simply seem to avoid doing a fact-check.

She then asked her Norwegian colleague to name humanitarian organizations operating in eastern Aleppo. As the Aftenposten reporter stayed silent, Bartlett added that “there are none.”

“These organizations are relying on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [SOHR], which is based in Coventry, UK, which is one man. They're relying on compromised groups like the White Helmets. Let's talk about the White Helmets,” she went on.

White Helmets

Members of the controversial group “purport to be rescuing civilians in eastern Aleppo and Idlib … no one in eastern Aleppo has heard of them.” Meanwhile, she noted, “their video footage actually contains children that have been ‘recycled’ in different reports; so you can find a girl named Aya who turns up in a report in say August, and she turns up in the next month in two different locations.”

White Helmets keep rescuing the same girl

“So they [the White Helmets] are not credible. The SOHR are not credible. 'Unnamed activists' are not credible. Once or twice maybe, but every time? Not credible. So your sources on the ground – you don't have them,” Bartlett concluded.

A journalist from Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera took a more measured tone and asked Bartlett to explain the difference between the Western and Russian media coverage, saying that Russian television channels report on humanitarian efforts and reconciliation instead of overt naming and blaming.

“You ask why we aren't seeing this,” Bartlett said. “This relates to the other gentleman's question about why most of the corporate media are telling lies about Syria. It's because this is the agenda; if they had told the truth about Syria from the beginning, we wouldn't be here now. We wouldn't have seen so many people killed.”

And if people aren't being killed, arms merchants aren't moving their inventory! Isn't it ironic that left-leaning media are totally supporting war mongers!

'Secular' Syrian Rebels Don't Actually Believe in Secular Democracy

Labelled as: SHOCKING ADMISSION, by PJ Media, this article is only shocking to those who believe America is doing the right thing in Syria. For the rest of us, we already knew the 'rebels' are the military of choice for the Saudi's proxy war in Syria. With Salafists in dominant positions, you can be sure that if they manage to topple Assad, he will be replaced by something even more heinous, with America's help.

BY PATRICK POOLE PJ Media

A stunning admission last week by a French academic about the true nature of the so-called "secular" elements of the Syrian rebels exposes the lies behind the official media and foreign policy establishment narratives pushing for regime change in Syria.

As first noticed by Professor Max Abrams of Northeastern University, a study published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and authored by French professor Fabrice Balanche on the status and composition of the Syrian "rebels" admits that the vaunted "secular" rebels are anything but.

Discussing the religious composition of the rebels based on estimates provided by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Balanche says:

The ISW usefully classified the various rebel groups into four ideological categories: transnational Salafi-jihadists (i.e., al-Qaeda-linked fighters), national Salafi-jihadists, political Islamists, and secularists. The difference between national jihadists and political Islamists is more or less akin to the difference between Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood -- in simplified terms, the former seek strict application of Islamic law, while many of the latter tend to favor a state with an Islamic civil constitution but protections for religious freedom. As for the "secularists," the term is used very loosely because most of the fighters in this category are conservative Muslims who do not actually want a secular government.

The fact that Balanche admits that the ISW's estimates of so-called "secularists" are built upon the fiction that they are actually secular exposes the false narrative that ISW has long peddled in support of regime change.

This lie about large numbers of "secular" rebels that the U.S. needed to support is one that  the ISW has been pushing for a while.

Rewind to September 2013, when considerable pressure was being placed upon President Obama to directly involve the U.S. in the Syrian war.

At that time the ISW's resident Syria "expert," Elizabeth O'Bagy, was opining in the Wall Street Journal about her travels to Syria and purported discovery that the Syrian "rebels" really weren't bloodthirsty jihadists, but moderates worthy of U.S. financial and military support -- in particular, heavy weapons. Her claims about the Syrian rebels, particularly the FSA, were cited and praised by Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain.

That view, of course, quickly came crashing down as O'Bagy came under fire for failing to disclose that she was also a paid contractor for a Syrian rebel front. (She had also lied about her academic credentials.) Within two weeks of her op-ed appearing, she was fired from the Institute for the Study of War, though she was hired two weeks later by Senator McCain as a Senate staffer.

Gee, nothing the least bit suspicious about that, eh? Does anyone else think that most of the wars America is involved in are entirely about moving massive inventories of weapons? Or is it just me?

What is Really Going on in Aleppo? It is Tragic and Infuriating!

Western powers, ie USA, Britain, France, Germany, etc., are supporting a rag-tag ensemble of rebels in an attempt to get them all on the same page in order to overthrow Assad. There are 22 different groups fighting in East Aleppo, all of whom are involved in the bombing and murdering of civilians including children in West Aleppo as they try to expand their territory westward. 

These are the people the west wants to win! These are the people the west wants to govern Syria. At the very least they are no better than Assad and because they are so fragmented, each with their own motivations and ambitions, they can never form a stable government and could easily end up a far worse regime than Assad's. They could also end up being a far bigger threat to Israel. 

The main force in this 'coalition' is the Al-Nusra Front which is associated with al Queda. Western powers are supplying them with weapons, finances, and propaganda facilities. According to the two very knowledgeable women interviewed below the apparently heroic 'white helmets' are trained mercenaries and murderers who are well armed and whose real purpose is to help resupply the rebels.

One point made several times is that western media are deliberately propagandizing western efforts overthrow Assad. Such a scheme is really only going to keep the war going ad infinitum until Syria is a complete wasteland, but it is really good for arms merchants to keep the inventory moving. It's hard to understand why left-leaning western media are playing into the hands of the military industrial establishment, but they are.

The narrative written below is a poor excerpt from the video. Please watch and listen especially to the reporter who is also interviewed.

West, Arab States ‘Protecting Terrorists’ Who Will Never Win in Syria – Mother Agnes

 
© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters

The West and the Arab states keep sponsoring and defending militants in Syria, despite the fact that they will never prevail against the government, Christian nun and Syrian peace campaigner Mother Agnes-Mariam told RT.

“It’s a tragedy for the civilians and for any person that’s living in Syria because there’s no security. And the security doesn’t exist because the international community is still financing and protecting the terrorists,” she said. 

The mother superior of the monastery of St James the Mutilated in Syria’s Homs province said that she couldn’t understand why the foreign powers are “gambling with the names” of terror groups.

Al-Qaeda’s offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra “changes its name and it becomes a moderate rebel [group]. And all this is threatening the lives of millions of people,” she stressed.

“Western and Arab powers are helping Jabhat al-Nusra as being the sole rebel power to be strong enough to stand facing the Syrian Arab Army,” Mother Agnes-Mariam said.

However, she said that this support will only add to the suffering of the population, but won’t bring the results desired by the militants’ sponsors.

“I don’t think that the opposition will end up in power because they’re… totally divided among them,” the Melite nun explained.

Mother Agnes-Mariam expressed regret that her humanitarian work in Aleppo has been distorted and even “demonized” by the Western media.

“The main stream media don’t care about what’s really happening on the ground. What they care about is to produce things that are more in harmony with their policies. It’s brainwashing. They can orient the public opinion towards what they would like the people to believe,” she said.

According to the nun, her group provides help to all the side of the conflicts, including the militants and their families.

“The rebels from the Free Syrian Army, they have esteem for what I might give them security, counseling and also humanitarian help,” she said.

“But the mainstream media and those who are standing behind them, they don’t care about any good we’re doing. They always try to translate what we’re doing into politics...  And it’s a real scandal,” Mother Agnes-Mariam added.

ISIS Syrian Capital Raqqa Hit by Uprising, Defections

200 militants are said to have switched sides and are now fighting against ISIS

© Stringer / Reuters

A popular uprising in Islamic State stronghold Raqqa reportedly resulted in dozens of deaths as militias clashed with the terrorist group’s fighters. Some 200 militants are said to have switched sides and are fighting against their former comrades.

Several local sources say the clashes in Raqqa have been escalating for several days and resulted in numerous defections from the ranks of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL, also known as Daesh, an Arabic pejorative term).

"About 200 Syrian militants of Daesh took the side of residents of Raqqa, which forced the terrorists to organize roadblocks at the entrance to the city," one source told Sputnik.

Reports of desertion have been confirmed by Alalam news and Hamrin news.

The black IS flag has been replaced

with the national flags of Syria

After heavy clashes with IS fighters on Sunday, its former members helped the locals secure at least five neighborhoods in the city, where the black IS flag has been replaced with the national flags of Syria.

According to witness reports, Raqqa citizens now control the al-Dareiyeh, al-Ramileh, al-Ferdows, al-Ajili and al-Bakri neighborhoods.

"The split within the organization occurred as a result of internal differences in their ranks, and led to armed clashes and dozens of deaths,” a source told Hamrin news.

Sources on the ground for Alalam news explained that many fighters are trying to escape Islamic State clutches as the Syrian Army and Kurdish fighters have made a number of advances around the city, and against IS positions across the country.

Of course, who wants to be on the losing side when losing means death? These are most likely men who are not radical Islamists or they would gladly be martyred to go to Paradise with their 72 virgins. Or, it could be that they are just smart enough to realize the absurdity of that concept.

"Since October of 2015, the Syrian Army has captured some 50 villages in eastern Aleppo during an offensive which halted the ISIL-imposed siege on Kuweires Airbase," the sources said.

The city of Raqqa is considered to be the Daesh capital and their major stronghold in Syria. It has been under the control of the jihadists since August 2014. Currently the Syrian Army and the Kurdish militias are carrying out offensives to liberate the city from the terrorist group.

"Furthermore, government forces have advanced along the M45-highway (Hama to Raqqa) and reached the Western side of Raqqa province. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have taken firm control of the Northern region of the Raqqa province," the sources added.

So, is this an ad-hoc event or is it the beginnings of a complete collapse of ISIS? It shouldn't take long to find out. Should ISIS collapse and go underground, would Syria turn on the YPG in an effort to re-take all of Syria? Will the Kurds relinquish the territory they have fought so long and hard to win. Will Erdogan go ballistic if the Kurds formed a new state on the border of Turkey? 

While there is some reason for measured optimism from this weekend's happenings, peace is still a long way from occurring, especially in northern Syria.

ISIS Would Be Easy to Defeat if Turkey and Saudi Arabia Did Not Support It – Assad Adviser

Money and resources flowing to Islamic State from regional players make it more difficult to fight terrorism, an adviser to Syria’s president told RT, adding that the political dialogue has also been thwarted by opposition groups backed by foreign states.

“For five years they [Syrian opposition] have not been able to have a dialogue, because each party of this opposition belongs to a different country and is paid by different countries. They are not an opposition that have a political party in Syria and that have grown from the Syrian people. This is the only opposition in the world that are agents of foreign countries against their own country,” Bashar Assad’s political adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, said in an interview with RT.

Direct talks between the opposition and the government will be held “whenever the opposition is able to get together and be at the table,” she said, adding that while the government is ready for dialogue, their opponents have so far failed to even agree on their own delegation.

“We are running the country according to its constitution... We are fighting terrorism as we should, and we are forthcoming in pursuing any political solution,” she said, adding that both in Syria and Iraq the armies have been “trying their very best” to defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

However, the interference of some regional players has hampered the success of the process, Shaaban said.

“If it were not for the support [of militants groups] by regional parties – in particular Turkey and Saudi Arabia, it would not be difficult to defeat ISIL. But the money, the resources, the facilitation comes from these countries to IS,” she told RT. Islamic State “doesn’t live in a vacuum,” she added, saying that the militants have been receiving support not only from countries in the region, but also “political support of the United States and the West.”

“There is no such thing as moderate terrorist or moderate opposition, because anyone who carries arms is not moderate, anyone who is killing people is not moderate, anyone who is destroying institutions in the country is not moderate,” she explained, saying that the use of the word “moderate” in this case “has no relation to reality whatsoever.”

“It’s very dangerous, as so many people are using it almost unconsciously... It’s an abuse of the language,” the Syrian president’s adviser said, adding that some powers “depend on this abuse of the language” in trying to achieve their political goals.

Commenting on the idea of a so-called “Plan B” for Syria made public by the US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said that dividing up the country might be necessary should the ceasefire fail, Assad’s adviser said that “the Syrian people have fought for five years against any partition of Syria.” She expressed hope that the initial ceasefire plan put forward with Russian-American efforts “will succeed to keep the territorial integrity and the unity of Syria.”

The main objective now is to defeat terrorism in the region, Shaaban said, stressing that this “requires first of all, stopping the flow of support” to terror groups.

“It’s only [when] the Russian forces came to Syria that the oil trucks that were going to Turkey were attacked. Only when the Russian planes came to Syria, were we able to control some parts of the border with Turkey,” she said. “And that’s why Turkey started to attack us directly,” she added.

“The Syrian army is working very well and it’s strong, but the Russian airplanes is something that we do not have. They are more advanced, more modern, more capable and more precise in targeting terrorists,” the presidential adviser said. Recognizing that “Russian help in the airspace [which] is extremely important for the Syrian army,” she stressed that the Russian Air Force and the Syrian government only target terrorists, despite the “many false reports that Western media put in order to show that Russia is not doing the right thing in Syria.”

“I get tired of saying how many unfounded news come to us every day from Western media. They fabricate news about Russia, Syria, about what’s happening on the ground – but they have no grain of truth in them,” Bouthaina Shaaban told RT.

Ceasefire Agreement for Syria, Sort of

World powers agree Syria ceasefire, says John Kerry

From BBC Middle East

The aftermath of airstrikes in rebel-held Aleppo  Reuters

The Syrian government has been closing in on

rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo

World powers meeting on Syria have agreed to seek a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" within a week, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

But he said the halt would not apply to the fight with jihadist groups Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front.

So that means that the ceasefire, if arranged, would only apply to the battle between the Assad regime and the Syrian rebels. But it's a start, and it would mean that half the country could find itself in relative peace. Also, the various forces could concentrate on the IS and al-Nusra which could lead to a military settlement within a couple of years. Both results might effect the flow of migrants to Europe and elsewhere.

He also said the powers had agreed to immediately accelerate and expand the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The announcement comes as the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, advances in Aleppo province.

The move threatens to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in rebel-held parts of the major city of Aleppo.

Mr Kerry admitted the ceasefire plan was "ambitious" and said the real test would be whether the parties honoured the commitments.

"What we have here are words on paper, what we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground," he said.

A UN task force will be set up to ensure humanitarian access is granted to all sides, Mr Kerry added.

He made the announcement alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

Mr Lavrov said there were "reasons to hope we have done a great job today".

At the press conference Mr Kerry again suggested that Russian strikes were targeting opposition forces, rather than terrorists as Moscow says.

But both men agreed that peace talks involving the Syrian government and rebels should resume as soon as possible.

That Other War in the Middle East — the Russia-Turkey Standoff

C'mon Mr Putin, you're not playing the gammmmmma

ANALYSIS

Kremlin's constant accusations against Turkey driving a wedge into NATO's anti-ISIS alliance

By Brian Stewart, CBC News

Military attaches and journalists talk after a Russian Defence Ministry briefing in which Moscow said it had proof that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from ISIS-held territory. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

Ever since Turkey shot down that Russian SU-24 bomber last month there has been an extraordinary, unrelenting counterblast from Moscow aimed at shattering the Turkish government's international reputation.

On the surface, Russia's response may look like classic Cold War style-Moscow propaganda, but Vladimir Putin's tell-all tactics are causing serious discomfort among Turkey's NATO allies.

Russia has also imposed economic sanctions on Turkey in retaliation for the downed plane and the death of its co-pilot, including shutting down a proposed gas pipeline that would obviously hurt both countries' economies.

But it is President Putin's media offensive that is receiving far more attention as the Kremlin comes out with one alleged exposé after another, to the point of accusing Turkey's Islamist-rooted leadership of being in collusion with ISIS.

Of course, anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention has known that for years. You're just not supposed to talk about it; it's inconvenient. It casts doubt on the legitimacy of the whole NATO strategy and goals.

Courtesy of Moscow, the international media are being fed stories and satellite photos to back up the claims that ISIS is profiting from running illegal oil shipments across the Syrian-Turkish border.

According to the Kremlin, the porous border is also allowing ISIS to receive backflows of munitions and new fighters.

Brian, you make it sound like there is some doubt. Where do you think they are getting their munitions from? We already know they get their fighters through Turkey; that's the country all the lunatics head straight to to join ISIS.

Western analysts have noted this loose border as well, but Putin goes further, claiming that this transaction is taking place with what Moscow calls the obviously corrupt connivance of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his authoritarian inner circle.

Erdogan strongly denies the charges and has fired back with his own allegations of Russian misdeeds in Syria — he claims the Russians are engaged in "ethnic cleansing" along Syria's Turkish border by bombing villages that have risen up against Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

Ethnic cleansing? Those would be Syrian villages and Russia is trying to save Syria. The accusation makes no sense.

But as often happens with scandal stories, denials get buried under the sheer weight of new accusations, and the conspiracy narrative has become a nightly feature on Russian Television's international news channel.

Cross-border intrigue

As Moscow tells it, Erdogan has several reasons for going easy on ISIS.

One is simply to avoid incurring ISIS terror attacks inside Turkey itself.

Another is that the jihadists are useful to Turkey in taking on its prime enemy, Syria's President Assad — the enemy of my enemy is my friend equation.

Animosity on both sides. Pro-Islamist demonstrators, holding a Syrian opposition flag and a defaced poster of Putin, shout slogans during an anti-Russian protest in Istanbul last month. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)

Moscow has charged that the cross-border smuggling is hugely lucrative for intermediaries and that some of those payoffs flow into the pockets of Erdogan and members of his family.

The kicker allegation from the Kremlin was that the SU-24 was shot down as it very briefly entered Turkish air space as a warning to other Russian planes to stop snooping on and interfering with these contraband routes.

Obviously these allegations, if ever proven, would badly rattle NATO and the anti-ISIS alliance.

Turkey is supposedly a key block in the anti-ISIS coalition, so evidence of such dealings would be a serious blow to unity, to put it mildly.

But while the U.S. and European allies have denounced Russia's charges, the cries of "outrageous" are not as firm as Ankara may have expected.

That's because NATO leaders are in a hyper-awkward position at the moment, precisely because they have their own questions — bordering on doubts — about Erdogan's commitment to fight ISIS.

For years they've been frustrated by the ease with which thousands of ISIS recruits, including Canadians, passed through Turkey on their way to jihad in Syria or Iraq.

It was only late this past summer, after all, that Turkey formally joined the coalition, as it was facing Washington's complaints that it had to "do more" to combat the common enemy.

Since then Turkey has moved 20,000 troops to the border area and is building more security fencing.

Yet there remains a puzzling 98-kilometre gap in the security line that President Barack Obama was still complaining to Erdogan about as recently as this month.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially dismissed the notion of economic retaliation over the downed plane as "emotional" and "unfitting of politicians." He later accused Russia of attempting "ethnic cleansing" with its Syrian bombing. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

One has to wonder why Turkey with a proficient land army of some 400,000 can spare only 20,000 soldiers to clamp down on the obviously critical supply lines for ISIS that have been in operation for years.

And it is not just Russia raising these questions. International media, including the Financial Times, have been running stories tracing just how ISIS refines oil then sells it to freelance traders, some of whom smuggle it into Turkey for resale on the black market.

Similar reports record how ISIS and other armed units smuggle in weapons and fighters across the same border areas.

Sowing suspicion

Military analysts concede Turkey has moved to block some illicit traffic this year, and that along with allied air strikes on refiners and tankers this has reduced ISIS oil sales by almost half.

Still, a substantial $30 million is raised by ISIS every month, according to U.S. estimates.

There are other dark edges to this story. Erdogan's increasingly iron-fisted government has raised the suspicion level by its suppression of Turkish media reporting on the smuggling.

Earlier this year, for example, two editors were jailed and charged with espionage after their expose apparently caught state security officials sending arms to jihadists, hidden within food lorries.

Certainly Putin is scarcely a natural source for lectures on government corruption and media transparency, but he gets international attention by cheekily daring Erdogan to let domestic and foreign media inspect Turkey's ports and border zones believed to be part of the contraband trail.

Turkey's allies, whatever their suspicions, really have little choice but to show Erdogan measured goodwill.

NATO needs Turkey's air bases to strike at ISIS, while the European Union has just set up a $3.5-billion fund to help Turkey's generally praised handling of Syrian refugees.

Wonder if any of that will end up in Erdogan's Swiss bank account?

Vladimir Putin used his annual state of the nation speech to warn Turkey the Kremlin planned to adopt further sanctions against it for shooting down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border. (Dmitry Astakhov/Sputnik/Reuters)

What's more, it is widely assumed Russia's high dudgeon has less to do with the downed bomber than with Moscow's unease over Turkey's growing geo-political ambitions in the Middle East, which conflict with Putin's own high-stakes gamble in backing Syria's Assad.

Putin clearly feels his expose rhetoric works to undercut his foes and the baser the charges the better.

In this case, the timing is particularly awkward given the ongoing diplomatic efforts to get a Syrian ceasefire established.

There's no sign yet however that Putin is ready to let up on this slanging war that has infuriated Turkey and thrown another curve at its Western partners.

One of this country's most experienced journalists and foreign correspondents, Brian Stewart is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. He also sits on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch Canada. In almost four decades of reporting, he has covered many of the world's conflicts and reported from 10 war zones, from El Salvador to Beirut and Afghanistan.