Vanessa Beeley

1. Apology for radio silence for a few days

Syria, Quneitra on borders with Israeli annexed Golan territories.

I just wanted to explain that I have had kidney issues that mean I have been a little under the weather. Good Syrian doctors and hospitals taking good care of me and I should be back up and running in a few days.

2. Gaza destruction is about stopping BRICS at all costs as per RFK2

My report yesterday on UK Column News covers the US protection of a global resource monopoly which includes the destruction and ethnic cleansing of Palestine to secure Israeli control of offshore and West Bank gas fields. I will be writing an article this weekend which will give more detail.

Video:

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3. Palestinian Christians, a history of oppression and displacement - The Stones Cry Out

Quinn Coffey - A final, and particularly striking comment was made by Rev. Ateek's in his 2010 address to the Christ at the Checkpoint conference, 'Jesus was a Palestinian who was born under occupation. Jesus lived under occupation. Everything he taught, everything he said was done under occupation, exactly the way we live today.'

I am going to be writing about the Christian Palestinian oppression by Zionist Christians in Palestine over the next few days but I wanted to share this movie about the fate of Palestinian Christians from 1947 onwards:

The Stones Cry Out Movie

Website here.

Christianity was born in Palestine two thousand years ago. From there it spread throughout the Middle East and to the rest of the world. Yet many are unaware Christians still live in the land.

For more than 60 years the Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, have suffered displacement, expulsion, wars, occupation and oppression.

The voices of Palestinian Christians have all too often been drowned out in the turmoil of events.

This is their story, in their voices, from the Nakba of 1948 until today.

About the film

In 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinian villagers were driven from their homes in what was officially dubbed "Operation Broom", intended to literally sweep tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the fertile hills and valleys of the Galilee, and make way for settlers in the newly created state of Israel.

Elias Chacour, now the Archbishop of the Galilee, was just a little boy when Israeli troops ordered his family out of the Christian village of Kifr Bir'am. He left the village with a blanket on his shoulder, walking to his new home, a cave.

Today Kifr Bir'am is an Israeli national park, the houses of the village are crumbling, the church is abandoned.

After the Galilee came the expropriation of the West Bank in 1967, the settlements, the wall. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, is now hemmed in by the wall, cut off from Jerusalem, and robbed of much of its agricultural land.

All too often media coverage of the conflict in Palestine has framed it as a fight between Muslims and Jews, largely ignoring the fact that Palestine was the birthplace of Christianity, that Palestinians are both Muslims and Christians, and that Palestinian Christians have played a critical role in their land's history and the struggle to maintain its identity.

From 1948 up to today, through wars and uprisings, leading Palestinian Christians, including the late President of Beir Zeit University Gabi Baramki, Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi, civil society activist Ghassan Andoni, Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah and others recount the unwavering and sometimes desperate struggle of all Palestinians to resist Israel's occupation and stay on their land.

Watch:

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4. Genocidal, racist rant from US State Department crank Stuart Seldowitz

Mass graves in Gaza during 4 day ceasefire.

My three reports for UK Column News on the 24th November.

1. Genocidal, racist bigotry from US State Department crank - Stuart Seldowitz:

2. Gaza ceasefire and Israel targeting journalists:

3. Mutiny at the BBC over genocide-complicit BBC reporting on Gaza and West Bank:

Thank you for watching.

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5. Syria is playing the long game - developing strategy for the potential of all-out war.

Map showing the recent events on military front in Syria since October 7th Al Aqsa Flood operation.

"While red lines in politics are mostly colorless to provide more room for maneuver, red lines in the field are drawn with iron and fire and colored with blood, making these lines unbreakable."

Ibrahim Wahdi - SAA soldier and journalist

 October 7th has sent shock waves throughout the world. The invincible Israel with, allegedly, the most powerful military and intelligence capability was proven to be a paper tiger by a weaker and less well equipped Palestinian Resistance coalition. 

The effect has been dramatic on regional Resistance factions - triggering a regional wide engagement with Israel or with the illegal US military bases in Syria and Iraq. As a result, there has been an unprecedented military escalation in the region that has largely gone unreported with all eyes on Gaza and the ongoing Zionist ethnic cleansing in both Gaza and West Bank. 

Israel is in disarray with internal divisions threatening the Netanyahu extremist coalition government. Netanyahu is unable to acknowledge the military and intelligence failings despite pressure to do so, even from within his own military. 

Instead Israel has resorted to the familiar sadistic war against women, children and innocent civilians for almost two months. The ongoing brutal massacre on an hourly basis, the targeting of hospitals, UNRWA refugee centers and schools, humanitarian convoys, ambulances, paramedics, civil defence headquarters are a litany of war crimes. 

Of course any admission by Netanyahu would signal the end of his political career and bring him to trial for corruption. Despite the knowledge that his military would suffer horrendous losses in a ground operation in the sprawling urban landscape of the Gaza enclave, Netanyahu gave the green light to invade. He relied on the daily horrific civilian death toll to break the Resistance resolve.

The message was "to resist is futile" but just as the entire globalist axis led by the US and UK failed to factor in the determination of the Syrian people to prevent regime change in Syria - the world has underestimated the strength of the Palestinian Resistance against decades of apartheid, oppression and trickle expansionist ethnic cleansing by the Zionist entity. 

Hezbollah in northern Palestine has skillfully and tactically occupied the Zionist forces in the north preventing their involvement in the Gaza operations and ongoing stealth ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. 

 Yemen has directly engaged by targeting sites in southern occupied Palestine. Iraqi Resistance factions have increased their attacks against US illegal military bases in Iraq and Syria resulting in the death of at least forty US military personnel. Most recently Yemeni forces have seized an Israeli owned vessel in the Red Sea holding the crew hostage. 

Palestinian factions inside Syria have launched several missile attacks on Israeli occupation sites in the illegally annexed Golan territories and even attacked Eilat from Syrian territory. 

In response, the US and Israel have mobilised their ISIS agents in Syria to attack Syrian Arab Army positions in the central desert areas. 

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), an Al Qaeda offshoot, have escalated attacks on the northern Lattakia countryside axis and intensified drone attacks in Western Aleppo, northern Lattakia and northern Hama. 

Israel aggression particularly south of Damascus has increased with the latest attack on the Sayeda Zainab district of south-east Damascus yesterday afternoon (22/11). Aleppo and Damascus civilian airports are still closed, not because of the previous damage from Israeli aggression, due to the high risk of Israeli bombardment.

The US has directly engaged with the Syrian Arab Army in Deir Ezzor in north-east Syria. Syria has responded by directly engaging with the US occupation forces, targeting US military bases and shooting down US drones. Syria has expanded the operational area in Syria for all Resistance factions to enable the targeting of Israel from multiple and mobile fronts. 

In this article the focus will be on the military situation in Syria. Syria has endured a 12 year Western-orchestrated regime change war that has decimated Syrian infrastructure, depleted the military capability, imposed unprecedented sanctions unilaterally on the Syrian people. The US occupies oil and agricultural resources in the north-east, their assets occupy the agricultural resources in the north-west. Their Kurdish proxies and Al Qaeda assets benefit from the trade of Syrian resources under the protection of US political and military endorsement and collaboration.

Syria's refusal to abandon Palestine and willingness to expand the ability of Resistance factions to target Israeli facilities and installations has triggered serious recriminations from the US/Israeli axis. 

ISIS aggression on behalf of Israel and US

On the 8th of November ISIS groups attacked Syrian Arab Army positions in the vicinity of the Homs, Hama and Raqqa triangle. The attack led to the deaths of 21 SAA soldiers and several injured. Military reinforcements were dispatched to comb the area and to eliminate the ISIS fighters.

Since the double earthquake tragedy that struck Syria and Turkey on the 6th February there have been a number of ISIS attacks on Syrian military and civilians. This attack of the 8th November and the one that preceded it are the most intense. 

On 18th October, ISIS launched a wide-scale assault on the SAA and allies in the Al Sukhnah area of the eastern Homs desert. ISIS took control of SAA positions along the main road and the Dubayyat gas field. This from a Carnegie Middle East Center report in 2015 when ISIS was gaining ground in Syria (before Russian intervention in September 2015): 

Faced with dense regime defenses around Shaer, the Islamic State shifted its focus to Palmyra, which has been the site of the most development in Syria's gas sector since the mid-1990s. Fields in the area were expected to eventually produce 9 million cubic meters of crude gas per day. These included the Arak, Dubayat, Hail, Hayan, Jihar, al-Mahr, Najib, Sukhneh, and Abi Rabah fields, which according to a former industry insider have collectively been producing half of Syria's output of natural raw and liquid petroleum gas. Palmyra is also the transit point for pipelines carrying gas from important fields in Hasakah and Deir Ezzor provinces in northeastern and eastern Syria respectively.

The US appears to be recycling their strategy of pre-Russian intervention to control the 'hub between the extraction or transfer of virtually all of Syrian gas production and the processing and power plants further west that supply electricity and gas for domestic and industrial use' to the most populated areas of Syria that are under the control of the Syrian government and military.

The SAA was forced to withdraw and to await reinforcements from the 18th Division and allied forces. 

The ISIS terrorists were counter-attacked and the Syrian positions were recaptured in the southern outskirts of Al Sukhna. ISIS forces were routed with a high casualty rate. 

Units of the SAA pursued the remnants of ISIS terrorists targeting them heavily with artillery to force their retreat to the 55 km exclusion zone established by the US occupation forces around the US allied Al Tanf military base on the borders of Iraq and Jordan. 

ISIS terrorists were also besieged in small pockets around Al Dubayyat gas field. Russian and Syrian warplanes concurrently bombed ISIS groups emanating from the area of Al Tanf that were trying to reach Al Dubbayat to break the SAA siege on their militants.

On November 16th, Deputy Head of the Russian Reconciliation Center, Vadim Collet, gave a statement that:

"Armed groups trained at Al-Tanf base are planning to carry out sabotage acts in southern Syria against Syrian forces on main roads and fuel and energy facilities" adding that "the leadership of both Russian and Syrian forces will take preemptive measures to prevent armed provocations"

On the 13th November, at night, the SAA again repelled an ISIS attack on Point 10 in the Ja'ideen area in the eastern desert of Raqqa, on the administrative border with Homs province.

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The joint Russian-Syrian warplanes targeted ISIS terrorists, forcing them to withdraw again to the open desert within the US controlled Al Tanf 55 km exclusion zone.

The Syrian Arab Army secured the area between the Al-Rasafa Castle and Al-Zamla village less than an hour after the failed infiltration operation, which demonstrates a significant improvement in the Syrian Arab Army's ability to respond and deal with these attacks.

Later on November 14, an ISIS cell attacked a Russian patrol with an RPG on Al-Shaer gas field road in the desert. Three Russian soldiers were injured in the attack.

The level of attacks being carried out by the ISIS terrorists is indicative of both their presence in the areas occupied by US allied forces and of the control that the US alliance has over this terrorist faction operating in Syria and Iraq.

The ISIS attacks must be seen in conjunction with the US and Israeli direct attacks on SAA and allied military positions.

Israeli aggression against Syria since October 7th

After five Israeli attacks in October, four of which targeted civilian airports in Damascus and Aleppo, putting them out of service, Israel has attacked more than three times in November.

 On November 8th at 22.50 Israel launched an attack on the positions of allied forces in the farmland extending from Sayeda Zainab and Aqraba, south-west of Damascus. They also targeted radar systems and air defence positions in Tal Qalib and Tal Al Massih in the Sweida district, southern Syria - scene of the most recent separatist protests backed and instigated by the US and Israel. Three civilians were injured in the Sweida attack. 

In the early dawn hours of November 10th, Israel bombed two positions of the Syrian allies in the vicinity of Shanshar, south-west of Homs. This led to the deaths of seven Hezbollah soldiers and significant material damage.  

Hezbollah fighters killed by Israeli aggression on November 10th

Israel justified this aggression as a response to an attack on Eilat in southern occupied Palestine two days prior. The attack utilised a Shahed 101 suicide drone with a 600 km range. The drone was launched from central Syria, crossed Jordanian airspace undetected to Eilat where it hit and caused damage. 

However Israel is not able to identify who launched the drone. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah referred to the loss of Hezbollah fighters in Syria based on Israeli false claims. If indeed Hezbollah had launched the drone they would have claimed responsibility. Therefore this attack indicates the entry of new players in the Resistance axis. 

The following day, a faction calling themselves SWAT Jazeera Al Arabiya (Arabian Island) claimed responsibility for the Eilat attack. The faction is still mysterious but appears to be an ideological 'jihadist' group following the Islamic Resistance Iraq operational blueprint. While the SWAT zone of operation remains secret their arrival on the scene will send the message to the US and Israel that they will face more enemies the longer the genocidal campaign against Palestinians continues.  

Again on November 18, at 2:25 am, Israeli warplanes bombed two Hezbollah positions in the Bahdalia area close to Sayyida Zeinab city, southeast of Damascus, causing material losses.

Perhaps more importantly than standard Israeli aggression against Syria - on the 18th October unidentified gunmen assassinated Lieutenant Colonel Qais Ismail and First Assistant Muhammad Hussein of the 112th Brigade, 5th Armoured Division. The attack was carried out to west of Daraa, south of Damascus.

On October 24th Israel had dropped leaflets by drone on the ceasefire line threatening the 112th Brigade and their commander - effectively threatening officers of the SAA in the Daraa district. Was the 18th October assassination a precursor to further attacks by Israeli proxies on the ground south of Damascus?

The two 112th Brigade officers gunned down and the leaflet dropped by Israeli drones.

Yesterday, the 22nd November at 15.10, Israel again targeted the southern districts of Damascus including Sayeda Zainab (an important Iranian/Shia muslim pilgrimage site). I was actually in the area when this attack took place close to Sayeda Zainab. At this time of the afternoon the area is heaving with civilians and children who are leaving school. Video:

Attacks on illegal US occupation bases in Syria and Iraq

The following is an indication only of the number of attacks, the bases and US personnel casualties (it will need updating as attacks are almost daily):

US illegal bases in Syria and Iraq have been targeted daily by the Resistance factions since the start of the Al Aqsa Flood operation. The US air defences have been unable to successfully counter drone and missile attacks. There are have been an estimated 50-60 attacks on US occupation forces between October 17th and November 22nd. This has resulted in 59 casualties, according to a press briefing by Dep. Pentagon Press Sec. Sabrina Singh:

"The Pentagon is seeing an increase in attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, with a total of 55 attacks injuring dozens of service members since October 17, an official said Tuesday. The attacks, 27 in Iraq and 28 in Syria, have resulted in 59 service members being injured", then corrected it, "Sorry, I can give you that rundown. So as of today, there have been approximately 58 attacks. So that's 27 in Iraq and 31 attacks in Syria."

The US has routinely responded with airstrikes targeting SAA and allied sites in eastern Deir Ezzor countryside. The recent US aggression has adopted a different strategy.

In the early hours of 9th November, US warplanes fired four rockets targeting a bakery and aid distribution warehouse belonging to the SAA allied forces on the outskirts of Deir Ezzor city.

The attack developed into intense and direct clashes for over two hours between the US occupation forces with its Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, and the Syrian Arab Army with its allies on the western bank near the towns of Abu Hardoub, Al-Quriyah, and Al-Miyadin.

Various types of medium and heavy weapons, as well as rockets, were used during the clashes. Additionally, eight Fajr-1 rockets were fired, targeting the Green Village inside the US occupation base in the Al-Omar oil field.

Three US armored Humvees were destroyed, and a number of US soldiers and SDF fighters were injured. However, shooting down a US counter-drone Coyote Block 2 UAV by Syrian air defenses in Al-Mayadeen vicinity two days later was an extraordinary development.

On November 13th, again early morning, US warplanes carried out six airstrikes on the Sayyal area in Al Bukamal (on border with Iraq) and sites near a bridge in Al Mayadin City, east of Deir Ezzor. One death and one injury from these attacks.

This time the US targeted empty buildings and a PMU (Iraqi Popular resistance faction) missile launch site. The Resistance immediately responded and targeted US bases occupying the Al Omar oil field and the Conoco gas field, Shaddadi, Khrab Al Jir and other US occupation locations.

The Conoco attack was notable. Remnants of the missiles found near the Conoco base indicate the use of 220 mm Caliber missiles launched from an Uragan launcher. A Syrian Arab Army artillery and rocket system. Field sources reported that 15 rockets targeted the US base killing 6 US soldiers in the command headquarters.

The US Central Command statement indicates a weakness in the US military occupation of Syria. For the second time, following an unprecedented series of attacks on their bases the US retaliation has been muted and largely ineffectual.

"in response to continued provocations by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their affiliated groups in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command (USCENTOM) conducted air strikes against facilities near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin"

This would suggest that Washington is reticent to escalate in the region where all US forces are sitting ducks. The default position is to trigger proxy forces including ISIS.

The increasing number of attacks on US bases in Syria alone are an indication that the West Asia region has had enough of US illegal warfare and occupation.

Despite having air superiority in the region the US knows that open war would be a military quagmire and would end in defeat. The success of the Resistance in targeting US bases and bypassing US air defence has sent a strong message to the US - that the Resistance capability is a force to be reckoned with.

These groups excel in maneuvering, concealment, rapid and accurate targeting, and have the ability to significantly alter the course of events. They pose huge risk to US forces illegally on the ground in Syria.

The balance of power between US forces, direct and proxy, has shifted and the SAA is taking the fight to the US with a vengeance. A two hour direct engagement between SAA and US forces, the shooting down of a US drone, the targeting of the Conoco base all suggest that the SAA is contemplating military escalation in coordination with Iraqi Resistance and other allies. The US military hegemony in Syria is at a tipping point.

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In north-west Syria - Al Qaeda supports Israel against Palestine

Al-Qaeda's Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) failed to achieve any military victory on any front in northwest Syria following several failed attacks on Syrian Arab Army positions.

Since the beginning of October, HTS has been increasing drone attacks to compensate for military failures on the ground. The most devastating drone attack was on the 5th October (2 days before Al Aqsa Flood) when they targeted the Homs Military Academy, during a graduation ceremony packed with celebrating families. More than 89 people, mostly civilians were killed and 227 injured, many critically.

Deputy Head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, Vadim Collet, said that:

"the raids resulted in the destruction of shelters and training camps belonging to the Al-Nusra Front group." adding that "34 militants were killed and more than 60 others were injured."

The SAA and Russian air forces responded decisively. Russian and Syrian warplanes combined with artillery and missile launchers have carried out multiple attacks against terrorist positions since October 5th. Dozens of terrorist headquarters, ammunition stores, drone manufacturing facilities have been destroyed in Idlib province (north-west Syria).

Multiple terrorists from HTS, Omar Ibn Al Khattab Brigade, Ansar Al Tawhid, Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and other Al Qaeda derivatives have been killed or injured in the attacks.

The strikes targeted terrorist controlled villages and towns such as Kefraya, Bara, Bilon, Ayn Larouz, Bazabour, Jisr Al Shughour, Afes and others on the axis of the northern Lattakia countryside, Western Aleppo countryside and the axes of Al Ghab plain in northern Hama, and Idlib itself.

Video:

Syrian Arab Army initiated a new phase of military operations over a month ago. These operations have been escalating intensively and progressively, achieving significant results. The terrorists have been deprived of their ability to launch wide-scale attacks, and their military capabilities, infrastructure, ammunition depots, and drones have been gradually destroyed. This strategy has developed in lock-step with events since October 7th.

Video:

The Syrian Ministry of Defense has reported the downing of dozens of drones on the fronts of Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Homs. Some of these drones are large-sized, GPS-guided, long range and can carry 100 kg of explosives.

This increase in drone warfare, aided and abetted in development by NATO member states including Turkey, is an indication that the Al Qaeda asset are collaborating with the US and Israel to keep the SAA and allies occupied on the northern front.

Syrian Ministry of Defense:

"Units of our armed forces operating in the axes of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo countryside confronted attempts by terrorist organizations to attack safe villages and some military points with suicide drones, and destroyed four of them.

A drone equipped with a liquid fuel rocket engine, four meters long, six meters wingspan, and loaded with one hundred kilograms of explosives was also shot down in the Jorin area in Hama northern countryside"

The SAA is tactically depleting the terrorist offensive capability in the north-west to enable the SAA to engage in the south should a direct confrontation with Israel or the US arise in the Golan territories. As former SAA soldier and researcher Ibrahim Wahdi has pointed out:

The intense airstrikes, artillery shelling, and missile attacks carried out by the army in the past month will greatly pave the way for any future military operation if a decision is made to advance towards the M4 highway.

For example, a few days ago the Syrian Arab Army's anti-tank units had successfully cut off the supply routes of armed groups near Tafasnaz, isolating them from the Turkish base at Tafasnaz Airport, destroying their vehicles, killing and injuring many of them within less than an hour, without the need for any ground advancement. This demonstrates the army's capability to carry out similar, broader operations in the future if a decision is made for a large-scale ground operation.

We are witnessing a micro-glimpse of what might happen were the SAA to engage in a comprehensive war against the US/Israel-led axis of terror.

The Syrian leadership is taking a cautious approach for obvious reasons while opening up new fronts for Resistance factions operating on Syrian territory.

Even if the Israeli war on Gaza were to escalate, leading to regional and international engagement, Syria would not need to enter the war directly. Opening the Golan front for anyone who wishes to fight against Israel would potentially be sufficient.

As President Assad strongly stated in his speech at the Emergency Arab League Summit on Gaza:

By our will only, by the overwhelming popular public opinion in our countries, with the new reality imposed by the Palestinian resistance in our region, we possessed those tools. Let us use them, and let us take advantage of the global transformation that has opened for us political doors that have been closed for decades, so that we can enter through them and change the equations, and let the precious souls who rose in Palestine be a rewarding price for achieving what we were unable to do in the past and what we must accomplish in the present and in the future.

All countries in the region, specifically Syria, should take advantage of the new reality and build upon the victories of the resistance in Gaza. With every military confrontation, the popular resistance proves its ability to adapt, utilize the terrain of the battlefield, choose the timing, and employ sophisticated techniques in simple ways, relying on the most important factor in winning wars, which is determination.

The military tactics employed by the Palestinian resistance were simple yet highly effective, and the most significant outcome was the clear military weakness of colonial forces in the region when facing the unified alliance of resistance forces.

The war against Israel no longer requires the intervention of the Egyptian army, just as expelling the United States from Iraq and Syria would not require a comprehensive war.

It is clear that Israel has failed to achieve any military victory in Gaza. Even with resorting to genocide and destruction, it has not succeeded in even swaying the popular Palestinian support for the Resistance Coalition in Gaza and the West Bank.

Not even a few thousand out of more than two million residents in Gaza have emerged demanding surrender or cessation from the resistance. On the contrary, with every new massacre, we see Palestinians more determined to remain steadfast and to resist ethnic cleansing for the third time.

Time is Israel's greatest enemy. The longer the Israeli military incurs losses on the ground in Gaza, the longer Western public outrage increases at the massacres of thousands of children, the longer Netanyahu loses public confidence in Israel and abroad - the greater the defeat for Israel long term.

Confronted with the psychopathy of the Israeli leadership and military the Resistance Axis is conducting itself with dignity and professionalism. It is hard to determine the balance of power in the region due to the hysterical and irrational rhetoric emanating from Washington, London and Tel Aviv. However it is shifting fast and there will be no going back.

Ibrahim Wahdi:

Regionally, there are important players with differing tactics, strategies, capabilities, and, most importantly, their understanding of the terrain, which makes it nearly impossible to predict the outcome of the current confrontation.

However, the Middle East will certainly witness radical transformations after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation. With the rise of China and Russia, the East as a whole is asserting itself, which means that countries like Iran and Syria will also enter new historical stages on the geopolitical level. The so-called Global South is rising from the ashes of decades or centuries of colonialist terrorism.

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This article was co-written with Ibrahim Wahdi - please subscribe to his blog here. His Telegram channel and Twitter/X account.

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6. The US-UK never ending war on Syria

Now more than 61 attacks on US bases in one month.

I will be writing in greater depth about the situation on the ground in Syria over the next two days but, for now, here is my conversation with journalist Rachel Blevins about the escalation in Syria on multiple fronts:

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7. Palestine and the Resistance Axis - interview with Fiorella Isabel

Meeting Resistance fighters in Gaza 2013. Photo: Vanessa Beeley

A recent conversation with journalist Fiorella Isabel:

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8. Did an 'award winning' journalist for The Times just produce pure fiction?

Hezbollah fighters in Beirut 2020.

Reality is an aspect of property. It must be seized. And investigative journalism is the noble art of seizing reality back from the powerful.

Julian Assange

Anthony Lloyd is a veteran war correspondent with The Times. According to The Times, Lloyd is "among the most experienced war correspondents of his generation". He began reporting for The Times in Bosnia 1993 and has reported allegedly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. He is a winner of fourteen major press awards and has three times been named Foreign Reporter of the Year.

According to the Hezbollah Media Office, Lloyd has lied to the British public and demonstrated "serious professional and ethical decadence".

In an article published on the 10th November, Lloyd claims to have interviewed "a veteran field commander of the Iran-backed militia" - in other less biased words, a veteran Hezbollah commander. Lloyd writes:

What he represents is in the eye of the beholder. To some, the 56-year-old — known by the alias "Ali", a senior Hezbollah field commander and one of the organisation's original members — is a hero. To others he is a terrorist and hostage-taker.

According to Lloyd, "the commander, who as a teenage fighter with Hezbollah was one of the kidnap group that seized the journalist Terry Anderson in Beirut in 1985 and guarded the American hostage for two years of his six-year captivity."

The article does not present anything that is not already public knowledge gleaned from the two speeches of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's speeches but it maintains the narrative of the Iranian role in managing Hezbollah and events on the ground. This claim has been countered recently by Iranian academic and analyst Seyed Mohammad Marandi on X:

Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad aren't "Iranian proxies." They are anti-imperialist national liberation organizations and they are Iran's allies. Hezbollah expelled the apartheid regime from Lebanon. Hamas and Islamic Jihad fight against a barbaric and illegitimate colonizer.

Lloyd also claims that 'Ali' and Hezbollah are interfering with the Hamas decision making process, particularly over the Israeli hostages. This interference is something that Nasrallah has taken great pains to distance Hezbollah from, so Lloyd appears to be deliberately trying to convey that Iran and their "proxy" Hezbollah are running things on the ground in occupied Palestine and southern Lebanon. This is palpably not true but plays into the Western playbook of holding Iran responsible for the recent escalation:

"We don't need hostages when we have missiles. But as we see the pressure growing on Israel from the outside world to stop its bombardment, we in turn are pressurising Hamas not to respond to Israeli demands to their hostages unconditionally," Ali said. "The Israelis can forget it!"

Basically Lloyd's article is a puff piece with no substantial information presented but if the Hezbollah Media Office claim is correct - Lloyd has entirely fabricated the interview to manipulate public opinion and The Times has ignored all editorial due diligence to publish the article. As the Hezbollah media office wrote (translated from Arabic):

"Hezbollah's media relations confirm that the alleged interview is nothing but a cheap fabrication, a figment of the writer's imagination and false claims, and strongly denies that the aforementioned journalist originally conducted an interview with an official in addition to what was stated in it and falsely attributed to him, and regrets the dangerous professional and ethical decline, which this newspaper and a large number of Western media outlets strayed away from what they claimed of professionalism, objectivity, accuracy and impartiality, claims that were completely dropped during the coverage of the Zionist aggression against Gaza and Lebanon."

I have reached out to Lloyd on X and emailed The Times for comment. Neither has responded.

Lloyd's shady history on Syria

Lloyd has a history of covering for UK globalist foreign policy globally including in Syria. Dr. Piers Robinson is the founder of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media that has extensively reported on the British government-led 'chemical weapon' staged events in Syria. The most glaring of these being Douma 2018 that was used as justification for the UK, US and France to unlawfully bomb Damascus City and suburbs.

Robinson is also involved with the Berlin Group 21 that has as its mission statement:

The Berlin Group 21 (BG21) has been formed for the sole purpose of giving the public an opportunity to follow developments regarding the controversy over the OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma (Syria). A Statement of Concern, signed by internationally known persons, was published on 12 March 2021. The full text can be seen on our homepage.

The Statement is addressed to the OPCW Director-General Arias at the organization's headquarters in the Hague. BG21 has shared the Statement with all 193 OPCW member states. The President of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, the President of the UN Security Council for March, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other UN entities have received copies of the Statement.

The Berlin Group's central objectives are to uphold the truth, restore the credibility of the OPCW through ensuring that is an independent, objective and scientifically rigorous organisation and, most importantly, to prevent further misery for the Syrian people and all those suffering in war.

The Group was established by José Bustani, first Director-General of OPCW, Professor Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University and Hans-C. von Sponeck, Former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq.

The BG21 report - A Review of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission Report into the Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in Douma, Syria, April 2018: Evidence of Manipulation, Bias and Censorship - is available here.

This report was submitted to Members of European Parliament, Clare Daly and Mick Wallace.

When I spoke with Robinson about journalist Anthony Lloyd, he gave me the following summary of Lloyd's involvement in the MI6 concoction of evidence of "chemical weapon" attacks in Syria that has sustained the regime change war against the Syrian people since 2011.

Anthony Lloyd has also been involved in the creation and maintenance of Western propaganda regarding alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Former British Military officer, Hamish de Bretton Gordon, revealed in a Wilton Park podcast that in 2013 he had helped Lloyd with respect to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Sheikh Maqsoud ( a Kurdish area of northern Aleppo).

"and I helped the Times, a chap called Anthony Lloyd … to cover this story, and tried to get samples back to the UK for analysis, I won't go into the details of that"

During this period, two British newspapers reported on an MI6 sample-gathering operation in Syria and the then British Prime Minister David Cameroon is reported to have referred to this alleged incident noting that [samples] had been tested at the UK's Porton Down laboratory from Sheikh Maqsoud and that:

"we believe the scale of the use is sanctioned by the Assad regime..that is the picture described to me by the joint intelligence committee"

Controversy over alleged chemical weapons attack was to later intensify following the 2018 alleged attack in Douma, when OPCW scientists involved with an investigation blew the whistle on how the investigation had been distorted so as to reach a pre-ordained conclusion blaming Syria.

The Times of London, Lloyd's employer, have maintained a vicious smear campaign against journalists and academics questioning the Douma events."

Hamish de Bretton Gordon has been instrumental in the control of narratives on Syria related to the chemical weapon claims. It is almost certain that he has connections to British intelligence agencies and Lloyd's involvement in 2013 would suggest that he is also another tool in the UK regime's media manipulation network.

One of the series of articles published by The Times on one day - here they cropped a photo of myself with a US Peace delegation meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in 2016.

As Robinson mentioned, The Times was heavily involved in a concerted effort by British legacy media to discredit, smear and disappear dissenting voices on the Syria narrative. In 2018 a series of articles was printed by The Times on one day - front-page and center page in an unprecedented campaign to present those academic and journalist voices as "Assad apologists".

The Wilton Park recording of HdBG letting slip Lloyd's involvement in "collecting samples" was blocked shortly after the BG21 report was circulated to EU member states - according to Robinson. The recording had been downloaded and transcribed and is still available as evidence.

There is an interview with Lloyd at the time on the BBC. Despite Lloyd's vivid claims on the BBC - the UN-OPCW mission would *not* go on to corroborate this alleged chemical weapons attack. This alone must raise serious questions about the validity of Lloyd's 'evidence' and his involvement in trying to shill for US/UK-led military intervention even before the 2013 alleged Ghouta chemical attacks.

The Times attacks on Robinson have continued even today. Robinson believes that this is related to the discovery of Lloyd's involvement with HdBG in the MI6 sample gathering operation in 2013 in the run-up to the Ghouta operation later in 2013 that has also been rigorously investigated by a group of researchers. PDF here and video below:

Robinson wrote about the latest Times-related attack at his Substack - The American Political Science Association Annual Convention 2023, Suppression of Academic Debate on Disinformation, and the continued war against accountability at the OPCW.

Robinson wrote:

In a remarkable and brazen assault on academic freedom, a UK-based academic embarked upon a campaign to remove two academics who had been invited to present at a roundtable on disinformation at the 2023 Annual Convention of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The campaign was unsuccessful but several of the panelists abandoned the panel due to the controversy, five remained.

Earlier this year myself and Professor Oliver Boyd Barrett were invited by Professors Hans Klein (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Clifford Bob (Duquesne University) to participate in the roundtable discuss about censorship which sought to bring together scholars from a wide variety of perspectives in order to discuss whether censorship regimes built around the idea of 'disinformation' presented a cure that was worse than the disease. Professor Boyd-Barrett and myself were invited precisely because we are well known as academics who have been attacked and denigrated for presenting arguments and analysis that challenged mainstream thinking. 

I also write extensively about the colonial media campaign of harassment and smear that began in earnest in 2018 in this article for Mint Press News in 2019 - 'After his mysterious death, the media scrambles to get its story straight about White Helmet founder James Le Mesurier.

The most compelling evidence that this campaign may have been orchestrated by Le Mesurier and Winberg came from Oliver Kamm, a Times newspaper columnist and online bully with a history of endorsing and protecting British neo-colonialism and globalist policies worldwide, including in the former Yugoslavia and Libya. 

Two days after Le Mesurier died, Kamm tweeted that, in 2018, Le Mesurier had "reached out to this newspaper to urge us" to keep on the case of "academics at UK universities" who were confronting Le Mesurier with the inconvenient facts surrounding the alleged chemical attacks in Syria. Kamm later deleted those tweets. 

The Times has been at the core of the campaign of censorship and blatant intimidation and harassment of dissidents trying to expose the truth of the UK government, media and intelligence agencies' involvement in maintaining the regime change war in Syria - the production of staged chemical weapon events to criminalise the Syrian government and allies.

Therefore if indeed Lloyd has lied about an interview with an Hezbollah commander, denied categorically by Hezbollah, it appears it would not be the first time.

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9. Palestine: the lies that start war and UK Government should be for the UK, not Israel

Bani Suhalla, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza which is supposed to be a "safe" zone.

My two sections for UK Column News on Friday 10th November.

1. Suella Braverman and Julia Hartley Brewer are complicit in genocide.

2. The lies that enable genocide in Gaza and West Bank:

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10. The Zionist Hasbara fail - 'human shields' began with the British in Palestine

Young Gazan nurse, Razan Al Najjar who was shot in the chest by an IOF sniper during the 2018 Great March of Return unarmed protests near the Gaza apartheid wall. IOF tried to doctor videos to claim she was being used by Hamas as a 'human shield' while she was tending to wounded civilians targeted by the IOF.

A few days ago I spoke with journalist Kevork Almassian about the Zionist propaganda (Hasbara) strategies in 2023:

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