The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Mohammed al-Jolani, is in New York for what is widely being described as the first visit by a sitting Syrian president to the US in nearly six decades.
But even more significant is another fact: it’s also the first state visit to the US by a leading veteran of Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Just last year, al-Sharra/al-Jolani – the founding leader of Al Qaeda in Syria and a former deputy leader of ISIS -- was on the US terrorism list with a $10 million reward for his arrest. But after leading the overthrow of Syrian president Basher al-Assad, the US has removed that designation and welcomed Jolani’s ruling Al Qaeda offshoot government. After all, as Jake Sullivan put it at the outset of the dirty war in early, 2012, “Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.”
Because the US is on Al Qaeda’s side in Syria, that also means overlooking atrocities under its founding leader’s watch. Since al-Sharaa/al-Jolani took power, government forces have committed sectarian violence against Syria’s minority groups. In March, hundreds – possibly thousands – of Alawite civilians were massacred in Syria’s coastal regions. In July, hundreds more, mostly Druze civilians, were killed in Syria's Suweida region.
The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté speaks to members of two Syrian minority communities about the ongoing sectarian violence at the hands of a ruling Al Qaeda offshoot that the US and allies helped put in power.
Guests:
Dr. Morhaf Ibrahim, head of the Alawite Association of the United States.
Hibbah Jarmakani, a Druze Syrian-American originally from Suweida province in Syria.
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The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Mohammed al-Jolani, is in New York for what is widely being described as the first visit by a sitting Syrian president to the US in nearly six decades.
But even more significant is another fact: it’s also the first state visit to the US by a leading veteran of Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Just last year, al-Sharra/al-Jolani – the founding leader of Al Qaeda in Syria and a former deputy leader of ISIS -- was on the US terrorism list with a $10 million reward for his arrest. But after leading the overthrow of Syrian president Basher al-Assad, the US has removed that designation and welcomed Jolani’s ruling Al Qaeda offshoot government. After all, as Jake Sullivan put it at the outset of the dirty war in early, 2012, “Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.”
Because the US is on Al Qaeda’s side in Syria, that also means overlooking atrocities under its founding leader’s watch. Since al-Sharaa/al-Jolani took power, government forces have committed sectarian violence against Syria’s minority groups. In March, hundreds – possibly thousands – of Alawite civilians were massacred in Syria’s coastal regions. In July, hundreds more, mostly Druze civilians, were killed in Syria's Suweida region.
The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté speaks to members of two Syrian minority communities about the ongoing sectarian violence at the hands of a ruling Al Qaeda offshoot that the US and allies helped put in power.
Guests:
Dr. Morhaf Ibrahim, head of the Alawite Association of the United States.
Hibbah Jarmakani, a Druze Syrian-American originally from Suweida province in Syria.
Report for European Parliament challenges OPCW’s Syria cover-up
Pushback with Aaron Mate
1 hour 3 minutes 55 seconds
2 years ago
Report for European Parliament challenges OPCW’s Syria cover-up
A new report offers the most thorough exposé to date of the OPCW’s Syria cover-up scandal, in which the world’s top chemical watchdog manipulated an investigation to baselessly accuse Syria of a chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma.
In April 2018, after dozens of dead victims were filmed at the scene, the US, UK, and France alleged that the Syrian government had dropped gas cylinders on Douma and launched airstrikes in purported retaliation. But leaks from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons show that international inspectors found no evidence of a chemical attack, raising the possibility that the incident was staged by the insurgents who controlled Douma at the time. The OPCW team’s findings were suppressed and replaced with unsupported conclusions that aligned with the US-led narrative. When two veteran OPCW inspectors who deployed to Syria for the probe challenged the manipulation, they were silenced and later publicly defamed.
The report is authored by the Berlin Group 21, which is comprised of founding OPCW Director General Jose Bustani, former senior UN official Hans Von Sponeck, Princeton law professor Richard Falk, and academic Piers Robinson of the Organization for Propaganda Studies. Its release follows the Brazilian government's recent public shift in support of accountability over the OPCW's cover-up scandal. The report was submitted to members of the European Parliament as a contribution to discussions around the OPCW.
Aaron Maté speaks to Von Sponeck and Robinson about their new report, as well as the ongoing effort to challenge the OPCW's Douma deception and seek justice for the Douma victims.
Guests: Hans von Sponeck and Piers Robinson.
Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate
Pushback with Aaron Mate
The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Mohammed al-Jolani, is in New York for what is widely being described as the first visit by a sitting Syrian president to the US in nearly six decades.
But even more significant is another fact: it’s also the first state visit to the US by a leading veteran of Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Just last year, al-Sharra/al-Jolani – the founding leader of Al Qaeda in Syria and a former deputy leader of ISIS -- was on the US terrorism list with a $10 million reward for his arrest. But after leading the overthrow of Syrian president Basher al-Assad, the US has removed that designation and welcomed Jolani’s ruling Al Qaeda offshoot government. After all, as Jake Sullivan put it at the outset of the dirty war in early, 2012, “Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.”
Because the US is on Al Qaeda’s side in Syria, that also means overlooking atrocities under its founding leader’s watch. Since al-Sharaa/al-Jolani took power, government forces have committed sectarian violence against Syria’s minority groups. In March, hundreds – possibly thousands – of Alawite civilians were massacred in Syria’s coastal regions. In July, hundreds more, mostly Druze civilians, were killed in Syria's Suweida region.
The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté speaks to members of two Syrian minority communities about the ongoing sectarian violence at the hands of a ruling Al Qaeda offshoot that the US and allies helped put in power.
Guests:
Dr. Morhaf Ibrahim, head of the Alawite Association of the United States.
Hibbah Jarmakani, a Druze Syrian-American originally from Suweida province in Syria.