Power of Truth in Syria, Libya– NYTimes Interview with Lizzie Phelan

“In Libya now the truth is coming out”

author: by Lizzie Phelan

Irish free-lance journalist Lizzie Phelan shares her recent interview by New York Times reporter Robert Mackey, discussing the skewed Western media coverage of Syria and Libya.  Phelan says  “grasping a complex reality does not depend on the amount of information accumulated in favor of any one side, but on the diversity of informed poins of view reflecting a given situation.”  Otherwise, as Phelan says, the first casualty of war will always be truth.

Robert Mackey : Since your impressions of what is happening in Syria seem to be strikingly different from those of many foreign reporters who have worked there recently, I wanted to ask you about how you found your sources and what you think accounts for the different picture painted of the conflict by other journalists. 

 

Lizzie Phelan : First of all I hope that you will give me the opportunity to answer all of your questions in full, so that the context which is always lacking can be provided. I also hope that you will ask all the questions that you proposed when I agreed to do this interview. If not I will myself publish the full questions and my full answers. 

 

This question is flawed, because what you really mean is that my impressions of what is happening in Syria seem to be strikingly different from those reporters from the NATO and GCC countries which have a vested interest in destabilising Syria. Of course my impressions are actually shared by the majority people of this world, from those countries outside of NATO and the GCC and particularly those which are victims of these powers. But because they do not own a powerful media their voices are drowned out by the impressions of the minority reflected in the mainstream media of the NATO and GCC countries. 

 

So in relation to my sources, I find my sources through a number of different means, but my main means is I talk to ordinary people every where I go and in Syria this is not difficult because people are really keen to speak about the crisis in their country, especially to foreigners who they feel strongly have a false impression about their country and current events. This was overwhelmingly, but of course not exclusively, the point of view that I encountered. And this is reflected in my reporting. 

 

In fact, like in Libya, I was so overwhelmed by the volume of people that wanted to talk about their anger at the fabrications in the media of the NATO and GCC countries that my colleague Mostafa Afzalzadeh and I decided to make a documentary so that we could reflect what ordinary Syrian people are really saying. This documentary will actually expose how if it was not for such media the crisis in Syria would have been over before it started and the people of Syria would be living in peace now. 

 

The difference with journalists from mainstream media in NATO and GCC countries is that they come with an agenda, and that agenda is to cover what they call is a “revolution” happening inside Syria and to give substance to the false claims that the Syrian government is a threat to the Syrian people. So if for example they walk down the street and they have 10 people telling them there is no revolution happening in Syria and actually the people want the army to protect them from the terrorists that are flooding the country, and then they have one person who tells them that there is no democracy in Syria, they will discard the 10 as government spies and run with the one person who said something different, I witnessed this myself.

 

If they were to do the reverse and reflect the majority view on the street, then this would undermine the coverage of their media organisations over the previous 10 months that have painted a picture of a government hated by its people, and in turn it would undermine their own credibility as journalists working for those organisations. 

 

But in time they will not be able to supress the truth. However, like in Libya the danger is that the truth only comes out when it is too late, when a country has been successfully destroyed by the NATO and GCC countries, with the vital help of their media. Then the western media can afford to be more honest, although never entirely, because the aims, for example of regime change, of their paymasters have been achieved. 

 

TNC Leader Jibril withdraws Fighters to avoid “200 Dead for 1 minute TV Victory on Al Jazeera”

Posted on October 10, 2011 by nsnbc

Mahmud Jibril 200 Dead for a One Minute Victory on Al Jazeera

A massive storm on Sirte resulted in the brief occupation of a University Campus and Hospital in the South Eastern Suburbs. After the battle raged back and forth all day, a massive counter attack that left 200 TNC-fighters dead and countless wounded was enough for Mahmud Jibril, who is pulling “the fighters with allegiance to him” out of the battle, calling “the death of over 200 fighters for a one minute Al Jazeera Victory senseless“. Jibril´s decision is one more example that the NATO Narrative is discredited and  of the inherent instability and infighting of the NATO proxy regime. The Libyan war is grinding into a stall, while the humanitarian crisis continues. by Dr. Christof Lehmann

In war nothing can be taken for granted, and even small changes can lead to catastrophic results, stall mates or victories. Considering the fact that the home town of Muammar Ghadafi has been resisting the onslaught of NATO´s colonial aggression for months brings the classic cartoon “Asterix de le Gaulois” to mind, where a defiant Gall village resisted the onslaught of the Roman Empire.

Aterix and the Galls – The Magic Potion of Libyans is the Will to Resist the Colonial Empire.

Even Al Jazeera´s Hollywood Narrative of the attack on Sirte was seriously wounded when the “embedded grand standing” at a freshly captured university campus in the suburbs of Sirte was interrupted with the message “we have to withdraw because there is a massive counter attack coming“. But unlike Asterix, Obelix, and the courageous Galls of the world famous cartoon, neither Muammar Ghadafi nor the fighting military, tribal and popular resistance men have that magic potion that endows them with super human strength. What they have may be even stronger though; the will to resist a colonial empire and it´s army of rack tag rebels and special operations units and NATO´s Air Force. The televised attack on Sirte was defeated. Throughout the day and night Sirte has been under three major and more minor assaults, all of them being resisted. The result of yesterdays fighting, 200 TNC fighters dead, more of them wounded.

A nsnbc source close to the TNC reported tonight at 02.00 GMT that TNC-leader Mahmud Jibril has withdrawn “all fighters with allegiance to him” from the Sirte theater, saying “it was senseless to sacrifice 200 fighters for a one minute Al Jazeera Victory“. Jibril, who recently survived an assassination attempt where seven of his bodyguards were killed is said also to have given the withdrawal order to save his men for an awaiting battle among TNC fractions. According to the same nsnbc source, “an unnamed US Intelligence Agency has approached TNC leaders suggesting the division of Libya into a Northern and Southern state, which would provide the necessary diplomatic context for bringing “UN Peace Keeping Troops” into Libya. nsnbc is currently investigating if any of these propositions are discussed at the African Union.

The war crimes by NATO and the fighters under it´s command responsibility continues, while diplomacy still fails to put an end to the massacres. Before the attack on the University Campus and Hospital in Sirte, a NATO plane bombed a civilian house, killing 22, with 20 others missing.

Near Bani Walid, a convoy of TNC fighters fell into an ambush and took heavy casualties. TNC fighters are in isolated pockets in Bani Walid waiting for reinforcements that don´t come through the Libyan defenses. In Gheryan Libyan forces successfully attacked a military industrial complex that was heavily defended by troops from NATO countries and Qatar. The mission succeeded in destroying key military installations that were used by NATO.

In Bengazi the battle against the heavily entrenched TNC fighters is making a slow progress. One may suspect the Libyan Forces to maintain a relatively passive position, since there is heavy infighting among the surrounded TNC loyal factions inside the city center. According to yet unconfirmed reports there are ongoing negotiations between Libyan Forces and tribal leaders in Bengazi who are ready to change sides in the conflict.

The question remains, if and when a diplomatic initiative will manifest that can bring an end to the appalling humanitarian situation and NATO´s colonial ambitions in Northern Africa. Where is a U.N.-Fact Finding Mission, where is an African Union Observer in Sirte, where are African Leaders with courage to say “enough is enough”. Neither Ghadafi, nor the soldiers and civilians in Sirte have that “Magic Potion of the Galls“. All they have is the will to resist against a war, forced on them under the pretext of saving civilian lives and the hope that Russian, Chinese, and African leaders will realize that failure to end that war is failure to defend their own people and nations.

Dr. Christof Lehmann