“Fake news” and crimes against humanity: Amnesty International admits Syrian “Saydnaya” report created entirely in UK

Global Research, February 09, 2017
Land Destroyer 9 February 2017

Amnesty International’s 48 page report titled, “Syria: Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison, Syria,” boasts bold claims, concluding:

…the Syrian authorities’ violations at Saydnaya amount to crimes against humanity. Amnesty International urgently calls for an independent and impartial investigation into crimes committed at Saydnaya.

However, even at a cursory glance, before even reading the full body of the report, under a section  titled, “Methodology,” Amnesty International admits it has no physical evidence whatsoever to substantiate what are admittedly only the testimony of alleged inmates and former workers at the prison, as well as figures within Syria’s opposition.

What you are looking at is a 3D model fabricated entirely in the United Kingdom, based solely on satellite pictures and hearsay. Passed off as evidence this technique of “forensic architecture” may soon become a new tool in the dissemination of war propaganda if it is not exposed.

Within the section titled, “Methodology,” the report admits:

Despite repeated requests by Amnesty International for access to Syria, and specifically for access to detention facilities operated by the Syrian authorities, Amnesty International has been barred by the Syrian authorities from carrying out research in the country and consequently has not had access to areas controlled by the Syrian government since the crisis began in 2011. Other independent human rights monitoring groups have faced similar obstacles.

In other words, Amnesty International had no access whatsoever to the prison, nor did any of the witnesses it allegedly interview provide relevant evidence taken from or near the prison.

The only photographs of the prison are taken from outer space via satellite imagery. The only other photos included in the report are of three men who allege they lost weight while imprisoned and a photo of one of eight alleged death certificates provided to family members of detainees who died at Saydnaya.

The alleged certificates admittedly reveal nothing regarding allegations of torture or execution.

Articles like, “Hearsay Extrapolated – Amnesty Claims Mass Executions In Syria, Provides Zero Proof,” provide a detailed examination of Amnesty’s “statistics,” while articles like, “Amnesty International “Human Slaughterhouse” Report Lacks Evidence, Credibility, Reeks Of State Department Propaganda,” cover the politically-motivated nature of both Amnesty International and the timing of the report’s promotion across the Western media.

However, there is another aspect of the report that remains unexplored – the fact that Amnesty International itself has openly admitted that the summation of the report was fabricated in the United Kingdom at Amnesty International’s office, using a process they call “forensic architecture,” in which the lack of actual, physical, photographic, and video evidence, is replaced by 3D animations and sound effects created by designers hired by Amnesty International.

Amnesty Hired Special Effects Experts to Fabricate “Evidence” 

In a video produced by Amnesty International accompanying their report, titled, “Inside Saydnaya: Syria’s Torture Prison,” the narrator admits in its opening seconds that Amnesty International possesses no actual evidence regarding the prison.

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13,000 executed? Amnesty International’s “Human Slaughterhouse” report lacks evidence, credibility; State Dept. propaganda?

 

From Activist Post

By Brandon Turbeville
February 8, 2017

In yet another act of “convenient” timing, Amnesty International has released a bombshell report alleging the execution by hanging of 13,000 Syrian prisoners by the Syrian government from 2011-2015. The report, “Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings And Extermination At Saydnaya Prison, Syria,” which contains rather detailed descriptions of torture, rape, and execution as well as other horrific activity has no doubt caught the attention of many people, even those who have followed the events transpiring in Syria for the last six years. However, there is one important aspect of the report that Amnesty International lacks . . . evidence.

While the report, at first glance, might sound convincing, an adequate reading of the text reveals it to be yet another Western propaganda piece designed to demonize the Assad government shortly before important talks take place in Switzerland. The report contains the right buzzwords such as “extermination campaign” and reads like a story recounting Nazi concentration camps so as to jog the ever-present memory of the Holocaust, thus causing the reader to subconsciously and consciously associate the Nazi slaughter of the Jews with the alleged Assad execution of 13,000 prisoners. Still, while we must give credit to good writing, we must point out that good writing with no evidence is just a piece of fiction.

Below are a number of reasons to question the report and, as a result, another list of reasons to question the integrity of Amnesty International. Continue reading

Fort Russ exclusive: Cossack Media Group on the frontline of Donbass journalism

Fort Russ Exclusive –
February 8, 2017 –
By Alexey Degtyarev for Fort Russ – copy edited by J. Arnoldski – 
 
 
 
Alexey Degtyarev is the editor in chief ofCossack Media Group‘s Cossack Radio based out of the town of Stakhanov in the Lugansk People’s Republic. In this exclusive piece for Fort Russ, Degtyarev introduces the origins, mission, and operations of Cossack Media Group, and summarizes the situation on the frontline in Donbass over the past week. – J. Arnoldski 
 
***
 
The History, Founding, and Activity of Cossack Media Group
Cossack Media Group began to form back in 2014, the year that the war began, when events in Donbass began to take a cardinal change and the residents of Lugansk and Donetsk started to fight back against the Ukrainian army. Whereas they lacked a sufficient number of small arms and possessed no heavy military equipment at all, the Ukrainian military had a sufficient number of both. However, the militia forces, which have now evolved into the DPR and LPR Army, were able to repel the superior enemy.
The idea of creating Cossack Media Group appeared quite simply. It was based on the realization that we, the republics of Donbass, were winning in combat but at the same time we were suffering defeat in the information war. In August 2014, it was decided to start Cossack Radio to broadcast and communicate to people the truth of the situation on the front – truth that is distorted by the Ukrainian media. In 2014, a particularly acute shortage of truthful information spread among people in Donbass. We tried to correct this deficiency. Thus, after the start of the broadcast of Cossack Radio, soldiers started bringing video materials to the studio which confirmed the shelling of residential areas in the Lugansk region (for the Ukrainians themselves, “their homeland”) by UAF forces. More and more video material appeared, so we decided to create a channel on Youtube, New Channel of Novorossiya, and start broadcasting it in the city of Stakhanov and nearby towns. 
 
The Youtube channel, in addition to information problems stemming from the situation facing cable and landline TV, was designed for security purposes in order to inform the local population about the shelling by the Ukrainian army. The Youtube channel reported the true situation in the cities, towns and villages of Donbass to the international community. At the beginning, there were also objective reasons that led to the creation of a Youtube channel such as the lack of technical equipment and specialists, etc needed for a real TV channel. The correspondent network of our television was just beginning to unfold. This is an expensive task, so things are going slower than we would like.

CIA releases 1957 study on feasibility of anti-Soviet uprising in Ukraine

 Details  including maps at https://stalkerzone.org/%E2%80%8Bcia-archives-us-preparing-anti-soviet-operation-ukraine/

February 7, 2017 – Fort Russ News

BBC Russian – Translated by Kristina Kharlova

American analysts argued in a classified study from the archives of the CIA that many regions of Ukrainian SSR would have supported the anti-Soviet operation.

Written in August 1957, a report entitled “Resistance Factors and Special Forces Actions. Ukraine” was recently declassified and published.

The work on more than 200 pages was written by a group of researchers at Georgetown University by request of one of the divisions of the Ministry of Defense.

It is a complete analysis of the prospects of conducting anti-Soviet armed uprising in the Ukrainian SSR using US special forces.

Analysts laid out the mood of the population, linguistic characteristics and possible ethnic tensions in various regions of the country.

Classified report in many ways is similar to the political and social distribution in Ukraine half a century later.

Certain conclusions of the report miraculously predicted the course of the so-called “Russian spring”, particularly in respect to Donbass.

Donbass resistance hero Givi killed in terrorist attack (VIDEO)

From Fort Russ

February 8, 2017 – Fort Russ News –
By J. Arnoldski –
The commander of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s Somali battalion, Mikhail Tolstykh, famous as Givi, has been killed in a terrorist attack in Donetsk, the Ministry of Defense of the DPR has reported. 

“Regrettably, we can confirm this fact,” the DPR’s military spokesman, Eduard Basurin, has told journalists.

 
The terrorist attack took place at around 6:00 A.M. Givi was reportedly killed in his office by a Shmel flamethrower. “The death of this man was beneficial to Ukrainian special forces,” the DPR command commented.
Employees of the Ministry for Emergency Situations are working at the scene.
 

 

 
According to a defense ministry official, “This is a continuation of the terrorist war begun by the Kiev government against the people of Donbass. An investigative team is working at the site of the terrorist attack.” 
<iframe width=”600″ height=”400″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/sKP4PsML1QY&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen><!–iframe>
The ministry also added that security measures have been stepped up in the DPR and residents are urged to remain calm. “We know what kind of people these are. We will find them and they will be punished to the full extent of wartime laws,” the DPR’s prosecutor stated, also confirming that the terrorist attack was the work of a Ukrainian sabotage-reconnaissance group.
Colonel Mikhail Tolstykh, a.k.a. Givi, was born in Ilovaysk on July 19th, 1980. Givi chose his nickname while serving in the Ukrainian Army. After the coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014, Tolstykh became one of the activists of the movement for self-determination for the country’s eastern regions. 
When Ukrainian troops began their military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Givi was promoted to commander and fought in the battles of Slavyansk, Ilovaysk, as well the Donetsk Airport. Numerous assassination attempts were made on Givi over the course of the war. Givi received the Order of Hero of the DPR, two St. George Crosses, and a “For Defending Slavyansk” medal.
In October 2016, Givi’s close comrade-in-arms and militia commander Arsen Pavlov, a.k.a Motorola, was also killed in Donetsk as a result of a terrorist attack. 
Givi’s assassination is the second high-profile attack over the past week in the context of the overall escalation of the situation in Donbass. On February 4th, the commander of the Lugansk People’s Militia, Oleg Anashchenko, was killed in Lugansk, which was also identified as a Ukrainian terrorist attack.

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Things will get worse until the U.S. stops lying about Crimea

Global Research, February 08, 2017
crimea

Unless the U.S. government’s lies about Crimea — the ‘Russia seized Crimea’ narratives — become acknowledged to be lies, war between the U.S. and Russia can only continue to become increasingly likely, because the world is sliding toward World War III based upon these lies, and will therefore inevitably continue that slide until these lies are publicly repudiated by the U.S. government, which is their sole source. The liar on this is clearly the U.S. and not Russia: the U.S. is the entire source for the alleged cause for war between the U.S. and Russia. 

The preparations for war between the U.S. and Russia continue naturally apace until the United States publicly acknowledges that Russia had not ‘seized’ Crimea — acknowledges that the cause for all of these war-preparations by the U.S. and its NATO and other allies against Russia is fake, a U.S. lie, and that Russia is purely America’s victim in this entire matter and acting in a 100% defensive way against America’s aggressions in this matter.

Anyone who is closed-minded to the possibility that the U.S. is lying and that Russia is telling the truth about the relationship between the two countries, would therefore be simply wasting time to read here, because the solid documentation that will be provided here will prove that that’s not only a possibility; it is the fact, and those widespread false beliefs will, indeed, be disproven here. Proving that, is the purpose of this article. Therefore, a warning is needed beforehand, for any reader who is closed-minded about that possibility — any such person would be wasting time to read this article. Here it is:

(WARNING: The following article asserts many things that are propagandized almost universally in The West to be false, and in each such instance the documentation of the assertion’s being true is provided in a link, so that any reader who doesn’t already know its truth can easily come to know that he/she had previously been deceived about that particular matter — the reader can come to know this just by clicking onto the link. This article depends upon its links, which are rooted in the most-reliable evidence on the given topic — far more reliable than any of the ‘evidence’ that’s cited by defenders of The West’s position, lies on these matters. The links are provided so that a reader can easily connect to the actual evidence, and decide on one’s own, whom the liars are, and are not. It all depends upon the evidence. Any reader who doesn’t want to know the evidence, would be just wasting time to read here.)

PRESENTATION OF THE CASE

Obama-Trump economic sanctions against Russia are based upon the lies that are to be exposed as lies, in the links here. So too are the NATO movements of U.S. troops and missiles right up to Russia’s very borders — ready to invade Russia — based especially upon the lie of ‘Russian aggression in Crimea’. All of the thrust for WW III is based upon U.S. President Barack Obama’s vicious lie against Russia: his saying that the transfer of Crimea from Ukraine to Russia was not (which it actually was) an example of the U.N.-and-U.S. universally recognized right of self-determination of peoples (such as the U.S. recognizes to apply both in Catalonia and in Scotland, but not in Crimea) but was instead an alleged ‘conquest’ of Crimea by Russia. (As that link there documents, Obama’s allegation that it was ‘Putin’s conquest’ of Crimea is false, and he knew it to be false; he was well informed that the people of Crimea overwhelmingly wanted their land to be restored to Russia, and to be protected by Russia, so as not to be invaded by the Ukrainian government’s troops and weapons, after a bloody U.S. coup by Obama had — less than a month earlier — overthrown the democratically elected President of Ukraine, for whom 75% of Crimeans had voted. Obama’s own agents were behind that coup; they were doing his bidding. The aggressor here is entirely the U.S., not Russia, despite Obama’s lies.)

All U.S.-government-sponsored and other Western polling of Crimeans, both prior to the 16 March 2014 plebiscite in Crimea, and after it, showed that far more Crimeans wanted Crimea to be again a part of Russia as it had been until the Soviet dictator in 1954 arbitrarily transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. U.S. President Barack Obama was actually insisting that Nikita Khrushchev’s diktat on this matter must stand permanently — that the people of Crimea should never be able to choose their own government, but must become ruled by Obama’s coup-installed regime in Ukraine, no matter about that new government’s intense hostility toward those peopleAnd Obama instituted the economic sanctions against Russia on this basis — U.S. as the aggressor, calling Russia the ‘aggressor’, Obama’s lying basis for ‘the new Cold War’. It’s a serious lie — no mere ‘fib’.

In other words: the renewal of the Cold War (and an increasingly hot war by the U.S. against Russia’s ally Syria, and elsewhere) this time against Russia (no longer against the Soviet Union and its communism and its Warsaw Pact military alliance, none of which even existed after 1991) is based upon Barack Obama’s refusal to allow democracy for the people of Crimea. The build-up toward WW III is that simple — a vicious U.S. lie, directed against Russia.

And that’s not the only instance where the U.S. government blocks democracy in order to conquer Russia by grabbing Russian-allied nations (first Ukraine, and then, increasingly, Syria). Twice in one day, U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said that Obama’s demand that Syria’s current President, the Russia-friendly Bashar al-Assad, must be prevented from being even on the ballot in Syria’s next election for President, is unacceptable, and that (as Ban said) «The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people».

Why is the West allowed to dictate to Crimeans, and to Syrians, that they cannot choose their own government?

This is the new, anti-democratic, United States government. This is the reality.

Lawrence J. Korb, who was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense during 1981-1985, quit the Cold War against Russia when the Soviet Union and its communism and Warsaw Pact all ended in 1991, and he wrote on 26 February 2016, headlining «Don’t Fall for Obama’s $3 Billion Arms Buildup at Russia’s Door». He was on the correct side about this, against the Obama-initiated thrust toward WW III, but he understated the evilness, by saying:

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U.S. Army okays Dakota Access pipeline without environmental review

From Lakota People’s Law Project

February 7, 2017

As you may have heard, today the Army Corps of Engineers notified Congress that it intends to override the environmental review process for the Dakota Access Pipeline, end the public comment period, and grant Energy Transfer Partners the easement they require to drill under Lake Oahe.

We expect everything to move ahead very quickly. They could try to resume drilling in as few as 48 hours. Fortunately, environmental organizations and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have both vowed to continue this fight in the courts.

Moving forward, the twin battle to safeguard Mother Earth and preserve Native sovereignty will be fought on two fronts: in the water protectors’ camps at Standing Rock and in the courtrooms.

Today, the Trump administration threw down the gauntlet. Today, our movement must hold together and strengthen itself in the face of the president’s onslaught. We will not be silenced!

Here are two actions you can take right now:

  1. If you have not already done so, email your representatives today! We have a form you can use at http://lakotalaw.org/dapl-action
  2. Invest in the movement by donating to Lakota People’s Law Project and sharing our prayerful message. Grow the movement to end DAPL.
    http://lakotalaw.org/donate

In Solidarity,

Chase Iron Eyes, Lakota People’s Law Project legal counsel

P.S. For those who haven’t heard, last Friday I was released from jail after spending two nights behind bars. Morton County is charging me with “inciting a riot,” a felony with a maximum sentence of five years in prison. This movement is not a riot. It is a historic stand. This was a clear attempt by the county government to intimidate and silence our brothers and sisters on the front lines. We will continue to prayerfully and peacefully resist this pipeline, and we will use every avenue at our disposal to prevent the passage of the Black Snake through our sacred lands.

Lakota People’s Law Project
A Project of the Romero Institute
740 Front St. Suite 265 Santa Cruz, Ca
info@lakotalaw.org – (831) 459-6135

http://lakotalaw.org

Leader of Ukrainian Radical Party issues nuclear ultimatum after Trump revokes his visa

See details about Lyashko below.

From Fort Russ


Oleg Lyashko

February 7, 2017
Oleg Lyashko, Facebook [O Liashko]
Translated by Kristina Kharlova

My 10-year U.S. visa, which I just got before the New Year was just revoked. The consular officer said that he had such instructions from Washington.

And I have instructions from the Ukrainian people – to demand that the US fulfills its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, otherwise Ukraine will have to restore nuclear weapons to protect itself.

Also, we strongly condemn the new IMF memorandum, which preserves the status of Ukraine as a resource colony. I think it is because I stand for the national interests of Ukraine, not Moscow or Washington, the unprecedented decision to revoke my visa was made.

Good-bye, America!

I will pay a visit when Ukrainians will choose me as their President. And now instead of visiting US, I will visit our people who need not a visa or a visa-free regime but work and a decent life.

Oleg Lyashko

***

Amnesty International has condemned Oleg Lyashko for kidnapping and “harsh treatment” of anti-government activists while being completely above the law as a people’s deputy and accused Ukrainian authorities of failure to enforce the law.

Oleg Lyashko has recorded a video of the brutal handing of his captive, the anti-government ‘separatist,’ for which he has earned strong support among the radical elements of Ukrainian voters.

In March, 2014, Oleg Lyashko kidnapped Arsen Klinchaev, Lugansk deputy from the Party of Regions. While bragging about the kidnapping on his Facebook, Lyashko described Klinchaev as a leader of Lugansk separatists.

Lyashko threatened his family, promised to hang him for flying Russian banners and upon release promised he will shoot him next time.

Disturbing video of the kidnapping can be watched here.

Lyashko has advocated for capital punishment for any ‘traitors of Ukraine’. He was one of the lobbyists advocating for the creation of Azov battalion. He took credit for the bloody attack on Mariupol in May 2014.

Lyashko is wanted in Russia for the kidnapping and torture of Mariupol resident Dmitry Chaikovsky.

Oleg Lyashko was sentenced to 6 years behind bars for embezzlement of state property. He served one year.

In 2012 a 16-year old boy accused Lyashko of rape. In 2012 Lyashko was prevented from taking 12 and 14 year old boys from Crimean orphanage to Turkey, which resulted in a pedophile scandal.

In 2014 Lyashko ran for president of Ukraine.

***


More details and sources: Russian Wikipedia page about Lyashko

Deutsche Dienste: Keine Belege für Desinformationskampagne Putins

Tiroler Tageszeitung

6-2-2017

München (APA/AFP) – Deutsche Geheimdienste haben Berichten zufolge in umfangreichen Ermittlungen keine eindeutigen Beweise für eine russische Desinformations-Kampagne gegen die Bundesregierung gefunden. Trotz dieses Ergebnisses sähen der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) und das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) keinen Grund zur Entwarnung, berichteten „Süddeutsche Zeitung“, WDR und NDR am Montag.

Die Medien stützten sich auf das Ergebnis einer fast einjährigen Ermittlung. „Wir haben keine Smoking Gun gefunden“, hieß es den Medien zufolge in Regierungskreisen über den Versuch, einen schlagenden Beweis für politische Einmischung Russlands zu finden. Solch einen Beleg hätte die Regierung gerne präsentiert, um Russland vor Aktionen dieser Art zu warnen.

Ursprünglich hätten die Geheimdienste geplant, die als geheime Verschlusssache eingestufte Untersuchung zumindest teilweise zu veröffentlichen, berichteten die Medien. Doch angesichts fehlender Beweise werde eine Veröffentlichung nicht für sinnvoll gehalten. Dies hätte das ohnehin angespannte Verhältnis zu Russland nur noch weiter belastet.

Das Kanzleramt habe allerdings angeordnet, den Sachverhalt weiter zu untersuchen. Denn der Bericht der Sonderauswertung „Sputnik“ des Verfassungsschutzes und des Arbeitskreises „Psychologische Operationen“ des BND sei aus Sicht der Regierung auch kein Freispruch, heißt es in den Medien.

Der Geheimdienstbericht dokumentiert demnach einen seit 2014 „konfrontativeren Kurs“ Russlands gegenüber Deutschland und nennt die Berichterstattung russischer Medien und deren deutschen Ableger „feindselig“

http://www.tt.com/home/12590023-91/deutsche-dienste-keine-belege-f%C3%BCr-desinformationskampagne-putins.csp

German Secret Service: No evidence of Russian disinformation campaign. Chancellery: Keep looking

“The secret service calls the reporting of Russian media and their German offshoot ‘hostile.'”
This is reminiscent of President Richard Nixon’s (and other U.S. officials) view of the media. Shining a light on government policies and officials is unacceptable to them. Any factual reporting is ‘hostile’. Whistleblowers are ‘hostile’. Constitutions, laws, and public welfare are thrown out the window when they are inconvenient.
February 7, 2016 –
Fort Russ News –
– Tiroler Tageszeitung, translated by Tom Winter –
German Intel services: no evidence for a Putin disinformation campaign

German intelligence agencies, in extensive investigations, have reportedly failed to come up with clear evidence for a Russian disinformation campaign against the federal government.

Despite this result, the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) and the Federal Office for Constitutional Protection (BfV) do not see any reason for an all-clear, reported Süddeutsche Zeitung, WDR and NDR on Monday.

The media relied on the results of almost a year’s investigation. “We have not found any smoking gun,” according to the media in government circles, about the attempt to find striking evidence of Russia’s political interference. Such a document would have been presented by the government to warn Russia about this type of action.

Originally the secret services had planned to at least partially publish the investigation, which was categorized as a secret classified, the media reported. However, in the face of missing evidence, publication is not considered useful. This would have put a further strain on the already tense relationship with Russia.

However, the chancellor’s office ordered the facts to be further investigated: the report of the special analysis of “Sputnik” by BfV and the BND working group “psychological operations” is, from the government’s point of view, not an acquittal the media report.

Yet the secret service report documents a “more confrontational course” between Russia and Germany since 2014 and calls the reporting of Russian media and their German offshoot “hostile.”…