I am quite open about my views on Syria. As explained here, the sooner that President Assad exterminates the last terrorist vermin in their Idlib stronghold the better, so bringing peace and security back to Syria. The Western media is spinning on behalf of the terrorists who our Governments have rashly backed and as such serve up some cracking 100% fake news – meet Mostafa.
The Sunday Telegraph featured Mostafa prominently in a story “nowhere left for the refugees of Idlib.” Authors Said Ghazali and Middle East Correspondent Raf Sanchez gave an account of his travels as follows.
Mostafa and his family used to live in Aleppo but left after ISIS started to “murder opposition activists” then went to Raqqa but left after ISIS seized control. Next stop was land on the border with Turkey but they fled from here in 2015 after President Assad’s forces took control when they wen t to Idlib.
The trouble with this narrative is that it just cannot be true. ISIS never had a presence in Aleppo so did not kill opposition activists there. Aleppo was controlled by Assad until 2012 when what Call Me Dave Cameron termed “the Moderates”, i.e. a bunch of largely Al-Qaeada backed fighters seized one quarter of the City (East Aleppo). There they killed Christians, gays, Alawites, folks who had worked as Postmen for Assad, etc.
In 2014/14 ISIS occupied four villages near Aleppo (and co-operated with Cameron’s pals “the moderates” as Assad’s forces sought to reclaim all of the City, something they achieved in 2016.
So part one of Mostapha’s story is a lie. Maybe he did leave in 2012 heading to Raqqa but it fell to ISIS in march 2013 so his stay there was short. Where exactly did he go next? For in spring 2013 all of the border with Turkey was controlled by either ISIS, Al-Qaeda/The moderates backed by the West or by the Kurds. By 2015 ISIS was in retreat but still it was the Kurds or the Moderates who controlled the border, Assad seized no land. What did happen in 2015 was that the Al-Qaeda/Moderates seized Idlib from Assad’s forces.
So I put it to you that it was a desire to head to Al-Qaeda central rather than fleeing Assad which saw Mostapha and his family move to Idlib. His story is a tissue of lies but is presented as gospel by the Telegraph so that his testimony can be used to denounce Assad.
The same article also cites Ahmad who fled Aleppo in 2016? Was he always there? I doubt it. The only reason to flee Aleppo in 2016 was that the final small rebel enclave had fallen to Assad. Overall the population of Aleppo has gone up since Assad pushed out the islamofascists. Nearly all those who opted to leave Aleppo back in 2016 were fighters and their families and so Ahmad asks in the article “ what will you do if the regime comes? many will fight to the death.”
Ahmad is almost certainly a combatant yet this article is meant to be about refugees.
We are told by the Telegraph that there are 2.5 million folks in the province and half are refugees. The UN says the number is 2 million. Oddly back in 2011 pre-war it was 1.5 million suggesting that while quite a few folks have moved in, an awful lot have also left. Clearly, when Assad triumphs there will be many fighters and their families who wish to leave and continue their poisonous existence elsewhere. One wonders who in their right mind would want them? No doubt Mrs may will argue that Britain should "take its fair share."
But as has already happened in the rest of Syria in places like Aleppo and Ghouta – cited by the Telepgraph as places were folks fled when Assad regained control - refugees will also returning in huge numbers. The population of places now under Assad control having formerly been run by the "moderates" is going up. On a net net basis Syrians like Assad more than the West’s “moderates” with their penchant for decapitation and chucking folks off tall buildings.
The Telegraph will not report on that. Instead it serves up what is demonstrably fake news in support of the sad and misguided Western agenda.
PS. Tomorrow is the anniverasry of 9/11. That act was carried out by Al Qaeda. In Syria we in the UK, France and the US have been backing forces loyal to Al Qaeda with arms, money and by bombing their enemies. And our leaders regard that as a smaert move because? As, tomorrow, you take a moment to remember the thousands who dies at Ground Zero consider how we now support their killers. What folly. What evil.