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Al-Qaeda Cut Leaves 5 Million Thirsty In Damascus – Western Media Unconcerned
There is a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Syria and the "western" media ignore it.
On December 22 al-Qaeda aligned Takfiris in the Wadi Barada valley shut down the main water supply for the Syrian capital Damascus. Since then the city and some 5-6 million living in and around it have to survive on emergency water distributions by the Syrian government. That is barely enough for people to drink – no washing, no showers and no water dependent production is possible.
This shut down is part of a wider, seemingly coordinated strategy to deprive all government held areas of utility supplies. Two days ago the Islamic State shut down a major water intake for Aleppo from the Euphrates. High voltage electricity masts on lines feeding Damascus have been destroyed and repair teams, unlike before, denied access. Gas supplies to parts of Damascus are also cut. A similar tactic was used by the Zionist terrorists of the Haganah who in 1947/48 poisoned and blew up the water mains and oil pipelines to Palestinian Haifa.
Wadi Barada is a river valley some 10 miles west of Damascus at the mountain range between Lebanon and Syria. It has been in the hands of local insurgents since 2012. The area was since loosely surrounded by Syrian government forces and their allies from Hizbullah.
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Two springs in the area provide the water for Damascus which is treated locally and then pumped through pipelines into the city's distribution network. Since the early 1990s there is a low level conflict over the water diversion of the Barada river valley to the ever growing Damascus. The drought over the last years has intensified the problems. Local agriculture of the water rich valley had to cut back for lack of water as this was pumped into the city. But many families from the valley moved themselves into the city or have relatives living there.
The local rebels had kept the water running for the city. Al-Qaeda aligned groups have been in the area for some time. A propaganda video distributed by them and taken in the area showed (pic) the choreographed mass execution of Syrian government soldiers.
After the eastern part of the city of Aleppo was liberated by Syrian government forces, the local rebels and inhabitants in the Barada river valley were willing to reconcile with the Syrian government. But the al-Qaeda Takfiris disagreed and took over. The area is since under full al-Qaeda control and thereby outside of the recent ceasefire agreement.
On December 22 the water supply to Damascus was suddenly contaminated with diesel fuel and no longer consumable. A day later Syrian government forces started an operation to regain the area and to reconstitute the water supplies.
Photos and a video on social media (since inaccessible but I saw them when they appeared) showed the water treatment facility rigged with explosives. On Dec 27th the facility was blown up and partly destroyed.
Suddenly new organized "civil" media operations of, allegedly, locals in the area spread misinformation to "western" media. "There are 100,000 civilians under siege in Wadi Barada!" In reality the whole area once had, according to the last peacetime census, some 20,000 inhabitants. The White Helmets propaganda organization now also claims to be in the area. "The government had bombed the water treatment facility," the propaganda groups claimed.
That is a. not plausible and b. inconsistent with the pictures of the destroyed facility. These show a collapse of the main support booms of the roof but no shrapnel impact at all. A bomb breaking through the roof and exploding would surely have left pocket marks all over the place. The damage, in my judgement, occurred from well designed, controlled explosions inside the facility.
Some insurgents posted pictures of themselves proudly standing within the destroyed facility and making victory signs.
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There is more such cheer-leading by insurgents on social media. Why when they claim that the government bombed the place?
On December 29 the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued an alarm about the water crisis:
The United Nations is alarmed that four million inhabitants in Damascus and surrounding areas have been cut off from the main water supply since 22 December. Two primary sources of drinking water- Wadi Barada and Ain-el-Fijah-which provide clean and safe water for 70 percent of the population in and around Damascus are not functioning, due to deliberate targeting resulting in the damaged infrastructure.
One of the two springs, Al-Feejeh, has now been retaken by the Syrian army. 1,300 civilians from Ain AlFeejeh, the nearby town with the treatment facility, have fled to the government held areas and were taken in by the Syrian Red Cross. The other spring and the treatment facility are still in Takfiri hands. The government has said that it will need some ten days to repair the system after the Syrian army has gained control of the facilities. That will still take some time.
Western media have hardly taken notice of the water crisis in Damascus and their coverage seems to actively avoid it. A search for Barada on the Washington Post website brings up one original piece from December 30 about the freshly negotiated ceasefire. The 6th paragraph says:
Airstrikes pounded opposition-held villages and towns in the strategically-important Barada Valley outside Damascus, activists said, prompting rebels to threaten to withdraw their compliance with a nationwide truce brokered by Russia and Turkey last week.
Then follow 16 paragraphs on other issues. Only at the very end of the piece comes this (mis-)information:
The Barada Valley is the primary source of water for the capital and its surrounding region. The government assault has coincided with a severe water shortage in Damascus since Dec. 22. Images from the valley’s Media Center indicate its Ain al-Fijeh spring and water processing facility have been destroyed in airstrikes. The government says rebels spoiled the water source with diesel fuel, forcing it to cut supplies to the capital.
On December 29 a piece by main WaPo anti-Syria propagandist Liz Sly did not mention the water crisis or the Barada valley at all.
The New York Times links a Reuters pieces about the UN alarm about the water crisis. But I find nothing in its own reporting that even mentions the water crisis. One piece on December 31 refers shortly to attacks on Wadi Baradi by government forces at its very end.
A Guardian search for Barada only comes up with a piece from today mixed from agency reports. The headlines say "Hundreds of Syrians flee as Assad's forces bomb Barada valley rebels". The piece itself says that they flee to the government side. In it the Syrian Observatory (MI-6) operation in Britain confirms that al-Qaeda rules the area which "Civil society organisations on the ground" deny. Only the very last of the 12 paragraph piece mentions the capital:
The Barada valley is the primary source of water for the capital and its surrounding region. The government assault has coincided with a severe water shortage in Damascus since 22 December. The government says rebels spoiled the water source with diesel fuel, forcing it to cut supplies to the capital.
Surely a few people "fleeing" (to the government side) "as Assad's forces bombs" are way more important than 5 million people in Damascus without access to water. That the treatment facility is destroyed seems also unimportant.
All the above papers have been extremely concerned about every scratch to any propaganda pimp who had claimed to be in then rebel held east-Aleppo. They now show no concern at all for 5 million Syrians in Damascus who have been without water for 10 days and will likely be so for the rest of the month.
@ PavewayIV | Jan 3, 2017 3:26:47 AM | 43
Not at all.
Who created, funds, trains, equips, supplies, directs & provides political & geopolitical cover and protection for the ‘moderate head-choppers’, both directly, indirectly & via plausibly-deniable third parties ? Where does the funding (billions), media and resources come for the creation of the propaganda and its dissemination ? The US and its vassal state ‘coalitions’.
It is a historical fact that the US has a predilection for actively destroying or denying access to civilian infrastructure in its conflicts throughout our entire history … and what have the proxies, and the US coalition(sic) been doing all throughout Syria, not just Wadi Barada … destroying infrastructure, when their not seizing & using such themselves (airfields), or their proxies are, as a ready resource, a source of financial extortion or simply denial. Bridges, plants, medical facilities, water supplies, electricity, communications, border control, etc.
The other aspect of denial of water supply (and other infrastructure) is political delegitimization of firstly always Assad and then the Syrian government/military, ie portrayed as failing to service, protect and provide for such a basic need as potable water, to millions, ie the Syrian people … think back to General Shermans ‘March to the Sea’ during the Civil war… the same with Oil/Gas/heating fuel, etc. This is used as an adjunct to military campaigns and the ongoing current crap of R2P in order to achieve geopolitical policy goals. Ie Assad is so evil he lets his citizens die of thirst or from diseases due to non-potable water … yeah, NO-FLY-ZONE, NOW !!! Absolute self-serving crap.
Alda is a dissembler. Much as the calls for a clash of religions/civilization, denouncement of all muslims as being part of a hate-based evil ideology … recommending viewing FBI/CIA supported TV propaganda shows about imaginary evil-red-russian-spies-living-next-door-in-suburbia … etc, bullshit.
Respectfully re-read his post again and parse it carefully.
According to Alda, the head-choppers supposedly would have no reason to seize/destroy/exploit infrastructure, but the ‘Americans’ do. No, they are effectively one and the same entity, the moderate head-choppers are the directed proxies, the utterly expendable, supposedly plausibly deniable foot soldiers, serving the current goals of the US. And when elements are not following US direction, or under its instruction, they are doing the same, towards the same goals, with instructions from Turkey, Saudia Arabia, Qatar et al.(false flag direction/command).
Respectfully.
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 9:53 utc | 47
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b, China is doing the same thing to Viet Nam and Cambodia with dams on the Mekong, but that’s OK, because of Mao’s Little Red Book. Both countries are being economically cratered by China hot money and privatization development, and millions displaced into terrible penury, but that’s OK with MofA’s. MLRB!!
AFA USArya’s role in MENA and the Yinon Plan under the Trump ‘Israel First’ Regime, don’t hope for improvement for Syria. Trump has no government experience, and can only appoint 3% of Mil.Gov.Fed ‘directors’ and a ‘cabinet’ to watch over a $3,4 TRILLION disappearing act by millions of Federal workers, who can’t be terminated, and expect to retire on underfunded pensions for life, especially USArya’s 1,000 Generals and 1,000 Admirals all looking for moar campaign ribbons, and war-profiteering lobbyist second careers.
Reagan, for example, tripled the national debt, and increased government spending by 60%, and enabled the Black Ops Bad Boys. Deal with that in visualizing a Trump ‘Israel First’ Regime. But we can’t. We can’t accept that Syria is a lost cause that Russia and Iran can’t save, and that Ukraine is going to explode again (already has begun) and Russia can’t reverse it, and that the Pentagon has an even bigger arms budget and needs to haul all those old ordnance piles out of 10,000s of rotting bunkers and start dropping them on the 3W, or that India is cratering and Venezuela is collapsing, or that US and EU are completely and utterly bankrupted, Japan is comatose, and China is red-hot radioactive upside down.
We just can’t process reality anymore.
Really, at this point, what difference does it make? The Western world is moving into fantasmagorical thinking, Occulus Rift. The so-called industrialized kids have absolutely zero interest in politics, especially foreign countries they know or care nothing about. You can go ask them, US, EU, UK, AU, NZ, JP! You’ll find, as you drop down from the 40’s-somethings passing momentary teeth-clucking concern over world affairs, towards the 20’s-somethings complete unconcern, an event-horizon moving invisibly with the speed of light into the future, perfectly represented by Trump’s tweets, or any of our Pop Gods, or the joke streams on Reddit.
We are passing away! There is no bright future. We should be throwing chicken bones and reading tea leaves like Queequeg, sleeping on our coffins. Those of us here on MoA should be communing together over the Upanishads and the Book of the Dead. We should all be gigging on Fivrr, hand-crafting black poppies to pin onto the lapels of the corpses.
Posted by: chipnik | Jan 3 2017 16:28 utc | 64
@ Outraged | Jan 2, 2017 7:20:30 PM | 14
What Kenny posted @7 was mostly correct:
“In 1945 the allies started bombing Auschwitz and the railroads leading to it. Thousands, even millions died directly or through the diseases deliberately brought on.”
The incorrect part may be that bombing started in 1945: it likely started earlier.
In “The Fire” Jorg Friedrich reports:
“In the winter of 1943 – 1944, the Allies drafted plans to wage air war against Hitler’s allies in southeastern Europe: . . .Sofia was given a rough time between Nov 1943 and April 1944 by British and American units, according to the method they used in Germany: day-night alternation, destruction of the water system, tearing up of residential blocks, and arson. . . . Air raid protection was minimal. Sofia lost several thousand residents.”
Friedrich then discusses the massive citizen losses among other Axis populations in similar, or even more intense, air raids.
Then he discusses Auschwitz. Friedrich details the requests — complete with lists of twenty sites to bomb– conveyed from Chaim Weizmann and Moshe Shertok to Churchill, from Churchill to Anthony Eden, prompting Churchill’s decision: “Get anything out of the Air Force you can and invoke me if necessary.” RAF, however, was unwilling to risk the lives of British airmen “for no purpose;” moreover, RAF did not have visual capability to conduct such a raid, while USAF did — they ran the day raids.
Friedrich writes:
“John J. McCloy in the Pentagon received four appeals to bomb the railway lines to Auschwitz. As his deputy noted, his answer was to “kill this.” There never was a raid on this transportation objective nor were plans for it ever drafted. “
It is possible that Friedrich’s research is incomplete and his conclusions premature.
The bombing- or not-bombing of Auschwitz has been a fertile field for Jew-vs-Jew and Jew-vs-FDR and Jew-vs-Allies recrimination. Most of these bicker-books agree that “the Allies consistently declined to directly bomb Auschwitz.”
BUT the USAF dropped tons and tons of bombs on the industrial areas surrounding Auschwitz, a 35-mile radius with the camp at the center, with highly destructive bombing occurring within five miles of Auschwitz ground zero.
It is highly irrational to think anything other than that the communications, water, transport, electricity, etc. into and out of Auschwitz did not remain intact from the beginning of these intense and relentless air raids in ~Aug. 1944 and the capture of the camp by Soviet forces on 26 Jan 1945, causing the deaths of “Thousands, even millions . . . through the diseases deliberately brought on,” as Kenny said.
At least eight important oil targets were clustered there within a rough half-circle, thirty-five miles in radius, with Auschwitz near the northeast end of the arc and Blechhammer near the northwest. Blechhammer was the main target—fleets of from 102 to 357 heavy bombers hit it on ten occasions between July 7 and November 20 [1944]—but it was not the only one. No fewer than six additional plants shook under the impact of tons of high explosives, including the industrial section of Auschwitz itself.
On Sunday, August 20, late in the morning, 127 Flying Fortresses, escorted by 100 Mustang fighters, dropped 1,336 500-pound high-explosive bombs on the factory areas of Auschwitz, less than five miles to the east of the gas chambers. Conditions that day were nearly ideal for accurate visual bombing. The weather was excellent. Anti-aircraft fire and the 19 German fighter planes there were ineffective. Only one American bomber went down; no Mustangs were hit. All five bomber groups reported success in striking the target area.
Again on September 13, a force of heavy bombers rained destruction on the factory areas of Auschwitz. The 96 Liberators which struck encountered no German aircraft, but ground fire was heavy and brought three of the bombers down. As before, no attempt was made to hit the killing installations which stood about five miles to the west.
On December 18 and also on December 26, American bombers again struck Auschwitz as an industrial target.
Beginning in early July, then, air strikes in the area were extensive. For example, two days after the first raid on Auschwitz, 261 Flying Fortresses and Liberators bombed the Blechhammer and Odertal oil refineries. Many of them passed within forty miles of Auschwitz soon after leaving their targets. On August 27, another 350 heavy bombers struck Blechhammer. Two days after that, 218 heavies hit Moravska-Ostrava and Oderberg (Bohumin), both within forty-five miles of Auschwitz. Not long before, on August 7, heavy bombers had carried out attacks on both sides of Auschwitz on the same day: 357 had bombed Blechhammer, and 55 had hit Trzebinia, only thirteen miles northeast of Auschwitz. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/why-auschwitz-was-never-bombed/
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The zionists and the media they owned blamed Hitler then, and will blame Assad now.
Michael O’Hanlon, mouthpiece for Haim Saban’s Brookings Institute, did just that, blame Assad, in an appearance on C Span’s Washington Journal on 1 Jan 2017 https://www.c-span.org/video/?420590-5/washington-journal-michael-ohanlon-discusses-foreign-policy-hotspots-2017
“Assad dropped barrel bombs on Syrian civilians!! He must be removed from power!!”
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Even the eggheads among us (or mostly the eggheads . . .) have been trained to recite: “Victors write the history,” and also, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
Q.E.D.
Does anyone need any greater (or more tragic) proof that much of what we have been told about WWII and alleged holocaust was crass propaganda, and that the same bad acts that the propagandists concealed in the first instance by criminalizing full debate of that war, are being repeated by the same miscreants who committed them the first time.
Posted by: Croesus | Jan 3 2017 20:06 utc | 74
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