Amnesty International is a phony human rights organization that is complicit in the war crimes being committed against the Syrian people (Gearóid Ó Colmáin)

Rarely will Amnesty pass up the chance to sponsor a hoax, whether it be Saddam’s incubator babies, Gaddafi using black mercenaries to kill Libyans, or Richard Engel’s fake kidnapping, if it can be used as an excuse to promote war or crippling sanctions on perceived Western enemies.

In 2014 there was the Caesar photo hoax, presenting the world with photos of 11,000 supposed victims of the Syrian government who had, we were told, died under gruesome torture. It soon transpired that of 11,000 dead detainees, at least half died in battle, doubt was cast on others and in the end Human Rights Watch, chief sponsor, could only verify 27 as being torture victims, whether victims of the government or the ‘democratic rebels’ being still unclear. In the meantime, Amnesty, true to form, threw its not inconsiderable weight behind the hoax and announced that there were 11,000 reasons to declare war on Syria.

Amnesty is clearly hoping that the debunked Caesar photo scam has been forgotten, as it has now  constructed its very own fraud on Syrian prison atrocities, Harrowing accounts of torture, inhuman conditions and mass deaths in Syria’s prisons.

The horrifying experiences of detainees subjected to rampant torture and other ill-treatment in Syrian prisons are laid bare in a damning new report published by Amnesty International today which estimates that 17,723 people have died in custody in Syria since the crisis began in March 2011 – an average rate of more than 300 deaths each month (Amnesty International Report).

Unfortunately for Amnesty, the report is completely devoid of credibility, as all the data, without exception, is provided by organisations that openly campaign against the Syrian government, which renders the data useless.

Firstly, the data was analysed by the  Human Rights Data Analysis Group. Like Amnesty, the  HRDAG is funded by George Soros’s Open Society . Soros is a hedge fund manager turned philanthropist , whose NGO protegees are universally involved in the vilification of the Syrian government with a view to achieving regime change in Syria.

However, Amnesty’s biggest problem is the way in which the data was sourced. The data comes from four impressively named sources: the Syrian Center for Statistics and Research, the Damascus Center for Human Rights , the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), and the Violations Documentation Center.  At least two of these organisations also receive Soros funding: SNHR and Damascus Center for Human Rights are both members of the International Coalition for the Right to Protect, which is partially funded by George Soros and the Open Society Institute via the International Crisis Group.

A look at their websites reveals that all four of Amnesty’s sources for this new report are openly committed to the Syrian ‘revolution’. The Damascus Center for Human Rights (est. 2005, reg. Washington), for example, has a page ‘Fallen heroes of the Revolution’.  The Violations Documentation Center (est. April 2011) divides victims into two types: ‘a-The Revolution’s Martyrs: who were killed by regime forces and thugs’ and ‘b-The Regime’s Casualties: who were killed by anti-government fires’.

The Syrian Center for Statistics and Research, est. August 2011, claims to be one of the most reliable sources on Syria for the UN, with staff in all areas of Syria, but its reports are all from the terrorist perspective, e.g. ‘the Obstacles faced by the Syrian Revolution groups’ and ‘The public position in regards to Geneva negotiations‘: a poll in areas under the armed opposition control’. The logo of one of its two ‘local’ partners, the Free Syrian Lawyers Association, based in Turkey, sports a terrorist flag.

Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR, founded in June 2011) was a bad choice for Amnesty, as it is well-known for its active campaigning against the Syrian government. The Network is still commemorating the 3rd anniversary of the Ghouta attack, attributing responsibility to the government, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

All four ‘sources’ use as a matter of course language associated with denigration of the Syrian government (the ‘Assad regime’) and its forces, and the romanticising and exaltation of those endeavouring to bring down the government through the use of force (the ‘rebels’ or ‘armed resistance’).  Hence we get talk of ‘revolution martyrs’ on the one hand, and ‘regime thugs’ (Syrian soldiers) on the other.

In order to ensure the right results Amnesty International has chosen to use organisations which are totally biased against the Syrian government and its forces and totally supportive of the West’s ‘rebels’, who are sectarian by creed and barbaric in culture.  The information is likely to be completely fabricated and the report is worthless.

Afterword: it has all been done before – Athens, Febuary 1945.

In December of 1944, the British supported German collaborators in a battle against the people of Athens, as another step in the campaign to crush the Left, and ensure the return of the monarchy and a government favourable to the British.  Churchill himself went out to watch the RAF bomb the suburbs of Athens.  There was a shocked response from the House of Commons and the Press, who could not understand why Britain was attacking its most loyal ally in wartime.  In order to take the wind out of the sails of the detractors, an exhibition was organised in Athens.

The Walter Citrine exhibition, named after and organised for the British Trade Union official who went to view it and report on it, displayed bodies supposedly mutilated by the Greek Resistance ELAS, the bodies having first been carried round the suburbs of Athens in a gruesome mobile exhibition.  The bodies had in fact been dug up by right-wing gangs and then mutilated – often the victims were ELAS fighters.  The truth became clear when people went to identify the bodies.  A typical example (slightly abbreviated)is: ‘Spiros Georgiou Venieris, 22, 64 Akominatos St. Struck by tank-fire 12 December and died same day.  Body first transferred to Ayios Vasilis in Metsovo St, and then buried in Agios Spyridonas.  On 10 February his mother found the grave open and empty, and she was told the body had been taken to Peristeri, where she found it exhibited with other bodies, supposedly mutilated by ELAS’.  The detail of the records is in itself striking but unfortunately the best sources are in Greek.

Although the exhibition was quickly exposed as fraudulent in Greece, the vilification of ELAS as brutes served its purpose in Britain as criticism in Britain of Churchill’s policies in Greece was muted.

Further reading

Eva Bartlett, Human Rights Front Groups: Humanitarian Interventionists Warring on Syria

Amnesty International

Rick Sterling, Eight Problems with Amnesty’s Report on Aleppo Syria

Tony Cartalucci, Amnesty International is US State Department Propaganda

Gearóid Ó Colmáin, Amnesty International, War Propaganda, and Human Rights Terrorism /a>

Domihol, Syrien: offene Gesellschaft, kluge Macht und die Begnadigung = Syria: Open Society, Soft Power and Human Rights (in German, very good on Amnesty background)

Caesar files

Monitor on Mass Marketing, Fail Caesar: Exposing the Anti-Syria Photo Propaganda (in 10 parts)

George Soros

Vanessa Beeley, George Soros: Anti-Syria Campaign Impresario

Bashar al Assad

Barbara McKenzie, The Demonisation of Bashar al Assad