Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The foiled US -Embassy Attack in Syria & the media bias

Browsing Yahoo news earlier ansd was horrified to see this title:
'Four dead after attack on the US Embassy in Syria'

I took a screenshot just in case it is changed later on, here it is




Oh my God I tell myself , four Embassy staff have been killed in Syria , just the excuse that America has been waiting for to attack ! After the recent war in Lebanon and the accusations flying back and forth against Syria and it's alleged hand in the helping Hizbollah all sorts of conspiracy theories abound in my head.

But then I clicked on the link and lo and behold what do I actually find out ? ..That apparently some wannabe jihadis were repelled and 3 of them killed in the fighting while one of the Syrian anti-terror squad lost his life in the process . See the details here. Hmm that's already a different story than that earlier title suggested, plus the real title of the story is actually different as you can see when you click.

It is a welcome note to hear that Ms. Condoleeza Rice has praised Syria's response to the attack as follows : "We appreciate the response of the Syrian security forces to help secure our territory".

I say we live in interesting times and the sensationalist prior portrayal is designed to play with the mind of the average American, especially after such an emotive time as the anniversary of 9/11 in order to plant a seed of hatred for anothe Middle Eastern country . Shame ! According to some people only Al-Jazeera of Arab media uses these tricks ...

Furthermore, some events may contain a silver lining which I glimpsed in that the the timing of the embassy attack "serves as a reminder that in the wake of those attacks [9/11], the Syrian intelligence services were reportedly among the best providers of information to their US counterparts on al-Qaeda's activities."

So maybe America will re-consider its relationship ? time will tell ...

As I keep saying the only absolute is God, the rest comes in all shades .

Further reading :
BBC link
More photos

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't be paranoid, Highlander.

No one is going to attack Syria over an instance like this. Far from it. Early reports are a little confusing, but it sounds like the Syrian security services help thwart this attack.

This sounds like amateur night terrorism.

Anonymous said...

Oops. I deleted the rest of post. Needless to say, I petty much agree with you.

Highlander said...

Tommy - I think i'm becoming an alarmist :O

Highlander said...

He he he NBA I told you the conspiracies will start coming :)

Actually it's not about irritating a superpower, from my experience of Syria the governement there is really afraid of the Islamists and does not want to let them have any foothold not even on inch , while an angry mob is something different alltoghether.

Of course terrorists always choose the US embassy or one of its allies to perform their crimes- poor Denmark will not be deemed important enough to make a statement except in the cartoon issue.

programmer craig said...

Hi Highlander :)

I suppose I'm becoming a conspiracy theorist too, because my first thought when I read the article (I read a different one) was "Wow, how conveninet! The car bomb didn't explode? Syrian security identified and killed the attackers, before they were able to actually launch an attack!?" and such like that.

I'm wondering if Syrian intelligence didn't find some random idiots and plot an "attack" on the US Embassy for the express purpose of thwarting it. I guess I automatically think the worst about Governments like Syria, as so many Arabs do about Israel and the US. Maybe. But I still think it's just way too amazing the Syrian security forces have been able to do what pretty much NOBODY has ever done before, and stop a terror attack in progress. It's possible though, I guess.

Syria the governement there is really afraid of the Islamists and does not want to let them have any foothold not even on inch

Hmmm. Unless the Islamists are Hezbollah, I take it? Because Hezbollah leaders are meeting with Syrian big-wigs in Damascus pretty much every single day. Or does that term apply only to Sunnis?

I guess I don't want to bring up all the times in the past where teh Syrian Government has been directly involved in terror attacks. Let them have their day in the sun, having done the right thing. This story may be legit, in which case the US owes Syria a debt.

Anonymous said...

My gut feeling is that this was probably either amateur Muslim Brotherhood wannabes or possibly a stunt pulled off

I can understand Programmer Craig being skeptical about the Syrian government, though. Assad's regime is exceedingly duplicitous, even in the Mideast.

Anonymous said...

Darn! I am deleting every other thing I type today. I deleted the second possibility in my last post; namely, that the attack was carried out by poorly trained al-Qaeda fighters who have deteriorated markedly in quality because they have no central training ground and must increasingly recruit locals provided with a minimum of instruction.

programmer craig said...

Well, just to spice things up while we are talking about Hezbollah and it's sponosrs, Syria and Iran:


Hassan Nasrallah is the anti-Christ

Qantar took part in the 1979 killings of an Israeli, his four-year-old daughter and a policeman in north Israel. Witnesses said Qantar shot the man dead and then smashed the girl's head with his rifle butt.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday no agreement with Israel would be possible without Qantar's release.

"You ask me will there be a deal without Samir, I say no," he said. "Absolutely not."

Now that the Syrians are the good guys, Highlander, and chance they could send us Hassan Nasrallah's head in a sack? You know, for world peace and good will towards men and stuff? Yes? Or not so much?

I'm sorry, but I cannot view anyone who supports a monster liek Nasrallah and an organization like Hezbollah as anything but a mortal enemy. Hezbollah used to be Syria and Iran's solution, but now Hezbollah will be their death. It's not too late for Syria and Iran to do the right thing.

Highlander said...

Programmer_Craig :) I'll let you have the last word....

programmer craig said...

I don't want the last word, though! I want Nasrallah's head in a sack! I'd even pay the shipping! Second day air should sufficent, a little curing won't do any harm.

Anonymous said...

Nasrallah isn't the anti-Christ. A better candidate would be another Hezbollah figure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imad_Mugniyah