West’s Syrian Narrative Based on ‘Guy in British Apartment’

Opposition propagandist in England apartment is, and has been, the sole source cited by the Western press.  

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor

The “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” has been cited by the Western media for over a year in nearly every report, regardless of which news agency, be it AFP, AP, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, BBC, or any of the largest Western newspapers. One would believe this to be a giant sprawling organization with hundreds of members working hard on the ground, documenting evidence in Syria with photographs and video, while coordinating with foreign press to transparently and objectively “observe” the “human rights” conditions in Syria, as well as demonstrate their methodologies. Surely that is the impression the Western media attempts to relay to its readers.

However, astoundingly, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is none of these things. Instead, it is merely a single man, sitting behind a computer in a British apartment, who alleges he receives “phone calls” with information always incriminating the Syrian government, and ever glorifying the “Free Syrian Army.” In fact, Reuters even admitted this in their article, “Coventry – an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist,” and even concedes that this man, “Rami Abdulrahman,” is openly part of the Syrian opposition who seeks the end of the Syrian government. Abdulrahman admits that he had left Syria over 10 years ago, has lived in Britain ever since, and will not return until “al-Assad goes.”

Of course, beyond this single article, Reuters and its fellow news agencies are sure to never again remind readers of these facts.

The opportunity for impropriety seems almost inevitable for a man who openly reviles a government long targeted for “regime change” by the very country he currently resides in, and who’s method of reportage involves dubious phone-calls impossible for anyone to verify. 

When Abdulrahman isn’t receiving mystery phone calls from fellow opposition members in Syria (like “Syrian Danny“) or passing on his less-than-reputable information to the Western press, he is slinking in and out of the British Foreign Office to meet directly with Foreign Secretary William Hague – who also openly seeks the removal of Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad. 

Photo: From Reuters: “Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, leaves the Foreign and Commonwealth Office after meeting Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in central London November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor” Abdelrahman is not the “head” of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, he is the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, run out of his British apartment as a one-man operation.  

Clearly for real journalists, Abdulrahman is a useless, utterly compromised source of information who has every reason to twist reality to suit his admittedly politically-motivated agenda of overthrowing the Syrian government. However, for a propagandist, he is a goldmine. That is why despite the overt conflicts of interest, the lack of credibility, the obvious disadvantage of being nearly 3,000 miles away from the alleged subject of his “observations,” or the fact that a single man is ludicrously calling himself a “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” in the first place, the Western media still eagerly laps up his constant torrent of disinformation. 

And when the Western press cites such a dubious, compromised character, it means that the actual evidence inevitably trickling out of Syria contradicts entirely the West’s desired narrative; so profoundly, in fact, that they must contrive the summation of their “evidence” from whole cloth with “tailors” like Abdelrahman. And while the general public should indeed be angry over being deceived on such a vast scale, they should be utterly outraged that the establishment thinks they are so stupid that they’d believe any evidence coming from an opposition activist, disingenuously masquerading as a reputable organization, telling us all what is happening in Syria via “phone-calls” received in his plush apartment in England.