Propagandist Robert Ford Goes For Round Two With Syria Researcher Vanessa Beeley … And Loses!

By Brandon Turbeville

In early January, 2016 Syria Researcher Vanessa Beeley found herself in the midst of a Twitter debate with none other than terrorist supporter and death squad organizer Robert Ford. The former U.S. Ambassador was apparently upset with Beeley’s challenge to the official State Department narrative of “Assad’s brutality” and shortly commenced to debating her in a private message.

Beeley published that conversation in her article, “Disseminating Fake Information: Conversations With State Department Propagandist Robert S. Ford, Former U.S. Ambassador To Syria,” and it can also be viewed in my own article “Syria Researcher Destroys Former U.S. Ambassador And Terrorist Supporter Robert Ford On Twitter.”

After this correspondence was published by Beeley, Ford was apparently ready for Round Two and, after expressing his dissatisfaction at having the previous correspondence published, began to engage her in yet another debate surrounding the nature of the Syrian “rebellion” and the true perpetrator of the atrocities witnessed in Syria today.

Below is a sampling of that discourse as posted by Vanessa Beeley in her article “Moderate death squads: Conversations with former US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford.”

Ford’s credentials as a fomenter of sectarian division and facilitator of “regime change” forces inside target nations goes way back and is well documented. When this was mentioned during a twitter exchange, Ford took umbrage and engaged me, again, on private message. Ford was keen to refute the accusations levied against him and his former colleague, John Negroponte. Negroponte is notorious for his “Salvador Option”, the creation of death squads in Honduras to assassinate resistance to the US supported regime. Ford and Negroponte worked side by side in Iraq. Ford was Political Counsellor during Negroponte’s tenure as US Ambassador to Iraq 2004/5. During this time there is significant evidence of the death squad blueprint being re-deployed in order to suppress, torture and massacre opponents of the US regime change operations.

Whilst Ford challenged me to find evidence to support these accusations, I do feel there is a mountain of extremely well researched analysis available to verify his nefarious role in opposition make-overs & to suggest it was no coincidence that he was posted to Damascus in 2011 as the rumblings of “popular” dissent started to creep into the Western media headlines.

Therefore, currently, I am only publishing the conversation relevant to Syria.

The following is the conversation that ensued:

FORD: Vanessa, since you like to publish our correspondence (I’ll ignore your ethical violations in publishing something without warning me in advance last time), please publish this as well: these accusations {referring to the Iraq death squads} are totally false. Reports don’t even get my title right from 2004 – 2006 when I was the political counsellor which is not the #2 in an embassy.

BEELEY: My ethical violations? I don’t even know where to begin with the US violations and yours as their representative. You publish on a public forum, you know the risks as we all do. Those accusations are not only made by one or two media outlets. They are widely available on the web, if you like I can compile a list for you.

FORD: One person exchanging messages with another via social media doesn’t relieve the author of an article from the ethical requirement as an author of informing the other person in the exchange that the author is going to publish. New York Times, Washington Post, European Press, Foreign Policy blogs, etc all operate that way. I will give you credit for publishing my remarks in full. I won’t give you credit for telling me in advance that you were going to publish them.

Oh, and 2 other things:

if Bashar Jaaferi is your idea of a real diplomat, then I just want to ask if you think it ok that he denied that there was any starvation in Syria

As for the number of people in the 2 towns [Kafarya & Foua], I used UN figures. If the “chief surgeon” has better numbers, well, that may be true but who is he, exactly, where does he work, how would he have access to figures (does he count the 23,000 individuals personally or does he get his figures from a third source) and how reliable is he ? UN isn’t perfect but it works through networks on the ground in Syria.

BEELEY: Ambassador Al Jaafari made it quite clear to the UN that in reality, the US “regime change” coalition, comprising US NATO GCC & Israel are besieging 23 million people in Syria.

It is your hell hounds that you are responsible for unleashing upon the Syrian people who are wreaking bloodshed and devastation among the Syrian people. The Chief Surgeon is in Kafarya and Foua, he is responsible for the care and health of ALL civilians in both villages and his family has lived there for generations. Frankly I would put greater faith in his information than any of your already monumentally discredited information sources that we know to be regime change partisans cultivated by the US and your allies.

Why is it so easy for me to get hold of accurate information and yet the UN fails to do so time and time again. Why could the UN have tea with Ahrar al Sham terrorists in Madaya yet claim they are fearful to pass the AS checkpoints leading into Kafarya and Foua. Double standards.

Today, civilian homes were shelled in Kafarya and Foua, so your “moderate rebels” have never respected any semblance of a ceasefire. Why are Kafarya and Foua never reported upon? Why are their lives worth less than those that serve your propaganda?

Had you been listening, Dr Al Jaafari went on to explain that there are 2 categories of Terrorist siege.

1. Where the terrorists surround a town or village and cut off supply while bombarding civilians with lethal hell cannon.

2. Where terrorists are occupying a town or area and stockpiling food and humanitarian supplies, deliberately starving civilians either for propaganda purposes or to punish them for their loyalty to Syria, the Syrian Arab Army and their elected government.

FORD: You didn’t answer my question about the Chief Surgeon. How do we know his data is more accurate than the UN’s ? On what grounds ? UN collects requests for food packets/medicine for the number of people. As for shelling, I have long denounced shelling of any civilians (which, by the way, you have not yet). I was not aware there is a ceasefire at Kafarya and Foua ? Is there a ceasefire at Madaya ? Daraya ? I don’t have a list of ceasefires in force – do you ? If so, I’d like to see it, and yes, that is a genuine question.

Yes, armed opposition and Al Nusra terrorists have blocked aid access at Kafraya and Fuaa, and they also blocked access to Zahra & Nubl (although latter 2 still had access through Afrin). These all were illegal but Syrian government is doing exactly the same, and on larger scale by far, according to UN and international aid organizations on the ground. If Syrian opposition calls the UN a regime apologist, well, the Syrian opposition doesn’t think of the UN the same way that you do. I won’t excuse fighters deliberately starving people in districts under siege (and I’ve seen accusations that they do but no evidence).

In any case, it still wouldn’t excuse the Syrian government from blocking aid access, per international humanitarian law – and UN Security Council resolutions. Jaaferi denying that there was starvation in besieged towns shows his government’s lack of credibility.

BEELEY: If you have what is equivalent to the Mayor of a community would you not expect them to have the most up to date figures. Considering the UN abject failure to enter Kafarya and Foua during the siege they cannot be considered a reliable data bank either on civilian numbers or on the situation in these villages. I can direct you to 2 excellent articles written by Eva Bartlett who has been to Syria on numerous occasions: They are worth reading as they will give a far more comprehensive view of the appalling conditions being endured by Kafarya and Foua, that is never covered by mainstream media.

Untold Suffering in Foua and Kafarya: Two Northwestern Syrian Villages Under Siege and Assault by NATO’s Terrorists

You talk about the Syrian government [nice to see the government legitimized] not allowing humanitarian aid through into terrorist occupied areas. Why then, did the Red Cross Spokesperson make a very clear public statement early January, clearly saying that they have NO problem entering Syrian Government held areas to distribute humanitarian aid with the obvious exception of Deir Ezzor.

Contrarily they are NEVER able to enter terrorist held areas in order to deliver aid, food and medical supplies. Dr Al Jaafari made the very clear claim that the UN had, itself, delayed delivery of aid to Madaya due to “logistical problems”.

As I have said before, Dr Al Jaafari did not deny there was starvation in Syria, he made the very salient point that the starvation is a result of crippling sanctions imposed by the US coalition, the infrastructure destruction carried out by the US coalition bombing raids that successfully wiped out water plants, power plants and other essential civilian infrastructure thus exacerbating the misery of the Syrian people as you have done previously in Libya and Iraq.

Dr Al Jaafari mentioned the cynical banditry of Turkey who have dismantled 1441 factories in Aleppo and transported them to Turkey, here is a quote from an Aleppo citizen detailing this theft and the debilitating effect it had upon the Syrian people:

“My brother saw his once rich and wealthy friend selling small items [plastics, gums, ..etc] on the street in front of a mosque, and he didn’t believe it. The friend told him that he lost everything, and he has a family to feed and needs to put food on the table. Turkey dismantled and stole his factory. His land has been burned, his properties have been either damaged or stolen, and he was bankrupt in no time at all. Each day, there is new story, real tragedies, that reach my ears and heart. All of a sudden, everything ended and people’s worlds collapsed around them. One $8 million factory was dismantled and stolen by Turkey. The owner had a stroke and died because of such losses. Aleppo’s industry has been torn apart and stolen by Turkey.” ~ Aleppo, a City Ravaged by Islamic State & Imperialism

None of this is accounted for and none of this is recognised as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, as it should be under your much cited International Law. So where is the duplicity in Dr Al Jaafari’s statement?

My response regarding the denouncement of the shelling of citizens. I have never ceased denouncing the shelling of civilians across Syria by your “moderate rebels” who liberally rain death down upon the Syrian people with their crude, indiscriminate and lethal hell cannon, mortars and rockets. Again I can send you a plethora of reports from Syrian civilians in Homs, Aleppo, Damascus and throughout Syria describing the horror of mortar and rocket attacks from US alliance armed, funded and supported terror factions inside Syria.

Then lets talk about the suicide bombers that have claimed the lives of thousands in Syria. I decry the shelling of civilians in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, anywhere in the world, either by the US directly or indirectly via your weapon supply to illegal and despotic, barbaric colonizing states that use these weapons to carry out the wholesale slaughter of the besieged nations of Yemen and Palestine. The US and the UN endorses the blockade and crippling siege of Yemen and of Gaza and yet you have the hypocrisy to accuse the Syrian Government of besieging its own people.

Let me ask you something, if the US were to be invaded by armed mercenaries intent upon beheading, raping, crucifying & massacring the American people and if those mercenaries were cultivated, armed and trained by hostile states to enforce regime change against the will of the American people, would your government roll over and pack their bags in case civilians got caught in the crossfire?

Or would they deem this invasion a blatant violation of International law and a threat to national security? Would those rebels be described as citizens of the US or would they be nominated terrorists, armed militants threatening the homeland?

If those terrorists were to occupy US cities and towns, what would be the military solution? To lay siege to the towns and cities and try to flush out the terrorist nests embedded in civilian areas or to do as the US did in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and obliterate them, carpet bomb them regardless of civilian casualties, collateral damage as they are so often described by Congress.

Until this discourse can be entered into with intellectual honesty and diplomatic transparency we are on a hiding to nothing and the bloodshed will continue. US exceptionalism has grown to mean utter lawlessness under not only International law but equally under moral and humanitarian law.

By flooding Syria with terrorists, arms, cash, special- forces, by backing armed insurgents and bombing Syria as the US and its Coalition have – they are in violation of every single International Law designed with the Nuremberg Principles in mind.

Whosoever supports such a course of action as the US-NATO-GCC-Israeli Axis is doing presently, is simply contributing to the ultimate demise of the UN, as it was with the League of Nations in WWII.

FORD: First, if you really care about Syrian civilians you will denounce the atrocities committed on all sides, not just those by the rebels. Just look at the difference between conditions in west Aleppo and east Aleppo – why is the latter so much more heavily damaged and depopulated ? The scale of crimes is not the same.

Second, I’m still waiting for you to cite independent sources not connected to the Syrian or Russian governments. For example, Syrian Ambassador Jaaferi saying “logistical problems” hindered deliveries is quite different and misleading from what the UN or the NGOs operating on the ground said. They say access blocked, not “logistical obstacles.” Please consider the independence and credibility of your sources. If you think I was paid a salary by a government to spout a line, don’t you think Jaaferi is as well?

Third, you raise a question worthy of debate about American exceptionalism; your points about Iraqi civilians suffering are not all wrong. The exceptionalism argument truly does merit discussion. but to focus on America solely, without your recognizing that the Syrians and Russians operating in Syria over the past months and years have been committing atrocities, and on a wider scale, than lightly armed rebels (few tanks, no helicopters, no jet bombers, no SCUD missiles) undermines the credibility of those raising questions about American exceptionalism.

BEELEY: Really struggling to respond to your message as you seem to have returned back to default propaganda position. Let us take Aleppo first. Aleppo is overrun with Al Nusra and Ahrar al Sham who have embedded themselves in civilian areas throughout Aleppo, actually reducing the city down to one fifth of its original size. The SAA are besieged in the centre of the old Citadel on the Acropolis Hill. The civilians of Aleppo are traditionally pro- Syrian Government and resisted all attempts to force them to join the pseudo US engineered “revolution”.

Aleppo is the industrial hub of Syria, hence its importance as a “rebel” gain, including factories capable of producing chemical weapons, in particular chlorine. However, it’s not just a terrorist gain is it? NATO ally Turkey, terror conduit extraordinaire, is enjoying its perks of the war on Syria. 1441 factories stolen from Aleppo, you have adroitly failed to address that point of course.

If the US cares so much about the Syrian people why did you bomb the Aleppo thermal power plant in Nov/Dec 2015 ensuring further misery for the Syrian people already living under occupation from your death squads who routinely execute civilians whom they deem to be apostates, with the White Helmets on hand to dispose of the bodies, many of which were flung into the River Queik successfully poisoning water supply for the Syrian people who resisted the Al Nusra occupation and remained loyal to their Government and their people.

I have no idea how you delineate between East and West. ISIS is more to the North and East of Aleppo. Aleppo itself, as I have mentioned is swarming with Al Nusra, accompanied by your poster boys, the White Helmets who spew the propaganda that serves the US alliance “regime change” agenda.

I have been told of the Al Nusra aka Al Qaeda tactics to drive people out of their homes, defecating on the floors, burning furniture, intimidation. These same Al Nusra mercenaries who have decimated Aleppo with their Hell Cannon and mortar fire. The same Al Nusra mercenaries who have dug tunnels under the ancient Citadel and then detonated them under ancient heritage buildings in an attempt to get to the SAA marooned on the Acropolis hill, tactics repeated across Syria with no regard for civilian life. The same Al Nusra mercenaries who have systematically maimed, wounded, starved and terrorized the people of Aleppo & not only Aleppo.

These are your “moderate rebels” that you are defending while they tear the fabric of Syrian society apart. Consider my sources?! You do not have one source on the ground in Syria that is not funded directly or indirectly by the US or UK government and you talk to me of independent sources!?

The big difference is that the US is a hostile nation violating every aspect of International Law by enabling, arming and funding a proxy army comprising of 90% non-Syrian mercenaries that is invading and destroying an independent sovereign nation. The US may have outsourced its murderers and assassins as has been CIA practice for decades but nobody is buying it any more.

The US & its allies are the instigators and perpetrators of the crimes against the people of Syria. Syria is resisting your attempts of a hostile takeover and under your beloved international law their right to do so is unquestionable. The Syrian government represents the majority of the Syrian people and as such their reports are far more representative of reality on the ground in Syria than your fifth columnists embedded with terrorists under whichever brand name they have affiliated themselves to.

So I put the question back to you. Find me one single independent source that is not working to promote the US alliance agenda. Personally I prefer to listen to the Syrian people but I understand from your standpoint that would utterly undermine the illusions you have been feeding people for the last 5 years. Illusions which are currently melting before your eyes as the SAA and allies advance and destroy your agents & assets.

I understand that must be very painful for you, to see the plans you worked on for years be destroyed by the Axis of Resistance to US & Israeli hegemony in the region. The implications are immense for the US roadmap in the Middle East..that must be a bitter pill for you and Congress to swallow.

Finally I come to your preposterous statement of “lightly armed rebels”. Really here you become a caricature of the double speak and duplicity of the US government. I only have to go to something as mainstream as Wikipedia to demonstrate the ridiculousness of such a statement.

In addition to TOW missiles, Hell Cannon, Grad missiles and an assortment of heavy artillery, tanks, missile launchers, they have the chlorine and various chemical weapons ingredients so kindly supplied to them by Turkey, which has been proven. The use of chemical weapons by terrorist gangs has even been accepted by the UN, your chosen bastion of credibility.

Remember the heinous truck bombing of Aleppo’s Al Kindi hospital in December 2013, your “moderate rebels” had enough explosive for that mass slaughter, never mentioned by your propagandists. Your Frankenstein monster is creating hell on earth for the Syrian people, the least you can do is to take responsibility for it and ask forgiveness for the suffering you have imposed upon them but this will never happen. Instead the Syrian Arab Army and allies will clear up your mess and sweep Syria clean of the cancer you introduced. To even suggest that they should be denied the right to do that, is criminal.

Finally, you said, “If you think I was paid a salary by a government to spout a line, don’t you think Jaaferi is as well?” Fortunately not every world government adheres to the pitiful White House standards of dishonesty, deceit and hypocrisy nor should they be judged by those who uphold none of the guiding principles laid down by their founding fathers and instead do all in their power to desecrate all that is decent and humane in this world.

So Ford wanted a second Round with Beeley and was dealt with in much the same manner as he was in the first. His blatantly false propaganda against the Syrian government and his obfuscation of facts on the ground were clearly brought out in front of all and demolished in the full light of day.

Ford’s faux outrage at the deaths of Syrian civilians must be taken with a grain of salt. Ford knows full well that these numbers are overwhelmingly Syrian soldiers and civilians killed by his terrorist pets. Ford knows full well that the Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham are extremists bent on establishing a caliphate in the Middle East and implementing a nightmare scenario on the civilians unable to escape their wretched religious state.

Ford knows all of this because he was one of the principal worker bees who helped create the situation on the ground. Ford may cry his crocodile tears for the loss of innocent Syrians if he wants but the jig is still up. He may launch propaganda assaults against the Syrian people and those who oppose the imperialist aims of the Anglo-Americans every chance he gets but the blood of 250,000 people – from every side – is so thick on his hands it will never wash off.

When the conflict in Syria is over, Ford must be held accountable along with the other architects of the al-Qaeda invasion. Until then, we might be tempted to settle for his silence. If his second round with Vanessa Beeley is anything to go by, however, he may learn to be silent soon enough since both debates have left his propaganda torn to shreds and left rotting for all to see.

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 650 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.