A Syrian oppositionist, presumably from Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham, in a Turkish tank. Only since the Islamist militias started committing brutalities in the service of the Turkish military, the Western media woke up. Photo: Propaganda of the HTS-"Media agency" ebaa.news.
Leaks from British Auben Ministry Confirm Allegations of Systematic Whitewashing of Armed Islamist Militias as Moderate Opposition
The label "moderate opposition" or "Rebels" as a collective name for the militias that wanted to bring about an Islamic state in Syria by force of arms, has lasted for a long time. It is only in the last few months that the term "rebel" has appeared in German, English or French reports "Islamist" or "jihadist" more often when it comes to these groupings.
The fact that the view of the situation on the Syrian terrain has only changed with such a delay is due to several reasons, one of which is the professional and far-reaching media PR work in favor of the militant holy warriors against the Syrian government. How quickly the media departments of the Islamist, Salafist and jihadist militias worked was no secret in journalistic circles. via mail or Whats-App contacts, they reacted very quickly to events and conflict materials in media reports. The militias are well connected.
200 to 300 leaks "with sensitive content"
At the beginning of September, a rough set of documents was published, pointing to a media PR work for the armed Islamist opposition in Syria, whose strategy and scope have a huge dimension. It is an example of war propaganda at the beginning of the 21st century. Century. It was financed by the governments of Great Britain, the USA, European states and the EU, as the papers show.
There are probably 200 to 300 leaks "with sensitive content" from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO), as reported by Middle East Eye. The hackers are still being guessed at. This raises the question of how it was possible to penetrate the computers of the Foreign Office.
Numerous samples of the leaked documents are published here and here. So far, only U.S. journalist Ben Norton for The Grayzone and French journalist Maxime Choix for Deep-News-Media have bothered to analyze the material in longer reports.
Whether the documents are authentic is not proven, but there is little to say they are not. The British Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no comment on the matter.
However, this is not the first disclosure concerning the funding of media relations by the British and US governments to present the activities of the armed opposition in a good light ( Propaganda: Syrian Citizen Journalists as Military-Political Interface). There is official evidence that the British government has worked with communications consultancies on Syria.
The British government’s contractors listed in the documents are well known. One of the partners InCoStrat (Innovative Communications Strategies) had already confirmed to the Guardian in 2016 that it provided media and communications support to the moderate Syrian opposition. The other rough agency ARK has been active in the Syrian opposition since its "advisory" as stated in an analysis brochure from 2016 (keyword "Understanding the Syrian conflict") reports.
InCoStrat was founded by a British ex-military officer who also worked as a strategic communications advisor for the UK Ministry of Defense. The head of the contractor The Global Strategy Network (TGSN), also a contractor of the British ministries, was formerly a head of the global counterterrorism unit in MI6. The mentioned communication agency ARK is based in the United Arab Emirates.
This indicates the involvement of the military apparatus in the image work, the British Ministry of Defense was also involved in some PR activities, and the possibilities of an enormous reach through the best relationships in the Arab world, especially with Arab broadcasters.
Best contacts to the New York Times, CNN, the BBC, the Guardian, the Financial Times…
The contractors of the British government – some of them are also contractors of the U.S., in some fields, according to the papers, the EU or Denmark are also involved; where the Weibhelme are concerned, one can also suspect France’s involvement – have provided training, facilities, money for journalists who have supplied the Syrian, Arab and international public with reports, films and radio contributions in order to improve the image of the political opposition, of the "Free Syrian Army" and including radical, jihadist, al-Qaeda-affiliated militias, as possible to portray.
Excerpts from the contractors’ success stories as revealed in the leaked documents: More than half of the stringers who worked for al-Jazeera in Syria were trained in a joint U.S.-UK program called "Basma" educated. Hundreds of Syrian media activists originated from Basma. InCoStrat boasts that its network includes more than 1,600 international journalists and influencers who become pro-opposition talking points "pushed" can become.
ARK The agency has excellent contacts with Reuters, the New York Times, CNN, the BBC, the Guardian, the Financial Times, al-Jazeera, Sly News Arabic, Orient TV and al-Arabija. over 668.000 of the print products produced with ARK’s advice were distributed in Syria. The Dubai-based agency also took over the PR strategy of the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the leadership of the militias then called FSA. According to ARC part of its communication strategy is to keep its image as soft as possible.
The FSA included militias such as Jaish al-Islam, which pursued a strict Islamist agenda with Sharia courts and from whose domain cruel treatment of opposition figures was reported. There were also reports from the ranks of the FSA militias of sympathy for the fanaticism and terror of al-Qaida groups, with which they entered into combat alliances. Foremost among these was the al-Nusra Front (later renamed Hayat Tahrir- ash-Sham), which was descended from al-Qaida and had formerly been closely linked to militias of the "Islamic State" was. Thus, it was not uncommon for jihadists arriving from Turkey to switch between groups once they arrived in Syria.
Burger journalism on behalf of PR agency with a political agenda
The leaked documents show that al-Nusra representatives were also interlocutors of the PR agencies’ recruited, trained and paid "Burger journalists" who then passed on their material to the media. Now, talking to extreme groups is one thing, but downplaying their activities and goals in a systematic and planned way – which helped to prolong the war – is another.
Special PR care benefited the Weibhelmen. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the professionally staged clips and press statements of the "Helpers" seen and wondered how individuals with close ties to hardcore militias get ceremonial appearances at the Elysee Palace.
What is surprising is how far the PR strategy extends. According to the leaked documents, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), which is required by the EU, was also part of the agencies’ PR offering. ARK even states that the consulting firm first established the (then renamed) Syrian Commission for Justice and Accountability (SCJA). Parts of the CIJA are being Grayzone-Authors accused of being close to jihadists.
It is also interesting to note that the PR makers boasted that they had, "Guerrilla tactics" to have included in their communication. "Creating events that become media events", heibt das Stichwort dazu. As an example, during the siege of Homs, people wearing T-shirts were shown on TV depicting Assad as the creator of IS. This myth persists to this day.