Did NBC Cover Up Role of U.S.-Backed Free Syrian Army in 2012 Kidnapping of Richard Engel?

[KansDem]

From Democracy Now!

NBC News is at the center of a new controversy, this time focused on its chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel. Back in 2012 he and five other members of an NBC News team were kidnapped by armed gunmen in Syria. They were held for five days. Just after his release Engel spoke on NBC News and said this about his captors: "This is a government militia. These are people who are loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. They are Shiite." Well, earlier this week, a New York Times investigation prompted Engel to revise his story and reveal he was actually captured by Sunni militants affiliated with the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army. In an article published on Wednesday, Engel said the kidnappers had "put on an elaborate ruse to convince us they were Shiite shabiha militiamen." According to the Times investigation, NBC knew more than it let on about the kidnappers. We speak to As’ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. He runs the Angry Arab News Service blog. He expressed serious doubts about the circumstances surrounding Engel’s captivity and release when the story first broke in December 2012.

Please check back later for full transcript.

Democracy Now!

It appears NBC is having a little trouble with the truth. Maybe it's channeling FOX?

[deminks]

1. Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

I don't wonder that other things have been staged over the years, I wonder to what degree. That is what we are talking about - staging events to achieve a particular outcome - war. False flag, catapulting the propaganda, call it what you will. The MEdia has been complicit all along.

IMHO.

[spanone]

2. well to be fair, he was only 100% wrong

[leveymg]

3. Syrian exile groups were trained by US and others in propaganda and deception operations.

Call it complicit blowback. US corporate media was easily played in Syria because they wanted to play a role in regime change

Richard Engel is just a bit player in a much larger deception and media manipulation program carried out by the Syrian opposition's handlers in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, UK, and the United States. Engel's "go in harms way" war correspondent style was tailor made for this kind of staged, false-flag event. He and his producers allowed themselves to be led around by the nose and reported exactly what the opposition's own handlers wanted NBC to see where and when they wanted it be seen. Note that Engel was traveling in opposition controlled territory under "safe passage" with rebel minders when he was kidnapped.

Similar media manipulators guided the coverage of CBS and ABC correspondents. The rest of the US corporate media and large parts of the western press receive similar controlled exposure by the rebels. Few reports have ever been filed by major news organizations from the regime side.

For decades, Syrian exiles have been trained and supported by multiple agencies of the US government and private foundations such as CFR and the Ford Foundation, along with intelligence services of the rest of these countries. Syrian opposition exile groups have long been the recipient of training in propaganda, deception, and media perception management. All have read from and contributed chapters to the Big Book of Dirty Tricks that have guided this sort of deception campaign since the CIA updated it in the Contra wars of the 1980s. This has long been an open secret in DC, and US money and aid to Syrian exile groups grew rapidly in the years preceding the armed rebellion: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-doing-the-talking

(I)n February 2005, US-Syrian relations collapsed, and President Bush recalled his ambassador from Damascus. A lot of opposition projects date from this period. "The US money for Syrian opposition figures began flowing under President George W Bush after he effectively froze political ties with Damascus in 2005," says the Washington Post.

Indeed, many of the most widely reported events in the Syrian intervention have proven upon subsequent closer examination to have been either staged or the product of sophisticated deception campaigns. As this incident shows, the resulting public disinformation is voluntary on the part of some who play the well-paid role of "war correspondent."

[malaise]

4. I have never trusted Richard Engel

No one is ever that ubiquitous without being an insider.
We're being played non-stop - thankfully some of us know that.