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Media Blackout As Syria Rebels Set Up MSM Journalists To Be Murdered

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 20:37

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British journalists from Channel 4 News say Syria rebel terrorists set them up to be killed by government forces for propaganda purposes.

A report from the Associated Press reveals that journalist inside Syria were led into a government free fire zone by Syria rebel terrorists in hopes they would be murdered by government forces for propaganda purposes.

A free fire zone is like a no-fly zone on the ground which is marked off-limits and people who enter are shot on-site.

Channel 4 News’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson who was set up by the rebels to be murdered says there was no way it was a mistake that the terrorists directed his team into the free fire zone.

The Associated Press report on story being carried by corporate media news outlets leaves out many key details such as the journalists were actually shot at by government forces.

It also fails to even describe how the rebels tricked them into entering the off-limits area after covering the UN observer’s in the area or that other journalists are also reporting that rebels have tried to spring similar traps on them.

It is absolutely sick that the corporate media blacks out such an incident were their own reporters are being set up to be murdered to push the war agenda.

If these journalists ended up being murdered the story would of course been a top headline on every news outlet as propaganda to further justify war, just like past incidents.

Take for example this 3 page CNN hit piece demonizing the Syria government based on terrorist accusations two journalists were killed by government forces.

From the Associated Press:

AP Report: Syria Terrorist Rebels Set Up Journalists To Be Murdered

Source: The Australian

The more detailed original AP article from Google hosted news, which isn’t being reprinted in full on corporate news sites, provides more detail but still omits the gravity of the situation.

Original AP article on attempted rebel death plot

Source: Google Hosted News

The post from Channel 4 News from Alex gives a more complete picture of the event which starts off detailing how the journalists were working alongside the UN peace observer’s in the area and then goes on to detail how they were set up.

Set up to be shot in Syria’s no man’s land

[...]

This is new. Different. Hostile. This is not like Homs or Houla and still the UN meeting drags on in the hot afternoon…

We decide to ask for an escort out the safe way we came in. Both sides, both checkpoints will remember our vehicle.

We decide to ask for an escort out the safe way we came in. Both sides, both checkpoints will remember our vehicle.

Set up to be shot?

Suddenly four men in a black car beckon us to follow. We move out behind.

We are led another route. Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone. Told by the Free Syrian Army to follow a road that was blocked off in the middle of no-man’s-land.

At that point there was the crack of a bullet and one of the slower three-point turns I’ve experienced. We screamed off into the nearest side-street for cover.

Another dead-end.

There was no option but to drive back out onto the sniping ground and floor it back to the road we’d been led in on.

Predictably the black car was there which had led us to the trap. They roared off as soon as we re-appeared.

I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus.

That conviction only strengthened half an hour later when our four friends in the same beaten-up black car suddenly pulled out of a side-street, blocking us from the UN vehicles ahead.

The UN duly drove back past us, witnessed us surrounded by shouting militia, and left town.

Eventually we got out too and on the right route, back to Damascus.

Please, do not for one me moment believe that my experience with the rebels in al Qusair was a one-off.

This morning I received the following tweet:

“@alextomo I read your piece “set up to be shot in no mans land”, I can relate as I had that same experience in Al Zabadani during our tour.”

That was from Nawaf al Thani, who is a human rights lawyer and a member of the Arab League Observer mission to Syria earlier this year.

It has to make you wonder who else has had this experience when attempting to find out what is going on in rebel-held Syria.

In a war where they slit the throats of toddlers back to the spine, what’s the big deal in sending a van full of journalists into the killing zone?

It was nothing personal.

Source: Channel 4 News

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