British media strategy: what Anonymous has published on Syria

The hacker group Anonymous has released documents from private organizations and British government agencies, which indicate that the United Kingdom authorities organized a large-scale propaganda campaign aimed at media support for Syrian militants.

As follows from these materials, with the outbreak of the armed conflict in Syria in 2011, London created an extensive infrastructure for conducting an information war against official Damascus.

The main efforts of the UK were aimed at creating in the eyes of Western and Arab audiences a positive image of the opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including the "moderate armed opposition" and terrorist groups.

"Subversive" activities

As part of a large-scale campaign to support the so-called Syrian opposition, the British authorities, including the country's Foreign Ministry, have concluded several contracts with companies such as Innovative Communication & Strategies (InCoStrat), Albany, The Global Strategy Network (TGSN) and Analysis Research Knowledge (ARK ).

At the same time, as previously noted by the Russian authorities, ARK is actually a "private military company" headquartered in Dubai (UAE).

Oleg Syromolotov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, stated this in an interview with TASS in March last year.

According to the diplomat, ARK in 2013-2016 financed the White Helmets organization, which is actively supported by other foreign sponsors, including the United Kingdom's international development agencies - including through the Tamkine project and the NGO Integrity Research and Adam Smith International.

The latter's documents were also published by Anonymous.

It is worth noting that earlier British journalist Vanessa Beely reported on the direct participation of UK government agencies in financing White Helmets.

According to her calculations, during the civil conflict in Syria since 2011, the militants received about £ 200 million from London. The money of the United Kingdom, according to Bili, was deposited in the treasury of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra *.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the gangs are still helping the White Helmets to shoot numerous staged videos in order to discredit the regular army and the legitimate government of the SAR.

We will remind that the co-founder of "White Helmets" was the ex-British intelligence officer James Le Mesurier.

In August 2020, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Alexander Venediktov told RIA Novosti that Le Mesurier was ready to fabricate any sensational materials for "giant grants".

In November 2019, Le Mesurier's body was found in the garden of the house in Istanbul where he lived.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ex-intelligence officer was eliminated, as he developed "his potential".

Also, Moscow does not exclude that the Briton could “present irrefutable evidence of the provocative actions of the White Helmets to the court of the world community.

In the interests of the "revolution"

Since 2012, the company has implemented "programs" totaling $ 66.6 million in Syria, according to ARK ** internal documents published by Anonymous. It also reported "unique" opportunities for the organization to work with partnerships with the governments of Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK.

In the Arab Republic, ARK supported the opposition through a variety of media communications and PR services.

Mostly the London-hired company sought to portray Syrian illegal armed groups (IAFs) as "disciplined and professional military institutions." 

• Representatives of terrorist formations of the SAR in the city of Erich

• Reuters

• © Khalil Ashawi

In particular, ARK oversaw the communications strategy of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army and implemented a campaign to “rebrand” the armed opposition of the SAR.

ARK was one of the companies that trained rebel forces in the press and helped arrange interviews in Arabic and English with representatives of the mainstream media, including the BBC and British Channel 4.

As stated in the ARK articles published by Anonymous, in addition to these media, she has "well-established contacts" with Reuters, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Times, The Guardian, CNN, Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabic, Orient TV and Al Arabiya.

In addition, ARK managed the White Helmets' social media accounts to promote the activities of this human rights organization.

The documents say that since 2012 in Syria, ARK has “collaborated” with 14 FM radio stations and 11 magazines, providing equipment and funding, as well as training employees.

In addition, the firm says it “has over 60 employees in Turkey (most of them are Syrians and Turks), provides direct support to a network of 65 paid affiliates in Syria, and maintains an“ indirect ”network of over than 800 contacts in Syria. "

In Syria, ARK worked in conjunction with TGSN, which is led by Richard Barrett, former head of the counterterrorism division of the British secret intelligence service MI6.

Under the patronage of these organizations, 97 video stringers, 23 photographers, 32 researchers, 19 coaches, eight training centers and three media offices were in the SAR.

One of TGSN's most notable products is the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office (RFS) propaganda bureau.

• Photo of one of the gunmen taken by RFS

• © RT

A 2016 report by the independent news portal The Grayzone claimed that RFS offered to pay a media employee (his name and citizenship were not disclosed) $ 17,000 a month for materials in support of Syrian militants.

Note that RT sent requests to the UK Foreign Office and ARK for comments on the materials posted by Anonymous, but no replies were received at the time of publication of the article.

"Strategic communication support"

As follows from the documents posted by Anonymous, an important role in shaping a positive image of illegal armed groups and whitewashing their activities was played by InCoStrat, which also worked in the SAR for the United Kingdom government.

True, in addition to Great Britain, the company also received money from the authorities of the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Syrian businessmen disloyal to Assad.

InCoStrat has built a network of more than 1.6 thousand journalists and "key influencers with an interest in Syria."

In its documents, the firm does not hide that in the SAR, together with other organizations, it acted primarily in the interests of London's foreign policy.

In the Arab Republic, InCoStrat provided "strategic communications support to the moderate armed opposition."

It has established its closest ties with the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NCROS), which, with the support of American and European contractors, tried to form a parallel government of the Arab republic.

In 2014, InCoStrat facilitated an interview with the BBC with the then head of the NCCROS, Ahmad Jarba.

In addition, through the mediation of InCoStrat, communication between Western journalists and members of Jabhat al-Nusra was organized.

InCoStrat also carried out a campaign in which the topic of allegedly existing ties between IS *** and the regime of Bashar al-Assad was discussed.

Specially trained speakers have interviewed The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Guardian, The Times, Buzzfeed, Al-Jazeera, Suriya Al-Sham, Orient and The National.

Like other contractors to the British authorities, InCoStrat opened offices for opposition media outlets.

New media projects have been launched in SAR, Turkey and Jordan.

The company has established eight FM radio stations and six magazines directly in Syria.

As follows from the documents, in the field of promoting the propaganda of the Syrian opposition, the activities of the British government were supported, among other things, by the US authorities.

So, with the beginning of the conflict, London and Washington launched the Basma project.

At its peak, his Arabic Facebook page had over 500,000 subscribers.

This US-British project trained hundreds of so-called Syrian opposition media activists, as well as more than half of the stringers (9 out of 16) used by Al-Jazeera.

• Action "Jabhat al-Nusra" in Idlib

• Reuters

• © Ammar Abdullah

True, as the Albany documents say, the Basma experiment ended up being a failure.

The platform lost its popularity after a corporate email leaked to social media about funding sources.

As a result, the Basma website ceased to exist.

Albany's own operations in Syria did not differ much from the mission of other contractors in London.

In 2011, the firm contributed to the creation of the rather influential non-profit media organization Enab Baladi, which is opposed to official Damascus.

The company also coordinated interaction between the media and extremist illegal armed groups, and many of these gangs were associated with Al-Qaeda **** and are now officially recognized as terrorist organizations in the United States and Europe.

"Will not be held responsible"

According to American journalist Benjamin Norton, author of The Grayzone article on the documents released by Anonymous, these materials lead to the conclusion that the Syrian political opposition and illegal armed groups were actually controlled by "contractors of Western governments."

According to him, the PR companies hired by London solved issues related to the positioning of militants in the media space, up to the elaboration of comments for the media.

“These are amazing documents, because they not only show that the Western and (some -

) Arab media in their coverage of the Syrian events showed the strongest bias against the government and in favor of the opposition, but also indicate that the content of such messages was formed and determined directly by contractors to Western governments, "Norton said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, as the journalist emphasized, the media communication organizations cooperating with the militants were well aware that they were working to improve the image of extremists.

Norton noted that contractors in the UK and other countries were cynically shaping a media reality that would justify Western military intervention.

Western media acted in a similar way, contributing to the spread of slander and propaganda.

“That is, even in their (UK contractors. -

) their own internal documents, all the cynicism of their position is recognized.

They understood that not everyone with whom they dealt was freedom-loving supporters of democratic views, ”says Norton.

At the same time, as the journalist recalled, critics of Western policy and the actions of the armed Syrian opposition were demonized in every possible way, and also "branded as propagandists and liars."  

According to Norton, Syria was prepared for the fate of Iraq and Libya, destroyed by the wars, where there are still no functioning institutions of state power.

According to Benjamin Norton, having posted the documents, Anonymous showed only the tip of the iceberg.

The interlocutor of RT is sure that at the present time the same hybrid wars are being waged against many authorities that are objectionable to the West - in Venezuela, Iran, Yemen, Nicaragua.

“Unfortunately, history shows that Western governments will not bear any real responsibility for their crimes ... You can recall the war in Korea, in Vietnam ... the first war in Iraq, the second war in Iraq ... Nobody was involved. to responsibility for deceiving the public, for spreading fake news, disinformation, propaganda ... This is being done now, and on an even greater scale - impunity has given them courage.

And social networks, new technologies - all this has made such propaganda even more effective, ”stated Norton.

A similar point of view is shared by Alexander Vavilov, an expert on the Middle East, professor at Moscow State University.

In an interview with RT, he noted that the documents published by Anonymous once again prove that the West, in particular, UK government agencies, are directly responsible for sponsoring and providing information support to terrorist groups in Syria.

• Launching a rocket from a homemade mortar of Syrian gangs

• © Saleh Mahmoud Laila / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

“The West was not satisfied with Assad's independent policy.

As soon as the conflict broke out in Syria, forces immediately appeared, ready not only to supply the opposition with weapons, but also to act in the media space, providing informational assistance to even terrorist groups.

And practically no one paid attention to this, ”Vavilov explained.

However, according to the expert, the campaign to discredit the official government of the SAR did not achieve its goals, despite huge investments.

The analyst recalled that in the end, the world community still learned about the true essence of the "White Helmets", and now other pro-Western structures of a similar nature are being exposed.

As Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, said in an interview with RT, thanks to the materials posted by Anonymous, one can once again make sure that the largest Western media do not seek to adequately assess the conflicts in which their governments are involved.

“Speaking specifically about Great Britain, then even without disclosures from Anonymous, it is clear that the largest media in the United Kingdom broadcast the position of the Foreign Ministry and security agencies.

This also applies to the creation in the media space of a positive image of the Syrian rebels, who for the most part were actually representatives of radical and terrorist organizations, ”Feldman said.

*

** RT cannot confirm the authenticity of documents.

*** "Islamic State" (IS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.

**** "Al-Qaeda" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.