Independent Journalist Eva Bartlett, Peace Workers, Challenge Western Media On Syria


Eva Bartlett Speaks To UN Reporters

Eva Bartlett is an independent journalist from Canada. She has traveled to Syria six times to investigate human rights violations and terrorism against Syrians. What she has found, she says, is a truth completely opposite of what the Western media and governments claim.

During a United Nations press conference, Bartlett sharply criticized Western governments, particularly the United States, for their efforts to effect regime change in Syria. Contrary to the Western narrative, she said, the people of Syria do not want a regime change. During her extensive travels to and around the country, she had talked to Syrians, in Arabic, who widely expressed support for President Bashar al-Assad, whose army is battling a number of Western-backed terrorist groups.

Bartlett was critical of Canada’s resolution, that was ultimately adopted, to end hostilities in Syria and particularly in Aleppo. She also pointed out that they called for a ceasefire only after Syrian and Russian forces liberated parts of Aleppo from terrorist factions, an act she called pointless.

“I want to remind people why these ceasefires are, indeed, pointless. The last ceasefire in September was, from the very start, negated by 20 main terrorist factions who declared they were not going to participate, and from the very beginning violated the ceasefire over 300 times during the duration of the ceasefire … while the Syrians, and while the Russians, adhered to the tenets of the ceasefire.”

Bartlett then alleged that U.S.-led coalitions also did not adhere to the ceasefire.

“The American-led coalition itself violated the ceasefire by targeting Syrian army positions in Deir ez-Zur, killing at least 83 Syrian soldiers in a prolonged attack that lasted nearly one hour, and which enabled ISIS to overtake that position. So, this is one reason why a ceasefire is pointless … There is no faith that any of the parties that the U.S. and Western leaders who have funded these terrorists, there’s no faith that they can actually… get them to adhere to a ceasefire.”

Aleppo, Dec. 15 [Image by SANA/AP Images]

Disputing Western Media Reports on Syria

On Wednesday, the Christian Science Monitor perpetuated the Western narrative that Syria and Russia are the bad guys who may seek revenge against Syrians should Assad regain control of his country.

However, this account, which is common in Western media and governments, directly conflicts with Bartlett’s description. Fluent in Arabic, Bartlett has learned from the people of Syria themselves that they want the Western-backed terrorists gone, and they want Assad to remain in power. Of the six times she has traveled to Syria, two were with international delegations and four were done independently, at her own risk. During these travels, she visited Aleppo four times.

“Whatever you hear in the corporate media is the complete opposite. And on that note, what you hear in the corporate media — and I will name them, BBC Guardian, New York Times, etc. — on Aleppo is also opposite of reality.”

Bartlett described how the Syrian Free Army, a rebel group, along Western-backed groups like Al-Nusra, denied the citizens of Aleppo food, water, and electricity for a prolonged period of time. She claimed those who attempted to escape were fired upon, not by Assad’s forces, but by U.S.- and Western-backed opposition forces. Bartlett also noted that it was Syrian Army troops who shielded civilians from sniper fire as they fled.

On a November 29 entry on her blog, Bartlett extensively details atrocities the citizens of Aleppo have experienced: a 10-year-old boy shot in the head by a rebel sniper; a 14-year-old boy who lost both parents in separate terrorist attacks; a woman who lost her 26-year-old son, who was a doctor; a woman widowed after her husband was killed while parking a car.

Western sanctions prevent doctors from properly treating injured civilians, with a lack of medical equipment, crucial medicine, and few ambulances making their jobs all the more difficult.

Al-Razi hospital in Aleppo has been particularly hard-hit. The hospital went from having 68 working ambulances to just six. The hospital’s head of forensic medicine, Dr. Hajo, told Bartlett that of the 10,750 civilians killed, 40 percent were women and children over the course of Syria’s six-year war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VNQGsiP8M

U.S. Peace Council

Bartlett’s statement on the U.S.-led and funded terror groups corresponds with the findings of the U.S. Peace Council. Last summer, it sent a delegation of peace workers to determine whether the Western media narrative on Syria was true. In September, members of the Council spoke at a UN event to discuss their findings. The Council’s president, Alfred Marden, had asked members of various peace groups to travel to Syria to discover what is happening. Some groups, he said, would not send a delegation for fear of traveling into an active war zone. Other groups, he said, believed the Western media narrative that Assad was engaging in a civil war against his own people and chose not to go.

The self-funded activists that traveled to the war-torn country were shocked by what they discovered. Henry Lowendorf, an executive member of the U.S. Peace Council, went to Syria with the delegation. He visited Damascus and two nearby villages. There he interacted with locals, as Eva Bartlett has done. He also spoke with religious and government leaders to get a more holistic viewpoint. He, too, questioned Western intervention in Syria, particularly the United States.

“We saw for ourselves the damage that was done to the University. Even while we were there, a shell fell into the school of architecture, killing students and faculty… We saw… Christian villages that have been besieged by the terrorists but have now been liberated.”

Lowendorf said that people of different religions he and the delegation had spoken to had refused to be split up into factions. When a Muslim mufti was asked how many Muslims inhabited Syria, his response was 23 million, the total population of Syria. When they asked an Orthodox Bishop how many Christians inhabited Syria, the answer again, was 23 million. Lowendorf said that citizens were focused on unity, in direct opposition to Western interventionists.

“We will not allow ourselves to be divided up the way the United States has divided up the people of Iraq or Libya or Afghanistan.”

Syrian government evacuating residents of Aleppo. [Image by SANA/AP Images]

Tulsi Gabbard’s Bill Against Funding Terrorists

The cumulative criticism from the U.S. Peace Council, various independent journalists, and Western peace activists have gotten the attention of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an active member of the Hawaii National Guard and Iraq veteran. On December 8, Gabbard introduced legislation called the Stop Arming Terrorists bill to prevent the government from funding known terrorist groups and mentioned the same groups Bartlett named in her speech.

“The CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. This support has allowed al-Qaeda and their fellow terrorist organizations to establish strongholds throughout Syria, including in Aleppo.”

Gabbard said groups that the CIA is currently funding include Fursan al Haqq, the Levant Front — which the United States government has been providing intelligence to — ISIS, Nusra Front, and even al-Qaeda. Gabbard also references the U.S. Peace Council on her official website, lending more credence to Bartlett, other independent journalists, and peace workers risking their lives in Syria who criticize Western media narratives.

[Featured Image by SANA/AP Images]

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