Stephen Lendman

Propaganda substitutes misinformation and Big Lies for hard truths. Repeated enough gets most people to believe it, especially when credible information is suppressed.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) operates as a mouthpiece for Western imperial interests.

A previous article said it accused Russia of killing 2,100 Syrian civilians since from last September through May, including 500 children and 300 women - citing no credible evidence supporting its spurious accusation. Yesterday, it claimed nonexistent Russian airstrikes killed 23 civilians in Idlib - in northwestern Syria near Turkey’s border. Photographic evidence cited was unrelated to the incident, used by Al Jazeera last November - at the time, irresponsibly blaming Russia for killing at least 44 civilians.

Since launching its anti-terrorism aerial campaign last September, Moscow was falsely blamed numerous times for bombing nonmilitary sites, killing civilians - when, in fact, its documented photographic and other evidence, ignored by Western governments and media, disprove falsified claims.

Billionaire George Soros is militantly anti-Russia. His so-called White Helmets group claims phony humanitarian credentials.

It serves Western imperial interests, its elements caught red-handed last September, fabricating nonexistent evidence of alleged Russian war crimes in Syria.

Its photo of a bleeding girl posted on Twitter, along with saying “Russia strike in Homs today. 33 civilians killed including 3 children and 1 @SyriaCivilDef volunteer” was taken on September 25 - five days before Moscow’s aerial campaign began.

Western media also use video evidence of Russian airstrikes on ISIS, other terrorist groups and their facilities, falsely claiming US warplanes conducted them.

It’s unclear if US-led coalition warplanes were responsible for the Monday Idlib incident. State Department spokesman admiral John Kirby refrained from automatically blaming Russia.

He was less than candid, saying “(w)e don’t have a great sense of complete knowledge here of who’s responsible. We’re going to continue (working with) the cessation of hostilities task force…and we’ll take it from there.”

Any evidence of US involvement will be suppressed. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov explained no combat missions were flown in Idlib province on the day of the attack. No evidence suggests otherwise.

Russia accused SOHR of falsely claiming its warplanes were involved in May 31 Idlib airstrikes, Reuters repeating the Big Lie without due diligence fact-checking, news consumers urged not to be duped by spurious reporting.

Separately in the last 24 hours, US warplanes killed at least 15 civilians in Manbij in Aleppo. In mid-May, area airstrikes killed scores, the incident falsely blamed on Syria.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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