"Give Danny Some Comfort"

"RAY SUAREZ: Rob Malley, you know people continue to die while the world figures out its next move. Give Danny some comfort."  The Newshour

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Last night Ray Suarez exhorted a former NSC staffer to offer "comfort" to a partisan Syrian rebel of whom we know nothing except that he is deeply engaged in a revolt abroad.  This man made unsupported statements with regard to the situation in Syria and Suarez clearly was committed to supporting that side of the Syrian struggle.

As I have said, the Newshour is now very like 24/7 "news" entertainment.  pl 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june12/syria2_03-08.html

 

Comments

[Jake]

I think Danny's last name is Propaganda...

[b]

A bit about Danny can be seen in these two links:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/syria-danny-caught-staging-cnn-war-propaganda-stunt.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/cnn-botches-effort-to-refute-syria-danny-propaganda-scandal.html

He is an imposter working together with one Khalid Abu Salah who appeared in dozens of videos as "wounded civilian"
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/02/what-is-edith-bouviers-role-in-sarkozys-humanitarian-corridors-plans.html

They work together with Avaaz, the presumably progressive, clicktavist organization that is organizing the embedding western journalists with the rebels.

[J]

Colonel,

Seems that there is a brew-haha afoot over the 'Danny affair'.

http://endthelie.com/2012/03/07/cnn-attempts-to-counter-scandal-over-syria-danny-propaganda/#axzz1odPER9FP

[WP]

It is now nearly impossible to get any reasonably accurate, in depth news from any of the major news outlets. That is why sites like SST are so important.

Thanks Pat.

[Matthew]

Small stakes, Colonel. Small stakes. Real men want to go to Moscow. See http://www.salon.com/2011/10/05/neoconservatives_hype_a_new_cold_war/singleton/

Fortunatley, America has such a large budget surplus that we can afford another gravy train for the neo-cons.

[The beaver]

May be Danny is one of those guys as described here :
http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/98966_re-info-another-mossad-intelligence-operation-internal.html

[stanleyhenning]

I saw this yesterday and, while I feel sad for the victims of all this maneuvering, I'm also beginning to see the senselessness of getting involved in such situations every time they arise. Much of this, whether in the Middle East or Africa, involves ingrained tribalism which cannot be cured by outsiders - this includes the Israeli-Palestinian issue. In the case of Iran and Israel I really think we should be thinking of developing a more effective dialogue with both parties.

[William R. Cumming]

The news used to be about news but in that historical contexts a number of US Presidents were willing to tell the American people the bad news, not just the good news [spin?}!

I don't see this President or any of the Republican candidates being willing to fully disclose to the American people information that might be considered adverse to them.

Time will tell.

The Syria decision to intervene by the USA I would call 95% confidence interval as already decided. Many have traveled the road to Damascus over the last millenia. Now the turn of the USA?

[Morocco Bama]

Surely you can find a more respectable link than Prison Planet? How about Press TV or Russia Today? At least they're slightly more respectable than Alex Jones....right on par with the NYT and PBS News Hour.

I agree, PL, the Newshour has degraded, substantially. It's no longer worth watching, especially when you can get much more intelligent and informative news coverage and commentary from blogs like your's.

[Morocco Bama]

stanley, you raise some interesting points for thought. There are those who advocate doing nothing about all the internecine conflicts sprouting up across the globe, however, they don't apply that same philosophy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or if they do, they don't realize that it would result in even more suffering and misery for the Palestinians. Considering some of the resource constraints we're about to face as a species, the likelihood of these internecine conflicts and resulting atrocities are going to increase over time. It seems to me an immoral choice to sit back and let it play itself out as isolationists like Pat Buchanan would have it. Please keep in my raising that point is not advocating for interventionism at all costs.

[Fred]

At least we know Danny is safely traveling around the USA (by the way who's paying his bills?). Surely he wouldn't want to actually fight for his country like those Libyan's?; but then again guys like Ahmed Chalabi did set the standard.

[William Fitzgerald]

Pat Lang,

This sounds like the babies in incubators story from the first Iraq War. That one was swallowed whole by our supposedly intelligent legislators, so Suarez is in good company.

WPFIII

[Matthew]

Fred: Set the standard?

I don't think institution who has such low standards as to have 86 members sign this letter needs a foreigner "to set the standard." See http://peacenow.org/Ltr_POTUS_Support_Israel_03092012.pdf

Off-shoring jobs is one thing. Off-shoring our foreign policy is another.

[fanto]

This whole Syria uprising and the coverage thereof reminds me of the reports from Kuweit after Saddam invaded there

[FB Ali]

How does the (subjective) "respectability" of the site matter if the material itself is clear cut?

I found the videos pretty conclusive.

[turcopolier]

FB Ali

No, not at all. There have been a lot of these videos. They look fabricated to me and the "information" offered is substantiated by nobody but the enthusiasts of the Sunni Arab revolt against the Shia. This includes the press people who by and large are getting their claims of murder, executions and rap[es from the rebels. pl

[The beaver]

@ Mr Fitzgerald

Those cunning spinmeisters from Hill and Knowlton:
http://dailycensored.com/2012/02/12/the-bbc-news-fixing-scandal-and-dead-babies/

[FB Ali]

I was referring to Morocco Bama's attempt to denigrate the videos that b cited in proof of his claim that Danny is a fraud. I have seen these videos and they offer pretty clear evidence that Danny (and Khaled Abu Saleh) are operators who act as victims or get others to stage the videos that are advanced as proof of civilian casualties and Syrian army brutality (these are the ones you refer to -- and I agree fully that they are mostly staged or fake).

[Ramojus]

I watched the segment last night, and I'll tell you... he was the strangest guy that I've ever seen on Newshour, it was like watching (listening to) a "talk radio" caller at around 2 AM. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. Surreal!

I'm wondering what Rob Malley was thinking and what he said when the segment ended.

I'm also wondering about the segment on the YouTube video about Joseph Kony the Ugandan warlord? Is this a vetted news item or propaganda?

[CTuttle]

Is it any wonder why b banned Morocco Bama at MoA...? I usually scroll past his/her dribble...!

[samuelburke]

Col Lang, your name is being bandied about over at mondoweiss.net, here is the quote.

"Right in time for his new book called The Crisis of Zionism, Peter Beinart is rolling out a new blog at the Daily Beast dedicated to the conversation about Israel and Palestine, with a Zionist tilt to the contributors. Though I'll take anything-- and I'm grateful for leftward movement. It's called "Zion Square."

Notice below that all of the columnists are Jews and Palestinians-- oh and one Iranian-American. And many of the Jews are Israeli. Where are the American realists? Where's Paul Pillar, Pat Lang or Scott McConnell. Do American non-direct-stakeholders get a vote? As one of the columnists, Emily Hauser, writes at her site,"

[DaveGood]

This is a completely off-topic rant and I don't expect Pat Lang will post it but here it is.

Today a friend of mine got fired, not so much fired, as "allowed " to resign.

This is someone who is straightforward, honest, works way harder then I do for not much money yet he lost his job, while I still have mine.

The reason?

Three days ago, on his day off, he smoked a joint, and today he was called in for a random drug test, which he knew he'd fail.

There's a number of points I want to make.

Lets start with the fact that of the last three American presidents, all, Clinton Bush And Obama are known to have used illegal drugs.

As has Sarah Palin, as did Abraham Lincoln, didn't appear to do them any harm.

America jails a far higher proportion of it's population, and at an incredible cost, then any other state in the worlds history, and something like 60 plus per cent are there on drug related charges.

Here's the thing, all experts agree that the vast majority of illegal drug use takes place in middle class white suburbia, but the bulk of those in jail for drug crimes come from inner city black\brown ghettos.

We live in a world where the likes of Lloyd blankfien can enrich himself destroying economies across this planet while claiming to "do Gods Work"

And meanwhile friends of mine have to piss in a cup just to hold a minimum wage job.

If this sort of thing is not stopped, It's your grandchildren next.

[optimax]

Prison Planet is not always a reliable website for accurate information but sometimes it is way ahead of the msm. Prison Planet broke the CIA renditions a good year before any other news agency. You have to do your own research to find out what's truthful. You have to also admire a guy willing to stand on a soapbox with a megaphone in front of City Hall.

The Anderson Cooper/Danny Boy video has appeared on other websites before it made it to Prison Planet. The veracity of a news story isn't always dependant on the website it is pasted on, and making it so is sometimes plain old misdirection.

[Morocco Bama]

I never click on anything that says Prison Planet, period, just as I never listen to PBS Newshour any longer. If that's your bag, have at it, but I prefer to obtain my source material from more objective sources. Of course, it's all subjective, but FB Ali, I thought better of you. If you are using Prison Planet to inform yourself, I have to say, I will from here on out measure what you say with a further grain of salt. Prior to this, I concurred with much of what you have had to say, but it's a sad day when you have to defend the likes of Alex Jones for someone as un-american as b.

[Morocco Bama]

That is a false accusation. I didn't denigrate anything except Alex Jones and Prison Planet. My point is that in b's attempt to denigrate anything and everything "American" he will stoop to whatever level, including linking to Prison Planet. Unlike you, FB Ali, I have a thirteen year old and a nine year old who are citizens of this here United States of America, and b and his ilk have proven to me that they wish to do them harm. I will fight the likes of b to the death, if that's what it takes to prevent him and his ilk from bringing harm to my progeny. I have watched his blog for years now, and I have witnessed his migration from reasonable critic to rabid anti-american fanatic. He harbors racist wack-jobs in his commentary section and at this point, I consider him a de facto agent of the Iranians. They couldn't do it any better than him. When he mentioned PL banned him a while back, I had never heard of PL, so I headed over here to check PL out, and PL is much more balanced and sincere than b ever was or ever could be. Case closed.