Egyptian Police Arrest Five for Creating Fake Aleppo Footage

This current tempest over “fake news” is nothing more than an attempt at censorship by the major media outlets who see their readers and viewers going elsewhere.  Now they’ve gotten sites like Facebook to get in on the act.  One should immediately wonder who is going to check the fairness and accuracy of those who would act as gatekeepers, supposedly calling out purveyors of fake news.  The answer is nobody.

Five people in Port Said allegedly making fake videos purporting to show the wreckage of air strikes in the Syrian city of Aleppo have been arrested, the Egyptian Interior Ministry has said.

The videographer, his assistants and the parents of two children who appear in the footage were detained after police managed to trail the would-be camera crew to a building site awaiting demolition, a statement on Monday said.

The team reportedly admitted they had planned to distribute their work on social media, pretending it showed scenes of the injured and destruction in Aleppo, the embattled northern Syrian city which has just fallen back under government control after four years of fighting between the regime and Sunni rebels.

It was not immediately clear what charges had been brought against the five. The Independent has contacted the Egyptian authorities for clarification.

In the distinctly amateur raw videos and stills released by the Interior Ministry, an eight-year-old girl wears a white dress and bandages covered in red stains, and holds a teddy bear. A 12-year-old boy is also interviewed about what life is like under intensive Russian-backed Syrian government air strikes.

The girl’s dress, covered in red paint, was what caught the attention of a police officer driving by, the ministry said.

A camera and six mobile phones were seized at the scene. The photographer is still being held while authorities go through the material, officials said, but the other four suspects were released on bail.

Of course, there are erroneous stories on alternative news sites, as well as some that are just bizarre.  This is something they share with those in the mainstream media.  However, the major media purports to be the providers of the unvarnished truth, and that turns out to be a fake notion far too often.

Which means it remains up to us to carefully evaluate what passes as news as opposed to just believing it because it comes from a source with an established name.

More on the creation of fake news coming out of Aleppo:

Most of the coverage has centered around Aleppo, and the mainstream Aleppo narrative has been, it was besieged by the brutal dictator, who wanted to slaughter all the residents of Aleppo.  The fact is, Aleppo is divided into two parts and has been for four years. West Aleppo is controlled by the Syrian government, and East Aleppo was captured, and has been held by terrorists and thugs for the past four years. Residents of East Aleppo have not been allowed to leave, and have been shot in the streets for trying. The jihadists who control East Aleppo, these would be the same “moderates” and “rebels” that beheaded the 9-year-old boy, and showed the beheading to the world, have also controlled the hospitals in east Aleppo and have used them to treat their own, and to launch artillery barrages into west Aleppo, killing innocents every day for the past four years.

Finally, with the help of the Russians and others, the Syrian government  liberated East Aleppo and rescued its’ resident from the terrorists.  This is a completely different narrative from what one gets watching mainstream news, which gets its news from “anonymous” twitter accounts, “unnamed activists”, and the “White Helmets” That fake organization is funded by the US, France, and other western nations to the tune of $100 million, and is nothing more than a propaganda tool for the west. It has been completely exposed and thoroughly discredited, except by mainstream media, which uses its propaganda as if it were factual. The US had no actual reporters anywhere near Aleppo.  There are however, reporters from other countries who were in and out of Aleppo daily, like Vanessa Beeley and Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, who fully understand what has happened and report it accordingly. If your goal is trying to defeat the terrorist and jihadists forces in Syria, the liberation of east Aleppo is a major victory. If, on the other hand, you support terrorists, or have as your goal, prolonging the war to weaken Assad, then the taking of Aleppo represents a tragedy. According to mainstream media, the retaking of Aleppo by government forces and defeating the terrorist is a tragedy.

One of the best journalists in the world, when it comes to the middle east, is Patrick Cockburn.  You probably never heard of him if you rely on mainstream “fake” media, because his voice is not allowed. He is however, recognized as one of the best sources in the world on Syria and the Middle East, but his voice and work cannot get by the censors of mainstream media. Cockburn’s most recent article: “There’s More Propaganda Than News Coming Out of Aleppo This Week” argues that jihadists early on, killed or captured western journalists, and gained the narrative using fake sources, twitter accounts and the like. When is the last time you heard Noam Chomsky on mainstream media? He is one of the best minds in the country, but he cannot get by the censors. Other great foreign policy journalists such as Eric Margolis, Pepe Escobar, the great Glenn Greenwald, and Jeremy Scahill, are not tolerated  by mainstream “fake” media.

It is interesting to see mainstream media shed crocodile tears for the civilians of Aleppo, yet when the US besieged the city of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004, the “fake” news folks were cheerleaders. This was a city of 300,000, which was basically leveled by the US led forces. The US claimed Fallujah was held by terrorists and proceeded to level the city to save the city.  No one knows, nor will ever know, how many civilians were killed in a brutal assault on a civilian city. The point here is, mainstream “fake” news acted as cheerleaders, and never once worried about civilians being slaughtered, nor did they shed any tears during the “Shock and Awe” destruction of Baghdad. Funny how they can just turn around and shed crocodile tears for the civilians of Aleppo, but cheer when we kill civilians.

In no way am I a champion of Bashar Assad, but I respect the right of the Syrian people to pick their own leader.  How many times have you heard Obama and officials in the administration, along with crazies like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, chant in unison: “Assad must go”.  None of the crazies ever tried to explain what gives the US government the legal right to decide who should lead the Syrian people.  Then again, what is the law, when you have power. Still, it is interesting to see how upset and angry these same folks are, when Russia is falsely accused of trying to hack into our elections. Julian Assange and Craig Murray claim them never got anything from Russia, and they know who leaked the e-mails. Former ambassador Craig Murray, even claims to have met the individual, and insists the individual is an insider. William Binney, the man who designed the NSA’s surveillance system, has come forward and vehemently argued if anyone hacked those e-mails, the NSA would instantly know who hacked, when, where, and whether those e-mails were passed on to another party.  Binney, the foremost expert in the world, is banned from mainstream “fake” media, as are Murray and Assange. They cannot get over the wall of censors who wish always to control the narrative.

Source:  The Independent, Global Research