- US occupying forces in northern Syria are continuing to plunder natural resources and farmland, a practice ongoing since 2011
- Recently, US troops smuggled dozens of tanker trucks loaded with Syrian crude oil to their bases in Iraq.
- The fuel and convoys of Syrian wheat were transported through the illegal settlement of Mahmoudia.
- Witnesses report a caravan of 69 tankers loaded with oil and 45 with wheat stolen from silos in Yarubieh city.
- Similar acts of looting occurred on the 19th of the month in the city of Hasakeh, where 45 tankers of Syrian oil were taken out by US forces.
- Prior to the war and US invasion, Syria produced over 380 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, but this has drastically reduced to only 15 thousand barrels per day.
- The country’s oil production now covers only five percent of its needs, with the remaining 95 percent imported amidst difficulties due to the US blockade.
- The US and EU blockade prevents the entry of medicines, food, supplies, and impedes technological and industrial development in Syria.
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Radio Free Asia US government-funded broadcaster in Asia
my propaganda source says your propaganda is propaganda
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If you quote CIA sources, you are the same as Washington monsters. Invalidated immediately.
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Please avoid citing MBFC as a valid source. See my comment above.
The Syrian conflict is 13 years old. It’s ridiculous to expect every article to give you the whole context every time, especially since anything anyone will write about said context will be extremely biased. This conflict had massive misinformation campaigns from all sides.
Evaluate the information for what it is, not for whether it gives you a lecture on the history of the conflict.
SANA is primarily a TV channel, and the articles are usually a summary / transcript of the TV reports. They show videos routinely of the trucks that are very clearly carrying oil through Al-ya’rabiya, which is a border crossing from Syria to Iraq that the US controls.
It looks like most outlets carrying this story are just re-reporting this one from SANA: https://sana.sy/en/?p=329527
And that seems a bit light on details. And the details it does have seem slanted, like painting the US presence as an occupation, a border crossing as an illegal settlement (I can’t even find any other references to Mahmoudiya in Syria with a quick Google), and the photos just show pictures of random tanker trucks, nothing that would indicate location, direction, contents, or operator.
My sense is that the US is supporting a rebel faction in the Syrian civil war, and the ruling faction (Bashar al-Assad’s) is trying to paint them as the bad guy, for something that may or may not be legitimate, and may or may not even be happening at all. There’s not enough evidence here to draw any conclusions.
painting the US presence as an occupation
🙄
painting the US presence as an occupation
what definition of occupation does not include the deployment of the US military, which proceeded to build a dozen military bases in a territory of another country, which has continuously made filings to the UN about this occupation?
The definition in the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907.
The US is supporting SDF, a primarily Kurdish group. This is no secret, they have been since 2015 against ISIL (you remember, the guys that were posting videos of beheading people on YouTube).
The Kurds have lived in this area for millennia. They have just as much right to the natural resources there as the Assad government, probably more.
Which is why the Navajo Nation controls land that would have otherwise contained the Hoover Dam, if it were not for the rights that the Navajo held to the natural resources there.
Oh, wait.
So tired of seeing this.
We need less-censored news forums.
If I go digging, am I going to find out that this is an anti-Kurdish hit piece trying to manufacture consent so Assad can use chemical weapons on Rojava?
Didn’t the Assad chemical weapons turn out to be another Kuwait Propaganda moment lmao (some other group was actually responsible)
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Investigations have found that the Assad regime has carried out the majority of the over 336 confirmed chemical weapons attacks in Syria, with 98% of the total attacks attributed to the regime.[1]
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The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has documented 222 chemical weapons attacks in Syria as of November 2023, with 217 of these carried out by Syrian regime forces. These attacks have killed 1,514 individuals, including 1,413 civilians.[2]
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The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has confirmed five separate instances of the Assad regime using chemical weapons, including the April 2018 attack in Douma that killed 43 people.[3]
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Human Rights Watch has documented the Syrian government’s “widespread and systematic use of chemical weapons” since at least 2013, despite the government’s pledges to cooperate with OPCW and UN inspectors.[4]
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The 2013 Ghouta chemical attack, which killed hundreds, was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq War.[5]
In summary, the overwhelming evidence from multiple independent investigations and organizations confirms that the Assad regime in Syria has repeatedly and systematically used chemical weapons against civilians during the civil war, in clear violation of international law.
Citations: [1] Use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_chemical_weapons_in_the_Syrian_civil_war [2] the Syrian Regime Still Possesses a Chemical Weapon Arsenal, With … https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/day-remembrance-all-victims-chemical-warfare-syrian-regime-still-possesses-chemical-weapon-arsenal-serious-concerns-over-cws-potentially-being-used-again-syria-enar [3] OPCW Confirms More Syrian Chemical Weapons Use https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2023-03/news/opcw-confirms-more-syrian-chemical-weapons-use [4] Death by Chemicals - Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/05/01/death-chemicals/syrian-governments-widespread-and-systematic-use-chemical-weapons [5] Ghouta chemical attack - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouta_chemical_attack
Oct. 2023:
- Seymour Hersh: When the Intelligence Is Inconvenient
- The Grayzone: UK intelligence spun 2013 Syria chemical attack, leaked docs show
Mar. 2023: Aaron Mate at UN: OPCW cover-up denies justice to Douma victimsAaron Maté, Kit Klarenberg, Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, and others have been reporting on this extensively for years: #douma, #white-helmets, #opcw
Human Rights Watch’s main purpose is to manufacture consent for US regime change operations.
- Monthly Review: How Credible Is Human Rights Watch on Cuba?
Human Rights Watch, however, is not funded by the US government. Yet it gets most of its funds from a variety of US foundations, in turn funded by many of the biggest US corporations. These wealthy, private foundations often tie their contributions to particular projects. So for example HRW’s Middle East reports often rely on and acknowledge grants from pro-Israel foundations. Other groups ask for a focus on women’s rights or HIV/AIDS issues. More than 90% of HRW’s US$100 million budget in 2009 was “restricted” in this way. In other words, HRW offers a privatized, US-based selection of rights issues catering to the wealthy. - Citations Needed: The Human Rights Concern Troll Industrial Complex
- The blueprint of regime change operations
- Behind the Syrian Network for Human Rights [SNHR]: How an opposition front group became Western media’s go-to monitor
- NATO-backed network of Syria dirty war propagandists identified
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Aaron Mate at UN: OPCW cover-up denies justice to Douma victims
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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Just like everything on SANA, yes.
Unfortunately, there’s basically four flavors of propaganda in the region and that’s it.
Why not evaluate the information for what it is rather than checking if it belongs to your preferred camp of propaganda or not?
What “information”?
For starters: “US troops loot Syrian oil and wheat continuously”
This is an accusation. It doesn’t become information until it is substantiated with some evidence and corroborated by multiple sources.
So far, none of these articles actually show any US forces anywhere.
There’s no way you don’t believe the US is in Syria? They do not make it a secret. I’m happy to provide you with a wealth of instances where the US admits this.
Information has been evaluated.
This is an article attempting to frame Kurdish settlements in Rojava, whose existence is only possible because US forces in the area stop the Turks and Assad from bombing them, as the US stealing fuel and food. The Kurds are the ones pumping this oil and growing the wheat. The US isn’t robbing Syrians at gunpoint for their wheat. It’s only considered theft because the people eating and using the fuel are ethnically undesirable.
You’re still too busy analyzing the motives or agenda of the author instead of evaluating the information. Of-fucking-course the Syrian state TV is going to have an agenda that… Surprise: agrees with state policy. This is not the revelation you think it is.
Guess what? Every source has a bias or agenda. For many it is money related. If you take any source for granted, you’d be a fool. Analyze the information for what it is.
Now, the US is indeed stealing. There have been several videos posted before, and local witnesses arresting to it. This has nothing to do with whatever you think it is framing. This is actually happening.
The US isn’t robbing Syrians at gunpoint
What the hell do you call installing your literal military and building 14 bases (more US bases per square mile of any similarly-sized region in the world), and has initiated multiple attacks on Syria since?
It’s only considered theft because the people eating and using the fuel are ethnically undesirable.
Maybe to you. To me, it is considered theft because the oil fields which were once keeping all Syrians warm, cooking, and supplying them with electric power is now being given to an occupying military while most Syrians are struggling for a drop of heating or cooking oil, many dying of the winter cold.
Look, this article runs every few months from the Syrian regime. To be blunt, the trucks bring in Wheat and probably arms or something else they shouldn’t. The SDF (formerly called the YPJ and YPG) runs oil refineries and sells the oil as a means of finding themselves. The US… Well, ‘Coalition’ supplies them with the refineries.
Why all these steps? Turkyie hates the YPJ/YPG but Turkyie is part of the Coalition against ISIL. The ‘SDF’ gets bombed by Turkyie but the SDF also runs the largest ISIL prison in the region. So Turkyie and Syria don’t team up against the SDF, the SDF doesn’t get full US support, and resupply trucks have to ‘sneak’.
Everyone in the region has stakes in not letting them break out. Iraq doesn’t want it, Syria doesn’t want it, the US and Coalition don’t want it but, outside of the US, no one can publicly back the SDF and save face with their regional counterparts. The US makes sure the SDF has food and funds, everyone gets to keep the ISIL and Refugee camps ‘running’ and no one has to support the SDF and lose face with their local parties.
I’d call it shades of gray but it’s more like shades of blood…
There is absolutely no difference between what US is doing in Syria and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Yet, all of a sudden it’s a shades of gray.
Too many shades of grey, give it to me black and white, doc. Who should I cheer for?
There have been many videos posted before that clearly show oil-carrying trucks
SDF has extraction, not refining. Crude has to be shipped out.
Imagine thinking the existence of oil tankers in the middle east is somehow evidence of a grand conspiracy.
Ahh, it’s only crude oil? That makes it all legitimate then /s
It’s not a grand conspiracy. It’s an occupation and illegitimate military intervention. The US has a long track record of doing it, and your people have a long history of supporting it :)
I’m not saying it’s legitimate or illegitimate and, yeah, there are US assets (likely other countries too but they ‘need’ more discretion) in Syria. Not just ‘force projection’ but troops on ground, patrolling with the SDF.
So, yeah, you’re not wrong but US assets are supporting SDF assets who are keeping detained ISIL under lock and key and, when they get uppity, hellfire missile.
But, at the end of the day, The Syrian Government could simply roll out into the country and take back the oil fields from the Kurds that everyone in the region loves to oppress and ship it out themselves. I’m against Iraqi oppression of the Kurds. I’m against Turkish oppression of the Kurds. Guess what? I’m also against Syrian oppression of the Kurds. If that makes me a US (and Coalition by proxy) shill then by all means, think me a shill. The Kurds have held their lands since the beginning of written history but you think that the Syrian Dictatorships of the last fifty years have more right to that land then go off, friend.
who are keeping detained ISIL under lock and key
Yeah I am not going to excuse a US occupation with ISIS as pretext when it was the US that sponsored ISIS’ creation.
I’m completely lost about your last paragraph. It sounds like you’re assuming I have some stances that I do not. I support Kurdish autonomy and independence. Tying that into letting more people in non-US-occupied regions fight for a drop of heating or cooking oil is ridiculous. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.
Turkyie doesn’t like the Kurds, maybe for a good reason in their eyes. Syria doesn’t like the Kurds and again they probably think that’s a good idea too. Iraq gives them autonomy but that’s who knows what will happen if Sadr continues to expand Iranian influence.
The US has on multiple occasions used the Kurds and left them out to dry, so they’re not some blameless paragon, but they didn’t at Al Sina’a and they continue to keep food shipments moving in despite Russian aggression raising the price of wheat and Syrian shelling the White Helmets.
There’s no angels but at least the US isn’t bombing whole towns for the crime of being “rebel held”. They keep their collateral down to whomever might be standing near their targets…
Or, in the case of their Task Force 9, merely precision bomb their civilian targets.
I think we can both agree that US actions in the region have been abhorrent. Though, the Coalition at least attempts to maintain an air of legitimacy (and aid funding) and the Kurds by and large don’t have many other friends.
maybe for a good reason
There’s literally no good reason
The US coalition’s bombings has been far more cruel than even the Syrian regime and ISIS. Just compare the size of the destruction, the number of destroyed buildings between the liberation of Raqqa vs the battle of Aleppo. Despite Aleppo being a much bigger city, and the fight being far more fierce, Raqqa had far more destruction and was raised to the ground.
I agree with you that the SDF does not have many friends, and I support them in milking as much US aid as they can. But selling off the oil when most Syrians are struggling for a drop of oil is cruel, and we should not accept this.
Oh great, we’re the space Nazis from the awful rebel moon movies. Go figure.
This would’ve been more believable if they left off the wheat. Oil I can imagine, but no fucking way are US troops stealing wheat of all things.
Do they think there is a mill at their base? What the fuck would they use it for? It has negative value.
WHAT? NOT THE FOOD GUY WITH A GUN.
