{"id":244849,"date":"2016-05-20T16:01:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=244849"},"modified":"2016-05-23T15:15:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:15:38","slug":"u-s-npr-osce-russia-bombs-syria-force-refugees-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/u-s-npr-osce-russia-bombs-syria-force-refugees-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. NPR & OSCE: Russia Bombs Syria to Force Refugees into Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cMorning Edition\u201d program of the U.S. National Public Radio network \u2014 which is America\u2019s\u00a0most-trusted American source of news as measured by \u201cthe ratio of people who trust a news outlet to those who distrust it\u201d<\/span><\/a> \u2014 included on May 20th a segment,\u00a0\u201cRussia’s\u00a0Involvement\u00a0In Syria\u00a0Worsens\u00a0Migration\u00a0Crisis,\u00a0Zannier\u00a0Says\u201d<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0in which the interviewer, Renee Montagne, opened her interview of Lamberto Zannier, the Secretary General\u00a0of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), by saying:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is actually a theory out there to do with the migration crisis in Europe, that Russia may have purposely been bombing Syria with an air campaign in order to send more Syrian migrants into Europe, to destabilize Europe. Now, I\u2019m wondering whether you think that\u2019s far-fetched, but, at the same time, it sort of fits the picture of a Cold War?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He answered:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, certainly Russia dealing in Syria had a number of goals, \u2026 but then of course, the impact of the bombings on civilian infrastructure, hospitals etcetera, has created an additional wave of refugees. \u2026 It is very difficult to tell whether this was intended or not, but certainly it would fit the picture in a way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The wikipedia article \u201cRefugees of the Syrian Civil War\u201d said, right after the Russian bombing had started on 30 September 2015, that as of 15 October 2015 there were shown to be\u00a0“4,052,011 registered by\u00a0UNHCR (29 August 2015)[1].\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0As of today, 20 May 2016, that same site says\u00a0“4,812,993 refugees\u00a0(registered, March 2016)[1].\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The idea that this 19% increase was one of the reasons or goals which had motivated Russia to start its bombing-campaign in Syria is ludicrous. That\u2019s during around a six-month-long period. But at about six months prior to August of 2015, on 25 March 2015, there were shown to be\u00a0“3,922,860 registered by\u00a0UNHCR (18 March 2015)[1].\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Not many new refugees were generated during the six-month period prior to Russia\u2019s entry (and that wasn\u2019t a Russian\u00a0invasion<\/i>, because the government of Syria had requested<\/i> this assistance from Russia). But then, many refugees were generated during the first six months after<\/i> Russia\u2019s entry. This could have reflected Russia\u2019s having enabled many Syrians to escape from ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc., but it also could have reflected damages caused by Russia\u2019s bombing, but even if it had been the latter, this wouldn\u2019t likely have been part of Russia\u2019s motivation<\/i> for its bombing, such as NPR and OSCE were insinuating. However, on 11 March 2014, a year prior<\/i> to that 25 March 2015 wiki article, there had been shown to be\u00a0“2,429,146 registered by\u00a0UNHCR(February 2014).\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0That\u2019s around 1.5 million new refugees during about a year\u2019s period<\/i>. None of that was during Russia\u2019s bombing campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n

America\u2019s bombing campaign in both Syria and Iraq, called \u201cOperation Inherent Resolve,\u201d celebrated its first anniversary on\u00a027 August 2015<\/span><\/a>, and so, based on the above figures, the question arises as to whether America\u2019s invasion of Syria (it wasn\u2019t friendly; it was hostile toward the Syrian government, not requested by Syria; unlike Russia\u2019s bombing, it was<\/i> an invasion) might have contributed as much or more to the refugee-numbers than did Russia\u2019s assistance to the Syrian government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That NATO statement was unusually honest, however, in noting that, “The Defense Intelligence Agency,\u00a0said<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that documents conclude that the\u00a0yearlong campaign has done little to diminish the ranks of IS committed\u00a0fighters, which has now expanded its reach to North Africa and Central Asia in\u00a0the past year.\u201d DIA had said this to The New York Times. The statement seemed to be a clear indication that if the American campaign had been about reducing the numbers of ISIS fighters, then it had drastically failed. But maybe that wasn\u2019t necessarily its purpose in Syria, because all of the jihadist groups there were fighting to overthrow Assad, and because that was always the Obama Administration\u2019s stated main goal, in addition to its rhetoric against “terrorists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet both the U.S. NPR, and the OSCE, are accusing Russia of having intentionally flooded Europe with Syrian refugees, and neither of those is alleging that the U.S. had contributed to that problem, and essentially created the bulk of it, by its invasion of Syria and by its insistence upon overthrowing Assad. Could the reason for the quiescence on that be that both are mouthpieces for the U.S. White House, and for its NATO alliance?<\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, what NPR and OSCE said there was deception instead of information. This is one of the reasons they didn\u2019t state explicitly \u201cRussia is to blame for Europe\u2019s refugee crisis.\u201d It would have been too easy to nail them on that type of lie; it\u2019s too blatant for professional liars, and therefore innuendo is used by them instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevant further context here is that\u00a0“NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) work together to build security and\u00a0promote stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. They cooperate at both the political and the operational level\u201d<\/span><\/a>, whereas\u00a0“In\u00a0Istanbul\u00a0on 19 November 1999, the OSCE ended a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in\u00a0Chechnya\u00a0and adopting a\u00a0Charter for European Security.\u00a0According to then Minister of Foreign Affairs\u00a0Igor Ivanov, this summit marked a turning point in Russian perception of the OSCE, from an organization that expressed\u00a0Europe’s collective will, to an organization that serves as a\u00a0Western\u00a0tool.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 For some reason, the U.S. is not charging that the OSCE is a \u201cRussian tool.\u201d Perhaps OSCE officials such as Lamberto Zannier are among the reasons why. After all,\u00a0NATO is coming out more and more explicitly in favor of war against Russia.<\/span><\/a> Lots of propaganda will need to be part of the buildup toward that. These people (Renee Montagne and Lamberto Zannier) are doing what they are paid to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all in service to a broader objective<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse The \u201cMorning Edition\u201d program of the U.S. National Public Radio network \u2014 which is America\u2019s\u00a0most-trusted American source of news as measured by \u201cthe ratio of people who trust a news outlet to those who distrust it\u201d \u2014 included on May 20th a segment,\u00a0\u201cRussia’s\u00a0Involvement\u00a0In Syria\u00a0Worsens\u00a0Migration\u00a0Crisis,\u00a0Zannier\u00a0Says\u201d,\u00a0in which the interviewer, Renee Montagne, opened her interview of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":236918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,461,18],"tags":[115,30,96,535,59,1023,753,524,754,523,49,76,40,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-244849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-editorials","9":"category-latest-news","10":"tag-barack-obama","11":"tag-big-brother","12":"tag-cover-up","13":"tag-global-news","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-nuclear","16":"tag-police-state","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-syria","19":"tag-ukraine","20":"tag-usa-news","21":"tag-warfare","22":"tag-white-house","23":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}