PRESS RELEASE
Russia Charges U.S. Media Covering Up Terrorist Atrocities In Syria
Aug. 4, 2016 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the Western media to task for failing to report on atrocities committed by US-backed armed groups in Syria.
"Washington’s and its allies ’turning a blind eye on the crimes of Syria’s so-called ’opposition,’ including the use of poisonous substances against living quarters, devalues Western diplomats’ calls for stopping the bloodshed in that country,"
she wrote on her facebook page yesterday.
"I hope that the Western mass media (all of them, not only Mathew Lee [Associated Press diplomatic correspondent]) find enough courage to write about crimes committed by the ’moderate’ opposition and their sources of financing. My words are addressed to you, The New York Time, Le Figaro, Bild, and to all who regularly cite the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights."
Zakharova was specifically referring to an incident in Aleppo on Aug. 2, in which the Russian reconciliation center in Latakia charged that Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki, the same group that video-taped the beheading of a 12-year old boy about two weeks ago, used poisonous gases in a residential area of Aleppo, killing seven and sickening about 20 other people. The Russians said that they notified US authorities of this attack.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner pleaded ignorance yesterday, when asked about that incident during the regular State Department briefing. He said he could not say whether or not the State Department had received any Russian report. Under questioning, he couldn’t even say whether or not the Al Zenki group was getting US support. Nor could he answer the question "So what does a rebel group in Syria have to do to not receive U.S. funds any longer?" Toner replied that "one incident here and there would not necessarily make you a terrorist group." The reporter replied:
"So it sounds to me like what you’re saying is that even if these allegations are true, there’s still a chance that the United States would continue supporting these groups."
Toner repeatedly pleaded ignorance to the questions that followed, answering instead in generalities about terrorist acts.
