PRESS RELEASE

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Former U.K. Ambassador to Syria Slams Amnesty International’s Lies on Supposed Syrian Prison Murders

Feb. 15, 2017 (EIRNS)—In remarks to Sputnik published today, the former British ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford, scathingly attacked Amnesty International, for its claim that the Bashar al-Assad regime had carried out mass hangings and extermination of 13,000 prisoners—alleged opponents of the government—at the Saydhaya prison outside of Damascus. These allegations, Ford said, do not stand up to scrutiny.

Ford, who was ambassador to Syria from 2003 to 2006, pointedly asked why it was that Amnesty chose to release its report on Feb. 7, just two months after Syrian forces liberated the city of Aleppo. Moreover, the witnesses cited were anonymous, and no evidence was provided. While Amnesty claims that the prison held 10,000-20,000 prisoners at a time, Ford explained that the prison was far too small to hold that many prisoners at one time. At best, he said, Saydhaya could hold 10% of that number.

Recall, Ford added, that this is the same Amnesty that during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, made "sensationalist" charges that Iraqi soldiers had stolen incubators from Kuwaiti hospitals and left babies to die on the floor. "It was a total fabrication.... They used it to justify the Iraqi war."

The reality, the former ambassador asserted, is that Amnesty International is the

"vanguard of liberal interventionism.... They have become part of the liberal, elite establishment.... This is the new way of picking up the white man’s burden—you go around changing regimes that you accuse of human rights abuses."