Mon 9 Sept: Catholic Worker Ciaron O’Reilly provides a speed bump on Obama & Kerry’s Highway to Hell in Syria
 http://tinyurl.com/obvj23u

No platforming is when you physically or verbally disrupt an event to stop someone speaking publicly.

Some of the other speakers said they wouldn't speak on the platform if she did. Surely they are free to decide that if they want? Up to them to decide what events/context they are comfortable taking part in, no? She then herself made the decision to withdraw from the conference:
 http://stopwar.org.uk/mother_agnes.pdf

That isn't no platforming. You could certainly call it "putting pressure on someone not to speak" but it's a far cry from no platforming.

During the Contragate hearings the Reaganites referred to it as "the window of deniability".
Was she pushed or did she jump or does it matter?

Are you going for most unpopular and hated person in Britain? You seem to like to paint yourself as someone that stands up for the underdog, but this woman was not given a platform as she is THE ENEMY, consistantly defending Statist and genocidal politics.

Giving her a space to discuss things gives her legitamacy (and of course she'll show her 'nicer' more palatable side if she talks - and it seesm like she hasn't even agreed and this is just some weird provocation from you) in the same way that we don't give facists a platform.

Just what the fuck are you playing at? Seriously, this is weird and really politically out of order.

"Dear Mr. President, I have lived and worked in Syria since 1994, and I have learned to esteem the unique position Syria holds in the world of culture and of religions. But I am shocked to learn from Amnesty International that in the hospitals run by the government the wounded suffer discrimination and maltreatment because of their ideology. And I am saddened to find that, in the prisons, there are people there who have never been tried in court, or even accused of anything”

 http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/siria-syria-agnes-chiesa-church-iglesia-10112/

One religious egotistical monster sorry Mother meeting a few religious moronic egotistical pacifists...

Your record on defending whistleblowers is admirable. But mother Agnes is no whistlblower she is an effective part of Assad's propaganda machine. There is plenty of material by Syrians amnesty and HRW on the web which exposes her lies- please do your homework and question her closely on your retreat!

HRW are totally discredited, Can you please provide evidence Clara?

What Mother Agnes actually said about the Chemical Attack www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ9X1zGwqCg

Clara

Just did a google search and found nothing about amnesty international attacking Mother Agnes, In fact if you look up through the comments you will see an article dating back until November 2011, when MA published an open letter to Assad following information that was provided to her from Amnesty international regarding prisoners and those in hospitals.

I did find this about HRW  http://www.shoah.org.uk/2013/10/03/mother-agnes-mariam-attacked-by-zionist-human-rights-watch/ HRW were critical to the Western agenda to attack Libya and helped paint a picture that allowed that country to be destoyed.

Some of us have also been following Middle East developments for a long time, you signed a statement by Pulse Media, pulse media is calling for the US to attack Syria, so you have a Western Imperialist agenda?

Maybe if you spent your time researching these claims better, you would spend less time trolling people who have dedicated their lives to peace and the anti war movement.

I would be very hesitant to make a judgement one way or the other on Mother Agnes, that's based on the limited resources i have accessed as to her position. But Why do I suspect that the people offering unequivocal condemnations here have the same or less knowledge of this ladies credentials or lack thereof, than I??

a couple of quick points....

1: A google search will turn up A BBC report on her denying chemical weapons attacks in Syria however this comes with a BBC correction added to the end of the report which contradicts the original i.e. clarifying that, contrary to the impression given by the original report, she did not specifically deny the veracity of the chemical weapons attacks but rather the video footage itself.

Now anyone who was sceptical of the US/ UK-Tory Party rush to bomb Syria must surely have come across a great many sceptical reports such as those from the likes of the two most credible middle east reporters alive, The Independent's Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn, regarding other alleged chemical weapons attacks and massacres . Indeed some months ago Fisk described being ' 'spiked' at the last moment from a TV appearance on Canadian TV because he made clear to the producer that he was about to trash the ;evidence' of (an earlier alleged) chemical attack. I also recall interviews on Al Jazeera with chemical weapons academic experts who pointed out earlier footage was highly questionable. On balance i currrently would say there was a chemical weapons attack in Damascus and that the Syrian govt. carried it out, but i would not be hugely shocked to learn the contrary were true, i would certainly be interested to hear a range of opinions on the matter.

2. Human Rights Watch are most certainly hugely discredited with relation to their following of US government policy, particularly in Latin America (there's a great Counterpunch article on HRW's recent shameful avoidance of ascribing any responsibility to the US government and corporations behind the ongoing terrorising and murder of trade unionists and indigenous communities during the ongoing millitarised free market assault on Colombia). I would therefore take their reports with a pinch of salt.

3. As in Egypt, Christians in Syria have great reason to be worried about the rebel alliance that is fighting the ruling regime. There is no doubt that a significant proportion of the rebel fighters are jihadists of the most ruthless and sectarian sort. As a Syrian Christian (or Alawite, or indeed Shia) It is a legitimate position to be very worried that, as happens so often in history, the most ruthless and fanatical faction will seize control of any post revolutionary state and that in this case it will be a vicious sectarian Sunni faction.

4. UK lefties, such as one of the above posters, dismissing this woman based on her religion is frankly a bit embarrassing, If the only people worthy of our respect are those who have denounced religion (much like the UK once brought Christianity to the poor ignorant heathens of darkest Africa and Asia, now we seek to bring the enlightenment of atheism to the poor deluded souls of third world nations) that doesnt leave a whole lot of the worlds impoverished and war torn nationals .

Can any of the above posters prove me wrong and provide some credible sources (please not the UK State Broadcaster) to back up their utterly assured positions regarding this woman being beyond the pale? Personally i don;t feel i have enough information to make a judgement one way or the other.

Yes, some of us have been watching the ME long enough to know the lies perpetrated by the right AND the left. Sister Agnes Marian upsets the lefties who worship at the false idol of Tony Blair, Barrack Obama, eta al. Usually termed, rather ironically now, as "The White Man's Burden." They don't want to hear that their hero Obomber is more allied with Saudi Arabia's pet Al Qaeda terrorists engaged in the same government overthrow as the benighted CIA they like to condemn. Except liberal warhawks and the CIA agree on the same aims--just with different rhetoric.

For what it's worth .. MOther Agnes to be interviewed Thurs. 7.50am BBC 4 radio
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

If you are happy to present a Catholic organisation as sponsoring someone who is on record as saying that though there is a Sunni majority in Syria, the Sunnis "really" are a cover for "Wahabism" and want an Islamic State, she promotes a brand of Islamophobia that really, in our day and age has to be exposed for what it is, part of a neocon agenda to keep the minorities in a privileged position by stoking any fear they may have of the majority. It doesn't have to be based on TRUTH, but rumour! Just start looking into her and she comes off as anything but peaceful. She has an agenda she shares with Assad. In fact, she "brokered" the release of some civilians in a town that Assad had starved for over a year with a blockade to break them down. In her words, she says they have to "surrender" and "turn themselves in". In fact, many of the males disappeared and were taken to regime jails. This is the most medieval kind of "help" one can imagine. Stand by that and you expose your own racist agenda and your own hopes that the oppressor wins by breaking the people to the minimum and surrendering to him. Very very shameful!

If you are going to make accusations could you please back it up with evidence?

Mother Agnes and the ‘liberal’ hawks out to silence her  http://rt.com/op-edge/mother-agnes-liberal-interventionists-026/#

 https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/518697-its-better-if-unarmed-civilians-surrender
Mother Agnes: “It is better if unarmed civilians surrender and turn themselves in.”

Zakarya: “Even if they are young men?”

Mother Agnes: “Even if they are young men, yes.”

Zakarya: “And inshallah nothing will happen to them.”

A curious phrase to use – “turn themselves in” – in reference to unarmed civilians purportedly being removed from a war zone for their own safety. And, as it happens, much did happen to them.

That article you just posted is put together by Michael Weiss who writes for the right wing Torygraph.  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/michaelweiss/


Michael Weiss is the Research Director of The Henry Jackson Society (Neo Con Think Tank  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Jackson_Society) , a foreign policy think tank, as well as the co-chair of its Russia Studies Centre. A native New Yorker, he has written widely on English and Russian literature, American culture, Soviet history and the Middle East. Follow @michaeldweiss


NEXT

Ok Patrizia you have actually provided a link to a source, thanks for that, now i'm very concerned about the knowledge base of those condemning this woman.

The article you link to is by one Michael Weiss, a writer i am unfortunately familiar with from his appalling articles for the Irish Times on Israel/Palestine where he avoids any referance to the occupation of Palestine, cites extremist Israeli settler organisations as legitimate sources when reporting new settlement projects and is pretty much the worst mainstream correspondant i have come across who writes on that situation.

Here is a link to the first article of his i came across just now, an article he wrote for that bastion of liberal thinking, The Telegraph, where he refers to Israel's attack on the aid to Gaza flotilla and Operation Cast Lead as "Israel's reasonable acts of self defence" . This is typical of his output.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8426405/Goldstones-mea-culpa-has-come-too-late.html

NOW media :

Hussein Ibish,[7] a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.

Michael Weiss,[8] former director of communications at the Henry Jackson Society.

Tony Badran,[9] a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

all listed as contributors - lovely stuff........
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOW_News

lovely bunch of people that we're supposed to take seriously?

Spot the difference:

Pulse:

Mother Agnès claimed that the Syrian opposition faked films of Bashar al-Assad’s 21 August 2013 sarin-gas attack on Ghouta in the suburbs of Damascus. In her 50-page dossier on the horrible events of that fateful morning, she wrote that the dead, gassed children documented in those videos “seem mostly sleeping” and “under anaesthesia.”

Jones:

Mother Agnes is perhaps most infamous for publishing a 50-page report claiming that the video footage of the Ghoutta massacre was faked, that the children suffocating to death had been kidnapped by rebels and were actually sleeping or “under anaesthesia”.

Pulse:

According to Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, a Jesuit priest exiled by the Assad regime for speaking out against its suppression of peaceful protests and currently a prisoner of al-Qa’ida’s Syrian affiliate, ISIS, Mother Agnes “has been consistent in assuming and spreading the lies of the regime, and promoting it through the power of her religious persona. She knows how to cover up the brutality of the regime”.

Jones:

A Jesuit priest named Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who was been exiled by the Assad dictatorship and is now imprisoned by ISIS, an al-Qaeda group, has denounced her for being “consistent in assuming and spreading the lies of the regime, and promoting it through the power of her religious persona. She knows how to cover up the brutality of the regime.”

Pulse:

Moreover, Syrian Christians for Peace have denounced Mother Agnès for claiming there had never been a single peaceful demonstration in Syria. The also accused her of failing to disburse any of the money she raised in the name of their beleaguered community. They have asked “that she be excommunicated and prevented from speaking in the name of the Order of Carmelites.”

Jones:

Syrian Christians for Peace have previously attacked Mother Agnes for publicly claiming that there had been no peaceful demonstrations in Damascus, despite been seen witnessing one herself. They further claimed that they had never received any money she had raised, and even called for her to be “excommunicated”.

 http://pulsemedia.org/2013/11/20/open-letter-to-the-stop-the-war-coalition/

 http://owenjonesramblings.tumblr.com/post/67573116704/mother-agnes-syria-and-free-speech

the person he quoted is a person I know inside Syria and he confirms the conversation he had with Mother Agnes. I see many supporting Mother Agnes on sites like Lyndon Larouche and Alex Jones, so I'd be cautious before using that as any sort of valid argument. If you can ask Ousai as I did if it is true, then you will have your confirmation. He went to a journalist, which is what people do when they have to talk about what they know and want people to read it outside of facebook and twitter.

I would expect that a prominent apologist for the Assad government would have left an extensive trail of easily sourced and confirmed quotes. Patrizia, you may well be correct in your perception of Mother Agnes, i don't know, but I think that the best possible way for you and others to demonstrate this would have been for her to be allowed speak and then challenged by those who have concerns.

Meanwhile the very real concerns of those in Syria who are not on the side of the rebels deserve to be heard as it is beyond doubt that there is a very strong presence of fundamentalist jihadists amongst the rebels. Referring to mother Agnes as Islamophobic is surely pushing it,I strongly suspect that the quote you cite (unsourced) was in reality a reference to the rebels militia's rather than Sunni Islam as a whole..

On a more general note It bothers me that presently amongst the fractured and disempowered Left there seems to be such a widespread refusal to even hear let alone debate any deviation from the dominant paradigm of ideas. It doesn't bode well for any chance of winning people over to our way of thinking anytime soon...

.

 http://www.globalresearch.ca/one-nun-puts-the-entire-us-intel-community-to-shame-over-stage-managed-syria-footage/5351320


One Nun Puts the US Intel Community to Shame Over “Stage-Managed” Syria Footage

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Global Research, 24 September 2013



The US Intelligence Community has been put to shame by the dedication and determination of a lone Christian nun. Her modest study of the videos of the Syrian chemical attack shows they were productions involving staged bodies.

Those who take the time to read the report by Mother Agnes and the International Support Team for Mussalaha in Syria (ISTEAMS) will realize that it disgraces the entire US Intelligence Community for endorsing video footage that is clearly dubious and not credible upon careful study by even a layperson.

No one denies that chemical weapons were used. The US federal government and the mainstream media in the US and countries allied to it have been playing a dirty game of equating the a) rejection of accusations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons with b) an outright denial that chemical weapons were used. The two are deliberately being mixed together to confuse the general public. The question is who used the chemical weapons?


What is the US Intelligence Community?

Before I go any further, it has to be emphasized that the US Intelligence Community is a monstrous apparatus or network that has immense technological resources, mammoth amounts of funding, and massive manpower. It is a collective of all the intelligence bodies of the US government, which is formed by sixteen different intelligence agencies.

Out of the agencies that form the US Intelligence community, one belongs to the US Treasury, one belongs to the US Department of State, two belong to Homeland Security, two belong to the US Department of Justice, one belongs to the US Department of Energy, eight belong to the Pentagon, and finally one of them is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which is independent from any US government department.

Same footage is used in different videos with different scenarios, according to the report. Photo from Mother Agnes report to UN.The Pentagon’s intelligence agencies are the Air Force ISR Agency (AFISRA), Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Marine Corps IA (MCIA), National Security Agency (NSA), National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), and Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).Aside from the non-departmental CIA, the rest of the departmental agencies are the Intelligence Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Intelligence Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Coast Guard Intelligence (CGI), the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (OICI), the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), the US State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the US Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI).

Nonetheless, this gargantuan body could not see what Mother Agnes Mariam has found and submitted to the United Nations.

It is the job of the agencies of the US Intelligence Community to examine these videos and to authenticate them. But they failed either to serve US foreign policy or to show professionalism or both.

Instead they nominated and endorsed a sample of footage from Syria as a means of proving that (1) the chemical weapons were used in the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta and (2) that the Syrian government was responsible for the diabolical attacks.


Dubious Nature of Videos selected by US Intel Community

The US Intelligence Community selected or nominated thirteen videos that the Obama Administration used in their case against the Syrian government. These videos need to be carefully looked at.

The emphasis that US Secretary of State John Kerry put on the videos in his scripted speech that he read out to reporters on August 30, 2013, came across as ingenious. Kerry notably refers to the footage from Syria and constantly uses the words “our own eyes” and “seeing.” He even asks that the videos be watched by the general public. He should have been taken to task on this, and he was through the study that Mother Agnes has produced.

Undoubtedly there will be those who will dismiss the fact that there is an almost total absence of adult corpses next to the bodies of the children, nor any parents, especially mothers, coming to claim their children.

Where were the parents? From a cultural context, this is strikingly odd. It is highly unlikely that the parents, especially the mothers of all these children, would have left them alone or not rushed to where their bodies were.

If the parents were not killed, then where are they? If the parents, especially the mothers (following the gender script of Syrian society), were with their children, then where are their corpses?

In one video where it is stated that all the bodies are dead, we can see that the some of the corpses are being injected with an unknown liquid. Why?

The report also highlights the fact that there have been no public funerals or announcements about all the dead children. This is outside of both cultural and religious norms.

In the footage of one burial, only eight people are buried and three of them are not even covered in white shrouds, which is a compulsory ritual. Were these people murdered by the insurgents and disrespectfully buried without the proper rituals as a sign of disdain?

Moreover, the identities of the dead have consistently been withheld. There is more to say on this and it should be kept in mind.

Mother Agnes also makes a point of indicating that there is virtually an absence of the sound of ambulances and that in the testimonies that are used the individuals talking claim to have smelled the chemical that was used. Sarin gas, however, is odorless, which raises important questions about the testimonies.


Stage-Managed Scenes

Even if one ignores some of the arguments in the Mother Agnes report, there are some observations in the study that are undeniable. These observations will lead anyone to conclude that the scenes in the footage that the US Intelligence Community nominated are stage-managed.
Some of the same bodies were planted or recycled in different scenes and makeshift morgues that were supposed to be in different locations. The same bodies of the same children are spotted in different locations.

There is additional footage that either gives a contradictory impression to that of the videos nominated by the US Intelligence Community for the Obama Administration or shows that children were being arranged and moved around.


A Horrible Conclusion

Many bad things have happened in Syria, including the chemical attack in East Ghouta. Yet there are many questions that have to be answered.

There was a massacre in Latakia on August 4, 2013 that went unreported. The mainstream media in the US and the countries allied to it failed to cover this or casually passed it over, obviously because it was inconvenient to change the agenda in Syria.

The study mentions that the relatives of children that were abducted by the US-supported insurgents have begun to come forward to identify their relatives in the videos. It paints an ominous picture that the bodies of these children were prostituted to open the field in Syria for a foreign military intervention.

Regardless of whatever position one takes on Syria, it is their responsibility to analyze the videos from the alleged chemical attack and pay attention to the observations of Mother Agnes Mariam’s report.

.


 http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-chemical-attacks-in-east-ghouta-used-to-justify-a-military-intervention-in-syria/5349928


The Chemical Attacks in East Ghouta Used to Justify a Military Intervention in Syria

by Mother Agnes Mariam, Global Research, September 16, 2013



Read this report very carefully. It says the truth. It reveals how the lives of innocent children were used as part of a criminal staged event, which was subsequently used to justify a military agenda on humanitarian grounds.

The preliminary report of The International Support Team for Mussalaha in Syria under the helm of Mother Agnes Mariam can be accessed in pdf (GR Editor, MCh)


To read the full report in pdf click here (large pdf slow download)

 http://www.globalresearch.ca/STUDY_THE_VIDEOS_THAT_SPEAKS_ABOUT_CHEMICALS_BETA_VERSION.pdf




Excerpt from the Forward of the Study:


“From the moment when some families of abducted children contacted us to inform us that they recognized the children among those who are presented in the videos as victims of the Chemical Attacks of East Ghouta, we decided to examine the videos thoroughly. …

Our first concern was the fate of the children we see in the footages. Those angels are always alone in the hands of adult males that seem to be elements of armed gangs. The children that trespassed remain without their families and unidentified all the way until they are wrapped in the white shrouds of the burial. Moreover our study highlights without any doubt that their little bodies were manipulated and disposed with theatrical arrangements to figure in the screening.

If the studied footages were edited and published to exhibit pieces of evidence to accuse the Syrian State of perpetrating the chemical attacks on East Ghouta, our discoveries incriminate the editors and actors of forged facts through a lethal manipulation of unidentified children. …

Thus we want to raise awareness toward the humanitarian case of this criminal use of children in the political propaganda of the East Ghouta Chemical Weapons Attack

We present this work to distinguished Spiritual Leaders, Heads of State, Members of Parliament Humanitarian actors and to any person who has heart for truth and justice and seeks to due accountability for evil deeds.“

Mother Agnes Mariam de La Croix,

President, International Support Team for Mussalaha in Syria




To read the full report in pdf click here:

 http://www.globalresearch.ca/STUDY_THE_VIDEOS_THAT_SPEAKS_ABOUT_CHEMICALS_BETA_VERSION.pdf




This report is preliminary. The final report with interactive links to the videos and sources is forthcoming.

Spread this report far and wide, post it on Facebook. May truth and justice prevail.