Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've noted how WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein seems to have found another Middle Eastern dictator to suck up to, Syria's Bashar al-Assad. It seems Klein is still trying to cozy up to Assad like he did with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak in the dying days of his regime.
As he did with Mubarak, Klein devotes considerable effort to painting the opposition to Assad only as jihadists. Indeed, Klein seems unusually desperate to prove that a massacre of civilians in the Syrian town of Houla was committed by opposition forces rather than the Assad regime.
In a May 29 article, Klein touted how "Syria presented the United Nations and the U.S. with information that indicates it was a group affiliated with al-Qaida, armed by Turkey, that slaughtered more than 100 civilians in their homes in Houla last week, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials," complaining that "Much of the Western news media blamed Assad’s troops for the massacre."
In a June 5 article, Klein highlights how "Jordan stated its security officials arrested two jihadists affiliated with al-Qaida on their way to Syria to fight against President Bashar Assad," insisting that "The information about al-Qaida among the opposition is significant." Klein also takes Assad's word at face value regarding "foreign terrorists" among his opposition:
Assad’s regime several times has claimed al-Qaida was behind a series of attacks blamed on Syrian forces.
Last month, Syria said it arrested 26 al-Qaida “foreign terrorists,” including one Jordanian.
Last Sunday, Assad used a rare national address to blame “terrorists” and foreign elements for the Houla massacre.
Klein also once again defends Assad from accusations that his troops committed a massacre of civilians in the Syrian town of Houla, again taking a dictator at his word:
Largely unreported is Syria’s claim that an armed terrorism element is behind the massacre.
Middle East security officials told WND Syria has sent information to the U.S., U.N. and other international bodies indicating the house-to-house slaughter was carried out by a group affiliated with al-Qaida that came from North Africa.
According to Syria, the jihad organization entered Syria via Turkey, where the militants were first armed. Syria did not blame Turkey directly for the massacre, the security officials said. The Syrian report stated Turkey likely believes the al-Qaida elements were going to fight Assad’s regime.
In neither of these articles does Klein offer any reason why we should take the Assad regime's claims as truth.
In a June 14 article, Klein cites "an informed Syrian government source" to claim that Assad "is preparing a major offensive in the coming days against the opposition targeting his regime." Klein also once again defends Assad from accusations that his troops committed the Houla massacre, citing how "Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter 'Allgemeine Zeitung,' quoted sources claiming the Houla massacre was actually committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants."
As Richard Bartholomew points out, claims that anti-Assad forces committed the Houla massacre come from people citing anonymous sources, while numerous named eyewitnesses have confirmed that the massacre was the work of the regime.
