Monday, March 03, 2014

A hoax that was peddled by MEMRI and--surprise, surprise--promoted by Liz Sly of the Washington Post

Liz Sly has become so agitated in her propaganda work for the Free Syrian Army that it would only seem logical if she were to join the ranks of the fighters themselves.  She is even angry with US ambassador Ford for not doing enough for her cherished Jihadis in Syria.  So someone posted a hoax on Facebook (he has since removed it, I am told) which allegedly show two (not three, not four but two) LA gang members fighting for the Syrian regime.  MEMRI quickly posted the video and put the source of the video as "the internet"--I am not making this up, it really put the source as the "internet".  And since this hoax fit in the propaganda work of Syrian rebels and their advocates, Ms. Sly, she quickly endorsed the story without even trying to verify it.  "Two L.A. gang members are apparently fighting for Syria’s Assad".  But don't you like it that she posted this caveat: "It was impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the video or determine where or when it was filmed. But the desolate scene in which the two men are firing from a bombed building looks like Syria."  But most importantly, any reasonable person would ask: what are the ideological connections between LA gangs and the Ba`th ideology? Is it Arab nationalism which really appeals to the youth gangs of LA?  For the life of me, I don't know how Ms. Zly was able to find a job at a high school student newspaper.