A few days ago my favorite blogger, The Saker, went crazy from anger.
He is an orthodox Christian, and was very angry about the decapitation of a Christian clergy man and two others.
It was all over youtube, and also on the Huffington Post. Also on a website that sounds reliable: Catholic Online.
( It still is to be seen on Catholic Online now. Not rectified yet ! )
Now it turns out that the priest was killed during an attack on his convent. By accident or because he resisted the attack, that is not known now.
At least he was not savagely decapitated, which makes a difference.
The source for this is : The Custody of the Holy Land, a certain mr Avveduto. ( Ansa)
The men who are decapitated on the video were Shabiha men, who are known allies of Assad.
So far the facts. ( as I understand them right now)
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Questions :
1. Who put this video on the internet first?
2. What information did they give with it?
3. Why did they put it on youtube?
4. Who was the first one to say these were Christians being decapitated?
5. Did they know it was untrue , or was is a mistake?
I do not have much time to spent on this today, and for now I have only this source : International Business Times. ( IBT) ( See the web page below)
Here are the confusing answers to my questions that I find on IBT:
1) Did Al Qaida put it on line:
The video was "uploaded by al-Qaida to terrorise Christians," according to Andrea Avveduto of the Custody of the Holy Land. "The corpse of Murad was intact," Avveduto said.
or was it done by Assad's friends :
The first user to upload the video on YouTube was SyriaTruth, a pro-Assad network that has been the mouthpiece for the Syrian regime in the last two years.
So IBT does not give a clear answer as to who put it originally on the web.My guess is:
I suppose it was Al Qaida who made the video, so they must have published it somewhere.
Then it may be taken from an obscure Al Qaida site and published by pro-Assad people ( Syria Truth) on youtube, where everybody can find it.
Was this anti-Al Qaida propaganda, as HRW calls it? Were these decapitations tricked, and did they never happen? ( Propaganda is : fabricating a reality that does not exist, in order to mislead the viewer.)
No, even HRW does not believe that.
The people were killed as seen in the video.
But then where is the 'propaganda' element? Is it wrong of Assad allies to show a decapitation done by its enemy ?
If HRW calls this 'propaganda', then what does this say about HRW ?
Are they neutral? Are they only concerned with the human rights of the rebels, and not with the human rights of the government allies?
Question 4 and 5:
I have no information why Catholic Online linked the death of priest Francois Murad to this video. Was it a mistake? Was it done on purpose, to enrage Christians all over the world, in order to support peace-negotiations instead of weapon-support to the rebels?
Fact is that it is always wrong to lie, even if done with good intentions. It will always backfire, unless you own the MSM, of course.
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This is the article on IBT:
Syria: Father Francois Murad Beheading Video an Assad Propaganda Hoax
Human Rights Watch has dismissed reports that three Franciscan friars were beheaded in Syria in a graphic video that emerged on YouTube this week. The findings by HRW back claims that the footage was used for propaganda by Bashar al-Assad's regime.
According to an in-depth investigation by the New York-based organisation, the footage was shot in April and shows the beheading of two Shabiha people - collaborators with the Assad regime - in the village of Mashhad Ruhin 120km from Ghassaniyah.
The video was originally believed to show the execution of three Franciscan monks.
The killers are part of the al-Muhajireen al-Ansar brigade led by Chechen commander Abu Omar al-Shesheni. The video was arbitrarily linked by Catholic Online to the death of Francois Murad, a 49-year-old Franciscan father.
But the Custody of the Holy Land denied that Murad was one of those in the video and confirmed that all other priests in the area were still alive.
According to reports by the Vatican, fighters loyal to the radical Jubhat al-Nusra front attacked the Convent of the Custody of the Holy Land in Ghassaniyah, in northern Syria, where Murad had taken refuge, and killed him on 23 June. But the circumstances of his death were not fully understood, according to the Vatican.
HRW conducted a topographic analysis of the ground in the film and facial recognition techniques on the victims and Murad. In the video, according to the Huffington Post, it is possible to hear the militants speaking in Russian on two occasions. The executioners were identified as coming from Chechnya and Dagestan as part of a group of militants based in Mashhad Ruhin.
The two victims in the video were sentenced to death for arms trafficking and not because they were priests, said the NGO.
The video was "uploaded by al-Qaida to terrorise Christians," according to Andrea Avveduto of the Custody of the Holy Land. "The corpse of Murad was intact," Avveduto said.
The first user to upload the video on YouTube was SyriaTruth, a pro-Assad network that has been the mouthpiece for the Syrian regime in the last two years.
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