ANALYSIS – John Cantlie has ‘posted’ a piece to camera in which he reveals to the world the truth about Kobane – it is still, despite reports, very much in the hands of his masters, the Islamic State.
Unlike previous items released by this sinister and very mysterious group, they choose to dress their captive in appropriately warm clothing given the snowy backdrop to the video. There are no orange jumpsuits this time just a very slick video along the lines released by rebels at the height of the Syrian civil war when the UK along with the US were calling on the world to back airstrikes in Damascus, which was surely a prelude to toppling the Assad regime.  At that time, London and Washington turned a blind eye to the countless atrocities being committed by the maniacal rebels – remember the horrendous video of a rebel eating the heart of a fallen Syrian soldier, or the massacres of Syrian soldiers that appeared on line. All were very disturbing and all pointed towards a future in Syria similar to the fate being endured in Libya, namely anarchy and murder – what else could you expect from monsters who stripped an elderly man paraded him naked in front of his home town before executing him in cold blood. The UK and USA had backed these men in Libya and were doing the same in Syria, and before that in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Wikileaks revealed that the Americans were employing death squads to break the resistance. In some ways Syria was different because it was unlike Iraq and Afghanistan it was a stable country and unlike Libya it possessed an army with powerful friends. So, any attempt to break it up would require a slick propaganda machine as well as martyrs which is why there was a need for western speaking – not just English and French – Arab types. They appeared out of nowhere to post videos online claiming they were speaking on behalf of the Syrian people to appeal to the world for help. There were claims of atrocities being committed by the Syrian regime against their own, which were often grainy images unlike the bright ones that were broadcast around the world twice during Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2012 and 2014. And then when those calling on the nations of the ‘World’ did themselves not respond last year, the western speaking Arab types and their thugs turned on their allies, and turned to their box sets of ’24’, to proclaim an Islamic State.