Oh, the hypocrisy.
From Agence France-Presse:
The United States on Thursday acknowledged providing communication equipment and other forms of assistance to members of the “peaceful opposition” in Syria.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the aid is part of “non-lethal” assistance to Syrians living under President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and part of a global effort to support Internet freedom.
Nuland declined to elaborate on the aid, but a source familiar with the effort said it includes things such as anonymizing software, and satellite phones with GPS capabilities “to document the location of atrocities.”
Nuland said the Internet freedom initiatives are part of “programs that we do around the world that we’ve been doing with Syrians and many, many other countries for quite a long time.”
Nuland is accurate when she said Washington has been doing this “for quite a long time.”
But part of a global effort to promote Internet freedom? This from an administration which has been cracking down on the web, both under the guise of the ubiquitous claims of “national security” and to police the World Wide Web for the sake of corporate profits.
There are many good reasons to be skeptical of parachute journalist reports from Syria, which make little or no mention of the rebels’ ruthless elimination of religious minorities, most notably Syria’s Christian population, as has been reported by both mainstream media and by the Catholic Church.
And for another take on Syria . . .
Here’s a fascinating video report from University of Ottawa economist Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization:
