I don't speak Arabic so maybe those do can confirm if the translations are correct.
US/UK/France launch airstrikes in Syria
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
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The translations are correct
The last group of Jaysh al-Islam fighters in the area surrendered within hours of the attack.
Dunno why they’re making a big deal about people not smelling anything. I would have thought that if there’s enough nerve gas around you to smell it then you’re gonna be far too sick to talk about it a day or two later. Does Sarin even have a discernible odour?
EDIT: Google says it’s odourless. Completely pointless line of questioning in that video above.
EDIT: Google says it’s odourless. Completely pointless line of questioning in that video above.
Hypoxia isn’t exactly the best thing to say the people were suffering from instead of suffering from a gas attack.
Hypoxia has been a known effect of chlorine gas since World War 1.
Hypoxia is also an effect of sarin.
That @Syricide account is blatantly a Russian troll. He just can’t help himself from slipping into macho Russian bullshit with hashtags about how tough his country is #PokingTheBear 
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I think The White Helmets' sponsors need to do some auditing, pronto. If those guys pay their unfortunate actors with rice and dates, where do all the millions of dollars end up? I wonder, for example, how much they've charged for that latest stunt in Duma.
Speaking of Russian trolls...
Interesting. Thanks for that.
You can hardly move for people coming out with this sort of thing at the moment. This theory people have about Russian shills, trolls, bots, etc sounds like one hell of a conspiracy!
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Hardly. For a proper conspiracy theory you need some sort of elaborately staged set-piece, with dozens of actors sworn to secrecy. Ideally with the aid of some complex tech that is constructed, assembled and installed without anyone having any idea of its existence. Then the whole project needs to be executed with flawless precision, such that no witnesses or evidence is left behind that can be discovered by any other expert or government agency (although admittedly easily exposed by pesky stoner students, spending hours and hours watching youtube)You can hardly move for people coming out with this sort of thing at the moment. This theory people have about Russian shills, trolls, bots, etc sounds like one hell of a conspiracy!
The Russian government paying minimum wage to a bunch of its citizens so they will sit in an open plan office in St Petersburg and tweet a load of old shite (in the hope of retweets from aforementioned stoner students) would be the lamest conspiracy theory ever.
They're all over the place.
White helmets are probably the only honorable part of this and yet they call them actors, how disrespectful.
It leaves a bad taste in the mouth alright. I'm guessing the reason they're constantly besmirched in these all conspiracy theories is because they tend to be the first on the scene at these events, so anyone who wants to control the narrative has to paint them as unreliable witnesses?
The White Helmets are shady as feck.
The ideology of the groups in the areas where they operate wouldn't allow for their existence if there wasn't some sympathy for their cause. They just packed up and got on the same buses that JAI did. That and their constant cries for escalation against regime forces (as if that's going to save lives) and a total lack of scrutiny to other groups who are carrying out atrocities is pretty suspicious. Not questioning their bravery but they're pretty far from a neutral player.
The ideology of the groups in the areas where they operate wouldn't allow for their existence if there wasn't some sympathy for their cause. They just packed up and got on the same buses that JAI did. That and their constant cries for escalation against regime forces (as if that's going to save lives) and a total lack of scrutiny to other groups who are carrying out atrocities is pretty suspicious. Not questioning their bravery but they're pretty far from a neutral player.
"conspiracy theory definition: 1. a belief that an unpleasant event or situation is the result of a secret plan made by powerful people"
Also, I don't know if 'a bunch' does justice to all this.
More like an army.Theories about Russians conspiring to affect elections, manipulate perception, poison people, etc. Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley et al - regime agents/Russian shills. I'm guessing Syrians recorded saying that they don't agree with the Western narrative are regime agents/Kremin stooges, and are maybe not even Syrian or in Syria in the first place. Omran Daqneesh and his father... regime stooges.
Everyone's a stooge, and everything's propaganda. I'm not saying this isn't possible, but given how blackened the term 'conspiracy' is, it's worth pointing out that people on separate sides of this seem to be interpreting a pretty massive one.
If you don't like what you're seeing/hearing, just just call whoever posts it a Russian troll and dismiss the whole thing as a Russian propaganda and your life will be so much easier.
What's the protocol if we get unequivocal evidence that regime didn't do it? Can they bomb, dunno, Liverpool for example?
There's bound to be people in Syria who side with the regime, either ideologically, or because they've decided it's in their best interest to toe the party line. They are, obviously, real people. And they will, obviously, talk up a narrative that paints Assad as the good guy and the West as the bad guy. So what? This doesn't make them "regime stooges" or agents or "actors" or whatever sort of conspiracy theory label you'd like to use. It would be bizarre if genuinely pro-regime Syrians or foreign journalists didn't exist. Nobody is pretending they don't. That's a straw man."conspiracy theory definition: 1. a belief that an unpleasant event or situation is the result of a secret plan made by powerful people"
Also, I don't know if 'a bunch' does justice to all this.
Theories about Russians conspiring to affect elections, manipulate perception, poison people, etc. Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley et al - regime agents/Russian shills. I'm guessing Syrians recorded saying that they don't agree with the Western narrative are regime agents/Kremin stooges, and are maybe not even Syrian or in Syria in the first place. Omran Daqneesh and his father... regime stooges.
Everyone's a stooge, and everything's propaganda. I'm not saying this isn't possible, but given how blackened the term 'conspiracy' is, it's worth pointing out that people on separate sides of this seem to be interpreting a pretty massive one.
None of this has anything to do with what I'm talking about above, anyway, which are social media trolls paid to spread disinformation and propaganda. That's just as real as Omran Daqneesh as his dad and considerably less real than the sort of elaborate set-pieces you seem to fantasise about.
Works both ways though right?
I'm kind of wary to just dismiss counter-narratives as Russian 'trolls' sometimes because there is a risk where genuine discussion gets shunned for nationalistic name-calling and dismissive rebuttals based on no more than where someone's from, but there is a very common thread you tend to either get from outright trolls or people vehemently defending Putin's regime and the actions surrounding his regime, that can basically be boiled down to a few select points.
1. This thing didn't happen.
2. If it did happen, we didn't do it.
3. If we did do it, there's no definitive proof we did it.
4. We may be responsible, but the West does similar things too.
Each point on its own isn't necessarily ridiculous or incorrect in certain cases, but the problem is that when you're arguing against certain posters/voices in online spaces you can basically tell this is going to be their narrative, albeit certain points are interchangeable. And I'd have perhaps allow myself a bit more sympathy with, say, someone arguing point 4 there if it wasn't for the fact they'll so often espouse point 1-3.
Yeah, fair point. Although it doesn't take much digging in any individual's post history to know whether they're interested in a genuine exchange of ideas about a particular subject vs trotting out an entirely predictable narrative (i.e. points 1 through 4)
FWIW, I was taking the piss out of @antihenry. I obviously don't think he's a paid Russian troll. They're usually a lot more obvious and joining redcafe and pretending to support a Russian-owned football team would be an absurdly convoluted way to win any kind of propaganda war.
Oh yeah of course, more just that the methods of someone arguing in Russia's favour often end up being very similar to what those of a genuine paid-up troll would be.
Oh Dear - Adam Curtis
When I first saw this video, I desperately hoped that Curtis would be wrong.
But this Syrian conflict is the very epitome of what he's talking about.
True.
Very loud and frequent explosions from southern Damascus district as regime is looking to end ISIS presence in the area, there were some negotiations between regime and ISIS asking ISIS to surrender and leave, the negotiations failed officially a few hours ago, crazy sounds ever since.
It was supposed to be chlorine gas. That has a very pungent smell.
Arwa Damon from CNN is on the ground in Syria with some survivors from the attack. She reported that the clothing and backpacks did have that smell.
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I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm just that there would be a smell because chlorine gas is very pungent. Therefore asking if you smelt anything would be an important question.
Gotcha. No worries.
What's funny about this given his post above is that @KingEric7 earlier suggested in all seriousness that @syrian_scholes may be an anti-regime operative of some sort.
Hehe. Really? That’s gas.
Tbf to him I joined the caf on Jan 2011, only a bit over 2 months before the first protest in Syria happened.
Choosing such a popular player as your username was a cunning move. Who could possibly mistrust Scholesy? If you’d gone with syrian_tevez we’d have outed you years ago.
No they had already surrendered are were negotiating small details. Thinking that Assaad would then knowingly decide to launch chemical weapons to stop him claiming victory and give the US/UK/France the opportunity to launch attacks on him they have been dying for is the height of stupidity.
Yep, it's accurate. Also, I just watched an interview with the doctors at the hospital that the media is trying to tell us was chemical weapons victims being treated when it was actually treating smoke inhalation victims from a rocket attack where a building block was on fire. The doctor that was treating them states that there was no one who came in with signs of a chemical weapon attack nor did we treat anyone for it.
Let me know if you want the link to the video I will send it.
I suppose you know by now that these white helmets literally won an Oscar? Propaganda at its worst. I suppose they did not include the so-called "neutral" white helmet members fighting with ISIS and celebrating over a truckload of dead soldiers after executing them in the streets?
You also probably already know who created the white helmets and what the agenda is. They were founded and funded by a Former British military intelligence officer "James Le Mesurier" who did military contracting work(basically a mercenary).
You may not know that the leader of the white helmets in Syria "Raed al-Sa-leh" who was supposed to come to the US to collect the oscar on behalf of them got denied entrance because he is known to be an ISIS militant and ties with other terrorist organisations. He has been stopped multiple times from entering and the U.S Department of state in April 27th 2016 came out on video in daily press briefing admitting he was a security risk
Good article by Mehdi Hasan providing some context.
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/19...-a-war-criminal-even-if-he-didnt-gas-syrians/
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/19...-a-war-criminal-even-if-he-didnt-gas-syrians/
I read that the other day. I generally ignore both Mehdi and the Intercept but this was a good piece.