It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) founded in May 2006 is an information office documenting human rights abuses in the Syrian Civil War. Rami Abdulrahman's UK-based SOHR has been cited by virtually every western news outlet since the beginning of the uprising.[1][2] Since the start of coalition airstrikes against ISIL/ISIS in September 2014, SOHR is frequently quoted by major news media, such as Voice of America, Reuters, BBC, CNN and National Public Radio, about daily numbers of ISIL/ISIS fighters and civilians killed in airstrikes in Syria.
The United Kingdom-based SOHR is run out of a two-bedroom terraced home in Coventry by one person, Rami Abdulrahman,[3] a Syrian Sunni Muslim who also runs a clothes shop. After three spells in prison in Syria, Abdulrahman came to Britain in 2000 fearing a longer, fourth jail term.[1] The New York Times in April 2013 described him being on the phone all day every day with contacts in Syria, and checking all information himself.[3] Born Osama Suleiman, he adopted a pseudonym during his years of activism in Syria, and has used it publicly ever since.[3]
Abdulrahman's website is at syriahr.com and syriahr.net (in Arabic) and syriahr.com/en (in English).
In a December 2011 interview with Reuters,[1] Abdulrahman said the observatory has a network of 200 people and that six of his sources had been killed. Abdulrahman reports on events in the Syrian uprising, including the deaths of civilians, rebels and army defectors (whom he calls "martyrs")[4] and government soldiers.[5]
SOHR has been accused of selective reporting, covering only violent acts of the government forces against the opposition for the first two years of its existence. Although critics concede that its reports have become less partisan, critics interviewed by AsiaNews, the official press agency of the Roman Catholic Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, charge that as of 2013 SOHR "continues to defend Islamic extremists to avoid losing support among rebel forces".[9]
The NYT admits fraudulent Syrian human rights group is UK-based “one-man band” funded by EU and one other “European country.”
In reality, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has long ago been exposed as an absurd propaganda front operated by Rami Abdul Rahman out of his house in England’s countryside. According to a December 2011 Reuters article titled, “Coventry – an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist,” Abdul Rahman admits he is a member of the so-called “Syrian opposition” and seeks the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad:
Military analysts in Washington follow its body counts of Syrian and rebel soldiers to gauge the course of the war. The United Nations and human rights organizations scour its descriptions of civilian killings for evidence in possible war crimes trials. Major news organizations, including this one, cite its casualty figures.Yet, despite its central role in the savage civil war, the grandly named Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is virtually a one-man band. Its founder, Rami Abdul Rahman, 42, who fled Syria 13 years ago, operates out of a semidetached red-brick house on an ordinary residential street in this drab industrial city [Coventry, England].
The New York Times also for the first time reveals that Abdul Rahman’s operation is indeed funded by the European Union and a “European country” he refuses to identify:
Moscow insists it is only striking militants but the Britain-based [Syrian Observatory for Human Rights] said Russian airstrikes in Idlib killed at least seven civilians on Wednesday. Previously, at least 40 civilians were killed on the first day of the Russian airstrikes last week.
originally posted by: Swills
a reply to: Willtell
That explains why the website is an eye sore. One man army? He's a keyboard warrior documenting whatever he finds online and major MSM outlets use him as a source? Oh god...
This whole I thought it was a team of people, and some in Syria possibly, recording and reporting...
originally posted by: markosity1973
You and I both know, because we're always sourcing it, that the best english speaking news channel for the actual truth on the situation remains RT. Even Al Jazeera seems to be taking the western stance unfortunately.
originally posted by: yorkshirelad
originally posted by: markosity1973
Your problem is an inability to admit that you are being misled by RT.
originally posted by: markosity1973
originally posted by: yorkshirelad
originally posted by: markosity1973
Your problem is an inability to admit that you are being misled by RT.
RT do present propaganda, I am well aware of this and there is a fair amount of politicising going on with their channel.
However, when they start interviewing people like the retired Intelligence chief of the USA who admits that things America are doing is not helpful to the situation in Syria along with many other recognisable world figures it does make you start to sit up and listen.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; even the devil tells the truth sometimes. RT will and does tell the actual truth if it helps make them look good.