The BS Filter

Syria were one of seven countries that had not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons. They were widely believed to possess large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent. Fast forward to March 19, 2013: There’s a gas attack in the town of Khan al-Assal in northern Syria.  It resulted in at least 26 fatalities including 16 government soldiers and 10 civilians, a...

More clips of Barbara Walters’ 2011 interview with Bashar where he explains why Syria is “the faultline” of the Middle East and how he ended up President. We cover the major events of 2012, including the Benghazi attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya which, according to Seymour Hersh, may have had to do with the existence of a “rat line” funneling weapons from Libya into Syria, ope...

Late 2011, Bashar al-Assad did a lengthy interview with Barbara Walters, in which he explained his perspective on the violence engulfing his country, how he ended up as President, and his plans for the future. It’s a fascinating and disturbing interview, and we play a few selected clips on this episode. At the time, the death toll was around 4000. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes as &#82...

Here’s my interview with Muhannad Saker, a Syrian from Lattakia, an Alawii, who was in Damascus during the early years of the civil war. I chatted with him a few weeks ago to get an eyewitness account of the events. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes as “The BS Filter”. Click here.  You should be able to find it in most podcast apps by searching for “BS Filter”...

NATO attacks Libya to remove Gaddafi, in part, according to intelligence sent to Hillary Clinton (leaked by Wikileaks) to prevent him from introducing the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold. Meanwhile in Syria, large crowds of Syrians rallied in Damascus and Aleppo in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad. And then ISIS got involved. We talk about the creation of...

Why were there pro-government rallies in most of the country’s cities at the end of March 2011? Why did the government formally declare the repeal of an emergency law that had been in place since 1963? Then in late April, SOMETHING TERRIBLE happened in the small Syrian town of Tel Kalakh. Meanwhile, in Libya, NATO got involved to intervene in their civil war. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes a...

We cover the events of March 2011, including Assad’s first speech since the start of the troubles, in which he blames foreign elements, sacks his cabinet, and points the finger at Al Jazeera, the satellite television network based in Qatar – which leads us to some talk about Qatar, their history, their recent troubles, their relationship with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and their suppor...

We talk more about the diplomatic cable, written in 2006 by William Roebuck, chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Damascus, that talked about ways the U.S. could help overthrow the Assad regime. It was later leaked by Wikileaks. We cover his comments about how the U.S. could use former Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam to help destabilise the Assad regime. And we also cover the cla...

Then 9/11 happened. In 2003, despite their history with Iraq during the first Gulf War, the Assad government opposed the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq. But that didn’t stop the USA from using Syria as one of the main places where they sent their “ghost detainees” as part of a program known as “extraordinary rendition”. One of those detainees sen...

  When Hafez al-Assad died in June 2000 he was succeeded by his youngest son Bashar as President and Syrian Regional Branch head. He was 35 years old. He later ran unopposed in an election, receiving 97.29 percent of the vote. Sounds legit to us. Early in his Presidency, The Damascus Spring happened – some reforms, followed by a brutal crackdown. Hey our show is now liste...

We cover the last few decades of Hafez Al-Assad’s Presidency of Syria, including his support for America’s war on Iraq in 1991 and his brother Rifaat’s attempt at a coup. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes as “The BS Filter”. Click here.  You should be able to find it in most podcast apps by searching for “BS Filter”. Leave us a clever, wi...

In this episode we continue to discuss the Lebanese civil war, the founding of the PLO (the Palestinian Liberation Organisation), Fatah, Hezbollah and the quick version of the Lebanese civil war from its genesis in 1975, how Syria got involved, right up until Syria was forced to leave the country in 2005 under mysterious circumstances. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes as “The B...

In this episode we discuss the Lebanese civil war which raged from 1975 – 1990 and claimed the lives of 120,000 people, with another 1,000,000 refugees. Syria played a huge role and their forces stayed in control of the country until 2005. We also explain a little about the “Eisenhower Doctrine” and the Suez Crisis that inspired it. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes as “...

In this episode we examine the US’ response to the OPEC oil sanctions of 1973. Kissinger promised to negotiate a settlement between Israel and Syria which was enough for Assad to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974. But at the same time, and this was a closely held secret until 2016, Washington began negotiating with the Saudis, offering them technical support,...

Part 5 of our Syria series looks at the era of Hafez Al-Assad, 1970 – 2000. His rise through the ranks of the military, becoming a general in the air force, defense minister, and finally President after his own coup. His wars against Israel and his role in the OPEC crisis of 1973 which brought the economy of the world crashing down. Hey our show is now listed in iTunes as “The BS Filte...

Part 4 of our series on the Syrian civil war focuses on the history of the Alawites, a bizarre and minor Islamic sect that spent most of its 1100 year history being oppressed (and beheaded) by the Sunni majority – until Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, became the President of Syria in 1970. They were originally called the Nusayris after Muhammad ibn Nusayr (died 868 CE) and considered by many Mus...

Part 3 of our series on the Syrian civil war. We spend this episode talking about Saudi Arabia – from it’s founding in 1744, when Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the dynasty, joined forces with the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement, a strict puritanical form of Sunni Islam. We explain the fundamentalist Salafi movement in Islam, o...

Continuing our discussion about the Syrian civil war and the history that lead up to it, we pick up where we left off talking about the history of Iran, including the CIA’s covert overthrow of Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, the US’ support over the next 20 years for Iran’s brutal Shah, and how that lead to the Islamic revolution under the A...

Welcome to our new series! After a brief introduction to the series, we launch into our first topic – the Syrian civil war, the deadliest conflict the 21st century has witnessed thus far. Nearly six years since the conflict began, more than 450,000 Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a million injured and over 12 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar populat...