You may have been wondering what happened to Lizzie Phelan, the British "independent journalist" who reported Colonel Gaddafi's numerous successes against the rebels in Libya last year.

Well, the fall of Gaddafi didn't bring an end to her endeavours. Last month she re-surfaced in Syria, once again proclaiming that the situation there is not as the mainstream media portray it (see video above).

While conceding that there are "some problems", she told TV viewers: "What I've witnessed here is completely different from what has been told to the public in the west, in England, the United States and other countries." 

She explained that she had seen no big demonstrations against the government but had seen "a massive one in support of the government".

Phelan's reports from Libya were often reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's information minister in 2003 denying the fall of Baghdad. When rebels entered Tripoli in August, she suggested this was just a part of Gaddafi's cunning plan:

"What we’ve heard is that the strategy of the Libyan government and army was to permit the rebels into the city because previously they have been operating in sleeper cells and therefore it was very difficult to know who they were and where they were hiding, so this strategy was part of bringing them out of the woodwork so that they could be dealt with quite swiftly."

A day later, she claimed that scenes of jubilation in Green Square, shown on al-Jazeera, were faked.

Phelan is also known as Lizzie Cocker. Under the latter name she appeared as one of the star speakers at London University for the launch of the Equality Movement last year, addressing a crowd of about 500 people on imperialism. 

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 9 February 2012