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17th May 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
Loai Deeb, former head of the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), has been formally charged with a series of financial crimes which include embezzling more than a million dollars from the organisation that he founded. He is said to have disguised his embezzlement through a fake… Read more
13th May 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
A lack of cooperation from the United Arab Emirates has been hampering investigations into a multi-million dollar money-laundering case, according to Norwegian authorities. It is almost three years since police raided the headquarters of the Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development (… Read more
7th May 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
One of the Assad regime's most prominent British defenders is due to speak at a music-and-politics festival sponsored by several trade unions later this month. Vanessa Beeley, whose misleading reports about the Syrian conflict have turned her into a social media celebrity, will be appearing at… Read more
3rd May 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
One spin-off from the Syrian conflict has been a war of words that reaches far beyond the Middle East. It’s a battle in which honest reporting and the search for truth have come under sustained attack. Those leading the attack claim they are simply asking questions that need to be asked. It’s… Read more
23rd April 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
There's a claim circulated endlessly on the internet that the conflict in Syria is a "regime change war" orchestrated by western powers. As far as many of the Assad regime's defenders are concerned, this is established fact. To quote one of them – Piers Robinson, writing for the Open Democracy… Read more
21st April 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
Look up Ian56 on Twitter and the first thing you'll see is a fake photograph. The handsome man in the profile picture isn't Ian56. It's a 38-year-old fashion model called David Gandy. This, plus the fact that Ian56 is a staunch defender of Russia who posts on average 65 tweets a day may have been… Read more
20th April 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
Yesterday dozens of Twitter users rallied to the defence of "Sarah Abdallah", a mysterious and possibly fictitious social media celebrity, following what they saw as a smear by the BBC. A BBC report had identified the @sahouraxo Twitter account – currently operated under the name "Sarah Abdallah… Read more
16th April 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
I got into an online discussion yesterday with Charles Shoebridge, an ex-soldier and former police officer who disputes the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. One of the questions he asked was why, if the regime was making chemical weapons in secret, it would give the game away by using… Read more
15th April 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
A university-based group is seeking funds for what it claims will be "rigorous academic research and analysis of propaganda". The project sounds academically respectable – it has official recognition from the University of Sheffield in Britain and has enlisted the famous American professor Noam… Read more
12th April 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
The use of chemical weapons in Syria threatens to wreck one of the most successful examples of international cooperation. Step-by-step work over the years has resulted in at least 80% of the world's known stockpiles of chemical weapons being destroyed, and efforts are continuing to destroy most of… Read more