“The only thing that stood between the mass killings that we’re seeing now and the terrorists was, of course, the government of President Assad and the army of Syria. And right now …We’re seeing, you know, lawlessness, lack of security, starvation, poverty, and sectarian ethnic cleansing programs against particularly Alawites, Shia, Christians, but also an attempted attack on the Druze populations.” – Vanessa Beeley, from this week’s interview
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There was once an old tale of a frog walking along a river bank. He met a scorpion who asked him to take him across the waters on his back.
“How do I know you won’t sting me?” asked the frog.
“I wouldn’t want to sting you, for then both you and I would both drown!” answered the scorpion.
Convinced, the frog took him on his back and headed off to the other side of the river. However, when he was halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. And as both started to sink beneath the waves the scorpion said:
“I couldn’t help it! It’s my nature!” [1]
The moral of this story is when you engineer a group of fundamentalist extremists, re-brand them “freedom fighters” and then send them after the next figure on America’s Most Wanted list of figures standing in the way imperial conquest, don’t be surprised if those same fighters return to their old head chopping ways when your backs are turned.
The world may have witnessed an escalation of slaughter of Alawites and Christians in early March, and Amnesty International may have played a role in setting about investigating who was responsible and why it happened. But the side that gets little attention is how far Western nations are willing to go to ignore the guilt of the new “post-Assad” regime and giving them the responsibility to look into the situation.
According to human rights lawyer Prof. Dan Kovalik writing for CovertAction Magazine in March, “reliable data indicate 7,000 Christians and Alawites” were “slaughtered” with an estimate by Syrian actor Bashar Ismail with Sky News of 22,000 Alawites and Christians being killed in just over two weeks. These deaths are actually comparable in such a short time frame to the deaths of Palestinians on the doorstep of soon to be constructed Israeli settlements. [4][5]
On this week’s Global Research News Hour, we take a special look at this unrepentant flood of bloodshed to which even the Western Mainstream media considers unfit for public broadcast, and the hell some people have to suffer to satisfy the longings of America’s “opulent minority.”
On the show, we feature long-time Syrian reporter and friend Vanessa Beeley who talks about the people currently fleeing Syria into Lebanon and the stories they are relaying that are ignored by the Western Mainstream media. She as well talks about her own story of fleeing Syria when it was clear that the HTS fighters would soon be descending on new home of Damascus. After that, we talk to military and geopolitical analyst Drago Bosnic about the bigger picture, including what the foreign powers supporting this new regime get as a dividend for their investment.
Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist and photographer who has worked extensively in the Middle East – on the ground in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine, while also covering the conflict in Yemen since 2015. In 2017 Vanessa was a finalist for the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism which was won by the much-acclaimed Robert Parry that year. In 2019, Vanessa was among recipients of the Serena Shim Award for uncompromised integrity in journalism.
Drago Bosnic is a military and geopolitical analyst, regular author on Global Research and a frequent guest on the Global Research News Hour radio program. In December 2024, he received an award for his writings on geopolitical analysis and on nuclear war from the Mexican Press Club.
(Global Research News Hour Episode 471)
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Transcript of Vanessa Beeley, April 14, 2025
Global Research: The Western press actually reported on the violence in Syria perpetrated by government-aligned forces, but that was about a month ago and there have been no new reports except for instance a report from Amnesty International talking about investigating the attacks against Alawites, but from a month ago in Baniyas. From what you can tell from the people fleeing into Lebanon from Syria that you’ve spoken to, has that violence actually subsided?
Vanessa Beeley: No, not at all. In fact, we’ve been hearing in the last four or five days that there are convoys of so-called HTS, which I would still explain to people they are Al-Qaeda.
They were formerly Al-Nusra Front in Syria, which was Al-Qaeda in Syria. They were then re-branded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, as you rightly said, to try and distance themselves from the atrocities and crimes committed by Al-Qaeda or Nusra Front, but in reality the ideology remains the same, so I still perceive them as being Al-Qaeda. And basically we’ve heard stories from Aleppo, from Hama, Homs, from contacts that I still have there, that there have been huge convoys of HTS forces heading towards the coastal region and the belief is that they’re going to be increasing the ethnic cleansing campaigns there.
You’re right to say that I was in northern Lebanon a few weeks ago, shortly after the kind of ramping up of the ethnic cleansing, because of course it began immediately after the takeover of Damascus by HTS and Jolani. Now he’s of course known as Ahmed Al-Sharar, but his real name or his former name, which still has a bounty on his head, by the way, from the US, is in charge of operations. And so when I went to northern Lebanon, to Akkar, which is the region on the border with Syria in the far north, people, then Syrians, were crossing from the smuggling routes.
At that point there were already 10,000, so this is about two, three weeks ago. Now I’m told there are around 30,000 to 40,000 refugees in northern Lebanon fleeing the danger of ethnic cleansing and the slaughter that’s been ongoing on the coast, not only of the Alawite sect but also of Christians, of Sunni Muslims that are objecting to the extremist actions or the atrocities being committed by HTS and the foreign mercenaries that came also under the HTS umbrella, which include of course Uyghurs from China, Chechens, Tajikstans, Afghanis, a huge number of foreign Salafists that are operating now in Syria and have been since 2011. And the atrocities that we were hearing being talked about in Akkar, in Lebanon, and the fact that when they fled their homes and villages, they were being hunted down in the mountains and in the forest by drones and assassinated even after they had fled.
The forests were being set on fire to try and smoke the refugees out. Recently I think HTS has threatened to establish checkpoints close to the smuggling routes to prevent the refugees even reaching Lebanon safely by shooting them when they see them crossing. And so, you know, the atrocities have continued.
They haven’t stopped. And even they are now taking place also in Damascus. There have been attacks particularly on Alawites and Shia Muslims in Damascus itself and also attacks on the holy shrines, the Shia holy shrines like Sayyidah Zaynab, but also other shrines across Syria have been decimated.
And so, no, you know, nothing has really slowed down or stopped. There was, of course, this ridiculous idea that HTS would investigate its own crimes just as they expect the Zionists to investigate their own crimes against the Palestinians. And of course, that has come to nothing.
GR: So, do you have a fairly reliable estimates as to how total the number of people who have died so far as a result of the HTS aligned government or the Al Qaeda, if you will, government?
VB: I think the last number that I had that was, let’s say, reliable from a perspective of people on the ground letting me know what the numbers were, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, to be honest, always downplays the figures, although it’s widely used for its reporting by the UN and so on. But I think the realistic number is around 20,000 to 25,000 dead. And then on top of that, of course, the 30,000 to 40,000 refugees in Lebanon.
GR: Do you have any insights into why exactly even the mainstream media were reporting on the violence around March 6th and 7th and 8th and 9th, and now it’s subsided? I mean, what kind of factors entered into it? I mean, why would they report it out in the first place? And now why are they dumbing down the activities that have been taking place?
VB: Well, I mean, I think what’s interesting is that there was an alleged UN investigation committee that went to Syria. There was a lot of controversy over that, whether they did actually send a committee or not. But I know that HTS were effectively threatening people if they came forward to speak to either the media or the UN, that if they did so, their families would be punished as a result.
And of course, that means they would be killed. And so I think very few people actually came forward to speak to whatever media was available, or were enabled to actually go and report on the atrocities. And I think, you know, the other thing is, Michael, of course, these media outlets, they supported for the last 14 years, the rise of HTS to power.
And so the last thing that Western media wants to do is to report honestly, on the nature of the creature that they have put in power in Syria, because they didn’t do that in the last 14 years. All of the crimes, as you well know, were apportioned to President Assad personally, and secondarily to the Syrian Arab Army and its allies, which of course included Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in Syria that were fighting the multiple terrorist proxies that were basically being used by the West and by Israel, Turkey and the Gulf States to overthrow the Syrian government. And so the last thing that the Western media wants to do, and that reflects upon Western regimes also that supported this regime change war, the last thing they want to do is to portray HTS as the criminal terrorist entity that it really is.
So since December the 8th, I mean, we had Jeremy Bowen from the BBC, literally running with excitement at the idea that HTS supporters might be actually about to extra judicially execute someone who was deemed to be a regime remnant or a regime supporter. No condemnation for the fact that this summary execution without any legal process was about to be carried out, but actual enthusiasm for it. I mean, this is quite shocking.
So for me, it’s really not surprising that we’re seeing Western media largely trying to play it down and to reduce the numbers to basically put the ball back in HTS’s court by saying they should investigate. In other words, trying to separate the crimes that are being committed in their view by disparate groups that are not necessarily under the control of HTS and therefore bringing HTS in to investigate the crimes. But the reality is it’s HTS militia, it’s HTS mercenaries or affiliated mercenaries that are carrying out these crimes.
And when people have gone to HTS security to make a complaint or to start an investigation, it’s been quashed completely. So, you know, I’m not surprised by the Western media reaction. And I’m not surprised that they perhaps highlighted it.
But as I said, downplayed it for those few days that it was really escalating. And then basically, they’ve buried it. And now they’ve started talking again, I’ve noticed in the last few days, there’s another story about mass graves that are going to be, of course, attributed to President Assad.
But there’s no one on the ground to provide counter evidence or to provide a diverging view. They don’t have anyone on the ground now.
GR: Yeah, you just say they trust the fox guarding the henhouse, so to speak, right?
VB: Yeah, exactly.
GR: Could you just share with us of the stories that you’ve heard, maybe share with our audience, a couple of the more shocking stories that were revealed to you by the people you escaping Syria?
VB: Well, I mean, you know, even during the years that I was reporting on Syria, and in particular, on the CIA MI6, incubated, or orchestrated White Helmet organization that was established in Turkey and Jordan before it was embedded in Syria alongside al Qaeda. That organization, of course, is back operating on the ground. And I was told that they were again, taking part in organ extraction and trafficking operations from the bodies of those that were massacred by the al Qaeda terrorists.
And again, this is something that I’ve reported on previously. We had a UN panel back in December 2018, talking about the accusations made by Syrian civilians against al Qaeda and the various affiliated groups and against the White Helmets of their involvement in organ extraction and trafficking. And again, we’re hearing this on the ground.
And I heard this from refugees, particularly those that had arrived in the last 24 hours before I arrived in Akkar itself. We heard about children being executed, four or five children being put on a sofa, and being asked individually, which one should be executed first before each one was individually shot in the head. We heard of children being shot in the house and the house being set on fire.
Women are being trafficked, young women, teenagers from the age of 15, 16, upwards, are being kidnapped and trafficked to Idlib. Whatever their fate is, then we still don’t know. We heard of the rape of women, mass rape of women in the villages that were invaded by the terrorist factions.
Summary executions, I mean, the most recent witness testimony that I published actually at my substack is of a father in, I can’t remember the name of the village, it was a small village near Banias. And the terrorists entered, they took his two sons, one was still a child and was suffering from cancer, so they returned him. And then they called the father from the son’s phone.
And when the father picked up, they told him basically that they had killed him. And when he went to find the body, they’d cut the heart from the body. Now again, this isn’t an isolated case.
I don’t know if you remember back in 2013, there was the gruesome report on the Nusra Front terrorist who’d, sorry to say this for your listeners, but he’d eaten the heart of the Syrian Arab army soldier that he’d killed. He was interviewed by the BBC, who, of course, tried to basically normalize his action as an aggrieved rebel in Syria, who was, you know, fighting for freedom and democracy. But effectively, this is something that has been ongoing since 2011 onwards.
There was a similar massacre in Baluta in the Latakia countryside back in 2013, when very similar activities took place. And there was mass killing and torture and abuse of Shia and Alawite civilians back then. So this entire ethnic cleansing program that’s ongoing now and is escalating now, began back in 2011.
And the only thing that stood between the mass killings that we’re seeing now and the terrorists was, of course, the government of President Assad and the army of Syria. And right now we’re seeing the consequences of that army being disbanded and of President Assad and the government being toppled. We’re seeing, you know, lawlessness, lack of security, starvation, poverty, and sectarian ethnic cleansing programs against particularly Alawites, Shia, Christians, but also an attempted attack on the Druze populations.
So, you know, it’s not something, it’s not something new for those that have been following Syria or, as I was very fortunate to have done to have lived in Syria, or worked in Syria from 2016, and living there from 2019 onwards.
GR: Vanessa, I just got to bring up something. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, actually, they reported that more than 1 million displaced people in Syria have returned to their homes, including, it’s been more than, let’s see, it’s been more than four months since the former government of Syria was overthrown.
But there were 885,000, according to them, internally displaced persons and 302,000 refugees, you know, according to their statistics. How can these people feel it’s safe to move back if this sort of killing of minorities and, you know, the atrocious things you’ve just relayed to us is happening, you know, particularly to the Alawites and the Christians?
VB: Can you just give me that figure again? So it was 885,000 internally displaced?
GR: Yeah. And 302,000 refugees.
VB: Okay. Well, I mean, I think to start with, let’s talk about the external refugees, a huge number of whom, and we know this, because we’ve seen the recrimination against the same kind of sectarian language being used by Syrian refugees that had been living abroad since 2011, that many of those who were given refugee status in Europe were, in reality, from the Salafist factions themselves, and from the Muslim Brotherhood factions that were weaponized against the Syrian government. Not all, of course, some were genuine refugees that were fleeing the crisis in general, but many of them were the extremists themselves, that now feel that they can safely return to a Syria that’s under the governance of their comrades in arms, let’s say, right? Internally displaced, I’m not quite sure how they’re arriving at that figure, unless, of course, you’re talking about those that were released from prison, and those that potentially came back from Idlib, who had been affiliated to the extremist factions.
And if you remember, when each area of Syria was effectively liberated from the terrorist occupation and sieges and attacks, they were put on the green buses to Idlib. So it could be that they’re counting the return of those that had taken up arms against the country to the places where they had taken up arms against their own neighbours and against the Syrian people, if that makes sense. Because otherwise I can’t understand how internally displaced people are going to be coming back to their homes, right? Because it doesn’t make sense.
Because in reality, during the regime change war, the majority of the internally displaced were those who’d fled the areas that were occupied by the terrorist groups into areas that were protected by the government and the Syrian Arab army. And of course, that figure was never mentioned. You just heard about, I can’t remember the figures now, but it was something in the region of 6 million internally displaced.
Well, yes, you know, in Aleppo, for example, it was 500,000 alone that went from east to west when the Turkish backed Tawheed brigades invaded eastern Aleppo in 2012. 500,000 civilians went from the east to the west for safety and the west was under the protection of the Syrian army and the Syrian government. So it would make perfect sense to me.
And I need to look into it. But I’m now I’m just speaking from my own experience, I would guess that those internally displaced 885,000 would be coming back from Idlib to the areas where they accepted amnesty and accepted to be moved to Idlib because they had taken up arms against the state arms, of course, that were supplied by the US and the UK, the Gulf states, Israel, Turkey. And they had basically carried out crimes against their own people, their own neighbors in many cases.
– intermission –
GR: In the time remaining, could you maybe tell us about your own experience in Damascus back just recently in December, you know, from the time you heard word of HTS coming into town to Assad’s departure to getting yourself getting across the border into Lebanon?
VB: Yeah, I mean, basically, for people to understand, it was an extremely confusing time, we were largely in an information vacuum. There was a lot of confusion, a lot of conflicting reports from the moment that HTS began their attacks on Aleppo.
I was on the ground in Tartus, Homs and close to Hama as HTS was advancing. I knew that the Russians had basically abandoned Aleppo. The Syrian army was still fighting south of Aleppo until they received a call from their own chief of staff, and he removed around 15 generals from the battlefield.
And that’s when the disarray and the confusion really began. And there was a very, there was a breakdown in communication between the various Syrian army brigades. Many people are making the claim that the Syrian army surrendered, I would argue against that I would say that they were thrown into confusion, they had the command taken away from them, a command that was still fighting and at that point was pushing back against HTS.
I think Russia to a large degree was involved in, let’s say the betrayal of the of the Syrian army in the state, because from the moment that those commandos were taken from the field, and the Syrian army withdrew, Russia stopped bombing, and HTS effectively advanced far more rapidly than it could have done had Russia continued its bombing campaign. The Russian forces withdrew to Khamenei. And from Homs onwards, it became very clear that the Syrian army had no choice but to surrender because it was facing extreme odds, it was coming under severe and intense drone attack, which was of course being engineered by Turkey.
And not forgetting that Ukraine, Ukraine Special Forces had been in Idlib for about one year training the terrorist forces, Jolani’s militia in drone technology, providing them with the technology and the equipment needed while also recruiting Jolani’s militia to go and fight in Ukraine against Russia. So once Homs had fallen, we also knew at that point that Russia or Haim Amin had turned back an Iranian plane that was bringing in reinforcements to help the Syrian army. Basically, it was turned back by Haim Amin, it was refused safe entry into Syrian airspace.
And it was threatened by the states, the United States and Iraq. And so therefore, it had to turn back to Tehran. So all of this was kind of going on.
And some of it I only found out after I left Syria, and I could speak to some of the Syrian command that had made it safely out of the country. And by the time HTS reached Homs, which of course is the nearest major city to Damascus, there was a feeling that things were not going too well, which was completely unexpected, you know, because we had a Syrian army that had been fighting the terrorists for 14 years against undeniable odds and disproportionate force and modern equipment provided by the West. And yet they’d never failed, you know, they had liberated the majority of Syria.
So we never expected this to happen. But in reality, there was a huge betrayal, both, I believe, internally and externally, that led to the collapse. In the last few hours, there was still again confusion over, excuse me, whether President Assad was still in Damascus or not, I was told he was.
And so therefore, I made the decision not to leave on Saturday morning, but to stay because I was told that a deal had been struck, whereby President Assad would stay for six months to oversee a replacement government, which would be made up of a coalition of all of the factions in Syria that wanted representation, and that he was still in Damascus. So at that point, I made a decision to stay. And it then became very apparent that all of the because where I was living was very close to a number of military bases, including air defense bases.
But it became very apparent at around 8pm that the military forces had abandoned their posts and the checkpoints, the border had also been abandoned by the security officials there. And the firing of machine guns around the house began at around 8pm and carried on until the next morning. Obviously, I wasn’t able to leave the house and nobody could leave their homes to come and help me or to just stay with me in the house because I was completely on my own, apart from my dogs, of course.
At around 10pm, Israel started bombing. And when I say bombing, nothing that we’d experienced before because there’d always been Syrian air defense. But of course, now there wasn’t.
So they were using the bunker buster bombs to destroy the air defense bases very close to me. So the house was shaking for a number of hours while Israel destroyed the majority of the Syrian military defense and offence capability in and around Damascus, and then of course, throughout Syria. In the morning, there was a degree of panic because it then became clear that the president had left, that the country had been given over to al Qaeda effectively.
And of course, all those who had resisted for the last 14 years, whether in the media or in the army or in politics and diplomacy, were under threat. And so I was speaking to a friend in Lebanon who managed to organize a car for me to come midpoint between the Syrian and the Lebanese border. But we needed to find out if I could safely leave via the Syrian border, because there was no control, there was no security, and there were armed groups everywhere, including around my house.
And at that point, while I was speaking to my friend in Lebanon, they started trying to break down the door, the outside door to the house where I was living. I managed to yell at them, and the dogs were barking, so they left. But I mean, that was a truck full of armed men.
The driver came and picked me up, I had about an hour to pack one suitcase, grab all the essential things, one dog, I had six. So I could only take one, because the journey was totally unpredictable. So I couldn’t take any more than that.
I luckily managed to arrange someone to take care of them after I left. And they’re now all rehomed. In fact, two are here with me now.
And we left, and we drove through armed groups surrounding my house. Luckily, again, they were focused on looting and theft, so they weren’t really paying attention. When I got to the border, the same thing.
I mean, it was a bit like a Mad Max scene. They were looting everything, homes, shops, duty free, which I thought was quite ironic, as they’re not supposed to drink alcohol. But still, they were stealing all of the whiskey and vodka and gin and so on from the duty free shop at the border.
And it was teeming with armed groups that were fighting amongst themselves over the spoils of war, of course. And so luckily, they weren’t paying too much attention. And as I was in a normal car, I wasn’t in a car, you know, a diplomatic car with the blacked out windows, many of which were shot at.
And in fact, a number of government people were killed trying to to leave to Lebanon at around the same time or a bit earlier. I managed to get through because they really weren’t paying attention. And I had a very brave driver, thank God, who kept kind of reversing and turning around and doing U-turns to try and get through them because it was packed.
It was very difficult to even find a route through. The dog, I have to say, was pretty astounded by what was going on. I don’t think she’d ever seen anything like it.
But we managed to get through the border. Of course, there was no one to stamp the passport or anything else because there was no one there. And then we met the driver halfway.
And then he sort of threw everything on board his car. And then we went through the Lebanese border, where they stamped my passport. And then I safely continued on into Lebanon thank God!
The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg.
The programme is also broadcast weekly (Monday, 1-2pm ET) by the Progressive Radio Network in the US.
The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca
Notes:
1. https://www.universeofsymbolism.com/the-scorpion-and-the-frog.html
2. https://www.globalresearch.ca/western-regime-change-war-syria/5882128
3. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/04/syria-coastal-massacres-of-alawite-civilians-must-be-investigated-as-war-crimes/
4. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2025/03/25/genocide-in-syria/
5. https://www.moh.gov.ps/portal/press-release-palestinian-ministry-of-health-gaza-october-19-2023/
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