Mick Hartley

Jonathan Spyer in the Spectator – We all knew Syria was hell:

The liberation of Syria’s notorious Sednaya jail close to Damascus a week ago has resulted in a wave of belated outrage in much western media toward the former dictator and his methods. For Syria watchers, there is something rather surreal about this late discovery of the methods of Assad’s regime.

Some of the precise numbers remain disputed. There is, as yet, no independent verification of the statement by Mouaz Mustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, that the mass grave at al-Qutayfah contains the remains of at least 100,000 people. The task of piecing together the precise dimensions of the Assad regime’s crimes against the Syrian people, and crucially the names and whereabouts of the victims, is only now beginning. And yet, the fact that this regime was a monstrous one, engaged in the mass slaughter of Syrian civilians, was known to both policymakers and publics in the West.

The facts were in plain sight. A huge body of research and eyewitness testimony has long been available. But there was no widespread public revulsion against Assad in the West.

Generally along the lines of: not really our business; let's not get involved. With Obama leading the way. We don't want another Iraq – so they ended up with something much much worse. And of course Arabs being killed is of no interest anyway unless Jews are involved – in which case: omigod! it's a genocide!

Sednaya and the Assad regime’s practices were not particularly aberrant, in the context of the recent history of Syria (and Iraq… and Lebanon). Bashar, who was indeed a ‘weak’ man as John Simpson described him, didn’t invent any of these practices. His father and his father’s predecessors used similar methods. His fellow Ba’athist Saddam Hussein (and his successors) used and use them in Iraq. Indeed, there is ample evidence to suggest that Bashar’s own successors, now busily being normalised by the same people who three weeks ago wanted good relations with the deposed dictator, follow similar practices themselves.

In April 2022, in cooperation with Syrian colleagues, I wrote an article called ‘Erdogan’s Secret Prisons in Syria.’ The article was based on a 140-page report titled ‘Sednaya of the North’ produced by Syrian activists and based on eyewitness testimony. The report details the random detention and widespread torture (including sexual abuse) of civilians in northern Syria by Turkey-supported militias, the same militias now allied with the new ruling authorities in Damascus. All of which proves, in the immortal French adage, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The "moderate Jihadi" line from the new Syrian rulers seems to be paying off, as their leader assures us that they're absolutely not a threat to Syria's neighbours or to the West.

We shall see.