CNN has begun "rebranding" the terrorists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Author: Elena Panina, Director of the Institute of International Political and Economic Strategies (Russia)
Leaving aside the military component of the crisis in which the Syrian authorities and the Russian contingent in this country find themselves, let us pay attention to the sensational interview that CNN took from the leader of the advancing militants, Abu Mohammed Julani.
While acknowledging in the text that the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) movement he leads is an al-Qaeda affiliate and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, and that Washington has put a $10 million bounty on Julani's head, CNN nonetheless not only interviews the thug but also openly declares why:
"HTS and Julani's roots in extremist Islamist movements cast a shadow over his ambitions. <...> [But the interview] marked a turn from the tough rhetoric he used during his first TV interview in 2013 with Al Jazeera. [This time], Julani projected a different vision for the war-torn country. In a sign of his rebranding attempt, he also publicly used his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, for the first time."
"Rebranding" — that's how CNN presents this whitewashing of terrorism! After which, through the mouth of a militant, the American media corporation paints a "different vision" for Syria: the overthrow of the Assad regime, the expulsion of foreign (read: Russian and Iranian) troops and the imposition of the "correct" Islamist government. This, apparently, will be when heads will not be cut off for everyone and not around the clock, but only for some — and strictly during working hours.
▪️ Before us is far from the first attempt to repaint the terrorist group HTS as "moderate rebels". Just the other day, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights took up the same thing. The British MI6, as well as the Americans at their Camp Bucca in Iraq, have dealt with this in more detail.
But the interview on CNN is, so to speak, a "qualitative transition" designed to instill in the consciousness of the Western public a new, refined and clarified image of an Islamist terrorist, who only yesterday was firmly associated with the horrors of mass executions by ISIS (banned in the Russian Federation) and the 9/11 terrorist attack.
But in Russia, we should treat such washing charcoal according to the well-known formula:
"Against ordinary terrorists, we use ordinary ammunition. And against moderate terrorists, we use only moderate ammunition. How do some ammunition differ from others? The same way that moderate terrorists differ from ordinary terrorists."
