"Syrian expert" isn't ... says she is not a Ph.D

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/17/pro-opposition-syria-analyst-admits-faking-phd-story/

Embattled Syria analyst Elizabeth O'Bagy now admits she was never enrolled in a Ph.D. program despite claims to the contrary as she rose -- and quickly fell -- as a prominent scholar whose writings were used to make the case for military intervention in Syria.

O'Bagy also has resigned from a Washington-based, pro-Syrian opposition group in the wake of the controversy.

The resignation and the admission, made in a statement to The Daily Beast, caps a remarkable turn of events for O'Bagy, who a little more than a week ago was traveling in rarified circles, as a frequently quoted analyst whose work was also cited on Capitol Hill. Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., touted her analysis that the Syrian opposition was mostly moderate, as they pushed for a strike on the Assad regime.​

Glad I never quoted her, though I a sure I was influenced directly or indirectly by her claims that the opposition in Syria is mostly "moderate." She claims she stands by her analysis despite not having the doctorate, but if she would lie about something so easily discovered as having a Ph.D, how can her research and analysis of a very-nearly secret society be trustworthy?

It can't. Which forces me to rethink this whole thing, which I publicly proclaim I am now doing (even though I still believe it was highly doubtful the Great Pretender was ever going to "pull the trigger.")

 

[poncho]

You mean you got fooled by one of your experts? Lol.

 

[poncho]

Sometimes people like to pretend to be something they are not. Like this
Elizabeth O'Bagy "a prominent scholar whose writings were used to make the case for military intervention in Syria".

Ever hear of the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" or Rami Abdelrahman?

Fox News has. Fox News has been using the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" as a credible source for over a year.

Here's a LIST OF ALL the Fox News stories that use the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" as a credible source. I only got to page 8, there's ten stories per page. That = a lot.

Turns out the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is one man Rami Abdelrahman living in Coventry England as you can read in this REUTERS ARTICLE.

To be fair to Fox News Reuters does say this about Rami Abdelrahman.

"Cited by virtually every major news outlet since an uprising against the iron rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March, the observatory has been a key source of news on the events in Syria."

So he's a dress maker living in Coventry working his business with his wife and daughter while taking phone calls from people in Syria. Oh and he is admittedly part of the Syrian opposition to Assad. He also insists "he accepts no funding and runs the observatory on a voluntary basis."Which is odd because this NYT ARTICLE. Says this . . . "Money from two dress shops covers his minimal needs for reporting on the conflict, along with small subsidies from the European Union and one European country that he declines to identify."


Wonder which country that might be. The UK maybe?


How did he get to the UK? The NYT says this. “When two associates were arrested in 2000, he fled the country, paying a human trafficker to smuggle him into England. The government resettled him in Coventry, where he decided he liked the slow pace.”


From the looks of it Rami Abdelrahman is an anti Assad Sunni Muslim “activist” that was allegedly smuggled out of Syria into the UK where he was resettled by the government and receives funding from the EU and another un named government source.


In other words Rami Abdelrahman is a paid propagandist.


Evidently that's good enough for Fox News though.