INTRODUCTION

Considering their background, it would be most appropriate to question three of the guests on ABC’s Q&A 16 May 2016 on the war in Syria.  They are Ayaan Hirsi Ali (controversial Somalian-born feminist, former Muslim now atheist and author of Nomad and Infidel) , Emma Sky (former advisor to the US military in Iraq) and Jean-Christophe Rufin (‘co-founder’ of Medecins sans Frontier).

On 12 May 2016, the national coordinator of AMRIS wrote directly to the producer and the presenter of Q&A to request the opportunity to question the panel.  There has been no reply to the request.

Monday 16 May 2016

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EMAIL

To Peter McEnvoy and Tony Jones,

c/o QandA

ABC TV Sydney studios

Dear Peter and Tony

I would welcome an invitation to join the Q&A audience on Monday. Here are the questions I’d like to put to the panel.

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Since 1949, when the CIA orchestrated its first successful military coup in Syria, the US and the UK, in particular, have worked covertly to undermine successive Syrian governments.

Today, special forces from the US and other countries, including Australia presumably, are involved in covert military action in Syria, and, in order to destroy Syria, they ally with radical Islamist groups. 

A distinguished MIT physics professor (Dr Ted Postol) and a former UN Weapons Inspector (Richard Lloyd) produced a report which shattered the myth that the ‘Assad regime’ used chemical weapons against the people. Islamist groups working with special forces of one country or another were most likely responsible for the alleged attack in Damascus August 2013. Its purpose was to provoke western military strikes against the Syrian army.  Yet, this report receives no attention in Australia.

Note: In Syria, it appears MSF provides support only to clinics in areas controlled by anti-government armed groups, including al-Qaeda affiliated groups, so when MSF repeats the claims of staff working in such clinics, it gives those claims credibility. Thus, it could be argued that, like the US government and its allies, MSF is a member of an unholy alliance with radical Islamist groups, such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra. (NB: One co-founder of MSF, Dr Bernard Kouchner, was to become the French Minister for Foreign and European Affairs .)

Questions to the Q&A panel:

How does it help Australia to ignore the voices of millions of ‘ordinary’ Syrians (including Sunni, Shia, Alawi, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, atheist etc) who share our basic beliefs and values, and instead promote the claims of those who support a violent form of radical Islam?

How does it help our security and social harmony to be a member of the unholy alliance that has formed between radical Islamist groups in Syria and US neo-cons and their friends?   Such an alliance could lead to the deaths of millions of people and the destruction of countries.

The basic question is,

What will become of us as a nation if we hide from the truth and play dirty? 

Kind regards,

Susan Dirgham

National Coordinator of ‘Australians for Mussalaha (Reconciliation) in Syria’