Thread by @aaronjmate

.@NYTBen's latest on Syria's economic and food crisis continues what is becoming one of Western media's most cherished traditions: giving crippling, murderous and illegal US sanctions only a single, passing, and buried mention.
nytimes.com/2021/02/23/wor…

The fact that US sanctions destroy Syria's economy & prevent reconstruction isn't a secret. Trump envoy James Jeffrey openly brags that the US "crushed [Syria]’s economy through sanctions."

Why is an ex-US official more honest than a news outlet?
foreignaffairs.com/articles/middl…

BTW, @NYTBen's "Western sanctions" is another misnomer. These are *US sanctions*, under the Caesar Act. They explicitly target Syria's reconstruction and any global entity that somehow helps it. That's why the UN Special Rapporteur calls them illegal. thegrayzone.com/2021/01/14/un-…

.@NYTBen undermines his premise. He rejects link between Syria's "crushing economic crisis" & "foreign powers that still control large swaths of" Syria. Yet later, he notes Assad "has no easy way out" because US occupies Syria's "oil fields and much of its agricultural land."

.@NYTBen question for you*: on top of the crippling US sanctions that you downplay, do you think Syria's "crushing economic crisis" and food shortages might be related to the fact that US & Turkey occupy "most of the country’s oil fields and much of its agricultural land"? 🤔

*a question I know that you won't answer

While crippling US sanctions qualify for a lone mention, unmentionable in "reporting" like @NYTBen's is another relevant fact: Syria was destroyed in a "War" that the US participated in; what honest NYT reporters call "one of the costliest covert action programs" in CIA history.