Thierry Meyssan* is a rare author: 10 years have elapsed since his last work, 15 since the publication of the two books that made him internationally known and which I reissued in 2007.2 I could not accept that they were “no longer available” for our fellow citizens. As you will quickly notice, Meyssan does not write, like many others, about banalities, or – what comes out the same – to maintain the illusions in which we live.
His reflections confront us with reality, which is certainly unpleasant, but necessary, not to say healing. His analysis frees us not only from the straitjacket of the daily propaganda, but above all from our comfortable certainties.
He is the messenger who delivers very bad news: the Western “democracies” – which the press falsely calls “the international community,” although they as a whole make up only about 8% of the world’s population – that are the USA, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, are provoking chaos in the Arab world and maintain it. Under the cover of noble goals (exporting democracy, helping oppressed peoples, waging war against terrorism), they have destabilised, occupied, and destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia – to speak only of the Muslim countries. They are really the responsible persons for hundred thousands of dead and millions of injured, displaced persons, refugees and migrants from the civilian population of these countries. They have created the terrorists, who sometimes strike also on our soil, have equipped them with money and weapons and partly have also trained them. Barbarians among us, “moderate” rebels in Libya and Syria – they are the same individuals who act in the name of the same ideology that has its roots in our Saudi and Qatar “friends.”
These truly frightening truths are, of course, unthinkable: they simply can not be presented in the media, and anyone who does this is immediately stigmatized as a “conspiracy theorist”, “a friend of the mullahs and the world’s worst dictators “ or slandered as a “revisionist in real time”. Nothing really new: it has always belonged to the basis of every war propaganda to defame the pacifist as a traitor. Since the assassinations of 7 January [2015, Charly Hebdo, Paris] and 13 November [2015, Bataclan and Stade de France, Paris], however, the pointer has moved slightly: now sometimes it happens that real experts are invited and are allowed to comment on terrorism or the affected regions. Their statements are often in complete contrast to the general opinion published in the media and often go in the same direction as the analyses of this book author.
For Thierry Meyssan only the international law anchored in the Charter of the United Nations counts. This right is trampled on by the Western countries and completely ignored by both the politicians in France and also the media world (“editorocrats”). How strong has the mood been changed in France since the peace speech of Dominique de Villepin before the UN Security Council from 2003 to the present devastating war situation in different parts of the world! How is it possible that our leading politicians – from the right and the left – in less than 10 years have become more imperialist than the empire and more neoconservative than the Americans? How can one accept without contradiction that the head of the French diplomacy (!) [the foreign minister] publicly calls for the murder of a state executive?3 Reminder: This statement was made only 10 months after the Lynch murder on Muammar al-Gaddafi and must have actuated all our parliamentary people’s representatives to call for the demission of this irresponsible politician; but it has not given rise to any discussion in France.
This book appears at the same time as the french obediant daily newspaper “Le Monde” creates a kind of index Librorum Prohibitorum – called Decodex. To this end, it makes a historical recourse around 500 years to praise this tool to all internet users as the most modern means of “checking the sources”. Unable to foresee and to explain the true reasons for the Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, the mainstream media devote countless articles to the subject of the “post-factual”. This completely blurred term is intended to explain how the voters were misled by the “lies” (“alternative facts”) of the English and American “populists” or the “Russian secret services of the evil Putin.” As if lie, twist, instrumentalisation were the basic tool of only one side. Such an absurdity can hardly be surpassed.
It is by no means secondary that the Wikipedia article on the “post-factual” quotes the criticism of the official version of the September 11 attacks as the most important example of a “conspiracy theory”. That is meaningful! Instead of examining the validity of the arguments of those who question the official version of these assassinations, it is preferred to accuse them of all possible evils. Thus, they are stamped as heretics and those who confuse the voters so that they are no longer able to vote correctly!
The most delicate magic trick of course is the method of converting al-Qaida from the status of the absolute nightmare, an “opaque terrorist ring” which for ten years was charged for willing to destroy western lifestyle into a true ally of the same West in the war in Libya and Syria. It was never officially conceded but it is publicly known that the Libyan “revolutionaries” as well as the al-Nusra fighters were members of this terrorist organisation or had pledged loyalty to it. In order to bring about this spectacular and hardly imaginable “second conversion” – in the 1980s the Taliban and those who later converted to al-Qaida were received by US President Ronald Reagan who celebrated them as the authentic “peace fighters” against the Axis of Evil of that period, the USSR – it was sufficient to get rid of the “phantom” bin Laden by creating a new bad guy: the “Islamic State”. Just like in Orwell’s “1984”, history is permanently rewritten so that it matches the needs of current propaganda.
It is important to emphasize that propaganda, in order to stay alive, is permanently in need of new lies to prevent it from losing its effect. It is about undermining reason. And indeed, it takes permanent enhancement and repetition to suppress critical thinking with steamroller power: This pressure may never stop, otherwise – in face of the resurfacing force of reason and the hollowness of propaganda – the whole façade may collapse. Unable to prove the smallest of its charges, the propagandists are permanently forced to come up with new inventions to cover up the oldest and most obvious lies.
It should be said, however, that journalists as a whole, just like politicians, hardly lie willingly. It is not like they get up in the morning and wonder which story they may tell in order to demonise the “Assad regime” a bit more. Just like Thierry Meyssan is pointing out, reality is much more complex: We are witnessing an extraordinary case of autointoxication of politicians through the media (and vice versa), based largely on blindness, a lack of judgement and true understanding of realities and challenges. In addition we see rapacity and greed for power in the former and intellectual idleness, naiveté, stupidity or obsequiousness in the latter. If you went to a news media editorial office (TV, radio or press) or ask a journalist in private, all your dialogue partners would confirm readily that “truth is the first victim in war” or that there has never been a war without propaganda. These are absolute, universal and, frankly, trivial facts. But if we are dealing with international politics, most media are only publishing their governments’ statements, without even rudimentarily challenging them. Thus in the first two years of the Syria “crisis” we were told almost daily that the demise of the Syrian regime was imminent. This is what is generally called wishful thinking. Auto-conviction, however, is not known to be effective in international geopolitics. Proofs that “Bashar” [al-Assad] has used poison gas? There is no reason to look for them, let alone to present them, now that President Hollande and his Foreign Minister Fabius have claimed to have them! In this special case that kind of nonsense may create a certain illusion among some shallow and oblivious French media representatives. But those responsible for the British and US American (headed by Cameron and Obama) are well aware that the public opinion in their countries is not willing to be deceived by another phoney rhetoric about “weapons of mass destruction used by a Middle East tyrant”. This is not a central topic of Meyssan’s book. His description of how propaganda is created and the examples, however, are an excellent eye-opener.
Finally I would like to acknowledge Thierry Meyssan’s courage. He has decided to fight the battle against imperialism and for international law not from a luxurious apartment in Paris but by visiting the war regions in Libya and Syria, risking his life in order to be able to report on the situation locally. In August 2011, after the fall of Tripoli, one had to fear the worst until one learned with great relief that he had been brought out of Libya and was safe. He is one of very few French, if not the only one, who has been living in Syria for the past six years. His analyses are of special value and are highly revealing. Let us read them. •
* Thierry Meyssan, born in 1957, is a French author and geopolitical scientist with an international scope. He is founder and president of the Reseau Voltaire (www.voltairnet.org) and has been living in Syria for several years. In 2002 he shocked the world when he challenged the official version of the New York attacks of September 11, 2001 in a bestseller translated into 26 languages. Ever since the mainstream media have defamed him as an exemplary “conspiracy theorist”. He has published his geopolitical analyses regarding the backgrounds of the wars in Northern Africa and in the Middle East in many articles and four revealing books.
1 Meyssan, Thierry. Sous nos yeux: du 11-Septembre à Donald Trump, [Before our eyes: from 9/11 to Donald Trump]. Editions Demi-Lune 2017. ISBN 978-2-917112-31-1
2 These are the two books “L’effroyable Imposture” and “Le Pentagate”, published by Editions Demi-Lune, Collections Résistances, 2007
3 Laurent Fabius, not a minister of war, but a foreign minister, declared on 17 August 2012 with regard to the Syrian President: “The Syrian regime must be overthrown as soon as possible [...] I am well aware of the consequence of what I now say: Bashar al-Assad does not deserve to be on this earth. “
(Translation Current Concerns)
Synopsis: In this book international relations since the assassinations of 11 September 2001 have been introduced. It describes and analyses strategies used to maintain the domination of the rest of the world by the US. The role of the British in preparation for the “Arab Spring” is portrayed as well as the hidden conflicts in which the Arab resistance and Russia opposed the American “Deep State”.
Composition: This book, which portrays the role of several dozen countries – whether they have been under the control of the USA or have fought against it –, is written in a witty way. The last fifteen years are portrayed three times in various ways – depending on the point of view. First from the viewpoint of Paris, where the various successive governments are trying to get involved in the process without understanding it; Then from the viewpoint of the Muslim Brotherhood, which structures the various jihadist groups on behalf of London and Washington; finally, according to the ideas of the Anglo-Saxons.
The utility of this book: Submitted by an active contemporary – the author was an adviser or a member of the Venezuelan, Iranian, Libyan and Syrian governments –, it reports the events well readable to the general public. It is based on documents, the most important of which have never been published, let alone mentioned in the press. The analysis of the author contradicts the general median discourse, but provides the only plausible explanation for the “revolutions” and wars with which we have been confronted and still are in recent years.
Note: This book teems with precise information. It will inevitably become a reference work for the coming years, even for those who – in the first instance – will object to the content. (jpv)
Our website uses cookies so that we can continually improve the page and provide you with an optimized visitor experience. If you continue reading this website, you agree to the use of cookies. Further information regarding cookies can be found in the data protection note.
If you want to prevent the setting of cookies (for example, Google Analytics), you can set this up by using this browser add-on.