Syrian Television’s Underwhelming Evidence of Foreign Backing for Rebels
As my colleague Kareem Fahim reports, the Syrian government blocked an aid convoy from entering a devastated neighborhood in the city of Homs on Saturday, citing safety concerns, a day after granting access to a state television crew. As it has since the start of the uprising, the state broadcaster presented the violence in Homs as the fault of foreign-backed militants. Reporting on Friday from Baba Amr, the neighborhood shelled for weeks on end by government forces, state television showed anguished residents blaming rebel fighters for their misery.
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After more footage of the foreign currency was broadcast on the Iranian government’s Arabic-language satellite channel, the Syrian activist and blogger Shakeeb Al-Jabri pointed out on Twitter that some of the bills described as “Israeli bank notes,” were, in fact, small denomination Lebanese liras that have not been in use since 1985 and an old type of Philippine peso that was replaced by a coin a decade ago.
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All told, the current value of the stack of bills displayed on Syrian television as proof of foreign support for the rebels would appear to be far less than one American dollar — if, that is, the rebels could find someone inside Syria to accept old Israeli shekels or Philippine pesos in exchange for anything of value.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/syrian-televisions-underwhelming-evidence-of-foreign-backing-for-rebels/
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