Hama: Hasraya Checkpoint Abuse Video

August 7, 2015

The following was split-off from Ma'an Massacre, 2012: Did the Rebel Offensice Falter?

Running parallel to the rebel conquest of and massacre of a reported 23 civilians in the Alawite village of Ma'an, rebels also "liberated" the town of Hasraya some distance away and discovered a similar number of bodies there, they think killed by the brutal "regime" commander running the place before that.

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Checkpoint Brutality Video: Patently Fake

How do we know crazy killers ran that place before?  LCC Dec. 25: "This video of regime troops beating, kicking and stamping on a defenseless young teenager at the Abu Hafar checkpoint in the village of Hasra'a, Hama was found on the mobile phone of an Assad soldier killed in fighting between regime soldiers and FSA troops who liberated the village." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW6k9CU4VUs. The same was video run again on Dec 26 as "Leaked:Regime Forces Torture Civilians at Hasraya Barrier" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOhR4_8c4Ck

Here's what I see: A young guy in soldiers' pants and a thug's t-shirt (shows a wrestler/bodybuilder with almost readable English name) - "torturer" - lightly beats up a young teenage boy. Another supposed soldier, besides the cameraman, is present. Here, torturer left, and observer, right. (the stamp, I don't know whose)

This seems most likely a total fake video, if not the fakest I've seen. Torturer throws the boy around a bit, with bouncing hits and stomps reminiscent of an old WWF wrestling match. The kid seems overwhelmed that the method acting got so intense (it is fairly strong stuff).

After a few rough moments with the boy's head between torturer's knees, observer slaps him on his elbow (0:40) in ... a reverse tag-team signal? ("hey, my little brother has had enough"?) The cameraman's finger enter's the frame just before that - did the signal originate with him? Torturer stops about two seconds after that (pre-arranged signal?), stands, and steps away. See the sequence at right - the last frame shows observer reaching towards the boy as if to help him stand. But then maybe fearing the psycho act was looking fake, torturer comes back after a few seconds with more possibly fake hits and stomps. But not a lot.

This is all well within the bounds of arranged method acting, like several other politically-motivated alleged abuse videos out of Syria. And this is also the abuse video about the checkpoint LCC posted twice, to help explain why bodies would be found there - maybe twice.

Alleged timeline: abuses happened before liberation, under crazed regime commander - mass grave found once by FSA upon conquest, and as Maan massacre happens upon conquest, the 25th - graves found again, or new ones and also with old bodies, by locals 7 days later, as Maan massacre victims are acknowledged on January 1. Does that mean anything?

As with Ma'an, and unusually, the opposition's "activists" provide no video evidence for this Assad crime - they don't let us see under either of the two shells in this possible shell game. The checkpoint is distinct and well-framed in the video - in fact that seems to be the whole idea: "here's this checkpoint, right? Here's abuses happening right in it." That's exactly how it's filmed. I imagine it could be geo-located to the place they claim, and that rebel fakers indeed had access to it, for at least one late afternoon around then. Local victims, military or civilian, are likely enough. But the mass graves video, again, wasn't even shared, if it was even made.