Amnesty's Dubious "Human Slaughterhouse" Report

Amnesty's Dubious "Human Slaughterhouse" Report
Looking for the Truth Behind the New Mass-Hanging Report
by Adam Larson aka Caustic Logic
February 8/9, 2017
(last edits Feb. 10)

Note: for this newsworthy story, a rushed rough version of a complete article, which I'll finish as soon as I can. (still rough but finished enough, next day - some edits and addition day after)
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The widely-respected but notoriously gullible Amnesty International (USA branch) has again raised the alarm on crimes against humanity committed in the Syrian conflict. Again, as they've heard it and as they find, these crimes are by the insanely brutal Assad regime or, here, "the Syrian government" (for balance). 

Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison (PDF link) is a "chilling" report explained by this AI press release, and that's getting has hyped in the media, like by the UK Independent. 

The newly revealed crimes are said to have occurred at the notorious Sednaya military prison (the report uses the spelling Saydnaya), north of Damascus. They find an estimated 5,000-13,000 mostly innocent political prisoners have been hanged to death, besides badly abused, from 2011 through 2015. Surely more have been killed since, and they would remind us, more yet face this horrible alleged death in the future, unless we act.

Anyway, Amnesty (or AI) spoke to several supposed former inmates, supposed former guards and even officials, and self-described family members of other prisoners. That's a lot of words to pick and choose from, and it seems they just chose most of it because they liked the pickings. They heard about the terrible conditions in Sednaya's white building, and mind-numbing abuses in the even-worse red building. There, people were systematically tortured and killed, and only released if they saw everything and have contacts through to folks like Amnesty International (20 of their 31 alleged prisoner witnesses claimed to have been held there).

The unsupported verbal evidence behind AI's "findings" could be, as many will presume, a true record of events. But my money is on it being some mix of these three things:

1. Jihadist fiction (these sources could be well-connected crypto-Islamists in the midst of their information jihad against Syria)
2. Real; but spun and exaggerated evidence of normal execution for death penalty crimes (like treason, terrorism, kidnapping, murder, etc.)
3. The same victims already heavily promoted as seen in the "Caesar photos," basically just re-cycled with a new story.

It feels to me like some kind of shell-game, perhaps conflating two real things with some fake ones, etc., to create another false picture that helps keep the "pressure on Assad," and block any chance of peace and reconciliation. Even more importantly, these new allegations might help conceal the scale of terrorist crimes against Syria's people by re-branding them - as such allegations have always done - as more horrible crimes of "Assad".

1. Jihadist Fiction?

They say medical care was denied, and anyone reporting illness would be beaten, in the spot that hurt if he told them what it was. So illness went untreated, amid starvation, beatings, torture, and and other abuses. In this climate, one death per cell per day was expected. In fact, one supposed former inmate said that when his cell had no one die for 3 days, guards beat them all so severely that 13 of them died.

Those chosen for execution, having already been convicted in their mock "trial", and maybe sentenced to death, are told they're going to a regular prison. Once fooled like this, they are instead, cruelly, dragged beneath the red building and  beaten until past midnight, then transferred to the white building around 3 am usually, and "brought into a room in the basement and hanged." 

They call the mass-hanging ritual "the party," and call dead bodies "the goods." They deal in death and love it! Wicked people ... Okay? This is a story of cartoon villainy, written by dimwitted Jihadists who lack subtlety in their narratives, and transcribed by AI. It might better be called "Humorous Chatterboxes: Extemporaneous Mass-Fabrication of Horrors at Saydanaya Prison." Like so many bogus claims over the years, this outlines a satanic campaign of extermination, waged by the inclusive and secular Syrian government against the pure Sunni uprising ... that will prevail, Allahu Akbar!

Starvation Evidence? The claim of systematic starvation of the prisoners is not entirely verbal. It's supported in the report by photos - at least three named activists who were detained at Sednaya and later released are shown before and after, extremely thin, as if badly starved for some time. If these really all match up (I'll presume so), that's better evidence than usual. It gives me slight pause. 

But I notice they all seem either too happy or proud of their astonishing weight loss - almost like people who had just won a hunger strike, and granted early release by the government to avoid having a death on their hands. Who knows? They might have been arrested partly for lying their asses off about the government, and might be repeating the crime now. Because it seems that other than a few crash diets, all we have is a lot of words from clearly partisan sources of the kind we should know all too well.

2. Normal Execution for Death Penalty Crimes?

There is a legitimate death penalty for some crimes, like treason, terrorism, kidnapping, murder, etc. It might be done by hanging, or I've heard they still use firing squad in Syria. This is bound to be used, fairly or unfairly, in this conflict situation. Is that who's getting hanged? 

According to the people AI talked to, no. These are just innocent people. The trials are all shams. The word trial jacketed in "scare quotes" in AI's report - as they otherwise call the killings "extrajudicial" (that is, done without a trial). But they do explain how the innocent were tortured into confessing to such a death penalty crimes, before their "trial."

"...during their interrogation in the branches of the intelligence agencies, they “confessed” under torture to the most serious crimes, such as killing a member of the Syrian military. As a result of their high-level confessions, those held in the red building are usually subjected to a “trial”

So if the government counters these were judicial killings, based on evidence including confessions, this could be how the opposition crowd would explain it. It was all a bogus process. The system was rigged, man!

No Opposition Fighters Here? It was July, 2011, the report explains, when "the first group of detainees arrested for their involvement in the unfolding crisis in Syria" were sent to Sednaya's "red building." This was back when it was all peaceful, except in some places - like almost everywhere, including the Damascus countryside.

And in 2015, Amnesty spoke with 20 who were in the ominous red building, "five who were part of the Syrian military at the time of their arrest and 15 who were civilians." None were opposition militants, in case they acknowledge there were any. "The remaining 11 were detained in the prison’s “white building”, including nine who were part of the Syrian military at the time of arrest and two who were civilians." (they heard the white building was mostly for military and red mainly for civilians.) Again, no rebel types, FSA or Al-Qaeda, appeared at least among those Amnesty heard from.

So the people held and killed are members of the military, and civilians - like it seems in the "Caesar photos." There are no actual armed insurgents included. Huh. By this agreed narrative, all claims of militant activity here were to be extracted under torture, and be untrue by definition. The regime wanted it that way, to ensure they got only unjust death here. That's "the party," where you get "the goods," that are only sweet enough once they've been thoroughly marinated in evil. This helps clarify the unacceptable immorality of it all. In fact, it's a bit too clear, isn't it? That might be Wahhabi fiction for you. (this obviously goes back to point 1 as well).

It does clash with the picture formed in this segment from an earlier Al-Jazeera program: the prisoners in Sednaya were 98% Islamists, perhaps including activists but also high-risk militants, requiring extra security. Only a few people were in for non-revolutionary crimes. It's not clear how many were activist Islamists, which AI acknowledges, vs. militants, which they don't. So did Amnesty only hear from the Islamist activists, from the other 2%, or from people who weren't there at all?

(See also this account from a former prisoner who contest's Amnesty's version I didn't work in here.)

3. The "Caesar Photos" Victims Recycled? 

I note this story is similar in many ways to existing claims that thousands of detainees had been killed, by August 2013, in various prisons around Damascus. That was "proven" with gruesome smuggled photos first revealed in early 2014, coupled with the story told by the supposed photographer, code-named "Caesar." We've all heard about this.

In my analysis of the evidence (largely collected here at the Monitor), these people did die in Syria and were collected at military hospital 601 (garage area, middle building on the north side). But they were probably never imprisoned by the government.

Rather, it seems more like  terrorists abducted and killed these thousands of men and older boys, who were religious, political, or military enemies of theirs. Said terrorists probably held thousands of such people at any time, abused and starved them, and finally exterminated them and dumped the bodies. They also, I suspect, scrawled numbers on the bodies blaming different branches of Syrian military intelligence, and giving a high but mostly consistent "prisoner number" to each.  

It seems to me the government, for its part, found and documented the bodies, before burying them in graveyards they have to operate for such things. It seems the bodies got individual graves, and I suspect the photos were meant for retrieval, whenever a victims was finally identified. The numbers were simply left as found. And "Caesar," I suspect, dishonestly used his position to take his own unofficial photos geared towards "confirming" the terrorists' message, and making the process look just as evil as the 'mass prison torture' painted in behind it.

But whatever ... there are many similarities, from abuse type, basic number, and others I needed to explore. For example, the phrase AI chose for the report's title, "human slaughterhouse," is just the effect "Caesar" says he wanted to create with the first of numerous group photos he staged, like the one above, to "make the place look like a slaughterhouse."

Amnesty on Overlap: Maybe: AI isn't even sure if this is or isn't the same thing, at least in part. Two different passages in the report, with their footnotes, explain:

* "The bodies of the victims are then taken from Saydnaya to Tishreen Military Hospital, where they are registered by hospital officials there ... according to former prison authorities from Saydnaya, the bodies are not photographed at this stage by the Military Police, because it is not necessary for the authorities to confirm or register their cause of death. 110" Note 110: "Accordingly, these victims would not be among those in the photographs smuggled out by “Caesar”."

* "The medical report is then sent to the forensics department at Tishreen Hospital. There, the body is photographed by a member of the Military Police and a death certificate is drawn up based on the medical report. 159" Note 159: "Accordingly, those who die as a result of torture and other ill-treatment at Saydnaya may be included in the photos smuggled out of Syria by “Caesar”."(emphasis mine)

So ... the bodies were not photographed at Tishreen, but then they were, so these people might or might not be shown in some of those photos "Caesar" smuggled out. Well, that's about as clear as mud.

Looking at different sub-themes in comparison, we see a somewhat mixed picture, but mainly it seems this is supposed to be a new allegation of systematic abuse. It's related to and similar to - but not part of - the system supposedly documented in the "Caesar photos."They're supposed to jointly illustrate a larger picture of near-holocaust proportions.

Different Prisons: The December, 2015 Human Rights Watch report makes it sound like each military intelligence (MI) branch had its own prison, with branch 215 and 227 killing the bulk of victims at their two facilities, and the others like 216, 235, Air Force Intelligence, military police, etc. killing a combined few hundred more at their places. I'm not actually sure if everyone agrees on this claim, but it seemed so.

However, I've noticed that the same abuses and tortures were being done at all these different prisons at the same time - that is, they probably were all in one place (again, not government-run), and the terrorists there arbitrarily made up the branch divisions (an example below - every prison was an eye-gouging spree at the same time).

According to HRW, Sednaya prison is included as a minor contributor. I've seen most of the photos, and just one token Sednaya victim s noted: "sporadic views" folder, 003-1-2012-Sednaya Prison (given in Arabic). He doesn't appear hanged, but has white foam coming from his mouth. It says this is January, 2012. There are some photos (just a few I've seen, as labeled) from Tishreen hospital, where it's said Sednaya sent their "goods."  These seem to be six in number, all logged in March of 2012. Here's one - take a look at that neck. Is this a Sednaya basement hanging victim?

To say that place alone produced so many, in context, means this is news, and that number should be added, minus perhaps a small overlap, to the "Caesar photos" tally. But of course, that claim is in question here.

General Abuse Similarities: The report declares at one point "the government is deliberately inflicting inhuman conditions on detainees at Saydnaya Prison through repeated torture and the systematic deprivation of food, water, medicine and medical care." These are all just what happened to the "Caesar photos" victims - sporadic torture and other injuries, badly infected, as their bodies wasted away from lack of food or care. In most cases, their heads were apparently shaved at least once near the end, and that seems to be it.

The link is noted in the report, with the "Caesar" story cited as a precedent. It's one that's in the process of being torn down. All these signs of horrible abuse - and they are very bad - will in the end implicate the foreign-sponsored proxy terrorists in Syria.

Alleged Coverup Similarities: As with the "Caesar photos," numerous sources told AI that the victims were explained by official papers citing cause of death as heart attack or breathing failure, natural and innocent, irregardless of the facts. Here they point out how clever this is, for being technically true.

Previously, I've seen a handful of supposed official death certificates that say heart attack. That could be true in those cases, or they could be forged. Either way, there's no proof this is really said for everyone, and the notion is in fact pretty dubious.

Interesting note: the coverup goes way back, allegedly. The earliest entry in the "Caesar photos" library is elderly Mahmoud al-Zoubi (as explained here), who was among those killed in the same incident that killed famous child martyr Hamza al-Khatib, in rural Daraa on April 29, 2011 (or a month later as they say - see here for full story). Sheikh al-Zoubi's death certificate is shown on a video, claiming he died from a heart attack - brought about by vicious torture. Authorities would say that was by the same Islamists who killed the old man, Hamza, and the others, before they found the bodies unidentified the night of the 29th. But it's shown like an admission by authorities that they tortured him to death. And it's an admission they supposedly have avoided with that lame heart attack story.

Hospital to Mass Grave: Whether hanged, killed otherwise, or died from starvation and neglect, the dead prisoners (or "the goods") would be "transferred to Tishreen Hospital for registration, and finally brought to mass graves located on military land near Damascus. ... Most of those hanged and secretly buried had been subjected to enforced disappearance in Saydnaya. Their families still have no information about their fate."

Put another way, as terrorists came to control ever-wider areas, many people disappeared, into dungeons, we think ... and that might be. And the government never told them about it, or handed over the body.

It's said the bodies of those who died or were executed at Sednaya were sent to Tishreen Hospital (and as noted, perhaps photographed there, or not). This is not the Hospital 601 the "Caesar photos" were taken at. But it sounds like they were then sent to the mass graves/official cemeteries outside Damascus that the bodies from 601 were sent to. This suggests to me the same reason; authorities could not find the families for this many unidentified bodies. So I suspect the same basic story as the "Caesar photos" applies here, anyway (to the extent there are these bodies passing through Tishreen hospital, which seems likely enough).  The claim that photos were not taken is likely false. That should be standard for unknown bodies. That source just wanted to be clear there's no chance of overlap or recycling here. But other sources didn't get that memo.

Compared Body Counts: Amnesty's estimate range of 5,000-13,000 killed at the prison is based just on what people said:

On the basis of evidence from people who worked within the prison authorities at Saydnaya and witness testimony from detainees, Amnesty International estimates that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015. 

This is probably based on the numbers they gave, like "13 men died in our cell on this day," extrapolated and averaged somehow over time. (They actually explain it, as noted and panned by "b" at Moon of Alabama) But of course those words might have been fictitious to begin with.

The "Caesar photos" are said to show some 11,000 tortured detainees. and the body numbers run about that high (at least to 9,994, with most numbers unseen). I suspect this is an unidentified body number. Anyway, it seems some 10-11,000 passed through, but the photos only show about 60% of these (6,600-6,700), and only most of these are clearly prisoners - of someone with no regard for modern human rights standards (mainly you can tell by the intensive abuse, starvation, and neglect, besides the mysterious mass extermination). However, it's odd how none of them I've seen wears a prison uniform - they're in street  clothes or naked, or in non-uniform underwear, like people kidnapped by terrorists would be.

So, ...  maybe 4-5,000 of the "Caesar photos" victims were detained, or the full 6,700, or maybe the full 11,000 bodies suggested by the running numbers. This yields a broad range of 4,000-11,000, at the time "Caesar" fled with his photos, in August, 2013. HRW decided Sednaya produced 5,000-13,000 with another two years and four months added. That stands out as strangely similar, but it could well be its own different number, just on the same grand scale.

In this case, however, there's no photo evidence for so many bodies. Precedent says there could be, but it's not proven. And of course, even if there are, pivotal questions remain (see above and below) .

Thoughts on Prison Death Rate Variance: Amnesty's report states:

According to the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, a non-governmental organization that uses scientific methods to analyse human rights violations, at least 17,723 people were killed in government custody between March 2011 and December 2015, an average of 300 deaths each month.

The Caesar photos were supposed to show how 6,600-11,000 detainees were killed just in the Damascus area up to mid-August, 2013. My analysis of the provided dates on these photos suggests most of the unidentified bodies rolled in between November, 2012 and the last days between August 14 and 20. With about 9,000 bodies logged in this span, that's an average of nearly 1,000 bodies a month, just in this large corner of Syria. (again these are largely abused prisoners, but appear to have other kinds of unknown men included, and there are lots of missing images, about 40% of the total that might look far different, like including women and children, more rotten bodies, etc.)

So ... having "Caesar" there to document it makes the death toll rise dramatically? ... Full timeline below (see here for H# and "H# insertions" explained). Top line is months, bottom line is body numbers.

 The major red span broken down:

Neck Issues: The Caesar photo victims don't tend to look like they were hanged by the neck until dead. They do often show signs of being suspended upside down, by their ankles, for long spells. That's roughly the opposite. And they frequently have abrasions, burns, ligature or collar marks on their necks. At right, alleged prisoner #963 of branch 215 from the February 2013 folder.  (cropped and rotated - original at SAFMCD). It seems he was hanged upside-down, with bands of mild acid wrapped around his neck, perhaps to keep his head down as low as possible ... that and his yellow mucous issue are among the many strange things I'll be coming back to soon.

Anyway, this is a point suggesting there's some separate pool of people who have been hanged. There may or may not be some proof forthcoming, but this is the opposition's leading story as to how it happened. As usual, by regime evil, allowed by the world.

If that's so, any overlap between these big pools should be minimal. But mainly this exercise seems to be about taking "Caesar's" story for all those bodies, tying it as a precedent to this mass party-hanging of innocents story, having that be be seen as supporting the first claims, etc. It's similar to how non-incriminating quotes from the "Assad files" (smuggled documents) were spun together with scenes from the "Caesar photos," by partisan alleged witnesses (explained here). It's an ongoing informational circle-jerk. You can pile falsehood upon falsehood for a hundred years, but there's never a point where it becomes true. But if it supports an officially sanctioned regime change campaign, plenty of people will line up, and get paid, to assure everyone what the activists said is definitely true.