But notice how the paper (and the British expert and the Zionist expert from Washington Institute for Near East Policy--and notice that Zionists from that institute have the final word in every article on the Arab world in US media) is very "accommodating" of the lies and deception and even a bit amused: "If deception has always been part of war, it has not often been as bungled as in the video announcement by Syrian opposition fighters of the formation of a special forces brigade joining the battle against President Bashar al-Assad. The video, posted on YouTube, contained staples of underground fighters’ messages in the Internet age: 11 men dressed in black, each with his face hidden behind ski masks or cloth, posing with what appeared to be modified MP-5 submachine guns, a weapon often in service with counterterrorism teams.
One man in the group read a statement declaring the fight “in the service of God” against Mr. Assad’s “criminal regime.” Banners of the Free Syrian Army, the loose confederation of anti-Assad fighters, hung in the room. Everything was set to project menace and resolve. There was only one problem: The weapons were not weapons at all. They were nonfiring plastic children’s toys. According to an analysis by a curator at a British arms museum, the 11 men were each holding a TD-2007, a Chinese-made toy replica of the MP-5 submachine gun, marketed as appropriate for children above the age of 5. To each, the men had affixed an extension — perhaps a painted dowel or a section of pipe — masquerading as a long barrel. The curator, Jonathan Ferguson of the Royal Armories, in Leeds, said the outsize barrels gave the game away. “If they hadn’t done this, we probably wouldn’t have noticed that they weren’t armed with real guns,” he wrote by e-mail on Thursday. Who made the video is not known; it was apparently posted by an opposition sympathizer this spring, part of the daily circulation from Syria of videos showing the suffering or activities of Mr. Assad’s opponents. The deception unraveled once Mr. Ferguson watched the video on Wednesday and realized that each man held his weapon with his left hand in a way that concealed where the fake barrel met the toy; then he noticed other parts that were out of proportion. A Web search found the match. “I have a feeling we’re looking at the real-life equivalent of this scene from the comedy ‘Four Lions,’ ” he wrote, referring to a British movie, released in 2010, that served as a dark satire of jihad culture. Mr. Ferguson took an accommodating view, even as he unmasked the fake weapons. “I can’t help finding this rather amusing,” he wrote, despite what he called “its horrific context,” given Syria’s bitter war." (thanks Bob)
