Not content with the dumpster fire of a book deal recently cancelled with Milo Yiannopoulos, Simon and Schuster has signed a book deal for Bana Alabed’s story.  Presumably, the book deal is with her English speaking parents as the seven-year-old girl who became the public face of the Syrian civil war could not enter into a legal agreement nor could she write the Tweets she sends out on a daily basis; much less an entire book.  Bana is the innocent victim of a cynical Al Qaeda propaganda campaign, one that will be reaching millions of Americans by being enabled by a major bookseller.

Few seemed to ask how a seven-year-old has the English proficiency or political sophistication to send out the Tweets that she was sending, begging for Western intervention against the Assad government.  Fewer have asked how these tweets were freely permitted to be sent in Jihadi occupied Aleppo and later Idlib, the de-facto capital of Al Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra.  The fact that her parents took her from Aleppo to Idlib, rather than enter into reconciliation with the government tells us something right away.  A shameless CNN interview recently done with Bana revealed that this young girl cannot speak English and that she was being coached, exploited for propaganda value.  Jake Tapper at CNN tweeted that we should all listen to Bana to learn more about Syria.  CNN’s antics were shameless and inappropriate.

Unable or unwilling to develop sources on the ground, major news networks, journalists, and think tank fellows often take the word of activists on the ground at face value.  That these people are “activists” in terrorist controlled areas should send up some red flags.  As I have written before, these people are not stupid.  They understand how Americans think and they understand the image that they need to present to the US government and American public if they are to acquire our support.  This support could come in terms of airstrikes, weapons, diplomatic top cover, a no-fly zone, military training, or perhaps even the removal of the Assad government.

Bana is one member of the “Alt-Qaeda” crew which includes witting and unwitting stooges who are busy twenty-four hours a day trying to socialize the American public to the idea of a kinder, gentler Al-Qaeda that we can work with.  This is the same dangerous narrative that the Taliban once tried to sell the American public, telling us that they were Islamic nationalists uninterested in global Jihad.  Then 9/11 happened and that story went up in smoke.  Today, the likes of Bana, Charles Lister, Eli Lake, and Michael Weiss would have us believe that there are moderate forces at play in Syria, moderates whom America should work with.  The reality is that Ahrar al-Sham is packed full of Al Qaeda personalities.  Al-Nusra is Al Qaeda.  The so-called Free Syrian Army is nothing more than a secular appearing proxy established by these Jihadi groups in order to secure western military support.

It is nothing short of astounding that Al Qaeda apologists are given airtime on CNN and a book deal from a major publishing house in 2017.  Americans are being sold a lie but whether or not they buy that lie is a decision that each of us will have to make.

Lead image courtesy of Twitter.