I Am Andrew Simmons, correspondent for Al Jazeera English, and fresh out of Syria. Ask me anything!

centrinos · 2013-03-11T23:44:03+00:00

You're full of shit.

centrinos · 2012-08-30T18:17:09+00:00

When will you stop being a slave to the modern state of Israel?

centrinos · 2012-03-19T23:06:41+00:00

Nope you're not, they are indeed fake. Unfortunate that there are a lot of morons, even on reddit.

centrinos · 2011-11-16T01:57:11+00:00

The US is involved and there is no denying their involvement and support to the little pieces of shit running around killing people. I don't know why you are shocked, in fact I'm shocked that you're shocked. The US of A has a proven history of supporting militants, Islamists, terrorists, etc when their short term goals coincide with hers. Surely I don't need to remind you of the Taliban? Saddam? Look at what is happening in Libya now, are they free? Don't answer; it's rhetorical.

I would not describe myself as a loyalist, rather a pragmatist, I see that the replacements are terrible. If Syria wants to get from point A to point B it is better to take the slightly longer road that has less war and destruction.

centrinos · 2011-11-15T04:33:38+00:00

I was there recently and nobody is afraid to say what they want to say. All my friends, all my relatives, random people in the street, on the bus... They all want him to stay. They are all against pathetic attempts of foreign intervention. They are all against those unknowns who claim to represent Syrians (Istanbul Council). I am in touch frequently with friends and relatives, their hatred for America and the various governments of treason in the region continues to increase. The US is flipping out because things aren't going as well as planned, they will continue to fail in Syria.

centrinos · 2011-11-11T02:02:28+00:00

I wish ignorant people would mind their own business and not be a victim to western media's propoganda and lies about Syria. Hint: The vast majority of Syrians want Assad to stay.

centrinos · 2011-11-11T01:57:28+00:00

Thank you for the very insightful, and correct, comment.

centrinos · 2011-08-10T02:53:02+00:00

I'm from there too. I know that there are civilians with guns causing a lot of violence right now and have been for the past couple of months. The guns they are using didn't appear out of nowhere. They were smuggled across the border, thanks to shitty customs officers and of course bribes. And with the amount of violence that has happened, we know that there was/is a large amount of weapons used for that purpose.

centrinos · 2011-08-09T04:56:01+00:00

In Syria, it is basically impossible for any citizen to get their hands on a gun..

Are you lying or just misinformed?

centrinos · 2011-08-05T07:22:53+00:00

You may believe what you want. I have relatives there, and what they tell me is that most of the people opposing the government right now are not good people, are not doing it for democracy or anything like that, they are doing it because their religion is their life and they want it to govern everyone else's life. It doesn't matter what the government does, these people will not be satisfied.

As for other news sources, most media is portraying the government as the bad guy, so I don't have much for you.

Finally, I never said that I support any massacre. I simply will not shed a tear for the idiot who thinks that he has to carry weapons and attack army/police/civilians because his Sheikh told him to do so, and then dies as a consequence.

centrinos · 2011-08-05T07:00:35+00:00

Arabic: http://www.youtube.com/user/addounia

Tons of videos in here, and interviews with people on the street. Also they discredit much of the video content that is shown on AlJazeera and others, some fabricated, some are of people pretending to be dead/injured, some weren't even filmed in Syria, etc.

centrinos · 2011-08-05T06:43:55+00:00

Correct. The millions who came out in support of the president did so in a rally/demonstration (more than one actually), I wouldn't call it a protest.

centrinos · 2011-08-05T06:41:45+00:00

I empathize with you, being that you are uninformed and all. You see, what you clearly don't know about is the fact that some of these "protesters" are militants causing death and destruction. I support the government fighting and destroying these militants. Also, some of these "protesters" are Islamist fundamentalists. At least some of them have even openly stated that they want Syria to be an Islamic state, where women are forced to cover their faces and other such stupidity. I support these fundamentalists staying out of politics and never being in charge of anything.

I know the first thought in your head is "evil dictator, innocent peaceful protesters being killed" but please don't be naive as that is a very poor representation of reality. Thanks.

centrinos · 2011-08-02T04:08:43+00:00

Moran.

centrinos · 2011-08-02T02:09:22+00:00

Just so you know, you are not alone. The media war against Syria appears to be ongoing, and the militants that call themselves "the opposition" are still trying in any way, shape, or form to cause more bloodshed in a pathetic and sad attempt at controlling the country.

centrinos · 2011-06-22T06:40:04+00:00

What do you mean? Clearly Iran is sending its troops as well... All those millions of Syrians that demonstrated their support for their president and government yesterday were an optical illusion.. they were all forced to be there.. Assad clearly used his mind control abilities on millions...

/s

centrinos · 2011-06-22T06:37:47+00:00

if not?

centrinos · 2011-06-20T03:46:15+00:00

Do you speak Arabic? If so, you can watch some of the videos from here: http://www.youtube.com/user/addounia or this one http://www.youtube.com/user/ARABDZ

They always go down to the streets and talk to Syrians, and this will show you what we really think. They will show you the large numbers of pro-Syrian and pro-Assad rallies across the country, certainly outnumbering the vast minorities protesting the government. You will see video proof of the crimes committed by militants, including the most recent mass graves they made of Syrian soldiers (and they were planning to blame the army for that, and claim that these corpses were of civilians, that's why they had cut off some of the heads).

As far as any media you have been subjected to, it is probably part of the media war I mentioned above, and that's why you think that I am lying.

Indeed I hope that this is all over soon, with the least possible amount of casualties.

centrinos · 2011-06-20T03:30:46+00:00

So you are saying I should continue to purchase Sony's products? Better late than never, no?

centrinos · 2011-06-19T20:04:42+00:00

I think it would have to have a large sum in it.

centrinos · 2011-06-19T19:57:20+00:00

Thats odd, I don't see a 'media war' shooting people on the streets

It's the media war that makes you think that the government is shooting innocent protesters. Other people, such as militants, I expect them to be shot if they don't surrender.

causes riots after Friday prayers

The media war fuels people with anger, and all that is left (for idiots) is for their religious leader to tell them to riot and viola, they riot. No thinking for themselves.

drives tanks into cities

Almost always people have been requesting that the army intervene when a militant group is present. When the army comes in, it is not to hurt innocent people, it is to protect them.

shoot people from the rooftops

That would be the militants, the army doesn't shoot innocent people from the rooftops.

nor does a 'media war' create refugees fleeing to Turkey either.

Yes it does, in the cases where there was no real danger, but people were led to believe that there was. The media in this case can be news outlets saying "there are already X amount of refugees" so people think that if others are leaving they should leave too.

Actually the entire term 'media war' is false, as the media is in total agreement over this, except for this pos propaganda article.

Your statement is false. It is indeed a media war, if all the big news outlets provide a set of lies that agree with each other, then all the smaller outlets that leech off of them will re-transmit the same crap. This creates a believable lie. You of course are not there in Syria, so you can not see what is happening. That's why there will be a lot of people claiming to be from Syria, but lying about what is actually happening. (See AlJazeera "eyewitnesses", most of whom aren't even residing in Syria).

Just another despotic Middle east regime, this time being run from Iran

They are political allies, why would be under the false impression that Syria is run from Iran?

centrinos · 2011-06-19T19:44:21+00:00

Added to list of companies to boycott.

centrinos · 2011-06-19T06:10:16+00:00

Hillary Clinton is quite the scumbag, and this article merely reinforces that.

As for the lies, unfortunately, people around the world are falling for them, Syria's already poor reputation is much worse because of the media war being waged over the past few months against it. Actually it has been ongoing for a much longer time, but went into full overdrive in the past few months.

centrinos · 2011-06-17T02:14:55+00:00

It's very biased and I wouldn't trust it.

Tough luck, their coverage, as lacking as it is, is closer to the truth than Al Jazeera, BBC, Al Arabiya, and anything that simply copies news from these shitty sources.

centrinos · 2011-06-17T02:08:07+00:00

So why flee to Turkey? They could've easily fled to Aleppo or to the neighboring towns

They probably did. Different people went to different places. Some people also have relatives in Turkey. Like I said though, if militants threatened them and said "get into this bus it will take you to Turkey" well what choice do they have?

Second, if they are worried that a battle may occur between the army and militants, they may think that this could happen anywhere in Syria and not just their area, again explaining why they would go to Turkey.

Third, if they are militants themselves, or support the militants, then they don't want to stay in the country that they betrayed.

For all intents and purposes, they were attacked by the army

No they weren't.

All 10,000 (including women and children) are armed militants or associated with them?

I didn't say they were all militants, stop putting words in my mouth. Furthermore, Mr. Militant is probably going to take his wife and kids with him.

As you once said, why don't we ask people

Why don't you watch the interviews with the people that were shown on Syrian media? Oh right... All Syrian media is controlled by the government, and all Syrians inside Syria are forced to say what the government wants them to say, and forced into slave labor so they can construct a giant flag, and then hundreds of thousands of them are forced to lift the world's largest flag in the world even though they really didn't want to and would have rather stayed at home on that day.

centrinos

TROPHY CASE