Reuters Newspeak: Arab or Muslim occupation of another sovereign state = "presence"

In 2005, Syria finally ended its nearly three-decade occupation of Lebanon that had involved the illegal stationing of thousands of troops, tanks, and warplanes in the country for the explicit purpose of suppressing anti-Syrian sentiment, securing geopolitical leverage against its enemies in the Middle East, and providing economic gains for the Syrian population.

So how does Reuters characterize 30 years of Syrian systematic and structural occupation of Lebanon?

Lebanon's Maronite leaders have had tense relations with Syria and led calls for an end to its military presence in Lebanon in 2005.

Reuters correspondents demonstrate the same obfuscatory rhetoric when describing the nearly four-decade Turkish occupation of Cyprus:

Cyprus has been split since the 1974 invasion in the aftermath of a brief Greek-inspired coup in Nicosia, and Turkey maintains a military presence in the Turkish Cypriot state.

For its control over a tiny unallocated swathe of territory, originally pledged in international law for a Jewish state, won in a defensive war against its marauding neighbors, only one country in the entire world apparently warrants use of the "O"-word by Reuters.

Yep, you guessed it.

Fox guarding henhouse

The Arab League has sent a team of "observers" to Syria to monitor the frenzied bloodletting that has resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 people in the country.  With not a hint of irony, Reuters correspondent Mariam Karouny reports:

Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, who arrived in Damascus on Saturday, is leading a team of observers that will check whether Syria is implementing part of an Arab peace plan requiring it to pull out of civilian areas and put an end to bloodshed.

Is it just us, or does it seem a bit Orwellian that a mission to verify compliance with a peace plan, intended to protect Syrians from slaughter by their government, is being led by a military leader of a country responsible for the genocide of perhaps 400,000 of its own citizens?

Pot, meet kettle

In a story about two suicide bombings in Syria last Friday and the government-run media's heavy focus on the bloodshed for propaganda purposes, Reuters correspondents Alistair Lyon and Erika Solomon demonstrate their practiced understanding of the way media companies employ heavily biased messaging to manipulate audiences: 

State media, often selective in their approach to news, devoted blanket coverage to the bombings, showing graphic footage of the victims and featuring interviews that drove home a single message.

Now, if they could only apply that same insight to their own reporting.

Patrick Worsnip explains how the West is "harassing" Syria

3,500 people murdered by the Assad regime in Syria and the world is standing idly by. 

Reuters has been tossed out of the country by Assad and has only one correspondent, Khaled Yacoub Oweis, reporting on the daily mass killings.  With penetrating journalistic insight however, Patrick Worsnip, Reuters UN correspondent, has identified the West's secret weapon:

Western governments have called on Assad to leave power and have waged a campaign of diplomatic harassment, for example by keeping Syria off the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Yes, we're certain Assad is quivering in his jackboots under that intense pressure.

For Reuters, the UN is your friend -- except when it blames the Arabs for murder

Reuters correspondents are seemingly enamored with the United Nations.  At least when one or another of its scores of departments, committees, subsidiary bodies, agencies, or related organizations seeks to excoriate Israel for alleged violations of international law.  On the other hand, when it comes to accusations by the United Nations of breaches of UN resolutions by Arab states or, as in the case of assassinated Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, complicity in murder, Reuters is more likely to give the UN the cold shoulder.

In today's story about Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters correspondents Marwan Makdessi and Nadim Ladki write:

Hariri's "March 14" alliance has accused Syria of assassinating his politician father, Rafik al-Hariri, in February 2005. They also blamed Damascus for attacking and killing other politicians and journalists.  Syria denies the allegations. A special court based in The Hague has yet to indict anyone for the Hariri killing.

Note how gingerly Reuters treats the accusation, failing even to mention that a UN report in 2005 specifically found Syrian officials complicit in the Hariri assassination.  It's just hearsay you see, obviously not worthy of inclusion in the story.

Makdessi and Ladki then report:

Hezbollah, which fought a war against Israel in 2006, is the only armed group in Lebanon. It is considered a terrorist group by Washington but Hariri's government has said it is a legitimate force whose aim is to end Israeli occupation of some Lebanese territory.

Here again, Reuters fails to mention an essential UN finding: that the territory in question -- the Shebaa Farms area -- is not Lebanese.  By omitting this essential information, Reuters encourages its readers to accept the Hariri government's assertion as true and thereby perpetuates Hezbollah propaganda.

Reuters can be quite a fair weather friend when you distract from its agenda.