Talk:Bana al-Abed

DELETE ARTICLE: Bana Alabed was NOT IN ALEPPO

Testimony from Carla Ortiz - who was recently in eastern Aleppo - broadcast on CNN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRLIQyZhQK8&feature=youtu.be This makes it clear that Bana Alabed was NOT in Aleppo. The whole story is fake. I propose that this article should be deleted. Silicondale (talk) 11:10, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

Removal of sentence referring to Bana's supposed political views

Deleted this sentence:

She opposes the Russian military intervention in Syria.

because this represents an adult political opinion which cannot be put into the mouth of a 7-year-old child without VERY strong corroborative evidence! In fact most if not all of her tweets were most likely written by an adult such as her mother, or more probably a British or other western intelligence officer charged with creating this propaganda story. Note that tweets can be posted from anywhere in the world by anybody with access to the account.Silicondale (talk) 10:26, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

mention of blog removed from page

A blogger who has been following this and asserting that is is a hoax, had been written up on page. an IP removed it: (These doubts have been summarised in a blog by Barbara Mckenzie.) I don't know if this blogger is notable, or cited in the press.E.M.Gregory (talk) 11:55, 9 December 2016 (UTC)

Template:Hoax

This template is not appropriate. From my understanding it is used for articles that were made to a hoax, not for articles about hoaxes. The article clearly expresses doubt in the account's authenticity. Hang googles (talk) 06:37, 10 December 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 December 2016

Please change the sentence "Bana al-Abed (born 2009; Arabic: البنا العبد‎‎) is a fictional character or hoax persona, presented as a 7-year old Syrian girl who claims to be tweeting from Aleppo ...", as Bana actually is a real person. The existence of Bana Alabed in East Aleppo has been proven through the usage of geolocation by a reliable source:

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/12/14/bana-alabed-verification-using-open-source-information/

It must be noted that "bellingcat" is far from being a reliable source. It is a collection of completely unqualified bloggers (principally Eliot Higgins, operating from his home in the English midlands) who present themselves as 'citizen journalists' but are largely funded by Atlantic Council to broadcast pro-NATO propaganda through social media. Bellingcat was set up 2 days before the MH17 plane shootdown and its first assignment was to try to prove that Russia was guilty and exonerate Ukraine. Bellingcat's work on this and various projects has been extensively debunked by experts in the appropriate fields: far too many references to quote here.Silicondale (talk) 15:59, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

Thus this sentence should be phrased as followed: Bana al-Abed (born 2009‎‎) is a 7-year old Syrian girl who is tweeting from Aleppo ..."

Thank you very much for considering my contribution 15:31, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

www.bellingcat.com is not reliable source, its just little more then personal blog, so that is far from enough to even question this. And you should be aware that we have incredible amount of sources that Aleppo is without power, water and internet for months now, so no, someone may be tweeting, but that is not a girl from Aleppo, but anti-Assad propaganda. --Ąnαșταη (ταlκ) 15:43, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

The IP was in the right. To my knowledge there aren't any reliable sources that call it "a fictional character or hoax persona". It has been criticized as such, but reliable sources cover it as a legitimate account. Hang googles (talk) 00:15, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Well, obviously the Washington Post was of the opinion, that www.bellingcat.com was a sufficiently reliable source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/14/in-aleppos-misinformation-war-a-7-year-old-girl-prompts-a-fact-check/?utm_term=.4d2fc1a1c373

However, which source that is more credible and reliable than bellingcat and the above mentioned Washington Post article can you present in order to proof, that Bana Alabed actually is a hoax? At least one video from the Bana account shows, that Banas family had access to solar panels in Aleppo. Thus, your "incredible amount of sources" obviously ignore this fact deliberately. Therefore, they seem to be even less reliable than bellingcat.

The fact that the intensely russophobic source Bellingcat (exemplified by its unconvincing and easily debunked treatment of the MH17 shootdown over Ukraine in 2014) is quoted in a newspaper with similar intensely russophobic agenda cannot be taken as any support of its credibility. Indeed, the crux of the problem is that all of western mainstream media now follow the same russophobic agenda, with virtually none of the dissent which could be seen even at the height of the Cold War. There are certainly independent sources such as Barbara McKenzie, Eva Bartlett, Carla Ortiz, and Vanessa Beeley, who give reliable first-hand evidence of what has really happened in Aleppo, but removal of the reference to Barbara McKenzie's blog is in my view a reflection of political bias of the Wikipedia editors. This will reflect badly on Wikipedia itself in times to come. Silicondale (talk) 10:10, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

More evidence that Bana Alabed is nothing more than a child being abused for jihadi propaganda

https://twitter.com/walid970721/status/811910311791841282 - considering that another 7-year-old girl was murdered by her parents in a so-called "suicide" attack in Damascus this week, I think this is an article which Wikipedia would do well to delete - or to drastically edit to reflect the facts: that the account was set up by western agencies (registered in UK) to generate propaganda on behalf of the jihadi terrorists funded by the west as part of a regime-change agenda.Silicondale (talk) 15:30, 22 December 2016 (UTC)