The Syrian “96.7%” Boiler Room
CNN Arabic just announced Assad “The Personality of the Year for 2009″ after he received 20,687 votes, or 67%, out of 30,679 who cast their opinion. Since second behind was Erdogan of Turkey, with 8,442 votes, and third was Ahmadinajead of Iran, with 1,550 votes, RPS has to assume this is the Middle East “Personality of the Year”.
It also means that the poll included ONLY the names of Assad, Erdogan, and Ahmadinajead. What better way to start the new year with CNN Arabic putting ONLY on its list of “Personality of the Year” a known terrorist, a known extremist, and a known genocidal maniac? Ever wonder how these “useful Idiots” remain in power?
Now, a story very few people know.
In Syria, there are several boiler room operations manned by security officials (young and adept at using technology) whose task is to monitor the Internet for grass roots opinions and the Arab street in general. But unlike a war room for politicians we see in the west whose task is to truly understand public opinions, these Syrian boiler rooms also act to affect opinions or even worse represent them.
They are set-up for several reasons. One is to “comment” on any story published on Assad, at any of the highly visited Arabic websites, by defending his policies and praising his astuteness. To an outside reader, reading the comments gives you the impression it is the next door housewife or grocer (Yes, they actually use “Um Suleiman” and “Abu Mohammad”). For those who read al-Arabiya website or any other high-traffic website, they can smell them immediately because their comments reek of apathy (Repetitiveness makes the mind go stale).
They are also used to attack their enemies, mainly the US, Israel and of course, the Syrian opposition.
But even worse, their computer systems are equipped with IP modification software (Rami Makhlouf, Baschar’s cousin, owns the majority of the Internet traffic into Syria). They are able to trick any system by voting several times using the same computer and the same operator. Add multiple boiler rooms with hundreds of operators each and you get 20,687 votes anytime you want. It is only because Assad needs Ahmadinajead and Erdogan that he did not receive a higher % of the votes.
When Syrians voted in 2007, during the height of the US sanctions on Syria, Assad received exactly 96.7% of the votes (The 3.3% was intended to show that Syria is a free country). What is interesting about this CNN Arabic poll is that Assad is trying to export his “96.7% phenomena” to the Arab world. It is no longer sufficient to forcefully speak on behalf of Syrians, now he wants to speak on behalf of all Arabs. Those octogenarians in Egypt and Saudi Arabia better wake-up.
Is anyone home in the west to understand what’s going on?
