The looted fuel was sent to their bases in Iraq, through the illegal settlement of Mahmoudia.

  • US occupying forces in northern Syria are continuing to plunder natural resources and farmland, a practice ongoing since 2011
  • Recently, US troops smuggled dozens of tanker trucks loaded with Syrian crude oil to their bases in Iraq.
  • The fuel and convoys of Syrian wheat were transported through the illegal settlement of Mahmoudia.
  • Witnesses report a caravan of 69 tankers loaded with oil and 45 with wheat stolen from silos in Yarubieh city.
  • Similar acts of looting occurred on the 19th of the month in the city of Hasakeh, where 45 tankers of Syrian oil were taken out by US forces.
  • Prior to the war and US invasion, Syria produced over 380 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, but this has drastically reduced to only 15 thousand barrels per day.
  • The country’s oil production now covers only five percent of its needs, with the remaining 95 percent imported amidst difficulties due to the US blockade.
  • The US and EU blockade prevents the entry of medicines, food, supplies, and impedes technological and industrial development in Syria.
        • nahuse@sh.itjust.works
          410·
          7 months ago

          I’m a critical thinker and student of public policy and global society and political discourse?

          I have a deep and lasting dislike of authoritarianism, no matter the political orientation?

          I value media literacy and critical thought?

          I dislike the exploitative trend of capitalism, it believe that ny ultimate purpose is to use my own privilege to try and soften the blow for humanity in whatever small way I can, thinking globally in scope while emphasizing engagement with my own immediate community?

          But really, I’m just weirded out by the attack on critical thought around here, when all I did was question a questionable source. I’m also wondering why the fuck my political orientation is relevant here, and why you think you’re able to condescend to me in such a childish way.

          • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
            81·
            7 months ago

            I have a deep and lasting dislike of authoritarianism, no matter the political orientation?

            You’re literally the one appealing to the authority of MBFC here, irony is truly dead.

          • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
            41·
            7 months ago

            This conversation is entirely being driven by you saying irrelevant things and using garbage sources like mediabiasfactcheck.com

            Nobody is stopping you from finding sources that contradict the original posted story. Nobody is stopping you from explaining why the original posted story is wrong.

            Dying on a hill about the usefulness of a glorified amazon review ass source isn’t critical thinking.

            • Sightline@lemmy.mlEnglish
              12·
              7 months ago

              “Nobody is stopping you from explaining why the original posted story is wrong.”

              Breaking news: There is a teapot orbiting Mercury.

              Use your sources to prove it wrong.

              • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
                5·
                6 months ago

                I don’t need sources to “debunk” a statement used for demonstrations. But you do need some argumentation to combat claims made by the original story. US troops have been known to engage in questionable behaviour in the past (vast understatement) and in terms of stealing oil, the US government has openly seized oil tankers from other states as well

                The Suez Rajan was carrying more than 980,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil last year when it was seized and the oil confiscated in the U.S. sanctions enforcement operation.

                We also know that various parts of the US security aparatus have peddled drugs and weapons around the world, both to raise money that can be used without congressional approval and to sow instability. For this point, you can find the stories yourself, it is an extensively covered topic.

                • Sightline@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  15·
                  6 months ago

                  Your distractions will not work against me. Prove there isn’t a teapot orbiting Mercury. I want you to demonstrate for everyone here why that doesn’t make sense.

                  • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
                    5·
                    6 months ago

                    Lmao. Liberals are hilarious. I provide you with arguments and sources that restore the discussion to the topic of the post, and instead of critiquing that, you get stuck on martian orbital teapots. This is exactly what I was talking about in my original comment. Bad faith arguers never advance the discussion in a substantial way, they only derail it with nonsense.

        • nahuse@sh.itjust.works
          511·
          7 months ago

          Like a tool in a media literacy toolbox?

          You’re showing your own bias. It’s not the resource. It’s one that does an awful lot of legwork in checking bad sources of news, very often accurately.

          So. Don’t call me a “lib,” pal.

          • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
            134·
            7 months ago

            If you ever bother looking who funds the tool it will become clear to you whose biases it promotes. It’s incredible that there are people so gullible as to genuinely believe that this is some sort of an altruistic project.

            • Sightline@lemmy.mlEnglish
              16·
              7 months ago

              I’ve been watching you for years dude, you don’t have room to talk about biases.

              • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
                71·
                6 months ago

                I’m pretty open about my biases dude, and never pretended otherwise. The point here, is that western mainstream constitutes a bias just like anything else. All you’re complaining about here is that my biases are different from yours. There’s no such thing as unbiased content. Deal with it.

                • Sightline@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  14·
                  6 months ago

                  All you’re complaining about here is that my biases are different from yours.

                  I’m not complaining about anything, I’m calling out your hypocrisy.

                  I’m pretty open about my biases dude,

                  You sure weren’t open about it in that comment I responded to.

                  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
                    5·
                    6 months ago

                    If I claimed to not have biases while calling out other biases, that would certainly be hypocrisy. Pointing out that MFBC is biased while acknowledging my own biases is not hypocrisy. Hope that helps you.

                    You sure weren’t open about it in that comment I responded to.

                    Oh, how was I not open about it? Please cite where I try to pretend to be unbiased or mislead people regarding my position. Would love to hear about it champ.

            • nahuse@sh.itjust.works
              39·
              7 months ago

              You are making the claim about its funding. Please provide your argument, rather than making oblique references to things.

              I haven’t had time to watch and contextualize the long video you sent me to respond to it.

              But if you have concerns about the bias of a well known and widely respected source of fact checking (not even first hand news), then please expound and cite it.

              Otherwise, I have to assume you are making a bad faith argument, and cannot source your assertions, so I don’t have any need to engage with you.

              • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
                114·
                7 months ago

                I mean it’s right on their site, the fact that you can’t figure out how to find basic information on the internet says a lot about you. It’s funded in large part by ads. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/funding/

                There are also plenty of criticisms of the site and the methodology that are well known. For example, The Columbia Journalism Review has described MBFC reviews as subjective assessments that “leave room for human biases, or even simple inconsistencies, to creep in”

                https://www.cjr.org/innovations/measure-media-bias-partisan.php

                There is an obvious inherent bias given that what’s considered centre is liberal mainstream centre in the west. That’s what’s known as anchoring bias, being to the left of what’s the current mainstream in the west doesn’t make something extreme in objective sense.

                MBFC has also rated US propaganda outlets such as VoA and RFE as being “least biased”. Even wikipedia considers these sources unreliable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Potentially_unreliable_sources

                Just a few examples for you there. Hopefully that’s enough expounding and citing for you to get a picture.

                  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
                    113·
                    7 months ago

                    Your condescending tone certainly makes you an unattractive conversation partner.

                    Then don’t converse with me. Simple solutions are available given that this is an entirely you problem.

                    Who cares if it’s funded by advertisements? Why is that relevant? I would rather open funding by sponsors I can see than dark money or anonymous donors.

                    Entire books have been written on how advertisement models create biases in favor of the advertisers. If you don’t understand why that’s relevant what else can I say. Also, nobody is arguing for any dark money here. That’s just a straw man you made. The argument is that the whole premise is flawed.

                    I’ve acknowledged the criticisms for the site, and have only made the argument that it’s a useful tool to use for media literacy. It’s based on US media, and approaches things based on the political circumstances of (primarily) the US and the anglosphere.

                    It’s a useful tool for reinforcing mainstream western views and promoting these biases. People use it to shut down discussion and to smear sources outside western mainstream. This is problematic in the extreme.

                    Yes, MBFC it has a bias towards western political bias, because those are the circumstances within which the room was created. That’s a drawback, and, again, something that needs to be accounted for when using the tool.

                    And that’s why it’s highly problematic in a context of the media published by US adversaries. It should not be difficult to understand why, but here we are.

                    These are flaws that need to be taken into account when using it, but it doesn’t make to tool useless.

                    Given that people keep trotting it out to promote their political biases, seems that the tool is outright harmful.

                    But the fact remains that it is considered a reliable enough source to have qualified support for it on various university resource lists.

                    This is just appeal to authority.