Damascus Gay Girl

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Interesting blog by an out lesbian in Syria. She has an interesting analysis of what's been going on in Syria.

http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/

[Os Cangaceiros]

What she wrote about Hama was informative.

[Threetune]

What do you think was interesting in particular?

[agnixie]

Obviously a fake, everyone knows there's no such thing as a syrian lesbian!
(I'm preempting the third-positionist brigade)


What do you think was interesting in particular?

The part where the Salafis are now deviously recruiting in the Syrian LGBT community, duh.

[Chicxulub]

To be honest, I don't exactly see what makes this particular blog interesting.

[Threetune]

Obviously a fake, everyone knows there's no such thing as a syrian lesbian!
(I'm preempting the third-positionist brigade) More straw-man stupidity.



The part where the Salafis are now deviously recruiting in the Syrian LGBT community, duh.

Fascinating

[Lenina Rosenweg]

What do you think was interesting in particular?

If its authentic its a fascinating eyewitness of the Syrian revolution.She's not quite a leftist perhaps but is highly intelligent.




Now, I’m not stupid. And I know a little bit about how to identify objects. So, what I saw was a slow moving column: a couple of tanks – Soviet built, I think T-72’s? – followed by armored personnel carriers, then more tanks. They were spaced out, which was weird – well, I guess in case they came under attack …

They didn’t stop here but kept going. And so loud as they went by …

I have no idea where they were bound for but they were moving north … the news today is that Homs is under massive attack ...

I didn’t get back to sleep for a long time after that. It isn’t exactly something that one relishes ….


Naw, that's not interesting at all. If she wrote a poem extolling the glories of Bashir Assad and his PSL friends in the west, now that would be interesting!

[Chicxulub]

If its authentic its a fascinating eyewitness of the Syrian revolution.She's not quite a leftist perhaps but is highly intelligent.

Christopher Hitchens is also pretty intelligent, and he's a stooge lackey of the highest degree. I have no interest in yet another uninteresting opinion from some self-important blogger about things that are of no real relevance to the Syrian crisis.

[Marxach-Léinínach]

Does kidnapped U.S. lesbian blogger in Syria actually exist... or did she steal London woman's identity?

-London woman says photo of U.S. lesbian blogger 'kidnapped in Syria' is actually her
-Jelena Lecic said: 'I don't know how this happened, I've never met her. This has put me in danger'
-Blogger's 'girlfriend' admits she's never met her
-Story of alleged kidnap was reported across the globe

The reported kidnap of a U.S. lesbian blogger in Syria has come into question after a woman in Britain claimed that photos being used to call for her release are actually her.
Thousands of campaigners joined protest groups after media outlets across the world reported that Amina Arraf, a blogger known for her frank posts about her sexuality and her open criticism of President Bashar Assad had been detained.
But a woman in London came forward today claiming the photos being circulated were actually her, raising questions about the existence of the blogger.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2001186/Does-kidnapped-U-S-lesbian-blogger-Amina-Arraf-Syria-actually-exist.html#ixzz1Orl74FwT

[Threetune]

"Now, I’m not stupid. And I know a little bit about how to identify objects. So, what I saw was a slow moving column: a couple of tanks – Soviet built, I think T-72’s? – followed by armored personnel carriers, then more tanks. They were spaced out, which was weird – well, I guess in case they came under attack …

They didn’t stop here but kept going. And so loud as they went by …

I have no idea where they were bound for but they were moving north … the news today is that Homs is under massive attack ...

I didn’t get back to sleep for a long time after that. It isn’t exactly something that one relishes …. "

That is interesting NOW!

[freepalestine]

electronic intifada originally uncovered the story of the americans involved in "activism" for palestine and in this case syria


http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/new-evidence-about-amina-gay-girl-damascus-hoax

BLOGS (http://electronicintifada.net/blog) » ALI ABUNIMAH'S BLOG (http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah)



New evidence about Amina, the "Gay Girl in Damascus" hoax



Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Sun, 06/12/2011 - 04:24

Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty write:
We have gathered compelling new evidence regarding the “Gay Girl in Damascus” blogger hoax.
Those responsible for this hoax have caused a great deal of concern and anguish by posting information alleging that “Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amina_Abdallah_Araf_al_Omari&oldid=433778349)” the supposed “Gay Girl” blogger had been kidnapped from the streets of Damascus, possibly by Syrian authorities, and was likely in grave danger.
A measure of the concern that this story has caused is the formation of a Facebook group calling to “Free Amina Arraf (https://www.facebook.com/FreeAminaArraf?sk=wall)” with more than 15,000 members, as well as numerous action alerts and stories in international media (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/gay-girl-in-damascus-blogger-detained/2011/06/07/AG0TmQLH_story.html).
We believe the story of Amina to be totally baseless and the doubts expressed by other observers, such as Liz Henry (http://bookmaniac.org/painful-doubts-about-amina/) and Andy Carvin (http://twitter.com/acarvin), to be entirely founded.
We also believe that whoever is responsible for the hoax is attempting to conceal their responsibility and continues to disseminate false information. They have previously engaged in such behavior as taking photographs from the Facebook page of a totally uninvolved individual and deceptively presenting them as being images of Amina (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9509289.stm) and members of her family.
We believe that the person or persons responsible should end this deception which has been harmful to individuals who trusted and believed in “Amina” and more broadly has sown confusion, distraction and absorbed energy and attention at a time when real people are in danger in Syria and in other countries in the region.
We are sharing the information we have gathered here not in order to level accusations, but so that others might pursue these leads to conclusive ends. The best outcome would be if the person or persons behind the hoax would take responsibility themselves to bring the matter to a close and provide all doubters with reassurance that “Amina” is not in danger because she is a fictitious character.
While we believe that the information gathered here is compelling in its own right, we have managed to corroborate additional information from several independent sources that we are not publishing and that significantly increases our confidence in the information we have. We do not know the motives of the person or persons behind this hoax.
The information presented below connects the “Amina” blogger to two people in real life: Thomas (Tom) J MacMaster and Britta Froelicher who are married to each other.


Correspondence

The Electronic Intifada wrote to MacMaster requesting to speak to him about “Amina,” to which he responded, “Thanks, but as I have stated before, it is neither my wife nor me.”
A follow up email from The Electronic Intifada to MacMaster asking to speak to him so that we could present the information we have met with the following response:

Unfortunately, we’re on vacation so I wouldn’t be able to do so. We have already been ‘confronted’ by the Washington post with these and have denied them and will continue to do so.”

We do not know what information The Washington Post may have confronted MacMaster with and whether it is the same information presented here. In a final response to The Electronic Intifada, MacMaster wrote:

I am not the blogger in question. Whomever that person ‘really’ is, I have doubtless interacted with her at some point. I do not know further than that about her. When I first read the news story, I momentarily thought I had an idea who she was. As time has progressed that seems much less likely. I understand there are a number of unusual coincidences regarding the blogger and either me or my wife. Those are, as far as I am aware, simply unusual. I am not going to make more of that.

MacMaster has acknowledged certain “coincidences” but as mentioned refused to grant us an opportunity to go through them in detail in an attempt to explain or debunk them. We present below the information we wanted to discuss with MacMaster.



“Amina’s” home address is the same as MacMaster’s address

On a private Yahoo discussion group named “thecrescentland” that was run and operated by “Amina” and has since been closed down, the following name and physical address information was displayed, according to a person who was a member of that group:
Amina Arraf & Ian Lazarus
c/o Mr & Mrs Abdallah Arraf-Omari
5646 Crestwood Dr, SW
Stone Mountain, GA 30087

There is, however, no evidence of an Amina Arraf, Ian Lazarus or Mr &Mrs Abdallah Arraf-Omari ever owning or occupying this address.
According to State of Georgia property records, the house at that address has been owned by Thomas MacMaster for many years. On 29 November 2007, MacMaster quit-claimed (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quitclaim_deed&oldid=432895876) a share of ownership in the property to Britta Froelicher. MacMaster and Froelicher are the current owners of the property according to State property records.
MacMaster has not only owned the property but occupied it until September 2010 when he moved to Scotland. Evidence of his occupation of the property prior to that date includes invitations to barbecues he issued to friends via Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61793975098&v=wall).
The possibility that MacMaster could have rented or lent his home to the “real” Amina is excluded by the fact that MacMaster claims not to know Amina.



http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/ESL%20Instruction%20%26%20Consulting%20%7C%20Faceb ook.png




Photograph of Assad billboard in Syria

In Amina’s 11 May 2011 blog post “Irony” (http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/2011/05/irony.html) there appears a photograph of a billboard taken in Syria.

http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/Assad%20billboard%20on%20blog.png


The same photo but with a tighter crop appears on Britta Froelicher’s Picasa account (https://picasaweb.google.com/bfroelicher/SyriaItSTHEBEST#5168343585071847330).

http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/Picasa%20Web%20Albums%20-%20Britta%20Froelicher.png


The photo in the Picasa account also appears to have been sharpened and adjusted. It is clear, from details in the two images, including the person wearing a helmet in the foreground that the images were taken at the same time and place.
However, the fact that the image on the Amina blog has a wider field of view suggests it could not simply have been stolen from Froelicher’s Picasa account. It would appear that the Amina blogger had access to the original image.
Many other images in Froelicher’s account show her and MacMaster in Damascus.



Wikipedia edits from Edinburgh IP addresses

The Lez Get Real (LGR) web site published 19 articles purporting to be authored by an Amina Abdallah. On 10 June 2011, LGR issued An Apology To Our Readers About Amina Abdallah (http://lezgetreal.com/2011/06/an-apology-to-our-readers-about-amina-abdallah/).
The apology claimed that LGR had been deceived by Amina and published her posts in good faith, believing her to be who she presented herself as. It also acknowledged that LGR had assisted Amina in establishing her “Gay Girl in Damascus” blog.
In a comment on that post, Paula Brooks, executive editor of LGR, gave two IP addresses which she said had been used by Amina to accessLGR’s servers. The whois records for these IP addreses both have descriptions that indicate they are allocated to UoE or The University of Edinburgh.
One of these IP addresses was the source of a number of edits to various articles on Wikipedia. These edits from 188.74.110.134 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/188.74.110.134) begin in October 2010. The edited pages all involve Middle East, Arab, Islamic and historical topics.
MacMaster posted Facebook updates between 4 September 2010 and 8 September 2010 documenting his move from Stone Mountain, Georgia to Edinburgh, UK, including 47 photographs added to a gallery named “First Days in Edinburgh” on 8 September.
Topics of Wikipedia articles edited from the Edinburgh IP address overlap with many topics and subject areas in which MacMaster and Froelicher have documented interests and experiences according to online records.
MacMaster has been active in the University of Edinburgh’s Students for Justice in Palestine. (http://sjp.eusa.ed.ac.uk/2011/01/palestine-101-series-from-17th-jan/)
A note of caution about the source of the information on the IPaddresses: Paula Brooks, Executive Editor of LGR claims to work at the Smithsonian Institution and to hold a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College and three Masters degrees from Gallaudet University, University of North Carolina, and University of Dayton.
However, Paula Brooks is the sole source of information on Paula Brooks; extensive Internet, dissertation abstract, media, and Lexis-Nexis searches reveal no evidence of the real life existence of such a person beyond the persona on LGR, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/lezgetreal) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paula-brooks/4/104/a7).
“Paula Brooks” may be an avatar for a real person who fits the same description but uses a different name in real life, or it could be a fabricated persona. The IP address information appears circumstantially to match MacMaster’s movements and interests, but, given the uncertainties about its provenance, needs to be treated with extra caution unless Paula Brooks’ identity can be confirmed.



Conclusion

The information we have collected here is not intended as either an accusation or final, conclusive proof of who may be behind the Amina hoax. However taken together we felt it was compelling enough that we had to publish it as soon as possible. This is primarily because we believe, and have observed, that the hoaxer(s) is both attempting to hide information that could lead to discovery and furthering the hoax with other false personas. By sharing this information we want to provide the best chance that this story can be brought to closure and people’s attention directed back toward real world events.

[Olentzero]

Fresh from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13744980).

How's it feel to have the joke become truth, agnixie? :D You're not alone, though - back in '68 there was a show called Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In that occasionally featured news from the future. One particular sketch began "1988: President Ronald Reagan..." which cracked the audience up. You're in good company.

[freepalestine]

.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13746063 [audio interview]
Edinburgh student is Gay Girl in Damascus blogger

13 June 2011 Last updated at 09:15 Help
A blog purportedly written by a gay woman in Syria, which described life in Damascus amid the current political unrest, has been revealed to be a hoax.

The true author of A Gay Girl in Damascus is Tom MacMaster, an American man studying in Scotland.

He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme why he wrote the blog.

[Luís Henrique]

Fresh from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13744980).

Here is what the imbecile has to say about this:


I do not believe that I have harmed anyone - I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.

And here is what his victims think of it:


Because of you, Mr MacMaster, a lot of the real activists in the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender] community became under the spotlight of the authorities in Syria.

Really, if this guy is not a conscious Assad spawn, he is stupid beyond any reckoning.

Luís Henrique

[Threetune]

Really, if this guy is not a conscious Assad spawn, he is stupid beyond any reckoning.

Luís Henrique

agnixie said: "Obviously a fake, everyone knows there's no such thing as a syrian lesbian!
(I'm preempting the third-positionist brigade)"


They are both wrong. It's just western liberal inspired black propaganda, willingly swallowed by individualist ‘anti-authoritarian’ sentiment everywhere. But they won't learn, they just blame Assad and "third-positionist".

What a brilliant exposure of tacky 'left' liberal politics all this is.

[Return to the Source]

How embarrassing for the assholes who thought this was a legitimate source indicting the Syrian government.

[Olentzero]

Here is what the imbecile has to say about this:Somewhere else in that article or its update he says he was sick of trying to take a stance on the issue and hearing "Why are you anti-American?" and suchlike in response. So one of his primary motivations was to avoid getting picked on.

Tough shit, Mr. McMaster. This issue isn't about you and your delicate feelings. I admit it ain't easy to try to speak truth to power, but have the courage of your convictions and have a thick enough skin to be able to ignore the trollish detractors who have nothing better to offer than a weaksauce O'Reilly-style talking point.

[Triple A]

This syrian girl is a middle age american
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13744980

[the_red_pickle]

That woman needs to sue MacMaster... others need to track him down and give him shit...

[Jose Gracchus]

How embarrassing for the assholes who thought this was a legitimate source indicting the Syrian government.

That poor bourgeois government.

[Tim Finnegan]

How embarrassing for the assholes who thought this was a legitimate source indicting the Syrian government.
I think the bit where they shot dozens of civilian protesters did that.

[Feodor Augustus]

What a brilliant exposure of tacky 'left' liberal politics all this is.

As far as I can tell, you are right: MacMaster is an American PhD student in Scotland, and given the wording in some of his public statements, - i.e. the waffle about narratives, - I would guess a trendy post-modern liberal. He, and his wife, are definitely stupid, and not Assad pawns.