Operation Featherweight: Month 18, Week 3, Day 2.

In the extremely rare moments that it manages to tear itself away from the death of David Bowie the media in the UK has been reporting that an aid convoy belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has managed to enter the Syrian town of Madaya which is 'being cruelly starved to death by the Assad regime.'

As always with western reporting on events in Syria that's not quite what's happened.

The ICRC have actually sent three aid convoys to Madaya and to the villages of Foua and Kefraya. However it seems that no-one wants to talk about either Foua or Kefraya because for a long time they were under the control of the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) which is a particularly brutal branch of the Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF).

As with the near-by city of Zabadani along with the town of Madaya conditions have been particularly brutal in Foua and Kefraya since the JAI/JAF took over. Their main tactic is has been to seize control of the areas food supplies in order to create an artificial shortage to drive up prices. This is done both for financial gain and to create images of starving children that can be blamed on the Syrian government.

In September 2015 the United Nations (UN) thought that it finally agreed a cease-fire deal with JAI/JAF that would see them release their civilian hostages. However when the ICRC convoys moved in on September 26th (26/9/15) they were blocked by civilians from Madaya and Saraqeb who also demanded to be evacuated. Then on September 27th (27/9/15) JAI/JAF pulled out of the agreement entirely triggering the Russian military intervention of September 30th (30/9/15).

After two months of the Russian military intervention on December 28th (28/12/15) JAI/JAF again changed their minds and allowed the ceasefire in Zabandani, Foua and Kefraya to go through. These ceasefire allowed JAI/JAF to leave with their families and more moderate fighters to remain on condition that they ceased their attacks against the government and the civilian population. The JAI/JAF obviously took most of the area's food supplies with them.

However despite there being no fighting in Zabadani, Foua or Kefraya and the situation being just as bad as it is in Madaya the ICRC have been refusing to deliver aid to these areas for almost a month now. It seems that the ICRC's official policy is no to starve the vast majority of Syrians who support the Syrian government in the hope of overthrowing that government.

Likewise we're not hearing anything about the similar situation in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in the Damascus suburbs. That's because on December 26th (26/12/15) the JAI/JAF rejected a similar ceasefire agreement that would have forced them to release their civilian hostages.

As for Madaya the first thing that happened when the JAI/JAF allowed the ICRC access to the camp civilians started flooding out demanding to be granted refuge in Syrian government controlled areas. This is despite the JAI/JAF holding many of their family members prisoner as a sort of guarantor who will be executed if they do not return.

Now it has arrived the interesting question is how the ICRC will be distributing aid in Madaya. Will they be giving directly to the civilian population or will they be handing it to the JAI/JAF who will keep it out of the hands of the civilians in the hope of producing more atrocity propaganda. If the ICRC does that latter it will be facilitating a crime against humanity which I assume it will be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer for.

Also today the UK Parliament has been discussing Madaya as an urgent question. Therefore I should probably comment on the suggestion by former Royal Marine Commando and former MI6 agent Paddy Lord Ashdown that Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) airdrops supplies to the JAI/JAF in Madaya. This is of course a completely mad suggestion.

However the UK Prime Minister David Cameron has proved himself rather keen on completely mad ideas when it comes for Syria. For example in 2013 he wanted to bomb Syria in support of the JAF's use of Sarin gas in the Ghouta suburb of Damascus. The source of that Sarin gas has now been traced back to Turkey and Turkish MP Eren Erdem is currently being prosecuted for treason for revealing that detail.

Therefore while I'm sure Lord Ashdown will deny it this suggestion seems to have been a test of whether Prime Minister Cameron has had an outbreak of rational thought or is still committed to mad ideas like using his Christmas message to announce that the UK is waging a Christian Crusade/Jihad against Muslims.

Sadly based on a quick look at the debate it seems this has gone right over the heads of most MP's. Fortunately though the government spokeswoman stuck to the position that it is not the Syrian government that is starving people to death in Syria.

No wonder BBC News is clinging to the Bowie obituary like a life-raft.

18:10 on 11/1/16 (UK date).