Maram Susli (; born 1987), also known as Mimi al-Laham, PartisanGirl, Syrian Girl and Syrian Sister, is a Syrian-Australian political commentator and media personality who prepares videos on the Syrian civil war,

United States foreign policy in the Middle East United States foreign policy in the Middle East has its roots in the early 19th-century First Barbary War, Tripolitan War that occurred shortly after the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 establishment of the United States as an i ...

, and

Gamergate Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized online misogyny, misogynistic online harassment campaign motivated by a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the ...

. She has defended the former

Syrian government The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria. On 8 December 2024, after the succ ...

under

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

, and criticised

Syrian rebels A number of states and armed groups have involved themselves in the Syrian civil war (2011–present) as belligerents. The main groups were Ba'athist Syria and allies, Syrian opposition, the Syrian opposition and allies, Al-Qaeda and affiliate ...

as well as

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

. She has been described as a conspiracy theorist who has shared disinformation. Media outlets she has contributed to include RT, Press TV and Al Mayadeen.

Early life

Susli was born in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

; her family moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

when she was a child. She studied chemistry at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

and has a degree in biophysics and chemistry.

Career

Susli's series of video and social media commentaries on her

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel had over 30,000 subscribers and close to 2.5 million views in 2014. She has contributed to '' New Eastern Outlook'', which is an online pseudo-academic SVR-run disinformation and propaganda journal, as well as the conspiracy website '' InfoWars'', and Russian and Iranian state-run outlets RT and Press TV, and occasionally contributed to the

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

-aligned Al Mayadeen. She was interviewed by

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

Richard Spencer.

Views, conspiracy theories and misinformation

Susli began writing and speaking on the Syrian civil war in 2012. Susli said she speaks out against Syrian rebels, the Islamic State, and the United States after becoming dismayed at seeing her country destroyed. One of her YouTube videos, "If Syria Disarms Chemical Weapons We Lose the War", was viewed 44,720 times by October 2014. Jordanian news outlet Al Bawaba described Susli's support for Assad's government: "Susli's conviction that the best and only future for the Syrian people can exist with Bashar Al Assad at the helm, flanked by his Russian and Iranian allies, is dispiriting." In a 2013 interview on RT with Abby Martin in as Mimi al Laham, Susli said that it would be a "grave mistake" for Assad to renounce chemical weapons. In addition to RT, Susli is a contributor to the Iranian Press TV, and '' New Eastern Outlook''. She is a supporter of the

Syrian Social Nationalist Party The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP; ) is a Syrian nationalist party operating in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present-day Syria, Leb ...

, has denied the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces in the Syrian Civil War, and, according to Bellingcat, "promoted pro-regime

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

". According to ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'', Susli has a positive opinion of

. Over the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

, she said "I don't even believe in a

two-state solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the esta ...

", instead suggesting there should be "a

one-state solution The one-state solution is a proposed approach to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. It stipulates the establishment of a single state within the boundaries of what was Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and 1948, today consisting of the co ...

". In Susli's opinion, the New World Order opposed the Assad regime. She has said that the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and the Illuminati collaborate with the governments of the United States and Israel, as well as NATO, in international events; that

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

and ISIS are a single front organisation of the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(CIA); that 9/11 was an inside job; that

ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

is possibly part of the

United States biological weapons program The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Ov ...

; and that the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

secretly manipulated Gamergate. Via her Twitter account in June 2021, she linked to an article suggesting

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

was the responsibility of "Zionists". In 2014, News Corp Australia Network said Susli was a "self-described News Personality" whose

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page is "filled with video posts on the current conflict, criticising IS and Syrian rebels". She has denied the allegations of atrocities and war crimes against the Assad government. That same year, Susli told

MailOnline MailOnline (also known as ''dailymail.co.uk'' and ''dailymail.com'' outside the UK) is the website of the ''Daily Mail'', a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom, and of its sister paper ''The Mail on Sunday''. MailOnline is a division of dmg ...

: "People are dying, and I have a duty as a human being and as someone of Syrian origin to expose the truth about why." Susli has also questioned the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, claiming there are "historians on both sides" one could ask about "specifics and numbers and events and stuff". In 2017, along with Theodore Postol, Susli rejected claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in 2017 at Khan Shaykhun. In a YouTube video, she referred to evidence posted by Postol, suggesting that Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, alleged to have killed 74 people, was not the work of the Syrian government. While interviewing

Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and political writer. He gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer ...

for '' Prospect'', Steve Bloomfield said that Postol "spoke about how he relies for his work on Syria on ... Susli", to which Hersh replied: "He talked to her ''once'' on one thing." In an article for ''InfoWars'', Susli said the White Helmets, the first responder group, had been responsible for the Khan Shaykhun attack. Cheryl Rofer, a chemical weapons expert consulted by Bellingcat, said that Postol's reliance on Susli for chemical advice was seriously flawed. After the Skripal poisonings in Salisbury, England, in March 2018, Susli's Twitter account posted 2,300 times over a 12-day period, accessed by 61 million users. Analysts from the British government briefed selected journalists that they had concluded Susli's twitter account (@partisangirl) was "suspicious and part of a broader disinformation campaign". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' then described her account as being a " Russian bot"; it subsequently changed its article by substituting "account" for "bot". In response, Susli said: "I am not a robot; I am a human being." Susli also declared, "I am human. I am not a machine! I bleed red." A fact check by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

concluded that Susli is a "real individual", remarking that Twitter had issued her account with a verification tick confirming the account is authentic and that the claim that her account is a bot "controlled directly by the Kremlin, appears to be false". According to ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', in November 2023, Susli falsely claimed footage showed Israeli military helicopters firing on Israelis escaping the October 7 massacre at the supernova festival. ''Newsweek'' said the footage actually showed Israeli attacks on Hamas positions in Gaza three days later. Susli posted a photograph of a woman carrying a child's toy car down the stairs of a largely destroyed building on Twitter, suggesting it was Gaza after Israeli attacks. The picture was actually an award-winning photograph taken in

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

during the Syrian civil war. Following the Bondi Junction stabbings, Susli was among those who falsely accused a 20-year-old

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a Institute of technology, ...

student with a Jewish surname of carrying out the attack.

''InfoWars'', ''Vice'', and ''The Daily Beast'' interviews

In an interview with

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...

on '' InfoWars'', following the Ghouta chemical attack of August 2013, she implied the rebels were responsible for the massacre. Susli said the Syrian government was a corrupt dictatorship and that there was "a legitimate reason for people to want to create ... change". She stated that the United States and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

used the anger of the Syrian people to serve their own agendas. At the time she had thousands of subscribers, which weren't verified. In a 2014 ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'' interview, she said she wanted Syria to "remain secular, united and strong" and did not "tolerate foreigners destroying our way of life, forcing us to live a certain way. Whether it's ISIS or the US government". In an interview with ''

'' that same year, Susli said that she does not support President

or associates of the Syrian Ba'ath party. According to the website, she said this " spite her trolling over Assad's enemies, despite her appearances on Assad-friendly media outlets, and despite her connections to pro-Assad hackers". In one video, she said groups like the " New World Order" have targeted Assad's Syria because it does not allow

genetically modified crops Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of '' Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...

and lacks "a

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

central bank". Susli has claimed the 2012

Houla massacre The Houla massacre () was a mass murder of civilians by Ba'athist Syria, Ba’athist Syrian government forces that took place on May 25, 2012, in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, in the town of Taldou, in the Houla Region of Syria, a string o ...

was the work of British intelligence.

References

External links