Syria’s White Helmets have been boosted by the West as a trusted humanitarian organization, but their origins and motives remain murky. Now, the White Helmets effort appears to be spreading to other countries, Caitlin Johnstone notes.
Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief of The National with Feras Fayyad, film director, during a special screening of Last Men in Aleppo” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jan. 24, 2018. (World Economic Forum / Boris Baldinger, Wikipedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
By Caitlin Johnstone
I sat down with my coffee this beautiful Australian morning to watch two of my favorite independent media figures jam together in a Corbett Report interview of renowned independent investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley. About two-thirds of the way through, I nearly fell out of my chair.
At 24:30 of the clip, the following bone-chilling conversation takes place about the nature of the establishment media’s aggressive protection of the highly publicized “Syrian Civil Defense,” also known as the White Helmets.
Beeley: But I think what is interesting, why is this organization being protected to such an extent? I think it’s because the imperialist apparatus is defending the concept. We’ve already seen [White Helmets founder] James Le Mesurier recruiting in Brazil. We know that the White Helmets have appeared in Malaysia and in Venezuela, and in the Philippines. So you know, because this went through my head so many times, these are only 3,000 criminals and thugs that have emerged from the terrorist ranks or the “Free Syrian Army” [air quotes] moderate extremist ranks to become the White Helmets in order to continue to get paid doing the same job but under a different auspice.
Why are they being so heavily protected? But I think it’s more to do with the concept. It’s more to do with the importance of this concept going forward. As James Le Mesurier said very recently, who would you trust more than the fire brigade or a first response NGO? There you have it. That’s the key to why this group is so important.
James Corbett: It is the perfect cover. And it certainly is a template that I’m sure will be used over and over in these types of situations if they can get away with it. So, extremely important.
Extremely important indeed. The White Helmets are a war propaganda firm with extensive ties to both lucrative western financial backing and known terrorist factions, and the notion of this organization branching out into other potential targets of the U.S.-centralized war machine is absolutely horrifying.
We already see the White Helmets cited constantly by Western mass media in every allegation against the government of Bashar al- Assad, as in this article courtesy of Associated Press and the Washington Post using the “Syrian Civil Defense” as their source for a report on an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Idlib province, referring to them in the header as “Syrian activists.”
The mainstream media promotes everything this organization says as fact and does everything they can to protect and promote the White Helmets’ reputation, meaning that if they spread throughout the world, war propaganda can be manufactured from the inside against any government the empire wishes to target with its armies of extremist “freedom fighters.”
In response to this jarring new information I reached out to Vanessa Beeley to make sure I was understanding this properly, and she provided the following statement:
The White Helmets franchise is a terrifying extension of soft power infiltration deep inside target nations, exploiting trust, vulnerability and poverty with the “First Responder” construct that “everyone trusts” as James Le Mesurier so clearly stated in a recent interview in Brazil. This pseudo Humanitarian, NATO state-sanctioned fist will be used to crush many more nations in the future if it is not stopped in Syria. Just as Syria has contained the terrorist fire within its borders, so has it exposed the White Helmets as the terrorist alter ego, but for how long will both be contained? Terrorism is fanning out into Europe via the EU funded Turkish exit routes, the White Helmets are also establishing themselves further afield, in Venezuela, Malaysia, the Philippines to name a few. Terrorism and the White Helmets march in lock-step and can only be stopped by confronting the cancerous cultures in which they are cultivated?—?US Necolonialism, British Imperialism, EU Globalism, Gulf State Extremism & Israeli Parasitism.
Ouch. Okay. I was really hoping I’d misunderstood.
I cannot overemphasize how dangerous this is. The West is already saturated in deceitful war propaganda about Syria, as shown irrefutably in cases like the Bana Alabed CNN interview and the BBC’s Saving Syria’s Children footage, and this has largely been made possible by the mass media’s collaboration with the White Helmets.
Putting them in places like Venezuela, a regular target of imperialist manipulations with the largest oil reserves in in the world, or the Philippines, a major longtime U.S. military asset where a Duterte pivot away from Washington toward Beijing could get very ugly, would give the US war machine the ability to legitimize any allegation against those governments if it decides it’s time for aggressive regime change. The organization’s own website (archived here in case they change it) asserts that it is “currently assessing opportunities for implementation of Civil Defence-based stabilisation programmes in other countries in the Middle East, including Yemen and Iraq.”
Yesterday The Guardian, which has surely become the overall most aggressive promoter of Western war propaganda on the planet, ran an article titled (I swear I am not making this up) “‘Russia wants to hack the Oscars’: smear campaign targets Syrian nominee.” It was authored by Olivia Solon, the same Guardian writer who, without ever having been to Syria or having any Middle East reporting experience whatsoever, wrote an extremely deceptive smear piece on Beeley and other reporters who’ve been contradicting the establishment narrative about the White Helmets. The new article alleges that Russia is running a conspiratorial campaign to prevent yet another pro-White Helmets documentary from receiving yet another Academy Award.
Beeley picks apart this new film “The Last Men In Aleppo” and the ongoing trend of establishment media elevating such documentaries in this excellent article here, so there’s no need for me to get into why Olivia Solon’s latest war propaganda piece is just as ridiculous as her first, but it’s important to note how ferociously these establishment outlets are protecting the White Helmets. How weird is that? Where else do you see war zone search and rescue teams being made into glamorous media superstars with cute matching uniforms? Who are aggressively protected from counter-narratives by stalwart establishment outlets?
James Le Mesurier is a British private security specialist and a former British military intelligence officer. He knows how to construct a psy-op. He’s trying to franchise his war propaganda firm worldwide, where it will be used to manufacture pro-regime change narratives and will be aggressively defended and promoted by the establishment media, and its allegations against disobedient governments and factions will be reported as fact by western newscasters and pundits.
It’s a brilliant scheme, and it may become the future of war propaganda if we can’t shed enough light on it in time.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.
Thanks for political commentary with a bite and a snarl. Love a rebel. Keep up the good work!
Keep up the good work, although I fear you are pissiing against a very strong wind…..
for those who may not know, Corbett released another podcast this morning concerning the white helmets. I feel he does good work
What really makes me sick is on 2 RESENT occasions, Amy Goodman was using White Helmet footage for a staory
My first post here..I love you all. I am responding to an earlier comment by Dave P. on this thread, concerning how his wife’s views were contrary to his own–she eagerly consuming the pablum dished out by the media. This bothered me.
My mother was unconventional. I recall opening my lunch box in 1st grade (1961) to find a baked bean with lettuce sandwich on whole wheat bread. It was embarrassing. My six-year-old colleagues all had their Wonder bread units with partially-hydrogenated peanut butter smeared between symmetrical slices. At the time, I didn’t want to be ostracized from the tribe, but 20 years later I blessed my mother for what she had done for me. I have always been “outside looking in” –and loving it!
Endeavoring to change someone views on a hot topic is questionable. I recently came up with a saying:
Ignorance can be cured by knowledge, but the stubbornness to remain ignorant is an incurable malady.
This is why the issue with Dave’s wife is scary. Like him, I have friends in Seattle; cool people, smart people—but they have gone fruity. Perhaps it’s true, and the orcs have been targeting Seattle, Portland and SF with chemtrails laced with a hysteria-inducing substance.
Full disclosure: I stopped in Walmart the other day, trying not to get my toes crushed by a heavy lady barreling through in an electric cart. As I looked around, I wondered if anyone in that store—if forced to read one, would do anything but spit out a CN article like rancid peanuts. I fear that we, as CN readers are in the vast minority on our planet. I shall not give up though, and I can change my attitudes and continue to learn.
Ultimate White Helmets red pills for friends and family are here. Prepare to have your mind blown. Proof US and UK governments and media are definitively supporting al-Qaeda/ISIS……..for the sake of humanity, save these links and share them widely. Post them across Twiter, Reddit, Facebook, Steemit, etc. Help wake people up to the terrible reality.
Massive White Helmets Photo Cache Proves Hollywood Gave Oscar to Terrorist Group
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/02/27/massive-white-helmets-photo-cache-proves-hollywood-gave-oscar-to-terrorist-group/
Direct Terrorist Collusion: Over One Dozen Additional Videos Capture White Helmets Working Side-By-Side With Terrorist Groups in Syria
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/05/08/direct-jihadist-collusion-over-one-dozen-videos-capture-white-helmets-working-side-by-side-with-terrorist-groups
Additional extensive proof that the White Helmets are FSA terrorists is also here:
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/white-helmets-fully-exposed-as-hollywoods-favorite-terrorists-over-200-revealing-facebook-images-in-5-massive-files
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/5d1htq-tapestry-of-terror-highly-graphic-white-helmets-exposed-as-fsa-terrorists-linked-with-isis
The story of 8 year old exploited child Bana Alabed is here:
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/metoo-a-course-in-deductive-reasoning-separating-fact-from-fiction-through-the-child-exploitation-of-8-year-old-bana-alabed
Intertwined – The White Helmets and FSA Terrorist Groups –Evidence of Collusion-Part 1
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/08/13/intertwined-the-white-helmets-and-fsa-terrorist-groups-evidence-of-collusion-part-1/
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/10/25/exposing-oz-katerji-and-the-uk-based-pro-fsa-and-white-helmets-terrorist-propaganda-networks-operating-in-the-united-kingdom/
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/09/08/the-white-helmets-terrorists-further-extensive-evidence-of-direct-collusion-with-islamic-terrorist-groups-set-4/
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/08/13/intertwined-the-white-helmets-and-fsa-terrorist-groups-evidence-of-collusion-part-1
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/07/18/numerous-us-government-officials-caught-on-camera-meeting-with-white-helmets-and-fsa-terrorists
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/06/22/syrian-tapestry-of-terror-the-quintessential-video-exposing-media-lies-about-syria-and-the-white-helmets-terrorists-50000-views-and-climbing
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/04/21/western-media-cover-up-well-known-white-helmet-terrorist-was-present-at-rashideen-bus-bombing-that-killed-126-women-and-children-on-april-15-2017/
Exposing “The Last Men in Aleppo” – FSA Terrorist Psyop and Oscar Nominated Propaganda Campaign
https://clarityofsignal.com/2018/01/24/exposing-the-last-men-in-aleppo-fsa-terrorist-psyop-and-oscar-nominated-propaganda-campaign/
I read your link, Joe, very interesting. I have never read a report of the any white helmet criminal being directly killed by the ISIS terrorists either. This suggests that Mesurier must somehow have the ear and cooperation with these head choppers and as he is receiving funding from the British and the US we can only assume (as if we didn’t know!) that both governments are the executive branch of the Jihads making provision of arms, cash and logistics. The fact that the Oscars people wanted to give the white helmets an award just shows how effective the MSM (state run media) actually is. From a British perspective, I don’t recall there being any debate in parliament about my taxes being handed over to criminals in Syria.
Exposing Hadi Abadallah and the White Helmet Terrorists – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=HIjne4Rwteo
Just send a notification signed by all countries willing to, that they have deemed the white helmets a terrorist organization and they will be treated as terrorists. No more staged rescues, make them rescue there own from the rubble.
I’ve followed Vanessa and Eva’s reports on these thugs and all I can say is if you see them put a bullet in there helmets so at least it gets to the real shade of color they represent.
Thanks Catlin for your report and thanks, too, for giving props to the Corbett Report, possibly the first time I’ve seen James get credit in these pages. Life does go on, however, for me. I have a roof, a little money for shopping, etc., the weather is fine today. I have many friends who do just as well as I but they go around with one eye closed. Some close the right eye some close the left. I choose to keep both of my eyes open and oh what a different perspective I have.
I pray, night and day, that Russia and China will bring down the Petro-Dollar and let the US’s world hegemony crash into the abyss.
Not that I have any hopes that a Chinese or Russian hegemony would be any better, but in the course of my 40 years of politically conscient life, the US-empire has made me (to put it mildly) vomit in disgust.
Dave P.
Super post. I feel exactly as you do. Its a bit lonely. I am a Greenie. Ostracized. But I have a clear conscience.
This is a great article with fabulous links to more information. I suggest, if you click on only one, try the link to the CNN interview with the 7 year old girl. That produces not only that link but several others that are worth seeing along with an article that will make your head spin.
The implications of all this are truly scary – but it’s better to know than to be blindsided.
Thank you Caitlin and thank you Consortium for putting her out there for us.
Good guys wear white hats, haven’t you ever watched a duster?
Democracy Now even uses their reports. I emailed DN about this, but got no response. It is indeed scary.
Democracy Now has long turned into a neoliberal propaganda outlet. Sad to see actually, how they can even corrupt whole media firms, who fought the good fight once.
The FBI and CIA got plenty of practice in the ’60s and ’70s when they infiltrated the great alternative media like Ramparts magazine and undermined them.
Elizabeth Burton and interested others: I apologize for going off topic, but here is an exotic link to The Realist Magazine which is fairly typical of “underground magazines” of the 50’s and 60’s, so that younger readers can experience the “richness” of a bygone era…
http://www.ep.tc/realist/01/index.html
Amy Goodman has been sucking big-time for quite a while now.
White Helmets are mercenaries/proxies doing the forward groundwork for USAID NGOs, intel agencies, special forces and pro-Western resistance fighters/politicians in Shiite-held territory and other areas non-sympathetic to Western interests. Their genesis was in Russia and Ukraine where they sought, identified and aligned local resources with Western interests. They are “white” because they are the public’s only visible and identifiable aspect of what are covert and black ops. Their international nature is useful for duping the sheeple into believing they are some type of beneficial ‘relief organisation’ like the IRC, when in fact, they are only rogues promoting the NWO.
Another name for USAID is the State Department’s Economic Support Fund(ESF)[1,2] created in the Kennedy Administration (Dulles era), not to be confused with the Treasury Department’s Exchange Stabilization Fund(ESF) or Treasury Judgment Fund. The ESF was brought up by Oliver North in the Iran-Contra hearings. The list of countries on it is long and appears to be directly associated with the Overseas Contingency Operations(OCO) line item in the federal budget[3]. Trump was supposed to cut it [4], but then again he made a lot of promises. Humanitarian jargon is wrapped up in selling it to the public. It appears to be just a euphemism for Foreign Policy (and intrigue) budget.
[1] Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 – House Office of the Legislative Counsel
[2] Economic Support Fund (ESF) – Usaid
[3] fy 2013 international affairs overseas contingency operations … – Us
[3] The End of Foreign Aid As We Know It | Foreign Policy | 2017
As I see it the “white helmets” were successful in Syria for their non-stated mission(propaganda, soft dissent) they’re expanding into other nation states to do dirty work while appearing ‘clean or humanitarian’. Then the manufactured ‘fact’ that they’re ‘doing good’ is a complete cover for undermining governments in Empire’s desires. Venezuela is the perfect target. Secretary of State Tillerson has had his eye on Venezuela’s oil forever. He also is starting a tour of South America very soon. I see several intriguing ways that US wants to secure state controlled Venezuela oil. Are the ‘white helmets’ preceding his visit? To soften resolve against Empire? The timing is so exquisitely perfect as to defy any other conclusion that their oil and control of production is the prize. Seems the ‘white helmets’ will precede while Empire follows.
I think you’re right Ol’ Hippy. I somewhat painfully recall, after a long period of time pasting the “story” of United Fruit, White Shoe Law Firms (Dulles Brothers), US government complicity and duplicity, illegal land acquisition, and/or military invasion, overthrow of a sovereign government, into a heart breaking scenario of my own country in action.
Before embarking on his Latin American tour, Tillerson suggested the government of Venezuela was wide open for a military takeover. Not that the US would have anything to do with it, of course.
The corporate monopolized media is enemy #1. Without their cooperation, none of this White Helmets propaganda would work.
Trump has become quite the useful idiot for getting the Obama/Hillary liberals to cling to the NYTs, WaPo etc. Try explaining to the average liberal what Caitlin has exposed here and they think you’re the one who’s believing propaganda. When lies become truth to the majority, we are sunk.
People will eventually wake up – in the next stage of the police state wherein the AI robocops will yes, be wearing white helmets…
James Le Mesurier reminds me of Erik Prince. Somebody is raking in the money[1,2] for dirty wars[3] and other warfare-welfare excesses when our debt[4] and debt/gdp[5] is peaking. The interest expense on the national debt[6] is hovering around $0.5 trillion per year. If the federal funds rate is raised by the Federal Reserve from around 1.5%[7] in January, 2018 with an average interest rate on the national debt of around 2.2%[8], then the Federal Reserve raising the Federal Funds Rates (FFR) back to a traditionally more normal 5% rate may double or treble our annual average interest payments on the national debt to $1-1.5 trillion. Just leaving the FFR at historic lows may dissuade holders of US Treasuries from rolling over the debt and force the interest rates higher in order to meet the nation’s obligations to it’s creditors unless more gimmicks are used, e.g. greater additional interest accrued on bank reserves held. Just remember that the collateral on this debt is the generational future labor of taxpayers, i.e. you and your children. Consider a decentralized form of apt tax[9] reform with limitations on inheritance to curb the government’s appetite for debt that tightens the shackles on you and your family with US Treasury debt bonds, deducted from your paycheck,.. if you have a job in the formal economy. The underground economy usually doesn’t pay as well over the long term, for the risks taken.
[1] Senate reaches budget deal with huge defense boost | DefenseNews | 2018
[2] Mattis on Two-Year Budget Deal: ‘We Will Spend the Money Wisely’ | Military | 2018
[3] Dirty Wars ++ Full Documentary USA 2013 | Youtube
[4] Government – Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual – TreasuryDirect
[5] United States Gross Federal Debt to GDP 1940-2018 | TradingEconomics
[6] Government – Interest Expense on the Debt Outstanding – TreasuryDirect
[7] United States Fed Funds Rate | 1971-2018 | Data … – Trading Economics
[8] Average Interest Rates on US Treasury Securities – TreasuryDirect
[9] Taxation for the 21ST Century: The Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax | SSRN
[10] Alternative Proposals Reform, May 11 2005 | Video | C-SPAN
Gimmicks:
How Interest Rates Are Set: The Fed’s New Tools Explained | Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz5hNemSdWc
The Real Mystery About Low Inflation | Bloomberg | 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-26/the-real-mystery-about-low-inflation
Liars know no limits. Pretending that the darkest evil is really the highest good is standard operating procedure for these soulless ghouls who we call our leaders. Being unable to discern the truth leads the masses to mindlessly abet their horrific crimes – and feel proud to do it.
This kind of wall to wall propaganda distorting the truth destroys the people’s chance to develop a healthy conscience, substituting Orwellian newspeak and groupthink for inner reflection.
The Russian press has exposed this in numerous well documented stories over the past year or so. Also, the Chinese have reported on it. Boy oh boy, read the foreign press and there are amazing things never reported in the US.
Do yourself a favor, watch the news and analysis shows on CGTN over a period of time. On any given topic, even the Chinese border dispute with India recently, the programs have guests with a range of views. During the dispute with India they had regular guests who strongly and forcefully defended the Indian position. They really put almost everyone else to shame.
The good people here have only limited resources, sadly, the corporate press is just the Neoliberal/Neo-feudal narrative.
The good news is that, the more the White Helmets expand their activities and the more countries they enter, the more likely it becomes that their true nature becomes public knowledge.
When that happens, I hope that all the links are followed up to unmask and pillory those responsible.
“The good news is that, the more the White Helmets expand their activities and the more countries they enter, the more likely it becomes that their true nature becomes public knowledge.”…I agree…and it should be a red flag to the Venezuelan government that their activities need to be monitored.
The White Helmets claim to have saved about 100,000 lives in Syria, but their rescue efforts look so stage-managed that it’s hard to believe that they’ve even saved a hundred. Instead of rescue work, the WH organisation seems to exist for a number of other purposes:
1 – Disposing of bodies: This appears to be the only real physical work that they do to any significant extent. Somebody has to collect all the bodies of those from all sides who are killed in the “rebel-held” areas, including the Syrians who are executed for supporting the government. An example is an image – which you won’t see in the western mass media – that shows some White Helmets gloating over a truck load of bodies of dead Syrian soldiers.
2 – Financing the war: The White Helmets have received donations of well over a hundred million dollars, a large part of it from western governments. It’s hard to see how this huge sum can be spent on a relatively small organisation staffed by “volunteers” who are presumably unpaid apart from expenses.
For example the White Helmets had only 120 volunteers in east Aleppo, according to their leader there, Amar Salmo. That was for a population of more than 100,000, during the final battle when you would expect the rescue services to be most needed by civilians.
If the money hasn’t been spent on rescue work, it must have gone somewhere else. Considering that numerous members of the White Helmets, including Salmo, have been photographed carrying weapons, it’s very likely that some of the money was funneled into the war effort.
3. Propaganda – These people who collect and dispose of bodies can be easily re-packaged as rescue teams, which are then portrayed to great effect as heroes saving children from the evil regime. This is how the public sees the White Helmets, as presented by Hollywood, the media and politicians. These fake rescue teams also provide a convenient way of laundering all the donations that can be diverted to armed groups.
Brendan – “…a convenient way of laundering all the donations.” Yes, that’s exactly what they’re doing, laundering the donation money into arms.
I’d add another point:
4. Setting up false flags.
Yes, Brendan, and I think they (WHs) got caught using same photo of same child depictng two different cities and events. Staged indeed!
A quote from article: “…to protect and promote the White Helmets’ reputation, meaning that if they spread throughout the world, war propaganda can be manufactured from the inside against any government the empire wishes to target with its armies of extremist “freedom fighters.”” The USA wasn’t mentioned but shouldn’t be ruled out. Already UN forces were suggested for Chicago in lieu of accepting Trump’s offer for our own national guard if needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijXYoBTHues
Eva Bartlett explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pCr315h9Tw&t=41s
Eva and Vanessa are doing God’s work and I pray they will get heard. I didn’t concern myself with the last time “White Helmets” won their award, ’cause Hollywood and the MSM have duped themselves prior to this (witness the last President’s “Peace” award). Now, this is getting monotonous. I suppose this may continue with the spreading of the “White Helmets” to other lands, and we will continue to pooh-pooh their fake righteousness. Things revolving around this topic will, therefore, remain the same as other innocents will find themselves attacked and slaughtered. That is the evil that I just can’t stand. So if I ever hear in person someone standing up for them, they will get an earful from me.
I agree this is a very worrying development. I would add that there’s surely a more immediate aim to make the ‘White Helmets’ *appear* to be an international organisation, in order to try to counter the evidence that they are specifically terrorists and extremists based in and focused on Syria.
With “The White Helmets”, al Qaeda has already won the competitive Oscar that Cary Grant never did. Now with “Last Men in Aleppo” it looks like they may be on their way to being the next Meryl Streep.
I see that one of the documentaries “Last Men in Aleppo” is up against for the Oscar is “Icarus” – about the evil Russians’ evil campaign to ruin sports with doping, cruelly cheating all the brave asthmatics on the nice countries’ teams.
I wonder which of their children the proud parents at the CIA will be rooting for …
The Caitlin-Vanessa echo chamber? PLEASE effort to get your message into US mainstream media somehow!
US public opinion has no idea about anything you’re saying. In other words, the truth about White Helmets is unknown. They’re being revered for goodness sake!
How are they to do that?
Because of groups like Avvaz: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-propaganda-war-against-syria-led-by-avaaz-and-the-white-helmets/5479307
RE JOE’S WIFE
You may have been watching too much “Columbo”, a TV
mysteries series that folks of our ages may have seen.
(The late Peter Falk in trench coat was Columbo.
I don’t believe his wife ever made an appearance but she
solved the problems. At least according to Columbo!)
Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Here’s more on LeMesurier…
https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/2127-james-le-mesurier.html
As always, Thanks for the link Joe and thanks to Caitlin Johnstone. As an extension of that article, this from Scott Ritter on the Obama Administration and Samantha Powers, and we begin to see the genesis of this mess.
‘Syria is Samantha Power’s own personal “problem from hell.” While she advocated for the creation and support of a moderate opposition to Assad that existed only in the minds of Washington politicians, the reality was that what Power called the “Syrian opposition” was, in fact, largely composed of Islamist fundamentalists, the most effective of whom fought under the banner of the Al Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate whose roots lay in the resistance to the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. When Iraq’s al-Qaida affiliate morphed into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the United States stood aside, operating under the notion that all that undermined the rule of Assad was good for American policy.’
Scott Ritter.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-white-helmets-and-the-inherent-contradiction-of-americas-syria-policy/
This is the result of the totally absurd Neocon concept of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” going back to Zbigniew Brzezinski‘s formulation of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviets…
Here’s our own Robert Parry on this:
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/30/reagans-bargaincharlie-wilsons-war-2/
Good post Joe. It is a comfort to read articles and read comments on CN to know that it is not all over yet, that there are fellow citizens left who care about humanity and interested and hungry for finding the truth.
The American mind has been completely colonized by design by the publishers/owners of MSM, and Media and Entertainment Moguls, the likes of recently deposed King of Hollywood Harvey Weinstein. With the exceptions of just a few like Susan Sarandon, actors and others in that business are all complicit in this.
I don’t have to go far to find these colonized minds – many progressive people in our social circle, and in our home, my wife. My wife has been saying for over a year now that I am reading all this fake news on CN and other sites like Counterpunch . . . And demanding that I should quit wasting my time writing these comments. She and many like her are still waiting for Trump’s impeachment and installation of Hillary to bring peace in America and the World.
Whenever I am gone – and many times I am around the house – she watches CNN, MSNBC to get all her facts. I simply can not comprehend how these Anchors like Rachel Maddow, Lawrence McDonnell, Chris Hays, Wolf Blitzer and all the others, and the invited guests can keep on spitting out this garbage of Russia-Gate nonsense and other lies day in and day out, for almost two years now.
This whole drama they are enacting on the American Population, and far beyond is so bizarre. I often wonder that do these people really believe in what they are saying? Have they lost all what is most precious, the human conscience inside.
On these White Helmets, and the founder British Mercenary James Le Mesurier – what else can we expect? British have experience of two or three centuries in Indian Subcontinent, Africa, and in all their other colonies. They are masters at it. The West is bent upon of recolonizing – economically- the ME again. Syria and Iran are the only two left. They have been after Syria and Bashar Assad for a long time now. Looking at all the Leaders and Rulers in ME, they, Bashar Assad and his wife Asma Assad, seem to be the only really well educated, secular couple – both educated in U.K. I watched some her interviews on Youtube. She is very articulate and had lot of community projects going in the country before this regime change project by the West started in 2011. Without looking at their own deeds, The West blames Assad of many atrocities. Also There are many others leaders in ME who have done far more violence on their populations.
Syria has population with diverse religions. If Assad goes, the blood shed in Syria is going to be far worse than it was in Iraq. It will be hard to put the country back together as it is already now. But Israel and the West wants precisely that – and kick the Russians out, their only base outside Russia, and two or three former countries of Soviet Union.
Dave much of how you described your domestic poor acceptance of your flare for the alternative news which drives you even further down the trail of finding the truth, is felt likewise indeed. If you and I were to quit writing comments here, why we both would lose our link to similar minds. As much as we love our family, and friends, and for all the ribbing we take from them for our search for the truth, we still sometimes need a certain amount of camaraderie in order to validate our time invested new found knowledge. There’s the difference Dave, it is the time we put in to our discovering the so hard to get at truth, as if the truth may even be found by doing any of that.
Our media stars, like lately our late night talk show hosts, have certainly with Trump in office accelerated their comedic roosting of the Donald. In many ways by Trump being a tv celebrity in his own right, this could come off as inside baseball kind of comedy when it comes to the media attacking one of it’s own, but it’s effect on the public may prove worst than having 2 Rachel’s and 3 Joy Ann Reid’s when it comes right down to it.
The kind of attack I just described, is basically like the cool kids dumping on the big bully, and that’s how it plays out every evening after the 11:00 o’clock news goes off the air to when the late night talk show hosts come out to make us laugh. Remember Dave none of us kids loves a bully. With Trump’s bully image there for all to get unnerved over, it doesn’t take much in order to gather a crowd around to show proof of our dislike of this man, but no one questions the legality nor the consequences of his being taken down in this manner.
With a media who seems to be in the pocket of the CIA/NSA/FBI I find most people are having a very hard time grasping to what these Memo’s are saying upon their slow release. Probably the only civilians who do have a grasp of what these Memos are saying are us Dave. You and me, and the many who frequent this site, but that’s because we went after finding out this news.
Ah what can be said of the British? If it weren’t for their rock bands, like the Beatles and the Stones, I would probably not like the British very much, but then that would be highly hypocritical of this American. Both of our governments have run rough shot over the world, in order to colonize what’s not theirs. Let’s face it, the U.S. is still part of the British Empire in a certain kind of strange fashion of hierarchy to like what’s found in the Council on Foreign Relations vs the Royal Institute of International Affairs, commonly known as Chatham House, and their coordination to function towards their masters wishes. To my Brit friends, I seriously do love you all, I’m just referring to our governments.
So here we are now Dave, just waiting for the popcorn to be popped, as we sit down to watch on Netflix the White Helmets save desperate and dying Syrians, only to upset everyone around us in the tv room when we Dave, you and I, start telling everyone the truth about these deceptive rescuers with cameras scoundrels. That’s when we get booed and hissed, because what’s wrong with us to be critical of such great humanitarians? Have you noticed though Dave, our critics never take us up on reading what we have read?
We Americans need to wake the hell up. Assad is a demon only because the U.S. declared him as one. Assad’s biggest problem, is that he didn’t join in on the Empire’s way of doing business, and with that Assad sealed his own fate. Yet, his fate was circumvented to his failure (Hussein/Gaddafi style) by the ever demonized Vladimir Putin. With this combination the NWO compacts most of it’s hate into one box, made up of Syria, Iran, and Russia. What every American should stay awake for, is to watch as Venezuela, large sections of Africa, and the Chinese, along with many other South-East Asia countries, and yet the list gets longer by the month, rise up to draw the lline if the sand, as an attempt to question the Empires legitimacy. Although Dave nobody we know knows this…..pass the channel changer.
So while the family shouts out answers while they watch ‘Family Feud’, or worst they are listening to Rachel scare the hell out of us over Russia stealing our democracy, you and I Dave will be dealing with the news from a rational and knowledgeable perspective. Dave if ever comes the day, and we find ourselves huddled down into a makeshift bomb shelter, it will be us Dave that they either praise for our prophetic wealth of truthful news, or they will kill us, because we were so frightfully right. Joe
Thanks for the Scott Ritter article describing Samantha Power’s interest in saving humanity, and where Ritter explains the roll ‘the White Helmets’ play, in their making Syria an even harder place to understand with all of the goings on in that war ravished country.
I’m sorry, but ever since 911 I loss trust in who may be the good guys, and with who’s taking their turn at being the bad ones. In fact, I think when it comes to 911 we citizens have been suckered into believing almost anything when it comes to identifying the real bad actors from the good ones. Trust me I know that some of our so called good guys were up to nothing good when it came to 911, but with a lot of propaganda and a persistent corporate owned media to push the narrative of disguise we all ended up being duped. Well maybe not everybody, but enough of a majority as to keep us citizens all moving along now.
So the White Helmets are just another extension of the same deceptive plot that has been created, as the truth would start a riot, and a revolution in the streets. I miss the care free world I lived in when I was young, for now I am an old cynical man, but at least there are those on this comment board who share my feelings. Thanks Bob. Joe
Right you are. This is all about rephrasing the neocolonial imperial agenda in terms of the “humanitarian intervention”. That’s all it comes down to.
However, this is not a new strategy of the colonial interests. For several hundred years, this has been the strategy. See Conrad’s Heart of Darkness for an example:
“It appeared, however, I was also one of the Workers, with a capital—you know. Something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle. There had been a lot of such rot let loose in print and talk just about that time, and the excellent woman, living right in the rush of all that humbug, got carried off her feet. She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,’ till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit.”
I really encourage people to go to Wikileaks and dig through the Cablegate archives on Syria. It’s all there – in 2008, western media loved Assad. Sarkozy, all those guys, were singing his praises. There were PBS specials on the new Syria. It was all part of an effort to get Assad to cut all ties with Iran and come into the US-Saudi-Israeli axis. It failed because Iran made better economic offers to Assad, so Assad rejected the Saudi gas/oil pipeline in favor of the Iran-Gazprom one.
So, the “Nobel Prize Winner” Obama and his Secretary of State Clinton, cooked up a plan to destablize and overthrow Assad; this began with the Arab Spring. Notably, such ‘humanitarian concerns’ played no role in the Arab Spring in Bahrain, where the US cheerfully supported the Saudi tanks and the torture of Bahraini dissidents – no White Helmets there.
So, thanks to this game, over 450,000 Syrians have been killed and millions more have sought refugee status, flooding Lebanon and Turkey and surging into Europe. This program has destablized the entire region, and along with Libya, has put such pressure on Europe that far-right governments are coming to power.
So, as an American citizen, all I can say is that the last evil empire on the planet is the American Empire. These games have to stop; the world can no longer afford it. The U.S. has to accept the reality of a multipolar world without superpowers, that’s all there is to it.
Joe, nonsense factory – Very good posts. Joe, my comments further up got posted at the wrong place.
All of the above – very good posts!
nonsense factory, while reading your comment I couldn’t help buy think of John Perkins and his book ‘Confessions of a Economic Hitman’. Your comment also made me recall the ‘Maiden Square Riots’ where our little Victoria Nuland handed out cookies to the rioters, while the democratically elected Ukraine leader Viktor Yanukovych escaped by the skin of his teeth.
So either a nation accepts the terms of doing business with the Empire, or it gets turned over into a hellistic ruin. It’s either the banks make money through a corrupted dictator, or the MIC profits by dumping whoever it was who turned down their IMF deal of a lifetime, and I seriously do mean ‘lifetime’.
Ah Joe, that carefree world indeed.
When you were young and your heart
Was an open book
You used to say live and let live
ADD WHITE HELMETS AND STIR…
Caitlin Johnstone’s article is an excellent contribution.
What is too often underplayed is MOTIVE. When these
terrorists/so-called “activists” need US (and other) military
support for their purposes—“for the Syrian people” whose
government has just demolished them—the PR of our friendly
“saviors” (sarcasm)— the White Helmets is called in.
From their point of view, this has worked miracles for them.
The US (the CIA or other, not defined in Johnstone’s article)
promptly send in weapons, “training” and so forth.
To be more specific, precisely what are the weapons
spewing forth for “humanitarian’ ends??Which defense
contractor (name, state etc.)? When was deal made?
Which contractor is reaping profits from meeting these
(excuse me) “humanitarian needs?
—-pETER lOEB, bOSTON, MA, USA
If a do good PR organization like the White Helmets
were operative in the US (or another western nation),
would the US accept its being provided lethal weapons
to change the US regime? I doubt it. I also doubt
many tears would be shed for these so-called
humanitarians organizations which control parts of
Washington, DC in their quest…”for the American people”
(ie “regime change”)
Gregory we did live and let die, didn’t we?
Another good one was when a life limited western shootist by the name of John Bernard “J.B.” Books looks into the widow Bonds eyes, as they sit in their buggy parked next to a stream, and J.B. says, “we’ll Bond, if I may be so forward as to call you Bond, such a crackerjack of a name, that I may be short on this life, but we sure gave them hell didn’t we”?
(Pardon the paraphrasing, but as I recall the script went something like that, but the sentiment is universal in many ways, as we occasionally reflect on our life’s in some ways.)
Now we will return to the laughter. Sorry. Joe
Peter I will say this, you may not appear on this comment board that often, but it’s a relief and a learning experience when you return.
Reading your comment made my mind produce a quick flashed image of Don Draper appear in my head, as infidelity Don and his Madmen crafted clever ways to sell anything, and everything, by getting into the customers or viewers (whatever) subconscious (soul), and Don did persuasive management like nobody could.
If you drove a kid to acting school to be a professional actor, well good luck. On the other hand, if you send a kid to acting school to produce a bona fide ‘Pitch Artist’, or a politician, well then you might have just made the kid rich on your gas money.
Peter I have always been fascinated by advertising, and even had opportunities to work with it, in very small ways. Like everything there is a process, and tracking your ad’s success comes with this process. As you know like finding out product demographics, and geographical influences, and on and on, and then there is ‘advertising’s’ twin (pick your gender) ‘propaganda’ who is a carbon copy (kids won’t know what I’m talking about -carbon what?) anyway Peter, you get the picture.
The White Helmet production is a sign of our times, and especially of our tv culture. Cameras do marvelous wonders to trick the eye, don’t believe me, ask a camera guy or girl. If George Clooney is backing them, well then what demographics does George have well covered? I ain’t looking it up. But still you Peter get the picture, it all must be controllable.
Now it’s easy to see why after I been worried for over the last 22 years, as to why we parents and schools were so wrapped up into getting our kids all creative through learned processes, and with lots of emphasis on literature, and getting the kids feeling all good about themselves, that I can now see why creativeness could be a dangerous weapon depending on how you use this kind of well respected learned talent. This thought, or brain fart, I just rambled on about could apply to anything, but maybe overhead wielding.
Lastly if I have this right you are in Philly, if I’m right well then Congratulations on winning the Super Bowl Peter, I really mean that. I also heard afterwards it was a boom for the Philly Public works,,,hey we use to do that in Pittsburgh, but after #5 you start celebrating the day before…the whole week before….just had to do that. It was a great game done by both teams.
Yeah, Joe
Peter, sorry I just noticed you are from Boston. Well sorry for the confusion, but hey the Patriots were great, as usual, and there’s always next year. Again sorry Peter. Joe
You are right Joe. It was the criticism of the British government , and government of other countries in the West, who are involved in these Foreign interventions. It is never meant the criticism of its people. I love England and all its contributions to the World Civilization. I grew up reading just about everything British – Its poets/writers Byron, Keats, Shelley, Dickens, Hardy . . . its scientists, philosophers, political thinkers, about Fabian Socialists, and all that. We came to learn about Crimea when I was in ninth grade reading about Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson, the battle of Sevastopol, and the story of Florence Nightingale. That was more than six decades ago – the school curriculum was still British.
I wrote in the comments last month about our friend, a retired Physicist and his wife, now living in Seattle who visited us. He is English. His parents brought him to U.S.when he was toddler when they immigrated about seven decades ago. I could not make them, and my wife, see that this Russia-Gate is all cooked up. They stuck to their belief that Russia interfered in 2016 election and that Mueller is going to find out very soon. They and my wife are completely devoted to Hillary, and now are rooting for their new hero, Joe Biden for 2020. My reading was that they know inside that this – Russia Gate – is all fraud. But they do not want to admit it because it leads to the dissolution of this political self, they have carefully built in their lives. There is nothing there to replace it.
Play for them ‘Fool On a Hill’ or just say, ‘pass the salt’. I’m with ya Dave. Joe
Hey Dave just a little update, that this morning my wife who is a lot like yours, told me General Mattis said, that both chemical attacks in Syria were not of Assad’s doing. My wife said admittedly so how right I was. Yes, there is hope Dave. Joe
Joe and all — In watching this interview with Richard Black, State Senator of Virginia, one learns more about the White Helmets, and also a lot more. Richard Black is like Tulsi Gabbard; they have visited Syria and brought back the truth. I highly recommend your watching this when you have a moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ivZKHE-STk
Hey Virginia I want to thank you for this link to the Senator Black interview, because this is an interview where most Americans could learn a lot from a seating U.S. Senator who’s honesty is a rare fine with inside our corrupted government worth listening too. Everyone should hear this interview. If only we had a fair and balanced media…oh well thanks again Virginia that was stupendous. Joe
Thank you for this link.
Thank you!
Some honest good reporting