FROM THE ARCHIVES: As Israel in the past few days helped evacuate 800 “White Helmets” from Syria, en route to Britain and other Western countries, we look back at an article published by Consortium News in Oct. 2016.
By Rick Sterling
Across the mainstream Western media, the “White Helmets” are hailed as heroic first responders rescuing injured civilians in rebel-controlled parts of Syria. The U.K. Guardian and The Independent urged the Nobel Committee to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the “White Helmets.” As it turned out, they didn’t get that one, but they did receive the prestigious 2016 “Right Livelihood Award.”
On the U.S. side of the Atlantic, the “White Helmets” are treated with similar uncritical acclaim. They were the subject of the Oct. 17 TIME magazine cover story. Netflix has released a special “documentary” movie about them. (It later won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary.) New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has gushed over them for years, helping the group’s one-sided depiction of events inside Syria shape the pro-rebel narrative that is pretty much all the American and European publics hear about Syria.
The “White Helmets” symbol, expropriating the name of “Syria Civil Defense.”
And, this love-fest is not just confined to establishment media. DemocracyNow! ran a puff piece interview with the White Helmet infomercial directors. The Intercept published an uncritical promotion of the “White Helmets” and the group’s controversial leader. Codepink recommended the Netflix movie (though after receiving criticism about the endorsement, the anti-war group removed it).
Yet, despite the favorable “group think” regarding the “White Helmets” – and more broadly about the rebel cause in Syria – there is another side to the story, including the fact that the “White Helmets” are not just some well-meaning Syrians who emerged to help all civilians suffering from the five years of war.
Not only do they only operate in rebel-controlled areas but they are a source of propaganda about the war, indeed their very existence is an element in the larger propaganda campaign to rally international support for a “regime change” war in Syria. The “White Helmets” brand was conceived and directed by a New York-based marketing company named “The Syria Campaign,” which itself was “incubated” by a larger politically oriented marketing company called Purpose.
Along with managing the online and social media promotion of the White Helmets, the Syria Campaign has parallel efforts in support of “regime change” in Syria. One of these efforts has been to criticize United Nations and humanitarian relief organizations that supply aid to displaced persons living in areas protected by the Syrian government.
“The allegations made by the Syria Campaign and others were written by people who know nothing about the UN and how it must work,” according to an NGO worker operating in Damascus.
Exaggerated Claims
Claims that the “White Helmets” have saved 65,000 people also appear to be wildly exaggerated. The areas, served by the White Helmets and controlled by Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and its rebel allies, have few civilians living in them. A medical doctor visiting east Aleppo two years ago described it as a “ghost town,” yet Western media reports cite a highly inflated estimated population of 250,000.
Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Syria, Sept. 25, 2016 (UN Photo)
Perhaps unintentionally, the “White Helmets” and one of their video teams confirmed this reality in producing a “cat video” when cat videos were all the rage on social media. In an apparent bid to bring cat lovers onto the side of “regime change” in Syria, the White Helmets’ video showed White Helmet members playing with stray cats in empty neighborhoods, saying: “The homeowners abandoned this district and its kittens.”
Besides promoting themselves as a humanitarian group, the White Helmets have become essential to the propaganda war by gaining — along with similar pro-rebel “activists” — a virtual monopoly on information from rebel-controlled areas, supplying a steady stream of heart-rending stories and images about suffering children to a credulous Western media wanting to believe everything bad about the Syrian government.
One of the reasons why the “White Helmets” have been so successful in inserting their propaganda into Western media is that most of the rebel zones of Syria, especially east Aleppo, have been off limits to Western journalists and other outside observers for years. Two of the last Western reporters to venture into rebel territory, James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, were subsequently beheaded by the Islamic State.
So, as the Syrian government and its allies finally try to expel Al Qaeda terrorists and their cohorts from east Aleppo, the White Helmets have become a major source for the Western news media which treats these “relief workers” as credible providers of on-the-ground information.
Thus, the positive image of the White Helmets and the group’s skillful use of social media deflect attention from the sectarian, violent and unpopular nature of Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front (recently renamed the Syria Conquest Front) and other armed opposition groups while hyping accusations that Syrian and Russian attacks are primarily hitting civilians.
In other words, the White Helmets have gone from being talked about to being the ones doing the talking. News stories increasingly use White Helmet witnesses as their sources, often in ways that promote the self-serving myth of White Helmet heroism. One day, CNN announced that a White Helmet aid center had been hit. Another day, TIME magazine claimed that White Helmet workers were being “hunted”.
‘Eyewitness’ Accounts
Reports from the White Helmets also have served as “eyewitness” accounts about the Syrian military using “barrel bombs,” including in an attack to destroy a Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian convoy and warehouse on Sept. 19 in Orem al Kubra. But there were reasons to be suspicious of this claim since this town is controlled by the infamous Nour al Din al Zinki terrorist group, which recently filmed itself beheading a Palestinian Syrian boy.
U.S.-backed Syrian “moderate” rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is later held aloft triumphantly in the video. [YouTube Screenshot]
It was also illogical that Syrian or Russian planes would attack a SARC convoy, which they could have stopped when it was in government held territory. Plus, the Syrian government works with SARC. And, the ones to “benefit” from the attack were the rebels and their Western backers who cited this atrocity as another reason for “regime change” and to condemn the Russians for assisting the Syrian government. The attack also took attention away from the U.S. airstrike that killed some 70 Syrian soldiers on Sept. 17.
After the convoy was struck, the Russian and Syrian governments called for an independent investigation of the attack site but this has not been done, presumably because the terrorists controlling the area have not allowed it. Nevertheless, the narrative supplied by the White Helmets and other pro-rebel factions – blaming the Syrian government and their Russian allies – has dominated the Western media’s handling of the story.
The “White Helmets” also played a dubious role in allegations that the Syrian government was using chlorine gas in 2013 and 2014 by warning residents before the attacks to expect the Syrian military to drop chlorine bombs, although it was unclear how the activist first-responders would know that fact in advance. In one of the cases, seven witnesses told U.N. investigators that the rebels had staged the chlorine-gas attack, which could suggest that the “White Helmets” were in on the scam.
So, are the White Helmets heroes or a politically motivated hoax? The time to investigate is now, since it does little good to uncover the lies and manipulations years later, as has happened with the Iraqi and Libyan “regime change” invasions.
A Dangerous Replay
Evidence now suggests that we are seeing a replay of Curveball and the Iraqi WMD in 2003 and the bogus hysteria about stopping a Libyan “genocide” in 2011, both debunked by later investigations but too late to spare those countries from massive death and destruction.
A scene from the “Collateral Murder” video in which an Iraqi man stops his van to aid those wounded in a lethal U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad on July 12, 2007, only to be gunned down by the American gunners.
The belated recognition by some Americans that they are being “had” again in Syria has led to some pushback against the mainstream media’s promotion of the “White Helmets” and other pro-rebel activists. In April 2015, Dissidentvoice published an expose of the group’s creation and purpose. Since then there have been other articles and videos revealing the reality behind the “feel good” veneer.
Vanessa Beeley has produced a number of articles about the fraudulent pretense that the “White Helmets” are Syrian Civil Defense, including documentation about the real Syrian Civil Defense, which was founded six decades ago. She initiated an online Change.org petition to NOT give the Nobel Peace Prize to the “White Helmets,” an initiative that must have upset some influential people because Change.org removed the petition without explanation. (You can read the text of the petition here.)
The real Syrian Civil Defense works on a shoestring budget with real volunteers without video teams accompanying and promoting them. Most in the West are unaware the real Syrian Civil Defense even exist. The situation is similar for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which is a genuinely neutral and independent relief organization and has a good website.
Another online petition, also at Change.org, which is still up and running, calls on the Right Livelihood Foundation to rescind its award to the “White Helmets.” The petition includes a number of reasons why the group does not deserve the prize and are not what they are presented to be: they stole the name Syria Civil Defense from the real Syrian organization; they appropriated the name “White Helmets” from the Argentinian rescue organization Cascos Blancos/White Helmets; they are not independent; they are funded by governments; they are not apolitical; they actively campaign for a “no-fly zone” (which even Hillary Clinton has acknowledged would “kill a lot of Syrians” although she continues to promote the idea); they do not work across Syria; they only work in areas controlled by the armed opposition, mostly under the command of Al Qaeda’s affiliate Nusra Front; they are not unarmed; they sometimes do carry weapons and they also celebrate terrorist victories; they assist in terrorist executions.
Max Blumenthal wrote a two-part exposé at Alternet: “How the White Helmets became International Heroes while Pushing US Intervention and Regime Change in Syria” and “Inside the Shadowy PR Firm that’s Lobbying for Regime Change in Syria.”
(Blumenthal shows how the White Helmets are funded with millions of dollars from the British Foreign Office and $23 million from USAID.) Former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who was one of the few voices daring to contest President George W. Bush’s false claims about Iraq’s WMD, wrote an article which challenged the White Helmets’ “lionization.”
Internationally, the Israeli TV station I24 ran a special report with the title “White Helmets: Heroes or Hoax?” – giving equal coverage to supporters and critics. Even “The National” out of United Arab Emirates has documented the controversy around the White Helmets.
Not surprisingly, this dissent to the mainstream media’s love affair with the White Helmets drew return fire. The British military contractor who initially set up the group accused critics of being “proxies” for the Syrian and Russian governments (much as Ritter and other skeptics about the Iraqi WMD “group think” were called “Saddam apologists” in 2003).
The controversy also has done little to chasten the Western press corps from relying on the “White Helmets” as the go-to sources for information in Syria’s conflict zones.
Rick Sterling is an investigative journalist and member of Syria Solidarity Movement.
If you enjoyed this original article please consider making a donation to Consortium News so we can bring you more stories like this one.
The White Helmets are a fraud.
They were created and financed by some of the same governments supporting entire terror campaign in Syria. Created by France, financed by Britain.
They have been observed by independent observers and journalists as working with al-Nusrah.
They have been caught a number of times over frauds in their videos – as children made-up as piteously hurt in one video observed later as normal, as photographed working with supposed nerve-agent victims without so much as gloves on.
They have created ugly incidents to promote American bombing.
Of course the final verdict is provided by the simple fact that Israel evacuated them, apparently along with some Mossad guys secretly working in Syria.
Israel has always worked to destroy Syria. They were part of the original club that created, supported, and armed the mercenaries posing as jihadi types in the artificial Syrian civil war. The club consisted of America, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Britain, France, and originally Turkey.
Six hundred thousand people killed, millions of refugees created, and the beautiful and peaceful land of Syria half destroyed. That’s what the American-led club achieved.
Israeli weapons have been discovered many times and al-Nusrah fighters were treated in hospitals in Northern Israel.
The White Helmets actually are a good measure of the depths to which America’s government goes to get its way in the world.
“the White Helmets slunk across Syria’s borders with the aid of the Israeli Defense Forces, onward to Jordan, where the UN is working to relocate them – allegedly to Europe and North America.
“It is a final act laying to rest once and for all a monumental lie – that the White Helmets were anything more than an extension of the foreign-funded proxy war aimed at overthrowing Damascus.
“And now that overthrowing Damascus is no longer a possibility, the White Helmets are being evacuated to lie another day.
“An Acting Troupe
“The White Helmets were never ‘rescuers,’ but a public relations wing of Al Qaeda and its various affiliates. The US did not arm and funded terrorists for years to ravage Syria only to ‘also’ fund groups to help save lives. Instead, the White Helmets’ only real mandate was to augment the proxy war, exploiting humanitarian themes similar to how the US and NATO justified and executed the destruction of Libya […]
“The White Helmets – however – are wherever Al Qaeda is – and it was Al Qaeda’s “cameramen-corpsmen” who supposedly responded to the Khan Sheikhun chemical weapons attack, allegedly collected samples, and passed them to the OPCW.
“Because there was no onsite investigation and the samples the White Helmets handed to the OPCW could have originated anywhere, no conclusion regarding what attack if any took place could be made, let alone any blame be assigned for the attack. Yet the Khan Sheikhun incident prompted the United States to carry out an assault on Syrian targets with 59 cruise missiles.
“It was a clear case of US-funded provocateurs staging an incident, the US rushing through justification to strike Syria by sidestepping evidence or lack thereof, and then the West collectively weathering the fallout as the June 2017 OPCW report was published, revealing the absolute lack of evidence linking the Syrian government to the attack.
“It is a pattern that has repeatedly played out – each time the OPCW being unable to access sites of alleged chemical weapon attacks because they reside in territory occupied by dangerous terrorists, the White Helmets’ ‘chemical sample units’ handing over evidence impossible to verify, and the US rushing through military strikes on Syria before investigations can be conducted and reports are published and analyzed.
“Thus the White Helmets serve verifiably as a war propaganda tool – enabling the US to pressure Syria and carry out military strikes any time the Syrian government makes significant advances toward positions admittedly occupied by Al Qaeda. As to claims of the White Helmets ‘saving thousands of civilians,’ this remains impossible to verify specifically because just as the OPCW has no access to territory the White Helmets and their Al Qaeda associates occupy, neither do independent organizations tasked with verifying anything else the White Helmets have claimed.”
Syria: The White Helmets’ Final Performance
By Tony Cartalucci
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2018/07/syria-white-helmets-final-performance.html
North America is not taking the White Helmet ‘refugees’; Trump doesn’t want them on his territory. Canada, Germany and UK will take them, or have been instructed to take them at great expense to those countries’ tax payers.
Poor Chrystia! The White Helmets plea is keeping her awake at night as faithfully reported by CBC Brewster!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/white-helmets-freeland-interview-1.4760456
The CBC comment section immediately assails anyone daring to label the WH for what they are…
Notwithstanding that conveniently ISIS has claimed the Toronto shooting… Or is this what keeps the Canadian Foreign Affair Minister awake at night?
C. Freelancer, another sucker who bought the goods.
Or are we part of the program, I fear the latter.
Somebody on this thread mentioned “atrocities committed by the Assad regime, while horrendous, are..mitigated by”…There is no accounting of those, and Assad was reelected by 73% of Syrians while Syria was being blasted by the US and its western lackeys, aided by White Helmets. The Syrians are hoping to get back to some sort of life and support Assad, who clearly supports the Syrians. Who has a ‘regime’, may i ask?
I hope this evacuation of the White Hell-mets coinciding with Trump’s escalation of verbal attacks against Iran is coincidental, but given the record of the US-Israel-Saudi Arabia Axis of Evil, it becomes a question.
First of all I know nothing special but I am reasonably certain this timing is mirror accident, knock on wood, Asaad is kicking ass across southern Syria, all that’s left is a small pocket and the Golan Heights which are going to stay Israeli at least for the time being, and I don’t think Putin sold out the Iranians, though I am personally just delusional enough two hope that Trump in the end Will see the light of reason and not take us into a major war with Iran, the actual prospects of launching a war without cooperation with the Turks and Russians would be close to impossible.
We will not have the support of either of those two countries should we attack Iran.
I have never been able to understand Trump’s positions on Israel, Syria, Russia, and Iran. He seems all over the map. Israel just shot down a Syrian fighter it claims was over Israeli territory. Syria claims it was targeting terrorists in Syria and the plane was targeted over Syria. Israel (and the US) violate Syria’s airspace daily. What gives? Trump should tell Bibi to knock it off and thank Putin for aiding the US in fighting terrorism and get us out of a country we are in illegally. It makes no sense and does nothing to “make America great again” by kissing Israel’s ass over Syria and Iran.
Jessika + “atrocities committed by the Assad regime, while horrendous, are..mitigated by”…
Isn’t it distinctively ironic how we can clearly see “horrendous atrocities” enacted by heads-of-state We CHOSE to behead / “regime change” —
— while Rewarding those whom bow in slavish obeisance to Our Dictates, even to the diminishment OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE …?
(Are we Americans a Superior Race… – or what… ? — The Last Empire)?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-us-is-in-constant-arm-wrestling-with-iran-over-iraq-and-syria/5648568
https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-weak-and-divided-iraq-is-stumbling-towards-an-unbalanced-future/5643777?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles
Thanks for the information
I don’t think that there is any “controversy”!
It is nothing short of a disgrace that Canada would settle hundreds of these proven terrorist barbarian elements with the families they have indoctrinated.
and make Canadians into targets.
I’m Canadian..and I’ve never been so ashamed to be Canadian. For our Gov. to give these terrorist, these head chopping, baby killing, child rapers Canadian citizenship is an affront to what Canada once stood for. We have lost our way, we are no more than a dried out husk with our foreign masters picking at the last remaining pieces of flesh. We are ruled by cowards.
Agreed.
Endless war? To be peace there will have to be some level of reconciliation. They have to go somewhere and after a failed cause may not have a change of heart but a change of mind.
As far as punishment, the neocons who supported them should be punished first.
I’m pretty sure that the coward label is a fit but if not really cowards then gullible foos at best. I cannot believe that they wouldn’t be aware of the criticisms of this group and haven’t conducted an investigation to determine the veracity of these criticisms. Why can’t Israel just keep them since they’re the ones that “Rescued” them and they get Billions of dollars from the U.S. government anyway. Trudeau is being such a goofball and offers only tepid criticism of Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians and the Trump regime’s treatment of Latin Americans fleeing violence that was largely a result of U.S. foreign policies. Canada is so dumb most of the time and it’s largely because our media is either utterly clueless or doesn’t want to provide full and accurate information about anything.
I don’t understand why Canada, Australia, the UK, EU do not stand up to US domination.
The atrocities committed by the Assad regime, while horrendous, they are already being mitigated by the fact that some of those atrocities have been fabricated and contrived by the Western powers, not the least of which the lies and fabrications of the White Helmets.
In the end, it becomes much harder to pin blame on the guilty when such sins are being exaggerated!.
“Another online petition, also at Change.org, which is still up and running, calls on the Right Livelihood Foundation to rescind its award to the “White Helmets.””
I think it’s gone now. Your link led me to the Change.org main page and it did not turn up in a search for “White Helmets” or “Right Livelihood Foundation.” The only petition critical of the White Helmets called on Teresa May to stop funding them. The rest were pro-White Helmet.
The story behind the story is that White Helmets were offered safe passage to Idleb province in terrorist hands to possibly help there but they refused quoting that they fear for their lives as they are considered western spies, agents by terrorists there. Interestingly they never operated on IS territory for the same reason.
The fact that everybody on the ground except for few terrorist groups funded from the same western sources know this is CIA/MI6 outfit pretending to be civil defense.
Aleppo residents testimonies proved that by many cases when WH member told desperate parents with wounded dying children to go elsewhere to seek help from real doctors as nobody from WH had any formal medical training or experience more than few days and they pretend to treat patients in fact mostly injuring or killing them, as people signed up to get more food for them and families.
True Syrian Civil Defense and IRC were stopped by White Helmets from entering areas even when terrorists allowed that, forcing them to unload supplies at demarcation lines while no personnel was allowed in.
U.S. puts number evacuated at 400.
UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Office of Press and Public Diplomacy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2018
Press Release: Ambassador Haley on the Evacuation of the White Helmets from Southwest Syria
Today, more than 400 members of the White Helmets and their families were safely evacuated from southwest Syria. Their safe evacuation was made possible with critical support from the UN and the Governments of Israel and Jordan. The United States worked closely with our partners Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom to make this operation possible.
?“Today we are grateful for our international partners who helped guide the White Helmets and their families to safety. We couldn’t be more thankful to the White Helmets for the bravery and selflessness they have shown, tirelessly risking their own lives to rescue and give medical care to victims of the brutal Assad regime. We pray for a day when they can return to a peaceful and free Syria,” said Ambassador Haley.
###
Is this on an officiel US site, and if so, can you give a link?
Thanks
Yup. We’ve got to get our people out. Our people being a bunch of jihadi Muslims hell bent on establishing a theocratic state like that oasis of freedom and comity, Saudi Arabia. It would also be good if Nikki Haley got her head out of her ass and realized that Syria will become peaceful and as free as any Middle Eastern country once we stop trying to overthrow the democratically elected government.
So Israel evacuates the White Helmets, but they don’t want them. They get send to Jordan, are heading for Europe.
And I’m waiting for the White Helmets to offer their skills and experience to the beleaguered residents of Gaza.
That is both a sad and a hilarious comment on the state of affairs.
It’s pretty clear the White Helmets were a propaganda arm of the US and UK governments that worked hand in hand with the Al Qaeda wing of the Syrian ‘resistance’; that they were involved in the CIA’s Operation Timber Sycamore that funneled weapons, internet tech and money to any and all opposition groups in Syria (including ISIS); and it’s most probable that they are being lifted out of the country largely out of fear that they might be able to expose these operations in great detail if captured by Assad; I bet some bribery / blackmail is involved in Israel’s decision to help them out.
It’s somewhat amusing that Al Qaeda affiliates are now being given safe haven in western countries, but politics makes for strange bedfellows. I imagine they’ll all go straight onto government terrorist watchlists of some sort or the other, however. Typical.
Info of interest below.
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“The Pentagon, NATO and Israel are the protagonists of war and war crimes. Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are presented as the ‘outside enemy’ which threatens the Western World, when in fact Al Qaeda and the ISIS are supported and financed by the Western military alliance as well as the State of Israel out of the Golan heights.” Prof Michel Chossudovsky, July 12, 2018
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-criminalization-of-war-gaza/5646786
More from the “corporate media.” On the “humanitarian” White Helmets.
————————————————————–
Canada sparked daring mission to rescue hundreds of humanitarian workers in Syria
Sean Silcoff
Colin Freeze
Robert Fife Ottawa Bureau Chief
Published 41 minutes ago
…
Hundreds of volunteer humanitarian workers known as the “White Helmets” and their families were whisked to safety from southwest Syria this weekend in a daring overnight rescue operation, an effort sparked earlier this month by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.
The rescue played out late Saturday and early Sunday as at least 400 people were evacuated from southwestern Syria and spirited into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, before being moved to a camp in neighbouring Jordan. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) led the rescue effort, which was done at the request of Canada, Britain and Germany, who all committed to resettling evacuees. The operation was also supported by the United States….
Senior sources also said Ms. Freeland became increasingly alarmed about the fate of the White Helmets as Syrian government forces, backed by Russian bombers, rapidly retook the country’s southwest region. She decided to push the matter as an “unscripted” addition to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agenda, when she met with fellow foreign ministers at a dinner that was held on July 11 at Brussels’s Art and History Museum, one source familiar with the matter said.
“I called for global leadership to support and help these heroes,” Ms. Freeland said in a statement released on the weekend. “We feel a deep moral responsibility towards these brave and selfless people.”…
The staging ground for the operation was the Golan Heights, a tense and disputed patch of land taken from Syria by Israel a half century ago. Footage of the rescue released by the Israeli forces showed buses going back and forth across border areas. Soldiers gave water to evacuees, and children were shown crossing fortified checkpoints normally closed to refugees, save for highly exceptional circumstances….
Canada’s behind-the-scenes role involved the efforts of roughly 200 diplomats, public servants and politicians from Ottawa to Amman, Jordan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had also appealed directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to facilitate the rescue.
Mr. Netanyahu released a statement on Twitter on Sunday saying that he approved the evacuation “as an important humanitarian effort” after being contacted by Mr. Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump and others….
The White Helmets are expected to release a statement on Monday. Over the years, they have received millions of dollars in funding from the West, including from the Canadian government. Much money has moved through the Netherlands-registered Mayday Rescue Fund, a non-profit foundation established by an ex-British Army officer and UN staffer who helped train civilians as first responders in opposition-held Syrian territory….
[read more at link below]
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canada-sparked-daring-mission-to-rescue-hundreds-of-humanitarian/
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Freeland talking about moral responsibility is purely and simply an insult to Canadians. Those 200 diplomats simply worked for Soros’ agenda at taxpayer’s expense. CBC is censoring anyone who comments forcefully against this agenda.
We now learn that our tax dollars went to support those Al Nusra associates.
The same Freeland and Bob Rae played Soros agenda in Burma too.
No surprise Trump has little respect for Trudeau and Canada since Freeland, a likely Biden appointee, and the Canadian government have been set up by the Obama administration as a state actor to undermine Trump from the outside while Dems and war hawk Republicans are working from the inside.
Freeland is nothing right nor honorable: she is a disgrace to our country.
Chrystia “Freeland’s maternal grandfather, Mykhailo Khomiak in Ukrainian, was the editor-in-chief of a Ukrainian-language pro-Nazi newspaper called Krakivs’ki visti launched in Kraków in occupied Poland during World War II, with exposure orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels himself.[17] Michael Chomiak has been characterized by the Canadian press as a “Nazi collaborator”,[18][19][20] although he may have been unwilling to take the top position.[21] Freeland and others have claimed that the circulation of news in 2017 regarding her grandfather’s connection to Nazism was the result of a Russian disinformation campaign,[22][20][21] nevertheless these facts have been confirmed by the University of Alberta historian and Chomiak’s son-in-law, Professor John-Paul Himka.[20]” — Wikipedia
As I said CBC has yet to write about the second day story acknowledgements that the Globe and Mail had to publish. It is very well detailed here:
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/03/09/another-russia-fake-news-red-herring/
The CBC has never mentioned the truth about Freeland’s family past only to claim it is Russian propaganda.
Most of the Canadian media have been trying to find excuses or to become the unofficial mouthpiece of Freeland herself (see the article by Tony Glavine in McLean’s). Only David Pugliese from the Ottawa Citizen https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/russian-diplomat-calls-expulsions-over-remarks-un-canadian
and Thomas Walkom from the Star have guts in Canada.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/04/05/why-did-canada-expel-four-russian-diplomats-because-they-told-the-truth.html
How will this play out when this barbaric element “acts out” in their new Canadian location? It is not only criminal but stupid to import a proven mercenary terrorist element which won’t blend in very easily, and which will definitely blow back against the Trudeau government. It does reveal Trudeau and Freeland’s abject satellite status vis a vis the yankee imperium, since the political risks for this government with this move are high.
I have a very powerful urge to heave.
What a surprise: White Helmets and Democracy Now both winners of the formerly prestigious Right Livelihood Award.
What really amazes me is how “Progressive” news organizations are just part of the propaganda machine for the NeoCons!
Vanessa Beeley and a female colleague were formidable opponents of the “White Helmet” propagandists who were indeed financed and funded by Western and Arab governments and large private donors whose only aim was to spread false claims defaming the Syrian an Russian governments. It is amazing that they escaped rape, murder and torture from those extremist killers. By the same token, the Western and Mideast mainstream media shamed themselves by becoming stooges for the anti-Assad forces, allies of the US empire’s regime change mantra. The bestial terrorist Islamic forces subsumed other dissenters and wreaked havoc and mayhem throughout Syria and Iraq. Today, they are mostly defeated and scattered due to Assad’s heroism and Russia’s bravery and fortitude. Three American Presidents committed the crime along with the leaders of the EU allies, but continue to shirk admitting it.
The “White Helmets”have powerful friends it seems.
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Israel evacuates stranded Syrian White Helmets in ‘international effort’ as regime forces close in
The Israeli military said it acted on a government directive to evacuate the civilians at the request of the United States and “additional” European countries.
by Saphora Smith and Associated Press / Jul.22.2018 / 6:32 AM ET / Updated 3:37 AM ET
…
The evacuation was part of an international plan to help rescue the group’s volunteers and was agreed upon at the NATO leaders’ summit in Brussels last week, Chrystia Freeland Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released on Saturday….
…
“Several days ago President Trump approached me, and the Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and others asked us to help remove hundreds of White Helmets from Syria, who saved lives and were now in mortal danger,” Netanyahu said in a statement Sunday….
But the White Helmets are not without controversy. They only operate in opposition-held areas, where government services are almost non-existent and aerial bombings are recurrent. Syrian government supporters accuse them of being politically affiliated with the rebel groups….
[read more at link below]
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-evacuates-stranded-syrian-white-helmets-international-effort-regime-forces-n893496
More info on White Helmets.
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White Helmets Busted on Video Celebrating Slaughter of Syrian Civilians Alongside Al-Qaeda
White Helmets were seen on video celebrating the massacre of Syrian civilians alongside Al-Qaeda, ironically in a film to portray them in a positive light.
By Matt Agorist
–
November 23, 2017
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/white-helmets-celebrate-massacre-civilians/
Canada supports the White Helmets
From: Global Affairs Canada
Statement
July 21, 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today released the following statement:
‘‘The White Helmets are courageous volunteers and first responders who risk their lives to help their fellow Syrians who have been targeted by senseless violence. When children, women, and men in Syria flee for their lives, the White Helmets run towards danger, towards the rubble, to save the innocent and the wounded. The White Helmets have witnessed vicious atrocities committed by the Assad regime and its backers….
[read more at link below]
https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/07/canada-supports-the-white-helmets.html
More info, and Canada is accepting the “White Helmets”
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WHITE HELMETS: Hand in Hand with Al Qaeda and Extremist Child Beheaders in Aleppo
MARCH 12, 2017 BY VANESSA BEELEY
https://21stcenturywire.com/2017/03/12/white-helmets-hand-in-hand-with-al-qaeda-and-extremist-child-beheaders-in-aleppo/
Read this.
—————————————————
Canada to accept up to 250 Syrian White Helmet volunteers, family after dramatic escape
Canadian officials expected? to? immediately begin working with UN? ?to process families
Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Jul 22, 2018 12:49 AM ET | Last Updated: 13 minutes ago
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/syria-russia-white-helmet-1.4749380
This morning Southfront reported the following @ https://southfront.org/israel-evacuates-800-members-of-white-helmets-and-their-families-from-syria-to-jordan/ :
ISRAEL EVACUATES 800 MEMBERS OF WHITE HELMETS AND THEIR FAMILIES FROM SYRIA TO JORDAN
Israel Evacuates 800 Members Of White Helmets And Their Families From Syria To Jordan
FILE PHOTO: A member of the Syrian Civil Defence (known as the White Helmets) walks near buses as a convoy carrying opposition fighters and their families from rebel held areas south of Damascus on May 6, 2018. © Rami al SAYED / AFP
Israel is working to hide the evidence of special propaganda operations carried out by the US-Israeli-led block against the Damascus government in Syria.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Israel transported several hundred of the White Helmets and their families from the southwestern part of Syria to Jordan overnight Saturday. The IDF described it as “a humanitarian effort” at the request of the US and European countries.
The IDF claimed it engaged in the “out of the ordinary” move due to the “immediate risk” to the lives of the civilians in the area. The move came as Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, were finishing their operation to defeat Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and its allies in the southern provinces of Daraa and al-Quneitra.
The “civilians” evacuated by Israel were evacuated from the militant-held area.
According to Jordan’s official Petra state media outlet, the number of evacuated persons included 800 White Helmets members and their families.
Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that a convoy of dozens of buses crossed the contact line between the Israeli-controlled area and Syria late Saturday. Then the convoy was escorted to the Jordanian border by Israeli police and UN forces.
The White Helmets is an infamous Western-backed organization, which according to Syrian, Russian and Iranian governments as well as to multiple independent researchers, has been involved in staging chemical attacks and other propaganda actions in order to assist the US-led block in its attempts to overthrow the Assad government.
One of the most prominent cases is the “Douma chemical attack” on April 7, 2018. MORE ABOUT IT HERE
According to Syrian experts, the key goal of the evacuation of the White Helmets members is to not allow forces of the Syrian-Russian-Iranian alliance to question members of the organization over their acitivites and to prevent further leaks and failures how the mainstream narrative on the conflict has been created through special propaganda operations.
’tis kind of a dead giveaway. Meanwhile the propaganda machine… I mean the MSM continues to pump out government propaganda.
As a followup, see: “Netanyahu: Trump & Trudeau asked Israel to evacuate White Helmets from Syria” at:
https://www.rt.com/news/433958-netanyahu-trump-trudeau-white-helmets/
and see: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807221066592008-white-helmets-facts/
The U.S., Canada and Germany are all complicit in this one.
Been there. Done that. Appreciate the links nonetheless. What pisses me off is the likes of the US, Canada, and Britain all accusing RT and Sputnik of being propaganda outlets. I can honestly say that I have never been misled by RT and Sputnik. CNN, ABC, MSNBC, BBC and their ilk? Oh, yeah. They spew government propaganda.
CNN, ABC, MSNBC – American PRAVDA. The USA looks like the USSR before they imploded.
Just searched “about” for email contact, couldn’t find it, for the following suggestion. Apology for OT. Would like to recommend CN offer an “open topics” option, as does for example Moon of Alabama. Topics sometimes fold when a new post appears–that may in some ways just be getting underway.
These 800 war criminals, I mean American “assets,” are to be settled in Canada, Germany and the UK. What say the decent folks in those countries about this? (They probably say ship them to America!) Among the allegations against these miscreants has been the repeated use of poison gas in false flag events to justify American attacks on Assad’s forces. Kind of gets the wheels turning about who might really be responsible for the Skripal and Rowley/Sturgess “Novichok” poisonings. Perhaps just humble migrants practicing the craft they know best? Will May’s government be up to the task of keeping tabs on this lot once integrated into British society?
Interesting point; hard to believe that none of them know anyone at Porton Down.
Realist-
I was thinking along the same lines. Once these terrorists are in Canada, Germany and the U.K., what’s the chance for “unexpected consequences”? What could possibly go wrong? The Mujahideen became Al Qaeda, what will we rename the “White Helmets”?
Good article but we must be focused.
.The White helmets are a British foreign office propaganda organisation run by a former British army intelligence officer.
Same with the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, its not one man living in the English Midlands.
This us the cover for the FO media centre in a building in London.
“Propaganda launderers like Bellingcat, the White Helmets, and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights are employed as deception conduits by the more aggressive factions in Western governments, which seek to sabotage peace efforts in Ukraine, Syria and other parts of the world.”
They are not employed the are their fron torganisations and invent the propaganda , not laundering it.
There are no peace efforts, a coup was pulled in the Ukraine, there are no peace efforts in Syria.
The latest one is the children.
They are northern European children.
So they appear to be British and the videos made in Britain.
Elementary my dear Watson, quite elementary !!”
I am from Vancouver,Canada and I wanted to say that the White Helmets People are reactionary and support the terrorists in Syria. They have been condemned by all people who want a just peace in Syria.The gov’ts of Canada and the USA support these reactionary Bastards.This shows that Canada and the USA are part of the problem in Syria.
I’m a bit late in making comments.
I’ve emailed the “Syrian Civil Defence” requesting that they direct me to their annual report and audit. No reply so far. Does anyone know of such a thing out there ?
A few unsung heroes of the “WH”:
#1
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ctb2-SBW8AEDJTK.jpg
#2
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtcSdqQWYAEfe9o.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtcSYebWYAEAckr.jpg
#3
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtcTaeEWIAAgHzl.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtcTUyoXgAA1RII.jpg
The fact that the ‘White Helmets’ use a logo written in English (Syria Civil Defense), says it all. Like the ‘ATO’ (Anti Terrorist Operation) as spoken by the Ukrainian Fascist forces in the Donbass; its English construct betrays its US origins. Neither of these terms has an indigenous content pertinent to the people on the ground.
Everybody knows the corporate monopoly media are a joke. And their forte is propaganda. See link below:
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/10/are-corporate-media-propaganda-pushers.html
Yes, terrible propaganda piece by Joe Klein in TIME. I read it while having an oil change at the local service center and having read so much about the real “While Helmets”, really couldn’t believe my eyes. Blatant, blatant, lies. The shills don’t even care anymore.
Thank you Mr. Parry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Vanessa Beeley and 21st Century Wire have been covering this also. They have amassed an amazing amount of photo and video evidence that also backs up your article here. I have compiled a number of links to help your readers access this trove of information more easily. Once again thank you for your amazing reporting.
Please bookmark and save this large amount of info related to the US/UK backed White Helmets as it is extensive proof that the officials of the aforementioned countries are supporting a fake group that is directly linked to terrorism. The White Helmets killed the real Syrian Civil Defense in east Aleppo, Syria in 2013. The videos and research throughout these posts, which is primarily conducted by UK investigative reporting outfit 21st Century Wire and Venessa Beeley, exposes one of the greatest war lies over told, a massive propaganda effort meant to deceive and coerce the populations of western countries into believing that al-Qaeda linked terrorists are civil humanitarians that save little children.
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/itv-4-video-shows-white-helmet-embedded-w-al-zinki-terrorists-who-beheaded-boy/#post-257679
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/who-are-syrias-white-helmets-terrorist-linked/
http://www.jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/the-propaganda-war-against-syria-led-by-avaaz-the-white-helmets/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/henningsen-the-white-helmets-are-kony-2012-on-steroids/
https://www.jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/syria-white-helmets-humanitarians-or-executioners/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/mccain-and-the-syrian-white-helmets-how-a-simple-post-can-connect-the-dots/
http://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/huge-video-and-data-cache-on-the-fake-ngo-syrian-white-helmet-jihadists/
http://jackpineradicals.org/showthread.php?10226-The-Syria-White-Helmets-Exposed-as-US-UK-Agents-Embedded-with-Al-Nusra-and-ISIS
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/white-helmets-neutral-heroes-or-pro-war-pr-campaign/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/avaaz-the-online-pro-war-propagandist-and-color-revolution-ngo/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/crosstalkrt-who-are-the-white-helmets-guests-vanessa-beeeleyeva-bartlet/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/syrian-rebel-white-helmets-actually-funded-by-u-s/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/journalist-eva-bartlett-im-back-from-syria-the-media-is-lying-to-you/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/how-the-white-helmets-became-international-heroes-while-pushing-u-s-military-in/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/uk-column-news-on-fake-white-helmets-terrorists-thursday-6-october-2016/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/white-helmets-facilitate-execution-with-al-nusra-highly-graphic-warning/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/syrian-girl-explains-how-the-ceasefire-in-syria-broke-down/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/max-blumenthal-at-alternet-busting-the-fake-syrian-white-helmets-wide-open/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/ngos-plausible-deniability-and-the-new-age-of-information-warfare/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/netflix-and-the-white-helmets-hand-in-hand-with-al-qaeda/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/syrias-white-helmets-war-by-way-of-deception-moderate-executioners/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/understanding-the-truth-about-the-us-war-parties-the-wars-the-media-and-syria/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/aleppo-media-centre-funded-by-french-foreign-office-eu-and-us/
https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/british-government-and-white-helmets-exposed-on-the-bbc/
Liam – thanks for the links. Great job!
The main problem is that the average citizen cannot bring herself to imagine that the mainstream media have been systematically lying to her for many years. Those of us who are natural loners and skeptics have an advantage in this respect, but we are in a small minority.
An article by Stephen Gowans on the Off-Guardian website, a corrective to the lamestream of propaganda which now issues from what was once a more sceptical anti-establishment publication, notes that, from the beginning, the story of the “revolution” was false and its main element was jihadi fundamentalists. Now, the “west” has come up with a new propaganda initiative rebranding “friendly” jihadi thugs as neutral civil defense type heroes. This propaganda effort must be particularly inventive since the idea is to foment support for a war against Syria, supported by Russia, in favour of el qaeda types. This is not only criminal but stupid, since Russia has nuclear arms, unlike Saddam Hussein, whom they could take down without threat of armageddon. The yankee imperium and its acolytes thus appear to be following previous western empires in going after Russia, notably the Napoleonic empire and the Nazi regime. We know how successful they were and alarmingly, the establishment has unlearned the lesson which enabled us to survive the cold war that direct war had to be avoided to avoid nuclear armageddon.
The Americans like to charge the Russians with something they call the “weaponization” of information. This smells like the real thing to me, and it’s not being done by the Russians.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the American definition of “war crimes.” When Russians accidentally kill civilians caught in the cross fire of war it’s called a war crime. When Americans do exactly the same thing it is mere “collateral damage.” In fact, Americans can do it on purpose, in which case it’s merely an “accident.”
I was born, raised and have lived in the country for 70 years and still do not get all the nuances of American English–well, not as spoken in Washington.
Great comment!
I hear you Realist, and Paul Craig Roberts does too. According to PCR the U.S. is bringing Russia up on war crimes (read the link provided). The idea that when we do it that this is the way to liberate people, but when others do it they are committing war crimes, is baked into the American cake of diplomacy. I listened the other night to a historian of the old American West, and this historian made it very clear, and proved with facts, how most of what we Americans think we know of the old West is just a myth…a lie. Remember the statesmen who wrote that ‘all men are created equal’, were slave owners. Also Realist never feel to alone with your observation, because we others here are also confused by our country’s double standard thinking as well.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/10/24/by-cooperating-with-washington-on-syria-russia-walked-into-a-trap-paul-craig-roberts/
It’s like an old B rated movie you’ve watched 12 times…….lol
America follows a foreign policy that reflects mostly the jewish ideal…..Has it worked ? Has America been at war for 15 years following the Wolfowitz doctrine…….How about banking……the debt growth system that follows the federal reserve…..does it work ? How long America before you discover the system doesn’t work…….reject it….why ? it doesn’t work. This doesn’t mean you hate jews…..It means you want a better system
We live in a world that follows the jewish model of profit…..I will back this statement up with how the jewish way organizes music, cinema, banking and news outlets…This is not anti Semitism …..It’s the jewish business model…….This model works initially but then falls through the cracks because of lack of originality…….There are better ways to seek profit for your efforts…..The jewish model is just one…..and not a very good one because of it’s lack of diversity………
John: I get your point, but it is unfortunate you make a blanket statement that smears all Jews. There are many Jews in business and politics with very bad influences, but you can find, if you look around, there are other Jews who oppose the system they have helped build. Check http://mondoweiss.net/ Similarly, it isn’t too hard to find Gentiles, some of whom in the past were hostile to people of the Jewish faith, and who have just as severe negative influences as some Jews. – Jamie Dimon, John Stumpf formerly of Wells Fargo, Donald Trump, the Rockefellers, etc.
Bill – I noticed how you included Donald Trump in the list of non-Jews, but not Hillary Clinton. Trump pales in comparison to her. But as far as who has run the Federal Reserve (Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, Stanley Fischer as Vice Chair under Yellen, and who was Governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013), Larry Summers, who was behind bank deregulation, and Robert Rubin at Treasury and Citigroup (again bank deregulation), a whole host of bankers (Sandy Weill, Lloyd Blankfein, Dick Fuld, Corzine), hedge funds, major newspapers, Hollywood, there are a lot of Jews in top positions, and Jews are less than 2% of the population. They appear to control politics too, with huge contributions into political campaigns.
And had Obama had his way a few months ago, there would have been a fourth Jew on the Supreme Court (out of nine judges in total). What is up with that? Five Catholics and four Jews? Then there’s the secretive Bilderberg meetings that future presidents attend. Never mind Ivy League schools, professors, economists, top-paid journalists. I could go on and on.
I suggest the good Jews start calling out the bad ones and start policing their own, because more and more I see people bringing up “the Jews”. It’s happening everywhere, as this journalist points out:
“Trump’s Jewish attackers want to pretend that Trump is an anti-Semite and all of his attacks on globalist institutions or individuals is a personal attack on Jews. That’s preposterous, and projection. Trump’s Jewish attackers don’t want to admit their Jewish privilege. We Jews (yes, I’m one) are the wealthiest religious group in America and the second richest ethnic group behind Indian-Americans. For our tiny size, we are by far the most politically influential. The worlds of finance, media, journalism and law are home to extremely disproportionately high numbers of Jews. Leading globalist institutions like the World Bank, IMF, and WTO have high numbers of Jewish executives and staffers, as do organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, which one informal estimate claims is around 50% Jewish. Half of the US’s billionaires are Jewish. Jewish donors play an enormous role in funding Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The normally Republican and predominantly Jewish neoconservatives have thrown their support behind Hillary. None of this is evidence of conspiracy. […]
Bringing up anti-Semitism then just reminds people of how much influence and power Jews have. Casually hurling charges of anti-Semitism at critics of globalism is incredibly ill-advised and unhelpful. Trump’s critique of globalism, global elite corruption, and the role of bankers in global affairs is not anti-Semitic but the people who allege that it is are the ones who actually foster anti-Semitism, while simultaneously protecting globalism and globalist institutions from critique. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in some parts of the alt-right. There’s no need to make it worse by shaming people who criticize global elites.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/14/trump-anti-globalism-and-the-anti-semitism-slur/
My point was against sloppy phrasing tarnishing the good with the bad. I agree with your list of culprits, but it didn’t have time to name them and assumed most readers of Consortium News would have their own lists.
I suggest the good Jews start calling out the bad ones and start policing their own, because more and more I see people bringing up “the Jews”. It’s happening everywhere, as this journalist points out:
How about mondoweiss.net and all its correspondents that I referred to above? Then there are courageous commentators in Israel such as Uri Avnery, Neve Gordon, Gideon Levy and Amira Hass. Also in Israel there is B’Tselem, the human rights organization. There are students of Jewish heritage in many universities who support calls for justice.
When I am critical of actions out of Israel I refer to the sponsors as Israel’s right wing, or “pro-Israel” or the Israel Lobby to be specific instead of being careless with “the Jews.” We need to do something similar with those of Jewish heritage in the financial and political arenas.
Bill Bodden – where the monied Jewish people are really hurting the American people is in the financial and political arenas. This is just wrong. As the above author said, this behavior starts to tarnish everyone of the Jewish faith. They wield way too much power, way too much!
Who is pulling the strings at the Federal Reserve? Who put Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen in their positions? My question is: why them? Who is doing this? Do rich Jews wield so much power that only one of their own kind will do on the Federal Reserve? Do they trust no one else? Who is pulling their strings?
I have a feeling that the people who hold this power will be unmasked in the not too distant future, and when American people find out what’s really been going on, there will be hell to pay. And some people do know what’s going on; they’re just not talking.
To have a group of people with less than 2% of the population control almost everything is insanity and it will stop. Did this happen in Germany before Hitler came into power? Were the Jewish people controlling everything there too? I’m just wondering (I don’t actually know).
“… they actively campaign for a ‘no-fly zone’ …”
I think this point deserves to be emphasized to White Helmets supporters, especially alleged left/progressive luminaries such as the Democracy Now! people, who may be open to reason. As a general proposition, and regardless of the specifics of the Syrian situation, it should be obvious that no legitimate relief organization would be campaigning for military intervention.
My first link tells which governments fund the White Helmets.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/18/crisis-extras-are-syrias-white-helmets-recycling-their-barrel-bomb-victims/
The second one details how some of the videos were faked by professionals. One of a kid being killed by a sniper was filmed on the Malta set of the movie Gladiator. I’d assume most of the rest were fabricated by semi-professionals whose day jobs involved more active terrorism.
hXXp://russia-insider.com/en/white-helmets/ri14751
It is a propaganda group funded by the British govt. they are there to promote the regime change agenda with their fake stories about kids being killed and so many hospitals being bombed.
The guardian has become the propaganda bull horn of the neo cons promoting regime change.
in this video from liveleak.com, a man stands in sandals, adidas pant, and zip-up sweater, hands bound in front, while he is read his death sentence (i assume) in Arabic. the video cuts and the condemned is now kneeling, facing the background, as a his executioner walks toward him and shoots him hastily. the condemned twitches, it was not a direct hit, the executioner returns to fire another round at his victim’s head. within seconds of the execution (the video does not cut, and all shadows remain unchanged by passage of time), a team of white helmet personnel appear on scene with stretcher and body bag.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fd8_1430900709
they were present and witnessed the execution, possibly even took the body and presented it as evidence of Russian aggression.
THIS VIDEO IS UNCENSORED!
it is actual footage of a person’s last moments.
Why didn’t this courageous humanitarian group bring out the wounded and the women and children to the humanitarian corridors that Syria and Russia provided. Smells fishy to me. MSM when it isn’t lying to us, it is feeding us pablum.
Linda – great point! Yeah, why didn’t they bring out the people along that corridor? It’s either because they don’t care and aren’t humanitarian at all, or there was no one there to take out (East Aleppo IS really a “ghost town”, as the article says).
You all know the government was shooting, injuring protesters in the beginning of the civil war and not allowing the protesters to get medical care at the government run hospitals. Doctors had to sneak then in! Wouldn’t that be why the wounded aren’t going to the Syrian and Russian corridors? Just a thought! In case these civilians were against the regime.
Hurray, finally someone has written another expose of White Helmets. There was a small amount of info a while ago and then nothing. I noted that TV news casts and op eds were constantly describing events in rebel held Aleppo areas as though they had reporters there – they even had video! I was confused about that because I wondered how they were getting reporters in there when the last two regular reporters were beheaded a couple of years ago. Of course none of the TV reports said that the reports and video were from the rebels. I wonder why not?? And then there was the video that went viral about the little boy covered in dust who was rescued by white helmets. But no one mentioned all the other children who were being traumatized or killed by the fanatic rebel outfits.
This author is right, this is a major scam and we are being led down a primrose path with death and destruction at the end. He mentions the Iraq lies and also the lies about Libya which not so many know about. That was a horrifying campaign of lies accusing Gaddafi of committing genocide against his people. Obviously if anyone involved (like Hillary) had any actual knowledge or interest in Libya and its history he/she would have known that the undocumented and unproved stories were lies. But they were taken as truth by our state department and the media and we went off to butcher and destroy (again). Now we are again being told the same kind of unsupported lies that conveniently fit into our government’s plan of how things should go – i.e. regime change. America is sleep walking toward armageddon and we aren’t even going to have a discussion about it because most citizens are too ignorant and/or too disinterested to care. And why should they be interested? They are told nothing but lies and half truths to to lull us into thinking we are pure and “exceptional”. I picture America like the Oscar Wilde story of Dorian Gray. Our media tells us we are good and generous and brave and exceptional with nothing but good motives in all we do. The truth is we are greedy, sneaky, power mad and careless of human lives and the fate of the planet. And we have been that way for generations when it comes to our behavior toward countries less fortunate than ours. The actual painting of the face of America would horrify us all if we could see it.
It’s time to call out our media and tell them we are sick of their pandering to the propaganda of our government.
rannie – great comments. As another blogger said, we should boycott all products that are advertised in these newspapers, advising the advertisers by email, phone or letter that we are doing this because we are sick and tired of being lied to. If the companies who are paying for advertising start getting hit in their pocketbooks, they might stop advertising with these newspapers or put pressure on them to start telling the truth. Boycott all advertised products. Hit these newspapers where it hurts.
Good idea. But my problem is: how can I boycott the products that are advertised in those newspapers, when I make a point of never even glancing at those newspapers?
Tom Welsh – well, you might have to buy just one newspaper (darn, my idea didn’t work!) or look at one in the library, or glance through one at the checkout without buying it. If we all did this, they just might start losing income. It’s worth a try.
The journalist Vanessa Beeley made an interesting point about the huge donations that the White Helmets receive from foreign governments. That amount, of 100 million dollars or more, is much more than is needed by “volunteer rescue workers” as they call themselves on the home page of their web site.
“This is the kind of money you put into an army. It’s not the kind of money you put into a very simple NGO”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8mA0h7dCKI#t=16m20s
Brendan – thank goodness for Vanessa Beeley. What she is getting out is invaluable. A very brave lady.
The fake “citizen rescuer” White Helmets are a pro-terrorist propaganda project, created by the UK and US and “fact-checked” by the fake “citizen investigative journalists” at Bellingcat.
Propaganda launderers like Bellingcat, the White Helmets, and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights are employed as deception conduits by the more aggressive factions in Western governments, which seek to sabotage peace efforts in Ukraine, Syria and other parts of the world.
NGOs: Grassroots Empowerment or Tool of Information Warfare?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1byfe5vUM
Eliot Higgins’ “confirmation” of the 2013 Ghouta gas attack was debunked. In fact, the Ghouta attack was perpetrated by the same Al-Nusra forces the US currently is struggling to defend.
Numerous Higgins and Bellingcat “confirmations” of terrorist groups’ allegations against Syria and Russia have been debunked. But the allegations were never meant to be proven. The propaganda was and is meant to be inserted into the “news cycle” for political leverage.
Syria (since 2011), including Aleppo (since 2012) has been under siege by terrorist armies backed by multiple US allies, including Israel and NATO member state Turkey.
US proxies are nearing defeat in Aleppo, forcing the US to risk direct armed conflict with Syria and Russia.
If the “moderate” or “not-so-moderate rebels allow a humanitarian organization to operate in its territory then it is time to be skeptical.
Syrians aren’t English their Syrian… so why theme a western ‘badge’ symbol… this ideologue defeats your admission of being for Syria and its people.
Who do you mean by, “… your admission…” ?
You, L.E., didn’t read this, right?