The celebrated White Helmets of Oscar fame appeared to have made their own feature film in Duma on the night of the alleged chemical attack, as Ann Wright explains.
By Ann Wright
Special to Consortium News
At the center of the controversy over an alleged chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Duma on April 7 are the White Helmets, a self-described rescue operation about whom an Oscar-winning documentary was made.
Reporter and author Max Blumenthal has tracked the role of the White Helmets in the Syrian conflict. He reported that the White Helmets were created in Turkey by James Le Mesurier, a former British MI5 agent. The group has received at least $55 million from the British Foreign Office and $23 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as millions from the Kingdom of Qatar, which has backed a variety of extremist groups in Syria including Al Qaeda.
Blumenthal writes, “When Defense Secretary James Mattis cited ‘social media’ in place of scientific evidence of a chemical attack in Duma, he was referring to video shot by members of the White Helmets. Similarly, when State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert sought to explain why the US bombed Syria before inspectors from the OPCW could produce a report from the ground, she claimed, ‘We have our own intelligence.’ With little else to offer, she was likely referring to social media material published by members of the White Helmets.”
The reference to social media as evidence in the most serious decision a leader can make—to engage in an act of war—is part of a disturbing trend. Then Secretary of State John Kerry pointed to “social media” as evidence of the Syrian government’s guilt in a 2013 chemical attack in the same Damascus suburb. But as Robert Parry, the late founder and editor of this site, pointed out in numerous reports, Syrian government guilt was far from a sure thing.
Rather than wait for the arrival of a team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to assess whether chemicals had even used in this latest incident, Trump gave the order to bomb.
Gas!
The possible role of the White Helmets in the latest alleged chemical attack was first revealed by veteran Middle East reporter Robert Fisk, writing for The Independent. In “The Search for Truth in the Rubble of Douma-And One Doctor’s Doubts Over the Chemical Attacks,” Fisk reported that he tracked down 58-year-old Syrian doctor Assim Rahaibani.
A White Helmet (Photo: whitehelmets.org)l
The doctor told Fisk that he learned from fellow physicians who were on duty at the clinic the night of the attack. Rahaibani said patients were brought in by “jihadi gunmen of Jaish el-Islam [the Army of Islam]” in Duma and that the patients appeared to be “overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm.”
Rahaibani told Fisk, “I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred metres from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened. There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over Duma at night – but on this night, there was wind and huge dust clouds began to come into the basements and cellars where people lived. People began to arrive here suffering from hypoxia, oxygen loss.”
Rahaibani continued: “Then someone at the door, a ‘White Helmet,’ shouted ‘Gas!’, and a panic began. People started throwing water over each other. Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia – not gas poisoning.”
Fisk writes that, “There are the many people I talked to amid the ruins of the town who said they had ‘never believed in’ gas stories – which were usually put about, they claimed, by the armed Islamist groups. These particular jihadis survived under a blizzard of shellfire by living in other’s people’s homes and in vast, wide tunnels with underground roads carved through the living rock by prisoners with pick-axes on three levels beneath the town. I walked through three of them yesterday, vast corridors of living rock which still contained Russian – yes, Russian – rockets and burned-out cars.”
Significantly, Fisk reported that locals told him that White Helmets left with jihadists bused out of Duma in a deal made with the Syrian government and Russia, which provided security for the transfer.
Other Reports
Other reporters have corroborated what Fisk found. Reporter Pearson Sharp of One America News, a conservative Christian TV network and supporter of President Trump, interviewed doctors and witnesses at the clinic. They also said there was no chemical attack and that strangers came into the clinic and shouted “Gas!” and filmed the reaction.
RT’s Arabic service also tracked down an 11-year old boy filmed in the “attack,” and found him in completely good health and able to answer questions of the RT reporter. He told her he was with his mother when they were urged to enter the clinic. “We were outside,” the boy said,
and they told all of us to go into the hospital. I was immediately taken upstairs, and they started pouring water on me.”
Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also a US diplomat and was in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US government in March 2003 in opposition to the lies the Bush administration was stating as the rationale for the invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
What do you make of the report on Russian state media claiming the White Helmets staged a chemical attack, using footage that it turns out was from set of a Syrian filmmaker’s 2016 movie? Do you think the Russia 1 and Channel One were duped? Very perplexing.
Shame on Ann Wright for mouthing the Assad/Russian line on the White Helmets,who literally rescue children buried under the rubble from Assad’s barrel bombs!
Here is a report from the Guardian on how the propaganda machine is targeting these heroic first responders:
“there’s a counter-narrative pushed by a vocal network of individuals who write for alternative news sites countering the “MSM agenda”. Their views align with the positions of Syria and Russia and attract an enormous online audience, amplified by high-profile alt-right personalities, appearances on Russian state TV and an army of Twitter bots.” The way the Russian propaganda machine has targeted the White Helmets is a neat case study in the prevailing information wars. It exposes just how rumours, conspiracy theories and half-truths bubble to the top of YouTube, Google and Twitter search algorithms.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories
@andy
examine their funding, and examine their associates.
dont be so naive.
Maybe he is naive bit he is sire acting like a troll.
Snopes has something to say about this:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/is-this-proof-white-helmets-staged-chemical-attack/
Thanks, Ann Wright, for posing the questions ignored by the corporate media. Much of what we have seen of the White Helmets reeks of so called “Fake News.” We must keep shining a light on such propaganda, as it is being used to subvert the democratic process and beat the drums of war.
Stanley Motss:
The President will be a hero. He brought peace.
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean:
But there was never a war.
Stanley Motss:
All the greater accomplishment
Actually, it was Vanessa Beeley who ‘tracked’ the White Helmets, back in the days when MB was spreading propaganda about the SARG. His work is nothing short of plagiarism, but at least now he’s on the right side of history.
Thank you. As well, readers will find the largest, and truest, source of info on the White Helmets at 21st Century Wire, which Consortium News could tell people if those running it wanted to.
Looking at the “news”, notable is the lack of attention to the alleged poisoning of Skripal and the chemical attack in Syria. Old news. Remaining are the expelled Russians, new sanctions, and the damage done by the missile attack. To the propagandist pushing for the destruction of Syria and further damage to Russia, they can crow: Mission Accomplished.
Do you really think they would want to poison all at almost same time so people think it’s obvious it was Russians involved? ??? really I believe more what where was a plan against Russians so Trump will be forgiven for his ??? which started to faded since the day he said he will attack Syria, UK May have lots on her shoulders and still going so she needed to be looking like a good woman, well thanks to not blind people who wants her to resign and France Of well not long ago they was trying to ban Birkini and now suddenly going to safe Syrians ??? people open your eyes ? they trying to DISTRACT you from real facts. Syria is a Bussiness centre war need to be continued where so they Money rate goes up.
mot sure if you all have seen this
the US State Department admits it is funding the White Helmets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHTUfqeK4Pc
So, does that means those White Helmets, who are “citizen volunteers from all walks of life”, are actually in it for the money?
The problem is that the OPCW – after the patently biased Joint Investigatory Mechanism (JIM) have too much invested in the statements of the White Helmets and the various western sponsored ‘medical agencies’ to start to mistrust them now.
The WH were instrumental in setting up and selling the ‘air-dropped sarin bomb’ narrative of the alleged April 2017 Khan Sheikhoun attack.
The JIM – a 3 person panel assigned to attribute blame for the attack jumped through all sorts of hoops to accept their version of events – ignoring or dismissing plenty of contradictory evidence – some of which have been detailed here at Consortium News (the ¼ of ‘victims’ admitted to hospital prior to the time of the attack, the wind direction demonstrably moving in the opposite direction to that stated by the witnesses, that all early WH witnesses reported chlorine gas, the ‘bizarre’ medical treatments, the post-‘rescue’ injuries, the radar tracks showing that no plane got within 5km of the town (!!!) and very much more besides.
The lack of good faith of the JIM and OPCW Fact Finding Mission is evident in the fact that the OPCW were assured that bomb fragments recovered from the scene were ‘secured’ and were to be provided to them. However – these fragments have NEVER been produced.
Rather than use this non-appearance as another very good reason to dismiss the word of those who provided the images (including the White Helmets) the JIM used a series of linguistic tricks to cover this fact. The analysis they provide in their report – which they say proves the munition to be an air-dropped chemical bomb – only refers to the images provided, NOT to the fragments themselves, but you have to read their report very carefully to recognise this.
Thank you, Dr. Rael Nidess for the 21stcenturywire.com link on the White Helmets. This is the largest archive on the internet tracing White Helmets activities by writers on the ground in Syria. And, many of these reporters are now the target of BBC, Guardian, and other MSM news outlets hit pieces. In today’s world I guess no one is allowed to question their narrative. Or, perhaps 21wire is getting to close to the truth.
More Info on Syria “attack.” See link below
——————————————————
‘Whole story was staged’: German reporter on live TV says Douma incident was false flag attack
Published time: 22 Apr, 2018 22:08
https://www.rt.com/news/424832-douma-attack-german-media/
They are murderous terrorists plain and simple – Huge Cache of White Helmets Exposed Links All In One Massive Volume For Sharing and Red Pilling – Over 400 Images in 22 Files
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/huge-cache-of-white-helmets-exposed-links-all-in-one-massive-volume-for-sharing-and-red-pilling-over-400-images-in-22-files
Thank you Liam, you’ve been on them from their beginning. Good instincts.
Jimmy Dore should be winning the awards for excellence in news presentation on this fiasco, not the fraudulent White Helmets who are perpetrating terrorism, not countering it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jERWeylLH-s
Really, this news segment by Dore is more factual, better organised and professionally edited than anything MSNBC or CNN might bring you, which is why CNN has now taken to vociferously attacking Dore and pressuring You Tube to demonitize all of his product on their platform. The propagandists can’t stand the slightest bit of competition from the truth tellers.
I agree with you. I watch Jimmy Dore shows often. He has been doing a great service to the Public to bring the truth out for the last two years now – and before that.
I saw on FAIR that out of 100 major news outlets in the USA, NOT ONE had an editorial condemning the US illegal attack on Syria. NOT ONE. Is this the free press? Why is it afraid of one little TV station called RT?
Its not a major news outlet, but Jeremy Scahill did a very good editorial on his last Intercepted peisode, he clearly said that any US involvement in Syria would be illegal.
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.
Tool of Information Warfare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1byfe5vUM
Numerous Higgins and Bellingcat “confirmations” of terrorist group 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.
Check this one out Abe. It highlights exactly what you have stated. Bellingcat and Atlantic Council are at the head of this hydra.
Oh Those Embarrassing Moments: Atlantic Council’s Ben Nimmo Outs ‘Russian Bot’ That Turns Out To Simply Be A UK Citizen Tired Of UK Government Warmongering
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/oh-those-embarrassing-moments-atlantic-council-s-ben-nimmo-outs-russian-bot-that-turns-out-to-simply-be-a-uk-citizen-tired-of-uk
Grest post as always, F.G.!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCu8mNC1JyE
That is alarming in spades, kntlt, i just read the 10/17 article on Veterans Today website, “Pandering to Israel Has Got to Stop” by Philip Giraldi. The extent of the legislation, both state and federal, requiring no criticism of Israel, including making BDS illegal, is surging, and the Christian Right are also involved with this. Twenty-two states have proposed legislation to criminalize BDS support, Maryland (Sen. Ben Cardin) and South Carolina (when Nikki Haley was.Governor) passing them. Texas Governor Abbott signed a law making aid to Hurricane Harvey victims contingent on not supporting BDS. There is more, a bill not passed, requiring US arms sales to ME countries to consult with Israel. Wikipedia states that John Bolton was on the committee of 12 at the UN, i believe, that constructed the “Friends of Israel” pledge and the US and UK have adopted it. Natalie Portman has just been denounced by Israel for making a vague statement about her “distress” due to Israel’s recent killings and assaults on Palestinian protestors, she will forfeit an arts award from a wealthy Israeli for even a suggestion of criticism.
If you want to know who rules over you? They are those you can not criticize.
That doesn’t appear to be exactly the case.
If the woman had been “distressed” about the thefts and murders, I would suppose she’d have said something about that issue before now. My search for any previous objections turned up empty. Being upset at Netanyahu’s general public thuggery seems to be what concerns her.
h**p://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018/4/22/portman-and-corbyn
Heather Nauert’s reliable source, Was the mouth of a mendacious horse.
Based on Fisker’s reports those Jihadi cohorts –
Are a treacherous horse to endorse!
Their standards are less than exacting. They get paid by ‘Five Eyes’ subcontracting.
They stage the attacks, And according to Max,
They got an Oscar for more than just acting!
State says that they’ve got their own intel. They’d announce it creating a groundswell.
There’d be crying and clamor for a cruise-missile hammer,
It could earn the White Helmets a Nobel!
With that “crossing the redline” device, Assad would now “pay a big price”.
All the Neocon hawks would be watching their stocks,
“Buy more Raytheon” came the advice!
The hawks would deploy lots of rockets. The “deep state” would then line their pockets!
Those missiles precise would sure jack up the price,
Since the voters are gullible sprockets!
A debt would be owed Nikki Haley. She’d endorse the plan happy and gayly!
At the United Nations there’d be allegations,
They’d say she has a bias Israeli!
Genie Energy can’t wait to drill. Their objections are specious and shrill!
Humane incantations and false accusations,
‘Cause there’s petroleum there to distill!
Thars oil in them Golan Heights! It keeps Netanyahoo up nights.
Woolsey, Cheney and Summers are principal drummers,
If Assad wins, they can’t drill on those sites!
Much to the hawks’ disappointment, The missile strike flew in the ointment.
Most of them missed, so Assad can resist,
Those Tomahawks failed their appointment!
There are whispers and hushed speculation. Maybe Dunford arranged an ablation.
Did they work with the Russians to avoid repercussions?
For John Bolton, that might cause jactation!
Belling Cat and the Council Atlantic, Were pushing a narrative frantic.
With Facebook and Twitter, their best counterfeiter,
Brown Moses could push lies gigantic!
Whenever the state must resist, Public judgement is roundly dismissed.
Social media sources are beggars with horses –
They get put on the lunatic list.
It’s all just conspiracy theory. Reprisals are nasty and smeary.
Twitterati are loons, they’re just kooks and buffoons,
And their fate could be awfully dreary.
But suddenly, oil’s at stake. Neocons want a piece of the cake!
If it could start a war, any cheap Facebook whore
Has the skill to prove Assad’s a snake!
But what were those “helmets” afraid ‘a? One wonders just what they were made ‘a!
Those helmets heroic had spines protozoic –
When it came time to leave, They boarded the bus with Al Kayda!
Yep, with a can of “Gillette Foamy”, almost anybody can look like they’re frothing at the mouth in respiratory distress. The latest “cult activity” revealed in Hollywood suggests that the gratuitous sex and violence they portray might be more than just acting!
Just a thought- the last part of your post reminds me of the Skripals on the bench. Despite the death of two guinea pigs and a cat in their house, they seem to have miraculously recovered from an instant-acting fatal substance only made in Russia, only to be hidden from the world ever since. ‘Trust me’.
They boarded the bus with Al Qaeda
for rescues in Douma come later;
There are movies in Idlib to make
for missiles will follow each fake.
.
While it’s great that the White Helmets are finally getting the larger exposure as the U.S./NATO propaganda front & al Qaeda-affiliated quasi-terrorists they are (to insure their agitprop is properly relegated to the information trash bin it deserves), and while it’s great that independent journalists like Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, and Rania Khalek are becoming prominent voices in this effort, there should be no mention of the White Helmets without giving due credit to the initial independent journalists, who went to Syria, visited the ‘hot zones’, talked to average everyday Syrians, saw the actuality of the Syrian regime-change war for themselves and reported on it despite vilification from all the ‘major’ western media. Their names are Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, Sharmine Narwani, Rick Sterling, among others. For a major compendium of information regarding the White Helmets see: https://21wire.tv/category/white-helmets/.
This article is too late with a WW3 looming. Wake up America. Veteranstoday.com had the truth on the White Helmets in 2013.
Here is the elephant in the room. America has a leadership whether Executive, Legislative or Judiciary, which takes the “Friends of Israel” pledge, even before they take the US Oath of Office. These traitors love the trappings of power more than they love their country. They know if they don’t take the pledge, they will be defeated by huge expenditures of moneys in the next election. We might as well be called the United States of Israel. Imagine, We the people are going in accord with our government to destroy another country, who has done absolutely nothing to us, based on a social media video of the White Helmets by day and Terrorists by night.
Excellent post. Good to hear from you kntlt.
Thanks for this article, Ann Wright. Very good point, Zachary, the White Helmets hightailed it out of Douma, get me on that bus, quick! I read today that the Internet is “abuzz” with people wondering why Tucker Carlson was absent from his show for three days end of this past week, as he was the only MSM host on air questioning the alleged Assad chemical attack as basis for F.UK.US assault on Syria.
Future generations will read their history books and learn that in 2018 the Skripal event in Salisbury, U.K. and the event in Douma, Syria marked the last false flag war deceptions on Earth. Future generations will unanimously share awareness of the historic changes which occurred in April 2018 – and particularly the central, essential roles played by the woman named Yulia Skripal and 11-year-old Hassan “Syria Boy” Diab.
Whose history books? Government school ones provided– or knowledge of and encouragement to read beyond the propaganda. The power lies with the education of the youth. I was educated in government schools. My admonition to the young, “Question”.
It is worth seeing the latest vesti news on youtube, where the Russian hosts and guests laugh about the “Tony Blair 15 year rule” where the truth eventually gets out, rather late for those involved! “Highly likely” is one of the favorite sayings of US/UK descriptions of alleged acts.
Future generations will look back with shock at the naivete of people who fell for the propaganda campaign of the fascist regime in Syria, and the organized troll campaigns from Russia. To target first responders who risk their lives saving others is terribly crass. But like the bombing of hospitals, it is seen by the Assad regime as an effective way to break the will of the civilian population.
Andy Berman,
Was the Douma scene captured on video in which Hassan Diab appeared evidence of a chemical attack – or staged?
Interesting report not seen in corporate media at link below, “White Helmets” mentioned in it.
—————————————————————————
RT visits hospital seen in Douma ‘chemical attack’ video, talks to boy from footage (VIDEO)
Published time: 20 Apr, 2018 13:46 Edited time: 20 Apr, 2018 13:51
https://www.rt.com/news/424694-douma-boy-video-attack/
From here on, just assume whatever “they” say is false, prima facie. I’ve thought for a couple of decades that the real problem is the poor quality of the propaganda. Is this the best they can do? Weapons out of the incubators, babies of mass destruction? Bernays and Goebbals would be embarrassed by this nonsense. White Helmets indeed. Doesn’t just the name smell of cheap, childish marketing? In the meantime, hey it’s Sunday, take a loveliness break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR58J1zhsjM
Peace
Yes, it is poor quality propaganda but it’s been good enough to win an Oscar and keep the war going.
It may be worthwhile to see who controls the Oscar awards. It looks like about 30-50% are Jewish so probably a majority are zionists, as in newspapers, TV and publishing. The zionist declaration and seal of approval is required for fame and success. It would certainly bring an award for essential propaganda. Any directors who did not go along would be branded racists for not being racists: end of funding and career.
Yes and the frightening part is that so many Americans, including the warmongers formerly known as liberals, are dumber than a bag of Sarah Palins.
The media is lying, is my default position.
Good article.
—————————————————
Here are some more links that expose “The White Helmets”
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/white-helmets-celebrate-massacre-civilians/
https://off-guardian.org/2016/10/05/fact-sheet-on-the-white-helmets/
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/12/uk-govt-exposed-for-funding-terrorist-councils-police-and-white-helmets.html
https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/04/29/further-evidence-continues-to-emerge-that-white-helmets-are-uk-and-us-funded-murderous-terrorists-who-conduct-false-flag-attacks-in-syria/
The guys in white hats get their money from the same source that funds and arms all the terrorists trying to destroy Syria – Uncle Sam. Your tax dollars at work.
You are 100% correct about these guys. According to journalist John Pilger: ” White Helmets are a complete propaganda construct. A terrorist PR front.” Could you believe that some people hail them as true heroes.
I saw the the small boy and the hosepipe washing down affair. In the video produced by the white helmets no one looked ill at all. If a wash down with a hosepipe can cure the affects of a chemical attack, then we don’t need trained doctors or nurses! I haven’t seen the clip of the young boy telling his story on MSM and I very much doubt we will see it. Perhaps the most frightening thing about the public being brainwashed to believe MSM and their lying governments, is that the people now seem to be brain washed into treating anything outside the MSM?government narrative as fake news.
Dear John: ” According to the medics, a group of unknown people broke into the hospital, started screaming about the chemical attack, panicked, and then sprayed people with a fire hose. At the same time, eyewitnesses confirmed that the “victims” on the videos had no signs of chemical poisoning.” Even though no hard evidence about any chemical substance was reported or found, people swallowed the propaganda piece. Personally speaking, some blame must go to US national media, Nonetheless, the US public is responsibly for not challenging the White Helmet’s “feature film” being spread. These are the same national media that told us that Iraq needed to be invaded because Hussein had weapons of mass destruction although none were found. Later, because he was a brutal tyrant even though US supported while he committed his worse atrocities. Suddenly, it was because US love and commitment for human rights, piece, and democracy. (as we can demonstrate very easily by looking around the world US murderous foreign policy)(Emphasis mine) You clearly get the picture John.
Thanks, Jose, but I suggest the man in the video using the hose was certainly not a doctor. The doctors who were spoken to were wearing doctors clothing, this man was just a guy with a hose pipe.
” Reporter Pearson Sharp of One America News, a conservative Christian TV network and supporter of President Trump, interviewed doctors and witnesses at the clinic. They also said there was no chemical attack and that strangers came into the clinic and shouted “Gas!” and filmed the reaction. ”
The same reporter said he saw about twenty different news teams in the area while he was there , and wonders why he’s not seeing their reports being published or aired.
Marko: I think this White Helmet’s “feature film” was just another piece of propaganda to blame president Assad and consequently justify an attack on Syria. According to an investigation by inside Syria Media Center: “The Chemical Attack in Syria’s Douma Is Just Another “Fake News” from the “White Helmets” The evidence points out to ti.
I am sure Hollywood will continue to do their part to support the Pentagons agenda for never ending wars and regime change. About 700 movies and about 1500 TV shows have had their scripts written, at least in part, by the military to put a positive spin on the US involvement in wars and interventions. I would not be surprised if a documentary film about the Syrian American Medical Society wins the Oscar next year. SAMS is funded by the US and operating along side the White Helmets in the Terrorist held areas in Syria. Both provide propaganda support for the terrorists to include false flag chemical attacks.
yeah, i’d read Max’s piece that you linked. Why many people who aren’t part of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment in their thinking still want to believe nice things about the White Helmets, I have no idea.
Plausible deniability. One of them said it pretty well once, when asked why they see the White Helmets as a good source of information:
“When they received the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize, it became clear that they are honest”
Put the responsibility on others, in case something goes wrong. Dont think for yourself.
They know very well that they are Al Qaeda, but as Hillary Clinton put it: “AQ is on our side in Syria.”
As for the normal people… They are still part of the establishment. Or think they are. Or hope they are. They get their news from the MSM, not only because they dont want to know the truth, but also because they dont have the time to inform themselves properly. They have a 8 to 12 hour day and then they want to spend time with friends or family.
This system works very well for the establishment. Keep the people dumb and corrupt them.
Yet “normal” people still have time to post what they had for lunch on Facebook.
– bearing “news”
Very good report, Ann. Unfortunately it’s still a “He said, She said” scenario without concrete proof.
Some trolls, like WC are like bed bugs – persistent, hard to get rid of. Best to just tag them, and move on. They are not worth responding to. Don’t feed the trolls!
mike k. Cry me a river. Do you have any idea how hard it is to troll on this site!!!??? And don’t think I haven’t complained to Troll Central!!! I have literally begged to be transferred to trolling the Christian Right and Neocon sites.
So suck it up, mike. At least you are not stuck in a smoke-filled boiler room with a hundred computer screens flickering about, let alone having to listen to my co-trolls laugh and chuckle as they cruise through their shifts. I’m the only one who has to drag his ass out of here after 12 hours, throw the Uzi into the passengers seat and drive an hour and a half to get home, wondering if it’s still standing when I get there.
WC has to stand for William “Bill” Clinton Mike K. Ever since the election he’s been picking up odd jobs to pay for his “habits”…
Is $200 million allotted to White Helmets from the US is not concrete enough for you?
https://www.mintpressnews.com/investigation-white-helmets-committing-acts-terror-across-syria/231597/
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/10/white-helmets-funded-by-us-uk-eu-and-qatari-governments/
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/10/25/white-helmets-taxpayers-funds-used-finance-terrorism-syria/
How about these “humanitarian” details of White Helmets activities?
“Dr. Leif Elinder, a known Swedish medical doctor profile, author and specialist in paediatrics: “After examination of the video material, I found that the measures inflicted upon those children, some of them lifeless, are bizarre, non-medical, non-lifesaving, and even counterproductive in terms of life-saving purposes of children”.
Dr. Lena Oske, a Swedish medical doctor and general practitioner. Her specialist opinion dismisses the procedure conducted in the White Helmet video, as unqualified and incorrect. Furthermore, she describes the earlier assessment of the procedure by a colleague (medic) who had exclaimed: “If not already dead, this injection could have killed him!”
An examination of a White Helmets video, conducted by Swedish medical doctors, specialists in various fields, including paediatrics, have revealed that the life-saving procedures seen in the film are incorrect – in fact life-threatening – or seemingly fake, including simulated resuscitation techniques being used on already lifeless children.”
Anna. I read the links you provided, and while the information is compelling, I don’t know if it is concrete enough to stand up in court. The lawyers would run circles around any of this simply as hearsay and incompetence on behalf of the players. Next you have to ask what court are you going to present your case in that is not already co opted? $200 million from the US is not proof. Even if the improbable were to happen and the whole White Helmet business were to be exposed as a farce, the politicians will fall back on the moral high-ground of simply saying it sounded like a good idea at the time.
This is not to say I disagree with you. Nor am I saying you should stop protesting. Just don’t let all of this craziness get the best of you. Today is a bright sunny day where I live and spring is in full bloom. And while I can still be pissed off at the world, the bastards aren’t gonna spoil my day. :)
Pardon me while I humor mike k above. ;)
BDS
What more needs to be said about the “White Helmets”?
Did you want the White Helmets to remain in Duma and be slaughtered by the Assad regime? They have been targeted viciously in Assad’s propaganda (repeated sadly by his western apologists) and surely would have been among the first to be targeted with Assad’s bullets had they remained.
Thats what the mainstream journalists and others who bemoan the ‘Assad regimes atrocities’ in Syria say when they are asked why they arent on the ground in the rebel areas like Aleppo or Ghouta to observe and report the facts, instead of relying on White Helmet videos, Bellingcat investigations etc…..
” What, ?! go to Aleppo and be slaughtered and get our throats cut by the moderate rebels and humanitarian democratic revolutionary jihadis who mistook us for Palestinian 12 year old children ? ”
Why arent the mainstream journalists on-the-ground in the rebel areas ? what do they have to fear from the saintly White Helmets and Arab-Spring democratic humanrights revolutionary rebels ….?
By the way, this what a real child grieving a parents loss in a senseless slaughter looks like… in case you want to compare it to the WhiteHelmets hollywood productions…
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/988330600078639104/video/1
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/424942-boy-face-yemen-war/
the saudis slaughtered a yemeni wedding party (with us/uk weapons probably).. this looks like a child refusing to accept his father has been killed and refusing to let go of his body, crying no,no,no