@ GNΩME

Contrary to what its multi-million dollar [international PR campaign]( https://youtu.be/D_MZKRG3frQ) would have you believe, the "White Helmets" are not a group of volunteer search-and-rescue workers that sprang spontaneously out of the Syrian soil. In November 2017, journalist Vanessa Beeley gave a [groundbreaking presentation]( https://www.youtube.com/live/lC7ZxdFzdzQ) to the Swiss Press Club in Geneva on the so-called "Syria Civil Defence" (better known as the "White Helmets"), which presents itself as an impartial group of volunteer search and rescue workers working "_to save lives and strengthen communities in Syria._" In her presentation, Beeley demonstrated the connections between this supposedly "neutral" organization, recognized terrorist groups operating in Syria, and the UK government. VANESSA BEELEY > During my time working in East Aleppo, it was clear that the councils were working hand in hand with [Al] Nusra Front. Their centers in each district were always next door to Nusra Front headquarters and White Helmet centres, i.e., they always formed an integrated complex. Less than three weeks later, [The Guardian]( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories) released a report painting all skeptics of the White Helmets, including Beeley and other "anti-imperialist activists", as proponents of a Russian propaganda campaign directed by the Kremlin. This is no coincidence. The White Helmets are in fact part of a coordinated propaganda campaign. But that campaign is not being directed by the Kremlin, but the western governments which have been responsible for the founding and funding of the White Helmets. And the ones promoting that propaganda are not independent journalists like Beeley, but establishment mouthpieces like The Guardian. The White Helmets won an Oscar at the 2017 Academy Awards. This is, after all, an organization that thrives on the magic of movie-making to make themselves into heroes. Surely any movie that could turn a group funded by the US and UK governments, associated with western intelligence operatives, and embedded with Al Qaeda terrorists, into a group of crusading heroes is as worthy of an Academy Award as any similarly fictitious movie about superheroes saving the world. It was also fitting that the leader of the group, Raed Saleh, [was not at the ceremony]( https://youtu.be/EJ5uFsEMLGw) to help accept the prize as originally planned. 🔸NPR REPORTER: > Hi, I 'm wondering…um, I thought the White Helmets we’re gonna be here, or the leader and the cinematographer who shot a lot of this film. What happened? 🔸ORLANDO VON EINSIEDEL: > Well, Raed Saleh, who’s the leader of the White Helmets, he couldn’t come in the end because the last couple of days in Syria the violence has really escalated and he does life-saving work[…]. Our cinematographer, I mean, you know we’re confused about this, too. The last two weeks have been very difficult. He had a US visa, he tried to board a plane, and he wasn’t able to come, so we - you know, we’re very sad about that. What Orlando von Einsiedel, the director of the film, neglected to mention is that this was not the first time that Raed Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, failed to appear in the US. In April of 2016, InterAction, an alliance of NGOs, held a gala dinner in Washington, where it planned to honour Saleh and the work of the White Helmets in Syria. However, Saleh [was refused entry]( https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/world/middleeast/leader-of-syria-rescue-group-arriving-in-us-for-award-is-refused-entry.html?_r=0) into the country when he arrived at Washington’s Dulles Airport.  Declining to talk about the details of the case, a [State Department spokesman]( https://youtu.be/ehdAVgmPODY) merely said, "_The U.S. government’s system of continual vetting means that traveler records are screened against available information in real time_". 🔸MATT LEE: > You commend this group, you’re going to continue to support them, and yet you revoked the visa of their leader? I don’t…that makes zero sense to me. […] 🔸MARK TONER: > ...unfortunately, we can’t speak to individual visa cases. I think broadly speaking, though on any visa case we are constantly looking at new information, so-called 'continually vetting' travel or records and if we do have new information that we believe an individual would pose a security risk we’ll certainly act on that. 🔸LEE: > I’m saying that it just strikes me as a bit odd that you’re saying that this group is wonderful and does such a great job and you’re commending them for their heroism, and yet you’re doing this just 10 days after the leader of this group, who was supposed to be, you know…got his visa revoked or wasn’t allowed to travel here. […] 🔸TONER: > Well, he’s one individual in the group, and any individual—again, I’m broadening my language here for specific reasons—but any individual in any group suspected of ties or relations with extremist groups, or that we have believed to be a security threat to the United States, we would act accordingly. But that does not by extension mean we condemn or would cut off ties to the group for which that individual works for. So how is this possible? How could the leader of such a valiant team of crusading do-gooders himself be denied a visa to enter the United States as a potential security threat with ties to terrorists? The multi-million dollar PR campaign that surrounds the White Helmets, after all, portrayed the group as being pure as the driven snow. A perfect example for this is [the story]( https://youtu.be/L5ULObu2ByM) about the boy named Omran Daqneesh. A story that eventually turned to be totally [fake news]( https://www.mintpressnews.com/mintpress-meets-father-iconic-aleppo-boy-says-media-lied-son/228722/).  But what is always left out of these glowing mainstream media puff pieces is any actual information about the organization. Where did it come from? Who founded it? Where does it get its funding? And why did it operate exclusively in terrorist-held areas of Syria? The first clues about the real nature of the group come from their name itself. Calling themselves the "Syria Civil Defence" is misleading in multiple ways. First, it implies that the group was founded in Syria by Syrians. It was not. The group was in fact founded in March 2013 in Turkey, by James Le Mesurier, a former British military intelligence officer then doing contract work for the US and UK governments. None of this information is even controversial. This is the story as told by [Le Mesurier]( https://youtu.be/sw3NMEyMSTw) himself. The name "Syria Civil Defence" was also a lie because there was a [real Syria Civil Defence]( https://21stcenturywire.com/2016/09/23/exclusive-the-real-syria-civil-defence-expose-natos-white-helmets-as-terrorist-linked-imposters/) that has been operating in the country for 65 years. The actual Syria Civil Defence, a volunteer search and rescue organization, was established in Syria in 1953. Unlike the White Helmets, the [real Syria Civil Defence]( https://icdo.org/) was a member of the International Civil Defence Organisation and (again, in contrast to the White Helmets) had an emergency number (113) that can be called in Syria by those needing assistance. But thar Syria Civil Defence does not enjoy the glitz and glamour of Oscar-winning documentaries, the constant attention of the international press, or the [more than $60 million]( https://web.archive.org/web/20170103120950/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2mWdvgCOqs) in [funding]( https://21stcenturywire.com/2017/12/02/white-helmets-local-councils-uk-fco-financing-terrorism-syria-taxpayer-funds/) by [foreign governments]( https://web.archive.org/web/20170730064327/http://www.adamsmithinternational.com/explore-our-work/middle-east-north-africa/syria/building-the-capacity-for-governance-in-communities-across-opposition-contr/) that have been bestowed on the [White Helmets]( https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/08/gazientep-turkey-tamkeen-quest-to-rebuild-syria).  But even more disturbing than the unusual founding of the group is the evidence demonstrating that the White Helmets, far from their official claim to political neutrality, are in fact intimately embedded with known and listed terrorist organizations in Syria. Again, the most damning evidence in this regard is not controversial in the slightest. It comes directly from the White Helmets themselves. Numerous videos and photos have surfaced showing the White Helmets parading on the dead bodies of Syrian government forces and flying the flags of known terrorist organizations. An in-depth report on "The Syrian War Blog" in 2017, examined the social media profiles of 65 different White Helmets-connected figures and found numerous posts in support of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and other listed terrorist organizations. Some even [posted pictures]( https://syrianwar1.blogspot.com/2017/11/white-helmets-exposed-as-extremists-65.html?m=1) of themselves with known terrorist leaders or waving the flag of terrorist groups like ISIS, and many proudly displayed images of dead Syrian soldiers. Most of this evidence is explained away as "bad apples" in the organization acting on their own. Some of these "bad apples" are then castigated in public displays, like when one White Helmet was fired when footage surfaced showing him [disposing the mutilated corpses]( https://www.newsweek.com/oscar-win-white-helmets-syria-volunteer-dump-bodies-rebels-628407) of Syrian government fighters. When a graphic video of the White Helmets [overseeing]( https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/865033499950145538?t=Ru67QyFS7hgqWRJWLuEb0g&s=19) [the execution]( https://web.archive.org/web/20170627003514/https://twitter.com/Ali_Kourani/status/877287658472472579) of a man in terrorist-occupied Daraa surfaced, the group actually [defended the workers]( https://web.archive.org/web/20170613015828/http://syriacivildefense.org/sites/syriacivildefense.org/files/18%20May%202017%20-%20.pdf) while acknowledging that they "did not fully uphold the strict principle of neutrality and impartiality". But incredibly, Le Mesurier, the former British intel officer who founded the White Helmets in 2013, defended the workers [caught in one bloody video]( https://web.archive.org/web/20190502060841/https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fd8_1430900709&comments=1) from May 2015. The Middle Ground, a Singaporean website, ran a story [featuring Le Mesurier’s take ]( https://web.archive.org/web/20180212075744/http://203.211.130.27/2017/04/18/white-helmets-terrorists-fake-news-syria-assad-nobel-oscars/)on the incident. In opposition to the deafening mainstream media silence over this incredible mountain of evidence against the White Helmets standed only a handful of independent researchers, universally ignored or marginalized from the mainstream discussion on the issue. These independent researchers include [Vanessa Beeley]( https://youtu.be/NQL3rX6xWRg), a British researcher who has been one of the few journalists to report extensively on the ground in areas like East Aleppo over the last two years, and Eva Bartlett, a Canadian freelancer who has gained notoriety for using her own on-the-ground reporting from Syria to speak out against the mainstream narrative about the White Helmets. Given that there were so few voices speaking up against the White Helmets, it should come as no surprise that when "The Guardian" finally deigned to address what they termed the "conspiracy theories" about the organization, they turned their attention on these very researchers. In "How Syria’s White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine", The Guardian turned to Olivia Solon to dismiss all opposition to the White Helmets as the work of "anti-imperialist activists", "conspiracy theorists" and "trolls with the support of the Russian government". The choice of Solon to report on this story is especially odd; a "technology reporter" in San Francisco, Solon has no background of any sort in geopolitics or combat zone reporting and, as far as can be determined, has never set foot in Syria. Instead, she relied exclusively on sources such as the [murky PR lobbying firm]( https://web.archive.org/web/20170110212932/https://www.alternet.org/world/inside-shadowy-pr-firm-thats-driving-western-opinion-towards-regime-change-syria), The Syria Campaign, to praise the White Helmets and [castigate their detractors]( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories). Bizarrely, the report devotes a great deal of attention to the White Helmets’ [Mannequin Challenge video]( https://youtu.be/Zgl271A6LgQ), footage of an admittedly fake and staged "rescue" operation released by the group in an attempt to cash in on a viral internet video trend taking place at the time. The inference of the video is obvious: that the group is perfectly capable of staging incredibly realistic and completely fake "rescue" operations at any time. These fake videos, stripped of their context, would be uncritically promoted as authentic by mainstream outlets like The Guardian in the exact same way that the completely fictitious video of a "Syrian" boy rescuing his sister under sniper fire was uncritically accepted by the mainstream media…until it was admitted to be a [fake video produced in Malta]( https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-30057401) by a Norwegian film crew "_to see how the media would respond to such a video_". The Guardian’s headline when the fake Norwegian film production was released? "[Syrian boy 'saves girl from army sniper]( https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/nov/12/syrian-boy-saves-girl-from-army-sniper-video)' – video." Strangely, Solon’s report does not mention that incident. The majority of The Guardian's report focuses on why the innocent and virtuous White Helmets would be so viciously attacked by independent journalists and how all opposition to the group is connected to the Kremlin. This is supposedly demonstrated in an utterly meaningless "infographic" of colored dots showing precisely nothing of substance. Unsurprisingly, Solon's contact with the reporters whose work she was set to impugn displayed her biases from the very start. [Bartlett exposed the conversation]( https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-mainstream-media-whitewashed-al-qaeda-and-the-white-helmets-in-syria/5624930) she had with Olivia Solon and the emails received from her, where you can see her real [dishonest intentions]( https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/those-who-transmit-syrian-voices-are-russian-propagandists-monitors-of-fake-news-negate-syrian-suffering/). Olivia Solon contacted Beeley as well. Her attempt to put them in a position of having to defend themselves [becomes obvious]( https://youtu.be/NQL3rX6xWRg). Of course what would you have expected from The Guardian? [In 2016 it lobbied]( https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/05/the-guardian-view-on-the-nobel-peace-prize-give-it-to-syrias-white-helmets), effectively, for the White Helmets to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and when it was inundated with negative comments it simply closed comments. Researchers like Beeley, Bartlett and Professor Tim Anderson, also mentioned in Solon’s report, are easy enough targets for The Guardian. Independent journalists taking it upon themselves to counter the Syria narrative, they would never be taken seriously by establishment media circles in the first place. Curiously omitted from The Guardian article, however, are the award-winning, internationally respected journalists who have similarly expressed skepticism about the White Helmets, their backers, and the PR campaign that surrounds them. There is [Gareth Porter]( https://web.archive.org/web/20170104164043/https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/how-syrian-white-helmets-played-western-media), the award-winning journalist who has contributed to Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, Al Jazeera, Salon, The Huffington Post, Alternet and countless other outlets, who wrote "How a Syrian White Helmets Leader Played Western Media" in November 2016. There is [Philip Giraldi]( https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-fraud-of-the-white-helmets/), a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who wrote "The Fraud of the White Helmets" in July of 2017. There is [Stephen Kinzer]( https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stephenkinzer), former New York Times correspondent who tweeted his [congratulations to "al-Qaeda and Syrian jihadists"]( https://x.com/stephenkinzer/status/836216952913809409?t=1hqvhtGMQn1FYbz7OL7y6Q&s=19) when the film about "their PR outfit, the White Helmets", won the Oscar. So the issue here is not merely one of PR and propaganda, as appalling as the uncritical reporting about the White Helmets has been. What is worrying is that the so-called Syrian Civil Defence is, as we have seen, not Syrian at all. Founded, funded and promoted by foreign governments, foreign contractors and foreign lobbyists and PR agencies, the White Helmets are not a spontaneous Syrian search-and-rescue operation, but a template. A template that, if successful, can and will be employed anywhere and everywhere that those same foreign powers want to destabilize targeted governments in the future.