VS steelt nog steeds olie en graan uit Syrië dat door VS, bondgenoten en door hen gesteunde terroristen werd platgebombardeerd

Ongelofelijk maar nog steeds een feit: de VS, ofwel de grootste terreurentiteit ter wereld, steelt nog steeds graan en olie uit het illegaal door deze entiteit bezette Syrische grondgebied, terwijl het westen onder aanvoering van de VS illegaal sancties heeft opgelegd aan dit land, illegaal immers zonder VN resolutie…… 

Dezelfde VS die samen met haar bondgenoten en door hen gesteunde terreurgroepen (‘gematigde rebellen’) waaronder ISIS en Al Qaida Syrië, dat land hebben platgegooid en meerdere gifgasaanvallen hebben uitgevoerd op steden….. Het westen was op de hoogte van het feit dat een paar van de terreurgroepen beschikten over Sarin (zenuwgas) en chlorine, maar gaven en geven desondanks het Assad bewind de schuld van die aanvallen en dat nog steeds, uiteraard gesteund door de reguliere westerse media die allang niets meer met onafhankelijke journalistiek te maken hebben…….

Door steun van Rusland werden de terreurgroepen eindelijk teruggedrongen, daarnaast hadden ook de Koerden en later Iraanse milities succes in hun strijd tegen deze groepen. Toen Rusland op verzoek van het legitieme Syrische bewind ingreep bombardeerde de VS zogenaamd al een jaar lang ISIS in Syrie, een leugen van enorme proporties!! Het westen (onder aanvoering van de VS) dat meerdere grove oorlogsmisdaden beging in Syrië, beschuldigde Rusland, Iran en Syrië juist van oorlogsmisdaden, een leugen die keer op keer werd uitgedragen door de zogenaamde onafhankelijke westerse reguliere (massa-) media, niet dat men daar bewijzen voor had maar als je iets maar lang genoeg herhaalt gelooft de halve wereld je leugens en fake news (nepnieuws), terwijl de wel onafhankelijke westerse journalisten die verslag deden uit Syrië deze leugens en nepnieuwsberichten uitvoerig onderuit hebben gehaald, onder wie de echte oorlogscorrespondent Eva Bartlett…….:

Het voorgaande terwijl de reguliere westerse media afgingen op berichten van o.a. het Syrian Observatory For Human Rights (SOHR), ofwel het Syrisch Observatorium voor Mensenrechten, een anti-Syrisch propaganda orgaan van de gewezen ordinaire misdadiger Osama Suleiman (alias: Rami Abdulrahman, daarnaast gebrukt hij nog een andere naam) die Syrië ontvluchtte daar hij vanwege een misdaad was veroordeeld tot een gevangenisstraf…… Iedereen die een beetje moeite zou hebben genomen had dit kunnen weten, maar men wilde dit zelfs niet weten, nee Suleiman die SOHR in de wereld hielp werd als politiek vluchteling neergezet in die media, zodat men met de valse informatie van deze figuur het bewind Assad kon demoniseren…… Deze schoft is mede verantwoordelijk voor de ellendige positie waarin veel van zijn voormalige landgenoten verkeren door de illegale westerse sancties die o.a. hij heeft gepromoot, terwijl hij bericht vanuit Coventry en zijn info kreeg en krijgt van terreurgroepen…… Meermaals zijn berichten van Suleiman doorgeprikt als fake news en toch blijven de westerse reguliere media en politici berichten van deze kwezel gebruiken….*


 

 

In de video hier direct boven stelt men dat de VS gebruik maakte van de opstand in Syrië om het Assad bewind omver te kunnen werpen, echter het is juist de VS (CIA) die de opstand in Syrië organiseerde, regisseerde en financierde, bovendien voerde o.a. de VS terreurgroepen aan uit door het westen vernietigde Libië…………

Ook de White Helmets waren naast het hierboven genoemde SOHR, het leger van de VS en geheime diensten als de CIA, een bron van informatie voor de westerse media….. De White Helmets die meerdere keren zijn betrapt op terreurdaden, hulp bij terreurdaden en het fabriceren van zielige video’s, het liefst met kinderen, die ze buiten Syrië hebben opgenomen…… 

De VS en Turkije weigeren simpelweg het land te verlaten, waar Turkije een strook langs haar grenzen illegaal bezet houdt, deels gebied waar eerder Koerden woonden en waar zij gevangenkampen hadden voor o.a. ISIS terroristen…. Nadat Turkije de Koerden bloedig had verjaagd, heeft het Turkse leger de poorten van die gevangenkampen opengezet en de terroristen de vrije hand gegeven….. De VS deed hetzelfde en beschermt de gevluchte terreurgroepen waaronder ISIS leden die zich daar bevinden, dit in een gebied dat bekend staat als de graanschuur van Syrië en waar zich tevens de belangrijkste Syrische oliebronnen bevinden….. De VS heeft de olie en het geoogste graan gestolen en doorverkocht naar het buitenland, iets wat zoals in het begin van dit bericht gezegd nog steeds gebeurt…… Ook dat moet zondermeer als oorlogsmisdaad worden gezien….

Door de illegale sancties en het stelen van graan door de VS heeft het Syrische volk te weinig te eten en moeten Rusland en Iran het land voorzien van graan….. Door het stelen van olie heeft de Syrische regering amper geld voor de wederopbouw van het land, een land dat vooral door het westen en de door haar gesteunde terreurgroepen in puin is gegooid….. 

Niemand die hier om maalt, sterker nog men legt zoals eerder aangehaald uitermate vals de schuld bij het reguliere Syrische leger, Iraanse milities en Rusland….. Ondertussen gaat het westen stijf uit het dak vanwege de Russische inval in Oekraïne, terwijl die inval één op één is te danken aan machinaties van de VS en haar NAVO-oorlogshond….. Je kan een wereldmacht niet oneindig tarten, uiteindelijk zal zo’n macht (Rusland) actie moeten ondernemen en dat was dan ook geheel in lijn met de ‘hegemonische VS agenda’, zo kon men Rusland verder demoniseren en sancties tegen dat land nemen met de bedoeling dat Rusland economisch in elkaar zou zakken, in de hoop dat het Russische volk in opstand zou komen en een VS welgevallig heerser zou kiezen als vervanger van Putin….. Het grootste slachtoffer van de sancties tegen Rusland is de grote arme onderlaag in het westen (zo lijden in de VS 16 miljoen kinderen honger en dat aantal zal op zeker stijgen door die schandelijke sancties….), terwijl een aantal deskundigen zegt dat het economisch goed gaat met Rusland zelfs zo dat de roebel alweer op het peil staat van voor de inval in Oekraïne….. 

Een ander slachtoffer van de sancties is het klimaat, de westerse regeringen inclusief de zogenaamde groene partijen zijn dolblij dat ze voluit kunnen gaan voor het zwaar vervuilende LNG, steenkool en kernenergie….. De Europese Commissie met de valsgroene PvdA oplichter Timmermans heeft gisteren bekendgemaakt dat gas en kernenergie als duurzame energiedragers moeten worden gezien….. ha! ha! ha! ha! Voor gas zou je dat nog kunnen zeggen over het Russische gas, dat immers middels pijpleidingen wordt getransporteerd, echter LNG is ongelofelijk vervuilend, ten eerste omdat men van aardgas LNG moet maken en ten tweede vanwege lange transporten met zwaar vervuilende tankers….. 

De VS wilde allang LNG leveren aan de EU en dat is gelukt nadat de VS Rusland ze ver tartte dat dit land wel moest ingrijpen….. LNG uit de VS is nog vuiler dan dat vanuit de Golfstaten, dit daar het gaat om schaliegas dat middels fracken wordt gewonnen, waarbij nog veel meer methaangas vrijkomt dan bij gewone gaswinning…. (methaangas is een 80 keer zo sterk broeikasgas dan CO2…..) Voorts worden er uitermate voor de gezondheid slechte chemische stoffen (o.a. kankerverwekkend) gebuikt voor het fracken van gashoudend gesteente…. Deze giftige stoffen die gemengd met water overblijven mogen in de VS door de grote smeerpijpen gewoon worden geloosd in rivieren of de zee, waarvoor ze dat water voor lozing niet eerst behoeven te reinigen dat is dan ook één van de zaken waarmee de VS overheid oliemaatschappijen subsidieert en het milieu naar de kloten helpt……. 

De groene partijen en de zogenaamde sociaal democraten in de EU zijn over de brug >> kernenergie en gas, lees LNG, ziet men door de Russische inval in Oekraïne plotseling als duurzaam daar het westen olie en gas als sanctiemiddel gebruikt tegen Rusland…. Wat betreft steenkool mag men deze uiterst vervuilende fossiele brandstof voorlopig weer volop verstoken, terwijl EU oplichter Timmermans nog steeds vindt dat hout gebruikt mag worden als biomassa, waar die verbranding nog een fractie smeriger is dan die van steenkool…. (de laaghartige oplichter!!!) Voorts worden de houtpellets die men gebruikt in steenkoolcentrales en biomassacentrales niet gemaakt van resthout, zoals Timmermans liegt, maar van hele bomen en daarmee van hele bossen (meer dan eens aangetoond), ook daar worden kapitalen aan subsidie in gestoken, kapitalen aan belastinggeld van jou en mij voor de vernieling van hele bossen, die juist nodig zijn om CO2 uit de lucht te halen….. 

Ook kernenergie is niet duurzaam, het is levensgevaarlijk en men weet bij god niet hoe kernafval veilig op te slaan, in Nederland is deze kwestie schandelijk genoeg voor 100 jaar doorgeschoven naar volgende generaties….. Ook de bouw van kerncentrales is uitermate vervuilend, er moeten immers bunkers omheen worden gebouwd….. De leugen dat het veilige energie is, zoals men in de 60er en begin 70er jaren van de vorige eeuw durfde te liegen, is al zo vaak door grote ongelukken onderuit gehaald dat je wel bijzonder dom moet zijn om dat nog te geloven, verder is er wereldwijd geen verzekeringsmaatschappij te vinden die deze ondingen wil verzekeren….. Een sterker motief (uiteraard naast alle ongelukken) om deze centrales niet te bouwen is m.i. niet te vinden!! Verder moet niet vergeten worden dat nog nooit 1 kerncentrale volledig is afgebroken, een proces dat wellicht nog duurder is dan de bouw!! De eigenaren van kerncentrales moeten tijdens de werkzame periode van zo’n onding geld apart zetten voor de afbraak, echter dat gebeurt niet waardoor de bevolking mag opdraaien voor de kosten als men al besluit zo’n centrale af te breken…..

(On
the top right hand side of this page you can choose for a translation
in the language of your choice
: choose ‘Engels’
[english] so you can recognise your own language [the Google
translation is first in dutch, a language most people don’t
understand, while on the other hand most people recognise there
language translated in english]
)

(als
je het Engels niet machtig bent, zet dan de tekst in Google translate
eerst om in het Engels door in het menu op Engels te klikken, waarna
je weer kan klikken op die vertaalapp en je bovenaan in het menu
Nederlands ziet staan, klik daarop en de hele tekst staat in het
Nederlands, de vertaling is van een redelijk goede kwaliteit
.)

Het volgende bericht van Eric van Beek vond ik op Twitter:

Eric van de Beek

@beek38

Nog
steeds bezetten de VS het olierijke deel van Syrië. Is er al vanuit de
Europese hoofdsteden opgeroepen tot sancties tegen de VS? Uiteraard
niet. Want de enigen die oorlog mogen voeren, stelen en bezetten en zijn
Washington en vrienden.

thecradle.co

US occupation troops smuggle 55 oil tankers out of Syria’s Hasakah

Hundreds
of trucks filled with Syrian oil and wheat have been smuggled out of
the war-torn country by US troops over the past year and a half

2:19 PM · Jul 5, 2022Twitter Web App

35 Retweets

1 Quote Tweet

 

============================================ 

* Zie o.a.:‘Fake news’:
alternatieve media en bloggers in het westen zouden onzin brengen,
echter niet als dit soort groepen wat roepen in landen die het westen
niet welgevallig zijn
‘ (29 december 2018) (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

SOHR, het orgaan dat door de reguliere media wordt aangehaald i.z. Syrië, is gevestigd in Coventry‘ (5 maart 2018) (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

Mosul, waar zijn de burgerslachtoffers in de media….?‘ (7 november 2016) (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

Hulpkonvooi aangevallen ‘door Syrisch leger…..’ Of toch niet??‘ (21 september 2016) (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

————————————————

Voorts zie: ‘D66 zet definitief valsgroene masker af en is als EU lidstaten blij met de oorlog in Oekraïne: de weg naar duurzame energie is verlaten‘ (en zie de links naar o.a. berichten over kernenergie in dat schrijven!!)

Nederland gaat zonder instemming bevolking deelnemen aan natuur- en zeediervernietigende marine oefening RIMPAC‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

De VS moet zich niet schamen over bezoek Biden aan Saoedi-Arabië: hypocrisie van de hoogste plank‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht over de genocide die de Saoedische terreurcoalitie met hulp van westerse landen uitvoert in Jemen!!)

Aanval op Ghwayran-gevangenis in Noordoost-Syrië ‘uitgelegd’ door Frederike Geerdink

VS smokkelt op grote schaal olie en graan uit hongerig en vernield Syrië‘ (9 juli 2021) (en zie de berichten onder de links in dat bericht!!)

Instagram censureert berichten die niet passen in het buitenlandbeleid van de VS‘ (en zie de links naar meer berichten over censuur in dat bericht!!)

De ‘Midden-Oosten kerstboom’ tot ontploffing gebracht door Israël, Saoedi-Arabië, de VS en haar NAVO-partners‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

VS ministerie van
defensie, lees: ministerie van (oorlog en) terreur: wordt verdedigd door
het westen, terwijl men Rusland en China demoniseert
‘ Ook Syrië komt ter sprake in dat bericht.

Turkije doet mee aan etnische zuivering van de Syrische provincie Aleppo en staat ontvoeringen toe door ‘gematigde rebellen’‘ (!!!!)

VS smokkelt op grote schaal olie en graan uit hongerig en vernield Syrië‘ (!!!!)

De verkiezingswinst van Assads regime in Syrië verrast NAVO vijanden

VS
sancties tegen Syrië zijn een voortzetting van de illegale oorlog tegen
Assad en treffen het volk keihard: honger en een groot tekort aan
medicijnen
‘ (!!!!)

VS en NAVO-partners
laten per dag 46 bommen vallen en dat al 20 jaar lang: hoe bedoel je:
‘islam terreur’ komt uit de lucht vallen
‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht, waarvan er 8 direct hieronder al zijn opgenomen!!)

VN waarschuwt voor honger in Syrië, maar weigert de schuldige aan te wijzen: de VS…….‘ (!!!!)

Tony
Blinken (VS minister van BuZa) liegt als hij zegt dat de VS alleen met
toestemming van het volk geweld gebruikt in het buitenland
‘ De brutaliteit van die leugen…. ha! ha! ha! ha!

VS zegt uit zelfbescherming doelen in Syrië te hebben gebombardeerd……..‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht)

Tulsi Gabbard (2de Congreslid voor Hawaï) stelt dat de VS een smerige oorlog voert in Syrië‘ (!!!!) (Gabbard diende in het VS leger, o.a. in Irak)

Amnesty International: bombardementen op Raqqa van VS coalitie hebben honderden burgers gedood…….‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

Niet
Rusland en China zijn een gevaar voor de wereld, maar de VS met haar
ongebreidelde agressie en meer dan 800 militaire bases over de aarde
‘ (!!!!)

Idlib: westerse anti-Syrische en -Russische propaganda‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht)

9/11: de teller voor het aantal door VS/NAVO gedode mensen staat intussen op meer dan 2,5 miljoen
(en zie de links in dat bericht naar meer artikelen over 9/11) De 2,5
miljoen vermoorde mensen vormen een oud cijfer dat na onderzoek intussen is
bijgesteld naar 5 miljoen…. Zie wat dat betreft de volgende link ////:

De illegale oorlogen van de VS deze eeuw hebben niet 2,5 miljoen levens gekost, maar minstens 5 miljoen‘ 

MP Chris Williamson confronts UK government with apparent evidence of ‘staged’ chemical attack in Syria
(!!!!) De gifgasaanvallen die het reguliere Syrische leger zou hebben
gepleegd, zijn onderdeel van ‘false flag’ operaties, ofwel men begaat
een oorlogsmisdaad en schuift die de vijand in de schoenen, zie o.a.: ‘False flag terror’ bestaat wel degelijk: bekentenissen en feiten over heel smerige zaken……….‘(!!!!)

Arrestatie Rutte, Koenders, Zijlstra en Blok wegens hulp aan terreurgroepen in Syrië van hoogste belang‘ (!!!!)

Nederland financiert terrorisme in Syrië……..

‘Gematigde’ terreurgroepen in Syrië kregen Nederlands belastinggeld om te moorden, verkrachten, martelen en te roven…….‘ (!!!!)

Syrische nonnen spreken zich uit tegen de oorlogspropaganda van westerse mogendheden en de reguliere westerse (massa-) media‘ (!!!!)

Obama wist van bewapenen en ondersteunen terroristen in Syrië…….‘ (!!!!) (een bericht van juni 2018) 

Syrië: Vlaamse pater roept op niet langer de westerse anti-Syrië propaganda te geloven!‘ (!!!!)

Assad heeft geen gifgas gebruikt tegen de Syrische bevolking!‘ (een bericht van februari 2018) (en zie de links in dat bericht!!)

VS geeft toe dat er
geen bewijs is voor het gebruik van gifgas ‘door Assad’, ofwel: alweer
‘fake news’ van de massamedia doorgeprikt!
‘ (!!!!) (een bericht van februari 2018)

VS centraal commando werkt in Syrië samen met IS en verklaarde Rusland de oorlog………‘ (!!!!) (een bericht van september 2017)

Syriërs keren terug naar door ‘vreselijke dictator’ Assad gecontroleerd gebied………‘ (een bericht van juli 2017)

Al Qaida de bondgenoot van de VS in de strijd tegen…… terrorisme! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!‘ (een bericht van juli 2017)

Genocidale aanval op
sjiitische vluchtelingen uit Foua en Kefraya wordt door massamedia
afgedaan als ‘een ongelukje’, of volgens CNN zelfs als een
‘hiccup………’
‘ (!!!!) (een bericht van april 2017) Zie de
links in dat bericht, links naar artikelen over de genocide in Jemen en
naar een fiks aantal artikelen over de situatie  in Syrië destijds, o.a.
de leugens over gifgasaanvallen!!


CIA valt nogmaals door de mand als wapenleverancier van IS…….‘ (!!!!)

US weapons supplied to Syrian rebels ended up with Islamic State: report (!!!!)

Tracing ISIS’ Weapons Supply Chain—Back to the US (!!!!)

ISIL weapons traced to US and Saudi Arabia (!!!!)


Al Qaida de bondgenoot van de VS in de strijd tegen…… terrorisme! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!‘ 

U.S Caught Red Handed Selling Arms to ISIS/AL-Qaeda (Part 1 of 2)‘ (!!!!)

US TRAINED REBELS GIVE WEAPONS TO TERROR GROUP‘ (!!!!)

Made in America: US-Trained ‘Moderate’ Rebels, With Blessing Of Americans, Seling US Weapons to ISIS‘ (!!!!)

Exactly how the US trained and armed ISIS‘ (!!!!)

Lt. General McInerney says Obama helped build ISIS with Weapons from Benghazi‘ (!!!!)

 

Saoedi-Arabië roept terreurgroepen in Syrië op, de wapenstilstand te schenden…….‘ (!!!!)

Jan Jaap de Ruiter (Tilburg ‘University’): Assad is een groter gevaar dan IS…….. ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!‘ Met een reactie van deze hufter; verder onvervalste propaganda en dat
van een ‘onafhankelijke hoogleraar’; een bericht van januari 2016.

Koenders denkt Assad de les te kunnen lezen…….. ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!‘ (Koenders was destijds, december 2015, minister van BuZa) 

Lt. General McInerney says Obama helped build ISIS with Weapons from Benghazi‘ (een video van augustus 2015)

Koenders
doodstil over Turkse terreur tegen de Koerden en Lucas Waagmeester
(NOS) met kromme berichtgeving over de Koerden en de Turkse
overheid……

De Krim het echte verhaal: geen annexatie maar de vrijwillige aansluiting bij Rusland, zelfs Oekraïners stemden voor

Zoals je
wellicht wel weet, erger ik me kapot aan het enorme leugencliché dat De Krim is geannexeerd door de Russen en dat het daar
gehouden referendum werd gemanipuleerd door de Russen, die tijdens
het referendum met grote aantallen militairen op straat zouden zijn gezien…… Niets van waar, bovendien hebben internationale waarnemers het referendum gecontroleerd en zij stelden dat het referendum eerlijk en goed was verlopen…….

Eva
Bartlett, de bekende onderzoeks- en oorlogsjournalist uit de VS ging
op reis om e.e.a. te onderzoeken. Ze sprak met mensen die al
generaties in De Krim wonen, de oorspronkelijke bevolking van De Krim, Oekraïners (mensen die voorheen in Oekraïne woonden), etnische Russen en anderen, waarbij ze telkens weer hetzelfde verhaal te horen kreeg: men wilde zich aansluiten bij Rusland. 

Niet voor niets leefde die wens onder de bevolking, zeker als je de staat van de
infrastructuur zag (van wegen t/m de havens en het vliegveld van Simferopol) ten tijde van
het Oekraïense bestuur: enorm veel gaten in de wegen, alles afgeragd
en slecht onderhouden, Kiev stak dan ook geen geld in De Krim….. Ook de bouw van ziekenhuizen en crèches bleef ver achter bij de behoefte daaraan….. Uit
eerdere berichtgeving (al van voor de opstand) weet ik dat men
destijds stemde voor Janoekovytsj, die beloofde e.e.a. op te knappen, bovendien wilde hij vriendschappelijke banden met Rusland onderhouden, waarbij Oekraïne zelfs een verdrag werd aangeboden, dat in tegenstelling tot een verdrag met de EU, uiterst lucratief zou zijn geweest (iets dat de VS zo stak dat het
de opstand in Oekraïne organiseerde en regisseerde*).

De
opstand eindigde met het afzetten van Janoekovytsj en het installeren
van een VS vriendelijk dictatuur o.l.v. de zwaar corrupte Porosjenko,
bovendien een neonazi……. Dit was voor de bevolking van de Krim en de
bevolking van de Donbass-regio het sein om een punt achter de relatie
met Oekraïne te zetten, immers de door hen gekozen president werd
afgezet en vervangen door een fascistische junta……

Lees het
volgende mooie reisverslag waarin diverse mensen stellen dat men
volkomen achter het besluit staat tot aansluiting bij Rusland en dat Rusland in de paar jaar dat Oekraïne zich aansloot zo ongeveer gehele infrastructuur heeft
vernieuwd dan wel opgeknapt……. Lees het verhaal en onthoud dat
als je weer eens hoort over de ‘annexatie’ van De Krim en de ‘Russian
backed rebels’ die samen met het Russische leger zouden vechten in de
Donbass-regio, waar het Porosjenko regime enorme oorlogsmisdaden
heeft begaan, oorlogsmisdaden als het bombarderen van steden en dat
NB door neonazi-bataljons, om nog maar te zwijgen over de schuld van de Porosjenko junta voor het neerhalen van MH17…..

Zegt het
voort mensen, de leugenbrij en anti-Russische propaganda moet
eindelijk worden gestopt!! (en vergeet niet dat zoals gezegd ook rampvlucht MH17
onderdeel is geworden van die leugenbrij…..)

Hier het artikel van Bartlett, eerder gepubliceerd op MintPress News:

THE
ROAD TO CRIMEA

Return
to Russia: Crimeans Tell the Real Story of the 2014 Referendum and
Their Lives Since

Eva
Bartlett traveled to Crimea to see firsthand out how Crimeans have
fared since 2014 when their country reunited with Russia, and what
the referendum was really like.

Crimea Feature photo

October
09th, 2019

by Eva Bartlett


S
IMFEROPOL,
CRIMEA —
 In
early August I traveled to Russia for the first time, partly out of
interest in seeing some of the vast country with a tourist’s eyes,
partly to do some journalism in the region. It also transpired that
while in Moscow I was able to
 interview
Maria Zakharova
,
spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry.

High
on my travel list, however, was to visit Crimea and Donetsk People’s
Republic (DPR) — the former a part of Russia, the latter an
autonomous republic in the east of Ukraine, neither accurately
depicted in Western reporting. Or at least that was my sense looking
at independent journalists’ reports and those in Russian media.

Both
regions are native Russian-speaking areas; both opted out of Ukraine
in 2014. In the case of Crimea, joining Russia (or
actually rejoining, as most I spoke to in Crimea
phrased it) was something people overwhelmingly supported. In the
case of the Donbass region, the turmoil of Ukraine’s Maidan coup in
2014 set things in motion for the people in the region to declare
independence and form the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

In
March 2014, Crimeans held a referendum during which 96 percent
of voters 
chose
to join Russia
.
This has been heavily disputed in Western media, with claims that
Crimeans were forced to hold the referendum and claims of Russian
troops on the streets “occupying” the peninsula.

Because
Western media insisted the referendum was a sham held under duress,
and because they bandy about the term “pro-Russian separatists”
for the people of the DPR, I decided to go and speak to people in
these areas to hear what they actually want and feel.

From
the Russian mainland to the Crimean Peninsula

From
St. Petersburg, where I spent a few touristy days, I booked a flight
to Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, and on August 22 I landed at
the attractive new airport. A Russian-American friend, Vlad, flies in
from Moscow and together we rent a car and drive to Alushta, a
tourist-packed seaside area to the south.

As
we drive from the airport, Vlad can’t get over the changes in the
airport, which had been dank and barely functional when he last
visited:

“When
I came here at the end of 2014, Simferopol Airport was very dated:
small and stuffy, low ceilings, small windows; the bathrooms didn’t
work, there was a constant stench in the air, and many facilities
weren’t working — even the baggage carousels didn’t work
properly. There were no restaurants or cafes, and no places to rent
taxis. Now, it’s a world-class international airport.”

We
drive south along smooth roads, passing endless vineyards on either
side, flanked by low mountains. As Vlad drives, he comments on the
condition of the roads, which five years prior were so rough “you
had to swerve to dodge the potholes.”

Descending
to the coast, along cypress tree-lined streets, we arrive in the hub
of Alushta, park, and stroll along the seaside. The beach scenes
could be anywhere: people sunbathing and swimming, jet-skiing,
drinking beer and eating. In the touristy hub before the beach, a
carnival sort of feel and smell, a man playing the accordion,
children’s rides, upscale restaurants, and fast-food stalls.

Alushta beach Crimea

Revelers
enjoy the pristine Black Sea waters of Alushta. Photo | Eva Bartlett

As
it happens, we arrive on Russia’s National Flag Day and while
walking we come across a small event celebrating this with singers on
stage and a crowd that, when we pass by again some hours later, has
grown in size and enthusiasm.

I
remark on how kind and gentle people are here, just as in Russia.
Vlad replies:

“It
shouldn’t be surprising — people are people anywhere. But Western
media conditions us with stereotypes of Russians as cold and hard,
vilifying an entire nation.”

The
coastal city of Yalta lies further west along the peninsula. The
drive there the following day is more beautiful still, the road
flanked by mountains to one side, hills cascading down to the Black
Sea on the other, endless wineries and, before Yalta itself, the
stunning cliff-top castle known as “Swallow’s Nest.”

In
the evening, we stay in the home of Vlad’s friend Tata, a Russian
woman who moved to Crimea in 2012.

Since
there was so much hype in Western media about a Russian takeover of
the peninsula, I ask the burning questions: Were Crimeans forced to
take part in the referendum? What was the mood like around that time?
Tata replied:

“I
never saw so many people in my life go out to vote, of their own free
will. There was a period before the referendum, maybe about two
months, during which there were two holidays: International Women’s
Day, March 8, and Defender of the Fatherland Day, February 23.

Normally,
people would go away on vacation during these holidays. But that
year, Crimeans didn’t go anywhere; they wanted to be sure they were
here during the referendum. We felt the sense of a miracle about to
happen. People were anxiously awaiting the referendum.

There
were military tents in the city, but they were not erected by the
military, but by local men. They would stand there every day, and
people could come and sign a document calling for a referendum.

I
went one day and asked if I could add my name but I couldn’t,
because I have a Russian passport. Only Crimean citizens could sign
it. This was the fair way to do it.

At
that time, my husband was in America. One day, he was watching CNN
and got scared and called me because he saw reports of soldiers in
the streets, an ‘invasion’ by Russia.
 

The
local navy came from Sevastopol to Yalta and anchored their ships off
the coast, made a blockade to ensure no larger Ukrainian or other
ships could come and attack.

But
I never saw tanks, I never saw Russian soldiers. I never saw any of
that in the city.”

Yalta Crimea

Young
boys enjoy a local skate park in Sevastopool. Photo | Eva Bartlett

I
asked Tata about how life had changed after the referendum:

“When
I came here in December 2012, everything was dilapidated and run
down. The nice roads you were driving on, they didn’t exist when we
were a part of Ukraine. I didn’t understand why Crimea was still a
part of Ukraine. It was Russian land ever since the Tsars, the
imperial time of Russia. This is where the Russian soul is, and the
soul of the Russian navy.

After
the Soviet Union collapsed, it wasn’t the will of the Crimean
people to join Ukraine. People were always Russian here; they always
identified as Russian. Ukraine understood this well, and put nothing
into Crimea, as punishment. Ukraine didn’t build any hospitals,
kindergartens or roads.

In
the past four years, the Crimean government has built 200 new
kindergartens. This is the most obvious example of how things have
improved. They also built the new Simferopol airport.

I
worked in aviation. It took three years to build an airport of this
standard in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It took half a year in
Simferopol.”
 

International
Jazz Festival

On
my third day in Crimea, we drive eastward anew, driving for hours
through the gorgeous countryside, along winding and rolling roads
flanked by jagged mountains, past an exceptionally beautiful church
(Nicholas Church Lighthouse) overlooking the coast, and down along
the sea through more touristy seaside towns and past lines of day
tents along the beach. The local FM radio plays a variety of both
Russian and Western songs.

Finally,
after night falls, we drive into the city of Koktebel, where an
annual Jazz Festival is starting.

Koktebel, Crimea

Buskers
entertain passersby at the annual Koktebel Jazz Festival. Photo | Eva
Bartlett

During
all these hours of driving, the roads are smooth and well-trafficked,
and I don’t see a single Russian military vehicle.

The
next day, I walk through Koktebel, taking in the local markets
brimming with produce, cheeses, and other goods, and every so often
come across a streetside stand laden with fresh fruits. In the late
afternoon, I walk along the sea, past packed beaches, and meet with a
Crimean woman, Yaroslava, who lives in Austria but every summer
returns to her beloved Crimea. She is ardently supportive of the
decision to have joined Russia and spends much of her time back in
Austria trying to educate people on why Crimeans wanted to be a part
of Russia.

These
are reasons I hear throughout my travels in Crimea: We wanted to
be able to speak our native language [Russian] and be educated in
that language; we wanted to be able to practice our cultural
traditions; we have always been a part of Russia and we wanted to
return.

Yaroslava
is busy helping out with the Jazz Festival and wants to use the rest
of our short time talking to help me arrange future meetings with
people in Crimea. We decided to do a proper interview via Skype in
the future when time allows.

I
drift on to the Jazz Festival, where a talented pianist and band play
beach-side to an enthusiastic crowd. Some songs later, I drift back
along the beach, passing numerous musicians busking, and a pulsing
nightlife that isn’t going to bed any time soon.


Construction
everywhere

On
the fifth day, we drive back to Simferopol; Vlad is heading back to
Moscow. As we drive, we see road work repeatedly, just as we had when
driving from Simferopol south to Alushta: roads being widened,
repaved; bridges being repaired or newly built. This is something I
observed throughout my travels around Crimea. I remember Tata’s
words about “everything being dilapidated” and have a hard time
imagining that now with what I see.

Vlad
departs for Moscow, and I’m on my own now, traveling from the
airport via public bus and minibus. At one point I ask a young
couple, using Yandex translate, for directions. They get me on the
right minibus and, following my route via Yandex maps, I get myself
to Simferopol’s rail station and walk the half-hour to my
nondescript hotel. I again need to ask locals for directions, as the
unmarked hotel is in some parking lot behind a supermarket.

I
retrace my steps to the train station the next day and repeat the
routine to buy a ticket for Sevastopol. The ticket is 119 rubles
(just under $2). Over the next two hours on a slow train with wooden
seats, I watch as more beautiful scenery and construction slide by.

Sevastopol Crimea

Construction
dots the train ride to Sevastopol. Photo | Eva Bartlett

Arriving
in Sevastopol, I leave the train station and hope to find some cafe
where I can charge my phone, as I need it to navigate to the
guesthouse where I’ve theoretically reserved a room online.

As
I stand to orient the map route and zoom in to look for any signs of
cafes, a woman walks by me and says with a smile something with the
word “shto,” which I think means “what.” When I reply in
English, she laughs and flags down another woman, Yana, who speaks
English well and insists she and her husband drive me.


As
we drive, we chat. I ask her about the referendum, mentioning that
many in the West have the notion that it was done under duress, with
a heavy military presence to influence the vote. She laughs, saying:
“There were no troops, no military, around us during the
referendum.” She speaks of the joy of Crimeans to vote, says that
maybe 98 percent of Sevastopol voters had voted in favor [it
was
 apparently
96 percent
,
but close enough], and adds, “We are now under the wing of Russia.”

I
ask about developments since then. She mentions the improvements in
roads, also the modern trolley-buses and regular buses, the opening
of kindergartens and schools, and free courses (like music) for
children.

We
arrive at the remote guesthouse, where we realize that no one is home
to give me a room. Yana mentions her parents have a guesthouse just
outside the city and overlooking the bay. We drive to it, I meet the
owners, charming people who set me up in a little apartment
surrounded by fig and pear trees and with a small swimming pool to
cool off in.

They
invite me for dinner, but I have to politely decline in order to get
back to work, though I do take a few minutes to enjoy their pool, the
stars, the silence, and the incredible fragrance of some night
blossoms.

Sevastopol Crimea

The
stunning view of the bay in Malorichenske. Photo | Eva Bartlett

The
next few days, when not working on my laptop, I go for walks in the
area, take in Sevastopol Bay, and one day take a minibus into the
city and walk for hours around it, seeing some of the key sights.

When
I finally need to leave Sevastopol for Simferopol again, the couple
refuses to take my money, insists I am their guest, and drives me to
the bus station, stopping 
en route at a market where
they search for ten minutes until they find the traditional Armenian
treats they want to give me: walnuts covered in the syrup of various
fruits (pomegranate, peach, currant, grape), and a box of
walnut-stuffed dried figs.

Ukrainians
in Crimea

In
Simferopol anew, I meet Anastasiya Gridchina, the Chair of the
Ukrainian Community of Crimea, an organization formed in 2015 whose
main goals, she tells me, “are to have friendly relations between
two great peoples: Ukrainians and Russians — not the politicians
but the people. The second goal is to preserve inter-ethnic peace in
the Republic between different nationalities.”

Gridchina
explains that in Crimea there are more than 175 nationalities, just
20 less than in all of Russia, but in a very small territory. Hence
the importance of preserving inter-ethnic peace. After Russians,
Ukrainians comprise the second largest population in Crimea.

I asked Anastasiya whether she supported, much less participated in the
referendum.

“I
worked very hard in order that we could have a referendum. I live in
Perevalne, the last settlement in the mountains above Alushta. There
was a Ukrainian military detachment which did surrender. In February
2014, I was among a line of people standing between the Ukrainian and
Russian military detachments, to prevent any bloodshed. The fear that
prevailed at that time was that nationalists from Ukraine would come
here and we would have massacres.

In
February, there was a confrontation outside the Parliament here in
Simferopol. It was organized by leaders of the Mejlis — the
Crimeans Tatars. On the other side, there were some pro-Russia
organizations who were protecting the Parliament. They were far less
[numerous] than the Mejlis. The Mejlis were armed with sticks and
knives. There were clashes and two people were killed, but thankfully
it didn’t escalate beyond that.

When
the news came that there would be a referendum, people relaxed. They
had a chance to express their point of view and 96 percent of the
population of Crimea voted for Crimea to return to Russia.”
 

Since
she is Ukrainian, I asked Anastasiya why she wanted Crimea to join
Russia:

“I’ve
lived in Crimea all my life, and my language is Russian. And I know
the history of Crimea, which has always been Russian territory, which
has a history beginning with the Russian Empire and then the Soviet
Union. So, it is Russian-speaking territory, first of all. That’s
why I believe it should be in the Russian Federation, not in
Ukraine.”

Crimea National Flag Day

Singer
entertain a crowd in Alushta on Russia’s National Flag Day. Photo |
Eva Bartlett

I
asked about the claims that Russian soldiers invaded Crimea:

“Whatever
they might have said about Russian soldiers forcing people to
participate in the referendum, it was all lies, pure lies. We did not
see any soldiers on the streets, especially on the day of the
referendum.

I
gave an interview to foreign journalists before the referendum. But
when they published it, they changed my words. I said we were very
thankful to the Russian troops that were here, that protected us from
the attacks of Ukrainian nationalists prior to the referendum. But
they translated it that I said ‘Please, we want Ukrainian soldiers
to defend us from those Russian soldiers.’

The
Russian troops that were here were not on the streets on the day of
the referendum but, at the time in general, they were there to
protect civilians from an attack by Ukrainians.

On
the day of the referendum, there were no soldiers, no military. The
only security were there to prevent any illegal actions. No military
people were there, no arms, no armored personnel carriers, no
military equipment, nothing. Only members of the election commission
and the people voting.”

I
asked whether many Ukrainian Crimeans left following the referendum:

“There
were those who immediately after the referendum left Crimea for
Ukraine because it was their personal wish. Nobody prevented them
from going. Even the soldiers had an option: to stay and continue
military service here, or to leave.

There
were also some people who didn’t like that Crimea joined Russia,
but didn’t leave for pragmatic reasons. Because the quality of life
in Russia is much higher than in Ukraine. So they continue living in
Crimea.”

Finally,
Anastasiya gave me a message for the people outside of Crimea:

“I’d
like to tell people around the world, welcome to Crimea, come here
yourselves and see and hear with your own eyes and ears, to
understand that all the lies you hear about Crimea, that we are
oppressed or under pressure from the military…this is all lies,
this is all not true.

Also,
that we are not allowed to speak Ukrainian is a lie. One of the state
languages is Ukrainian. Russian and Tatar are also state languages.”

As
she leaves to go to the Ukrainian festival she has helped organize,
she notes that the government allotted part of its budget towards
financing the festival. She invites me to join. “You can see us
singing Ukrainian songs, see our culture and traditions preserved.”

Next,
I speak to
 Yuri
Gempel
,
a member of Parliament, and the chairman of the Standard Commission
on Inter-Ethnic Relations of the Parliament of Crimea.

Klik hier voor het vervolg.

===================================

* Hillary Clinton stak als minister van buitenlandse zaken tijdens de Obama administratie maar liefst 4 miljard dollar in het organiseren van de opstand, die tot de afzetting van Janoekovytsj leidde…….

Zie ook:

Zelenski (president Oekraïne) ingepakt door neonazi’s en beloften aan EU gedaan door Porosjenko

Oekraïne: opnieuw neonazi protesten op Maidanplein, vanwege Rusland vriendelijk handelen door president Zelensky

Snowden vindt het ongelofelijk dat de media VS politici niet aanspreken op totaal verschillende reacties n.a.v. ‘klokkenluiden’

Joe Biden heeft al lang toegegeven dat hij Oekraïne onder druk zette een openbaar aanklager te ontslaan die zijn zoon vervolgde

Koning Willem Alexander vraagt Rusland om medewerking bij onderzoek naar rampvlucht MH17‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht naar meer informatie over rampvlucht MH17)

MH17: JIT haalt zelfs de afscheiding van Oost-Oekraïne aan in de zoveelste mislukte poging de schuld in de schoenen van Rusland te schuiven

Oekraïne kondigt staat van beleg af vanwege ‘Russische agressie’ in de Zee van Azov

VS torpedojager arriveert in Zwarte Zee terwijl de boel daar op scherp staat……..

Porosjenko (Oekraïne) roept de NAVO op tot oorlog tegen Rusland

Election ploy? Poroshenko declares martial law in Ukraine after Kerch standoff

VS senator Rand Paul stelt n.a.v. NAVO-top dat men de zaak moet bekijken vanuit het Russische perspectief

Putin en Trump halen spanning uit de lucht >> de westerse wereld schreeuwt moord en brand……

Afspraken met de VS maken? Voor je het weet heb je te maken met een ‘verspreking’ van de president….. ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

Oekraïne, Georgië en Moldavië hebben oud bondgenootschap doen herleven, in voorbereiding op NAVO lidmaatschap en verdere actie tegen Rusland……..

De Krim, Georgië en Syrië >> de anti-Russische propaganda…..

Oekraïne en NAVO bezig met uitlokking WOIII………

VS levert neonazi-leger Oekraïne voor 250 miljoen dollar aan wapens

Voor meer berichten over Oekraïne, De Krim of rampvlucht MH17, klik op het betreffende label, direct onder dit bericht.

Westerse media vallen critici van de White Helmets aan

Rick Sterling schreef een artikel op ‘Oriental Review‘ over de aanvallen van de reguliere (massa-) media op critici van de White Helmets, kritiek die de wel nadenkende alternatieve media ook in Nederland voor de kiezen kreeg…..

Sterling wijst op een artikel van Janine di Giovani op de NY Reviews of Books getiteld: ‘Why Assad and Russia Target the White Helmets’. Het artikel is een voorbeeld van hoe de westerse media propaganda maken voor de White Helmets en degenen aanvallen die de o.a. door die media geplugde mythe van de White Helmets bekritiseren………

Zo heeft di Giovanni een grote bek over de echte oorlogscorrespondent Vanessa Beeley, één van de weinigen die wel regelmatig in het strijdgebied van Syrië te vinden was en die uitentreuren heeft geschreven over wat er werkelijk gebeurde in Syrië en zich niet verliet op de rapporten van het Syrische Observatorium voor Mensenrechten (SOHR), geleid door een gewezen misdadiger die zijn terechte straf ontliep door te vluchten en te stellen dat hij een politieke vluchteling was. De informatie van het SOHR kwam en komt voor het overgrote deel van de ‘gematigde rebellen’, die o.a. door Nederland werden gesteund…..

‘Gematigde rebellen’ ofwel moordenaars, verkrachters en martelbeulen, die bovendien met medeweten van de westerse landen in het bezit zijn van de gifgassen die door hen werden gebruikt om vervolgens de schuld in de schoenen van het reguliere Syrische leger werden geschoven……

Je snapt werkelijk niet waar di Giovanni het gore lef vandaan haalt om een uitstekend journalist als Beeley aan te vallen…… (hoewel, dat is onzin, immers di Giovanni huilt gewoon mee in het koor van de ‘massamedia-terreurwolven…’)

Een andere uitstekende journalist moet het ook al ontgelden bij di Giovanni, t.w.: Eva Bartlett, die zelf jaren in het Midden-Oosten heeft gewoond en goed is ingevoerd over de situatie in o.a. Syrië (en niet op grond van leugens die terreurgroepen verspreiden)…..

Niet één keer gaat di Giovanni in op artikelen die deze twee journalisten schreven, nee zonder enige steekhoudende kritiek op geschreven artikelen, stelt di Giovanni domweg dat de 2 desinformatie verspreiden, waar ze Beeley zelfs durft af te schilderen als ‘hogepriesters van Syrische propaganda’, ofwel di Giovani draait de zaak volkomen om, immer zij maakt met dergelijke uitlatingen propaganda voor terreurgroepen, die voor het overgrote deel bestaan uit ‘mannen’ die niet eens Syriërs zijn……

Lees het uitstekende artikel van Sterling en geeft het door!

CHAOSISTANHYBRID WARSINFORMATION WARFAREISRAELMIDDLE EASTPHENOMENON 
OF TERRORISMSYRIAUNITED KINGDOMUNITED STATES 

Western
Media Attacks Critics of the White Helmets

Written
by 
Rick
STERLING
 on 24/10/2018

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor Western Media Attacks Critics of the White Helmets

The
October 16 issue of NY Review of Books has an article by Janine di
Giovanni titled 
Why
Assad and Russia Target the White Helmets”
.
The article exemplifies how western media promotes the White Helmets
uncritically and attacks those who challenge the myth.

Crude
& Disingenuous Attack

Giovanni’s
article attacks several journalists by name. She singles out Vanessa
Beeley and echoes the Guardian’s characterization of Beeley as the
“high priestess of Syria propaganda”. She does this without
challenging a single article or claim by the journalist. She might
have acknowledged that Vanessa Beeley has some familiarity with the
Middle East; she is the daughter of one of the foremost British
Arabists and diplomats including British Ambassador to Egypt.
Giovanni might have explored Beeley’s 
research in
Syria that revealed the White Helmets founder (British military
contractor James Le Mesurier) assigned the name Syria Civil Defence
despite the fact there is a real Syrian organization by that name
that has existed since the 1950’s. For the past several years,
Beeley has done many on-the-ground reports and investigations in
Syria. None of these are challenged by Giovanni. Just days ago Beeley
published a 
report on
her visit to the White Helmets headquarters in Deraa.

white-helmet-infographic-2


Giovanni
similarly dismisses another alternative journalist, Eva Bartlett.
Again, Giovanni ignores the fact that Bartlett has substantial Middle
East experience including having lived in Gaza for years. Instead of
objectively evaluating the journalistic work of these independent
journalists, Giovanni smears their work as “disinformation”.
Presumably that is because their work is published at alternative
sites such as 21st Century Wire and Russian media such as RT and
Sputnik. Beeley and Bartlett surely would have been happy to have
their reports published at the New York Review of Books, Newsweek or
other mainstream outlets. But it’s evident that such reporting is
not welcome there. Even Seymour Hersh had to go abroad to have his
investigations on Syria published.

The
New McCarthyism

Max
Blumenthal is another journalist singled out by Giovanni. Blumenthal
is the author of three books, including a NY Times bestseller and the
highly acclaimed “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel”.
Giovanni describes his transition from “anti-Assad” to
“pro-Assad” and suggests his change of perspective was due to
Russian influence. She says, “Blumenthal went to Moscow on a junket
to celebrate RT’s tenth anniversary. We don’t know what happened
during that visit, but afterwards, Blumenthal’s views completely
flipped.” Instead of examining the facts presented by Blumenthal in
articles such as 
Inside
the Shadowy PR Firm that’s Lobyying for Regime Change in Syria”
,
Giovanni engages in fact-free McCarthyism. Blumenthal explained the
transition in his thinking in a public interview. He also described
the 
threats he
experienced when he started to criticize the White Helmets and their
public relations firm, but this is ignored by Giovanni.

Contrary
to Giovanni’s assumptions, some western journalists and activists
were exposing the White Helmets long before the story was publicized
on Russian media. In spring 2015 the basic facts about the White
Helmets including their origins, funding and role in the information
war on Syria were exposed in my article 
Seven
Steps of Highly Effective Manipulators”
.
The article showed how the White Helmets were a key component in a
campaign pushing for a “No Fly Zone” in Syria. It confirmed that
the White Helmets is a political lobby force.

In
spring 2016, Vanessa Beeley launched a petition 
Do
NOT give the Nobel Peace Prize to the White Helmets”
.
That petition garnered more support than a contrary petition urging
the Nobel Prize committee to give the award to the White Helmets.
Perhaps because of that, the petition was abruptly removed without
explanation from the Change.org website. It was only at this time,
with publicity around the heavily promoted nomination of the White
Helmets for a Nobel Peace Prize that RT and other Russian media
started to publicize and expose the White Helmets. That is one and a
half years after they were first exposed in western alternative
media.

White
Helmets and Chemical Weapons Accusations
 

Giovanni
ignores the investigations and conclusions of some of the most
esteemed American journalists regarding the White Helmets and
chemical weapons incidents in Syria.

The
late Robert Parry published many articles exposing the White Helmets,
for example 
The
White Helmets Controversy
 and Syria
War Propaganda at the Oscars
.
Parry wrote and published numerous investigations of the August 2013
chemical weapons attack and concluded the attacks were carried out by
an opposition faction with the goal of pressuring the US to intervene
militarily. Parry also challenged western conclusions regarding
incidents such as April 4, 2017 at Khan Shaykhun. Giovanni
breathlessly opens her article with this story while
Parry 
revealed the
impossibility of it being as described.

Buried
deep inside a new U.N. report is evidence that could exonerate the
Syrian government in the April 4 sarin atrocity and make President
Trump look like an Al-Qaeda dupe.”

Legendary
American journalist, Seymour Hersh, researched and refuted the
assumptions of Giovanni and the media establishment regarding the
August 2013 chemical weapons attacks near Damascus. Hersh’s
investigation, titled 
The
Red Line and Rat Line
,
provided evidence the atrocity was carried out by an armed opposition
group with active support from Turkey. A Turkish member of parliament
provided 
additional
evidence
.
The fact that Hersh had to go across the Atlantic to have his
investigation published suggests American not Russian disinformation
and censorship.

In
addition to ignoring the findings of widely esteemed journalists with
proven track records, Giovanni plays loose with the truth. In her
article she implies that a UN investigation blamed the Syrian
government for the August 2013 attack. On the contrary, the head of
the UN investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, 
said they
did not determine who was responsible. 
“We
do not have the evidence to say who did what ….The conflict in
Syria is surrounded by a lot of rumors and a lot of propaganda,
particularly when comes to the sensitive issue of chemical weapons.”

First
Responders or Western Funded Propagandists?

Giovanni
says, “But the White Helmets’ financial backing is not the real
reason why the pro-Assad camp is so bent on defaming them. Since
2015, the year the Russians began fighting in Syria, the White
Helmets have been filming attacks on opposition-held areas with GoPro
cameras affixed to their helmets.”

In
reality, the ‘White Helmets” have a sophisticated media
production and distribution operation. They have much more than GoPro
cameras. In many of their movie segments one can see numerous people
with video and still cameras. Sometimes the same incident will be
shown with one segment with an Al-Qaeda logo blending into the same
scene with a White Helmets logo.


US cut funding of WH


Giovanni
claims “The Assad regime and the Russians are trying to neutralize
the White Helmets because they   are potential witnesses to
war crimes.” However the claims of White Helmet “witnesses”
have little credibility. The White Helmet “volunteers” are paid
three times as much as Syrian soldiers. They are trained, supplied
and promoted by the same western states which have sought to regime
change in Syria since 2011. An example of misleading and false claims
by a White Helmets leader is exposed in Gareth Porter’s
investigation titled “
How
a Syrian White Helmets Leader Played Western Media”
 .
His conclusion could be directed to Giovanni and the NYReview of
Books:


The
uncritical reliance on claims by the White Helmets without any effort
to investigate their credibility is yet another telling example of
journalistic malpractice by media outlets with a long record of
skewing coverage of conflicts toward an interventionist narrative.”

When
the militants (mostly Nusra / Al-Qaeda) were expelled from East
Aleppo, civilians reported that the White Helmets were mostly
concerned with saving their own and performing publicity stunts. For
example the photo of the little boy in east Aleppo looking dazed and
confused in the back of a brand new White Helmet ambulance was
essentially a White Helmet media stunt eagerly promoted in the West.
It was later revealed the boy was not injured, he was grabbed without
his parent’s consent. Eva Bartlett interviewed and photographed the
father and family for her story 
Mintpress
Meets the Father of Iconic Aleppo Boy and says Media Lied About his
Son”
.

A
Brilliant Marketing Success

The
media and political impact of the White Helmets shows what money and
marketing can do. An organization that was founded by a military
contractor with funding from a western governments was awarded the
Rights Livelihood Award. The organization was seriously considered to
received the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize just three years after its
formation.

The
Netflix infomercial “The White Helmets” is an example of the
propaganda. The scripted propaganda piece, where the producers did
not set foot in Syria, won the Oscar award for best short
documentary. It’s clear that lots of money and professional
marketing can fool a lot of people. At $30 million per year, the
White Helmets budget for one year is more than a decade of funding
for the real Syrian Civil Defence which covers all of Syria not just
pockets controlled by armed insurgents.

Unsurprisingly,
it has been announced that White Helmets will receive the 2019 “Elie
Wiesel” award from the heavily politicized and pro-Israel Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington. This, plus the recent 
rescue” of
White Helmets by the Israeli government, is more proof of the true
colors of the White Helmets. Vanessa Beeley’s recent interview with
a White Helmet leader in Deraa revealed that ISIS and Nusra
terrorists were part of the group “rescued” through Israel.

The
Collapsing White Helmets Fraud

Giovanni
is outraged that some journalists have successfully challenged and
put a big dent in the White Helmets  aura. She complains, “The
damage the bloggers do is immense.”

Giovanni
and western propagandists are upset because the myth is deflating.
Increasing numbers of people – from a famous rock musician to a
former UK Ambassador – see and acknowledge the reality.

As
described in Blumenthal’s article, 
How
the White Helmets Tried to Recruit Roger Waters with Saudi Money”
,
rock legend Roger Waters says, 
“If
we were to listen to the propaganda of the White
Helmets and others, we would encourage our governments to start
dropping bombs on people in Syria. This would be a mistake
of monumental proportions…”

Peter
Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria, 
sums
it up
 like
this: 
“The
White Helmets are jihadi auxiliaries… They are not, as claimed by
themselves and by their supporters… simple rescuers. They are not
volunteers. They are paid professionals of disinformation.”

Giovanni
claims her article is a “forensic take down of the Russian
disinformation campaign to distort the truth in Syria.” In reality,
Giovanni’s article is an example of western disinformation using
subjective attacks on critics and evidence-free assertions aligned
with the regime change goals of the West.

Reposts
are welcomed with the reference to ORIENTAL REVIEW.

Zie ook:

White Helmets: naast gebruik van terreur ook schuldig aan orgaanhandel, vernietigende VN video presentatie

Syria: The White Helmets Are Terrorist Auxiliaries

White Helmets is een terreurorganisatie, zie de bewijzen op Facebook: foto’s van de W.H. leden

White Helmets terreurgroep wordt vandaag met open armen ontvangen in Tweede Kamer…..

Nederland financiert terrorisme in Syrië……..

EXPOSED: Syria’s White Helmets are Al Qaeda’s ‘Civil Defence’

WHO ARE THE ‘WHITE HELMETS?’ DO WE REALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN SYRIA?

 ‘SYRIA: The White Helmet Propaganda Heist – Vanessa Beeley Speaks to Rhymes Media Group

EXPOSED: The White Helmets – Al Qaeda with US funding

Westerse media vallen critici van de White Helmets aan

Gifgasaanval Idlib: de komende ‘kindslachtoffers’ worden getraind door terreurgroep White Helmets………

Voorbeeld BBC en AD propaganda inzake Idlib (Syrië)

Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) laat weten hoe White Helmets vips rekruteren met Saoedisch geld….

Gifgasaanval vooropgezet spel om VS actie te rechtvaardigen, waarbij GB de spelers opdracht gaf dit toneelspel snel uit te voeren…….. ‘False flag gelukt’: Syrië gebombardeerd zonder enig bewijs voor schuld…..

Van Helvert (CDA Tweede Kamer): wil dat er een tribunaal komt voor Syriëgangers, terwijl hij de terroristen in Ghouta wil beschermen…….

White Helmets nogmaals ontmaskert als terreurorganisatie: de oprichter is een Britse ex-huurling…….

White Helmets oorlogsporno geweerd van Oscarceremonie

White Helmets >> terreurorganisatie, opgezet door Brits ex-officier en o.a. betaald door Nederland………..

Voor meer berichten over/met de White Helmets, Vanessa Beeley of Eva Bartlett, klik op het betreffende label, direct onder dit bericht.

Syrië: verslaggever Bartlett prikt leugens reguliere media door

Lee
Camp had 
in zijn programma ‘Redacted Tonight’ journalist Eva Bartlett middels een videoverbinding vanuit
Beiroet. Bartlett sprak over haar ervaringen in
Syrië en m.n. Over de enorme berg
leugens die de reguliere (massa-) media over de strijd in
Syrië hebben gebracht. (en nog steeds brengen, zelfs al zijn een aantal leugens meermaals doorgeprikt…..)

Zo
vertelt Bartlett dat er in het ziekenhuis in Douma niemand is
overleden aan de zogenaamde gifgasaanval, ‘gepleegd door het Syrische leger….’ (oké
dat was al bekend, maar nog meer bewijs middels getuigen daarvoor kan geen kwaad,
integendeel als je ziet dat de reguliere media en het overgrote deel
van de westerse politici deze leugen in de lucht houden……)

Niet
alleen in het ziekenhuis van Douma stelde men dat er geen
gifgasaanval slachtoffers werden opgenomen dan wel dood verklaard,
maar ook de burgers van Douma stelden hetzelfde: er heeft geen
gifgasaanval plaatsgevonden in Douma……Trouwens opvallend stil
rond deze zaak, ook al heeft de VS n.a.v. (ook eigen) leugens daarover raketten afgeschoten op doelen in
Syrië….. Ach de oorlogsmisdaden
van de VS halen amper of niet de reguliere media, kijk als het om de
Syrische regering of de Russische zou gaan was dit volkomen
omgedraaid en zou de boel op z’n kop staan……. Sterker nog: met grote regelmaat worden de oorlogsmisdaden van de VS goedgesproken in de reguliere westerse media…..

Bartlett
heeft ook Oost-Aleppo bezocht en stelt dat de bevolking dol blij was
met de bevrijding door het reguliere Syrische leger, waar deze
bevolking vertelde over de enorme terreur waaronder ze moesten leven,
terreur van door het westen als ‘gematigde rebellen’ aangeduide
psychopathische moordenaars, verkrachters en martelbeulen…….

Voorts
bevestigde Bartlett de verhalen over de White Helmets in Oost-Aleppo:
volgens haar (en vele anderen) zijn deze White Helmets een verlengde
van Al Qaida en andere terreurgroepen in Syrie.

Wat
betreft ‘de opstand’ die in
Syrië in 2011 begon stelde Bartlett dat
niet regeringstroepen op demonstranten schoten, maar juist
demonstranten (uit andere bronnen bleek al dat hier veel
buitenlanders aan meededen) dit om de schuld in de schoenen van Assad
en het Syrische leger te kunnen schuiven, ofwel: een false flag
operatie….. False Flag operaties, ‘toevallig’ een bezigheid waar de VS al meer dan 100 jaar veruit de grote
kampioen is >> dezelfde VS die (samen met GB, Turkije,
Saoedi-
Arabië en nog een paar arabische staten) al in 2006
voorbereidingen trof om in
Syrië een opstand te organiseren, met het
uiteindelijke doel Assad af te zetten……..

Zie
de video hieronder, duur 15 minuten, waarna Lee Camp spreekt over de
VS politici die durfden te spreken over de ‘militaire expansie’ van
China…… ha! ha! ha! ha! De VS heeft meer dan 800 bases over de
wereld, over militaire expansie gesproken……. Vergeet daarnaast
niet dat de VS en niet China, de ene illegale oorlog na de andere
begint…..

Video:
Reporter in Syria Reveals Mainstream Media’s Lies

Zie ook: ‘VS, GB en Frankrijk begaan enorme oorlogsmisdaad met aanval op Syrische doelen……

        en: ‘Aanval op Syrische doelen door VS, GB en Frankrijk op moment dat de beurs 2 dagen is gesloten….

        en:  ‘BBC verklaart oorlogscorrespondent Vanessa Beeley met haar berichtgeving over Syrië en de gifgasaanval op Douma als staatsgevaarlijk…………

        en: ‘De Hoop Scheffer (CDA en ex-NAVO chef) heeft geen spijt voor de steun aan de illegale Irakoorlog >> 1,5 miljoen vermoorde Irakezen verder……‘ (waar deze zich ook uitspreekt over ‘de gifgasaanval’ op Douma)

        en: ‘Russische volk wordt geadviseerd zich voor te bereiden op een nucleaire oorlog…….

        en: ‘Rusland voorspelde ‘de gifgasaanval’ in Oost-Ghouta en de reactie daarop van de VS…..

        en: ‘Rusland beschuldigd GB van het regisseren gifgasaanval Douma en zegt daar bewijzen voor te hebben

        en: ‘In Douma vond geen gifgasaanval plaats aldus gelauwerd journalist Robert Fisk…..

        en: ‘De OPCW inspecteurs en hun werk in Douma n.a.v. ‘gifgasaanval…’

        en: ‘Wapenfabrikanten die de illegale raketbeschietingen op Syrië mogelijk maakten, zagen hun aandelen met 10 miljard stijgen………

        en: ‘OPCW team in Douma stelt dat Syrië en Rusland niets hebben veranderd dan wel verwijderd op de plaats van de ‘gisfgasaanval’

        en: ‘The Guardian bracht anti-Russische propaganda i.v.m. ‘gifgasaanval’ Douma en weigert dit te rectificeren, of te verwijderen…….

        en: ‘The Guardian met propaganda over Syrië, die zo uit Orwells 1984 zou kunnen komen……

        en: ‘Syrian ‘Rebels’ Used Sarin Nerve Gas Sold By Britain

        en: ‘Gifgasaanval vooropgezet spel om VS actie te rechtvaardigen, waarbij GB de spelers opdracht gaf dit toneelspel snel uit te voeren…….. ‘False flag gelukt’: Syrië gebombardeerd zonder enig bewijs voor schuld…..

        en: ‘Syrië wacht andermaal een geplande gasaanval van ‘gematigde rebellen……..’

        en: ‘Syrië, de prijs van westerse terreur (die onmiddellijk gestopt moet worden >> tijd voor actie!)……

Aleppo, de wraak van de VS: oorlog aan de alternatieve media, leve de staatspropaganda….!!

Nadat de Obama regering Rusland heeft beschuldigd van het hacken van de verkiezingen, waar het overigens geen nanometer bewijs voor heeft, is het nu de beurt aan de alternatieve media…… De VS zag met lede ogen de val van Aleppo (wat betreft het verslaan van de door deze terreurentiteit gesteunde ‘gematigde’ terroristen) en geeft daarvoor nu ook de schuld aan de alternatieve media…….

De alternatieve media die niet braaf de door de VS aangeleverde leugenpropaganda herhaalden, maar met feiten aantoonden, dat de VS keer op keer heeft gelogen inzake Syrië!! Sterker nog, dat de VS de aanstichter is van de oorlog in Syrië, die intussen aan meer dan 700.000 mensen het leven heeft gekost…….

Het beschuldigen van de media, is een herhaling van zetten: toen het duidelijk werd, dat de VS de oorlog in Vietnam had verloren, waren het vooral de media ‘die voor het verlies hadden gezorgd……’ ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

Hier het artikel over de oorlog tegen de alternatieve media, zoals gisteren door Information Clearing House gebracht (u kan onder dit artikel klikken voor een ‘Dutch vertaling’, dit neemt wel enige tijd in beslag):

The
War Against Alternative Information

By
Rick Sterling

The
U.S. government is creating a new $160 million bureaucracy to shut
down information that doesn’t conform to U.S. propaganda
narratives, building on the strategy that sold the bloody Syrian
“regime change”

January
02, 2017 “
Information
Clearing House

– “
Consortium
News

– The U.S. establishment is not content simply to have domination
over the media narratives on critical foreign policy issues, such as
Syria, Ukraine and Russia. It wants total domination. Thus we now
have the “Countering
Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act
” that President Obama
signed into law on Dec. 23 as part of theNational
Defense Authorization Act for 2017
 (NDAA), setting aside $160 million to
combat any “propaganda” that challenges Official Washington’s
version of reality.

The
new law mandates the U.S. Secretary of State to collaborate with the
Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence and other
federal agencies to create a Global Engagement Center “to lead,
synchronize, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to
recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and
non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining
United States national security interests.” The law directs the
Center to be formed in 180 days and to share expertise among agencies
and to “coordinate with allied nations.”

The
legislation was initiated in March 2016, as the demonization of
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia was already underway and
was enacted amid the allegations of “Russian hacking” around the
U.S. presidential election and the mainstream media’s furor over
supposedly “fake news.” Defeated Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton voiced strong support for the bill: “It’s
imperative that leaders in both the private sector and the public
sector step up to protect our democracy, and innocent lives.”

The
new law is remarkable for a number of reasons, not the least because
it merges 
a
new McCarthyism
 about purported dissemination of Russian
“propaganda” on the Internet with 
a
new Orwellianism
 by creating a kind of Ministry of Truth –
or Global Engagement Center – to protect the American people from
“foreign propaganda and disinformation.”

As
part of the effort to detect and defeat these unwanted narratives,
the law authorizes the Center to: “Facilitate the use of a wide
range of technologies and techniques by sharing expertise among
Federal departments and agencies, seeking expertise from external
sources, and implementing best practices.” (This section is an
apparent reference to proposals that Google, Facebook and other
technology companies find ways to block or brand certain Internet
sites as 
purveyors
of “Russian propaganda” or “fake news.”
)

Justifying
this new bureaucracy, the bill’s sponsors argued that the existing
agencies for “
strategic
communications
” and “public
diplomacy
” were not enough, that the information threat
required “a whole-of-government approach leveraging all elements of
national power.”

The
law also is rife with irony since the U.S. government and related
agencies are among the world’s biggest purveyors of propaganda and
disinformation – or what you might call evidence-free claims, such
as the recent accusations of Russia hacking into Democratic emails to
“influence” the U.S. election.

Despite
these accusations — leaked by the Obama administration and embraced
as true by the mainstream U.S. news media — there is 
little
or no public evidence
 to support the charges. There is also
a contradictory 
analysis by
veteran U.S. intelligence professionals as well as statements
by 
Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange
 and an associate, former
British Ambassador Craig Murray
, that the Russians were not the
source of the leaks. Yet, the mainstream U.S. media has virtually
ignored this counter-evidence, appearing eager to collaborate with
the new “Global Engagement Center” even before it is
officially formed.

Of
course, there is a long history of U.S. disinformation and
propaganda. Former CIA agents Philip Agee and John Stockwell
documented how it was done decades ago, secretly planting “black
propaganda” and covertly funding media outlets to influence events
around the world, with much of the fake news blowing back into the
American media.

In
more recent decades, the U.S. government has adopted an Internet-era
version of that formula with an emphasis on having the State
Department or the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy
supply, train and pay “activists” and “citizen journalists”
to create and distribute propaganda and false stories via “social
media” and via contacts with the mainstream media. The U.S.
government’s strategy also seeks to undermine and discredit
journalists who challenge this orthodoxy. The new legislation
escalates this information war by tossing another $160 million into
the pot.

Propaganda
and Disinformation on Syria

Syria
is a good case study in the modern application of information
warfare. In her memoir 
Hard
Choices
,
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that the U.S.
provided “support for (Syrian) civilian opposition groups,
including satellite-linked computers, telephones, cameras, and
training for more than a thousand activists, students and independent
journalists.”

Indeed,
a huge amount of money has gone to “activists” and “civil
society” groups in Syria and other countries that have been
targeted for “regime change.” A lot of the money also goes to
parent organizations that are based in the United States and Europe,
so these efforts do not only support on-the-ground efforts to
undermine the targeted countries, but perhaps even more importantly,
the money influences and manipulates public opinion in the West.

In
North America, representatives from the Syrian 
“Local
Coordination Committees”
(LCC) were frequent guests on popular
media programs such as “DemocracyNow.” The message was clear:
there is a “revolution” in Syria against a “brutal regime”
personified in Bashar al-Assad. It was not mentioned that the “Local
Coordination Committees” have been primarily funded by the West,
specifically the Office for Syrian Opposition Support, which was
founded by the U.S. State Department and the U.K. Foreign and
Commonwealth Office.

More
recently, news and analysis about Syria has been conveyed through the
filter of the White Helmets, also known as Syrian Civil Defense. In
the Western news media, the White Helmets are described as neutral,
non-partisan, civilian volunteers courageously carrying out rescue
work in the war zone. In fact, the group is 
none
of the above.
 It was initiated by the U.S. and U.K. using a
British military contractor and Brooklyn-based marketing company.

While
they may have performed some genuine rescue operations, the White
Helmets are primarily a media organization with a political goal: to
promote NATO intervention in Syria. (The manipulation of public
opinion using the White Helmets and promoted by the New York Times
and Avaaz petition for a “No Fly Zone” in Syria is
documented
here.)

The
White Helmets hoax continues to be widely believed and receives
uncritical promotion though it has increasingly been exposed at
alternative media outlets as the creation of a 
“shady
PR firm
.” During critical times in the conflict in Aleppo,
White Helmet individuals have been used as the source for important
news stories despite a track record of 
deception.

Recent
Propaganda: Blatant Lies?

As
the armed groups in east Aleppo recently lost ground and then
collapsed, Western governments and allied media went into a frenzy of
accusations against Syria and Russia based on reports from sources
connected with the armed opposition. CNN host Wolf Blitzer described
Aleppo as “falling” in a “slaughter of these women and
children” while CNN host Jake Tapper referred to “genocide by
another name.”

The
Daily Beast published the claims of the Aleppo Siege Media Center
under the title
“Doomsday
is held in Aleppo” 
and amid accusations that the Syrian
army was executing civilians, burning them alive and “20 women
committed suicide in order not to be raped.” These sensational
claims were widely broadcast without verification. However, this
“news” on CNN and throughout Western media came from highly
biased sources and many of the claims – lacking anything
approaching independent corroboration – could be accurately
described as propaganda and disinformation.

Ironically,
some of the supposedly “Russian propaganda” sites, such as RT,
have provided first-hand on-the-ground reporting from the war zones
with verifiable information that contradicts the Western narrative
and thus has received almost no attention in the U.S. news media. For
instance, some of these non-Western outlets have shown videos of
popular celebrations over the “liberation of Aleppo.”

There
has been further corroboration of these realities from peace
activists, such as Jan Oberg of Transnational Foundation for Peace
and Future Research who published a
photo
essay 
of his eyewitness observations in Aleppo including the
happiness of civilians from east Aleppo reaching the
government-controlled areas of west Aleppo, finally freed from areas
that had been controlled by Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and its
jihadist allies in Ahrar al-Sham.

Dr.
Nabil Antaki, a medical doctor from Aleppo, described the liberation
of Aleppo in an interview titled 
“Aleppo
is Celebrating, Free from Terrorists, the Western Media
Misinformed.”
 The first Christmas celebrations in Aleppo
in four years are shown 
here,replete
with marching band members in Santa Claus outfits. Journalist Vanessa
Beeley has published 
testimonies of
civilians from east Aleppo. The happiness of civilians at their
liberation is clear.

Whether
or not you wish to accept these depictions of the reality in Aleppo,
at a minimum, they reflect another side of the story that you have
been denied while being persistently force-fed the version favored by
the U.S. State Department. The goal of the new Global Engagement
Center to counter “foreign propaganda” is to ensure that you
never get to hear this alternative narrative to the Western
propaganda line.

Even
much earlier, contrary to the Western mythology of rebel “liberated
zones,” there was strong evidence that the armed groups were never
popular in Aleppo. American journalist James Foley described the
situation in 2012 like
 this:

Aleppo,
a city of about 3 million people, was once the financial heart of
Syria. As it continues to deteriorate, many civilians here are losing
patience with the increasingly violent and unrecognizable opposition
— one that is hampered by infighting and a lack of structure, and
deeply infiltrated by both foreign fighters and terrorist groups. The
rebels in Aleppo are predominantly from the countryside, further
alienating them from the urban crowd that once lived here peacefully,
in relative economic comfort and with little interference from the
authoritarian government of President Bashar al-Assad.”

On
Nov. 22, 2012, Foley was kidnapped in northwestern Syria and held by
Islamic State terrorists before his beheading in August 2014.



The
Overall Narrative on Syria

Analysis
of the Syrian conflict boils down to two competing narratives. One
narrative is that the conflict is a fight for freedom and democracy
against a brutal regime, a storyline promoted in the West and the
Gulf states, which have been 
fueling
the conflict from the start
. This narrative is also favored by
some self-styled “anti-imperialists” who want a “Syrian
revolution.”

The
other narrative is that the conflict is essentially a war of
aggression against a sovereign state, with the aggressors including
NATO countries, Gulf monarchies, Israel and Jordan. Domination of the
Western media by these powerful interests is so thorough that one
almost never gets access to this second narrative, which is
essentially banned from not only the mainstream but also much of the
liberal and progressive media.

For
example, listeners and viewers of the generally progressive TV and
radio program “DemocracyNow” have rarely if ever heard the second
narrative described in any detail. Instead, the program frequently
broadcasts the statements of Hillary Clinton, U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations Samantha Power and others associated with the U.S.
position. Rarely do you hear the viewpoint of the Syrian Ambassador
to the United Nations, the Syrian Foreign Minister or analysts inside
Syria and around the world who have written about and follow events
there closely.

DemocracyNow”
also has done repeated interviews with proponents of the “Syrian
revolution” while ignoring analysts who call the conflict a war of
aggression sponsored by the West and the Gulf monarchies. This
blackout of the second narrative continues despite the fact that many
prominent international figures see it as such. For example, the
former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua and former President of the UN
General Assembly, Father Miguel D’Escoto, has said, “What the
U.S. government is doing in Syria is tantamount to a war of
aggression, which, according to the Nuremberg Tribunal, is the worst
possible crime a State can commit against another State.”

In
many areas of politics, “DemocracyNow” is excellent and
challenges mainstream media. However in this area, coverage of the
Syrian conflict, the broadcast is biased, one-sided and echoes the
news and analysis of mainstream Western corporate media, showing the
extent of control over foreign policy news that already exists in the
United States and Europe.



Suppressing
and Censoring Challenges

Despite
the widespread censorship of alternative analyses on Syria and other
foreign hotspots that already exists in the West, the U.S.
government’s new “Global Engagement Center” will seek to ensure
that the censorship is even more complete with its goal to “counter
foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation.” We can
expect even more aggressive and better-financed assaults on the few
voices daring to challenge the West’s “group thinks” – smear
campaigns that are already quite extensive.

In
an article titled 
“Controlling
the Narrative on Syria”
, Louis Allday describes the criticisms
and attacks on journalists Rania Khalek and Max Blumenthal for
straying from the “approved” Western narrative on Syria. Some of
the bullying and abuse has come from precisely those people, such as
Robin Yassin-Kassab, who have been frequent guests in liberal Western
media.

Reporters
who have returned from Syria with accounts that challenge the
propaganda themes that have permeated the Western media also have
come under attack. For instance, Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett
recently returned to North America after being in Syria and Aleppo,
conveying a very different image and critical of the West’s biased
media coverage. Bartlett appeared at a United Nations 
press
conference
 and then did numerous interviews across the
country during a speaking tour. During the course of her talks and
presentation, Bartlett criticized the White Helmets and questioned
whether it was true that Al Quds Hospital in opposition-held East
Aleppo was attacked and destroyed as claimed.

Bartlett’s
recounting of this information made her a target of Snopes, which has
been a mostly useful website exposing urban legends and false rumors
but has come under criticism itself for some internal 
challenges and
has been inconsistent in its investigations. In one report entitled
White
Helmet Hearsay,”
 Snopes’ writer Bethania Palmer says
claims the White Helmets are “linked to terrorists” is
“unproven,” but she overlooks numerous 
videos,
photos, and other reports showing White Helmet members celebrating a
Nusra/Al Qaeda battle victory, picking up the bodies of civilians
executed by a Nusra executioner, and having a member who
alternatively appears as a rebel/terrorist fighter with a weapon and
later wearing a White Helmet uniform. The “fact check” barely
scrapes the surface of public evidence.

The
same writer did another shallow “investigation” titled “victim
blaming”
 regarding Bartlett’s critique of White Helmet
videos and what happened at the Al Quds Hospital in Aleppo. Bartlett
suggests that some White Helmet videos may be fabricated and may
feature the same child at different times, i.e., photographs that
appear to show the same girl being rescued by White Helmet workers at
different places and times. While it is uncertain whether this
is the same girl, the similarity is clear.
 

The
Snopes writer goes on to criticize Bartlett for her comments about
the reported bombing of Al Quds Hospital in east Aleppo in April
2016. A statement at the 
websiteof
Doctors Without Borders says the building was “destroyed and
reduced to rubble,” but this was clearly false since photos show
the building with unclear damage. Five months later, the September
2016 
report by
Doctors Without Borders says the top two floors of the building were
destroyed and the ground floor Emergency Room damaged yet they
re-opened in two weeks.

The
many inconsistencies and contradictions in the statements of Doctors
Without Borders resulted in an 
open
letter
 to them. In their last report, Doctors Without
Borders (known by its French initials, MSF) acknowledges that “MSF
staff did not directly witness the attack and has not visited Al Quds
Hospital since 2014.”

Bartlett
referenced satellite images taken before and after the reported
attack on the hospital. The images do not show severe damage and it
is unclear whether or not there is any damage to the roof, the basis
for Bartlett’s statement. In the past week, independent journalists
have visited the scene of Al Quds Hospital and report that that the
top floors of the building are still there and damage is unclear.

The
Snopes’ investigation criticizing Bartlett was superficial and
ignored the broader issues of accuracy and integrity in the Western
media’s depiction of the Syrian conflict. Instead the article
appeared to be an effort to discredit the eyewitness observations and
analysis of a journalist who dared challenge the mainstream
narrative.

U.S.
propaganda and disinformation on Syria has been extremely effective
in misleading much of the American population. Thus, most Americans
are unaware how many billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on
yet another “regime change” project. The propaganda campaign –
having learned from the successful demonizations of Iraq’s Saddam
Hussein, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and other targeted leaders – has
been so masterful regarding

Syria
that many liberal and progressive news outlets were pulled in. It has
been left to RT and some Internet outlets to challenge the U.S.
government and the mainstream media.

But
the U.S. government’s near total control of the message doesn’t
appear to be enough. Apparently even a few voices of dissent are a
few voices too many.

The
enactment of HR5181, “Countering Foreign Propaganda and
Disinformation,” suggests that the ruling powers seek to escalate
suppression of news and analyses that run counter to the official
narrative. Backed by a new infusion of $160 million, the plan is to
further squelch skeptical voices with operation for “countering”
and “refuting” what the U.S. government deems to be propaganda
and disinformation.

As
part of the $160 million package, funds can be used to hire or reward
“civil society groups, media content providers, nongovernmental
organizations, federally funded research and development centers,
private companies, or academic institutions.”

Among
the tasks that these private entities can be hired to perform is to
identify and investigate both print and online sources of news that
are deemed to be distributing “disinformation, misinformation, and
propaganda directed at the United States and its allies and
partners.”

In
other words, we are about to see an escalation of the information
war.

Rick
Sterling is an independent investigative journalist. He lives in the
San Francisco Bay Area and can be reached at rsterling1@gmail.com

Click
for
 SpanishGermanDutchDanishFrench,
translation- Note- 
Translation
may take a moment to load.

Klik voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden, dit geldt niet voor de labels: Agee, M. Blumenthal en Kassab,

Aleppo, getuigenissen uit het bevrijde oostelijk deel van die stad

Vanessa Beeley kwam op Facebook met een aantal video’s over de bevrijding van Oost-Aleppo en getuigenissen van bewoners uit Oost-Aleppo, o.a. over de terreur waaraan zij waren overgeleverd, onder de ‘gematigde rebellen’ (lees: psychopathische moordenaars en verkrachters)…….

Hier de begeleidende tekst:

Vanessa
Beeley: Video – East #Aleppo Liberation Testimonies: 
Please
watch, new information, and confirmation of previous testimonies.

East
#Aleppo Liberation Testimonies: Returning to Hanano 27/12/2016

Please
watch, new information, and confirmation of previous testimonies.

“The
[Nusra Front] terrorists had enough food for one year”

“If
you said anything they disagreed with, they would kill you”

“There
were no professional doctors”

Protestors
against Nusra Front-led starvation and brutality were executed.
Terrorists shot civilians trying to flee via the Syrian Government
and Russian humanitarian corridors.

Armed
groups spread sectarian fear among civilians in order to maintain
control

Now
these civilians have their freedom back. They can say what they like.

#NoWhiteHelmets

Vertaling
bekijken

Na elke video kan u aan de rechterkant ‘swipen’ of doorklikken naar de volgende video, Hier de link naar de Facebook pagina met de video’s van Beeley.

Zie ook: ‘Aleppo: burgers dolblij met bevrijding door reguliere Syrische leger!!

       en: ‘Oost-Aleppo: de leugens van de reguliere media, Rutte 2, de Tweede Kamer en ‘deskundigen’ doorgeprikt middels een VN missie!!‘ (met Vanessa Beeley)

       en: ‘Extracting Aleppo from the Propaganda: Interviewwith Eva Bartlett, an independent western journalists covering the horrific conflict in Syria‘. (van Information Clearing House, inclusief mogelijkheid tot vertaling)

       en: ‘CIA Chief Admits the Agency’s Role in the Syrian War‘ (de bloedige rol wel te verstaan…..) (een artikel met mogelijkheid tot vertaling)

       en: ‘Russische troepen hebben massagraven in Oost-Aleppo gevonden………

       en: ‘Former UK Ambassador to Syria Debunks Aleppo Propaganda‘ (met mogelijkheid tot vertaling

       en: ‘Aleppo, de propagandaslag o.a. middels grove leugens in de reguliere westerse media en politiek………..

      en: ‘Ruslandfobie: anti-Russische propaganda, waarvoor Goebbels zich niet zou hebben geschaamd!

      en: Nep-nieuws de norm bij NOS en Volkskrant

      en: ‘Aleppo, de BBC krijgt de deksel op de propaganda neus!!

      en:  ‘Russophobia: War Party Propaganda

      en: ‘Helga Salemon mag volk opzetten tegen Rusland bij ‘onafhankelijke’ NOS….. Liegen dat het gedrukt staat!!

      en: ‘Fallujah en Aleppo, twee belegerde steden, een opvallend verschil in berichtgeving door de reguliere media………

      en: ‘Syrië, de vuile oorlog en alles wat u niet zou moeten weten. Een boek van Tim Anderson

      en: ‘Syrië, de leugens die u op de mouw worden gespeld….. Ofwel: Syrië, de vuile oorlog en…….. deel 2

      en: ‘‘Syrische bombardementen op twee ziekenhuizen’, althans volgens de westerse media en politici……

       en: ‘Mosul, het verschil in berichtgeving vergeleken met de bevrijding van Oost-Aleppo………..

Klik voor (nog) meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden.

Mijn excuus voor de vormgeving.

White Helmets >> terreurorganisatie, opgezet door Brits ex-officier en o.a. betaald door Nederland…………

De anti-Russische / Assad propaganda i.z. Syrië en Aleppo in het bijzonder, kent intussen geen grenzen meer, een zaak waar ik al veel over heb geschreven en waarover ik berichten overnam. De ‘White Helmets’ duiken telkens weer op in voornoemde propaganda als de grote helden en bron van betrouwbare informatie.

De volgende berichtgeving, o.a. van Counterpunch, gaat uitvoerig in op deze organisatie en na het lezen van nog veel meer stukken, kan ik echt geen andere conclusie trekken, dan dat deze organisatie in feite een terreurorganisatie is. Een organisatie die werd opgezet door een ex-officier van het Britse leger en o.a. betaald door de VS, Groot-Brittannië, Nederland en Denemarken…….. Overigens moet ik hier wel bij vermelden, dat ik door eerdere berichtgeving die ik tegenkwam, al tot dezelfde conclusie was gekomen, vandaar de woorden: ‘echt geen andere conclusie’.

Vanessa Beeley (journalist en mensenrechtenactivist) over de Witte Helmen:

The
White Helmets is not a charity, and neither are they ‘the good
guys’ despite their white helmets. The White Helmets is the
military propaganda arm of the Allies attempt at regime change by
destabilising Syria – and this is exactly what is causing the
refugee component of Europe’s migrant crisis in the first place.


The White Helmets was formed by a British military veteran, not Syrians, o
ne James Le Mesurie. Vanessa Beeley describes as:

A
British “security” specialist and ex-British military
intelligence officer, with an impressive track record in some of the
most dubious NATO intervention theatres including Bosnia and Kosovo,
as well as Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Vanessa Beeley
identifies Farouq Al Habib as one of them:

At
least three other members of the team were a part of the Syrian
“revolution” including Farouq al Habib, one of the 3 most
prominent White Helmet leaders who was also a leader of the Homs
uprising against the Syrian government and according to his
testimony, was tortured by the Syrian “regime” security forces in
2012 for smuggling a journalist into Syria to “cover” the
“peaceful protests”. Habib was a founder member of the ‘Homs
Revolutionary Council’ (the CIA have been linked to nearly all
‘Revolutionary Councils in Syria) before fleeing to Turkey in 2013


=========

Hier een artikel dat op 4 november jl. werd geplaatst op Counterpunch, het is geschreven door JAN
OBERG
:


Just
How Gray Are the White Helmets of Syria?

While
thousands of humanitarian organisations around the world are
struggling fiercely with diminishing support from governments and the
public, one has achieved a surprising amount of support from Western
governments in a surprisingly short period of time and gained a
surprising attention from mainstream media and ditto political
elites: The Syrian Civil Defence or White Helmets.

Their
name of course makes you think of the UN’s Blue Helmet and white is
the colour of those who should be protected in harm’s way – and
the colour of innocence. However, for many years there has been an
Argentinian relief organisation with the same name.

The
SCD or White Helmets counts nearly 3.000 rescue workers who operate
in very dangerous areas in rebel-held territories in Syria and claims
that it has, in three years, rescued about 70.000 lives according to
its Twitter account (or 65 per day).

Contrary
to what you might think, it isn’t a Syrian organisation because
Syria has its own organisation, incidentally also called Syria Civil
Defence, which was established in 1953 and is registered with ICDO,
the 
International
Civil Defence Organisation
,
since 1972.

The
White Helmets seems to have an annual budget of US$ 30 million and
has raised a total support of well over US$ 100 million. And it seems
that they operate exclusively in war zones in which the fighting
against the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army takes place,
i.e. in ‘liberated’ areas where hundreds of groups and some 80
countries, mainly NATO members, Gulf states and Saudi-Arabia,
operate.

On
the White Helmets’
 briefing
page
 it
is stated that “funding for their humanitarian relief work is
received from the aid budgets of Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, the
United Kingdom and the United States.”

Here
is how the 
Foreign
Ministry in Copenhagen explains
 the
roughly US$ 9 million to the White helmets from Denmark, a country
that bombs in both Iraq and Syria.

Other
civil society and humanitarian organisations inside Syria have not
been so fortunate. You’ve probably not heard that much about
the 
Syrian
Arab Red Crescent and its work
?
How much/little support have they received from Western
humanitarian-concerned governments? And in general, civil society
organisations in Syria – women, peace, human rights, culture, etc.
– have received nothing like US$ 100 million in a few years and no
one has such a flashy media appearance as the White Helmets.

The
White Helmets was started in 2013 by 
James
Le Mesurier
 who
seems to have tried a little of everything everywhere, including the
grey zones of special forces and intelligence in virtually all NATO
wars, Yugoslavia in particular. He later set up a foundation in
Holland to gather the funds. Here is 
a
recent account by Scott Ritter
,
former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and weapons inspector in
Iraq with tremendous knowledge of things Middle East:

The
organizational underpinnings of the White Helmets can be sourced to a
March 2013 meeting in Istanbul between a retired British military
officer, James Le Mesurier—who had experience in the murky world of
private security companies and the shadowy confluence between
national security and intelligence operations and international
organizations—and representatives of the Syrian National Council
(SNC) and the Qatari Red Crescent Society. Earlier that month, the
SNC was given Syria’s seat in the Arab League at a meeting of the
league held in Qatar.

At
that meeting, the SNC assumed Syria’s seat, and the Arab League
authorized member states to actively provide support, including arms
and ammunition, to the Syrian rebels. The Qataris, working through
the SNC, helped assemble for Le Mesurier $300,000 in seed money from
Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom for a seven-day
course designed to train and equip a 25-person rescue team, recruited
by the SNC, for duty in so-called “liberated areas” of Syria. The
SNC made available a pair of Syrian activists—Raed Saleh and Farouq
Habib—to assist Le Mesurier in this work.

The
group is – as will be seen below – treated as uncontroversial in
virtually all Western mainstream media. However, there is enough
material with documentation to merit caution.

If
you read media reports about the White Helmets and do not see the
author mention that this group’s real identity is disputed and
functions controversial you can be sure that you are wasting your
time with somebody who is politically incredibly naive, or gullible;
someone who has not done his or her research or is knowingly part of
a deceptive effort serving a one-sided political agenda.

The
White Helmets definitely is an controversial NGO – at the same time
as it is (made) difficult to understand clearly what it really is.

And
until the whole picture has been developed, anyone ought to be
cautious with taking information about them at face value. So much
must be clear given the links below.

Dual
purpose?

That
said, this author has not been on the ground but has studied both the
pro- et contra links provided below.

Some
observers draw the conclusion that the White Helmets – Syrian Civil
Defence – is purely good guys rescuing lots of people, children in
particular. The opposite advocacy claims that, all told, they are
part of the terrorist groups, serve Western governments with
intelligence and that their backers run political propaganda in their
name and that they are simply executioners – murderers with a human
face.

But
does it have to be either/or?

An
alternative hypothesis could be that the White Helmets is a
dual-purpose organisation. They claim to be ordinary Syrian
volunteers who came together around the idea of saving lives and are
truly altruistic “bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists,
painters, carpenters, students and many more, the White Helmets are
volunteers from all walks of life.” It could well be that some of
them actually are, even a majority.

That
doesn’t preclude that other elements – not the least those
operating outside Syria such as foundations, PR and marketing firms,
change organisations, NATO government and NGOs are in it with less
noble, war-promoting purposes.

Link
collection pro et contra

Find
below a link collection – long but fascinating in its wealth of
information. We bring it as a help to those seriously interested in
Syria’s fate and in studying how opinions are being built by means
of connected actors in a rather opaque networking structure, in how
NGOs have increasingly become Near-governmental organisations and for
those who do not want to sound foolish when they discuss these
matters.

First
some links to how the the White Helmets presents themselves. Second,
some mainstream media articles in their favour of and praising it –
including some that argue that the White Helmets ought to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize (which happens to be nonsense, since they don’t
even remotely qualify according to the criteria in Alfred Nobel’s
very clear will and the prize is not a general do-good-prize. In
addition, it must be doubted that the Nobel Committee will get more
persuaded by the White Helmets’ – quite immodest – campaign in
favour of their own candidacy).

Third
some links to the comprehensive network of organisations, including
governments, that the White Helmets seem to be part of – and it is
quite a confusing lot with absolutely no transparency – but quite a
few investigations have been carried out.

And
fourth and final – the main links to investigative reports and
other stuff that are sceptical in various degrees to the first three.

The
White Helmets present themselves:

The
Syrian Civil Defence – The White Helmets

The
White Helmet Homepage

On
the front page you are asked to sign an appeal for establishing a
No-Fly Zone (which would be a violation of international law).

Wikipedia’s
entry about the White Helmets

The
White Helmets’ media FAQs

Syria
Civil Defence on Facebook

The
White Helmets on Twitter

Netflix

Official
Trailer about White Helmets

The
Atlantic

The
makers of the Netflix movie give their background

Mayday
Rescue

Dutch
foundation supporting the White Helmets

According
to its website it channels government funds to the White Helmets:
“Syria Civil Defence receives funding (through Mayday Rescue and
Chemonics) from the governments of the UK, Holland, Denmark, Germany,
Japan, and the USA.”

Chemonics

A
US global development corporation through which government funds for
the White Helmets are channelled (according to Mayday Rescue).

White
Helmets themselves campaigning for the 2016 or 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Sources
that promote the White Helmets without questioning

Time

How
the White Helmets are being hunted in a devastated Aleppo

Time

The
White Helmets of Syria

The
Economist

The
rise of Syria’s White Helmets

Syria’s
White Helmets

A
film by Danish journalist Nagieb Khaja shown on Al-Jazeera (30 secs
into the film one learns that they have saved more than 56.000 lives
“since the war began in 2011″ although the White Helmets were
formed in 2013).

Nominated
for an Oscar

The
Nobel Peace Prize must go to the White Helmets

The
Guardian view on the Nobel peace prize: give it to Syria’s White
Helmets – Editorial

Syria’s
White Helmets nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The
White Helmets get the Right Livelihood Award

The
Right Livelihood’s motivation – almost a copy of the White
Helmets’ own story

Organisations
in the network around the White Helmets

Purpose

A
social movement creation and PR company that allegedly wants to
change the world, co-founded by Jeremy Heimans – whose mainstream,
politically correct background you see 
here.
Jeremy – of course – began his career with the strategy
consultants McKinsey & Company. He also happens to be a
co-founder of

Avaaz

Avaaz
means voice or song in several languages and the organisation is
known by millions as a petition platform for many good/progressive
causes. Avaaz has some 43 million members around the world and is
thus easily the largest NGO in the world.

Avaaz
has also created Purpose.com. Here Jeremy Heimans, co-founder of
Avaaz too, speaks to 
Forbes about
his background and what the two companies do.

Avaaz
is very active in promoting a No-Fly Zone in Syria
 which
it explains in a petition text with these words: “Let’s build a
resounding global call to Obama and other leaders to stand up to
Putin and Assad’s terror. This might be our last, best chance to
help end this mass murder of defenceless children. Add your name.”

The
sad thing is that it has learnt nothing from its own campaign for a
No-Fly Zone in Libya. John Hanrahan is a former executive director of
The Fund for Investigative Journalism and reporter for The Washington
Post, The Washington Star, UPI and other news organisations has
made 
this
extremely interesting analysis
 about
how odd it is that Avaaz maintains an interventionist war-agenda in
spite of earlier experiences and resistance even by high-ranking
militaries.

Hanrahan
quotes Avaaz’s campaign director, former State Department official
John Tye, “that Avaaz shows 54,000 members in Syria in a population
of 23 million – which means that even if every Avaaz member
supported a no-fly zone, this would still mean that only one of every
426 Syrians had “voted” for one.

Avaaz
spearheads – at least in this matter – an extreme militarist
policy while “Avaaz is a global web movement to bring
people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere”. Which
people want a No-Fly Zone in Syria? Do they know it’s a violation
of a sovereign state’s airspace, of international law? That it
would embolden every terrorist on Syrian soil because they would get
rid of the Syrian Airforce as their enemy? That it continued into
regime change in both Iraq and Libya?

Many
questions unanswered by this peculiar “people power”
organisation, more militarist than governments!

But
back to Purpose.com and one of its important clients: 
The
Syria Campaign – home

They
maintain on 
their
website
 that
“The Syria Campaign is fiercely independent and has accepted no
money from governments, corporations or anyone directly involved in
the Syrian conflict. This allows us full autonomy to advocate for
whatever is needed to save lives.” But they also say that they have
accepted funds from the Asfari Foundation and the Rockefeller
Brothers Foundation and other anonymous donors.

The
Syria Campaign also states that it is only pro-human rights and
pro-freedom and takes no side. But they explain the conflict in these
words:

The
regime of Bashar al-Assad is responsible for crushing a peaceful
uprising that has led to the deaths of over 450,000 people, the
displacement of over 12 million – half the country – and the
emergence of violent, extremist groups like Isis.

Today
the fighting in Syria has given way to a world war with more than
eighty countries involved on all sides.

The
majority of Syrians want neither Assad nor Isis. They want an end to
the violence and a democratic Syria.

What
is happening in Syria could be happening to any of us. No one is free
until we’re all free.”

I
would characterise such a presentation as side-taking wrapped in
substance-free marketing jargon; a very politicised statement wearing
only black-and-white.

About
the Syria Campaign

What
the Syria Campaign is proud of: Impact page

The
Syria Campaign seeks all-stars senior campaigner and “You don’t
need to know anything about Syria”

The
Syria Campaign on Facebook

The
Syria Campaign on Twitter

Analysis,
Research and Knowledge (Ark)

A
private company, headquartered in Dubai, that describes itself as “a
research, conflict transformation and stabilisation consultancy”.

In
Syria “Ark has been at the forefront of the response to the
conflict … for the past five years”. 
One
of its two team members, Alistair Harris is described here
 advocating
two years ago that “moderates” should be armed to fight ISIS and
not only in Iraq but also in Syria.

The
British-based 
Asfari
Foundation
 for
change

White
Helmets, according to their website, received seed funding came from
the Asfari Foundation – 
trustees
of which
 are
heavily related to the oil industry and corporate finance. The Asfari
Foundation’s bonds with the Syria Campaign is dealt with 
here.

Sources
raising investigation-based questions about the White Helmets

Vanessa
Beeley

Syria’s
White Helmets: War by Way of Deception – Part I

Scott
Ritter at TruthDig

The
‘White Helmets’ and the Inherent Contradiction of America’s
Syria Policy

Hands
off Syria

The
White Helmets – al-Qaeda with a facelift (video)

Rick
Sterling

The
“White Helmets” Controversy

Vanessa
Beeley

Who
are Syria’s White Helmets?

Vanessa
Beeley

The
real Syrian Civil Defence

Christina
Lin, Asia Times

White
Helmets: Instrument of regime change in Syria?

Jonathan
Gornell

Newsmaker:
The White Helmets

Syria
Solidarity Movement

Its
list of humanitarian/human rights organisation that are pushing for
war on Syria and its government

Open
Letter from The Hamilton Coalition To Stop War

White
Helmets should NOT be Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Max
Blumenthal

Inside
the shadowy public relation firm that is lobbying for regime change
in Syria (I)

Max
Blumenthal

How
the White Helmets Became International Heroes While Pushing U.S.
Military Intervention and Regime Change in Syria (II)

Rick
Sterling

Seven
steps of highly effective manipulators

21st
Century Wire

CrossTalk:
‘White Helmets, Really?’ with Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett &
Patrick Henningsen (video)

Russia
Today

Multi-million
funded – can’t be independent

General
reasons for concern about the real identity of the White Helmets

Here
are some of the reasons – numbers not indicative of priority:

+
Huge funding by NATO/EU countries which are militarily involved.

+ A
degree of political lobbying – a very specific explanation of the
conflict and how it started which points to a no-fly zone,
weaponization of human rights issues and speaks strongly against the
Syrian government and Russia and very critically of the UN – that
is extremely unusual for a purely humanitarian organisation.

+
Incredibly advanced public relation in terms of very professional
websites, videos and PR strategy dropping the right stories and
images at the right time – quite unique for a group of “bakers,
tailors and students” etc..

+
Too professional wordings and images, too much playing to
(exploitation of) emotions, too catchy smart formulations again and
again; in short, lacking every sense of genuine local quality. Too
many children – and 
cats –
in the images speaking to an audience with little politically
consciousness but surely a good heart. In short, populist marketing
also in the sense of conveying the message: Look how good we are and
how evil everybody else are.

+
Guilt by association: If the White Helmets is a 100% humanitarian
first responder organisation it must be extremely naive in ignoring
that its integrity, credibility and noble purposes is put at risk
with the specific network of organisations and governments that it
has chosen to seek support from.

+
Substance versus public relation: how does a humanitarian
organisation justify that millions of dollars are spent on
self-promoting public relation rather than on saving more lives in
such a horrific war? And taking so many photos and shoot films of its
own work in the midst of massacres and bombing raids?

+
It’s very difficult to discern who actually manages the White
Helmets in general and in terms of day-to-day operations. One looks
in vain for something like an organisational chart secretary-general,
board, executive director (although one is mentioned, Raed Saleh,
whom the US has on one occasion actually denied entry into the US).

+
How come that such an innovative organisation seems to have been
started in circles that have to do with oil interests, British
intelligence, mercenary/military operations and
interventionist/bombing countries?

+
How come it works only in rebel/terrorist/liberated areas? Could it
do that without co-operation or co-ordination with some of these
groups? It has been stated – naively – by the Right Livelihood
Award Foundation that their vision is to operate also on
government-controlled territory and later be a leader in re-building
a new democratic post-war Syria. However, why should the sovereign
state of Syria’s legitimate government accept a foreign-based and
-financed civil defence territory there when it has had its own since
1953?

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor white helmets with guns

Perhaps
we should not be that surprised?

Should
we be surprised that humanitarian workers are involved in “something
else” and are not exclusively devoted to doing no harm and doing
good for humanity?

Not
really. I’ve met that sort of people and organisations during the
dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, among other places at the US
Embassy in Zagreb where the humanitarian section people, most likely
CIA operatives, after some talk with me about helping the people
switched to talk about how good it would be if president Milosevic
was killed.

Are
humanitarian organisations – like most other NGOs today – highly
or completely dependent on governments? Yes, most are. And they
should therefore always be checked for possible moral corruption and
co-optation. Many are no longer Non- but Near-governmental and
behave, at minimum, politically correct or serve/promote the
interests of their governments one way or the other.

Wasn’t Doctors
Without Borders
 started
by Bernard Kouchner who advocated military humanitarian intervention
as an idea, did the dirty job for NATO in Kosovo and
morally 
advocated the
bombing of Libya as a “peace guarantee”? Here an
interesting 
video
debate
 with
him at Oxford by Mehdi Hasan.

Should
it be so surprising that – even liberal, democratic – governments
propagandise, construct concrete stories to appeal to the human heart
in us all (for a good cause) and that they regularly lie, do
fear-mongering, use stereotyping and demonisation, present
black-and-white narratives – all of which serve their elites’
interests and may not always be that noble in reality?

Think
of the 
ugly
shadow world of the global arms trade
 in
which virtually all governments take part in?

Of
course not. No wars would be possible without one of more of these
ingredients.

Think
of the – invented – story about the Iraqi soldiers who kicked out
babies of incubators in Kuwait city – 
all
invented as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations
campaign which was run by American Hill & Knowlton for the
Kuwaiti government.

Or,
remember 
James
Harf of the US public relations firm, Ruder and Finn
,
who in 1991 was hired by the Croatian and Bosnian governments as well
as by the Kosovo-Albanians to create and promote an anti-Serb
attitude in the Western media?

Says
Harf “We were able to equate Serbs to Nazis in public opinion…”
Some kind of balance or truth didn’t interest him: “We are
professionals. We have got a job to do and we do it.”

If
there is anything new in this field since the early 1990s it is the
spectrum, the depth, the money and the intensity with which public
opinion is being deceived about war and peace – that war today is
peace and peace is preserved by violence. And the de facto
replacement of knowledge and texts by purpose-driven, mediatized and
emotionalised “narratives” and images and films – right down on
you phone and into your mind.

In
summary: Illusions about our goodness that feed social narcissism and
the MIMAC

I
do not believe that I know exactly what the whole story and the truth
is about the White Helmets. But I know that quite a few things don’t
feel right.

As
a sociologist and peace researcher with four decades of academic and
practical experience of global affairs and work in conflict zones,
the word spoken by the guard Marcellus in Shakespeare’s Hamlet at
Kronborg Castle in my native Denmark come to mind: “There is
something rotten in the state…” not only in the bombing state of
Denmark (that supports the White Helmets) but also in the state of
the – free – media coverage of conflicts and wars.

If,
thus, you are generally sceptical of Western media coverage of wars
fought by the West and specifically of the story of the White Helmets
as a purely brave humanitarian organisation – are you then
automatically pro-Assad, pro-Russia or pro-bombing? If you are
critical to A, must you automatically endorse everything B or C does?

Given
the “Zeitgeist” of these times, my hunch is that the
anti-intellectual’s, the propagandist’s and the blamegamer’s
answer is a roaring “Yes!” Personally, I couldn’t care less but
there is reason to worry about the fact that our media are not free
to take up the issues dealt with here.

Pulitzer
prize winner, Chris Hedges, talks about 
“the
incessant manufacturing of illusions that feed social
narcissism.”
 The
– unwinnable – wars the West fights with the illusory ideology of
spreading goodness, democracy, freedom and peace as well as the
alleged good role of the White Helmets in it is little else but an
expression of such an incessant manufacturing of illusions that feed
social narcissism of the many while filling the pockets of the few in
the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex (MIMAC).

It’s
time to give reality show politics and media a reality check. But who
can and who will? And who dares now everything will get worse after
November 8?

Join
the debate on Facebook

Jan
Oberg 
is
director of the 
Transnational
Foundation for Peace & Future Research
 in
Lund, Sweden.

===============

Hier een ‘reclame Tweet’ van de Witte Helmen:

Al-Nusra en White Helmets werken samen: Muawiya Hassan Agha, die bovenop een Al Nusra tank staat met een wapen in z’n hand:

screenshot-429

Rick Sterling, a member of the steering committee of the Syrian Solidarity Movement, posted in 2015 five articles to CounterPunch on the White Helmets.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/31/humanitarians-for-war-on-syria/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/03/about-those-chlorine-gas-attacks-in-syria/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/20/biased-reporting-on-syria-in-the-service-of-war/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/14/eight-problems-with-amnestys-report-on-aleppo-syria/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/18/what-has-changed-since-aylan-kurdis-death/

===============

Eén van de manieren waarop u wordt besodemieterd over de situatie in Aleppo, kwam ik vandaag tegen op Information Clearing House: 5 Arrested After Egyptian Police Bust Staged Photo Shoot Of “Wounded Aleppo Children”: Police arrested five people for making staged “wounded children” photos, which they were planning to use to misrepresent on social media as photos of destruction and injured people in Syria’s Aleppo >> lees verder

Zie ook: White Helmets: naast gebruik van terreur ook schuldig aan orgaanhandel, vernietigende VN video presentatie

        en: Syria: The White Helmets Are Terrorist Auxiliaries

        en: ‘VS vermoordt 40 burgers in de Syrische provincie Deir ez-Zor

        en: ‘White Helmets is een terreurorganisatie, zie de bewijzen op Facebook: foto’s van de W.H. leden

        en: ‘White Helmets terreurgroep wordt vandaag met open armen ontvangen in Tweede Kamer…..‘ (zie ook de andere links over de White Helmets in dat bericht)

        en: ‘White Helmets oorlogsporno geweerd van Oscarceremonie

        en:  ‘Nederland financiert terrorisme in Syrië……..

        en: Extracting
Aleppo from the Propaganda:
Interviewwith Eva Bartlett, an independent western journalists covering thehorrific conflict in Syria‘. (van Information Clearing House, met mogelijkheid tot vertaling)


        en: ‘Russische troepen hebben massagraven in Oost-Aleppo gevonden………

        en: ‘Oost-Aleppo: de leugens van de reguliere media, Rutte 2, de Tweede Kamer en ‘deskundigen’ doorgeprikt middels een VN missie!!


       en: ‘Ruslandfobie: anti-Russische propaganda, waarvoor Goebbels zich niet zou hebben geschaamd!


       en: Nep-nieuws de norm bij NOS en Volkskrant

       en: ‘Aleppo, de BBC krijgt de deksel op de propaganda neus!!

       en:  ‘Russophobia: War Party Propaganda

       en: ‘Helga Salemon mag volk opzetten tegen Rusland bij ‘onafhankelijke’ NOS….. Liegen dat het gedrukt staat!!

       en: ‘Avaaz haalt 1 miljoen op voor terreurorganisatie Witte Helmen…. ha! ha! ha! Nu nog een inzameling voor ISIS!!!

       en: ‘Fallujah en Aleppo, twee belegerde steden, een opvallend verschil in berichtgeving door de reguliere media………

       en: ‘Syrië, de vuile oorlog en alles wat u niet zou moeten weten. Een boek van Tim Anderson

       en: ‘Syrië, de leugens die u op de mouw worden gespeld….. Ofwel: Syrië, de vuile oorlog en…….. deel 2

       en: ‘‘Syrische bombardementen op twee ziekenhuizen’, althans volgens de westerse media en politici……

      en: ‘White Helmets nogmaals ontmaskert als terreurorganisatie: de oprichter is een Britse ex-huurling…….

       en: ‘Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) laat weten hoe White Helmets vips rekruteren met Saoedisch geld….

Voor (nog meer) berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, klik op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden.

Oost-Aleppo: de leugens van de reguliere media, Rutte 2, de Tweede Kamer en ‘deskundigen’ doorgeprikt middels een VN missie!!

De Canadese journalist Eva Bartlett, die deelnam aan VN missie voor Aleppo, vertelde over wat er echt gebeurde en gebeurt in Oost-Aleppo. Bovendien gaf ze ‘de waarde’ van bronnen weer, waarop Syrië en Rusland werden en worden veroordeeld in de reguliere westerse pers en door de westerse politiek….. Een video van 3 minuten:

The
Agenda of Corporate Media Is Regime Change’ in Syria

Independent
journalist Eva Bartlett sets a smug reporter straight during a UN
Syria Mission press conference.

December
11, 2016

The Guardian geeft het nog niet keihard toe, maar tussen de regels door lees je over de terreur die de ‘gematigde rebellen’ (lees: psychopathische moordenaars…) loslieten en laten op de bevolking van Oost-Aleppo…… >> ‘Aleppo’s terrified residents flee rebel districts, death and hunger

Zie ook: ‘Aleppo: Sander van Hoorn met ongezouten anti-Russische propaganda, gebaseerd op ‘van horen en zeggen…….’

       en: ‘Aleppo: burgers dolblij met bevrijding door reguliere Syrische leger!!

       en: ‘Aleppo, getuigenissen uit het bevrijde oostelijk deel van die stad

       en: ‘Russische troepen hebben massagraven in Oost-Aleppo gevonden………

       en: ‘Palmyra (Syrië) heroverd door IS troepen uit Irak >> verzwegen smeerlapperij……..

       en: ‘Nederland financiert terrorisme in Syrië……..‘ Middels subsidie aan de Witte Helmen, plus een analyse van deze terreurgroep.

       en: ‘Avaaz haalt 1 miljoen op voor terreurorganisatie Witte Helmen…. ha! ha! ha! Nu nog een inzameling voor ISIS!!!

       en: ‘Aleppo: ‘gematigde rebellen’ gebruiken gifgas en witte fosfor om bevrijd gebied te bestoken………

       en: ‘Aleppo, de BBC krijgt de deksel op de propaganda neus!!

       en:  ‘Russophobia: War Party Propaganda

       en: ‘BBC World Service met onversneden anti-Russische propaganda i.z. Syrië……..

       en: ‘‘BBC Propaganda’ ‘Ken Loach just proved beyond doubt that the BBC is brainwashing the British public’‘ [VIDEO] 

       en: ‘Russian, Syrian Jets Did Not Conduct Airstrikes on UN Convoy in Aleppo – MoD

       en: ‘Helga Salemon mag volk opzetten tegen Rusland bij ‘onafhankelijke’ NOS….. Liegen dat het gedrukt staat!!

       en: ‘Fallujah en Aleppo, twee belegerde steden, een opvallend verschil in berichtgeving door de reguliere media………

       en: ‘Syrië, de vuile oorlog en alles wat u niet zou moeten weten. Een boek van Tim Anderson

       en: ‘Syrië, de leugens die u op de mouw worden gespeld….. Ofwel: Syrië, de vuile oorlog en…….. deel 2

       en: ‘‘Syrische bombardementen op twee ziekenhuizen’, althans volgens de westerse media en politici……

Klik voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden, dit geldt niet voor het label ‘Bartlett’. Het label SOHR, staat voor Syrian Observatory for Human Richts, een anti-Assad organisatie gehuisvest in Coventry, Engeland….. Deze ‘organisatie’ bestaat uit één man, een gewezen Syrische crimineel, o.a. vaak geciteerd door de BBC, maar ook de NOS gebruikt deze oplichter als bron voor berichten, zoals vanmorgen in het Radio1 nieuws van 11.00 u……..

Hier de langere versie van de hiervoor geplaatste video, met een duur van 18 minuten, zien mensen!