Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Moscow, SANA – British journalist Vanessa Beeley said that the so-called White Helmets Group is a “propaganda construct” supporting the “neo-colonialist” ambitions of Western powers and violent extremist groups operating in Syria.
In an investigation published by Sputnik on Monday, Beeley said that she has collected documentations indicating that the group is playing an active, often armed role in the terrorist war in Syria, adding that “where Al Qaeda and Daesh go in the country, the group is sure to follow.”
Beeley’s suspicions about the White Helmets were initially perked by her discovery the group was founded in March 2013 not in Syria, but in Turkey, and not by concerned local civilians, but James Le Mesurier, a British private security specialist and former military intelligence officer, who implied the founding of the White Helmets in an interview in 2014.
“By Le Mesurier’s own account, he quickly raised around USD 300,000 in initial funding from the UK and US, among others, a figure that before long ballooned to over USD 100 million when Western NGOs and Gulf states started stumping up cash too. Other foreign backers include the Netherlands (USD 4.5 million), Germany (USD 4.5 million), Denmark (USD 3.2 million), and Japan (figure undisclosed). Equipment and supplies have also flowed from a number of EU member states,” she added.
She pointed out that the “White Helmets” have been crucial to anti-Syrian-government propaganda efforts, offering first-hand ‘proof’ of chemical weapons attacks and other alleged atrocities carried out by government forces, which are then used to make the case for intervention. These attacks are often proven to have been staged – or work of “opposition forces”- later down the line. Another interesting feature of their videos is they never document actual strikes, just the aftermath, and there are always a vast number of cameras on-site.
Beeley also said the group has repeatedly been demonstrated to have staged and even faked photos and videos of rescues, dishonestly edited video footage to misrepresent its content, and reused old footage over and again.
Manar al-Freih / Hazem Sabbagh
