Beeley Sees Nomination of White Helmets Documentary on Syria for Oscar as Media Hype

Rasa - Vanessa Beeley, a British investigative journalist focused on the Middle East, opined that nomination of a documentary on White Helmets' rescue activities in war-hit Syria for an Oscar was a propagandistic move by western media.

News ID: 427912

Date: 05 March 2017 - 23:55

RNA - "I think it will be a victory for propaganda, basically," Beeley said in response to a question by RT interviewer about her thoughts on the nomination of a documentary about the White Helmets' humanitarian activities in Syria for an Oscar.

"They should be congratulated maybe on their acting skills rather than their humanitarian skills. Myself, and actually Lizzie Phelan of RT were actually in East Aleppo at pretty much the same time during its liberation from Al-Nusra Front-led occupation. And afterward for the many celebrations of liberation leading up to Christmas. And both of us independently in different districts of East Aleppo, as they were being liberated, were speaking to civilians as they were emerging from four and a half years of imprisonment, we were both asking these civilians what they knew of the White Helmets. Now the first point to make was, when I used the term the White Helmets, which is the label that is given to them by their marketing campaign managers and by the corporate media in the West, most of the civilians didn’t have a clue who we were talking about. When we then expanded on the theme, we mentioned that they were civil defense, then almost immediately, the response was: “Oh, you mean Al-Nusra Front civil defense.” And that was entirely unprompted by these Syrian civilians, literally as they were leaving the liberated districts," the British researcher added.

"We also accrued a number of testimonies that basically attested to the fact that they worked alongside the terrorist organizations inside East Aleppo, they worked in facilitating and sometimes even participating in the various terrorist atrocities that were carried out both at East Aleppo and in the Aleppo countryside and then in Idlib," Beedley pointed out.

"The White Helmets," a documentary about volunteer rescue workers in Syria, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short last Sunday.

It was the first Academy Award win for Netflix, which distributed the film.

Khaled Khatib, a cinematographer and press officer for the Syrian White Helmets, thanked supporters on Twitter.

The 40-minute film follows three rescue workers with the White Helmets -- also known as the Syrian Civil Defense -- who trained in Turkey to provide emergency medical assistance to civilians caught in Syria's civil war.

A Russian newspaper said in a report in December that the White Helmets Organization was behind the fake reports about Russia's airstrikes in Syria, adding that the organization was run by British agents.

Vzglyad daily said in a report that there was reason to believe that the organization was supervised by the British intelligence service and the Soros Fund.

"The Government of the United Kingdom had allocated around 32 million pounds for the needs of the White Helmets in 2013 while another 12.5 million pounds has been paid to the organization only in the year 2016," a source close to the organization told Tass news agency.

According to the source, the whole budget of the organization was about 50 million dollars a year.

The White Helmets should have also received an additional US $13 million from the United States and the United Kingdom, including the companies associated with George Soros, he added, saying that the organization also received $23 from the US International Development agency.

The source also said that one of the leaders of the White Helmets, Mosab Obeidat, was identified to have contributed a major role in the financing of the terrorist groups.

According to some reports, Obeidat played the role of a mediator in providing the Syrian militants with around 2.2 million dollars to pay for weapons and ammunition supplies.

Speaking about the founder of White Helmets James Le Mesurier, the source pointed out that, in all probability, "he is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, which to this day is at the service of Her Majesty (the British Queen), to be exact - in the British military intelligence."

Anton Mardasov, an expert at the Institute of Innovative Development, said that the problem was that the White Helmets were spreading false news, along with reliable.

Mardasov believes that the commanders of the White Helmets may be official workers of the western intelligence agencies and the western institutes' representatives prefer to work in such organizations to use them as their headquarters.

As witnessed before, the Syrian governmental forces detained the French intelligence officers in 2013 and then negotiations were held to free them.

Also, Sputnik news agency reported that the western media refer to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets to report on what they call as the Syrian army's civilians' execution or detentions.

These sheer lies are told as many people in Aleppo remember the time that the so-called supporters of human rights occupied the people's houses and threw them into rubbles immediately after turning off the cameras.

Beeley disclosed mid November that the White Helmets Organization was not an independent body despite their claims and receive financial supports from several Western states that back terrorist groups in Syria.

"The White Helmets cannot be an independent organization because it works for the interests of the western countries that back terrorist groups in Syria and receives financial support from the US, Britain and Germany instead," Beeley said, adding that "It seems to be strange that the White Helmets are constantly in the regions controlled by the ISIL and Fatah al-Sham Front (the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group previously known as the al-Nusra Front) and their affiliated groups. Videos and images taken in these regions prove that the White Helmets cooperate with the terrorists".

"The White Helmets not only offer medical services to terrorists and take part in their assassination and execution of civilians, but also work for overthrowing the Syrian government," the journalist stressed.

Early November, a Syrian journalist proved via release of several images of a Syrian child that the US-linked White Helmet Humanitarian Organization's claims of saving civilians in the war-hit country were mere lies.

Abbas Jom'eh released three images of a little girl that had been allegedly rescued by members of the White Helmet Organization in three different locations, disclosing the organization's lies about rescuing civilians in Syria.

In his twitter page, the Syrian journalist placed three images form the girl that was rescued by the White Helmet's agents in different places.

"Actors in the White Helmet rescue one girl in three different places! Can't they play their role any better on this stage," Abbas Jom'eh asked.

Moscow also said mid November that the so-called reports about "hospitals" and "schools" allegedly located in terrorist-held Syrian territory were created by the "White Helmets" group financed by London.

"After three days it is absolutely clear for everyone that the allegedly bombed "hospitals" and "mobile clinics" in Aleppo exist only in US State Department spokesman John Kirby's imagination. This "information blooper" will certainly remain a stain on Admiral Kirby's biography," Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashekov said, adding that if all the "bombed" "hospitals" and "mobile clinics" were counted, that would mean there is nothing else in Syria apart from them.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby has blamed the Russian Aerospace Forces for allegedly "bombing hospitals" in Syria.

The Russian side has often requested international organizations to provide data on the presence of any medical facilities and schools in terrorist-held territories in Syria but the organizations said they did not have information on the existence of any of such facilities.

"We have repeatedly asked representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, other countries and international organizations to provide any information on the location of medical aid posts ('hospitals') or schools in Syrian areas controlled by terrorists," Konashenkov underlined.

"The answer is always the same — no one has such information," he said.

"There are only reports by the "White Helmets" or anonymous local "journalists" ("activists")," the spokesman added.

Konashenkov underscored that the UK government officially allocated funds for the activity of "White Helmets", and so-called "mass media" in Syria which were tasked with posting on Facebook and Twitter information about chemical attacks and reports provided by locals and "White Helmets".

According to reports, despite the White Helmets claim, the organization is not an independent body and receives financial supports from several Western states that back terrorist groups in Syria.

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