White Helmets

A "hat-tip" to Vanessa Beeley and her continued efforts in exposing the White Helmets for the fake organization - that it is! Someone tried to insert "the Syrian Defense - White Helmets" into "the real Intl. Civil Defense Org" website. Someone alerted Vanessa and she contacted the real organization and had the false insertion removed.

Intl. Civil Defense Org.: “The White Helmets are not even civil defense” in Syria
https://off-guardian.org/2016/10/09/intl-civil-defence-org-the-white-helmets-are-not-even-civil-defence-in-syria/

Mike Robinson writes in the UK Column:

Later today [October 7] the Nobel Committee will announce the winner of the Peace Prize. One of the organizations in the running is the so-called White Helmets, darlings of the British Foreign Office and the BBC.

Should the White Helmets win, it would only be the latest effort by governments, NGOs and the media to promote terrorism. The fact that it is the Nobel Committee is perhaps the ultimate irony, or it would be if they hadn’t already awarded the Peace Prize to the most warlike US President in history.

Yet while it comes as no surprise that the British and US governments, the BBC and Netflix think its quite alright to promote terrorism, it did come as a shock to many that the International Civil Defense Organization would choose to do so too.

The International Civil Defense Organization (ICDO) exists to support civil defense and first responders right around the world. One of its founder members was Syria, and Syria’s Civil Defense organization has historically been held in the highest regard, involved in training similar organizations in many other countries.

On Wednesday this week, it was noticed that the ICDO had made an update to their website and had linked the Syrian entry on their membership page to the White Helmets rather than the real Syrian Civil Defense. This despite being well aware that it is the real Syrian Civil Defense which continues to pay its membership fee to the ICDO, the White Helmets having contributed nothing.

So yesterday morning Vanessa Beeley spoke to an ICDO representative in Geneva, to ask how and why this had happened.

VB: Good morning, I was wondering if you could explain why the link on your website to the Syria Civil Defense has been linked to the White Helmet website…

ICDO: I will explain to you directly. We had so many calls and emails this morning. It was a database mistake. Internal mistake. We are still an apolitical and inter-governmental organization. The only civil defense we recognize, the only government we recognize is the official one. It was just a mistake. The link to the WRONG Civil Defense. Actually the White Helmets are not even civil defense concretely. No, no it was just a mistake and it’s corrected immediately. [laughs] I am surprised that last night so many people are watching our website…

VB: Well there is so much “confusion” over who the REAL Syria Civil Defense is…and who are the White Helmets..

ICDO: Absolutely. From our side, we are working in the field and ONLY with official governments, we don’t even talk about any political issues.

VB: Good. So as far as ICDO is concerned – the REAL Syria Civil Defense and the Syrian Government are officially recognized by the ICDO

ICDO: Yes, it is the only one that is recognized, I mean, by the UN and by us also.

VB: So the Syria Civil Defense is the only organization recognized in Syria by the UN and by the ICDO, is that correct?

ICDO: Yes the official one, NOT THE WHITE HELMETS.

A mistake, then, and a clear and definitive statement that the White Helmets are not viewed internationally, including by the United Nations, as being a first responder civil defense organization. The only civil defense organization recognized is the real Syrian Civil Defense.

Where does this leave the credibility of those who promote terrorists as heroes?

The Guardian’s comments are the now standard disaster-zone. Open for less than an hour and with a full one-third (18 of the 55) comments censored. Of the 37 remaining, only 15 support the ATL position. And those fifteen comments are all made by the same seven people. This is less about propaganda and more about cultist reality-denial.

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Only SEVEN people BTL support Guardian’s fact-free White Helmets editorial
https://off-guardian.org/2016/10/06/30325/

Published on October 6, 2016 - October 4’s WaPo was casually discussing the possibilities of the US escalating the situation in Syria by directly attacking the Syrian army without a UN mandate. The fact that it inverts reality by claiming such illegality would be “humanitarian” while simultaneously accusing the Syrian government and its ally Russia of “war crimes” is not that surprising. But its absolute refusal to recognize the fact that any such move by the US would be a likely introduction to WW3 is a deeper kind of madness.

It’s increasingly clear that the ineffectual John Kerry and his fellow (comparative) non-loons, are failing to rein in the incompetent Keystone Cops-crazies who think they can launch and win a conventional war against Russia. In fact Kerry is partaking of the same rhetoric much of the time, presumably in an attempt not to be sidelined. Neither he nor his friends have the brains, the organization or the will to offer real opposition to the drive to war. The WaPo is presenting what is the current Washington “consensus”, viz adolescent “tough-talking” and heated declamations. The non-crazies may be hoping this war-talk will remain purely that – talk. But absent any diplomatic initiatives or any serious attempts to present alternative analysis, this hope is forlorn. The “conventional war” will be launched and only the idiot-lunatics, the Nulands, Kagans and Carters, will be amazed when it goes nuclear and wipes them (and us) out of existence.

Right now, in the midst of the most dangerous Russian/US stand-off since the Crimea crisis in early 2014, maybe even since the Cuban Missile near-miss, where are the voices of reason in the West? We are on the brink of catastrophic war, and nothing but footling distraction headlines or schizophrenic reality-denial and occasional bouts of hysteria is coming out of the White House or the State Department, or their principal “papers of record.”

If you doubt this even slightly – look at yesterday’s Guardian, where we can find this stunning headline:

“The Guardian view on the Nobel peace prize: give it to Syria’s White Helmets”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/05/the-guardian-view-on-the-nobel-peace-prize-give-it-to-syrias-white-helmets

What is there to say? The facts about the White Helmets are out there and freely available. It’s easy to find out what they are and what they do. It’s established they are a front for Al Nusra and other terrorist outlets, who have openly allied with terrorist groups and faked videos of their own heroism. It’s a fact beyond question that 85%+ of Aleppo is in Syrian government control and is being attacked by the “rebels”, not by the SAA, and that launching a war to “defend” the few pockets of remaining terrorist stronghold would be an act of pure insanity. Everyone with any remaining sanity knows that no one, however evil, could possibly find as many “hospitals” to bomb as Russia allegedly does, even if they went looking. But the WaPo and the Guardian simply behave as if these facts do not exist and are not widely publicized, and the Guardian in particular persists in publishing articles so risible so reality-denying they have destroyed its reputation beyond rescue.

It’s like reading articles by respected authorities claiming gravity no longer exists or that humans can now fly. The reaction we feel is now less anger and more baffled incomprehension.

In fact both the WaPo and the Guardian, and most of the MSM, are currently exhibiting a kind of psychological denial that goes way beyond propaganda and into something much more dangerous and strange. Propaganda is about convincing the masses to believe your lies. But look BTL in the comments under both these articles. Almost no one is believing.

The comments in the WaPo – normally much more pro-official agenda than in the Guardian – are, even with repeat input from a couple of busy warmongers, full of people saying “we don’t want WW3 over Aleppo” or calling out US hypocrisy in arming al Qaeda and al Nusra.

A repost of an SOTT article - from August 14, 2016 - that is being reposted now at this site - giving SOTT Credit

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Western corporate media 'disappears' over 1.5 million Syrians and 4,000 doctors
https://www.sott.net/article/325238-Western-corporate-media-disappears-over-1-5-million-Syrians-and-4000-doctors#

Reposted here on Saturday October 8th: In the Comment section, other's are reposting the SOTT article.

Syria: Doctors in Aleppo refute Western media lies
https://off-guardian.org/2016/10/08/syria-doctors-in-aleppo-refute-western-media-lies/

I happened to be going through some old news articles on Ukraine, when I came across this article on
“the Blue Helmets of Maidan,” yet, I don't remember reading anything about them when Ukraine was experiencing revolution and turmoil in their streets. I wonder, if these "Blue Helmets" are the one's referred to - as the Brown Shirts, a neo-nazi group?

Back dated February 28, 2014

Israeli militia commander fights to protect Kiev
_http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-militia-commander-fights-to-protect-kiev/

He calls his troops “the Blue Helmets of Maidan,” but brown is the color of the headgear worn by Delta — the nom de guerre of the commander of a Jewish-led militia force that participated in the Ukrainian revolution. Under his helmet, he also wears a kippah.

Delta, a Ukraine-born former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, spoke to JTA Thursday on condition of anonymity. He explained how he came to use combat skills he acquired in the Shu’alei Shimshon reconnaissance battalion of the Givati infantry brigade to rise through the ranks of Kiev’s street fighters. He has headed a force of 40 men and women — including several fellow IDF veterans — in violent clashes with government forces.

Several Ukrainian Jews, including Rabbi Moshe Azman, one of the country’s claimants to the title of chief rabbi, confirmed Delta’s identity and role in the still-unfinished revolution.

The “Blue Helmets” nickname, a reference to the UN peacekeeping force, stuck after Delta’s unit last month prevented a mob from torching a building occupied by Ukrainian police, he said. “There were dozens of officers inside, surrounded by 1,200 demonstrators who wanted to burn them alive,” he recalled. “We intervened and negotiated their safe passage.”

The problem, he said, was that the officers would not leave without their guns, citing orders. Delta told JTA his unit reasoned with the mob to allow the officers to leave with their guns. “It would have been a massacre, and that was not an option,” he said.

The Blue Helmets comprise 35 men and women who are not Jewish, and who are led by five ex-IDF soldiers, says Delta, an Orthodox Jew in his late 30s who regularly prays at Azman’s Brodsky Synagogue. He declined to speak about his private life.

Delta, who immigrated to Israel in the 1990s, moved back to Ukraine several years ago and has worked as a businessman. He says he joined the protest movement as a volunteer on Nov. 30, after witnessing violence by government forces against student protesters.

“I saw unarmed civilians with no military background being ground by a well-oiled military machine, and it made my blood boil,” Delta told JTA in Hebrew laced with military jargon. “I joined them then and there, and I started fighting back the way I learned how, through urban warfare maneuvers. People followed, and I found myself heading a platoon of young men. Kids, really.”

The other ex-IDF infantrymen joined the Blue Helmets later after hearing it was led by a fellow vet, Delta said.

As platoon leader, Delta says he takes orders from activists connected to Svoboda, an ultra-nationalist party that has been frequently accused of anti-Semitism and whose members have been said to have had key positions in organizing the opposition protests.

“I don’t belong [to Svoboda], but I take orders from their team. They know I’m Israeli, Jewish and an ex-IDF soldier. They call me ‘brother,’” he said. “What they’re saying about Svoboda is exaggerated, I know this for a fact. I don’t like them because they’re inconsistent, not because of [any] anti-Semitism issue.”

The commanding position of Svoboda in the revolution is no secret, according to Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Washington DC-based Heritage Foundation think tank.

“The driving force among the so-called white sector in the Maidan are the nationalists, who went against the SWAT teams and snipers who were shooting at them,” Cohen told JTA.

Still, many Jews supported the revolution and actively participated in it.

Earlier this week, an interim government was announced ahead of election scheduled for May, including ministers from several minority groups.

Volodymyr Groysman, a former mayor of the city of Vinnytsia and the newly appointed deputy prime minister for regional policy, is a Jew, Rabbi Azman said.

“There are no signs for concern yet,” said Cohen, “but the West needs to make it clear to Ukraine that how it is seen depends on how minorities are treated.”

On Wednesday, Russian State Duma Chairman Sergey Naryshkin said Moscow was concerned about anti-Semitic declarations by radical groups in Ukraine.

But Delta says the Kremlin is using the anti-Semitism card falsely to delegitimize the Ukrainian revolution, which is distancing Ukraine from Russia’s sphere of influence.

“It’s bullshit. I never saw any expression of anti-Semitism during the protests, and the claims to the contrary were part of the reason I joined the movement. We’re trying to show that Jews care,” he said.

Still, Delta’s reasons for not revealing his name betray his sense of feeling like an outsider. “If I were Ukrainian, I would have been a hero. But for me it’s better to not reveal my name if I want to keep living here in peace and quiet,” he said.

Fellow Jews have criticized him for working with Svoboda. “Some asked me if instead of ‘Shalom’ they should now greet me with a ‘Sieg heil.’ I simply find it laughable,” he said. But he does have frustrations related to being an outsider. “Sometimes I tell myself, ‘What are you doing? This is not your army. This isn’t even your country.’”

He recalls feeling this way during one of the fiercest battles he experienced, which took place last week at Institutskaya Street and left 12 protesters dead. “The snipers began firing rubber bullets at us. I fired back from my rubber-bullet rifle,” Delta said.

“Then they opened live rounds, and my friend caught a bullet in his leg. They shot at us like at a firing range. I wasn’t ready for a last stand. I carried my friend and ordered my troops to fall back. They’re scared kids. I gave them some cash for phone calls and told them to take off their uniform and run away until further instructions. I didn’t want to see anyone else die that day.”

Currently, the Blue Helmets are carrying out police work that include patrols and preventing looting and vandalism in a city of 3 million struggling to climb out of the chaos that engulfed it for the past three months.

But Delta has another, more ambitious, project: He and Azman are organizing the airborne evacuation of seriously wounded protesters — none of them Jewish — for critical operations in Israel. One of the patients, a 19-year-old woman, was wounded at Institutskaya by a bullet that penetrated her eye and is lodged inside her brain, according to Delta. Azman says he hopes the plane of 17 patients will take off next week, with funding from private donors and with help from Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel.

“The doctor told me that another millimeter to either direction and she would be dead,” Delta said. “And I told him it was the work of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.”

Looking back to the coup in Kiev and the information provided in our columns during the course of the events, Manlio Dinucci describes a decades-old device used by the United States and NATO as it appears today: a new "Gladio," that is to say a secret military structure capable of manipulating political facts.
To paraphrase a famous U.S. television series: "The Pentagon will deny all knowledge of your actions ..."

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The new Gladio in Ukraine
http://www.voltairenet.org/article182860.html

His nom de guerre is Delta. He is one of the military leaders of the "Ukrainian revolution" even if, as he himself says, he does not consider himself Ukrainian. Under the helmet he wears a kippa. The story was released by the Jewish press agency JTA (headquartered in New York), after doing an anonymous interview and photographing him in camouflage with a bulletproof vest, his face hidden behind sunglasses and a black scarf. [1]

"Delta" is a former veteran of the Israeli army, who specialized in urban warfare as a member of the Givati infantry brigade, which was involved in Operation Cast Lead and other attacks on Gaza, including the massacre of civilians in the neighborhood of Tel el-Hawa. Back in Ukraine since a few years behind the guise of a businessman, he set up and trained, together with other former Israeli soldiers, the "Blue Helmets of Maidan", a fighting unit applying in Kiev the same urban techniques that were experimented in Gaza.

As he told the JTA, his platoon takes its orders from Svoboda, that is to say a party that behind its new facade retains its neo-Nazi matrix. So as to reassure the Ukrainian Jews who rightfully feel threatened by the neo-Nazis, "Delta" insisted that the accusation of anti-Semitism levelled against Svoboda is "bullshit."

The presence in Ukraine of Israeli military specialists is confirmed by the information relayed by the JTA and other Jewish news agencies, according to which many of the wounded in clashes with the Kiev police were immediately carried off to Israeli hospitals, evidently to prevent someone from revealing any more inconvenient truths. Such as the one about the people who trained and armed the snipers on Maidan Square who, with the same precision rifles, fired on both the protesters and police (almost all shot in the head).

These facts shed a new light on the way the coup in Kiev was organized and implemented. Under the direction of the United States and NATO, the CIA and other secret services have for years recruited, funded, trained and armed the neo-Nazi activists that in Kiev stormed government buildings, and were then made into the "national Guard.”

Photographic documentation, which has been circulating recently on the internet, shows young Ukrainian activists belonging to the neo-Nazi Uno-Unso organization, in Estonia in 2006, being trained by NATO instructors in urban warfare techniques and the use of explosives for sabotage and attacks [2] NATO did the same thing during the Cold War to form the clandestine "stay-behind" paramilitary structure, codenamed "Gladio" [3]. Active also in Italy where, at Camp Darby ( U.S. military base near Pisa ) and other sites, they trained neo-fascist groups to carry out attacks and perpetrate a possible coup d’état. An analogous paramilitary structure was created and is functioning today in Ukraine, also using Israeli specialists.

The coup would not have succeeded, however, if NATO had not co-opted a large part of the top echelons of the Ukrainian military hierarchy, training them for years at NATO’s Defense College and in drilling them in "peace operations." And it is not difficult to imagine that, in the shadows of the official network, a secret one is lurking. Thus, the Ukrainian armed forces heeded NATO’s order to "remain neutral" while the coup was unfolding. Then, they were taken over by by Andriy Parubiy, co-founder of the National Socialist Party renamed Svoboda, who became secretary of the Committee of National Defense, and by Admiral Igor Tenjukh, appointed Defense Minister, who is also linked to Svoboda .

Without doubt, the purging (or elimination) of those officers considered to be unreliable is already in progress. While NATO, which has de facto annexed Ukraine, pronounced the referendum in Crimea "illegal and illegitimate ."

Altair said:

https://youtu.be/w00hr5aez3M

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Sometimes these small videos are great as they in a short amount of time puts holes in the beliefs that people have and thus causes doubts and rethinking. The fact is that people are bombarded with information and thus have little time for indepth videos. But that is where these videos have their niche as they are short enough for people to them.

Btw. good find Angelburst about the Blue helmets in Ukraine. Worth keeping eyes open about these colored helmets popping up in places of unrest.

This article was published by Global Research on October 14, 2016 and basically contains info already entered here, yet contains a claim I was unaware of - that the White Helmets have 119 centers across the whole Syria! Sounds more like "an intelligence gathering outfit"?

Syria’s “White Helmets”: Fiction and Reality
http://www.globalresearch.ca/syrias-white-helmets-fiction-and-reality/5550964

It’s not a secret that since the Syrian crisis began in 2011, dozens of NGOs have been set up. As a rule, these organizations have a pretty title and stand for the rights and freedoms of the Syrians while providing some humanitarian aid.

In 2012, these organizations list had Syrian Civil Defense included. It was founded by a former British intelligence officer and private security specialist James Le Mesurier who took part in various conflicts around the world including Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

In a few years, Syrian Civil Defense turned from an NGO into a structure with its own uniform, symbols and even vehicles. It has 119 centers across whole Syria: in Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Homs, Hama, Damascus. 2016 even saw an attempt to nominate the White Helmets for Nobel peace prize.


(Comment - Great article - short and to the point.)
Fact-Sheet on Syria’s “White Helmets”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fact-sheet-on-syrias-white-helmets/5549760?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

Off Guardian 5 October 2016 - reprinted Global Research, October 07, 2016

The White Helmets – here are a few facts that you need to know. Share this to your family and friends who subsist on Western corporate media:

* The White Helmets, also called Syria Civil Defense, are not who they claim to be. The group is not Syrian; it was created with USA/UK funding under the supervision of a British military contractor in 2013 in Turkey.

* The name “Syria Civil Defense” was stolen from the legitimate Syrian organization of the same name. The authentic Syria Civil Defense was founded in 1953 and is a founding member of the International Civil Defense Organization (1958).

* The name “White Helmets” was inappropriately taken from the legitimate Argentinian relief organization Cascos Blancos / White Helmets. In 2014, Cascos Blancos / White Helmets was honored at the United Nations for 20 years of international humanitarian assistance.

* The NATO White Helmets are primarily a media campaign to support the ‘regime change’ goals of the USA and allies. After being founded by security contractor James LeMesurier, the group was “branded” as the White Helmets in 2014 by a marketing company called “The Syria Campaign” managed out of New York by non-Syrians such as Anna Nolan. “The Syria Campaign” was itself “incubated” by another marketing company named “Purpose”.

* The White Helmets claim to be “neutral, impartial and humanitarian” and to “serve all the people of Syria” is untrue. In reality, they only work in areas controlled by the violent opposition, primarily terrorists associated with Nusra/AlQaeda (recently renamed Jabhat Fath al Sham).

* The White Helmets claim to be unarmed is untrue. There are photos which show their members carrying arms and celebrating Nusra/AlQaeda military victories.

* The White Helmets claim to be apolitical and non-aligned is untrue. In reality they actively promote and lobby for US/NATO intervention in violation of the norms of authentic humanitarian work.

* The Right Livelihood description that “Syria Civil Defense” saved over 60,000 people and “support in the provision of medical services to nearly 7 million people” is untrue. In reality the zones controlled by terrorists in Syria have few civilians remaining. That is why we see “cat” video/media stunts featuring the White Helmets.

* The NATO White Helmets actually undermine and detract from the work of authentic organizations such as the REAL Syria Civil Defense and Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

* The recent Neflix movie about the White Helmets is not a documentary; it is a self promotional advertisement. The directors never set foot in Syria. The Syrian video, real or staged, was provided by the White Helmets themselves. From the beginning scenes showing a White Helmet actor telling his little boy not to give mommy a hard time until the end, the video is contrived and manipulative. The video was produced by a commercial marketing company Violet Films/Ultra Violet Consulting which advertises its services as “social media management”, “crowd building” and “campaign implementation”.

Another good article (but long) with a lot of information and interesting tid-bits. It starts out describing the PR in Washington to promote the White Helmets and goes onto other related stuff - like endorsements and it's backers. I'll only quote a few paragraphs of interest but the whole article is a good read.

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How The “White Helmets” Became International Heroes While Pushing U.S. Military Intervention And Regime Change In Syria
http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-white-helmets-became-international-heroes-while-pushing-u-s-military-intervention-and-regime-change-in-syria/5549881?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

Among the group’s biggest boosters is Sophie McNeill, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent who was among the first reporters to publish the now-famous photo of 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh being extracted from the rubble of an Eastern Aleppo apartment building.

On her Twitter account, McNeill urged readers to donate money to the White Helmets and expressed her hope that the group wins the Nobel Prize. (McNeill did not respond to questions sent to her publicly listed email.) Laura Rosenberger, a foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton, also took to Twitter to promote the group, posting a Wall Street Journal article hailing the civil defense group as “white knights for desperate Syrians.” Hillary Clinton quickly retweeted Rosenberger, registering her own tacit endorsement of the White Helmets. On September 22, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that he was “honored to meet [the White Helmets] leader and Aleppo activists,” hailing the organization as “brave 1st responders on the scene.”

***
The White Helmets were founded in collaboration with USAID’s Office of Transitional Initiatives the wing that has promoted regime change around the world—and have been provided with $23 million in funding from the department. USAID supplies the White Helmets through Chemonics, a for-profit contractor based in Washington DC that has become notorious for wasteful aid imbroglios from Haiti to Afghanistan. While members of the White Helmets have been implicated in atrocities carried out by jihadist rebel groups, the names of many of the firms that supposedly monitor and evaluate their work have been kept secret by USAID on unspecified security grounds.

Away from the battlefield, the White Helmets have proven one of the most effective tools in the Syria Campaign’s public relations arsenal. Apart from the group’s own calls for a no-fly zone, the White Helmets have been at the center of the Syria Campaign’s ongoing attack on the United Nations, which it accuses of illicit collusion with Assad. This month, the White Helmets joined 74 other groups operating in rebel-held territory announced their refusal this month to cooperate with the U.N. as long as it recognizes the Syrian government. In a separate move, the Syria Campaign launched a petition to demand that the United States National Security Council share confidential radar information with White Helmets teams operating on the ground, apparently including in areas controlled by extremist rebel factions.

In May 2015, White Helmets spokesperson Raed Saleh met privately with U.N. and EU officials to push for a no-fly zone. A month later, Saleh’s colleague Farouq Habib testified before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs in support of a no-fly zone, claiming to possess first-hand knowledge of chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government. With the Obama administration having drawn its “red line” at the deployment of chemical weapons, allegations like these are potential trigger points for full-scale U.S. military intervention.

***
The Syria Campaign is a private company founded by a New York- and London-based public relations firm called Purpose in order to generate public pressure for the removal of Syria’s government. It led the push for the White Helmets’ Nobel Prize nomination, orchestrated the group’s endorsements from Hollywood celebrities and has fundraised for its Netflix documentary vehicle.

Kenan Rahmani, a legal and strategy adviser to the Syria Campaign, for his part, was a policy adviser to the Coalition for a Democratic Syria, a umbrella organization of exile groups with close ties to the Syrian rebels and neoconservative organizations in Washington, before he took his current job at the Syria Campaign.

***
Ayman Asfari, billionaire CEO of the petroleum services company Petrofac, Asfari contributed $180,000 of the Syria Campaign’s $800,000 budget this year. (Most of the company’s donors are anonymous.)

The White Helmets’ founding fathers

Back in July 2012, a year after the Syrian conflict began, USAID began to lay the groundwork for its Syrian Regional Option. With American analysts excitedly proclaiming the imminent downfall of Bashar Al-Assad and his government, USAID rushed to “provide support to emerging civil authorities to build the foundation for a peaceful and democratic Syria,” according to a USAlD executive report from that year.

The grants were authorized by USAID’s Office of Transitional Initiatives (OTI), spearheading efforts to encourage what proponents like to call “democracy promotion” in countries like Cuba and Venezuela, but which amount to failed attempts at regime change. In Cuba, USAID’s OTI caused an embarrassing diplomatic incident in 2014 when it was exposed for funding a program aimed at spawning instability and undermining the government through a Twitter-like social network called Zunzuneo.

Following a series of pilot programs carried out by a for-profit, Washington DC-based contractor called Development Alternatives International (DAI) at a cost of $290,756 to U.S. taxpayers, the OTI began setting up local councils in rebel-held territory in Syria. The idea was to establish a parallel governing structure in insurgent-held areas that could one day supplant the current government in Damascus.
According to its 2012 USAID executive summary on the Syria Regional Option (PDF), “foreign extremist entities” already held sway across the country.

In March 2013, a former British infantry officer named James Le Mesurier turned up on the Turkish border of Syria. Le Mesurier was a veteran of NATO interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo who moved into the lucrative private mercenary industry after his army days ended. But running security for the UAE’s oil and gas fields left him feeling unfulfilled with his career as a hired gun. He wanted to be a part of something more meaningful. So he became a lead participant in USAID’s Syria Regional Option.

Le Mesurier’s job was to organize a unique band of people who rush into freshly bombed buildings to extract survivors—while filming themselves—in rebel-held areas facing routine bombing by Syrian army aircraft. In 2014, he established Mayday Rescue, a non-profit based in Turkey that grew out of the Dubai-based “research, conflict transformation, and consultancy” firm known as Analysis, Research, and Knowledge, or ARK. That group, which employed Le Mesurier while overseeing the White Helmets’ training, has been sustained through grants from Western governments and the British Ministry of Defense. Mayday Rescue, for its part, received around $300,000 in initial funding from the U.S. Department of State to assist in training the first responders. Though they were known as Syrian Civil Defense, graduates of Le Mesurier’s course became popularly identified by the signature headgear they wore in the field: White Helmets.

Since being founded under the watch of Mayday Rescue, the White Helmets have received grants worth millions of dollars from the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Japan and USAID. To date, USAID has donated $23 million to the White Helmets, a substantial sum for a civil defense project in a war zone.

Mark Ward, director of the Syria Transition Assistance and Response Team at the State Department, highlighted the political dimension of the White Helmets’ funding in an interview with Men’s Journal: “[Funding the White Helmets is] one of the most important things we can do to increase the effectiveness and legitimacy of civil authorities in liberated areas of Syria.”

In the Netflix documentary The White Helmets, Mayday Rescue is never identified as the administrator of the group, nor does Le Mesurier ever appear on screen. USAID and Chemonics, the for-profit contractor that supplies the group, are also curiously omitted from the film.

An unmonitored money dump?

USAID relies on Chemonics to deliver resources to the White Helmets.

Based in downtown Washington DC, Chemonics has developed a checkered history across the world. In Haiti, the company squandered millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and delivered next to nothing for average Haitians while racking up a $2.5 million bonus for its CEO.

In reports by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and USAID Inspector General, Chemonics was slammed for its incompetent performance and poor evaluation procedures, and was accused of wasting tens of millions of dollars in Afghanistan. (Article continues.)

Angelburst, it almost appears as if the 119 centers...

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic said:

In a few years, Syrian Civil Defense turned from an NGO into a structure with its own uniform, symbols and even vehicles. It has 119 centers across whole Syria: in Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Homs, Hama, Damascus. 2016 even saw an attempt to nominate the White Helmets for Nobel peace prize.

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came from

... the [USAID] OTI began setting up local councils in rebel-held territory in Syria. The idea was to establish a parallel governing structure in insurgent-held areas that could one day supplant the current government in Damascus.

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The White Helmets say later:

Mark Ward, director of the Syria Transition Assistance and Response Team at the State Department, highlighted the political dimension of the White Helmets’ funding in an interview with Men’s Journal: “[Funding the White Helmets is] one of the most important things we can do to increase the effectiveness and legitimacy of civil authorities in liberated areas of Syria.”

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As you wrote:

Sounds more like "an intelligence gathering outfit"

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So these 119 centers most likely gather intel for military strategic planning, military offensives etc. AND send battle field 'info' to PR outfits such as SOHR, whom the Western Press is happy to quote indescriminately. When it comes to areas held by the Syrian government, the western mainstream media just claim that they can not verify information there as there are no sources available to them from there. It fits the agenda of regime change.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/berlin-terror-suspect-former-member-white-helmets-idlib/

Berlin terror suspect was former member of White Helmets in Idlib
By Leith Fadel -
16/10/2016 1

A German policeman holds the picture of a terrorist-subject infront of the main terminal of Berlin-Schoenefeld airport, in Schoenefeld, near Berlin, October 9, 2016, following a suspicion that a bomb attack was being planned in Germany. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (7:35 P.M.) - The Syrian man accused of planning a terror attack in Berlin, Jaber Al-Bakr, reportedly joined the western-funded "White Helmets" group in the Idlib Governorate prior to his return to Germany two months ago, Reuters News Agency claimed on Sunday.

Al-Bakr's brother spoke to Reuters on Sunday, claiming that Jaber may have been radicalized by local imams in Germany before planning to carry out a terrorist attack against the country that hosted him and thousands of Syrian refugees.

The terror suspect later committed suicide in his jail cell before answering any questions regarding his motives.

Infuriated over his brother's arrest, 'Alaa Al-Bakr told a German newspaper on Sunday that he plans to exact revenge against the Syrian refugees that reported his brother to the cops.

Syrian refugees living in Germany helped play a crucial role in stopping Jaber Al-Bakr from carrying out a terrorist attack in Berlin, thanks to their early warnings to the local authorities.

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So his brother blames his brother's radicalization on imams in Germany although he had only been in Germany two months. It is more likely that he was with Al-Nusra in Syria, which fits with him joining the White Helmets, before he got a new job to do. Thus he was already a willing patsy terrorist before arriving in Germany. That he had been with the White Helmets does not play into his favour as we know from reading their murky history, but against it.

Just noticed tonight on the newsstand, the Times's magazines new glossy cover (Oct 17, 2016Vol 188 No 15). In the days to come it will be greeting people wherever they look, front row and center, as only effective propaganda does.

At first, I'm amazed at the downright in-your-face lie, sure, some will believe it, yet so many don't. However, how many is "so many?" The reality of the situation is for the 'target' audience, not those who understand such methods of deception. Therefore, and they must know it, the target audience is in the millions, the hundreds of millions of people who probably could not identify the boarders of this country, Syria, let alone the geopolitical aims other than, as they have been told ad nauseum, the rebels are good, al-Assad is bad; nothing else registers - oh, and the White Helmets should get an award.

Without having read a single word in the actual article, one can project how heart strings will be pulled. Trigger word after trigger word will rapture the reader with these new created heroes against the arch-villain who is barrel bombing his way against the sacred democracy - or something like that.

Have a look, it is a stomach turner:

voyageur said:

Just noticed tonight on the newsstand, the Times's magazines new glossy cover (Oct 17, 2016Vol 188 No 15). In the days to come it will be greeting people wherever they look, front row and center, as only effective propaganda does.

At first, I'm amazed at the downright in-your-face lie, sure, some will believe it, yet so many don't. However, how many is "so many?" The reality of the situation is for the 'target' audience, not those who understand such methods of deception. Therefore, and they must know it, the target audience is in the millions, the hundreds of millions of people who probably could not identify the boarders of this country, Syria, let alone the geopolitical aims other than, as they have been told ad nauseum, the rebels are good, al-Assad is bad; nothing else registers - oh, and the White Helmets should get an award.

Without having read a single word in the actual article, one can project how heart strings will be pulled. Trigger word after trigger word will rapture the reader with these new created heroes against the arch-villain who is barrel bombing his way against the sacred democracy - or something like that.

Have a look, it is a stomach turner:

Click to expand...

Yes, it is really disheartening to watch the lies propagated by the msm. But the people who swallow this swill, imo, are waay beyond redemption anyway. But when I run across anyone who tries to push this BS on me, I give them the truth with both barrels. I f they want to swallow this swill lock, stock, and barrel, well fine and good. But they're going to have to keep their delusions to themselves when they're around me.
And yes, at times there is a price to pay for truth. Being vilified, mocked, insulted, whatever. But I just consider the source and brush it off. Whether or not my perception is right, I just regard those people as lower life forms incapable of accepting the truth. You know, the moral exoskeletonized authoritarian followers. I can count on three fingers, the people who really accept and understand what is really going on.

Redrock12 said:

Yes, it is really disheartening to watch the lies propagated by the msm. But the people who swallow this swill, imo, are waay beyond redemption anyway. But when I run across anyone who tries to push this BS on me, I give them the truth with both barrels. I f they want to swallow this swill lock, stock, and barrel, well fine and good. But they're going to have to keep their delusions to themselves when they're around me.
And yes, at times there is a price to pay for truth. Being vilified, mocked, insulted, whatever. But I just consider the source and brush it off. Whether or not my perception is right, I just regard those people as lower life forms incapable of accepting the truth. You know, the moral exoskeletonized authoritarian followers. I can count on three fingers, the people who really accept and understand what is really going on.

Click to expand...

Well, I can understand your sentiments - sometimes, I want to just scream in such situations, because I don't even know where to start! But, I don't. Usually, it wouldn't help either me or them. Also, while there are certainly a lot of authoritarian idiots out there, it's not that black and white I think. For example, some people have rather sound opinions on domestic topics, yet completely buy into the lies about Russia - they are fed these horror stories about Putin bombing children and so on, and they are morally outraged! It's easy to manipulate people of conscience with such tactics. They simply don't know better, perhaps because they are not that interested, or they don't know where to look. Let's remember also that especially elderly people often are not that internet-savy and depend on the MSM. That's not always an excuse of course, but I think it's important to understand where different people are coming from. And, frankly, I much prefer someone who is a compassionate human being with a sound attitude towards life who - sadly - is being manipulated by the MSM in this or that topic over some 'alternative' narcissist who knows some things about the Syrian conflict but otherwise is a total prick. I guess all I'm saying is that it really depends on the specific situations/people we are dealing with.

voyageur said:

Just noticed tonight on the newsstand, the Times's magazines new glossy cover (Oct 17, 2016Vol 188 No 15). In the days to come it will be greeting people wherever they look, front row and center, as only effective propaganda does.

Click to expand...

Great find, Voyageur and Thanks for providing a photo of the cover. What I find odd, other than the out right propaganda on the cover and the truck facing into - what looks like a sand storm - is the void on the left hand side. My impression is that this publication was probably "in the works" just prior to the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize and something to that effect was to be inserted in that area? Well, all the manipulating didn't get the White Helmets their Peace Prize!

There seems to be a up-tick in flooding the media with propaganda and neutralizing news sites that provide truthful reporting, not to mention, RT's UK bank accounts and WikiLeaks internet assess blocked.

Like Time magazine, Newsweek is showing it's true colors. RT receives a large portion of it's funding by the Russian Government, as does Sputnik. Recently, a top writer and editor of Sputnik published an article and within a half hour - noticed a discrepancy and pulled it out of circulation ... but not before Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald picked up on it and used it as a propaganda piece. Even though it was an honest mistake made by Bill Moran, he was fired by Sputnik. Sputnik then reconsidered and wanted to hire Moran back but by that time, the damage was already done.

Exposed: How Newsweek Fabricated a Putin-Trump Conspiracy Theory
https://sputniknews.com/radio_loud_and_clear/201610181046435797-exposed-how-newsweek-fabricated-a-putin-trump-conspiracy-theory/

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian is joined by Bill Moran, a former writer and editor for Sputnik’s DC bureau, to discuss the concerted efforts by Clinton supporters and the mainstream corporate-owned media to smear Sputnik News and the Russian government for trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

New information has come to light that shows the lows to which senior Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwald and many other mainstream media outlets stooped to smear Sputnik news and deflect attention from Hillary Clinton’s mounting scandals. Former Sputnik editor Bill Moran’s piece “I Am Vladimir Putin: The First Victim of McCarthyism 2.0” sheds light on the truth.

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I Am Vladimir Putin: The First Victim of McCarthyism 2.0
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201610171046431086-Newsweek-Eichenwald-Moran-Putin-Trump/

Intentional misreporting of facts by ordinarily credible journalists and mainstream outlets can have far reaching human impacts -- here's my story.

“I am Sidney Blumenthal. At least that is what Vladimir Putin seems to believe.” – Kurt Eichenwald

I am Bill Moran, a former writer and editor for the DC bureau of Sputnik News. I grew up in Arizona, graduated from Georgetown Law, pushed ballot initiatives on college affordability, worked on political campaigns (even sent fundraising emails for Hillary Clinton earlier this election cycle), and am your average ambitious 29-year-old who always had a secret hope to become a print journalist.

When I received an offer to become a web writer with the outlet in February – at a time before the world had lost its collective marbles – it was a dream come true. It is something that I worked hard at, even coming in on my days off, to make sure we were putting forward as much high-quality content as possible. That work paid off: I became the weekend editor at the outlet’s DC Bureau this July. I now face the reality that this job that I so enjoyed and I believe I was very good at is now in the past.

On Columbus Day, I made an embarrassing mistake. I noticed a series of viral tweets attributing words to Sidney Blumenthal on the Benghazi scandal. The original WikiLeaks document, to which the original article linked, was lengthy – 75 pages. I reviewed the document in a hurry, but I did not read all of them.

I was the sole staffer at the DC bureau due to the holiday. I wrote 12 stories in a 12-hour shift, assigned and edited five other stories from two writers submitting remotely, managed the front page graphics, monitored breaking news, and posted to Twitter every 10 minutes and Facebook every 20 minutes.

I was moving too fast and I made a mistake – a mistake that I remain embarrassed about making. I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette after scheduling our social media accounts, stopped halfway through, thought “why hasn’t anybody else picked this up?” gave the document a second review, realized my error, and proceeded to delete the story.

The story was up from 3:23PM EDT to 3:42PM EDT and received 1,061 views before being removed
– I’d like to apologize to weekend readers for making that mistake no matter how honest an error it was.

I am now Vladimir Putin. At least that is what Kurt Eichenwald and Newsweek pretend to believe.

Putin and his Kremlin cronies must have been dancing with delight” – Eichenwald

Mr. Eichenwald proceeded to write a story, published at 7:45PM EDT, titled “Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I am not Sidney Blumenthal” in regards to my mistake. I have shown several law school friends Eichenwald’s article – I never saw people laugh so hysterically while frowning at the same time.

In his article, Eichenwald suggests that this is “even more proof” of a Russian cyberwar by a “Russian government-controlled” (not true, only funded) outlet that has altered (a point he repeats several times) WikiLeaks documents before passing along the information to Donald Trump and that his anonymous intelligence source says that this all “require[d] high-level review” and that thinking anything else happened is “absurd.”

The problem is that Mr. Eichenwald, Newsweek’s editorial staff, and the publication’s general counsel know that this narrative is grossly in error. On Tuesday, I contacted Eichenwald and Newsweek’s editors informing them of substantive errors in their article and the true story – I also contacted Eichenwald by Twitter, explaining the details very calmly, for which he blocked my account. On Wednesday, I was fired. A colleague of mine pushed back on Eichenwald for blocking me and failing to change his article.
(Copy of Tweets.)

In response, Mr. Eichenwald sent me a message questioning once again what happened. I explained it, once again, to him. He responded back that night – “Let me give you a call this evening. We can talk through your situation (not an interview, a helping hand).”

If you are now thinking, “Dude, why didn’t you just sell out, ignore the truth, and work this for a steady gig with the chance of breaking into the mainstream media?!” – I’m still thinking that as I write this, and thought about it throughout the one hour and six minute conversation I had with him the next day. It turns out, per an email from Mr. Eichenwald, I could have been a political reporter at New Republic in response to an email informing him of my intent to make this issue public.

I took you at your word that the events were as you described and reached out to The New Republic on your behalf. They have a political reporter’s job open. But at this point, I can’t attest to your wisdom anymore nor do I completely trust you,” said Eichenwald in an email at 1:03PM on Monday Oct. 17.

At 1:40PM Mr. Eichenwald said, “One last friendly piece of advice: I wouldn’t waste time on the New Republic job. You’re qualified for it and these jobs disappear.”

Eichenwald then proceeded to eliminate the quid pro quo by saying, at 1:51 PM, “Wait… I dropped a word in my last email. When I say ‘I wouldn’t waste time on applying for' – I mean do apply soon, because the job is great and it will disappear soon.” Pardon my language, but “f--- me, right?” I could have been a political reporter with The New Republic. I have a friend who is still desperately telling me to take that gig rather than have this article published.

As for the contents of the phone conversation with Mr. Eichenwald, they will not be disclosed at this time barring an attempt to attack and discredit me at which time I will be forced to divulge my notes written at the time of the conversation which represent neither Kurt Eichenwald’s best moments nor my own. Personally, I feel that the world can use less hysteria, not more.

It should be noted that Mr. Eichenwald warned me, in his most recent email, that I will be ruining my career and my life by providing this information, and I do not take that as a threat – that’s the truth. The problem is that a new job does not convert fiction into fact. He got the story wrong. That’s really all.

Other factual errors or misrepresentations in Eichenwald’s article

First, his initial version suggested the outlet removed the article upon realizing the error. A later variant said Newsweek called us prior to the article’s removal – I never received a call. The current version says the article was removed after “Newsweek attempted to contact.” In an email, Mr. Eichenwald said that he did not lie but that he did not know where “internet contacts” go. I never received an email either – if anyone received a misaddressed email from Eichenwald, please come forward.

Second, the outlet is not “Kremlin-controlled.” I don’t talk to Vlad over my morning coffee. The outlet receives funding from the Russian government, but nobody has ever told me what to write. Third, no documents by WikiLeaks were altered by the outlet which included a link to the article – the subject matter was simply misread based on a viral tweet. Mr. Eichenwald continues to assert that a document, not linking to WikiLeaks, was altered by a viral twitter account but upon research that post has been deleted – the national security significance of that account is something that I am not sufficiently competent on.

What do I get out of all of this?

I’ll be attacked viciously. I have written 813 articles for Sputnik, but the fact that I made a single mistake that was blown into hysteria through intentionally inaccurate reporting by Newsweek is what my name will forever be attached to in Google search queries. It’s still the truth, so that’s my wish.

It should also be noted that Sputnik, upon reviewing the situation, offered me my job back yesterday before knowing about this piece. I will not be accepting that offer, but thank them so much. I imagine I’ll be dealing with the press response on this for the next few days and then I’m going to take a nice long vacation.

Continued in next Post ....

Continued from above:

An error made by a Sputnik News editor has revealed shocking information that US intelligence agencies may actively be trying to manipulate the presidential election, while also spying on Sputnik’s staff of US citizens.

Newsweek Journalist Claims US Intelligence Fed Him False Putin-Trump Conspiracy
https://sputniknews.com/us/201610191046476430-newsweek-journalist-claims-intelligence-conspiracy/

Last week, a 29-year-old American writer and editor for Sputnik News was duped by a viral — but out-of-context — screenshot from the WikiLeaks release of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails. The screenshot contained an excerpt from a story on Benghazi by Newsweek columnist Kurt Eichenwald, misattributed to Hillary Clinton’s long time confidante Sidney Blumenthal. The Sputnik writer, Bill Moran, jumped on what he thought was a scoop, and published an article based on the misattribution.

Moran realized his error less than 30 minutes after publication and quickly deleted the story, which had accumulated around 1,000 views. It was an honest mistake. By the time the story was pulled, however, the same viral tweet had made its way to someone in Donald Trump’s campaign, and the candidate quoted the screenshot at a rally that day in Pennsylvania, claiming that Blumenthal himself acknowledged Clinton’s culpability for the 2012 attack on the US embassy in Benghazi.

This perfect storm of human error resulted in a new Newsweek piece by Eichenwald, pushing a massive conspiracy theory and accusing Sputnik News — and therefore the “Russians” — of working with the Trump campaign. The story was dramatically headlined, “Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal.”

“I am Sidney Blumenthal. At least, that is what Vladimir Putin — and, somehow, Donald Trump — seems to believe,” Eichenwald wrote. “And that should raise concerns not only about Moscow’s attempt to manipulate the election but also about how Trump came to push Russian disinformation to American voters.”

Eichenwald was then invited to make the US mainstream media rounds; CNN, NPR and others happily granted him a platform, without reaching out to Sputnik for a comment.

It must be noted that several journalists — many of whom, to put it mildly, don’t always agree with Sputnik — considered it their duty to report inconsistencies within Eichenwald’s story.

Buzzfeed’s John Passantino was quick to point out that Trump was actually reading quotes from the same viral tweets that the Sputnik web editor initially read — rather than from the Sputnik article that appeared hours later.

Glenn Greenwald was also fast to note how ridiculous the entire conspiracy theory would be for anyone who knows how modern newsrooms work — and sometimes screw up, big time.

With “The Trump-Putin Link That Wasn’t,” the Washington Post, hardly the most Trump-friendly or Sputnik-loving outlet out there, called out Newsweek’s reporting for what it was: completely fabricated nonsense. Yet, when contacted by Moran, who sought to clarify what really happened, Eichenwald blocked him on Twitter.

When I then reached out to Eichenwald, he finally agreed to speak to Moran. This is where things took an interesting turn.

Eichenwald urged Moran in an email not to go public — even offering to get him a job at the New Republic to buy his silence. Even more frightening however, the Newsweek columnist and Vanity Fair editor asserted that his conspiracy theory, which was false, came from US Intelligence officials.

It appears that Eichenwald is stating that the US Intelligence community immediately fed him this story to push a false conspiracy theory, linking Trump and the evil Russians.

The lengthy email continues on to warn Moran that Sputnik’s US writers — American journalists — are being investigated by intelligence divisions of the FBI. “I guarantee you one thing: there is already a file on you in one of the security intelligence divisions of the FBI,” Eichenwald wrote. “You have been playing in a sandbox surrounded by very large, and mostly unseen, players, engaged in games you don’t recognize.” “There are some things I know but I can’t tell you, but what I will say is that, as far as American intelligence agencies are concerned, the event involving this manipulated document is far from over,” he continued. “America is in the middle of a large-scale cyberwar with Russia; if you don’t know this, you need to read the coverage of what is going on, including the statements from the White House.”

Eichenwald then alludes to his willingness to help Moran get a job at another larger outlet, the New Republic, if he would agree to keeping quiet on the Newsweek conspiracy theory.

“What I was going to discuss with you was places you should consider working in Washington — ones that won’t serve to taint your reputation for the rest of your career,” Eichenwald offered.

In response, Moran informed Eichenwald that he would be going public to clarify what had actually happened, as it is the right thing to do, even though Moran no longer worked at Sputnik (his contract was terminated following the initial misattribution.) “I intend on proceeding forward in the public about things that I know beyond equivocation to be true — that I was the sole writer and editor at the DC bureau for Sputnik on Columbus Day, that I made an honest mistake, smoked a cigarette, and pulled the story 19 minutes later,” Moran wrote. He then told Eichenwald that all of this could be avoided with a simple correction on his end, as the Newsweek story had opened up his former co-workers — myself included — to slander and attacks that are unwarranted. “I am, frankly, not doing it for the outlet at all,” Moran wrote. “My colleagues have been blistered with claims of treason, physical threats, and pictures of dead children sent to them. These are just ordinary reporters living in fear.”

Eichenwald, seemingly infuriated with Moran’s unwillingness to play ball, fired back another lengthy response, indicating that it would be his last communication directly with Moran — and that future correspondence would have to go through Newsweek’s lawyers.

“William, I will start off by saying that as I promised, I took you at your word that the events were as you described and reached out to The New Republic on your behalf. They have a political reporter’s job open. But at this point, I can’t attest to your wisdom anymore nor do I completely trust you,” he stated of his quid pro quo offer. Eichenwald continued to urge Moran to allow his conspiracy theory from US intelligence officials to spread, without public correction, warning him that it would be “career suicide” to explain the truth of what happened:

“Until now, I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to protect you from your determination to commit an act of permanent career suicide. But you seem more dedicated to clearing the name of Sputnik — which is the only thing mentioned in the story — than yourself, who was NOT mentioned in the story,” Eichenwald said.

“I did not cite you as the one who performed the act of incompetence. It is you who wants to step forward and say you were the one who took unattributed anonymous stuff off of the internet and printed it. In terms of damage to your reputation, which is the standard under the laws you are citing, it is YOU who will be doing the damage, since at no point was your name mentioned. If you wish to argue in a court that publishing unattributed, anonymous and false snippets off of the internet is not cause for termination, you can do so.”

Despite Eichenwald’s threats, on Monday Moran published a piece detailing the events that transpired on Columbus Day, and what followed.

Newsweek, until now, has not retracted or amended Eichenwald’s piece, despite Sputnik’s attempts to reach out to them. The New Republic has also not responded to a request for comment.

This leaves us with an open question. Is one of the most famous and respected Washington journalists, who won the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism in 2006, a liar of epic proportions? Or is US intelligence actively manipulating coverage of the election on behalf of one of the candidates?

The journalist who wrote the debunked Trump-Putin conspiracy theory - and was exposed by Sputnik of admitting to being fed the story to malign the candidate by US intelligence officials - has updated, instead of retracting, his story. After which he had a complete breakdown on Twitter and threatened to use Newsweek’s lawyers against Sputnik.

Click to expand...

Newsweek’s Eichenwald Doubles Down on Debunked Conspiracy, Loses It on Twitter
https://sputniknews.com/us/201610201046562731-newsweek-eichenwald-twitter-threats/

(Note) Numerous Tweets in this article - not Posted - please check article for additional info.

In an update to the widely-discredited story, Kurt Eichenwald has doubled down on his conspiracy theory. He is also now attacking former Sputnik writer and editor, Bill Moran, who revealed he was offered a job with New Republic in exchange for his silence on the Newsweek story being false.

“William Moran, the writer for Sputnik, said he based his article not on directives from the Russian government but on an anonymous tweet he saw on the internet that used an altered image of the document. He said he accepted the anonymous tweeter’s description that this was from Blumenthal, and did so because he was rushed,” Eichenwald wrote, correctly. Moran’s contract with Sputnik was terminated, though he was later offered his position back once he explained how the blunder happen.

But in the next sentence Eichenwald doubled down on his ridiculous claims.“ However, as the government official with knowledge of the intelligence inquiry said, the original altered document that was tweeted onto the internet came from a location that has been identified as being connected to the Russian disinformation campaigns, and only the news outlet controlled by the Russian government published an article based on it,” Eichenwald stated.

Eichenwald has also verified the validity of his emails to former Sputnik writer and editor Bill Moran to Paste Magazine.

“Paste reached out to Eichenwald, and in a long and frustrating conversation, he repeated the claim that even if Moran wasn’t himself a Russian agent, he was the unwitting pawn of Russian agents. At one point, he said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, I never said I’d help him out with a job,’ before enumerating how he did exactly that,” Paste reported.

The day after the Paste article broke, Eichenwald took to Twitter to launch an unhinged threat campaign directed at Moran. Over the course of approximately 45 minutes, Eichenwald tweeted at or about Moran 78 times. The tweets ranged from accusations that Moran is a fraud, to crying about how he (Eichenwald) is just a “nice guy” who felt sorry for Moran (after he cost him his job by running a bogus story), to threatening to use Newsweek’s lawyers against Moran and Sputnik News.

Dont think this is ending here. I know what u are and I know what Sputnik is.’” Eichenwald threatened.

Moran tagged Newsweek into the conversation, saying that he hopes the national news magazine is seeing how off-the-rails their journalist has gone.

In response, Eichenwald stated that he had a meeting with Newsweek regarding the issue this morning, and that the magazine is prepared to take Moran on, “and Sputnik too.”

Newsweek has still not responded to Sputnik’s request for comment.

luc said:

Redrock12 said:

Yes, it is really disheartening to watch the lies propagated by the msm. But the people who swallow this swill, imo, are waay beyond redemption anyway. But when I run across anyone who tries to push this BS on me, I give them the truth with both barrels. I f they want to swallow this swill lock, stock, and barrel, well fine and good. But they're going to have to keep their delusions to themselves when they're around me.
And yes, at times there is a price to pay for truth. Being vilified, mocked, insulted, whatever. But I just consider the source and brush it off. Whether or not my perception is right, I just regard those people as lower life forms incapable of accepting the truth. You know, the moral exoskeletonized authoritarian followers. I can count on three fingers, the people who really accept and understand what is really going on.

Click to expand...

Well, I can understand your sentiments - sometimes, I want to just scream in such situations, because I don't even know where to start! But, I don't. Usually, it wouldn't help either me or them. Also, while there are certainly a lot of authoritarian idiots out there, it's not that black and white I think. For example, some people have rather sound opinions on domestic topics, yet completely buy into the lies about Russia - they are fed these horror stories about Putin bombing children and so on, and they are morally outraged! It's easy to manipulate people of conscience with such tactics. They simply don't know better, perhaps because they are not that interested, or they don't know where to look. Let's remember also that especially elderly people often are not that internet-savy and depend on the MSM. That's not always an excuse of course, but I think it's important to understand where different people are coming from. And, frankly, I much prefer someone who is a compassionate human being with a sound attitude towards life who - sadly - is being manipulated by the MSM in this or that topic over some 'alternative' narcissist who knows some things about the Syrian conflict but otherwise is a total prick. I guess all I'm saying is that it really depends on the specific situations/people we are dealing with.

Click to expand...

You're right luc. I did jump the gun when I shouldn't, triggered by my emtional reation to the Time Mag cover. Granted there are those who I strongly react to, but as you mentioned, there are also those who are just poorly informed but are nevertheless decent human beings, and I either don't reply to their misconceptions or try to gently convince that what they've been told by the msm simply isn't true, that there are resources that will give them a more realistic picture of what is actually going on.
Thanks for the reply luc.

The moon of Alabama has a good article, that shows how The White Helmets managed to 'save' the same children 3 times within a couple of months. Yes very good evidence of staged photos but what else to expect when the White Helmets is essentially a PR campaign.

https://www.sott.net/article/331777-Assad-Boy-in-the-ambulance-picture-is-fake

Assad: 'Boy in the ambulance' picture is fake

Moon of Alabama
Fri, 21 Oct 2016 09:21 UTC

© Swiss SRF 1 TV
From an interview with the Syrian President Bashar Assad by the Swiss SRF 1 TV Channel published October 19 2016:

Journalist: This young boy has become the symbol of the war. I think that you know this picture.

President Assad: Of course I saw it.

Journalist: His name is Omran. Five years old.

President Assad: Yeah.

Journalist: Covered with blood, scared, traumatized. Is there anything you would like to say to Omran and his family?

President Assad: There's something I would like to say to you first of all, because I want you to go back after my interview, and go to the internet to see the same picture of the same child, with his sister, both were rescued by what they call them in the West "White Helmets" which is a facelift of al-Nusra in Aleppo. They were rescued twice, each one in a different incident, and just as part of the publicity of those White Helmets. None of these incidents were true. You can have it manipulated, and it is manipulated. I'm going to send you those two pictures, and they are on the internet, just to see that this is a forged picture, not a real one. We have real pictures of children being harmed, but this one in specific is a forged one.

Assad was half wrong. The picture, printed on page 1 of newspapers all over the "western" world, was not "forged". It is a real picture from a White Helmet "rescue" video distributed by the Aleppo Media Center (AMC) (which is funded by the French French Ministry of Foreign Affairs). But the scene was carefully staged and we immediately recognized it as staged when it appeared. It was staged like many other "rescue" scenes with "kids saved" by the U.S./UK/D/J/NL financed White Helmets and their associated media.

Look for yourself, trust your eyes.

The "boy in an ambulance" scene features two identifiable kids. Omran and his sister.

Below are pictures of what we believe are the same kids in different scenes.

Here is the girl at another occasion. We will call this scene 1:

The Houston Chronicle reported about this scene and the picture carries this caption:

An 8-year-old girl named Aya calls out for her father after an airstrike in Syrian on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016.

Another picture from the same Chronicle spread:

This combined one is captioned:

Left: 8-year-old Aya in her everyday life in Syria. Right: 8-year-old Aya after an airstrike in Syria.

Notice the age as well as the girl's favorite colors - light turquoise and pink. Compared to the left picture the hair on the right looks powdered and artificially teased. While there is trickle of "blood" on her face and on her dress no wound is visible.

The Chronicle story is sourced to CNN which includes a short (staged) video and adds:

The video and images were posted online by a pro-opposition activist group, Talbiseh Media Center.

It shows an 8-year-old girl in a medical facility, her hair and body covered with dust. There's blood tricking down her forehead, her nose. She looks confused and scared and keeps calling out for her father.
...
Aya was pulled from under rubble along with her family members when an airstrike hit their home in Talbiseh on Monday. Talbiseh, a large town in northwestern Syria, is about 10 kilometers north of Homs.

A screenshot detail from the video:

The "blood" looks remarkably glossy, unlike natural blood which dries and looks dull pretty fast. The uni-color shirt the girl wears has no arms.

Now the same girl in a different "rescue" scene. We will call this scene 2.

The truck in the background has a "White Helmets" logo on the door.

A detail of the above picture. It is the same girl as in scene 1. The hair again seems powdered and teased:

Notice: Same habitus, same appearance, same wild hair as in scene 1; no visible wounds; turquoise shirt but with short arms; jeans with glitter

Here is the girl at scene 2 in an ambulance:

Same shirt and pants as above, no wounds, no pain and not attended to by anybody. Compare this with the video capture of scene 1 the Chronicle and CNN reported on. We strongly believe it is the same girl.

Now what seems to be a different take of scene 2. A "White Helmet" carries the girl and a boy. Notice the same clothing as in the other scene 2 pics above. The pic as well as some of the above from scene 2 was running in the Daily Mail on August 27. The incident is claimed to be the aftermath of a "barrel bombing" in the Bab al-Nairab neighborhood in east-Aleppo.

Why would two different men carry and "rescue" the girl. She, like the boy, looks fine - same cloth as above, no wounds, no damage to the extremities, no crying - just curiosity.

A detail of the faces in that picture:

A detail of the boy's face:

Now to the "boy in an ambulance" scene. The boy and the reportedly 8-year old girl on August 17 in the Qaterji neighborhood in east Aleppo introduced as "Omran Daqneesh and his sister." (pic source):

The just "rescued" kids sit quietly but completely unattended to in a brand-new €100,000 ambulance. No shock therapy was initiated, no Trendelberg position or at least laying down flat. No one talks to them despite half a dozen photographers being around them.

Details of the kids - here the boy has the powdered and teased "wild hair" look.

Are these the same kids as in scene 2 above?

President Assad believes they are.

We agree. We also believe that all three scenes above are staged. The girl is the same in all three scenes. Her younger brother appears in scene 2 and 3. The White Helmets apparently "rescued" the girl in three different incidents on or about August 17, August 27 and October 10 in three different locations.

Isn't that a remarkably elysian miracle?

Or is it all part of the serial production of elaborately staged anti-Syrian propaganda? Delivered by a marketing organization (vid) funded by "western" governments and various similar financed opposition "media organizations".

Trust your eyes.

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Aeneas said:

The moon of Alabama has a good article, that shows how The White Helmets managed to 'save' the same children 3 times within a couple of months. Yes very good evidence of staged photos but what else to expect when the White Helmets is essentially a PR campaign.

https://www.sott.net/article/331777-Assad-Boy-in-the-ambulance-picture-is-fake

Assad: 'Boy in the ambulance' picture is fake

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That is really a good article, not only for it's content but also, for it's clear visuals that correspond to the narrative. I can't imagine - all the senseless trauma they have fostered onto those innocent children, to be imprinted onto their minds, for the rest of their lives, just because they were "used" for a PR stunt!

I wonder, if another PR stunt of these glorious White Helmet's, considering their "real identity as al Nursa" was to first - kill off the families of those kids? That's what is behind my mind, when I see photo's staged like this, with the White Helmet's.