White Helmets

[angelburst29]

A Reuters report featuring a photo of the White Helmets.

A member of the Syrian civil defense carries a wounded child from the rubble after a reported regime air strike in the rebel-held town of Jisreen. (AFP)

230 civilians killed in Syrian, Russian airstrikes in past week: UN Saturday 10 February 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1243371/middle-east

GENEVA: Syria and Russian airstrikes in rebel-held areas have killed 230 civilians in the past week in some of the conflict’s worst violence that may also constitute war crimes, the top United Nations human rights official said on Saturday.

Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his office had received reports including video footage of possible use of “toxic agents” on Feb. 4 in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, Idlib province.

“After seven years of paralysis in the (UN) Security Council, the situation in Syria is crying out to be referred to the International Criminal Court, as well as for a much more concerted effort by States to bring peace,” Zeid said in a statement.

 

[angelburst29]

Tip-off received on Al-Nusra, White Helmets plotting chemical weapons provocation in Syria – Moscow Tuesday 13 Feb, 2018
https://www.rt.com/news/418649-alnusra-white-helmets-chemical-provocation/

Russia’s Center for Reconciliation in Syria says it's been warned that Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists brought in chlorine containers to a local village, where they aimed to work with the White Helmets to stage “a provocation.”

Late on Monday, the center received a phone call from a resident of the village of Serakab in Idlib province about the planned incident.

According to the source, on the afternoon of February 12, rebels from the Jabhat Al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) terrorist organization brought three cars packed with more than 20 cylinders of chlorine along with personal protective equipment to Serakab.

Additionally, according to the caller, representatives of the local branch of the White Helmets, wearing individual means of protection, conducted rehearsals of "giving first aid" to "local residents" who were supposedly suffering from poisoning.

The information received from the Idlib resident raised a red flag for members of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria.

According to the center, this indicates that Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists along with the White Helmets are plotting another “provocation” with the use of poisonous substances in Idlib province, aimed at accusing the Syrian authorities of using chemical weapons against local residents.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in October that the notorious Idlib chemical incident in April, which was used by the US as a pretext to strike Syria’s Shayrat Airbase, might have been staged.

Presenting photographic evidence of a crater from the scene of the chemical incident, the head of the Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Ulyanov, told a UN briefing that the bomb which dispersed the deadly chemical agent was most likely detonated on the ground and not on impact from a Syrian airstrike. “Most likely, an improvised explosive device was located on the surface,” Ulyanov said.

The Khan Shaykhun chemical incident occurred on April 4, 2017, in the town of the same name in the Idlib Governorate, in an area that was under the control of Al-Nusra Front terrorists. The sarin gas attack, which allegedly claimed the lives of between 74 to 100 civilians, reportedly took place when the town was struck by the Syrian Air Force. Washington rushed to blame Damascus, despite the denial of the Syrian government, which destroyed all of its sarin stockpiles under the deal brokered between Russia and the US in 2013. Even though there was a lack of any hard evidence, shortly after the incident US President Donald Trump authorized the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Shayrat Airbase, from where US intelligence claimed the chemical attack was launched.

In late October, the US Department of State finally admitted that militants linked to Al-Nusra Front are indeed carrying out terrorist attacks using chemical weapons in Syria. Russia’s Defense Ministry noted that a precedent had been set by Washington’s acknowledgement of the situation.

“This is the first official recognition by the State Department not only of the presence, but the very use of chemical weapons by Al-Nusra terrorists to carry out terrorist attacks, which we repeatedly warned about,” General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the ministry, said.

The White Helmets have been long hailed by the Western media as “peace-bearing heroes” who save human lives. However, the group has been dogged by allegations of having ties with terrorist groups.

The White Helmets not only feel at home on territories controlled by Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS], but also openly express positive attitudes towards them, providing them with information and even financial assistance,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in April 2017.

According to the Russian military, al-Nusra Front terrorist group brought more than 20 containers with chlorine to a village in Idlib.

Russian MoD: Al-Nusra, White Helmets Preparing Provocation With Chemical Weapons
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802131061612872-al-nusra-front-white-helmets-chemical-weapons-russia-syria/

The Russian center for Syrian reconciliation stated that it had received information from a local resident that al-Nusra Front terrorists and White Helmets were preparing to stage a provocation, involving chemical weapons' use, in Syria's Idlib province in order to blame Damascus for the attack on civilians.

On the evening of February 12, the Russian center for reconciliation received a telephone call from the resident a settlement in the Idlib province, informing about a forthcoming provocation, using poisonous chemicals, to air it on a foreign television channel. According to the person, on the afternoon of February 12, the al-Nusra Front militants delivered brought more than 20 bottles of chlorine and personal protective equipment on three cars," the Russian military stated.

According to the center, representatives of the local branch of the White Helms conducted rehearsals of providing "first aid" in individual means of protection to allegedly "affected local residents" from poisoning.

The person, who called, drew attention to the fact that these actions were filmed by professional TV correspondents who, commenting on the actions of representatives of the White Helmets, put on a microphone with a cover, having a logo of a Western television company.

"At the same time, correspondents consulted with someone via a satellite phone in English. Information received from a resident of the province of Idlib, causes serious concern of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria."

Previously, the Russian Defense Ministry had several times questioned actions by the so-called Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, which have been largely lauded by Western states and received an Oscar award for their documentary in 2017. Following the release of a controversial report by the UN-OPCW on the chemical attacks in Syria, the Russian military alongside the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade presented their own document, which states that photos made by the White Helmets organization's volunteers who are believed to be connected with al-Nusra Front-linked were fake and staged.

The organization earlier came under fire, when the Swedish NGO Doctors for Human Rights (SWEDHR) has accused it of falsifying information about its alleged work in Syria. According to the Swedish human rights activists, so-called "rescue" procedures captured in White Helmets videos had been staged; they were carried out on a dead child.

Damascus has repeatedly refuted allegations of chemical weapons' use, emphasizing that all such arms had no such weapons since 2014, when they had been removed from the state with the assistance of the US. The destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal was confirmed by the OPCW. However, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, supported by the United States, immediately blamed the Syrian government for using the chemical weapons against civilian population in the Khan Sheikhoun settlement in Idlib on April 4, 2017, that had left 80 people dead and injured 200 more.

Even prior to the launch of an investigation into the chemical weapons incident, the US launched a massive strike with Tohamawk missiles on a Syrian government airfield, an attack, which was slammed as "aggression" by Damascus.

Since the alleged chemical attack in the province, Russia has been calling for a thorough probe into the incident and emphasized that there had been multiple accounts that terrorists in Syria possessed chemical weapons.

Most recently, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia stated that the Syrian government had consistently informed the international community on the issue, including the UNSC about the detection in areas liberated from terrorists, of dangerous chemical substances.

As tensions heat up in Syria between a growing number of heavily involved participants, the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria has stated it has been warned by sources that Jobhat al-Nusra is planning to coordinate a staged chemical weapons attack with the White Helmets for the purpose of blaming the attack on the Syrian government.

Russia Claims It Has Evidence White Helmets, Nusra Planning Fake Chem Attack February 13, 2018
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/02/russia-claims-it-has-evidence-white-helmets-nusra-planning-fake-chem-attack.html

The center stated that, on Monday, it received a phone call from a resident in Serakab in Idlib province describing the incident allegedly being planned.

According to the source as reported by the RCFRIS, terrorists from Jobhat al-Nusra brought three cars packed with over 20 cylinders of chlorine as well as “personal protective equipment” to Serakab on the afternoon of February 12.

The source also revealed that the local branch of the White Helmets, “wearing individual means of protection” rehearsed “giving first aid” to “local residents” who were supposed to have been suffering from poisoning.

While the reports have apparently only come from one source, it appears to have been credible enough for the RCFRIS to announce the possibility that a staged chemical attack was in the works.

Chemical attacks in Syria have long been suspected of having been staged by terrorists in concert with the White Helmets for some time. Notably, abundant evidence suggests that the alleged chemical attacks at Khan Sheikhoun was one of those instances.

But while many are aware that chemical weapons attacks have been staged, the issue nevertheless remains dangerous because, as in the case of Khan Sheikhoun, the United States has repeatedly used the alleged attacks as an excuse to launch military operations against the Syrian government.

In 2013, the propaganda was not successful. In 2017, however, the United States launched a several missiles at the al-Sha’aryat Military base, killing Syrian soldiers and a number of civilians in the surrounding areas, including children.

 

[Voyageur]

Vanessa Beeley has this posted: https://thewallwillfall.org/2018/02/13/pierre-le-corf-speaks-on-war-propaganda-and-white-helmets-from-aleppo/

Translation:

Pierre Le Corf Speaks on War Propaganda and White Helmets, from Aleppo

“I wake up in nightmares like from time to time, I worked yesterday with young people who saw their friends die, it wakes up things … internet seems to came back … A message that I think important, I am tired and disgusted by this continuous manipulation, of these lies and – or half-truths that you are thrust into the skull subtly or aggressively but in a very controlled way … again, without pretention, you do what you want with this message which is only the continuity of what I have always published and that I assume.

{video - French with English subtitles}

http://<iframe width="700" height="...y; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have nothing to win again, we will probably continue to shoot me in the legs I guess … but I only transmit what I have personally experienced, as testimonies of people who have the courage to share their story, denounce, show their faces

You know the difference between people who are living in terrorist zones and those who are living in a government zone (which represents 80% of Syria) is that here in gov areas nobody has a camera crew that follows those who save people under the hundreds of mortars, no high tech equipment made available by foreign press agencies, satellite networks by Turkey, networks of activists or millions of gov funding to ensure minute-by-minute coverage of events, … here the Mortars fall, you run, you help people, you pick up the pieces, you cover the bodies, the families cry just as much, people die just as much. Here people don’t do activism, people are just trying to survive and the real people of East Aleppo as Idlib or elsewhere also, they do not want to continue to put oil on the fire and simply wants that this shit stops on one side or the other, especially the other. I honestly would say that Syria in general has been covered by this black smoke to un-allow people to see through except from a certain point of view, life has been erased on one side here, and on the other hand the suffering of the people is being instrumental in giving you 1/4 of images, in decontextualizing situations, by continually staging and cropping the images, selling the war through perception effects.

The suffering is real, those who know the war, whether it’s rockets or bombs planes, know what that means, … the real problem is to understand that, without terrorists, as for Aleppo, people would live in peace.

You are sold a revolution for freedom, against oppression, and if indeed there are many people who have experienced unfair things and who hate the government as in any country at different levels, the majority you will laugh when you come to tell them that your “rebels” come to bring them freedom, besides a large number if not the majority of “fighters” are foreign mercenaries, what are Chechens, Uighurs, Afghans, Sudaneses, Tunisians (not to mention the thousands of Europeans) etc. have to do with this country? Billions of $ of weapons provided to terrorists who have been given the financial means – military – political, including France, to destroy the country, to massacre the population, the Syrian army, … for example I see the headlines of the newspapers on “Idlib” about these heroes, the « White Helmets » … you do not have the slightest idea of ​​the truth, of what Idlib represents today to know the biggest terrorist area, dozens of groups including Daesh fighting side by side with the so called FSA at the moment to keep their area … besides, strangely each of these groups is identified in France as a “terrorist organization”, here they are called “rebels”, easy.

I would not dare to publish everything that I have published if I had the slightest doubt, anything I published is issued from my personal experience, what I lived and only (you never saw me publishing any geopolitic bullshit), exchanges with dozens of families who have lived here or with terrorists every day until liberation … I write a lot, I’m not necessarily clear but I’m honest and neutral as surprising it may be for those who are infused with anti-Syrian anti-government propaganda to legitimize this war … I am probably charging with real bullet the weapons of people who refuse me the right to share what we have lived, a dissonant voice but also what families are testifying … but I swear to you that if you believe that behind all this propaganda, even if once again there is neither all black nor white, that we will silence this part of history, the numerous and indispensable pieces of puzzle from this conflict far too complicated to dissect but dealing with facts, experiences … no. I invite you to don’t believe me again … but at the condition that you stop believing all that is published and told by whoever medias or Syrians with a purpose, to stop to swallow it greedily and blindly. I simply invite everyone to develop their skepticism, to take a step back … time will speak, I hope

---------

In French:

Je me réveille en cauchemars comme de temps en temps, je travaillais hier avec des jeunes qui ont vu leurs amis mourir, ça réveille des choses … internet semble revenu … un message que je pense important, je suis fatigué et dégouté de cette manipulation en continu, de ces mensonges et – ou demi-vérités que l’on vous enfonce dans le crâne subtilement ou agressivement mais de manière très contrôlée … d’avoir ces trolls qui n’ont jamais mis un pied ici et pris dans la gueule ce qu’on à pris et qui attaquent les témoignages de gens qui eux ont affronté la guerre, tout ça au nom de leur pensée unique… en général je n’aime pas modifier ou éditer mes vidéos mais je mets des sous-titres anglais pour essayer d’être clair, encore une fois sans prétention, vous faites ce que vous voulez de ce message qui n’est que la continuité de ce que j’ai toujours publié et que j’assume. Je n’ai rien à gagner encore une fois, on va probablement continuer à me tirer dans les jambes … mais je ne transmets que ce que j’ai personnellement vécu, que des témoignages de gens qui ont le courage de partager leur histoire, dénoncer, apparaître avec leur visage.

Vous savez la différence entre les gens qui vivent en zones terroriste et ceux qui vivent en zone gouvernementale (ce qui représente 80% de la Syrie) c’est qu’ici personne n’a d’équipe de caméraman qui suit ceux qui sauvent des gens sous les centaines de mortiers, pas d’équipements dernier cri mis à disposition par des agences de presse étrangères, de réseaux satellites par la Turquie, de réseaux d’activistes ou des millions de financements pour assurer une couverture minute par minute des événements, … ici les mortiers tombent, vous courez, vous aidez les gens, vous ramassez les morceaux, vous couvrez les corps, les familles pleurent tout autant, les gens meurent tout autant. Ici les gens ne font pas d’activisme, les gens essayent de vivre et les vrais gens d’Alep Est comme de Idlib ou d’ailleurs aussi, ils ne veulent pas continuer à jeter de l’huile sur le feu et simplement que ce merdier s’arrête d’un côté comme de l’autre, surtout de l’autre. Je vous dirais honnêtement que c’est un voile noir a été tiré sur nous pour empêcher les gens de voir ce qui se passe sinon sous un certain angle, la vie a été effacée d’un côté ici, et de l’autre la souffrance des gens est instrumentalisée en vous donnant 1/4 d’images, en décontextualisant les situations, en mettant tout continuellement en scène, en vendant la guerre à travers des effets de perception.

La souffrance est réelle, ceux qui connaissent la guerre, que ce soit des roquettes ou des bombes d’avions, savent ce que ça veut dire, … le vrai problème c’est de comprendre que, sans terroristes, comme pour Alep, les gens vivraient en paix. On vous vend une révolution pour la liberté, contre l’oppression, et si en effet il y a bien des gens qui ont vécu des choses injustes et qui détestent le gouvernement comme dans n’importe quel pays à des nivellements différents, la majorité vous rira au nez quand vous viendrez leur raconter que vos « rebelles » viennent leur apporter la liberté, d’ailleurs un grand nombre sinon la majorité des « combattants » sont des mercenaires étrangers, qu’est-ce que des Tchétchènes, des Ouïgours, des Afghans, des Malgaches, des Soudanais, des Tunisiens (sans parler des milliers d’Européens) etc. ont à voir avec ce pays? Des milliards d’armement fournis aux terroristes à qui on a donné les moyens financiers – militaires – politiques, dont la France, de détruire le pays, de massacrer la population, l’armée Syrienne, … par exemple je vois les gros titres des journaux sur « Idlib » et ces héros, les casques blancs … vous n’avez pas la moindre idée de la vérité, de ce que représente Idlib aujourd’hui à savoir la plus grosse proche terroriste de toute la Syrie incluant des dizaines de groupes Djihadistes sous le drapeau à 3 étoiles, incluant Daesh qui combat au coude à coude en ce moment … d’ailleurs étrangement chacun de ces groupes est identifié en France comme « organisation terroriste », ici ils sont appelé « rebelles », facile.

Je ne me risquerais pas à publier tout ce que j’ai publié si j’avais le moindre doute, pas constaté par moi-même ce que j’avance comme échangé avec des dizaines de familles qui ont vécu avec eux au quotidien jusqu’à la libération … j’écris beaucoup, je ne suis pas forcément clair mais je suis honnête et neutre aussi surprenant cela puisse-t-il être pour ceux qui sont perfusés à la propagande anti-Syrie anti-gouvernement Syrien visant à légitimer cette guerre … il y a beaucoup de choses que je ne sais pas, mais je vous parle de faits.

Probablement que je continue à charger à balle réelles les armes de gens qui me refusent le droit de partager ce que nous avons vécu, un témoignage « dissident », ce que les familles témoignent … mais je vous jure que si vous croyez que derrière toute cette propagande, même si encore une fois il n’y a ni tout noir ni tout blanc, que nous allons taire cette partie de l’histoire, ses nombreuses pièces du puzzle d’un conflit bien trop compliqué pour en disserter mais traitant de faits, de vécus … vous vous mettez le doigt dans l’oeil. Je vous invite à ne pas me croire … mais à condition que vous cessiez de croire tout ce qui vous est injecté, d’avaler goulument et aveuglément ce que l’on vous force à ingérer en vous faisant croire que c’est votre choix. J’invite simplement chacun à développer son scepticisme, à prendre du recul … le temps parlera

 

[angelburst29]

Tip-off received on Al-Nusra, White Helmets plotting chemical weapons provocation in Syria – Moscow Tuesday 13 Feb, 2018
https://www.rt.com/news/418649-alnusra-white-helmets-chemical-provocation/

Russian MoD: Al-Nusra, White Helmets Preparing Provocation With Chemical Weapons (7 Videos) 07.03.2018
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802131061612872-al-nusra-front-white-helmets-chemical-weapons-russia-syria/

Russia Claims It Has Evidence White Helmets, Nusra Planning Fake Chem Attack February 13, 2018
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/02/russia-claims-it-has-evidence-white-helmets-nusra-planning-fake-chem-attack.html

Pictures allegedly showing the White Helmets' filmmaking studio in Syria's Eastern Ghouta have appeared on social media, prompting numerous news agencies to assume that the group is producing another "documentary" movie about the "atrocities" of the Syrian government.

Fake News Alert: Media Stirred Over White Helmets' 'New' Horror Movie 07.03.2018
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201803071062319444-fake-news-white-helmets-new-movie/

Syrian activist Penelope Stafyla posted the footage to her Facebook profile to show the "media industry" and the "Hollywood production" of the White Helmets; the images featured fake human limbs, theatrical grease-paint, a plastic bottle with some substance that looked like blood, etc. Stafyla suggested that the group was shooting another film to demonize President Bashar al-Assad as well as to accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against civilians.

The pictures also show an assistant director holding a clapperboard standing in front of a woman carrying a child who has allegedly been affected by the chemical gas attack and was powdered to look like a bomb victim.

Reacting to the pictures posted by Stafyla, one Facebook user said that the images were not actually from the brand-new movie by the White Helmets, but were part of a film about the "fake revolution" in Syria, called "Revolution man," directed by Najdat Aznour and released on February 22.

Another Facebook user commented a host of pictures, imagining what it would be like if US President Donald Trump saw those images, or what his daughter Ivanka’s reaction would be to them, referring to the US attack on the military base in Syria on April 7, 2017, when Ivanka was the one who showed photos of babies allegedly affected by sarin gas used by Bashar Assad, thus triggering President Trump to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles against Syria.

The White Helmets' Dark Past and More Staged Stories to Come

While the White Helmets claim to be an impartial humanitarian NGO saving lives in war-weary Syria, it has repeatedly been revealed that the group has staged developments in its clips and an Oscar-winning film in order to vilify Damascus, to show that the government indiscriminately kills its own people, even children.

Russian Embassy, UK
✔ @RussianEmbassy

Russia welcomes #Oscars award for “White Helmets” film. Indeed, they are actors serving an agenda, not rescuers. #OscarMistake

6:40 AM - Feb 28, 2017

On February 25, volunteers from the White Helmets reported that the Syrian government had used chlorine gas against the town of Al-Shifoniya in Eastern Ghouta, which led to the death of a child and "widespread suffocation" among the locals.

What seems interesting is that weeks prior to the report, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation received information from a local resident that Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Nusra Front) terrorists, along with the White Helmets, were preparing to stage a provocation, involving the use of chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta in order to accuse the government of killing civilians. This warning was, however, ignored by the mainstream media and the US-led international coalition, who prefer to rely on unverified and, in particular, fake sources.

As for numerous staged clips showing the group's daily rescue operations, one of the mainstream media outlets today posted an "astonishing" video filmed in the Eastern Ghouta enclave. While the footage shows the volunteers "heroically" saving the live of a baby, retrieving it from the debris, it was not verified and raises many questions if one looks at it more attentively.

A social media user has posted a thread of tweets concerning the freshly released video, casting doubt on its authenticity.

Even more thrilling, besides the rescuer not even bothering to check whether the infant was alive or had injuries and apparently rushing to nowhere with a cameraman running behind him without showing the child, is that if you stop the video, it appears that the baby looks like a doll…

Even more thrilling, besides the rescuer not even bothering to check whether the infant was alive or had injuries and apparently rushing to nowhere with a cameraman running behind him without showing the child, is that if you stop the video, it appears that the baby looks like a doll…

Once again this proves that the group and the mainstream media, who are quick to pick up any story, would do anything to distort reality, probably implementing the US-led coalition's scenario to discredit President Assad's government. Time will show whether the world will witness another Oscar-winning fake "horror" story presented by the infamous White Helmets, pursuing their campaign of distortion and deception against Damascus.

A pro-government media activist, Penelope Stafyla, has released a series of photos reportedly showing a media studio of the White Helmets, which produces “evidence of Assad regime war crimes” in the Eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital of Damascus.

In Photos: White Helmets Media Studio Producing “Evidence of Assad Regime War Crimes” March 7, 2018
https://internationalfreepress.com/2018/03/07/in-photos-white-helmets-media-studio-producing-evidence-of-assad-regime-war-crimes/

These photos are especially interesting amid circulating reports about a new “chemical attack” by the “Assad regime” in Eastern Ghouta. The new “chemical attack” narrative came amid large gains by government forces against militants groups in the area and allegedly injured over 30 people.

For example, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported the alleged incident citing a report by the White Helments
(source): https://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/30-injured-in-regime-gas-attack-in-syria-s-e-ghouta/1080900

At least 30 people were treated for breathing difficulties after a regime chlorine gas attack in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, according to a Syrian civil defense agency on Tuesday.

Several children and women were among the victims of the attack in Hamuriye town on Monday, the White Helmets said in a statement.

The civil defense agency said two of its rescue workers were among the casualties.

A chlorine attack on the town of Hamouriyah in Eastern Ghouta has injured over 30 people overnight, according to local sources on the ground in Syria.

Chemical attack on Ghouta injures dozens March 6, 2018
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180306-chemical-attack-on-ghouta-injures-dozens/

“Civil defense rescue teams have managed to evacuate 30 civilians who were suffering from suffocation, mostly women and children following a chlorine gas attack by Syrian regime forces on peaceful neighbourhoods in the city,” Mahmoud Seraj, a member of the White Helmets, told MEMO. “Two volunteers also suffered from suffocation while performing their humanitarian duty to assist the injured.”

Yesterday was also the bloodiest day in Ghouta since the 30 day ceasefire was unanimously voted in favour of at the UN Security Council, with 80 people dead and more than 300 injured as a result of continuous Syrian airstrikes on the besieged enclave. The civilian death toll stands at 780 as of this morning, since the heightened assault on the district began two weeks ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The news of a chemical attack comes amid multiple reports that aid convoys have been unable to reach civilians, despite Russia allegedly allowing aid through as part of the plan for five hour daily ceasefires.

The International Committee of the Red Cross aid convoy confirmed yesterday that its vehicles were forced to retreat from the town of Douma after nine hours due to shelling. Many of the 14 trucks of aid sent by the UN had been stripped of 70 per cent of vital medical supplies by the Syrian regime before being allowed to enter the area. According to Seraj, some nine trucks sent as part of the interagency convoy were also forced to exit the province before being able to unload any of the supplies. (Article continues.)

As Syrian regime bombs rain down, the White Helmets fear their families will be next.

'Damn the whole world': eastern Ghouta's rescuers struggle to cope Thu 1 Mar 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/01/eastern-ghouta-syrian-regime-siege-white-helmets-rescuers-struggle-cope

aeed al-Masri rushed to the site of the bombing in the town of Saqba, in the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta.When the volunteer rescue worker arrived in the ambulance he realised it was his street that had been bombed. Then he realised it was his home. His three-month-old son, Yehya, was inside along with his wife.

“I cannot describe the scene,” he said in a phone interview with the Guardian about the incident earlier this month. “I have seen many children under the rubble, but I had been waiting for my boy for four years.”

The couple had waited a long time for another child, their two daughters having died shortly after birth. Unthinking, he ran into his house, climbed the stairs and found his baby bleeding with cuts from shattered glass. His wife was screaming.

Yehya, whose name means “to live”, was taken to the medical centre and Masri went back to the scene to help the other wounded residents.

Masri is a volunteer with the White Helmets, a group that conducts search and rescue operations in the rubble after the Syrian government and its allies conduct airstrikes and bombings in opposition-held areas. With cameras mounted on their helmets, they have documented countless moments of heartbreak and distress across the country.

Nearly 400,000 civilians have been under siege in eastern Ghouta since 2013. The region, once the breadbasket of nearby Damascus, witnessed the worst chemical atrocity of the seven-year war when more than 1,000 people were killed when Bashar al-Assad’s forces bombed it with sarin gas.

Violence has escalated in the area over the past three months as the government reportedly prepares for a ground assault on the enclave. More than 500 people have been killed in eastern Ghouta over the last eight days, prompting worldwide condemnation of what the UN secretary general, António Guterres, described as hell on earth.

The scale of the violence has left first responders struggling to cope. Masri and others like him live with the knowledge that their homes might be levelled any day. “My family is at home, but at each second I expect there to be an airstrike; that my wife, my child, my father, my mother might die,” he said.

Ten White Helmet volunteers have been killed in Syria over the past month, including two in eastern Ghouta. Half of them were killed in what are known as “double-tap” strikes, in which a plane bombs an area and then returns to attack it again after rescue workers have arrived. Eight volunteers have been wounded in Ghouta, including two in an alleged chlorine attack on Sunday night.

The group, also known as the Syrian Civil Defence, has been subjected to online smear campaigns conducted by internet trolls and conspiracy theorists who accuse them of being stage actors affiliated with al-Qaida. But they have continued to operate in areas outside government control, rescuing people trapped under the rubble after government airstrikes.

“All the volunteers in Ghouta have been mobilised and are working every day, and yet we cannot keep up with the shelling, which is hysterical and is happening with all manner of weapons,” said Mounir Mustafa, the organisation’s deputy chief. “The regime is using double-tap strikes which is leading to the wounding and killing of the volunteers.”

Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the double-tap strategy and its use to cause maximum casualties, but for Masri and his baby, who survived the bombing with stitches to his face, the international community has offered little, if any help.

“We’ve talked a lot and nobody has responded to us,” he said. “The screens show everything [that is happening here]. But unfortunately nobody is helping.”

A UN security council resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across the country was passed unanimously on Saturday, but the Assad and his patrons, Russian and Iran, have continued the onslaught under the guise of fighting terrorists. More than two dozen people were killed in the first 36 hours that followed the passing of the resolution, which was supposed to go into effect without delay.

Instead, in a sign of Moscow’s primacy in Syrian affairs, Vladimir Putin essentially replaced the resolution with his own proposal for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting every day from 9am to 2pm.

The announcement by Russia’s defense minister demonstrated how little the international community can, or is willing, to do to alleviate Syria’s misery. Even the Russian move, however, did not halt the violence.

“The Syrian regime and its Russian allies are continuing to try and destroy this society,” said another rescue worker. “After the [UN] agreement, they used weapons that had not been used in past days. They used chlorine, they used phosphorus, there were new massacres, there were children and women that the civil defence could not rescue from under the rubble. There is blood and body parts in the street.

“I cannot say anything except damn the whole world, and damn everything. God is with us, and he is the protector,” he said.

Terrorists have received a final OK from their foreign backers to carry out a false-flag chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta to later accuse the Syrian Army of using poisonous materials against militant-held areas, a military source said on Friday.

Terrorists Receive Green Light to Launch False-Flag Chemical Attack in Eastern Ghouta Fri Mar 02, 2018
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961211000403

The source said that the terrorist groups, including Ahrar al-Sham, Faylaq al-Rahman and Al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) are preparing to launch a chemical attack on militant-held regions in Eastern Ghouta to later accuse the Syrian army.

The source further said that the terrorists have been ordered to use poisonous materials close to the contact line with the Syrian soldiers to pave the ground for the US, the UK and other western states to accuse the Syrian army of a chemical attack on people.

The Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria warned on Sunday that militants in East Ghouta, who continue to hold civilians hostage and to shell Damascus in breach of a humanitarian pause, may stage a provocative chemical attack.

The leaders of militant units controlling the East Ghouta suburb of Damascus might be “preparing a provocation that will involve the use of chemical weapons,” Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko said in a briefing on Sunday, citing intelligence obtained by the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria.

Just hours after the warning, reports emerged that several people in East Ghouta suffered symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas, conveniently supported by images from the White Helmets group, known for its unique ability to appear at the right place just in time to film civilian suffering, which is later pinned on the Syrian government forces. For their virtuoso work, the controversial UK-backed NGO, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, were even awarded a Hollywood Oscar, despite being plagued by allegations of having ties with terrorists.

The allegations of Damascus’ involvement in yet another chemical attack on civilians coincide with the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution to impose a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, which does not apply to members of the ISIL, al-Nusra or any other terrorist organization. Following prolonged and heated debates at the UN, in which Russia insisted that the resolution’s text be altered so that Damascus is not painted as the sole party to blame for the violence, the resolution was unanimously adopted on Saturday.

However, the militants in control of East Ghouta have completely disregarded the humanitarian pause, having unified their command to continue harassing the local population and shelling Damascus.

The situation continues to deteriorate in East Ghouta where Jeish al-Islam, Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, Faylaq al-Rahman, and Fajr al-Ummah Brigade set up a united coordination center,” Yevtushenko added.

The Russian Reconciliation Center noted that the militant groups impede provision of humanitarian aid to East Ghouta and block civilians from leaving the suburb, basically keeping hundreds hostage, including women and children.

“Despite the statements made by Jeish Al-Islam about reconciliation, the mortar shelling of Damascus continues from the territory controlled by the formations of this group,” the Russian Military Spokesman said, noting that at least 31 shells were fired from East Ghouta into residential districts of Damascus. On top of the widespread damage caused by the attacks, at least 13 civilians and one Syrian soldier were injured.

The terrorists also tried to stage a car bomb attack near the town of Qaboun, a suburb of Damascus, an attempt foiled by Syrian armed forces. According to the Russian military, the explosives-laden vehicle came from the areas controlled by Faylaq al-Rahman and al-Nusra militants.

For over a week the Syrian government forces have been carrying out operation Damascus Steel, to clear East Ghouta of militants that have been terrorizing the locals for years, and who have rejected any initiatives to lay down their arms and leave the area. As tensions continue to run high in East Ghouta, despite the agreed ceasefire, the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria urged the warring parties to “stop any combat actions and armed provocations.”

This is not the first time that reports of a chlorine gas attack have emerged from the enclave on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Previous incidents allegedly occurred in January, just before various factions of Syrian society gathered for the Syrian National Congress in Sochi, Russia. The US Secretary of State at the time used the reports to blame Russia for all the chemical weaponry-related incidents in Syria, regardless of who actually conducted it. The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the insinuations as a “massive propaganda attack” aimed at undermining efforts for a peaceful settlement in Syria.

The US has repeatedly warned that it may conduct more direct air strikes against Syrian forces if chemical weapons are used in the country. Last April President Donald Trump ordered Tomahawk missile strikes on Shayrat Airbase, in response to a chemical attack in Idlib, which the US, without a single shred of evidence, immediately pinned on President Bashar Assad. French President Emmanuel Macron also promised to “strike” Syria if any evidence emerges that chemical weapons are being used against civilians.

Russia has repeatedly drawn the international community’s attention to incidents involving the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and has consistently called for independent and impartial investigations into the matter. Last month Moscow again proposed a mechanism to replace the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), whose mandate expired in November. Previously, JIM handled UN investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Syria but, according to Russian officials, has failed to produce objective reports on chemical attacks, including the April incident in Khan Sheikhoun. Instead, Moscow has been proposing to establish an objective investigative mechanism to probe all allegations of chemical attacks in Syria “based on impeccable and irrefutable data,” rather than on cherry-picked facts and accounts by partisan sources.

Some 674 people have been killed by the Syrian regime in the province of eastern Ghouta, according to the Syrian Civil Defense Unit, the White Helmets.

White Helmets: Eastern Ghouta death toll at 674 March 2, 2018
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180302-white-helmets-eastern-ghouta-death-toll-at-674/

As of this morning, some 2,708 people were also injured in the past 12 days of perpetual bombing, including 540 women and 658 children. Civilians have been forced to hide in cellars for days, with a higher death toll observed among men who risk the constant air strikes to secure food for their families.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that government forces of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad launched a ground offensive on the besieged enclave on Wednesday, after reports that the regime had been sending reinforcements to the area since the start of last month. Whilst rebels initially inflicted heavy losses on regime forces, government troops have reportedly pushed into several villages in the east of the province.

On Saturday, the UN Security council voted unanimously in favour of a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, as rescuers in Ghouta said a week of perpetual bombing had not let up long enough for them to count bodies during one of the bloodiest air assaults of the seven-year war. Shortly after the vote, warplanes struck another town in the province.

Air strikes have continued to take place across the suburb, despite Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s announcement of a daily five-hour ceasefire to be implemented in the enclave to allow a safe route for the wounded to be evacuated and civilians to escape.

Yesterday, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert called the Russian proposal for a five-hour ceasefire “a joke”, condemning the continued bombardment in violation of the UN decision.

“What needs to happen instead is a nationwide ceasefire that was voted upon unanimously at the United Nations last Saturday,” Nauert told reporters at a press briefing. “Fifteen countries supported it, let me remind you. So did Russia.”

Earlier today, Geert Cappalaere, Middle East director of the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF, said in a statement that the Syrian government may agree to allow an aid convoy with supplies for 180,000 people into the town of Douma on Sunday, although there was no sign of an agreement on further convoys to aid the rest of the district’s 400,000 people.

Eastern Ghouta is one of four de-escalation zones established last May by Russia, Iran and Turkey in order to stem the bloodshed of Syria’s six-year civil war. However, the region has experienced near constant bombardment for many months, with aid provision restricted, leaving 400,000 civilians struggling to survive.

Militants in Eastern Ghouta are gearing up to stage a provocative chemical attack and blame it on the Syrian government, the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria warned.

Militants Plotting Chemical Attack in Eastern Ghouta, Russia Warns February, 26, 2018
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2018/02/26/1666639/militants-plotting-chemical-attack-in-eastern-ghouta-russia-warns

The Takfiri militants, who continue to hold civilians hostage in Eastern Ghouta and shell Damascus in breach of a humanitarian ceasefire, might be “preparing a provocation that will involve the use of chemical weapons,” Maj. Gen. Yury Yevtushenko said in a briefing on Sunday, citing intelligence obtained by the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, RT reported.

Just hours after the warning, reports emerged that several people in East Ghouta suffered symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas, conveniently supported by images from the so-called humanitarian group White Helmets, known for its unique ability to appear at the right place just in time to film civilian suffering, which is later pinned on the Syrian government forces. For their virtuoso work, the controversial UK-backed NGO, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, were even awarded a Hollywood Oscar, despite being plagued by allegations of having ties with terrorists.

The allegations of Damascus’ involvement in yet another chemical attack on civilians coincide with the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution to impose a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, which does not apply to members of Daesh, al-Nusra or any other terrorist organizations. Following prolonged and heated debates at the UN, in which Russia insisted that the resolution’s text be altered so that Damascus is not painted as the sole party to blame for the violence, the resolution was unanimously adopted on Saturday.

However, the militants in control of Eastern Ghouta have completely disregarded the humanitarian pause, having unified their command to continue harassing the local population and shelling Damascus.

The situation continues to deteriorate in East Ghouta where Jaysh al-Islam, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Faylaq al-Rahman, and Fajr al-Ummah Brigade set up a united coordination center,” Yevtushenko said.

The Russian Reconciliation Center noted that the militant groups impede provision of humanitarian aid to Eastern Ghouta and block civilians from leaving the suburb, basically keeping hundreds hostage, including women and children. (Article continues.)

 

[angelburst29]

The Children of Syria. The West in Highly Complicit in War Crimes March 02, 2018
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-children-of-syria/5515584

Author’s Update as of March 2, 2018

Now that the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, are over, warmongering, threats and bombings are retaking world stage. Syria is again in the crosshairs of the blood-drenched empire’s handlers, NATO and its western puppets. The US are setting up a series of permanent illegal, uninvited bases in northern Syria, deploying some 30,000 mostly mercenary type soldiers, commanding the US trained and armed 50,000 strong Kurdish so-called People’s Protection Unit, or YPG, as well as newly trained, funded and armed ISIS fighters – all aiming at taking over one third of the Syrian territory – the beginning of a balkanization of Syria, and with the ultimate goal of ‘regime change’ – the goal that has never changed – removing Bashar al Assad, the legitimate democratically elected President of Syria.

Then there is East-Ghouta – a suburban area of Damascus, already largely under control – again – by US mandated IS or associated terrorists, shelling Damascus with an average of 70 rockets per day. In addition of having hit the Russian Embassy, they are causing innumerable casualties, including children, more suffering, homes, hospitals and schools destroyed, more orphans, to whom they apply the UN-sanitized term “refugees” – children without names without faces, without parents, without education, children as slaves and objects of sexual and labor exploitation – children without a future.

This will go on no doubt. Russia will interfere, hoping to stop the onslaught, while the US bases in the north will grow and not let go – one of the principles of the PNAC (Plan for a New American Century) is make no concessions, pursue your target no matter what… Russia be better aware of this unbendable doctrine. “The no matter what” could mean: If we go down, the world goes down.

Then there are the seven countries that have to fall, of which the 2007 “Democracy Now” broadcast by Wesley Clark testifies. Syria is one of them. Lebanon is under simultaneous threat. Fortunately, Russia has just signed a military defense agreement with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

The confrontation between Israel and Lebanese defense forces may intensify – more children at risk. And what is a distinct possibility for which the prostitute MSM has already launched an indoctrinating lie-propaganda – a false-flag act – another East-Ghouta sarin gas attack, this time specifically targeting children – executed by US / NATO directed terrorists and blaming the Assad government. The White Helmets would be there for the filming, possibly directed by George Clooney. That would have major impact on the world population.

Remember the August 2013 chlorine and sarin gas attack which killed up to 1,700 people, about a third of them children, in eastern Ghouta, and where a first investigation mission by the UN, led by former Swiss Attorney General, Carla Del Ponte, concluded that most likely the gas attack was perpetrated by the ‘opposition’, i.e. by the terrorists.

“I was a little bit stupefied by the first indication of the use of nerve gas by the opposition,” she said on Swiss TV.

‘Stupefied’ were certainly also Washington and its puppet European allies, France, Germany, UK, to hear a UN expert saying that “their people’’ did it, not Mr. Assad. – What Ms. Del Ponte clearly implied is that the West, by supporting the terrorists, most probably directing them to carry out the false flag – is highly complicit in war crimes.

Madame del Ponte later had to retract her statement, probably under threat – the tyrannical empire’s ultimate weapon, threating those who digress from the given doctrine. Since then all you can find in the presstitute MSM are accusations of the Syrian Government gazing her own people. That is not Mr. Assad’s style; but is sure is characteristic for the west, just look at the hundreds of False Flags – and school shootings – since and including 9/11.

Of course, nothing has changed since 2013. The west on a daily basis is responsible for uncountable war crimes, for the killing of millions of people since 9/11, the Mother of False Flags, at least a third of the victims are children – and those children who survived are made to live in abject misery, as orphans, refugees and slaves – undignified lives.

Innocent children are being sacrificed for the benefit of a power and greed driven elite – to finally gain control over this most strategically placed oil and mineral rich Middle Eastern country, whose President Assad declared in 2009 the “Five Sea Vision”, linking Syria with the Mediterranean, Caspian, Black Sea, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. That would make Syria an economic power house of the Middle East.

Two years later, in 2011, Washington initiated via CIA and NATO trained terrorists a so-called civil war in Syria that has in the seven years to now cost the lives of at least a half a million people and almost half of Syria’s 18 million population has been displaced, of whom more than 4 million refugees abroad. If the sinister PNAC were to prevail, Syria would be kept in chaos for savage exploitation for decades to come. And generations of children are gone. Remaining Syrians, one of the best educated people of the Middle East, would descend into destitute slavehood.

Author’s Update on February 9, 2017

With Trump’s aggressive anti-Muslim immigration policy, especially anti-Syrian refugees, with the US special forces ordered by Trump carpet bombing and indiscriminately killing predominantly children and women in Yemen, and with Trump declaring his intent to step up the ‘anti-terror’ fight in Yemen — it is time to review the issue of war crimes committed against The Children of Syria.

Let’s remind the people, especially those ‘selective’ Trump supporters, that the new President’s atrocities are hardly running behind those of the Obama / Killery team.

Killing is still Washington’s number One objective to feed the weapon and war cum security industry without which the rotten-to-the bone United States economy could not survive.

The victims of these brutal US trained-to-kill soldiers are invariably children and women. Those who are not killed right away, are likely to become refugees, be it from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan – and, yes, Yemen – and then they have no choice, but to seek out the homelands of their killers. Europe is next door.

That is why highlighting again The Children of Syria, symbolic for other children refugees of the western-destroyed Middle East, is so important.

The leadership (sic-sic) of the EU’s also rotten (and corrupt)-to-the-bone bureaucratic dictatorship, pretending to command the destiny of some 800 million people, is meeting in Malta, nominally to discuss the ‘destabilizing flood of refugees’ as they call it – had actually nothing better to do then to bash Trump for destabilizing Europe.

Yes, you read correctly, Trump. The villain and danger for the utterly useless bunch of vassal-clowns is, would you believe it, suddenly no longer Putin – but Trump! – See also Finian Cunningham’s ‘Trump or Putin’

When do these incompetent and inhuman European stooges of the White House, wake up to their own responsibility to stop the wars, thereby stopping the inhuman flood of refugees and apologize to the victims. They – the European un-leaders – would be capable of stopping the bloodshed, if they wanted to, as Washington will not do the killing alone. Washington will not expose themselves to the world as the only brutes to massacre women and children. Brussels knows about their power. But they don’t use it; they are cowards – or bought by the murderers.

But who would be surprised? Their forefathers have slaughtered and raped and colonized and exploited to the roots for over 800 years the rest of the world. Why would the new Europeans be different? Inhumanity is in the Judo-Christian men’s nature, the settlers of Europe.

Let us be reminded of The Children of Syria as a reality on its own, and as an allegory for refugee children around the world, of the inhumanity that inhabits the soul- and heartless westerners.

It’s not by hazard that in a recent interview with Al-Jazeera President Bashar Al-Assad pointedly said he didn’t want any European help in rebuilding Syria, “You can’t destroy Syria and then [make money] rebuilding her….”.

The words of the neocon Robert Zoellick, then President of the World Bank, still ring in the air “Let’s hope the World Bank will be able to help rebuild Libya”- after US / NATO forces under Obama’s and Hillary’s orders bombed the country to rubble in 2011, and shamelessly and brutally murdered their rightful leader, Mohamad Gaddafi on 20 October 2011, in his hometown of Sirte.

The Children of Syria – are also the suffering and homeless children of Libya — and of Somalia, of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of Palestine, of Pakistan, of Sudan – and the list of victims of western wars. The Children of Syria are everywhere where the western war machine seeks profit for its US based industry and for full spectrum world dominance of its deep State Masters.

***
There is no other species, no other biological being on this planet that for no necessity at all destroys its own species for sheer greed and power.

Hardly anybody talks about and shows the horrendous situation in Syria on the ground, how this US instigated war affects the people, the individuals – and in particular the children. No future. Three million of them (UNICEF) do not go to school; they are malnourished, many sick, many die – miserable deaths, in unsanitary refugee camps; uncounted children are orphans at young age – have to fend for themselves, are being abused, exploited, mistreated, physically and mentally.

What a future? What a life. Add to these 3 million from Syria alone the uncounted children from Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan – and the list goes on. All of these children were made homeless and refugees and many also orphans through wars and armed conflicts started by the US and its western ‘allies’.

Be sure always to remember, who is behind these conflicts; who could stop the misery anytime and who has the power to bring peace to humanity rather than constant war and mass killings to satisfy their greed – greed for dominance, greed for resources.

According to the UNHCR about 60 million people worldwide are on the move as refugees. This figure in reality is probably at least 70 million. It also masks another reality – one of abject poverty and misery, caused by a US-led world elite living in superb luxury and comfort, killing for more wealth and more power. The number of children can only be estimated. It is fair to guess that at least 1/3 of all refugees are children and adolescents, some 25 million. Again, most of these worldwide refugees are the result of US aggressions or conflicts initiated by Washington and carried out by US / NATO armed forces, or by America’s vassals and proxies, i.e. the war in Yemen nominally fought by the Saudis and other Gulf states, but with full backing and arms supplied by the US / NATO.

Young girls and adolescent women are often ending up in the sex-trade. Many of the boys and girls are abused as slaves or at best cheap, hardly-paid labor, working at least 12-hour days and of course – no chance of going to school – a missed opportunity to get a basic education. – What will they do in the future? – Those who may one day be ‘free’ from seeking shelter as refugees, free from slavery and able to enter a ‘normal’ work life?

The number of refugees is increasing with every bombing run by the US and NATO; by drone assassinations, yes, personally approved by Obama, the self-appointed leader of the world who goes around the globe preaching human rights, the biggest human rights abuser in recent history. US drones have killed tens of thousands in the last 15 years. To that you may add the hundreds, perhaps thousands killed by UK and French drones. At least 90% of those killed are civilians, many of them, maybe as many as half, are children or adolescents.

Many children survive as orphans. Especially when the trigger-happy drone-trained operators in Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas or elsewhere on the US territory, or the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, Djibouti, direct their joysticks towards a wedding or funeral celebration in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan – you name it. They have a particular liking for these mass family gatherings. The ‘bug splats’ – military slang for people killed by remote control – are the most numerous, the most fun, the bloodiest ‘bang for the buck’, for these inhuman monsters, trained to kill in places tens of thousands of kilometers away from their comfort zone – and ordered to do so by the Assassin-in-chief, Obama; he who proudly says that he approves each killing personally. How does the man – if he still deserves the term – sleep at night?

Many of these drone ‘pilots’ work from mobile air-conditioned trailers outside large cities in the US, but also from Africa, Afghanistan or the United Arab Emirates. There are at least 60 drone bases around the world, most of them controlled by the CIA and their proxies. Their number may be flexible with a tendency to grow. They are often operating from simple airstrips, easy to set up and easy to dismantle. They are clad in a shroud of secrecy, therefore difficult to monitor. This is modern American warfare, by robot, removed from emotions. Killing is a mere statistic, a measure accounted for on a spreadsheet. Almost nobody talks about this atrocious way of combat that is easily and painlessly replicated everywhere and endlessly.

How can a future Syria be built without an educated population? There will be a generation gap, for several generations – if ever – before the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region can recuperate its economy, its social and physical infrastructure – its sheer living of normal lives. Syria, Libya and Iraq were the most progressive countries in MENA: free education and health care; a first-class social safety net and physical infrastructure that functioned; a deep and profound history of humanity, the cradle of our western civilization. No more. The very ‘western civilization’ has destroyed it all. Bombed into oblivion. They were and Syria still is socialist by definition – a red flag and no-go for the western neoliberal fascist way of thinking and economic model.

Most of these people have done no harm, are no terrorists, especially the children, they were happy to go to school, to play with their friends, to have a home and caring family and daily food on the table. Now everything is lost. No home. Street children, begging, eating from the gutters, sick, torn and filthy clothing, cold, no shelter – no health care – no care at all. Washington and Washington directed stooges have taken away their future, have plunged them into misery, those that have survived and are roaming the globe as ‘refugees’. What a western sanitized term out of the handbook on statistics – when these poor souls are more often than not at the edge of survival, expulsed from one country to another, beaten, threatened with guns, sometimes killed, hovering between a life of despair and death from starvation, disease or sheer neglect.

Because the greed-driven neoliberal western colonialists – the same Europeans and some of them have become North Americans in the 18th, 19th and 20th century – who have ravaged and raped and exploited the world for centuries, these same people – can they still be called people? – are now decimating and destroying what’s left of our globe, for full spectrum dominance.

Killing is the new normal. Desolation and misery of living beings is of no importance. Interference without limitation, that is what the west does best, literally best. They have perfected an evil science: how to create a chaos of suffering and misery efficiently, with the least effort, at least cost – bombs, drones – poison gas, spent uranium, GMOs, and finally – the atom bomb – eradicating all. By chaos you divide and conquer.

Paradise going up in flames, taking evil humanity with it – safe for a few indigenous people, who have lived all their lives and are still living close and with nature. They may become the founders of a new humanity.

 

[Ca.]

April 8, 2018
White Helmets Graphic (Link)

Entire families in shelters gassed to death in #Douma #EastGhouta hiding in their cellars, suffocated from the poisonous gas bringing the initial death toll to more than 40 is still in the process of rescue and recovery.

 

[Oxajil]

April 8, 2018
White Helmets Graphic (Link)

It's quite sickening to see them use those children and such pictures for their crazy agenda. They are murderers, and western nations are gladly financing them, while NetFlix is making sure everybody thinks they're actually helping the people there with their propaganda documentary. The only ones they're helping are the people in the Deep State!

 

[Ca.]

It's quite sickening to see them use those children and such pictures for their crazy agenda. They are murderers, and western nations are gladly financing them, while NetFlix is making sure everybody thinks they're actually helping the people there with their propaganda documentary. The only ones they're helping are the people in the Deep State!

One would think that the appointment of Susan Rice to the broad of Netflix would reveal Hollywood's role with this campaign of fraud.

And maybe there is some hope, like the session's said, that the public (in time) would be less hoodwinkable.

The Comments (on ZH), though brutally honest, seem to show a grain of resemblance that the current narrative may not materialize.

Thanks to alternative Media, the voice of sanity.

We'll all just all just keep on networking, and like Paul Rever spared the truth far and wide to those may choose, to listen.

 

[angelburst29]

09.04.2018 - White Helmets "Treat" alleged Chemical Attack Victims without Protective Gear
White Helmets 'Treat' Alleged Chemical Attack Victims Without Protective Gear

The White Helmets, which claim to be an impartial NGO, saving civilians in war-torn Syria, have repeatedly been busted using false videos of their daily rescue operations.

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, has published several clips and pictures, showing the alleged aftermath of the chemical attack in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. The volunteers have reported a widespread suffocation in the area, which led to 42 deaths; the footage, posted on Twitter, shows the alleged victims, including babies in diapers, breathing through oxygen masks.

However, the rescuers appeared to be so focused on accusing President Bashar al-Assad of dropping a chemical bomb on Douma that they forgot to put on gas masks or protective suits themselves.

Meanwhile, the Russian Reconciliation Center has spoken with doctors in Douma, who reported that they had not received any patients with sign of chemical poisoning. Neither did the Syrian Red Crescent Society. The center also said that no traces of chemical agents were found in the area where the alleged attack had taken place, adding that videos spread by the "White Helmets" were “fake,” aimed at derailing the Syrian ceasefire.

The videos were published after several media outlets reported, citing militant sources, that the Syrian government forces had launched a chemical attack on Douma, while Jaysh al-Islam claimed that the army had dropped a chemical bomb on the city.

Both Syria and Russia have repeatedly warned of the forthcoming fabricated chemical attacks on Douma weeks prior to the alleged incident, saying that such disinformation campaigns are aimed at covering up terrorists and justifying military action. Responding to the claims, the Syrian government argued that such allegations were being made by terrorists to halt Syrian forces’ advances and insisted that Damascus did not need such measures to fight militants.

White Helmets’ Smear Campaign - The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, has denied the allegations, insisting that several Western states and such NGOs as the infamous White Helmets have been carrying out a disinformation campaign to undermine the withdrawal of Jaysh al-Islam militants from the area.

“We strongly deny these claims and announce our readiness to send Russian experts in radiation, chemical and biological defense to Douma after its liberation from terrorists to gather evidence, which would prove that the allegations of the chemical weapons use were staged,” said Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, commander of the reconciliation center.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stressed that Moscow sought for a just investigation into the incident, and reiterated that Russian military specialists did not find any traces of a chemical attack at site. He has also recalled that last year the White Helmets also worked without any protective clothes at the alleged site of a sarin gas attack.

International Reaction - The United States has taken the reports seriously, with President Donald Trump saying that Russia, Iran and Syria are accountable for the chemical attack.

The State Department blamed it on Damascus, saying that a “history” of chemical weapons being used by the country’s authorities was “not in dispute,” without having confirmation that the footage was authentic.

“The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks,” said State Department’s spokesperson Heather Nauert.

Earlier in the day, President Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had exchanged data allegedly confirming the use of chemical weapons in Douma, having decided to coordinate their actions and hold talks within the next 48 hours.

On April 8, nine out of fifteen members of the UN Security Council have called for an emergency meeting to discuss the recent reports.

 

[Ca.]

More MSM propaganda, Via White Helmets
Apr 10, 2018

New unverified video shows a canister of the chemical weapon that killed dozens of civilians in the rubble of a home bombed by Syrian
aircraft.

https://twitter.com/x/status/983768284133806080

 

[angelburst29]

C.a. - I think "looney-George-Clooney" is behind the film making for the White Helmets in Douma - so that the footage can be used in the movie/documentary that Clooney is producing and directing? Well, if the White Helmets want "fame", we can accommodate? Also, check out Bellingcat's article below - lot's of video.

11 April، 2018 - Russian Defense Ministry: “White Helmets” staged a fake chemical attack in Douma
Russian Defense Ministry: “White Helmets” staged a fake chemical attack in Douma – Syrian Arab News Agency

Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the armed terrorist groups in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside have incessantly attempted to organize provocations involving the alleged use of toxic chemicals in order to accuse the Syrian forces of it.

First Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department Lieutenant General Viktor Poznikhir noted that the Syrian government and Hmeimim-based Russian Reconciliation Center had exposed those plans and informed the international community and mass media about them.

“For instance, on March 3rd, a workshop where militants had been loading ammunition with poisonous chemical agents was found in an underground tunnel in Hazrama town in Eastern Ghouta,” he said.

Poznikhir added that the last attempt to stage a chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta was probably made on April 7th when the
notorious White Helmets, who operate as part of terrorist groups, staged and filmed a chemical weapons attack on civilians in the town of Douma.

“On April 9th, Russian military chemists and doctors visited the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, including the health facility shown in the White Helmets’ footage, but found neither cases of exposure to chemical weapons nor traces of toxic agents,” Poznikhir added.


12 April، 2018 - Russian envoy slams WHO for recklessly releasing dubious information on Douma incident
Russian envoy slams WHO for recklessly releasing dubious information on Douma incident

Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) exhibited a lack of responsibility when they released allegations that almost 500 people asked for medical help in the Syrian city of Douma on April 7 with symptoms of poisoning. These actions by the WHO employees only serve to egg on those powers that are stoking the conflict in Syria, said Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva, in a conversation with TASS.

Gatilov regarded the WHO’s statement as a serious one, highlighting that "it was made right when Syria had experienced a new uptick in tensions."

"We all have been hearing about the possibility of American strikes and the emergence of such a statement plays into the hands of those who strive for a scenario involving the use of force in Syria," the diplomat noted. "We consider it unacceptable."

"We reached out to WHO’s employees in charge and demanded that they present concrete sources of information on which this statement was based. Furthermore, [we] asked them to name the so-called healthcare partners that the WHO is referring to and to provide information on which specific medical facilities these almost 500 affected people turned to, who counted them and who made the diagnoses." "According to the information we possess, these ‘partners’ are none other than the representatives of the notorious White Helmets organization," Gatilov said.

"We regard all this as a flagrantly reckless dissemination of unsubstantiated information," Gatilov stressed.

A number of NGOs, including the White Helmets, stated that chemical weapons were used in Eastern Ghouta on April 7. The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed this report as fake news. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the White Helmets are an unreliable source of information and are notorious for disseminating falsified material. Representatives from the Russian Reconciliation Center for the Opposing Sides examined Douma on April 9, and found no trace of any use of chemical weapons there.

Russia and Syria have already invited experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit Douma in order to investigate the incident. OPCW reported that it would soon send a special mission to the site and asked the Syrian authorities to prepare for the visit.


10 April، 2018 - Lavrov: Russia ready to provide security guarantees to OPCW experts in Syria’s Douma (A very serious Lavrov)
Lavrov: Russia ready to provide security guarantees to OPCW experts in Syria’s Douma

On April 7, a number of NGOs, including the White Helmets, alleged that chemical weapons were used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta.

Russia is prepared to provide security guarantees to OPCW experts to investigate the alleged chemical weapons incident in Syria’s Douma, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"Any references to security concerns [for OPCW experts] are unlikely to be serious. Douma has been completely freed from militants and is controlled by government troops. The Russian military police have been deployed to the area," Lavrov said. "If security guarantees for OPCW inspectors are required, such guarantees will be provided."

According to him, Moscow invited OPCW experts to make a visit to Douma in order to figure out what had happened there. "We have not received a response yet," Lavrov said.

"We have heard statements from The Hague that they have launched an investigation into the Douma incident," the Russian top diplomat said. "However, the use of chemical weapons has not been confirmed yet. Members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and Russian representatives from relevant agencies visited the site of the alleged attack in Douma but did not find any traces of chemical weapons," he added.

"We cannot take the results of remote investigations for granted anymore," Lavrov went on to say. "This is what happened in Khan Shaykhun, when a remote investigation resulted in a flimsy report containing expressions such as ‘highly possible’ and ‘highly likely’," he noted.

"We know the true price of such expressions and will never again take them for granted," the Russian foreign minister concluded.

Russia on Tuesday will propose a draft resolution of the UN Security Council on an investigation to be conducted by OPCW specialists into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria’s Douma, he added.

"We will propose a draft resolution of the UN Security Council to enable the OPCW to comply with its liabilities under the Chemical Weapons Convention, conduct an investigation, including on-site inspection and proper safe-keeping of all samples taken along the transportation route to the laboratory, and ensure everything should be transparent and fair. The draft resolution will require precisely this sort of inquiry in response to a direct invitation of the Syrian government, which is prepared to receive experts in the field already now," Lavrov said.

He promised that Moscow was prepared to guarantee the security of OPCW experts who would be investigating the Douma incident.

"Any lame excuses, such as doubts over the safety [of OPCW experts] will be hardly serious. Douma has been cleared of militants and is under the control of government forces. The Russian military police are in place, too," Lavrov said. "If OPCW experts need security guarantees, such guarantees will be provided."

"If those who wish to indulge in speculations over the chemical issue for pushing ahead with their anti-Syrian, Russophobic policies prevent experts once again from examining the scene on the pretext there are no security guarantees, that will be tantamount to a verdict," Lavrov said. "In fact they will acknowledge their real plans and thereby confirm that they are not interested in establishing the truth either in this case, or in Khan Shaykhun, or in the Skripal affair or anywhere else, whenever they try to groundlessly accuse Russia."

Events in Syria - Some NGOs, including the White Helmets, claim that chemical weapons were used in Douma, a suburb of the Syrian capital on April 7. According to the statement uploaded to the organization’s website on April 8, chlorine bombs were dropped on the city to kill dozens and poison other local civilians who had to be brought to hospital.

The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed that as fake news. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the White Helmets, were an unreliable source, notorious for disseminating falsehoods. The Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides on April 9 examined Douma to find no traces of chemical weapons. Earlier, various official Russian agencies repeatedly warned that preparations had been in the works around different parts of Syria for provocations and simulations of chemical attacks that would be blamed on Damascus.


April 11, 2018 - Syrian Army Discovers White Helmets’ Filming Site in Eastern Ghouta
Syrian Army Discovers White Helmets’ Filming Site in Eastern Ghouta

Syrian Army has discovered where the White Helmets have filmed their propaganda videos in Eastern Ghouta against the Syrian government, a report said on Wednesday.

According to Fars news agency, the place is located in the small town of Saqba in Eastern Ghouta. The army personnel reportedly also discovered cameras and film production equipment left at the site.

On Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Defense denied reports of an alleged chemical bomb being dropped on Douma, also in Eastern Ghouta, suggesting that a number of Western states as well as NGOs like the White Helmets have turned to such claims, which it called “another fake,” in order to “undermine the achieved ceasefire.”

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the war, saying it “doesn’t need such measures to stop the terrorists.”

Earlier last month, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying it had reliable information about a false flag chemical attack being prepared by US military instructors.


Thursday 12 April 2018 - Douma attacks: What we know, and what world powers have told us
Douma attacks: What we know, and what world powers have told us

Syria's war risks international escalation over an alleged gas attack on Douma. Here is what we know happened, and what we're being told.

One side has said it is fake news by western "agents", the other calls it a barbaric act by the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

The alleged chemical weapons attack on Douma in the Damascus suburbs last week has sparked the possibilty of a confrontation between world powers.

The Russian government has said there never was an attack, that it was faked by rebel sympathisers, and that its investigators found no trace of chemical agents.

The US and its allies, the UK and France, have said they believe it is the latest in a series of gassings ordered by the Assad government.

France's president, Emmanuel Macron, claims to have definitive proof of the instigator, but hasn't elaborated further.

Middle East Eye looks at what is known about the attacks on Douma, what both sides have said to back up conflicting accounts, and what investigators have managed to separately piece together.

Douma, Eastern Ghouta, 7 April, 2018
Last Saturday, at least 70 people died after suspected chemical attacks on the city in Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus which has been besieged since 2012.

According to a report from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, one attack occurred around 4pm at the Sada bakery, killing 15 people. A second attack at 7.30pm near al-Shuhada square killed 55 people and injured 860.

Five hundred people went to Syrian health facilities over the weekend exhibiting "signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals", according to the World Health Organization.

The attacks came as negotiations were under way between Jaish al-Islam and the Syrian government over the last rebel-held bastion near the capital.

On 2 April, 4,000 fighters, family members and civilians had already left the city.

Hours after the 7 April attack, the remaining rebels had agreed to either lay down their arms or leave the city, according to Staffan de Mistura, UN envoy to Syria.

Open-source investigation
Using information available through open sources, the Bellingcat website has concluded that the latter attack near the square was "most likely" the result of chlorine gas dropped by the Syrian air force from a helicopter.

In a report on Wednesday, the website said it could identify 34 people killed in the attack in the photos and videos of the aftermath.

The report also notes that two yellow cylinders, the same type which have been found after other alleged aerial chlorine attacks during the war, were discovered in Douma, including one found on the rooftop of a building where people were killed.

Dan Kaszeta, a British chemical weapons expert at Strongpoint Security, told Middle East Eye on that he generally agreed with Bellingcat's assessment.

"Chlorine is far more effective in a confined space and that's what seems to have happened in Douma," said Kaszeta.

"Some people say Sarin, but I've seen very little useful evidence on that front, and nobody seems to be able to say what delivery device would have been used... it's not a gas, so you don't put it in gas cylinders as you would chlorine."

The Syrian government has invited inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the wake of the attack, but it is not clear whether they will be given access to Douma.

It is also unclear how any apparent military action will impact their investigation.

Russia's version of events
Russian officials have said their military chemists who visited Douma on Sunday were unable to find any trace of chemical weapons used against civilians.

"The Russian military reached out to local medical officials and was told that no patients with symptoms of chemical poisoning had been admitted to the Douma hospital," Russian-state broadcaster RT reported on Thursday.

Instead, Moscow says the White Helmets – a rescue organization that they have accused of being backed by Western intelligence - faked the attack so that the Syrian government could be blamed.

"On 7 April, probably the last attempt to stage a chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta was made," Lieutenant General Viktor Poznikhir was quoted as saying in the state-run TASS news agency this week.

"The notorious White Helmets, who operate as part of terrorist groups, staged and filmed a chemical weapons attack on civilians in the town of Douma."

Russia's foreign ministry also released a statement claiming that information being released about the attack is being used to "shield the terrorists and the implacable radical opposition who reject a political settlement".

Syria and Iran
The Syrian government has denied any involvement in the attack and said the attacks were faked.

Hussam Edin Aala, Syria's ambassador to the UN, rejected the WHO's statement about the 500 injured Syrians as "baseless allegations" and questioned the credibility of the UN health agency which has not been given access to Douma. He said the incident had been "staged".

After inviting investigators to the country this week, state-run SANA quoted a foreign ministry official saying: "Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions."

An Iranian foreign ministry statement on Monday said: "Such allegations and accusations by the Americans and certain Western countries signal a new conspiracy against the Syrian government and people, and a pretext for military action."

What the US says happened
On Sunday morning within hours of the attacks, US President Donald Trump put the blame squarely on Russia and Iran for supporting "Animal Assad".

Later on Sunday, he said: "We'll be looking at that barbaric act and study what's going on. We're trying to get people in there because, as you know, it's been hard to get people in because not only has it been hit, it's been surrounded.

"If they are innocent, why aren't they allowing people to go in and prove – because you know they are claiming they didn't make the attack," he added.

By Monday, the US State Department said that the symptoms of the victims – based on accounts from medical professionals and social media photos and videos - were consistent with an asphyxiation or nerve agent "of some type" – but didn't name a chemical.

The use of chlorine in Syria, unlike Sarin and other deadlier agents, has not been a clear red line for the US government, as a Washington Post analysis earlier this year pointed out.

"Even though officials have been loath to admit it," Tobias Schneider, an independent analyst told the Post, "the prohibition against chemical weapons use in Syria has in the past been understood to only pertain to highly lethal nerve agents such as sarin but not the easily produced and far less deadly chlorine."


April 11, 2018 - Bellingcat: Open Source Survey of Alleged Chemical Attacks in Douma on 7th April 2018 (Photos - Videos)
_Open Source Survey of Alleged Chemical Attacks in Douma on 7th April 2018 - bellingcat

On April 7th 2018 reports began emerging of alleged chemical attacks on the city of Douma, in the rebel held pocket of Eastern Ghouta, Syria. Reports indicated that a significant number of people, including children, had been killed by these attacks. This report will assess and verify the open source information regarding these attacks, and draw conclusions from the available evidence.

Summary

1. A large compressed gas cylinder of a type used in previous aerial chlorine attacks was filmed on top of the building where a large number of fatalities were documented.
2. The number of dead bodies that can be established through open source data is 34+.
3. Aircraft spotters reported two Mi-8 Hip helicopters heading southwest from Dumayr Airbase, in the direction of Douma, 30 minutes before the chemical attack in Douma, and two Hip helicopters were observed above Douma shortly before the attack.
4. The Syrian Government has previously been identified as using Mi-8 Hip helicopters to drop chlorine cylinders on opposition held areas.

Reports of a Chemical Attack
Reports from the documentation group the Syrian Network for Human Rights indicated that there were at least two separate attacks involving chemical agents on the 7th April: one at 4pm near Sa’da bakery in Omar ben al Khattab St, which injured 15 people, and a second attack at around 1930 near al-Shuhada Square in Nu’man that killed 55 people and injured 860.

The Violations Documentation Center also reported two chemical attacks took place on April 7th 2018. As with the Syrian Network for Human Rights reports, the first attack was reported at 4pm near Sa’da bakery, with the VDC reporting claims from witnesses that chlorine was used. The VDC also reported the second attack at 1930 near al-Shuhada Square, and reported witness statements on the symptoms:

Dr. Jamal Rafie (pseudonym), told the VDC that the symptoms that he saw on patients “do not resemble chlorine attack symptoms. Chlorine alone cannot induce such symptoms because while it does cause suffocation, it does not affect the nerves. There were symptoms indicative of organic phosphorus compounds in the sarin gas category. But the smell of chlorine was also present in the place.”
Dr. Mohammed Kuttoub from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) told the VDC that his colleagues in Eastern Ghouta saw symptoms on people that include: “pinpoint pupils, slow heartbeat, slow breathing, heavy foaming from the mouth and nose, and the burning of the cornea in some cases.”​

The VDC also published the following graphic showing the locations of the attacks:

Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, reported that a chemical attack at 1945 on the 7th April killed more than 43 people and injured over 500. They reported the dead victims displayed signs of cyanosis (a bluish discolouration of the skin), excessive oral foaming and corneal burns. Six living casualties were reported to have pinpoint pupils and convulsions. The report concluded the casualties had been exposed to “toxic chemicals; most likely an organophosphate element”.

Footage and Images
Footage and images posted on social media after the 1930 attack appear to depict a significant number of casualties, with many dead bodies located in a single building. Many of these bodies displayed symptoms consistent with the claims made in the Syrian Civil Defence statement and the VDC report.
Video 1, which is extremely graphic, was posted at 0020 on 8th April titled “#2018-4-7 Al Assad is shelling Duma with Chemicals. Horrifying massacre against civilians in Duma”. It depicts a large number of dead bodies spread across several rooms in what appears to be the ground (first) floor of a residential building.

Video 2, which is extremely graphic, was posted at 0346 on 8th April titled “2018-4-7 Witness the foaming from the mouth of the injured due to the exposure of civilians to sarin gas”. It documents more dead bodies spread across the second floor and stairwell of the same building as Video 1, as well as what appears to be a hole in the roof of the third floor.

Certain distinctive commonalities can be seen between Video 1 and Video 2, indicating they are filmed in the same building.

Multiple other videos and images posted on social media appear to show the same building and the same casualties.

In total, at least 34 unique bodies appear across the two videos: 23 on the ground floor, 10 on the second floor and one on the landing of the stairs between the second and third floors.

Geolocation
Video 3, which is extremely graphic, was posted at 1748 on 8th April by the SMART new agency, an opposition media network. It shows bodies being removed from the same building that Videos 1 & 2 were filmed in, and taken out into the street during daytime.

Video 4, filmed by a local activist and posted on Youtube by Aljazeera at 2044 on 9th April, depicts what seems to be Russian military personnel visiting and entering this building. This event appears to be corroborated by a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) which claimed “representatives of the Russian Reconciliation Centre have explored areas of Douma… Results of inspection refuted all reports of chemical weapons use in the city” (archived)

By analysing Video 4 and Video 5, which both depict Russian personnel entering the same block, we can geolocate this building to 33.573878, 36.404793. This location is immediately South West of al-Shuhada Square, which matches with the reports from the Syrian Network for Human Rights and VDC.

Taken from the top of a building, it shows a hole in the roof with a yellow compressed gas cylinder. The cameraman then swings the camera around, allowing the position to be geolocated, identifying it as the roof of the building at 33.573878, 36.404793.

We can therefore conclude that Videos 1-6 were all filmed in the same area. All videos featured the same building which contained the large group of bodies depicted in Videos 1-2. Video 6 shows that this same building appears to have been hit by a compressed gas cylinder which broke through the roof.

Examination of munition
Following the attack, the remains of two yellow compressed gas cylinders were filmed and photographed. As described above, one gas cylinder was filmed on the roof of the building where a large number of fatalities were documented. A second gas cylinder was also filmed at a yet unidentified location:

The external modifications on the above cylinder are particularly interesting as they are consistent with modifications seen on other gas cylinders used in other reported aerial chlorine attacks. Very similar modifications can been seen in the following video from August 2017 in Khan al-Assal:

Yellow gas cylinders of the same type, with and without external structures, have been documented at the site of alleged aerial chlorine attacks since 2014, and were used on multiple occasions during the siege of Aleppo:

The most recent attack where yellow gas cylinders were documented following a reported aerial chlorine gas attack was the February 4th 2018 Saraqib attack, where two cylinders were photographed after being recovered from the attack site:

The OPCW has also investigated some of the attacks where yellow gas cylinders were used in aerial chlorine attacks, confirming they were dropped from helicopters. Aircraft observers that are part of the Sentry Syria network observed two Hip helicopters heading southwest from Dumayr Airbase, northeast of Damascus, in the direction of Douma, 30 minutes before the chemical attack in Douma, and two Hip helicopters were observed above Douma shortly before the attack. Hip transport helicopters have also been linked to previous aerial chlorine attacks.

With allegations of Sarin use, it is important to note that these yellow gas cylinders are not associated with the use of Sarin, and as Sarin is a liquid a compressed gas cylinder seems an unlikely method of delivery for Sarin. Possible explanations for the allegations of Sarin use may be a result of the severity of the symptoms presented, of an undocumented munition being used, or another chemical agent being used that presents symptoms that could be confused with Sarin use.

Conclusion
Based on the available evidence, it is highly likely the 34+ victims killed in the 1930 attack on the apartment building near al-Shuhada Square were killed as a result of a gas cylinder filled with what is most likely chlorine gas being dropped from a Hip helicopter originating from Dumayr Airbase.


Backdated July 14, 2017 - Russia: ‘White Helmets’ Participate in Smear Campaign Against Syria Gov’t
Russia: ‘White Helmets’ Participate in Smear Campaign Against Syria Gov’t

Russia accused the White Helmets NGO of being involved in a defamation campaign targeting the Syrian government.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday the activities of the White Helmets non-governmental organization (NGO) are a part of a defamation campaign targeting Syrian authorities.

“In general, we consider the White Helmets to be yet another element of a large-scale information campaign aimed at defamation of the Syrian authorities,” Zakharova said at a briefing.

The spokeswoman stressed that the media was using the White Helmets materials without first verifying the content.

“During the combat operations in Aleppo, the White Helmets showed videos with numerous victims, who, according to them, suffered during airstrikes of the Syrian Air Force and the Russian Air Force. However, shelling and strikes themselves were not recorded in any films,” Zakharova noted.

White Helmets is a Syrian humanitarian organization that claims to have saved tens of thousands of lives. The activists of the organization are often depicted saving people from under debris and providing first aid to civilians in war-torn Syria. However, a number of videos emerged revealing that rescue operations were staged, with the “victims” wearing make-up and given instructions for what to say. The rescue workers were allegedly seen in some videos carrying arms and in military uniform.

The Swedish Doctors for Human Rights (SWEDHR) NGO issued a report in March, stating that the “lifesaving” procedures shown in the videos published by the White Helmets are incorrect, fake and “ultimately performed on dead children.”

 

[Ca.]

C.a. - I think "looney-George-Clooney" is behind the film making for the White Helmets in Douma - so that the footage can be used in the movie/documentary that Clooney is producing and directing? Well, if the White Helmets want "fame", we can accommodate? Also, check out Bellingcat's article below - lot's of video.

You are Correct angelburst29. Deep State asset, him and his wife without a doubt.

Feb 20, 2018

Smoke House Pictures - Wikipedia
Smoke House Pictures (stylized Smokehouse Pictures) is an American film and television production company. The company was founded in 2006 by George Clooney and Grant Heslov after the shutdown of Section Eight Productions. Its name is taken from the Smoke House restaurant, located across the street from Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.[1]

The company signed a long-term production and development agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Television in July 2006.[2] In June 2009, the company signed an exclusive two-year theatrical development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment.[3][4]
In January 2013, Priya Swaminathan joined the company as Senior Vice President of Development.

Swedish Doctors: George Clooney Has Syrian Blood On His Hands
April 16, 2017 (Video contains graphic and disturbing content.)

 

[angelburst29]

13.04.2018 - Watch Douma Doctor blow lid off White Helmets "Chemical Attack" Claims
WATCH Douma Doctor Blow Lid Off White Helmets' 'Chemical Attack' Claims

(3:32 min.)

Amid Western powers' planning for a military response to an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian Army in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, the Russian Defense Ministry has released a video interview of two young men who were on the ground at a local hospital where opposition media claimed victims of a 'chemical attack' were being treated.

The men, whose faces could be seen in a video spread by opposition media regarding the alleged April 7 Douma chemical attack, said that panic at the hospital began after an unknown individual began shouting about a chemical attack as the victims of a residential building which had been hit by a bomb were being brought in for treatment.

The men, including Khalil Azizah, an ambulance driver at Douma Central Hospital, and another eyewitness, whose name was not revealed, said that the bombing victims were suffering from smoke inhalation.

The witnesses said they were busy working to save the bombing victims, and did not notice that they were being filmed.

"We were working and did not pay attention to who was filming us," the first eyewitness said. "They were filming us, and then a man came in and started screaming that this was a chemical attack…People got scared and started spraying each other with water and using inhalers. Doctors told us that there was no chemical poisoning."

It was not reported who was responsible for the bombing of the residential building.

Reports of an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Eastern Syria emerged Saturday in Syrian opposition media, and were quickly picked up by the US and its British and French allies, who immediately blamed the Syrian government for the attack and announced possible military strikes in response. Damascus refuted the claims, recalling that its chemical stockpiles had been eliminated under Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons control. Moscow has called for a thorough investigation into the alleged attack before conclusions were made and guilt doled out.


‘We didn't see any patients with symptoms of chemical attack’ – hospital staff in Russian MoD video

(RT - 4:04 min.)

Published on Apr 13, 2018 - Witnesses of the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma say - in video released by Russia's Defence Ministry - that those brought to hospital were not showing symptoms consistent with exposure to a chemical agent.

 

[angelburst29]

Apr 13, 2018 - Russia: UK and White Helmets fabricated Douma chemical attack - MoD

(3:31 min.)

Published on Apr 13, 2018
Subscribe to our channel! rupt.ly/subscribe

Russian Ministry of Defence Chief Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov accused the UK of preparing the alleged chemical attack in Syria's Douma, during a briefing in Moscow on Friday.

According to Konashenkov, London provided the White Helmets with information that the Jaysh al-Islam militants were to perform artillery attacks in Damascus between April 3 and 6. The militant's attack would then trigger a response from Syrian government forces, which the White Helmets were to use "to maintain the provocation with the so-called chemical weapons."

Konashenkov noted that all of the Western countries' allegations are based on footage from a Douma hospital, where the victims of the alleged chemical attack were brought.

"We managed to find those who are pictured in this footage and to question them," Konashenkov said.

One of the alleged witnesses, Douma central hospital emergency department worker Halil Ajij, said the victims brought into the hospital "had symptoms of asthma caused by smoke inhalation."

 

[angelburst29]

Boris Johnson praising the White Helmets and providing £65 million!

(0:45 min.) Published on Dec 15, 2016


BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND WHITE HELMETS EXPOSED ON THE BBC

(4:21 min.) Published on Oct 12, 2016