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Comment Set Free: the “head of the White Helmets” begs for intervention in east Ghouta

The Guardian today is running an opinion piece written by Raed Al Saleh the “head of the White Helmets” in which he pleads for intervention in eastern Ghouta. The same newspaper that denied a platform to Vanessa Beeley nd Eva Bartlett to respond to the attacks made on them by Olivia Solon, has now given carte blanche to the spokesman for an organisation which, at very best, has terrorists and terrorists sympathisers in its ranks, and at worst is a front and shield for al Nusra and ISIS in Syria. To the surprise of very few the article is not open for comments. So, if you would like to tell the Guardian what you think of the article or of their decision to give this man a platform, feel free to comment here on:

My staff are trying to save lives in the rubble of Ghouta. Who will help us?


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ing08
ing08
Mar 1, 2018 3:17 PM

Thanks for the opportunity to override the vicious Guardian bias, bring on Levenson. Raed Al Saleh should be put in front of an international war tribunal, tried and then prosecuted for his war crimes, deliberate disinformation and the targeting of civilians. A death sentence would be too good for him, so a life long period of repent and remembrance of his inhumane deeds is all I wish him. Some would say rot in your own hell.

kevin morris
kevin morris
Mar 1, 2018 10:05 AM

Even before the advent of the White Helmets, the picture was very clear: Syria is the last multicultural state in the middle east, after Iraq, that other bastion of multiculturalism, was all but destroyed by the US. In Syria, Islam, Christianity and Judaismm and a multitude of ethnic groups, have coexisted, usually peacefully for years. It took the malevolence of the US, Israel, Britain and France, together with their proxies to change all that, but a few White Helmets can change nothing now that Russian infantry is on the ground in East Ghouta.

mark
mark
Mar 25, 2018 9:47 PM
Reply to  kevin morris

Give him a dose of his own chlorine gas.

archie1954
archie1954
Feb 25, 2018 10:55 PM

Sorry Mr.. White Helmets spokesman, but your organization’s veracity has been questioned and your own words sound hollow. Until the truth is verified, you and your group shall remain untrustworthy.

summitflyer
summitflyer
Feb 24, 2018 11:36 PM

So many good comments here that should have been on the Guardian and thank you Off-Guardian for the opportunity to provide the comments that were denied to begin with.
Cheers.

Manda
Manda
Feb 24, 2018 10:59 AM

Three of my comments appear to have disappeared into the ether. Two had a Steemit link to video of Kevork Almassian talking to Carla Ortiz about Ghouta/Syrian fight against imperial backed terrorism.

Manda
Manda
Feb 24, 2018 11:08 AM
Reply to  Manda

I’ll try this route.
https://twitter.com/KevorkAlmassian/status/967186527003521024
Passionate appeal from Kevork to us in the west and difficulty of those trying to get a narrative from Syrian perspective out against the flood of western propaganda and suppression at approx 33.00 to 44.48.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Feb 25, 2018 11:12 PM
Reply to  Manda

Thanks, well worth a watch.

tony0pmoc
tony0pmoc
Feb 23, 2018 8:59 PM

Although keeping it very quiet, The British Government has just resumed funding for it’s White Helmet Terrorists. Boris Johnson is sending my tax money to try and continue the war and suffering in Syria. I may have a word with Boris. I have emailed him before, and I even got a reply, which more or less said “nowt to do with us mate.” Maybe Vanessa Beeley, can have a word with him.
“Boris Johnson resumes subsidizing Al Qaeda through the CSSF”
“Without making a big deal about it, Boris Johnson, British Minister of Foreign Affairs is now resuming subsidizing Adam Smith International (ASI) following a two-month break.”
“Her Majesty’s government has created a fund for security and stabilization (Conflict Stability and Security Fund— CSSF) which is funding Al-Qaeda in Syria via three humanitarian NGOs: Adam Smith International, Integrity Global and Tamkeen. The funds have been paid to the so-called “Mayor” of Aleppo (in actual fact a mouth piece for the Saudi jihadists who occupy the East of the city) and to the White Helmets (which claims to be a local organization, led by an MI6 officer which has organized both military operations and propaganda operations). Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon confirmed before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons that CSSF had pledged £66 million to Syria in 2015-16, £64 million in 2016-17, and had given £69 million for tax year 2017-18 ”
Tony

mark
mark
Mar 25, 2018 9:52 PM
Reply to  tony0pmoc

The true figure is £2.5 billion of British taxpayers’ money. That is what has been lavished on the Al Qaida and ISIS throat slitters under the guise of “humanitarian aid.” Inevitably, when you fund terrorists, it always blows up in your face – literally.

kweladave
kweladave
Feb 23, 2018 3:53 PM

‘Interesting’ news doc from ABC (USA) re Ghouta.

More youngish men carrying infants in their arms, lots of smoke, note ‘jerky camera’ movement adds tension etc, no signs of really serious injuries & IAN PANNELL (of Panorama’s ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ fame).
What do you think?

kweladave
kweladave
Feb 24, 2018 12:29 AM
Reply to  kweladave

Compare the above Ghouta doc with the first few minutes of ‘8 Months in Ukraine (3/5)’

The differences are STUNNING.
Obviously there are people being killed in Ghouta but the ABC/Ian Pannell episode seems to be at best a ‘reconstruction’.
The 4-part series, ‘8 Months in Ukraine’ – (originally ‘Roses Have Thorns’) is simply wonderful, produced by an Australian company ‘Watchdog Media’.

James Graham
James Graham
Feb 24, 2018 12:59 AM
Reply to  kweladave

I think the lies are ringing very hollow now.

Manda
Manda
Feb 23, 2018 10:03 AM

While the White Helmets and their media megaphones are screaming for western intervention it appears the SAA are setting up humanitarian corridors as they did in East Aleppo for civilians trapped to escape proior to the liberation operation by SAA and allies.
. https://twitter.com/WaelAlHussaini/status/966730496515461130
Click on the images allows you to read the full instructions on the leaflets apparently being dropped over East Ghouta.

MichaelK
MichaelK
Feb 23, 2018 7:31 AM

I noticed that the BBC/Guardian axis doesn’t ask the ‘good rebels’ why; in order to stop the bombing and civilian suffering in the areas they control; they don’t simply surrender as it’s pretty obvious they have lost the war and the West doesn’t show signs of riding to their rescue? If they care so much about the fate of the civilians, why don’t they leave Ghouta? Are they deliberately hiding among the civilian population? Are they, effectively, using them as hostages and human shields? How many of the fighters are actually Syrian rebels and not from overseas? It’s remarkable how few, if any, of these questions interest the London-based journalists.
They apparently know what’s what in Syria and who the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys are and they simply fit the ‘facts’ into their primitive dramatic narrative, regardless of any inconvenient facts that might confuse their readers.

tutisicecream
tutisicecream
Feb 23, 2018 4:26 AM

The brazen stupidity of the article is beyond belief and shows how the Guardian,BBC et.al are beyond corrupt.
By publishing this piece, reputedly from Raed Al Saleh [it’s pretty clear he didn’t write it]; the known and LISTED terrorist, who even the US Deep State couldn’t swing a public entry to the States for the Oscars to receive his tinsel town gong, it is clear this is all out blanket propaganda coverage from the WMSM yet again.
What is worth noting is that when the Guardian has opened comments on Syria HARDLY ANYONE BELIEVES THEM! So they double down and carry on with the same garbage…
I am sure a lot Syrian people and children are/have being starved, killed and living in barbaric situations, but it’s not for the reasons explained by a terrorist or propaganda construct like the Helmets. So who is perpetuating this? Clearly not Assad but the people backing the White Helmets and their cohorts.
The simple observation of the actors portraying these pictures of mayhem, show they are nearly always well dressed, clean and well fed which tells us we are not witnessing the truth here.
Little Bana’s narratives, the same as outlined in this prop-piece, whenever she was filmed or photographed was always healthy and well dressed – despite not being able to speak English as JK Rowling’s believed! I won’t get into the child abuse issues here but they are many.
Yes, when it comes to WAR perpetrated by the western alliances, the despotic murderous tyranny of their actors and links to them have to be well and truly whitewashed.
Cue the “cuckoos” in White Helmets!

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 23, 2018 5:21 AM
Reply to  tutisicecream

At least there is a good collection of video evidence of these White Helmet jihadists. Although they probably expect to be given sanctuary in Saudi Arabia or even Israel (as Israel did with its South Lebanese Army death-squad after Hezbollah kicked them out of Lebanon in 2000)as many as possible ought to be identified and Interpol arrest warrants issued for crimes against humanity by some state like Russia. A mass referral to the stooge-run farce of the ICC ought to be amusing, too.

Jen
Jen
Feb 22, 2018 10:59 PM

The reason The Guardian must have published this piece of White Helmets PR trash is that the Academy Awards are being broadcast on the first weekend of March and between now and then Raed al Saleh needs to get his name off the list of terrorist suspects held at LAX Airport and a visa so he can attend the awards ceremony and collect an Oscar.

Daniel Wirt
Daniel Wirt
Feb 22, 2018 10:16 PM

I keep asking @GeorgeMonbiot #GeorgeMindBot if he wants to buy one of these fine prints, but he never answers. Perhaps he can’t because he was seriously injured when his propaganda hot air balloon was shot down over Aleppo by two female archers.
https://twitter.com/wirt_dan/status/966739787209216001

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 23, 2018 5:30 AM
Reply to  Daniel Wirt

Monbiot’s sell-outs are coming thicker and faster as they years go by, and his arrogant dismissal of the likes of Chomsky and Edward S Herman grow ever more excruciatingly embarrassing. How do they get them to sell out SO comprehensively?

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 1:53 PM

He’s a prominent shill for the nuclear weapons industry. How is it possible to sell out any more comprehensively than that?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima
As for Chomsky, he has his own disinfo to spread.
https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/1593-noam-chomsky-regime-change-syria.html

Hannah
Hannah
Feb 22, 2018 8:48 PM

There is literally no evidence for the White Helmets being linked to terrorists. They have a long history of involvement in rescue work that long predates the Syrian conflict. Look up “Syrian Civil Defence”.

jag37777
jag37777
Feb 22, 2018 8:58 PM
Reply to  Hannah

The White Helmets are not the real Syrian Civil Defence. And you need to use the word ‘literally’ more carefully.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Feb 22, 2018 9:05 PM
Reply to  Hannah

Hannah, if you took more than a few minutes to research this claim you would find you are wrong about evidence, wrong about the ‘white helmets’ wrong about their history and wrong about the Syrian Civil defence.
The kindest thing to say about your contribution is that you are least consistent – consistenly wrong.

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 2:03 PM
Reply to  olo

They have a long history of involvement in rescue work that long predates the Syrian conflict. Look up “Syrian Civil Defence”.
They don’t. They just stole the name, among other things, for their imperialist-financed, regime-change propaganda operation.
The REAL Syria Civil Defence, Saving Real Syrians, NOT Oscar Winning White Helmets, Saving Al Qaeda
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/02/the-real-syria-civil-defence-saving-real-syrians-not-oscar-winning-white-helmets-saving-al-qaeda/

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 22, 2018 9:45 PM
Reply to  Hannah

Utter rubbish. The REAL Syrian Civil Defences forces are those of the legitimate Syrian Government, not these jihadist frauds and child murderers.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Feb 22, 2018 10:58 PM
Reply to  Hannah

Hannah the the real Syrian Civil Defence organisation that has been in existence for decades and affiliated with international civil defence organisations has denounced the White Helmets who were created by the British military after the start of the Syrian War as fakes who attacked their workers and stole their equipment.
Have you not wondered why the White Helmets do not go anywhere without camera team to film their “rescues” and why the real Syrian Defence organisation rescues injured people on both side of the battlefield wthout cameras and a film crew.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 23, 2018 5:32 AM
Reply to  Jim Scott

Like the phony ‘Ladies in White’ in Cuba, reactionary cows in the pay of Thanatopolis DC, who were vigorously denounced as such by the REAL ‘Ladies in White’ from Argentina.

Manda
Manda
Feb 23, 2018 12:17 AM
Reply to  Hannah

How long is that White Helmet history exactly? Source please.
Do not conflate the White Helmets with the Syrian Civil defense they are completely different entities. White Helmets only operate in terrorist ‘rebel’ held areas.

Solipsist
Solipsist
Feb 23, 2018 1:52 AM
Reply to  Hannah

Hannah
February 22 2018
There is literally no evidence for the White Helmets being linked to terrorists. They have a long history of involvement in rescue work that long predates the Syrian conflict. Look up “Syrian Civil Defence”.
Translation:
I refuse to even look at any evidence which contradicts my limited world view which is informed by the unimpeachable news outlets which I trust at the exclusion of all others. I have emotionally invested in the fairytale that they have told me and anything else is simply too upsetting for me.

James Graham
James Graham
Feb 26, 2018 12:49 AM
Reply to  Solipsist

I used to call them navvies. But that’s the way now…yesterday’s apple is tomorrow’s orange. Just make sure you don’t fall under a feather.

Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson
Feb 23, 2018 7:02 AM
Reply to  Hannah

Some of the White Helmets are not just linked to terrorists, they actually are terrorists.

Mary Smith F
Mary Smith F
Feb 23, 2018 3:37 PM
Reply to  Hannah

wow Hannah you just got our ass handed to you

Brutally Remastered
Brutally Remastered
Feb 23, 2018 4:47 PM
Reply to  Mary Smith F

When you work for israelis or have been indoctrinated by them I should think that is quite a common occurrence.

Matt
Matt
Feb 23, 2018 10:16 PM
Reply to  Mary Smith F

Strange that my comment, with an excerpt of a WaPo article exposing the Wagner mercenary group’s discussions with Syrian officials, was deleted.
But not the above immature comment.

Admin
Admin
Feb 23, 2018 11:39 PM
Reply to  Matt

It wasn’t deleted, it was moved. As explained before we try to keep the Comment Set Free threads as on-topic as possible. I asked you to re-post your comment on a more suitable thread, but you didn’t, so I did it for you. It’s here.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/18/mueller-indictments-truth-v-liespin-the-observer-view/comment-page-1/#comment-104689

Matt
Matt
Feb 24, 2018 12:49 AM
Reply to  Admin

Oh, looks like I was too quick to judge. Sorry about that.
I really wish you guys could re-start those Open Threads, like back when I had the Moon trip debate. Please oh please!

Manda
Manda
Feb 23, 2018 11:34 PM
Reply to  Mary Smith F

I hope Hannah does her own research on the ( real, long established and recognized) Syrian Civil Defense phone number 113 v White Helmets phone number ??? and comes to her own conclusions based on what she discovers that MSM haven’t covered.
A starting point from on the ground evidence? http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/02/the-real-syria-civil-defence-saving-real-syrians-not-oscar-winning-white-helmets-saving-al-qaeda/

ray
ray
Feb 27, 2018 12:59 PM
Reply to  Hannah

To quote someone (or words to that effect) : “Best keep your mouth shut and appear ignorant, than open it and remove all doubt’.

mark
mark
Mar 25, 2018 9:57 PM
Reply to  Hannah

Apart from carrying weapons, waving terrorist flags, and filming themselves murdering and torturing civilians and desecrating dead bodies, what you say is correct.

mog
mog
Feb 22, 2018 8:05 PM

Matt Kennard too, [tweet]
‘Conspiracy theorists about White Helmets major piece of evidence they are “terrorists” is the head was denied a visa to enter US. I know countless people denied visas to US for all sorts of reasons, some for just being Syria.’
Why not fucking research it Kennard ?
Is there some pill people take that makes them spew out ‘conspiracy theorist conspiracy theorist’, that bypasses their capacity to actually ask questions and research a subject, that makes them attack opponents as ‘grotesque’ or ‘disgraced’ [Mindbot] rather than consider evidence.
I have had it with these liberals, it’s a kind of absurd religion.

Admin
Admin
Feb 22, 2018 9:08 PM
Reply to  mog

He was pestering us on Twitter earlier – demanding evidence then refusing to read it – we had no idea he professed to be a journalist until someone checked his page. Bizarre.

mog
mog
Feb 22, 2018 9:26 PM
Reply to  Admin

I like a lot of what he has said on other matters. He seems to have a determinedly one sided opinion about all things Syria and has for some years.
The ‘reasoning’ in that tweet says it all. Why was Raed al Saleh denied a visa? Kenneard is not interested, just cites the fact that others are barred entry on the border. That , to me , is a determination to not investigate something. It is teenage troll behaviour.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Feb 22, 2018 10:11 PM
Reply to  mog

Raed Al Saleh previously had his US entry visa cancelled on 19th April 2016, before being refused entry again (when invited to attend the Oscar ceremony).
According to this report it is because the Al-Nusra sympathiser has been added to an FBI ‘no-fly’ list.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/08/04/us-govt-refused-us-entry-jihadist-employs-overthrowing-assad.html
Awkward Q&A in the middle this clip were journalists point out the obvious disparity between US officials funding the White Helmets to the tune of $23 million then refusing their mouth-piece entry onto US soil to collect various gongs.

Something stinks and Kennard is being willfully ignorant if he refuses to see it.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 22, 2018 9:50 PM
Reply to  mog

The support for terrorist butchers must lie in one or other psychological rats’-nests. Either you are so brainwashed that you believe ANYTHING the recidivist liars of the glorious West say, or you support those forces, US, Zionist and Wahhabist who want to destroy Syria, or you just hate Moslems or Arabs, and enjoy seeing them being killed en masse. I fear that after decades of raw hate-mongering in the fakestream media and ‘entertainment’, against Moslems and Arabs, and the Palestinians in particular, the last is most likely the main driver.

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 2:19 PM

Another, and probably more likely, possibility is that a lot of these pro-imperialist fake leftists are quite well paid for their disinformation services, via NGOs, academia, or “alternative” media. Their hysterical irrationalism is caused by the psychological distress they experience, when confronted with evidence of the self-serving hypocrisy of their entire mode of existence.

Brutally Remastered
Brutally Remastered
Feb 23, 2018 4:59 PM
Reply to  milosevic

I believe this applies to very many Liberals, citizens, too. We had a wealthy, elderly, very well travelled and educated pair at home for dinner, they cannot fathom, simply cannot countenance the possibility that all they read in The Guardian, The New York Review Of Books, BBC etc etc may well be propaganda. They adhere to all they read about Trump, The White Helmets. I said that it was their duty to research and the response was that they had no time to scour the internet. I countered by saying that when studying at Cambridge I could not imagine that they ever relied wholly and blindly on the first book they de-shelved from the library. Silence.

Bradley Halfacre
Bradley Halfacre
Apr 8, 2018 5:54 AM

Israel wants the world to hate Muslims. That is why they are driving the wars that cause the immigration that brings the terrorist attacks in Europe ,so more and more people will hate Muslims and Israel can then carry on it’s genocide of the Palestinians with increasing public support. I see it on Fbook pages , lots of people supporting Netanyahu and his hatred of the Palestinians. The white helmet frauds are doing their bit in creating more and more hatred. I bet Israel has a big hand in funding and supporting them.

Manda
Manda
Feb 23, 2018 12:48 AM
Reply to  mog

It seems the pro western Imperialists who are also western/British exceptionalists are dug deep in the trenches regarding Syria defending the system. Syria continues to have the potential to blow the whole ugly, hypocritical western led imperialist system wide open in the present.
Everyone talks of American exceptionalism but it is also a very British thing.

mog
mog
Feb 23, 2018 10:43 AM
Reply to  mog

This is classic from the ‘liberal’ New Statesman:
https://twitter.com/DawnHFoster/status/966795386932383745
The thread below that tweet shows that it is not unusual. I can’t help but think of Jemima Goldsmith as associate editor there and all those editorials that her brother Zac wrote at the Ecologist – which I read and mostly agreed with at the time. Now blink and look at the real Zac.
Who are these people? What do they actually believe or want?

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 2:41 PM
Reply to  mog

Who are these people? What do they actually believe or want?
You can make a comfy, well-paid, middle-class career out of being a professional fake leftist. You’re allowed to mostly tell the truth about issues that pose no particular threat to the system, and then use the left-wing credibility you established by doing that, to shill really hard when vital state and ruling-class interests are at stake. If you’re good at it, cash and prizes will rain down from the skies.
Maybe that has something to do with it.
See my comments above, regarding famous pro-nuclear shill George Monbiot, and the hysterical way these people typically react, when challenged by real leftists. As many have experienced, the best way to push them over the edge into full-blown, foaming-at-the-mouth dementia, is to point out that the 9/11 event was obviously a US government operation, from start to finish.
lots of analysis of these hypocritical, self-serving frauds, here:
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/category/non-profit-industrial-complex-organizations/organizations/imperialist-warsoccupations/

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 24, 2018 10:14 PM
Reply to  mog

The Blairite New Statesman is controlled by Zionazis, Judeofascists and Sabbat Goy stooges, and this is just straight Zionazi hate-mongering. The Oded Yinon Plan identifies fomenting and exacerbating Sunni against Shia hatred as central to achieving the Hitlerite project of destroying all Israel’s neighbours by breaking them into a number of powerless statelets. The New Statesman might once have been useful to line the cat’s litter tray, but now is just too toxic even for that purpose.

bevin
bevin
Feb 22, 2018 7:20 PM

The Guardian seems to have lost all patience in its desperate race to the bottom. It is an indication of the current state of the traditional media that this story
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802221061905360-mainstream-media-wont-tell-eastern-ghouta/
in Sputnik News which makes no pretence to be anything other than a state sponsored outlet is far superior to anything to be found in the British or American media.
The Guardian served as a superior propaganda outlet for so long because it took care to tell the truth most of the time-with the credit that this brought it it was able to palm off lies and half truths when it needed to. Of course to do this it needed to be financially independent, able to weather official displeasure by relying on the revenues it got from circulation and advertising.
Now it is wholly dependent on the charity and goodwill of the people who also own the CIA MI6 and the government. One wonders whether there were any protests when it was told what to say about Syria and Esast Ghouta in particular. My guess is that there have been none since Mr Rushbridger, supervised by a couple of thugs, smashed up those hardrives. It must have been quite frightening-they probably made a video and show it to Guardian employees reaching a certain level.

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 3:11 PM
Reply to  bevin

One wonders whether there were any protests when it was told what to say about Syria and East Ghouta in particular.
No, these people know perfectly well what they’re paid for. Or more specifically, they know what they’re paid for while they’re actually doing it, but the rest of the time, they don’t know what they’re paid for, because if they were actually conscious of their own essential hypocrisy, they would be less able to lie convincingly, and would instead have to work for a much trashier and less highbrow newspaper.
As usual in these times, George Orwell explains everything —

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.
— 1984

Marc
Marc
Feb 22, 2018 6:55 PM

The mainstream presstitute media is continuously force feeding us false narratives (a modern form of #propaganda) on #Syria #Russia #Palestine – Fortunately, every now and then a freethinker emerges who goes where few dare i.e @PaulCraigRobert @JulianAssange @EvaKBartlett

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Feb 22, 2018 6:54 PM

An added insult for the Guardian is that the reporters putting the western media to shame are both intelligent, independently minded women (Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett) – under normal circumstances the Guardian would be heavily promtoting this angle as part of their long running campaign to pit men and women against each other.
But such is their commitment to the imperial war effort they instead decide to promote an Al-Nusra apologist, deemed too unsavoury to enter the US to collect an ocsar award.
Is it any surprise they are terrified to open this kind of flagrent propaganda to the growing army of disillusioned contributors, BTL?

Big B
Big B
Feb 22, 2018 6:52 PM

According to AMN: there are now 15,000 men amassed for the upcoming ground assault on East Ghouta. What will the Guardian’s next brush with the absurd be: the headlines that Syria has invaded Syria?
There is another side to this the Graun won’t print. If Saleh’s terror buddies gave up their hell cannons; with their improvised munitions; indiscriminate aiming; improvised ordnance; timed at school leavers; armed with flechettes and tiny bomblets, that further explode on contact with young, innocent skin; that cause death and maim with life changing injuries; that fall daily into Damascus markets and schools …if the terrorists that Saleh wants to save (we know he cares not for real civilians) took the offer of a ceasefire; pre-empting their withdrawal …NO ONE ELSE NEED BE MAIMED OR DIE. Instead of the phoney humanitarian concern by a known terrorist: put that in your fucking paper …if you really care.

mark
mark
Mar 25, 2018 10:04 PM
Reply to  Big B

I despise this terrorist scum less than their Guardian cheerleaders. At least they do their own dirty work.

MichaelK
MichaelK
Feb 22, 2018 6:51 PM

Yet another photo of a young man carrying a child against a background of rubble and chaos. This stuff, the text, is ‘worthy’ of the same kind of propaganda produced during WW1 to demonize the Evil Huns as they massacred their way through Belgium and France.
I was listening to the BBC World Service a couple of hours ago. They had an interview with one of their Middle East correspondents about events in Syria and Ghouta. She was extremely concerned and used language incredibly similar, surely a coincidence, to the Guardian’s interview with the guy from the White Helmets. It was all rather too emotive for me. Afterwards they mentioned, in passing that she, an arab, was based in Beirut, which is in Lebanon, but, as they said, only 150 km from Damascus.
They then excused the poor quality of the audio, but since they were interviewing someone in Ghouta itself, we forgave them. The man they interviewed, was ‘Dr. Basim’ who was located in an underground medical facility, lucky ‘Dr. Basim’! His account was amazingly similar to the guy from the White Helmets in the Guardian, what a surprise!
How on earth do the people at the BBC World Service on the programme ‘OS’ know that ‘Dr. Basim’ is who he says he is? How did they find this particular ‘Dr.’? After all there are seven hospitals in Ghouta and now, apparently one that’s underground! But, if the BBC and the Guardian send this stuff, then how could it be other than the truth?

David C. Lee (@worldblee)
David C. Lee (@worldblee)
Feb 22, 2018 8:13 PM
Reply to  MichaelK

With regard to the Guardian photo, a couple questions: 1) The boy looks uninjured, yet he is being carried–his eyes are closed, but what happened to incapacitate him without leaving a mark, even of their standard ‘white dust’? 2) What are they running away from or toward? Or is it just that the photo looks dramatic if they’re running, as is typical in White Helmets propaganda, I mean media materials.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Feb 23, 2018 3:24 AM
Reply to  MichaelK

Yes Michael the White Helmets may be very poorly trained and hopeless at their highly paid job but they do have their own film crews whenever they they rescue small children. No other rescue group can afford such a luxury.
I wonder why they don’t rescue any adults? Perhaps Actors Equity rules would prevent it if the weight to be lifted exceeded 30lbs.
I must also congratulate them on how clean they keep them despite burrowing into the dusty rubble.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Feb 23, 2018 3:26 AM
Reply to  Jim Scott

Oops- how clean the keep their uniforms despite burrowing …..

Hind Abyad (@AbyadHind)
Hind Abyad (@AbyadHind)
Feb 23, 2018 6:25 AM
Reply to  Jim Scott

British ex-mercenary, and founder of the White Helmets, James Le Mesurier, pictured in Istanbul, Turkey.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/james-le-mesurier-british-ex-military-mercenary-founded-white-helmets/230320/
US neoconservatives and other proponents of regime change in Syria have a new tool in their quest to play God in the Middle East: the Syria White Helmets, also known as Syrian Civil Defense Though the US has been supplying rebels with weapons directly and indirectly since 2013, including Al Qaeda-connected Al-Nusra/Fateh Al-Sham, the White Helmets are advocating further US intervention in the form of a No Fly Zone (NFZ) in Syria.https://www.mintpressnews.com/syrias-white-helmets-became-latest-neocon-tool-regime-change/221199/

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 3:38 PM
Reply to  MichaelK

I was listening to the BBC World Service a couple of hours ago. They had an interview with one of their Middle East correspondents about events in Syria and Ghouta. She was extremely concerned and used language incredibly similar, surely a coincidence, to the Guardian’s interview with the guy from the White Helmets. It was all rather too emotive for me.
Let me guess, it’s “A Monstrous Campaign of Annihilation”. How did I know that? Highly-paid professional leftist Amy Goodman told me so. And why would she say it, if it wasn’t true?
After all, it’s not like they’re all reading off the same script, or something like that. This isn’t BS pro-imperialist propaganda like Fox News or CNN. I know that, because I’m a Sophisticated Progressive Person, and I’m watching it, so it can’t be anything like that.

mark
mark
Mar 25, 2018 10:07 PM
Reply to  milosevic

I used to watch Democracy Now and Goodman till I found out most of their funding was coming straight from Soros. Just more controlled opposition.

Emily Durron
Emily Durron
Feb 22, 2018 6:22 PM

East Ghouta is held by Jaysh al-Islam, who even John Kerry said was a subset of ISIS and Al Nusra. They are best known for putting civilians in cages and hoisting them onto rooftops to try to prevent airstrikes, a tactic so barbaric that even the guy above the clothes shop in Coventry that styles himself the SOHR found it distasteful:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/11/01/Monitor-Syria-rebels-using-caged-captives-as-human-shields-.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaysh_al-Islam

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 3:52 PM
Reply to  Emily Durron

kayaboosha
kayaboosha
Feb 22, 2018 6:15 PM

At least there is no pretense of balanced journalism. They are out from behind the curtain and we can see who and what they are. Let the games begin.

milosevic
milosevic
Feb 23, 2018 4:11 PM
Reply to  kayaboosha

vexarb
vexarb
Feb 22, 2018 5:57 PM

Who will help the good Dr.Assad fulfill his Hippocratic oath ‘nd save lives in Syria? In chronological order: first, Hezb’Allah who realized from the start that unless the Lebanese fought NATZO’s proxy army in Damascus they would have to fight them in Beirut. Second, Iran who knew that if Syria and Lebanon fall to NATZO’s “Coalition of the Killing” then Iran is next on the Wolfowitz List of 7 countries to be “taken out”. Third, Russia and China, who know that if Shi’ite Iran falls to NATZO and its fanatical Wahabi terrorists, those same fanatics will be deployed to destabilize the Muslim areas of Russia, China and Burma preparatory to a full scale “Liberal Intervention” by “our irresistible armed might” under a NATZO sponsored “Right to Protect”. Fourth, Iraqi which is beginning to defy the US Occupation Forces after having lost a million dead in the Bush/BLiar Operation Eternal Freedom. Lastly, the tens of Millions (perhaps even hundreds of Millions) of ordinary people in the West who have woken up to what our homicidally criminal governments have been up to in the past 20-30 years.

Daniel Margrain
Daniel Margrain
Feb 23, 2018 4:32 AM
Reply to  vexarb

It should read “Responsibility to Protect” NOT “Right to Protect”. Since 2005 this doctrine has become the norm in international relations. The Caroline Principle is the means by which it is formulated and incorporated into the UN Charter. To put it simply, since 2005 the consensus view on international and humanitarian law has been superseded. The UK, U.S and other Western powers are now able to justify their foreign interventions as a result of the concept “pre-emptive retaliation”. Furthermore, any citizen from any country who the authorities in London or Washington believe to be a terrorist, can be legally killed by drone anywhere without any evidence of the alleged perpetrators guilt. In other words, R2P legitimizes in law, the right of Western powers to kill by bombs or drones and then ask questions later. The lawyer responsible for setting in motion the drafting of this reconfiguration of international law, is an individual called Daniel Benjamin.
https://cultureandpolitics.org/2018/02/14/how-the-western-imperial-powers-are-using-the-caroline-principle-to-circumvent-international-law/

vexarb
vexarb
Feb 23, 2018 11:33 AM

@Daniel Margrain. Thanks for the correction, of course I should have written “Responsibility to Protect” and “Operation __Enduring_ Freedom”.
Even greater thanks for the link to your valuable research on this recent perversion of International Justice. It ought to be required reading for all students of the subject. Prior to R2P the only Power with the right to punish people for something they might do was the All-knowing Lord God Jehovah who, as the Old Testament relates, punished a certain king because Jehovah foresaw that some of the king’s descendents were going to commit some misdeeds in the future.

vexarb
vexarb
Feb 23, 2018 11:53 AM
Reply to  vexarb

PS I looked up Daniel Benjamin and sure enough he is a Yank – just another gun happy Pindo yelling “Shoot first and ask questions afterwards!”

Daniel Margrain
Daniel Margrain
Feb 23, 2018 3:44 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Thanks Vexarb.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 24, 2018 10:22 PM

Daniel Benjamin!! What else!! These types of ‘kill without consequence’s’ policies are normal in Israel. The Chosen Herrenvolk can kill the wounded, even children, to ‘confirm the kill'(as of animals, which is precisely how they see their victims)or bomb entire neighbourhoods to rubble as Group Punishment (eg the Dahiya Doctrine)or starve people en masse, eg Gaza, and now they are going to impose their Supremacist and racist ideology on the rest of us. Such power! And don’t forget how they are abolishing Freedom of Speech and Opinion throughout the West by getting their Sabbat Goy stooges to outlaw BDS, ANY criticism of Israel, and support for the Palestinians as ‘antisemitism’.

mark
mark
Mar 25, 2018 10:14 PM

Ah, but you don’t realise us goys are put on earth just to serve the Chosen People.
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel. Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money. That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plough, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.”
Ovadia Yosef, Chief Rabbi of Israel.

James Graham
James Graham
Feb 26, 2018 2:58 AM

It looks the same as the precautionary principle ….that’s supposed to cover habitats and species. Wither it’s implemented or not is another question. The lack of evidence can’t be used as a reason to avoid taking action to prevent harm or damage to the habitat or species.

MLS
MLS
Feb 22, 2018 5:45 PM

we have been killed by barrel bombs, chemical weapons, starvation, drowning, torture, napalm and cluster munitions

How much of this is documented anywhere?
And can we remember this man Raed Al Saleh was denied entry into the US as a terrorist? Why is the Guardian giving a patform to this person?

GR
GR
Feb 22, 2018 6:25 PM
Reply to  MLS

It has never been documented. Just as with chemical weapons we have uncorroborated allegations and many claims but almost no data. Most of the claims are ridiculous. The Panorama program ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ claimed “napalm-like” burns, but the footage doesn’t support that even if it isn’t fake. Turks and Russian have been accused of using napalm. Russia did not do that. Why would they, when their conventional weapons are sufficient and they are not idiotic enough to give the west an excuse to sanction them even more. Turkey probably didn’t, but it’s a more open question, since Erdogan is no Putin and he can do absurdly self-defeating things.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 22, 2018 9:55 PM
Reply to  MLS

Because the Fraudian is, now, a terrorist organisation, in the same way that Die Sturmer was under the Nazis. NO different at all, save for the unctuous sanctimony of the Fraudianites.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Feb 23, 2018 3:41 AM
Reply to  MLS

Who needs proof when you have a massive PR budget and all the MSM wearing green rubber rings on their testicles.
Also The public has forgotten all about Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Vietnam, Chile, Venezuela, Gautamala etc etc. Just because all of these invasions and CIA coups were based on false information the public will be fooled again and again because nobody gets to listen to or read countervailing viewpoints. We have free speech in the West and we are prepared to pay billions of dollars to PR companies and newspapers to get it.

labrebisgalloise
labrebisgalloise
Feb 22, 2018 5:39 PM

https://www.thelocal.se/voices/view/syrias-white-helmets-answer-tough-questions-in-stockholm – quite a lot of give aways here!
“…$23 million of the $60 million donated to the White Helmets in 2013 came from USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, a body for “democracy promotion”, or, in the eyes of its critics, “instigating regime change”.
“Saleh though insisted that the group’s mission was purely humanitarian, and responded scathingly to any suggestion it was working for the US, Nato, or for any other political groupings either inside or outside of Syria.
“We contacted humanitarian activists all over the world and asked them to support a no-fly zone in Syria. This was done to protect people, and not for any other reason.”
“The group has also faced questions about its relationship with al-Qaeda affiliates in northern Syria. Saleh said the group had welcomed former fighters who had laid down their weapons. But he added that Syria Civil Defence members filmed holding weapons or flying the flags of terrorist groups “do not represent the organisation’s general principles and humanitarian values.”

Emily Durron
Emily Durron
Feb 22, 2018 5:28 PM

This article by Vanessa Beeley is part of a series on the White Helmets and is well worth reading with excellent resource and research back up:
https://thewallwillfall.org/2017/01/08/exclusive-president-raed-salehs-terrorist-connections-within-white-helmet-leadership/

tutisicecream
tutisicecream
Feb 23, 2018 3:28 AM
Reply to  Emily Durron

Highly recommended.

James Graham
James Graham
Feb 22, 2018 5:18 PM

That war criminal has some imagination. He imagines he can talk his way out of this. That is not happening. All Hail Assad and all the best to the SAA.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 22, 2018 9:58 PM
Reply to  James Graham

And hopefully Russia or someone will see that he, and perhaps some of his Western allies, are ‘renditioned’ to Syria, after the war, to face justice. One lives in hope.

Paul
Paul
Feb 22, 2018 5:13 PM

The Guardian, BBC and Channel 4 are now the main cheerleaders for Jihadi extremists. The only explanation is that Israel demands no less.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Feb 23, 2018 4:03 AM
Reply to  Paul

Australia’s ABC also repeats the fact free news straight from the Syrian UK based Observatory for Al Qaeda Rights.