{"id":82052,"date":"2016-10-31T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=82052"},"modified":"2016-10-28T17:13:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T16:13:05","slug":"the-white-helmet-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/the-white-helmet-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"The White Helmet Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

White Helmets Phenom<\/em><\/p>\n

20 Oct 2016 – <\/em>Unknown to most people, the White Helmets brand was conceived and directed<\/a> by a marketing company named \u201cThe Syria Campaign\u201d based in New York. They have managed to fool millions of people. Walt Disney might have made a great movie about this: unarmed volunteers fearlessly rescuing survivors in the midst of war without regard to religion or politics. Like most other \u201ctrue life\u201d Disney movies, it is 10% reality, 90% fiction.<\/p>\n

Due to its success, Western countries are dedicating ever larger amounts of funding. The White Helmets were the 17 October Time<\/em> magazine cover story<\/a>. Nikolas Kristof at the NY Times<\/em> has gushed over them for years. They recently won a 2016 Right Livelihood Award<\/a>. Netflix has recently released a special \u2018documentary\u2019 movie<\/a> about the White Helmets.\u00a0 With impeccable timing, the mainstream media acclaim reached a crescendo with both the UK Guardian<\/em> and The Independent<\/em> calling on the Nobel Committee to award this year\u2019s Nobel Peace Prize to the White Helmets.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just establishment that has gushed over the White Helmets. CODEPINK recommended the Netflix movie and DemocracyNow!<\/em> ran a puff piece<\/a> interview with the infomercial directors. The Intercept<\/em> published an uncritical promotion<\/a> of the White Helmets and their dubious leader. (CODEPINK received a lot of criticism and later issued a correction.)<\/p>\n

The Reality behind the White Helmet Image<\/strong><\/p>\n

In contrast with the uncritical promotion of the White Helmets, there have been some investigations of their reality during the past 1.5 years. This timeline<\/a> shows the early investigations. In April 2015 Dissident Voice<\/em> published an expose<\/a> of\u00a0 their actual creation and purpose. Since then there have been an increasing number of articles and videos revealing what is behind the \u2018feel good\u2019 veneer.\u00a0 Vanessa Beeley has produced numerous articles including documentation<\/a> of the REAL Syrian Civil Defense which was founded six decades ago. She initiated an online Change.org petition which gathered 3.3 thousand signatures to NOT GIVE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE to the WHITE HELMETS.\u00a0 That was twice as many signatures as the petition to GIVE the Nobel Prize to them. Apparently that fact upset someone influential because Change.org removed the petition without explanation.\u00a0 Did it violate \u201ccommunity standards\u201d?\u00a0 You can judge for yourself because the petition is shown here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another online petition, also at Change.org, is still up and running.\u00a0 It calls on the Right Livelihood Foundation to RETRACT<\/a> their award to the White Helmets. The petition includes ten reasons they do not deserve the prize and are not what they are presented to be. They stole the name Syria Civil Defense from the real Syrian organization. They appropriated the name \u201cWhite Helmets\u201d from the Argentinian rescue organization Cascos Blancos\/White Helmets. They are not independent; they are funded by governments. They are not apolitical; they actively campaign for a No Fly Zone. They do not work across Syria; they ONLY work in areas controlled by the armed opposition, mostly Nusa\/Al Qaeda. They are not unarmed; they sometimes do carry weapons and they also celebrate terrorist victories. They assist in terrorist executions.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, information about the true nature of the White Helmets has been spreading. Max Blumenthal has a two part expose at Alternet<\/em>: \u201cHow the White Helmets became International Heroes while Pushing US Intervention and Regime Change in Syria<\/a>\u201d\u00a0and \u201cInside the Shadowy PR Firm that\u2019s Lobbying for Regime Change in Syria<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Scott Ritter has written an article<\/a> which critically looks at the White Helmets\u2019 \u201clionization\u201d.\u00a0 Internationally, the Israeli TV station I24 ran a special report<\/a> with the title \u201cWhite Helmets: Heroes or Hoax?\u201d, giving equal coverage to supporters and critics. Even \u201cThe National\u201d out of United Arab Emirates has documented <\/a>the controversy around the White Helmets.<\/p>\n

Franklin Lamb Lashes Out at White Helmet Critics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some supporters of the White Helmets have lashed back. The British military contractor who initially set up the organization has accused his critics of being \u2018proxies\u2019 for the Syrian and Russian governments. And in recent days, Franklin Lamb leaped to the defense of the White Helmets with an article titled \u201cPolitical Defamation Campaign Targets Rescue Workers in Syria<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamb\u2019s critique is almost as misleading as the group he defends. It appears he has not read many of the serious criticisms and exposes of the White Helmets. He does not provide references or sources so that a reader can compare his description with what critics actually said.<\/p>\n

Lamb accuses critics of waging a \u201cmalicious campaign\u201d against the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and International Committee of the Red Cross as well as the White Helmets. That is false.\u00a0 Here is what has been actually said<\/a>: \u201cUnlike a legitimate rescue organization such as the Red Cross or Red Crescent, the \u2018White Helmets\u2019 only work in areas controlled by the armed opposition.\u201d T<\/em>he online petition to RETRACT<\/a> the Right Livelihood Award says: \u201cThe NATO White Helmets actually\u00a0undermine and detract from the work of authentic organizations such as the REAL Syria Civil Defense and Syrian Arab Red Crescent.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Lamb echoes White Helmet propaganda by repeatedly referring to them as volunteers. But they are not. They are all paid \u2014 with the White Helmet media managers in Brooklyn, New York, Gaziantep, Turkey and Beirut, Lebanon making sizable salaries. As to the on-the-ground \u2018White Helmets\u2019 based in Nusra territory in Aleppo and Idlib, they are paid much more than full time Syrian soldiers for their part-time real and staged rescue operations.<\/p>\n

Lamb laments the fact that MSF (Medicins Sans Frontiers\/Doctors without Borders) has been criticized. However, MSF has shown itself to be politically biased. The organization has no staff inside Syria yet continues to issue statements as if they had clear compelling evidence when it seems they do not.\u00a0 Recently MSF claimed<\/a> that four hospitals in terrorist controlled sectors of East Aleppo had been bombed and two doctors injured. They do not identify the names or locations of the hospitals or the names of the doctors. The report is apparently based on hearsay.<\/p>\n

Perhaps MSF does not identify the name or location of the hospitals because when they did report names and locations, such as with Al Quds Hospital in April 2016, it was found that their report was inconsistent and full of contradictions. MSF claimed<\/a>, \u201cAccording to hospital staff on the ground, the hospital was destroyed by at least one airstrike which directly hit the building, reducing it to rubble.<\/em>\u201dPhotographs from before and after the event showed this assertion to be untrue. The so called \u201cAl Quds Hospital\u201d was an unidentified largely vacant apartment building with sandbags at the ground floors. MSF\u2019s bias is also shown by the fact they refuse to provide any services or support to the 90% of the Syrian population which is in government controlled areas. MSF has not responded to a previous open letter<\/a> questioning their bias. Nor have they responded to invitations to visit government-controlled Aleppo to evaluate the reality versus the claims of their allies in Nusra\/Al Qaeda territory.<\/p>\n

Lamb says, \u201cThe White Helmets are being attacked with all sorts of unfounded accusations and conspiracy theories<\/em>.\u201d On the contrary, the evidence is overwhelming. White Helmets are funded by Western governments which want \u2018regime change.\u2019 White Helmets pick up bodies after execution. White Helmets carry weapons and celebrate jihadi victories. White Helmets ONLY work in areas dominated by Nusra or an ally. White Helmets actively campaign for a No Fly Zone. These are not \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d; they are facts easily proven in the videos<\/a> and articles about them.<\/p>\n

Lamb says, \u201cWhite Helmet rescuers are much like Syria\u2019s population in general, including most of the 12 million refugees, who have come to abhor politics.\u201d It is true that nearly all Syrians abhor the war that has been imposed on them. However, the vast majority of Syrians also hate the terrorists while most \u2018White Helmets\u2019 are allied with them.\u00a0 Lamb is also wrong on the refugee count. There are about 12 million internally displaced persons but the number of refugees is closer to 4 million. Two thirds of the internally displaced persons are living inside Syria in areas under government control.<\/p>\n

The White Helmets were \u201cbranded\u201d by a marketing company called The Syria Campaign which itself was \u201cincubated\u201d (their term) by a larger marketing company called Purpose. Along with managing the online and social media promotion of the White Helmets, the Syria Campaign has parallel efforts in support of \u201cregime change\u201d in Syria. One of these efforts has been to criticize United Nations and humanitarian relief organizations which supply aid to displaced persons living in areas protected by the Syrian government. This situation is documented in an editorial here<\/a> where the author says: \u201cThe allegations made by the Syria Campaign and others were written by people who know nothing about the UN and how it must work<\/em>.\u201d Apparently unaware of the facts about The Syria Campaign, the outraged Franklin Lamb calls this \u201cdefamatory nonsense!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamb echoes the White Helmet propaganda that they have saved \u201c65,000 Syrian citizens, many being their neighbors, families and friends.\u201d This is extreme exaggeration. The areas controlled by the terrorists have very few civilians living in them. A medical doctor visiting east Aleppo two years ago described it as a \u2018ghost town.\u2019\u00a0 When cat videos were popular on social media, the White Helmet video team produced their own fake cat video<\/a>.\u00a0 It showed White Helmet members playing with stray cats in empty neighborhoods. They say, \u201cThe homeowners abandoned this district and its kittens.\u201d Yes, most of the civilians abandoned it because the terrorists invaded it. In short, this number of rescues is an extreme exaggeration. The real number is probably just a few percent of that.<\/p>\n

Lamb believes the critics of the White Helmets are \u201cdefaming\u201d them. It\u2019s almost laughable except it\u2019s bitterly ironic. The REAL Syrian Civil Defense works on a shoestring budget with REAL volunteers without a video team accompanying and promoting them. Most in the West are unaware they even exist. The situation for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which is a genuinely neutral and independent relief organization, is similar although they at least have a good website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lamb complains about \u201cthe massive use of pejorative language to smear rescue workers.\u201d The reality, of course, is the precise opposite in the case of the \u201cWhite Helmets.\u201d\u00a0 There has been a flood of uncritical praise for this three year old organization created by the West and for goals of the West. On the contrary, they have not been sufficiently examined and exposed. Lamb\u2019s heartfelt concern about the poor White Helmets being unfairly criticized is bizarre.<\/p>\n

Franklin Lamb claims to have filed his article from Aleppo University Hospital. This is located in government protected Aleppo. Why does he make no reference to the victims of terrorist bombings, sniping and attacks who fill the Aleppo University Hospital?\u00a0 Why does he make no reference to the REAL Syrian Civil Defense which brought to the hospital many injured victims? In his closing, Franklin invites anyone interested to visit the White Helmets with him. Is he serious? Very few journalists or Western \u2018observers\u2019 have been in terrorist controlled Aleppo for years. Two of the last batch were James Foley and Stephen Sotloff who were subsequently murdered by ISIS. Franklin needs to provide some evidence that he actually was in East Aleppo with the Nusra and the White Helmets. Otherwise one might question whether his conversations with White Helmet \u2018volunteers\u2019 were actually in Gaziantep Turkey.<\/p>\n

The Controversy Continues<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the Syrian government and allies try to finally crush or expel the terrorists from Aleppo, the White Helmets have become a major tool in the West\u2019s propaganda tool chest. The image of the White Helmets deflects attention from the sectarian violent and unpopular nature of Nusra and other armed opposition groups. This is used in parallel with accusations that Syrian and Russian attacks are primarily hitting civilians. Western media gives an image that there are only civilians and White Helmets under attack in east Aleppo; the terrorists have been whited out of the picture.<\/p>\n

White Helmets have gone from being talked about to the ones doing the talking. News stories increasingly use White Helmet witnesses as their theme or source.\u00a0 One day CNN says<\/a> a White Helmet aid center has been hit.\u00a0 Another day it is claimed that White Helmet individuals are being \u201chunted<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 A White Helmet<\/a> performs the role of journalist not first responder as he claims to be \u201ceye witness\u201d to Syrian barrel bombs destroying the humanitarian convoy and warehouse on September 19 in Orem al Kubra.<\/p>\n

There are reasons to be suspicious.\u00a0 For example, in the case of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy that was attacked in Orem al Kubra:<\/p>\n