Nebojsa Malic - senior writer at RT - Trump’s $4.5 million indulgence: Is White Helmets blood money the price of US leaving Syria? 22 Oct, 2019

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/471590-trump-syria-white-helmets/

Trump’s $4.5 million indulgence: Is White Helmets blood money the price of US leaving Syria?

22 Oct, 2019 23:59 / Updated 8 hours ago

"White Helmets" (bottom right) and Islamist militants celebrating together in Aleppo, Syria, March 15, 2016. © REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

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While US President Donald Trump may be serious about pulling troops out of Syria, that doesn’t mean Washington intends to stop meddling there, as evidenced by taxpayer dollars he just sent to the fake rescue group “White Helmets.”

The White House announced a $4.5 million donation to the group on Tuesday, citing the “important and highly valued” work the group has done rescuing “more than 115,000 people” over the course of Syria’s 8-year conflict. Left unsaid was that the number comes from the White Helmets themselves; or that they were only set up in 2014; or that they only operate in parts of Syria controlled by anti-government militants, while the actual Syrian civil defense has been placed under US sanctions along with everyone else loyal to Damascus.

ALSO ON RT.COMTrump approves $4.5 million in aid to ‘White Helmets’ in Syria

Mentioning any of those things would be introducing complications into the simplified morality play that has been sold to the American people since 2011, when US officials encouraged “Arab Spring” uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa – including Syria, where they turned into a brutal sectarian conflict.

In this narrative, the White Helmets are neutral, noble civil servants volunteering all over Syria to save children and puppies and kittens from the Evil Bashar Assad, under the rain of “barrel bombs” and chemical weapons targeting exclusively civilians and the ever-increasing number of hospitals.

In reality, Assad is Syria’s legitimate president, the rescues as well as “chemical attacks” and “barrel bombs” increasingly appear to be fabrications, and the outfit itself is but an extension of jihadist militants such as the Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al-Nusra, recently “rebranded” as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Actual Syrians liberated from jihadist sieges and occupation have repeatedly testified that the “rescuers” are nothing of the sort – including the family of the famous “Aleppo Boy” Omran Daqneesh.

Last December, the Russian mission to the UN presented the results of its months-long investigation into the group, citing photos, documents and witness testimonies to accuse the White Helmets of organ harvesting, ties to terrorist groups, staged attacks and faked rescues.

“The White Helmets deserve to be on the United Nations’ designated terrorist list,” said the Russian envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia.

ALSO ON RT.COMOrgan theft, staged attacks: UN panel details White Helmets’ criminal activities, media yawns

The US has been one of the group’s biggest donors, and has even honored them with an Academy Award for a “documentary” of their greatest hits. Meanwhile, the US military presence in Syria was authorized by stretching the framework of a congressional mandate originally given to fight Al-Qaeda terrorists following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Washington thus found itself both fighting and funding terrorists – a quandary the Obama administration never bothered to address, because it was never really challenged on it.

The US and its allies have gone through a variety of mental contortions to whitewash them as “moderate rebels” or tolerant secularists, who just happen to be called “Army of Islam” and so forth. The very same media then turned on a dime to denounce these militants last week, after they invaded northern Syria on Turkey’s behalf to target the US-allied Kurds.

Trump used the invasion as the pretext to withdraw US troops from the area, telling the American public he wants to end the endless wars in the Middle East that have claimed countless lives and trillions in treasure. His critics on both sides of the aisle have howled and gnashed their teeth about this “betrayal” – they say of the Kurds, but really mean their dreams of empire – while Trump’s base cheered it on. Reactions to the White Helmets aid are precisely the opposite, with Trump voters grumbling about funding terrorists and the establishment applauding it.

See U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee's other Tweets

Funding fake terrorist “rescuers” while trying to disentangle from Syria seems nonsensical at first glance. It starts making a bit more sense when considering that it keeps the Washington “swamp” happy and off Trump’s back – at least a little – while also leaving him some leverage to meddle in Syria down the line, if he so wishes. A bargain at $4.5 million, compared to the cost of maintaining a military presence, the businessman in the Oval Office might be thinking.

So the dollars to fund more “atrocity porn” propaganda keep flowing – for now.

Nebojsa Malic, senior writer at RT

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‘Organ traders, terrorists & looters’: Evidence against Syrian White Helmets presented at UN; 1:21:25 min. CC Translation is available

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Researchers and civil society representatives from different countries have studied the activities of the so-called 'White Helmets' organisation in Syria and are sharing their findings with the international community at the UN headquarters in New York City on Thursday, Streamed live on Dec 20, 2018

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https://www.rt.com/op-ed/447385-white-helmets-un-panel/

Organ theft, staged attacks: UN panel details White Helmets’ criminal activities, media yawns

Eva Bartlett

is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years).

25 Dec, 2018 16:42 / Updated 9 months ago

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Members of the 'White Helmets' at a Roman ruin site in Daraa, Syria, December 23, 2017 © Reuters / Alaa al-Faqir

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Utter silence. That is the sound of Western corporate media days after a more than one-hour-long panel on the White Helmets at the United Nations on December 20, 2018.

Journalists were present, so the silence isn’t due to lack of access. And in any case it was live streamed on the UNTV channel, and remains available on Youtube for keen observers to watch.

More likely, the silence is due to the irrefutable documentation presented on the faux-rescue group’s involvement in criminal activities, which include organ theft, working with terrorists — including as snipers — staging fake rescues, thieving from civilians, and other non-rescuer behaviour.

On the panel was one of corporate media's favourite targets to smear, British journalist Vanessa Beeley, who gave a fact-based lecture on her years of research into the founding, funding and nefarious activities of the White Helmets, research which includes numerous visits to White Helmets centers, countless testimonies from Syrian civilians, and even an interview with a White Helmets leader in Dara'a al-Balad, Syria.

Maxim Grigoriev, the director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy (a member of the UN’s Global Counter-Terrorism Research Network) spoke at length, detailing some of the over 100 eyewitnesses his foundation has conducted interviews with.

These include over 40 White Helmets members, 15 former terrorists, 50 people from areas where terrorists and WH operated, with another over 500 interviewed by survey in Aleppo and Daraa.

Decision to bring White Helmets to Canada dangerous and criminal

Among testimonies presented by Grigoriev were numerous accounts of the White Helmets' involvement in organ theft.

A head of nursing in Aleppo is cited as seeing the body of his neighbour who had been taken by the White Helmets to Turkey for “treatment”. “I lifted the sheet and saw a large wound cut from the throat to the stomach… I touched him with my hand and understood there were clearly no organs left.”

Another interviewee said: “A person receives a minor injury, is rescued… and then brought back with their stomach cut open and with their internal organs missing.”

The interviews with civilians, White Helmets and terrorist members themselves put to rest NATO’s and their lapdog media’s explanations that in the White Helmets there are a few bad apples but in general these are humanitarian rescuers.

For example, a Syrian civilian, Omar al-Mustafa, is cited as stating:

“Almost all people who worked in nearby White Helmets centers were al-Nusra fighter or were linked to them. I tried to join the White Helmets myself, but I was told that if I was not from al-Nusra, they could not employ me.”

Still more testimonies detail staged fake rescues and staged chemical attacks. Omar al-Mustafa was cited as stating:

“I saw them (White Helmets) bring children who were alive, put them on the floor as if they had died in a chemical attack.”

White Helmets boss denies terror links, spreads whataboutism in contentious RT interview

The testimonies incriminate not only the White Helmets organization, but also the doctors who, in 2016, Western corporate media fawned over.

According to one interviewee, Mohamed Bashir Biram, his attempt to take his father to a White Helmets affiliated al-Bayan hospital, failed. He said: “Since my father was not a fighter, the doctors in the hospital refused to help him and he died.”

But in 2016, the Western media was praising the same valiant doctors, in their crescendo of war propaganda around Aleppo.

Many other independent journalists have corroborated aspects of what the panelists — also comprising Syrian journalist Rafiq Lotef, and Russian and Syrian Representatives to the UN, Ambassadors Vassily Nebenzia and Bashar al-Ja'afari — described in detail.

In my own visits to eastern Ghouta towns last April and May, residents likewise spoke of organ theft, staged rescues, the White Helmets working with Jaysh al-Islam, while an Aleppo man likewise described them as thieves who steal from civilians, not rescuers.

Copy-paste corporate media silence

Journalists present at the panel were not interested in asking follow-up questions on organ theft, staged rescues, or any of the content presented, unsurprisingly, instead asking questions about other Syrian issues.

A CBS journalist didn't have a single question about what had just been presented, although CBS has previously repeatedly reported on the White Helmets. But their reporting, like most in corporate media, spun the transparent propaganda that is corporate media coverage of the group.

Four days after the UN panel, to my knowledge, not a single corporate media outlet has covered the event and its critical contents.

This is in spite of the fact that the Western corporate media has been happy to propagandize about the White Helmets for years, and to attack those of us who dare to present testimonies and evidence from on the ground in Syria which contradicts the official narrative.

The 'other' Omran: Aleppo civilians expose MSM lies & child exploitation

Russian, Syrian, and Lebanese media did report on the panel, and of course if Western corporate journalists ever do bother to mention it, they will ignore the incriminating evidence presented by panellists and instead accuse Russia of bullying the White Helmets.

Prior to the panel, a number of publications came out with articles echoing one another, and in fact echoing claims already repeatedly uttered about a “Russian disinformation campaign” against the White Helmets.

That's right, that’s the best they’ve got.

'Big bad Russia' tarnishing the pristine image of the White Helmets, a theme rerun ad nauseum over the last year or two, and one which I addressed in early January 2018 when I was under attack for questioning the White Helmets.

In my rebuttal to a mid-December 2017 Guardian smear, I pointed out that it was not Russia which began looking into the White Helmets’ affiliations, funding, and role in the propaganda war, but two independent North American researchers.

Canadian journalist Cory Morningstar in September 2014 exposed the role of the New York based PR firm, Purpose Inc, in marketing campaigns for the White Helmets.

And as I wrote, “In April 2015, American independent journalist revealed that the White Helmets had been founded by Western powers and managed by a British ex-soldier, and noted the “rescuers” role in calling for Western intervention—a No Fly Zone on Syria.”

These, and the subsequent numerous investigations by Vanessa Beeley, including on the ground in Syria, taking countless testimonies of Syrian civilians on the matter of the White Helmets, far precede any Russian media reporting on the group.

That Russian media and bodies have since done their own investigations does not equate to a “disinformation campaign”, but rather doing the job corporate media are clearly incapable of, and unwilling to do.

Absurdities of Syrian war propaganda

Why haven’t the media written about the panel, or as per the corporate media norm, issued yet more smears against panellists?

They haven’t because they are cornered, and while they can always try their standard juvenile character smears and libel, they cannot refute the facts, the countless testimonies which corroborate yet still more testimonies taken by independent journalists over the years.

Or as Ambassador Nebenzia said:

“We understand why #WhiteHelmets are being defended by #Western capitals. They do not hide that they provided substantial financial support to this organization and instrumentalized it to pursue political goals under humanitarian cover. It’s logical to protect your asset.”

Last week, it came out that German reporter for Der Spiegel, Claas Relotius, winner of the German Reporter Award 2018, had falsified a number of his articles. One article on the fakery noted Relotius had, “confessed to have fabricated at least 14 of 55 articles,” including a “story about a Syrian boy who believed he triggered the civil war in the country with his graffiti, an article that won the German Reporter Prize just three weeks ago but which was made up.”

Former German journalist, Udo Ulfkotte, in 2014 reached his tipping point and admitted to having for years lied for Western, anti-Russia interests, admitting to making propaganda against Russia after having been bribed by billionaires, and by the Americans, to “not to report exactly the truth.”

As 2018, a year of staggering corporate media fake news, draws to a close, so do the last vestiges of credibility of media lauding the White Helmets.

Given the scandalous depth of their lies, it is unlikely corporate journalists will have an Ulfkotte moment and admit to their manifold deceptions.

But it doesn’t really matter, because more and more, Western corporate media, and the propaganda construct known as the White Helmets they support, are becoming irrelevant.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/447385-white-helmets-un-panel/

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/435670-white-helmets-canada-syria/

Decision to bring White Helmets to Canada dangerous and criminal

Eva Bartlett

10 Aug, 2018 17:24 / Updated 1 year ago

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Did Canadians get to vote on whether or not to bring potential terrorists or supporters of terrorists to Canada? No. Will Canadians get a say in where these potentially dangerous men will be settled? Highly unlikely.

Ninety-eight members of the White Helmets, and a few hundred of their families, were evacuated by Israel and allies to Jordan late in evening of July 21. They will seemingly be shipped off to a few Western nations for resettlement: Canada, the UK, and Germany. So far, Canada has pledged to take 50 White Helmets and around 200 family members.

Wrongly dubbed the “Syrian Civil Defense” (the actual Syrian Civil Defense has existed since 1953), the White Helmets narrative is flawed in every conceivable manner.

White Helmets boss denies terror links, spreads whataboutism in contentious RT interview

Packaged as neutral, heroic, volunteer rescuers, who have “saved 115,000 lives”, according to White Helmets leader Raed Al Saleh, they are in reality a massively Western-funded organization with salaried volunteers, and have no documentation of those 115,000 saved. They contain numerous members who have participated in or supported criminal acts in Syria, including torture, assassinations, beheading, and kidnapping of civilians, as well as inciting Western military intervention in Syria.

James LeMesurier, a former member of the British military who founded the White Helmets, did so in countries neighbouring Syria: in Turkey and Jordan. They have since worked solely in terrorist-held areas of Syria, and according to Syrian civilians in eastern Ghouta, they worked directly with, or were themselves, extremists of Jaysh al-Islam or other extremist groups. Civilians in east Aleppo said that White Helmets worked with al-Qaeda in Syria (the Nusra Front).

The fact that White Helmets centres are frequently, if not always, found near or next to headquarters of al-Qaeda and other terrorist factions further supports the accusations that they collaborate with terrorists—even with ISIS, as noted by ISIS hostage John Cantlie. He described the White helmets as an "ISIS fire brigade".

White Helmets have also been at the scene of executions; filmed standing over dead Syrian soldiers; cheering on and cleaning up after an execution in Daraa Governorate, and disposing of the bodies of assassinated Syrian soldiers (including decapitated bodies) in Daraa Governorate.

White Helmets members were present to welcome Saudi terrorist Abdullah al-Muhaysini, leader of al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria) who the US government designated a terrorist for “acting for or on behalf of” al-Nusra, and helping to finance them.

Over sixty White Helmets members have clear ties to terrorist and extremist groups, as shown by their own social media accounts and videos. In many of their own photos they hold weapons. Some White Helmets members have called for the murders of Shia villagers in Idlib governorate, and were instrumental in the massacre and injury of over 300 villagers, including 116 children in April 2017.

Not exactly neutral and members of the Daraa batch of White Helmets could very possibly be among those soon to be en route to Western nations.

White Helmets coming ‘home’: West & Israel provide ‘exceptional’ rescue strategy for NATO's ghosts

Not Russian propaganda: Canadian, American, British journalists first exposed the White Helmets

In September 2014, independent Canadian journalist Cory Morningstar wrote about the New York City PR firm, Purpose Inc, and its propaganda role regarding the White Helmets. In March and April 2015, independent US journalist Rick Sterling, further scrutinized the White Helmets and related “humanitarian” groups serving to call for a no-fly-zone in Syria.

Since then, and for years now, concerned journalists and commentators have written or posed questions on the entity known as the White Helmets. In addition to the years-long investigations by Vanessa Beeley, commentators - from former British ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, award-winning US journalist Gareth Porter, award-winning journalist John Pilger, and even rock legend Roger Waters, have noted that the White Helmets are a dangerous and fraudulent group, or as Pilger put it, a propaganda construct.

I have already outlined this chronology of investigations, refuting corporate media claims that voices critical of the White Helmets stem from Russian influence. Yet, slavish supporters of the White Helmets, continue to demonize anyone posing critical and needed questions on this group, generally labelling such people as “Russian bots”, “influenced by Russia”, or some variation of that, in an attempt to insist only people under the influence of Russia have been critical of the White Helmets.

In the case of the Atlantic Council's Ben Nimmo, his tweet on the lack of or scant mention by RT or Sputnik in 2014, 2015, to mid 2016 of the White Helmets supports my argument: those are precisely the times when the above-mentioned independent journalists were investigating the group.

White Helmets next to terrorists’ headquarters

In Syria, I saw two different White Helmets centres in close proximity to terrorists' headquarters: one in eastern Aleppo, and one in Saqba, eastern Ghouta. The Saqba centre was two hundred metres from a factory extremists used to manufacture mortars and missiles, quite possibly those used to bomb civilians in Damascus. It contained a fire-truck stolen from the real Syrian Civil Defense, as well as ambulances and vehicles all torched when the White Helmets left Ghouta with terrorists of Jaysh al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, among others. They were all safely transported to Idlib as per the deal with the Syrian government.

The other White Helmets centre I saw was in the Ansari district of Aleppo's east. Formerly a school (and now returned to this status), this centre was a half minute's walk to the headquarters of al-Qaeda in Syria, as well as the Abu Amara Brigades, and other extremists.

White Helmets are terrorists, can choose surrender or death - Assad

Vanessa Beeley, who had previously been to Ansari, wrote a detailed article additionally noting that just 200 metres from that same White Helmets centre was Al Mashad Square, where 12-year-old Palestinian youth, Abdullah Issa, was savagely tortured and then slowly beheaded.

In the Old City, next to Aleppo's citadel last May, I spoke with an older man who had remained in Aleppo during the terrorists’ rule. He told me: “The Civil Defence is supposed to rescue people, but they used to steal women's earrings from their dead bodies. If she was wearing gold, they'd cut her hand to steal it. They are thieves, not rescuers. We saw them murdering people, many times.”

In Douma and Kafr Batna, I spoke with civilians who told me they saw Jaysh al-Islam extremists wearing White Helmets uniforms, and White Helmets working with Jaysh al-Islam. Another eastern Ghouta resident, Marwan Qreisheh, said the early White Helmets members who came to Ghouta weren't Syrian, didn't speak Arabic, and used their money to attract “volunteers”.

He spoke of them staging rescue scenes: “They'd start filming and claiming that SAA hit this area, it was in front of our eyes, and we knew it was all staged, but we didn’t dare to stand against them because they would kill us, they would empty their gun in you immediately.”

Who killed the civilians in White Helmets Douma videos?

It was the White Helmets who released (WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC) videos and photos alleging a chemical attack in Douma in April 2018. Yet, no civilian among the many I met in Douma believed there had been a chemical attack and medical staff didn’t see patients exposed to a chemical agent. More recently, the OPCW ruled out the use of a nerve agent used in Douma, finding only traces of “chlorinated organic chemicals”.

So, who and what killed the women and children shown in the White Helmets-distributed video from Douma? Did the White Helmets take part in their murder, or merely film their bodies (some arranged) after the fact?

Corporate media has diligently avoided asking a single honest question of the propaganda group they laud, and has for years attacked those of us who do ask questions and take testimonies of Syrian civilians on this matter.

‘They may be jihadists but they’re our jihadists’: White Helmets' UK resettlement policy attacked

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/435670-white-helmets-canada-syria/

Comments bellow are "copy paste" without any personal thoughts or additions :

- Strange. They don't want their troops back... Who founded and paid them, should keep them.

- As a Canadian, I am adamantly opposed to any White Helmets coming here!

- No Wicked White Helmuts in OZ. Good idea. L. Frank Baum them.

- sadly, we got the central American "refugees" that the united snakes did not want, in a one sided "refugee swap deal", Turnbull, "please PRETEND to accept our (Naru), refugees so l do not look weak at home", Trump, "this is a bad deal but we will honor this bad deal", they didn't get ours, but we sure as hell got theirs.

- As usual, we will ignore all the strong warnings and bright red flags. And when things go wrong, we'll throw in taxpayer billions or trillions to manage the crisis. Then repeat.

- Do the Canadians know that the White Helmets are really ISIS.

- This simply tells you that " Canada:" no longer exists as a sovereign country but simply a brand name. Normal common sense would have a real investigation, real vetting by Immigration Canada and a subsequent" rejection" and deportation under the Canadian Terrorist Act of 2003. But since none of this is happening, what does that tell you? Canada is beholden to the IMF and World Bank, so it is a vassal of an evil enterprise, shame, shame on you Canada.

- so many people in our governments should be dealt with by rope and soap, next to these scoundrels.

- Trudeau should be executed for so many reasons....this is yet another reason he needs to be executed for treason.

- Canada is full of families from countries where US/NATO forces operate. That is how they get locals to cooperate and work for them. Deal is: I will work for you but if I do my family is in danger so they relocate the family to Canada. Most Canadians have no clue.

- Canada and Trudeau have completely lost it. These guys are terrorists pure and simple.

- why is Justin saying that the human right actives are condemns by Saudi Ariba yet he bring white helmet to Canada a who violated human right law he need to shut up because what goes for one goes for all,

- Bringing terrorists to your homeland? Definition of stupidity....

- No, they have a purpose. The Canadian government will use them to blow up the pipeline as a "FALSE FLAG" against the Native Americans. He can then take action against them say, maybe blow up some villages? Very sneaky.

- Trudeau and the entire Liberal party is a blight to Canada. He is well hated by most Canadians, more so every day.

- It is shocking that Canada, after taking all the verbal abuse that it has from the Trump administration, still will take pro-jihadists into its fold. Why would they do that? Well, one answer is clear as day: as we all are aware, Al Quaeda and the rest of the jihadist groups in the Middle East have been getting paid by NATO, specifically, the US, to cause turmoil (a gentle name for what they do) and giving the US good reason for going in to get rid of terrorists (of their own making)....how obvious is this fact? Canada is just a vassal of the US

- NATO is run by the USA, and have to do as they are told?

- The White Helmets have been brought to Canada to stage "FALSE FLAGS" against the Native Americans fighting the pipeline. Obviously, their false flag will be blowing up the pipe line. The Canadian government will then bomb the Native American villages. The White Helmets will rush to issue their statement blaming HAMAS & Assad before being reminded that they are in a different country now!! OPPS!

- Eva Bartlett, amazing and always interesting and truthful reporting as usual. The MSM would do well to learn from the likes of Eva and Vanessa Beeley and not sit behind western propaganda from western governments.

- Good article Ms Bartlett has it right. Canada is becoming a haven for the next phase of Islamic terror attacks in North America and justin trudeau is responsible. Canada has subsidized the immigration of over 100000 muslim soldiers of Allah in the last tear alone. Making America's problem with Mexicans on the southern border appear trivial, which it is. Future acts of terror in North America will probably come from Canada.

- So Sad,,,,,,,Poor Canada, we pick a fight with the US and SAUDIS which we cannot win to virtue signal. But we have 50/50 male-female cabinet based on gender, not competence. Now we will take in a bunch more terrorists for the next govt. to clean up.

- The mask is falling off from these so good White Helmets Samaritans. No they are described what they really are, terrorists !! Is anybody surprised now ?

- Lets force those terrorists who come to Canada to permanently wear their white helmets !

Canadian cover for White Helmets

Canada has been assisting the White Helmets for some years now, under the pretext of aiding humanitarians. While the full extent of Canadian financial support to the White Helmets has yet to be revealed, at least Can$7.5 million (US$5.7mn) was given to the group, helping with “the development and expansion of early warning air raid systems.”

Following the Israeli evacuation of White Helmets and their families from southern Syria, Global Affairs Canada released a statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, on the “courageous volunteers”, regurgitating the White Helmets “save the innocent and the wounded” unsubstantiated claim.

Unsubstantiated because, in spite of the fancy videos, neither the White Helmets nor its UK backers can provide a list of the supposed over 115,000 civilians rescued.

While the media has lauded Canada's role in the evacuation of the White Helmets members, it’s worth noting the person, Robin Wettlaufer, behind this evacuation effort. Wettlaufer met with White Helmet leader Raed Saleh (once denied entry to the US due to his potential ties to extremists, according to Mark Toner) in late June, as the Syrian army was regaining territory in Daraa governorate.

Wettlaufer has held the Istanbul-based position of Special Representative for Syria, under Global Affairs Canada, from March 2014 to present, according to her LinkedIn page.

In fact, she is the Special Representative to the Syrian Opposition, something noted in a December 2016 Global Affairs Canada video featuring Wettlaufer.

Given that Wettlaufer is thus Canada's Representative to extremists in Syria, her key role in instigating the evacuation of the White Helmets is hardly surprising, let alone praise-worthy. But it should be worrying to Canadians. Did Canadians get to vote on whether or not to bring potential terrorists or supporters of terrorists to Canada? No. No vote in the Parliament, no public discussion. Will Canadians get a say in where these potentially dangerous men will be settled? No sign of that so far, and indeed highly unlikely.

Why did the Canadian government refuse the entry of 100 injured Palestinian children from Gaza in 2014, a truly humanitarian effort, and yet will fast-track the entry of potentially dangerous men with potential ties to terrorists?

As for the claims of danger to the White Helmets in southern Syria, their comrades in eastern Aleppo and in eastern Ghouta were safely transported out of those areas, along with their families and with extremists who refused to take amnesty, while Aleppo and eastern Ghouta had peace restored. The White Helmets are potential security threats to citizens in the Western nations planning on hosting them.

As citizens privy to all this information and all the questions on the White Helmets, we must demand our governments reverse this plan, or at least provide us with confirmation that the immigrants in question have been fully investigated and have not been involved in terrorist activities in Syria in any way.

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Star journalist fired for writing fake stories in German news magazine 5,403 views•Dec 20, 2018

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Award-winning investigative reporter Claas Relotius has admitted to fabricating details, people and conversations in more than a dozen articles for German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. Plus: Supporters of Donald Trump are trying to crowdfund $5 billion to build his wall on the US-Mexico border.

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- Now we need to get CNN and bbc shut down
- 1:33 "...he also won an award from CNN..." Very telling.
- Millions of that type of reporting going . Liberal left always lie.
- Off course he won an award from CNN...it was FAKE NEWS!
- Der Spiegel was never a honest news source
- Shouldnt magazines also be fined for cases like this, like banks?
- Never trust mainstream media.
- Journalists may well support truth and condemn fabulists, but the crony-corporate commissioners of media may slyly promote and encourage fabulists. The 100% spurious Russiagate is an obvious example, as is scapegoating of Trump in general (I'm a leftist, and don't appreciate injustice, even against rivals) whilst HRC and the corrupt DNC of 2016 garner little attention despite evidence of crime (and some unreported trials).
- Der Spiegel has always been a disreputable news source due to all the biased and racist reporting. I am only surprised they now admit they write FAKE stories to suit their political agenda.
Ps. France24 is not any better, yet worse it is owned and financed by the French government.
- These networks are the main supporters of sanitizing the internet were it comes to fake news and hate speech. In Germany they ready introduced the law in 2017 Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), France copy/paste this law in 2018 and the Eu is working on it since 1 janury 2017. It's these networks, public broadcasts in general, all the mainstream news outlets and newspapers who love to see this getting implemented so they can be again the sole representatives of making news and deciding what's fake or not, what's hate speech or not. The amount of errors and outright lies they fabricated over all these years is staggering, if the "web" have proved one thing is that these traditional outlets sold lots of BS before the introduction of the web. In my country (belgium) and my neighbour Holland there's this constant reporting and "debate" going on were these "old" media outlets trying everything they can to gain back the monopoly on reporting the news. The traditional journalist these days is someone who schooled himself/herself in the correct uni/college, were they're taught the correct dogma. They've forgotten one very important thing and that's being an integer journalist, someone who's objective, insightfull and neutral ... no, now they're just opinionmakers and dogmatists
- The thing with BBC lies is TV licence payers are paying them for it ,I personally don't pay for a TV licence its not illegal anymore
- Oh look, fake news is a real thing.
- This is how paper and news sites get to lie.
They knew about it, but let it go, until they wanted to throw him under the bus.
But the effect on society is set. The story has been told.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/446868-trillion-pentagon-audit-failed/

The Pentagon failed its audit amid a $21 trillion scandal (yes, trillion) - Lee Camp

19 Dec, 2018 14:58 / Updated 10 months ago

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New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was ruthlessly attacked recently, and I feel a bit responsible. I might have accidentally tainted her Twitter feed with truth serum.

But that sounds weird - so let me back up.

A few months ago, I covered the story of the $21 trillion that has gone unaccounted for at the Pentagon. That’s right—trillion with a T—an amount of money you can’t possibly come to terms with, so stop trying. Seriously, stop. It’s like trying to comprehend the age of the earth.

(The earth is 4.5 billion years old. To put that into context, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we have 11 years left to completely change our ways or climate change will make the earth uninhabitable. If you were to take the age of the earth and lay it out on the span of a calendar year, this means we would have less than a millisecond left on Dec. 31 to utterly change our ways or all is lost.)

$21 trillion lost: Largest theft in history buried under guise of US national security – Lee Camp

Anyway, the $21 trillion includes $6.5 trillion unaccounted for at the Pentagon in 2015 ALONE. When I covered all this a few months ago, very few people were talking about it. David Degraw investigated it for his website (which has since been destroyed by hackers), and Mark Skidmore, the economist who discovered the unaccounted adjustments, co-authored a single Forbes article on the subject. And by “discovered,” I don’t mean that Skidmore found a dusty shoebox in Donald Rumsfeld’s desk underneath the standard pile of baby skeletons. I mean that he took a minute to look at the Defense Department’s own inspector general’s report. So really he just bothered to look at the thing that was designed for the public to look at.

Anyway, my column on this topic went viral, as did the Forbes article, each garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Yet despite all that, still not a word from Congress, and not a word from the hacks at your mainstream media outlets. But then again, getting important news about the corruption of our military-industrial complex from the mainstream media would be like getting a philosophy lesson from a strip-club dancer (in that it would be most unexpected, and it’s not really why you’re there).

But just a few weeks ago, something significant happened. It took place in a quiet news dump during a Pentagon press conference that TRULY began like this:

Yes, Pentagon press conferences apparently begin in much the same manner as a “Three Stooges” sketch. (Unfortunately the subsequent bonks on the head usually involve Tomahawk missiles.)

During that wacky press conference, the deputy secretary of defense casually mentioned halfway through that the Pentagon had failed its first-ever audit.This is the first time the Pentagon has ever been audited, even though it has been legally required to do so since the early 1990s. Don’t you wish you could put off your tax returns for 20 years? (I once put them off for two years, but it wasn’t a conscious decision. It was simply the period of my life when I discovered that Netflix had every episode of “The West Wing.”)

After Shanahan dropped this bombshell, here was what followed:

Yes, the Pentagon’s official response to why it failed its audit is a word salad after it has gone through an industrial-grade militarized Slap Chop. It’s the type of response you get when a fraud has been filtered through a cover-up, then filtered through a publicist, then filtered through a public official who probably doesn’t know that much to begin with.

It’s the corrupt feeding the blind feeding the stupid feeding the disingenuous.

And yet even THAT didn’t get much press coverage. As far as I can tell, The New York Times didn’t report on the audit failure until two weeks later, and even that column contained this caveat: “But audits are hard work; most defense officials aren’t business experts; and to some, bookkeeping and other management operations just aren’t a priority in wartime, which since Sept. 11, 2001, has been a permanent state.”

In the Times’ defense, there are different genres of reporting, and in this case, journalists were working in the genre of “sh*t reporting.” So should we really be surprised? If they want to learn what real reporting looks like on this same topic, they can read The Nation’s investigative exposé.

That article stated: “For decades, the DoD’s leaders and accountants have been perpetrating a gigantic, unconstitutional accounting fraud, deliberately cooking the books to mislead the Congress and drive the DoD’s budgets ever higher. … DoD has literally been making up numbers in its annual financial reports to Congress—representing trillions of dollars’ worth of seemingly nonexistent transactions … according to government records and interviews with current and former DoD officials, congressional sources, and independent experts.”

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. (The following page in the magazine was simply an image of a hand dropping a mic.)

ALSO ON RT.COM‘Astonishing fraud: Pentagon stashes away unspent money & then uses it without any accountability’

So here’s how this fraud works: Every year, the Pentagon tells Congress how much money it needs. It submits the financial reports from the year before, filled to the brim with heaping, steaming bullsh*t. Trillions of gallons of bullsh*t, called “adjustments.” Those adjustments cover up the fact that it didn’t necessarily spend all the money the year before.

“However, instead of returning such unspent funds to the US Treasury, as the law requires, the Pentagon sometimes launders and shifts such moneys to other parts of the DoD’s budget,” The Nation’s Dave Lindorff wrote.

And this is no mistake. This is straight-up fraud. How do you know when something is fraud? Well, one way is when the paper trail is covered up, as Lindorff noted: “Indeed, more than 16,000 records that might reveal either the source or the destination of some of that $6.5 trillion had been “removed,” the inspector general’s office reported.”

Sixteen thousand records! By my calculations, such a cover-up would require multiple shredder operators working in shifts, only stopping once every five hours to use the bathroom and briefly giggle at their villainy.

Here’s more analysis from The Nation:

“The Pentagon’s accounting fraud diverts many billions of dollars that could be devoted to other national needs: health care, education, job creation, climate action, infrastructure modernization, and more. Indeed, the Pentagon’s accounting fraud amounts to theft on a grand scale—theft not only from America’s taxpayers, but also from the nation’s well-being and its future.”

But apparently, disappearing at least 16,000 documents wasn’t enough. Somebody might still connect the dots. So the Pentagon took the next step:

“The most recent report for the DOD on the OIG website … summarizes unsupported adjustments for fiscal year 2017. However, this document differs from all previous reports in that all the numbers relating to the unsupported adjustments were redacted. That is, all the relevant information was blacked out.”

Right after The Nation article came out, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about it—basically saying that these unaccounted trillions at the Pentagon could help pay for “Medicare for all.”

35.6K people are talking about this

Clearly things are ramping up. People are finding out about the $21 trillion, and that means it is now time for the true hacks - the military-industrial complex defenders - to jump in and chastise anyone who dares speak out about this fraud. Enter Vox - which, if you’re unfamiliar, is a cross between HuffPost and an NPR tote bag filled with rotting raccoon carcasses.

Vox ran an article titled, “The $21 trillion accounting error that can’t pay for Medicare-for-all, explained.” You know how to tell for sure that you’re a nitwit spraying idiocy like a Super Soaker? When you find yourself saying the phrase “$21 trillion accounting ERROR.“

Error?! Yeah, and Timothy McVeigh just had a faulty carburetor.

Vox “journalist” Matthew Yglesias tried to push this idiotic justification: “The Pentagon’s accounting errors are genuinely enormous, but they’re also just accounting errors—they don’t represent actual money that can be spent on something else.”

Sorry, but no. These are not “accounting errors.” It’s impossible to have trillions of dollars of “accounting errors.” Since I have now saturated my keyboard with my anger-saliva, I’ll let Laurence Kotlikoff at Forbes answer this: “Let’s recall that this is not simply a matter of boring accounting. Trillions in unaccounted outlays, if that’s what’s involved here, is trillions of our tax dollars being spent without our knowledge. If that’s the case, we’re talking about the biggest government financial deception in the history of the country.”

Long story short, this $21 trillion story is starting to gain traction. People can finally see the truth. And right now, it is the corporate media puppets who are trying to make sure you think, “It’s just a few accounting errors. Pay no mind to the fact that it amounts to the largest theft ever perpetrated against the American people.”

This column was originally published by Truthdig and is based on a monologue Camp wrote and performed on his TV show “Redacted Tonight.”

Lee Camp is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and activist. Dubbed by Salon as the “John Oliver of Russia Today”, Camp is the host of RT America’s first comedy news show Redacted Tonight, which tackles the news agenda with a healthy dose of humor and satire. Lee’s writing credits are vast, having written for The Onion, Comedy Central and Huffington Post, as well as the acclaimed essay collections Moment of Clarity and Neither Sophisticated Nor Intelligent. Lee’s stand-up comedy has also been featured on Comedy Central, ABC’s Good Morning America, Showtime’s The Green Room with Paul Provenza, Al-Jazeera, BBC’s Newsnight, E!, MTV, and Spike TV.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/446868-trillion-pentagon-audit-failed/

As Pentagon Fails Audit, $21 Trillion Still Unaccounted For 8,771 views•Dec 11, 2018; 12 min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztDHmkRK6I8
-Sinister Minister
10 months ago
Yet America can't afford health care, free education or student debt relief.
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Joels World
10 months ago
"They" took down the "Bush" surveillance cameras everywhere as needed, shot a cruise missile at the accounting dept. on the pentagon bldg., then dropped the twin towers plus one, and nobody will remember the announcement the day before by Mr. Rumsfeld saying the pentagon was missing $21 trillion USD....how convenient....
-
John Flynn
10 months ago
21 trillion is the same amount as the national debt....coincidence?
-
big Cahuna
10 months ago (edited)
Kennedys' speech, before they killed him , explained the monolithic, worldwide conspiracy , guerillas by night, and the repugnance of secrecy. "Top secret" and "classified" usually just hide crimes of the rich and powerful. Call a crime " state secrets " and nobody will be prosecuted.
- Russell St.Clair
10 months ago
So between the IRS missing 9-11 trillion and the Federal Reserve 9 to 11 trillion unaccounted for and now the Pentagon 21 trillion we're missing somewhere around 42 trillion dollars ?!!?
- Rubin Schmidt
10 months ago
The "Declaration" was ignored and NEVER ratified. When Andrew Jackson made another attempt to gain "Independence" he declared war on them. again, in 1812. By them, I don't mean King George and his Redcoats, and I don't mean the British government or the people, I mean the Bank of England . Of course, you know already that he lost that struggle, and the B of E had the controlling interest in the landmass known as the West Indies Company, U.S.A. inc., until taken over by the local Banksters in 1913. Those Banksters are not, just now, BANKRUPT , they have been since 1929, and only managed to survive by basing their "money" on other peoples resources, and also printing "promissory notes" out of thin air, based on nothing. The International Community is sick of the fraud that American represents, and their Wooden Nickels. !!!
p.s. To get back on point, "They", the Shadow Government, the Elite, the Powers that Be, is the .... COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS and their ruthless ENFORCERS the CIA. !!!
p.p.s. Hitler's Intelligence Chief EAST, Generalmajor Reinhard Gelhen and his staff of Waffen S.S. Officers, the CIA Gehlen Org., gave the U.S. their 1947 Truman National Security Act, which established the CIA & NSC.
p.p.p.s. ..The CFR reintroduced Hitler's Europaischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft, est. 1942, the European Economic Community , in the late 1940's, and left the entire Nazi intelligence apparatus intact, which included the U.K. !!!
-
Kevin Kranz
10 months ago
REMEMBER RUMSFELD SAID PENTAGON WAS MISSING TRILLIONS 2 DAYS LATER PENTAGON HIT 911 DAH
-

victrola13
victrola13
10 months ago (edited)
They are trying to accelerate their total global domination rollout to Ludicrous Speed and we all know how that worked out for Dark Helmet. They should have a look at all the compartmentalized, privatized deep state military contractors serving the Unacknowledged Special Access Projects they have forgotten to tell us about in the 3 secret space programs that have been developed since the 1940's. Hopefully these @$$hats will be out of a job soon. They better come clean before they go "plaid." Thank you Catherine Austin Fitts for finding the missing 21 Trillion!
- TheWrathsblade
10 months ago
Intriguing how it's pretty much the same amount that was missing before 9-11 hit, then everyone conveniently forgot about it after the dust settled.

Faking news? No problem! Top German journalist did it for years 8,831 views•Dec 21, 2018 ; 3:11 min.

Alexander Wesner
10 months ago
It's the NWO way..liberalisim mixed with Marxist and sharia. Tasty
- Kie Dan
10 months ago
All German media is nato media.
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[DA2K] SystemKrusher
10 months ago
I live in Germany since 1981. I'm broadcasting cool stuff via my DA2K youtube channels from my place dubbed "Area 52". Only since a couple of recent years I figured that I am in the most strategic country in the entire world. Not only it is the center of the new nationalism and far-right movement in Europe. From here I can also look West to analyze U.S. mainstream media coming in as an information stream. I can look to my East to analyze RT, Eastern European, Russian and Asian news. And I can look in the middle to analyze German mainstream media coupled with EU news. I can take all those 3 to 4 streams, compare them and assess their quality. And surprise surprise, there are common patterns. For instance, I noticed how German mainstream media is mimicking CNN/MSNBC mainstream media in russophobic biases. The conclusion is clear. There is an infowar going on between Western and Eastern media outlets, particularily when it comes to either being friendly or hostile to Russia.
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Peter Panino
Peter Panino
10 months ago
He is just the tip of the ICEBERG!

Media Misses: CNN’s ‘Journalist of the Year’ Reported ‘Fake News’ 2,246 views•Dec 22, 2018

Media Misses: CNN’s ‘Journalist of the Year’ Reported ‘Fake News’
2,246 views•Dec 22, 2018
The Daily Signal
37.4K subscribers
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump frequently calls out “fake news.” Does he have a point? Fake news is no joking matter, and recent revelations have proven that to be true even internationally. Claas Relotius, a now former reporter at German leftist news outlet Der Spiegel, resigned after suspicions of fraudulent news information. It has been reported that he gave a lengthy admission of guilt, and then resigned.

Relotius won CNN’s “Journalist of the Year” award in 2014. He won the award for a story titled “Murderers as Carers.” At least 14 of his 60 articles provided fraudulent information. It hasn’t been reported yet if the story that earned the CNN award was fabricated.

The Daily Signal's Media Misses is a news & commentary show that breaks down the top news stories of the week—many of which often go misreported by the mainstream media.

Leave us your feedback at MediaMisses@dailysignal.com

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