On February 6th, Syria and Turkey were brutally rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, one of the most devastating recorded in the Levant’s history. Ever since, residents of these countries and the region more widely have been subjected to a particularly unforgiving – yet illuminating – crash course in Western double standards over humanitarian aid.
On May 31, BBC Radio initiated an embarrassing imbroglio when it broadcast a factually challenged, overtly propagandistic documentary special called Ukraine: The Disinformation War.
“Humanitarianism” is the weapon that modern U.S. imperialism uses as the cornerstone in its campaigns to destabilize countries and regions. By presenting its violence as a selfless effort to save the people it targets, the empire can not just claim its hands are clean, but pose as heroic. It’s a natural evolution from the “white man’s burden,” repackaged for the modern age where the United States pretends to not be racist. And it fits perfectly into the falsely progressive and enlightened brand of liberalism in the social media age, which hides its support for oppressive systems behind feel-good sloganeering.
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NEW YORK – Graphika is the toast of the town. The private social-media and tech-intelligence agency that tracks down bots and exposes foreign influence operations online is constantly quoted, referenced and profiled in the nation’s most important outlets. For example, in 2020, The New York Times published a fawning profile of the company’s head of investigations, Ben Nimmo. “He Combs the Web for Russian Bots. That Makes Him a Target,” ran its headline, the article presenting him as a crusader risking his life to keep our internet safe and free. Last year, business magazine Fast Company labeled Graphika as among the 10 most innovative companies in the world.
9 July 2021 — RT
By Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg
Millions was spent clandestinely setting up and paying a network of ‘journalists’ to pump out anti-Assad, pro-opposition content as directed by a shadowy firm run by the UK foreign intelligence service’s counter-terrorism ex-head.
10 May, 2021 — RT
Members of Syria’s Civil Defence service (White Helmets) look for wounded people in the rubble after a reported explosion in a depot close to a camp for the internally displaced near al-Fua, in the country’s northwestern Idlib province, on May 3, 2021. © AFP / Omar HAJ KADOUR
By Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg
The epic establishment clean-up operation launched in the wake of James Le Mesurier’s apparent suicide was effective in the short term, but determined digging by critical journalists means the scandal definitely isn’t over yet.
12 April 2021 — Origin: New Eastern Outlook
Author: Vladimir Odintsov
The US government, with the UK hot on its heels, has long viewed the Middle East as a region where the presence of its army is indispensable not only because there are energy resources there, but due to the opportunity to control vast territories under the guise of “spreading democracy”. Therefore, American and British private military companies (PMCs) have been very actively involved in armed conflicts in the Middle East over recent decades, occupying an equal footing with the conventional armies deployed by their respective countries. The activity of PMCs particularly increased after the start of the “war on terror” declared by the West in 2001, when countries began to offer billions of dollars in contracts for PMCs around the world. The large Western PMCs founded during these years began to play a key role in fulfilling the tasks traditionally assigned to national armed forces. Moreover, according to findings from American experts, these military corporations will play an increasingly important role in local armed conflicts and wars in the future.
7 April 2021 — The Grayzone
White Helmets founder James Le Mesurier falling to his death from the top floor of his Istanbul home in uncertain circumstances in November 2019 created a myriad of extremely serious problems for a great many powerful people.
2 April 2021 — In Gaza (and beyond)
*From Clarity of Signal
April 2, 2021, RT.com
-by Eva K Bartlett
Even when a high-ranking White Helmet admits that some of the ‘rescuers’ came from the ranks of Syrian militants, all he gets from Canada’s national broadcaster is unquestioning praise and concern about “Russian disinformation.”
March 27, 2021 — The Grayzone
13 December 2020 — RT
Vanessa Beeley
Recently, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte effectively blocked a Parliamentary motion to allow an external independent investigation of Dutch government funding of terrorist groups in Syria.
Rutte initially tried to deny his involvement in the burial of the investigation but tenacious questioning from journalists forced him to admit his personal interference. According to Rutte, such an investigation could result in “tensions with our allies […] the lives of former members of opposition groups could be put at stake.”
4 December 2020 — In Gaza and beyond
The BBC has released a new radio podcast titled Mayday: Investigating The Life And Death Of James LeMesurier. It attempts to tell the story behind former British army and intelligence officer James LeMesurier, co-founder of the “White Helmets” in Syria. While the BBC claims that its new Radio 4 series seeks to “explore the true story” behind the so called “Syria Civil Defence”, its correspondence with journalists critical of the group shows this wasn’t the case.
2 December 2020 — Tim Hayward
Author’s note: This article was originally due to appear in Misinformation Review, the Harvard-based journal that published the piece it responds to. The editorial board accepted the article for publication, but because of the challenging nature of my critique, they decided it should be published under the rubric of a letter to the editor so as to allow a right of reply to the authors of the article criticised. Three weeks after it was sent out to those authors, I was informed that ‘we are unable to publish letters on our site at this time.’ [Submitted to Misinformation Review 22 August 2020; Accepted for publication 30 October 2020; notified of non-publication 30 November 2020.]
30 November 2020 — Grayzone
A new BBC podcast, “Mayday,” uses smears, gaping omissions, leaps of logic, and factual errors in a desperate attempt to repair the image of late White Helmets founder James Le Mesurier, and discredit the OPCW inspectors who challenged a cover-up of their Syria chemical weapons probe. Mayday’s producer has failed to answer the following questions.
18 July 2020 — 21st Century Wire
Any time you see the White Helmets in the news these days, it’s probably going to be for all the wrong reasons. This latest bombshell is no exception.
27 January 2020 — Off Guardian
Vanessa Beeley presents a condensed overview of the evidence for the White Helmets being a creation of Western governments embedded with terrorist factions inside Syria. Show this to anyone who still can’t believe our leaders would be cynical and psychopathic enough to nominate mercenaries, fakers and mass-murderers for a Nobel prize, or that our media would be craven enough to let this grotesque lie go unquestioned
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19 February 2020 — Moon of Alabama
Russia has called Turkey’s bluff of a wide ranging attack on Syrian government forces. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will now have to find a way out of the Idleb trap he set himself in. His excellent Syria adventure is coming to an end.
11 February 2020 — Grayzone
4 February 2020 — RT
The New Dark Age 