https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douma_chemical_attack
https://www.rt.com/news/424280-russia-evidence-chemical-attack-staged/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/roger-waters-claims-syrias-white-helmets-a-fake-organization/
This "White Helmets are jihadist/imperialist propagandists" part seems to get accepted because it's attached to something people are in favor of (anti-war, anti-Tory, or anti-Israel), but multiple investigations conclude that this is largely the result of a Russian propaganda campaign. even the left-leaning Guardian newspaper:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories
Germany's Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/syrien-russlands-feldzug-gegen-die-wahrheit-a-1184533.html
[German, Google translation]
Source: https://twitter.com/katestarbird/status/910988793125023745?
21stcenturywire is not a credible source. For example it suggests that no plane hit the Pentagon, Sandy Hook was a scripted event, and it even supports the chemtrails theory. And yet its editor, Beeley is one of the main sources of the claims against the White Helmets. To the extent that a "report" by her (largely citing herself) was submitted to the United Nations by the Russian ambassador.
The stakes here are vastly higher than the usual raft of conspiracy theories about historical events. This is an ongoing conflict, a proxy war with the potential of significant escalation. While there may well have been a overly hasty push for a military response from the west, Russia is clearly operating a sophisticated propaganda campaign.
A good question here is why Syria (and by extension Russia) would carry out a chemical attack when there was no military advantage from doing so, and there would likely be repercussions. But if they planned all along to blame it on the west and the White Helmets as part of some global anti-Russian conspiracy, then the best time to do it for propaganda purposes would be when it was the least advantageous for military purposes.
Resources:
When Alex Jones talks about a "false flag" attack it's usually something ridiculous, like the idea that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged, or the Boston Marathon Bombings were fake — things claimed only by extreme conspiracy theorists. But the latest theory he's pushing is no wild concoction of idle minds, but is instead straight from the highest levels of the Russian Government.External Quote:
On 7 April 2018, a chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma reportedly killed at least 70 people.[5] On-site medics stated that exposure to chlorine gas and sarin nerve agent killed the victims.[6] The attack was attributed to the Syrian Army. The Syrian Government and its allies, Iran and Russia, said that the chemical attack either had never taken place or was a "false flag" attack by Syrian rebels.
https://www.rt.com/news/424280-russia-evidence-chemical-attack-staged/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...claims-it-was-behind-staged-syrian-gas-attackExternal Quote:
Moscow has "irrefutable proof" that the alleged chemical incident in Syria's Douma was a "false-flag attack," orchestrated by UK security services with support from the United States, the Russian envoy to the OPCW said.
"We have not just a 'high level of confidence,' as our Western partners uniformly put it; we have irrefutable proof that there was no chemical attack in Douma on April 7," Russia's Ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons Aleksandr Shulgin said at a special meeting of the UN chemical watchdog's executive council. The diplomat added that the incident had been a "pre-planned false-flag attack by the British security services, which could have also been aided by their allies in Washington."
Russian appears to have some foreknowledge that something like this was going to happen:External Quote:
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he had obtained documentary evidence showing that "special services of a country, which is now seeking to be in the first ranks of the Russophobic campaign, were involved in this staged event". The UK Foreign Office said the claims were preposterous.
Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to London, told reporters the UK-funded Syrian civil defence forces, the White Helmets, were responsible for staging fake chemical attacks by the Syrian army in an attempt to mislead the world. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian defence ministry spokesman, went further saying: "We have … evidence that proves Britain was directly involved in organising this provocation."
He said Russia had proof that London put pressure on the White Helmets to stage the attack. The White Helmets is a humanitarian organisation made up of 3,400 volunteers who rescue civilians from the rubble after airstrikes.
The idea that the White Helmets (a volunteer organization that carries out urban search and rescue after bombings, as well as other civil defense work) is somehow fake (or terrorist) has achieved some traction. A few days ago former Pink Floyd frontman Rodger Waters joined in, telling the crowd at a concert in BarcelonaExternal Quote:
On 13 March 2018, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said that the Russian military had "reliable intelligence" that suggested the rebels holding Eastern Ghouta, along with the White Helmets activists, were preparing to stage and film a chemical weapons attack against civilians, which the U.S. government would blame on the Syrian forces and use as a pretext to bomb the government quarter in Damascus.[17][18][19] In the event that the lives of Russian servicemen should be threatened by U.S. strikes, Gerasimov said Russia would respond militarily — "against both the missiles and the platforms from which they're launched".[20][21] Gerasimov′s statement was interpreted by Nic Robertson of CNN as an indication that the chemical attack in Douma had been planned by Russia in advance as an asymmetric warfare tactic in response to reactions by the West after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.[22]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/roger-waters-claims-syrias-white-helmets-a-fake-organization/
The latter part of his message resonates with a lot of people — not particularly be cause they trust Russia (or know anything about the White Helmets), but because they are opposed to a rush towards military action, and possibly war. I've seen similar things being shared by my UK friends and relatives.External Quote:I believe ... the White Helmets — are a fake organization that exists only to create propaganda for the jihadists and terrorists.
...
What we should do is go and persuade our governments not to go and drop bombs on people. And certainly not until we have done all the research that is necessary so that we would have a clear idea of what is really going on. Because we live in the world where propaganda seems to be more important than the reality of what is really going on."
This "White Helmets are jihadist/imperialist propagandists" part seems to get accepted because it's attached to something people are in favor of (anti-war, anti-Tory, or anti-Israel), but multiple investigations conclude that this is largely the result of a Russian propaganda campaign. even the left-leaning Guardian newspaper:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories
External Quote:
The Syrian volunteer rescue workers known as the White Helmets have become the target of an extraordinary disinformation campaign that positions them as an al-Qaida-linked terrorist organisation.
The Guardian has uncovered how this counter-narrative is propagated online by a network of anti-imperialist activists, conspiracy theorists and trolls with the support of the Russian government (which provides military support to the Syrian regime).
The Guardian spoke to several researchers studying the spread of disinformation and propaganda online who have found evidence of a targeted Russian influence campaign against the White Helmets.
Fil Menczer, a computer science professor at Indiana University, has developed a tool called Hoaxy to chart the spread of misinformation online. Searching for "White Helmets" reveals a handful of sources generated hundreds of stories about the organisation. "It's like a factory," he said.
The same handful of people are quoted as "experts" in articles that are repackaged and interlinked to create a body of content whose conspiracy claims gain a semblance of legitimacy.
The analytics firm Graphika has spent years analysing a range of Russian disinformation campaigns including those around the Macron leaks and the Russian doping scandal. In research commissioned by the human rights group the Syria Campaign, it found that the patterns in the online network of the 14,000 Twitter users talking about the White Helmets looked "very similar" and included many known pro-Kremlin troll accounts, some of which were closed down as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the US election. Other accounts appeared to generate more than 150 tweets per day (more than 70 is seen by scholars studying bots as suspicious).
...
Separately, both Graphika and Menczer's Hoaxy tool identify Beeley, the British blogger, as among the most influential disseminators of content about the White Helmets.
Germany's Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/syrien-russlands-feldzug-gegen-die-wahrheit-a-1184533.html
[German, Google translation]
Who is Vanessa Beeley? This brings us back toward Alex Jones, according to the Guardian:External Quote:Russia slanders civilian aid workers in Syria and casts doubt on Assad's poison gas attacks. A study now shows how systematically the Kremlin is proceeding in its disinformation campaign.
...
Blogger Vanessa Beeley, at the heart of this Russian-backed disinformation campaign, has stated repeatedly in public that these humanitarians can be legally killed. "White Helmets are not getting it. We know they are terrorists. Makes them a legit target," she said on Twitter.
21stcenturywire is a pro-Russian conspiracy theory site, and appears as a key node in this analysis linking it to Russian propaganda outlets RT.com and sputniknews.comExternal Quote:Beeley frequently criticises the White Helmets in her role as editor of the website 21st Century Wire, set up by Patrick Henningsen, who is also a former editor at Infowars.com.
Source: https://twitter.com/katestarbird/status/910988793125023745?
21stcenturywire is not a credible source. For example it suggests that no plane hit the Pentagon, Sandy Hook was a scripted event, and it even supports the chemtrails theory. And yet its editor, Beeley is one of the main sources of the claims against the White Helmets. To the extent that a "report" by her (largely citing herself) was submitted to the United Nations by the Russian ambassador.
The stakes here are vastly higher than the usual raft of conspiracy theories about historical events. This is an ongoing conflict, a proxy war with the potential of significant escalation. While there may well have been a overly hasty push for a military response from the west, Russia is clearly operating a sophisticated propaganda campaign.
A good question here is why Syria (and by extension Russia) would carry out a chemical attack when there was no military advantage from doing so, and there would likely be repercussions. But if they planned all along to blame it on the west and the White Helmets as part of some global anti-Russian conspiracy, then the best time to do it for propaganda purposes would be when it was the least advantageous for military purposes.
Resources:
- Detailed look at the various reports and history from the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43697084
- French Government assessment: https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/...nal_assessment-_english-version_cle0c76b5.pdf
- Der Spiegel's investigation into the Russian disinformation campaign against the White Helmets: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/syrien-russlands-feldzug-gegen-die-wahrheit-a-1184533.html . (German)
- "Killing The Truth" by The Syria Campaign -detailed analysis of the Twitter campaigns and other. . https://diary.thesyriacampaign.org/killing-the-truth/