/ world today news/ A documentary praising the <a href="https://www.world-today-news.com/dead-in-car-bomb-attack-in-northern-syria/" title="Dead in car bomb attack in northern Syria“>White Helmets in Syria, a group described by the media as heroes and saviors, won the Oscar for best documentary short. This comes despite claims that the rescue group has links to terrorist organisations.
The White Helmets is a 40-minute documentary that brought director Orlando von Einsiedel his first Oscar. The film is about the “dangerous work of volunteers who overcome their fear of falling bombs to save civilians from the carnage of Syria’s civil war,” according to the description on its Netflix page. A synopsis posted on the Academy Awards website reveals that the film recreates the “chaos of war-torn Syria” where “unarmed and neutral civilian volunteers known as the White Helmets search the “bombing rubble to rescue survivors”.
Late last month, Patrick Henningsen, a geopolitical analyst at 21st Century Wire.com, explained in an interview with RT how the footage was acquired. “The film itself is not indeed documentary”he said. “All footage used in it is provided to the producers from the White Helmets themselves. The production team at Netflix productions they did not film any of the so-called rescue scenes”.
“This film is basically a publicity stunt for a secret operation costing 100-150 million dollars. This is an NGO that serves as a front and is funded by USAID, the UK Foreign Office, various EU member states, Qatar, and many other countries and public figures tricked into donating money to this a rescue group that is anything but what it claims to be. In essence, it supports “Al-Nusra” and “Harakat Nur ad-Din al-Zenki” and other known terrorist groups on the territory of Syria. This is a fact that has been proven by the testimony of a number of eyewitnesses”.
The White Helmets, also known as The Syrian one civil protection, are “the largest civil organization working in areas, which are beyond the control of the government”says the band’s website. According to the group’s leader, Raed Saleh, these “unarmed and neutral volunteers have saved more than 78,529 people from attacks in Syria.” Amnesty International also praised the unit, describing it as “a group of neutral, unarmed volunteers”. Although the rescue squad enjoys the approval of the media, not everyone views the actions of the White Helmets through rose-colored glasses.
The White Helmets are funded by the West
In December, Eva Bartlett, a Canadian journalist and human rights activist who has visited Syria several times since the conflict began, said members of the group “claim to rescue civilians in eastern Aleppo and Idlib, but no one in eastern Aleppo has heard of them”. During his highly emotional speech at the United Nations, Bartlett noted that “there is footage of children in their videos that is used repeatedly in various reports; so for example a girl named Aya who appears in a report in say August reappears in two other places in the next month’s report”. The White Helmets operate in the territories controlled by the rebels and Islamists and appear to enjoy the support of various Western governments.
“These White Helmets are extremely brave. I am proud to say that we are giving them around £32 million in funding as part of a £65 million humanitarian aid package,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said last year. The rescue group, which was nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, has repeatedly said it is not beholden to its anti-Assad sponsors, saying they are untainted by Western money.
„They claim they do not receive funding from any government that has a direct interest in the Syria conflict.”Vanessa Beeley, an independent investigative journalist, told RT in October. “And yet, they are actually financed with hundreds of millions of dollars – 23 million dollars are allocated by the USA through USAID; from Great Britain – about 65 million dollars, France supplies them with equipment”, she added. Beeley believes that “there is an overwhelming amount of video and photographic evidence from Syria that proves that their group supports terrorists.”
“Let’s look at their claims of being neutral. It turns out that they operate entirely in the areas that are under the control of terrorists, whether it is Al Nusra, the Islamic State, or any similar terrorist group that is under the command of Al Nusra”. The white helmets are exactly in these places”. Billy says that the band members “provide medical aid to the terrorists, they smuggle equipment from Turkey into the terrorist controlled areas (…) They were filmed participating and assisting in the execution of a civilian in Aleppo. On their social media pages, they post videos celebrating the execution of civilian Arab soldiers”. The investigative journalist adds that “it is clear from the testimony of the authentic Syrian Civil Defense that the group participated V the capture of her units, in the theft of equipment, and quite possibly in the murders and kidnappings of the real teams of The Syrian Civil Defense”.
„They are thieves” – they say local residents for the White Helmets
Residents of Aleppo say that the rescue actions of the group are only being carried out so that dramatic clips can be filmed. RT war correspondent Lizzy Phelan, reporting from Aleppo, spoke to some survivors who accused the group of “pretending for the camera that they are thieves and robbers”.
„When they came to help the wounded, they robbed them”an elderly man tells RT. “If people wear jewelry, they rip it off. They are all thieves.” Another man accuses the White Helmets of deliberately killing his young daughter. “I took her to the Civil Defense hospital, and they gave her a full injection with air to kill her”says the distraught young father.
One of the scandals surrounding the work of the White Helmets in Syria is their video “Mannequin Challenge“. Rescuers staged a mock rescue operation in which they pulled a man from the rubble, raising questions about the authenticity of other videos the group often posts.
Late last month, two members of the White Helmets were barred from attending the Academy Awards, the documentary’s producer said. White Helmet leader Raed Saleh and cameraman Khaled Khatib, both Syrian nationals, were invited to the 2017 Academy Awards by Joanna Natassegara, the film’s producer. She expressed her outrage in a statement: “They were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.” “These people are the bravest humanitarians on the planet, and that they couldn’t come with us and enjoy this success is disgusting.” This is not the first time Saleh has been banned from America. In April 2016, he was forced to return to Istanbul after learning that his visa had been canceled by the US. This deprives him of the opportunity to receive the award in Washington at a gala dinner organized by the sponsor of the White Helmets – USAID.
Source: Russia Today
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