US ‘freezes funding’ for White Helmets as group’s Douma chem attack claim falls apart

4 April, 2018

As the reputation of the controversial militant-linked White Helmets continues to crumble, even the US State Department seems to be having second thoughts about supporting the group, reportedly placing a freeze on its funding.

The State Department’s support for the White Helmets is “under active review,”according to a CBS News report. The group reportedly hasn’t received funding in weeks, but neither has it received formal confirmation that Washington’s financial assistance has come to a complete halt. This would mean a significant blow for the group, as the money accounts for about one-third of the White Helmets’ overall funding.

An internal State Department document cited by CBS said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from President Donald Trump’s administration by April 15 in order to approve funding for the White Helmets. If that wasn't received, the department would initiate “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis.”

Online reaction to the report has been mixed, with some continuing to hail the work of the White Helmets. Among them was Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the UN.

Samantha Power

✔@SamanthaJPower

This is beyond belief and must be fixed immediately. The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) are volunteers who have heroically and selflessly saved tens of thousands of lives https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-freezes-funding-for-syrias-white-helmets/ …

The former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, also took to Twitter to say that he has donated to the White Helmets in the past and "will do so again."

1:31 PM - May 4, 2018

Michael McFaul

✔@McFaul

I have donated to White Helmets in the past and will do so again. https://twitter.com/gr8tale/status/992239674809700352 …

6:12 PM - May 4, 2018

Meanwhile, Middle East political writer and commentator Marwa Osman took an entirely different approach towards the group which many hail as heroes. She referred to the White Helmets as "Al-Qaeda terrorists."

Marwa Osman@Osman_Marwa1

And suddenly the #WhiteHelmets are no longer a necessity?A NEED for the "Syrian People" who are gased by "Assad the animal"?

Of course the funding will stop because #Whitehelmets are #AlQaeda terrorists & they all were sent on green buses to #Idlib or #Jarablus https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/992274296377507841 …

5:41 PM - May 4, 2018

The report comes amid major controversy surrounding the White Helmets, after residents of Douma, Syria, testified in The Hague at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The hearing centered on the alleged chemical attack that was used as a justification for the April 14 strikes by the US, Britain, and France.

In a press conference following the hearing, hospital staff and 11-year-old Hassan Diab – who is seen in troubling White Helmets footage following the alleged attack – said there was no sign of a chemical incident at the time and that the White Helmets’ video with children was apparently staged.

The footage, which showed Diab and other children being hosed down with water, was the only publicly available “evidence” that the attack ever took place. Still, Trump and his British and French counterparts deemed it sufficient proof to launch over 100 missiles on Syria on April 14, accusing the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad of being behind the alleged attack. The three allies were so keen to bomb Syria that they refused to wait for the results of an OPCW investigation before doing so.

If the report from CBS News is true, it could represent a significant U-turn for Washington. Just last month, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert called the group “an incredible group of individuals.” At that time, she also stated that as far as she was aware, the White Helmets were still being paid by Washington, despite a $200-million freeze in US funding for recovery efforts in Syria in late March.

Although the White Helmets says it acts solely as a makeshift emergency response team in a time of crisis, claiming to have heroically saved more than 70,000 lives in war-torn Syria, others disagree with its motives. Footage from Syria repeatedly showed members of the White Helmets assisting jihadist groups, while multiple accounts from civilians suggested they only helped “their own” and used civilians caught in the battle only for publicity. Russia has stated that the Douma “chemical attack” was staged by the White Helmets, with the UK pressuring the group to “speed up the provocation.”

The group has enjoyed celebrity status in the West, with a documentary praising it even winning an Oscar. However, some artists have refused to give in to peer pressure and publicly spoke out against endorsing the shady group. Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters recently lambasted White Helmets at a concert in Barcelona, calling the group a “fake organization that exists only to create propaganda for jihadists and terrorists.” His remark came after emails emerged showing that the White Helmets tried to lobby Waters with Saudi money.

White Helmets legitimacy CRUMBLES after Douma false flag, US ‘freezes funding’ for group

Tweets from former US officials reveal what a media blackout is hiding

A major victory for the truth in Syria may be on its way, as the legitimacy of the terrorist-linked “White Helmets” finally begins to crumble, and the US Government is revaluating their support and freezing their funding.

The White Helmets are of course the so-called “Syrian” organization which claims to selflessly rescue civilians trapped under fire without bias, however, they have been revealed to be a soft-power support of terrorist factions. The secret goal of the White Helmets has always been to create a friendly front for terrorists, in order to gain the support of foreign powers, and to stage false flags in order to trigger western action against the Syrian government.

To this end, they were behind the false flag attack in Douma, which was claimed to have been a Syrian chemical attack on civilians, which caused Trump to controversially bomb Syria. President Trump made this ill-advised choice even though the main evidence for the attack was provided by the White Helmets, a group known for staging false attacks. Below is an example of their handy work, in the video, they train children to assist them in staging a fake chemical attack

Now it seems the White Helmets will finally pay the price for their actions, as RT reports their funding has been frozen:

The State Department’s support for the White Helmets is “under active review,” according to a CBS News report. The group reportedly hasn’t received funding in weeks, but neither has it received formal confirmation that Washington’s financial assistance has come to a complete halt. This would mean a significant blow for the group, as the money accounts for about one-third of the White Helmets’ overall funding.

An internal State Department document cited by CBS said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from President Donald Trump’s administration by April 15 in order to approve funding for the White Helmets. If that wasn’t received, the department would initiate “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis.”

It is important that their funding as not been officially cut-off for any reason – terrorist links or otherwise, so we should not be so quick to declare all is well and the truth has finally been admitted by the western entities funding them. At worse case, this may be a temporary cut-off, and funding could resume later, and even optimistically speaking, its highly unlikely the West will ever admit the White Helmets were terrorist affiliated. US Officials would likely have too much pride to admit this, much less to publically declare Douma was a false flag attack, as this could do irreparable damage to narrative credibility, however it does seem that someone deep within the US Government is changing their mind about the White Helmets, even if for the sake of optics.

There has been a media blackout concerning the freezing of funding to the White Helmets, probably because the corporate media rely on their credibility even more than the governments that back them, due to all their White Helmet stories about dying Syrian children get them lots of nice views and add revenue to boot. As a result, there is not much reporting on the freeze of funding, and one could question whether it is even real, or if this story is based on the same ominously “anonymous officials” as the US reports.

But that isn’t where this story ends, it appears confirmation that White Helmet funding is crumbling, comes from unwitting agents of truth, none other than former US officials, venting their frustration at their favorite shady NGO being under fire. A slew of tweets seems to confirm the White Helmets have a lot to be worried about, including those from former UN Ambassador Samantha Power, and former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

Now it seems the White Helmets will finally pay the price for their actions, as RT reports their funding has been frozen:

The State Department’s support for the White Helmets is “under active review,” according to a CBS News report. The group reportedly hasn’t received funding in weeks, but neither has it received formal confirmation that Washington’s financial assistance has come to a complete halt. This would mean a significant blow for the group, as the money accounts for about one-third of the White Helmets’ overall funding.

An internal State Department document cited by CBS said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from President Donald Trump’s administration by April 15 in order to approve funding for the White Helmets. If that wasn’t received, the department would initiate “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis.”

Seemorerocks

Saturday, 5 May 2018