A few days before the United States, Britain, and France wasted several hundred millions of dollars attacking Syria, a The Guardian report from Thomson Award-winning journalist, Martin Chulov assured us the now notorious White Helmets Organization (WHO) were planning to smuggle dead bodies out of Douma, Syria. wreaking with a mystery nerve agent. Unfortunately for Chulov and others who create the anti-Russia narrative, the victims in Douma did not die from a gas attack.
Last week, when the U.S.S. Truman (CVN-75) battle group set sail from Norfork, Virginia, there was a race on to try and cover the ass of the President of the United States. Donald Trump’s boisterous “nice, new, and smart” missile Tweet in the direction of Vladimir Putin stunned the world into a new realization. The Americans who supported the billionaire property developing celebrity are not getting what they voted for. As we all know now, the U.S., France, and the UK fired missiles at mundane targets from various ships and aircraft in order to help Trump keep his word. The essence of the whole sorted affair is that peace on Earth and making American great again (MAGA) are mutually exclusive terms for Trump and his handlers. In case you are unaware, at the moment Trump promised almost certain war against the world’s second nuclear superpower, he did not have in place the capability to back up his threat toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Russia. So, in their infinite military wisdom, the Pentagon came up with a “Plan B” – to fire over 100 missiles at research facilities the U.S. and partners could later claim were chemical weapons fascilities. Never mind the reality of blasting VX and Sarin gas (or worse) stockpiles to bits just outside the oldest city in the world – the Trump world order knows the people are too busy or too stupid to “get it”. But my purpose here is not to analyze American policy, it’s investigate how trusted journalists end up trying to convince us of administration lies, and the role various stakeholders play in creating strategy support groups like the White Helmets.
The Guardian article by Martin Chulov entitled; “Syria attack: nerve agent experts race to smuggle bodies out of Douma,” is a masterful bit of misinformation that suggested U.S. experts are desperate to analyze bodies for clues of what agent was used in the alleged chemical weapons attack. Without an ounce of objectivity, Chulov inserts an order of magnitude into the narrative. Portraying the “day after” the Douma provocation, the writer leads readers with:
By the following day, an estimated 500 people had gone to Syrian health facilities with “signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals,” according to reports passed to the World Health Organisation from its partners in the country.”
But most readers at The Guardian do not know that these “partners” in Syria are the now notorious White Helmets, a group experts like Vanessa Beeley have shown to be colluding with anti-Assad jihadists. If memory serves me, an RT interview with the father of the Syrian child made the “symbol of suffering Aleppo,” revealed one striking bit of evidence the White Helmets volunteers are actors on the world stage. In that story, members of the Oscar Winning rescue group appeared to manipulated the injured boy into being photographed instead of offering him immediate help. The boy’s father also claimed the group threatened him to conceal their “fake news” efforts.
While my purpose here is not to rewrite the history of the White Helmets organization, proving the massive disinformation campaign carried out predominantly by British, America, and German media requires studying their backers and methods. Since these “good samaritans” are backed by governments opposed to both Russia and the Assad government of Syria, no one can deny the motive for the oh so apparent bias. Let’s forget for the moment that Martin Chulov has had close ties to so-called “moderate jihadists” fighting Assad and Russia, and turn for the moment to the White Helmets’ support base. Besides having won an Oscar for making documentaries, the White Helmets receive (or have received) the financial backing of:
- The United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Chemonics, a U.S. based private international development company
- USAID, the U.S. State Department entity allegedly run by the CIA
- The Canadian government
- The Danish government
- The German government
- The Japanese government
- The New Zealand government
It is important to point out here, that Chemonics International has received a boatload of criticism of contracts issued to the development company by agencies of the US government. This company is the poster child for no-bid contracts and U.S. government inefficiency, case in point the 2010 Haiti Earthquake aid fiasco, and more recently the $9.5 billion health supply chain project implemented by Chemonics, which is the largest USAID project ever launched. I needn’t point out the other revenue sources’ vested interests in Syria. Once again, the “rabbit hole” of western influence and strategy in world crises widens each time we look at the truth of geo-policy today. Before Donald Trump’s aircraft carriers are in a position to start WW III, I’d better return to Martin Chulov.
The Guardian newspaper has many times been the focus of Beeley and other independent researchers moderating the Syria affair. This story by Beeley from on 21st Century Wire tells of Chulov’s “interesting” connections with Syrian rebels and ISIS, revolving around his travel to and from rebel-held areas, and the subsequent unnatural access the journalist received. Without diving into Chulov’s curious operations, Beeley’s story blows The Guardian author’s whitewashing of jihadists activities in Aleppo, Syria to bits. At a point in her piece, she refutes Chulov’s observations by citing Dr.Tony Sayegh, a surgeon registered with the Aleppo Medical Association who “stayed in West Aleppo to help civilians during the five-year occupation of East Aleppo by Nusra Front and allied extremist factions.” While Chulov and anti-Assad players contend Aleppo’s people rose up to rebel against the Assad regime, the truth of the legitimate Syrian leadership is altogether different:
The people of Aleppo lived a normal life like in any city. It was a quiet town. Aleppo is Syria’s economic and industrial capital. During the first year of the Syrian crisis, many people moved here from other cities because in Aleppo it was quiet and the economic situation was good.
At this point, we must remember that Assad’s SAA [Syrian Arab Army], with allies Russia and Iran, has been fighting a war not against anti-government rebels or moderates, but with a coalition of forces funded and armed by anti-Assad stakeholders. The civil war in Syria is funded by the US, Turkey, KSA, Jordan, NATO, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, that backed mercenaries that include Al Qaeda and ISIL. While this fact was originally either denied or obscured by these governments, there is no longer anyone denying that it was “the west” that backed this proxy war. None of this is revealed in his latest story on Syria, but Martin Chulov’s journalistic sins go even deeper. In 2012 the Syria expert wrote; “Syria rebels claim upper hand as battle for Aleppo grinds towards stalemate,” which portrayed U.S. proxy warriors as courageous, sweet and cuddly animal lovers:
As they do they need to avoid trampling on the only other thing that seems to be living at ground zero of the battle for Syria – kittens. Rebels have taken in many of them, and it’s not uncommon to find a gnarled, sweaty guerrilla sleeping on the floor of a commandeered flat with an abandoned kitten asleep on his chest.
Chulov’s The Guardian stories, this Times of Israel piece telling of the World Health Organization demanding “immediate” access to the victims of an alleged chemical attack in Syria, and every other western media coverage relies on input from the White Helmets. Associated Press (AP) photos of dead and hospitalized child victims credited to the White Helmets are used alongside sketchily documented statements, to convey unified narrative.
Finally, Churlov’s association with the Thomson Foundation and his efforts for the London media development charity bear special significance. Looking beyond Lord Chandos and the founder of Thomson Reuters, Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet for the moment, Churlov’s association with the Kuwaitis bears understanding. The investigative reporter is part of Kuwait’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mubarak Al Hamad Al Sabah Award for Journalism Excellence initiatives. Since Kuwait is one of the key contributors to the Syria debacle and the Yemen one, I thought to connect The Guardian’s Middle East guru would be a nice wrap up of this report. While this statement to the UN General Assembly (PDF) in September 2017 by his excellency does not specifically brand Kuwait an ISIS benefactor, the good sheik does admit to giving $1.7 billion to unnamed “agencies” in Syria. In this same statement, the Kuwaiti PM addresses Yemen humanitarian donations as well. But all the while Mr. Churlov’s proprietors in Kuwait have been funding and fighting with Saudi Arabia to destroy Yemen. Kuwait jets fly sorties over Yemen’s starving and dying citizens. And for those unsure of the Kuwait position in Syria and in Yemen, when lawyer Khaled al-Shatti was jailed for daring to criticize Saudi Arabia over Yemen, few people in the know failed to understand.
Our The Guardian poster boy is batting for the wrong team. This is the reality for anyone seeking peace and normalization in today’s world. Donald Trump waving a threatening fist at Putin and Russia can only be seen as appropriate by members of the “team” hell-bent on western hegemony and regime change. Looking at Kuwait as a kind of litmus test, the discord by Shiite’s over Kuwait’s foreign policy and involvement in “Operation Decisive Storm,” tells us this is a west-east crisis. All across the region dissent is being criminalized, and as a studied expert and correspondent, Churlov knows this. The Guardian is, by association at least, supporting the leading funders of rebels inside Syria. When this article appeared in the Washington Post in 2014, Kuwait’s support for extremists inside Syria exceeded Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, according to Obama White House officials. Like I said, these people we spotlight bat for the team subverting peace in the world. And Churlov is tasked with training the next generation of Kuwait journalists too.
I wonder what stance they will take and what side they’ll sit on? Now, is everyone clear on how World War III is already being fought?
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
