http://21stcenturywire.com/2018/02/01/white-helmets-channel-4-bbc-guardian-architects-war/
Publicity still from Last Men in Aleppo.
Taken from the Syria Campaign website, just one of their “achievements” in their long-running campaign to “change the story on Syria”
Channel 4 showcased messages from the White Helmets in support of the firefighters at Grenfell Tower tragedy, despite the fact the White Helmets had been filmed climbing over murdered and dismembered corpses of SAA POWs only days before.
Britdoc’s rebranding exercise, renamed as Doc Society.
IMAGE: Joanna Natasegara and Orlando Einseidel of Violet Films and Grain Media – Netflix White Helmets.
Good Pitch has also been instrumental in the promotion of Last Men in Aleppo (LMIA), directed by Firas Fayyad (image, left), an “exiled” Syrian, living in Denmark. Good Pitch has managed the entire incubation and delivery process for this film.
Vanessa Beeley
21st Century Wire
21st Century Wire
“As Fewer Companies Control Our Media, Why Documentaries Matter More Than Ever”. This was the title of a Huffington Post article, written in 2014, by Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmaker, producer and screenwriter. Spurlock informs us, “Films are incredible things. Magical things. Windows into worlds that we may never get to see and connecting with us on such deep emotional levels that we are forever affected by them and their messages. Films cannot only entertain but can shift public perception in ways we never thought possible.”
As if on cue, a vast number of documentaries have flooded the media market. The huge majority have conveyed a very one-sided perspective of the conflict in Syria and have, almost invariably, supported the US Coalition regime change narrative, which has prolonged the destabilization project in the region for the last seven years. Are these documentaries any more accurate than the corporate media they might replace?
For example, on April 5, 2017, National Geographic released a preview of its film, Hell on Earth: The Fall Of Syria And The Rise of ISIS, by filmmaker Sebastian Junger and producing partner Nick Quested. This film was prematurely released to coincide with the alleged and controversial Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapon attacks in Syria, on April 4th. However, as Paul Larudeerevealed, the film preview was a fraudulent misrepresentation of the war in Syria:
“The [opening] scene shows a missile destroying a residential building with a thunderous explosion. Imposed over the footage are the words, ALEPPO, SYRIA…[…] The original source footage comes from 2014, and is from the Israeli operation that took more than 2,200 Palestinian lives that summer”
“Shifting public perception” is, indeed, one of the roles of modern documentary makers, who, in many instances, take their funding from the same Time Warner, AOL and Walt Disney media investment pools in order to produce heart-stopping, emotion-wringing perception-changers for a western public whose opinions on state foreign policy is undoubtedly, hugely influenced by these ostensibly ‘factual’ documentaries.
Publicity still from Last Men in Aleppo.
During the 7 year-long US Coalition-engineered, financed and armed Syria project, very few organisations have been so feted in political, media and Hollywood circles, as the NATO member-state-financed White Helmets.
Last year’s Oscar award for the Netflix documentary on the White Helmets is followed by the 2018 nomination for Last Men in Aleppo, the latest glossy, emotionally-charged promotional movie, featuring members of the alleged “first response” group doing what they do best – clambering over rubble, terrorist cheerleading and gazing skywards at imaginary helicopters.
The function of these movies – is to ensure that the Al Qaeda affiliated White Helmets come up smelling of roses from the rubble of areas of Syria occupied by terrorist and extremist groups lorded over by Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria).
Taken from the Syria Campaign website, just one of their “achievements” in their long-running campaign to “change the story on Syria”
Syria Campaign is effectively the White Helmet PR agency, seed-funded by UK resident and Syrian oil magnate, Ayman Asfari, who, incidentally, has also financed Theresa May’s Conservative government and is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in the UK, having been already sanctioned in Italy for insider trading. He can, most certainly, be described as an interested party in the outcome of the Syrian conflict with openly declared political ambitions once the UK FCO-endorsed “regime change” is secured – plans that have been thwarted by a secular Syrian resistance with the support of their regional and geopolitical allies.
According to one of their many job offers, Syria Campaign have focused their advocacy efforts on the White Helmet organisation (emphasis added):
- Created award-winning films that have been viewed by tens of millions of people and shown in the White House.
- Generated thousands of media stories about Syria around the world.
- Unlocked tens of millions of dollars in aid through targeted advocacy.
- Placed key aspects of the conflict at the top of the political agenda.
- Raised millions of dollars in direct support for life-saving Syrian heroes.
- Built a community of more than 500,000 people across the world taking action in solidarity with Syria’s heroes.
Who Defends the White Helmets Unconditionally?
1. The Guardian
“The bravery of the White Helmets in Syria is beyond dispute” ~ Charlie Phillips, Guardian Documentary Maker
Olivia Solon, a San Francisco-based Guardian previously unknown junior was recently commissioned to pen a hit piece on all those who have been to Syria to expose the role of the White Helmets as an Al Qaeda embed in the terrorist occupied zones that are shrinking across Syria as the Syrian Arab Army and its allies advances towards a full and final military victory over the UK/US/Gulf State/Turkish/Israeli/EU costly and failed, neocolonialist project.
Solon’s blatant lack of expertise and reliance upon statements from those who are a part of the White Helmet apparatus, demonstrated the degree to which the Guardian would live up to its name as the Cerberus for the UK FCO’s underworld policy in the Middle East.
So now he admits to being part of the state propaganda operatus?..his stinging attack against @VanessaBeeley @EvaKBartlett on Syria was simply mind-blowing...
Whenever the Guardian should come under attack from a public incensed by their flagrant aggrandizement of the White Helmets, comments are deleted or simply disallowed. The White Helmets have become the “untouchables” – the corporate media act as gatekeepers, defending this construct from criticism. The Guardian is a leading promoter of the neocon “humanitarian war” concept and what better organisation to head up that concept than a US/UK-state controlled “humanitarian” NGO?
2. The BBC
The BBC has been another stalwart of White Helmet protectionism, rarely, if ever, deviating from the scripted responses when pushed to explain their partisan stance. The BBC has never examined the other, less palatable side of the White Helmet coin, nor paid heed to the accusations levied at the White Helmet organisation by the Syrian people liberated from Nusra Front/WhiteHelmet occupation in East Aleppo.
Perhaps when East Ghouta is finally liberated and the White Helmets leave on the green buses, sat next to the terrorist factions who are occupying the eastern suburbs of Damascus, there will be another chink opened-up in the White Helmet carapace – but will the BBC report it?
Recently BBC Panorama ran a “groundbreaking” report on the UK FCO financing of the ‘Free Sryian Police’. They lied by omission. They failed to explain that the Free Syrian Police have their headquarters next door to the White Helmets wherever they operate, and that those centres are invariably neighbouring or sharing Nusra Front buildings and military centres. 21st Century Wireaccurately predicted what the BBC would omit from their report and the White Helmets was top of the list of unmentionables.
21st Century Wire Article: White Helmets & ‘Local Councils’ – Is the UK FCO Financing Terrorism in Syria with Taxpayer Funds?
3. Channel 4 (UK)
Channel 4 showcased messages from the White Helmets in support of the firefighters at Grenfell Tower tragedy, despite the fact the White Helmets had been filmed climbing over murdered and dismembered corpses of SAA POWs only days before.
Now we come to the flagship promoter of the White Helmets and their narratives from within the terrorist occupied enclaves dotted across Syria, particularly in East Aleppo. Channel 4 has specialised in cheerleading for this simulated humanitarian NGO, even showcasing them alongside terrorists described as “rebels” in their infamous “Aleppo, Up Close with the Rebels”report – which was removed from their website after members of the public had pointed out they were filming the terrorist group Nour Al Din Zenki, beheaders of 12 year old Abdullah Issa, and also whitewashing the group’s vicious suicide bomb attacks on civilian areas of West Aleppo.
I recorded Channel 4’s terrorist apologism for posterity, at 21st Century Wire: Channel 4 Joins CNN in Normalising Terrorism, Then Removes Their Own Video
Prior to The Guardian/Solon broadside against journalists and analysts who have exposed the darker side of the White Helmets, Channel 4 had already trained its “fact check” guns on independent journalist Eva Bartlett in an attempt to shut down criticism of the seemingly untouchable White Helmets. It failed when Bartlett recently responded to their aimless shot in the dark with a resounding volley of fact and blistering on-the-ground analysis.
“Had the Guardian had honest intentions regarding the White Helmets article, they might have actually investigated the many members of the White Helmets with ties to al-Qaeda and affiliated extremists. Here is but one example showing the allegiance of over 60 White Helmets members to al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.”
I think “honest intentions” are off limits for all these colonial media outlets whose ‘intentions’ are to present the corrupt, the criminal, the Nusra Front ‘civil defence’ as exalted “heroes” and “saviours of all humanity” while the evidence to the contrary gathers dust on the cutting room floor.
During the SAA liberation of East Aleppo from terrorist occupation, we saw Channel 4 grinding away at the White Helmet produced grist. Jon Snow never deviated from the narratives they produced even when a simple Google Map analysis would have exposed the White Helmet account of events in Jib Al Qubbeh for the criminal cover-up it really was.
Read Vanessa Beeley’s on-the-ground report: WHITE HELMETS: The Jib-Al-Qubeh War Crime in Aleppo, Denied by Channel 4
We can add CNN, Huffington Post and many more to the mix but I have identified the three most prominent White Helmet champions, influencing public opinion in the UK and further afield. Here is Becky Anderson of CNN interviewing Last Men in Aleppo director, Firas Fayyad in Davos, after the film’s public screening.
Anderson never questions the absence of Nusra Front from the Last Men in Aleppo storyline despite their occupation of East Aleppo during the time that Fayyad was allegedly filming in the eastern districts as the SAA advances forced the Nusra Front-dominated terrorist forces to retreat and relinquish their grip on the civilian areas. This hideously one-sided documentary is accepted as an irrefutable portrayal of life in East Aleppo by corporate media “journalists” who do not deviate from a Hollywood approved neocolonialist script.
A fine example of a scripted reposte to any questioning regarding the sinister activities of the White Helmet was provided by Andrew Mitchell, former secretary of state responsible for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, in response to Afshin Rattansi’s probing questions on the UK FCO’s financing of terrorist groups in Syria under the pretext of providing “non-lethal” aid for the “Syrian opposition”.
Watch this segment of the interview on RT’s Going Underground:
…
So, we have ascertained that globally, the corporate media universally protects the White Helmet organisation from attack and that the primary gatekeepers appear to be The Guardian, BBC, CNN and Channel 4. The scripts they adhere to, emanate from the Syria Campaign PR agency, the White Helmets themselves and the ex-military, British “private security”operative, James Le Mesurier who established the White Helmets in Turkey in March 2013. Nobody deviates from these scripts even when presented with counter-evidence that cannot be refuted. Examples of Le Mesurier script reading can be found here and here at the BBC.
Listen to Martin Quinn of the Tipperaray Peace Prize cling stubbornly to the White Helmet script in the face of unusually challenging questions from RTE’s Audrey Carville, on Morning Ireland. Carville asks how Quinn can verify the White Helmet claims of 100,000 rescues carried out by this group – Quinn basically tells the audience that this information comes from the White Helmets and has therefore not been authenticated, but must be true.
Carville keeps departing from the script, as she brings up the evidence of White Helmet participation in terrorist executions of civilians in Syria – and naturally Quinn brings the discussion back on script by blaming any criticism on “Russian troll/Assad propaganda”, despite the fact that the White Helmets have themselves admitted that their members have carried out these crimes, saying they were “sacked” for participating in the murder of civilians and SAA POWs and the dismemberment of their corpses.
I ask, again, would Red Cross officials be let off murder with a good “sacking” or would they be hauled before a human rights tribunal and their sponsors held accountable? In the case of the White Helmets – the sponsors are the US, UK, EU, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia and other members of the US Coalition waging a hybrid war against Syria, combined with a number of outreach funding agents such as Syria Campaign, the Jo Cox Fund, Independent Diplomat, Mayday Rescue.
It is worth listening to this RTE interview to comprehend the extent to which the White Helmet “script” has been diffused and embedded in the psyche of those who are tasked with defending this organisation – we must also ask if this ‘maintaining of the party line’ is consensual or coerced, or have we really descended into such a moral abyss where murder, torture and child exploitationis nothing more than a “sackable” offence?
Once you identify the scripted responses, it is easy to cross-link them to every single interview or article written about the White Helmets and it should raise the question – is this a genuine narrative or a prefabricated marketing campaign?
But who is behind the actual pre and post-production, marketing and enabling of the White Helmet fleet of promotional projects?
Cue Doc. Society, formerly Britdoc, a UK & New York based “non profit, founded in 2005, committed to enabling great documentary films and connecting them to audiences globally”.
Britdoc’s rebranding exercise, renamed as Doc Society.
Doc Society: The White Helmet Svengali?
Their mission: “We bring people together to unleash the transformational power of documentary film. We stand in solidarity with filmakers and work to unite them with new friends and allies, building new models globally. We aim to innovate, share and innovate again”.
“BRITDOC [Doc Society] are at the forefront of international documentary development. From Ping Pong to Virunga they have pioneered new ways of engaging with audiences” ~ Patrick Holland, BBC
Starting January 2018 Doc Society will administer the BFI Documentary Film Fund. We couldn't be more proud and more ready to get to work for the UK's documentary community. docsociety.org/bfi-doc/
Doc Society’s “five strategic areas” are:
1: Helping good films be great.
2: Engaging new partners.
3: Building new audiences.
4: Doing and measuring.
5: Sharing our learning.
These five objectives are achieved by and through the following elements of the Doc Society apparatus:
1: Our films – “we are feature documentary experts, helping good films be great: 5 Oscar nominations and one win.”
2: Our funds – “Granting £ 500k per year with Bertha Foundation and others: £ 4.96m granted to films since 2005.”
3: Good Pitch – “Where the world’s best social change filmakers meet new allies and partners: $29m raised at 34 Good Pitch events.”
4: Something Real – “Weekly doc recommendations – the best cult and classics online”
5: Doc Academy – “Free classroom resources for teachers”
6: Doc Impact Award – “Celebrating the documentaries making the greatest social impact”
7: Impact field guide – “Comprehensive guide for using film for social change”
I have added emphasis to the three aspects that I will be focusing on in my research into who is driving the White Helmet promotional vehicle to such unprecedented and dizzying heights for a simple “humanitarian” NGO.
‘Good Pitch’
IMAGE: Joanna Natasegara and Orlando Einseidel of Violet Films and Grain Media – Netflix White Helmets.
Joanna Natasegara and Orlando Einseidel of Violet Films and Grain Media, respectively have collaborated on a number of projects, most notably in 2014 on Virunga (based in the Congo) and then in 2016 when they directed and produced the Netflix White Helmet “documentary”. In reality, they sat on the Turkish side of the border with Syria and had the footage supplied to them by the White Helmets with no verification process to ascertain the authenticity or context of the material they converted into the Oscar winning promotional feature film.
Virunga was made two years before the White Helmets and was also heavily promoted by both Doc Society and Good Pitch.
The post production team that worked on the Netflix White Helmets movie was a company called Molinare – “I have the privilege of leading our highly talented and dedicated creative teams, and am constantly amazed by what the team can achieve in post to make a production look and sound its absolute best.” ~ Julie Parmenter, Managing Director. Molinare is also featured on the “Good Pitch” page of Doc Society as is Violet Films.
“We were extremely proud to be included in the prestigious Sundance Institute / Britdoc run ‘Good Pitch‘ event held at the Royal Institution. We were there to pitch to over 400 people about a very exciting project we’re working on.” ~ Grain Media June 2013
It is worth noting that both Grain Media and Violet Films work closely with the BBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Channel 4 on a number of projects.
Threshold Foundation
Doc Society submits films to the Threshold Foundation that they consider worthy of a grant. One such film was the Netflix White Helmets documentary.
In October 2016, I received a confidential email from someone who was concerned about an NGO’s funding going to the White Helmet film – “It has become clear to me that at minimum the White Helmets are for regime change as they themselves call for a no fly zone which is an act of war, at worst a totally fraudulent organization and the centerpiece of a public relations campaign of deception”. Shortly after I received this email, the following statement appeared on the Threshold Foundation website:
The other day, while in the midst of my research into Doc Society, I went back to the Threshold Foundation website and found that the statement had been removed and replaced with a congratulatory statement on the White Helmet Oscar success. The Wayback machine showed me that the statement had been removed during March 2017, so just after the White Helmets had been given the Academy award for whitewashing Al Qaeda in Syria.
The statement is still available on Google Drive.
What coercion was brought to bear upon the Threshold Foundation to maintain their unwavering support for the White Helmet construct? Was the statement published by a rogue element within the organisation who objected to the White Helmets being a “centrepiece” in the “humanitarian war” designed to reduce Syria to another failed state, like Libya? We may never know.
‘Last Men in Aleppo’
Good Pitch has also been instrumental in the promotion of Last Men in Aleppo (LMIA), directed by Firas Fayyad (image, left), an “exiled” Syrian, living in Denmark. Good Pitch has managed the entire incubation and delivery process for this film.
Firas Fayyad and his Last Men in Aleppo were converted from abstract to Oscar nomination in the blink of an eye, thanks to Doc Society.
Good Pitch introduced Fayyad to Danish Larm Films and to French Foreign Office construct, Aleppo Media Centre that has produced much of the Al Qaeda-approved narrative from East Aleppo, including the Omran Daqneesh “humanitarian” coup de grace. Good Pitch then midwived the entire LMIA project from start to finish.
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