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DISINFO: "White Helmets" founder deceived the West

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

Tags:

West White Helmets Chemical weapons/attack Conspiracy theory Terrorism Syrian War

DISINFO: "White Helmets" founder deceived the West

SUMMARY

Britain’s James Le Mesurier, founder and director of the White Helmets, only cared about luxury life. That is why he deceived the governments of the United States, Britain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands by fabricating thunderous incidents to obtain financial grants from them. The fraudster committed suicide after the scandal was exposed… It was revealed repeatedly that it (the “White Helmets”) had spread false information and fabricated videos, which gave the West the opportunity to accuse the Syrian authorities of using chemical weapons.

RESPONSE

An example of the ongoing disinformation campaign targeting the White Helmets humanitarian organisation. Pro-Kremlin media routinely seek to delegitimise the White Helmets as being the creation of Western intelligence services. No evidence is given to support this unfounded conspiracy theory. The White Helmets movement originated in Syria in 2012. The organisation, which is made up of 3,400 volunteers including teachers, engineers, tailors and firefighters, states that it has no affiliation to any political or military actor and is committed to rendering services to anyone in need. Volunteers save people from the rubble after bombings, despite the danger of dying themselves as a result of repeated airstrikes. White Helmets activists have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria, later confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Thus, OPCW said it found reasonable grounds to believe that chlorine was used as a weapon in the Douma district of Eastern Ghouta, Syria in April 2018. Because of these awareness-raising activities, the White Helmets have become the target of a prolific and aggressive Russian disinformation campaign seeking to delegitimise their humanitarian efforts and paint them as proxies of Western intelligence to undermine the Assad regime. Le Mesurier took on adversaries, dismantling their accusations about funding and the lies the White Helmets supposedly spread about Russian and Syrian government attacks. You can see other examples of disinformation on the White Helmets in our database, such as the group’s fabrication of chemical attacks in Douma and other places in order to justify a Western intervention, their creation was a Western intelligence operation, their disregard for civilians, their links to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups or their involvement in organ trafficking.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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