DISINFO: White Helmets have close links to Al-Qaeda and falsify chemical attacks evidence
SUMMARY
The White Helmets have helped to justify in the media Western interference in the Syrian crisis, but they have also repeatedly contributed to ridicule those media. These media rescuers with close ties to al-Qaeda, have indeed received a financial boost of 4.5 million dollars (4 million euros) from US. The White Helmets were repeatedly caught spreading misinformation. In April 2018, images of an alleged chemical attack on a hospital flood social networks. Washington, London, followed by Paris, lead strikes against three sites of “the clandestine chemical arsenal of the Syrian regime” […]. Three sites that were, in fact, under regular surveillance by the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), which found nothing to complain about. While jihadists are globally defeated in Syria, why are the United States continuing their financial support to the White Helmets?
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation narrative. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (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. The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission also confirmed use of chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017. The "White Helmets" movement originated in Syria in 2012. Volunteers save people from the rubble after bombings, despite the danger of dying themselves as a result of repeated air strikes. Activists have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria, later confirmed by OPCW. Because of this, they have become the target of an extensive Russian disinformation campaign. Disinformation media routinely accuse White Helmets of “working for terrorists” and giving a biased information to Western media. No evidence is given to support those claims. See more disinformation cases on the White Helmets here.