DISINFO: White Helmets carry out criminal activities and are an arm of British and American intelligence
SUMMARY
Russia was able, in cooperation with Syrian journalists, to prove that the allegations regarding the use of chemical weapons [in Douma] are pure slander by the Western-backed White Helmets.
The organisation [White Helmets] is funded by British intelligence services and is performing its functions by disseminating information and allegations against Syria and its army.
The White Helmets are an arm of British and American intelligence, and its founder, British intelligence officer James Le Mesurier, was killed in “mysterious circumstances” near his home in Istanbul last November.
The organization uses “humanitarian mask” as a cover for its criminal activities. It cooperates with the “Jabhat al-Nusra” organisation, which controls most of Idlib governorate.
RESPONSE
An example of many disinformation and propagandist claims about the White Helmets. Pro-Kremlin media routinely accuse the White Helmets of “working for terrorists” and being a creation of the Western intelligence services. No evidence is given to support these claims.
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 air strikes.
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 its activities, the White Helmets have become the target of an extensive Russian disinformation campaign.
Read previous disinformation claims alleging that France, UK, and the US support terrorists in Syria, that evidence confirms chemical attacks in Syria were falsified by the White Helmets, and that the chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by the media of the Western countries.