Author’s Note: Please access Vanessa Beeley’s article, “SYRIA EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Beeley Meets the White Helmets and Armed Group Leader in Dara’a Al Balad,” for the full story, photos, and videos.
If you have been reading mine or Vanessa Beeley’s articles regarding the nature of the White Helmets, you already know the piles of evidence documenting the fact that the alleged “humanitarian” organization is nothing more than a propaganda wing of al-Nusra Front used to beat Western audiences over the head and pull at their already-manipulated heart strings into supporting American military intervention in Syria.
Vanessa Beeley of 21st Century Wire and The Wall Will Fall has been the spearhead of information regarding the White Helmets since day one and, with her recent article, has once again driven another nail in the fake first responders’ coffin.
During her recent visit to Syria, Beeley was amazingly able to snag an interview with an actual active member of the White Helmets still functioning in Daraa al-Balad. Despite her reputation as a critic of the group, her qualifications as a “British journalist” seemed to reassure the group members that she was a “friendly.” Indeed, such is the nature of Western mainstream journalism that terrorist groups find these outlets to be comrades in arms.
Daraa al-Balad, while technically under the control of the Syrian government, is in the midst of a fragile “cease-fire” type agreement established in July, 2018 and negotiated by the Russian Reconciliation team whereas the Syrian military controls the territory but a variety of “rebel” groups still operate there as well. Conditions of the cease-fire were that the terrorist groups surrender their heavy and medium weapons and that the Syrian army has the right of admission to liberated areas. In addition, extremist groups were to withdraw from areas close to the Jordanian border. Many of these extremist groups accepted the terms of reconciliation but many, such as those in Dara’a al-Balad, chose to continue their “policy of confrontation.”
A separate deal was offered by Russia to Hayat Tahrir al Sham, a rebranded Nusra Front faction, which occupied areas of Dara’a. According to reports, Abu Jaber, the former Emir of HTS, turned down the proposal. Interestingly enough, Jaber was one of the founding commanders of Ahrar al Sham, which itself was responsible for brutal ethnic cleansing campaigns. Despite a horrific attack in al Zara, Homs, where Ahrar al Sham slaughtered a number of Alawite women before standing on their corpses and taking photos, the United States refused to label them a terrorist group.
The question of American “terrorist” labeling is one for another article but, suffice it to say, it was “armed groups” such as these maintaining their positions of “confrontation” under which the “last remaining” White Helmets group in Dara’a al Balad continues to operate and the environment Beeley entered in order to interview not one but two White Helmets operatives.
NOTE: At the end of the article I will include a number of links to previous articles by myself and Beeley regarding the true nature of the organization. Please access Vanessa Beeley’s article, “SYRIA EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Beeley Meets the White Helmets and Armed Group Leader in Dara’a Al Balad,” for the full story, photos, and videos.
Shabab al Sunnah, one of the groups that accepted the Russian/Syrian conditions accompanied Beeley during her entrance to Dara’a al Balad and repeatedly confirmed that the area had been under the control of al Nusra Front.
White Helmet #1 – Abu Mohanad Al Mahamid
The leader of the White Helmet center in Dara’a al Balad was Abu Mohanad al Mahamid. According to Beeley, once he figured out that she was a British journalist, he seemed to want to present an image that would impress her, even to the point of putting on his white helmet and launching into a big defense speech of the White Helmets’ reputation. He admitted to Beeley that the group was funded by the British government but claimed they were not influenced by British policy. He also admitted “that they were pressured to follow British policies.” In addition, he made a distinction between serving “friends and enemies” which demonstrates his lack of unbiased neutrality as was his claim.
“When I say that we are independent it means that we do not follow anyone, when some come to me and say that you should follow British policies I say to them, no. We serve all people, our friends and our enemies,” he said.
During his initial display of neutrality, Al Mahamid was clearly on a drive to persuade me of the White Helmet good reputation. When questioned about the White Helmet involvement in executions carried out by HTS and associated groups in Dara’a, Al Mahamid was quick to echo the White Helmet party line which presents these White Helmets who do collaborate in crimes committed against Syrian civilians and SAA prisoners, as being “bad apples“, who are “sacked” for “misconduct” – rather than criminal thugs who collaborate in torture, execution and the punishment of those who do not comply with their sectarian ideology or who have remained loyal to Syria’s government and army.
“..we have fired members only because they attended some sort of executions because we save lives and we do not help anyone to kill any one because it is against humanity and notice that all White Helmet members are full of humanity and sensitive to the extent if you shout at them they cry. So our work is plain humanitarian work, and when we used to bring soldiers here, we used to respect them and treat them as one of us, because all Syrians are losing.” ~ Al Mahamid (emphasis added)
Al Mahamid was asked about the White Helmet connections to Nusra Front (HTS) bearing in mind the praise heaped upon the White Helmets by Abu Jaber and Muhaysini. Again, Al Mahamid was adamant that their White Helmet center had no such affiliation, despite being next door to the Nusra Front buildings. In his eagerness to present the case for their center he was quick to say that it was very possible that other White Helmet groups in Syria were affiliated to Nusra Front and made up of Nusra Front militants. The question was – “do you think that some White Helmet members or centers acted in a different way from other White Helmet centers, East Aleppo or other cities?”
“Of course, here we do not belong to any one, but someone in the Western area, for example, might be Nusra front. “
Al Mahamid was asked again – “so White Helmet members may also be Nusra Front?”
“Of course! They might be Nusra Front and run a White Helmet center so this means all his colleagues are also Nusra Front, but not in my area.” ~ Al Mahamid (emphasis added)
An interesting point is made here by Al Mahamid. If a White Helmet center is run by a Nusra Front member then all his colleagues will also be Nusra Front. This vindicates claims made by myself and other independent analysts that any area occupied by Nusra Front will be dominated and controlled by Nusra Front. Nusra Front is a brutal, ideologically supremacist organisation, so it would make perfect sense that if a White Helmet group is led by a prominent member of Nusra Front, the members are likely to adhere to the same ideology and to follow the same practices of extreme sectarian hatred and violence.
Case in question is the leadership of the White Helmets in East Aleppo. Abdulaziz Maghrabi was not only an armed member of Nusra Front but had also been an armed member of the Turkish-backed Al-Tawhid brigade which invaded East Aleppo in 2012. Maghrabi also demonstrated allegiance to Abu Amara, the Nusra Front protection corps in East Aleppo. Maghrabi was photographed, on a number of occasions, working with both Nusra Front fighters and Abu Amara groups.
Read 21st Century Wire article, by Vanessa Beeley: White Helmets and Local Councils – is the UK FCO Financing Terrorism in Syria with Taxpayer Funds?
When we asked Al Mahamid about the Israeli evacuation of White Helmets, he became very animated:
“There are some (armed) factions connected with Israel, those factions were gathered by Israel in Quneitra and were told that you will leave with the White Helmets. By the way, the number of White Helmets in the southern area are 635, but those who left were 800. This means that there are (armed) factions who work with Mossad and they were extracted alongside the White Helmets. But for us here, we stood against this and demanded that the record of the White Helmet members to be reviewed because not all who left were White Helmets. Because not all those who left were White Helmets, there were people who left from Quneitra. There were terrorists, some left from the Yarmouk Basin”
“You mean ISIS,” we asked
“Exactly!”
“So ISIS left with other armed factions alongside the White Helmets?”
“What happened is that Israel told the factions it supports to leave with the White Helmets. But here in this center were 38 members but no one left.”
“So, those who left – where were they from?”
“They were from Quneitra and the FSA and armed factions who are supported by Israel. This what we witnessed, I do not deny the fact that around 50 % of those who left to Israel were White Helmets but the rest were factions supported by Israel.
During my time in the south, I had also visited Quneitra and followed in the tracks of the armed groups and White Helmets as they were evacuated from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Syrian territory of the Golan heights and, from there, were transported to Jordan. Of the estimated 800 who escaped Syria by this Israel-facilitated route, allegedly only 442 made it to Jordan for resettlement in the designated countries which included Canada, UK, France and Germany.
I visited one White Helmet center in Jabata Al Khashab, Quneitra which was again contained within a complex controlled by Nusra Front but also incorporating the centers of the FSA and Al-Furqan brigade. I was shown to a small room which was reportedly used as a prison and torture cell by the armed groups. The room was actually part of the White Helmet building, which I was told, was known as Station 103.
Watch Beeley’s short video on the White Helmet Station 103 opposite Nusra Front HQ. WATCH:
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