Syrian 'White Helmets' flee to Jordan with Israeli, Western help

[Swordsmyth]

Hundreds of Syrian “White Helmet” rescue workers and their families fled advancing government forces and slipped over the border into Jordan overnight with the help of Israeli soldiers and Western powers, officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief video statement on Sunday he had helped the evacuation at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders - and there had been fears that the workers’ lives were at risk.

A Jordanian government source said 422 people were brought from Syria, over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights frontier and into Jordan, down from a figure of 800 announced earlier by the foreign ministry in Amman.
The evacuees will be kept in a “closed” location in Jordan and resettled in Britain, Germany and Canada within three months, the source added.
A second non-Jordanian source familiar with the agreement said the original plan had been to evacuate 800 people, but only 422 made it out as operations were hampered by government checkpoints and the expansion of Islamic State in the area.


Netanyahu said Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others had spoken to him recently asking for help in extracting the White Helmets. “The lives of these people, who have saved lives, were now in danger. I therefore authorised their transfer via Israel to other countries as an important humanitarian gesture,” Netanyahu said.
Trump did not mention the operation during a series of tweets on Sunday.
Britain hailed the evacuation, saying it and other allies had requested it.
“Fantastic news that we - UK and friends - have secured evacuation of White Helmets and their families - thank you Israel and Jordan for acting so quickly on our request,” tweeted British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
German weekly magazine Bild, which broke news of the evacuation and published footage of buses used to transport the Syrians across Golan, said 50 of them would be granted asylum by Berlin.
“Humanity dictates that many of these brave first-aiders should now find protection and refuge, some of them in Germany,” it quoted German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas as saying.
A spokeswoman for the German interior ministry said Berlin would take in eight White Helmets plus their families. It was not immediately clear whether that amounted to the same 50 people.
A Canadian Foreign Ministry statement on Saturday said the White Helmets “have witnessed vicious atrocities committed by the Assad regime and its backers”. It added: “We feel a deep moral responsibility to these brave and selfless people.”
Russia’s embassy in the Netherlands welcomed the White Helmets’ departure. “Definitely there will be less chances of new so-called #CW (chemical weapon) attacks in Syria after forced evacuation by the collective West of the notorious #WhiteHelmets,” it tweeted.

More at: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mi...-idUKKBN1KC061

[Zippyjuan]

You have to respect people who are willing to go into bombed and blown up buildings which could be in danger of collapsing so they can try to rescue people buried in the rubble. Like rescue workers in our country on 9/11.

[Swordsmyth]

You have to respect people who are willing to go into bombed and blown up buildings which could be in danger of collapsing so they can try to rescue people buried in the rubble. Like rescue workers in our country on 9/11.

They are proven fakes.

[pcosmar]

You have to respect people who are willing to go into bombed and blown up buildings which could be in danger of collapsing so they can try to rescue people buried in the rubble. Like rescue workers in our country on 9/11.

I do..

White Helmets are not those.
They are "Fake News" creations and actors.

[Zippyjuan]

I do..

White Helmets are not those.
They are "Fake News" creations and actors.

That is what Russia wants you to believe.

[Swordsmyth]

That is what Russia wants you to believe.

That just means that the truth is on Russia's side this time.

[timosman]

That is what Russia wants you to believe.

Didn't they tell you "Russia!" doesn't work? Don't you have anything better or are you guys just a bunch of amateurs? I am afraid funding will be drying up soon.

[Danke]

[Danke]

Egyptian police arrest five people for using children to stage fake 'Aleppo' footage



https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a7486541.html

[Danke]

[Danke]

[Danke]

[timosman]

Egyptian police arrest five people for using children to stage fake 'Aleppo' footage



https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a7486541.html

[Danke]

[Zippyjuan]

Putin's friends piling on. Syria is a very touchy subject. No other topic generates as many rapid responses. But I am very happy to hear that nobody has been injured during the Syrian Civil War. It is all fake.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/24/middl...ria/index.html

Syria's White Helmets apologize for Mannequin Challenge video

It's a familiar scene: Syria Civil Defence, also known as the "White Helmets," rushing to rescue a man covered in rubble, but unlike thousands of other videos from Aleppo, this one is staged.

The short video -- a take on the Mannequin Challenge -- was created by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria (RFS), an opposition media group, to draw attention to the crisis amid a renewed aerial assault on the besieged city.

More than 300 people have been killed in Aleppo's rebel-held eastern districts since the Syrian regime resumed heavy bombardment last Tuesday following a three-week lull.

An RFS spokesperson told CNN the group wanted to use the hashtag to "reach the western audience" and "show them part of the Syrian suffering."
'Error of judgment'

The nearly one-minute long video has been the subject of criticism on social media. On Wednesday Syria Civil Defence released a statement calling it an "error of judgment".

"This video and the related posts were recorded by RFS media with Syria Civil Defence volunteers, who hoped to create a connection between the horror of Syria and the outside world using the viral 'Mannequin challenge.' This was an error of judgment, and we apologize on behalf of the volunteers involved," the statement read.

Syria Civil Defence was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work rescuing thousands of people since the Syrian conflict began over five years ago.

RFS also issued a statement of clarification on Wednesday in relation to the footage, saying that the video was used by the regime to "distort facts and twist perceptions."

[enhanced_deficit]

This is strange reporting:

Israeli News Live
Jordan has accepted 800 White Helmets and their families into their country for helping the terrorist to fight against the Syrian Government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wj6BPlcW8c

You have to respect people who are willing to go into bombed and blown up buildings which could be in danger of collapsing so they can try to rescue people buried in the rubble.

Did White Helmets rescue children in Gaza also after Israel's bombings there in recent years or they are prohibited from rescuing children of Palestinian races under special order of their financiers?

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...n_5598867.html

[timosman]

Putin's friends piling on. Syria is a very touchy subject. No other topic generates as many rapid responses. But I am very happy to hear that nobody has been injured during the Syrian Civil War. It is all fake.

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38066791

The man and the White Helmets appear frozen. The whole scene is in fact posed.

The men are performing their version of the Mannequin Challenge in a video released by activists from the Revolutionary Forces of Syria (RFS) "to raise awareness of the suffering of the Syrian people".

Nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the White Helmets comprise roughly 3,000 volunteer rescue workers in rebel-held areas.

Since 2013, they have searched for survivors in the aftermath of the deadly air strikes raining down on Syria's towns and cities, saving thousands of lives.

They say they are non-partisan and a regular source of video and eyewitness accounts from the thick of the fighting.

But critics, often pro-Assad or pro-Russia accounts on social media, allege links to jihadist groups and have long claimed that the organisation fabricates reports and rescues.

In a statement to the BBC, the White Helmets acknowledged the involvement of two of their volunteers but said the video had not been sanctioned by the group's leadership team.

"The video and the related posts were recorded by RFS media with Syria Civil Defence (White Helmets) volunteers, who hoped to create a connection between the horror of Syria and the outside world, using the viral Mannequin Challenge," the statement read.

"This was an error of judgement, and we apologise on behalf of the volunteers involved.

"The video was not shared on our official channels, and we took immediate action to discipline those involved and prevent incidents such as this from happening again.

"Our volunteers are committed to saving lives by responding to, and reporting, war crimes in Syria.

"This leaves us open to attacks, not just from the bombs but from those who seek to silence us for telling the truth."

[Danke]

https://bsnews.info/white-helmets-de...aganda-videos/

[Danke]

https://maps.southfront.org/there-ar...-douma-attack/

[Danke]

Who's Funding The White Helmets?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-white-helmets

[Zippyjuan]

Calling all cars! Calling all cars! We have a Syria post on the internet. We need a full response team in place immediately!

[Danke]

[Danke]

White Helmets member caught on camera disposing of Syrian soldiers’ mutilated bodies

https://www.rt.com/news/393809-white...ilated-bodies/

[Danke]

[Danke]

Syria - So-called "White Helmets" facilitate.an.al Nusra.execution

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fd8_1430900709

[timosman]

Calling all cars! Calling all cars! We have a Syria post on the internet. We need a full response team in place immediately!

You were supposed to post this on the internal board!

[pcosmar]

That is what Russia wants you to believe.

I'll believe that when I drink Vodka with a Russian that believes that.

[Swordsmyth]

The foreign ministry in Damascus condemned on Monday the evacuation of hundreds of trapped White Helmets rescue workers and their relatives from Syria's south through its arch-foe and neighbour, Israel.More than 400 rescue workers and family members from Syria's southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra were ferried into Israel on Sunday, then taken into Jordan for resettlement into Western countries.
"The criminal operation that Israel and its tools conducted in the area reveals the true nature of the so-called White Helmets," said a source at the foreign ministry, cited by state news agency SANA.
The source repeated the Syrian government's accusation that the rescue force is a front group for "terrorists" and said Damascus had warned the world of its "dangers".
"Words of condemnation are not enough to express the indignation that every Syrian feels towards these despicable conspiracies and the limitless aid from Western countries, Israel, and Jordan to the White Helmets," the source said.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/syria-sla...105822036.html

[Swordsmyth]

Since the overnight Saturday and into early Sunday Israeli military operation which successfully evacuated White Helmets members and their families from southwest Syria at the request of the US and European governments, new details and footage have emerged.
First, what we find most striking and woefully under-reported in international media is that the fact that armed groups immediately set fire to Quneitra crossing on the Syrian side of the border the morning just after the White Helmets passed through it to the Israeli side.


The post acts as the only crossing between Syrian territories and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and was formerly run by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). There is over a mile in distance between the Syrian and Israeli sides of the crossing.
Middle East-based Al Masdar News reported Monday that the crossing was used by Nusra militants (also called Jabhat Fatah al-Sham/JFS, or Syrian al-Qaeda) to store weapons, ammunition and various supplies provided by Israeli Army, suggesting that its destruction by al-Qaeda and FSA fighters may have been an attempt at concealing the extent of their external state sponsorship by the Israelis.
Sky News Arabia also confirmed that Nusra Front was the group responsible in its live broadcast Sunday morning:

صور حصرية -- مسلحو #النصرة يحرقون معبر القنيطرة بين #الجولان المحتل والأراضي السورية قبل انسحابهم من المنطقة pic.twitter.com/eACaMYqCJ7
— سكاي نيوز عربية (@skynewsarabia) July 22, 2018

Over the weekend while the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) began facilitating the covert cover of darkness plan to evacuate the White Helmets, which ended up being 422 people as opposed to initial Jordanian and Israeli statements indicating 800 persons, a separate convoy of buses simultaneously prepared to transport militants to Idlib who surrendered during a fierce Syrian Army advance on the area.
The transfer to Idlib, which included a large caravan of buses, was part of a previously reported ceasefire arrangement brokered by Russian officers, according to Reuters.

The blaze at Quneitra crossing appeared just as the militants departed and as the Syrian Army prepared to resume control of the area.

Gunmen from al Nusra front ( al Qaeda in #Syria ) burned down the only crossing between syrian and the the #Israeli syrian occupied Golan highest ( Quneitra crossing ) before leaving to idlib https://t.co/YjkYo1jVuv
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) July 22, 2018

Meanwhile, Israel released professionally edited footage of the nighttime transfer of White Helmets and their families into Israel via the Golan border in what the IDF called "an exceptional humanitarian gesture".

WATCH: Members of the #WhiteHelmets and their families being evacuated by the #IDF from southern #Syria to #Jordan through #Israel @i24NEWS_EN pic.twitter.com/nVQZxNyAcO
— Shai Ben-ari (@ShaiBenari) July 22, 2018

The UK, Germany, and Canada have confirmed they will resettle the White Helmets members and their families, with German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announcing Germany would issue residency permits to eight White Helmets, allowing them to bypass asylum applications.
The move has come under fierce criticism by Syrian and Russian leaders, as well as some journalists in the West who have long documented the group's associations with Nusra Front, which is a designated terrorist group in the US and internationally.
Some have questioned just who it is that's being resettled and their ties to extremist groups.


The White Helmets have been caught on film multiple times bearing arms alongside known al-Qaeda terrorists and even assisting in al-Qaeda conducted field executions (such as in this extremely graphic video authenticated by journalist Ben Norton) — this as the group consistently referenced itself as a homegrown "first-responder" organization.
We've detailed many times before that while both the West and the group's leadership have long claimed it's nothing but a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to rescuing Syrians in the midst of war, it is far from being a "neutral" NGO. The group has from its conception been funded by Western governments which have simultaneously sought the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while only operating in anti-Assad "rebel" territory, including still in al-Qaeda held Idlib.
In a formal statement issued through its official media accounts on Monday, the White Helmets organization said it has 3,750 of its members still on the ground in Syria.


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...acuation-syria