By



Patrick Henningsen

21st Century Wire

Today marks another tragic day for the international antiwar and pro-peace movements, and a victory for ignorance.



The Tipperary International Peace Award ceremony was held today at the BallyKisteen Hotel, in Tipperary, Ireland. We’re told that this year’s award is “a testament to the enormous bravery and courage shown” by the Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets.

This is just the latest chapter in one of the biggest media and wartime frauds in modern history.

Far from saving lives in Syria, flying around between the US and Europe and collecting awards seems to be all that this group is doing. Last October, the White Helmets were also tipped to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but apparently committee members backtracked at the last minute, instead giving the award to Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos.

It wasn’t long after that, when the group scooped-up an Oscar Award for their Netflix documentary film. As one writer put it, “Perhaps the only reason this group deserved to win an Oscar was for their acting skills — not their humanitarian efforts.”

This latest award should be seen for what it is – another ritual ceremony by the Establishment to bolster the reputation of a failed construct, a carefully manufactured, pseudo “search and rescue” NGO with very visible links to extremists, terrorist organisations, and under the umbrella of covert western intelligence operations to destablise the nation of Syria.

Martin Quinn, Secretary of the Tipperary Peace Convention (TPC), was interviewed about the controversy by Irish broadcaster RTE on August 11th.

Immediately, Quinn wastes no time, reading off of a pre-approved Q & A script:

“The White Helmets selection is a testament to the enormous bravery and courage shown by ordinary Syrians, who have saved upwards of 100,000 people, and whose 192 volunteers have ‘paid the ultimate price with their lives.’ You know these volunteers emerged from the dust that hangs over the rubble of cities like Aleppo, double-timing it into one of the most dangerous places on earth, to do what the rest of the world can’t do, and that is to save Syrian lives.”

We’ve heard all this before. Perhaps some of this is true, perhaps they were present in these areas, but who are these White Helmets?

The Irish journalist pressed Quinn on some of these points, and his reaction was simply to avoid answering any of her questions. The exchange went as follows:

RTE to Martin Quinn: “You said there that they have saved 100,000 lives during the Syrian War. How are you able to verify that? the White Helmets have saved 100,000 lives?”

RTE: “But where do you get your information from Martin? As you know, the situation in Syria is a full-on conflict… with propaganda being waged on both sides.”

MQ: “Yes….we have consulted at Government level… and we have also engaged with the security analysts… who gave us the kind of information, that we can make a decision on the award.”

Again, like a good politician, here Quinn has completely dodged a direct question – which is an admission of ignorance, followed by immediate evasive manoeuvre (how many times have we seen politicians or corporate criminals use this exact same technique when cornered in an interview).

Here Quinn gives no specifics, like CNN, he just tells us he has ‘sources’, apparently from UK government – who created and are funding the group he’s giving his award to. But it gets worse…

RTE: “But how do you square the White Helmets own acknowledgement that some of their members have aided in the execution and the burial of pro-Assad forces?”

MQ: “Well I haven’t seen that acknowledgement… so I have to say, (stutters again) and, and uhh … I am aware there are a lot of conspiracy theories… in relation to the White Helmets.”

This is nothing new. For people who see themselves as gatekeepers for the establishment, dedicated to protecting the official line, rather than reading and figuring out anything for themselves, or investigating any serious accusations against the entities they are advocating on behalf of, it’s much easier to slap the label of ‘conspiracy theory’ on a credible inquiry, thus absolving their conscience, along with any responsibility, and finally dispensing with any accountability.

As Quinn stumbles through the interview, it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t seem to know what he is talking about. Not one challenging question answered, as he doggedly stuck to the UK Foreign Office public relations script.

(Listen to the full RTE Quinn interview here)

The other thing is that Quinn refers to the White Helmets as “ordinary Syrians”, who are, as the New Internationalist described them, “rushing towards death.” It’s a nice fairy tale. The White Helmets are anything but ordinary, however, as they only operate in terrorist-held areas in Syria, occupied by force of arms by Jabhat al Nusra (and all their other rebranding names and affiliates) and ISIS.

In East Aleppo in 2012, most of the residents fled to government-held West Aleppo and to the coastal regions like Latakia, in order to escape living under Sharia street courts and terrorist rule. The fighting age males who remained were quickly co-opted by western-backed terrorists who controlled those areas. Western media and pro-interventionists like Quinn might prefer to call those ‘rebel-held’ areas, but I have actually traveled to Syria, to these various areas, and seen ‘the rebels’ and the damage they have inflicted on the populations who they were lording over for four and a half years in East Aleppo.

These were internationally recognized terrorists, and they were brutal. To state otherwise and claim that it’s a ‘matter of opinion’ (eg. “I have a right to my opinion to call them rebels“) is an intellectual fraud, and a furtherance of western war propaganda. Sadly, and perhaps unknowingly, this is exactly what Quinn and TPC are doing. My message to them is simple: go and ask the Syrian people – they will tell you who these men were, and unlike the western media and politicians, people in Syria don’t use the word ‘rebel’ when describing armed Islamist militants. To dismiss these facts out of hand, and claim that ‘we haven’t had time to look at those claims,’ or to accuse independent journalists of peddling “conspiracy theories” about the White Helmets without even looking at the material, much less reporting any of the contents therein, is derelict on the part of Quinn and TPC.

What Quinn is not telling RTE or the public, is that the White Helmets are being bankrolled by our governments; specifically by the US State Department ($23 million through USAID, a known CIA front NGO, and that’s not a conspiracy theory), and the British Foreign Office (over $80 million), and tens of millions more from EU and NATO member states, and many millions more from opaque crowdfunding. What’s important here, and what should be important for Quinn and the TPC, is that all of these financial stakeholders have a stated vested interest in “regime change” in Syria.

So, while the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany and others are paying for this NGO construct, the White Helmets are in turn, producing films which are then used to reinforce and promote these investor nations’ collective foreign policy directives through mainstream media and various third sector foundations and charities. The White Helmet ‘rescue films,’ along with all of the White Helmets’ incredible claims, are then accepted at face value by Quinn, the TPC and the western corporate media such as CNN and affiliated state-run media outlets (BBC, Channel 4) – with no questions asked. None. This is an incredible thing in itself: that these parties are so eager to appropriate any artefact which fulfills their pre-fabricated narrative: ‘The rebels are a natural outgrowth of a peaceful Arab Spring uprising in 2011, and the Assad regime is brutalising its own people, and the White Helmets are an organic response to this injustice.’ It is that universal lie which underpins the entire western establishment narrative, symbolised by the White Helmets.

On Tipperary’s website, the image they used is one of a staged rescue which features a female ‘white helmet’ (image, left) which, for anyone who is in Syria or has been on the ground there, will tell you is a complete joke. There are no genuinely, operational female ‘white helmets’, just as there are no Syrian minority community members of Le Mesurier‘s merry band of brothers. No, the White Helmet operatives in the terrorist “field” are exclusively male, and Islamist extremists. That’s evidenced by numerous reports and hundreds of videos, photos and the Islamist paraphernalia spread throughout their material. I realise this might be getting too detailed for the Tipperary Peace committee, but it’s true, and not a conspiracy theory as Quinn would claim.

Read the full report about the fake campaign of the ‘Women of the White Helmets’ here.

The real conspiracy theory here is that of the White Helmets official line robotically parroted by Quinn, that they are an “impartial humanitarian NGO, with no affiliation to any political or military actor.” That is pure fiction.

At every step of the way, the White Helmets have been used to prop-up the US-NATO-GCC artificial narrative, serving to undermine the Syrian government internationally and its legitimate allies in the conflict, Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Additionally, according to Martin Quinn, also“in the running” this year was celebrity lawyer Amal Clooney, a member of the Council of Foreign Relations (along with a number of known war criminals including Dick Cheney, and Hillary Clinton who was a leading architect of both the Libyan and Syrian conflicts), and the late Martin McGuinness. Maybe not coincidentally, Amal Clooney’s husband, George Clooney, is said to be producing a big budget Hollywood blockbuster film about… the White Helmets. So the gravy train of fakery just keeps going.

Interestingly, in 2015, Tipperary awarded their prize to John Kerry, a man who stood there and lied to the UN and world while serving as Secretary of State, claiming he had “enormous amounts of evidence” that ‘Russian-backed rebels’ in eastern Ukraine were responsible for the downing of MH17 in July 2014. History now shows that Kerry was lying, and we’re still waiting for his ‘evidence’. The implications of Kerry’s lies are now evident: his comments helped to set-off a new wave of EU and US sanctions against Russia, effectively placing East-West relations back into another deep freeze, a resumption of the Cold War no less.

Tipperary could not have given the prize to a more undeserving recipient than Kerry. After receiving the award in 2015, Kerry went on to continue promulgating lies which increased military tensions between the US-led coalition and Russia. Last fall, Kerry, along with his underling Samantha Power, pushed the fabricated claim that Russian and Syrian air forces attacked a UN aid convoy. No evidence was ever produced to back this claim, but the ones who provided the dodgy video footage used to frame Russia and Syria? Yes, that’s right: the White Helmets. If only it ended there…

Regarding events at the UN last September, Southfront also reported:

“A leaked audio of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting with members of the Syrian opposition at the Dutch Mission of the UN on September 22. The audio also is an evidence of the fact that mainstream media colluded with the Obama’s administration in order to push the narrative for regime change in Syria, hiding the truth about arming and funding ISIS by the US, as it exposed a 35 minute conversation that was omitted by CNN.”

Funding and arming terrorists in order to overthrow Assad? Perhaps these details are just too much, and too complicated for Tipperary’s celebrity glad-handers. But these are the facts.

Other recipients of this apparently prestigious award include such luminaries as Rudy Guiliani and Bill Clinton. No, it’s true.

For some reason, Tipperary didn’t get the memo that all of us Americans got years ago, which is that Giuliani is a caustic warmonger.

“If you look at Giuliani’s statements, you will find he has advocated bombing Iran, he has advocated for intervention, to my knowledge he’s never admitted the Iraq war was a mistake,” said US Senator Rand Paul earlier this year.

By trading on his happenstance relationship to the 9/11 tragedy, “Mr 9/11” Giuliani has managed to fashion himself into one of the world’s most highly paid international jet-set security consultants, and has amassed a $45 million fortune as a result.

It’s bizarre to say the least, that Tipperary did not see what many of us in America have known for years – that Rudy Giuliani has an earned reputation as a foreign policy war hawk, who even remarked in public last fall that when it comes to war “anything’s legal.”

In addition to this, for years now, Giuliani (along with a number of other corrupt US politicians) has been on the event speakers’ payroll of the US-backed, exiled Iranian ‘freedom fighter’ terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, or MEK (MKO).

And the Tipperary Peace Convention gave this man an international prize? Farcical – and it also should serve as a deep insult to all antiwar activists worldwide.

As for Bill Clinton, his record speaks for itself. History shows that this was a man who was certainly impeached for the wrong crimes. American journalist David Harten remarked in 2001:

“The day before the House impeachment vote, Clinton bombed Iraq, delaying the impeachment vote. He continued the bombing throughout all the days of the impeachment vote. Only an hour or two after the House impeachment vote ended, Clinton ended the bombing, saying, “We have achieved our objectives.” Of course, because the objective was to delay and distract from the impeachment vote! In all other respects, the bombing hurt U.S. and international interests.”

It was a massacre, and a war crime. One of many too. The same could be said for Clinton’s role in mounting an international disinformation campaign about “genocide” by Serbian forces which was then used to justify the illegal bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the arming of imported Mujahedin terrorists in Bosnia and Kosovo – a blueprint for future operations in Syria.

These criminals are considered worthy recipients of the Tipperary Peace Prize.

I expect Martin Quinn and his committee may also want to nominate another big name, Madeleine Albright, who when asked about the US government’s economic sanctions siege of Iraq which led to the deaths of some 500,000 Iraqi children and many others, simply replied, “I think this is a very hard choice. But the price, we think, is worth it.”

It seems that far from promoting serious antiwar icons and genuine champions of peace, the Tipperary International Peace Prize is more akin to a vehicle for sucking-up to celebrity and popular establishment names. This gives the organisation the opportunity to surf on the back of celebrity gravitas, in an attempt to achieve elevated status in the NGO world.

It’s ironic that this Irish peace organisation was originally founded in order to help counteract the negative war-like connotations associated with their town because of the famous war song, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” We’re told that the founding committee of the Tipperary Peace Convention was created to ensure their town should be known for peace. Instead, what we see now is a group which is helping to promote some of biggest war-mongers and enablers of war in the world, while slandering and defaming independent peace activists and journalists publicly, as Mr Quinn has just done.

I have spent most of my adult life committed to campaigning for peace internationally, but I would not be welcome at this year’s Tipperary Peace Convention, because I won’t adhere to a blatantly false narrative, invented by my own government in order to overthrow another nation state.

By now, Tipperary International Peace Prize is a long, long way from its stated mission. It has become an accomplice to the global war machine, rather than a force against it.

For Ireland and for the international peace movement, the award given to the White Helmets this afternoon is not a victory for peace, but rather a victory for ignorance and corruption.

This week also marked the defeat of ISIS at Der Ezzor in eastern Syria. ISIS has been routed, just like Nusra Front, and every other western and gulf-backed terrorist group in Syria who have nurtured the White Helmets since their formation in 2013. Despite blowing billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, the Western countries have now lost the war Syria, and as each day passes, more western lies are exposed, and the truth continues to be revealed.

Unfortunately, today Tipperary is on the wrong side of history.

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Here is a short documentary which aired on Syria TV, detailing some of our firsthand experiences and observations from on the ground in Syria:

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Author Patrick Henningsen is an American writer and global affairs analyst and founder of independent news and analysis site 21st Century Wire, and host of the SUNDAY WIRE weekly radio show broadcast globally over the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR). He has written for a number of international publications and has done extensive on-the-ground reporting of the conflict Syria, and the Middle East.



Find out more about the White Helmets by reading the following articles:

Initial Investigation into White Helmets

Who are Syria’s White Helmets?

21st Century Wire article on the White Helmets:

Syria’s White Helmets: War by Way of Deception ~ the “Moderate” Executioners

Who Funds the White Helmets?

Secret £1bn UK War Chest Used to Fund the White Helmets and Other ‘Initiatives’

Original investigative report:

The REAL Syria Civil Defence Exposes Fake White Helmets as Terrorist-Linked Imposters

White Helmets Executions

WHITE HELMETS: Severed Heads of Syrian Arab Army Soldiers Paraded as Trophies

CNN Fabricate News About the White Helmets

A NOBEL LIE: CNN’s Claim That ‘White Helmets Center in Damascus’ Was Hit by a Barrel Bomb

White Helmets Links to Al Nusra

WHITE HELMETS: Hand in Hand with Al Qaeda and Extremist Child Beheaders in Aleppo

Report by Patrick Henningsen

AN INTRODUCTION: Smart Power & The Human Rights Industrial Complex

Open Letter by Vanessa Beeley

White Helmets Campaign for War NOT Peace – Retract RLA & Nobel Peace Prize Nominations

Staged Rescue Videos

(VIDEO) White Helmets: Miraculous ‘Rag Doll Rescue’

White Helmets Oscar Award Farce:

Forget Oscar: Give The White Helmets the Leni Riefenstahl Award for Best War Propaganda Film

Cory Morningstar report:

Investigation into the funding sources of the White Helmets, including Avaaz, Purpose, The Syria Campaign

Open letter to Canadian MPs from Stop the War Hamilton (Canada):

Letter from the Hamilton Coalition to Stop War to the New Democratic Party in Canada ref the White Helmet nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize:

Open letter to Canada’s NDP Leader on Nobel Prize:

Letter to NDP from Prof. John Ryan protesting White Helmet nomination for RLA and Nobel Peace Prize.

READ MORE WHITE HELMETS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire White Helmets Files

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