A film celebrating the White Helmets, the volunteer rescue group that operates in rebel-held parts of Syria, won an Oscar for best short documentary. The eponymously titled White Helmets, a 40-minute Netflix film, provides a window into the lives of the volunteers as they scramble to pull survivors from the rubble of buildings flattened in air-strikes. (Al Jazeera) But a Syrian cinematographer who worked on the documentary was barred from entering the US to attend the Academy Awards ceremony. Despite being granted a visa, Khaled Khatib, was held up at the Istanbul airport, with US officials reportedly uncovering "derogatory information" about him. Homeland Security at the last minute blocked Khatib from traveling to Los Angeles, saying he now needed a new passport waiver (Raw Story)
Figures associated with the White Helmets have been barred from the US even before the "travel ban" for Syrians imposed by President Trump.
RT and pro-war ‘anti-war’ dupes bash White Helmets
The inevitable RT runs a puff-piece on so-called "anti-war protesters" who crashed a pop-up orchestral and choral performance of Beethoven's Ode to Joy in Manhattan's Grand Central Station that had been called to support the White Helmets and promote the documentary about them. The protesters obnoxiously mixed themselves up with the orchestra while holding their nonsensical signs reading "White Helmets are US Propaganda," "No US bases in Syria," and "This is US war agenda." Amazingly, the RT account puts "humanitarian" in scare quotes before "White Helmets"—as if rescuing trapped civilians from bombed-out buildings were not humanitarian. But there are, of course, no quotes around the phrase "anti-war protesters," despite the fact that these sinister clowns (apparently from the group Hands Off Syria) are objectively pro-war, and evidently oppose any aid to the victims of Russian and Assad regime air-strikes.
We could also point out the hilarious irony of the name "Hands Off Syria," as they obviously support the massive Russian foreign intervention in Syria. And the further hilarious irony that these "anti-war activists" are on the same side as Donald Trump, whose Homeland Security department barred the Syrian cinematographer who worked on the documentary, Khaled Khatib, from entering the country to attend the Oscars.
Nothing is more sickening than pro-war "anti-war" jive.
Roger Waters: just another brick in the wall
"At a concert in Spain, former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters denounces the 'fake' White Helmets, who do propaganda for jihadist terrorists," the vile "Hands Off Syria" group gratefully posts to YouTube. Now we know for sure: Roger Waters is a fucking asshole. Do you comprehend how morally depraved it is to echo the BASELESS LIE that the White Helmets are "jihadists and terrorists"? Do you grasp how this legitimizes armed attacks on first responders?