If
a chemical weapons “attack” comes to pass in the place it has
been predicted, it would be the first such provocation blamed on
Assad to take place in territory occupied by a foreign power, likely
triggering an intensified military response from the U.S.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
2 - White Helmets still in the game
Given
the warning that another staged chemical weapons attack could soon
take place in Syria, it seems likely that such an attack will involve
the “humanitarian” group of dubious credibility, the White
Helmets. Indeed, the evidence of the last chemical weapons attack
blamed on the Assad-led government, occurring in Douma of Eastern
Ghouta, largely came from the group, whose ties to terrorist groups
and pro-regime-change foreign governments have been the subject of
several reports at MintPress and elsewhere.
Yet the
White Helmets have been in the news as of late as a result of the
fact that the State Department has put the funds it has long provided
to the group, a third of the White Helmets’ total funding, under
“active review.” As a result, given the threat of withheld
funds, the case has been made that the White Helmets would be
unlikely to participate in any upcoming staged provocations,
particularly in an area controlled by the U.S. and its proxies.
However,
the withholding of funds from the U.S. is largely a sham. While the
funds are “under active review,” U.S. funding of the White
Helmets remains in effect while that review is taking place.
According to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, during the
review period, “all of their work still continues, peoples bills
are still being paid […] as far as I know [all U.S. contributions]
are still in play.”
Other
evidence suggesting that the White Helmets’ funding freeze is not
at all what it seems is the fact that the group was just given the
McCain Institute’s “Award for Courage and Leadership” for 2018
and that the State Department has already tried to back-pedal claims
that it was cutting funds for the group.
On May
4, VICE News quoted an unnamed State Department spokesperson as
saying, “the U.S. jointly supports the White Helmets with other
donors, and we expect their operations to continue as a result of
additional multilateral donations.” Thus, the fact that funds
have not actually been cut off to the group negates the thinking that
its purported status change would limit its participation in a staged
chemical weapons attack.
Furthermore
— as Vanessa Beeley, independent journalist and well-known expert
on the White Helmets, recently wrote at 21st Century Wire — the
U.S. “funding freeze” on the White Helmets may be just another
Trump administration fake-out prior to a staged chemical attack.
Indeed, prior to the alleged attack in April in Douma, Trump had
promised to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, but quickly changed his
tune after the alleged gas attack.
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