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Pushback with Aaron Mate

White Helmets Whitewash - Founder's Death, OPCW Scandal Lift Mask On Al-Qaeda's Ally In Syria

Pushback with Aaron Mate

Pushback with Aaron Maté

News

4.7594 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2019

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The recent death of White Helmets founder James Le Mesurier, and an unfolding cover-up at the OPCW of an apparently staged chemical weapons incident, has shed new light on the group’s shadowy role in the Syria proxy war. We speak to The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal, whose reporting has exposed the White Helmets’ ties to jihadists groups and its use as a PR tool for Western military intervention in Syria. “We don’t know if there’s a cover-up around his [Le Mesurier’s] death — I can’t go that far,” Blumenthal says. “The real cover-up is around his life, as he’s being celebrated everywhere from the Guardian to the New York Times as this heroic figure, this kind of Gandhi of conflict stabilization; when his legacy is actually very dark and stained with blood.” Guest: Max Blumenthal, Editor of The Grayzone and author of The Management of Savagery. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Pushback on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pushbackshow Aaron Maté on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronjmate Pushback on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lu7MGQ Pushback on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/pushbackshow Pushback on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2mpwIQm Pushback on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=465855 Find transcripts and more at https://thegrayzone.com/pushback Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com Support our original journalism at Patreon: https://patreon.com/grayzone Twitter: https://twitter.com/grayzoneproject Facebook: https://facebook.com/thegrayzo ||| The Grayzone ||| Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com Support our original journalism at Patreon: https://patreon.com/grayzone Twitter: https://twitter.com/grayzoneproject Facebook: https://facebook.com/thegrayzone Minds: https://minds.com/thegrayzone

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Pushback. I'm Aaron Mate.

0:06.0

James LaMersier, the founder of the White Helmets, was recently found dead in Turkey.

0:11.0

Police say he fell off of a balcony, that there are no signs of foul play and that they suspect a suicide.

0:19.0

The White Helmets are known around the world for rescuing civilians in militant-held areas

0:24.6

of Syria.

0:25.6

But my colleague, Max Blumenthal, at the Grey Zone, has exposed another side of the white

0:30.2

helmets.

0:31.2

Max Blumenthal is editor of the Gray Zone and author of several books, including the management

0:35.4

of savagery.

0:36.4

He joins me now. Welcome, Max.

0:38.3

Your response to James Lomersier's death, and can you tell us a bit about who he was

0:43.3

and the side of him that has not gotten very much attention?

0:47.3

Well, James Limercierge's death and the circumstances surrounding it remain unclear, but what we've seen is someone

0:58.0

die in Turkey, in Istanbul, in a very media-controlled environment, who has been surrounded

1:06.7

by narrative managers ever since he emerged as a public figure with the founding of the white

1:12.9

helmets in Turkey as part of the proxy war against Syria.

1:18.1

And so James L. Mercerior has spent his career, much of it since 2002, as a former British

1:26.1

army captain and also, according to the Guardian, a former intelligence

1:29.8

officer in Bosnia, since 2002 as a mercenary working in what's known in, you know, development

1:40.4

fields, basically in imperial speak, in stabilization.

1:45.8

What is stabilization?

1:48.1

Martin Chulov, who is a huge propagandist for the, for regime change in Syria at the

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