Questions about BBC producer’s ties to UK intelligence follow ‘Mayday’ White
Helmets whitewash
kit-klarenberg
KIT KLARENBERG
·APRIL 7, 2021 The Grayzone
article
The BBC’s Chloe Hadjimatheou produced a podcast serial designed to rehabilitate
the White Helmets’ late, scandal-stained founder, while blaming critics
for his demise. Was she a channel for a wider British intelligence operation?
-----
White
Helmets founder James Le Mesurier
falling to his death from the top floor of his Istanbul home in uncertain
circumstances in November 2019 created a myriad of extremely serious problems
for a great many powerful people.
At the time, the White Helmets’ intimate ties to jihadist groups were being
probed and publicized ever-more widely, and the group’s – and Le Mesurier’s
– seemingly central role in the
staging of phony chemical attacks
and
sabotage of subsequent Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
investigations
into the alleged incidents was becoming increasingly apparent. Mere days
before his death,
Le Mesurier even confessed
to the overseas governments funding his company Mayday – and by extension the
White Helmets – that widespread allegations of
financial impropriety
on his part were true.
To clean up the mess that Le Mesurier’s plunge left, a rehabilitative,
exculpatory narrative was rubber-stamped by the BBC. It arrived by way of a
15-part
podcast series, Mayday, that elevated the White Helmets’ British founder to the
status of a secular saint, thoroughly drenched his critics in slime,
whitewashed the OPCW’s cover-up scandal while denigrating its whistleblowers,
and lifted its presenter and producer Chloe Hadjimatheou to mainstream media
prominence.
However, the dubiously sourced, factually flawed, and often slander-filled
series raised far more questions than it answered – chief among them the nature
of Hadjimatheou’s relationship with British intelligence, via the omnipresent
ARK, a shadowy contractor which has reaped untold millions from
waging covert information warfare operations
across the globe on Whitehall’s behalf.
Many of these efforts have been centered on the Syrian conflict. And in far too
many cases, ARK’s assorted infowar projects have had fatal consequences
for the locals it has employed, exploited, and targeted.
The man called ‘Uncle’
On 27 December 2015, journalist Naji al-Jerf was
shot dead in broad daylight
in Gaziantep, Turkey by ISIS operatives, as he, his wife, and two daughters
were preparing to flee the country and seek asylum in France.
Jerf, locally nicknamed “Uncle”
due to his extensive mentoring
of Syrian opposition activists, was widely
obituarized
in the Western media, including
the BBC,
and presented as a righteous symbol of the “moderate” wing of the Syrian
“revolution.”
What no outlet mentioned however, was that at the time of his death, he had for
many years
been in the employ
of ARK, founded in 2009 by probable
MI6 operative
Alistair Harris.
In this capacity, Jerf helped run Basma, “a Syrian media production and
distribution platform” created by ARK that was “capable of directly messaging
inside
Syria to promote the moderate opposition,” said to have delivered “impactful
media content through TV, FM radio, social media and print material [including]
posters, magazines and comics.”
He also trained and coordinated a vast network of “stringers” in Syria, who
produced multimedia propaganda related to the ongoing conflict for domestic
and international broadcast.
Jerf moreover edited Hentah, an ARK-funded magazine distributed in both
opposition- and government-held areas, as well as
Hentawi,
a slick
“counter-recruitment”
comic aimed at 9-to-15-year-old Syrians that
featured
animated strips slyly extolling equality, democracy, and other values, along
with quizzes, games, and inspiring stories of athletes, celebrities, and
the like.
ARK was well-aware such activities put Jerf and those with whom he collaborated
in the Islamic State’s crosshairs. In a
leaked file
submitted to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the
company actively boasted that Hentah had “so provoked the ire of ISIS that
it burnt copies in Aleppo in 2013.”
It was seemingly Jerf’s involvement in
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently
(known as Raqqa SL for short) that was his final undoing. He co-founded the
group, an ostensible citizen journalist collective reporting on abuses by
ISIS in the Syrian city it claimed as its de facto capital, and thereafter
served as the organization’s key spokesperson and filmmaker. Another leaked
ARK file
framed the endeavor
as part of its “Countering Violent Extremism” operations in Syria, boasting
that locals had “co-opted ARK’s messages as their own to further shared
objectives.”
Raqqa SL’s coverage didn’t solely focus on ISIS, though – for instance, its
reports
alleging Russian airstrikes in and around Raqqa mainly targeted civilians, not
Islamic State, were perhaps predictably amplified by the Western media.
Conversely, no mention was ever made of US airstrikes on the area – ostensibly
intended to liberate it from ISIS rule –
devastating
the civilian population.
‘Getting people killed’
The UK’s Independent newspaper, among a great many others,
hailed
the “quite extraordinary” bravery of individuals involved in this endeavor,
alleging that Raqqa SL’s work “[prevents] people inclined toward [extremist]
ideology actually going to Syria” – a
key aim
of covert Whitehall psyops projects conducted domestically at the time.
In 2015
the organization won the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press
Freedom Award.
Furthermore,
in April the next year,
BBC World Service produced an elaborate five-part online series about the
group, Islamic State’s Most Wanted, which combined on-screen interviews with
some of its key founders – by then exiled in Europe – video footage, and
animation.
In 2017,
the documentary received One World Media’s Digital Media Award, with an
accompanying blurb hailing its “big impact with audiences.” Chillingly, one such
“impact” was potentially putting the lives of Raqqa SL activists and their
collaborators at even greater risk.
The program’s lead presenter and producer, BBC journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou,
acknowledged this to be an almost inevitable upshot of her reporting. In
a
contemporaneous blog
detailing her experiences of working on the project, she expressed “fear” that
the series “may have raised their profiles and made them more of a target.”
Jerf was far from the only individual who may have died as a result of the
British state’s clandestine meddling in Syria. An associate of his was likewise
slain in November 2015 in the Turkish province of Urfa, and two months earlier
ISIS
killed
two opposition activists in Idlib. All three victims were involved with Raqqa
SL.
The dangerously counter-productive and utterly ineffectual nature of the
organization was starkly exposed by journalist James Harkin
in November 2016.
He recorded how the exiled leaders of the organization relied on “scouring
Facebook” for content, and tapping friends and relatives in the city for
information,
which made anyone known or even suspected of being connected in any way with
Raqqa SL mortal enemies of ISIS.
In turn, the extremist group began kidnapping and murdering dozens of people
not merely in Raqqa, but across the area it controlled. Many activists in
the region reserved outright contempt for Raqqa SL, with one quoted by Harkin
as saying the organization was “generally considered a ‘Facebook event’,
whose chief consequence is that it gets people killed,” and that while the
group may be “media heroes”, they had “a very small impact at the community
level.”
Another accused Raqqa SL of “publishing publicity-seeking propaganda with no
reporting depth,” blaming Western media outlets and NGOs for “encouraging
daredevil agitprop with money and garlands,” while yet another “was unable to
contain his anger” over the group’s machinations.
“This is bad work, what they do, and not journalism… Anyone can connect with
young guys and teenagers in a bad situation in Syria and pay them a few hundred
dollars a month. Raqqa SL are responsible for all these deaths. And after a
year and a half what is the impact? IS killed their people,” the nameless
activist
fulminated.
It is uncertain whether Islamic State’s Most Wanted produced further bloodshed
within and without Raqqa, just as Hadjimatheou feared – both she and her
employer have refused to answer questions on this point. Whatever the truth of
the matter, it may be significant that the program was
commissioned and financed
by BBC World Service’s Digital Storytelling Fund,
launched in 2015
to “encourage the production of cutting edge, in-depth digital content for a
global audience.”
That same year,
the British state broadcaster received an unprecedented £289 million cash
injection from the central government following publication of Whitehall’s
National Security Strategy, Strategic Defence, and Security Review.
This document described the World Service as an integral part of London’s
soft-power projection overseas, calling for the “global reach” of its “digital,
TV, and radio services” to be greatly expanded.
“The BBC currently reaches 308 million people worldwide, and its goal is to
reach 500 million by 2022. World Service reaches into some of the most remote
places in the world, providing a link to the UK for individuals and societies
who would otherwise not have this opportunity,” the Review bragged.
It seems certain the Digital Storytelling Fund arose from this national
security-directed bankrolling bonanza. Strikingly, in her aforementioned blog
post,
Hadjimatheou indicated spending on Islamic State’s Most Wanted was lavish,
stating “it’s not often that BBC budgets can accommodate such an expense.”
A not insignificant portion of this wellspring reportedly went on numerous
unrecorded, informal meetings between Hadjimatheou and the exiled Raqqa SL
representatives
in their adopted home countries to cultivate trust, spread over many months – a
vast investment of time and money in the project apparently before its
production had begun, let alone was even confirmed. Clearly, this was a tale
she, and BBC World Service, was determined to tell no matter the cost, or
risk to her interviewees.
Hadjimatheou attempted to explain her dogged resolve in her blog, asserting
that, “like many journalists with an interest in the war in Syria”, she had
heard of Raqqa SL and followed the group’s posts online to “learn about life
under jihadist rule”, in the process becoming “fascinated by how they operate
as a group.”
Yet, little to no trace of any “interest” in the Syrian crisis can be detected
from Hadjimatheou’s
journalistic output
prior to Islamic State’s Most Wanted. Indeed, the bulk of her work focused on
esoteric “lifestyle” topics and profiles of political figures. Nonetheless,
she was said to be the “driving engine” of The New Jihadism: A Global Snapshot,
published
by the
War Department
of King’s College London, which analyzed “all reported deaths caused by
jihadist groups and networks during November 2014.”
‘He’s good, isn’t he?’
Despite her documentary’s plaudits, Hadjimatheou remained largely unheard of
until
November 2020,
when the BBC broadcast a 10-part podcast series, Mayday, of which she was again
sole presenter and producer.
The serial explored the ever-mysterious life and death of British military
intelligence veteran-turned committed “humanitarian” James Le Mesurier, and
the numerous allegations which had dogged the White Helmets founder for many
years prior to his apparent suicide, and only became further amplified
thereafter.
Entirely credible suggestions
that Le Mesurier was a UK intelligence operative, that the White Helmets were
a bogus humanitarian organization
linked to murderous jihadists
serving as a front for regime change in Syria, and that Mayday Rescue was
engaged in widespread financial impropriety – which Le Mesurier in fact
confessed to international donors
three days before his death – among other extremely serious charges, were all
portrayed in the podcast series as malign “disinformation”.
In the process, any and all critics of Le Mesurier, and the group he founded,
were smeared by Mayday as deranged and/or malicious agents of the Russian
and Syrian governments – whether witting or unwitting – who bear significant
responsibility for his demise.
Hadjimatheou’s attack on Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal, in which she
insinuated that he had been recruited to launch this outlet by the Russian
government
– absolutely false slander for which there is no evidentiary basis – was
preceded by a menacing email sent by Hadjimatheou to The Grayzone’s public email
account on October 12, 2020. The email consisted largely of invective addressed
to Blumenthal, such as the following statement: “you are one of the most
prominent pro-Assad, anti-White Helmets bloggers on the internet.”
The podcast’s protagonist, Le Mesurier, was presented in the most fawning terms
imaginable, as a buccaneering, roguish force of nature with a heart of
gold and predilection for practical jokes. Many individuals who knew him,
including his third wife, Emma Winberg – a veteran UK Foreign Office political
officer, and founder of Foreign Office
psyops contractor
Incostrat – effusively praised Le Mesurier throughout the series. Their
plaudits were neither questioned by Hadjimatheou nor balanced by dissenting
voices.
In this capacity, the aforementioned Alistair Harris also made an appearance,
describing his deceased friend as “Lawrence of Arabia-esque” in the podcast’s
second episode,
“The Pizza in the Suitcase”. The ARK chief’s overly-chummy rapport with
Hadjimatheou was as palpable as it was peculiar.
“How are you planning to describe me, out of interest?” Harris asked.
“I want you to decide how you want to be described!” she responded, her
interviewee chuckling.
Harris opted to designate himself as “former UK diplomat”, a vague
characterization that doesn’t withstand scrutiny. For instance, his biography
on ARK’s
website doesn’t describe him as a diplomat, instead stating he “spent 20 years
working in conflict zones from Northern Ireland and the Balkans to Afghanistan,
the West Bank and Lebanon”.
An actual UK diplomat by definition would not be deployed to Northern Ireland,
given the province is part of the country itself, and therefore does not
have a British embassy on its soil. This glaring inconsistency tends to suggest
Harris was – and potentially still is – affiliated with MI6.
In any event, Hadjimatheou then “cut to the chase” and asked Harris outright
whether the Mayday chief was a spy. Predictably, he stated that he “knew for
a fact” Le Mesurier “was never in the security and intelligence services.” A
July 2018
Guardian article begs to differ, noting he “held a military intelligence post
while on peacekeeping operations in the Balkans.”
In return, the presenter inquired if Harris himself had ever been part of any
such agency, which he evasively denied in a highly incongruous exchange.
“Would you tell me if you were?”
“No, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“You’re not allowed to, are you?
“…You’d have to ask someone who was,” Harris equivocated, a riposte eliciting
giggles from Hadjimatheou, before she asserted rhetorically via voiceover,
“he’s good, isn’t he?”
Harris made no mention of ARK, and at no point during the 10-part podcast was
the company referenced, an extraordinary oversight given Le Mesurier worked
at the company from
2011 to 2014,
and Mayday Rescue was spun out of the firm. Prior to his departure, ARK
reaped vast sums
promoting the White Helmets at the FCDO’s behest, developing “an
internationally focused communications campaign to raise global awareness” of
the group
in order to “
keep Syria
in the news.”
Under this campaign’s auspices, ARK produced a documentary on the White Helmets
and ran their various social media accounts, including the Facebook page
for Idlib City Council, at one time proposed as a potential interim government
to replace Bashar al-Assad. When local Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra
overwhelmed the city, the White Helmets
were filmed
celebrating the “victory” in its main square.
Le Mesurier’s second wife, Sarah,
worked at ARK
from 2013 to 2020, while Emma Winberg’s Incostrat, similarly unmentioned in
the Mayday series, shared staff with ARK. The firm ran numerous information
ops in Syria, which
may have included
producing slick propaganda for notoriously brutal jihadist group, Jaysh
al-Islam (the Army of Islam).
This militia ran the assorted areas it occupied under draconian interpretations
of Sharia law, kidnapping, imprisoning, torturing, and executing innocent
men, women, and children for even the
mildest
infringements of strict Islamist code. Atrocities perpetrated by the group
include parading caged Alawite families
in the streets,
using hostages as
human shields,
and attacking Kurdish civilians with
chemical weapons.
Intriguingly, Abdul Kader Habak, an ARK employee from
2013 to 2019,
was credited as having provided “Arabic translation and additional research” to
every Mayday podcast episode. In a
statement
issued to The Grayzone, the British state broadcaster denied that this fact
represented a conflict of interest, and seemingly attempted to distance itself
somewhat from Habak in an email exchange with me, stating he merely contributed
research to Mayday “at an early stage in its production.”
article
status/1326398657441243137
article
status/1326398655528640512
vanessa beeley
@VanessaBeeley
Nov 11, 2020
View on Twitter
1. One of
#BBC
"researchers for "Mayday" broadcast is Abdul Kader Habak - remember his iconic
image related to terrorist massacre of mostly children, Rashideen 04/2017
-
#WhiteHelmets
had called previously for extermination of Shia Muslim Syrians fm Kafraya &
Foua.
Article
⬇️
Image
article end
vanessa beeley
@VanessaBeeley
2. Survivor testimony put Habak at the scene prior to the car bomb, chatting
with terrorists who had given children chips prior to using same chips to
lure children to their deaths. Habak had also previously filmed himself at Khan
Sheikhoun alleged "chemical weapon" attack 2017.
