Vanessa Beeley

Vanessa Beeley (born 1963/1964[1]) is a British activist and blogger.[2][3][4] She is known for sharing conspiracy theories[5] and disinformation[2][6] about the Syrian civil war and about the Syrian volunteer organisation the White Helmets.[3][5][7][6][8]

Career

Early career

Beeley initially worked as a consultant to a waste management company in the Middle East.[2]

Journalism

Beeley is an editor and writer for conspiracy website 21st Century Wire.[3][9][10][11] She describes herself as an "independent researcher, writer and photographer."[12] She was a runner-up for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.[2]

Activism

Beeley has said she travelled to Palestine where she lived through Israeli bombardments.[13] In 2014, she started her blog titled The Wall Will Fall in which she supported the Palestinian cause.[12]

Since 2015 she has focused her activism on the Syrian Civil War. Beeley first visited Syria in July 2016.[9] That year, she met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus as part of a US Peace Council delegation, describing it as her "proudest moment".[2][9] According to Bellingcat, Beeley was on the steering committee for the Syria Solidarity Movement.[14] After visiting Syria, Beeley went to Moscow to meet Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov and director of information and press Maria Zakharova.[2] An article in The New York Review of Books described Bogdanov as "Putin’s point man on Syria".[2] Beeley has frequently appeared on the Russian government-owned networks RT and Sputnik commenting on the Syrian war.[4][6][2] She has also been a frequent guest on InfoWars.[10] According to Bellingcat, Beeley received the "Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism" from a pro-Assad lobby group due to her "regime-friendly commentary".[14] In 2019, two of Beeley's planned talks at universities in Canada, organised by the Hamilton, Ontario chapter of the Stop the War Coalition, were cancelled after public protests.[6]

Beeley has spoken on the same panels as Holocaust deniers.[1][15]

Views

Some of Beeley's views include that Human Rights Watch is a "fake" group,[1] the Charlie Hebdo shooting was a false flag operation, and al-Qaeda was not behind the September 11 attacks.[1][6][8]

In leaked private chats, Beeley admitted that the Syrian government uses torture, but said in those chats that she would never publicly state so.[2]

In 2017, when French presidential candidate François Fillon denounced Assad, Beeley tweeted "Zionists rule France".[1]

In 2017, Beeley called murdered British MP Jo Cox an "al Qaeda advocate"[1] and "warmongering Blairite".[16]

In August 2018, due to Beeley's defence of Assad and comments about Jo Cox, media reports criticised UK Labour Party MP Chris Williamson for tweeting that it was a "privilege" to have met Beeley.[1][16]

White Helmets
See also: White Helmets (Syrian Civil War)

The White Helmets are a volunteer organisation that operates in parts of opposition-controlled Syria and in Turkey. Formed in 2014 during the Syrian Civil War, the majority of the volunteers' activity in Syria consists of medical evacuation, urban search and rescue in response to bombing, evacuation of civilians from danger areas, and essential service delivery.[17]

In 2017, Russia submitted a report to the United Nations Security Council that tried to link the White Helmets to al-Qaeda; the report was based on a presentation about the subject given by Beeley earlier that year.[2] Eight countries on the Security Council said the White Helmets were an "impartial, neutral group" and rejected Russia's submission.[2]

In 2018, according to two data analyst outfits, Graphika and Hoaxy, Beeley was among the most influential figures in spreading content online about the White Helmets.[9][18] She has said White Helmets volunteers are a legitimate military target.[2][6][11][19] Beeley has described the White Helmets as a fraudulent terrorist organisation.[9]

Middle East experts have dismissed Beeley's allegations that the White Helmets are linked to al-Qaeda and engage in organ harvesting.[20] Fact-checking website Snopes gave a rating of "false" for Beeley's claim that the White Helmets were linked to terrorists.[21]

Syrian chemical weapons

Beeley believes the Syrian government has not carried out chemical attacks.[18] Experts from the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism were confident that the Syrian Air Force was responsible for the 2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.[7] Beeley said this attack had been "debunked".[7] She is a member of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media which alleges that the 2018 Douma chemical attack was faked by the White Helmets, a rescue organisation.[20]

Accusing media outlets of promoting terrorism

In February 2018, Beeley encouraged her followers to report a list of news outlets and journalists – including Oz Katerji, the BBC, Channel 4 News and The Guardian – for allegedly violating the UK Terrorism Act.[22] According to an article in The Intercept, the journalists and media outlets listed by Beeley were all critical of Assad.[22]

In May 2018, she was a scheduled speaker at an event which intended to lobby for bringing terrorism charges against BBC and Channel 4 journalists who covered Libya in 2011 and the Syrian civil war in 2016.[21] This event was cancelled.[21]

Personal life

Beeley is the daughter of former British diplomat Harold Beeley.[9][18][11]

See also

References
  1. Bachner, Michael (August 22, 2018) "UK Labour MP slammed for praising anti-Semitic pro-Assad conspiracist". The Times of Israel.
  2. Giovanni, Janine di (16 October 2018). "Why Assad and Russia Target the White Helmets". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  3. "Assad Supporters Plan to Put the 'Media on Trial' for Doing Journalism in Syria". Snopes.com. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  4. Wilson, Tom; Starbird, Kate (14 January 2020). "Cross-platform disinformation campaigns: lessons learned and next steps". Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. 1 (1). doi:10.37016/mr-2020-002.
  5. "White Helmets 'staging fake attacks' in Syria? We sort fact from fiction". The France 24 Observers. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  6. York, Chris (7 December 2019). "'Conspiracy Theorist' Vanessa Beeley Faces Backlash As Universities Cancel Her 'Journalism' Talks". uk.news.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  7. "The online activists pushing Syria conspiracy theories". BBC News. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  8. "The 'crazy club': Inside the British propaganda trips that seek to legitimise Assad's barbarism". The National. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  9. Solon, Olivia (18 December 2017). "How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  10. Berlatsky, Noah. "Dear Leftists: Going on Tucker Carlson Is Not Going to Stop Imperialism". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  11. Webster, Ben (16 April 2018). "Academics accused of speaking for Assad condemn Syria raids" The Times.
  12. "About". The Wall Will Fall. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  13. "Britisk journalist svarer Khader igen: "Jeg er hverken støttet af Assad eller Putin"". jyllands-posten.dk (in Danish). 2 January 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  14. Davis, Charles (30 September 2019). "Pro-Assad Lobby Group Rewards Bloggers On Both The Left And The Right". Bellingcat.
  15. "Labour can be Jo Cox's party or Chris Williamson's – it cannot be both". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  16. "Labour MP Chris Williamson's 'democracy roadshow' criticised". BBC News. 21 August 2018.
  17. Dagher, Sam (1 May 2016). "White Helmets Are White Knights for Desperate Syrians". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  18. Keate, Georgie; Blanchard, Sam (14 April 2018). "To say Douma attack was staged is to enter an Orwellian world". The Times. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  19. Kennedy, Dominic (28 April 2018). "Guests rebelled at Syria trip ‘lunacy’" The Times.
  20. "Mysterious death of White Helmets co-founder spotlights toxic propaganda". PBS NewsHour. 24 December 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  21. Palma, Bethania (December 15, 2016). "Are the Syrian ‘White Helmets’ Rescue Organization Terrorists?" Snopes.
  22. Mackey, Robert (21 February 2020). "Homeland Security Algorithm Revokes U.S. Visa of War Crimes Investigator Eyal Weizman" The Intercept.
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