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Vanessa Beeley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963/1964 |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Sharing conspiracy theories and disinformation related to the Syrian Civil War |
| Father | Harold Beeley |
Vanessa Beeley (born 1963/1964 [1] ) is a British activist and blogger [2] [3] [4] 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]
Beeley is the daughter of former British diplomat Harold Beeley. [9] [10] [11] Initially, she worked as a consultant to a waste management company in the Middle East. [2] [12]
Beeley has 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. [14]
Since 2015, Beeley has focused her activism on the Syrian civil war. She 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". [1] [2] [9] According to Bellingcat, Beeley was on the steering committee for the Syria Solidarity Movement. [15] 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 by Janine di Giovanni 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]
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 a backlash. The Université de Montréal said the room booked for the event was too small and it was concerned that the "event would not go off peacefully". [6]
Beeley has been an associate editor of the conspiracy website 21st Century Wire. [3] [9] [16] [11] She has also written articles for MintPress News . [17]
In 2019, she received the "Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism" from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, which Bellingcat describes as a "pro-Assad lobby group". [15]
Beeley has claimed to have been a finalist for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, however, according to James Fox, a member of the prize committee, there are no finalists for the Gellhorn Prize, and only winners or special commendations are published. [18]
Some of Beeley's controversial views include a belief that the human rights NGO Human Rights Watch is a "fake" group, [1] that the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris was a false flag operation, and that al-Qaeda was not responsible for the September 11 attacks. [1] [6] [8]
Beeley is a member of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media which has attracted criticism for disputing the veracity of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War. [19] [20]
In February 2018, Beeley encouraged her readers to report a list of news outlets and journalists – including the BBC, Channel 4 News and The Guardian – for allegedly violating the UK Terrorism Act. [21] The journalists and media outlets listed by Beeley had all been critical of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. [21]
In leaked private chats, Beeley admitted knowing that the Syrian government engages in torture, but said that she would never publicly state so. [2]
Beeley has accused the White Helmets, a Syrian humanitarian organisation that operated in parts of opposition-controlled Syria and in Turkey, of being a fraudulent terrorist organisation that engages in organ harvesting, and that its volunteers are a legitimate military target. [9] [22] [2] [6] [11] [23] In 2017, referencing Beeley's false claims, the Russian government submitted a report to the United Nations Security Council that linked the White Helmets to al-Qaeda. [2] Eight countries on the Security Council rejected Russia's submission, saying that the White Helmets are an "impartial, neutral group". [2]
Middle East experts have dismissed Beeley's allegations that the White Helmets are linked to al-Qaeda and that the group engages in organ harvesting. [22] [24] Fact-checking website Snopes gave a rating of "false" for Beeley's claim that the White Helmets were linked to terrorists. [25]
According to data analyst organisations Graphika and Hoaxy, in 2018 Beeley was among the most influential figures in spreading content online about the White Helmets. [9] [10]
Beeley is a member of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media which alleges that the 2018 Douma chemical attack was staged by the White Helmets. [22] [26] She has claimed that the Syrian government has not carried out chemical weapon attacks. [10] Experts from the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism have stated that the Syrian Air Force was responsible for the 2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. [7] Beeley has claimed that the attack has been "debunked". [7]
In 2017, Beeley called the deceased British MP Jo Cox – who had been murdered the previous year – an "al Qaeda advocate" [1] and "warmongering Blairite". [27]
Beeley has shared conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. She has alleged that Microsoft founder Bill Gates has ties to Imperial College London and asked if the UK government was "working for Bill Gates?". [28]