Le Mesurier: British Spy and Mercenary

White Helmets founder apparently had a rendezvous with a fixer

Ayman Ahmed

The death on November 11 of British mercenary James Le Mesurier in Istanbul has raised hopes for peace in Syria. It could come none too soon for the traumatized people of Syria that have endured more than eight years of war and bloodshed. While he died on Remembrance Day, Le Mesurier is unlikely to be remembered by many, even those who projected him as larger than life while he served their imperialist agenda.

The former British military and intelligence officer founded the White Helmets outfit, a supposedly humanitarian organization, in March 2013. The initial $300,000 seed money for this cynical project was provided by Britain, the US, and Japan.

What was the British mercenary doing in Istanbul where he died (or was killed)? In addition to creating the White Helmets, he also established the MayDay Rescue outfit to “train” al-Qaeda operatives for terrorist activities in Syria. It was outside the MayDay Rescue offices in Istanbul that his body was found very early in the morning (around 4:30 am).

Whosoever was responsible or whatever the cause of his death, the British mercenary-created outfit was responsible for much vile propaganda against the Syrian government. Money was no problem. Between 2013 and 2016, Le Mesurier received $123 million from Britain and the US to train the so-called White Helmets in their black art.

So successful was he in his work that the British Queen even conferred upon him the title of the “Order of the British Empire” (OBE) in 2016. Surely it was not for “humanitarian work” — there was little of it in Syria despite the media hype — but to advance Britain’s dirty war aims, together with the rogue superpower, the US, and its Zionist and Arabian allies.

Projected as a real-life James Bond — with the same first name — Le Mesurier was lionized by much of the British media. The British Foreign Office-funded propaganda mouthpiece, the BBC, was in the forefront of this campaign.

And so loved were White Helmets in the Western world that in 2016, the group was given the “Right Livelihood Award” in recognition for “outstanding bravery, compassion, and humanitarian engagement in rescuing civilians.” It was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize the same year. The mercenary Western-financed outfit (White Helmets) has even been the subject of a Netflix documentary, which won an Oscar, no less. This is Western propaganda at its best projecting the outfit’s non-existent virtues.

Not everyone, however, has been taken in by such propaganda. Two intrepid journalists, Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett who have been on the ground in Syria for extended periods during the foreign imposed war, have exposed the group’s nefarious activities. Both have also exposed Western propaganda in projecting the White Helmets as some kind of white knights in shining armor!

The two independent journalists have written extensively about the real purpose of the White Helmets and their Western backers. Such firsthand information, however, has found no space in the corporate media. That would have exposed its lies. Only the alternate media has given space to real reporting from the scene.

In an undated photograph, James Le Mesurier goes over an intelligence operation with colleague Nadera al-Sukkar. According to his housekeeper, Mesurier was agitated, tensed, and stressed over the last couple of weeks of his life, requiring prescription sleeping pills to be able to go to sleep. On the day before he “fell to his death,” he had gone to the hospital for medication to lower his blood pressure. He obviously knew his handlers were done with him.

The only exception to the corporate media’s silence has been John Wight writing in the British daily, The Guardian. This is what Wight had to say about Le Mesurier’s activities in an article on April 17, 2018,

Le Mesurier carries about him the inescapable whiff of Britain’s malign legacy of dirty wars, waged in Kenya, Aden, Ireland, Iraq, Libya, in other words wherever London’s blood-soaked imperialist foot has tread around the world. A product of Britain’s prestigious Royal Military Academy of officer training at Sandhurst, he served in various UK military/NATO military deployments over the past three decades, specifically Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Lebanon.

The question of why a given state becomes fragile and failing is of course neither asked nor explored, for doing so would dredge up the subject of imperialism, which for Western ideologues such as Mr. Le Mesurier would be akin to a vampire being exposed to daylight.

Writing for the web-based portal, Mintpress (July 13, 2017), Whitney Webb made even more startling revelations about Le Mesurier and his activities,

Prior to his founding of the White Helmets, Le Mesurier served as Vice President for Special Projects at the Olive Group, a private mercenary organization that has since merged with Blackwater-Academi into what is now known as Constellis Holdings. Then, in 2008, Le Mesurier left the Olive Group after he was appointed to the position of Principal at Good Harbor Consulting, chaired by Richard A. Clarke — a veteran of the US national security establishment and the counter-terrorism “czar” under the Bush and Clinton administrations.

His entire life was spent with murderous mercenary outfits like Blackwater-Academi. It is, therefore, simplistic to accept that Le Mesurier was on a “humanitarian mission” or guided by the noble intention to help Syrian civilians caught in a war.

Not everyone in the West has lied as brazenly about the real purpose of outfits like the White Helmets as the media. Occasionally Western politicians and top military brass have candidly confessed to their real plans in the Muslim East. Such admission reflects more their arrogance than honesty: that they can do what they like and there is little others can do about it.

Take the case of the British Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Philip Jones. In a speech to the First Sea Lords Defence and Security Conference at the City of London, Jones stated last year that “the hard punch of military power is often delivered inside the kid glove of humanitarian relief.”

It is for this reason that military actions sponsored by the US, Britain, Canada, and their allies for the past several decades have often been framed as “humanitarian interventions.” The victims of such interventions know all too well their deadly consequences. After all, they have paid the price in life and blood. The propaganda is meant to hoodwink Western populations into believing that their governments and militaries are involved in “civilizing” missions. It makes them feel good.

Le Muserier’s death is not likely to end the sordid work of Western mercenaries or their local agents. His elimination from the scene, however, would make the propaganda work of the scandalously corrupt outfit like White Helmets a little more difficult. The Syrian people are thankful for even small mercies.