© Associated Press (file photo)
Founder and director of Mayday Rescue, talks to the media during training exercises in southern Turkey, March 19, 2015.
Founder and director of Mayday Rescue, talks to the media during training exercises in southern Turkey, March 19, 2015.
The lengthy Daily Mail article, published December 20, reinforced the established, idolatrous fable of his life and death, while also adding significant new strands to the narrative.
While prior mainstream apologias attributed his untimely demise primarily to an online "disinformation campaign," without attempting to tackle the riddle of how a battle-hardened military veteran could be so deleteriously impacted by baseless social media slurs, the Mail's offering primarily focuses instead on suggestions of financial impropriety on the part of Le Mesurier as the head of Mayday Rescue, the White Helmets' parent organization.
These claims had circulated for some time, and were seemingly vindicated by a De Volkskrant long-read published in July, which revealed how three days prior to his death, Le Mesurier confessed via email to the Helmets' international donors, which funded the group to the tune of hundreds of millions over the years, that he was guilty of fraud, tax evasion, and other grave misdeeds, and urged recipients to prevent a second forensic audit which would likely reveal further "mistakes and internal failures."
Comment: Lockdowns and mask mandates are driving people nuts. As tensions soar and frustration levels rise, expect to see a lot more of this.