How An Obscure British Blogger Became Russia's Key Witness Against The White Helmets

Vanessa Beeley is a British blogger who believes the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was staged, al-Qaeda wasn’t behind the 9/11 attacks and that “Zionists rule France”.

Vanessa Beeley is a British blogger who believes the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was staged, al-Qaeda wasn't behind the 9/11 attacks and that "Zionists rule France".

But her real passion is trying to convince the world that the White Helmets, the group that rescues people from the rubble of Syria's civil war, is a terrorist-linked organisation that fakes its activities to elicit sympathy in the West for a regime change plot against Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Beeley, 53, is the daughter of the late British diplomat Sir Harold Beeley, and worked in various sales and management roles before turning to activism in 2012.

She would have remained in the fringe world of conspiracy theorists, blogging on alternative news sites and speaking at eventsalongside holocaust deniers and David Icke if it weren't for one thing - she, like thousands of other people, became embroiled in a Russian disinformation campaign.

But unlike most, she would take centre stage. In May of 2017 Petr Iliichev, Russia's Chargé d'Affaires at the UN Security Council, submitted a report containing "information on the work of the White Helmets in Syria".

The evidence in the document consisted solely of a presentation Beeley had given in London earlier that year.

So why would Russia, a state with extensive intelligence gathering services and boots on the ground in Syria, rely on the word of an unknown British blogger?