CODEPINK Ignored Sanctions That Suffocated Syria Since 2011 but Now They Want To Visit Syria Under Control of Al Qaeda
By Vanessa Beeley – Mar 2, 2025
CODEPINK supported the narratives that enabled the regime change war against Syria.
2016 – CODEPINK promote CIA, MI6 White Helmet organisation embedded with Al Qaeda in Syria since 2013
You can find a fairly extensive archive of my investigative journalism on the MI6-midwived White Helmet organisation at this link.
Rick Sterling – Vanessa Beeley has revealed the organization in more depth in articles such as “Who Are the White Helmets?” and “War by Way of Deception“.
Yesterday, Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK went on X with the following announcement:
A small group of us are heading to Syria in mid-March to learn firsthand about the political situation and the impact of U.S. sanctions. We’re eager to meet with journalists, academics, and organizers to strengthen advocacy efforts for lifting these harmful sanctions. If you or someone you know can help with logistics, connections, or insights, please DM me!
For those who are not yet aware of CodePink, this is how they describe themselves:
CODEPINK is a feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming* programs. Join us!
Life-affirming programs are investments in social programs that uplift human dignity instead of tear it down. We believe universal health care must include the right to an abortion, access to education must not be determined by income bracket, and housing is a human right.
While CODEPINK may have done some good work for Palestine over the years, their record on Syria has been abysmal.
Since 2011 when the regime change war began to destabilise Syria and overthrow the Syrian government, CODEPINK has been largely oblivious to the collective punishment of the Syrian people by military and economic means. Suddenly, with Al Qaeda in control of the country and ethnic cleansing operations ongoing against all ethnic minorities in all regions of the country – CODEPINK suddenly want to inform themselves, on the ground, about the debilitating effects of economic coercive measures that have stripped the Syrian people of their dignity and their most basic human rights?
Where were CODEPINK for the last 15 years, one may ask? The answer is they were regurgitating Muslim Brotherhood aka CIA, MI6 talking points that sustained the regime change war and permitted US occupation of oil and agricultural resources, the expansion of ISIS and the destruction of Syrian health, economic, industrial, humanitarian and education infrastructure since 2011.
In 2017 I published the following on Facebook:
I am boycotting Code Pink, despite their viral videos re Yemen. Code Pink are cleverly packaged controlled opposition. Would anybody be able to show me where CP have actually attacked the UN for its illegal sanctions on Yemen that are enabling the mass starvation of 27 million Yemeni people. A repeat of Iraq.
CP have done nothing but support US intervention since Libya. Please remember they supported sanctions against Iraq that led to the deaths of 500,000 children. Prof. Francis Boyle described it as genocide.
Sanctions are economic terrorism.
Code Pink have also supported the White Helmets in Syria and they have promulgated colonial media propaganda that has maintained the conflict and the suffering of the Syrian people while, of course, saying they care about the Syrian people.
Here is one message to CP from Henry Lowendorf of the US Peace Council about CP support for the White Helmets:
“I am blown away by this latest from Code Pink. Like Clinton, Medea protested Bush and asked for sanctions against Iraq not overt invasion. Now she promotes the child beheaders and heart eaters of the Al Queda Medic/PR support the White Helmets. Please White Women 4 peace, I know you care more than just about the women of your race and passported country. Why have you forgotten to protest HRC “Killary” and get your country, your Democratic party, out of other less wealthy folks. We know you are comfortable and bless your public relations. But your support for the Iraq sanctions killed all too many Iraqi children. Your support now for the Nusra Front that during photo ops wear white helmets and at other times use dull knives to cut into the necks of 12 year old Syrian children until their cries muffle by sick gargle and the blood spurts as the child dies.
Please Medea, you can’t continue your advertisement as a comfortable well compensated world traveller and attention getter, poster child for the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, aiding and abetting child murder, torture and rape of civilian Syrians. Please consider opposing your government’s funding arming of these moderate child killers. We all don’t support President Assad but he was elected by Syrians, and would any member of Code PINK be brave enough to help the secular Syrian army against the terrorist barbarians organized funded and lethally armed by your USA government who snipe kill and death squad teachers, journalists and other Syrian civilians? The White Helmets and their patrons in the foreign war against Syria are not Syrians generally. They are the PR face of the US war against Syria. Please know that while you continue in this way the justice of history may find you guilty of war crimes like a good German during the NAZI actions. But know that even as you are guilty, I will ask that no penalty be advocated against my former volunteer lecturer from my student organized Central America class.
It’s never too late, please help the children of Syria or at least stop killing and harming them.”
From Eva Karene Bartlett on CP support of MSM propaganda on the Al Qaeda occupation of Madaya south of Damascus:
“Well that’s a nice turn of events, since Benjamin and Codepink earlier this year put forth a petition blaming the Syrian govt “the “Assad regime”) for the Madaya ‘crisis’–in which terrorists within stole, hoarded and sold food for exorbitant prices.
Glad that Benjamin is now organizing a lawn protest. Hope that redeems she and Codepink for their war propaganda.
This was pure war propaganda. [Below is the CODEPINK narrative push that aligns perfectly with the US, UK media universal propaganda complex.]
“The regime of Bashar al-Assad, with support from its allies, has cut off the people of Madaya, Syria, from the rest of the world and is depriving them of badly needed supplies like food and humanitarian aid. As a result, people are starving to death or have resorted to eating bugs and leaves to survive. Videos have surfaced of children who look like skeletons from malnourishment. This horrific situation constitutes a form of collective punishment –– violating international law.
Our hearts break for the Syrian people who have endured so much violence over the past five years. The people of Syria need our help, but more war and violence is not the answer.”
[You can read the on-the-ground reality of Madaya from journalist Eva Bartlett here. ]
Here is the CP reply ref their support of the Al Qaeda-White Helmets, maintaining anti-Syria propaganda:
“We at CODEPINK shared the story of the White Helmets as an example of a group of people doing what they can to support life in the midst of death, destruction and war. In response to thoughtful criticisms,
We realized that some assert that the story of the White Helmets has become a tool for propaganda by one side of the ongoing civil/regional war in Syria. It was not our intention to endorse any side of this conflict, nor to promote messages in favor of military intervention in Syria by the United States or any other nation.
We stand in solidarity with our Syrian brothers and sisters who are suffering from violence, whether it is at the hands of the Assad regime, the opposition, ISIL, or any foreign intervention by the US or Russia. We remain, as always, committed to peace in Syria and around the world.”
Peace at what cost?
“Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press.” Stephen Kinzer
Journalist Rick Sterling took a softer line with CODEPINK:
“Alternative media” in the West has sadly echoed mainstream media regarding the Syria conflict. The result is that many progressive individuals and groups are confused or worse. For example, the activist group CodePink recently issued a media release promoting the Netflix White Helmets propaganda video.
The White Helmets video is produced by Grain Media and Violet Films/Ultra-Violet Consulting. The latter advertises itself as a marketing corporation specializing in social media management, grant writing, crowd building and campaign implementation. The only question is who paid them to produce this video.
There is growing resistance to this manipulation and deception. In response to a petition to give the Nobel Peace Prize to the White Helmets, there is a counter petition at Change.org. The Right Livelihood Awards have just been announced and there will soon be a petition demanding retraction of the award to the White Helmets.
Chain of Corruption: How the White Helmets Compromised OPCW Investigations in Syria
According to CODEPINK, Assad and ISIS were equally “murderous”, a line peddled by the Western regimes leading regime change operations. The following was a response to the CODEPINK anti-Syria propaganda by Indian activist Feroze Mithiborwala:
Dear Code Pink,
Greetings,
Its really high time that you re-looked your understanding and your analysis of Syria and your position on President Bashar al Assad.
By all indicators, Bashar al Assad has the support of between 70-80% of the Syrian nation.
Thus by constantly buying into the Western-imperialist narrative of Assad the Dictator and the Assad Regime, you are doing a lot of damage to the global peace and anti-war movement.
You are also insulting the Syrian People who have accepted a new Constitution in 2012, after a national referendum, all 56% of the population that voted. Syria is evolving into a multi-party democracy. That is the way that nations need to evolve and Syria responded to the voices that emanated from Tunisia and was negotiating the process, till the Saudi-Qatari-Turkish-Nato backed Islamists decided to wreck mayhem and chaos.
Kindly run through a copy of the Syrian Constitution if you still haven’t. Even that of Tunisia. Whilst Tunisia was allowed to evolve, Syria was not given that chance at all. There are both strategic and economic reasons here as you well know.
You are also insulting the intelligence of the Syrian People, where again in June 2014, more than 73% of the Syrian nation went to the polls, despite the threats from terrorists, despite being warned not to vote, with suicide bombers and shoot-outs promised, yet the people voted in droves.
They voted to say, give a message to the world that Syria will not be divided, that Syria will remain secular, that Syria is a multi-religious plural society, that Syria rejects theocracy and stand for a modern secular democracy.
You would at least agree that it is finally for the Syrian people to decide who their elected leader would be.
For now that is President Bashar al Assad. Both his worst detractors have given him numbers that cannot be discounted – Al Jazeera stated 56% for Assad way back in 2012, whilst Nato itself says that Assad has 70% ….
Then how can these Western Morons keep on saying “Assad Must Go”…??
This is the result of pompous impetuosity that goes with a colonial mindset. We know better, we will decide your leaders for you. Someone that Riaydh, Doha, Tel Aviv and Ankara love …
Thus here the only solution is that after once the scourge of terror is contained and defeated (and not merely degraded …. for perpetual controlled chaos), as the Russians have demonstrated in less than 45 days, the way ahead is very simple.
The political solution that is being discussed must be supported.
Finally after a new secular constitution is negotiated, as agreed in Vienna, let the Elections be held under the auspices of UN Monitors and observers from the UNSC, G20 and BRICS, Arab League, African Union, Shanghai cooperation Organization, ASEAN, the Bolivarian Nations.
In short, let the whole world come and observe, monitor, place CCTV cameras at each polling booth, have CNN-FOX-BBC-Al Jazeera at every street corner asking people if the elections were free and fair.
And after the elections results are out, we shall know.
In short, let the Syrian people decide.
In solidarity with the Global Resistance, the Global Intifada
CODEPINK supported the narrative that “Assad gassed his own people” which underpinned the regime-change efforts and were events staged by none other than the White Helmet organisation, also supported by CODEPINK. This entire narrative has been debunked multiple times but not by CODEPINK whose protection of the Syrian people does not, apparently, run to actually countering the narratives that are causing the most damage to the Syrian people in the long term.
Did CODEPINK condemn the final international coup in Damascus? The coup that led to Zionist occupation of Syrian territory and the obliteration of Syrian defence and military capability? The coup that led to the Al Qaeda Junta and the dissolution of the Syrian Arab Army, constitution, Parliament and legislative structure? The coup that has enabled the mass extermination of ethnic minorities including Alawites, Shia, Christians and any who challenge the HTS fanaticism? Does CODEPINK condemn the rape, murder, kidnapping and execution of women who refuse to comply with HTS diktats on dress code and behaviour? No.
Instead this is the statement CODEPINK issued after the fall of Assad:
It’s shocking to see what once felt impossible change so suddenly. Over the last few days, I’ve seen Syrian political prisoners run freely through the streets for the first time in decades as people celebrate the end of the Assad regime. Syrians in exile talk about returning home for the first time. I can’t help but feel joyful with them. How can I not, when the right of return is something I wish for my people every day? [..]
So, now, CODEPINK feel motivated to go to Syria, not when it was safe and protected by the Syrian Arab Army and enjoying relative peace from 2019 onwards but now it is ruled by an illegitimate Muslim Brotherhood-dominated and foreign mercenary-infiltrated, sectarian, unelected regime backed by Turkey that is occupying Damascus and paving the way for further Zionist annexation of Syrian territory.
Please do look at the comments on Benjamin’s post.. people are really not as dumb as CODEPINK think they are:
You should have done this 10 years ago, when The U.S. Empire and its vassals were already crippling the Syrian people with colonialracist, brutal sanctions, as part of their dirty war against Syria. Pieter de Rooij
In 2022, UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan did challenge the punitive sanctions that were suffocating the Syrian people.
“I am struck by the pervasiveness of the human rights and humanitarian impact of the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria and the total economic and financial isolation of a country whose people are struggling to rebuild a life with dignity, following the decade-long war.” Alena Douhan
Where were CODEPINK?
(Substack)
Vanessa Beeley
Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist, peace activist, photographer and associate editor at 21st Century Wire. Vanessa was a finalist for one of the most prestigious journalism awards – the 2017 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism – whose winners have included the likes of Robert Parry in 2017, Patrick Cockburn, Robert Fisk, Nick Davies and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism team. You can support Vanessa’s journalism through her Patreon Page.
