Dr Rola

Dr Rola - BBC Newsnight, 30 August 2013

"Dr. Rola" appeared anonymously on UK television to report on the aftermath of an attack in Syria. Her testimony was just as compelling and emotional as the lies of 'Nurse Nayirah' to the US congress in the run up to the Iraq War.

Full Name

"Dr Rola"'s full name has not been officially disclosed. She appears to have had two names:

Dr Rola Hallam MBBS, BSc, FRCA

The 'role of honour' entry on the ATFAL website read:

Rola is a doctor in anaesthesia and intensive care, with a passion for education, child and global health. Drawing on her previous charitable work in sub-Saharan Africa, Rola has been working since the beginning of the Syria crisis on delivery of aid to Syria, raising awareness and advocacy.

Dr Rola Alkurdi FRCA

Dr Rola Alkurdi is referenced on the UCL staff page as "Education Fellow + Registrar in Anaesthesia", and is a coauthor of Rapid Paediatrics and Child Health. She was one of 725 doctors who signed a 2009 open letter demanding the dismissal of newly-appointed WMA president, Dr Yoram Blachar, because of Israeli doctors' complicity in the torture of Palestinians.. This is probably her maiden name.

BBC TV Appearances

Panorama - 26 August 2013

BBC Panorama footage of the aftermath of alleged Aleppo 'Napalm' attack was shown on Monday 26 August 2013. It included video described as 'unverified' but shown nonetheless. In it Ian Pannell, the BBC on-the-spot reporter, described how two British doctors present were working as volunteers for the charity Hand in Hand for Syria. One of them, 'Dr Rola', was interviewed in the aftermath of the alleged attack. In a related Daily Telegraph article she was described as an 'English Doctor working at a London Hospital' and volunteering for relief work in Syria through 'Hand in Hand for Syria' .

Newsnight - 30 August 2013

Introduced to BBC Newsnight viewers as "A British Doctor just back from volunteering in Syria who wants to be called 'Dr Rola'" an attractive thirty-something lady described her experience of an alleged napalm attack in Aleppo, Syria as "...one of the most horrific few hours of my life". Speaking in an educated English - with just a trace of East Midlands - accent, she gave a bravura, restrained-emotional performance describing the horrors she had witnessed and advocating Western military intervention in support of Syrian anti-government forces. It is not too much of a stretch to say that, had her interview been broadcast before the UK House of Commons vote which had declined military action a few hours earlier, the outcome may well have been different. Her performance was that persuasive.

Politics Programme - Saturday 31 August 2013

Dr Rolas's access to funding for her cause is clearly no problem because, during her studio interview for this program, she pointedly offered to host a 7 day visit by Ed Miliband and his family to Aleppo "... to see for himself and at my expense" . Her 'opponent' in the studio was Labour MP Dianne Abbott who, in a bizarre contribution and looking very uncomfortable indeed in the face of Dr Rola's scathing attack on her leader for declining military intervention, assured us that "Bombing Syria has probably only been postponed" because now is not yet judged to be the right time. Towards the end of the Panorama interview in Aleppo (see first section above), Dr Rola opined, in an impeccable estuary English accent : "The whole world has failed our nation", whereas in this studio interview she stated: "The whole world has failed the Syrian nation" - so, is she Syrian or English or both - and where exactly do her loyalties lie?

Panorama and News - 30 September 2013

In a report headlined BBC Crew returns to Aleppo on 30 September 2013, rehashed footage from the original program was aired again. It featured BBC reporter Ian Pannel talking to two Hand in Hand for Syria female doctors. Presented as a heart-rending report of what is undoubtedly grave and genuine humanitarian suffering, it was nonetheless done in such as way as to very effectively demonise of the Syrian government.

Evidence of Fakery

There is compelling evidence of fakery in the Panorama video footage. This is most apparent in the differences in both the backgrounds and sound tracks filmed by the BBC camera crew and shown respectively in the 26 August and 30 September programs. Repeated study of the footage also makes the behaviour of some of those with alleged napalm burns and other injuries appear choreographed. Close viewing of the third party footage described by Ian Pannell as 'unverified' raises disturbing questions about the authenticity of the entire alleged attack.

Associations

Dr Saleyha Ahsan

Both Panorama programs talk of TWO British female doctors, "volunteers for the Charity Hand-in-Hand-for Syria". One is Dr Rola Hallam, née al-Kurdi, the other is Dr Saleyha Ahsan. Dr Ahsan graduated from Sandhurst and saw service as a Captain with the British Army Medical Corps in Bosnia. The BBC avoided mentioning the affiliations of BOTH its "Charitable Volunteers".

Hand in Hand for Syria

Full article: Hand in Hand for Syria

The charity for which Dr Rola works, Hand in Hand for Syria, appears to have a close ideological connection to the Syrian National Opposition in Exile - i.e. the Rebels and their Free Syrian Army - since the Charity logo is derived from the SNO adopted flag. Also, in her BBC interviews, she repeatedly urges the need (for humanitarian purposes naturally) to overthrow "the regime" (a BBC pejorative for 'government').

The Nurse Nayirah Affair

Full article: Nurse Nayirah

To those who remember the run-up to the first Iraq war in 1990, Dr Rola's reports carry disturbing echoes of the Nurse Nayirah episode, in which a volunteer 'student nurse' who, for security reasons, wished to remain anonymous, testified before the US Congress that she had witnessed Iraqi troops "throwing new-born babies from incubators and leaving them to die on the cold floor". It later transpired that her testimony was a fabrication cooked up by the US PR firm Hill & Knowlton, whom the Kuwait government had employed to make the case for war. The 'student nurse' was in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US who sat behind her as she delivered her testimony.

Public Right to Know?

Having appeared on national TV with supposed medical, charitable and otherwise altruistic credentials to advocate for military intervention advocating for a military bombing campaign, can she have any realistic expectation of anonymity? In light particularly of the Nurse Nayirah Affair, surely the public deserves to know the true identity of "Dr Rola", the better to judge what to make of her testimony?

Unanswered Questions

In the fraught circumstances of a rising drum-beat crescendo for military intervention in Syria, the public deserves answers to some basic questions about "Dr Rola"...

1. What is the precise name and location of the alleged school?

According to an Arab language web site with a contributor said to be from the vicinity of the claimed attack, the bombed building shown in the video is not a school but a fairly standard construction villa with a swimming pool on the other side of the buttressed wall

2. Is there any independent verification of the attack?

Are witnesses available for interview? What is the condition of the school now?

3. Why were so many children apparently at school during the school holiday period?

The original BBC piece claimed the school attack took place during the last week of August 2013, "at the end of the school day", and killed at least 10 children. However, Syrian school holidays run from 30 June to 1 September.

4. What is Dr Rola's name and family background

Her maiden name is probably al-Kurdi. The Deputy leader of the Free Syrian Army is Colonel Malik al-Kurdi. Is this a mere coincidence?

Request for information

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