Vanessa Beeley

Vanessa Beeley (born 1963/1964 ) is a British activist and blogger known for sharing conspiracy theories

Early life and career Beeley is the daughter of former British diplomat Harold Beeley. Initially, she worked as a consultant to a waste management company in the Middle East.

Activism Beeley has travelled to Palestine where she lived through Israeli bombardments. In 2014, she started her blog titled The Wall Will Fall in which she supported the Palestinian cause.

Since 2015, Beeley has focused her activism on the Syrian civil war. She first visited Syria in July 2016. After visiting Syria, Beeley went to Moscow to meet Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov and director of information and press Maria Zakharova. An article by Janine di Giovanni in The New York Review of Books described Bogdanov as "Putin's point man on Syria". and American Herald Tribune.

In 2019, she received the "Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism" from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, which Bellingcat describes as a "pro-Assad lobby group".

Views Some of Beeley's controversial views include a belief that the human rights NGO Human Rights Watch is a "fake" group, that the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris was a false flag operation, and that al-Qaeda was not responsible for the September 11 attacks.

In February 2018, Beeley encouraged her readers to report a list of news outlets and journalists – including the BBC, Channel 4 News and The Guardian – for allegedly violating the UK Terrorism Act. The journalists and media outlets listed by Beeley had all been critical of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

In leaked private chats, Beeley admitted knowing that the Syrian government engages in torture, but said that she would never publicly state so. In 2017, referencing Beeley's false claims, the Russian government submitted a report to the United Nations Security Council that linked the White Helmets to al-Qaeda. Eight countries on the Security Council rejected Russia's submission, saying that the White Helmets are an "impartial, neutral group".

According to data analyst organisations Graphika and Hoaxy, in 2018 Beeley was among the most influential figures in spreading content online about the White Helmets. She has claimed that the Syrian government has not carried out chemical weapon attacks. Experts from the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism have stated that the Syrian Air Force was responsible for the 2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. Beeley has claimed that the attack has been "debunked".

COVID-19 Beeley has shared conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. She has alleged that Microsoft founder Bill Gates has ties to Imperial College London and asked if the UK government was "working for Bill Gates?".