The Evidence We Were Never Supposed to See About The Douma 'Gas' Attack

Robert Fisk
The Independant

The OPCW has opened the door to ridicule, when the simple truth would have been enough.

We like to take the Big Boys on trust. No longer do we believe in our meretricious little leaders with their easy lies and twitters: the Trumps and Mays and now all the nationalists of Europe. We certainly don't put any credit in Arab dictators.

But when, despite all its bureaucracy and corruption, the UN tells us that the world faces climate change, we largely believe what it says. If the International Red Cross warns us of a humanitarian catastrophe in Africa, we tend to take their word for it. And when the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - which represents 193 member states throughout the world - reports on chlorine attacks in Syria, we assume we are hearing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Until now. For in the last few days, there has emerged disturbing evidence that in its final report on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime in the city of Douma last year, the OPCW deliberately concealed from both the public and the press the existence of a dissenting 15-page assessment of two cylinders which had supposedly contained molecular chlorine - perhaps the most damning evidence against the Assad regime in the entire report.

The OPCW officially maintains that these canisters were probably dropped by an aircraft - probably a helicopter, presumably Syrian - over Douma on 7 April 2018. But the dissenting assessment, which the OPCW made no reference to in its published conclusions, finds there is a "higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft".

It is difficult to underestimate the seriousness of this manipulative act by the OPCW. In a response to the conservative author Peter Hitchens, who also writes for the Mail on Sunday - he is of course the brother of the late Christopher Hitchens - the OPCW admits that its so-called technical secretariat "is conducting an internal investigation about the unauthorised [sic] release of the document". 

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See also: Real ‘obscene masquerade’: How BBC depicted staged hospital scenes as proof of Douma chemical attack

CONFIRMED: Chemical Weapons Assessment Contradicting Official Syria Narrative Is Authentic

Caitline Johnstone
Consortium News

The leak undermines the fundamental assumptions behind many years of Western reporting, writes Caitlin Johnstone.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has begun responding to queries by the press about a leaked document that contradicts official OPCW findings on an alleged chemical weapons attack last year in Douma, Syria. The prepared statement they’ve been using in response to these queries confirms the authenticity of the document.
 

To recap, a few days ago the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (WGSPM) published a document signed by a man named Ian Henderson, whose name is seen listed in expert leadership positions on OPCW documents from as far back as 1998 and as recently as 2018. It’s unknown who leaked the document and what other media organizations may have received it.

The report picks apart the extremely shaky physics and narratives of the official OPCW analysis on the gas cylinders allegedly dropped from Syrian government aircraft in the Douma attack, and concludes that “The dimensions, characteristics and appearance of the cylinders, and the surrounding scene of the incidents, were inconsistent with what would have been expected in the case of either cylinder being delivered from an aircraft,” saying instead that manual placement of the cylinders in the locations investigators found them in is “the only plausible explanation for observations at the scene.” 

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At Least 40 Members of White Helmets Admit Staging Syria Chemical Attacks

Sputnik

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – At least 40 members of the White Helmets organization have admitted during recent interviews that they staged chemical attacks in Syria to provoke retaliation against President Bashar Assad, Foundation for the Study of Democracy Director Maxim Grigoriev said on Thursday as he unveiled the results of a new study at the UN.

"We have interviewed … 40 members of the White Helmets, including those from Douma, who provided a detailed description of their methods commonly used by their organization to fake scenes,” Grigoriev said.

The foundation conducted a fact-finding mission in Syria and located both White Helmets members and dozens of other people who participated in the staged attacks, Grigoriev said.

“Those people told us in detail how they had to participate in the staging for few dollars to buy some food for their families,” he said.

One woman recounted how she was given white burial shroud to wrap herself up in and then told to lay on the ground and smear her mouth with toothpaste, Grigoriev said.

Another recalled being told to "close his eyes" as he was filmed being taken to a medical center by members of the White Helmets.

“Amar Al Mustafa Ibn Mohammad from Aleppo saw with his own eyes how they simulated a chemical attack, they brought children, laid them down, put civilians away and filmed children as if they died in the chemical attack,” Grigoriev said. 

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See also: White Helmets Preparing New Provocations in Syria — Russian Envoy to UN

Another ‘Fake Chemical Attack’ Would Trigger Major Crisis in Syria, Former UK Envoy Says

RT

There is a real risk that the West could use another alleged chemical attack to justify actions in Syria which could spark a dangerous crisis, former UK ambassador to Syria Peter Ford told RT.

Speaking on RT's political show CrossTalk with Peter Lavelle, Ford warned that Syria watchers were too focused on a potential crisis in the Golan Heights (Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and a source of numerous tensions between Damascus and Tel Aviv).

Yet, the real threat of escalation comes from the potential of another "Douma-like situation," the ex-envoy said, referring to April's alleged gas attack in a besieged rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta, which resulted in US-led airstrikes against the Syrian government's military and scientific facilities.

"We're in danger of looking at the wrong flashpoint. It's not the Golan. The real potential flashpoint is a return to a Douma-like situation," Ford said.

"Remember in April, we were close to World War 3. We were talking in those terms. And the same scenario could be reproduced at any moment, but most likely it will be reproduced when the moment comes for the siege of Idlib, which is some months down the track.

"But it's perfectly foreseeable that the same conditions will be produced, and I believe there will be another fake chemical attack, which will trigger a really dangerous crisis." 

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Eva Bartlett on Spring 2018 Visit to Syria, Israeli Violence in Gaza

GlobalResearchTV

 

Published on Jul 9, 2018

In this special July 2 edition of GRTV, we interview Canadian award-winning journalist Eva Bartlett about her most recent trip to Syria. In this 26 minute feature Bartlett talks about residents in Douma who refute the accusations of chemical weapons attacks there, she talks about the kidnapping of civilians and the hoarding of food by terrorist factions, Western governments reprisals in April which affected cancer care facilities, an the toll sanctions were taking on the country. Eva also recounts her experiences in Gaza and how they inform her understanding of Israel's most recent attacks on protesters at the Israel-Gaza border wall. More of Eva's journalistic work can be found at 

https://ingaza.wordpress.com/

"No Nerve Agents" In Douma: OPCW Report Demolishes White House Sarin Narrative

ZeroHedge

 

A preliminary report published Friday by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found no traces of any nerve agent at the site of a suspected chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma. The OPCW report states this unambiguously as follows:

"No organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties."

Compare the newly published official OPCW findings with the 5-page White House assessment released on April 13th, just days after the alleged attack. Now contradicted by the new OPCW findings, the White House asserted that sarin was used at Douma,

A significant body of information points to the regime using chlorine in its bombardment of Duma, while some additional information points to the regime also using the nerve agent sarin.

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OPCW Chemical Inspection Team Reaches Douma After Issuing Statement Negating "Russia Cover-Up" Claim

"Some among this early group of journalists which gained entry to the site, such as the UK Independent’s Robert Fisk and One America News Network’s Pearson Sharp found no evidence that a chemical attack took place in Douma, contrary to what’s been widely reported in international media."

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Zero Hedge 

After many days of delay inside the security arch of Damascus' city center, the international chemical weapons watchdog group, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), announced that its team of investigators finally entered the Damascus suburb town of Douma early on Saturday.

In an official statement posted to its website, the OPCW confirmed the following: 

The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) visited one of the sites in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic today to collect samples for analysis in connection with allegations of chemical weapons use on 7 April 2018. The OPCW will evaluate the situation and consider future steps including another possible visit to Douma.

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission will initially study the collected samples at an OPCW lab in the Netherlands, with potential sample distribution to its other designated labs. In the past, it's take up to multiple weeks or months for the OPCW to issue a preliminary report to the public.

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American and British Reporters Reach Douma, Syria: Discover There Was NO Chemical Weapons Attack

Washington's Blog

Forget what the Syrian government or the Ruskies say.

The first Western journalist has interviewed doctors at the hospital in Douma, Syria which supposedly treated chemical weapons victims and is announcing what really happened.

In the following 1-minute clip, award-winning journalist Robert Fisk – writer for Britain’s Independent for almost 30 years – explains that the video of victims struggling to breathe are real, but that they have nothing to do with a chemical weapons attack:

Here’s a transcript:

I’ve just been in the town of Douma. I found the clinic where the film of the children frothing at the mouth and having water thrown at them was made.
And I spoke to the hospital doctor, who actually spoke very good English. And he told me that the video is real. But they’re not suffering from gas poisoning.
They’re suffering from hypoxia (i.e. insufficient of oxygen) because of the amount of dust in the tunnels in which they live. All through the year people in the Douma area have been living beneath their own homes, in tunnels and basements.
And that night there was a shelling by the Syrian army and the Russian air force. And it produced a huge amount of dust and debris in the streets. And many people found it difficult to breathe.
And when they reached the clinic according to the doctor, someone shouted “gas” … and they panicked.

Background here and here.

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