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OPCW Whistleblowers: Management Manipulated Reports – Douma ‘Chemical Weapon Attack’ Was Staged
On April 7 2018 Syrian 'rebels' claimed that the Syrian government had used chlorine gas and Sarin in an attack on the besieged Douma suburb near the Syrian capital Damascus. They published a series of videos which showed the dead bodies of mainly women and children.
Before the incident Jaish al-Islam, the main 'rebel' group in Douma, had already agreed to leave towards Idleb governorate. Under those circumstances the claims made no sense. The various details in the produced videos and pictures were inconsistent with a chemical incident.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) investigated the incident and in July 2018 produced an interim report (pdf) that showed that no Sarin was used in Douma. The OPCW inspectors had only found various chlorinated organic chemicals (COCs) which are common in every household. Media falsely claimed that those finds were proof of a chlorine gas attack.
The interim report did not show any use of chemical weapons but it had, as we noted, some curious anomalies:
The preliminary OPCW report says nothing about the concentrations in which these substances were found. Without knowing the concentrations, which may may be extremely low, one can not come to further conclusion. The report includes none of the witness statements the fact finding mission took. In various TV reports the medical personal of the one hospital involved in the stunt said that none of their patients were affected by chlorine or chemical weapons.
The final report (pdf), published in March 2019, changed the tone. It specifically claimed that gas cylinders found at two places of the incident must have been dropped from the air. As only the Syrian government, not the 'rebels', has used helicopters the report was an indictment of the Syrian government.
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In May 2019 one OPCW inspector came forward and said that the OPCW management had suppressed an internal engineering assessment that contradicted the claim that the gas cylinder fell from the air. OPCW management had used external expertise of unknown provenance that had come to the wrong conclusion. The cylinders must have been positioned by hand. The incident was staged.
Now a second OPCW whistleblower has come forward with additional claims that the OPCW management manipulated the findings of its own inspectors after it had come under pressure from U.S. officials.
Jonathan Steele, a former chief foreign correspondent for the Guardian, writes:
The inspector went public with his allegations at a recent all-day briefing in Brussels for people from several countries working in disarmament, international law, military operations, medicine and intelligence. They included Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on Palestine and Major-General John Holmes, a distinguished former commander of Britain’s special forces. The session was organised by the Courage Foundation, a New York-based fund which supports whistle-blowers. I attended as an independent reporter.
The whistle-blower gave us his name but prefers to go under the pseudonym Alex out of concern, he says, for his safety.
He is the second member of the Douma Fact-Finding Mission to have alleged that scientific evidence was suppressed.
The OPCW inspector had written the original interim report and, based on his own and his colleagues findings, concluded that the incident was "a non chemical-related event". But the OPCW management rewrote the report and left that conclusion out.
The whistleblower also explained the lack of COC concentration values in the interim report that we had noted:
By then the inspector had learnt that the results of the quantitative analysis of the samples from the allegedly attacked buildings had been delivered to management from the test laboratories but not passed on to the inspectors. He got sight of the results which indicated that the levels of COCs were much lower than what would be expected in environmental samples. They were comparable to and even lower than those given in the World Health Organisation’s guidelines on recommended permitted levels of trichlorophenol and other COCs in drinking water. The redacted version of the report made no mention of the findings.
Alex described this omission as “deliberate and irregular”. “Had they been included, the public would have seen that the levels of COCs found were no higher than you would expect in any household environment”, he said.
The inspector who drafted the original report was furious when he realised it was to be replaced by a doctored management version. He wrote an email of complaint to the OPCW’s director general. The DG was Ahmet Uzumcu, a Turkish diplomat but his chef de cabinet, the man considered to have the most power in the OPCW on day-to-day issues was Bob Fairweather, a British career diplomat.
The intervention was unsuccessful and the OPCW management published the manipulated report without the concentration values.
It soon became clear to the inspectors who was behind this manipulation:
On July 4 there was another intervention. Fairweather, the chef de cabinet, invited several members of the drafting team to his office. There they found three US officials who were cursorily introduced without making clear which US agencies they represented. The Americans told them emphatically that the Syrian regime had conducted a gas attack, and that the two cylinders found on the roof and upper floor of the building contained 170 kilograms of chlorine. The inspectors left Fairweather’s office, feeling that the invitation to the Americans to address them was unacceptable pressure and a violation of the OPCW’s declared principles of independence and impartiality.
Under U.S pressure the OPCW management ignored the findings of its own inspectors and published at least two manipulated reports that falsely accused the Syrian government of a chemical attack.
The OPCW management did not respond to questions Jonathan Steele submitted to it.
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Previous Moon of Alabama coverage of the Douma incident and its aftermath:
Canthama says: “there must be a pay back, or crime against humanity will always pay off under the zio-nazis globalist world. by: Canthama @ 7 IRT to Canthama.. TEP responded..
In addition to OPCW .. many international institutions, .. UN itself, economic/trade organisations (IMF WB WTO etc), human rights oversight, international observers, law enforcement bodies & judiciary, and even sport (WADA & Olympics) [,etc] .. no direct action ever appears to be taken .. and even their ‘allies’ will switch to the new institutions that emerge in their place (eg. AIIB). by: TEP @ 29
First off.. if the prosecutor works for you.. you don’t ask the prosecutor to indite, convict you.. you ask him/her to just ignore ur crime .. forever.. so as long as the right to prosecute remains in the hands of the criminal, there will be no reason whatsoever for state actors to avoid inflicting crimes against humanity.
Because both criminal state actor and the prosecutor are part of the same nation state, I presented in the last thread the idea that a reciprocal human rights government was needed: the civil government <==its subjects<=the masses; the human rights government <== its subjects <==those in the civil government.
To summarize.. State Actors who use the powers of the civil nation state government to violate human rights, are prosecuted not by the nation state whose powers were abused by the actor in power, but instead by the human rights court. That court protects the governed subjects of a nation state government from the Actors that have the power to operate the nation state. The members of the masses are still subject of the nation state, and must abide by the laws of the nation state, but the members of the nation state who violate the laws of mankind become liable for prosecution by the governed masses who must endure the rule of a nation state.
There are 8 billion humans in the world divided into 208 nation states. History proves Bad Apple State Actors pose a grave, and unnecessary risk of early death or loss of freedom to 8 billion humans. This risk occurs when bad apple persons are in a position to wield the power of the nation state or to use the power to engage in crimes against humanity. . which include corruption, theft, malfeasance, genocide, war, and other such activities that threaten or harm humanity.
So anyone who is in control of, or who works for, or contracts with, a nation state or other type of civil government or any of its parts who acts to violate the human rights of one or more of the 8 billion becomes liable to humanity for any infringement the rights of its members. Hence when a Bad Apple State Actor uses his power derived from association to the nation state, to violate a human right, all of humanity has the duty (Canthama’s law) to hold such a Bad Apple State Actor liable for his/her unauthorized use of a nation state power that violated one or more of the rights or privileges of humans living now on this earth. <= this is what is meant in the American Declaration of Independence (1776) “that certain truths are self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that each man is endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these [unalienables] are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.. that in order to secure these rights, governments are instituted to assume their just powers from the Consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the right of the governed to alter or to abolish it,
not said, but implied is: that whenever any State Actor abuses the consent of the governed, his entire government loses the consent of the governed (loss of consent, can only be restored, if the bad apple state actor is immediately removed from a position within or protection of a consensual government. hence the bad apple state actor becomes individually answerable to mankind..just as soon as he or she engages a wrongful use of the powers, given by consent of the governed, to the government.
How should Bad Apple State Actors be prosecuted.. ? I proposed a separate from the nation state Human rights court manned by judges independent of the nation state, and qualified by means independent of the nation state, but appointed from the entire 8 billion human world. The power of 8 billion humans to enforce the laws of humanity against State Actors is stronger than any of the nation states. Its just that the division of the humanity in 208 parts has weakened their collective power of humanity such that it requires an armed rebellion to remove bad apple nation state actors. But when all of 8 billion are working within their respective nation states to support each other against bad apple state actors.. the power of the masses is overwhelming.
Procedure: How would a bad apple state actor be charged, tried, convicted, and punished? Any member of the masses who is subject to the rule or power of a nation state, may charge a state actor with a crime against humanity. Where the charge would be made to the Human Rights court.
Such HR courts would be independent of the nation state systems. If the judge in that court reviews the evidence that produced the charge against a bad apple state actor, and finds such evidence to justify a cause for the court to hear the case. the judge would order the state actor to be immediately removed from position within the nation state and incarcerated in a jail under the control of the human rights court.. a trial would be held, and if the bad apple state actor were to be found guilty, the court impose a penalty and the bad apple state actor would be obligated to endure the penalty.
I call this reciprocal government, the civil government regulates by its laws, police, courts and jails bad apple members of governed public, the human rights government regulates by its laws, police, courts and jails bad apple state actors.
Obviously much needs to be worked out.. but I see this human rights idea being the first truly global government mankind has yet devised.
Posted by: snake | Nov 17 2019 2:38 utc | 36
“OMG! All of the NGOs and every TV network and newspaper is infiltrated by the CIA!”
That may be the surface appearance of things, but that is not how things work in the “liberal democratic” West. The reality is uglier and a little more complex.
First, while the CIA is immensely powerful (combine all of their death squad armies, trainers, contractors and operators and they are easily among the top ten militaries in the world), and their Operation Mockingbird influence in mass media has matured to full operational effectiveness, it is not guaranteed that the CIA, or even its leashed dogs from the rest of the “Five Eyes”, have salaried personnel running everything from the OPCW to the IMF and WADA. Yet these organization consistently skew, or outright falsify, their findings and reports to sanctify the West while demonizing the West’s boogieman du jour. How is this possible without a giant conspiracy?
To understand how this works one must first note that the United States is a nation at permanent war. Wartime psychology has become part of American culture. “Loose lips sink ships.” “Service on the Home Front.” America is under attack by mysterious forces that nobody really understands, but everybody is nevertheless certain exists in the shadowy places in the world, and considering how painfully ignorant most American are that is most of the world.
[Aside: You would think American “journalists” and “diplomats” on assignment abroad would be able to see past the haze of their own ignorance and be at least personally enlightened about the places they travel to, but that is sadly not the case. If you are a backpacker abroad staying at cheap hostels and eating where the local working class eat and trying to commune with the soul of the society that you are a guest of, you will never run across an American journalist or diplomat in your travels. To find one you will need to make your way to the capital of the country you are in, find that city’s central business district, find the Marriott or Hilton there, proceed to the hotel lounge, et voilà, there are all of the western “journalists” and “diplomats” on assignment in that country. You will find them bitching amongst themselves about how dirty the local taxis are, how crappy their hotel Internet connection and the local TV programming is, and how the locals are all so dumb because they are not fluent in English. The shadows of ignorance of the world are just as deep and dark for these people as for the trailer-dwellers back in the States who never leave their hometown except for that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Vegas or Disney or Atlantic City.]
America is a country at war, and it is every patriotic citizen’s duty to America and to the troops on the ground around the world to do whatever they can for the war effort.
Every American knows that there are covert operations going on across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and even in Europe, but “Loose lips sink ships.” The patriot’s duty to support these operations is to pretend that they are not happening, and attack anyone who talks about them. These things are supposed to be secret, after all, and defending the secrecy is something any citizen can do.
More importantly, every American knows that a big part of the war effort is information warfare. This means that they fully expect that the mass media will lie if it is necessary for the war effort, and thus it is the patriot’s duty to make themselves believe those lies to contribute what they can to the war effort. This leads to bizarre scenes like confronting a group of Americans about Julian Assange being tortured to death, something everyone in that group acknowledges to themselves, and having that entire group forcefully respond that the claim is conspiracy theory spread by America’s enemies.
There is no subset of the American population that more acutely feels the need to maintain narratives supportive of America’s overt and covert war efforts than “journalists” and other employees of the mass infotainment industry. They see themselves as the front line troops in the information side of America’s war against… whoever or whatever that enemy is, they are not really sure themselves. They just need a bit of direction from the Operation Mockingbird networks to get them pointed at the right enemy du jour target and they will handle the rest. This is how a CIA narrative drop in BuzzFeed or WaPo turns into a uniform chorus across the entire media industry without the CIA having to have every newsroom in the country on the payroll.
This informal enlistment in the American Empire’s war efforts also applies to NGOs. Yes, the empire is doing evil things making mistakes, but America is still the center of the “rules-based world order”. Elites around the world depend upon the continuation of this order for their own personal power and wealth, and the lieutenants of those elites need the continuation of that order for their own status in society to remain above that of the working class nasty deplorables. Literally millions of high-paid “intellectuals” with otherwise useless degrees and middle managers with no real skills depend upon the current world order to protect their lifestyles and avoid having to do anything like real productive work. Their quality of life depends upon the continued dominance of the elites that they serve. Positions at NGOs with executive and editorial authority are relatively easy and lucrative gigs so long as they are keeping those supplying the gravy for their gravy trains happy, and individuals in those positions absolutely know who is buttering their bread.
So you see the executives at WADA don’t have to be on the CIA payroll. They just have to know that it is important for the empire that Russia be demonized and “stars” from the imperial center like the steroid monster Serena Williams need to be protected from any criticism.
Notice that you no longer hear any hysteria about air pollution from the NGOs tasked with monitoring it now that there are no longer any Chinese cities in the top 20 most polluted? Has air pollution suddenly ceased being a problem in the world? Of course not, but now all of the worst offenders are in countries at least nominally aligned with the empire, so the problem gets downplayed. The CIA doesn’t have to issue any orders for that to happen as the top staff at the NGOs are so thoroughly tied to global capitalist/imperialist elites that they make the narrative adjustments without needing to be told.
For those who dismiss the importance of narrative in geopolitics, remember that the United States can deliberately shoot down civilian airliners and with narrative control have it dismissed and have the world forget about it, while the Russians can not shoot down an airliner but still be blamed and sanctioned for it, with NGOs and “impartial” investigators “adjusting” their reports to align with the empire’s narrative.
All of this said, the CIA probably does have some leashed monkeys among the OPCW upper staff by now, just to make sure. Note that leash doesn’t have to be a paycheck, as videos of them doing questionable things on Epstein’s Island would work just as well, if not better.
Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 17 2019 15:07 utc | 57
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