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:
Posted by b on November 16, 2019 at 17:53 UTC | Permalink
More quality reporting from b shedding more light on the D.C. cukaraachez...
Posted by: ERing46Z | Nov 16 2019 18:25 utc | 2
You did really good and timely reporting on this b.
Kudos and congrats.
People should pay more attention to "news" like this. But they choose to entertain themselves with the Washington circus instead.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 16 2019 18:32 utc | 3
It is more than a little significant that Jonathan Steele, for many years and up until quite recently, a pillar of The Guardian's team, has written this article which directly contradicts the approved Establishment view from which The Guardian rarely deviates these days. It does Steele great credit.
Posted by: bevin | Nov 16 2019 18:52 utc | 4
Nothing, absolutely nothing, else to be expected from the ZOGs of USA and UK. In other words OPCW is saying that "IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY" that Assad gassed his people.
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Nov 16 2019 19:04 utc | 5
update day after Israel accepted Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad's preconditions for ceasefire. Israel bombs again who can you trust most ISRAEL or OPCW?
Posted by: snake | Nov 16 2019 19:11 utc | 6
b, great job in putting this list of events together. My big question is that once this whole thing is crystal & clear to all in the world, what will Russia and China do with the 3 stooges in UNSC ? They all violated the basics of international rules, got red handed, exposed and then what ?
This is why I say payback has to be a bitch, there must be a pay back, or crime against humanity will always pay off under the zio-nazis globalist world.
Posted by: Canthama | Nov 16 2019 19:11 utc | 7
One always did wonder why the most senior officials at the OPCW had to be career dilpmats without even any basic knowledge of chemistry or of running an organisation that employs people with specialised scientific and technical knowledge and experience. Turns out the only experience needed to be head of the OPCW and chef du cabinet is being part of the same sordid network as poor dearly departed James Le Mesurier and his grieving widow (and possible minder; the two only got hitched in 2018) and MayDay Rescue co-director Emma Winberg.
Posted by: Jen | Nov 16 2019 19:17 utc | 8
Didn't the OPCW have a say in the Scripal Affair as well about findings that were not so and misleading as well? IIRC one report leaked counter-indicative findings to OPCW's 'Highly Likely' official report. Wonder if the perfidy comes from the water they use or the 'think-tank' foundation's charter, highly likely written by Integrity Initiative in a moment of 'official' scruple.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Nov 16 2019 19:20 utc | 9
Since only the Syrians have helicopters, they must have done "collateral murder" as well...
Posted by: Vonu | Nov 16 2019 19:26 utc | 10
Formerly T-Bear @ 9:
Off the top of my head, I recall the OPCW most certainly were involved in testing the Skripals' blood samples. At the time the labs the organisation used did the testing, those samples were at least 2 weeks old, by which time any Novichok in them should have been broken down into other, more harmless components. Yet test results apparently showed fresh Novichok present in some samples.
Not long afterwards, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov manages to find out from one of those test labs, one based in Switzerland, that in those samples it received and tested, another powerful but less deadly nerve agent had been found.
Posted by: Jen | Nov 16 2019 19:39 utc | 11
Formerly T-Bear @ 9 --
I thought of the Skripal incident as well--expecting an MSM that has scarcely covered the two OPCW whisteblowers to in turn connect this to some suspect OPCW behaviour during the Skripal fiasco is clearly asking too much.
But it is something the barflies could establish here. To this point, b has added to what I had heard about the OPCW whistleblowers with this new (to me) information about US officials being called in to tell the investigators what their conclusions should be.
Another connection I'm not seeing made is that the OPCW has given itself the authority to officially attribute fault (which to be fair they've been doing through oblique means for some time). The Ghouta shambles should shine a light on what this portends for the OPCW's new role going forward.
At the very least such a body would need to demonstrate a robust and auditable chain-of-evidence process (esp. after Khan Sheykoun and now Ghouta) and strict forensic procedures regarding the access of accused countries to exculpatory evidence, such as the conclusions regarding the Ghouta gas canisters.
Posted by: Paul Damascene | Nov 16 2019 19:48 utc | 12
> Paul.
The OPCW technical secretariat is controlled more or less from the ground up by the UKFO. It's why the UK was so enthusiastic about the ability to attribute blame. (that was a UK proposal)
Way it's supposed to work:
Lab (2 independent) and field reports are compiled into final technical reports through the secretariat. The secretariat then submits the report to the Council, the council submits it to the UN. The UN determines where the blame lies.
Now what you've got is the UK decices what to write and what to submit to the council.
No report coming from the secretariat can be considered trustworthy. ... and to be fair it's probably why spez handed a straight lab report to the russians.
Posted by: S.O. | Nov 16 2019 20:14 utc | 13
And let us never forget -- the OPCW's first Director General, José Bustani, was forced to resign after John Bolton threatened his sons if he didn't comply.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49096.htm
Even Wikipedia found the claim about Bolton's threats plausible, and the threats themselves deplorable enough that they were willing to mention it --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Bustani#Removal_from_Office
Posted by: AntiSpin | Nov 16 2019 20:29 utc | 14
The UK has controlled the OPCW Syria chemical attack investigations for years. Sergei Lavrov said in 2017 after the Khan Shaykhun incident:
I would like to remind you that we have pointed out a very strange coincidence: that the two groups of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on the potential use of chemical weapons in Syria are chaired by UK citizens. We have said that this runs contrary to the principles of an international organisation, the structures of which must be maximally balanced.
Posted by: Brendan | Nov 16 2019 20:51 utc | 15
The Geostrategic Consequences Of The Hybrid War On Bolivia
https://theduran.com/the-geostrategic-consequences-of-the-hybrid-war-on-bolivia/
by Andrew Korybko
Interesting and penetrating analysis.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Nov 16 2019 20:55 utc | 16
Great information...much of it new to me, including the name of this Fairweather fellow...
No surprise we have a British scumbag in the thick of the rot at the OPCW...the Brits are really outdoing themselves lately with the agit-prop...
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 16 2019 21:06 utc | 18
@ Jen | Nov 16 2019 19:39 utc | 11
From memory they found traces of BZ, producing effects breaking up the command discipline of a military unit (exposure like being stoned) incapacitating the unit's function. Enough would place victim into a condition that artificial coma could be established and maintained until some later date when induced coma would be lifted after all traces of the drug being eliminated from the body through natural means.
@ flankerbandit | Nov 16 2019 21:06 utc | 18
And you would want Yanks in charge of agit-prop? Pogo nailed it with "We have met the enemy and …"
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Nov 16 2019 21:41 utc | 19
Clearly the OPCW has been compromised and is no longer fit for purpose. It cannot expect findings to be respected. The interesting question is how far back this extends. Certainly Skripal, which was a toxic fantasy even without a poison with wildly mutuable properties and a series of protocol violations. The OPCW is kaput. It's reputation in tatters. Its leadership corrupt. We need a new agency.
Posted by: Loftwork | Nov 16 2019 22:07 utc | 20
While i dont find much time to comment recently, feeling exhausted by what one may call "Weltschmerz": This is a light in all this darkness. Exactly what we need. Hard facts by impartial whistleblowers, that even the most propaganda fueled MSM will have a hard time to distort. This we need to spread wide and massive!
Thanks!
Posted by: DontBelieveEitherPr. | Nov 16 2019 22:36 utc | 21
The US and UK will never admit that the Douma report is a fraud. Once they admit it is a fraud, then every single piece of black propaganda about Syria output by organisations such as The White Helmets, Bellingcat and the western MSM (NY Times/WaPo/Guardian/etc.) comes into question, and the Washington narrative on Syria collapses in the eyes of everybody except the sheeple and corporate Democrats. The Republicans have the advantage that they can blame it on Obama, HR Clinton, Kerry, etc.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Nov 16 2019 22:39 utc | 22
Canthama | Nov 16 2019 19:11 utc | 7:
Overall both China and Russia will do nothing significant about it. They'll file it and bring it up whenever it suits their agenda. If you're looking for justice, you won't find any in this universe.
Posted by: Ian2 | Nov 16 2019 22:43 utc | 23
July 3 2018
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/431595-opcw-chemical-syria-blame/
"In a move spearheaded by UK, the UN chemical weapons watchdog has been tasked with identifying the perpetrators of future chemical attacks, a disastrous decision that is almost certain to incite more chaos in Syria.
Up until now, it has been the primary task of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to determine if chemical weapons, and of what type, have been used during such suspected outrages. Its mandate did not include working as Sherlock Holmes, pointing the finger of blame at some state player or agency.
Now that is about to change.
As the Times of London gleefully reported “Britain won a victory over Russia” after a western bloc voted to “give the OPCW enhanced powers to identify those behind the attacks in Syria.” According to the article, this will hamper Russian efforts to “protect the Syrian government from censure for using chemical weapons.” .... "
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 16 2019 22:47 utc | 24
Loftwork | Nov 16 2019 22:07 utc | 20:
Agreed. More importantly, we'll likely see the end of all international organizations within a generation. The result will be duplicate organizations aligned with their benefactors.
Posted by: Ian2 | Nov 16 2019 22:51 utc | 25
From my earliest youth, I never had a high opinion of the veracity of the British or US government or of the output of the msm. For a while I thought that the BBC was relatively likely to tell the truth occasionally, but after the Korean war I realized that that too was a forlorn hope.
I thought for a long time, up until 9/11, that there was probably some truth in what I was reading from official/msm sources but then I realized that the amount was, practically speaking, so negligible as to make it not worth reading except to learn what the latest BS was. Ron Unz's article : American Pravda, The Power of Organised Crime, explained such a lot to me. I had been thinking of a "government gone wrong", but really it is nothing of the sort. It is really, a "government of the Gangsters, for the Gangsters, by the Gangsters". You believe anything they tell you at your peril.
This, of course leaves me at risk of being misled by the likes of RT, Xinhua, Al Masdar News.com, Press TV, Tass, but with the help of this site, Unz.com, Craig Murray and a few others I think I have a more realistic view of the world than most of my contemporaries. On the whole the level of, the concentration of BS in these other sites seems to be pretty acceptable. I.e. occasional rather than pervasive.
Thanks to B and Ron Unz in particular.
Posted by: foolisholdman | Nov 16 2019 23:11 utc | 26
thanks b... insightful and on the money, as you have been on this topic since day 1... i hope more people read this.. OPCW reputation is now screwed, although the msm will not be telling us this.. i wonder how many other so called international bodies, like the OPCW are beholden to the usa-uk? it is a scary thought... jonathan steele has had a fascinating life as a journalist..
Posted by: james | Nov 16 2019 23:24 utc | 27
@psychohistorian 1
This has been public information for weeks and it’s been discussed on a few websites already. Fine to give credit where it’s due, but let’s not get carried away with the gushing hero worship.
Posted by: Bentbroad | Nov 16 2019 23:41 utc | 28
@Canthama - 7
In addition to OPCW the anglozionists have corrupted many international institutions, everything from the UN itself, economic/trade organisations (IMF WB WTO etc), human rights oversight, international observers, law enforcement bodies & judiciary, and even sport (WADA & Olympics) to name but a few. Whilst no direct action ever appears to be taken when each US act of abuse/corruption is exposed, incrementally they must add to the ongoing collapse of the anglozionist $US empire, and even their 'allies' will switch to the new institutions that emerge in their place (eg. AIIB).
Posted by: TEP | Nov 16 2019 23:42 utc | 29
"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 . . . "
Curious. Very like what happened at Julian Assange's court appearance last month. Quoting from Craig Murray:
"What happened next was very instructive. There were five representatives of the US government present (initially three, and two more arrived in the course of the hearing), seated at desks behind the lawyers in court. The prosecution lawyers immediately went into huddle with the US representatives, then went outside the courtroom with them, to decide how to respond on the dates. . .
Lewis’ junior counsel scurried to the back of the court to consult the Americans again while Lewis actually told the judge he was “taking instructions from those behind”. "
Murray comments: "The US government was dictating its instructions to Lewis, who was relaying those instructions to Baraitser, who was ruling them as her legal decision."
@ Bentbroad with the criticism of my comment #1
Please show us another web site that has the history (13 postings in case you missed) of questioning the Syrian gas attacks and OPCW or go find some other site that suits your critical mind and vacuous charge against me and b who is not paid for his efforts.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2019 0:20 utc | 31
It is important to note that the revelations of the OPCW whistleblowers not only indict the OPCW but also the White Helmets who staged the scene at the hospital as well as the organisations which informed the world and, as b correctly states, initially spoke about Sarin or a similar substance: Syrian American Medical Society, Union of Medical Care and Relief Associations, Violations Documentations Center. Bellingcat.
Dig a little deeper and you will find that all these organisations are interconnected via Hamish de Bretton-Gordon and James Le Mesurier and NATO. The UOSSM, for example, was founded in France by a former medical advisor to NATO. The organisation is proud of having trained the White Helmets. HBG is an advisor to UOSSM and has argued for a relaxation of OPCW guidelines on the chain of custody:
"UOSSM and other NGOs in Syria have collected a lot of evidence and this should be admissible to the investigation."
For the organisations mentioned above shaping the Douma narrative, see:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43697084
And then there is "Saving Syria's Children"...
The media can not report on this, as they can not report on the confessions of the Georgian shooters on Maidan, because their whole narrative would break down.
After the Iraq War and Judith Miller, the media of the Borg (aka the Deep State, the bipartisan War Party, the Foreign Policy Establishment, the MIMC) have no excuses left. The only way out for the Borg is to go from manufacturing consent to enforcing consent.
Posted by: Cherrycoke | Nov 17 2019 0:40 utc | 32
Overall both China and Russia will do nothing significant about it. They'll file it and bring it up whenever it suits their agenda....we'll likely see the end of all international organizations within a generation. The result will be duplicate organizations aligned with their benefactors.
WHAT BULLSHITE...
So when it is finally proven without a doubt that the west is playing dirty pool...then the thing to do is to at least draw some moral equivalence and put Russia and China into the same fucking boat...
Sorry shillmeister...the facts are not on your side...
It was Russia that torpedoed the continuation of the JIM [joint investigative mechanism] that was set up in 2015 good faith [the Russians thought] to investigate and find fault about chemical weapons use in Syria...
After it became clear that the JIM was a sham completely coopted by the imperialist powers prosecuting the dirty regime-change war against the Syrian people, the Russians with their UNSC veto killed it...
They have been likewise in the forefront of this battle against the corruption we now see in the OPCW...so I do not appreciate this MASSIVE BULLSHIT about how Russia is exactly equivalent...
IT IS NOT...IT IS THE WEST THAT IS PLAYING THESE DIRTY GAMES AND RUSSIA THAT IS FIGHTING IT...
As for this fucking stupidity about how these international organizations are just going to go away, or be 'duplicated' by various blocs...that's not how the system works...
These bodies like the OPCW are set up on the basis of international law...you can't just set up your own backyard version of the OPCW...that's just fucking stupid...
Both the Chinese and the Russians are sticklers for international law...that is clear to anyone who follows what goes on at the UN Security Council...
We are reminded here that the UNSC is the last word on international law...it is the only body whose resolutions ARE LEGALLY BINDING ON ALL UN MEMBER STATES...
UN general assembly resolutions aren't...
The UNSC is also the ONLY authority that can authorize the use of force [other than self defense]...
So who are the serial offenders when it comes to illegal use of force...Iraq 2003...where is the UNSC authorization...?
Bombing of Yugoslavia 1999...where is the UNSC authorization...?
And no, we will NOT 'see an end' to all international organizations...much as the outlaw empire would like that...
We remind here that the postwar order of the UN was the result of WW2...Russia lost 27 million people...China lost many millions...the UN legal order that was set up is a reflection of those who did the heavy lifting...
It works just fine, provided the outlaw empire can be kept from doing shit under the table as they seem to always want to do...
So yeah it's very easy to be a shill that comes on here spouting bullshit in the hope of muddying the waters and making it seem like 'oh they're all the same'...
They're not asshole...not even close...
We're watching a struggle for true multipolarity, and a RESTORATION of the postwar rules-based order...
And guess what...the good guys are winning...one battle at a time...
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 1:35 utc | 33
Thank you b, for staying on this subject. As you have linked to Jonathan Steele's article, on reading that I discovered two points to add to yours. First, from the article:
"... the new whistleblower, said his aim in going public was not to undermine the OPCW, most of whose investigators are objective scientists, but to persuade the organisation’s leadership to allow the Douma team to put forward their findings and answer questions at the week-long annual conference of member states which starts on November 25. “Most of the Douma team felt the two reports on the incident, the Interim Report and the Final Report, were scientifically impoverished, procedurally irregular and possibly fraudulent”, he said. Behind his call for the Douma inspectors to address the next OPCW conference was the hope that thereby the watchdog would “demonstrate transparency, impartiality and independence”..."
And secondly, that emails on the subject, such as the one written by the inspector Steele describes as 'furious' in your penultimate inserted quotation, were removed by Fairweather, (also reported by Steele.)
One wonders how much of this will be addressed at the November 25 meeting.
Posted by: juliania | Nov 17 2019 1:52 utc | 34
fb @ 32 said;"We're watching a struggle for true multipolarity, and a RESTORATION of the postwar rules-based order..."
And all hoping the struggle will be successful....
Great post fb, very well said..
Posted by: ben | Nov 17 2019 1:56 utc | 35
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
Loftwork #20
Clearly the OPCW has been compromised and is no longer fit for purpose. It cannot expect findings to be respected. The interesting question is how far back this extends. Certainly Skripal, which was a toxic fantasy even without a poison with wildly mutuable properties and a series of protocol violations. The OPCW is kaput. It's reputation in tatters. Its leadership corrupt. We need a new agency.
FAIL Loftwork. The OPCW has just had a small corrective applied. Your absurd proposition is transparently obvious as a fake manouver. Lets strengthen the OPCW by removing the UKUS stranglehold on the top echelons.
Reform is a much simpler manoeuvre and quickly achieved. Your absurd proposal will simply result in a long drawn out absence of any OPCW oversight. The problem is dishonesty at the top, bludgeoning by UKUS and a pathetic unravelling of the fake methods used by the perpetrators.
The OPCW is a good mechanism, the ruling echelon is bunch of lying, scheming thugs. So lets decapitate the leadership and appoint a balanced team.
Remember: you cannot trust perfidious Albion or its USA monkeys.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 17 2019 2:49 utc | 37
Up until about two minutes ago I had some respect for flankerbandits comments but now I see that he is yet another "my truth is the only reality" believer in the angel V demon school of international relations (re comments at flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 1:35 utc | 32) I can only say it really saddens me to see that in this world, even in this obscure weblog, so many people are stupidly deciding that since fukusi is a demon, russia, china etc just must be angels, when all evidence vis a vis actions rather than words, shows that russia and china are nearly as sociopathicly self-interested as any of the fukusi states. Even worse is the hysterical objection to anyone who suggests an alternative as that is the stuff in which oppression takes root.
eg russia's pandering to apartheid israel by avoiding interaction with the zionist air force butchers. Or the sale of the s400 to turkey which as much as amerika jumps up and down about I am certain erdy will allow the seppos to strip and reverse engineer eventually developing counters for its abilities. Greed & stupidity just like the other mob.
As for the actual story, this has been around since late october as Steele was far from the only journo present when 'alex' delivered his presentation.
'alex' is no hero - if he had made his presentation synchronous with the release of the OPCW report then maybe he would be. All we are seeing now is the usual have cake and eat it stuff that too many alleged objective scientists pull. He is retired from OPCW presumably pension intact and most likely now hopes to assuage guilt and pick up an earner on the bourgeois little-resistance speaking circuit.
This should not surprise any reader who has taken the time to look into his/her own heart and analysed their own actions and motives yep even 'flankerbandit'.
So enough of the tiresome & banal hero worship, if we are ever gonna get outta the mess humanity has made for itself, it will only be if sufficient humans quit with the foolish, superstition rooted notion that selfless perfection is a thing and recognizes the imperfection that is to be found in everything we create.
Posted by: A User | Nov 17 2019 3:12 utc | 38
A User @37
While your cautionary message has merit, I think you're comment is too harsh.
fb: "my truth is the only reality"
I don't find fb making such a claim, either directly or indirectly. He rightly notes the danger of a false equivalence.
Most here are aware of the lack of freedoms in China and Russia. And also know that in some cases, those lack of freedoms are hyped in the West. But in international sphere, it is generally the Empire that is the belligerent and devious party. We know that the Empire seeks to maintain hegemony and "full spectrum dominance" that ultimately leads to a single global power structure.
since fukusi is a demon, russia, china etc just must be angels ...
I think most here are more realistic than your hyperbole implies.
... [but they] are nearly as sociopathicly self-interested as any of the fukusi states.
The hope is that Russia and China check the Empire's asshats via ending dollar hegemony (aka the hoped for "reset") and blocking foreign adventurism. That could lead to WWIII or a "multipolar world" that may be the best hope for a change that causes governments to respect their citizenry - just as a prosperous middle class was allowed to flourish during Cold War I.
In contrast, a unipolar world is one where there is no check on the asshats. Then we are all at the mercy of the supreme overlords.
russia's pandering to apartheid israel
We've discussed this many times at moa. This line of thinking leads to the hasbara propaganda that claims that "Putin is a Zionist".
Russia is walking a fine line. They are not desirous of WWIII, nor do they see it as inevitable. Judging by Putin's latest statement, it seems Russia hopes that when the dollar is dethroned, Western adventurism will be greatly diminished.
So enough of the tiresome & banal hero worship ...
There may be some hero worship but much of it is justified given what we've seen of Western political scoundrels.
There is a problem when hero worship becomes hopium and over-reliance on the hero saving the day. Ultimately, we need to save ourselves.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 17 2019 4:06 utc | 39
so many people are stupidly deciding that since fukusi is a demon, russia, china etc just must be angels, when all evidence vis a vis actions rather than words, shows that russia and china are nearly as sociopathicly self-interested as any of the fukusi states.
Is that right shillmeister...?
And what 'evidence' would that be...?
Don't bother answering smearing more horseshit on my screen...
And we are supposed to care about you being 'disappointed' in the commenters here...
Get the fuck out asshole...
As for your 'for example' bullshit...
So Russia, which is saving Syria, is just as bad as the US and its coalition of puppets who are in Syria illegally and who have been terrorizing the country with professional headchoppers that they have recruited, paid, trained and deployed...?
And Russia's crime is that they aren't 'standing up' to Israel...?
First off, I hardly believe that an asswipe like you gives a flying fuck about the 'resistance' axis that Israel is hitting in Syria...
And the solution is for Russia to go to war with Israel...?
That's the whole point of these quite insignificant provocations...to expand the war and make a big fucking mess so that the RESTORATION OF SYRIA which is proceeding just fine, can get bogged down...
That's really what you would like to see isn't it...?
In fact that is why you are here...do you think you are fooling anyone here...?
You're not fooling me asswipe...I've been 'noticing' your slime here for quite some time now...you always seem to be out of tune, don't you...?
You're even grousing about B being a day late and a dollar short with his coverage here...
How many clues do you think you need to drop before people have pegged you as a dumbass shill...?
Here only to muddy the waters and to heap scorn on Russia and China, like your shill fellow travelers...the two countries that are standing up against the outlaw empire in Syria, Iran and elsewhere...
Oh and btw...since you talk about 'reverse-engineering' the S400, I assume you are a bona fide scientist or engineer...
HARDLY...the Chinese have been trying to reverse engineer Russian fighter jet engines for more than 20 years without success...
But you wouldn't know that, since in order to 'reverse engineer' something, you actually have to know something about engineering...and how impossible such things are for today's very complex systems...
And which also raises a question...What is the REAL REASON that you are sore about Turkey getting the S400?
Let's review your logic here...First Russia is BAD...but you don't want Russia to be victimized by 'reverse engineering'...?
Again...SHILLMEISTER...how many clues do you think we need to see through your bullshit...?
Why don't you go crawl back to your little troll farm now and leave the honest folks here to discuss...hmm...?
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 4:07 utc | 40
So enough of the tiresome & banal hero worship, if we are ever gonna get outta the mess humanity has made for itself, it will only be if sufficient humans quit with the foolish, superstition rooted notion that selfless perfection is a thing and recognizes the imperfection that is to be found in everything we create.
What the fuck is this horseshit supposed to mean...?
First, it's quite obvious you are upset about Bernhard even running this excellent story...
But according to a scumbag shill...'it's old news'...'nothing to see here'...'let's move on folks'...
Got it, asshole...
Instead of reflecting on the HARD FUCKING FACTS staring us in the face with this OPCW criminality and subversion...we are supposed to navelgaze about 'the mess humanity has made for itself'...
That would include ALL humanity I presume...?
So there is no point trying to distinguish between the bad and criminal and lying humans...but ALL HUMANITY IS THE FUCKING PROBLEM...?
You know what asshole...reading this kind of transparent attempt to undermine the discussion here makes me mad as hell...I'm sure I'm not alone...
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 4:33 utc | 41
@ flankerbandit in comment #40 who is and should be mad as hell
I was offended as well and got stuck on the last run on sentence from our "never good enough"/TINA shill
"
So enough of the tiresome & banal hero worship, if we are ever gonna get outta the mess humanity has made for itself, it will only be if sufficient humans quit with the foolish, superstition rooted notion that selfless perfection is a thing and recognizes the imperfection that is to be found in everything we create.
"
So there is imperfection in all of us but not in their calling us out for our superstition rooted notions....grin
I continue to comment here about the cult of global private finance "imperfection" that our TINA shill seems to write, by extension, is just one of the imperfections in the way our society is organized....not a serious societal structural problem that needs to be changed.....shades of the level of commentary at Almost Naked Capitalism that are heavy into the TINA syndrome about public/private finance.
With respect to the recent outing of the problems with the OPCW chemical weapons reports I would remind readers of the reported threats that OPCW management was facing just a couple of years ago. Reading folks coming out now speaks volumes, IMO, about how far we have come along the path of exposing the crimes of empire and its level of demise.....which also seems to be reflected by the volume of shills at MoA we are being exposed to....shills write what they are paid by the Gods of private finance to write......nice to see appropriate responses from you and JR, thanks!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2019 5:03 utc | 42
... it really saddens me to see that in this world, even in this obscure weblog, so many people are stupidly deciding...
Boo fucking hoo...the shill is 'saddened'...
And of course he doesn't mind coming to this 'obscure' weblog to deposit his shit donations...
So do yourself and everyone a favor and the get the hell lost...
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 5:08 utc | 43
Syria scandal: New whistleblower claims UN chemical weapons watchdog buried Douma evidence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqK8KgxuCPI
Posted by: Mao | Nov 17 2019 5:09 utc | 44
Good coverage, some points I missed.
Clearly the most dramatic revelation is the lack of chlorine traces at the attack sites - considering Steele's comments ("it rather suggested there was no chemical gas attack"), and those by Ted Postol to Aaron Maté ("It's clear from the findings of the second whistleblower that the staging effort did not include the planting of false chemical vidence.") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqK8KgxuCPI
But this raises questions for me, and should for others too. The visual record is full of signs of high-level chlorine release, especially at location 4, that seem hard or impossible to explain any other way. I thought it was important to compile these and other points to balance this out.
http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2019/10/opcw-whistleblower-chlorine-levels.html
To be clear, I'm suggesting the whistleblower's info on that point is somehow incorrect and should not be trusted, or at least it should be questioned more than it is. That also raises questions, but a different kind.
And I'm not saying the Syrian government dropped the gas cylinders and killed people with the chlorine. That still makes no sense, even aside from a lack of rational motive, etc. Chlorine hardly kills,
and not in the way seen. Everything says they were gassed somewhere else and then their bodies were dragged here to stage the scene. And the first whistleblower's engineering study still shows - like all credible analyses show - that the cylinders were placed by hand in the same way to complete the scene. Then, it seems to me, they were opened up to release their gas. Why would they not be?
Posted by: Adam Larson | Nov 17 2019 5:23 utc | 45
.. it really saddens me to see that in this world, even in this obscure weblog, so many people are stupidly deciding...
Boo fucking hoo...the shill is 'saddened'...
And of course he doesn't mind coming to this 'obscure' weblog to deposit his shit donations...
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 5:08 utc | 42
Bad flankerbandit, naughty flankerbandit!!! You should be SAD that even this lowly obscured blog is not spared by megalomaniac pompous little s...t like A User. A melancholy stemming from the dearth of humans with intellect even so slightly approaching that of myself.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 17 2019 5:37 utc | 46
Adam Larson (@45) and I have been investigating these Syrian chemical weapons attacks for over six years and publishing our results at the ACLOS wiki, the Citizen's Investigation into War Crimes in Libya site and at the blog now called Monitor on Massacre Marketing. Our conclusion is that in most cases these "attacks" were in fact staged massacres where hostages are killed and then used for making propaganda videos. There was never any chemical weapons attack in Douma in 2018 or Khan Sheikhoun in 2017 or Ghouta in 2013. The Douma incident was the worst of these fabrications. The hoax was so obvious that it was announced to the world weeks in advance by the Russian General Staff. For the argument I will just quote what I wrote two years agol
THERE WAS NO GAS ATTACK ON KHAN SHEIKHOUN!If dead children are paraded in front of cameras, it does not show a chemical weapons attack. It is proof of murder, someone massacred these children and their families.
To claim a gas attack, you have to show photos and videos of the attack site; dead families in or outside their homes. Dead animals. Rescue workers breaking into houses and discovering the bodies.
No one ever asked or answered the essential questions: When and where did the attack happen? How was the chemical delivered? What neighborhoods were affected? Where was the wind blowing from? How were the victims taken to the place where they were first filmed? Who did the rescue work? Where were the White Helmets and their camera crews when this happened?
The White Helmets did not exist in 2013. Today they are an Oscar-winning film crew, with GoPro action cams attached to their signature helmets. They film each and every real and fake rescue operation they take part in. So why no video of the Khan Sheikhoun rescue and recovery work?
This is just another staged hoax, like the Ghouta chemical massacre of August 2013. Hostages were kept in cellars and then gassed with chlorine when the time came to make propaganda videos and call for a No-Fly Zone.
The whistleblower revelations change very little in the general picture. But they do make me question if the OPCW actually found the traces of Sarin in Ghouta in 2013 they claimed to have found.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Nov 17 2019 8:12 utc | 47
Well, well, well.
Now we are increasingly see which nations have been lying about Syrian Weapons of Mass Destruction and who has been telling the truth in questioning those lies.
The first group of lying war criminal nations are the United Snakes of America and its allies among the Anglosphere nations, Europe, and their vassals.
And it is Syria, the Axis of Resistance like Iran and Hizbollah, and its supporters like Russia and China who did not accept those lies.
The OPCW revelations are another political defeat for the American Evil Empire and its serial deceptions.
But the self-styled Anglo Free Press will never admit it.
A future War Crime Tribunal is waiting for the United States and its allies--not to mention a bill for massive war reparations in the trillions of dollar to be paid to Syria and other nations.
Posted by: AK74 | Nov 17 2019 8:44 utc | 48
People need to accept that there are no angels in this universe and never will be. Nations act on interests alone. You have to be alseep to believe in this utopic dream called International "Law". Widespread adoption is simply due to an alignment of interests. Feel free to believe the anti-iFUKUS bloc to be your saviors. Yes, I'm rooting for them too but I won't be surprised when the cold reality of politics make its appearance. And most important of all, Truth is a three edged sword. Something that foolisholdman alluded to earlier.
------------
flankerbandit @ 32:
Remove that rose-colored glasses. You can't fight every battle. Protect everything, you protect nothing. IIRC, Putin mentioned along the lines that Russia can't be everywhere to put out every forest fire in the World (not exactly in those words). I believe it was said at the time when Maduro was at risk.
You are seriously underestimating the irreparable damage done to international organizations. Who is going to trust existing international organizations such as the OPCW now? Once bitten, twice shy.
As for this fucking stupidity about how these international organizations are just going to go away, or be 'duplicated' by various blocs...that's not how the system works...These bodies like the OPCW are set up on the basis of international law...you can't just set up your own backyard version of the OPCW...that's just fucking stupid...We are reminded here that the UNSC is the last word on international law...it is the only body whose resolutions ARE LEGALLY BINDING ON ALL UN MEMBER STATES...
It may be "stupid" but it can be done if there's enough political capital and will, money and need. China, Russia and EU already have done something similar regarding finance. Remember SPFS, CIPS and AIIB? Capable nations always push back if pushed too far.
International law is based on consent (keyword here) by member states. If one withdrew their consent, especially a permanent member of the UNSC, now what?
Both the Chinese and the Russians are sticklers for international law...
For the most part, but I remember a ruling on a body of water. YES, I KNOW THE US ISN'T A SIGNATORY TO THE UNCLOS AND THEIR FoN OPERATIONS IS PURE BULLSHIT; so is the air identification zones. However, China's track record is far better than the usual suspects.
Posted by: Ian2 | Nov 17 2019 9:06 utc | 49
@33 flankerbandit "We are reminded here that the UNSC is the last word on international law...it is the only body whose resolutions ARE LEGALLY BINDING ON ALL UN MEMBER STATES..."
Demonstrably untrue.
There can be no question that the UN Charter is a legally-binding treaty and, therefore, the authority of the UN Security Council derives from the Articles of that charter.
Article 25: "The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter."
Article 39: "The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 4 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security."
It is therefore simply an untruth to make the blanket claim that "UNSC Resolutions" per-se are "legally binding" on anyone.
A UNSC Resolution that contains a "recommendation" (or an "urges", or a "recognizes" or any similar such nonsense) is not legally-binding on anyone, precisely because Article 25 is only triggered when the word "decision" appears in the text of that resolution.
And the appearance of the word "decision" is, my friend, is a very, very, very rare occurrence indeed. The vast majority of UN Security Council Resolutions are political statements of intent, and as such they are not legally-binding on anyone.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Nov 17 2019 10:36 utc | 50
I really don't think the personal attacks are very helpful. How does juvenile name calling replace a well reasoned comment? Are we all so ignorant that we can't make our own decisions as to who is more likely correct? Who ever respects bully boys?
As soon as the playground insults start I personally just tune out from that person, if they don't have the intellect to frame a well reasoned counter then they likely also lack the intellect to fully comprehend a complex scenario, let alone explain one.
Posted by: Rancid | Nov 17 2019 10:59 utc | 51
@all - Could you please stop fighting each other and calling each other bad names? The dicussion should be about issues. If you dislike an opinion you can always ignore it.
@Adam Larson - But this raises questions for me, and should for others too. The visual record is full of signs of high-level chlorine release, especially at location 4, that seem hard or impossible to explain any other way. I thought it was important to compile these and other points to balance this out.
Those are not visual records of high level chlorine releases. The black sot is from a stove that stood under the whole in the roof. The "ice" on the container could be just a color effect from the photos which were btw made hours after the alleged incident. How those could have captured "ice" is unexplained.
@Petri thanks for the backup and again for your help on all this going back to '11. And for my part, the first whistleblower made a clear and big difference. This second one, not as clear to me on balance so far, but … and either way we have the rest of it. Open sources, closed as possible, reading between lines, putting that on new lines and reading between those … we don't need to sit and wait for leaks and whistles like goldfish waiting to be fed in order to figure out what's going on.
@b And thanks for your relentless skepticism here, and for looking at that. I don't want to argue the point though I could. I raised it, the visuals and notes are there, including ... ok briefly:
- The soot doesn't relate except to show the fire with no good cause if there was no release
- the frost could be a strange illusion, but it looks just like the real thing would (it forms during release and vanishes after, so this is the right time to see it, if it were releasing)
- the better clues are all at location 4, which you didn't address. Quite a bit there to explain by other means.
I don't want to cast doubt on the whistleblower, or promote info that seems wrong, and I don't see anyone else bringing the issue up, so there it is.
Posted by: Adam Larson | Nov 17 2019 13:16 utc | 53
is this not the deep state that some choose to say is not as cohesive as it seems. made up of many parts, from mostly members who are reluctant to give up their position, composed of compromised individuals who knows exactly what they are doing for the majority of the cases.
but what are their goals, from this report, simply smearing russia and assad is merely a given, but not the ultimate wish.
Posted by: jason | Nov 17 2019 13:31 utc | 54
Rancid@51
"Who ever respects bully boys?"
Those who have lived their lives in fear. Slaves.
Most of us are quite ready to accept bullying so long as it has correct trappings of authority. We have been trained.
Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 17 2019 14:13 utc | 55
James--" it is a scary thought... jonathan steele has had a fascinating life as a journalist.."
James when I click on your link I get
"Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name."
Is that what you intended?
Posted by: arby | Nov 17 2019 15:04 utc | 56
"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
'...the UN “doesn’t exist,” since there is no such thing as “international law.”'
“All complaints filed with the UN are on the shelves, as this is a semi-state controlled by gangs based on the principle of force. As we said earlier, they are a bunch of thieves, and the conflict between them is a struggle for profit, gain and loss.”
Interview with Pres Assad: https://southfront.org/assad-current-u-s-policy-strongly-resembles-nazism/
Posted by: Shakesvshav | Nov 17 2019 15:18 utc | 58
Very strong words echoing here in the bar. I suggest those not involved back away slowly from their bar stools.
Kind of reminds me of the great scene from Unforgiven when William Munny, in the middle of a gunfight, tells all men that don't want to be killed, to go out the back.
Posted by: Morongobill | Nov 17 2019 15:20 utc | 59
James, I did find it by clicking on alternate spellings even though that is the correct spelling.
Posted by: arby | Nov 17 2019 15:24 utc | 60
William Gruff @57
I think the control of media and other institutions increased markedly after 2014. That is, after the threat from "recidivist nations" (Russia and China) was recognized, a Cold War mentality set in.
And that mentality is not just about "do your patriotic duty" but actual coercion and removal of those that don't 'play ball'. UK Integrity Initiative was formed in 2015.
<> <> <> <> <> <>
The Declaration of (Cold) War was Kissinger's August 2014 Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal (a point that I've previously made several times).
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 17 2019 15:29 utc | 61
jason @54: "but what are their goals, from this report, simply smearing russia and assad is merely a given, but not the ultimate wish."
The ultimate wish is to maintain the global world order centered on the United States. America's evil deeds need to be distracted from, its lies need to be reinforced, and its dictates need to be justified, regardless of how clumsy and inept they are. European poodles are on board with this because they know they are America's pet poodles. When the American Empire falls, the current right wing social order in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East will go down with it. That has to be prevented at all costs otherwise the servants of the elites might have to go out and find real productive work.
Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 17 2019 15:34 utc | 62
Morongobill @59: I suggest those not involved back away slowly from their bar stools.
I suggest that we applaud fb, and anyone else, that gives a shit about the integrity of this forum.
I've also taken on trolls spreading disinfo and the "backing away" of bar patrons is discouraging. I've even been blamed for making the effort to fight troll disinfo!!
IMO fb may be a bit acerbic but he's not out of line. A User was also offensive and his disinfo is clear.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 17 2019 15:42 utc | 63
Jen + others.... The samples sent to one independent lab, by the OPCW - the one in Switz - name of SPIEZ - in the Skripal affair. Reportedly (and I believe the reports from what I’ve heard …) the lab identified the presence of BZ -> which was part of Lavrov’s accusation.
Spiez has steadfastly refused to comment, except to say that it had no contact (to inform, etc.) with any person / entity outside of official channels, i.e. as mandated by the OPCW (called OIAC in the article, link, in F.) Spiez also stated that they could not comment on the report of “one chemist” working at Spiez (supposedly?) saying he had no doubts about the British Conclusions from their Analysis. (> Novichok.) My comment: If that guy existed he was fired.
Official CH intl. news outlet:
Local newspaper complained that Swiss results were supressed, not taken into account. -- This is a leitmotif since the Swiss voice analysis of the Bin Laden tapes gave 95% or 98% probability that it was not Bin Laden on the tapes..
https://www.tdg.ch/monde/russie-affirme-enquete-trafiquee/story/27137654
This article also goes into the trace presence of A234. (Imho this was what spurred / permitted … T. May to make her Novichok claim, about a week after the Skripal ‘attack’ took place. How that was engineered idk.)
Wiki on BZ - A-234.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-Quinuclidinyl_benzilate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-234_(nerve_agent)
Petri, yes there would be much more to say about all this...
Posted by: Noirette | Nov 17 2019 16:01 utc | 64
This article in *The Diplomat*
Rising tensions within the OPCW. Nov. 15, 2019
presents an interview of the Russian envoy Alexander Shulgin and treats the Douma ‘chem’ attack.
Must read for the ins-and-outs, for those interested.
http://www.diplomatmagazine.eu/2019/11/15/rising-tensions-within-opcw/
Posted by: Noirette | Nov 17 2019 16:17 utc | 65
@b #52
Hear hear.
There are many opinions on MoA that I respect, also many that I don't.
Ultimately, the value is in letting everyone express theirs so that everyone can see the full spectrum of views - and possibly learn something.
Flankerbandit and his sad, but very common online bullying tactics are not helpful for (what I believe) is MoA's goal.
Post all the info you want, leave the childish ad hom out.
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 17 2019 16:32 utc | 66
@JackRabbit #39
The problem with fb is that he's acting literally like a teenager attempting to cow other people away from MoA.
The reason that MoA is a primary web destination for me is precisely that I like to see the full range of opinions on a subject - even if it means reading some crap (in my opinion, of course).
I don't care what fb posts from an informational perspective, but his abusive and bullying behavior is antithetical to the sharing of information - even if wrong (again, in my opinion).
This abusive and bullying behavior is the one thing I don't consider acceptable in an open forum.
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 17 2019 16:38 utc | 67
So some people were diligent and proactive and got to the hospital early. Why must everything be a conspiracy narrative?
Posted by: FSD | Nov 17 2019 16:42 utc | 68
It is therefore simply an untruth to make the blanket claim that "UNSC Resolutions" per-se are "legally binding" on anyone.
That is PURE BULLSHIT...
Look...I'm going to make it real simple for you...in the very first paragraph of the wiki page on the UNSC it says this...
...it is the only body of the United Nations with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.
Resolutions by the Security Council are legally binding.
You have put up a lot of incoherent gibberish my friend...
As far as I can tell, your point seems to be that the UNSC resolution need not necessarily be legally binding...IF it is issued as in the form of a recommendation...
So what...?
That's like saying a judge can't sentence you to jail, because he can choose to sentence you to probation...
I suggest you learn to post coherent messages here that are understandable...and not gibberish...
Also I find it curious that anyone would want to argue that the UNSC does NOT have the final say on matters of international peace and security...
That is clearly NOT TRUE...and the only people who are seeking to dilute the Security Council's authority are those that have been circumventing it or thumbing their nose at it...
The former category includes the illegal US invasion of Iraq...the illegal Nato bombing of Yugoslavia...the illegal US presence in Syria etc...
The latter includes Israel ignoring UNSC 242, which requires it to get out of the occupied territories unconditionally...plus other subsequent resolutions on the same matter, including one in 2016 during Obama's term that called for a stop to illegal settlements in the West Bank...
ALL OF THESE ARE LEGALLY BINDING RESOLUTIONS
As such they are the final word on international law...
The general assembly doesn't have that power...
Your attempt to muddy the waters here serves no good purpose...I suggest you stop trying to promote confusion about things which are very simple, and very important...
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 17:13 utc | 69
@ 52 b... thanks!
@ 56 arby..i don't know what happened there as that wasn't my intention... it was supposed to go straight to the wiki page on him..
i see you got it @60.. cool..
here is the same link i shared.. not sure why it changed! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Steele
Posted by: james | Nov 17 2019 17:18 utc | 70
overposting.. heh..
see this info, the pix, from the
Royal Society of Chemistry (GB), 6 Nov 2019
Gargantuan clean-up effort after Novichok nerve agent poisoning laid bare.
We are to believe that UK authorities are incapable of cleaning up some chem danger / dire pollution / toxic waste / chem attack / in or around one small house, a minuscule area, and post agents on their hands and knees with dish gloves and milit. camouflage on, scraping the pavement in front of it, when the incident that lead to the alarm took place in March 2018?
What can the Society of Chemists do about all the crazy info? A lot for sure, but they won’t… all will want to keep their jobs. Scientists can be paid off, like everyone else.
Posted by: Noirette | Nov 17 2019 17:22 utc | 71
@ Noirette in comment # 71 about similar narrative manipulation with the novichok affair
What a hoot!!!! I wonder what the percentage of the folks involved really believed the hoax? The article reads like a piece from The Onion. I especially liked the inset copied below
"
Novichok poisoning by the numbers
1 death
5 hospitalised
7000+ analytical samples analysed
12,800+ hours spent in PPE
28 shipping containers of contaminated waste collected
540m3 waste sent for incineration
"
When you have a society run by a cult that owns the lifeblood of economic interchange, money is to be used effusively to control the public narrative and if we are to believe the report, to astounding effect.
We are a strange species........and whatever you do, never discuss the cult at the top who have inculcated most to think in left/right terms instead of top/bottom.....with apologies to Voltaire, Reality, like History is a lie commonly agreed upon.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2019 17:56 utc | 72
Thank you VERY much, Walter@1 for the link to a collection of top U.S. military bureaucratic views on Russian:
Russian Strategic Intentions A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) White Paper May 2019
LTG Martin’s preface indeed seemed to set the tone that Russian intentions are one of aggression, offering a view of what happened, eg, in Ukraine and Crimea that differ significantly from my/the view given here
That said, even more important for me was his quote:
“This deep dive on the geopolitics of Russia is intended to outline how key actors view the parameters of cooperation ,competition, and conflict, as well as the points at which information and deterrence activities become escalatory. The US-Russian competition to influence global affairs will likely prove to be of key importance in the decades to come.By only mentioning that COMPETITION will be of key importance, is LTG Martin suggesting that cooperation, while alleged to be included in the “deep dive”, is to dismiss whatever may be offered on how Russia views COOPERATION, as well as make clear that cooperation on the part of the US is NOT to be included in THIS white paper, BOTH excluded for being "not important in the decades to come?"
In the second preface, RDML Czerewko seems to confirm this interpretation, as his focus seems to assume Russian aggression, and discussion limited to appropriate responses, collaboration limited to Allies, and cooperation “with the enemy” not considered an option at all.
Mr. Werchan, a mgr with the US European Command, echoes these sentiments, That it is “a fight w/ Russia we are in”, not an attempt to find common ground or build bridges.
What I found remarkable is that despite these three prefacing remarks, the first view is one that purports to be “The Naval Postgraduate School Perspective”. Being a bit familiar with that School. I was not surprised to see a way to frame the narrative in a MUCH broader perspective, one that
“hopes for more (US-Russia) cooperation at the terrestrial level."So I AM interested in further reading of these 171 pages.
Posted by: erichwwk | Nov 17 2019 19:23 utc | 73
Jackrabbit @61,
Obama "legalized" domestic propaganda early in 2013, probably for the reasons you note plus the pentagon's prediction of increasing social unrest and inequality domestically.
https://www.commonsenseevaluation.com/2016/11/21/propaganda-on-the-us-public/
Posted by: WJ | Nov 17 2019 19:52 utc | 74
@ 74 wj.. do you know what section in nr 4310 it is? there are 680 pages in the text.. thanks
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/03/statement-president-hr-4310
Posted by: james | Nov 17 2019 20:43 utc | 75
James @75
It's section 1078 of the Bill. See crucial sec. 208 on how to interpret 1078. The clarification allows for State department legal manipulation of domestic media. http://www.smithmundt.com/section-1078-of-national-defense-authorization-act-ndaa-for-fiscal-year-2013-public-law-112-239/
Posted by: WJ | Nov 17 2019 21:39 utc | 76
Noirette...
Just finished reading that remarkable interview with Mr Shulgin, the Russian rep to the OPCW...
He describes the situation preceding the illegal missile strikes on Syria last year [in retaliation for the non-existent 'chemical attack] as comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis...
When the US announced they would launch an airstrike against Syrian targets, the Russian military warned the US that should any of their missiles fly towards any of our military bases they not only would be taken down but the carriers of these missiles would also be targeted.
That is sobering stuff folks...does anybody want WW3 because of some white shite helmets bullshit in Syria...?
And let's bring it back to the discussion on this board, where we have seen some completely blatant and despicable attempts to undermine this article and the serious discussion...
We are asked here by various 'participants' to cast Russia [and China] into a very negative light...for what...?
Others are dissing the reportage here and trying desperately to deflect to ridiculous generalities about the state of 'humanity'...
And then there is the question of international law and legitimacy, which is tightly wound up in this whole question...
Mr Shulgin notes...
...we have repeatedly stated, the OPCW Technical Secretariat is illegitimately authorized to identify those responsible for chemical crimes; it’s an intrusion into the exclusive prerogatives of the UN Security Council to designate perpetrators.
And again we see that some here would prefer to muddy the waters on key questions like this...
I wholeheartedly recommend the Shulgin interview for the honest participants here...[the others will no doubt continue trying to divert attention from the core issues...]
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 17 2019 21:42 utc | 77
@69 flankerbandit disagrees. flankerbandit is wrong.
He wikiquotes this: "it is the only body of the United Nations with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states"
before
He wikiquotes this: "Resolutions by the Security Council are legally binding"
Yet he does not take the time to note the fact - and it fact - that those two statements do not say the same thing.
The first quote is correct.
The second quote is incomplete.
flankerbandit then says: "As far as I can tell, your point seems to be that the UNSC resolution need not necessarily be legally binding...IF it is issued as in the form of a recommendation"
Close. Very, very close.
My point is actually the mirror image: UN Security Council Resolutions are legally-binding only when they contain a "decision" of the council.
I've even gone to the trouble of quoting you the very article of the UN Charter that makes such decisions legally-binding.
Here it is again: Article 25: "The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter."
flankerbandit then argues: "That's like saying a judge can't"..... oh dear, oh dear. Bang the gavel, Mildred.
Time to point out the obvious: the UN Security Council is not a judicial body (that would be the International Court of Justice).
The UNSC isn't even a legislature i.e. it can neither make international law nor rule upon the legality of internationa law.
Dude, the UN Security Council is a POLITICAL body. A mega Town Hall meeting for nations.
Look, I can't make it any simpler than this: The UNSC is a political body whose authority derives entirely from the articles of the UN Charter.
That charter allows the council to debate anything and everything that relates to "peace and security", and nothing more.
The upshot of such debates can range from:
a) Nothing at all, because nobody cares or nothing can be agreed upon.
b) The council can issue statements that are not resolutions.
c) The council can vote a resolution that "acknowledges" a situation without offering any opinion on how that situation can be resolved.
d) The council can vote a resolution that "recommends" some actions (usually a "calls upon", sometimes it "urges")
e) The council can vote a resolution that "decides" that something must be done (no other word is substituted, it must be "decides")
Only (e) involves the imposition of a legally-binding obligation on states, and only because (all together now!) "The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter."
Everything else in your regrettable post is nonsense, written by someone whose understanding of the topic (apparently) derives entirely from the pages of wikipedia.
Flankerbandit, do everyone a favour and go read the Charter of the United Nations. I guarantee that you will learn something.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Nov 17 2019 23:34 utc | 78
@69 flankerbandit: "Also I find it curious that anyone would want to argue that the UNSC does NOT have the final say on matters of international peace and security"
Oh dear. Words as loose bowel movements. Our weasel words of today are "have the final say", which is meaningless verbiage.
flankerbandit: "The former category includes the illegal US invasion of Iraq...the illegal Nato bombing of Yugoslavia...the illegal US presence in Syria etc"
The illegality of those actions is not for the UN Security Council to rule upon.
The UN does have a judiciary - the International Court of Justice - and that is the proper body to rule upon the ILLEGALITY of any action.
The UN Security Council is a political body. It can pass a Resolution that says that some act (say, an invasion of Iraq) represents "a threat to the peace", and therefore the Council might (but probably won't) "decide" that this act must be opposed or undone or, basically, whatever.
But that is a political decision regarding the effect that such actions have upon "peace", they are not judicial rulings that such an action is "illegal".
flankerbandit: "The latter includes Israel ignoring UNSC 242, which requires it to get out of the occupied territories unconditionally"
*sigh* Now you are just making s**t up. Go back and read UNSC 242 again.
UNSC 242 relates to "peace", and it says that as far as the Security Council is concerned "a just and lasting peace" will only come to the region when all states respect the borders of all other states and there is "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict".
Those are aspirational statements, they are not marching orders. UNSC does not impose any legally-binding obligation upon Israel to withdraw the IDF from any of those territories.
The resolution says only what it says: as far as the UNSC is concerned "peace" won't come about until, inter alia, Israel relinquishes those territories, and until such time then as far as the UNSC is concerned There Is No Peace.
If you want to see a UNSC resolution that imposes a legally-binding obligation upon Israel (and, indeed, upon the neighbouring Arab states) then I will advise you to read UNSC 338.
Again, you might learn something. Though I doubt it.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Nov 17 2019 23:59 utc | 79
flankerbandit is wrong.Everything else in your regrettable post is nonsense...
Oh dear. Words as loose bowel movements.
Look you fucking retard...I'm not interested in your diarrhea...
Go jerk off on someone else's dime...
It's clear that you are a totally worthless idiot END OF STORY...
Again...learn to compose your thoughts into a coherent and understandable message...instead of meaningless gibberish
Posted by: flankerbandit | Nov 18 2019 1:16 utc | 80
@76 wg.. thanks! i am wondering if this related to radio free europe, voice of america and some of the other media outlets that are run by the usa essentially saying, they can use that for use in the usa as well? i am trying to understand this better and that is as far as i get.. how much of it is paying for outlets to run disinfo, such as huffpost, medium and other media outlets like that i wonder?
Posted by: james | Nov 18 2019 1:16 utc | 81
flankerbandit - maybe you missed this memo...
@ 52 b quote -
@all - Could you please stop fighting each other and calling each other bad names? The discussion should be about issues. If you dislike an opinion you can always ignore it.
Posted by: james | Nov 18 2019 1:18 utc | 82
@82 james - "If you dislike an opinion you can always ignore it."
In fact, this is the heart of the challenge itself. Learning to put all your power in support of that which you find good, and withholding every grain of energy - even disputatious - from that which you find bad.
This is the great mutuality through which we steer this moving vessel through the breaking wave of the future being born now. It's called solidarity. It's the secret of any victory that anyone here could wish to have.
Solidarity is the greatest force in the world.
~~
But one - apparently - has to learn how to create it.
Posted by: Grieved | Nov 18 2019 1:50 utc | 83
@80 flankerbandit, here is a tip: when arguing about the meaning of words you should always go back and read the source material.
Don't just rely on Wikipedia to tell you what to think.
Use the source, Luke, the source.
In this case the source documents are the Charter of the United Nations and, in your last few posts, the text of UNSC 242 and UNSC 338.
They show that I am quite correct and you are utterly wrong.
The Charter obliges member states to agree to "decisions" of the Security Council.
Not to "resolutions", but to "decisions".
So if a "resolution" uses the word "decides" then it is imposing a legally-binding obligation upon member states.
And if a "resolution" does not contain the word "decides" then no such legally-binding obligation exists.
That's what the Charter says, so that's what the Charter means. That is how every ambassador to the UN has always interpreted the authority of the Security Council.
As for UNSC 242, again, I am completely correct and you are totally wrong.
The text clearly and explicitly says that it laying out the conditions that the UNSC believes will bring a "just and lasting peace".
If those steps are taken -> "peace".
If those steps don't take place -> "No peace".
It is a political statement of policy by the UNSC, it is not a legally-binding set of marching orders.
You believe otherwise.
You are 100% wrong.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Nov 18 2019 2:38 utc | 84
b, great job in putting this list of events together. My big question is that once this whole thing is crystal & clear to all in the world, what will Russia and China do with the 3 stooges in UNSC ? They all violated the basics of international rules, got red handed, exposed and then what ?
This is why I say payback has to be a bitch, there must be a pay back, or crime against humanity will always pay off under the zio-nazis globalist world.
Posted by: Canthama | Nov 16 2019 19:11 utc | 7
I absolutely agree, Canthama. A strong and highly vigorous and persistent response is essential.
Russia and China need to call an emergency meeting of the UN security council. Those who deliberately falsified reports and deliberately covered up crimes against humanity are themselves guilty - as co-conspirators - of crimes against humanity. This is true of course even if there was no communication between them and the perpetrators of the mass murders. And whilst the "chemical warfare attack by the Syrian Government" was clearly staged and did not happen, the murders of the victims filmed were very real, and certainly carried out specifically as preparation for the staged attack. One eminent analyst - from memory I think it was either Scot Ritter or Theodor Postol - advanced a well-argued theory based on numerous pieces of evidence(*) that the victims had been hung upside down by the feet in a closed room, and then slowly and painfully murdered with chlorine gas, so that they were unable to struggle or escape, and to produce 100% death rate. Such evidence included signs of yellow stains on their faces of mucus from eyes, noses and mouths, which dripped UP their faces instead of down; the fact that the faces and hair had been washed; hair was still wet but clothes were not; etc. This was a calculated and deliberate massacre of hostages - all children as I recall - and by covering it up all those OPCW staff who took relevant decisions or who made relevant threats to other OPCW staff are legally complicit in most grievous crimes against humanity and must be prosecuted and punished for it. This certainly includes the then Director General Ahmet Uzumcu and his strongarm Bob Fairweather. According to the paragraph cited below it also includes the [acting?] team-leader of the fact-finding mission Sami Barrek, who withheld results of the environment sample analyses from other team members and fraudulently doctored the report.
(*) This is from memory, and there is a risk I am confusing evidence from the Khan Sheikhum incident with that of Douma is some elements. However, OPCW was incontrovertibly guilty of a criminal conspiracy to cover up BOTH of those crimes against humanity.
The press release is strategically timed, with the forthcoming conference of all members of OPCW starting on 25th November. Certainly Russia, China and also anti-chemical weapons heavyweight Iran will be actively lobbying many many countries to take part in the conference (many apparently abstained from the voting on the last contemptible restructuring of OPCW as a global political policeman a year or so ago, or were for some reason not entitled[???] to representation) and to take important positions in votes such as demanding that all members of the Douma team be invited to report to the conference. The results could be very interesting indeed, and potentially even a geostrategic game-changer.
Syria should also demand that OPCW be referred to the International Criminal Court for war crimes (of course nothing would happen, but it would be a very potent and overwhelmingly deserved symbol).
-----
The Steele article includes the following important paragraph (analysis of environmental samples showing normal houshold levels of chlorine compounds):
But when the analysis of these key levels came back from the laboratories the results were kept with Sami Barrek, a Tunisian who was the Duma fact-finding mission’s leader. Against normal expectations they were not passed on to the inspector who was drafting the OPCW’s interim report on Douma.
Apart from its obvious significance in terms of the identification of one of the individuals falsifying the Douma report, it is significant in identifying the acting team leader of the Fact-Finding Mission. I say "acting" because the original team leader by the Director General Kalman Kallo was extra-judiciously removed (again by the Director General) from the team after they had already started work in Syria, evidently because he was getting witness testimonies the DG wanted to suppress. Since both interim and final reports were anonymous, questions were raise eg by www.syriapropagandamedia.org as to who the replacement team leader was (who they presumed to be the author), and who wrote the falsified reports. So, it now seems that Sami Barrek was the replacement team leader but that another team member - the whistleblower - was deligated to draft the interim report, which was then falsified by management, and at the last moment the falsified version was marginally toned down but still falsified by Sami Barrek.
Also very important to note from the article is that ALL team members except one - obviously Sami Barrek - were unanimous in concluding that the Douma incident was staged.
*** Ahmet Uzumcu, Bob Fairweather, and Sami Barrek must be tried for crimes against humanity ***
Posted by: BM | Nov 18 2019 13:47 utc | 85
I would note that the OPCW is not actually a UN organization. It has an agreement with the UN, which is why OPCW representatives travel under a UN banner, but the organization is neither funded nor managed by the UN.
The far more likely outcome is the discrediting of the OPCW as an "objective" enforcer of chemical weapons prohibitions, possibly including an abrogation of its agreement with the UN (although the US/UK would probably veto that anyway).
Ultimately what matters is moral authority: Has the OPCW lost it?
Time will tell. OPCW is a really small org (500-ish members) despite its $100M+ budget. It would be interesting to see what the member nations actually contribute, but I couldn't find this online in a brief search.
Note also that there are many other non-UN organizations which enforce international norms such as the IAEA - although the IAEA was not established by the UN, it reports to it. To compare, IAEA has 2500 employees and a 400M euro budget.
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 18 2019 17:05 utc | 86
@ 83 grieved... thanks... i agree with you and the lesson keeps having to be learned, as some of us are quicker learners then others!
@ 85 bm.. i like your thrust... i wonder if russia or china will do anything like this only to see it vetoed...
Posted by: james | Nov 18 2019 17:12 utc | 87
What can the Society of Chemists do about all the crazy info? A lot for sure, but they won’t… all will want to keep their jobs. Scientists can be paid off, like everyone else.
Posted by: Noirette | Nov 17 2019 17:22 utc | 71
Sorry, Noirette. SoC cannot do anything about the article, as they incompletely inform in a note:
In exchange for behind the scenes access to the Novichok decontamination process, Chemistry World agreed that Dstl and government partners could vet the article for any sensitive information that was not cleared for public release
BTW, the photos were vetted for juvenile audiences, no locker room scenes of worker donning their suits or taking showers after a shift of sweaty work. Actually, the photos are extremely pristine for the topic, not a spec of dust, shining shoes etc. Even the hazmat suits have a different than in photos presented before where they are uni-color -- why the heck put camouflage on decontamination suits anyway? Perhaps those are "behind the scenes" takes of rehearsal for the upcoming BBC show about Novichok. Sadly, no explanation of vexing questions how the poison allegedly spread on a ground-floor door handle spread over the roof of Skripal residence (or why the heck this roof was removed). Oh well, not cleared for public release.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 18 2019 18:37 utc | 88
Canister landed very nicely in that bed. Someone thought would be more of an impact that way?
Posted by: Joe | Nov 18 2019 20:44 utc | 89
The main question that remains open is whether war criminals of the three countries who launched a missile strike on Syria in April 2018 will be prosecuted. In theory, the leaders of these countries (making the final decision on the use of force) and the highest military leadership should be court-martialed. But something tells me that war criminals will again (like after the aggression against Iraq) turn out to be unpunished. As one know, impunity breeds lawlessness, which means that in the future we can expect the next illegal/criminal actions of the “leading democracies”.
Just wondering... if Russia and, for example, China (as an ally of Russia), launched a joint massive missile attack on Latvia on the basis of an obviously staged video (for example, about the oppression of Russians in Latvia)... I think there's no need to explain the degree of hysteria that would rise in the world media and in the UN. But when the "Western democracies" do this, then everything is all right, isn't it? You can simply "forget" about the incident, which is undoubtedly a flagrant war crime, or consider it "insignificant". How nice.
For those interested, the history of the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2013 as presented by a Russian diplomat.
Noirette #71
I like how they add a bit of hyperbole. "The gargantuan clean-up effort..."
A Gargantuan, Herculean, unimaginably difficult and immensely complicated,
but in the end highly rewarding accomplishment.
The realm is secure once more, now we can allow ourselves to breath a sigh of relief
and enjoy a brief moment's respite... (security of the homeland? Maybe, if not for...)
Posted by: Mishko | Nov 21 2019 20:24 utc | 91
The comments to this entry are closed.
@ b who wrote
"
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.
"
This is the reason many of us come to your web site and try to add value in comments.
Thanks for your journalistic efforts and may they continue!!!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 16 2019 18:18 utc | 1