Aaron Mate': Report for European Parliament challenges OPCW’s Syria cover-up | A new report commissioned by members of the European Parliament and spearheaded by veteran diplomats offers the most thorough look at the OPCW's Douma cover-up scandal to date.

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[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

From Aaron Mate's interview of two of the BG 21's members, the standout issues:

The BG 21 report is comprised of two categories, procedural flaws and scientific flaws. The standout issues identified by Piers Robinson were as follows:

Procedural issues:

  • the OPCW report drafted by the Douma team set out a series of inconsistencies and issues and concluded that "an attack might have occurred or something else might have happened, needs further investigation." This report was signed off by the Douma team but was at the last minute substituted with an alternative report that stripped out all the questions and issues that had been raised. Anyone reading this substituted report would wrongly conclude that the Douma team had identified that a chemical attack had occurred as alleged and it was the Syrian government behind it.

  • the systematic sidelining of the team who deployed to Douma (one team deployed to Douma, the other to Turkey to interview witnesses). The team on the ground in Douma were essentially sidelined throughout (didn't offer details here).

Scientific issues, there are four broad areas:

  • how the 43 civilians died: suppression of the original toxicology assessment, which was conducted by external experts and which concluded that the civilians were not killed by chlorine gas.

  • role of witness testimony: privileging of witnesses who claimed the alleged attack occurred and a downgrading of witnesses who said they were not aware of a chemical attack.

  • the chemical analysis, trying to determine if the chlorine was there. You see a systematic attempt to exaggerate and over-claim so as to reach conclusions the evidence doesn't support.

  • damage to the cylinders: cylinders of chlorine gas were allegedly dropped from helicopters. One is supposed to have gone through a metal bar-reinforced roof and the other was supposed to have punched a hole in the roof and then balanced itself over the hole and leaked chlorine gas. The inspectors' report said the damage on the cylinders was not consistent with the damage found on the roofs or with what you would see had the cylinders been dropped from helicopters.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Interesting but unsurprising: the European MPs who commissioned the report were Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, known for some real fire-breathing speeches to the European Parliament.

[–]stickdog[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for adding that. That probably explains why this report is not another bs coverup.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Related post from August: Interview about the now publicly released Berlin Group 21 Review of the OPCW-Douma controversy:

As noted in this posting, a detailed review of the Douma-OPCW chemical weapons controversy was recently completed and distributed to all 193 member states of the OPCW as well as key UN officials.

The Berlin Group 21 is comprised of myself, Hans-C von Sponeck (former Assistant Secretary-General United Nations), José Bustani (first Director General of the OPCW) and Professor Richard Falk (Princeton).

Includes video interview with Redacted.

[–]stickdog[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Excerpt:

A new report commissioned by members of the European Parliament offers the most thorough exposé to date of the OPCW’s Syria cover-up scandal, in which the world’s top chemical watchdog manipulated an investigation to baselessly accuse Syria of a chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma.

In April 2018, after dozens of dead victims were filmed at the scene, the US, UK, and France alleged that the Syrian government had dropped gas cylinders on Douma and launched airstrikes in purported retaliation. But leaks from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons show that international inspectors found no evidence of a chemical attack, raising the possibility that the incident was staged by the insurgents who controlled Douma at the time.

The OPCW team’s findings were suppressed and replaced with unsupported conclusions that aligned with the US-led narrative. When two veteran OPCW inspectors who deployed to Syria for the probe challenged the manipulation, they were silenced and later publicly defamed.

The report for the European Parliament is authored by the Berlin Group 21, which is comprised of founding OPCW Director General Jose Bustani, former senior UN official Hans Von Sponeck, Princeton law professor Richard Falk, and academic Piers Robinson of the Organization for Propaganda Studies. Its release follows the Brazilian government's recent public shift in support of accountability over the OPCW's cover-up scandal.

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[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Outstanding news.