This article was originally published by Aaron Kesel at Activist Post.
WikiLeaks has taken much of a hiatus from publishing since the arrest and imprisonment of its founder Julian Assange. Yesterday, the organization ended that silence by releasing an internal email of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in what’s being called the “Douma Docs” in a tweet posted to the organization’s Twitter account [Saturday].
OPCW distortions: "Crucial facts “…have morphed into something quite different to what was originally drafted.”@LatuffCartoons
Leaked email:https://t.co/Z3N1r0xkZ4 pic.twitter.com/vZ5dMmOgZe
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 24, 2019
The email pertains to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, on April 7th, 2018. This author previously expressed there were a number of anomalies that led to the conclusion that the attack was staged, including lack of damage to the compressed gas cylinder that was allegedly dropped from a helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAA) into a room.
WikiLeaks writes,
The team found much of the physical evidence, including the bodies of the deceased, was no longer available. It was alleged that 49 had died and up to 650 had been seriously affected by a weaponized chemical gas released in a specific area of rebel-held Douma on that day in April. Rebels claimed the gas came from cylinders dropped from aircraft clearly implicating Syrian government forces who had complete air superiority.
The author of the internal e-mail was a member of OPCW and claims that a redacted preliminary version of the OPCW investigative report misrepresented the actual factual findings. The e-mail is dated 22nd of June, addressed to Robert Fairweather, Chief of Cabinet, and forwarded to deputy Aamir Shouket and other members of the fact-finding mission to Douma, according to a WikiLeaks press release.
The whistleblower told WikiLeaks this misrepresentation was achieved by the omission of key facts, which introduces a bias that undermines the credibility of the report. Further, it is claimed that crucial facts remaining in the redacted version “…have morphed into something quite different to what was originally drafted.”
Towards the end of October WikiLeaks first published a leaked statement by a panel that listened to testimony and reviewed evidence from a OPCW whistleblower. That panel was attended by WikiLeaks’ new editor and chief Kristinn Hrafnsson.
In a statement Hrafnsson called on OPCW to leak documents securely to WikiLeaks:
The panel was presented with evidence that casts doubt on the integrity of the OPCW. Although the whistleblower was not ready to step forward and/or present documents to the public, WikiLeaks believes it is now of utmost interest for the public to see everything that was collected by the Fact Finding Mission on Douma and all scientific reports written in relation to the investigation. We call out to people within the OPCW to leak these documents securely to us via wikileaks.org/#submit.
WikiLeaks also reported that one of the panel members, Dr. José Bustani, the first Director-General of the OPCW, concluded that:
The convincing evidence of irregular behaviour in the OPCW investigation of the alleged Douma chemical attack confirms doubts and suspicions I already had. I could make no sense of what I was reading in the international press. Even official reports of investigations seemed incoherent at best. The picture is certainly clearer now, although very disturbing.
Presumably, this is the same whistleblower’s email that WikiLeaks published today revealing corruption and bias within the OPCW when investigating the Douma attack.
One of the biggest revelations from the release is that there is a statement in the redacted report that indicates there was sufficient evidence to show the use of “chlorine, or another reactive chlorine-containing chemical.”
The e-mail points out that this was:
“likely one or more chemicals that contain a reactive chlorine atom. Such chemicals could include… the major ingredient of household chlorine-based bleach. Purposely singling out chlorine gas as one of the possibilities is disingenuous.”
The redacted report also removed context from a claim in the original draft, which concerned the likelihood of the gas having emanated from cylinders found at the scene in Douma. The original text is said to have purposely emphasised that there was insufficient evidence to affirm this being the case. This is “a major deviation from the original report” according to the author.
The whistleblower also expresses issues with a paragraph in the redacted version, which states ”based on the high levels of various chlorinated organic derivatives detected in environmental samples.”
They were, in most cases, present only in parts per billion range, as low as 1-2 ppb, which is essentially trace quantities.
WikiLeaks goes on to further describe how a discussion about anomalies of a viral video showing victims being treated was not consistent with what witnesses themselves reported as symptoms of the attack in Douma.
The e-mail states:
Omitting this section of the report (including the Epidemiology which has been removed in its entirety) has a serious negative impact on the report as this section is inextricably linked to the chemical agent identified… In this case, the confidence in the identity of chlorine or any other choking agent is drawn into question precisely because of the inconsistency with the reported and observed symptoms. The inconsistency was not only noted by the fact-finding mission team, but strongly supported by three toxicologists with expertise in exposure to chemical warfare agents.
This is the same chemical attack that caused U.S. President Donald Trump and allies of Britain and France to bomb targets in Syria. This effort was taken before OPCW even gained access to the site in Douma to investigate what had taken place.
In 2017 Trump faced his first test of a chemical weapons attack in Syria and his response was bombarding Syria with missiles over unverified information while MSM looked on in awe. Brian Williams praised the “beautiful display” of Syria being destroyed by Tomahawk missiles.
The first attack under Trump – the chemical strike in Khan Sheikhoun – happened months after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had handed evidence to the Hague and the UN watchdog group OPCW that allegedly proves the Syrian rebels used mustard gas against civilians; an assertion that IHS Conflict Monitor had made in November, just a few months before the evidence was submitted.
On November 2016, The New York Times reported that IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based intelligence collection and analysis service found that ISIS had used chemical weapons 52 times in Syria and Iraq.
Another report that corroborates IHS Conflict Monitor has found that the Islamic State has used sulfur mustard — a chemical warfare agent in the past — at least 19 times. The group’s conclusions were based on local news reports, social media and the Islamic State’s own propaganda.
Foreign Policy reported that in 2012 ISIS had captured a Syrian military base that was filled with chemical weapons. That’s one year prior to the 2013 infamous chemical attack where UN envoy investigators were shot at by snipers in Syria trying to investigate the incident.
According to Foreign Policy, their source — an ISIS fighter Abu Ahmad — stated that the terrorist group found barrels filled with chlorine, sarin, and mustard gas. Al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, then called for dozens of trucks to transport the chemical weapons according to Ahmad.
The Guardian also reported that ISIS had captured a massive former Iraqi chemical weapons factory with more than 2,000 degraded chemical rockets filled with sarin gas in 2014.
Then, that same year, it was claimed that two abandoned cylinders containing sarin were reportedly seized by Syrian government troops in an area controlled by armed opposition groups and handed over to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
A letter stated that the cylinders were, “reportedly seized by the armed forces of the Syrian Arab Republic in August 2013 in an area reportedly under the control of armed opposition groups.”
Is there evidence that these weapons have been used before? Indeed, they have been used by several jihadist groups and not only ISIS.
Voice of America reported in 2016 that the jihadist group, Jaysh al-Islam, used chemical weapons in attacks against Kurdish troops in Aleppo.
Syrian rebels have also been caught testing Tekkim chemicals on rabbits and even threatened to use the chemicals against civilians in Syria on a sectarian basis.
Shortly before the 2018 attack in late March, Activist Post reported that the Syrian Army had claimed it had uncovered a chemical weapons “workshop” in East Ghouta after having liberated the territory.
What’s more, in that same report the government had warned of the possibility of a false flag attack blamed on the Syrian government.
After sweeping through the village of Aftris in Eastern Ghouta following the withdrawal of terrorists from the area, Syrian Army Colonel Feruz Ibrahim told reporters that, “Presumably, the equipment of these munitions could be produced as part of a false flag accusation that government troops used chemical weapons.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Syrian government had completed the removal of all chemical weapons from the country in 2014. The WMD handover was corroborated by the United Nations Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and a statement by Senator John Kerry. While the Syrian government is on record surrendering their chemical weapons, the “moderate rebel” groups have used them increasingly.
It is worth noting that the region in Syria that Western sources were getting their information from was controlled by the Al Qaeda-allied terrorist group Jaysh al-Islam. Further, the reports we’re seeing cited by the press are coming from the Western-backed and Al Qaeda-affiliated propaganda firm the White Helmets and the “pro-opposition Ghouta Media Center.”
During the first chemical weapons attack in April 2017, a doctor on the ground in Khan Sheikhoun, Dr. Shajul Islam, had received several shipments of gas masks in the days leading up to the chemical incident. That same doctor is also one of the main sources for MSM reporting on this chemical attack, despite the fact that the man was sought by the British government in connection with the abduction of two journalists in Syria and is alleged to have ties to the infamous now-dead Jihadi John.
Islam had his license stripped after being accused of participating in a terrorist kidnapping ring targeting Western journalists, PJMedia reported.
British journalist John Cantlie was set to testify as the main witness against Islam during the pre-trial hearing. However, Cantlie was then kidnapped a second time.
A UN panel recently found the White Helmets who are supposedly a part of the “moderate rebels” in Syria, to be a terrorist organization, which participated in everything from organ theft, and staging rescues to stealing from civilians. The White Helmets are connected to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which has links to Al-Nusra as this writer has exposed.
A video of an FSA commander Abd Al-Baset Tawila admits the direct ties to Al-Nusra aka Al-Qaeda. In the video, Commander Tawila threatens the international community demanding they give the FSA anti-tank/aircraft weapons and admits that the FSA has ties to the radical extremist Al-Nusra group that is labeled as a terrorist organization by the West.
A major White Helmets financier and co-founder a former British army man, James Le Mesurier, was found dead earlier this month when he fell from his balcony.
In 2016 the founder of the White Helmets Raed Salah was denied entry into the U.S. at Washington’s Dulles International Airport and deported, due to “extremist connections” while on his way to receive a humanitarian relief award at a gala dinner hosted by USAID a known CIA front company.
This same group faked a crisis scene previously that looked shockingly real for the infamous “mannequin challenge.” The video was then pulled from their YouTube channel after it raised immense levels of controversy. It was labeled as distasteful, but not before others on the Internet downloaded it and re-uploaded it.
This isn’t the first time that MSM has fallen for terrorist propaganda. In 2016 it was widely reported that there was a parked car bomb that killed 10 in a Baghdad neighborhood. The story was said to have come from police sources, but there was one small problem: after the story went viral, a video was leaked online showing the fake staged attack and actors faking injuries.
As WikiLeaks previously noted, the White Helmets are mostly funded by the U.S. government. Although they also receive funding from London as its primary PR front in pursuit of a “No Fly Zone” in Syria.
Syria's White Helmets are mostly funded by the US government https://t.co/jCwd3YogKF
More: https://t.co/8EbknghYKl
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 3, 2016
WikiLeaks’ release also highlights a previous leaked file an engineering report from OPCW which disputes the placement and condition of the cylinders that were reported to have been dropped from the sky on Douma. This is something this author also disputed while writing a lengthy debunking piece shortly after the events took place analyzing photos on the ground.
Syria is one of seven countries that four-star U.S. General Wesley Clark claimed the U.S. wanted to invade in five years, after whistleblowing the plan which was concocted mere weeks after 9/11.
