Thread by @PiersRobinson1

@cenkuygur @AnaKasparian and the @theyoungturks broadcast on the @OPCW /Douma/Syria chlorine chemical weapon controversy presents a distorted & factually inaccurate account and, as such, misleads its viewers. Some key points in this thread:-

1) First, the broadcast ignores the now sizeable number of experts/opinion leaders who have raised questions regarding this issue e.g. the @couragefoundation panel in 2019 heard from an @opcw official and reported scientific and procedural flaws: couragefound.org/2019/10/analyt…

2) This led to an open letter, signed by many experts including Jose Bustani, the first director general of the @opcw, calling for all the Douma inspectors to be heard couragefound.org/wp-content/upl…

3) More recently a Statement of Concern signed by 28 experts/opinion leaders, and including 5 former @opcw officials, call again for the @opcw to address the concerns raised by @opcw inspectors. berlingroup21.org

4) British was hero Lord Admiral West was one signatory to this Statement of Concern and he was interviewed by UK journalist @ClarkeMicah here dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…

5) Another prominent signatory was former US congress person Tulsi Gabbard who was interviewed about the statement of concern here:-

6) The factual omissions/errors in the broadcast are serious and pertain to misrepresentation of toxicology and ballistics issues. Regarding toxicology, leaked minutes of a meeting with NATO toxicologists concluded that these civilians were not killed by chlorine gas

7) The leaked minutes and the leaked original interim report (see @wikileaks) explain that chlorine does not cause *immediate* death *and* pulmonary oedema (which can cause the foaming at the mouth) wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc…

8) This critical finding, however, appears to be misunderstood by the interviewee in the broadcast by @tyt @AnaKasparian @cenkuygur. For clarity, it is spelled out here in a forthcoming report @CL4Syr @MichaKobs

9) The two key ballistics issues are also ignored in the broadcast. These issues relate to the chlorine cylinders at location 2 (left) and location 4 (right) allegedly dropped from Syrian Air Force helicopters

10) The first relates to the incompatibility between the damage to the steel reinforcement bars and the cylinders. At Location 2 we see a rebar that supposedly stopped the cylinder leaving no marks on the cylinder head whilst other rebars are bent though greater than 90 degrees

11) The Final @opcw report provides no explanation for this and obfuscates the fairly obvious conclusion that what one is observing at location 2 is a hole created by an explosive shell/mortar round

12) As well as the incompatibility w.r.t. damage on the cylinder and the steel rebars also applying to the cylinder at location 4, here we also have the unexplained bounce

13) The final douma report provides the following (mathematically incorrect) and clearly inadequate attempt to explain this remarkable feat:

14) @cenkuygur and @AnaKasparian spend time discussing with the interviewee claims that the Russian and the Syrian government engaged in witness tampering w.r.t. the 'Damascus' witnesses. No mention is made of allegations/evidence of tampering/staging by opposition groups.

15) For example, BBC producer @Dalatrm claims that, following detailed research, he can confirm that the hospital scenes associated with the alleged attack were staged by white helmets/opposition groups:-

16) Also relevant here is this tweet which notes that the man filmed at the staged (according to Dalati) hospital scenes taking pictures was also caught in single/few frames from the film at Location 2 filming the deceased:

17) We also know that the cylinder at Location 2 was manipulated: As @MichaKobs shows here, the cylinder was rotated through 180 degrees and tilted so that the nozzle is pointing into the hole:-

18) Other questions have now arisen w.r.t. witness testimony from "country x" witnesses (arranged via (and including) White Helmets). The leaked original interim report shows 'country x' witnesses reported some symptoms only associated with nerve agent poisoning

19) The leaked original interim report also confirms that some witnesses reported finding deceased in basements even though this was never corroborated or explained (there was no direct route for the chlorine to pass into the basement at location 2) wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc…

20) Equally worrying is the fact that we now know there are inconsistent claims being made as to who buried between 50 and 300 dead civilians in a mass grave following the alleged chemical attack.

21) Here, these 'civil society leaders' from Douma claim there were 187 dead from Douma and all found in basements. trtworld.com/video/news-vid…. As @CL4Syr points out, one of them was involved in the Ghouta 2013 chemical attack.

22) We also know that some of the deceased were 're-positioned' during the night of 7/8 April and that there were question marks regarding the authenticity of some of the observed foam:-

33) indeed, @ClimateAudit reports that one victim appears to have had foam added *after* her body had been moved. climateaudit.org/2018/04/24/dou…

34) Given all of these issues it is not surprising that many experts are calling for the @opcw to allow an objective and transparent review of the Douma investigation and which includes *all* the inspectors involved with investigation. berlingroup21.org/bg21-proposal

35) It is also not surprising that mainstream media and western governments have blocked or suppressed these questions, even blocking first @opcw director general Jose Bustani from speaking at the @un @MaxBlumenthal @aaronjmate:-

36) Unfortunately @cenkuygur @AnaKasparian have helped support this campaign of censorship and coverup by airing a demonstrably flawed episode of @tyt. @2ndNewMoon @Tim_Hayward_ @McCormack_Tara