Three years since the Khan Sheikhoun Sarin attack we should take some time to remember one of the worst examples of mainstream reporting on the attack; Seymour Hersh's article published by @welt, something they've never apologised for bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017…
Hersh's claim, "Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives", was shown to be a complete fabrication by the OPCW-UN JIM, and not even supported by the Russian and Syrian claims.
Hersh wrote this supposed Russian bomb destroyed the target, releasing a cloud of chemicals "formed by the release of the fertilizers, disinfectants and other goods stored in the basement". This was complete nonsense, with Sarin detected in multiple samples from Khan Sheikhoun.
In addition, Hersh provided @welt with an obviously fabricated transcript of a conversation between "a security adviser & an active US American soldier", which reads like bad Tom Clancy novel. Neither Hersh nor Welt have apologised for published this fake.
welt.de/politik/auslan…
welt.de/politik/auslan…
When @charliearchy later asked Hersh about the story, he referred him to Ted Postol's and Scott Ritter's opinions on the attack and said he had "learned just to write what I know, and move on", washing his hands of his disinformation on a chemical attack.
