.@TheGrayzoneNews exclusive: ex-OPCW chief José Bustani defends the whistleblowers who challenged a cover-up of their Syria probe.
Bustani also reacts to US-allies blocking his UN testimony -- & reveals he was spied on before US ousted him over Iraq war.
The OPCW inspectors who challenged a cover-up of their investigation in Douma, Syria are so experienced that they worked under the OPCW's first Director General, José Bustani.
Former OPCW chief José Bustani on media silence over the OPCW Syria cover-up scandal, & how media coverage could make a difference in protecting the OPCW from political exploitation by US & other Western states.
cc @TheIntercept & @democracynow , who have ignored this story.
Ex-OPCW chief José Bustani on reports that US officials lobbied OPCW inspectors to conclude that a chlorine attack occurred in Douma - the pretext for the US-led bombing of Syria in April 2018: "If I were Director-General, this would never happen. Never." thegrayzone.com/2020/10/18/ex-…
Ex-OPCW chief José Bustani on the fact that the OPCW inspectors who investigated the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria were sidelined and replaced with a so-called "core" team who never set foot there: "It would have never happened" under his watch. thegrayzone.com/2020/10/18/ex-…
Ex-OPCW chief José Bustani -- ousted by US in 2002 for impeding the Iraq war -- describes when John Bolton personally threatened him to force his resignation.
Former OPCW chief José Bustani reveals that this office was bugged. This was during the period when he was trying to bring Iraq into the OPCW -- which could have prevented the US invasion. The US later ousted him by threatening the OPCW's budget. thegrayzone.com/2020/10/18/ex-…
Former OPCW chief José Bustani also reveals that, after he discovered that he was being spied on, an American who then headed the OPCW's security operations suddenly vanished. "This person disappeared -- and never showed up again." thegrayzone.com/2020/10/18/ex-…
US, UK, France recently did something that got almost no attention: they blocked OPCW's first Director General, José Bustani, from testifying at the UN Security Council. Bustani was there to defend OPCW whistleblowers whose Syria investigation was compromised. Bustani responds:
In 2002, @GeorgeMonbiot said OPCW chief José Bustani has "done more in the past five years to promote world peace than anyone else on earth."
Monbiot & many more are now silent on US-UK- France blocking Bustani's UN testimony on OPCW's Syria scandal.
Bustani hopes that changes:
Never heard back from @GeorgeMonbiot on whether he will defend José Bustani -- who Monbiot once said has "done more to promote world peace than anyone" -- after he was blocked by US-UK-France from testifying at UN in defense of OPCW whistleblowers. I think we got George's answer:
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.@democracynow recently host a BBC journalist in Syria who spread outright sectarian incitement, without any pushback.
Here, Lina Sinjab claims that: "Most of the Alawite community are supportive of... former President Assad, and they had contributed or been part of the crackdown, the brutal crackdown, on the Syrians’ arrests, torture in prison and killing."
Note how she separates "the Alawite community" from "the Syrians", as if they're separate groups. She also declares that "most" of their community is complicit in crimes, as is regular Alawites are responsible for the Assad government.
To the extent that Alawites and other minority groups did "support" the government, that's mainly because they were under threat from the sectarian insurgency dominated by foreign-backed groups like Al Qaeda, a reality that is completely whitewashed here.
Here, Lina Sinjab dog-whistles more incitement against Alawites and Shia in Syria by declaring that: "many of the Alawites and the Shia in Syria have always been affiliated to foreign powers, like in Iran", which is the "most feared" foreign power in Syria.
Painting entire communities as "affiliated" with nefarious "foreign powers" is straight up sectarian incitement. This has real life consequences, as we're seeing in the regular videos of attacks on Shia and Alawites in Syria. Again, no pushback from @democracynow.
It's also telling that in discussing the threat from foreign powers meddling in Syria, this BBC journalist makes no mention of the UK government and its US, Gulf, and NATO allies, who spent tens of billions of dollars arming a sectarian insurgency in Syria. Not to mention the US sanctions and ongoing US military occupation that has crushed Syria's economy and prevented recovery.
I understand why a UK state media employee would omit this inconvenient reality. Why a historically noble independent media outlet like @democracynow chooses to go along is a different question.
Guess who was an advisory board member for ZAKA, the scam Israeli "rescue" group that's spread fake Oct. 7th claims including beheaded babies, “mass rape”, and a fetus cut from its mother?
.@gettleman, lead author of the NYT article that weaponized sexual violence to baseless claim that "Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7th", is on the defensive -- and doubling down on his fraud. ()
In a new article, he attempts to rebut unspecified "critics" -- whom he tellingly never names or cites.
That's because if he actually acknowledged and linked to the debunking by @TheGrayzoneNews, @intifada, and @Mondoweiss of his scam "reporting," it would be obvious that he can't refute it.
.@gettleman faced a serious problem: He led his story with a slain Israeli woman, Gal Abdush, and claimed she was a "symbol" of Oct. 7th sexual violence. He even all but declared that she was raped.
But then Gal's sister, Miral Alter, called out @Gettleman as a fraud. She said that "there is no proof that there was rape" and accused @gettleman of misleading their family.
Playing damage control, @gettleman went back to Miral and tried to get her to back down. The result is more scumbag journalism.
In his initial article, @Gettleman prominently featured the claims of Yossi Landau, Southern Commander of the scandal-plagued ZAKA. (pic 1)
But Haaretz has already exposed Landau as a liar for falsely claiming that he saw burned babies and a fetus cut from a dead woman’s womb on October 7. ()
So now, in his new attempt to defend his original article, how does the NYT fraudster @Gettleman handle relying on the Zaka fraudster Landau? He simply pretends he doesn't exist.
According to @Gettleman, two of the people he interviewed who described witnessing sexual assault "have since come under intense scrutiny." (pic 2)
This allows @Gettleman to omit that Yossi Landau has also come under "intense scrutiny" -- and found to be a flat-out liar.
Memo to @gettleman and his NYT editors: you don't get to escape accountability for relying on fraudulent sources by suddenly omitting that you relied on them. That shows you're only doubling down on your fraud.archive.is/H6rAm
A major embarrassment for NYT's @gettleman
and his story on "How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence."
Gal Abdush is the Oct. 7th victim whose story leads and is featured throughout the NYT article. Her family is even featured as the cover image. NYT describes her as a "symbol" of Oct. 7th sexual violence.
But Abdush's sister says "there is no proof that there was rape." She also accuses the NYT of manipulating their family. They didn't know that she would be presented as a rape victim.
In other words, NYT weaponized both a dead woman and sexual violence to spread propaganda in the service of a genocide.
“So far, there was only one direct eyewitness testimony” — whose tale was outlandish and had zero evidence.
@noam_dworman Now we got two new purported male witnesses. One isn’t identified. The other happens to be an officer from an elite Israeli military unit.
@noam_dworman The head of Israel’s rape commission says “we will never know neither the numbers or the scope” of these alleged rapes. Why not? And why should I buy these claims if so?
“As a condition to enter Gaza under IDF air support, outlets have to submit all materials and footage to the Israeli military for review prior to publication. CNN has agreed to these terms....”