Thread by @PiersRobinson1

.@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission @marydejevsky @freddiesayers

https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1361228224601161744

1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc…… @RobertF40396660

3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/#OP……. hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/11/new-se…

4) .@bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report: couragefound.org/2019/10/analyt…

5) The @couragefound panel learned that an engineering study, sidelined by OPCW management, indicated that the damage seen here on a chlorine cylinder and roof were not consistent with each other:

6) The panel also learned that a toxicology report by NATO chemical warfare experts had been suppressed come the final @opcw report. This report evaluated how these victims came to to be killed, on the spot, by the alleged chemical chlorine gas. @2ndNewMoon

7) This report is ignored in Bellingcat's book, even though it concluded that the observed symptoms were not consistent with chlorine gas poisoning them where they were found. @samibarrek @LenP91535865 wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc…

8) So compelling was the evidence presented at the @couragefound panel that an open letter, signed by eminent figures including Noam Chomsky and Hans von Sponeck, was sent to all OPCW member states- couragefound.org/wp-content/upl……But you will not learn about that in the Bellingcat book

9) .@bellingcat also chooses to ignore how the OPCW's first director general spoke out in support of the Douma inspectors trying to tell the truth but was blocked by the US and UK at a UNSC meeting. … @aaronjmate @thomasphipps @SJobDigital @McCormack_Tara

10) Whilst omitting all of these facts, @bellingcat
instead reinforces the attempt by OPCW senior management to smear some of its most experienced inspectors using a 'leak investigation' to spread lies and disinformation. @RealDeeptiC @UK_OPCW @CanadaOPCW @NLatOPCW

11) and in doing so ignores entirely the detailed and factual rebuttal of these smears provided by British journalist @ClarkeMicah in the Mail on Sunday:- hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/02/a-and-……. @PeterCronau @OborneTweets @alextomo

12) .@bellingcat's discussion of #Douma and the
@OPCW controversy also conveniently forgets to mention the claim from a @BBC producer @Dalatrm
that he could confirm the hospital scenes shot at Douma were staged:

https://twitter.com/Dalatrm/status/1095677403198906369?s=20

… @bbclysedoucet @BreesAnna @cerumol

13) Ignoring relevant facts is one thing, but @bellingact also obscure their own role in the events at Douma and the OPCW controversy @beek38. As @MichaKobs explains here, @bellingcat deleted a tweet confirming manipulation of the cylinder on the balcony:-

https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/984596184428924928?s=20

14) This cylinder, the subject of the engineering study mentioned above (5) can be seen to have been rotated through 180 degrees, to line up a dent with a steel bar, and then tilted so that its nozzle points into a hole in the roof.

15) Not only were Bellingcat in contact with activists manipulating evidence on the ground, they also published a fraudulent story seeking to discredit an OPCW inspector & involving a letter allegedly sent by OPCW DG. thegrayzone.com/2020/10/28/dra……
@MaxBlumenthal @aaronjmate

16) The letter Bellingcat leaked was never sent and its leaking confirms that a) nefarious actors within the OPCW are leaking false information and b)
@bellingcat serve as their conduit. The description of the conditions within the OPCW described by this official appear accurate

17) Fortunately there are individuals with integrity who are analysing *all* the evidence and detailed analyses of the
@opcw Douma issue are available syriapropagandamedia.org/update-on-the-……. And, in the coming months, more voices will come to be heard.

18) In the meantime, @BloomsburyBooks
have published an account of a major controversy that demonstrably ignores critical facts/material. As shown by the material in this thread, it is a deception through omission. @GeorgeMonbiot @lukeharding1968 @anneapplebaum @haynesdeborah

19) I doing so @BloomsburyBooks is complicit in the attempts by the UK and US governments to conceal their propaganda activities and complicit in preventing the truth coming out of how these civilians came to be killed at Douma.

fyi @JefferySachs @MaxAbrahms @joshua_landis @cwccoalition @JPZanders @bbclysedoucet @alextomo @PeterCronau @OborneTweets @TulsiGabbard @rogerwaters @pamfoundation @SusanSarandon @medialens @PeterCronau @MaxAbrahms @RenieriArts @MichaKobs @afshinrattansi @johnpilger @ggreenwald