Thread by @PiersRobinson1

Once again the @bbc and @chloehadj are deceiving through omission with regard to the controversy over the @opcw investigation of the alleged chemical weapon attack in Syria. They fail to mention the following facts:-

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1365465961650880521

1) As reported by @ClarkeMicah and @SMaurizi, the original interim report was secretly redacted, unknown to the inspection team, in an attempt to publish a report suggesting Syrian government guilt:- hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/11/new-se…. The @BBC don't tell you about this.

2) Also omitted is the fact that the @couragefound panel, hearing testimony from an OPCW official, agreed there were serious scientific and procedural flaws with the @opcw investigation. Jose Bustani, the first Director General of the OPCW was a member:- couragefound.org/2019/10/opcw-p…

3) A large volume of leak documents have now been published by @wikileaks which corroborate the concerns of the 2 OPCW scientists briefly mentioned in the BBC report:- wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/#OP…

4) In particular, we now know that a toxicology report agreed with NATO experts, which concluded the victims at Douma were not killed by chlorine gas at the location as alleged, was suppressed in the final @opcw report:- wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc…

5) The BBC report also ignores the fact that Jose Bustani recently testified to the UN Security Council regarding the @opcw controversy. The US, UK and French blocked him but his voice was still heard:-

6) The @bbc report also ignores @couragefound analytical points which set out the key procedural and scientific issues being raised by the dissenting OPCW scientists. To this day, these point remain unanswered by the @opcw:- couragefound.org/2019/10/analyt…

7) Also omitted by the BBC is the fact that leading international experts and eminent figures signed an open letter calling for accountability at the OPCW:- couragefound.org/wp-content/upl…

8) Also telling is the fact that that the BBC reporter concerned, @chloehadj, has repeatedly failed to answer clear and precise questions regarding the flaws in her original reporting:- thegrayzone.com/2020/11/30/que… @aaronjmate @MaxBlumenthal @BenjaminNorton

9) For a more balanced introduction to the OPCW controversy, @bbc viewers might want to read @aaronjmate's article in @thenation:- thenation.com/article/world/… or view his recent interview on a @RollingStone show discussing the Douma controversy:

10) Discussion on the @opcw begins at about 1.06:

11) Finally, although advised to on many occasions, @chloehadj, failed to engage with the detailed and, to date completely unrelated, briefing notes published on the issue. The latest is here, and there will be more to come:- syriapropagandamedia.org/update-on-the-…

12) She also failed to mention that the working group was in contact with the late Julian Perry Robinson, one of the worlds leading experts on chemical and biological weapons:- theguardian.com/world/2020/may…

13) Robinson invited Professor Paul McKeigue to present at the Harvard-Sussex prog. in March 2020:-syriapropagandamedia.org/wp-content/upl…. He also wrote about our work noting the smear campaign against us.

14) As @ClarkeMicah and others note, the OPCW scandal is one of the most important foreign policy deceptions of the last 10 years, as big as the Iraqi WMD scandal if not bigger. But @bbc viewers will have no sense of this from this report. They are deceiving through omission.