1) In fact UK journalist @ClarkeMicah first reported in 2019 the fact that the original interim report had been secretly doctored to suggest Syrian gov. guilt without the knowledge of the Douma inspectors:- hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/11/new-se…
2) The @couragefound in 2019, which heard testimony from an OPCW person, reported serious procedural and scientific irregularities relating to manipulation of chemistry, toxicology, ballistics and witness testimony:- couragefound.org/2019/10/opcw-p…
3) This panel was followed up by an open letter signed by eminent experts calling for transparency at the @opcw and for the concerns of its own inspectors to be heard. couragefound.org/wp-content/upl…
4) Subsequent leaks and further testimony from OPCW scientists have confirmed further serious procedural and scientific flaws with the OPCW's #Douma investigation. Of particular note was the suppression of a NATO toxicology report ruling out chlorine as cause of death
5) Also significant was the sidelining of an engineering assessment that effectively ruled out the likelihood of this cylinder having been dropped from a Syrian Air Force helicopter (the damage in the ceiling is not consistent with having been caused by the cylinder)
5) And which also noted the impossibility of this cylinder having broken through a ceiling to then change direction by 90 degrees to travel across a bedroom and land on a bed
6) Another significant irregularity occurred when Chief of Cabinet @RobertF40396660 allowed a US delegation, in violation of the CWC, to brief the Douma investigators, telling them that the Syrian government was responsible for the alleged attack.counterpunch.org/2019/11/15/the…
7) All of these issues are substantive and real, not 'fake news', and recently a open letter signed by 28 international experts and opinion leaders has called, yet again, on the @opcw to address the concerns of OPCW scientists reporting fraud and cover-up: berlingroup21.org
10) Until @NathalieLoiseau and others in positions of power stop engaging in childish smearing, and instead address well-founded concerns raised for more than two year now, the truth behind these deaths will remain obfuscated, covered up. @Ce_Moll@Nic_Koenig@danielfiott
11) @NathalieLoiseau and her colleagues might do well to reflect upon what it means to help cover up a potential warcrime, and to also consider why this *senior* OPCW senior official [not a Douma FFM team member] stated this about the @opcw and its Syria FFMs:- @Tim_Hayward_
@CanadaOPCW Not only was the majority of the analytical work done before Whelan left, (compare the 106 page original interim report with the final report: wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc… with opcw.org/sites/default/…), any subsequent analysis added little to the original conclusions:-
1) the additional 13 samples analysed were not sufficient to alter the *original interim report* conclusion that there was no confirmation chlorine gas had been present (nor indeed that there was any evidence of nerve agent such as Sarin): berlingroup21.org/background@aaronjmate
2) But the *final report* did include an apparently fabricated claim that no bleach (a possible benign cause of some of the chemistry results) was ever reported by investigators at the scene. In truth, no such negative observation was ever recorded by the Douma inspection team.
1) OPCW staff have not advocated a 'false and misleading theory', they have reported serious procedural and scientic flaws w.r.t. the Douma investigation. 11 points detailed here: berlingroup21.org/background
2) These include secret attempts to modify the interim report and obfuscation of evidence. Starting with procedural irregularity 2, can @CanadaOPCW explain who attempted to publish a manipulated version of the interim report behind the back of the Douma team..
10) Equally significant was the failure to find any evidence of sarin nerve agent nor even conclusive proof that chlorine gas had been released at location 2 where the deceased were found, piled on top of one another:- berlingroup21.org/background
11) We now know that a toxicology assessment via NATO chemical weapons experts, erased from the final @opcw report, had concluded that the deceased were not poisoned by chlorine wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/doc…
12) We also know from the leaked original interim report that witness testimony, again obfuscated in the final @opcw#Douma report, showed contradictory and contrasting claims about what had happened:- couragefound.org/2021/03/additi…
Three years ago today over 50 plus civilians were killed in an alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria. US, UK and France bombed in retaliation seven days later alleging the Syrian government had carried out the attack. @VanessaBeeley@2ndNewMoon@Tim_Hayward_
1) The US, UK and France alleged that the Syrian air force had dropped two gas cylinders and, at the time, alleged that they likely contained Sarin nerve agent. @MichaKobs@CL4Syr
2) Since then, a crude smear campaign against researchers, journalists, academics and even OPCW scientists, has sought to discredit anyone asking questions as *conspiracy theorists*, *war crime deniers* or *Russian/Syrian agents*. @oliverkamm@chloehadj@CIJAOnline@tobycadman
From 6.52- 13.03 @ClarkeMicah@Iromg discuss on @talkRADIO the @OPCW controversy regarding the investigation of the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria, 2018 and the new Statement of Concern issued by leading figures f.y.i. @Tim_Hayward_@couragefound
1) Hitchens notes:- ‘Here we have a scandal … as big as the discovery that WMD in Iraq never existed, which is a serious dispute by very experienced inspectors at the OPCW … If anybody raises it they are immediately dismissed as apologists' couragefound.org/2021/03/statem…
2) ‘this happened over the weekend, amazingly qualified person, Lord Admiral West the Falklands war hero … joined the calls for looking into the OPCW business …. And the Foreign Office said that all those who signed the plea were whitewashing Assad ...’ dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…