Written by Caitlin Johnstone; Originally appeared at her blog
The Institute for Public Accuracy published a report today about the leaked engineering assessment from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons investigation into an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria which directly contradicts the findings of the official OPCW report on the matter. Until the unauthorized release of this internal document the public was kept entirely uninformed of its existence, despite the serious military consequences of the questions it raises; the official story that the Syrian government had dropped chemical weapons in Douma was used to justify an airstrike on Syriadays later.
MIT professor Theodore Postol provided IPA with a basic analysis of some of the data in the engineering assessment, adding that he “will have a much more detailed summary of the engineering report later this week.”
“A second issue that is raised by the character of the OPCW engineering report on Douma is that it is entirely unmentioned in the report that went to the UN Security Council,” Postol concludes after his analysis. “This omission is very serious, as the findings of that report are critical to the process of determining attribution. There is absolutely no reason to justify the omission of the engineering report in the OPCW account to the UN Security Council as its policy implications are of extreme importance.”
“A leaked OPCW document challenges claim that Assad used chemical weapons in Douma in April 2018, the basis for US military strikes,” tweetedjournalist Aaron Maté of the new IPA report. “So far, Western media has ignored it, w/ only exceptions at the margins. Ted Postol is a leading expert; this should be impossible to ignore now.”
Hours later, the US State Department issued a statement once again accusing the Syrian government of using chemical weapons, and now when you search Google for information on chemical weapons in Syria, the results you get look like this:
So that’s convenient.
The State Department’s release actually reads like a government trying to regain control of an important narrative. It begins with an unsubstantiated allegation of a chlorine gas attack by the Syrian government this past Sunday, and warns that the US and its allies will respond militarily if chemical weapons have been used. It condemns the Syrian government’s offensive to recapture the Al Qaeda-occupied Idlib province, then veers off into sheer narrative management, accusing the Russian government of lying about the White Helmets and citing the OPCW as a trustworthy source of authority:
Russia’s recent allegations against the White Helmets and others are part of a continuing disinformation campaign by the Assad regime and Russia to create the false narrative that others are to blame for chemical weapons attacks that the Assad regime itself is conducting. Similarly, on November 24, 2018, the Assad regime and Russia attempted to fabricate a chemical weapons attack near Aleppo and blame it on opposition forces. At times, Russia and the Assad regime have made these false allegations as a pretext in advance of the Assad regime’s own barbaric chemical weapons attacks.
The facts, however, are clear: the Assad regime itself has conducted almost all verified chemical weapons attacks that have taken place in Syria — a conclusion the United Nations has reached over and over again. The former Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-UN Joint Investigation Mechanism repeatedly verified and reported the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. The Assad regime’s culpability in horrific chemical weapons attacks is undeniable.
As I wrote the other day, the fact that the OPCW kept the engineering report from receiving not a whisper of attention severely undermines the organization’s credibility, not just with regard to Douma but with regard to everything, including the establishment Syria narrative as a whole and the Skripal case in the UK. Everything the OPCW has ever concluded about alleged chemical usage around the world is now subject to very legitimate skepticism, and now the State Department is trying to use this same dubious source in its narrative control campaign against a government long targeted by the US empire for regime change.
#Assad once again proving he's either a total fool or just the biggest troll in history.
In the midst of the scandal over the #OPCW repressing evidence that the #Douma chemical attack was staged, Bashar just goes and does another one. #covenienttiminghttps://t.co/U9M0FGITvs
— OffGuardian (@OffGuardian0) May 22, 2019
“Assad once again proving he’s either a total fool or just the biggest troll in history,” Off-Guardian tweeted sarcastically in response to the State Department’s allegations. “In the midst of the scandal over the OPCW repressing evidence that the Douma chemical attack was staged, Bashar just goes and does another one.”
“The US can’t attack Iran so it’s going to unleash its impotent rage on Syria,” tweeted journalist Sharmine Narwani. “One false flag CW attack by US-trained terrorists coming up.”
The notion that the Syrian government would use chemical weapons at this stage in the game is even more nonsensical than it was at the time of the Douma allegations in April 2018. President Bashar al-Assad has recaptured far more territory from the western-backed extremist factions, the eventual full recapture of the nation by Syria and its allies is a foregone conclusion barring direct military intervention by the US empire, and now the western imperialists are even beginning to lose the narrative war as well. There’s no reason to believe Assad would use chemical weapons at this point in the game unless you sincerely believe that he gains some sort of sexual gratification from committing war crimes that is so powerful it overwhelms his most basic survival instincts.
Chemical weapons, particularly chlorine gas, are not an efficient way of killing people. As Moon of Alabama once put it, “Chemical warfare is ineffective. That is why everyone agreed to ban it.” There is nothing about chemical weapons that is inherently more horrific than, say, nuclear weapons; the difference is that they’re just not a very efficient way of killing a large number of people, whereas nuclear weapons are. The Syrian government and its allies have been securing military victory after military victory over the occupying militias which had taken over large territories, and they have been doing so using far more effective conventional munitions. Assad would stand absolutely nothing to gain and absolutely everything to lose by using chemical warfare now.
A leaked OPCW document challenges claim that Assad used chemical weapons in Douma in April 2018, the basis for US military strikes. So far, Western media has ignored it, w/ only exceptions at the margins. Ted Postol is a leading expert; this should be impossible to ignore now: https://t.co/jaQlyjKy6g
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) May 21, 2019
At this point you almost wish America would just pick a target and stick with it. The US war machine is like a belligerent drunk at a pub with a broken bottle in his hand, menacing customer after customer while everyone silently prays he has a few more drinks and passes out on the floor. From Iran to Venezuela to Syria and more, the agenda to bully all the world’s nations into allowing themselves to be absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized empire is causing conflict after conflict all around the globe, with devastating consequences for the civilians caught in the crossfire.
You may be certain that Syria remains a geostrategically crucial location for the empire because they keep working on manufacturing consent for interventionism there. They work to manufacture that consent because they need that consent; if everyone saw their government doing horrific things they widely disapproved of, the illusion of freedom and democracy would be shattered, and they’d lose their ability to propagandize the masses. Without the ability to propagandize the masses, they could not rule.
So the good news is that we can slow them down by using truth to disrupt their use of their narrative control arsenal. The bad news is that they’re as depraved and determined as ever.
Truth and reality doesn’t matter to the American public, if the US Government told them the moon was made of green cheese they would believe it. They are simply to stupid for rational thought, as long as the bread and circuses remain they are placid and controllable.
Not just the US masses. All 5 Eye and EU nations, together with those who fund the OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism. Who just gave one side of the OPCW Report.
The EU gave over $4 million to this department, together with 12 other nations, who demand the natural resources of Syria. No bias!!!
Who funds the White Helmets and who funds the Joint Investigative Mechanism of the OPCW?
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Who provides the Crisis Actors, for the White Helmets to use. The recycled children, together with those who play the victim, the rescuer and the grieving relatives? Guess they only have a small group of crisis actors to use.
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you are absolutely right but the question is simple whose going to stop them? This charade scenario have been played over and over and been to be over and over false flags, for the few who are still thinking humans.
I dont have any more faith in the ones who allegedly can stop the americans and the reason is simple they want the americans to do their worst along with their allies in ME, thinking stupidly that the populations may wake up to the fact as who they really are, like they dont know. Knowing and caring is two different issues all together.
Even here in Oz the media is bragging about how Australia tipped off the Americans to the dangers of 5G? They do bite the hand that feeds them, stupidity on an unprecedented scale. The Dutch have always been cunts, Indonesians will tell you they preferred Japanese occupation to Dutch occupation. The British also have a long history, but most of the countries you listed, try to hide the truth from their people, they don’t brag about the children they have killed.
Madelaine Albright, as the thought of her bragging about the death of 500,000 Iraq babies, toddlers and children was well worth the price.
The Iraq War was illegal, but, Albright thought it was well worth the price. For who, I wonder?
If you just try to check the actual facts, not just russia news servers propaganda bullshit, you will find even more pictures of this girl made in same day in same place. Its documentet russia propaganda fake. google for “august 2016 aleppo funeral bombing”
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here is more bullshit for you https://twitter.com/KantsiRaibe/status/989808577513652225
Riddle me this, just how much does Russia spend on State Media concerns, compared to US, NATO, EU, including the UK?
Let us have a peek, including those who finance the White Helmets, together with funding the BBC, excluding the UK licence payer.
Russia and the US
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BBC
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White Helmets
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How much do the UK fork out to Integrity Initiative and their ‘anti-Russia, media disinformation campaign’? How many ‘Integrity Initiative’ members, also work for other Governments, who funnily enough fund the White Helmets?
How come the US and others, outsource over 80% of their intelligence and defence to private contractors, including Media Disinformation Agents, as 77th Battalion, Belingcat and General Harding, so come to mind.
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Integrity Initiative and the Gateside Three (not forgetting Statecraft), so comes to mind.
Beyond Integrity Initiative: The Scale of UKGOV Counter Disinformation… https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/beyond-integrity-initiative-scale-ukgov-counter-disinformation
How many corporations run the Media?
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Do not believe it was Russia who said this, now was it?
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Part 2
What is the Integrity Initiative? A short briefing paper
1. The Integrity initiative is part of a UK Government counter-disinformation and media development Programme.
2. The Counter-Disinformation and Media Development Programme is run primarily by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in consultation with the Ministry of Defence, but it was authorised by the National Security Council, the recently-launched Cabinet committee that oversees all national security matters.
3. Integrity Initiative was founded by the Institute for Statecraft, a Scottish-registered charity with official headquarters in a disused mill in Fife.
The Initiative’s ‘UK Cluster’ members were recently disclosed to include several journalists (Times and other titles), several MoD heavyweights, and several former/current FCO researchers of former Soviet republics whose reputation is based on their supposed impartiality as British Civil Service country specialists.
4. The directors of the Institute for Statecraft include Chris Donnelly, who has advised four Secretaries-General of NATO and past and current Chiefs of the Defence Staff. He has held appointments as Specialist Adviser to three UK Defence Secretaries (both Labour and Conservative) and was a member of PM Thatcher’s Soviet affairs advisory team. He has also served as Specialist Adviser on the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee and is a Specialist Adviser to the Defence Committee. In short, Mr Donnelly is hugely influential in shaping Western top-level strategic thinking.
5. The ethos espoused by Chris Donnelly is reflected in top-level policy statements issued across the Western nations; it may be summarised as follows:
The world is changing fast.
We are locked in a Darwinistic struggle to adapt to these changing conditions.
Our principal opponent is Russia.
Russia is already at war with us, but it is warfare “below our threshold of attention”.
We are in a world of hyper-competitive struggle against other nations, principally Russia. Hyper-competition means competition in all areas: cultural, religious, criminal, financial, economic, cyber and military — the information war is a key battleground.
In the information war against Russia, the western approach is one of “perpetual engagement”. The battlefield is at home, across Europe and the wider world. But the main theatre is the
“Eastern Neighbourhood” of the European Union, especially Moldova, Georgia and the Ukraine (these being the former Soviet republics which have most eagerly sought membership of NATO and the EU, not shirking from armed conflict and frozen conflicts over pro-Russian parts of their territory in their drive for this absorption).
A secondary opponent is held to be Islam. The war on Islamic ideology has two main theatres of operations: the nations of the “Southern European Neighbourhood”, which stretches from Morocco to Syria, and the home front — Britain and Europe.
The action is ongoing and the issues are urgent and existential.
6. The budget for the information war in the Eastern Neighbourhood was announced by Number 10 in November 2017: it is £100 million over five years. Much larger sums are being marshalled in related areas.
7. The military aspect of this hyper-competition seeks to unify the forces of Britain, Germany, France and the rest of Europe under a single-point command and control system. This programme is ongoing and will not be affected by Brexit, as Theresa May made clear in 2017 when she welcomed the “unified approach to tackle threats and attempts of destabilisation from other foreign powers like Russia”. The Prime Minister further stated,
“The UK may be leaving the EU but we are not leaving Europe, and we are unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe’s security.”
8. The home front is seen as vital in this programme. The fight here, we are told, must tackle society-wide problems such as:
The country’s lack of “self-confidence”, which is seen to be in stark contrast to “the implacability of its Islamist terrorist enemy, within and without”, and to the “newly confident Russian Nationalism”. (In reality, the Russian Government considers Russian nationalism, i.e. Slavic supremacism, a grave domestic threat to national cohesion, given the massive ethnic and religious diversity of the Russian Federation.)
Party politics is seen as a weakness and the conclusion is reached that “Moves are needed to take defence and security, as far as possible, back out of the arena of short-term party politics.”
The changes that are envisaged are far reaching: “The range of threats and risks facing the United Kingdom, together with the experience of the past few years, suggest that measures to achieve that should go beyond changes in policy.”
The conclusion is that “Institutional changes are needed.”
9. Driven by Chris Donnelly, the view is gaining ground that “the distinction between what the military does in the United Kingdom, namely aid to the civil authorities, and what the military does abroad is now an anachronism.” This philosophy, a radical break with common law and the 1689 Bill of Rights, can be seen in practice in new-style military homecoming parades.
10. To summarise his view of the fabric of Britain, Chris Donnelly selected this quote: “War… puts nations to the test. Just as mummies fall to pieces the moment they are exposed to the air, so war pronounces its sentence of death on those social institutions which have become ossified.” (Karl Marx)
(This briefing paper is available as a PDF for download and distribution.) https://www.ukcolumn.org/integrity-initiative
Keep up the good work. Together with Vanessa Bailey and Eva Bartlett. Nice to see investigative reporters, not buying the BS, that those who took us into Iraq War and so many others, based on lies, keep spinning.
Why not Syria and Russia declare these Al-Qaeda as terrorists and eliminate them instead of watching them like ducks.
In the start of Syrian war Al-Qaeda and ISIS used nuclear bullets but neither Syria nor Russia and China have complained. So now who gonna complain and clean these parasites.
Don’t buy US dollar. The US dollar is haram. Anything you buy or sell with US dollar is also haram.
Any relation with America is also haram.
And what if I’m a freelancer paid in dollars?
So you work for international terrorists I mean America.
I’m working for a small American company and I can tell you this simple fact: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1000/0*o_z_0LXBE8Nb_fnW.png the links color shows they have already been clicked by the person who took the screenshot and if you click few times the same links, google will personalize the results in the next searches you make showing you the same links.
Previously you said you are a native american, who are you working for? Or living on food stamps?
Yes I am native American. I work voluntarily for human rights. I want peace and prosperity for every child, woman and man in our world. I don’t like terrorist regimes like Trump and his CIA/Pentagon that recruit, finance and train terrorists like Israel, ISIS, Al-Qaeda etc abroad that why we should kill our soldiers if proxies could do for us same just on few millions and that send ACC and warships and military equipments outside their US borders for piracy and robbery.
My living and lifestyle is totally different than that you think. What my company or busines is that is a thing which I dont wanna share. When I am free or I take a cup of tea then I post on this website.
So you are paid in Dollars and you tell others to avoid Dollars like it’s a sin. How nice from you.
Yes, it is logically proved that in which country you live then definitely you will use its currency because you don’t have any other option. My voice is for those that live in other countries and still deal in US $ is not good for them because this will bring their national currency down.
So what should I tell to my boss, Rob? don’t pay me in dollars or I’ll find another job?
If you live in US state then its OK but if you live outside US state then you have option to switch to that country’s currency.
Haram is an islamic category – are you a muslim?
I am not a Muslim but I know its meaning.
C’mon SouthFront, you know I’m a huge fan of you, why quoting nobodies when you could write about Mr Soros, Lord of Fake News? People will actually search and find what they want. Are you afraid or paid by the mastermind of the fake news?
Otra vez la burra al trigo !! ¿ Es posible que la estupidéz de USA-NATO-Israel sean tan grande que no entienden que NADIE les cree su teatro de armas químicas Siria. Ciertamente las clases incultas de norte americanos e inglese creen estas tonterias.
A failure of journalism and a failure of google algorithm
The US and UK governments are really a complete embarrassment to their citizens. I read articles like this and am past the role eyes stage of the stupidity and moronic behavior exhibited by these Jew world order miscreants.
What a bunch of lying low life’s that make up the US government and media. https://pp.vk.me/c837331/v837331222/23b14/kVB6s7j-Lss.jpg
Yup yup, You may be a good journalist, but how do you really rate your protagonism? How about going beyond analysis of the information and the oft repeated conclusions of reasonable observers, and into the pragmatism of providing alternative currencies and systems to the $. Can someone please start reporting regularly upon the financial developments that compete with the US financial hegemony and block non-state warmongers. Tell us something! Follow da monay! Please. But, otherwise its a deadly article man. Balanced softly softly, insightful. Brilliant actually, to me anyway.
In a perverse way, what the Empire is doing has been working for it. The Saker has always been helpfully explaining that Moscow humors symbolic American/Israeli attacks on Syria, since these don’t affect the final outcome. But is the latter part really true? The Empire of Illusions takes its symbols very seriously; an act of intimidation is a good in itself. So what if it all looks surreal; Trump never expects to be taken literally. After lots of misdirection and Trumpian theatrics, the Dark Throne has obtained all the “safe areas” and “no-fly zones” it could ever want; Hillary’s policy was implemented without Hillary. And none of the “pro-Russia military experts” ever figured out that Moscow was failing to achieve key objectives before it was too late.
Something similar has been going on in the Korean peninsula. The THAAD deployment is now a fait accompli; amidst the noise from Washington, China has been wholly ineffective in getting its story out.