Chemical Weapons Inspectors Allegedly Covered Up Report Suggesting Syria Attack Was Staged
A senior official from chemical weapons watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reportedly sent an internal email to remove all traces of a report suggesting the alleged chemical weapons attack on Douma, Syria, in April 2018 was a false flag operation, RT reports.
The document was revealed by WikiLeaks and covered an email exchange dated February 27 and February 28. The conversation reportedly takes place between members of the fact-finding mission in Douma and senior OPCW officials.
“Please get this document out of DRA [Documents Registry Archive]… And please remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever in DRA,” an email from Sebastien Braha, Chief of Cabinet at the OPCW, reads.
Braha’s email is allegedly referring to an engineering report from Ian Henderson. The report examined two cylinders that were found on the site of the purported attack and concluded they were likely placed there manually as opposed to dropped from a helicopter or plane.
Another document covers minutes from a June 6, 2018 meeting between four OPCW staff members and three toxicologists/clinical pharmacologists to determine whether the symptoms observed in the victims of the alleged attacks were “consistent with exposure to chlorine or other reactive chlorine gas.”
“With respect to the consistency of the observed and reported symptoms of the alleged victims with possible exposure to chlorine gas or similar, the experts were conclusive in their statements that there was no correlation between symptoms and chlorine exposure.”
In addition, the chief expert suggested that the operation may have been a “propaganda exercise.”
Conversely, investigator Nick Waters claims that WikiLeaks is selectively releasing documents to fit its own narrative.
Surprise, surprise, Wikileaks didn't leak the next email in this chain from the OPCW questioning why Ian Henderson was creating rogue reports.
This email also quite clearly contradicts "Alex's" claim that Henderson was in the FFM. pic.twitter.com/qcJkAyXe9W
— Nick Waters (@N_Waters89) December 27, 2019
The Douma incident led to action from Western governments, with the United States, United Kingdom, and France sending missiles at the alleged chemical weapons sites in Syria just days later.
“This didn’t prevent the government from seizing control over the neighborhood, but put the reputations of the three governments at stake,” RT reported. “The OPCW report gave credence to the Western show of force.”
Per BBC, the Syrian government denies using chemical weapons, and its ally Russia claimed at the time to possess evidence that the alleged Douma attack was staged with the help of the United Kingdom.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) on April 11, 2018, there were reports of 43 deaths consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals.
Long before the alleged chemical weapons attack, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad defended his attacks on the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group amid the country’s civil war. According to al-Assad, the FSA are “terrorists.”
