Sputnik on Syria

2 Nov

In this April 14, 2018 file photo, Damascus skies erupt with surface to air missile fire as the U.S. launches an attack on Syria targeting different parts of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria

Most of my coverage of the Syria travesty, this for instance, seeks to show the big picture. But big pictures are made up of small details, like the alleged chemical attack at Douma. Details of this sort are vital to legitimating that country’s occupation by the West and its proxies.

It’s fine for Trump – the most transparent1 US President ever? – to tweet “we’ve secured Syria’s oil”. Why is this OK? Because on scant evidence the full gamut of Western media (aided by much of the Trotskyite Left) has successfully painted Assad as a monster. That being the case, who cares if international law is flouted? Who cares if Syria is – regime change having been thwarted for now – balkanised as Western firms move in as they did in Iraq, South Africa and the former Soviet Union?

But the monsterising of Assad is built from details like Douma. On which subject, here’s Sputnik just yesterday.

Last month, WikiLeaks published evidence and testimony provided by an Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whistleblower who revealed that the watchdog appeared to have wilfully ignored data that the Syrian government did not stage a chemical attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018 to fit a convenient narrative.

Recently, the Courage Foundation, a respected UK-based civil society organisation dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, convened a panel including Jose Bustani, former director general of the OPCW, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and others to study whistleblower testimony which casts major doubt on the watchdog’s integrity in its investigation into the alleged April 7, 2018 chemical attack in Douma.

Along with testimony, the whistleblower provided materialsincluding internal emails, text exchanges and suppressed draft reports, leading the panel to conclude that “key information about chemical analyses, toxicology consultations, ballistics studies, and witness testimonies was suppressed, ostensibly to favour a preordained conclusion.”

With the allegations made against the Syrian government over the alleged Douma attacks used by the US and its British and French allies to justify a series of airstrikes against Syria on April 14, 2018, the significance of the whistleblower’s revelations cannot be overestimated. Elizabeth Murray, Courage Foundation panel member and former US deputy national intelligence officer at the National Intelligence Council, said.

Suggesting that it is “technically impossible” for the OPCW to hide the details of its Douma investigation from the public over the long term, Murray noted that if the OPCW “hopes to salvage its reputation as an organisation with integrity,” it can’t continue to evade its responsibility to the international community by deliberately ignoring its senior experts findings in the face of US pressure.

Full text here …

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  1. Says Bashar al-Assad:”As for Trump … I say that he is the best American President, not because his policies are good, but because he is the most transparent president. All American presidents perpetrate … political atrocities and crimes and yet still win the Nobel Prize and project themselves as defenders of human rights and noble and unique American values, or Western values in general. The reality is that they are a group of criminals who represent the interests of American lobbies, i.e. the large oil and arms companies, and others. Trump talks transparently, saying that what we want is oil. This is the reality of American policy, at least since WWII. We want to get rid of such and such a person or we want to offer a service in return for money. This is the reality of American policy. What more do we need than a transparent opponent? That is why the difference is in form only, while the reality is the same.”

2 Replies to “Sputnik on Syria

  1. It’s odd how a short apparently off-the-cuff remark can crystallise everything so clearly and explain everything so well. Assad is spot on about Trump i.e. it’s most certainly not Trump’s policy programme that infuriates his Democrat critics. It’s his brutal candour which commits the unforgivable offense of giving the whole game away. How are they expected to carry on that world-wide scam of American wholesomeness and affability when the guy at the top is revealing all?

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