Leaked Secret Email Suggests OPCW Report On Syrian Gas Attacks Dishonestly Doctored

A few days ago, Wikileaks published a leaked email from a member of the OPCW’s team to Syria in 2018 to ascertain the reality about the alleged chemical weapon attack in Douma. The email cites specific examples to claim that the published report “misrepresents the facts” to a shocking degree.

The attack, claimed to have been a case of gas used by Assad’s military that killed around 50 people, allegedly took place in April of 2018. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent a fact-finding mission (FFM) of experts to the scene.

While the preliminary report in July 2018 did not find sufficient evidence to conclude a gas attack took place, the final FFM report published in March 2019 wrote that “Regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon… the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM… provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place.”

The April 2018 attack was the immediate justification for airstrikes conducted about a week later by the US, Britain, and France, which were seen by many die-hard supporters in Trump’s base as a betrayal of the president’s America First, non-interventionist promises. Syria and its ally Russia disputed that Assad forces were responsible, with the Russians claiming they had proof of foul play by the West to stir up sentiment against the legitimate Syrian government.

In addition, Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, known for her principled anti-war stance, caught significant flack for questioning the official narrative on the Syrian gas attacks as a motivation to keep the US mired in a foreign war.

Now, the email published by Wikileaks has given new credence to the critics. Written by a member of the original OPCW team to their superiors in July 2018, it goes into detail explaining how the FFM report presents a misleading narrative through selective redaction, so much so that the final product appears “something quite different to what was originally drafted.”

For one, the email states that the actual findings were not sufficient to substantiate the claim that chlorine gas was used, or that it came from cylinders found at the scene. The redacted report, meanwhile, deceptively subtracted context and instead passed on the opposite impression.

For another, the report omits discussion of the discrepancy between the symptoms of supposed victims treated in a hospital, which was captured on video and widely used as pro-war propaganda, and eye-witness testimony, an incongruity apparently also noted by expert toxicologists.

In addition, the report also redacted significant portions of discussion concerning evidence that the cylinders found were dropped from the air, as would be expected in a gas attack. However, a previously leaked OPCW engineering report, which has been cited by critics like Tulsi, suggested that this was actually unlikely given evidence on the ground.

In conclusion, the continued light-shedding journalism of Wikileaks has provided yet more evidence that the neo-con, America-last endless wars being waged for the benefit of the Deep State and globalist international organizations rest on lies and deception. We must pray President Trump is able to stand up to these crooks and deliver on the nationalist “Make America Great Again” promises he made to pull out of these terminally blood-letting entanglements and instead focus our resources on citizens at home.

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