Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Headquarters	The Hague, Netherlands
Staff	500
Exposed by	Ian Henderson (OPCW)

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation, located at The Hague, Netherlands.

FFM report

On 30 June 2017, the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) published a report confirming that people were exposed to sarin, a chemical weapon, on 4 April 2017 in the Khan Shaykhun area, Idlib Province in the Syrian Arab Republic. The FFM report was shared with States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention and the OPCW’s Executive Council, which will consider the FFM’s findings at an Executive Council meeting scheduled for 5 July 2017.

CW chatter

Chatter about Assad and chemical weapons has re-emerged, after a Pentagon spokesperson said that the US has recently seen activity in the country suggesting “preparations” for “chemical weapons use”. Trump’s White House has warned Assad that “he and his military will pay a heavy price” if “another” attack takes place.

The BBC covered the development on 28 June. In fact, the story was plastered across most of major news sites. But at no point in the BBC story does it mention the new evidence Seymour Hersh’s investigation has brought to light. Instead, the BBC cites the Russians arguing against Assad’s guilt and recalls a tip it received from an undisclosed “Western intelligence agency” claiming the Syrian government is still producing chemical weapons.

But Hersh’s evidence, based on testimony from involved military and intelligence officials and transcripts of real-time communications of the event, didn’t get a look in.

Media censoring evidence

On 30 June, the OPCW claimed evidence of sarin gas was found in the aftermath of the April attack. It did not, however, conclude who was responsible for its presence. Hersh states that his investigation found that:

“Syria did NOT drop a sarin bomb that morning. It was known to everybody in the command. Period.”

But UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is already calling for international action against “those responsible”. And much of the media, including the BBC, is hiding Hersh’s evidence from public view.

People deserve to see all the information. Because the stakes are very high. A military confrontation with Syria would inevitably draw Russia into the conflict, as an ally of Assad and a power currently operating in the country. And it would lead to even more suffering for the Syrian people.

Politicians and the media fed people dodgy evidence in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. But with the media now censoring evidence on Syria, it looks like it’s trying to fool people again – or at the very least failing to do its job. We must not fall for its shameful behaviour a second time round.

 

Employee on Wikispooks

Employee	Job	Appointed
Carolyn Browne	Director of Verification	1 February 2019

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Douma ‘attack’ witnesses speak at Russia-called OPCW briefing at The Hague	Article	26 April 2018		Halil al-Jaish who tended to people at the Douma hospital that day, told the press conference that some of the patients had indeed experienced respiratory problems. The symptoms, however, were caused by heavy dust, which engulfed the area due to recent airstrikes, and no one showed any signs of chemical warfare poisoning.
Document:First Recorded Successful Novichok Synthesis was in 2016 – By Iran, in Cooperation with the OPCW	blog post	17 March 2018	Craig Murray	Beginning in late 2016, Iranian scientists succeeded in synthesising a number of Novichoks in full cooperation with the OPCW. This makes a complete nonsense of Theresa May’s “of a type developed by Russia” line, used to Parliament and the UN Security Council.
Document:Novichok, Navalny, Nordstream, Nonsense	blog post	3 September 2020	Craig Murray	The US and Saudi Arabia have every reason to instigate a split between Germany and Russia at this time. Navalny is certainly a victim of international politics. That he is a victim of Putin I tend to doubt.
Document:Pictures resurface showing US Secretary John Kerry and President Assad dining in Syria together	Article	3 September 2013	Heather Saul	John Kerry's volte-face: Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region (2009). President Assad is a "thug" like Adolf Hitler (2013).
Document:Robert Fisk visits the Syria clinic at the centre of a global crisis	Wikispooks Page	17 April 2018	Robert Fisk	"A Syrian colonel I came across behind one of these buildings asked if I wanted to see how deep the tunnels were. I stopped after well over a mile when he cryptically observed that 'this tunnel might reach as far as Britain'. Ah yes, Ms May, I remembered, whose air strikes had been so intimately connected to this place of tunnels and dust. And gas?"
Document:The Trump Administration’s Syria Gas Attack Narrative Continues to Unravel	Article	18 April 2017	Michael Krieger	United States Government: "They Lied About Iraq; They Lied About Libya; They're Lying About Syria."
Document:The World: What is Really Happening	blog post	25 May 2019	Craig Murray	Alleged nerve gas attack in Syria - Amanda Martin tweets to George Monbiot: "Don't you smell a set up here though? Craig Murray doesn't think Assad did it."
Document:What is the point of tourists' checks and tests if migrants can just walk into Dover?	article	5 June 2021	Peter Hitchens	A blog post outlining the illogical policy of lockdown measures in the pandemic era, followed by sections about political correctness, and the Douma attack whistleblowers and Wikileaks.
Document:‘No slither of evidence’ against Russia over Skripal attack, George Galloway tells RT	Video	28 March 2018	George Galloway	George Galloway concludes: "The OPCW, which is currently examining samples of the nerve agent used against the Skripals, will presumably be lent upon to obfuscate the outcome. No one will ever know the truth.”
Document:“Former Russian Spy Sergei Skripal May Have Been Poisoned by BZ Nerve Agent”	blog post	16 April 2018	Ludwig De Braeckeleer	Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “Former Russian Spy Sergei Skripal May Have Been Poisoned by BZ Nerve Agent”
File:Henderson-Testimony-UN.pdf	Transcript	10 February 2020	Ian Henderson (OPCW)	Transcript of the testimony of ex-OPCW inspector Ian Henderson before the UNSC on 20 January 2020 about the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria on 18 April 2018, and the subsequent OPCW report about it.

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