NPR's Lazy Chemical Weapons Propaganda to Justify al Qaeda Killing Him

by Scott Creighton (H/T T)

NPR has published a ridiculous piece of propaganda bringing up the old April 2018 supposed chemical weapon attack reportedly carried out by Assad forces on the 'rebel' (al Qaeda) controlled area of the city.

In it they cite a March 2024 UN report saying:

Then former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime crumbled and so did his government's lies.

Among the most brazen? That his forces never dropped chemical weapons on Syrian civilians despite the UN finding he did so repeatedly...

... But in this area on the outskirts of Damascus everyone knows what happened on April 7, 2018. It takes just a few questions to any passerby to find survivors of the toxic chlorine attack that residents here said allowed regime forces to retake the city of Douma in the district of Ghouta from rebel forces.  NPR

The UN report they link to doesn't say that. It doesn't conclude that. In fact, it is only Western backers of the regime change operation who are quoted in the report who try to make that claim.

In fact, they seem to find that ISIS, out proxy army, are the ones who used chemical weapons.

He also detailed the results of the 22 February 2024 report by the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team, which determined that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) deployed sulphur mustard gas during attacks aimed at capturing the town of Marea in September 2015 UN March 2024

What a despicable level of propaganda. They can't even find a report which backs up their lies about Assad so they just run with a link to a long one they hope their lazy, racist readers wont bother checking.

I guess they know their audience.

The OPCW and Douma: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Accused of Evidence-Tampering by Its Own Inspectors (2019)

from CounterPunch 2019

Claims that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons are almost as old as the Syrian civil war itself. They have produced strong reactions, and none more so than in the case of the alleged attack in April last year on the opposition-controlled area of Douma near Damascus in which 43 people are said to have been killed by chlorine gas. The United States, Britain and France responded by launching airstrikes on targets in the Syrian capital.

Were the strikes justified? An inspector from the eight-member team sent to Douma has just come forward with disturbing allegations about the international watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was tasked with obtaining and examining evidence.

Involved in collecting samples as well as drafting the OPCW’s interim report, he claims his evidence was suppressed and a new report was written by senior managers with assertions that contradicted his findings.

Seems Like the White Helmets Were Paid $6.6 Million to Help Fabricate Bogus June 13, 2018 OPCW FFM Study

(The al Qaeda-led Syrian Islamist State has decided to dust off the old 'Assad gassed his own people!' propaganda in order to ready the public for the coming news that they actually murdered him and his family in order to take over in Syria. NPR is helping them. So to that end I feel the need to have to remind folks that it's total bullshit, like that story Clarrisa Ward did with that 'prisoner' she 'found' in a cell last week. Turns out that guy is Syrian intelligence and apparently they are all on board with helping al Qaeda justifying murdering him.)

(archived re-post from June 13, 2018)

by Scott Creighton

(If anyone can find a copy of this which includes the images, please link to it below so I can import them into this one. Thanks)

James Le Mesuier, founder of the hearts and minds campaign known as the White Helmets, jumped into the discussion on Twitter about the regime change operation in Syria and President Trump deciding to go back on his pledge to defund that operation early last month. James probably worried about his meal-ticket going bankrupt if social media were allowed to go on it’s own merry way exposing the fraud of his creation. So he decided to open his mouth and get involved and it’s my guess he kinda wishes he didn’t at this point.

The following is what I found after digging into this new Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact Finding Mission study (OPCW FFM)

We will start off with quotes from the OPCW report dated June 13, 2018

“After the FFM became aware of allegations of use of a toxic chemical as a weapon in Ltamenah, in the Hama Governorate, the team assessed the credibility of the allegations based on information collected from open sources and information received from several non-governmental organisations (NGOs).”
“During the FFM deployment to gather facts related to the use of chemicals as a weapon in Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017, the team also received samples...”
“For both incidents (24 and 25 March), the FFM interviewed a variety of witnesses including health workers, witnesses, first responders, and casualties. The team received environmental samples collected from the sites of the incidents.”
“Once the impact locations of the incident on 24 March 2017 were determined during the interviews, the FFM coordinated the sample collection from these locations with an NGO.”
“After an incident was reported in the media concerning alleged use of chlorine that hit a field hospital in Ltamenah on 25 March 2017, the team conducted further open-source research and commenced the collection and review of all relevant information about the allegation. The majority of sources consisted, at an initial stage, of news media and the websites of various NGOs (Annex 2).”
“Subsequently, the FFM obtained further information from NGOs and expanded its search for potential interviewees and evidence regarding this allegation.”

The OPCW FFM (Fact Finding Mission) refused to visit the sites to collect their samples instead relying on samples provided by an NGO, the White Helmets, which receive funding from Saudi Arabia, England and the United States… all external players in this conflict who have been fueling the regime change operation since it’s inception.

They had been offered access to these sites and refused to inspect them themselves.

Terrorists, regime-held towns on target as Syria fighting rages on

from Daily Sabah

An all-out push to capture the key Syrian province of Aleppo and more towns by anti-regime forces and efforts by the Syrian opposition to thwart the capture of towns by the terrorist group PKK/YPG revived the frozen conflict in the war-torn country.

Since last week, forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) claimed several territorial gains in their lightning offensive that primarily targeted Aleppo. Aleppo apparently fell into their control on Sunday with forces loyal to the Assad regime retreating. Elsewhere, the Syrian National Army (SNA) of the opposition, managed to capture Tal Rifaat where the PKK/YPG sought to establish a “terror corridor” by linking it to northeastern Syrian towns it controls after the HTS-led forces’ gains.

Rescue service White Helmets said on Monday that at least 25 people were killed in northwestern Syria in airstrikes carried out by the regime forces and Russia.

Russian and regime jets struck the city of Idlib held by anti-regime forces in northern Syria on Sunday, military sources said, as Bashar Assad vowed to crush “terrorists” who had swept into the city of Aleppo. Regime forces also said it had recaptured several towns that the opposition had overrun in recent days...

read more here

Seems Like the White Helmets Were Paid $6.6 Million to Help Fabricate Bogus June 13, 2018 OPCW FFM Study

(archived from June 15 2018)

by Scott Creighton

James Le Mesuier, founder of the hearts and minds campaign known as the White Helmets, jumped into the discussion on Twitter about the regime change operation in Syria and President Trump deciding to go back on his pledge to defund that operation early last month. James probably worried about his meal-ticket going bankrupt if social media were allowed to go on it’s own merry way exposing the fraud of his creation. So he decided to open his mouth and get involved and it’s my guess he kinda wishes he didn’t at this point.

The following is what I found after digging into this new Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact Finding Mission study (OPCW FFM)

Joshua Wong Hanging With Islamic State Fire Brigade (White Helmets)

OPCW Final Report on Douma is Deeply Flawed Like All Their Other Reports

Though it makes it clear that sarin gas was not used on the people of Douma on April 7, 2018, the report does conclude that chlorine gas was used and assumes it came from Syrian government. However, like the previous report on the three previous alleged chemical weapons attacks (two in East Ghouta and one in Khan Shakun) this report relies heavily on deeply tainted witness testimony and the staged White Helmets (formerly known as Islamic State Fire Brigade) videos. Ergo, this report is deeply, deeply flawed... like their previous ones.

‘Operation Iris’ & more: New documents tie Integrity Initiative to spin of Skripal affair

from RT

Hackers who leaked documents from the Integrity Initiative, a shadowy outfit funded by the UK government, claim they show its connections to the March 2018 alleged poisoning attack in Salisbury and proposed actions against Russia.

 

The Integrity Initiative (II) was set up in 2015 by the equally shadowy “Institute for Statecraft,” according to the documents published online in November by hackers calling themselves a part of the Anonymous collective. While Anonymous has denied the group was behind the leak, the Institute confirmed the authenticity of the first batch of documents.

The hackers posted a fresh batch of documents purportedly from the Initiative and the Institute on Friday, hinting that both outfits had connections with Western media coverage of the March 2018 alleged poisoning of former Russian spy Sergey Skripal, and the actions against Russia taken subsequently by the UK government and its allies.

One of the documents is the confidential report by Harod Associates, a company hired by the Initiative to conduct “mainstream & social media analysis” of the Skripal scandal coverage. The entire undertaking was dubbed “Operation Iris.”

Among those who found themselves named “Russian trolls” and Kremlin agents in the report were Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa and a gentleman from Kent who goes by Ian56 on Twitter.

 ... The document dump also contains the April 14, 2018 email from Andy Pryce, whom the hackers describe as “chief propaganda man” at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, containing the official government narrative of the Skripal affair and the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria. Pryce ends the email by recommending “good sources of further information” on alleged Russian propaganda, including the Atlantic Council’s DFR Lab, Bellingcat and Stopfake.

Documents obtained and published by the hackers also show connections between Skripal’s recruiter and neighbor Pablo Miller, the Institute for Statecraft, and the so-called rescue group White Helmets, created in militant-held areas of Syria by a former British official in 2013...

[read more here]

UN Presentation Reveals US, UK-backed White Helmets as ‘Organ Traders, Terrorists & Looters’

from 21st Century Wire

The following UN presentation details many of the groups exploits, including staged rescues which were tailor-made for the group’s various propaganda films disseminated across western mainstream media. Testimonies included 21WIRE reporter Vanessa Beeley, along with witness statements taken from former White Helmet members who admit to carrying out various frauds and crimes perpetrated since the group’s inception in 2013, as well as admissions of their direct links to Jabat al-Nusra (al Qaeda in Syria) and other known terrorist groups.

Far from being the “tailors, bakers, teachers and other ordinary Syrians” which they regularly portray themselves, the White Helmets have instead been exposed as frauds, thieves, kidnappers and organ traffickers.

RT International reports…

The ‘White Helmets’ are not a rescue group but an extension of jihadist militants, and should be designated a terrorist organization, Russia’s envoy to the UN argued at the presentation of evidence into the group’s wrongdoing.

Praised in the West as humanitarian rescue volunteers, in reality the ‘White Helmets’ work with Islamist militants in Syria, harvest organs from the victims they pretend to be “rescuing,” stage false chemical weapons and other attacks for cameras, and loot the bodies and homes of Syrians killed and injured in the war, according to Maxim Grigoriev, director of the Russia-based Foundation for the Study of Democracy...

[read more here]

Shane Bauer Calls for De-platforming Anti-War Voices After One Apologizes to Him

This is what you get when you treat someone with a little respect when they don't deserve it.

 

Seems Like the White Helmets Were Paid $6.6 Million to Help Fabricate Bogus June 13, 2018 OPCW FFM Study

by Scott Creighton (archived re-post from June 13, 2018)

(If anyone can find a copy of this which includes the images, please link to it below so I can import them into this one. Thanks)

James Le Mesuier, founder of the hearts and minds campaign known as the White Helmets, jumped into the discussion on Twitter about the regime change operation in Syria and President Trump deciding to go back on his pledge to defund that operation early last month. James probably worried about his meal-ticket going bankrupt if social media were allowed to go on it’s own merry way exposing the fraud of his creation. So he decided to open his mouth and get involved and it’s my guess he kinda wishes he didn’t at this point.

The following is what I found after digging into this new Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact Finding Mission study (OPCW FFM)


We will start off with quotes from the OPCW report dated June 13, 2018

“After the FFM became aware of allegations of use of a toxic chemical as a weapon in Ltamenah, in the Hama Governorate, the team assessed the credibility of the allegations based on information collected from open sources and information received from several non-governmental organisations (NGOs).”
“During the FFM deployment to gather facts related to the use of chemicals as a weapon in Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017, the team also received samples...”
“For both incidents (24 and 25 March), the FFM interviewed a variety of witnesses including health workers, witnesses, first responders, and casualties. The team received environmental samples collected from the sites of the incidents.”
“Once the impact locations of the incident on 24 March 2017 were determined during the interviews, the FFM coordinated the sample collection from these locations with an NGO.”
“After an incident was reported in the media concerning alleged use of chlorine that hit a field hospital in Ltamenah on 25 March 2017, the team conducted further open-source research and commenced the collection and review of all relevant information about the allegation. The majority of sources consisted, at an initial stage, of news media and the websites of various NGOs (Annex 2).”
“Subsequently, the FFM obtained further information from NGOs and expanded its search for potential interviewees and evidence regarding this allegation.”

The OPCW FFM (Fact Finding Mission) refused to visit the sites to collect their samples instead relying on samples provided by an NGO, the White Helmets, which receive funding from Saudi Arabia, England and the United States… all external players in this conflict who have been fueling the regime change operation since it’s inception.

Nikki Haley, Jeffrey Sachs and Shane Bauer: The Info War on Idlib Heats Up

The hearts and minds campaign of the war on Syria is heating up. As Haley threatens we will defend al Qaeda in Syria regardless of the type of attack from the SAA, Mockingbird journalists like Bauer go after seated Representatives for daring to wonder why Trump wants to protect terrorists. In the midst of all that, a little truth sneaks out on Morning Joe.

Are we looking at another Cuban missile crisis?

‘Something big is coming’: French aid worker in Aleppo says Syrians bracing for US attack

from RT

A major US military escalation in Syria would be “based on lies” and will have “terrible” consequences for Syrians, a French aid worker in Aleppo told RT, adding that Washington seems determined to prolong the war at any cost.

Pierre Le Corf, the founder of the NGO ‘We Are Superheroes’, has lived for nearly three years in Aleppo – but he said that Western governments, including his home country of France, have provided a distorted picture of the reality on the ground.

“In Aleppo, people are trying to rebuild their lives, and they need to believe that [the war] is over. But we know that something big is coming,” he told RT when asked about Washington’s repeated threats of military action if the Syrian Army attempts to recapture Idlib province, the last Al-Qaeda stronghold in the country.

He said that the United States and its allies were using humanitarian concerns as a pretense for prolonging the bloody, seven-year conflict, adding that a major US military escalation in the country would be “based on lies” and would be “terrible for all Syrians.”
“What may happen may be catastrophic,” he said...

[read more here]

Russian MOD Reports White Helmets Currently Staging “False Flag” Chemical Attack in Idlib

by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News

Russian military sources, as cited by Sputnik News, have reported that footage depicting what they have identified as a false-flag chemical weapons attack in Syria’s Idlib province is currently being filmed and is expected to be sent to different international television channels before the end of the day. The news has sparked concern that the promised retaliation from the U.S., U.K. and France could be less than a day away.

The Russian military sources — who work for the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation, which oversees Russia’s legal military presence in Syria — stated that “militants are now filming a staged provocation in the city of Jisr al-Shughur, where ‘chemical weapons’ are depicted as being used by the Syrian army against civilians.” Based on information “received from inhabitants of Idlib province,” the Russian military also stated that “film crew[s] of several Middle Eastern TV channels arrived in Jisr al-Shughur in the morning” along with “the regional affiliate of one of the main American television news networks.”

The report notes, unsurprisingly, that the staged event gives a prominent role to the Syrian White Helmets, who will be shown “’helping’ residents of Jisr al-Shughur after the Syrian army allegedly used the so-called barrel bombs with poisonous substances.” It also states that the “chemical weapon” to be used in the attack is two containers “loaded with a chlorine-based toxic substance.” At the time the Russian military issued the warning of an imminent “false-flag” chemical weapons attack, these containers were located at a grain storage site.

These warnings from the Russian military come after the Syrian and Russian governments presented evidence to the UN Security Council showing that Idlib “rebels” linked to Al Qaeda were planning to stage a chemical weapons attack in order to provoke foreign military intervention against the Syrian government.

Notably, a recent Wall Street Journal report stated that anonymous U.S. officials had confirmed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had personally “approved” the use of “chlorine gas” against civilians in Idlib. That report also stated that President Trump may attack Syria regardless of whether or not a chemical weapons attack is alleged to have taken place...

[read more here]