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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Syria Chlorine Allegations: East Ghouta, July 27, 2015

Syria Chlorine Allegations: East Ghouta, July 27, 2015
July 29, 2015
(last edits July 30)

On July 27, 2015, there were new allegation of chlorine attack by Syrian government forces, this time in the Damascus suburbs of East Ghouta. Specifically, Jobar, Zamalka, and/or Ain Tarma districts are mentioned. The latter were the alleged epicenter of the 2013 Ghouta Alleged Sarin attack, as was Jobar, at first - see Jobar page  here and ACLOS Section on Jobar's rebel CW industry. The poison gas incident that actually happened there (besides any rebels managed in their own basements, none proven) was a couple days later, as the army advance on their facility. Rebels fled, soldiers were left choking, Sarin turned up in their blood, and tools for weaponizing chemicals were found inside. 

Now the opposition's faith-based "activists" - as always demanding the best real-world evidence - say Sarin-free Assad has attacked the same area again with his new poison of choice, chlorine. This is not the first time since then it's been alleged, but this specifies Jobar, and release during a military assault into the district. Simple precedent suggests cornered rebels are most likely behind it. But simple precedent isn't enough to go on, and they don't seem very cornered, claiming to have soundly won the fight. 

- EA Worldview says
Amid heavy fighting in Jobar in northeast Damascus, opposition activists claims that the regime has used chlorine gas and retaliated with deadly bombing of another Damascus suburb on Monday.
The clashes follow the capture of an important water pumping station by rebels in the area on Saturday, allowing the resumption of supplies to Jobar and nearby opposition-held territory.
I'm skeptical that water supplies were ever cut, to an area with remaining civilians anyway. And I'm curious: besides being able to drink again themselves, would this also allow rebels to cut off water supply to areas they would like to besiege? If so, little wonder there was an effort to recapture this facility. But the sources say the rebels turned back the assault and keep the water plant - and did it without use of chemical weapons, obviously. But of course, 
The failed regime offensive was accompanied by “dozens of artillery shells, rockets, and missiles”. Eldorar reports dozens of civilians being treated at hospital for suffocation from the effects of the chlorine gas.
There is no tactical reason to deploy chlorine in this kind of attack. But how could the opposition's cartoon regime fail to couple a failed attack with failed and useless criminality? 

Pumping station ... not a water treatment plant, specifically. But is it possible the place would do some on the side, or for whatever reason, have some tanks of chlorine on hand, to get shelled, deliberately opened, etc.? 

No promises with this one, but here's a space just in case, and comment space below for others.

Other Sources
- Syrian Network For Human Rights (SNHR - hacks) Tweet: "#Syria #SNHR: 29 victims suffocated from gov poisoned gas missiles on Jober, Ein Tarma, & Zamlka, Jul 27"

- A Tweet by Syrian News has photos - bloodied and smoke-stained people being treated in a clinic. Possibly shelling and not gassing victims.
- One tweet with a mis-attributed photo we know

- Yalla Souriya has a post: #Syria, Damascus, cases of breathing problems after regime attack on Jobar with Chlorine, but it simply says that and then shows this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-noxiRF04Kw
The video runs 16 seconds. We see, in a rebel field clinic, an older man clearing his nose of mucous, a baby girl in distress getting breathing assistance, and a man with oxygen mask. The girl, it will be noted, starts coughing only after making eye contact with the doctor. The noise might obscure a voice command. But it might not - the cough seems genuine to me.  


- Syria's official government, in some minds, SNC/ETILAF has decided, from the new capitol somewhere in Turkey, to back the reports: press release: "Around 50 people were injured in the chlorine gas attack on Jobar, eight of them were in critical condition and were rushed to Arbin field hospital."- SNC tweet

- Tweet by Dr. Annie Sparrow (wife of Ken Roth, HRW CEO) "As Security Council drags feet, Assad launches 2nd chlorine attack this week--this time Jobar" Images of the 3 victims seen on the 0:16 video. Links to same video on Facebook by Jobar News.

Qasioun News:  "While regime forces shelled with S-S missiles full with chlorine gas over the neighborhood, led to injuries among civilians, as the regime warplanes launched thermobaric bombs while opposition forces defeated it with anti-aircraft where they managed to hit a warplane."

- Violations Documentation Center: I gave them a few days, and checked the martyrs database on June 30. All martyrs of toxic and chemical gasses - as of now, it still ends at May 7. This doesn't mean they deny it, but it suggests they aren't in the same loop as the people with the first-hand allegations. 



- SOHR: No Support Yet
This hasn't made the mainstream English-language news just yet, but probably will about now. By the next day, Israeli national news was the first I've seen to address it, giving the details provided by the hack SNHR, but crediting the (half-hack) Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: "The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights says that 30 people were injured in the recent attack, including women and children. There is no report yet on how many were killed." 

But did they say that? The SOHR Facebook page says no - back to early on he 26th, Jobar is mentioned 7 times, chlorine zero. Their reports cite regular shelling and deaths on both sides, like here, July 28: "The regime forces shelled places in the neighborhood of Jobar that witnessed violent clashes between the regime forces and allied militiamen against the Islamist factions which led to kill 12 members of the regime forces, including 3 officers."

So that was apparently just Arutz Sheva getting the groups confused.

How Many Civilians in Jobar?
It's suggested the gas attack was meant for rebels, but hit civilian residents mainly instead. I see a leading point of critics on Twitter is the total or near-total lack of civilians remaining in Jobar to be exposed to this gas attack as alleged. It seems a fair point to raise. I would be hazy on the details, but imagine targeted, rebel-held parts should be war zones, basically, and evacuated long ago. But I don't suspect it can be ruled out a random clustering those few left happened to be downwind, or whatever. 

But always in such cases, we should consider people held captive by rebels in these areas are the most vulnerable, if they exist. Much evidence says the victims killed around this same area in 2013 in the hundreds were such captives.These are some features predisposing them to die in alleged "regime" gas attacks:
- spatial concentration, often in basements, allowing for gas-chamber efficiency
- to be captured like this, they probably have some kind of expendable enemy status in rebel eyes

Such property can be killed on demand, as the army is approaching, some rockets falling, etc. It's easy to document the "regime crime" they fall to - already counted, easily filmed, etc. - adds to the temptation to just do it already.

Later Reports:
I did an English-language news search again and found nothing further. AP, Reuters, AFP, etc. have all chosen not to do any quick reports, anyway.  Didn't feel like trawling Twitter again, but there may be more info coming available there. Space below for anything I find later.


15 comments:

  1. ISIS recently used devices filled with chemical agents
    against Kurdish forces and civilians in both Iraq and Syria,
    a joint investigation by two independent organizations has found.

    The findings build on previous reporting that ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)
    has begun to adapt both suicide bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to include chlorine and other chemicals and may seek to exploit the use of chemicals as it develops new weapons.

    The two U.K.-based groups — Conflict Armament Research (CAR) and Sahan Research — sent teams to investigate allegations that ISIS used chemical munitions on three occasions last month. Two of the incidents occurred in Hasakah province in northern Syria,
    where ISIS is locked in battle with the Kurdish YPG group.

    The third involved a 120 mm mortar that landed near Kurdish positions at the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq but failed to explode.

    CAR said this was “the first documented use by (ISIS) forces of projectile-delivered chemical agents against Kurdish forces and civilian targets.”
    http://www.mintpressnews.com/isis-steps-up-use-of-chemical-weapons/207746/


    https://activist1.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/gassed-more-allegations-of-assad-atrocities-in-syria-photos-videos-amnesty-international-issue-press-release/

    Gassed: More allegations of Assad atrocities in Syria (photos, videos) Amnesty International issue press release

    ReplyDelete
  2. A fact-finding mission announced by the OPCW in April 2014 to investigate alleged regime use of chlorine gas voiced concern that the Syrian regime may not have handed over all CWs. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report on an alleged chlorine gas attack on three towns in Hama Province, concluding that there was “strong evidence” the chemical agent had been used by regime forces. The deployment of chlorine gas as a CW appears to have been conducted through the use of barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of the gas. Responding to continuing allegations, on September 10 the OPCW reported it had found “compelling confirmation” that the regime deployed chlorine gas “systematically and repeatedly” in northern Syria in early 2014. Since the OPCW declared the complete neutralization of the regime’s surrendered CW stockpile on August 19, 2014, local sources have alleged a minimum of 16 chlorine gas attacks conducted by the regime, largely against rebels entrenched in the Damascus suburbs.

    In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, where rebel forces are largely commanded by the Jaysh al-Islam-led Islamic Front, local sources report that the regime has recently deployed chlorine gas prior to successful ground assaults
    on Adra, Dukhanniya, Jobar, and Irbeen.
    This tactic has permitted the regime to regain control over territory from the Islamic Front in Eastern Ghouta, most recently over parts of Adra on September 27 and over Dukhaniyya on September 28. In addition, the regime has allegedly deployed chlorine gas against a number of other rebel positions in Dera’a, Hama, and Deir ez-Zour provinces, areas in which regime offensives had been achieving little success.
    http://iswsyria.blogspot.com/2014/10/alleged-chemical-weapons-use-in-syria.html

    In most cases, alleged CW strikes in Syria throughout 2014 have occurred in locations inaccessible to OPCW or Human Rights Watch investigators.

    Therefore, it is impossible to verify the accuracy of the allegations
    according to the standards utilized by these organizations. However, in the cases detailed here, evidence provided by local activist reporting regarding the occurrence of a strike is assessed with high confidence. In all cases, reports are drawn from sources on the ground assessed to have a high level of fidelity in their reporting, and are further crosschecked across sources. In addition, video evidence serves as a primary method through which to verify the symptomatic indicators of a likely CW strike, often involving the testimony of local physicians.


    Atareb Hospital, Aleppo on 26 August 2013
    Fabrication in BBC Panorama “Saving Syria’s Children”: Substitution of “Napalm Bomb” Footage
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/fabrication-in-bbc-panorama-saving-syrias-children-substitution-of-napalm-bomb-footage/5464145


    https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/

    https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/stage-1b-complaint-dr-saleyha-ahsan-the-truth-about-fat-bbc-one-2-april-2015/

    ReplyDelete
  3. A fact-finding mission announced by the OPCW in April 2014 to investigate alleged regime use of chlorine gas voiced concern that the Syrian regime may not have handed over all CWs. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report on an alleged chlorine gas attack on three towns in Hama Province, concluding that there was “strong evidence” the chemical agent had been used by regime forces. The deployment of chlorine gas as a CW appears to have been conducted through the use of barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of the gas. Responding to continuing allegations, on September 10 the OPCW reported it had found “compelling confirmation” that the regime deployed chlorine gas “systematically and repeatedly” in northern Syria in early 2014. Since the OPCW declared the complete neutralization of the regime’s surrendered CW stockpile on August 19, 2014, local sources have alleged a minimum of 16 chlorine gas attacks conducted by the regime, largely against rebels entrenched in the Damascus suburbs. In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, where rebel forces are largely commanded by the Jaysh al-Islam-led Islamic Front, local sources report that the regime has recently deployed chlorine gas prior to successful ground assaults on Adra, Dukhanniya, Jobar, and Irbeen.

    This tactic has permitted the regime to regain control over territory from the Islamic Front in Eastern Ghouta, most recently over parts of Adra on September 27 and over Dukhaniyya on September 28. In addition, the regime has allegedly deployed chlorine gas against a number of other rebel positions in Dera’a, Hama, and Deir ez-Zour provinces, areas in which regime offensives had been achieving little success.
    http://iswsyria.blogspot.com/2014/10/alleged-chemical-weapons-use-in-syria.html

    In most cases, alleged CW strikes in Syria throughout 2014 have occurred in locations inaccessible to OPCW or Human Rights Watch investigators. Therefore, it is impossible to verify the accuracy of the allegations according to the standards utilized by these organizations. However, in the cases detailed here, evidence provided by local activist reporting regarding the occurrence of a strike is assessed with high confidence. In all cases, reports are drawn from sources on the ground assessed to have a high level of fidelity in their reporting, and are further crosschecked across sources. In addition, video evidence serves as a primary method through which to verify the symptomatic indicators
    of a likely CW strike, often involving the testimony of local physicians.


    Atareb Hospital, Aleppo on 26 August 2013
    Fabrication in BBC Panorama “Saving Syria’s Children”: Substitution of “Napalm Bomb” Footage
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/fabrication-in-bbc-panorama-saving-syrias-children-substitution-of-napalm-bomb-footage/5464145

    https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/

    https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/stage-1b-complaint-dr-saleyha-ahsan-the-truth-about-fat-bbc-one-2-april-2015/

    ReplyDelete
  4. September 26, 2013
    There has long been a disconnect between those fighting and bleeding inside Syria
    and the political and diplomatic machinations of those in exile.

    What is new here is that at least three of the eleven groups—Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Islam, and Suqour al-Sham—are aligned with the military wing of the National Coalition, the Supreme Military Council, which is supported by the West and is what passes for the leadership of the loose franchise outfit known as the Free Syrian Army (F.S.A.).

    Now they have publicly thrown in their lot with Jabhat al-Nusra, which also signed on to the statement and is connected to Al Qaeda.
    http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/syrian-opposition-groups-stop-pretending

    The Council of Thirty” Monday, July 20, 2015
    The Free Syrian Army, or FSA, is a term has been used for many things during the Syrian war. Some Syrians have used the term very loosely, to signify all types of armed resistance against President Bashar al-Assad, but there is also an institutional framework referred to as the FSA. It has its origins in a December 2012 meeting in Antalya in Turkey, where a broad gathering of armed groups elected a new leadership to represent them all.

    The new network of command and support institutions, which gradually
    came to be seen as synonymous with “the FSA,” was fronted by a Turkey-based “General Staff” made up of defected military officers, whose top figure was Brigadier General Salim Idris.
    He would be supervised by a “Supreme Military Council,” also known as “The Council of Thirty” for having thirty members.

    Idris’s successor as head of the FSA General Staff, Brigadier General Abdel-Ilah al-Bashir, was fired after only a few months and replaced by Brigadier General Ahmed Berri.
    In December, Brigadier General Abdelkarim al-Ahmed took over from Berri.

    In early June, the National Coalition President Khaled Khoja’s new leadership ordered the Supreme Military Council to dissolve.
    http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=60774

    30 april 2015
    Syrian activist groups on Wednesday reported another suspected chemical attack in
    the northwestern province of Idlib, with one group tweeting that a dozen people were "suffocating."

    Several Idlib-based groups said government helicopters dropped at least two barrel bombs containing chlorine on the town of Saraqeb, triggering cases of suffocation.
    The Syrian Network for Human Rights, which is based outside the country, tweeted that 12 people were "suffocating."

    The reports could not be independently verified. A call to Syria's mission to the U.N. rang unanswered Wednesday evening.

    The head of Syria's main opposition group in exile said he received the reports during his informal meeting with the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors.
    Khaled Khoja with the Syrian National Coalition said he urged the council to act on its resolutions,
    including one adopted last month that threatens action against the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/30/syria-chemical-attack/26620887/


    31 Jul 2012
    Haytham al-Maleh, a Syrian opposition figure, claims he has been tasked with forming a government in exile based in Cairo.
    Mr Maleh, a conservative Muslim, said he was named by a Syrian coalition of "independents with no political affiliation". More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    There is no way to independently verify the figure, while the UN has stopped keeping count.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9441660/Syrian-opposition-to-form-government-in-exile.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. A fact-finding mission announced by the OPCW in April 2014 to investigate alleged regime use of chlorine gas voiced concern that the Syrian regime may not have handed over all CWs. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report on an alleged chlorine gas attack on three towns in Hama Province, concluding that there was “strong evidence” the chemical agent had been used by regime forces. The deployment of chlorine gas as a CW appears to have been conducted through the use of barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of the gas.
    Responding to continuing allegations, on September 10 the OPCW reported it had found “compelling confirmation” that the regime deployed chlorine gas “systematically and repeatedly” in northern Syria in early 2014. Since the OPCW declared the complete neutralization of the regime’s surrendered CW stockpile on August 19, 2014,
    local sources have alleged a minimum of 16 chlorine gas attacks conducted by the regime, largely against rebels entrenched in the Damascus suburbs.
    In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, where rebel forces are largely commanded by the Jaysh al-Islam-led Islamic Front, local sources report that the regime has recently deployed chlorine gas prior to successful ground assaults on Adra, Dukhanniya, Jobar, and Irbeen.
    This tactic has permitted the regime to regain control over territory from the Islamic Front in Eastern Ghouta, most recently over parts of Adra on September 27 and over Dukhaniyya on September 28.
    In addition, the regime has allegedly deployed chlorine gas against a number of other rebel positions in Dera’a, Hama, and Deir ez-Zour provinces, areas in which regime offensives had been achieving little success.
    http://iswsyria.blogspot.com/2014/10/alleged-chemical-weapons-use-in-syria.html

    In most cases, alleged CW strikes in Syria throughout 2014 have occurred in locations inaccessible to OPCW or Human Rights Watch investigators.

    Therefore, it is impossible to verify the accuracy of the allegations according to the standards utilized by these organizations. However, in the cases detailed here, evidence provided by local activist reporting regarding the occurrence of a strike is assessed with high confidence.
    In all cases, reports are drawn from sources on the ground assessed to have a high level of fidelity in their reporting, and are further crosschecked across sources. In addition, video evidence serves as a primary method through which to verify the symptomatic indicators of a likely CW strike, often involving the testimony of local physicians.

    The U.S. and other council members have repeatedly blamed the Syrian government for such attacks, saying no one else in the four-year civil war hashelicopters to deliver the toxic chemicals.
    But the U.N.'s most powerful body seems stuck in taking further action because there is no way to formally assign blame.
    Neither the U.N. nor the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, has that kind of mandate, though the OPCW this year condemned the use of chlorine in Syria as a breach of international law. Council members have asked the OPCW to look into the latest attacks.
    The council found rare agreement on Syria in the fall of 2013 to order the removal and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, but chlorine was not declared as a chemical weapon. The chemical does not have to be declared because it is also used for regular purposes in industry.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/30/syria-chemical-attack/26620887/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Atareb Hospital, Aleppo on 26 August 2013

    Fabrication in BBC Panorama “Saving Syria’s Children”: Substitution of “Napalm Bomb” Footage
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/fabrication-in-bbc-panorama-saving-syrias-children-substitution-of-napalm-bomb-footage/5464145

    https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/

    https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/stage-1b-complaint-dr-saleyha-ahsan-the-truth-about-fat-bbc-one-2-april-2015/

    ReplyDelete
  7. A fact-finding mission announced by the OPCW in April 2014 to investigate alleged regime use of chlorine gas voiced concern that the Syrian regime may not have handed over all CWs. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report on an alleged chlorine gas attack on three towns in Hama Province, concluding that there was “strong evidence” the chemical agent had been used by regime forces. The deployment of chlorine gas as a CW appears to have been conducted through the use of barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of the gas. Responding to continuing allegations, on September 10 the OPCW reported it had found “compelling confirmation” that the regime deployed chlorine gas “systematically and repeatedly” in northern Syria in early 2014. Since the OPCW declared the complete neutralization of the regime’s surrendered CW stockpile on August 19, 2014, local sources have alleged a minimum of 16 chlorine gas attacks conducted by the regime, largely against rebels entrenched in the Damascus suburbs. In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, where rebel forces are largely commanded by the Jaysh al-Islam-led Islamic Front, local sources report that the regime has recently deployed chlorine gas prior to successful ground assaults on Adra, Dukhanniya, Jobar, and Irbeen. This tactic has permitted the regime to regain control over territory from the Islamic Front in Eastern Ghouta, most recently over parts of Adra on September 27 and over Dukhaniyya on September 28. In addition, the regime has allegedly deployed chlorine gas against a number of other rebel positions in Dera’a, Hama, and Deir ez-Zour provinces, areas in which regime offensives had been achieving little success.
    http://iswsyria.blogspot.com/2014/10/alleged-chemical-weapons-use-in-syria.html

    In most cases, alleged CW strikes in Syria throughout 2014 have occurred in locations inaccessible to OPCW or Human Rights Watch investigators. Therefore, it is impossible to verify the accuracy of the allegations according to the standards utilized by these organizations. However, in the cases detailed here, evidence provided by local activist reporting regarding the occurrence of a strike is assessed with high confidence. In all cases, reports are drawn from sources on the ground assessed to have a high level of fidelity in their reporting, and are further crosschecked across sources. In addition, video evidence serves as a primary method through which to verify the symptomatic indicators of a likely CW strike, often involving the testimony of local physicians.

    The U.S. and other council members have repeatedly blamed the Syrian government for such attacks, saying no one else in the four-year civil war hashelicopters to deliver the toxic chemicals.
    But the U.N.'s most powerful body seems stuck in taking further action because there is no way to formally assign blame.
    Neither the U.N. nor the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, has that kind of mandate, though the OPCW this year condemned the use of chlorine in Syria as a breach of international law. Council members have asked the OPCW to look into the latest attacks.
    The council found rare agreement on Syria in the fall of 2013 to order the removal and destruction
    of Syria's chemical weapons, but chlorine was not declared as a chemical weapon. The chemical does not have to be declared because it is also used for regular purposes in industry.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/30/syria-chemical-attack/26620887/

    ReplyDelete
  8. By whom this blog is censored : comments disappearing like snowflakes in the sun ???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By spam filter, sorry - I restored some recently, will check now. BTW, all the extra words attached do help raise the Google rating, but sometimes borders on clutter, helps me not even want to scan them all, and maybe miss helpful investigative comments (thoughts I'm struggling to form myself - my favorite find). Anyhoo, no hassles, just FYC. Cheerio

      Delete
    2. That was a lot of snowflakes. I think the frequency, with urls, triggers it, like an allergy. Another hassle. Have patience, k?

      Delete
  9. A fact-finding mission announced by the OPCW in April 2014 to investigate alleged regime use of chlorine gas voiced concern that the Syrian regime may not have handed over all CWs. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report on an alleged chlorine gas attack on three towns in Hama Province, concluding that there was “strong evidence” the chemical agent had been used by regime forces. The deployment of chlorine gas as a CW appears to have been conducted through the use of barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of the gas. Responding to continuing allegations, on September 10 the OPCW reported it had found “compelling confirmation” that the regime deployed chlorine gas “systematically and repeatedly” in northern Syria in early 2014. Since the OPCW declared the complete neutralization of the regime’s surrendered CW stockpile on August 19, 2014, local sources have alleged a minimum of 16 chlorine gas attacks conducted by the regime, largely against rebels entrenched in the Damascus suburbs. In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, where rebel forces are largely commanded by the Jaysh al-Islam-led Islamic Front, local sources report that the regime has recently deployed chlorine gas prior to successful ground assaults on Adra, Dukhanniya, Jobar, and Irbeen. This tactic has permitted the regime to regain control over territory from the Islamic Front in Eastern Ghouta, most recently over parts of Adra on September 27 and over Dukhaniyya on September 28. In addition, the regime has allegedly deployed chlorine gas against a number of other rebel positions in Dera’a, Hama, and Deir ez-Zour provinces, areas in which regime offensives had been achieving little success.
    http://iswsyria.blogspot.com/2014/10/alleged-chemical-weapons-use-in-syria.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. 16 Jul 2015
    VIDEO: @YousefNat and I filmed with the #WhiteHelmets in #Aleppo for @vocativ http://bit.ly/1SpmdQu 
    https://twitter.com/LindseySnell/status/621681418633105408

    https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/13/syria-chemicals-used-idlib-attacks

    Among the remnants, witnesses reported finding containers typically used for refrigerants in refrigerators and air-conditioners. Videos and photos from the aftermath of five attacks, including material shared by the Syrian Civil Defence, show containers of a size, shape, and design commonly used for refrigerants. These canisters are easy to refill with other gases and widely available in Syria.

    26 Jul 2015
    #WhiteHelmets in #Syria: they saving life from #AssadBarrelBombs
    Jan 7, 2015
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twk8PcGnml8#t=11


    https://twitter.com/sakirkhader/status/627025656421945344
    Syria: U.S.-led coalition jets bombarded Jabhat an-Nuṣrah's -HQ in A‘zāz, town north of #Aleppo.
    31 Jul 2015



    https://www.facebook.com/syria.film.festival/posts/1443175425990935

    https://twitter.com/KatalystProds/status/618454379654434817
    Think you can't do anything to save those inside #Syria? Think again: https://herofund.whitehelmets.org/donate/crowdfund?source=fbtywb … @SyriaCivilDef #whitehelmets
    http://katalystproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/filming-accidental-activists.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. In Syria, we see the exact opposite: the majority of Western mainstream media outlets, along with the media of the US's allies in the region, particularly al-Jazeera and the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV channels, are effectively collaborating with the "regime change" narrative and agenda with a near-complete lack of questioning or investigation of statistics and information put out by organizations and media outlets that are either funded or owned by the US/European/Gulf alliance - the very same countries instigating the regime change project in the first place.

    Claims of "massacres", "campaigns of rape targeting women and girls in predominantly Sunni towns" [10] "torture" and even "child-rape" [11] are reported by the international press based largely on two sources - the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCCs) - with minimal additional checking or verification.

    Hiding behind the rubric - "we are not able to verify these statistics" - the lack of integrity in reporting by the Western mainstream media has been starkly apparent since the onset of events in Syria. A decade after the Iraq war, it would seem that no lessons from 2003 - from the demonization of Saddam Hussein and his purported weapons of mass destruction - have been learnt.

    Of the three main sources for all data on numbers of protesters killed and numbers of people attending demonstrations - the pillars of the narrative - all are part of the "regime change" alliance.

    The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, in particular, is reportedly funded through a Dubai-based fund with pooled (and therefore deniable) Western-Gulf money (Saudi Arabia alone has, according to Elliot Abrams [12] allocated US$130 billion to "palliate the masses" of the Arab Spring).

    What appears to be a nondescript British-based organization, the Observatory has been pivotal in sustaining the narrative of the mass killing of thousands of peaceful protesters using inflated figures, "facts", and often exaggerated claims of "massacres" and even recently "genocide".

    Although it claims to be based in its director's house [13], the Observatory has been described as the "front office" of a large media propaganda set-up run by the Syrian opposition and its backers. The Russian Foreign Ministry [14] stated starkly:
    The agenda of the [Syrian] transitional council [is] composed in London by the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights ... It is also there where pictures of 'horror' in Syria are made to stir up hatred towards Assad's regime.
    The Observatory is not legally registered either as a company or charity in the United Kingdom, but operates informally; it has no office, no staff and its director is reportedly awash with funding.

    It receives its information, it says, from a network of "activists" inside Syria; its English-language website is a single page with al-Jazeera instead hosting a minute-by-minute live blog page for it since the outset of protests. [15]

    ReplyDelete
  12. The second, the LCCs, are a more overt part of the opposition's media infrastructure, and their figures and reporting is similarly encompassed only [16] within the context of this main narrative: in an analysis of their daily reports, I couldn't find a single reference to any armed insurgents being killed: reported deaths are of "martyrs", "defector soldiers", people killed in "peaceful demonstrations" and similar descriptions.

    The third is al-Jazeera, whose biased role in "reporting" the Awakenings has been well documented. Described by one seasoned media analyst [17] as the "sophisticated mouthpiece of the state of Qatar and its ambitious emir", al-Jazeera is integral to Qatar's "foreign-policy aspirations".

    Al-Jazeera has, and continues, [18] to provide technical support, equipment, hosting and "credibility" to Syrian opposition activists and organizations. Reports show that as early as March 2011, al-Jazeera was providing messaging and technical support to exiled Syrian opposition activists [19] , who even by January 2010 were co-ordinating their messaging activities from Doha.

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  13. Recent reports have cast serious doubt on the accuracy of the false narrative peddled daily by the mainstream international press, in particular information put out by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the LCCs.
    http://muslimvillageforums.com/topic/66332-a-mistaken-case-for-syrian-regime-change/

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