Thats rich coming from someone who resorts to insults then dissappears from the forum when his conspiracy theories get debunked.
Another “Arria formula” meeting concerning OPCW’s doctored investigation of alleged “chemical attacks” in Douma has been held at the UN on April 16, 2021. Aaron Maté was present again and has delivered what is, in my opinion, the best overview of the story so far?—detailed, yet succinct, eloquent and accessible.
The 27-minute video consists of three parts:
1. An introduction for those unfamiliar with the story, which is so good that I’ve decided to type it out here (0:04–5:35):
I’m very honored to be here once again. I really appreciate the opportunity.
So it has been three years since the alleged chemical attack in Douma and nearly two years since the cover-up of the OPCW investigation into Douma was exposed, but yet, all this time later, nothing has been done to address the serious flaws in this investigation. So what I want to do today is go through some of the few arguments that have been made by the OPCW and other state parties in trying to justify why they refused to meet with the inspectors—the original inspectors who challenged the cover-up of their probe—and why they refuse to investigate any of the scientific fraud that was alleged.
So, again, what are the basic details of this incident?
April 7, 2018, something horrible happens in Douma, dead bodies are filmed inside of a building, the U.S., Britain and France a few days later bomb Syria, accusing it of committing a chemical attack in Douma. Shortly after that, the OPCW gets a team on the ground—for the first time actually having a fact-finding mission reaching the site of an alleged chemical attack in Syria. They investigate, about a year later, in March 2019, a final report comes out, and that report claims that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a chlorine attack occurred in Douma, and the inference of the report is that Syria was guilty, so it aligns with the narrative put out by the countries that bombed Syria.
But then we get a pretty extraordinary series of leaks that exposes a major deception, and these leaks show that the actual inspectors who went to Douma did not reach the conclusion that was put out by the OPCW, and they actually found that there was no evidence of a chemical attack in Douma. They did not speculate as to what actually happened, but what they said is that there was no evidence of a chemical attack.
We saw that because one of the leaks we got was the original report from the Douma team—they wrote a report that was never released to the public until it was leaked. That report was peer-reviewed by the team, it was set for publication, but then something very strange happened: the author of that original report, the chief author, who’s been identified by the OPCW as inspector B, he discovered that someone above him had actually been trying to rush out a bogus report, taking the original report, removing all the key scientific findings, and adding unsupported conclusions including speculating that chlorine gas was likely used and falsely claiming that there were high concentrations of that chemical. So inspector B thwarted the publication of this bogus report, because he sent an email of protest that was sent out to all the Douma team members and some officials. That led to the publication of the interim report in early July 2018. The interim report removed the bogus claims of the doctored bogus report, but it also removed some of the key claims of the original report—so, sort of a compromise.
And around that time something else very curious happened: a U.S. delegation visited the Douma team and tried to lobby them into reaching the conclusion that there was a chlorine attack. Now, it’s very common, as we know, for state parties to share information, share views, share intelligence, but a one-on-one briefing in which the inspectors, who are supposed to be protected, come face-to-face with the U.S. delegation is very unusual. The first Director-General of the OPCW José Bustani told me at The Grayzone that he would never have allowed such a meeting to take place.
Something else happens around then, too. The original team, including inspector B, who was the chief author of the original report, they are all sidelined, they’re taken off the Douma investigation, and they're replaced by a so-called “Core team”, and this is comprised mostly of people who never set foot in Syria, and that is the team that produced the final report.
So then we get these leaks showing all this happening, and then what happens, well, the OPCW refuses to meet with the inspectors, they refuse to investigate the doctoring of the original report. When José Bustani, the first Director-General of the OPCW, tries to speak at the UN Security Council when he was invited, certain member states block him from speaking. And what’s interesting about that is José Bustani, being the first Director-General, helped design the protocols used for inspection missions like Douma, he also worked with the key dissenting inspectors—because these two inspectors, they’re so experienced at the OPCW that their tenure coincides with the organization’s first leader—and also he has experienced what we’re talking about today, which is putting pressure on the OPCW, because when he was the chief, he was forced out by the U.S., because he was standing in the way of the Iraq War. He was trying to bring Iraq into the Chemical Weapons Convention, and he was even physically threatened, as he has talked about publicly.
And meanwhile also some deceptive claims are put out in the media about the inspectors, they are disseminated through state-funded outlets, including the BBC, funded by the U.K., and also a website called Bellingcat, which is funded by the U.S., making false claims about the inspectors and the investigation.
2. A detailed explanation, accompanied by slides, of what was altered in the final OPCW report and why OPCW’s claims of the bulk of analysis having been carried out after inspectors A and B had left the organization are a lie (5:36–21:29).
3. Closing comments and a question to U.S. and U.K. ambassadors, who for some strange reason have left the meeting by that time (21:30–27:22).
The above copied and pasted is an insight to the ongoing cover ups and conspiracies that you are prepared to believe, David.
Here is a link to the full video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge4W9e6YeXQ&ab_channel=TheGrayzone 
