Global Research

On July 6, the OPCW—the body charged with investigating the accusations that Syria had used a nerve agent or other chemical weapon in Douma, Syria—reported that “no organophosphorous nerve agents” were detected in the prioritized samples they had taken, including from “alleged casualties”.

The OPCW states that its investigation included on-site visits in Douma, and interviews with witnesses.

While corporate media was screaming that Syria had used a chemical weapon or nerve agent against civilians in Douma, based on the claims of the US-funded Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets), independent journalists went to Douma and spoke to medical staff at the hospital in question, as well as civilians.

I did so myself in late April. Numerous testimonies I and others before and after me took said no chemical attack had taken place. Seventeen civilians from Douma, including medical staff and a boy featured in an unverified video, testified at the OPCW headquarters at the Hague that there had not been a chemical attack. And yet, corporate media dismissed their testimonies, and the on the ground testimonies of many journalists, instead declaring that Syria was guilty of a chemical attack.

As I previously wrote, Marwan Jaber, a medical student present at the hospital on April 7, the day of the alleged attacks, told me:

Patients who came in were being treated for normal shelling injuries, as well as for breathing difficulties, due to the combination of dust and their having taken refuge for extended periods in basements. While staff were treating normal bombing injuries and breathing cases, “strangers” entered screaming about a chemical attack and started hosing people with water. Hospital staff calmed the situation down and went back to treating the patients as ‘normal’ shelling victims, as they had not exhibited any indications of having been exposed to a chemical agent.”

These strangers appear, with the White Helmets, in the unverified videos presented to the world as “evidence” that the Syrian government had used a chemical or nerve agent against its people. The videos of the White Helmets were “evidence” enough for the US, UK and France to illegally bomb Syria over 100 times the night before OPCW inspectors arrived in Syria to investigate.

Marwan Jaber also told me:

“Patients’ symptoms were “not in line with the symptoms of a chemical attack. There wasn’t pupil constriction or Broncho-constrictions leading to death,” Jaber recalled. “The symptoms we received were all symptoms of choking, patients affected by the smoke and regular war injuries. They came here, we treated them, and dispatched them home.”

Jaber said that none, not one, had died, and that none of the hospital staff were affected, as one might expect they would be had a chemical agent been used.

The OPCW investigation included samples from rooms shown in the unverified video including the room with a bed and a large missile delicately perched on a non-shattered bed, supposedly having fallen through the roof. In their report, the OPCW noted that samples from the bed, pillow, resulted in: “No CWC-scheduled chemicals detected.” Same for samples from a basement room, also shown in the White Helmets video, strewn with re-arranged bodies. “No CWC-scheduled chemicals detected.” [No chemicals that are prohibited in the Chemical Weapons Convention.] “No nerve agent related chemicals detected.” The latter comment is regarding a sample taken from “piece of cloths from victim.”

The OPCW found traces of “chlorinated organic chemicals”, but not Sarin, as widely alleged by corporate media and supposed investigators.

The issuance of this latest report finding allegations of chemical or nerve agents being used in Douma to thus far not be based on evidence is another important negation of the stories spun by corporate media and think tanks, and confirms what Syrian civilians and medical staff themselves testified on numerous occasions to numerous journalists: that they had not experienced a chemical attack in Douma.

Those promoting the lies to the contrary are guilty of war propaganda and have Syrian blood on their hands for promulgating a narrative that could lead to further illegal intervention and bombing by the US and allies.

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Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine. She is a recipient of the International Journalism Award for International Reporting, Mexican Press Club, 2017. Visit her personal blog, In Gaza. She is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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