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Pushback with Aaron Mate

Report for European Parliament challenges OPCW’s Syria cover-up

Pushback with Aaron Mate

Pushback with Aaron Maté

News

4.7594 Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2023

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A new report offers the most thorough exposé to date of the OPCW’s Syria cover-up scandal, in which the world’s top chemical watchdog manipulated an investigation to baselessly accuse Syria of a chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma. In April 2018, after dozens of dead victims were filmed at the scene, the US, UK, and France alleged that the Syrian government had dropped gas cylinders on Douma and launched airstrikes in purported retaliation. But leaks from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons show that international inspectors found no evidence of a chemical attack, raising the possibility that the incident was staged by the insurgents who controlled Douma at the time. The OPCW team’s findings were suppressed and replaced with unsupported conclusions that aligned with the US-led narrative. When two veteran OPCW inspectors who deployed to Syria for the probe challenged the manipulation, they were silenced and later publicly defamed. The report is authored by the Berlin Group 21, which is comprised of founding OPCW Director General Jose Bustani, former senior UN official Hans Von Sponeck, Princeton law professor Richard Falk, and academic Piers Robinson of the Organization for Propaganda Studies. Its release follows the Brazilian government's recent public shift in support of accountability over the OPCW's cover-up scandal. The report was submitted to members of the European Parliament as a contribution to discussions around the OPCW. Aaron Maté speaks to Von Sponeck and Robinson about their new report, as well as the ongoing effort to challenge the OPCW's Douma deception and seek justice for the Douma victims. Guests: Hans von Sponeck and Piers Robinson. Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Pushback. I'm Arnete. If you followed my reporting, if you followed the gray zone,

0:08.5

then you will be very familiar with the OPCW's Syria cover-up scandal. This refers to the

0:15.0

organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, the world's top chemical weapons watchdog,

0:20.4

doctoring and censoring its own findings into

0:23.5

an alleged chemical attack in Duma, Syria. And when this alleged attack happened, the U.S.,

0:29.0

Britain and France, accused the Syrian government of dropping chemical weapons on Duma and bomb Syria.

0:35.5

And later on, the OPCW put out a report that aligned with the U.S.,

0:41.0

UK, and France's claims. But then we got a series of leaks showing that the actual team that

0:46.4

went to Syria for this probe reached a much different conclusion, but their findings were

0:51.4

doctored and censored. And we've done a lot of reporting on this based on leaked documents as more and more material

0:58.3

continues to come out.

1:00.0

Now, if you've also followed the story, you will know there's been a huge effort to suppress

1:03.9

any accountability.

1:06.1

The OBCW has refused to meet with the dissenting inspectors, has refused to address the documented

1:11.7

acts of suppression and censorship of the Duma team's findings. And meanwhile, the U.S.,

1:17.7

UK and France have led efforts at the UN to prevent any accountability, including blocking

1:24.9

the testimony of the OPCW's first director general, Jose Bustani,

1:29.3

who wanted to speak out in support of the whistleblowers and in support of accountability for the

1:34.5

Duma cover-up which they challenged.

1:36.4

Well, now we have a new report that offers the most comprehensive look at the Duma cover-up to date.

1:43.3

It's put out by a group called the Berlin Group 21, or known as BG21.

1:48.7

It's headed by Jose Bustani, who is the former Director General of the OPCW.

...

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