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Saturday, April 7, 2018

Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, April 7, 2018

Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, April 7, 2018 {Masterlist}
April 8, 2018
(rough, incomplete, undated running updates, etc.) 

Update April 15: this has now expanded somewhat into separate sub-posts, which I'll hub together here as what I've always called a {masterlist}. There's a lot more I could have added, but I remain behind...
2019 Update (May 28): This masterlist has been poorly-maintained since, as I've added many posts, besides work on the subject elsewhere. Only now getting posts updated. In case I miss any current or later posts, see also all posts tagged Douma Chemical Massacre

2023 update: I haven't updated this for a long time. Since then, I've re-written the same points several times, for little good reason. The best forms of some points are spread out at random between several posts, and some posts aren't even worth linking. It is a mess. Much of this is covered better by someone and somewhere else, but some points of value can only be found here, somewhere.

Sub-posts:

February 17, 2023 note: Posts now re-organized under improved headings (some repeated). But firt, the best points re-worked again but much better in a big 3-part challenge to the recent report from the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team.
Douma Chemical Massacre 2018, Revisited
* Part 1: ballistic evidence, Location 2: why aerial attack is an unsound conclusion
Part 2: chemical and toxicological evidence: why chlorine gas was likely released, at unclear concentrations, and why no concentration can well explain the 35 deaths alleged at Location 2.
* Part 3: regarding how the victims were killed, who killed them, and why. 

Victim/Scene Analysis (a useful masterlist with victim list, maps, & organized sub-post links)
* 2023: Douma Revisited, Part 3 The main elements of all these posts re-mixed in long but readable form
Douma's Mask of Death, part 1, 2019 re-write !!! (April, 2018: the crucial clue as to how the victims were murdered)
* The Mysterious Washing of Faces and Hair If that staining means nothing, why the apparent effort to wash it off, and efforts to deny the washing?
* Bakriyeh Family Deaths (May, 2018: the largest part of the victims: related to a to an opposition military commander who ran afoul of Jaish Al-Islam?)
* See-Sawing Death Toll Reports (April, 2018: noting the widespread claims of closer to 200 dying than the 'more than 43' finally settled on)
* 187 killed? (2019 - someone brought that up again)
* Pre-Douma CW Incidents in E. Ghouta, 2018 (tangential)
* More Clues from Douma's Location 2 November 18, 2021 - 2 new videos offer a wider view of the crime scene, allowing for an updated, very detailed multi-level map of the site, noting 5 forced doors, a stray stepladder, more rags and smears linked to bodies nowhere nearby, etc.

The Physical Evidence
> Ballistics 
* 2023: Douma revisited Part 1: ballistic evidence, Location 2: why aerial attack is an unsound conclusion, and manual placement makes the most sense - adding to prior posts that there were probably two unrelated mortar shell impacts the gas cylinder was placed next to, not just one.
The "CW Barrel Bomb" that Wasn't There 4/14/18 (but it was there, and it appeared frosted on the underside, so was probably releasing its gas - a blunder quickly resolved into a good start at considering the scene at Location 2)
OPCW FFM Engineering Sub-Team Censored Report (intro) - May 14, 2019
* Location 2 Explosives Damage? (May 20, 2019) Apparently so, considering what we could already see and reason, what the OPCW FFM's engineering sub-team concluded, and what considering an important bit they missed.

> Chemical/Toxicological
* 2023: Douma Revisited part 2: the chemical and toxicological evidence: why chlorine gas was likely released, at unclear concentrations, and why no concentration can well explain the 35 deaths alleged at Location 2.
Swept Under the Rug part 2 August 5, 2018 - what was and wasn't found; chlorine vs. sarin, signs of staging and murder of the victims)
OPCW Whistleblower Expands our View on Douma Sham Investigation ...and I expand on that. November 8, 2019
...

Leaks, Whistleblowers, and Reactions
OPCW Whistleblower Expands our View on Douma Sham Investigation ...and I expand on that. November 8, 2019
OPCW Interim Report on Douma: What they Cut Out... … and Added or Changed, and What That Tells Us. December 20, 2019
Douma Toxicology: Erasing and Replacing the Correct Answers December 29, 2019 - a solid overview of OPCW leaks regarding a meeting with toxicology experts that was effectively erased from the record.
...

Witnesses, Staged Scenes
(not as interesting as usual, on the opposition side. A lot more than usual came out AGAINST that story (Hassan Diab and various medics and a whole lot of other citizens). These are covered around well enough. I mainly took interest in a special class of witnesses:
* The Witnesses Who Don't Blame Assad (added 4/22 - at least two men offer fake-sounding stories, but with possible bait connected.)
Douma Basement Shelter Confusion, and a new critique of alleged survivor accounts (added Nov. 2019)
* Witness Profile: Moaed Dumane (one random oppo. witness that was easy to post on)
A Change of Thinking on the Douma Chemical Massacre? (Riam Dalati on hospital scene staging, Harkin + Postol, GPPI on 300+ attacks)

General / Investigation
OPCW Douma Report S/1731, 2019 March 2, 2019 - multi-subject partial refutation
* Swept Under the Rug part 1 (OPCW investigation, delays, a deadly attack, disputed blame)
* Swept Under the Rug part 2 (what was and wasn't found; chlorine vs. sarin, signs of staging and murder of the victims)
Coverup Helpers
On OPCW-Bellingcat "Collaboration" February 13-16, 2020 
NYT: One Really Stupid Attempt to Demonize Assad June 29, 2018 - Bellingcat, Forensic Architecture, Malachi Browne and the New York Times
Douma, Academics, and Mass Murder Coverup (prof. Scott Lucas, indirect affiliate of likely perpetrators) June 16, 2019
* Why Jefferson Morley's Opinion on Douma has no Value By Adam Larson aka Caustic Logic (as usual) December 22, 2019


Assorted Early Material Left Here
Original intro:
Yesterday, April 7, 2018,
another chemical attack was alleged in Syria, that would be the deadliest since Khan Sheikhoun a year ago, with reports of 75 killed, and many hundreds said to be suffocating and more likely to die. Most sources so far blame chlorine, but this doesn't add up, and a mystery gas, perhaps sarin, is also blamed. 

Al-Jazeera reported:
"Seventy people suffocated to death and hundreds still suffocating," Raed al-Saleh, head of the White Helmets, told Al Jazeera, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as many people were in critical condition.

Al-Saleh said that chlorine gas, as well as an unidentified but stronger gas, were dropped on Douma."

This isn't good. Chlorine will kill zero to maybe ten or so people in most cases. When you have several times that, historically, it's been a sarin attack, allegedly or somewhat verified. There are some clues here consistent with that, but the picture isn't very clear yet. 

I was able to start analysis within hours this time, before most. This is a work-in-progress, put up early to allow comments, etc. In fact, it's still April 7 in my time zone. 

Background
When did the Assad regime get so desperate to risk the world's ire by gassing beautiful babies? It was just as Syrian forces wasere nearing completion with liberating East Ghouta from the Islamists. At this point, all of East Ghouta except Douma is liberated for the first time in about six years. Deals were recently reached for Islamist fighters to leave, some had, and there was a lull in fighting.

It comes some weeks after Syrian and Russian officials had reported on signs that the Islamists would launch a false-flag chemical attack in Ghouta to provoke a foreign military bail-out. Then, just hours earlier on the 7th, Islamists in Douma launched artillery attacks on Damascus that killed several and wounded dozens (see also Beeley), provoking alleged and likely real air and artillery attacks on targets in Douma, said to kill dozens of civilians, and providing a chance to report this alleged chemical response.

It also comes just as the Skirpal poisoning case was falling apart (see here), a murky nerve agent crime prematurely blamed on Russia, some suspected to play into the planned terrorist  incident and coming war with Syria, and to get Russia tied in more closely with Syria's alleged CW attacks. A US State Department official told CNN, responding to these allegations, "As we've said, Russia ultimately bears responsibility" for this and all CW attacks alleged in Syria.

Douma is run mainly by Jaish al-Islam, "Army of Islam," a hardline Salafist group that holds genocidal views against non-Sunnis and non-Salafis, holding thousands in their "repentance prisons," freely abducting and massacring civilians, parading them in cages placed atop buildings as human shields, forcing them into slave labor to dig their tunnel city under East Ghouta, etc.. (some of this covered in this older article, some just now coming out) And JaI once ruled over all of East Ghouta, if not exclusively, and was almost certainly behind the infamous 2013 Ghouta CW attack, in which they apparently launched rockets to blame on the Syrian government as they, along with local helpers, gassed hundreds of captive civilians in basement gas chambers across the area. 

Death Toll and details
material cut to See-Sawing Death Toll Reports

But only one set of dead bodies, at only one scene, is ever shown (that I've noticed, so far), in a batch of photos with that Qasioun report, this White Helmets page, and elsewhere, like this video claiming "40 were killed and 500 still suffocating in bad medical circumstances." This is at least a dozen or so civilians, mostly women and children (Qoppa999 counts around 20), all laid piled together in an abandoned-seeming, junk-filled basement, presumably how they naturally piled as themselves as they died from whatever ...
























O
Other graphic images and victim analysis notes moved to new victim analysis post

...

VDC April 12 still at 85, even expanding to check all cw dead 4-7 to now. But more are identified - 36 now have names, when only 6 did before. top names (possibly made up): - Bakriyeh, 11 cases, al-Sheik, 8 cases 

chlorine or sarin?
(Independent 8 April) 
"SAMS said a chlorine bomb hit Douma hospital, killing six people."
"The pro-opposition Ghouta Media Centre alleged that a helicopter had dropped a barrel bomb containing sarin..."
"Backing the Ghouta Media Centre’s claims, SAMS alleged that a second attack with “mixed agents”, including nerve agents, had hit a nearby building."
(note: it's mixing sarin and chlorine in one weapon that would not work. This is what they allege killed many).
"Basel Termanini, the US-based vice president of SAMS, said a further 35 people had been killed at a nearby apartment building, most of them women and children."
(a seperate building, or the same one? It has a hole in the roof, was allegedly hit)
"One video circulated by activists showed the lifeless bodies of around a dozen children, women and men, some of them with foam at the mouth, along with the commentary: “Douma city, April 7 … there is a strong smell here.”"
If there are many dead linked to it, this will be the foul, strange, rotten smell of impure sarin as reported across Syria by people on both sides since late 2012.
"The joint SAMS and civil defence statement said medical centres had taken in more than 500 people suffering breathing difficulties, frothing from the mouth and smelling of chlorine."
That's 500 people of the 700-1000 said admitted, who were not exposed to this sarin. 

Time of day (FWIW):
These scenes feel both underground and at night, but that's not certain.
https://www.facebook.com/SCDrifdimashq/posts/2185010134857617
gas mention, no dead seen, 6:29 am, 4:29 pm or ... DST time again... by mid-late afternoon they were showing kids with no sign of chlorine exposure being washed off and wearing oxygen masks. But the dead people aren't shown.
https://twitter.com/UOSSMUS/status/982687424173273088
11:31 AM Twitter time = 9:31 PM in Syria? early tweet UOSSM uses only those same clinic images, but heard at least "6 people killed and 700 suffocation cases from a reported chemical attack on Douma, Ghouta; Largest area hospital destroyed. #SaveGhouta"

Of course: gas people, and destroy the hospital again to prevent treatment, because of ... satan I guess?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/07/middleeast/syria-suspected-chemical-attack/index.html
dozens of civilians killed
CNN's State Department official said it happened "near a hospital in Douma, Syria."
Was it perhaps inside the hospital's basement where the people were gassed? And then the scene of the crime was blown up and shut down for repairs?

https://twitter.com/leloveluck/status/982939957324066816
.@snhr documented 55 deaths, 875 injured after last night’s alleged chemical attacks in Douma. Describes 2 incidents: one at 4pm near Sa’da bakery building in Omar ben al Khattab St, 15 injuries. The second around 7:30pm near al-Shuhada Sq. in Nu’man, 55 dead & 860 wounded.

1:59 AM? Photo from scene, girl in purple removed
https://www.facebook.com/SCDrifdimashq/photos/a.967111226647520.1073741831.954981771193799/2185623841462913/?type=3
2:23 am? the full photoset released. https://www.facebook.com/SCDrifdimashq/posts/2185703614788269

So if we have two events, and two poisons as Saleh claims, that opens the possibility they were used one agent in each attack, rather than used together (eg chlorine in the afternoon, sarin in the evening attack). Either way, conflation of chlorine and sarin has been a hallmark of CW allegations as of last year, now present in every case involving sarin whereas it used to hardly ever emerge). Because if they were allegedly used together in one weapon or one attack, the sarin part would largely be cancelled out by the chlorine, depending how well they mixed.

Secondary contamination note: the possibility of elapsed time should be considered. If these folks died at 7:30, and aren't seen until maybe no earlier than 2 am, that's up to 6.5 hours for evaporation to occur.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/syria-chemical-attack-lungs-shutting-180408123716663.html
By his third frantic dash down the stairs, with a wet piece of cloth over his mouth and a little girl in each arm, everything went dark for Khaled Abu Jaafar.
"I lost consciousness. I couldn't breathe any more; it was like my lungs were shutting down," recalled the resident of Douma, in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

Aha .. these stairs by chance? These two girls a few feet apart? That dingy cloth? Where did the one get smoke-stained hands? The one is bleeding because he dropped her when he blacked out? I think he's writing himself into this scene, trying to give the whole thing some realism. It doesn't work very well, in my opinion.

Abu Jaafar is one of the survivors ...at least 85 people were killed in the chlorine gas attack...
Among those killed, witnesses said, were many women and children who had sought refuge in the basements of buildings to escape heavy bombardment by pro-government forces.
Abu Jaafar, a radio station worker, said that as panicked residents started running around after the attack, he rushed to one of these hideouts to check on his friends and help get people out.
"While people were in the shelters, some on the roof managed to see the gas bombs as they dropped from the planes," Abu Jaafar said, describing what he said was green gas emanating from the canisters falling from the sky.
"Those who saw them rushed to tell everyone in the basement to evacuate," he added. "I went up and down the stairs about three times to help evacuate children from the building."
Really? Some guys were on the roof and looked up to see Assad dropping this stuff - and it was already oozing its neon green chlorine smoke as it fell, to kill with far too many and with non-chlorine symptoms? And they could see this, run and warn people, run and carry people, but fail to save people. People would up piled inside the basement, right at the bottom of the stairs for all their efforts carrying the paralyzed or dead people for hours in the same air before even Allah's magical blessing fades and the jihadist passes out for a bit. This is not a real-world type of story, but it is the basis for another guilt trip to get a military bail-out, which so many are eager to offer.


The CW canisters:

More forthcoming on this and the other one, in a dedicated post.
Note: this is not the same scene with the bodies considered above. It's not clear (to me, at the moment) who if anyone was said to be killed here and just by what. But this is a standard 44-liter gas cylinder for chlorine, as allegedly dropped by regime forces since 2014.
source video: https://twitter.com/1BilalAbuSalah/status/982956657624911873 
that's about the right color, staining like this might happen, but there's no visible split to release any gas (the valve is at the left end with the silver metal band around it, and seems to be closed). The tanks is barely damaged, didn't tear open like usual. There MIGHT be an unexpected split/stab/slash in the middle, right about where the spray would seem to come from. I'll look closer, but so far that looks like a no-depth surface scratch (a rather coincidentally-placed one if so). 




valve end - slight deformation of the metal is notable, but it seems all intact. Some dust and small amount of dark liquid (?). No sign of chlorine spraying from here. 


And as some discussion on Twitter helps me decide (no expert), chlorine gas does not stain things the color that it appears. The color you see is from the optics of the gas molecules in light, not from a dye it contains and can leave behind. Rather, what it touches is affected however. At least in the presence of moisture (which is common all over), it's hit with corrosive acid. The materials get oxidized, burned, bleached, damaged, rusted, or unfazed, depending. It doesn't turn pale yellow green like an airbrush with that color of dye in it would do. I'm pretty sure this has to be a fake scene. (credit: Orbi, Kobs, McIntyre)



Ok, before landing on the spray-painted bed ... this canister (of chlorine?) allegedly punched that hole, barely damaged so barely slowed, but then couldn't break through the floor, and ... bounced off it to land here on a soft bed? (Human Rights Investigations puts the problem well.) Note the end with fins (on the right) should be up when falling - it would hit on the other end with the ring around it, off-frame here.





Possibly
relevant: the impure sarin used so far is also described as yellow in color. This has never been filmed that I'm aware of, and I don't know if this would be the right shade, nor if it stains things. But it's also heavier than air. It makes as much sense (which isn't much) to have that pour down the stairwell, killing everyone nearby. The last part makes more sense with sarin. It burns the eyes and lungs much like chlorine (due to the impurities), but differs in being sarin and really killing people.

Could that be put in a chlorine tank? Easily, if one has the sarin to start with. Is that what killed people? Not that girl who can be handles with no gloves and no repercussions. Not the people who lack cyanosis, much of the SLUDGE syndrome, etc. This isn't chlorine or sarin, but something else, likely done somewhere else. 


More sources:
VDC listings: none yet (see all chemical gas deaths). Or April 7 - at the moment (just hours later), 80 entries for Damascus suburbs killed by toxic gasses this day. Ouch. BTW the VDC is or was based right there in Douma. Its director was abducted and disappeared, forever it seems, by either ISIS or Jaish al-Islam (the two were briefly in cahoots until about then - December 2013, just ahead of the JaI-al-Nusra offensive, massacre, and mass abductions to the northeast in Adra).

A day later, now 85 entries, perhaps final size, but worried it might grow, even hugely. 6 identified, 79 not yet. 46 adult males, 16 women, 11 boys, 12 girls - more balanced than most massacres that kill about 90-100% adult males. All are listed as from Douma, no displacement or hostage status is noted. Notes attached to most entries: "Due to the shelling of a residential neighborhood with an explosive barrel carrying poisonous gas, killing a big number of residents among which women and children" Fuller VDC entries analysis in time, somewhere...

Some very quick victim analysis, continuing thread: https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/982724443607846912

http://sn4hr.org/blog/2018/04/08/51899/
The April 7 provocation was preceded by alleged April 6 bombing by "Syrian-Iranian alliance forces." Then the natural retaliation, and then:
On April 7, 2018, Syrian regime forces carried out two air chemical attacks in northern Douma city within three hours. The first attack was at 16:00 near Sa’da bakery building in Omar ben al Khattab Street that resulted in 15 injuries. The second attack took place at approximately 19:30 near al Shuhada Square in Nu’man area and resulted in the killing of no less than 55 individuals, while 860 civilians were injured at least. Some paramedics and civil defense members reported severe symptoms on the injured, as all of the people who were affected suffered from acute dyspnea, while some suffered from conjunctivitis and miosis.

We’ve acquired a number of pictures and videos that show tens of dead bodies for women and children that are piled up. A blueness had struck their faces, their mouths were covered in foam, and their eyes were startled. These pictures bear a large similarity to the victims’ picture from the Two Ghoutas attacks in August 2013 and Khan Sheikhoun attack in April 2017.

full report offers as PDF - little is added.

another video of main victim array
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyGJugmGaI

51 comments:

  1. A couple of options.

    1. They died of other causes and were 'cosmetically enhanced' before / during being placed in the location. In particular foam added to their noses and mouths.

    2. They were gassed but as a result of a dud thermobaric weapon - ethylene oxide sounds like it would do the job

    For both are there any matching walking wounded? Ventilators with many milling cameramen and the odd incompetent medic splashing water or administering dubious remedies?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. They died of other causes and were 'cosmetically enhanced' before / during being placed in the location. In particular foam added to their noses and mouths.
      The foam is an issue. It is evenly white, very copious, and thick. I could see baking soda and 7-Up, or perhaps mucous and breathed air, depending on circumstances.
      Not that I'm saying this is what happened here, but special effects foam could be piped into a body to bubble out naturally with its own action long after the victim stopped breathing. Just an external application wouldn't explain all of what we see here.

      2. They were gassed but as a result of a dud thermobaric weapon - ethylene oxide sounds like it would do the job
      Accident of war options always exist, but chance lacks the kind of motive Islamists have.

      For both are there any matching walking wounded? Ventilators with many milling cameramen and the odd incompetent medic splashing water or administering dubious remedies?

      so far it seems there's a sharp divide - the people in clinics seem almost totally unexposed and there just to get treatments anyway. (likely friends, or their bewildered children anyway).
      The dead people are totally exposed with gas chamber efficiency, with severe symptoms and no help, "rescuers" say, because they were trapped in some random basement they couldn't reach because of the shelling. Obviously, I suspect these are not friends of theirs, but this is just an impression. Next is to see some more of what the evidence says on the subject.

      Delete
    2. For the record, I looked at the foam again. In most views it still seems wet, and the bubbles might be non0uniform enough. The impression above might be valid, but I'm not callin g fakery here without more review. It does look fake, and the whole foam thing is almost an urban legend anyway. But maybe they have some bizarre poisoning process that genuinely produces this in their gassed hostages.

      Delete
  2. Videos of the actual bombing that might be useful in the future (depending on exact location + angle here)
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClm30t2F4FHzzkN9Irtr-8A/videos

    The divide between convincing dead and less convincing 'injured' reminds me of KS. Perhaps there would have been some more elaborate washing scenes if they weren't constrained by being under actual attack.

    Any convincing argument why the Syrian gov would actually want or need to do this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. convincing argument to some: satan. Otherwise, there will be some word salad offered, nothing logical. Genocide, Iran will be mentioned side-by-side.

      Delete
    2. Logic and actual investigation doesn't count for much these days does it?

      The twitter video if you need, I hope you can download it:
      https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q39I1744aIilWNvcDO_-XsfmUudOE3C-

      I use the addon on www.downloadhelper.net by the way, there might be better but seems to work

      Delete
    3. Thanks, seems to be working. Might remember to look into that tool. I'll be out now for some hours.

      Delete
    4. Another question, if they do decide this was a sarin attack, might be why have the SyAAF retired their (supposed) hidden stockpile of M4000 chemical bombs in favour of a yellow cylinder with fins welded onto it?

      Delete
    5. The go-tool for getting videos off just about any page, not just youtube, is youtube-dl

      https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

      It works for twitter and many news sites with embedded videos.

      Delete
  3. Locations on VDC http://vdc-sy.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ChemicalAttack_Map-1024x640.jpg

    This was 4pm https://youtu.be/4UZylUOE41o?t=500 so during the ground assault

    No video between 7 and 8 but suncalc says it was dusk at 19:24:24 and it is dark in the video at 8pm. Might have made it a little hard to see 'green gas canisters'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah, forgot to mention it was probably dark (DST adds, I ignored it for the moment). So i Didn't rally forget. Anyway, thanks

      Delete
  4. NO CHEMICAL WEAPONS ATTACK EVER HAPPENED IN GHOUTA
    ..not now, not in August 2013

    The White Helmets claim to be a Search and Rescue organization, yet there is not a single video online that shows them searching for victims or actually finding and rescuing anyone. Every video looks staged. If they dig up a baby from the ruble, they miraculously know where the baby is hidden, long before the camera starts rolling.

    In 2013 some 1000 hostages were gassed to death in cellars, most likely with chlorine gas. The videos of the alleged attack only show victims in morgues and in hospitals, but no search and rescue. There is nothing in the footage that would indicate an attack actually happened.

    This week's provocation was even more poorly staged. All we see is two piles of bodies in some abandoned apartments. Most likely the hostages were gassed in the cellar of the same building and then dragged up the stairwell and dumped in the second and third floor apartments. Because of the time constraints the White Helmets only managed to drag them half way and piled the bodies just barely inside the front door. Nothing in the video indicates that the bodies were found in situ where they had died.

    The setup is similar to the infamous Zamalka Ghost House of 2013, where half-rotten bodies were staged by well-known Douma hostage takers and massacre makers as "proof" of a chemical weapons attack.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. some points could be refined before a final version, but that's at least a fairer assessment than what the controlled media spews.

      Delete
    2. 200 out of supposed 5000 prisoners held by #Jaishalislam in #Douma have been released. 4800 people are missing, most likely dead due to slave labor, execution and maybe even used as guinea pigs for a supposed chemical weapon event?
      https://twitter.com/Gjoene/status/983647727811792896
      Syrian military source: 161000 people left Eastern #Ghouta so far. Russian MoD: more than 3600 terrorists left #Douma with their families in the past 24 hours.
      https://twitter.com/iadtawil/status/983612499617636352

      Delete
  5. Colour of the bed looks different in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JmAOWmkFvk

    More brown than yellow. Possible the colours are wrong or adjusted in the video that looks yellow? Not stained?

    With Russia saying no witnesses, bodies, chlorine or nerve agent it will be really interesting to see what OPCW inspectors find. Has anyone found the 1000 (!) injured?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The cylinder said to be above the victim house looks to have moved between original Higgins picture and White Helmets video. Maybe why Russia didn't see it..

      They didn't even bother with fins for this one

      https://imgur.com/CzJBQwk

      Delete
    2. color is different, neither is wrong I'd say. The one wehre it looks brown seems bluish, no "white balance" performed. ?? The other seems white balanced, so more accurate. I think. So it was made to look yellow, or does look that way.

      Delete
    3. The bit of wood is brown in this video rather than green/yellow which would make more sense wouldn't it?

      I think colours are misleading in the first and in reality there is no green/yellow staining, even the headboard of the bed and wall behind look yellow-ish when they clearly aren't.

      https://pasteboard.co/Hg4SaZO.png

      Delete
    4. The bits of plaster are in the same place so all that changes is the yellow to brown

      https://imgur.com/pHKtf35

      Just one minor edit to the hue makes it match pretty much so I'm certain either their camera isn't great or they edited the colour deliberately

      Delete
    5. Last one - the dust has been wiped off on the corner of the bed in the darker brown video so unless the green/yellow turns back to brown...

      https://imgur.com/Q9rVJIF

      Delete
    6. ok, noted. I'll be splitting this off (soon?) but I suppose the chlorine-colored view is kind of that color all around. Doesn't seem like an accidental tone to get either. What color they were going for, if any, is not certain. Maybe it was supposed to lighter, one video editor knew that and adjusted the color balance... As for dust wiped away, looks like more of the same spray pattern, same line, and getting on the corner of the pillow as well.

      (also some dark fluid at that end of the tank and maybe damp spot on the pillow - small mystery there. Any thoughts on that?).

      Delete
    7. I think they have pulled the pillow out from underneath the cylinder and it left that mark, so could be liquid from that?

      The first video seems to have the scenes edited the wrong way around, the pillow has no mark later on and is under the cylinder (so they're even moving stuff around mid-video here.. can only imagine what else have they moved)

      https://imgur.com/cil8nJo

      Delete
    8. There is a watch visible too https://youtu.be/KpwcV0sup_o?t=139

      9:30 pm I think

      Delete
    9. Or a.m. maybe

      I'm confused about the time shown on this watch as the video is linked to the facebook post in your tweets
      https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/984755688176992256

      Delete
    10. It will be interesting to see if Russia's 2 witnesses shown in this washing video who say it was faked say when it was filmed (maybe his watch is right?)

      Delete
    11. I love how some who swear by the videos as 'open source evidence' won't accept the word of people actually *in* the videos if they say something they don't like. Forced to say it etc. etc.

      If it were the other way round doubting them would be a 'disgusting attack on brave doctors'.

      What the witnesses say makes sense for the washing scenes I think, but there are still the bodies in the house to explain.

      Delete
  6. The valve on the yellow canister looks closed. And is that the red seal cap on the valve outlet still on? So the gas (chlorine/mustard gas) must come from a rupture which cant be seen.
    If canister was used for chlorine gas, the filling must have been as gas, as oppose to liquid. Liquid having a boiling point of 217Dgr Celcius.
    The canister looks like pressure rating of 6bar, so total chlorine gas could be 6 x 44L =264ltr. I dont know if this is possible, and would demand sophisticated compressor equipment to fill?
    The valve looks like a 3/8inch globe type. Can anybody confirm or correct my observations
    The logic is not adding up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really don't know much about valves, but it seems closed and that's not where the stain emanates from. Invisible split is possible, but I see no damage to suggest there would be one. As for pressure, not sure how they're filled. Custom filled with stolen equipment? Just stolen as filled tanks? Or delivered as tanks, to help clean the water, etc. Humanitarian supplies.

      Delete
  7. Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) was formerly known as Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) and is a coalition of Salafist Islamist militant groups based in the Douma and Eastern Ghouta regions of the Syrian capital of Damascus.
    Douma was the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack where up to 43 people were killed and it has been blamed on the Syrian regime.
    But according to reports from news outlet Kurdistan 24, the group admitted it used chemical weapons in a mainly Kurdish populated area in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria in April 2016.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/944900/Syria-Assad-chemical-attack-Douma-Jaish-al-Islam-Kurds-YPG-Kurdistan
    *
    https://twitter.com/OBerruyer/status/970579305846706176
    Le Monde dissimule ni vu ni connu la nature islamiste d'un des principaux groupes rebelles présents dans la Ghouta.
    Jaysh al-Islam claimed they were starving…look and judge Left: Jaysh al-Islam militants while leaving #Douma Right: a released Syrian Army colonel from Douma prison
    https://twitter.com/Ibra_Joudeh/status/983712840325517312

    https://twitter.com/OBerruyer/status/982988332425760768
    8 Apr 2018 Drian et mohamed bin salman
    *
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/945092/world-war-3-syria-france-macron-chemical-weapons
    President Emmanuel Macron and his U.S.counterpart Donald Trump agreed on Monday that chemical weapons had been used against civilians in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta on April 7, and said they would work together to establish clear responsibility for the attack.
    https://www.albawaba.com/news/macron-trump-agree-work-together-establish-clear-responsibility-douma-chemical-attack-1114636

    https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/03/chemical-weapons-resurface-syria
    Early on January 22, I began receiving reports from residents in Eastern Ghouta in Syria of chlorine being used in a ground attack on Douma. It was not the first time the besieged town suffered a chemical weapons attack. Almost five years ago, on August 21, 2013, a chemical attack had killed hundreds of civilians, many of them children. It was the first wide-scale use of chemical weapons in decades. The likely culprit was the Syrian government.
    https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/04/syria-year-chemical-weapons-attacks-persist
    Only a day after the January 22 attack, France launched a political initiative to combat the proliferation of chemical weapons and ensure that using them has consequences for those who do so. Aptly called ‘No Impunity’, the initiators also imposed sanctions against individuals and businesses with links to Syria’s chemical weapons program.
    The French-led initiative is a welcome break from the dangerous attempt to make chemical weapons the new normal, but on its own it is not enough.
    https://www.hrw.org/the-day-in-human-rights/2018/04/11

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. guinea pigs ... the "Caesar photos" actually show mass chemical extermination, and starvation, more than "torture." My theory was they were prisoners of Liwa al-Islam. Thyere were thousands of them, about 1,000 a month for 9 months, with most being that kind of body. Photos stopped and Caesar fled the day before the Ghouta attack.

      Delete
  8. White light theory for the hole in roof:

    Admittedly this isn't amazing but the cylinder would need to be more to one side and out of the hole to match
    https://imgur.com/5ia5UVh

    Maybe things of interest:

    https://imgur.com/SG4t09r

    2 guys go up the stairs before the cameraman and a few things look to have power. Where is 3rd guy and what is he pointing his light at that point? Maybe there more lights upstairs?

    If you look to the right of gas mask guy there is a light that doesn't seem to move. So either could be a light in there or the other guy went in first.

    Also if you watch gas mask guy, he points his light up under his chin shining it on the end of his gas mask... that is round and would be reflective.

    ReplyDelete
  9. https://youtu.be/iD9C9koRmro?t=398

    https://youtu.be/UnlLldoYz5Q?t=31

    Former JaI clinic looks like it is under the large building next to the square https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@33.5745009,36.4070977,291m/data=!3m1!1e3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Square, building and entrance in one shot

      https://youtu.be/6rmex7Y_8Lo?t=19

      Delete
  10. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/08/no-one-basement-made-gas-killed-instantly-says-medic-treated/
    Long story from medical student "Mohammed Samer" about treating the injured, interviewed apparently from the hospital in Douma.

    If the Syrian gov are threatening people why have they not found him and forced him to publically retract this story? (or maybe he is a fraud?) Why did they forget to threaten Hanan?

    Interesting quote from Dr Ahmad Tarakji president of SAMS "Unfortunately, because of a lack of resources, we can't take blood samples."


    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article208913864.html
    Another medical student


    https://news.cgtn.com/news/7963544f7a454464776c6d636a4e6e62684a4856/share_p.html

    Video shows basement in which "more than 10" died

    (stuff on the floor matches that in the Swedish basement video)


    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-douma/we-saw-corpses-in-the-street-syrian-activist-recounts-douma-attack-idUSKBN1HP1XA

    "[Muayad al-Dirani] grabbed his camera, put on a face mask, and ran with emergency workers to the nearby site of the attack" "when he reached the site of the attack, he found nearly 30 bodies on the ground floor, and a few others on the first."

    White Helmets said they couldn't go in because they had no masks. No-one in the basement?

    ReplyDelete
  11. RT Arabic have new footage of cylinder on roof and have found the one on the bed

    https://youtu.be/gacd6u3pEOM?t=13

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looks a bit like the Bellingcat 'barrel bomb wheels' are attached

      https://imgur.com/BNoO1qJ

      Delete
    2. You probably have all these already so last one

      https://youtu.be/ZkHdcsbpUrk?t=98

      Survivor from next block, not sure if they really did smell anything but mentions washing in water and vinegar. Vinegar possible ingredient for the foam here?

      Would be interesting to find out exactly what they might have washed themselves with - definitely clouds of dust around, accidental mix of chemicals when trying to wash/breathe with something over the face a possibility?

      Delete
  12. https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/syrian-father-and-son-interviewed-about-boys-appearance-in-fake-chemical-attack-video/
    Syrian Father and Son Interviewed About Boy’s Appearance in FAKE Chemical Attack Video

    ReplyDelete
  13. http://vdc-sy.net/russian-military-police-inspects-chemical-attack-site/

    " Jaish Al-Islam also made it difficult to hold independent investigation and documentation of the site yesterday and tried to bar witnesses from documenting and photographing any evidence." .. why would they do that?

    VDC location wasn't very accurate so is SNHR's location of the bouncing-bed-cylinder actually the bakery location as it is ~400m away from the second site?

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ZOxKSPoczE1N6Kry15BVZl2nnqIKtU4/view

    If the bed-cylinder is in fact by Al Kabir mosque, then the second 'barrel bomb' that "went through the roof of the second building" according to SNHR must be another one we haven't seen yet

    If anyone knows how find the exact date of the zoomed in satellite photos on Google Maps it might be useful (they don't seem to be on Google Earth and satellite photos as proof seem to be completely absent for this attack)

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@33.5739971,36.4048803,146m/data=!3m1!1e3

    The damage on the roof above (~7 seconds in at camera person's feet) seems to be shown, just not sure of the image date

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Correction- the image does seem to be on Google Earth (I should have checked again before posting), and is from 2017 https://imgur.com/bBK7kWp

      If the damage on that corner corresponds with the hole below, the hole was made long before April!

      Delete
    2. For the record, Shadi al Abdullah has revised his original 20-30 minutes down to 10 https://twitter.com/RymMomtaz/status/983373284606709761

      "no pressure or fear of any retaliatory acts" doesn't seem to tie with VDC saying JaI were trying to bar witnesses and investigation.

      Delete
  14. I think Saraqib is a taste of what will happen with Douma:

    https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1626-2018_e_.pdf

    The FFM

    4.3 4.4 - didn't go there

    4.6 asked SAMS and the White Helmets instead

    5.9 just accept witnesses word there was a helicopter

    5.11 ignore it is an attack on an "open field" which is completely stupid (and forgoes the usual trick shots with these cylinders)

    5.30 testimony and records were different but hey probably just "a lapse of memory"

    5.36 with no samples from any of the supposed victims

    6.2 (presumably ignore the SAR analysis)

    6.4 and complain that the SAR isn't helping

    Annex 2 but we looked it up on Bellingcat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting chemical results too.. I wonder if samples were via Mohammed Kayal who also did the collecting at Khan Sheikhoun & Latamneh? Everything he touches turns to sarin...

      Off topic for Douma but I think gives an indication of what the OPCW is willing to accept.

      Delete
  15. Genuinely perplexed by this Vanessa Beeley fan
    https://twitter.com/Justafool2764/status/1002734086488842240

    The (presumably pro-'revolution') people they have spoken to are certified liars then
    https://imgur.com/1VRaTIe

    What a bizarre claim. Do they not even watch the videos?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Tried searching and couldn't find the link, for the record the White Helmets press release (as I was just reading someone else claiming reports weren't from the White Helmets)

    http://syriacivildefense.org/press-release/statement-about-chemical-attack-eastern-ghouta

    ReplyDelete
  17. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/world/middleeast/un-syria-eastern-ghouta.html
    https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/50-united-nations-commission-doc/865546bdd15e4bb35f11/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

    Worth reading the CoI parts on Douma cut from their report (no surprise what they conclude/ignore)

    "wheel assemblies".. so just parroting Bellingcat?

    Witness sees cloud coming out of falling 'bomb' "falling towards the building" - if that was *the* cylinder it had to then refill itself to pour into the house.


    https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session38/Documents/A_HRC_38_CRP_3_EN.docx

    ReplyDelete
  18. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/25/world/middleeast/syria-chemical-attack-douma.html

    Tells us that the video was 10pm at least.

    The one thing we know for sure is the bodies and cylinder were moved between videos, it doesn't "confirm the bodies were found at the building that was hit" at all. The room below didn't 'corrode' and is equally black, frost on cylinder stays "for hours" above 20°C.

    They keep calling a cylinder a 'bomb', now needs wheels and lugs just in case they change their mind about how they're going to use it(!), skips VDC saying JaI stopped activists documenting the scene (instead blaming "Assad's forces" who had nothing to do with that), strange debris on their detail-lacking model that doesn't seem to be on the earliest video
    https://imgur.com/LNKRLAY

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is also this:

      https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/24/world/middleeast/douma-syria-chemical-attack-augmented-reality-ar-ul.html

      This page shows the extra bit of debris they seem to have invented now stuck inside the cylinder.

      Objectively this NYT article is just dishonest. I wonder why they feel the need to do this before the OPCW report comes out?

      Delete
    2. NYT: the chlorine pours into the hole and 'bomb' freezes ~7:30pm, chlorine reacts with frost on underside of cylinder sticking out over the hole and so 2-3 meters above the floor... after 10pm? Why does this cylinder get black corrosion when no other cylinder has and wouldn't there be less chlorine gas floating around compared to any other case and here it has all gone down into the room below? No signs of the acid directly below the hole.

      To top it all, Malachy Browne says they approached it "with an open mind".. following up "how Syria and Russia spun a chemical strike" and things like this I find that very, very hard to believe.

      Delete
  19. MB also claims 2nd cylinder was "frosted" https://twitter.com/malachybrowne/status/1012068614457954306

    It was dust, later wiped away either by locals or the Russians to document (proven by the bit of wood where the cleaning stopped). I give up- if NYT can just produce this and people believe.. the world must be on stupid-pills.

    Good luck trying to find someone 'pro-revolution' who wants to discuss things without insults and doesn't seem like a genuinely terrible person (ironic that the 'good' side seem awful and defend 'freedom' but can't cope with anyone having a different opinion), I hope I found something useful for you in all this.

    ReplyDelete

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