Forensic Medicine vs, Lies in Syria

April 26, 2020
(rough, incomplete)
adds 4-30

The War Through the Eyes of Forensic Medicine (Part 1) is a fascinating documentary from Lebanese Al-Mayadeen's From the Ground program (which previously did an awesome show on the 2013 Latakia Massacres) This is filed by the same reporter, Ugarit Dandash, and was aired in March, now hosted by Arabi Souri and SyriaNews.

al-Mayadeen page
https://www.syrianews.cc/the-war-of-terror-on-syria-through-forensic-medicine-graphic/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/bnL6vYMzOR5W/

This seems to be a part 1, suggesting there is/will be a part 2, which might cover the "Caesar photos," in which case I'll be very interested.
4-30: Michael Kobs, who alerted me to this show's existence, had to point out part 2 was already up and linked. That's here, with content (not covering the Caesar photos) to be worked in below.
https://www.syrianews.cc/the-war-of-terror-on-syria-through-forensic-medicine-2-graphic/

Dr. Zaher Hajjo

In part 1, Dandash speaks mainly with two informed experts:
- Dr. Zaher Hajjo - head, general association of forensic medicine, Syria (right)
- Dr. Bassam Muhammad - head, general association of forensic medicine, Homs (below)
In part 2 ...
- At least one other, female doctor ...
- ...

Dr. Bassam Muhammad, Homs

Dr. Hajjo especially is clear in underlining how forensic medicine has blocked lies against the state, helped them learn of emerging dangers, from professional snipers with better weapons than the Syrian army, to helping decode the ominous signs emerging in the torture and mutilation of citizens. Dr. Muhammad shares some harrowing stories from the early days in Homs, 2011.

Marie Colvin
The famous case of the journalist Marie Colvin is highlighted here. Dr. Muhammad explains how her body was found "buried" in Baba Amro in early March, 2012. This is shown, with little or no soil on her clothes (so lightly buried, and not for very long - she was killed on Feb. 22, in the last days before the government defeated all militants and restored order there). The photographs were interesting to me, but maybe unnecessary for the general public. Hence, no need to re-show them here. But what they show is important. As I'll try and read it for you:

- a messed-up seeming right eye, left eye invisible - it was the left eye she always covered with a patch, so this is part of her fatal injuries.
- partial dentures (or what is it, a bridge? the bolted-in kind, but now loose)
- small pock-mark injuries as from "shrapnel" (primary explosive fragments), apparently coming mainly from her right side
- a severe excavating injury to the left shoulder, now blackened with decay (and/or burnt?)
- some kind of redness, abrasion, and maybe breakage of the upper right arm, possibly explosion-related
- a cracked upper skull with a large (entry?) wound on the upper right side.

X-ray slides are also shared, showing no collarbone on the left, and a skull crack all along the front, besides an apparent nail in her skull that's said to show a "home-made grenade" (or nail-bomb?) killed her, not a weapon of the Syrian military. Otherwise, just small fragments are evidenced on her skin and in her leg x-rays (shattered bone at the worst of it), with fewer marks at all to the face and head, and those perhaps being upward from a low angle. I see no other nail impacts suggested, except perhaps in a longer gash to the right forearm. Something sizeable and round lodged in her right shoulder? Anyway, it's for more expert people to say what this all means.

Marie Colvin x-ray images

I haven't studied the Colvin story that much, except to assess the legal case made based on the "Assad Files" and mainly on the claims of defector "Ulysses." By this, Syria was tipped off by "Lebanese sources" as to Colvin's crossing, and Assad issued an order to "do the necessary." He may have, but that's allegedly a code-phrase meaning arrest her but also to kill if necessary. So Colvin's location at a media center was pinpointed, the regime tried arresting her by shelling the area around the media center (presumably with some kind of mortars), then closer, then on it. Then once people were killed an maimed, they stopped, let the media activists bury Colvin, and evacuate Paul Conroy, etc. Assad had gotten himself in deep trouble murdering a high-profile foreign journalist, mission accomplished. Was that really "necessary"? Also, there was no reflection of this whatsoever found among the million pages of "Assad Files," even the plausible order to "do the necessary" which - in documents that do exist - seems to means arrest them, monitor them, nothing else specific.)

Jisr al-Shughour massacre
At about 20:00 in they discuss the June 5, 2011 Jisr al-Shughour massacre (ACLOS page), which the reporter, Ugarit Dandash was eager to get to. There, just across the Turkish border, an unnaturally strong force of a nascent "Free Syrian Army" ... allegedly did little as soldiers and/or Hezbollah guys massacred each other in a major controversy over shooting some unarmed protesters. The death toll remains a bit unclear and disputed, including civilians killed in a general rampage, besides soldiers, police, postal workers, and other civil servants. Dr. Hajjo adds previously unknown details including how one man was cut in half longitudinally (which would take something like a chainsaw if I visualize that right), and another was forensically proven to have been buried alive. 90 bodies were found by a team including Hajjo, as he says, and at least another 15 are believed killed but were never found.

Robert Ford blocking the stench on a "sanitized" visit to JaS

At 22:00 Hajjo says how hostile powers had their experts come and ty to discredit the Syrian narrative, picking out supposed discrepancies - but he says their medical explanations were so convincing no one could challenge it; a Gulf Arab news channel's reporter said the Syrian case seemed to be true, and was simply replaced with a more compliant reporter. I'd already seen a BBC report conclude the same. The story was described as "sanitized" by a state-arranged visit for media and others, including US "ambassador" Robert Ford, who was criticized for even attending. Yet the Syrian government has still never been held to account for their alleged massacre of their own troops. No one's in trouble at all. If you haven't already, ask why.

The perpetrator, as Damascus sees it, was Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, a Salafist-leaning defector who headed the local FSA. After the massacre, he wound up in Turkey, talking to their intel service MIT, who were apparently backing and tracking his actions. But his own MIT handler was so personally sickened by the crimes he was forced to keep track of, he defied Erdogan to kidnap Lt. Col. Harmoush and have him smuggled back into Syria to face justice, which he apparently did. And there's an unusually happy ending to a still-tragic tale.
https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2015/10/hussein-harmoush-fsa-defector-profile.html

Note: the footage used at 20:17 of bodies dumped the river, is from Hama some 6 weeks later; Al-Qaeda-linked militants there had kidnapped and slaughtered at least a dozen "secret police" officers the night of July 31/August 1. That story that plays into this amazing article I wrote for 21st Century Wire that just destroys the fake "Assad Files" narrative of the "Committee for International Justice and Accountability."
https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/10/11/revolution-unraveled-assad-files-now-an-achilles-heel-for-war-crimes-narrative/

Hamza al-Khatib
At 25:40 both doctors speak to the pivotal story of the boy Hamza al-Khatib, said to be arrested from a peaceful march on April 29, 2011 and killed on May 25 after a month's torture. Both of them emphasize how the "bruises" on his body said to show beatings was actually decay, as I've also said (bruises ae blue then yellow-brown, while these spots are green-going-on-black). The activists lied; he was fatally shot on 29 April and spent the next month slowly decaying under refrigeration, not suffering torture in a jail cell. The gunshot wounds that killed Hamzah were called cigar burns in some accounts, because they turned black ... with unacknowledged decay). As I've noted, he also lacks the shackle marks he should have if hanged by his wrists for a week, as alleged.

Other issues:
- Age of about 16 proven by forensic medicine? He's always looked to me younger than that, was noted by initial examination to lack body hair that's usually there by 16, is said to be 13, and his ostensible grave marker has him as 13 when he died or still 12 if it was on April 29, as I believe. He did appear unusually tall for that age, besides heavyset - clearly older than shown in his famous school photo - and Dr. Hajjo says the boy was more like 16, based on dental and skeletal details. I'll leave it disputed (maybe tall and 15-16 skeletally, but 12-13 otherwise?) Note that still no one has said he was in his 20s except in a mistranslation of "second decade" (age 10-20) and repetitions of that.

- Shot while defending the housing compound at Saida? It seems this is what Dr. Muhammad says here. Otherwise Hamzah is said to be among the people who walked there from other towns. Some 50 other men and boys were also reportedly killed in a "Saida massacre" - some shot that day and others arrested and tortured to death later. One woman was listed as killed by "shooting" by the opposition VDC (whereas the marchers seem to be exclusively male). She and the captain of the guard also listed by VDC at least seem to have been killed from within the compound, presumably by the attackers. Was Hamza as well? I still don't think so. His family seemingly lived elsewhere, in Jeezah. In fact that might have just meant shot during the defense of the base, in line with prior, vague claim-guesses. But to me the three gunshots suggests a strange sort of close-up execution, not accidentally gunned-down at random; it appears he was shot through each arm and into each side of his chest (from the left and the right), probably while bound hands-behind (why else would his arms and sides both line up like that?), as well as in the middle of the chest from the front. The other victims we can see on video have sporadic signs of execution, including stab wounds and likely torture. They also tends to have patches of green like Hamza suggesting that violence all happened on April 29.
- Severed penis: this was the most extreme of the claims against the Syrian government, and always denied by their official examinations and statements. The visuals - let's just skip the details - were always ambiguous to me, allowing for that denied mutilation (while far from proving it). The circumstances also allowed for it; the terrorists hiding in that "protest march" may have brought him, shot him, and dumped him all to demonize the state. Adding such a horrible mutilation would only make sense. It might have been denied in 2011 to ease tensions/because no one outside Syria would buy it. But I don't see these doctors now avoiding the charge on either basis, considering all the other incendiary crimes they discuss freely. So I'll defer more than I have - apparently even the terrorists refused to make that mutilation real.
Background: http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2016/04/re-considering-hamza-al-khatib-and.html

More Horrors
I'll cover other points more in brief (especially as I should cover part 2 here as well - unless it's super-interesting, which it might be.

Around 34:00 Dr. Muhammad relates a tragic story of a civilian kidnapped in Homs and tortured, including a bizarre surgical procedure to prevent him urinating. Three days after he disappeared, they set him loose in a car rigged to explode (on a signal? a timer? His rising from the seat?). As the story goes, he drove to security checkpoint, maybe on instructions or to seek help. As the story goes, on seeing the lone guard coming to greet him, he changed plans and backed the car up some ways before the bomb was detonated, killing only the tormented driver. Dr. Muhammad says this story was kept quiet at the time to avoid anyone copying the idea, but was reported to a UN-Arab League mission (the mission was initially sympathetic, but later re-staffed and made more hostile to Syria.)

At 40:00 Dr. Hajjo tells of a civilian accused of supporting the state who was kidnapped (region and time unclear) and then tortured so badly over a span of time that his wife paid the terrorists a hefty ransom just to have him killed so it could end.

Finally for me, at 37:15 Dr. Muhammad describes how the terrorists had (in Homs, 2011), carved all the flesh off one victim's face, head, and body from the chest up, most of which - if not all - should be done after he had died. I presume a forensic doctor knows this was done with blades, and extra-sick terrorists were at work in Homs; they did mutilate bodies and they might carve the flesh off people, and even eat it for all we know. The famous "FSA cannibal" Abu Sakkar (killed 2016) founded the Farouk brigades early on in Homs, and was perhaps active at the time of this episode, though he only became infamous in 2013 for a video-recorded bite into the (liver?) of a killed soldier. But FWIW that was a symbolic bite, a twist on mutilation - he didn't truly chew and eat any of it, that we see, and didn't spend much time carving out more than the one organ. And just to be a know-it-all, I'll suggest this - when I've seen skeletonized bodies or faces (where neither fire nor advanced decay is involved) - and they were left outdoors for any time - my first presumption is predation; feral dogs or wild animals ate their flesh as food. They have better motive for such a hassle of an operation. If his body was more covered or less appetizing from the chest down, that would fit the bill. But that should have been considered, and it's not what Dr. Muhammad concluded, so I defer, but only after mentioning the other option, just in case.

Early 2012 CW Allegations in Syria

July 29, 2019
(rough, incomplete)

February predictions
I was recently alerted to an interesting report (props to Qoppa 999):
https://syriaaccountability.org/library/walls-have-ears/
Walls Have Ears: An Analysis of Classified Syrian Security Sector Documents" a report by Syria Justice and Accountability Centre, Published April 2019 in Washington, DC. A critical review post is pending, but one cited file ignited some old tinder I've been sitting on. The fire couldn't be contained, and had to be penned into this new post.

Said file is rather old, dated 2 February, 2012 - from Director of the National Security Office to "Comrade Director of the Air Force Intelligence Division." Approved, stamped, and circulated over the following days (Feb. 4-8), the memo is shown below and says (per the provided translation):

"We received information stating that the Libyan terrorists have acquired chemical weapons from the Libyan chemical arsenal. The weapons will be shipped to Turkish territories to be used later in some Syrian governorates, especially the ones that are facing unrest. This will be done in order to accuse the regime, in coordination with biased television channels, of using the chemical weapons, in order to escalate the Syrian crisis and internationalize it after all the failed attempts to move the Syrian crisis dossier to the Security Council.

Please review and do the necessary *

And long live our message

* Elsewhere, SJAC takes this phrase as likely meaning assassinate someone. In this case, probably not. Maybe it carries that secret meaning in no case. 

The SJAC report poses this as a probably fabricated claim, sown in these documents as a top-secret cover-story for their own planned CW usage. (Considering how "the rhetoric of the Syrian government following chemical weapons attacks suggest that this could have been an additional shield from culpability – documentary evidence to protect the government from accountability and to point the finger at rebel groups, either for internal consumption or for external actors who might review the documents in the future.")

But as far as most people know, there were no regime chemical attacks alleged at this time, nor in the following months, either to match a prediction or to prove some basis for planning a cover-story. Behind the scenes, it's worried they'll be used "later" and even at this blog, I tend to start noting CW allegations much later - only in November and December of 2012.

And so far I haven't tended to consider Libya's stockpiles. The sarin used in many incidents was more likely custom-made by or for Jabhat al-Nusra and their select allies. But that's not some firm law of nature, and even if its mainly true most of the time, this early on, different sources might be called on.

But whatever the source, there was some unexplained concern about the issue from probably the same week as this memo, but well outside the official channels producing it. Paul Wood noted in The Guardian, February 11, 2012 following on a recent visit to Baba Amr district of Homs. Then under siege but weeks from full military reconquest, Baba Amr was the opposition's top issue and prime focus for employing propaganda claims of this sort - the natural place for "Assad" to unleash any strange chemical nonsense:

"Baba Amr had been under siege for months. Jedi snapped on the third day after hundreds of shells, mortars and rockets had fallen. He walked back and forth shouting: "The army is about to use chemical weapons. They're already sending in ground troops." Neither was true. Under the constant shelling, people were becoming hysterical." (emphasis mine)

Wood considered this to be "hysteria," not a reflection anyone's real plans or concerns. But the article also noted how "State television denied there was a bombardment. It told the inventive lie that residents were setting fire to rubbish on their roofs to give the impression of an attack. The official media also said that most of the violence was caused by the rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army – "terrorists", "criminal gangs" or "agents of Israel" in the language of official spokesmen.

This could refer exactly to Danny Abdul Dayem, who worked with the armed fighters, coordinated fake videos with them, and called for foreign, specifically Israeli, military intervention, notably over the government offensive in Baba Amr in February. He was famously caught out on this, though to be fair, I'm not sure of the date of the incidents or their revelation; less than a month after this Guardian article the story was out, with Dayem even challenged on-air by a peeved Anderson Cooper at CNN. Likely the Syrian authorities referred to him, as well as less-famous others engaged in the same kind of activities. That's some "lie" to invent its way to being true like that.

So Mr. Wood didn't know everything, including whether there was or wasn't reason to expect chemical weapons usage, in Baba Amr, in the first half of February, 2012. And as it happens...

February chemical attack(s)?
… there was an allegation around this time, or a string of them - sooner than the memo suggests and perhaps unrelated, but perhaps not. I've sort of glossed this over as too vague and isolated to consider, but I had seen it listed in a 2013 report assembled by professor Julian Perry Robinson - an excellent resource, with this early incident I didn't know about

ALLEGED USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN SYRIA, a Harvard Sussex Program Occasional Paper by Julian Perry Robinson, June, 2013
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/hsp/occasional%20papers/HSPOP_4.pdf

Incident [L2] February 2012, Homs (Bab Amr): Use by the regime . On 21 February 2012, Istanbul Hürriyet Daily News reports having just been told by Lt Abdulselam Abdulrezzak, “who used to work in the chemical weapons department in the Syrian army and defected to Turkey last week”, that “chemical weapons were used against civilians during the military offensive of the Syrian security forces in Bab Amr [a neighbourhood in Homs]”. … The newspaper also reports him as saying that “Syrian soldiers were given gas masks recently in order to protect themselves from the chemical weapons that would be used against the protestors in Syria”.

Alleged chemical weapons expert defector Lt. (or captain?) Abdulrazaq is a character we'd keep hearing from … yammering about the regime's regular use of mustard gas and odorless sarin by December 7, 2012 (Times of Israel), would later join and be spokesman for Nour al-Din al-Zenki, child beheaders and likely CW users in 2016 (Zaman al-Wasl) as they likely used CWs to deadly effect in Aleppo. He would again help deny an Aleppo rebel chemical attack in November 2018, as "military commander of the National Liberation Front (FNL)" (Al-Arabiya)

The cited Hürriyet article is still available but adds little to Robinson's citation. The date of any incident seems unclear - just then, the 21st? Abdulrazaq was interviewed on 19 February (per Robinson), after defecting shortly before that. Is it something he learned of before or after this? It should be before if he ran away in disgust over the event and another one planned; besides CW use in Homs, "They wanted to also use it in Zabadani [on the Lebanese border] but they made an agreement with the Free Syrian Army forces at the last minute and they backtracked. I couldn’t stand all these and ran away."

An earlier Jerusalem World News article cites al-Arabiya interview on or before Feb. 14 (image source), where he claims a nerve agent, likely sarin, has already been used somewhere in Homs, was threatened or planned in Zabadani too, so he seemingly refers to the same incident(s) in Homs, which happened prior to Feb. 14, at a time the Guardian's Paul Wood felt the claims were not true.

Military actions in Baba Amr (Baba, Amro, etc. - in red on district map below) were alleged and actually happened all during February, with Government control announced at month's end. A sizeable and maybe final militant retreat south to Abel to discover a sizable massacre there (just before their arrival, they say) on Feb. 27.  (just off the bottom edge of the map)

The agent(s) and effects
On the 14th, Abdulrazaq was cited as claiming deadly nerve agent like sarin was used in Homs. It's Israeli experts who decided he meant sarin, but he did say "“A little amount of this is enough to carry out a mass extermination."
https://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/02/14/194585.html
Cited interview, also says "nerve agent," also planned for Jabal Zawiya and Zabadani - sounds like the same story about CWs in Homs. Initially, a very deadly nerve agent was used. But no mention of deaths... also no specifics on dates of use, symptoms suffered by how many, etc. Terrible, but vague.

But on the 21st he told Hürriyet Daily News the toxin employed in Baba Amr was, rather, “BZ-CS, Chlorine Benzilate, which damages people’s nerves and makes them fade away." The reference is a little confusing, but Julian Perry Robinson adds: "Chemically, BZ is 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate and CS is o -chlorobenzalmalononitrile, so it is not obvious why ‘BZ-CS’ should have been glossed as ‘Chlorine Benzilate’.  Nor is it obvious that either agent would have brought about the signs and symptoms described." He also notes it's the first time BZ has been mentioned as part of Syria's CW capabilities. Is it something the Libyans had?

This "BZ-CS" apparently refers to two agents in combination: the incapacitating agent BZ and the common irritant tear gas CS, and shouldn't have a combined singular name like he gave. These symptoms combined might be similar to that described, but as Robinson notes, not an "obvious" match, especially for the strangely delayed onset of signs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-Quinuclidinyl_benzilate
Effects: the following may occur from inhibition of central muscarinic receptors: disorientation, agitation, tremor, ataxia, stupor, coma, hallucinations and seizures. Other effects on the nervous system inhibit glandular secretions and sweating, causing hyperthermia, flushing, dry mouth. Vision problems, tachypnea, nausea and vomiting, paralytic ileus (intestinal), and urinary retention may also occur.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas
Effects: "The chemical reacts with moisture on the skin and in the eyes, causing a burning sensation and the immediate forceful and uncontrollable shutting of the eyes. Effects usually include tears streaming from the eyes, profuse coughing, exceptional nasal discharge that is full of mucus, burning in the eyes, eyelids, nose and throat areas, disorientation, dizziness and restricted breathing."

later sources add to the picture, but complicate the timeline.

https://rosealhomsi.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/chemical-weapons-in-baba-am/ 
Documentation of injuries possibly caused by the use of chemical weapons on civilians during the attack and siege of Baba Amr, Homs. March 29, 2012 · by rosealhomsi
During the last 2 weeks, the hospitals in northern Lebanon have received and analysed several injuries, injuries on those who fled the neighborhood of “Baba Amr” in the city of Homs. The injuries were caused during the brutal crackdown and siege led by the Assad regime prior to the regime forces storming on land. The injuries and illnesses only deteriorated..."
This describes symptoms including: "neuropathy, arthralgia, joint pains, amnesia, skin rashes, hair loss and abdominal pain" - "a raise in temperature and night sweats" - irritation, boils on the face, mouth ulcers and, strangely, hair loss from the head and body, besides constipation and urinary retention. The signs had a slow onset, only noted "3 or 4 days" after leaving Baba Amr, perhaps longer since alleged exposure. 

As noted militants left and attacks should have ended before March 1 - chemical incidents blamed were "prior to the regime forces storming on land," so more likely back in mid-February. But these cases of alleged poisoning linked to that campaign were reported only from mid to late March and into April.

Robinson:
 A video said to have been filmed at a hospital in Homs on 6 April 2012 and distributed by networks supporting the Syrian opposition shows a doctor displaying a video of a patient and denouncing “the use of chemical or biological weapons against the civilian population of Baba Amro, a neighbourhood which has remained for months in rebel hands, and so was heavily bombed by the Syrian army”.
"tiredness and fatigue accompanied with muscle pains across the body. The patient felt weak especially in the lower part of the body, as well as joint pain, pain around the joints and pain in the lower back."

"the symptoms began to appear at the same time as the Assad regime attack on the named neighborhood, Baba Amr." So presumably the mean during February.  from Facebook, content unavailable - a 2-page Arabic document is shared here, presumably relating the same details as below. It's from "Syrian Refuggees Coordination" and also dated March 29. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.414955381863454.118487.241475429211451&type=1

also shown - chapped, bandaged, yellow hands with dark patches - a man with pixelated face, oddly yellow skin visible at the forehead and ears, very thin hair fallig out over his pillow - a woman with sporadic red irritation of the cheek, burned and peeling lips. Still, any clear pattern of correlation is far from obvious.

Fatalities?
Robinson: "The doctor refers to twelve cases, including two people who died..." prior to April 6.

No clearly reported deaths at VDC, but... Thamer Mohammed al-Saud, from Guerran Hasakeh killed somewhere by "other" (no toxic gas category at this point) with the notes: "He was suffocated by tear gas "

Maybe coincidence with Mr. Saud, but a Saudi - Ayman Hweti - died 3 days later. A non-civilian, he was tasked with whatever by his group, Al-Qaeda franchise Jabhat al-Nusra (well prior to its future ISIS members peeling away), until he unusually died from "other" on the 23rd, with no explanation.

- Salman Abdul Qader Othman, age 27, from Turkman Bareh, Aleppo, killed 2012-02-25 by other: "He died in hospital affected by the gas which he suffered two weeks before during his participation in a demonstration in Salahidin district." That would be around Feb. 11, but up in Aleppo, not in Homs, where folks like Jedi were fearing such use in those same days. And they heard it literally took two weeks before Mr. Othman died instead of recovering. That can happen, depending on circumstances, but it seems strange.

I looked into dates through March and April, but nothing more compelling than these three emerged by way of deaths recorded.

In context (Somewhat disorganized patterns and speculation)

Again, this event or cluster of events and vague allegations seem disconnected from the mainstream of them starting late in 2012 and running up to the Ghouta massacre in August, 2013. Julian Perry Robisnon 's report agrees, has the one entry only for early 2012, as [L2] - following [L1] about CW allegations against Hafez Assad way back in 1982, and events resume only with [L3] in Homs, December 23.

My further research has prior events, all in the Damascus-Ghouta region, on Dec. 22 and Dec. 6, following on three quieter events in November, and claims - from defector Abdulrazaq - that CWs "were tested in eastern Aleppo with the assistance of Iranians" in late October or early November. This was preceded by propaganda activity including the founding, in Turkey, of an "office for documenting the chemical file in Syria" in October (now CDCVS), warnings from pre-White Helmets "civil defense" in Douma of impending CW use (mid-Sept. - 2 months before first reported use right by Douma) - some expressed concerns over Syria's CW arsenal sparking president Obama's Red Line threat/offer, first stated on August 20, and again on December 3. Further, "on August 29, a Syrian channel stated that it learned of a plot involving Saudi Arabia, the Al-Arabiya media outlet, the U.S. and (then-government of) Yemen that involved rebels using mortars to carry out a chemical attack." (Clarion Project)

But from August-December was a time of build-up, but from here back to around March is a bag gap of little to no alleged chemical usage by the Syrian government. This was the span of marketing the sectarian mega-massacre narrative - broadly Houla to Haswiyeh (Homs), massacres from March up to in January, 2013 described an arc from horrified acceptance to growing skepticism and concerns that maybe it was actually Sunni terrorists hacking up Syria's families.

So who was it putting a pause on their chemical weapons narrative in order to focus on this other big project? They resumed from December to March, 2013 as the massacres narrative stopped bearing fruit. They were on to things "only the regime" could pull off. There was a scud missiles phase in there too.

When attacks resume, mixed-unclear methods, then BZ or similar would be one theory for one set of symptoms reported in December, again in Homs city - 7 men reportedly died. My analysis here explains how both BZ-type symptoms were cited, as well as sarin signs. Reports clashed: pupils were both dilated and constricted, patients responded well or adversely to atropine. Similar confusion to Capt. Abdulrazaq above claiming one or the other or noth were used earlier in Homs. In December, it sounds like the effects were immediate, as they should be for an incapacitant, an irritant used to disperse crowds now, or clearly for a nerve agent that operates in micro-seconds. Unlike the earlier BZ-CS-GB incident(s), the signs werenot delayed by 3-4 days or a few weeks. smoke grenades were blamed - no images, but possibly the same modified tear gas grenades used by Jabhat al-Nusra for sarin attacks in April, 2013.

Also note: in between, back in Libya where the seized chemicals may have originated, in October, 2012: reported chemical attacks by "revolutionaries" against holdouts in Bani Walid - a doctor who was soon reported killed first helped break this story, reporting symptoms including: difficulty breathing, secretions from the mouth, muscle spasms, and blurred vision.

Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hamdo

Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hamdo
Caesar Photos Victim Profile
February 5/6, 2019
(perhaps complete, but rough formatting for now)

Background: The Cause Behind a False "Dawn of Justice"
One that made the news briefly … a truck or van driver Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hamdo, from Idlib or perhaps Latakia, was said to be abducted, went missing, was detained from a government checkpoint, something... in February, 2013. The part that seems clear is he wound up dead, seen in one of the "Caesar photos" a year or two later. 

Because Mr. Hamdo's sister was a Spanish citizen, she was taken as a victim of brother-killing by the Assad regime by a legal activist group called Guernica 37. A Spanish National Court judge's ruling on March 27, 2017 marked "the first criminal case accepted by a foreign court against President Bashar al-Assad's regime," as this detailed AP report says, further explaining: "The case is built around the arbitrary detention of [Mr. Hamdo] who was detained arbitrarily, "then disappeared, was allegedly tortured and executed in Damascus." His plaintiff sister is given as "Amal Hag Hamdo Anfalis, a Spanish national," who "learned of her brother's death by looking at the macabre trove of photographs." The ruling judge "has called on the sister and the forensic photographer to testify April 10," and also "called on the European Union's agency for judicial cooperation to provide information that could lead to setting up an international commission to investigate similar cases." (I'm not sure if either happened)

The decision was criticized.
https://alethonews.com/2017/04/03/selective-justice-spanish-court-seeks-to-try-syrian-officials-for-terrorism/

But it was also hailed. Some creeps I study are cited in the AP report:
"Stephen Rapp, former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues... "It is the dawn of justice for Syria, it will only get stronger after this point," he said."

"The Commission for International Justice and Accountability" behind the "Assad Files" hoax "...said Monday the decision had "significant symbolic importance" for victims in Syria but recognized that the chances of the nine being brought to trial were slim. Spain has previously taken up universal justice cases against foreign nationals although almost none has concluded in trial." https://newsok.com/article/feed/1192571/spain-court-opens-1st-criminal-case-against-syrian-officials

But alas, four months later ...

https://apnews.com/2b30add47cdd45aea55f3e867b78e2a4
Spain’s National Court drops probe into Syrian crimes
July 21, 2017
"A panel of top judges in Spain says the country’s courts have no jurisdiction to investigate the first foreign criminal case for torture and terrorism against the Syrian government.
The U-turn by Spain’s National Court is a setback for activists and human rights campaigners who had hailed the case as a stepping stone for accountability in Syria."

So it didn't really go anywhere. They can keep moaning about denied justice. A few further articles about the case give more details about the victim in question.

Further Clues in News Articles

https://www.opencanada.org/features/spain-will-pioneering-case-bring-justice-syrian-victims/

Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hamdo, a Syrian truck driver, was allegedly forcedly disappeared, tortured and killed in an illegal government prison in Damascus in 2013. Pictures of his dead body emerged as part of the Caesar files...
The Guernica 37 lawyers argue that Hamdo’s sister should be considered an indirect victim — which satisfies Spanish law’s requirement that a victim in a criminal case should have Spanish nationality at the moment when the alleged crime was committed.

https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/ali-mamlouk-marie-colvin-case/
on 17 February 2013, Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hamdo, a Syrian national born in Idleb, disappeared while delivering goods between the municipality Mashta el Helou and the city of Homs, in the west of Syria. In 2015, the oldest son of Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hando recognised his father’s corpse on multiple photographs taken by a forensic photographer going by the name of Caesar...

https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2017/03/31/spanish-prosecutor-appeals-decision-to-allow-trial-of-syrian-officials by Cristina Roca
Hamdo was detained somewhere between his hometown of Mashta al-Helou in Latakia and Homs city, a route he regularly took from his job as a delivery van driver.
"From Caesar’s photo, the family was able to deduce that Hamdo was tortured and executed in Branch 248."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/15/world/middleeast/syria-bashar-al-assad-evidence.html
As Atrocities Mount in Syria, Justice Seems Out of Reach
By Anne Barnard, Ben Hubbard and Ian Fisher
April 15, 2017
In 2014, Amal Hag Hamdo Anfalis, a Spanish-Syrian hairdresser, received a text message from her niece containing a photo of a body she had seen on Facebook. She immediately recognized her brother, a truck driver who had disappeared at a Syrian government checkpoint a year earlier.
 “As soon as I saw it, I completely collapsed and my children were wondering why I was crying,” she said by phone from Madrid. “My children recognized him right away. They looked at the photo and said, ‘That’s our uncle.’”

In Review:
Most sources cite a 2015 ID by the man's eldest son, but his sister says her niece (his daughter?) already made the match from an online photo in 2014. (That also involved "government checkpoint," where others say it more like "missing") Neither the 2014 nor 2015 identification claim seems to give a month (one report said "mid-2015"). "The sister learned of her brother's death by looking at the macabre trove of photographs" herself, AP reported. But that could be a fuzzed report of either of these other stories, besides, perhaps, a third story.

It doesn't seem likely both storiesare true. Wouldn't everyone hear about whichever match came first, so the second one would never happen? The 2014 match is unlikely, and I can see why they might change that story, or call it an erred memory. Barely any of the photos were published in 2014. I'm Not sure about Arabic sources, esp. Zaman Al-Wasl, etc. at the moment, but Western-published images had faces blurred out almost 100% of the time It's possible these few contained one of the 54 victims included for the small Branch 248 folder, and showed a face to match, but that might be provably impossibly (with more work than I'm willing to do). The other story is much better; it was only in March, 2015, that the full set of face-shots people have mainly used for IDs were made available on the SAFMCD website (and briefly by a Facebook site as well). The facial details there are all but required for a good visual match.

Mr. Hamdo has no published images (I know of) to compare with the "Caesar photos" I have on file. That would yield a photo folder date (indirect clue to death date), and some visual clues on how he died (usually just those from the neck up). But if I had one, and he was in 248 … that's likely to be a quick match, except for how people change under starvation, neglect, sometimes torture, and usually it seems poisonous gas extermination at the end. 

VDC Records

The basics, in review, will help find more details on this alleged victim of Assad regime brutality. 

- Abdulmuemen Alhaj Hamdo - Name always given just like that. Age never given, even approximately. 

- said from Idlib, or Latakia, a truck or van driver, presumably civilian

- disappearance perhaps on Feb. 17 2013, driving between Homs and "Mashta el Helou" 

- No mention of any further news from him, trials, sightings, anything.

As usual, I checked the useful databases of the opposition VDC. His name does not appear exactly. An Arabic search for all detention-related deaths of people with Hamdo ( الحمدو ) in the name = 25:
http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/ar/martyrs/1/c29ydGJ5PWEua2lsbGVkX2RhdGV8c29ydGRpcj1ERVNDfGFwcHJvdmVkPXZpc2libGV8ZXh0cmFkaXNwbGF5PTB8Y29kTXVsdGk9OCw5LDEwfDE9JUQ4JUFEJUQ5JTg1JUQ4JUFGJUQ5JTg4fA==
The name Abdulmomen ( عبد المؤمن) does not appear.

The closest few, perhaps including him in a slightly different name, include:

* Abdulmou'men Hamdow from Karnaz, Hama. A non-civilian, he died 2013-02-03 "due to clashes with regime's army." Also noted: "defected colonel." so really, might be from either side (some allegedly tried to defect right at the end, but not quick enough...) noted nickname Abu Omar suggests he was on the Islamist side). Kernaz is not in Idlib, but it's right on the border, just west of Kafr Zita, Hama, southwest of Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib. No mention of driving, and locale of clashes not clear, but this is just about the name given, and the date is only two weeks too early to match. But it says he was killed in shooting, not detained. Former military, defected to be a fighter, not the civilian presented.

http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/detainees/43743#.XFfBdPZFxjo
In the VDC's detainees database, one can find Major (SAA?) Abdulmoamen Muhammad Hamdou, from unknown (possibly Idlib), "in a list of military detainees in Seidnayah prison," no mention of his having defected, or of being a driver delivering goods... Detention Date (inaccurate) 2013-05-19. That's likely a reported-on date, so based on an alleged sighting, etc. from then  or earlier. Considering the above … two military guys with the same basic name, one said shot by the regime, one said arrested by the regime … is this two references to the same man? Killed, no taken alive but likely to die... same man later dead in the Caesar photos? 

http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/93142#.XFfENPZFxjo
Abdul Mote Hamdo al-Qasem, from Halfaya, Hama, a civilian, killed (by?) 2013-08-26 (inaccurate) in Damascus, after being "detained on August 2011 with his brother Emad" - not quite the right name, locale, or story.

http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/123919#.XFfAh_ZFxjo
martyr Mohammad Haj Hamdo, civilian, from Aleppo, 2014-05-24 "Martyred under torture in the regime`s prisons in the State Security Branch Date of death unknown accurately, Corpse are in Aleppo university hospital" Should not be in the Caesar photos, by time or locale, incomplete name match, etc.

http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/203103
Ahmad Abd al-Hameed al-Hamdo
civilian, from Kernaz
Date of death: 2018-12-11
Notes: "under torture in the regime`s prisons, Date of death unknown accurately. The Hamdo Family was informed about the death of their son by the Personal Status Department in Mharda"

I checked the regime forces/otherstatistics list (all names including Hamdo), didn't see any likely matches (one likely relative was killed fighting terrorists in 2012).

I don't always check their smaller "missing" database, but did and found another 'defected' military Hamdo near-match, and also … what the hell is going on here?

* Abd al-Fattah al-Haj Hamdo
http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/missing/2946#.XFl5ovZFxjo

from Aleppo province. 

Missing Place: Homs: Qaryatain

Disappearance date: 2013-03-15
Notes: Defected soldier 
Photo provided, in uniform. Unhappy non-selfie from prior to capture? Hostage photo made available to someone? Qaryatain is nowhere near where our subject was said to go missing - it's way south of Homs, in the desert halfway to Damascus. This is also about one month later than the reported arrest of a guy with such a similar name. But … that could still be two versions of one man's story, with one or probably both being mostly untrue, in a few clashing effort to conceal the true story. That seems to happen.

The VDC entry for Abdelfatah also points to a Facebook post, still available, with the same photo they use. Auto-translated, that said: "# Missing Abdul Fattah Haj Hamdo from # Aleppo broke away from the regime army and lost in the villages B ( بـ ) # Homs on 2013/3/15." The B is not a word, but a typo, perhaps "brive" was meant, meaning rural - the towns of rural Homs. Vague. We hear from the VDC is was around Qaryatain, not up around Al-Houla. An Ibrahim Moussa says in a comment this is his brother(?) 

I've made a point of looking for that distinctive chin or other similarities - maybe the same camo jacket? - in the "branch 248" folder. No clear matches popped out. Most chins are bearded, many faces starved down. 248-60 26-7-2013 seems like a possible match, but no good basis for anyone to be sure … http://safmcd.com/martyr/view.php?id=3485

Likely, this missing soldier is a different relative of the missing driver. And both went missing around Homs, about one month apart. This one, got in contact with opposition people enough they knew he had "broken away" - I mean, you don't just make that up. Maybe he was an active fighter who had defected month ago. But then must have been back out of touch, as they don't know where the hell he went. Just wandered off. Hm.

This is Abdulfatah, not Abdulmomen, but it seems he has the same father's name - Haj Hamdo - as the missing-detained guy in question. If these aren't the same guy reported differently, or two brothers … it would be quite a coincidence if two different sons of two different Hajj Hamdos would both go missing-detained in rural Homs within a span of about one month. It's not a very common name, either part and especially in that combination.

And Two More Haj Hamdos Just Vanished Then?

And oddly, two presumably civilian relatives from Aleppo (Sfeera) went missing the same day as the defected soldier. These also have Haj and Hamdo in their family names, but with two full middle names before (Al-Yousuf, Al-Omar). That means these are great-great nephews of the Haj Hamdo brothers, one at least a young soldier or ... I don't get this family (or two very similarly named families with bad luck synchronized?). (for all 3 entries, see VDC query, all missing named Hamdo - three of the first four shown below)

These two lack explanation, like how they went missing, but likely they were with Abdelfatah for some reason as he 'defected.' Coordinated abductions in different areas can also be coordinated. A dead Facebook link is provided. 

So … the driver with the sister in Spain was oddly not listed by the VDC, unless he was - also oddly - as an unmentioned militant, probably for the government side at one point if not always. But they have relatives listed - is it four total, for five including the one they missed? Or is one of these the same man that Spanish court was so interested in? And that other Hamdo soldier taken into regime prison apparently prior to May, 2013... is he part of this strange pattern?

Other Records
Looking past the VDC, I find the exact name appears on Twitter as two tweets, both referring to the defected colonel killed Feb. 3 2013, pointing to a deleted YouTube video (v=QbmHNjoO6Zk)

https://twitter.com/2011syriafree/status/298478248126451713
Targeting a group of gunmen in the village of Mughayira in Hama countryside, killing and wounding a number of them # known as "Abdul Momen Hamdo"
https://twitter.com/syriahama1/status/298095125677080577
Mentions he was from Kernaz.
Mughayira ( المغير ) is just north of Kernaz. I was wondering if it was near the Lebanon border west of Homs...
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=35.407101&lon=36.486969&z=13&m=w&show=/10257691/Al-Mughayr&search=%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D9%8A%D8%B1

No other tweets I could locate seemed to mention anyone with a more similar name.
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=Abdulmuemen%20Alhaj%20Hamdo&src=typd

So he never received much social media support, unless he's that militant, who would have two different stories now.

My guess is his case was never strong or clear, like the few cases meant to highlight (like known peaceful activists Rihab Allawi and Ayham Ghazoul, etc.). He was just one of the many murkier cases who happened to have foreign nationality - or rather his sister did, at the reported time of the arrest-disappearance, and had a case develop far enough to make the news. 

Location of Abduction

We hear Abdulmuemen was a truck driver , or van (perhaps minibus?) driver - Two sources cite Homs and "Mashta el Helou" as the places he was between when he went missing. One source said this was in Latakia (and was his hometown), while the other doesn't say. 

But a search on Wikimapia places this name only in Lebanon, just across the border from Syria, west of Al-Houla (so NW of Homs city). It's very near the Valley of Christians, and labeled as a "predominately Christian" town.… http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.874102&lon=36.259689&z=11&m=w&show=/37146522/Mashta-al-Helu-Subdistrict-(Nahiyah)&search=Mashta%20al-Helou

The town name appears in 2 other spots, neither in Latakia. Both are just inside Syria, on roads between Homs and this same Lebanese town. (auto-translated to "Elbow in the last of the road - a road up to Mushta sweet" and "Intersection of Musayaf junction with the next road from Mashta El Helou to Barshin")

So Abdulmuemen was doing cross-border deliveries of goods, or people, in a truck or van, between a Christian-majority area of Lebanon and perhaps some part of Homs city (where many Christians live, and often travel by bus, I hear). Someone took his truck and him, perhaps his cargo/passengers, anywhere between inside Lebanon, in the Houla area, in or right around Homs city, elsewhere. Maybe it was at a government checkpoint, or a rebel one, or at his destination, carrying whatever...

How The Driver Precedent Swings
It could be Mr. Hamdo was killed by terrorists who wanted his truck/van, or were already using it. Professional drivers of taxis, trucks, etc. and people abducted while driving are common in the Caesar photos. Several captured drivers wind up with brothers and cousins also tortured-detained to death ... perhaps after they showed up at the jail with some ransom money? How many relatives of this Abdelmuemen Hamdo were killed, detained, or went missing at the same basic time? The VDC lists at least 4, none of them clearly this guy (so maybe 5+ - another defected military Hamdo arrested prior to May, 2013...).

Regardless of those questions, the best evidence already suggests the famous "Caesar torture photos" show several thousand Syrian men and boys systematically exterminated by terrorists, likely with Jaish Al-Islam, who had the run of the countryside around Damascus.  Many of them look like soldiers and militiamen, and some at least are Shi'ite, Alawites, or Christians (just those that can be told by visible tattoos).  

https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2016/04/fail-caesar-part-6-f-arrested-on-road.html
http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2016/02/fail-caesar-part-6-evidence-victims.html

Someone abducted in Homs could wind up in an East Ghouta dungeon in a variety of ways; it seems likely Jaish Al-Islam bought up other peoples' surplus prisoners to use for things like the Ghouta sarin attack victims on 21 August, 2013, that was supposed to cross Obama's "red line," spark a decisive US-led pounding, and an Islamist ground push to take Damascus the JaI guys would lead. Also, they would be used, and I think thousands were, for these horrible photos"that - coincidentally? - were collected up until "Caesar" suddenly felt unsafe in Damascus and fled on 20 August, 2013 - just hours before that red line-crossing. Kind of makes you wonder...

Beyond the "Caesar photos," other abducted drivers, especially of large and expensive and useful vehicles, including firetrucks and armored fighting vehicles, often wind up dead, vehicles unknown, regime blamed as possible. One was a bus driver, killed along with a small family, found dumped just north of the Al-Houla area, just before the infamous massacre there on 25 May, 2012. It turns out that was conducted by a huge rebel force, including foreigners - just after a couple busses with Shi'ite pilgrims were hijacked near the Turkish border on 22 May. Did the jihadists involved cross the border and use those busses to travel south to Houla before they massacre over 100 people from loyalist Sunni and Shia convert families?

http://taldoutruth.blogspot.com/2014/07/may-22-bus-hijacking-houla-massacre-link.html

There have been many clear cases of buses, minibuses and vans carrying state workers or other travelers, hijacked by armed gangs who single out and executing non-Sunni passengers. This was especially common in the Homs area in 2012 and 2013. I haven't studied other areas as much. See several bus massacres listed here, even though that wasn't the main scope (so I've missed many).
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Homs_Massacres

Side-note: His sister's name - Amal Hag (Haj) Hamdo Anfalis - is a bit odd. They both share the middle name Haj, presumably their father's first name. But the family part is half-different from his. Observant Muslim women usually keep only their father's name on marriage, shunning the adoption of her husband's name, so she would stay a Hamdo. Here, it sounds like she took both names, after marrying a man named Anfalis. 

Anfal is an Arabic word, but Anfalis sounded Greek, and Greek names are common among Syrian and Lebanese Christians. But a bit of searching suggests it is an Arabic name. (which are also used by Christians and others in that language area … it's just a neutral clue). Still, her adoption of it suggests at least the family is not part of a Sunni extremist network, who have a way sometimes of getting arrested by the authorities. And, perhaps, she has the extra name for some other reason. That's too big a paragraph for such a small clue, but oh well. It's at the end now. Unless this isn't the end.

Further Findings
They seem possible. Here's space.