Victim Analysis
Douma's Mask of Death, part 2: The “Caesar Photos” Connection
April 23, 2019
Note: this long article covers Douma and the “mask of death” (in review) and then the “Caesar torture photos.” The first part might be shorter, with some updates moved to part 1, which should be updated ... but for now, a longer review is helpful for some readers. Those who already know about the mask thing can skip to the second long section and the part that's new, that might hugely expand on the theme, and link into other crimes in what would be one the largest sub-stories of the whole Syrian conflict.
Warning: graphic images, upsetting content, high danger of horrible realizations setting in.
2A) Douma and the Mask of Death in Review
A Managed Massacre by Terrorists?
It's now been a bit over a year since the Douma chemical massacre of 7 April 2018, which remains mysterious so that some readers could use a review. It came at the end of a brutal six-year rule over the Damascus sububrb by the Saudi-backed “Army of Islam” (Jaish Al-Islam, JaI). As we heard, toxic gas from a government helicopter killed at least 43 civilians trying to shelter from bombs in some basements. It was claimed this attack forced JaI's decision to surrender the following day and leave Douma in a brokered deal, “to save lives.”
But in August, 2013, the same militants refused to back down after claiming Assad had killed perhaps 1,700 in a sarin attack. Of course, they were at the peak of their power then, while in 2018 they were clearly on the verge of final defeat either way. So consider they were also at their last chance to use any captured civilians (they had thousands at one point); they couldn't take heavy weapons or hostages on the green bus. They could kill them quickly and use that, or simply let them go. Most likely, they did some of each.
On the anniversary, we were informed by some quite sectarian, JaI-linked “civil society leaders” from Douma that 187 actually died. This was somehow never verified (the story was dropped) but it does line up with widespread early reports, and might be true.
This came shortly after the much-delayed final report of the OPCW's Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), in March, 2019, nearly a year after the incident (my review with report linked. This skipped over the death toll issue, among many other important points, some of them brilliantly covered by the UK Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (WGSPM, with whom I'm affiliated) in an April briefing note by Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Piers Robinson (both to be cited here).
However many truly died, of the ~35 bodies were shown as proof, found at what the OPCW termed Location 2, I still maintain none were killed by the chlorine that was apparently released there. None of them displays the red, bloodshot eyes typical of exposure, and chlorine is barely fatal anyway; it simply cannot explain this scale of apparently sudden death. Not on its own, and that's how it was found to be; the OPCW finding no sign of sarin or its breakdown products in the environment - just two weeks later - means there really was none there. Nothing else CW or deadly came up, just that inadequate chlorine.
Considering the bodies were never tested to see what killed them, while the alleged site of their death was, it's entirely possible the two do not fit together. As the WGSPM briefing note put it, the visuals suggest “the victims at Location 2 had made no attempt to escape,” as agreed and noted by the FFM, who chalked this up to “an agent capable of quickly killing or immobilising.” They did so, the briefing note continues, “without considering the possibility that the victims had been killed elsewhere.” In fact they ignored that at some cost to their own case; they blame something for which no trace was found (again, chlorine is not paralytic or suddenly fatal, like sarin can be).
The poison used, therefore, needn't be the chlorine found at Location 2; if there's another, unknown killing site, it was never investigated. The poison used apparently had caustic properties (as both chlorine and impure sarin do, besides many others), judging by the clinical signs (see below). It was quite possibly released on the victims deliberately, at high concentrations, in some unseen gas chambers. Even chlorine could easily be fatal in that case, besides a great many other things. But it's still unlikely to be sarin, as several people swore it was or would be; bodies are freely handled without even the use of gloves, and the overall case for SLUDGE syndrome is very weak.
So it might be a “managed massacre” scenario, as the WGSPM puts it, of people held captive by - most likely - Jaish Al-Islam. They would be killed at some unclear location, under controlled conditions. Their bodies could easily be brought, via Jaish Al-Islam's tunnel system, to a tunnel entrance just around the corner from Locations 2, where they were shown poorly arranged, beneath a poorly-staged and illogical “chlorine barrel bomb impact.”
It's notable how among the 43 killed, at 12 or 13 were related to a rebel commander with the rare name Bakriyeh, founder of a Douma Martyr's Brigade that first worked with, but later led a rebellion against their Douma-based rivals in Jaish al-Islam. The “Jaish Al-Ummah” rebellion was in late 2014, 5 months after Bakriyeh's own death “in clashes” when JaI reinforcements came too late to save him from death - or came earlier than they admit and caused it? The same day, a possible brother of his died randomly from “shelling” across town. Friction might have already existed, and the family of an 'enemy of Islam' might be fair game, get kidnapped, etc. 11 with the rare name Bakriyeh (plus unclear wives, possibly husbands, children, in-laws) made the largest portion of the 43 known deaths on 7 April.
Such a controlled and targeted killing is an option the OPCW's FFM never seem to have even considered. But this and its associated logic might hold the key to understanding the rest of the evidence (which they don't seem to understand).
The Mask of Death in Review
Among the evidence that remains confusing to the OPCW is the subject of this long article, as introduced last year in Douma's Mask of Death part 1: some very unusual clinical signs displayed by those killed in this false-flag incident. These are signs never seen before in any chemical attack but here... I initially noted 6 clear cases, and later added 15 others with some mix of the features that seem to be related, That means 21 victims, about 60% of the total seen, display these unusual signs. Considering some show it faintly and others likely wouldn't show it at all, it seems likely all of the victims were killed this way, and it's only evident a bit over half the time.
So this might be an important clue. I'm not an expert, and this could stand more professional review, but in the meantime, I make this reasonable effort. The related signs, in review:
* Underlying signs of pulmonary edema and breathing distress, probably from breathing a corrosive or irritant gas: a gasping look, some cyanosis, and a thick, persistent foam that exudes from the mouth and nose; this might appear fake but may be real, considering the many unknowns here – it's sometimes mixed with blood, occasionally replaced by almost pure blood.
* In most cases with or without the foam, a less normal-seeming yellow-brown fluid also leaks from mouths and noses; it might be protective mucous, maybe tinged with blood, and with some of the fatal chemical or smoke, adding properties so it seems to both stain and irritate the skin in the areas it flowed over most heavily. (where it appears too thin to be mucous, consider it may be thinned with water from an earlier body-washing)
* The pattern of fluids and/or staining suggests they flowed “up” the victim's face. This means their heads or perhaps entire bodies were upside-down - possibly bound and suspended head-down while suffocating. Of course that alone would prove captivity; civilians at liberty don't hang around in that state waiting for a gas attack.
* Normally, the eyes should be irritated from exposure like the lungs; aside from the mixed record in Syria, chlorine exposure always causes redness of the eyes. But the area immediately around them seem protected from yellow staining, and the sclera of the eyes is free of any notable irritation (the whites stayed white, so no chlorine exposure). These points jointly suggesting eye protection, and in fact the outline of small-style swimming goggles is perfectly clear in some cases with heavy staining, with additional clear areas suggesting straps to secure the goggles, etc. This essentially proves bondage as well – upside-down or not, people don't sit around in goggles waiting to slowly choke to death from chlorine...
Below is a crude extract I made from the clearest example of how this comes together, reminiscent of a domino mask. This is from the case I dubbed “Mask 1” (on, as I've listed them, victim #23, woman #7 - for victim numbering system, see here). Here the yellow stains have almost totally turned dark brown, perhaps constituting a chemical burn. This unusually dark color makes her 'mask' much sharper than the others, and a helpful guide of what to look for.
For reference, here's the photo it's from, and the same victim #23 from another view. That pattern really is there. I realize there are many features of the eye that makes goggle shapes appear – the natural recess, squinting, can case a similar shielding. But I'm confident these outlines cannot be explained by any of these things.
The second-clearest case is “Mask 2” (victim #31, boy #6). He may illustrate prolonged contact, apparently left upside-down, with goggles still on. We can see the same thin half-ring across the outer top 2/3 up the upper eyelid, and a wider band underneath with deep yellow staining that clearly connects to his mouth and nose, and what looks like red, blistered skin in the same area.
Both those cases display a fairly normal livor mortis color, with a faint purple shift in upper head visible in some views. That suggests their suffocation was fairly quick. After death, the red blood cells, red and blue alike, should settle with gravity to low points in the body. If their foreheads were low, it's a bad sign.
The same is suggested for other victims, like #1 / G1. Counting from the top down, her body was laid closest of all to the chlorine release. She's one of the less clear mask cases (not even one of the 21 singled out); we can only say her upper cheeks might be a bit dark, but I'm lacking clear views of girl victims 1 and 2. But the blood up her face almost surely comes from badly corroded airways, and she was upside-down, with a deeper purple livor mortis centered in the upper head, to a markedly yellow, pale chin. This is not likely to be "contact pallor" (the parts contacting the ground are pressed of their blood and becomes pale). I'd say it's general pallor mortis (the complement of livor mortis), suggesting her whole head at least was upside down for some time after death, letting the discharged red blood cells settle from one half of her face into the other.
OPCW's Lack of Answers, Embrace of the Absurd
To be clear, this unusual stain is a real phenomenon others can see, but one that no one else has offered an explanation for. The OPCW's FFM explained in their recent final report, point 8.90: “Several victims display degrees of periorbital discoloration," which may not be the right word. Periorbital means “around the eyes,” but it usually means right around them - the eyelids, all skin that's inside the eye socket (as in periorbital ecchymosis, which this is not). The oddity here is how this area is clear, while the skin around it (peri-periorbital?), and especially the upper cheeks, is discolored, and even blistered. Helpfully, they did add this:
"8.101 The periorbital discoloration is not associated with any specific known toxic exposure. To determine whether it is due to a physiologic response to exposure to a toxic substance or simply post-mortem changes would require additional steps."
I don't think there is a known post-mortem change like “masca mortis.” The FFM probably did look into it, and apparently didn't find anything. Yet they still had to suggest it might be an effect they don't know about, because - as they acknowledge - it wouldn't happen directly from any known chemical. It probably was caused by some toxin, but there has to be another part to the story, and the FFM could perhaps sense it was a story they didn't want to know in full.
The FFM's report also notes “Many of the victims appear to have wet hair in what seems to be an otherwise dry environment,” Which was “difficult to assess and is possibly due to profound diaphoresis shortly before death.” That's “cold sweats” – a small part of Sarin's SLUDGE syndrome, with most other parts lacking here, and no relation to chlorine. Further, as the WGSPM briefing note: “This does not explain why only the faces and hair of the victims are wet, or why they remain wet after their supposedly sudden deaths which the report assigns to a time three hours before the images were recorded” and notes an ignored and more logical possibility that “victims’ faces were washed after death to remove signs of how they had been killed.” That linked to my article suggesting it was done trying to wash off this “mask.”
And as the FFM noted, the victims must have been paralyzed, basically, to drop dead before they could flee, contrary to what chlorine does. And yet the opposition story was they maintained their faculties long enough to follow a last wish – not to escape, but to wash their faces, only to die next to faucets and soot-coated water basins, with wet hair some 2-3 hours after the alleged attack... because they were also really sweaty? And it doesn't dry in 2-3 hours why?
A bizarre Times of London story explained “the parents had tried to scrub the chemicals off their children’s skin,” and when that didn't work, an activist added “they must have realised it was over so they drew closer together and died." This referred specifically to the Bakriyeh family, and to this scene:
Oh, and as they fled up from the basement with stained faces, with an exit to safety a few steps in front of them, they turned around to the washroom (that last wish) and realized they'd have to take the bathroom door off its hinges in order to drag that rug-full of people in (removed door at right). But after all the effort, all in lieu of escape … they were stuck with those stupid stains, so they gave up and finally died right there. It's as if the fates of Douma themselves saw the whole scene was messed up and instantly gave up on making sense, since they were about to fold up and leave town anyway...people are left floundering in absurdity, doing whatever it takes for this insane story to hold up.
The OPCW seems okay with this, but we should not be okay with that. Also consider in such a way, might a further 150 or so victims just have their own stories botched even worse and simply dropped?
Everything here makes enough sense from a false-flag perspective, considering the crunch of total defeat might complicate things. But the manner of killing seems unnecessarily harsh, and especially in that context, providing goggles to protect the victims' eyes seems a strange choice - and one they might regret now. What's the motive?
The only one that pops easily into my head is to address the opposition's record of showing white eyes over and over to prove a chlorine attack, when it kind of disproves it. This has never been a big issue publicly, but it should be. Privately, activists might worry and endeavor to clarify the previous science is wrong or inadequate; Assad has some special new chlorine with all-new properties; people pass out or drop dead like with sarin, and even on those that die, the eyes don't burn red. Apparently science is optional here.
I don't know what it is, but there must be some adequate reason, or they wouldn't have done it. And again, what the visuals are clear what they did is tie human beings, including children, upside-down and gas them so they died in a slow and painful manner. The part about the goggles is incidental, just one of the added features to this central and hideous crime. We can't be certain just who did this, but we can rule out anyone passing overhead in a Syrian military helicopter.
2B) Strangely Familiar: "Caesar Torture Photos"
The Photos in Review: Another Managed Massacre by Terrorists?
What might seem like a hasty leap to that bizarre theory simply isn't. I already had this possible crime on file, having identified this package of signs before, in fact hundreds of times. The story of where and how it relates traces what might be a genuine arc of interconnected crimes against humanity on an epic scale, claiming at least several thousand lives. And we can get to the largest portion of that right away.
It's not so much in any of the numerous chemical attacks these signs have appeared the most, but rather in the roughly 6,800 face-shot photos drawn from the "Caesar torture photos" and hosted by their chosen procurators, called SAFMCD. At roughly one victim per photo, these show more than 6,700 men and older boys - and one woman (profile post here) - allegedly killed in the prisons of Syrian security forces. These and other photos were smuggled out in August, 2013, by a defector codenamed “Caesar” to protect his identity from his old bosses (but that would be impossible if his story were true) True or not, his story was the basis for a report by war crimes prosecutors, hired by the British Carter-Ruck law firm, paid by the Qatari royal family, to go with the first news of the smuggled morgue photos in early 2014 as showing 11,000 detainees all clearly killed by the Assad regime.
In this scenario, the killers would dump these emaciated, partly naked bodies in some no-man's land, and the government would have no choice but to collect and bury them. First they'd have to photograph the bodies and link them to numbers, to assist in identifying them as possible, and matching to the right gravesite. This documentation was done mainly or totally in a lot behind military hospital 601 in Damascus, where “Caesar” worked. This suggests the victims were killed not far away – in the Damascus area where, no one can deny, extremists on the opposition side were also capable of killing people.
I propose the 'military intelligence prisoner numbers' the killers had written on the bodies are fictional; officials may have ignored them as deceptive terrorist graffiti, sometimes in the early days ripping off the tape. But eventually those numbers were left alone, and it looks like “Caesar” labored to “verify” them, copying them onto cards included in what I suspect is his own unofficial set of photos – the same ones we've seen.
So it could be a crime of the Islamist opposition, and would be a rather large one to generate so many bodies. Most logically, that would be managed by a single group, leaving the dominant Jaish al-Islam (then called Liwa al-Islam) the most likely. They're known for taking prisoners on this scale and freely abusing them, for broad reach in the rural Damascus area, solid funding to buy prisoners off other groups, ambitious plans and deceitful methods, and strong clues linking them to the chemical events and likely gassings, from late 2012 up to and including the 7 April, 2018 incident.
A Chemical Mass-Extermination of Thousands?
As for why chemical usage helps implicate Liwa Al-Islam in the “torture photos” system ... that's not obvious, since no one from “Caesar” forwards has made more than the slightest mention of chemical extermination. It's all about torture, plus starvation, neglect, beatings ... not gassing. Several have, in fact, labored to give alternate explanations for the clues I'll be relating (eye infections, bleeding gums, all-body purple bruising, etc.)
The poisoning signs I see are different and far more widespread. They appeared first as strange mysteries when I tried to understand the images in 2015. I'd seen many dead bodies, but these looked weird, confusing and a bit nauseating ... often dark purple, coughing blood and other fluids, with messed up eyes, bright yellow crust, and more.
Sometime in December 2015 it finally hit me that one basic explanation – gassing, in variety of types – could account for most or all of those oddities; these “torture chambers” were sometimes gas chambers. Many look quite similar to those folks in Douma because – most importantly – it seems many or most of those in the Caesar photos were gassed while bound and suspended bodily upside-down.
I've brought this up several times already, but for a couple of reasons, I've put off a full overt explanation until now. A fuller one yet is still to come, but this marks my first detailed explanation of this crucial point, to help anchor the even larger story connecting it to the 2018 Douma massacre. Then in a coming Part 3, I can link it with even more, and give some needed overview of what will have been a long journey by then.
I'll be citing photos often by filename (on my end), with no time to format all the links. To see such an entry there are 2 ways: in this example filename:
216-241-7-6-2013 (7)-597258=4288
I turned a 6-digit number red - this number can be used in the search window of any SAFMCD entry, like his: http://safmcd.com/martyr/view.php?id=4288. Most but not all filenames also include the 4-digit number with = following the red number. This is the url ID you can plug into any open page and re-load. Unfortunately, there's no way to search by detainee number, date, etc.
Possible Cyanosis: The victims of suffocation will build up oxygen-depleted red blood cells and gradually turn more purple to blue color. There may be multiple causes; primarily, it's the lack of oxygen getting through to re-charge the cells, but it's not low enough to be fatal yet. And I also gather there's a molecular effect of chlorine once it's in the bloodstream that actively blocks re-charging. Depending on the chemical used, there might be such a secondary effect.
There are many clearer and extreme cases here compared to Douma, with the victim left grape-juice purple over their whole face or even whole body, and strongly in the lips. A large portion, perhaps a third of the victims appear to me blue-shifted to some degree. But an important note: since normal livor mortis is also some shade of purple, the point to call cyanosis is a bit uncertain (to me anyway), And even where you could call it, cyanosis only shows suffocation. The cause isn't defined, but it might connect to the blood and mucous in the majority of cases where they appear.
Blood and Mucous: A huge portion of those with and without visible blue-shift also cough up blood in large amounts. The most logical presumption seeing that is the man was shot in the stomach, etc. With thousands of mainly just face shots to consider, it would seem unclear. But some also have full body photos published, like 215-3735 (face at SAFMCD) below, left. and 215-1289 (SAFMCD entry) on the right. Both emaciated bodies show no wounds, marks or patches of bruising capable of causing that kind of internal bleeding. But they have degrees on cyanosis and skin irritation, possible eye issues, and massive blood from the mouth, perhaps thickened with mucous, from internal injuries caused by an illness, perhaps, or something they ate, drank, or breathed in.
After the blood, usually, the victim also exudes mucous. There's often a lot of it, thick and yellow, with many strange variations. Illness is too sporadic to explain this well, over so many people and such a time span. And injuries don't cause this unless they're acute inhalation injuries. It doesn't need to be a CW poison – various fumes and smoke can do it. These thing and also exposure to chlorine, etc. Will cause bronchorrhea, massive secretion of protective mucous in the airways, which causes or adds to suffocation.
So I surmise in such cases the airways were damaged from breathing a substance with corrosive properties, and it's often extreme enough to cause severe bleeding. I don't have any specific guess - it's a huge list including chlorine and many other possible toxins, if enough were used. An expert might be able to narrow down from the finer points of the evidence, which I'll try and point to...
Many faces that don't display these fluids may have at one point and been washed off. It's hard to say how many, but quite a few clean faces show faint staining, residual blood or eye crust, etc. Two that have been shown off: 227-1043, Jan. 2013 and peaceful activist Ayhamn Ghazoul (215-320 Nov. 2012).
Gassed Upside-Down
Perhaps the strangest part of what emerges from the Caesar photos is the inverse suspension so many clues kept pointing to, as they would do again for the 2018 Douma incident. I'm still not sure if this would speed up the suffocation or slow it down, or what purpose it serves, but the visuals are pretty clear on most people dying upside-down.
The most obvious aspect of this is how, as we've seen in the cases above and as many more show, the fluids the victims cough up tend to pour “up” the face, a bit to one side or the other. This is the main pattern in a solid majority of the very many bloody faces, from whatever branch and whatever month, including most we've seen here. A person on their back, with their head rolled back trying to breathe could have the same effect. But it's hard to imagine so many held that posture for so long, and some fluid patterns suggest the victim's head, at least, was completely upside down. For example, 227-627 is possibly cyanotic with swollen eyes, with blood and massive yellow mucous running almost to the top of his head; it stops at about his hairline, dripping straight down from there. If he were on his back, it would roll at least to the very crown or the back of the head before dripping down.
Further clues include, but aren't limited to:
* As we've also seen with the above, the upper head of these victims is frequently extra red/purple, and the lower face markedly pale. likely because the head was the lowest point (with the forehead lowest of all, logically), attracting the heavy red blood cells (livor mortis), perhaps during death, and definitely for some time afterwards (the separation only begins after the heartbeat stops).
* Extreme swelling of any head wounds (ex: 215-1314 - 227-1023) and the "high" swelling of many eyes (ex: 215-732 - 227-530) might be clues for the same.
* The way hair sticks “up” and stays that way (215-355, 652, 789, 3608, j-353, 227-2125, 251-119, etc.) Most seem to have shaved heads besides being washed off, so it's less clear, but on some victims, like 215-1281 (3-2013), nose hairs and eyelashes have been tugged “up” by the departing fluids and remain that way even once cleaned.
* Not as often in the face shots, we can often see where ankles were tied - alleged prisoner #745 from branch 251 (SAFMCD entry, 2-2013), an extreme case who likely wasn't as old as he appears. An early full-body photo makes it seem they left 745 tied up for a some time, with his feet deformed and rotting underneath crude rope and plastic wrap. In fact it seems likely this poor soul spent some time hanging from these ties, leading to the apparent deformation circled here. (other notes: sunken eyes from malnutrition – no redness? No sign of fluids on face, but blood-stained teeth? Maybe just from scurvy? This one may have starved to death before gassing anyway. Also note he may belong in 215: they're missing a 745 entry at about the same time.)
Something different is likely at work in a case like 227-1347 from 2-2013, an extreme example of general skin burning, here with the look of burning with heat, as by fire. More common is raw, purple and black areas at prior wounds from lashes on the body, scratches on the face, and especially on mysteriously chaffed necks suggest caustic irritation that worsened their appearance. A peeling purple area across the throat is hugely common (a good example, neither mild nor extreme: 215-1638). Extreme cases have shiny black patches, and are often linked to blood pouring out the mouth and nose (216-241-7-6-2013 (7)-597258=4288 - 227-1201-1-2013 (5)-867764=5404 - 227-1206-2-2013 (3)-160449=5415), along with little or no mucous or cyanosis. Another example of this, also showing purple concentrated in the upper head, is 215-1586 (shown), who was identified, perhaps poorly, as Ahmed Abdo Sandiha from Daraya.
Standing Questions, Then and Now
I had a chance to discuss this years back with the late Denis O'Brien, PhD in neuropharmacology, author of the amazing Murder in the SunMorgue (2014 - on Scribd). He was initially skeptical of my new theory, but after reviewing some examples, O'Brien was coming around to agree with my thesis, last time we talked about it – which was long ago, early 2016. We didn't come back to it much before he passed away in 2017, but I don't think he'd mind my quoting a few e-mails (January, 2016).
To start, O'Brien really knew neurotoxins, not corrosive chemicals, nor general pathology. But he had a medical background, and did a little research to assist his review. From a random scan of the photos at SAFMCD and “from what I am reading,“ he reasoned there should be suffocation, and therefore “very evident cyanosis.” But thus far “I don't see much in the way of cyanosis in these photos. There are a few with bluish lips, but for the most part the color of the victims is not too bad.” Their coughed-up blood also appeared “brilliant red” so far, suggesting perhaps a rubigenic poison (carbon monoxide or maybe cyanide), as he fingered for use in the SunMorgue in 2013. (That seemed a problem for chlorine with its molecular effect, which I had suggested with too much certainty, but we're not sure that's what it was).
There are some faces left unusually red in death, in an ultimately varied mix (most extreme, perhaps: ”Anonymous branch” 007 from early on: March, 2012 (tishreen?) ). from early on: March, 2012 (tishreen?) ). But after seeing some directed examples, he revised to say “You're right, some of these do look cyanotic. Others, definitely not. Still others look more like livor mortis or even putrefaction setting in.” He raised some further issues with a gas-chamber explanation (see annex below), some of which we discussed later by phone to the tune of closer agreement. Had we really come back to it, especially like I did after Douma 2018 (that is, if he were around for that), we might have reached an agreement point and teamed up on a book about it that would be wrapping up by now (he was a retired person, see. It's apparently a big help.).
There was, as Denis said, no “one single global answer as to how these people died.” But I think a solid majority can be linked, with due diligence, to a range of toxins and varied methods. Denis seemed to presume there would be one method (because I highlighted and exaggerated the one?) But there are reasons the killers might vary the methods, perhaps to refine them for future use. I still think the largest portion, maybe not by much, vary between normal purple livor mortis to sometimes deep cyanosis – prolonged suffocation was common. Some are in fact the kind of red he remained interested in, while others were violently killed, well into decay, and strange or unclear in other ways. To help narrow it down, I'm trying to identify and pursue what seems to me the larger trend(s) described herein, but all of it merits more study.
Denis and others have brought up the problem of assigning a cause for these signs, when they can each have many causes. So it's most important to clarify here is combination of signs: if they're showing airway damage (blood, other sings), and also eye damage, this combination requires two explanations coincidentally lining up (ex: a gunshot to the lungs and also a severe pepper-spray attack to the eyes). We look for the singular explanation as the logical one, especially if the alternative is each coincidence appearing maybe hundreds of times.
Eye Damage and Lack of it
Eye damage is of special importance here, relating to the lack of it in Douma. Most eyes in these photos are inconclusive one way or the other; most are squeezed shut as if in pain, but often appear unusually “heavy” or visibly swollen, to an often grotesque degree. Other bodies have eyes left open to show they're often bloodshot and damaged beneath the lids.
Some examples with eyes open: 215-1327-3-2013 (2)-446114=7805 - 227-495-1-11-2012 (1)-400173=3794 - 227-1043 1-2013 (posed with but not marked by a fan belt around his neck) - 227-1269-2-2013 (1)-856710=5444 - 215-1209-3-2013 (2)-537649=7488 - 215-1271-3-2013 (2)-520134=7734 - “Sporadic views” 3863-2-2013-Intelligence department (2)-254344 - 215-2143-4-6-2013 (1)-777298=8590
Others have even worse suggested by lids clenched tight over a swollen mystery, often oozing its own blood or orange fluid ... something between the eyeball, the sclera (surface of the eye and of the inner eyelid), and fluids in there – something combines to make it all notably larger in volume than usual. Milder cases could be my imagination, but the majority of closed eyes here look heavier than usual at least. There may still be different causes, but I think we can rule out the swelling from a physical eye injury (like a punch) or a cracked skull, which can cause a bruise-colored swelling of the eyelids and surrounding (periorbital) tissue - black eye or "raccoon eye". But when the eyelids are normal color (or the same abnormal color as the surrounding skin) and yet it's puffed up, that's a bad sign ...
Examples: 227-530-1-11-2012 (2)-885759=4109 - 215-915-3-2013 (3)-921299=7196 - 227-2432-24-6-2013 (2)-655309=6629 - 215-1745-3-2013 (2)-237398 – some of these shown below. Below at left is 227-694, 1-7-2012 (3)-256771=4792 who was one of the many found alive, was given a breathing tube, died anyway. Purple, suffocating on blood, swollen-looking eyes = how many things, really?
But quite a few do not display either kind of eye damage, showing perfectly white eyes despite other signs of caustic exposure. For example: 227-1124-1-8-2012 (1)-653553=5339 - 227-1144-1-2013 (2)-020272=5359 - 215-1156-3-2013 (2)-812328=7507. These cases could challenge the link, or suggest the same plus frequent eye protection. On the given scale, both probably apply, but I was on the lookout for a method, perhaps goggles, from long ago.
Several victims seemed to have fluid patterns with clear patches around the eyes suggesting goggles were used. But on review perhaps none of them proves that; there are different causes for such a clear area around the eye socket, including its natural concave shape, the body's tendency to keep the eyes clear, to close the eyelids and squint, the tendency to wipe them clean when hands are free (which doesn't seem to apply here). The difficulty I encountered here, to me, underlines how clear the swimming goggle outlines really are in the 2018 Douma cases.
On review, just one case stands out as certain: the young man designated 227-1403 (SAFMCD entry), from the March, 2013 folder – a huge folder apparently covering only the majority of March. He wound up with the common burned neck and bleeding airways, but little if any blue-shift. He may have had a short and sharp struggle, exuding up a wave of almost pure blood. But this seems to be after he coughed up a thick, dark brown substance – which is unusual (an unhappy type of vomit?). Looking at the forehead gauze, there are distinct brown stains and yellower ones, so there was some of the usual mucous as well, but the brown stuff is clearest in showing he at least was given goggles, and seems to have been spared the standard eye damage. There's some pinkness, but it's not major.
The fluids on the left here did roll over his right eye, but likely well after the fact when the goggles were removed; one side was still wet, and it looks like the one that makes most sense. If that big curve on our right side is the edge of his goggles, they were a larger style compared to what the Douma victims would be fitted with. But it's odd how the same thing occurred to such supposedly disconnected victims of "Assad's this-and-that" 5 years apart in time, but all appearing as if they were bound upside-down and killed with caustic gas and eye protection. And this is all in or at least near the scope of “Army Of Islam's” elaborate and audacious terror system.
And there are other methods, like blindfolds. Many have unexplained rags around their heads or neck, most often army green in color (227-1012-000 (2)-158272=5201 around the neck, 215-285, 1-11-2012 (1) -652545, in a blindfold position, 215-532-1-2013 (3)_1-038482 elaborate collar). Some have burn-free necks, some burn-free eyes, some unclear.
These three cases might show eye protection wrappings: 227-1181, 227-1183, and 227-1184 came in sometime in December, 2012, it seems, and were gathered later in a “000” folder (for the first two) and 1184 was only grabbed for a later “1-2013” folder. All three show the same blue cloth wrapping, tied in a large, blindfold size. 1184's clearly blocked much more blood, which we can see coating the skin less in a blindfold-sized area, sharply delineated. His cover was maybe askew – and there was a fan belt pressed into his cheek at some point?. But it may have achieved the purpose – white eyes, as with the others.
Burns and Masking
What I've called burns may be and often are prior injuries, like inflamed, perhaps infected lash marks or scrapes, and maybe nothing more. But to me they suggest extra irritation, as would happen on exposure of such a vulnerable area to a caustic agent like chlorine, which there's evidence for anyway.
Other burns under the outer eyes at SAFMCD at what is, admittedly, a pretty natural place for random scratches: 215-909 2-2012 (2)-987872=7235 - 215-770 2-2013 (2)-713968=4717 - 215-1769-3-2013 (2)-715144=8022 - 215-1771-3-2013 (3)-385380=8112 - 227-2317-24-6-2013 (2)-498374=6162 - 227-849-000 (4)-551772=5038 - 227-1049-1-2013 (1)-321466=5194 - 216-213-4-6-2013 (6)-734027 - 215-1407-3-2013 (2)-286942=7776 (ID Ahmed al-Aytah) - 215-1466-3-2013 (2)-470625=7689
bridge of the nose: 215-952-2-2013 (2)-475217=7285 - 227-805-000 (2)-224459=4865 - 216-228-4-6-2013 (3)-980227 - 215-589-1-2013 (2)-738209
both: 215-325-1-11-2012 (3)-599626 - 215-1606 3-2013 (2)-890154
forehead:
227-133-1-11-2012 (3)-523552 - 227-1159-1-8-2012 (2)-209398=5318 - 227-1160-000 (2)-752902=5333 - 227-998-1-2013 (1)-149995=5047 - 215-3789-24-6-2013-571109=9936
multiple areas: j-8010 -000 (1)-855383=3508 - 227-1161-1-2013 (1)-955275=5315 - 227-489-1-11-2012 (2)-099132=3788 - 216-245-7-6-2013 (2)-972990 - 216-254-24-6-2013 (2)-297015=4302 - 215-325-1-11-2012 (3)-599626
Then there are faces that have what looks like burned areas with other areas shielded. One interesting case I only noticed recently is 'unknown branch' #550 from a batch of photos dated July, 2013. He's not cyanotic, but did cough up a lot of blood that has a thin, orange character, and suffered a lot of burning, maybe by actual heat, maybe of prior wounds. If there was a caustic involved, then eye protection was part of what he was fitted with here.
I'm not getting a clear sense of what was done to him, other than it seems to have hit him badly at the upper lip (shielded lips otherwise?) and the nose, and/or he bled a lot from the nose, and it stained ... except on the other side of two clear lines running up each side and crossing a bit off-center – like two straps would, like we saw at the beginning with mask 1. Is this the same exact technique, used both in “Assad's dungeons” in 2013 and also by someone way beneath “Assad's helicopters” dropping their “chlorine barrel bombs” in 2018?
Conclusion
The “Caesar torture photos” represent a hell of a lot of death – 6,800 unidentified bodies shown (to more than 10,000 unidenditied bodies suggested) could mean those chosen are the “Assad's victim” looking ones, including some massacre victims and unidentified fighters, but perhaps more than 90% of them are the “tortured detainee” type, and perhaps more than 90% of those were fatally gassed (a lower percentage would show it evidently).
By attached dates, it appears some 96% of these unidentified bodies were processed in 14 moths, between June of 2012 and August 2013, compared to just 4% over the preceding 15 months. At its worst point (perhaps being March, 2013), there would be over 1,000 in a month, and at its lightest, still in excess of 500. (see timeline of terror)
That's an alarming rate. And the gassing signs come in steadily, as shown running back to June, 2012, and some signs even appear in Caesar photos sporadically from late 2011. It's likely that in mid-2012, “Caesar” and the killers solidified their partnership so they knew they'd have an audience, and this is why they expanded the scope of the show to such a degree. Contrary to his portrayal as a crusader for justice over these killings, Caesar's offer to help launder them might have invited the death toll to expand horribly.
He was awarded a Nuremberg Human Rights award once, had a "civilian protection" act of the U.S. Congress named after him. I'm aware of these things. If I'm right here, then they represent a sick irony on a grand scale.
So anyway, there are thousands of partial matches for the “mask of death” pattern, or its component signs, in the "Caesar torture photos." There are even some eerily predictive cases like that last one that makes a good visual closing point for this ambitious exercise, which I'll close with another quote from the late Denis O'Brien's e-mails that happens to foreshadow where we'll go in Part 3 (not so long a wait for that one):
“...whew -- I think I've seen enough Caesar photos. Whoever is responsible, I hope they get a noose. Seems to me someone ought to hang "Caesar" just for being a part of this.
Is it really fortuitous that he left just days before Ghouta?”
Annex
Some of the questions raised by Denis O'Brien in January, 2016, largely addressed, partly not, and some of his thoughts on the victims:
I don't see any commonalities in these photos. Not like the Kafr Batna gang that was very uniform in terms of not being traumatized and having good color over all. There you could draw some inferences based on so many people having the same symptoms. Here you've got what? 6000 bodies coming from half a dozen sites over a couple or three years. I think you'll need a forensic expert to look at each one and render an opinion. I don't think there is going to be one single global answer as to how these people died, which in itself says something about how they died. If a bunch of people were herded into a chamber and gasses, I'd think that on the whole the bodies would be pretty similar and would show the same features, depending on what gas was used. Maybe if these photos were organized so that all of the people who died on the same day in the same place were lined up, you could see common symptoms.
There is one common factor that really jumps out -- none of the ones I've seen look anything like the hundreds or thousands of wahhabi pricks I've seen waving AK-47s from pickups in the last couple of years. These victims are either clean-shaven or have very modest beards, most of them buzz-cuts. All but one of the males in the list you sent fits this description and the one out-lier has shortish hair and no beard. Good head-shots of the workers in the Ghouta morgues are a little hard to find, but the ones I do see also fit this description -- generally clean cut. I can't remember any with the shaggy hair, longish beards and no mustache. SAA soliders are clean shaven or well trimmed beards. It's sort of like being in Amish country. You can't tell the Catholics from the Methodists, or a drug pusher from a narc, but the Amish jump right out. Even the skeletal bodies are pretty cleanly shaven or trimmed. What? were they given razors but no food?
