Irbeen Gas Chamber Clues?

Ghouta Chemical Massacre(s)
Irbeen Gas Chamber Clues
July 6, 2020
(rough incomplete)

I wanted to revisit this portion of the 21 August, 2013 Ghouta chemical massacre - I already considered it from a victims perspective mainly in by district, part 3, examining the slapdash story of the Ghera family and a bunch of more anonymous folks, some at least seen in "the field hospital" in Irbeen but mainly appearing with chunks of ice in a dimly-lit morgue space apparently beneath that clinic. At least 24 or so young children, 12 or so men and teenage boys, and at least a few unseen bodies maybe including women, constitute a minimum of 40 or so bodies, and likely others nearby (women ae often kept far apart from the men and children in such scenes) reports give a total of 63 killed: 30 children, 17 men, 16 women. This photo gives the best overview of the whole space:

Many are then seen wrapped in white in a courtyard, presumably just outside. This batch of bodies doesn't seem to feed into the roughly 200 bodies seen at the Douma WhiteMorgue. so the reported 63 bodies seen here (close to that visually verified) adds to the visual minimum death toll of 340-550 oddly, some 20 children were left unidentified, their whole families dying, or someone else bringing them, or they just didn't have enough slapdash stories made-up for more than the one example family. everyone holds up jaundiced-looking baby #14, the youngest victim at about a month old.

The clinical signs don't tell me much about the poison used - as usual, it doesn't seem to be the advertised sarin nerve agent (no sign of SLUDGE syndrome, etc.), but none of the redness noted by Dr. Denis O'Brien with the victims in Kafr Batna (see MITSM, my article). In fact they tend to be at least normal in pallor, and there's sporadic cyanosis (a blue-purple color from prolonged oxygen shortage, seen mainly in the lips). Many have a gasp frozen on their faces, some nostrils filled with mucous to show it was pulmonary edema that suffocated them - I think that suggests an gas with irritant properties - which is extremely common.

A few seem to have have small marks on their faces around the nose, lips, and chin. These are hard to call at most available image resolutions, probably not a direct chemical affect. So I don't know what kind of agents to look for, nor if I'd know them if I saw them. So I'll just have a look at a bit of everything in the basement space, emphasis is on developing the possible imprisonment and deliberate poisoning (gas chamber) clues I saw hints of before.

The space is cluttered with various hospital and work-related objects like a wheelbarrow, a big air filter, maybe an old desk, etc. Also present are possible cooking pots, various pillows, blankets, and rugs, and plastic household storage bins and/or laundry baskets. A lot of cardboard boxes of (food?) seem part empty and part full. A large blue water barrel near a hose running down next to corner around which, it seems likely, there was a toilet and washroom. Up against the sheeting there's a possible steamer trunk (left corner, behind the wheelbarrow) and to the right, an interesting pile of at least 4 suitcases and some bedding, perhaps a light rug left over after other sheets and blankets and a decorative rug has been used to cover the dead.

(an object like a giant leaking whipped cream canister with white drizzles and a red cap: unclear. The 'cap' is likely a small red waste basket as used in clinic upstairs (as seen in am image I apparently didn't save), set atop ... a lemon juicer for coconuts?)

It's as if a number of people were living down here, or somewhere close by so their stuff is stored here. Also some number of people have just died here. Could that be the same people? It doesn't seem anyone claims the luggage. Six days after those people died, the bedding is gone, maybe used to wrap the bodies or re-used another way. But the two suitcases and (a woman's handbag?) seem transitional, set randomly, some items placed into a little black box that appeared. It's as if they're being sorted to re-use for future "guests."

Among the clutter are at least 3 gas cylinders seen just around the corner from the right end of the sheeted-off area. (2 green, one seemingly brown) color standards vary and may not matter - green is most often used for oxygen, but other things as well. If that's brown, it usually means helium. Either way, they can be filled with other gasses. From a lack of clarity, we'll consider these likely innocent medical equipment stored here, except for those big blue barrels of ... fuel? reactive agents? Those don't seem as likely to belong, but maybe.

Maybe this was a gas chamber and the relevant chemical containers have been removed or set invisibly inside that sheeted-off area I found so interesting. I took a closer look at that, citing two photos and a video.

Night view, a medic holding baby 14

Day view, a medic holding baby 14

6-days later view: "Abu Ahmed, a paramedic at the center" showing where they gathered the dead

I said NBC News filmed that, but it was ITV that was sent an activist video run by them, NBC, and others: "Six days after the suspected chemical attack in Damascus, ITV News has obtained more evidence of the devastation left behind. Footage shot in a medical centre in an eastern suburb showed photographs of 20 dead babies they had yet to identify." 'Unidentified baby #14' is long gone by then, but held up in the headline.
https://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-08-27/unidentified-baby-14-among-victims-of-gas-attack/

From this video and both of the other images, with some rough patching, here's a composite view of the sheeted area:

The details aren't entirely clear, but it look like hinges on the right, which seems odd but workable, and knobs on the left where it could be secured - not with a lock, but maybe wrapped wire - good enough to keep it closed, but not enough to keep anyone out. If it was used as a sort of gas chamber, the frame is not very sturdy, and the plastic could be torn right through. The victims could have been bound first (they don't show signs of that, but there are ways to do it without a sign), or previously drugged before they were put in there.

This area could also have any number of innocent purposes, from storage to a bathroom for people sheltering or imprisoned here (if that's not around that other corner). But it seems recently made - the plastic still has sharp folds, is nice and shiny, with no visible rips. It could be fairly airtight. It's not clear if the top is roofed over or open, nor for that matter is the right end clearly walled in (but that at least is strongly implied). If a heavier-than-air gas was used, the roof wouldn't matter as much. It's not clear if the bottom is held fast or left hanging, but no gaps are visible. That's partly because a thick comforter blanket is seen stretched along the bottom of that wall of plastic sheeting, and it's soaked with water. This is partly from a block of ice set there, but the blanket seems to have been hosed down aside from that, and why it's pulled out to start with isn't clear. Was there residual gas left inside and this was to help limit the leakage? It's probable they'd use a cheap agent that's not super-deadly; it would be tolerable at low levels for a short time, yet fatal to anyone locked in a concentration of it for too long. It might be unpleasant throughout the basement once that chamber was opened to remove the bodies.

Further possible clues: at the likely washroom entrance, a green garden hose hangs down, running to the middle of the room where they had hosed people off (after they died in the clinic, presumably washed prior to that?) A photo of Fatima Ghera and her alleged grandfather (below, left) has the right-hand wall just there behind them. There seems to be a hook just off-frame, holding a span of black pipe and a thin black hose like those carrying compressed air, especially by the valve seen a ways over (right). But AFAIK that can run water as well (maybe better for hot water). The valve connection has another hose connected (?) coming though a small hole in the wall.

The wider, rigid piping could be some kind of stovepipe, to blow in fresh air maybe. As seen, it's disconnected, one stretch angling down to another laying loose on some plastic bins. It's not clear what that runs to, seeming to disappear behind those boxes without re-emerging that I see. Also note in the composite view above how the sheeted area may have the same kind of piping running down the left wall just inside the sheeting. (a wide black line extends above, may be faintly visible inside running at least halfway down the wall).

A rough model of the room excludes these last - the hose and pipe would run along the right-hand wall:

I'll be fishing for better thoughts on these details. To me, these seem to be unusual improvised fixtures, having some adequate reason that seems to have emerged fairly recently. It's most likely not directly related to any gas-chamber activity, but ...

There are also audio clues that harken back to the findings of Denis O'Brien: a loud hissing noise all over the basement beneath the SunMorgue in Kafr Batna. That seemed to be the emission of gas, presumably oxygen, from some of the gas cylinders littering that place between the people there, dead and dying, dazed, and drenched - O'Brien surmised, and I agree, these are probably cleaning the air after some prior poisoning of it by the other, now-empty containers also strung about.

Here, the gas chamber and display space may be one and the same - any residual gas may be concentrated in the tent, leaking out the bottom, partly blocked with a big wet blanket, and maybe still being cleared by ... the beefed-up ventilation we hear? In an early video with the Ghera girls shaken at the camera by their alleged grandfather, he has to shout extra-loud to overcome a constant noise like a thumping engine and/or rushing air in the room. It makes me think an air compressor is running nearby, in a different room or just outside, and flushing the air in this room, maybe via that black hose. A later video with a settled body array is quieter, with just a rushing air sound, and a softer noise, perhaps like from an electric fan. It doesn't sound sharp enough to be compressed gas coming from a cylinder as at Kaf Batna, but possibly? ... at 0:45 the hissing gets clearer after passing the last pillar, with the gas cylinders we've seen now straight ahead. Maybe a fan is running in that same corner, and/or those cylinders are the source of the sound (and that would suggest they held oxygen). The camera shows their bottoms, but not the tops to see if they're capped like they are later, or perhaps opened to finish the flushing.

Possibly related: at 0:46 the sound of someone makes a sound like retching or gagging in another room, possibly a woman who is also heard crying out at 0:26.