Caesar Photos Victim Profile: Nabil Sharbaji

Caesar Photos Victim Profile:
Nabil Sharbaji: Back To Life, Just to Die Again
Aug. 14, 2018
(rough, incomplete)
updates 2018-12-23

<< Fail Caesar {Masterlist}

The Smithsonian museum a while back put on display scraps of cloth with the names and details of some 82 people alleged to be detainees in Syria's Mezzeh prison back in 2012, some of who were killed. As the story goes, these were scrawled secretly under penalty of death, using blood and rust for ink and a chicken bone for a quill, on pieces of someone's shirts. An article in Smithsonian magazine (online) explained, they chose to display the scraps, and the allegations that came sewn up with them, "in part, to combat the denialism of atrocities occuring in Syria, which comes from places like Russia," citing Cameron Hudson, who runs the Smithsonian's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, "but also, as Hudson points out, western outlets that refute or underplay the significance of what’s going on."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/these-cloths-tell-story-worst-humanitarian-crisis-this-generation-180967767/#xurY1IF0X9uFzsrP.99

Here's one of these to show what they look like. These scraps were first publicized in the March, 2017 documentary "Syria's Disappeared: The Case Against Assad" (Channel 4). They were supposedly smuggled out in late 2012, but they've never been mentioned in over four years? What a story to sit on for so long. The named smuggler, and the primary storyteller behind the list, is activist Mansour Al-Omari. He's writing (or wrote?) a book about his hell in prison. There's a film version of his dramatic story: 82 Names. He reads some harrowing passages, explains the 82 names list, ties in Holocaust stuff - all quite moving.

https://www.ushmm.org/online/calendar/eventDetails.php?event=MA82NAMESFILM0618

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxVXedCFbGU&index=1&list=PLWQC3P4psZP7m-3joCYo59XSIXvjK1QM8

Here's Omari humbly serving his duty to history. From Syria's Disappeared: The Case Against Assad

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/on-demand/65453-001

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkpeKOGv2Wg

This post is about the guy who wrote this list, allegedly. Nabil Walid Al-Shurbaji (Arabic: نبيل وليد شربجي ), an anti-corruption, anti-smoking, etc. activist and journalist, from Daraya. (see VDC Arabic detainee entry - to see the English, replace /ar in the url with /en and reload.) The photo is from there, but not app. of him in jail, just behind some bars. Right?

For what it's worth, Mansour Al-Omari worked in the detainees department of the VDC, and would manage entries like his, besides being an alleged cellmate for some time. According to Mr. Omari, and it's not clear who else, Nabil held on for over three years behind bars before he was finally martyred in May, 2015.

In Syria's Disappeared, Mansour al-Omari mentions others helping write these notes, but it sounds like his idea, here and elsewhere. He says the list-maker in him just urged it. Sharbaji is not mentioned there. But in his NYT op-ed and elsewhere, Omari gives full credit. He's the main source for all stories, this gist of which are Nabil had the best handwriting, so he took responsibility for using the chicken bones and blood/rust "ink" to document everyone present. Also it was his shirt the list was sewn into by the tailor, who also offered the first blood for their ink, from his scurvied gums.

Shortly before the 2017 airing of Omari's story, in December 2016, an Arabic-language website was running reports about Nabil Shurbaji's numerous blood dispatches.  Who Killed Nabil Sharbaji? - english.enabbaladi.net, December 2016
https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/killed-nabil-shurbaji/
From his cell, Nabil wrote down in blood from a bleeding cellmate’s gums mixed with rust, the names, telephone numbers and place of residence of all his cellmates, on pieces of cloth, for it to be smuggled out of prison. The cloth, which was part of a shirt belonging to another inmate, was smuggled out by the journalist Mansour al-Omari when he transferred to Adra Central prison.

There were 57 prisoners to document this way when they started. The number of prisoners changed over the long span required, so 82 names were included in the end. That's a lot of blood, rust, surely several chicken-bone quills, and a long time to wonder things like "do we really need to put all their addresses and phone numbers?"

This detainee is now a matter of history, worthy of a little more detailed examination. His detention(s) and death(s) under them have spurred protests, rumors, some unknown confusion. 

https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/documenting-darkness-stepping-inside-syrian-prisons/#ixzz5OI9AZuPI

"Nabil had hopes of surviving more than once and we let him down each time."

By reports, he died, survived, and died again a few times. Now for the first time, the full stories told together. It works best as a bullet-list chronology. 

* March 16, 2011: First arrest: day 2 of the uprising
** "first detained by security forces on 16 March 2011. He was released after 17 days..."
http://fawzyelshorbagy.blogspot.com/2016/09/blog-post_96.html September, 2016which reflects a HRW Arabic list from 2013: https://www.hrw.org/ar/news/2013/10/01/251312

* Early April, 2011: released

* Probably sometime that winter 2011/2012: Nabil at liberty, seeming to enjoy life and the snow

* Jan. 29, helps launch Enabbaladi news paper: "Sharbaji is one of the most prominent founders of Enab Baladi and the only academic journalist among the team at that time. Nabil edited the news in the first issues of Enab Baladi and he also filmed, with his own camera and voice, the announcement of the launch of “issue-zero” on 29 January 2012."

https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2017/01/enab-baladi-five-years-amateur-professional/

Nabil Sharbaji, the seed of al-Arishah

* Feb 26, 2012: Second arrest:
** "The Syrian regime arrested Nabil on February 26th, 2012 in Daraya. prison." https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/killed-nabil-shurbaji/
** VDC detainee entry: Nabeel Waleed Shurbaji 30 Daraya, Journalist and Activist, detained 2-26-2012,  It is the Second detention for him.
www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/detainees/38473#.W3GCr_ZFzug
** HRW: "arrested on 26 February 2012 From an Air Force checkpoint in the Thawra district of Badariya, while driving to a friend's house. Two of Nabil's friends who were with him that day informed his family of his arrest." https://www.hrw.org/ar/news/2013/10/01/251312
** video Feb. 26 2012 "Darya chants chanting for peaceful activist Nabil al-Sharbaji in Kafarsousa"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdSaSdTflNA

* Late Feb., 2012 to ??: Detention was initially at: "At air force intelligence center near the Mezzah military airport in Damascus. The center was under the supervision of Maher al-Assad, the brother of President Bashar al-Assad and one of the most feared men in Syria’s security services." NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/opinion/what-i-smuggled-from-a-syrian-prison.html
** "Nabil spent the first period of his detention in the Air Force’s investigation department in Mezzah airport in Damascus. Later he was transferred several times, including to Adra central prison and then to Saydnaya prison."" https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/killed-nabil-shurbaji/
** "Former detainees told Nabil's family said that they had seen him at the detention center of the air force in Mazzeh…" HRW

* Before February was out: "Former detainees of Nabil's family said that they had seen him at the detention center of the air force in Mazzeh and that in February 2012 the officials had transferred him to Adra (central prison)." HRW 

* June, 2012: held with Mansour Al-Omari of the VDC, and 55 other men in a cell Mezzah (initial locale, before immediate transfer to Adra reported above).  Omari: “"The colonel told me he wouldn’t accuse me of gun possession,” my cellmate Nabil Shurbaji told me happily one evening in June 2012." NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/opinion/what-i-smuggled-from-a-syrian-prison.html

* Up to November: making the list at Mezzah: his first and so far only "message"
** "The first of Nabil’s messages was on another detainee’s shirt on which Nabil wrote the names of his cellmates with blood and rust. The journalist Mansour al-Omari smuggled it out when he was released."  https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2017/01/nabil-sharbaji-syria-not-mark-absent/#ixzz5O3EAH3Lh
** "Shurbaji, Omari, and the others agreed: Whoever was released first would wear Shurbaji's shirt. The scraps would be hidden inside the collar and cuffs." https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/middleeast/2017/12/fabric-mansour-omari-syria-secret-prisons-171207173316895.html

* Nov. 14, 2012, Mansour al-Omari released: "the jailer called my name, and shouted through the hole in the steel door: “Get your stuff ready, and wait by the door, bastard!” I knew that meant I would be released for good. I put on Nabil’s shirt." He was transferred to Adra, then released  on Feb. 5, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/opinion/what-i-smuggled-from-a-syrian-prison.html

* Late 2012 - May, 2015: Nabil continues 3-year imprisonment: 

** "Nabil struggled against his fate for three years. He did not want to die. He used to sing “Raj’een ya Hawa” (Oh love, we will return) silently, so the jailers would not hear him. He wanted to go back to life." https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/killed-nabil-shurbaji/

** "Nabil was later transferred to the Fourth Division in al-Saboura mountain before being transferred to Adra Central Prison and finally to Saydnaya Prison. Inmates in Saydnaya said that he died of illness in May 2015." (sounds like an uninterrupted span there) https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2017/01/nabil-sharbaji-syria-not-mark-absent/#ixzz5O3EAH3Lh

* December, 2012: Nabil is "brought before a judge at the military court in Qabun in December." HRW 

* unknown: Nabil released?

* Jan. 30/31 2013: third arrest?

** VDC killed entry 1: "arrested 63 days ago" to death date April 3, 2013 = Jan 30 http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/72905#.W3FSo_ZFzug

** Facebook tribute page: "... the last appearance of Martyr Nabil in 2013/1/31" Coincidence? 

https://www.facebook.com/475876922480181/photos/a.475945665806640.1073741826.475876922480181/481614548573085/?type=3

* Feb 8, 2013: newly jailed 

** "confirmed in the darkness of detention on Friday, 8 February..." https://www.facebook.com/475876922480181/photos/a.475945665806640.1073741826.475876922480181/478944052173468/?type=3

* Feb. 11, 2013: seen in Adra central prison www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/detainees/38473#.W3GCr_ZFzug

* Feb. 17, 2013: "Update: A relative told Human Rights Watch that he was transferred on 17 February to Sednaya prison after being brought before a judge at the military court in Qabun in December. Security forces in Sednaya prison in December refused to ask his family to visit Nabil Sharbaji there." (?translation issue perhaps?) https://www.hrw.org/ar/news/2013/10/01/251312

* February, 2013: Nabil appears dead in the "Caesar photos."   

The photo below shown with alive pictures as both showing Nabil by SHRC:
 http://www.shrc.org/en/?p=24669 

and by the VDC in a second entry upon this photo ID 
http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/145394#.W3FdmPZFzuh

The Caesar photos were released, first to select channels for initial IDs in early March, 2015, then soon published online around March 15. Nabil was identified by someone as thus guy, on or before March 9. From my files, I found t
he photo is on the SAFMCD site as j-9092-2-2013 (2). http://safmcd.com/martyr/view.php?id=3581
or use the red number 435514 to search in the search box there.

The data claims he was held by AF Intel, branded the Arabic equivalent of J, as an abbreviation for that. J numbers are often non-sequential, but make sense in his stretch j-9090, 9091, 9094 all appear, and all dated 2-2013. That's the folder date for February, 2013. The given date seems to be the start of collection, but this has no day (the 1st?). There's also an odd 2-28 folder and then one for March, so it's before the 28th, barring a fluke misplacement. He doesn't look to have been held along, absorbed very much abuse, neglect, or starvation, compared to most. Was he one of those meant to stay recognizable?

Note: even if one doubts that February date, or the victim match, whoever that is must be dead by Aug. 20, 2013, when "Caesar" fled with the last of his collected photos. No one who died after this should be seen in the photos.

* April 3, 2013: Nabil has been tortured to death, buried in secret, just now

Did someone know he was dead, and decide to finally release the news, after a longer implied detention?
** VDC killed entry #1: Nabil al-Sharbaji, age 32, Occupation: French Teacher - Activist. Matching photo, from Daraya - same guy. Date of death: 2013-04-03"he was tortured to death after being arrested 63 days ago by air security forces" = Jan. 30, 2013 detention http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/72905#.W3FSo_ZFzug

** The VDC cites Nabil tribute Facebook page: April 3: "After 63 days of detention... He was martyred under torture in occupation prisons since 8 February 2013" [sic - that doesn't add up right]

** April 4: not certain: "It is not possible to ensure that any detainee is killed under torture in the absence of handing over bodies to martyrs."

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=476224865778720&id=475876922480181

** message from his wife, perhaps named Safaa: "we don't have news until we see his body..."

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=476218872445986&id=475876922480181

** April 12: "confirmed … buried in an unknown place"

https://www.facebook.com/475876922480181/photos/a.475945665806640.1073741826.475876922480181/478944052173468/?type=3

** https://twitter.com/SyrianMartyrs/status/319524098055229441

But no, that must have been some confusion. The rumors were unfounded. The man lives on! At least, according to the best-informed guy on all this:

* April 15, 2013: Nabil pens another blood letter to the same Mahmoud Omari, who later shared it with the media. It says:
** “Mansour, my friend, I was so sad when you left us. I tried to continue what you started, but I could not, because the conditions have changed a lot, and it has become too difficult… We are now 90 people in one room. I miss singing together and you telling us stories of films, and missed when you and ****** annoyed when I wanted to rest… Oh God, we came back to life, my friend, at the tune of the song: (we are coming back) Raj’een ya Hawa… Peace be upon you. Adra Central Prison. 15/04/2013.”
https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/killed-nabil-shurbaji/
He tries to continue writing everyone's names in blood, but he couldn't... he explains, writing in blood? At great length? 

No, another article shows the letter, looking like he got hold of a pen and paper somehow. 

https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/documenting-darkness-stepping-inside-syrian-prisons/#ixzz5OI9AZuPI

* July, 2013: a cited letter: "By: Nabil Walid Sharbaji… Adra Central Prison July 2013 hallucinations seem to me days with all its difficulties very fast, but when... " (citation ends, original link is dead) 

https://twitter.com/Hananlakoud/status/813704320818511872

* August, 2013 or later: 

** "The last and most painful letter he wrote was a eulogy for his brother, Omar, who died defending Daraya in August 2013. Nabil wrote, “In all the twenty-nine years of my life, it never took me a long time to become convinced of something or believe in it or make peace with it, but this time it will take me all of eternity to believe that his sun has set and to realize that I have lost Omar forever.”

https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2017/01/nabil-sharbaji-syria-not-mark-absent/#ixzz5O3LoqnZV
Painful indeed - that's a lot of blood.

** Note VDC has no entry for an Omar Sharbaji killed this month. But they list Omar Al-Shurbaji, 45, Daraya, as detained on August 31, but "Detention date is inaccurate. Known Abu Husain." 

www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/detainees/55923#.W3GCxvZFzug

* August 9, 2013: VDC detainees database, run by former cellmate Al-Omari; adds that Sharbaji was "seen in Adra central prison on 09-08-2013"
www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/detainees/38473#.W3GCr_ZFzug

* Sept. 21, 25, 2013: same says he was seen in Mazzah Military Airport - Air Force Intelligence on 21-09-2013 … His case has been transferred to Court on 25/09/2013
www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/detainees/38473#.W3GCr_ZFzug

* Oct. 1, 2013: is or recently was seen alive by family in Adra, per HRW: "Some members of Nabil's family, who have been able to visit him once in Adra, where he is still there, said that his legal status is unclear. Officials told Nabil that he would face trial before a military court in the field, but he did not meet a judge and was not informed of the charges against him." https://www.hrw.org/ar/news/2013/10/01/251312

* Oct. 2013-2014-early 2015: No sighting or letters mentioned. He must have been transferred somewhere secret, where you don't get news anymore.

* March 9, 2015: "Caesar photos" are released for review, Nabil is swiftly identified as the one shown in the 2-2013 photo. 
** listed again by VDC upon verification, March 9
http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/145394#.W3FdmPZFzuh

Martyred under torture in the regime`s air forces directorate prisons after being detained on 24-2-2012, Date of death unknown accurately (previously given as April 3, 2013 - see above - and second detention date is a bit off)
** https://twitter.com/Daraya_Network/status/575081308159762432
** https://twitter.com/ghazi_73/status/575252623911088129
** This list assembled shortly thereafter includes the match  http://www.shrc.org/en/?p=24669 

* May 3, 2015: News from the secret place: he's dead again, just now.
** "Nabil Sharbaji, a Syrian journalist and peaceful activist, he was killed in detention in Saydnaya military prison on May 3rd ,2015." https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2017/01/nabil-sharbaji-syria-not-mark-absent/#ixzz5O3EAH3Lh
** Mansour Omari: "After two years [past his own Feb. 2013 release], Nabil died. He died in the Saydnaya military prison after a jailer kicked him in the chest, sending his soul to heaven and body to some mass grave or, perhaps, an incinerator." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/opinion/what-i-smuggled-from-a-syrian-prison.html
First, his body  - as many say - passed under the lens of Caesar, sometime before Caesar fled in August, 2013. 
** "...he was killed in the Sednaya prison for political detainees on 3 May 2015, according to testimonies from detainees who were with him at that time."

https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2017/01/enab-baladi-five-years-amateur-professional/

Nabil Sharbaji, the seed of al-Arishah
** Kholoud Helmi, founder of Enab baladi newspaper: “The first one we lost was the CEO, Mohammad Quraitem. He took the decision to stay in my hometown after we left and he was killed by a missile that hit his home. Then we lost a reporter from Darayya one month later. Then within the period of two or three months we lost the managing editor, Ahmad Shihadeh. Then in 2015 one of our co-founders, Nabil Shurbaji, was killed under torture in prison after he was arrested in February 2012. He was the only journalist among us. The rest of us were amateurs.
“We only learned that he had been killed two years later. Other people are still in prison. We paid a very heavy price.” https://www.bigissuenorth.com/features/2018/05/womans-place-resistance/
** Did it take 2 years to learn in 2017, or did it take a bit longer to forget the prior ID as a guy who died in early 2013? They say the former, app. when this guy was released:

** "Omar al-Shaghiri, one of the people who witnessed Nabil’s death in detention, said, “The jailor used to come every morning and shout, “Bastards, who has someone who died?” That day, the cell officer in the cell next to mine said he had someone. The jailor asked him for the full name, mother’s name and date of birth. The officer responded, ‘Nabil Sharbaji’. Then he said his father’s name, mother’s name and his date of birth. I remember that day well. One of Nabil’s closest friends was in the same cell as me and he cried when he heard Nabil’s name. His mental state and health deteriorated after hearing of the death of one of his dearest friends.”

https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2016/12/documenting-darkness-stepping-inside-syrian-prisons/#ixzz5OI9AZuPI

It's said he died from a kick to the chest. Looking at the photo above, Nabil could have died from ... breathing problems in the chest. That could cause your ears to turn purple, lips a bit (cyanosis - low oxygen, from many causes, not just chemicals). That could perhaps explain the blood from his nose. Not sure it would cause the very faint yellow staining on his lower face. And definitely, a kick in the chest in 2015 can't be hard enough to kill you 2 years back in time. 

Compare to another onetime cellmate of Omari, super-positive and totally peaceful activist Ayham Ghazoul, who allegedly died of internal injuries, no external wounds (someone else, not Mansour, claims to have seen that, after transfer to branch 227 - unless he's also "M", but the story he gives is different...). Irritated skin on neck, mild cyanosis, red, irritated eyes, yellow crust in eyes, yellow staining across lower face. 

Both suggest there had been more of this yellow fluid, plus blood, etc. leaking from their airways but it was washed off pretty well prior to these photos ...as actual opposition activists, where they were meant to be recognized? The majority are captured SAA soldiers and "Shabiha", I suspect, and are starved down, massively neglected, often left covered in blood and mucous across their faces, sometime deep purple all over, with eye irritation so bad their eyes are swollen and oozing bloody fluids like rotting peaches. These guys got it easy. But not nearly as easy as some...


More on Mansour Al-Omari

"He was working at the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus when they came for him..."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/these-cloths-tell-story-worst-humanitarian-crisis-this-generation-180967767/

"I had been the supervisor of the detainees section of the Violation Documentation Center, an independent organization that has monitored human rights violations in Syria since April 2011." 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/opinion/what-i-smuggled-from-a-syrian-prison.html

That's who found out: Nabil "was seen in Mazzah Military Airport - Air Force Intelligence on 21-09-2013, Adra central prison on 11-02-2013, Adra central prison on 09-08-2013," months after the guy several people are sure is him was already seen dead.

Sources give Nabil's age on arrest as 30 or 32. Omari has the guy writing out in blood, a year later, about his 29 years of life so far.

After his release in early 2013, Omari says he told Nabil's fiancée that he was alive, and assured her he would be for a long time. 

"Among the people I contacted was Nabil’s fiancée. Nabil had talked to me about her almost every day while we were imprisoned together. “She was the only girl who understood me,” he used to say. He dreamed of her almost every day, and thought of the family they would build together when he was finally freed."

The Facebook tribute page set up around the time of his alleged death in April, 2013 says he was married with 3 children already (shown, all young) https://www.facebook.com/475876922480181/photos/a.475945665806640.1073741826.475876922480181/475945669139973/?type=3
and this includes a message from someone claiming to be his wife, perhaps named Safaa: 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=476218872445986&id=475876922480181

Mansour Al-Omari: Does his face lend credibility? You decide.

Update 2018 12-23: I later revised my Caesar photos timeline in more detail. 
https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2018/10/caesar-photos-timeline-of-terror.html

I didn't include Nabil in this, but just now on review I consider his j# is a likely "H# insertion." j-9092 could be unidentified body #9,092 or, as numbered here with the count re-setting at 5,000 to 1 with a b, he'd he 4092/b. That's roughly in the middle of the time span covered by the folder he's in (section below, adding this possibility in green)

4092/b would fall about 400 bodies after the Feb. folder starts, and well before its end around 4521 and 4571/b dated the 27th and 28th. Presuming steady flow, his death date should be around Feb. 10-13. That's about 2 weeks (not 63 days, not a couple years) after his murky 3rd arrest in late January, following his even murkier second release from real jail shortly before that.... hmmm.

update, an hour later: oops. This is before the /b switch, as the image shows, so just 4092, not 9092, would be in range. The above is likely a coincidence, unless they made up his prisoner number by adding 500 to his hospital  # anyway, and it was 4092. Possible but that's all.

Arakan Jihad Documentary

August 11, 2018

ARAKAN - ANCIENT BUDDHIST KINGDOM, ENDANGERED BY JIHAD
Jihad Threatens the Indigenous Buddhists, Hindus, and Tribal Minorities of the Land
A film by Rick Heizman, in 4 parts, 720 quality.

part 1 https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-9PF8GTp/A  

part 2a https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-dg8SfKc/A

part 2b https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-M2pkg2V/A

part 3 https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-pbVdXqx/A

From the end of part 2B, some Rohingya/Bengali kids showing off their peaceful learning, not with real guns yet - they have to be about 15 first:

Again the world heard and accepted a tale of persecution against Innocent Sunni Muslims by Buddhist chauvinists. Again, many decided Wahabbism is not the problem here - it's Buddhists, Hindus, Shi'ites, Alawites, Secular Sunnis, secular anyone, Druze, Christians, Jews, Atheists, Russians, Persians, Kurds, Armenians, Black People, and whoever else, in what the Wahabbis consider a global Satanic conspiracy against their one true faith. Do we really buy this? No. So why do we pick and choose where we believe some part of the story? Ah yes - where doing that would further an existing geostrategic objective of the ruling elites.

For more context, see (my own work):
On-site: http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/search/label/Myanmar

3-part series at The Indicter
http://theindicter.com/fake-news-and-massacre-marketing-in-the-rohingya-crisis-part-i-questioning-the-massacre-stories-1/
http://theindicter.com/men-in-black-at-kha-maung-seik-a-massacre-by-rohingya-part-ii-of-the-series-fake-news-massacre-marketing-in-the-rohingya-crisis/
http://theindicter.com/other-massacre-stories-that-fall-apart-part-iii-and-conclusion-of-the-series-fake-news-massacre-marketing-in-the-rohingya-crisis/

Witness Profile: Moaed Dumane

August 5, 2018

Just a quick post since I already did the research. This is a minor witness, not widely-cited or seemingly central to things. But he does seem to be a liar. 

https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/a-survivor-describes-the-chemical-attack-in-syria

"Moaed Dumane, a twenty-seven-year-old media activist and political-science student who works with the Syrian opposition," spoke with reporter Fariba Nawa before he left with those who preferred Islamist-controlled Idlib over government-controlled Douma. Dumane almost surely means Doumani, which is sometimes a real name, but on a guy from here, it's likely a pseudonym, meaning "from Douma." Abu Hamza al-Doumani, for example, is a made-up activist name.

"He has lived in the besieged rebel enclave for nearly all of Syria’s seven-year civil war. He said that thirty-three members of his family were killed in executions by Syrian government forces in 2012, including his father, his brother, two of his uncles, and many of his cousins. He was shot in the hand and survived by playing dead beneath the bodies of his relatives."

But this fighting age male miraculously survived, got to live and speak for everyone else. Huh. 33 family members killed. Well, these should largely have the same last name as he (brothers and sisters, father but not mother, brothers' kids but not sisters' kids, etc.). The Douma-based VDC lists:
* No one named "Dumane" killed in the whole war
* 5 Doumanis killed in 2012 by all causes, in all areas: none from Douma 
* 172 of all names from Douma, field executed in 2012 - 21 women, 7 boys, 6 girls,  138 men/left blank. Of these:
** 5 named Koubaitari, 6 named Safadi, no name repeated enough to be his 33-member family. Other names are less common yet.
** But nearly half the entries, 56 total, are unidentified (all men/left blank). Probably one of those is a single family of 33 representing the bulk of those the ruling Islamists didn't bother naming. But I see no day where 33 are listed as dying. The worst days are Aug. 17 (12 killed, all UNID) and Sept. 4 (19 dead, all UNID). These do total 31, but no 33+ on any single day. Were they killed in 2 big shifts, and never named, despite this media activist? He happens to be a member of the most-killed yet unnamed family in Douma massacre history, who survived that purge to tell that and other tales.

Or are they named? Somehow I forgot to scan page 2 until after checking an old ACLOS page.
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Douma_Massacre_(early_July)
directs to still active alleged witness video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdg3G4ttUQ
14 family members attacked June 28 for no reason, Shabiha killed 10 dead, 2 were wounded, 2 unwounded - the guy speaking seems to have no hand wound, but he has a bandaged foot, and might be the or a survivor - might be about 21, here in 2012, to Moaed's 27 in 2018. He says 2 nephews bled to death (are these among the 2 wounded or 10 killed?) - named Mahmoud Salem Temeh and Nizar Temeh. This appears (varied spelling) in the VDC's database for June 28 Douma executions. The names given don't appear, but some entries are unnamed sons of Alaa and Yaser Tomeh - none from a Salim - But it's not 10, 12, or even 14 dead, but 19 just named Tomeh, or unnamed wife of one, +10 others named al-Roub, Sleik, Restum, Awad, and Smadi, should include a wife or two, and perhaps are all interrelated. (Smadi appears as the name of a woman victim of the Douma chemical attack on April 7, 2018). The 29 are 16 men, 8 women, 3 boys, 2 girls. same day, all causes, 70 killed in Douma, those 29 plus 51 killed by shooting, shelling. 4 men named Al-Slek killed by shelling - app. related to Sleiks massacred, who are perhaps related to the rest killed - 29+4 = 33 possible family members killed in a rather targeted massacre.

So that might be Moaed's story, or maybe he's the other of 2-4 survivors, while the other fighting-age guy the same age with a wounded foot also survived - or maybe this just can't be correlated with anything on the record.

Anyway, he also survived the Douma chemical attack and told the tale.
“On Saturday, heavy shelling and air strikes started in Douma, targeting everything that was moving. I was with my family and the neighbors in the shelters. The Assad regime was attacking us. Several barrel bombs fell from a helicopter, and then there was a strong, strange smell."

Note: chlorine's smell should not be "strange" to most people, especially after years of reported incidents across Syria. By experience or repetition, everyone should be aware what it smells like, and describe it as "like cleaning products" or something. This could mean nothing, or be a clue to some special knowledge.

"We, my friends and I, who document atrocities, couldn’t move closer to the area because of continued shelling. After the bombardment subsided, we went to check out where the barrel bombs fell, then we saw a lot of families in their homes who couldn’t escape."

How many people did they see in how many homes? We saw 35 bodies in a few apartments in one building.

“Their pupils were narrow. Most victims were women and children. It was a horrific scene. The smell was extremely strong. The dead were moved to makeshift medical clinics. Most were dead from suffocation. The attack didn’t stop that night but the next day. The medical clinics were bombed, and most were completely destroyed. The locations that were shelled were the homes of civilians, far away from front lines."

The locations also seem to be where no bombs fell that day, but where activists Moaed might know seemingly dragged two chlorine cylinders into place and set the gas flowing.

Swept Under the Rug part 2

Swept Under the Rug

The Plot to Delay the OPCW Douma Probe and Manipulate the Evidence

Part 2: Scrub Marks?
August 5, 2018

In Swept Under the Rug part 1 we looked at the minor delays in the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) investigation of the Douma chemical incident of April 7. That delay was unfairly blamed on Damascus and Moscow, allegedly used to buy time and scrub the crime scenes of clues. Now we turn to what was and wasn't found once they got to Douma and, as best I can, to what it actually means.

No Sarin: That's A Problem

With the release of the OPCW's interim report in July (PDF link), we have some information from the scene that might contain clues of any meddling. We finally learn that all the environmental and biological samples so far tested (not all of them, but about one in three) suggest chlorine exposure - Dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, etc.

There are some questions raised by other researchers and activists about these "chlorinated compounds," which I'll make a separate space to consider. Not knowing for sure, it seems their findings confirm a chlorine release, despite the lack of specificity. If so, headlines declaring chlorine found are premature - as the BBC acknowledged changing one - but the gist is probably accurate anyway. They likely have confirmed it or will in time.

But the tests come up negative for the expected sarin nerve agent, its breakdown products, or anything similar.

2.5 The results of the analysis of the prioritised samples submitted to OPCW designated laboratories were received by the FFM team on 22 May 2018. No organophosphorus nerve agents or their degradation products were detected, either in the environmental samples or in plasma samples from the alleged casualties. … Work by the team to establish the significance of these results is ongoing. 

Technically, one organophosphorus nerve agent surfaced; the commercial pesticide malathion. This likely means nothing as it's so common, but in context, it could be extremely relevant… a dedicated post to explore that is forthcoming (comments best saved for there, after I make my case).

Anyway, the report explains how 31 samples were selected for first analysis - those deemed most important and/or fragile (see point 8.6). By the report's annex 3, these are 11 biological samples (blood and plasma) and 20 environmental samples. The latter showed chlorine-related compounds, unexplained explosives residue, and other things of no clear consequence (including a flame retardant found in some fabric). But over and over it says for all 31 samples "No chemicals relevant to CWC have been found" or "No nerve agent related chemicals detected."

As I explain here, that's a big problem for the opposition's claims, because chlorine alone can hardly explain 35 people dropping dead on site. Sarin or similar very well could, if it even makes sense to deploy it along with chlorine (which is an open question of some importance). But it now seems there wasn't any sarin. Not everyone acknowledges it, but this doesn't add up.

MediaLens ran a good analysis of the problem. "It is worth reiterating again – as media responses to the OPCW's latest report, conspicuously, have not - that chlorine was not a sufficiently deadly agent to cause either the claimed level of carnage or the claimed level of Western moral outrage. " Activists reported symptoms of nerve agent, the death toll and appearance of sudden death highly suggested it, and in fact U.S. government officials claimed they had blood samples showing an unnamed nerve agent.

NBC News, April 12: "The U.S. now has blood and urine samples from last Saturday's deadly attack ...The samples suggested the presence of both chlorine gas and an unnamed nerve agent, two officials said." It's unlikely tests could detect chlorine exposure (see below), so they can't likely show this plus sarin. "The officials said they were "confident" in the intelligence, though not 100 percent sure." With this confidence aired, on April 14 president Trump ordered the launch of missiles at Assad's alleged nerve agent factories (recently cleared by the OPCW, however) and, less mentioned, Syria's well-defended airfields. Soon U.S. officials were specifying sarin was the nerve agent, but not citing blood or urine tests - just "information" suggesting it (DoS briefing, 4-17), and deduction from reported symptoms (DoD report, 4-18). Was the talk of samples just a confident prediction? If so, the confidence seems ill-placed. The OPCW tested several people who claimed to be exposed in the same incident, and none showed that alleged nerve agent result.

No Sarin Traces Rally Means No Sarin

Some people - if they acknowledge the evidence is broken at all - will decide the Russians or Syrians broke it, by removing the traces of the necessary poison. But one CW expert didn't think that was likely, when he spoke to the Guardian for an April 17 report: "Jerry Smith, who helped supervise the OPCW-led withdrawal of much of Syria’s sarin stockpile in 2013 … said it was likely that residual samples of nerve agent would remain for at least another week, even after an attempted clean-up." Read literally, that would be at least until April 24 - 17 days after the incident. Investigators arrived April 21 at one site, and on the 25th at the other. By Smith's assessment, they would be likely to turn up such clues then, if they ever existed. But as far as we know, he's no expert in regime-blaming, where different standards of science seem to apply.

In contrast, British CRBN expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a stalwart regime-blamer, and tells Josie Ensor at the Telegraph (July 23): "He believes a nerve agent was likely used alongside chlorine ... but that the material had badly degraded in the two weeks it took inspectors to get to the site." A lack of "timely access from the (Syrian) government" was the problem that led to this suspected erasure of the evidence. But as we've seen, if it was simple delay to blame, it wasn't Syria or Russia behind that. (snippets via Malika on Twitter).

So experts disagree - all sarin traces are either likely to vanish from the site within 14 days, or likely to persist for at least 17 days. This isn't possible to call with certainty. My prior research has little or nothing on delayed environmental samples, but there is this: My list of impure sarin incidents includes two attacks against Syrian soldiers in the days after the 2013 Ghouta attack, and in the same basic area (Damascus Suburbs). 8-24-2013 Jobar, and 8-25-2013 Ashrafiah Sahnaya. In fact, the Jobar attack was just meters from the apparent firing area for the Ghouta attack's rockets. It was rebel-held, just then being contested and hence the attack by cornered Islamists. At right is the firing spot (approximate - explained) compared to the 8-24 incident location, per UN report, p. 62. (Yes, I'm suggesting rebels there fired the sarin-linked rockets blamed for the absurd Assad attack as reported)

No one died in either attack, but some soldiers were seriously affected. Plasma samples were taken by the Syrian Government on the day of each attack, and at least 4 from Jobar and 5 from the other attack tested positive for Sarin signatures. Those nine samples from the two cases were re-tested by UN-OPCW investigators on September 26 and 28, about a month later (as explained in the UN report linked above). These were DNA matched to the same soldiers earlier tested, and found mostly to be negative. But one sample from the August 24 incident still tested positive, and that's enough to suggest they all did, like the Syrian tests had said, but the signs had mostly faded by then.

So by this, about a month out, signs will sometimes appear in the body (probably a high-exposure case), but usually will not. Three weeks seems like a rough but fair outer limit for detection in most cases.

That's inside the body, with metabolic activity breaking it down, and only byproducts (if telling ones) actually found. Just laying in the environment the decay should be slower and simpler. I had picked that up somewhere... but it could be about the same, or even faster, depending. I can't get more specific at the moment, but it seems likely both of these estimates above are short, one out of caution and one out political expediency.

Furthermore, if a time delay cast any serious doubt over the findings, so there may have been sarin at the site at one point, the OPCW should have mentioned this. They don't mention this, so implicitly, all samples were gathered within what they consider the time frame of detection.

Just two weeks out, the chlorine signs turn up uniformly, but not the sarin ones. So what, if anything, was scrubbed? The methods and details of any cleanup being unclear, we can't say for sure, but probably nothing. It could be the crime scene was found just as nonsensical as the Islamists left it; some non-lethal chlorine was released, 35 people with non-red eyes allegedly dropped dead in piles, and Assad is to blame.

The Incomplete Site Search
The OPCW report mentions how during their visit to location 2 (the crucial 35-bodies site), Syrian authorities "did not provide the access requested by the FFM team to some apartments within the building, which were closed at the time. The Syrian Arab Republic representatives stated that they did not have the authority to force entry into the locked apartments." (point 8.10)

In fact their access may have been quite incomplete. "8.11 The FFM had full access to other areas of interest within the same building, namely the balcony where the cylinder had allegedly impacted, the apartment directly below this, and the basement of the same apartment block." All listed samples are from levels 3 (balcony), level 2 (apartment beneath that) and level -1 (the basement). None are from the floors in between (levels 0 and 1 as they'd say, or floors 1 and 2 as we do here). These were perhaps entirely un-accessed. Two samples were collected at level 0: both concrete found in the street outside the building. Inside on the ground floor, and on the level above, is where all but 7 of the 35 bodies were found on the night of the attack. Chlorine supposedly made people drop dead on the spot in those spots. Did it mix with something here? Perhaps no clues were gathered at all to help shed light on that.

There's also no mention of samples taken from the stairwell. That would be the gas' spread route down to the victims, and 3 bodies were found there that night. It was surely accessible to the FFM, used to go from the basement to the top. Heavier traffic there is more likely to disrupt the clues, but the corners might have been worth testing.

Whatever the doors to whatever areas, the OPCW says the Syrians claimed someone locked them and they had no authority to force entry. Considering the gravity of the situation, with chemical "inspectors" flying into a war zone and Syrian officers getting wounded trying to get them to the site, with acts of war already carried out based on someone's impression of this crime, and with the mileage made of any possible sign of obfuscation from Damascus ... it might have been wiser to suspend that rule. They could be forgiven for breaking down enough doors in an abandoned building to get a clear scientific picture, and leave as little as possible to speculate over. They'd be denounced for brutally kicking-in doors, but that's life.

Because valid or not, this will be reason enough for some to write-off the whole investigation. It could be concluded the scrubbed up sarin traces were piled and swept under a rug in one of these rooms, and they've probably been moved since, now hidden Raiders of the Lost Ark style along with Iraq's vanished WMDs.

But then, any inconvenient scientific findings can be ignored with no reason at all. We'll come back to the locked doors.

Blood-Scrubbing?

Now who has ever accused Russia and Syria of holding inspectors up so they could finish removing sarin traces from the blood of the victims? No one. That sounds pretty stupid. Such talk always refered to the attack sites. But what else can explain the absence of that required sarin even in the bodily fluids of people who swear they were gassed just the same way?

According to the OPCW report's annexes, plasma and blood samples were collected from April 17 to 30, directly by their Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), or mostly handed in by coded sources of unknown reliability - probably Islamist activists in league with the former administrators. Apparently, none of these tested for sarin either: "No organophosphorus nerve agents or their degradation products were detected, either in the environmental samples or in plasma samples from the alleged casualties."

The definition of "casualties" isn't clear except that, as the report explains, none of those actually killed is included. Apparently none of those was sampled - at least not reliably enough for their standards - prior to burial. At report time, the OPCW still hadn't exhumed any decaying bodies, but hoped to in time. Perhaps they alone also show (showed) signs of sarin? Not likely, but we're left wondering.

There is precedent - Moadamiya, Aug. 21 2013. UN-OPCW investigators found no reliable sign of sarin in the environment, but an almost total positive for people allegedly exposed there (see WhoGhouta). And this was just a couple of days after the incident, not two weeks. That's a suspected false-flag fail due to poor coordination. The same could have happened in Douma, potentially, especially under the losing conditions.

Also recall in the 2013 Ghouta attack, from all the alleged 1,429, 1,700 fatalities, or whatever it really was (hundreds are for sure), none of them at all was tested by the UN-OPCW, who chose to rely on the alleged survivors with dubious patterns like that mess-up in Moadamiya. (see here) Again in Douma, 2018, so far the pivotal people are left out of the science part of things. The bodies of all chemical victims ("some 50" to the reported total of 43) were said, by alleged CW program defector Zaher Sakat, to be buried in a secret location in or near Douma. (EA Worldview). This is reportedly a singular mass grave, as the Islamists usually do for useful massacre victims with really busy families, I guess. The OPCW was reportedly informed of the location, but the regime apparently didn't know it. Mohammed Alloush, a senior official of Jaish al-Islam (the former occupying force in Douma), "claimed on Tuesday night that Assad forces are digging up graves in a search for the bodies of victims, hoping to remove them before the OPCW inspectors can test for chemical exposure." (EA Worldview, same link)

So the tested "casualties" are not any of the dead, and could be people who claim to have been in one of the gassed buildings, or to have encountered the gas in the streets or elsewhere. We're not sure even what's alleged about their exposure, except that implicitly, it's to the gas Assad dropped that day, the stuff in question.

A table A 3.2 shows 11 samples set aside (for testing?). Nine are taken on April 21, with two taken on the 18th, but not tested by lab DL02 for some reason (both were "handed over by 1757" - see table A 4). The nine others have results saying: "No relevant chemicals found" from lab 2, with lab 3 offering a more specific blanket list of what wasn't found, apparently for all 11: any of 3 major signs of nerve agent exposure to G type agents (including sarin, or GB) and V-type agents (like VX).

Note this all says nothing for or against chlorine exposure, which doesn't leaves any lasting traces you can test for. Physicians for Human Rights (supports the Syrian opposition, seems credible on this point) has a PDF that explains "Diagnosis of acute chlorine gas toxicity is primarily clinical, based on respiratory difficulties and irritation." Many things can cause these symptoms, however. It says you can also look for signs of stress and damage to the lungs or heart consistent with CL, or anything else that causes such damage (same problem). So the presence of the chlorine smell is one of the best methods to diagnose it. Otherwise, the environment can be tested for CL release by air monitoring right after, or testing soil, etc. later on, and if it's found, one can presume that the patient was exposed there. But from this and all else I've seen, there's no direct medical test  for exposure, even very soon after the fact. (adding: CDC document says "There are no medical tests to determine whether you have been exposed specifically to chlorine."

These results do clearly  rule out sarin or anything similar, at least in the cases of those alleged casualties. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon thinks the clues had all degraded. But for that to apply to biological samples as well, it's not likely to fade that much in 11 of 11 selected blood samples, collected between 10 and 23 days after the incident. As explained above, it turns up in previous OPCW tests on blood drawn for up to a month after exposure, at least in the one case out of nine.

Furthermore, the table above shows that lab DL03 ran tests for peptide/nerve agent adducts (nonapeptide). As I hear this paper explains, these tests aren't affected by aging
of the adduct, so such a short delay is well-nigh impossible to cause a false-negative. 
Marsillach J, Costa LG, Furlong CE. PROTEIN ADDUCTS AS BIOMAKERS OF
EXPOSURE TO ORGANOPHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS. Toxicology. 2013;307:46-54.
doi:10.1016/j.tox.2012.12.007.
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3747771
"These OP-adducted enzymes remain in circulation for times that are dependent on their half-lives, which are generally much longer than the half-lives of the parent OP compound or its metabolites, providing a longer window for detection than the analysis of urinary metabolites or free OPs in blood or urine. Further, it is possible to learn something about the OP of exposure due to the mass differences between different adducts."

And finally, the same point raised above; the OPCW should have mentioned it if there was any serious chance the time delay alone caused the false negative in blood or plasma samples. 

As noted, the opposition story makes little sense with no nerve agent. Its failure to appear in people claiming to be affected by that attack is something the Russians and Syrians cannot have messed up. It's most likely to have persisted until sampling time, but none was found. The clear conclusion: none of those people was ever exposed to sarin, and no sarin was released at either attack site, and so ... the opposition story makes little sense.

And there are some other really weird things about these crime scenes anyway.

Unexplained Fire Evidence, Missing Valve Evidence

The burned wall just beneath the cylinder hole at site 2 is a real mystery. It also has two cleaned spots on it (along the left edge of the black area - see below). Did the Russians or Syrians try washing this off and stop early? Or did someone fleeing, someone in a bigger rush, abandon this project? Ahmed or Boris scrubs a spot with soap and water to depressing effect. Then Hafiz or Ivan tries with this oxygen stuff or a solvent higher up the wall and it works great. But both agree that either way, it would take too long to clean that all up. Hopefully it would just go ignored.

Let's keep both kinds of possible site-scrubbers in mind, but for this bit of work, neither is probably to blame. The OPCW interim report lists samples 21 and 22 as wipes taken "from the burnt wall in the room located under the cylinder" on level 2 (where ground floor is level 0). Entry 21 (bottom smudge, I presume) was taken with water, and 22 with DCM (Dichloromethane - a standard solvent). These samples are not tested yet, or testing results were not published in the July report. It will likely show what kind of accelerant was used to start the fire, at least.

So no one cleaned that up or tried, because it doesn't seem very possible, and maybe not worth it. But that fire in the corner in fact may be a telltale clue; someone might eventually regret being unable to erase it. It was lit, apparently on purpose, on top of the concrete rubble, but sometime before the first video around 10pm on April 7. This I explain here for the benefit of some folks at or working with the New York Times, who seem to have no idea there was an unexplained fire involved, as they called its soot on the gas cylinder some kind of "corrosion" from chlorine contacting the metal.

If one accepts that rubble is from the cylinder's impact around 7:30 that same night, as most do, and release started then … why on Earth would someone be sitting in the gas cloud to light a fire as a first order of business? Why would they also drag a curtain, a package of blankets (?) and so on on top of that rubble? As fuel for the fire, perhaps, not knowing how much was needed for … that unclear purpose.

The black material over (and rinsing off of) the gas cylinder's yellow paint looks like the same soot the OPCW sampled, from the mostly unmentioned fire - so it was set in that hole at the time, and the black part is the underside in that position, the part set over the hole. As seen at 10pm, the fire is done, soot will be deposited as it is around the upper walls and ceiling. But on the cylinder we can't see it, because now it's releasing its gas slowly, causing auto-refrigeration and the frosted underside in that same area, which also has the lowest elevation. (thanks to the folks at Bellingcat for helping us figure this out).

My theory: the fire was set beneath the staged cylinder to melt the fusible plug in its valve assembly. It's a little-known but fairly safe and easy way to release the chlorine. (see above link) The purpose would be just for staging and "realism." The smell doesn't help with video, but the frost comes through. Chlorine color stains appear at the other site, and it seems chlorinated compounds resulted and were found in both spots. Mission accomplished?

It's noteworthy the visible part of the valve assembly is missing the whole time. It could be broken off on impact and lost, or unscrewed manually and hidden from view. Its twin found on the bedrest cylinder didn't vanish (see below, left), but most others we've seen over the years do, at least by video time if not on impact. In that case, the gas would pour uncontrollably out of the broken stem. So it's plausible that happened here, despite the less-than-usual damage seen with both Douma cylinders.

Below right is the first known view of the gas cylinder after the attack, during a time of complete Islamist control, mid-day on April 8. (compare: the intact valve on the bedrest cylinder at left). From a side-view, broken off cleanly or already unscrewed and gone is impossible to say. And those oddly-placed slats of metal prevent a good view of the valve area from below in every view I've seen. It's possible this is why they were placed, to block our view of this point of evidence.

The OPCW's samples 3 and 4 are swabs taken on the 21st from "inside the cylinder orifice (level 3)," meaning this one (the other cylinder has no level associated, just a bed, and they were gathered a different day). This suggests the valve was removed by then anyway, and they wiped from the exposed threads in there. The chlorine traces were found on it, but very faint; a dry sawb revealed nothing, one with water yielded "chloride" and dichloracetic acid - which is caused when chlorine mixes with water. Only a trace amount (that appears more readily when activated by water?) came in contact later, as most of the chlorine poured out through the valve assembly, which was in place then and only removed later. 

So it seems quite likely someone removed this key piece of evidence from the scene. It's impossible so far to be sure when this happened other than before the OPCW's FFM had their look. But if they were trying to hide the extra hole melted in its side, they were covering for evidence manipulations carried out when the Islamists were still firmly in control.

Other Signs of Cover-up and False-Flag (select)

- minimal/illogical damage - as seen above, the extreme ceiling damage compared to minimal cylinder damage and its stopping next to the hole is illogical - if it just stops after sustaining a minor dent, then what force flung some of the concrete's reinforcing bar so far out of place? At the other site, we see limited bed damage after severe roof damage, a cylinder with a very slight overall bend and its harness still on, and an extremely non-vertical angle suggested between the hole and the bed. That's not likely dropped from 2km up, but either hurled in on a catapult or, more likely, planted.

- the explosives residue the OPCW found at each site could prove there was a prior attack in each spot with a mortar or some such (anything that employs TNT), causing the holes and the rubble blamed on the cylinders. Or they could be meaningless background traces. This is a point I'll be addressing in another post...

- scrape marks on cylinder and minimal/illogical damage suggest manual planting at the site of prior damage, much better than they support an aerial drop. Noting these repeated double-scratches are the same distance apart as some loose bars of the damaged lattice:

- Frost on the cylinder underside at 10:06 pm might suggest gas release began well after the alleged impact time around 7:30. This deserves more scrutiny by experts. New York Times investigators heard that, depending on conditions, a full cylinder can take "hours" to empty. The implication is it usually takes a time better described as "minutes." It better take more than 2.5 hours in these conditions. (and be sure to use reliable local weather records, from METARS, Damascus airport, and the right day - not from sources that use predictive models, like the OPCW does). 

- Unexplained vapor device: seen in the stairwell in the 10pm video, as rescuers rush about in gas mask, just now rescuing people, this canister with tube is seen emitting a mystery smoke or gas (whitish, unclear weight, consistent with many things, poorly seen). It's partly hidden under some black material, possibly a shoulder bag, but shuffled to be almost fully visible, in the middle of the stairs from floor 2 down to the landing. On the next flight of stairs from the landing down to ground floor is a similar size piece of fabric or bag off to the side halfway down, possibly concealing a second canister like this. There's been no mention of or explanation yet for this. (see Human Rights Investigations analysis )

- Bleached clothing vs. white eyes: Some bodies in or near the stairwell display wet spots on their clothes as if splashed with bleach and/or laid in it, or more likely by the variety, had still-wet clothes contact chlorine gas. It their clothes were exposed, their eyes must have been. But they never did turn red, so the chlorine exposure happened only after they were already dead (no moving blood to get them bloodshot). And since they remain white, we can be fairly sure their eyes weren't exposed to chlorine before death either. But they died, then chlorine rolled over their bodies. 

- The victims who were dead before any chlorine exposure also appear planted, clustered and even piled fairly near the exit/entrance, up to water sources, where they apparently had their hair and faces washed, well after death but before the first images of the scene. A post coming to explain some details better. The strange washing is explained already here.

- Very unusual clinical signs suggest the victims were controlled captives of the retreating Islamists, killed in a deliberate and strange chemical extermination. The mask-like stains on their faces have never been seen before, and are best explained by the victims hanging upside down, with swimmer's goggles protecting their eyes, left coughing a yellow-brown fluid up their faces until dead, staining the area all around but not in their eyes (pooling up under the goggles before rolling around and dripping away). See Douma's mask of death. 

Stranger than fiction, truth can be, and I wouldn't just decide to make up something so strange. I'm looking for anything less crazy but adequate. So far this is the best I or anyone. I've asked can think of to explain those bizarre mask-like stains all around, but not in, the victims' non-irritated eyes, and sometimes not along lines like tight straps (right: artistic extract of the pattern as seen in an extra-vivid but icky case). Aside from the weirdness of it, this explanation fits what we see perfectly. The same clues would explain extra face and hair washing so widely suggested - these ugly signs were probably worse on first delivery.

Bondage and googles could even explain how chlorine actually could kill 35 people without causing any red eyes. But then, a killing done with impure sarin would look roughly the same, or with just the impurities, or with many things, so lets' wait for the science if possible. But whatever the poison, this manner of delivery clearly would place the crime on local terrorists tying people up, not on some passing helicopter. 
- less forensically, we have the usual package of circumstantial clues - the adult male all-seeing miracle survivors who labor to explain their alleged share of the dead - the complete lack of a rational motive for the infidels selected for blame by the deceitful Islamists probably behind the whole thing, etc.

- VDC reports April 9 on Russian police visit to the sites, wondering if they tampered with anything as they kept locals away from. But they note "Simultaneously, Jaish Al-Islam also made it difficult to hold independent investigation and documentation of the site yesterday and tried to bar witnesses from documenting and photographing any evidence." (thanks Qoppa999)