© John Thys / Agence France-Presse
1. Introduction. Why The Lack of Sarin is a ProblemThis article considers in detail what was and wasn't found by the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) in their investigation of the Douma chemical incident of April 7. Douma is a Damascus suburb, then under Islamist opposition control but on the verge of surrender, when activists reported a helicopter attack with two chemical "barrel bombs" containing chlorine gas and perhaps something deadlier. A reported 43 civilians or more were reportedly killed, and for supposedly obvious reasons, the ruling Islamists finalized their surrender the next day.
An OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) was swiftly formed and assembled in Syria by April 14, when the U.S. and allies launched missile strikes nearby. But the FFM had to wait another week before they were able to first access the attack sites on April 21. This delay was blamed on Damascus and their allies in Moscow, who were accused of buying time to scrub the crime scenes of clues.
But in fact the UN's security agency UNDSS (Department of Safety and Security) was behind the small initial delay, and it was reasonable, considering the unknowns in an area ruled for six years by hard-line Islamists, and only formally liberated for a few days. The April 17 attack on the UNDSS advance security team by unidentified militants, wounding a Syrian officer, shows that the concerns the UNDSS shared with the Syrians and Russians were valid. In fact, this bad result to the rushed first try is what caused the ensuing four-day delay to re-plan the mission. [1]
With the release of the OPCW's interim report on July 6, we now have some information from those visits that might contain clues of any meddling. This report will be cited heavily in the following article. [2]
Comment: Soros is only too happy to manipulate the public and subvert democracies when it furthers his agenda, and he would certainly benefit having some control over social media which has proven to be a powerful tool in the information war: