© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy
On 23rd October, The Courage Foundation released the landmark findings of its investigation into the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) suppression of vital evidence in its investigation of the alleged 7th April 2018 chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria.
The Foundation's expert panel met with a member of the
OPCW's Douma fact-finding mission, who provided the an "extensive presentation, including internal emails, text exchanges and suppressed draft reports" -
in its resultant report, the team were unanimous in expressing alarm "over
unacceptable practices in the investigation of the
alleged chemical attack in Douma", and concluded
each of the key evidentiary pillars of the investigation (including chemical analysis, toxicology, ballistics and witness testimonies) were flawed and bear little relation to the facts".
"We became convinced key information about chemical analyses, toxicology consultations, ballistics studies, and witness testimonies was
suppressed, ostensibly to favour a preordained conclusion. We've learned of disquieting
efforts to exclude some inspectors from the investigation whilst thwarting their attempts to raise legitimate concerns, highlight irregular practices or even to express their differing observations and assessments — a right explicitly conferred on inspectors in the Chemical Weapons Convention, evidently with the intention of ensuring the independence and authoritativeness of inspection reports," the panel said in an official statement.
The bombshell findings went entirely unreported in the mainstream media, however - until award-winning veteran journalist Jonathan Steele managed to
slip a reference past the BBC censors five days later.
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