© James Buck / SAMS Flickr
Reports on unproven allegations of a chemical attack in Douma, the Syria city formerly occupied by the Army of Islam insurgent group, invariably rely on a key source: The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). Together with the
White Helmets, SAMS has been cited by the
Washington Post,
New York Times,
CNN and virtually every Western media organization reporting on the incident. In Douma, SAMS staff have
claimed that they treated more than 500 people for symptoms "indicative of exposure to a chemical agent."
The group also played a central role in shaping the narrative of a sarin attack in Al Qaeda-controlled Khan Sheikhoun in April, 2017,
providing biomedical samples to the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which violated its stated protocol by accepting evidence
without a verifiable chain of custody. That incident prompted the launching of 57 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base by the American military. Almost exactly a year later, a strikingly similar event is said to have tripped the "red line" again, and is likely to trigger a more robust assault by the US and its allies.
SAMS
claims to be a "non-political, non-profit medical organization," and is cited as a credible authority by media reporting on the incident in Douma. Scant published material is available on the organization's origins as
an exile arm of the Islamist-oriented Syrian opposition, its involvement in sophisticated influence operations from the Turkish-Syrian border, or its
close relationship to neoconservative elements in Washington and Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
SAMS is not merely a group of Syrian doctors tending to the wounded in war torn areas, nor can it be considered a objective source on chemical attacks and other atrocities. The organization is
a USAID-funded lobbying powerhouse that functions with a single-minded determination to stimulate a US-led war of regime change that will place Syrian Islamists in power in Damascus.
Comment: Update - The following story from February was brought to our attention by Twitter user @ThinGrayLine01, and is a good illustration of how a different set of rules is now being applied to so-called 'marginalized' groups within the Canadian court system.
Ontario judge strikes down mandatory minimum sentence for Indigenous offender