How a network of UK intel-linked operatives helped sell every alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack
While Western media covers up their credibility issues, these pseudo-experts and spooks have helped drive the dirty war on Syria.
by Kit Klarenberg
Part 1
A tight-knit cast of characters has sought to destabilize the Syrian government by convincing Syrians, Western citizens, foreign states, and international bodies that the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army is a legitimate, “moderate” alternative, while flooding news across the globe with opposition propaganda.
Its key actors have also played a central part in high-profile chemical weapon deceptions, participating in the attacks’ staging, generating media coverage, orchestrating official investigations and even legal actions, all with the clear goal of cultivating Western support for regime change.
Its key actors have also played a central part in high-profile chemical weapon deceptions, participating in the attacks’ staging, generating media coverage, orchestrating official investigations and even legal actions, all with the clear goal of cultivating Western support for regime change.
Despite facing official investigation into corrupt practices and being exposed for serious credibility issues, these figures have been treated with adulation by a Western mainstream media that appears just as committed to destabilizing Syria as they have been.
One of the most prominent among this group of self-proclaimed experts is supposed chemical weapons specialist Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. Previously Commanding Officer of the UK CBRN Regiment and NATO’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, his past deployments have included spells in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cyprus, Kosovo, and Iraq.
One of the most prominent among this group of self-proclaimed experts is supposed chemical weapons specialist Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. Previously Commanding Officer of the UK CBRN Regiment and NATO’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, his past deployments have included spells in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cyprus, Kosovo, and Iraq.
Once upon a time, de Bretton Gordon’s Twitter profile identified him as a member of 77th Brigade, the British Army’s shadowy psychological warfare division, which maintains a vast militia of real, fake and automated social media accounts that it deploys to disseminate propaganda in support of UK Foreign Office objectives, and discredit government critics.
Chillingly, official Army doctrine states the Brigade is “notably” key to the purported “grey zone between peace and war” that informs UK military thinking in the 21st century. The designation was removed from de Bretton-Gordon’s Twitter account after this journalist drew attention to it.
In British media, de Bretton-Gordon is portrayed as a gallant human rights hero who is responsible for “training local doctors how to treat gas attacks and risking his life on battlefields, to convincing world leaders to take threats seriously.”
In British media, de Bretton-Gordon is portrayed as a gallant human rights hero who is responsible for “training local doctors how to treat gas attacks and risking his life on battlefields, to convincing world leaders to take threats seriously.”
A glowing Times of London profile features a photo of de Bretton- Gordon posing beside a hunting trophy and a well-stocked bar in his elegant country home, clad in a desert camo-colored smoking jacket. The article opens with the following passage: “Beneath the smoke-hazed starlight of the desert night, a young tank captain waited for his moment of war. He was a romantic man and it was his first conflict.”
Behind the legendary aura spun out by UK media, questions linger about de Bretton-Gordon’s field work. He is often referred to as the founder or director of Doctors Under Fire, an NGO or humanitarian group. However, no operation of that name is registered as a commercial or charitable entity in the UK, or seemingly anywhere else in the world – clearly, no mainstream reporter has ever checked. He has also been lauded for his collection of soil samples in Syria, conducted through another suspicious organization he founded in Aleppo called CBRN Taskforce.
The vital question of how and why de Bretton-Gordon came to be involved in such a hazardous, sensitive activity has been left unexplored. This is an extraordinary failing on the part of the media, given that the work would necessarily require him to operate in areas occupied by Salafi-jihadist insurgents. He would also have potentially collaborated with or at least been in extremely close quarters with these elements, which have every reason to falsely accuse the Syrian government of chemical weapons use.
Further, there are strong indications that de Bretton Gordon’s activities were conducted in explicit support of regime change, and on behalf of at least one belligerent state participant in the Syrian conflict.
Further, there are strong indications that de Bretton Gordon’s activities were conducted in explicit support of regime change, and on behalf of at least one belligerent state participant in the Syrian conflict.
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