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 2 - ‘Signs of Heavy Editing’
In an April 2015 Guardian op-ed, de Bretton-Gordon disclosed that his sample-gathering activities began two years earlier. Contemporary media reports refer to UK foreign intelligence service MI6 conducting operations to covertly smuggle soil samples out of Syria for analysis at Porton Down at precisely this time, strongly suggesting his involvement in the scheme.
A 2016 article also characterizes him as a “former spy,” a unique designation that doesn’t appear in any online biographies of de Bretton Gordon or other news pieces mentioning him.
One report on the MI6 program quoted an anonymous “senior Western source,” who suggested that an objective of these operations was to encourage US intervention.
A 2016 article also characterizes him as a “former spy,” a unique designation that doesn’t appear in any online biographies of de Bretton Gordon or other news pieces mentioning him.
One report on the MI6 program quoted an anonymous “senior Western source,” who suggested that an objective of these operations was to encourage US intervention.
“MI6 played the leading role but the American military wants more evidence before it agrees Assad has crossed the line in the use of chemical weapons. The question is what is the West going to do now? If nobody reacts, there was not much point in conducting the tests,” they said.
Accordingly, some of these samples were delivered directly to Washington. In April 2015, evidence de Bretton-Gordon collected from an alleged chlorine attack in Sarmin, Syria was presented to the UN Security Council by Samantha Power, then-US Ambassador to the body and one of most notorious interventionists in government.
Accordingly, some of these samples were delivered directly to Washington. In April 2015, evidence de Bretton-Gordon collected from an alleged chlorine attack in Sarmin, Syria was presented to the UN Security Council by Samantha Power, then-US Ambassador to the body and one of most notorious interventionists in government.
In September 2016, de Bretton-Gordon addressed the UK parliament’s now-defunct All-Party Friends of Syria Group. In his remarks, he boasted of how documentation relating to an alleged April 21st, 2014 barrel bomb attack in the Syrian town of Talmenes that CBRN Taskforce supplied to an OPCW/UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) probe resulted in the pair announcing they possessed “conclusive evidence” that government forces were behind the strike.
The JIM report on the Talmenes incident did indeed make that charge. However, it also indicated that the material submitted by CBRN Taskforce showed unambiguous signs of falsification. In all, a nameless witness connected to the organization provided testimony, 42 videos of supposed impact sites, and soil samples to the JIM. The results, the report noted, were published by the conservative Daily Telegraph in an article painting de Bretton Gordon as a valiant investigator.
The JIM report on the Talmenes incident did indeed make that charge. However, it also indicated that the material submitted by CBRN Taskforce showed unambiguous signs of falsification. In all, a nameless witness connected to the organization provided testimony, 42 videos of supposed impact sites, and soil samples to the JIM. The results, the report noted, were published by the conservative Daily Telegraph in an article painting de Bretton Gordon as a valiant investigator.
While the JIM did not ultimately depend on the CBRN-supplied samples, the videos became a key source of evidence. However, clips related to the first site, “location #1”, failed to pass muster.
Two videos depicted an individual measuring a three-meter-wide and one-meter-deep crater in a backyard, with no remnants of the bomb visible. The JIM’s examination concluded they didn’t show the aftermath of a barrel bomb strike, finding instead that the pit featured was “probably” caused by a small explosive (“TNT equivalent”) buried in the ground.
Two videos depicted an individual measuring a three-meter-wide and one-meter-deep crater in a backyard, with no remnants of the bomb visible. The JIM’s examination concluded they didn’t show the aftermath of a barrel bomb strike, finding instead that the pit featured was “probably” caused by a small explosive (“TNT equivalent”) buried in the ground.
Another clip of the same crater, said to have been broadcast by “local” media, portrayed the damaged outer jacket of a barrel bomb lying next to the aforementioned crater, animal carcasses strewn nearby. Expert scrutiny of the clip reinforced the JIM’s ruling that no barrel bomb attack had occurred. Indeed, the bodies of the animals were said to be “clean and intact,” making it “highly unlikely” they were in close vicinity to whatever actually caused the crater when it exploded. Moreover, analysis of the video’s metadata found it was created one day before the alleged incident – and yet another clip depicting the same courtyard was disregarded due to “signs of heavy editing.”
As a result of these “inconsistencies”, location #1 was excluded entirely from the JIM’s investigation. Why all other CBRN Taskforce submissions were not automatically discounted remains unclear.
Further, how an individual or organization that supplied provably fraudulent material has been permitted to play any role whatsoever in multiple inquiries into alleged chemical weapon attacks in Syria by international bodies ever since remains a highly disquieting riddle.
Further, how an individual or organization that supplied provably fraudulent material has been permitted to play any role whatsoever in multiple inquiries into alleged chemical weapon attacks in Syria by international bodies ever since remains a highly disquieting riddle.
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