Leaks indicate 2018 gas attacks in Syria may not have happened | Hacker News Reader

Leaks indicate 2018 gas attacks in Syria may not have happened

independent.co.uk

49 pointsthanatropism21 comments

This interview with MIT weapons expert Theodore Postol is compelling viewing. He comes right out and says that the leaked report shows overwhelming evidence that the attack was staged and that the official OPCW report was fraud. In previous interviews I've heard with Postol, he's never come close to saying anything that unequivocal.

He also makes some interesting remarks about the tension between technical experts and bureaucrats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptwEIX3yHeI

I skimmed the OPCW report but what struck me was it appears they failed to investigate the cylinder itself.

The damage on it looked to have occured some while ago due to extensive rust, and it looked squashed as if it had been under a flattened building.

Also there was a pretty computer model illustration of how it smashed through the roof, but no picture of the hole itself.

The most telling thing was they'd be absolutely no military advantage to the attacks, in fact the opposite as it could result in bombing from the western powers (which it did afaik)

ETA:

Report on the attacks by Robert Fisk: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/douma-syria-opcw-chemic...

Also this is the article which led me to read the OPCW report: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-g...

This was known in the immediate aftermath of the "attack" actually. There were UN people on the ground who did not find any traces of sarin in the environment. Normally, trace amounts of sarin would be present for months.

This was completely and extremely cynically suppressed by the US media because it went against the narrative the media was pushing. You could find the OPCW report, but it was never reported on, and you'd need to know what is it you're looking for.

Last time I pointed this out publicly I was downvoted to hell. Think about it, what possible reason would Assad have to use the weapon which completely closes _all_ possible avenues to resolve the conflict?

No traces of sarin only eliminates one possibility - the reports mostly talk about chlorine.

Chlorine is available in every super market, and chemically impossible to distinguish from the type of chlorine used in attacks. Same chemical. Although it is hardly ever used as a weapon, since there are far more effective chemical weapons than Chlorine. Basically, you need a lot of chlorine to kill people.

And moreover, when people are poisoned with chlorine they don't just drop dead where they were standing (which is what was reported), they run towards the doors and windows

This was, moreover, mere days after the US had dropped its previous stance of wanting Assad out at all costs, and had announced they were willing to let him stay in power. Either Assad is so stupid that he chooses that moment to do the one thing guaranteed to bring US wrath down upon himself (not to mention the wrath of Putin who's been supporting him), or perchance the gas attack story isn't quite the truth.

Now - who can we trust? I tend to trust Bellingcat because of their workshops where they teach people to do the investigations. This looks like hard to manipulate - but who knows?

The Bellingcat report supports the official OPCW report: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2019/03/01/the-opcw-ffm... - but it seems to talk mostly about a cylinder on a balcony and the contention seems to be about another cylinder that was still on the roof. There are also some Bellingcat articles in French about the same April the 7th attack. I hope they'll write some update on the leaked documents.

That guy worked for NATO, obviously not trustable as an independent unbiased source

The nyt investigation from second hand video still seems compelling to me:

https://youtu.be/P2X84JZINcI

Istm, the odds of it being staged are much lower than a real drop from aircraft. There are just too many details to get right to stage the cannisters.

Speaking of fake news, this DeepFake video (SFW) is the most impressive I've seen so far: "Bill Hader impersonates Arnold Schwarzenegger [DeepFake]" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPhUhypV27w

Wow. They even solved occlusion etc, and it's 4K now. If the man had a similar physique nobody would be able to tell without looking _real_ closely.

Well bugger me. I'd seen that video elsewhere a couple of weeks back and thought - and bear in mind here, I have no idea who Bill Hader is - "well, it helps that he can pull his face to look like Schwarzenegger". At the time I simply consumed it as part of a day's peripheral internet content and never thought much of it.

Need to pay more attention!

It’s become impossible for an average person to know what news is true or fake. It’s time for disruption

Based on the information in the article, the following items would have been required to stage something like this:

- Foreknowledge of the bombing by the Syrian/Russian coalition, including time and place.

- A high probability that there would be many people suffering from hypoxia following the bombing.

- False canisters ready to be deployed to the area.

While not wholly impossible, it does seem unlikely to me, and as such I believe that the headline is a bit of a stretch.

I think it would be more accurate to focus on OPCW and they way it compiles and presents it's findings.

The area was under attack so it was being regularly shelled - not hard to predict.

Survivors do often have breathing problems after being in or near buildings that are bombed. The air is full of dust.

And of course, since the terrorists in Syria want(ed) the US to bomb the government, they could easily have planted the canisters.

I find it interesting that you use the word terrorists to describe the rebels in Syria. One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. The fact that this government is fine with the killing of its own people en masse with conventional weapons is enough for me to say the difference isn’t black and white.

There is this saying I heard, Im not sure about the validity, but here goes: "ISIS poses with decapitated heads, FSA plays soccer with them".

Just because you slap "FREEDOM" on your terror organisation and is possibly sponsored by the CIA, doesn't excuse you of atrocities.

I find it interesting that you ignore the argument and present an emotional appeal and that you use the metaphor "one man's terrorist ..." which is a refactoring of "one man's meat is another's poison" that is actually false.

It was obviously staged, for anyone who saw the photos of the bomb laying on the bed, underneath a bomb-shaped hole in the ceiling.

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