April 04, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - “At least 58 people were
killed in an alleged horrific gas attack in the Idlib Governorate this
morning“. However, even before investigations could be conducted and for
evidence to emerge, Federica Mogherini, the Italian politician High
Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy, condemned the Syrian government stating that the “Assad regime bears
responsibility for ‘awful’ Syria ‘chemical’ attack.”
The immediate accusation from a high
ranking EU official serves as a dangerous precedent where public outcry can be
made even before the truth surrounding the tragedy can emerge
Merely hours after the alleged chemical
weapons attack in Khan Sheikhun, supposedly by the Syrian government, holes are
beginning to emerge from opposition sources, discrediting the Al-Qaeda
affiliated White Helmets claims.
For one, seen in the above picture, the
White Helmets are handling the corpses of people without sufficient safety
gear, most particularly with the masks mostly used , as well as no gloves.
Although this may seem insignificant, understanding the nature of sarin gas that
the opposition claim was used, only opens questions.
Within seconds of exposure to sarin, the
affects of the gas begins to target the muscle and nervous system. There is an
almost immediate release of the bowels and the bladder, and vomiting is
induced. When sarin is used in a concentrated area, it has the likelihood of
killing thousands of people. Yet, such a dangerous gas, and the White Helmets
are treating bodies with little concern to their exposed skin. This has to
raise questions.
It also raises the question why a doctor
in a hospital full of victims of sarin gas has the time to tweet and make video
calls. This will probably be dismissed and forgotten however.
(To view tweets, etc. - link to website source below)
It is known that
about 250 people from Majdal and Khattab were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda
terrorists last week. Local sources have claimed that many of
those dead from the chemical weapons were those from Majdal and Khattab. This
would suggest that on the eve of upcoming peace negotiations, terrorist forces
have once again created a false flag scenario. This bears resemblance to
the Ghouta chemical weapons attack in August 2013 where the Syrian
Army was accused of using the weapons of mass destruction on the day that
United Nations Weapon’s Inspectors arrived in Damascus. It is also worth mentioning that Dr
Shajul Islam has been struck off the medical register in the UK.
Later, Carla del
Ponte, a UN weapons inspector said that there was no evidence that the
government had committed the atrocity. This had however not stopped the calls
for intervention against the Syrian government, a hope that the militant forces
wished to eventuate from their use of chemical weapons against civilians in
Ghouta.
Therefore, it is completely unsurprising
that Orient TV has already prepared a “media campaign” to cover the Russian and
Syrian airstrikes in neighbouring Hama countryside against terrorist
forces, with the allegations that the airforces have been using chemical
weapons. And most telling, their announcement of covering the use of chemical
weapons by the Syrian government, hours before this allegation even emerged……..
Seems like someone forgot to tell him that it would not occur for a few more
hours before his tweet.
Meanwhile, pick up trucks have been photographed around bodies of those killed. Again, it must be questioned why there are people around sarin gas without any protective gear, and not affected at all when it can begin attacking the body within seconds? Also, the pick up trucks remain consistent to what local sources have said were used to transport many of the victims identified as kidnapped by Al-Qaeda terrorists from pro-government towns in rural Hama.
Also, what is brought into question is
where the location of the hose is coming from in the below picture, a dugout
carved into the rock. This also suggests that the location is at a White
Helmets base where there are dug out hiding spots carved into the mountainside
and where they have easy access to equipment, as highlighted by Twitter user Ian Grant.
In response to
the allegations, the Syrian Arab Army
soldiers in neighbouring northern Hama denied the use of any chemicals weapons
today. This is
consistent with the Russian Ministry of Defense who denied any involvement in
the attack.
The army “has not and does not use
them, not in the past and not in the future, because it does not have them in
the first place,” a military source
said.
All evidence suggests this is another false chemical attack allegation made against the government as seen in the Ghouta 2013 attack where the terrorist groups hoped that former President Obama’s “red-line” would be crossed leading to US-intervention in Syria against the government.And this of course begs the question. With the Syrian Army and its allies in a comfortable position in Syria, making advances across the country, and recovering lost points in rural Hama, why would they now resort to using chemical weapons in Nusra Front occupied Idlib? It is a very simple question with no clear answer. It defies any logic that on the eve of a Syria conference in Brussels and a week before peace negotiations are to resume, that the Syrian government would blatantly use the non-existent stock of chemical weapons.
Most telling however, is that most
recent report shows that the government does not deny striking Khan
Sheikhun. Al-Masdar’s Yusha
Yuseef was informed by the Syrian Army that the air force targeted a missile factory in Khan
Sheikoun, using a Russian-manufactured Su-22 fighter jet to carry out the
attack. Most importantly, the Su-22’s bombs are unique and cannot be
filled with any chemical substances, which is different to the bombs dropped
from attack helicopters.
Yuseef was then told that the Syrian Air
Force did not know if there were any chemical substances being stored inside
the missile factory in Khan Sheikhoun. It remains to be known whether there
actually were chemicals in the missile factory targeted by the airstrikes, or
whether the terrorist forces used gas on the kidnapped civilians from the
pro-government towns and brought them in the lorry trucks to the site of the
airstrikes. Whether they were gassed by the militant forces, or the
airstrikes caused a terrorist controlled chemical weapon factory to explode,
the gruesome deaths of children, seen foaming in the mouth because of the gas,
lays in the hands of the terrorists.
Therefore, it becomes evident that the
area targeted was definitely a terrorist location, where it is known that the
White Helmets share operation rooms with terrorist forces like Al-Qaeda as seen
after the liberation of eastern Aleppo. Civilians and fighting forces,
including Kurdish militias, have all claimed that militant groups that operate
in Idlib, Hama and Aleppo countrysides, have used chemical weapons in the past.
Therefore, before the war cries begin and
the denouncement of the government from high officials in power positions
begin, time must be given so that all evidence can emerge. However, this
is an important factor that has never existed in the Syrian War, and the
terrorist forces continue to hope that Western-intervention against the
government will occur, at the cost of the lives of innocent civilians.
Paul
Antonopoulos, Deputy-Editor at Al-Masdar News, Lecturer at Charles Sturt
University and Researcher at Western Sydney University. MA in International
Relations. You can follow on Twitter: oulosP
The views expressed in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
Information Clearing House.
See also
Dozens
killed in suspected gas attack on Syrian rebel area: An alleged Syrian government chemical
attack killed at least 58 people, including 11 children, in the northwestern
province of Idlib on Tuesday, a pro-rebel monitor, medics and rescue workers in
the rebel-held area said.
Lest we forget: Seymour M.
Hersh: Whose sarin? The U.S. intelligence agencies produced evidence that the
al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the
mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity.
