WATCH: Former OPCW Inspector Testifies at the UNSC
Ian Henderson, leader of the engineering sub-team that inspected Douma, says reports were ignored and manipulated
Yesterday the UNSC held a special panel to discuss the reliability and impartiality of the OPCW, most specifically regarding the alleged Douma “chemical attack”. The expert panel reviewed and revealed some worrying evidence.
Most important was the testimony of Ian Henderson, former OPCW inspector and leader of the engineering sub-team who visited Douma.
Ian Henderson, the source of the famous leaked “dissenting report” on the placement of gas cylinders at the Douma site, was speaking via video link due to being denied a VISA by the US authorities (we don’t know why this happened, but I’m sure it was all honest and above board, and not just petty politicking).
He told the UNSC that findings of the experts on the ground were totally ignored by their OPCW bosses.
He said:
By the time of release of the interim report in July 2018, our understanding was that we had serious misgivings that a chemical attack had occurred.”
And added that the final report was a “complete turnaround” on these findings, and authored by a separate group who had never visited the site.
Unsurprisingly, efforts to smear Mr Henderson, or otherwise minimise his testimony, were quick to appear.
Thomas Phipps, a UK diplomat to the UN chimed in with some rather xenophobic snobbery:
Four Russians and one Syrian make up the ‘expert’ panel at Russia’s #UNSC Arria meeting on #Syria Chemical Weapons. Four are diplomats and one an academic whose credentials are unclear. These are not impartial actors without an agenda. pic.twitter.com/y2PSv4QYOw
— Thomas Phipps🇬🇧🇺🇳 (@thomasphipps) January 20, 2020
You’ll notice he doesn’t mention Henderson at all.
Plus, there were the usual non-arguments from the usual unqualified, NATO-backed mouth pieces:
Meanwhile, the Western press is simply keeping shtum, with the testimony of Henderson, and the UN panel in general, not mentioned in any mainstream outlet we can find.
That seems unlikely to change.
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The fact that Thomas Phipps calls himself a diplomat should alert all that he is ‘lying for his country’, whether that be abroad or if he happened to be based in the UK when he uttered his smear.
The definition of a diplomat being one who ‘lies abroad for his country’ should always be at the front of the mind of anyone seeking truth. Diplomats should always be assumed to be lying, honourably of course, until proven otherwise.
It is what diplomats do, after all.
That would be Thomas Phipps MBE. Having worked for over 5 years at Tate & Lyle he qualified for a ‘desk officer’ job at the FCO in 2009 as a diplomatic ‘fast streamer’ (i.e. someone with ‘recognised potential’ to progress up the grades to the highest level). After just over 2 years he transferred to the diplomatic service, working in Manila until 2016. It was for that work that he was awarded his MBE in 2015.
When I was a civil servant many ‘fast streamers who worked for the Foreign Office or diplomatic service’ unofficially earned themselves another job title – w..kers! They really considered themselves to be something special when they were anything but. And believe you me, I came across many in my years of service. Once you had your foot in the door the only way was up as long as you were a ‘yes’ man or woman. Phipps resoundingly meets this criterion. As I have commented previously, he is clearly intended to be Dame Karen Pierce’s replacement when she moves on to spread her lies, xenophobia and arrogance elsewhere.
There is nothing like a dame, nothing in the world, there is nothing in the world, that is anything like the same! Nothing like a dame…….
The best thing about Higgins is he will be killed by his handlers pretty soon when this all blows up and why can’t keep a lid on it. So look forward to the tales of shady Russian operatives who shot Elliot twice in the back of the head or the suicide with two bullets to the back of the head stories when it happens
Trying to bring the place into disrepute are you?
Don’t you just love the kiss-kiss cuddle-cuddle between Eliot Higgins and Marcel? So touchingly warm and fuzzy. Just like their brains.
Admin- thanks for taking on board the ‘scroll to older article’ idea.
It is a reasonable first attempt.
It could be improved though by being made available as a scroll from where the current articles are displayed – and by displaying ALL the published articles chronologically – that being the main reason for having it.
Cheers
“last minute Visa waiver issues” caused Mr. Henderson to have to give evidence by video link instead of in person as planned.
What were they, I wonder…an ESTA lasts 2 years last time I checked. Did he forget to renew it before coming to New York? Doesn’t sound like something somebody as apparently meticulous as Mr. Henderson would do
Many of us already knew that it was nothing but a false flag brought to you by George Clueless’ favorite group the White Helmets since it made no sense why Assad would desperately launch a chemical attack when 1) he was winning 2) he’s never done so in the past even and 3)he doesn’t have the means to do it even if he wanted to .
Some of us tried to tell Trump this but it seems that his head was so far up Bibi’s ass he never listened to us and said damn the torpedos or the cruise missiles in this case and at that point gave the finger to the base that elected him.
He’s currently been impeached but like Clinton for the wrong high crimes and misdemeanors so his fat lying ass won’t be convicted.
The CIA is not run from Jerusalem, or Washington for that matter. More from Langley or central New York (not Trump!!).
Everything is run from Tel Aviv and its AIPAC branch office.
Such defeatist talk! Are you a ‘ self-hating Jew’, Ant?
Capitalism’s Invisible Army follows the Golden Rule under Murphy’s Law which is those who have the gold rule. Same with Trumpenstein. Think Sheldon Adelson and other Khazarians.
Antonym!!! Good job goy a shekel has been deposited into your account!
The truth will out, despite the propaganda-by-omission MSM!
On a different (yet also important) subject of the Opposition Leadership Election – good news!
‘Long-Bailey backs open selections in “democratic revolution” plan’:
https://labourlist.org/2020/01/long-bailey-backs-open-selections-in-democratic-revolution-plan/?amp&__twitter_impression=true
Rebecca Long Bailey is showing her principles, steel, political astuteness, and a true sense of democracy! ‘Open Selections’ will be immensely popular with the membership and is a game-changer which will help her win. This will put the spanner in the works for Keir “Trilateral Commission” Agent Starmer.
Vote for Rebecca Long-Bailey for Leader and Richard Burgon for Deputy Leader!
Just so long as the Board of Deputies approves.
Long Bailey has to live up to all her pandering and grovelling in the genocide-advocating Times of Israel over the past few days.
Makes even Thornberry sound like a raving anti semite.
She can’t have Burgon as Deputy, though.
Van Zyl at the BOD has already blackballed Burgon for failing to sign up to the Ten Commandments with sufficient alacrity.
Those goys have to learn their place, you know.
My dear, you’re arguing over the colors of your next warders’ uniforms. Turn your mind to escaping from the prison.
Funny how so many Jews ignore their own, Mosaic, Ten Commandments, but they expect the UK goyim to obey the New Ten Commandments, plus the commentaries, to the letter.
After hundreds of years of murder and theft, Western Civilisation is now capable of propping its relevance ONLY by resorting to Lies and Deceit to justify wanton violence against nations they dont like.
“Western Civilisation” – that’s a good one, that is ! I like the idea of that. When can we start, then.
You stole that one from Gandhi…
Haven’t heard of WC -Western Civilisation.
Tony Abbot (Australian hard version of Einstein) and John Howard (Australian soft version of Hitler) have launched a degree in White supremacism at the University of Wollongong (NSW, Australia).
They reckon if they pour in millions upon millions of dollars, students, after a number of years of search and ‘guided’ research, must then be able to concoct nice things to say about Western Civilisation.
* Haven’t heard of WC -Western Civilisation?
Wake up, child. All “civilizations” are built on lies & deceit. No one that wasn’t.
Its all a matter of degree, and hypocritical denial.
The comment by that swine Higgins MUST win some prize for filthy hypocrisy, but at least they show, emphatically, that the metastasis has NO interest in the truth, just ensuring his NATO pay-cheque keeps on coming.
It’s ok his handlers will Epstein him soon enough
the chap above mr henderson
should avoid country walks with friendly mi5 sas or oded yinon mossad types
and if invited for country supper he should not carry pocket knife
while walking in the country
arm in arm with mossadick henchmen on way 2 n snuff out event
like dr kelly
or mountain top romantick snuff walk like robin cook
henderson should avoid all suicided push jump trip thoughts while mountain high
or avoid suicided pocket knife wrist attacks upon himself
while being carried too the designated ritual killing zone
certainly avoid any khazar company on designated chabad holiday
already
Eliot Higgins discussing ‘establishing ones credibility’ has to go down as joke of the decade, and we only in January 2020……..
Did Henderson get into how the corpses that the head-chopping, Sharia-law supporting jihadis had produced in order to facilitate a false flag get into the building? I mean, after all, if you were going to make that case, you’d need an eyewitness. After all, the Russians produced a 6-year-old boy to testify that nobody died in Douma even though the story later changed that there were deaths from a jihadist plot.
The problem with all these “manually placed” accounts is that they skirt the real issue of how far-fetched they are as I pointed out in a Counterpunch article:
Whatever the outcome of the planned challenge to OPCW officials by dissidents at a November 25th conference, the burden will fall upon them to make a compelling case for a false flag. For people so committed to truth and integrity, they hardly ever consider the implications of a false flag narrative. If you believe that bearded bad guys manually placed chlorine tanks in a Douma apartment building on April 7, 2018, you must be able to answer such questions:
1. If the Jaysh al-Islam, the jihadis who controlled Douma, were capable of weaponizing chlorine gas tanks, why wouldn’t they have used them in confrontations with Assad’s military especially since it was closing in on them in 2018? According to Tobias Schneider and Theresa Lütkefend of the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute, there have been 336 chemical weapons attacks in Syria since 2012. They attribute two percent of them to ISIS and all the rest to the dictatorship. A search in Nexis for “chlorine & attack & Syria” in Lexis-Nexis will return 5,404 articles sorted by relevance. After a review of the first twenty-five, I found not a single one referring to rebel usage. You’re welcome to work your way through the remaining 5,379.
2. Procuring chlorine tanks might have been relatively easy, but how could Jaysh al-Islam construct the fins, harness, axis, and wheels that are necessary for both loading into and then dropping them from helicopters? If you are going to frame Assad, you’d better be in a position to replicate the weapon he has been using for at least five years. Would Henderson and Alex argue that the pictures of the two weaponized chlorine tanks seen in the OPCW report were photoshopped? If not, how do you construct the fins, harness, axis and wheels from scratch? Did Jaysh al-Islam make them in a machine shop? As someone with a night school diploma in lathe and milling machine from my days colonizing industry, I can tell you that this is not an easy task during constant bombardment and electrical blackouts.
3. The Jaysh al-Islam had to use a pneumatic drill or sledgehammers to create large holes in concrete ceilings or find apartments that had them already. If the apartment already had a hole, what accounted for the rubble on the floor beneath it? And what about the attention such tools would draw during a heavy-duty penetration of concrete ceilings? The racket would be enough to awaken the dead. Furthermore, what would their neighbors make of them hauling 300-pound chlorine tanks to the building and up the stairs? Clunkety-clunkety-clunk. Anybody spotting them would figure out that they were up to no good, especially since Douma tenement buildings were not likely to have rooftop swimming pools in need of sterilization.
4. To make sure that the forty to fifty people who were to become sacrificial lambs in this unlikely false flag operation, Jaysh al-Islam had to prevent them from fleeing from the bottom floors, where they had taken refuge. But what if they tried to flee the minute chlorine gas was detected? If anybody escaped, wouldn’t they finger Jaysh al-Islam? How would Jaysh al-Islam not lose all support immediately? The Jaysh al-Islam might have been authoritarian, but it was not about to risk its reputation killing innocent civilians, especially those they were supposed to be protecting. Groups like the Jaysh al-Islam were not the same as ISIS, after all. In Idlib today, there are frequent protests against hard-core Islamist groups. Less than a month ago, hundreds of people in Idlib protested against the self-proclaimed National Salvation Government. Not a single person was injured or killed. By the standards of Baathist or ISIS rule, they are enjoying freedoms that remain as tangible gains of the revolution that began in 2011.
No, the burden always falls on those who make the initial claim. And that intial claim is what Henderson is disputing.
I’m amazed Project doesn’t even understand the burden of proof. He is more or less saying we should accept any narrative, including WMD unless we can provide compelling evidence contrary. Not only is the burden of proof on the one who originally asserts but with the documented track record of lies, warmongering and criminal behaviour, surely the opposite narrative should be taken as the default position in any case. I can’t believe someone who writes for Counter Punch could be so thick or consumed by his obvious prejudice towards victims of wars waged by the West.
Proyect understands the principle of the burden of proof perfectly. Reversal of this principle has been the fulcrum of the “war on terror/West against the rest” con since 9/11. It was all done so speedily and so slyly that it took me a while to catch on. And it fooled almost everyone – at least in the initial stage. First came the initial shock of the attack and, while everyone was reeling, the official account is neatly tucked in with maximum speed so that it becomes what everyone “saw”. And following just behind this came the “conspiracy theories” which then become the centre of attention as the MSM ridicules them and the call goes out for the “nuts” to prove these alternate theories. Meanwhile the official account basks away in the background purring like a contented cat that is simply taken for granted. And while everyone is gleefully poking holes in the alternative accounts, few notice that the official story hasn’t a leg to stand on.
And all this is compounded by the “truthers” tying themselves in knots in a futile delving into over all the minutiae regarding e.g. the melting point of steel. But after twenty years of this con, an increasing number have caught on. And the number continues to increase.
Mr Proyect is trying to lure us into yet another wild goose chase with his itemised list there. Don’t fall for it. You don’t have anything to prove. He does.
The 6 year old lad and his parents attended to say what happened to him, not to issue Eliot Higgins style edicts about what occurred.
He was just minding his own business when he and a bunch of other kids were dragged off the street by “White Helmet” folks for no apparent reason, and drenched with cold water, as unpaid unwilling extras in their latest propaganda video extravaganza.
Then it was, “Lights! Camera! Action!!”, with a full film crew fortuitously on hand.
Good to know that all that British taxpayers’ money is being put to good use in the 150 strong WH PR department.
Another Oscar must be in the offing.
James Le Mesurier would be proud of them all, God rest his soul.
Curious to see a man who calls himself as ‘Marxist’ touting the intellectual independence and integrity of an organisation-Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute- funded largely by governments, the European Commission, Soros and the usual suspects. It confirms Bellingcat’s discoveries, and vice versa because it is employed to do so.
Such ‘think tanks’ would not last long if their ‘researchers’ and ‘scholars’ actually sought the truth. Such banal pursuits,calling for little more than the basic observational skills of a newspaper reporter, are far beneath the staff of these think tanks where the advanced skills of lying, misdirecting and discrediting honest accounts are called for. And they cost a lot.
Proyectile is as much a ‘ Marxist’ as the ‘ Living Marxism’ swine. ‘ Spiked’ is just about his milieu.
Proyectile Vomiting, perhaps? Maybe that can be his new moniker if he has the indecency to continue to pester this forum. Maybe he is just best ignored though.
Scrolling down I see that others got there first with that rather obvious pun (embarrassed face…)
You seem to have a bit of a racist view of your throat slitting friends, if you don’t mind me saying. They are not a little rinky dink street gang. You’re talking about 100,000 plus fanatical terrorists funded to the tune of tens of billions of dollars by the US/ UK/ Israel/ Turkey/ Gulf Dictatorships. Saudi Arabia bought heavy tanks for them from Ukraine, 100 at a time. Qatar did just one arms deal with Croatia to equip them worth $5 billion. They operated wire guided TOW anti tank missiles and shot down Russian aircraft with US surface to air missiles. They had huge tunnels full of Israeli weapons. They were better equipped than the $50 a month Syrian conscripts who had to take them on with 50 year old T54s and MIG 21s. Yet they’re not capable of freighting a couple of gas cylinders around? I knew a young lad in Thailand who used to haul them around three at a time in the sidecar of his 125cc motorcycle sidecar.
Without looking at the photos, I don’t think the canisters had fins on them. If they did, I’ve made more complicated things from sheet steel in a metal workshop. If I didn’t have electricity, I’d have had to use a generator.
These folks (when they aren’t merrily filming themselves beheading 12 year olds and cannibalising corpses) were caught by the Turkish police inside Turkey with canisters os sarin gas. Probably supplied by one of their many well heeled backers.
Why haven’t they used gas in battle? They have, many times. It’s not very effective, which is why armies don’t use it any more. Syrian troops have been killed and wounded by it in some cases. Assad asked the OPCW to investigate, but for some mysterious reason they just weren’t interested.
I wouldn’t take too much notice of Soros funded CIA Front NGOs if I were you. They’d swear that the moon was made of green cheese for a few bucks from Soros.
There you go with your racist dismissal of the head choppers again. They’re not capable of making a hole in a roof or moving a couple of canisters around. And apparently local people (if there are any left in the area) have nothing better to do than scrutinise the activities of the head choppers to report on anything they do that is not 100% kosher.
As to where the corpses came from, there are 3 options.
-The plastic dummies they use in their “atrocity” videos.
– The live “extras” who lie on sheets, pretending to be dead, until they get bored and start yawning and scratching their noses.
– Victims chosen at random from the hostages they have seized as human shields,
women and children driven round in cages on the backs of lorries. Or just villagers killed at random as grisly props in their latest theatrical production.
You seem to have a touching faith in the “reputation” of people who like to film themselves cannibalising corpses, beheading children, and slitting the throats of prisoners.
Maybe you should stick to writing for Faux Left Soros funded controlled opposition outlets like Counterpunch and Democracy Now.
They like that sort of thing over there.
And they’re not capable of knocking a hole in a roof? They built huge sophisticated underground tunnel complexes you could drive a heavy truck into with slave labour, with all utilities laid on, where they stored their huge western supplied arms caches, built their hell cannon and gas cylinder bombs, and murdered, tortured, enslaved and terrorised to their hearts content.
Yes. I saw such an underground machine shop come munitions factory in a video by Vanessa Beeley filmed just after the liberation of Eastern Ghouta. It was full of European made precursors and British mortar shells in various stages of dismantling. All in preparation for “the final assault on Damascus” which was intercepted by the SAA.
Luckily, the British special forces running the show managed to bug out through Israel after donning the obligatory white helmets.
You don’ t think that none of that tens of billions of largess ends up in proyectile’ s greasy paws, do you?
There’s plenty to go round, R. More than enough to keep Bell-end in underpants.
How much do the Sauds pay you for your proyectile vomitus in the propaganda service of the salafist butchers? The one sentence, or phrase, ‘ The Jaysh al-Islam might have been authoritarian, but it was not about to risk its reputation killing innocent civilians…’, is the filthiest and most morally depraved moral bastardy I have seen for a long, long, time.
No, R., they worry themselves no end about their reputation as they film themselves cannibalising corpses, beheading 12 year olds, and shoving women and children human shields into cages on the backs of lorries. They do all this in the most ethical way possible, you know.
I just ignore the bastard. Projectile only ever comes on here to vent his poisonous crap whenever there’s a story on Syria or the OPCW.
Don’t recall him commenting on anything else here, which raises the question why not?
I strongly believe he and his fellow fake ‘socialist’ rats are getting a few payments under the table for their filthy propaganda. All cheering on the ‘revolution’ in Syria. Sick as.
What was that CIA operation that had them working with the ‘compatible left’ back in the 60s and 70s?
Not Operation Mockingbird, but another one where they had leftwing gatekeepers spouting pro imperialist crap?
Do you get a kick out of embarrassing yourself on here Proyect? Like a gimp who is turned on by being abused?
“If you believe that bearded bad guys manually placed chlorine tanks in a Douma apartment building on April 7, 2018, you must be able to answer such questions:”
Sorry, Louis, I haven’t got time to sit your examination paper right now – especially when the questions are based on false premises – by the way, in your little thumbnail photo at the top there, what are you cooking – primordial soup ?
I see your counterpart Pat Cockburn making distortions and allusion in his most recent article that the problem is with Iran and not the US. In other words blaming the victim for the US’ obvious aggression which makes me wonder “who’s side are you really on?”.
Of course your rag way back accused anyone who didn’t accept the official story more accurately “fairy tale” regarding 9/11 as being “Conspiracy Theorists”. Right out of the CIA’s handbook:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/conspiracy-theory-foundations-of-a-weaponized-term/5319708
I call this Proyect-tile vomiting 🤮
Ha ha… Good one G.
It might be AIDS, Assad-ISIS Derangement Syndrome
Lies, Louis lies. Read and weep. https://thewallwillfall.org/2018/06/03/eastern-ghouta-syrian-voices-raised-in-condemnation-of-white-helmets/
Louis, seriously there’s no need to pose a series of questions about the window dressing, the only thing anyone needs to concern themselves with is the hole in the ceiling. It was caused by an exploding munition. The ceiling is reinforced concrete and the blast took chunks out of the concrete wall directly underneath the hole. A ticket inspector would come to the same conclusion, let alone a weapons inspector. The roof of the building suffered a hit from a mortar at some point previously and this was used as the fake entry point for an unexploded gas cylinder. Everything else is manufactured scenery.
The reason the jihadis would not weaponise chlorine is the same reason no one else would: it would be pretty much useless as a weapon.
The Trotskyists strike again! If any “socialist” is pro Trotsky they aren’t socialists and are sheep for the controlled groups they follow
the babies where taken out of the Incubators
the wmd where and are hidden north south east and west of iraq
animal assad built underground tunnels near all cities hiding the bodies of the innocent
he paid swiss and german french engineering corporations to do the drilling for the mass death tombs
gadaffi new hitler of libya was about to kill all the people in benghazzi
the s yugo slavicks and the serbian people where authors of own destruction
the depleted uranium dropped on all these countries helps keep storage costs down in france,uk and usa
we had serious misgivings that a chemical attack had occurred.
just because this may not of happened does not mean animal assad is not an animal and if anything
this affair shows that assad is certainly out of control
and maybe a threat to the innocent kazharian ashkanazim of is real just like 1939 in hitlers times
already
LOL……
When General Mad Dog Mattis was the US Secretary of Defence he publicly asserted that the US had no evidence that Assad had ever used chemical weapons. The corporate media largely ignored this admission. After his gaffe, Mattis subsequently stated that he was certain that Assad had used chemical weapons (although he offered nothing other than is certainty to support the assertion). The corporate media, of course, gave this claim a completely acritical platform, reporting it as though it was an established fact.
And isn’ t it illuminating of the true nature of the Western Free Press and its presstitute denizens that this stonking great story has had virtually NO coverage, and that which appears is proyectile level disinfo and agit-prop for the child-killer salafists.
Should use quotes around “free”. Unless your referring to its use as toilet paper, wrapping fish or lining the bottom of a bird cage.
Ian Henderson has more dignity and integrity in his little finger than Phipps and Pierce put together. They are either corrupt or seriously lacking in intellect. As a former UK HQ civil servant myself, I am ashamed that we appear to have sunk to an all time low in what they stand for and their willing subservience to the morally unscrupulous.
Henderson has probably forgotten more about chemical munitions design and deployment than a little turd like Higgins would ever know.
The fact Higgins *didn’t* know who he is just goes to show you how well he understands the subject matter.
It’ll be okay when he’s watched a few more Rambo films.