Assad Chemical Weapons "Violation" A Propaganda Campaign Against Syria

With the recent attempts by the Western press and drumming up support for some type of military action against Syria, one could scarcely blame the casual observer for believing the narrative that Syria has lied about its chemical weapons stockpile and has been deploying the remnants of that stockpile on unsuspecting civilians.

Take, for instance, one sample of reporting about the “concerning” findings from the OPCW inspectors by Reuters, entitled “Exclusive: Weapons Inspectors Find Undeclared Sarin and VX Traces In Syria – Diplomats.” The article, while unable to match up to the hysterical article by The Times entitled “Assad goes back on pledge to destroy nerve gas,” reads:

International inspectors have found traces of sarin and VX nerve agent at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

Samples taken by experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition and Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in December and January tested positive for chemical precursors needed to make the toxic agents, the sources told Reuters on the condition of anonymity because the information is confidential.

“This is a pretty strong indication they have been lying about what they did with sarin,” one diplomatic source said. “They have so far been unable to give a satisfactory explanation about this finding.”

From the title and tone of the article, one would be led to believe that OPCW inspectors had actually found Sarin gas that was being hidden by the Syrian government. But, while the article presents the material in such a way as to suggest that this is the case, the truth is that the article is forced to cover over its easily debunked propaganda with enough truth so as to be more of a distortion than a complete lie. It is, however, a lie nonetheless.

Despite the presentation of the discovery of chemical weapons, the article admits that there were only traces of the chemical weapons found. Thus, it is reasonable to ask whether or not chemical weapons attacks launched by national governments are done with larger quantities of chemicals or with “trace” amounts?

Not only that, but it was revealed in the next paragraph that it was not only trace amounts of the chemicals in question but it was trace amounts of chemical precursors needed to make the chemical agents. Thus, trace amounts of chemicals needed to produce chemicals needed to produce chemical weapons are being used to goad the Western public into supporting yet another military adventure in the Middle East.

In addition, the entire source for the report are “diplomatic sources” that remain anonymous but can reasonably be assumed to be Western if not American or Israeli diplomats specifically. These sources then suggest that, because trace amounts of chemical precursors to banned chemical agents have allegedly been found, the Syrians have lied about destroying their stockpile and are continuing to produce and also deploy chemical weapons (although they have never been shown to have deployed them in the past).

Coming on the heels of another propaganda campaign attempting to blame the Assad government of using chlorine bombs against civilians in villages all across the country, the average reader would thus be led to confuse Sarin with Chlorine, assuming that Assad is being accused (and guilty) of using these weapons against civilians.

Of course, there has not been a shred of credible evidence to suggest that the Syrian government has ever used chemical weapons against civilians or terrorists and there continues to be a lack of evidence to indict the government now.

Regardless, it is noteworthy to point out that the alleged attacks took place in northwestern Syria and in Idlib specifically, two areas which are terrorist strongholds due to their proximity to the Turkish border and the greater ease of Turkish terrorist insertion, re-arming, and funding.

In addition, these reports are based entirely upon “activists” and “doctors” located inside the areas in question. As I have written on a number of occasions, the citation of “activists” can be translated to mean “death squads” or “terrorists.” The nameless “doctors” are a relatively new propaganda citation but, considering the location of these doctors in concert with the track record of international organizations like Doctors Without Borders, these sources can be relegated to the scrap heap unless actual credible evidence can be produced.

It is also important to note that Reuters has admitted that none of these claims have been independently verified.

While these “activists” (aka terrorists) are claiming that the SAA dropped chlorine weapons via helicopters upon them and the civilians the “rebels” have been beheading and raping on a continual basis, there has been no proof offered in this regard.

There are also a number of reasons to question the motivation behind the SAA even using such material. After all, why would Assad use chemical weapons when he is defeating the terrorists whenever the SAA is able to engage them in direct combat. In addition, while the world continues to watch Syria over its alleged chemical weapons stockpile (despite the fact that it was turned over the OPCW and UN) and the West continues to accuse Assad of using chemical weapons at every opportunity, there can be no sane reason why Assad would choose to use such weapons now.

It is also important to point out that chlorine weapons are not generally used by state actors but by guerrilla fighters and, in the case of Syria, terrorists.

Perhaps the most important fact surrounding the recent chemical attack is that the death squads operating in Syria have a history of using not only chemical weapons in general but chlorine gas specifically.

In March, 2013, after Khan al-Assal was attacked by the death squads using what appeared to be chlorine gas, it was reported by Alex Thomson of The Telegraph that the likelihood of the chemicals having been used by the Syrian government was quite low. Instead, it was the death squads (aka “rebels”) who were heavily implicated in the attack. Thomson wrote,

The Syrian military is said to believe that a home-made locally-manufactured rocket was fired, containing a form of chlorine known as CL17, easily available as a swimming pool cleaner. They claim that the warhead contained a quantity of the gas, dissolved in saline solution.

[…]

CL17 is normal chlorine for swimming pools or industrial purposes. It is rated as Level 2 under the chemical weapons convention, which means it is dual purpose – it can be used as a weapon as well as for industrial or domestic purposes. Level 1 agents are chemicals whose sole use is as weapons, such as the nerve agents sarin or tabun.

There has been extensive experimentation by insurgents in Iraq in the use of chlorine, which is harmful when mixed with water to form hydrochloric acid. It vapourises quickly, meaning that in a big explosion it will evaporate; in a small blast – for instance, one delivered by a home-made rocket – it will turn into airborne droplets before dispersing quickly.

So it is likely only to produce limited casualties. In this case there were only 26 fatalities, far fewer than would be expected from a full chemical weapon attack. In short, it is easily improvised into a chemical device but not one that would be used by an army seeking mass-casualty effects. [emphasis added]

Back in December of 2012, after the death squads managed to capture a chlorine factory inside Syria, the Syrian government actually issued a warning that the death squads might attempt to use chemical weapons of this nature in their battle to overthrow and oppress the government and people of Syria respectively. The Syrian Foreign Ministry stated, “Terrorist groups may resort to using chemical weapons against the Syrian people … after having gained control of a toxic chlorine factory.”

Likewise, the chemical weapons attacks in Ghouta were initially blamed on Assad and the Syrian government but later found to be the work of the Western-backed terrorists who had gone so far as to capture civilians from Lattakia and use them as human stage props for video footage and propaganda purposes.

One can only hope that the American people have grown immune to this type propaganda since the tired line of “chemical weapons attacks” and crimes against humanity has been repeated so many times in the past, only to find shortly thereafter that it was the so-called “rebels” who were responsible.

What is plain to see, however, is that, no matter how bumpy the road may get, the Anglo-European powers have no plans to stray from the Path to Persia.

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Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 500 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.