Chemical Weapons

Who Supplied The Weapons Used Against #BLM Protesters?

June 12, 2020 War Resisters International. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Militarization, Police violence

In response to the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis police department on 25th May, thousands of people across the United States joined protests demanding justice for his killing, radical reform of police forces, and driving home the message that Black Lives Matter. Many of these protests face militarised police responses, including the use of rubber bullets, sting balls, stun grenades, battons, police charges, and chemical weapons like tear gas and pepper spray. Twitter users have photographed a large number of canisters that were fired during the protest. Many appear to have been produced by a company called Defense Technology, a subsidiary of a company called The Safariland Group (click here for our profile on this company), which owns a number of companies producing a wide range of equipment and weapons used by law enforcement. Weapons from other companies appear to be produced by Combined Tactical Systems (our profile on CTS is available here) and FN Herstal USA.

Scottish Parliament Votes For Immediate Suspension Of ‘Weapons Of Oppression’ Exports To US

June 12, 2020 By Jon Stone, Independent. Resist! Chemical Weapons, Militarized police, Police abuse, Scotland

The Scottish Parliament has called for the immediate suspension of exports of riot gear, tear gas and rubber bullets to the United States, in light of the police response to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. A successful motion, which was backed by 52 votes to 0 with 11 abstentions, says the parliament "stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and considers that the UK government must immediately suspend all export licences for tear gas, rubber bullets and riot gear to the US". Patrick Harvie, the Green MSP who proposed the successful amendment, said the "weapons of oppression", which the UK government has granted active export licences for, were being used by a "racist state" to "brutalise marginalise communities". The same motion also called for the establishment of a slavery museum in Scotland "to address our historic links with the slave trade".

Chemical Weapon Use Is Dangerous In A Pandemic

June 7, 2020 Lisa Song, ProPublica. Educate! Chemical Weapons, COVID-19, health, Police violence

When Amira Chowdhury joined a protest in Philadelphia against police violence on Monday, she wore a mask to protect herself and others against the coronavirus. But when officers launched tear gas into the crowd, Chowdhury pulled off her mask as she gasped for air. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I felt like I was choking to death.” Chowdhury was on a part of the Vine Street Expressway that ran underground. Everyone panicked as gas drifted into the dark, semi-enclosed space, she said. People stomped over her as they scrambled away. Bruised, she scaled a fence to escape. But the tear gas found her later that evening, inside her own house; as police unleashed it on protesters in her predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia, it seeped in.

Oakland: Councilmembers Seek Immediate Halt To Police Use Of Tear Gas

June 4, 2020 Lisa Fernandez, KTVU. Create! Chemical Weapons, Oakland, Police, Rebellion2020

California - Three Oakland city councilmembers on Wednesday requested the immediate halt of tear gas being used for crowd control during the George Floyd protests in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Using information from a UCSF infectious disease expert who spoke to KTVU, Councilmembers Nikki Fortunato Bas, Rebecca Kaplan and Sheng Thao, sent a letter to the mayor, police chief and city administrator citing their concerns. They said they fear that using the tear gas, which police deployed on protesters on Friday, as well as before the 8 p.m. curfew on Monday, will increase the spread of the virus and place "countless people at risk." UCSF Dr. Peter Chin-Hong aid that tear gas makes people cough a lot and that people at protests are shouting and possibly projecting the virus droplets at farther lengths.

OPCW Insiders Slam ‘Compromised’ New Syria Chemical Weapons Probe

April 30, 2020 OPCW Insiders, The Grayzone. Educate! Chemical Weapons, OPCW, Syria, Whistleblowers

We have read the first Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) April 2020 report on alleged chemical attacks at Ltamenah. We observe that, as expected, the IIT has been loyal to its raison d’être. This has gone on for too long now. What makes it worse is the IIT’s narrative has been presented to the world as a product of many peoples’ work. In fact, a number of impartial and principled professionals no longer wish to be associated with the politically motivated reports being issued by the OPCW FFM and now the IIT. Many consider this work and these reports to be procedurally and scientifically flawed. Some of us believe they should not be seen as representing the work of OPCW inspectors at all.

The OPCW Is Used As A Political Tool Against Syria

April 15, 2020 By Steven Sahiounie, MidEast Discourse. Educate! Chemical Weapons, OPCW, Syria, US Regime Change

OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) has determined that chemical weapons have been used or likely used in Syria. The first report of the OPCW was released April 8 and points a finger at the Syrian Arab Air Force concerning 3 attacks which occurred in Ltamenah, on March 24, 25, and 30, in 2017. The report claims the investigation team conducts its activities in an impartial and objective manner. The only reason to believe the conclusion of such a report would be the belief that the team is honest, unbiased, and has no political agenda. There is no proof presented and the 82-page report clearly states that they are not a legal body with the authority to assign criminal responsibility. The Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) Coordinator, Mr. Santiago Oñate-Laborde remarked that the investigative team has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe a chemical was used in the attacks.

Four Whistleblowers Claim OPCW Is Silencing The Truth

March 15, 2020 Aaron Mate, The Grayzone. Educate! Chemical Weapons, OPCW, Syria, Whistleblowers

A new Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whistleblower has surfaced in response to a malicious and factually flawed attack by OPCW leadership on two veteran inspectors who challenged the official story of an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government in Douma. In a statement provided to The Grayzone, the new OPCW whistleblower described being “horrified” by the “abhorrent … mistreatment” of the inspectors. The new whistleblower also warned of a climate of intimidation designed to keep other staffers “frightened into silence.” The official is now the fourth OPCW whistleblower to air serious concerns about the chemical watchdog’s Douma probe. The Grayzone has independently verified the official’s identity and status with the OPCW, and granted them anonymity to protect them from potential retaliation.

The Scandal Behind The OPCW’s Report Doctoring In Douma

January 5, 2020 Canyon Ryan, Popular Resistance. Educate! Chemical Weapons, OPCW, Syria

In 1997, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was established to oversee the implementation of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The CWC aims to achieve “a world free of chemical weapons and the threat of their use, and in which chemistry is used for peace, progress, and prosperity”[1]. The “Our Approach” segment of their mission statement notes the principles which the OPCW follow, being the centrality of the Convention’s multilateral character and the equal application of the provisions to the CWC by all parties. They further note that this work is done with integrity and is “guided and supported by the internal vision of our organization”.

Media’s Deafening Silence On Latest WikiLeaks Drops Is Its Own Scandal

December 30, 2019 Caitlin Johnstone, CaitlinJohnstone.com. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Media, Syria, Wikileaks

This is getting really, really, really weird. WikiLeaks has published yet another set of leaked internal documents from within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) adding even more material to the mountain of evidence that we’ve been lied to about an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria last year which resulted in airstrikes upon that nation from the US, UK and France. This new WikiLeaks drop includes an email from the OPCW Chief of Cabinet Sebastien Braha (who is reportedly so detested by organisation inspectors that they code-named him “Voldemort”) throwing a fit over the Ian Henderson Engineering Assessment which found that the Douma incident was likely a staged event. Braha is seen ordering OPCW staff to “remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever” from the organisation’s secure registry.

New WikiLeaks Documents Expose Phony Claims Of 2018 Syria Chemical Weapons Attack

December 18, 2019 Niles Niumuth, Wsws.org Educate! Chemical Weapons, Syria, Wikileaks

Documents published by WikiLeaks on Saturday confirm that there is significant dissent within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global chemical weapons watchdog, over the doctoring of a public report on the alleged April 7, 2018 chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria, which reportedly killed 49 people and wounded as many as 650. The latest round of revelations makes clear that the US-led regime-change operation in Syria, which began in 2011, has been based on a pack of lies.

A Second Whistle Blown On The OPCW’s Doctored Report

December 5, 2019 Jeremy Salt, Ahtribune.com Educate! Chemical Weapons, Whistleblowers

Another whistleblower leak has exposed the fraudulent nature of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) report on the alleged chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Douma, close to Damascus, on April 7 last year. The first leak came from the Fact-Finding Mission’s engineering sub-group. After investigating the two sites where industrial gas cylinders were found in Douma and taking into account the possibility that the cylinders had been dropped from the air it concluded that there was a “higher probability” that both cylinders were placed at both sites by hand.

As The OPCW Is Accused Of False Reporting, US Propaganda Jumps To Its Help

December 4, 2019 By Moonofalabama.org Educate! Chemical Weapons, Propaganda

Under U.S. pressure the OPCW management modified or suppressed the findings of its own scientists to make it look as if the Syrian government had been responsible for the alleged chemical incident in April 2018 in Douma. The public attention to the OPCW's fakery lead to the questioning of other assertions the OPCW had previously made. With the OPCW under fire someone had to come to its help. To save the propaganda value of the OPCW reports the U.S. financed Bellingcat propaganda organization jumped in to save the OPCW's bacon.

The Hugely Important OPCW Scandal Keeps Unfolding. Here’s Why No One’s Talking About It.

November 20, 2019 Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlinjohnstone.com Educate! Chemical Weapons, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Syria

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is now hemorrhaging evidence that the US and its allies deceived the world once again about yet another military intervention, which should be a front-page story all over the world. Yet if you looked at American news media headlines you’d think the only thing that matters right now is indulging the childish fantasy that Donald Trump might somehow magically be removed from office via supermajority consensus in a majority-Republican Senate.

The OPCW And Douma: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Accused Of Evidence-Tampering By Its Own Inspectors

November 19, 2019 By Jonathan Steele, Counterpunch.org Educate! Chemical Weapons, Middle East, Syria

Claims that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons are almost as old as the Syrian civil war itself. They have produced strong reactions, and none more so than in the case of the alleged attack in April last year on the opposition-controlled area of Douma near Damascus in which 43 people are said to have been killed by chlorine gas. The United States, Britain and France responded by launching airstrikes on targets in the Syrian capital.

Did Assad Really Use Chemical Weapons In Douma?

June 14, 2019 Helena Cobban, Lobelog.com Educate! Chemical Weapons, Syria

Last month, a network of UK-based academics challenged allegations—which the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) officially corroborated on March 1—that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians in the outer Damascus suburb of Douma in April 2018. The challenge came in the form of a 15-page assessment, apparently prepared by a team of OPCW engineering experts, that seriously critiqued a fundamental conclusion of the March report. An unknown party leaked this assessment to the UK-based network, the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media.

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