Vanessa Beeley

1. NATO's dirty war in Ukraine.

A recent report published by the Russian Federal News Agency suggests that NATO is preparing wide scale use of chemical weapons against civilians in Donbass and in ongoing military campaigns.

The news agency spoke to the advisor of the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Jan Gagin.

According to the article during the defence of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) Ukraine used drone-delivered ammunition containing toxic substances. The neo-Nazi 'Birds of Madyar' air reconnaissance team were identified as deploying these weapons. Since April 2023, Ukrainian-manufactured Teren 6 gas grendades have also been delivered by UAVs. Jan Gagin stated:

The enemy uses chemical weapons not only in Artemovsk but in other areas of the Front. The end of last year myself and my comrades came under attack by such ammunition in the direction of Ugledar. I experienced eye pain, nausea, respiratory spasm, dizziness and general weakness

The gas grenades were either foreign manufactured or local Ukrainian production. We saw this in videos shared by the Madyar Brigade or other Nazi groups: foreign marking was visible on the grendades. They did not conceal it. It is clear that NATO member states were deliberately supplying these weapons.

A video of one of these attacks has been circulated by Ukrainian Telegram channels and can be seen here.

It is worth pointing out that terrorist groups in Syria, which include ISIS, have been accused of deploying chemical weapons against civilians, Syrian Arab Army and in 2016 against members of the REAL Syria Civil Defence in Aleppo interviewed by myself in 2018:

The RSCD team leader spoke:

"We arrived at the area and knew we had to enter the tunnel to save the soldiers who were trapped down there. We got to the deepest part of the tunnel and we started to feel the effects of whatever gas had been used. One of my crew radioed me that he couldnt feel his limbs. I shouted for him to come back and we grabbed him to pull him out of the tunnel" ~ RSCD team leader.

Then the affected RSCD crew member told me what happened to him:

"I entered the tunnel and immediately began to feel strange. My whole body seemed to lose control. I couldnt breathe. I pulled on the rope. Red spots appeared on my hands and there was a strange smell in the air, I still cant describe it" ~ RSCD crew member.

ISIS patch on sleeve of a Ukrainian brigade commander. February 2023. RT

It has recently been proven that there are ISIS or ISIS-friendly militants fighting alongside the various Nazi battalions in Ukraine. So, the alleged use of chemical weapons in the NATO war against Russia should come as no surprise.

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All this while in Syria the same NATO member states, the corrupted OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) and other aligned UN agencies are maintaining the discredited narrative that the Syrian government carried out alleged chemical weapon attacks against their own civilians. Civilians that the Syrian Arab Army was liberating from NATO-member-state-proxy-terrorist occupation.

According to Jan Gagin the efficacy of the Ukrainian gas grenades was compromised due to their being deployed in open areas with high winds. For these weapons to be effective, they should be used in enclosed, urban areas according to Gagin.

Gagin points out that the Ukrainian forces have used other prohibited weapons against civilian targets which include lethal petal mines described by journalist Eva Bartlett on one of her many visits to Donetsk. Flechette shells have also been used:

"an anti-personnel weapon that is generally fired from a tank. The shell explodes in the air and releases thousands of metal darts 37.5mm in length, which disperse in a conical arch 300 metres long and about 90 metres wide".

Flechette darts kill and maim indiscriminately as do the "petal" mines that are often trodden on by unsuspecting children causing terrible mutilation. Jan Gagin reiterated:

Ukraine does not hide that it uses prohibited weapons precisely against civilians. There were official statements on their part about the physical destruction of the inhabitants of Donbass and Crimea. Similar actions — are nothing more than the genocide of the Russians in these territories. And the use of chemical munitions and other similar prohibited methods proves that Ukraine — is a terrorist state.

We must understand that Ukraine in this war has no limiters at all, no " stops ". Great Britain supplied depleted uranium shells. And what did it lead to? To the mass flight of citizens from those areas where warehouses with these ammunition were destroyed. And this is not we measuring the radiation background in Ukraine, it is the citizens themselves who measure it and see that the level has risen.

It is also worth following Professor Chris Busby on the radiological fall-out from the use or destruction of Depleted Uranium weapons in Ukraine. Busby, a British scientist and radiation expert said the following after the huge explosion near the city of Khmelnytskyi in Western Ukraine earlier in May:

The radiation detectors sited in Poland to the NW of the explosion in Ukraine show a highly significant increase in gamma radiation. The wind direction is SE so this fits with a plume from the explosion site. Uranium daughters Thorium-234 and Protoactinium 234m have gamma ray decays. The 94kev gamma ray from Th-234 is a 6% decay but there is a lot of Uranium. So they would show up on the Eurados detectors.

Access to the European gamma detectors network has been blocked by the German server.

The IAEA have predictably dismissed such claims as "false" but watch this interview with Prof. Busby to decide for yourself:

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2. Wagner Group - devils or allies of Africa?

UK Column News 24th May - with Mike Robinson, Debi Evans (health correspondent) and Vanessa Beeley.

This week in my section I look at the latest attempts to criminalise Russian Wagner Group in Africa as African nations turn against US/UK/EU hegemony in the region. Is Wagner the convict-laden-criminal entity the West would have you believe or the "Heroes of Africa"? Judge for yourself.

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I also look at a new report from Action on Armed Violence - 'British Special Forces on service in at least 19 countries' including Syria and Russia (2014). Executive summary:

This analysis of credible English-language news reports reveals that Britain's Special Forces, UKSF, have been deployed operationally in at least 19 countries, regions or territories and involved in missions in several others in the past decade, raising questions over the level of transparency and democratic oversight these shadowy units operate under. The UKSF operates distinctively from the rest of the British military, and despite being accountable to the Defence Secretary and Prime Minister, there is no parliamentary oversight or mechanism to conduct retrospective reviews. There have been several controversies associated with the UKSF, including assassinations, alleged cover-ups, deniability outsourcing, fighting alongside child soldiers, and friendly fire incidents. Calls have been made for greater transparency and oversight by various MPs and committees.

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3. President Assad quietly takes charge of the Arab League Summit

The weekly news round-up at UK Column. Below are the topics I covered:

1. Syria back at the Arab League Summit - President Assad speech.

Full speech with English subtitles:

2. The monstrous US Embassy in Beirut - 43 acres of prime land overlooking Beirut in a country where 80% of the 6 million population can't afford to eat. This project was budgeted to need $ 1 billion in 2015 and will far exceed this expectation. This is not about diplomacy, it is a military, intelligence complex bordering Syria.

3. Secret talks between US and Damascus to ascertain whereabouts of so-called US journalist Austin Tice allegedly kidnapped in Darayya (south of Damascus) in 2014. Journalist or high level CIA operative? FBI offered $1 million reward for information in 2018.

4. Turkish elections - is the West preparing for an Erdogan victory in the second round on May 28th?

5. 'How death outlives war' - the reverberating impact of the post 9/11 wars on human health. Latest report from the Watson Institute.

6. I comment on the latest UK regime propaganda about "Muslims" in Crimea.

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Watch:

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4. Turkish Elections Go to Second Round, Which Candidate is Better for Multipolarity?

I speak with Fiorella Isabel of The Convo Couch about the Turkish elections held on 14th May. Both Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu failed to get above 50%. Erdogan finished around the 49% mark. This means a hotly contested second round on the 28th May. Erdogan's AKP party has won the majority in Parliament which suggests a victory for the Islamist-leaning President but the ensuing two weeks of mud-slinging will surely entail pressure from the US for Kilicdaroglu (CHP - Republican Party) and Russia for long-time thorn in the north of Syria - Erdogan.

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Fast forward 5 minutes:

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5. Syria back in the Arab League and US is not happy

Quartet meeting in Moscow 10th May - Foreign Ministers of Iran, Russia, Syria and Turkey

Below is my section of UK Column News on 12th May where I cover the following:

Iraq and Iran energy ties expansion.

Iraq and Syria to re-open the Kirkuk to Baniyas oil pipeline

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Russia accuses US of forming a new modified terrorist army to further destabilise Syria

US lawfare agents introduce bill to combat normalisation with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Below is also the full news program:

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6. The Western hegemon crashes into a wall of West Asian unity

Meeting between President Raisi of Iran and Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus.

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Quantum Nurse presents:

A panel discussion with Vanessa Beeley on recent events in West Asia and the re-emergence of Pan-Arabism:

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7. Iraq and Syria to re-open crucial oil pipeline

The Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline revival.

According to various media reports- negotiations are ongoing to revive the strategic Iraqi Kirkuk to Syrian Baniyas oil pipeline. Iraqi Trade Minister Atheer Al Ghurairy has intimated increased efforts by Iraq to develop energy cooperation with Syria in the coming months and years.

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During a meeting with the Syrian Oil and Mineral Resources Minister Firas Hassan Kaddour views were exchanged on the launch of investment in oil and energy fields in both countries. Despite the current US military and proxy occupation of Syrian oil resources, Kaddour presented a strategy to facilitate investment by Iraqi companies in the Syrian oil industry. On the table was the restoration of the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline which would re-connect Iraqi oil fields with Syrian maritime ports and crude oil refineries.

This would resolve some of Syrian energy deprivation issues and provide Iraq with a more expedient oil transport route to refineries in Syria that could process the 12% of total Iraqi oil reserves that originate in Kirkuk.

The reactivation of the Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline will be "crucial" for Syria as it would end the country's power crisis, the minister said, adding that the pipeline is of an "exponential importance" for Iraq as it could cut the cost of exporting oil.

For Syria, added benefits would include a stimulation of trade in Syrian ports by increasing maritime traffic despite the threat of punitive US Caesar sanctions that target sovereign nations trade or collaboration with Syria. The Syrian economy would receive a boost from such trade and industry revival.

Atheer said that initial assessments indicate that the oil pipeline, which was heavily damaged during the war in Syria and recent conflicts in Iraq, is in need of extensive maintenance with a high cost. According to the minister, one possible scenario to solve this issue is for each country to bear the cost of fixing the damage on its part of the pipeline. (SouthFront)

History of Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline and its geopolitical importance

The 800-kilometer long pipeline, which can discharge 0.3 million barrels of oil per day, was constructed by the globalist US Bechtel Corporation in 1952.

The major reason for the U.S. invasion in March 2003 was to get control of Iraq's oil. A related factor was the intention of the ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, to sell Iraq's oil in Euros rather than U.S. dollars, which would have encouraged other oil producers to do the same, thereby endangering the dollar's position as the world's reserve currency, which is crucial to the U.S.'s economic viability. The genocidal invasion and preceding sanctions killed three million Iraqis, including half a million children, and totally destroyed a relatively advanced developing country whose people were largely prosperous| Asad Ismi

After the pre-planned and unlawful invasion of Iraq launched by the US in March 2003, Bechtel Corp. was one of the primary benefactors of the US savagery with and estimated $ 3 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts. It is worth noting that military industrial complex leader Lockheed Martin was handed "more than $ 11 billion increase in sales and contracts worth $ 5.6 million with the US Air Force in Iraq." Bechtel made it onto the Business Pundit's list of the '25 most vicious Iraq war profiteers'.

The pipeline was commissioned in 1952. Between 1982 and 2000 the pipeline was shut by Iraq, due to Syrian support to Iran during the Iran–Iraq war, and its later support for the liberation of Kuwait campaign. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the pipeline was damaged by United States airstrikes and remained out of operation since then.| SouthFront

Syria and Iraq made several attempts to reactivate the strategic oil pipeline between 2007 and 2010. However, technical and political hurdles kept the pipeline shut down.

Pumping was resumed in 2010 but did not last long due to the start of the regime change war against Syria and the occupation of much of the route by ISIS terrorist groups. The US also destroyed sections of the pipeline allegedly in its war on terror/ISIS which has been proven to be a fraudulent claim.

The Russia and Iran element

For some time Russia has been trying to secure an influential role in Iraq via the oil industry route amongst others. Russian oil companies have invested in many of Iraq's oil fields since 2010.

In 2019 Moscow was planning to help Baghdad to transport Kirkuk's oil to the Mediterranean sea. In 2007 Russian Gazprom was scheduled to repair the pipeline but Iraqi lack of finances were an obstacle. In 2010, as mentioned, Iraq and Syria attempted to get the pipeline up and running again.

The first pipeline was supposed to carry 15 million barrels of heavy crude oil per day, and the second pipeline was supposed to carry 125 million barrels of lighter crude oil per day.| Geopolitics

Back in 2019 Russia was trying to convince Iraqi and Syrian governments that it "can successfully implement the Kirkuk-Baniyas project".

According to Iraqi academic and author Diyari Salih in 2019:

"The activation of this pipeline will reshape the relations between Baghdad and Erbil. Baghdad will get rid of its unilateral dependence on the transfer of oil to Turkey through the IKR. This will reduce the geostrategic importance of this region's location. This option will also affect Erbil's ambitions to control Kirkuk again. In such a situation, Baghdad thinks that it will have more futuristic opportunities to make Erbil leave the dream of separation from Iraq. Baghdad knows well that this Kurdish dream cannot be done without annexing Kirkuk to the imagined Kurdish state. As a result, Baghdad and its allies will tighten their grip on this vital city. Hence, the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline might lead to postponing this Kurdish aspiration, at least, for decades to come."

This pipeline track will also have potential to strengthen the Iranian-Russian alliance. Before ISIS took control of Mosul in 2014 there had been intensive discussions on an Iranian desire to build a pipeline connecting Iranian oilfields to the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline.

From a geopolitical perspective the US regional resource piracy would inevitably come to an end. "There is a hope that this pipeline will link the fate of Iran, Russia, Iraq, Syria and even Lebanon economically and militarily" while squeezing the US and its Kurdish Contra proxies (Iraq and Syria) out of the equation.

The threat of a US-managed ISIS revival is also to be countered, with terrorist sleeper cells still embedded and active in Iraq and Syria but a united axis of terror-adversaries including Iran and Russia would be able to combat such a risk to the pipeline renewal.

Syrian and Iraqi efforts to reactivate the Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline will likely face several obstacles, mainly sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union. However, Syria's recent rapprochement with key regional allies of the West, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq's special relations with Iran, and the current global energy crisis could allow the two countries to reach a deal on the pipeline.| SouthFront

As Robert F Kennedy JR wrote in 2016 for Politico Magazine - "Why the Arabs don't want us in Syria":

They don't hate our freedoms. They hate that we have betrayed our ideals in their own countries - for oil

Let's face it; what we call the "war on terror" is really just another oil war. We've squandered $6 trillion on three wars abroad and on constructing a national security warfare state at home since oilman Dick Cheney declared the "Long War" in 2001. The only winners have been the military contractors and oil companies that have pocketed historic profits, the intelligence agencies that have grown exponentially in power and influence to the detriment of our freedoms and the jihadists who invariably used our interventions as their most effective recruiting tool. We have compromised our values, butchered our own youth, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, subverted our idealism and squandered our national treasures in fruitless and costly adventures abroad. In the process, we have helped our worst enemies and turned America, once the world's beacon of freedom, into a national security surveillance state and an international moral pariah.

Over the past seven decades, the Dulles brothers, the Cheney gang, the neocons and their ilk have hijacked that fundamental principle of American idealism and deployed our military and intelligence apparatus to serve the mercantile interests of large corporations and particularly, the petroleum companies and military contractors that have literally made a killing from these conflicts.

It's time for Americans to turn America away from this new imperialism and back to the path of idealism and democracy. We should let the Arabs govern Arabia and turn our energies to the great endeavor of nation building at home. We need to begin this process, not by invading Syria, but by ending the ruinous addiction to oil that has warped U.S. foreign policy for half a century.

***

Vanessa Beeley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Vanessa Beeley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

8. A Song for Syria

Ivo Sedlacek in Syria, Deir Musa.

Haunting musical tribute to the resilience of Syria:

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9. Weekly news round-up: Iran, Syria, Nord-stream, censorship etc

UK Column News looks at the recent historic visit of Iran's President Raisi to Syria, the US and UK reactions to "normalisation" of Arab relations with President Assad.. and much more:

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10. Vanessa Beeley: OPCW Turned Into Accessory to West's War Crimes

Sputnik Globe 

Exactly 26 years ago, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) entered into force on April 29, 1997. However, over the years, the watchdog has lost its veneer of impartiality and transparency, becoming a convenient instrument in the West's geopolitical games.

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"The OPCW was established in 1997 to effectively end the production, the stockpiling, and the transfer of chemical weapons and of course the use of chemical weapons in a war situation and the elimination of any existing stocks of these weapons over time," Vanessa Beeley, an independent investigative journalist who specializes on the Middle East and Syria, told Sputnik. "But in my opinion, what we see with the OPCW, as we see with the International Criminal Court (ICC), is even if these organizations were originally set up with the best intentions, eventually they are infiltrated, they are influenced, and compromised by the powerful countries, particularly among the neocolonialist Western blocs, into following an agenda or providing corroboration of an agenda. And of course, we've seen that on numerous occasions with the OPCW, and more recently with the ICC."

What is the OPCW?

Following the end of the Cold War, the OPCW was created to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the world's first multilateral chemical weapons disarmament agreement. The collapse of the USSR and subsequent geopolitical changes saw the international community launch multiple disarmament initiatives as a new post-Cold War world order emerged. Still, it appears the initiative was long overdue, given the destruction prompted by chemical arms.\

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The First World War saw the first massive use of chemical arms by Germany during the Second Battle of Ypres (April 22 – May 25, 1915), in Belgium. The German forces fired more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas, which resulted in tens of thousands of casualties.

On August 6, 1915, Germany used poisonous gas against Russian troops at Osowiec Fortress. The battle rose to prominence and became known as the Attack of the Dead Men as the surviving soldiers of the Russian infantry regiment managed to counter-attack the Germans despite coughing up blood and bits of their own lungs. By the end of the First World War, around 124,200 tons of chlorine, mustard, and other chemical agents had been released, with over 90,000 soldiers dying in agony due to exposure to them.

Despite the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases," global players continued to develop them. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany used poisonous gases to murder millions of people in gas vans or stationary gas chambers.

The War in Vietnam saw yet another massive use of chemical arms. US military forces used Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide, as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, between 1961 and 1971. In addition to huge environmental damage, Operation Ranch Hand caused severe health problems among the Vietnamese population.

Over the course of the Cold War, world powers amassed considerable stockpiles of chemical arms, which they agreed to eliminate in 1997, with 192 states supporting the initiative. For instance, Russia completed the full destruction of the 39,967 metric tons of its chemical weapons in September 2017. The US has yet to destroy its chemical stockpiles.

In 2013, the OPCW received the Nobel Prize for Peace for extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons. However, the Syrian War has exposed the other, darker side of the international organization.

OPCW, Syria War, and Chemical Provocations

The Syrian War that saw the West's military assistance and weapons deliveries to jihadi rebels in a bid to oust the nation's legitimate President Bashar al-Assad amid the infamous Arab Spring in the Middle East became a litmus test for the OPCW.

Since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, the US government has threatened the legitimate Syrian government with a full-scale attack if it uses chemical arms. Still, there have been no confirmed cases of the Syrian Arab Army's use of any sort of poisonous substances.

On March 19, 2013, jihadi rebels used makeshift projectiles containing the sarin nerve agent in Khan al-Assal near Aleppo, killing 28 people and injuring over 130. In August 2013, jihadi opposition carried out another chemical provocation with sarin in Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. The chemical attacks came in handy for Washington, providing it with a pretext for an invasion. However, Russia intervened.

It has been reported that in September 2013, President Barack Obama called off US airstrikes in Syria in a last-minute decision after Moscow and Damascus proposed dismantling Syrian chemical arms stockpiles altogether under the auspices of the UN and OPCW. Between October 2013 and September 2014, a joint OPCW-UN mission together with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad removed and destroyed all of the nation's chemical weapon stockpiles.

"In 2013, the OPCW and Russia effectively collaborated to destroy any stocks of Syrian chemical weapons," said Beeley. "But what the OPCW has never done, in my opinion, is to properly investigate the potential of supplying chemical weapon ingredients to the terrorist groups, including ISIS*, operating in Syria, who are known to have used chemical weapons. Myself, I was present during the use of chlorine gas against civilians in Hama; I think it was in 2019. And that attack, to my knowledge, has never been investigated by the OPCW. So in Syria, what we see is a very clear bias from the OPCW against the Syrian government, against the Syrian government's allies, which includes Russia."

OPCW and Staged Douma Incident

Even though the OPCW confirmed that the Syrian government eliminated its chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013, it immediately sided with the US and its NATO coalition when the Douma chemical incident occurred in 2018.

On April 7, 2018, jihadi rebels claimed Syrian government forces had conducted a chemical attack in Douma. The incident was hastily blamed on Damascus by the Trump administration to justify massive US and allied strikes on Syrian government targets before any investigation into the matter could take place.

The OPCW backed the US narrative in its 2019 report, but it was soon dented by a WikiLeaks bombshell release as well as OPCW Fact Finding Mission (FFM) whistleblower accounts indicating that the chemical watchdog had suppressed evidence showing that the Douma incident was staged to pin the blame on Damascus as the latter was gaining ground at the time. International investigative journalists and political observers stepped forward busting inconsistencies in the US narrative and the OPCW's apparent cover-up.

"The OPCW was really weaponized against Syria," Beeley underscored. "I think it's very clear who benefits from these claims of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government, very much as it was clear who benefited from the idea that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, or that Gaddafi was giving Viagra to his troops in Benghazi to carry out mass rape operations. Who is benefiting? The US, UK, EU countries that have waged the regime change war against Syria since 2011."

Strange Bedfellows: White Helmets and OPCW

The White Helmets, a UK-backed quasi-humanitarian group linked to terrorist elements in Syria, are believed to be the perpetrators of the Douma chemical hoax. Over the past several years, Beeley has conducted her own private investigation into the White Helmets and exposed the group's hypocrisy and ties with terrorist elements in Syria.

"The White Helmets were exclusively embedded with the armed groups, including, of course, Al-Qaeda* and ISIS* inside Syria, and they moved everywhere with those armed groups," Beeley said. "In other words, when there was a liberation campaign and amnesty and reconciliation deals were brokered between the armed groups and the Syrian government, the White Helmets never took the amnesty. They always moved with the dominant armed groups, which, as I said, were always Al-Qaeda under whatever rebranding they were given. And they moved with the groups, they partnered the groups, they shared facilities with those groups. Of course, they stand accused by Syrian civilians who lived under the occupation of armed groups of various crimes, including the abduction of children, running organ trafficking rings, theft, murder, torture, detention of civilians, and profiting from the money and the equipment that was coming in to these armed groups who we partnered in the war against Syria."

At the same time, the White Helmets, generously funded by Western governments through a former British intelligence officer who later died under strange circumstances, have had close connections with the OPCW since 2018, according to Beeley.

"Indeed, they do have, and in fact since 2018 – so one assumes since the alleged Douma chemical attack, the White Helmets have actually developed their relationship with the OPCW, just as, of course, the OPCW now has the mandate to attribute blame through the inspection teams and investigation teams, which of course, was considered by Russia to be beyond its mandate," she said. "It shouldn't have that mandate. Russia vetoed that. And since they've been basically given the mandate to attribute blame, the reality is that the White Helmets have increased their collaboration with the OPCW. They now have a dedicated employee working directly with the OPCW to provide supposed evidence of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government, in other words, to increase the potential of attributing blame for chemical weapon use against the Syrian government."

According to Beeley, this same employee, Radi Saad, writes regular posts on the UK Foreign Office blog. The investigative journalist raises the question:

"If the White Helmets are the primary source of evidence for these alleged chemical attacks, and this organization is funded by the British government, amongst others that are funding the war against Syria, and they are now basically in bed with the OPCW that are also being influenced and funded by the same government, one has to raise the question: isn't there a huge conflict of interest here?"

Doesn't this mean that the White Helmets are basically being used as a tool to provide the evidence for the OPCW to corroborate what the West needs in order to criminalize Syria and to continue with the sanctions, with the hybrid war pressure against the country?

OPCW's 2023 Douma Report: Repetition of Old Lies

The West completely suppressed OPCW whistleblower accounts of the Douma incident: in February 2023, the OPCW presented the results of its "investigation," claiming that the Syrian government was responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Douma in 2018. This is hardly surprising, according to Beeley.

"These chemical attack narratives serve to criminalize in Western public perception the Syrian government and its Russian allies in particular, and enable further military intervention by proxy, on occasions for calling for a no-fly zone, for US occupation in the northeast of Syria, and the economic sanctions, some of the most unprecedented, savage sanctions that have been imposed unilaterally against the Syrian people on the basis of these alleged assaults carried out by the Syrian government against the Syrian people," the investigative journalist pointed out.

"And of course, in the latest reports from the OPCW regarding the alleged chemical attack in Douma in 2018, we see that their reports have been entirely compromised and are a fraudulent, retrospective corroboration of the US, UK, and French foreign policy and unlawful aggression against Syria without any justification that the Syrian government had carried out the alleged chemical attack," she continued.

'OPCW Lacks Credibility'

Last month, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said that "almost any mention of the OPCW has been politicized in an anti-Syrian and anti-Russian spirit." Beeley agrees with this conclusion.

"If you go back to the second Iraq War, and this is probably the point at which the OPCW became compromised, when the then-director general, Jose Bustani, was threatened, intimidated by John Bolton when he was trying to procure permission to allow OPCW inspectors to go into Iraq to verify if there were weapons of mass destruction or not," Beeley said. "And, of course, what did that threaten to do? It threatened to derail the US narrative which was allowing them to bomb Iraq."

The investigative journalist expressed doubts about the credibility of OPCW reports and investigations given the organization's obvious bias. She argued that "until the OPCW opens its doors to a frank and open discussion with the dissident inspectors who are contesting the findings of the OPCW in Douma in Syria, it has no credibility." Beeley has drawn attention to the fact that the chemical watchdog silences its own inspectors and witnesses and puts obstacles in the way of transparency.

Similarly, the OPCW sided with the West in blaming the alleged poisoning of Sergey Skripal on Russia and, likewise, remained mum about the threat of the Kiev regime's chemical provocations in Ukraine and apparent use of poisonous substances by the Ukrainian military.

"Why has [OPCW] demonstrated itself to have a complete bias against the perceived enemies of the US and the UK?" the British journalist asked. "You know, in this sense, any organization that has demonstrated obfuscation – and also we have to remember that retrospectively, the OPCW has effectively justified war crimes carried out by the US, UK, and France against Syrian civilians in Damascus, when Damascus was bombed before the OPCW inspectors had even managed to get into Douma to carry out their investigation. So therefore, you know, to a degree, the OPCW has to be considered an accessory to war crimes. And while it is considered an accessory to war crimes, until that is proven or disproven, how can it genuinely be considered to be carrying out an impartial role or adhering to its own mission statement?"

For more of Sputnik's exclusive analysis on the OPCW's history and bias, check out our Telegram post here .

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