A Closer Look at Khan Sheikhoun

This paper will examine two newspaper articles that highlight chemical attack in Syria on April 4, 2017, by using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The selected articles are: 1. “Syria Chemical Weapons Attack Toll Rises to 70 as Russian Narrative is Dismissed” from The Guardian (Appendix 1); 2. “Worst Chemical Attack in Years in Syria; U.S. Blames Assad” from The New York Times (Appendix 2).

This study examines how an early chemical weapons incident in the Syrian Civil War emerged on social media, and how it was "spun" by agents who we have already studied in relation to subsequent incidents occurring a year later. We took a "closer look" at the alleged use of chlorine by the Syrian government at Talmenes, Kafr Zita, and Al Tamanah in April/May 2014 showing how dubious the allegations were (to say the least) and how deceptive the propaganda was, being associated with organisations such as the CBRN Task Force, very likely a front for MI6. Although that organisation had not yet been founded in March 2013, nevertheless, we find that the significant propagandists connected with it were already at work in the very early incident.

2018

On April 7, 2018, insurgents and civilians in a rebel enclave in Douma, east of Damascus, Syria, were subjected to a chemical weapons attack during an offensive conducted by Assad regime and allied Russian and Iranian-linked ground forces. At least 42 individuals were reported to have been killed in the attack due to suffocation—primarily in their homes—with more than 500 additional individuals seeking medical attention.1 Local reports from the encircled enclave suggest that during the late afternoon and evening hours, Assad regime helicopters dropped two barrel bombs containing a substance with signatures consistent with that of chlorine.2 Chlorine—an industrial hazardous material (HAZMAT) chemical with many commercial uses—can also be utilized in chemical warfare as a choking agent. Upon dispersal, this chemical—in its gaseous form—is greenish-yellow in color and heavier than air, which allows it to settle in spots such as basements and other low lying areas, slowly suffocating th...

Political Analysis Report , 2021

This Report Was concluded with overwhelming pieces of evidence pointing to the following statements being made on the war in Syria and the Douma Chemical attacks. The Statements of the war of Syria Have been concluded with an in-depth investigation on what Forces have to play in Syria along with what BOTH sides have to say on the conflict along with media and propaganda. The Statements regarding the Douma Chemical Attacks are debunking and correcting The OPCW (Organization for the prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Which had published false or misleading information regarding the attacks and could have been done due to governmental and diplomatic pressure from countries, persons, organizations, or Establishments which have sought to impose their agenda on the minds of people or governments. DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by independent media and journalist Muhammad Hani Mirza, With No Prior biases in mind and purely on factual evidence.

After the deadly chemical attack in Ghouta, last August 2013, the Syrian government agreed to destroy all of its chemical weapons. Even though by April 2014, 92,5% of Syria's chemical arsenal had been destroyed and as Syria approaches the end of the chemical arms removal program, the world has witnessed a sudden resurgence of chemical strikes, with a marked hike last April. This report summarizes the latest chemical attacks and concludes that the Assad regime is using chemical terror to advance its military goals, becoming a state we can define as a non-conventional terrorist actor.

In some earlier articles (1, 2), I had described the dangers of escalations of wars and civil wars in Syria and Middle East by provocative military actions of Turkey, US, NATO, their so-called Coalition Forces, and foreign and domestic terrorists, financed, trained, and armed by them. In Syria, in opposition to them, and in support of the legitimate government of Syria, which they have been trying to overthrow since 2011, the superpower of Russia and the great regional power of Iran have also intervened very effectively, and have been crucial in turning the tide in favor of the Syrian government. All the major anti-state terrorist groups in Syria are in retreat and the Syrian government forces are getting closer to complete victory and establishment of control over all of its territory. It is within the above situation that chemicals released from some sources killed around 70 people and injured numerous others. The US and its allies immediately jumped on that opportunity and blamed the Syrian government forces of having attacked with chemical weapons, without any evidence or proof. Syrian government and military, as well as Russia, strongly denied that and have offered a logically and factually credible explanation that the release of those chemicals originated from the chemical weapons depot of the so-called rebels, when it was hit during a raid by the government forces. However, US and Coalition Forces completely ignored and dismissed that explanation and insisted that their own version was indubitable. At the same time, Trump and other high-level government officials started making totally shameless, demonic, and hypocritical " humanitarian " noises against such alleged barbaric chemical attack by the Syrian government forces, so soon after they themselves killed hundreds of civilians and wounded hundreds more, including dozens of children and women, in aerial bombardment of a mosque in Syria, residential areas of Mosul in Iraq, and a raid on an alleged Al-Qaeda compound in Yemen. In contrast to the lack of evidence and proof in case of the alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian forces, evidence and proofs of those slaughters are well-documented and are undeniable, even though the US has been stretching the limits of irrationality, lies, and denial of facts to the extreme in these cases. As usual, the thoroughly complacent news and other media in the US are reproducing such bizarre hypocrisies and lies, even in such a dangerously escalating situation, almost totally uncritically. Not a word from them on the earlier and continuing slaughters of 400,000 and forcing millions into exile in Syria-an indubitable consequence of the intervention of Coalition Forces in Syria, under the leadership of US, and funding, training, and arming of thousands of foreign and domestic anti-government fighters-, slaughters of around 3 millions, including tens of thousands of children, and woundings and devastation of lives of countless millions, during the invasions and wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, and diabolical destruction of infrastructures and means of living of the people in all those countries. And let us not forget the US role in Iran-Iraq war, during which it had supplied Saddam Hussain's military with chemical weapons and trained and guided its personnel in their use, destroying the lives of tens of thousands, including thousands of children.

Problems of Post-Communism, 62(4): 236-246, 2015

The Western powers and Russia came head-to-head over the August 2013 chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Not only did Moscow stridently oppose Western plans to intervene militarily, it also steadfastly refused to accept that the Syrian regime had been responsible, a position that the US president described as an ‘insult to reason’. This paper examines how it can be that the Russian government was able to maintain such a seemingly absurd stance. It does so by analysing how the Ghouta attacks were presented in the Russian media, and comparing this with coverage in the US, UK, and France. The core finding is that there is an utterly distinct Russian narrative about what occurred. Focusing on the details and style of reporting, discussions of responsibility and motivation, and representations of the West and Russia’s respective roles, it is found that, not only is the Russian account cohesive, it is also largely plausible and, on several points, compares favourably with the Western coverage. Highlighting these differences provides a completely distinct perspective on the August 21 events. It also goes a long way in aiding understanding of Russia’s response to the crisis, as well as to comprehending its broader outlook on international politics.

Syrian Revolution Commentary and Analysis, 2021

Vast numbers of responses to the conspiracy theories absolving the Assad regime of responsibility for the 2018 chemical massacre in Douma have been penned, some of which this article will list for reference. However, this article is not a repeat of this detective work; rather, the core of it is an examination of the absurdity of these assertions, precisely from the point of view of the questions of "who gains" and casus belli that these conspiracists evoke. On April 7, 2018, the Assad regime launched a chemical attack, dropping chlorine canisters, on the besieged town of Douma, the last remaining part of the opposition-held East Ghouta region which had been under a month-long massive attack by the regime, during which it had reconquered the rest of the region.

Strategic Culture Foundation, Moscow, RF