 WikiLeaks, OPCW Dorma Docs, OPCW Whistleblower Panel on the Dorma Doc Attack of April 2018 23rd October 2019, Today WikiLeaks publishes a statement made by a panel that listened to testimony and reviewed evidence from a whistleblower from the OPCW Organization prohibition of chemical weapons last week. To accompany the statement, WikiLeaks is also publishing a previously leaked engineering assessment of the alleged chemical attack in Dorma, Syria on April 7th last year. This statement was omitted in the final report by the OPCW which does not support its findings. WikiLeaks editor Kristen Rufferson took part in the panel to review the testimony and documents from the OPCW Whistleblower. He says, quote, the panel was presented with evidence that cast doubt on the integrity of the OPCW, although the whistleblower was not ready to step forward and or present documents to the public. WikiLeaks believes it is now of utmost interest for the public to see everything that was collected by the fact-finding mission on Dorma and all scientific reports written in relation to the investigation. We call out to people within the OPCW to leak these documents securely to us via WikiLeaks.org. Submit. One of the panel members was Dr. Jose Bostani, the first director general of the OPCW, who concluded that, quote, the convincing evidence of irregular behavior in the OPCW investigation of the alleged Dorma chemical attack confirms doubts and suspicions I already had. I could make no sense of what I was reading in the international press. Even official reports of investigations seemed incoherent at best. The picture is certain clear now, although very disturbing, end quote. In support of the OPCW's original objectives, the panel called upon the organization to re-establish its credibility and legitimacy by allowing all inspectors who took part in the OPCW investigation to come forward and report their differing observations in their appropriate forum of the United Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Internal OPCW email, 23 November 2019. OPC Management accused of doctoring Syrian chemical weapons report. WikiLeaks today publishes an email sent by a member of the OPCW fact-finding mission to Syria to his superiors, in which he expresses his graveest concern over international bias introduced to a redacted version of the report he co-authored. The organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons sent a team of experts to investigate allegations that a chemical attack took place in the Syrian city of Doma on the 7th of April 2018. The author of the email was a member of that team and claims the redacted preliminary version of the report misrepresents the facts he and his colleagues discovered on the ground. The email is dated 22 June. It is addressed to Robert Fairweather, chief of cabinet and forwarded to his deputy Amir Shoukat and members of the fact-finding mission to Doma. He says this misrepresentation was achieved by selective omission, introducing a bias which undermines the credibility of the report. Further it claimed that the crucial facts that have remained in the redacted version quote have morphed into something quite different to what was originally drafted end quote. This is said to have been done at the behest of the office of director general a post that was held by Turkish diplomat Ahmed Uzumsi at the time. He has since been replaced by Spaniard Fernando Arias. The attacking question was widely attributed to the Syrian army based on reports by rebel forces that were present in Doma at the time and this assertion was backed up by the United States, British and French governments. These three countries carried out airstrikes against Syrian government targets in response on the 14th of April 2018. This was before the fact-finding team had gained access to the site in Doma. The mission there was delayed for nearly two weeks by entrenched rebel fighters and subsequent clashes between the rebels and government forces that moved in the area. Upon arrival the team found much of the physical evidence including the bodies of the deceased was no longer available. It was alleged that 49 had died and up to 650 had been seriously affected by a weaponized chemical gas released in a specific area of rebel hell Doma on that day in April. Rebels claim the gas came from cylinders dropped from aircraft clearly implicating Syrian government forces who had complete air superiority. The redacted report seemed to support these conclusions but the author of the released email outlines some specific aspects of it which he considers quote particularly worrisome. Firstly, there is a statement in the redacted report. It states that there is sufficient evidence to determine the presence of quote chlorine or another reactive chlorine containing chemical end quote. The email points out that this was quote likely one or more chemicals that contain the reactive chlorine atom. Such chemicals could include the major ingredients of household chlorine based bleach purposely singling out chlorine gas as one of the possibilities is disingenuous end quote. The redacted report also removed contacts from a claim in the original draft which concerned the likelihood of gas having emanated from cylinders found at the scene in Doma. The original text is said to have purposely emphasized that there was sufficient evidence to affirm this being the case. This is quote a major deviation from the original report according to the author. He also cites problems with paragraph in the redacted version which states quote based on the high levels of various chlorinated organic derivatives detected in the environment samples and quote. This is said to overstate the case according to the email quote. There were in most cases present only in parts per billion range as low as one to two parts per billion which is essentially trace quantities end quote. One piece of evidence which was shown on news networks across the world was a video set to show victims being treated in in a hospital in the aftermath of the attack in Doma. The symptoms shown were however not consistent with what witnesses reported seeing that day. A detailed discussion of this was apparently omitted from the redacted version of the OPCW report. The email stated quote omitting this section of the report including a pedagmology which has been removed in its entirety has a serious negative impact on the report as this section is inexcusably linked to the chemical agent identified. In this case the confidence of the identity of the chlorine or any other choking agent is drawn into question precisely because of the inconsistency with the report and observed symptoms. The inconsistency was not only noted by the fact-finding mission team but strongly supported by three toxicologists which with expertise in exposure to chemical warfare agents end quote. Yet another point of contention is the placement and condition of the cylinders reported to have contained the chemical agents. It has been alleged that their condition may not be consistent with having been dropped from the air compared to damage in the immediate surrounding area. This was discussed in an unreleased engineering report from OPCW that was leaked and WikiLeaks published in October 2019 and indicates it is unlikely the cylinders were airdrop. See previous release OPCW whistleblower panel on the DOMA attack of April 2018. Sections discussing this are largely absent from the redacted report quote. This information was important in assessing the likelihood of the presence of toxic chemical versus the use of toxic chemicals end quote states the email. The author ends his letter with an appeal to the management to allow him to attach his differing observation to the document. The annual conference of the state's parties of the OPCW that is composed of representatives of all member states of the convention starts Monday November 25th in The Hague. Media partnership and coordination La Republica, Italy, Staunen, Iceland, Der Spiegel, Germany, Mail on Sunday, UK. OPCW DOMA Release Part 3, 14 December 2019. Today WikiLeaks releases more documents showing internal disagreement within the OPCW about how facts were misrepresented in a redacted version of a report on an alleged chemical attack in DOMA Syria in April 2018. Amongst these is a memorandum written in protest by one of the scientists sent on a fact-finding mission FFM to investigate the attack. It is dated 14 March 2019 and is addressed to Fernando Aries, director general of the organization. This was exactly two weeks after the organization published his final report on the DOMA investigation. WikiLeaks is also releasing the original preliminary report for the first time along with the redacted version that was released by the OPCW for comparison. Additionally, we are publishing a detailed comparison of the original interim report with the redacted interim report and the final report along with relevant comments from a member of the original fact-finding mission. These documents should help clarify the series of changes that the report went through which skewed the facts and introduced bias according to the statements made by the members of the fact-finding mission. The aforementioned memo states that around 20 inspectors had expressed concern over the final fact-finding mission report which they feel, quote, did not reflect the views of the team members that deployed to DOMA, end quote. Only one member of the fact-finding team that went to DOMA, a paramedic, is said to have contributed to the final version of the report. Apart from that one person, an entirely new team was gathered to assemble the final report referred to as the quote FFM core team, end quote. This new team was staffed with people who, quote, had only operated in country X, end quote, according to the memorandum. It is not clear what country that refers to except that it is presumably not Syria. It is possible, though, only speculation that country X refers to Turkey as OPCW has sent teams into refugee camps there to interview survivors from DOMA. The author of the memorandum states that he was the one originally tasked with analysis and assessment of the two cylinders found on the scene of the alleged chemical attack. This was a task he undertook, quote, in the understanding he was clearly the most qualified team member having been to the location in DOMA and because of his expertise in metallurgy, chemical engineering, including pressure vessel design, artillery and defense R&D, end quote. He continues, quote, in subsequent weeks I found that I was being excluded from the work for reasons not made clear, end quote. The author explains that he had frequently asked to be updated on the progress of the final report and to be allowed to review the draft, but was turned down on both counts, quote, the response was utmost secrecy, end quote. Once the final report was released on the 1st of March 2019, it became clear that the conclusions of the report had changed significantly in the hands of the new, quote, core, end quote, team that assembled it in its final form, quote. At the conclusion of the in-country activities in the Syrian Arab Republic, the consensus with the fact-finding mission team was that there was indications of serious inconsistencies in findings. After the exclusion of all team members, other than a small cadre of members who had deployed and deployed again in October 2018 to country X, the conclusion seems to have turned completely in the opposite direction. The fact-finding member team members find this confusing and are concerned to know how this occurred, end quote. Towards the end of the memo, he writes, quote, in conclusion, I must stress that I hold no opinion, interest or strong views on the technical part of the matter, nor any interest in the political outcomes. My interest is in sound technical rigor, the science, engineering, and facts will speak for themselves, end quote. WikiLeaks is releasing supporting documents that back up these claims in great technical detail, including the original interim report and appraisal of the changes each iteration went through. OPCW, DOMA, release part 4, 27th December 2019. Today, WikiLeaks releases more internal documents from the OPCW regarding the investigation into the alleged chemical attack in DOMA in April 2018. One of the documents is an email exchange dated 27 and 28 February between members of the fact-finding mission, FFM, deployed to DOMA and the senior officials of the OPCW. It includes an email from Sebastian Brahe, chief of cabinet at the OPCW, where he instructs that an engineering report from Ian Henderson should be removed from the secure registry of the organization. Quote, please get this document out of DRA, Documents Registry Archive, and please remove all traces, if any, of its delivery, storage, whatever in DRA, end quote. Main finding of Henderson, who inspected the sites in DOMA and the two cylinders that were found on the site of the alleged attack, was that they were more likely manually placed there than dropped from a plane or helicopter from considerable height. His findings were omitted from the original final OPC report on the DOMA incident. Another document released today is minutes from a meeting on 6th June 2018, where four staff members of the OPCW have discussions with, quote, three toxicologists, clinical pharmacologists, one bio and analytical and toxicological chemist, end quote. All specialists in chemical weapons according to the minutes. The purpose of this meeting was twofold. The first objective was, quote, to solicit expert advice on the value of exhuming suspected victims of the alleged chemical attack in DOMA on 7 April 2018, end quote. According to the minutes, the OPCW team was advised by the experts that there was little use in conducting exhumation. The second point was, quote, to elicit expert opinion from the forensic toxicologists regarding the observed and reported symptoms of the alleged victims, end quote. More specifically, quote, whether the symptoms observed in victims were consistent with exposure to chlorine or other reactive chlorine gas, end quote. According to the minutes leaked today, quote, with respect to the consistency of the observed and reported symptoms of the alleged victims with possible exposure to chlorine gas or similar, the experts were conclusive in their statement that there was no correlation between symptoms and chlorine exposure, end quote. The OPCW team members wrote that the key, quote, takeaway message, end quote, from the meeting was, quote, that the symptoms observed were inconsistent with exposure to chlorine and no other obvious candidate chemical causing the symptoms could be identified, end quote. The third document is a copy of the OPCW email exchange from 20 to 28 August 2018, discussing the meeting with the toxicologists. The fourth document is an email exchange from the end of July 2018, where it is stated that the eight OPCW inspectors deployed to DOMA during the fact finding mission, except one, a paramedic, should be excluded from discussions on the project.