By Peter Koenig
24 January 2020
Why does Switzerland, neutral by her Constitution, fund, support and reward the partial and I dare say, western-biased and corrupted Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and their fake reporting – with a donation of CHF 300,000 (US$ 300,000)? – It is a shame. It is one more of these situations when Switzerland has to show the great hegemon that they are on his side. It’s like with Swiss ‘sanctions’ on Venezuela, a country that has never done any harm to Switzerland, to the contrary. Just because the Exceptional Nation and its European poodles demand it? What does Switzerland, and I repeat – constitutionally neutral Switzerland – expect in return for such “fine gestures” of propaganda? Perhaps a blind eye for untransparent fiscal and gold transactions?
Impartiality has been eviscerated from OPCW, as much as from the International Criminal Court (ICC), also located in The Hague. Remember, this is the Court, where President Trump just recently threatened its judges with “sanctions” – could be murder, from all we know of the American way of extra-judiciary proceeding – if ever they, the judges of ICC, dare accusing and prosecuting individuals from the US and Israel for Human Rights abuses. That’s the ICC.
The OPCW is not an iota better. They issue false reports that could endanger the lives of millions of people – Syrians as it were – just to prevent the threat of OPCW staff being sanctioned. Yes, friends, that’s the world we have become. A bunch of spineless, hapless sheep.
To put it all in context, Syria was one of those countries that according to US Foreign Policy had to be “regime-changed” (Syria’s strategic location, with President Assad’s vision of “connecting five seas” [Caspian, Black, Red, Mediterranean and the Gulf] with a transport and energy corridor – and to top it all off – a socialist leaning Ba’ath Government) – which was the reason for the CIA / NATO and other European US lackeys – and the Saudis, to initiate in March 2011 the so-called Syrian “Arab Spring”, or civil war, actually a mercenary war, funded by the usual villains, the US, Saudis and other Gulf States and the European stooges.
OPCW, based in The Hague, capital of the neoliberal Netherlands, does the bidding of the west, in particular the United States. OPCW has nothing to do anymore with their original mandate of inspecting, analyzing and reporting the use of chemical weapons in countries of conflict. OPCW has become a puppet, a mere tool of the west demonizing countries that refuse bending down on their knees in front of Washington, falsely accusing these countries – lately especially Syria – of using deadly chemical weapons against her own people.
On August 21, 2013 in the early morning hours, Ghouta a large suburban area of Damascus was struck by several rockets containing the toxic and deadly chemical agent sarin. The attack may have killed more than 1,000 people. The UN already in Syria with a mission investigating several sarin gas attacks on civilian populations and medical convoys carried out in 2012 and earlier in 2013, were granted permission by the Assad Government to also look into the Ghouta attacks. The UN mission also had an OPCW delegation on board. The mission concluded that the attack on Ghouta was a chemical weapons assault, using the deadly sarin gas.
That’s where the investigation stopped and the accusations started. Without a shred of evidence, aping the pre-emptive allegations by the US,UK and France, that the attacks were carried out by President Assad’s military, OPCW also accused the Syrian Government of these heinous crimes. A ludicrous allegation, because why would Mr. Assad kill his own people? Especially, since he had then and has still today, about 80 % of popular support. And this after 9 years of foreign induced, and maintained terror against the people of Syria.
In April 2014 the northern Syrian town of Kafr Zita, also suffered a chemical attack, where about 100 people were injured and three killed. “Toxic chlorine” was the chemical agent used – the trade mark of the White Helmets, also created by the west, as the heroes defending Syria’s civil population, when in fact they are closely associated with the terror group Al-Nusra.
The false charges were so loud and repetitive and propagated by the bought western media that people throughout the western admirers of the atrocious US empire believed such nonsense. And this, despite the fact that Russia, soon after the attack, said, this was very likely a ‘false flag’, meaning carried out by western-funded terrorists mercenaries, so as to justify western military intervention. Russia is an ally of Syria, with national interests in Syria – naval and air bases – hence, a close observer of events in Syria.
Before a massive western military intervention could begin, Russia brokered a “truce” by having Syria destroy all its chemical weapons under the supervision of OPCW, Russia and the US. This was faithfully carried out – leaving Syria clean of chemical weapons. And the world knows it. OPCW knows it, as both the US and Russia witnessed the destruction.
Nevertheless, in June 2018 the OPCW noted with concern that the Syrian Arab Republic had in reality neither declared nor destroyed all of its chemical weapons and chemical weapons production facilities. This, as a justification for yet another false accusation, namely the alleged chemical attack on 7 April 2018 on Douma, about 10 km northeast of Damascus, when according to “eye witnesses” some 40 to 50 people were killed and more than 100 people injured. Again, The US, French and Brits immediately attributed the assault to the Syrian Army.
OPCW, readily on location, also concluded that the attack was carried out by President al-Assad’s troops. To make the point, a series of photos were circulated. They showed, among other ridiculouslycounterfeited pictures, a used yellow canister fallen from the sky and landing on a sofa in a shattered house. The Syrian Government and Russia immediately declared these pictures as fake and staged which later was proven right.
On 14 April 2018, a week after the alleged Assad regime attack on Douma, the US, Britain and France responded, launching more than 120 Tomahawk missiles against several Syrian targets, causing considerable infrastructure destruction and injuring about ten people. This was in full breach of international law, as the UN did not authorize this attack.
The OPCW mission knew, of course, immediately that the accusations were wrong, that this was a staged incident – most likely carried out by the White Helmets themselves, who later came to the rescue of the “insured people” and interviewed the “eye witnesses” – the basis for the false accusations. Hollywood later made “The White Helmets” into a documentary to re-establish the credibility of the “heroic Syrian civil defenders”. The film won the 2017 Oscar for Best Documentary. That’s how the West turns lies into truth. A Russian and Syrian Army investigation later concluded that there was no attack at all, that the chlorine was regular chlorine, not a weapon-grade chemical.
The US, French, Brits, who all have their intelligence in the region, knew, of course, that the accusations of the Douma attack and all the previous chemical attacks were lies. The Swiss knew it too, as the Swiss were member of OPCW’s Executive Council (2016-2018) and as of today maintain close relations with OPCW – like making a generous donation to this unethical organization.
OPCW has 193 member states. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. This puts the organization at international center stage. For those who know, they know that this prize is absolutely political and meaningless. Remember, Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize (2009) before he effectively started his presidency, sort of “in anticipation” of the “good he would do” – and then he ended up with 7 wars on his conscience (which he doesn’t have) by the time he left office.
The former Swiss prosecutor and former member of the UN Commission of Inquiry, Carla Del Ponte, shocked western governments in May 2013 by declaring that the United Nations had “strong suspicions” of Syrian rebels using sarin gas. She later was forced to retrack her statement which is suspected to be the unspoken but real reason for her resignation in 2016 from the infamous UN Commission which was set up in 2011, shortly after the beginning of the US/ CIA / NATO initiated “civil war” in Syria.
The Commission was to investigate human rights abuse in Syria. In hindsight, the Commission was created as if in anticipation of the already planned gas attacks that needed an official UN agency to justify accusing the Assad Government of poisoning its own people – and therefore, ‘regime change’ was of the order.
Several OPCW whistleblowers and leaks challenge Western government claims
Quoting from The Grayzone of 22 January 2020 – “In May 2019, an internal OPCW engineering assessment was leaked to the public. The document, authored by Ian Henderson, said the “dimensions, characteristics and appearance of the cylinders” in Douma “were inconsistent with what would have been expected in the case of either cylinder having been delivered from an aircraft,” adding that there is “a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from an aircraft.”
“After reviewing the leaked report, MIT professor emeritus of Science, Technology and International Security, Theodore Postol, told The Grayzone, “The evidence is overwhelming that the gas attacks were staged.” Postol also accused OPCW leadership of overseeing “compromised reporting” and ignoring scientific evidence.”
In November 2019, a second OPCW whistleblower came forward and accused the organization’s leadership of “suppressing countervailing evidence” under pressure of US Government officials.
With evidence of internal suppression growing, the OPCW’s first director-general, José Bustani, decided to speak out. “The convincing evidence of irregular behavior in the OPCW investigation of the alleged Douma chemical attack confirms doubts and suspicions I already had.” He added, “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 certainly clearer now, although very disturbing.”
On 20 January 2020, Ian Hendersontestified as a virtual person before the UN Security Council about the suppression of truth reporting by OPCW leadership. He spoke by pre-recorded video, since the Trump Administration refused granting him an entry visa to attend the UN Security Council Meeting. Trump is weaponizing visas against anyone who does not conform to the US narrative, no matter how deceptive it is.
Henderson said “My concern, which was shared by a number of other inspectors, relates to the subsequent management lockdown and the practices in the later analysis and compilation of a final report,”
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On 22 January 2020 – OPCW declared at their headquarters in The Hague that the “Government of Switzerland will make two contributions totaling CHF 300,000 (US$ 300,000) to support a number of major projects and activities of the OPCW.”
“A contribution of CHF 200,000 will be made to the OPCW Trust Fund to support the project to upgrade the current OPCW Laboratory and Equipment Store through the construction of a new Centre for Chemistry and Technology (ChemTech Centre).”
Another contribution of approximately CHF 100,000 will support the activities of the Trust Fund for Syria Missions at the OPCW. The Trust Fund for Syria Missions supports the Organization’s missions and contingency operations related to the Syrian Arab Republic including the work of the Declaration Assessment Team, the Fact-Finding Mission, and the Investigation and Identification Team.”
These are the very teams that launched knowingly deceptive and fake reports that could have cost millions of Syrian lives, if Russian support of the Assad Government, Russian pressure on the west, and Russian overwhelming evidence of the fakeness of OPCW reporting, would not have been able to avert an all-out war of the west against Syria.
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The Swiss Government is fully aware of the corrupt nature of OPCW reporting – and of the organizations caving in to US pressure, and that this situation will not change in the future, as Washington’s pressure, blackmail and threat of “sanctions” – meaning possible death by drones – will not seize. Is the US$ 300,000 donation maybe a gesture of empathy – an expression of sympathy from one spineless character to another?
* Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; Greanville Post; Defend Democracy Press, TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.
Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
