OPCW Director Says Truth about Syria ‘Chemical Attack’ Report Would Feed ‘Russian Narrative’

By Staff, Agencies

While praising the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW] whistleblower’s integrity and professionalism, one director worried that seeking truth about the altered report on a “chemical attack” in Syria might help Russia, which he denounced as the enemy.

“I fear there is little one can do, since the report is final and out – unless one wants to feed in the Russian narrative and that I would never do, as they really are not bona fide friends of this organization, that’s for sure,” was the message of a director to Dr. Brendan Whelan, one of the whistleblowers who challenged the ‘interim’ report by the OPCW as having been doctored for political purposes.

This is according to emails published on Monday by the Grayzone, an investigative outlet that has been following the OPCW whistleblower story since the beginning.

The director – whose name was redacted to protect his privacy – is the same one who, in 2018, praised Whelan for his initial objections to the report, saying his email was “very carefully crafted, without emotions, not accusing anybody but laying out the facts and concerns very clearly.

Whelan’s June 22, 2018 email “took all the steps to maintain your moral and professional integrity,” he added, according to documents published by the Grayzone.

Robert Fairweather, a British diplomat who was OPCW chief of cabinet at the time, requested that Whelan’s email be “recalled” – erased from the organization’s documents and archives – without explanation, having previously said the report was not “redacted” at the behest of the OPCW director-general, and that he only asked “that the report did not speculate.”

The “core” team appointed from new OPCW hires was then tasked with writing the final report, but apparently waited until Whelan’s term at the organization expired in September 2018 to publish its version of the report. Ironically, it did nothing but speculate – conveniently omitting any evidence actually gathered by the Douma inspectors to blame the Syrian government for what might have been a “chlorine” attack on the town held by so-called Jaysh al-Islam militants.

Four whistleblowers have since come forward to challenge the OPCW’s alterations of the initial report. The organization’s response has been to defame them as disgruntled employees, while NATO-affiliated narrative management outfit Bellingcat actually doxed Whelan.