Archiv: alleged chemical attack in Douma / Duma (Syria) 07-04-2018


12.03.2021 - 11:09 [ Courage Foundation ]

Statement of Concern: The OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria

Signatories in Support of the Statement of Concern:

José Bustani, Ambassador of Brazil, first Director General of the OPCW and former Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France.

Professor Noam Chomsky, Laureate Professor U. of Arizona and Institute Professor (em), MIT.

Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor, Harper’s Magazine.

Daniel Ellsberg, PERI Distinguished Research Fellow, UMass Amherst. Former Defense and State Department official. Former official of Defense Department (GS-18) and State Department (FSR-1).

Professor Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University.

Tulsi Gabbard, former Presidential candidate and Member of the US House of Representatives (2013-2021).

Professor Dr. Ulrich Gottstein, on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW-Germany).

Katharine Gun, former GCHQ (UKGOV), whistleblower.

Denis J. Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary-General (1994-98).

Professor Pervez Houdbhoy, Quaid-e-Azam University and ex Pugwash.

Kristinn Hrafnnson, Editor in Chief, Wikileaks.

Dr. Sabine Krüger, Analytical Chemist, Former OPCW Inspector 1997-2009.

Ray McGovern, ex-CIA Presidential Briefer; co-founder, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence (rtd); member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.

Professor Götz Neuneck, Pugwash Council and German Pugwash Chair.

Dirk van Niekerk, former OPCW Inspection Team Leader, Head of OPCW Special Mission to Iraq

John Pilger, Emmy and Bafta winning journalist and film maker.

Professor Theodore A. Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Antonius Roof, former OPCW Inspection Team Leader and Head Industry Inspections.

Professor John Avery Scales, Professor, Pugwash Council and Danish Pugwash Chair.

Hans von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator (Iraq).

Alan Steadman, Chemical Weapons Munitions Specialist, Former OPCW Inspection Team Leader and UNSCOM Inspector.

Jonathan Steele, journalist and author.

Roger Waters, Musician and Activist.

Lord West of Spithead, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff 2002-06.

Oliver Stone, Film Director, Producer and Writer.

Colonel (ret.) Lawrence B. Wilkerson, U.S. Army, Visiting Professor at William and Mary College and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

12.03.2021 - 11:05 [ Courage Foundation ]

Additional Background Information Regarding the OPCW FFM Investigation of the Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, April 7, 2018

The following points summarize key procedural and scientific flaws that have been identified and which are now in the public domain regarding the OPCW FFM Investigation of the Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, April 7, 2018.

12.03.2021 - 10:17 [ Heise.de ]

„Glaubwürdigkeit und Integrität der OPCW wiederherstellen“

Es ist nunmehr allgemein bekannt, dass einige hochrangige Inspekteure, die an der Untersuchung beteiligt waren, einer von ihnen in zentraler Position, die Art zurückweisen, in der die Untersuchung ihre Schlussfolgerungen begründete.

Der OPCW-Geschäftsführung wird vorgeworfen, unbegründete und möglicherweise manipulierte Befunde zu akzeptieren, was schwerwiegende geopolitische und Sicherheitsfolgen hat. Wiederholte Aufrufe von einigen Mitgliedern des Exekutivrates der OPCW, es zuzulassen, dass alle Inspekteure angehört werden, wurden blockiert.

12.03.2021 - 10:10 [ Heise.de ]

Manipulation von Syrien-Bericht: Prominente Kritik an OPCW

Im April 2018 waren nach einem angeblichen Angriff mit chemischen Waffen in der Stadt Douma die Leichen von rund 50 Zivilisten geborgen worden. Die USA, Großbritannien und Frankreich bombardierten bereits wenige Tage nach den Ereignissen – noch während der OPCW-Ermittlungen – Einrichtungen der Assad-Regierung und der syrischen Armee.

11.02.2020 - 07:18 [ Ron Paul / Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity ]

Democrats Ignore Trump’s Real Violations

We are now finding out from whistleblowers on the UN team that investigated the alleged attack that the report blaming the Syrian government was falsified and that the whole “attack” was nothing but a false flag operation.

03.02.2020 - 01:06 [ Daniel McAdams / Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity ]

Stumbling into Catastrophe

President Trump has argued that prohibiting funds for military action against Iran actually makes war more likely, as he would be restricted from the kinds of military-strikes-short-of-war like his attack on Syria after the alleged chemical attack in Douma in 2018 (claims which have recently fallen apart). The logic is faulty and reflects again the danger of believing one’s own propaganda.

22.01.2020 - 20:13 [ theGrayzone.com ]

OPCW investigator testifies at UN that no chemical attack took place in Douma, Syria

In testimony before the United Nations Security Council, former OPCW inspection team leader and engineering expert Ian Henderson stated that their investigation had suggested no chemical attack took place in Douma, Syria, but their findings were suppressed. His appearance punched a gaping hole in the narrative the US and UK used to justify military action.

Video and a transcript of former OPCW engineer and dissenter Ian Henderson’s UN testimony appears at the end of this report.

22.01.2020 - 20:08 [ Ständige Vertretung der Russischen Föderation bei den Vereinten Nationen - russiaun.ru ]

Statement by the Permanent Representative of Russia to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin at an Arria-formula meeting of UNSC member states „Implementation of UNSCR 2118: OPCW FFM Report on Douma“

(20.01.2019)

Distinguished Mr. Chairman,

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our meeting is dedicated to the final report of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission in Syria (FFM) regarding the incident in Douma, on April 7, 2018.

This matter is being discussed by the UN Security Council members due to the fact that the relevant events directly affect issues of peace and international security, and, therefore, fall within the competence of the Security Council.

Many of those present in this room probably remember the disturbing ambiance early April 2018. The United States was preparing to launch its, as they claimed, „smart missiles“ against Syria, and the Russian military warned that they were ready to destroy not only these missiles, but also their launchers if the Russian troops invited by the legitimate Syrian authorities were under threat. Older people unintentionally recalled in this regard the charged atmosphere of the Cuban Missile crisis.

22.01.2020 - 19:56 [ RT Deutsch / Youtube ]

UN-Sicherheitsrat: Russland nimmt Theorie über „Chemiewaffen-Angriffe in Syrien“ auseinander

Russische Repräsentanten haben am Montag vor dem UN-Sicherheitsrat in New York die Theorie über den angeblichen Chemieangriff in der syrischen Stadt Duma 2018 auseinandergenommen. Sie wiesen nicht nur auf all die Widersprüche und eigene Untersuchungsergebnisse hin, sondern belegten diese mit Grafiken und Bildern. Schlussfolgerungen im OPCW-Bericht dazu würden wichtige Ergebnisse und Fakten, die nicht ins Bild passen, dass die syrische Regierung Chemiewaffen benutzt, einfach ignorieren.

22.01.2020 - 11:15 [ Antiwar ]

Author of Leaked OPCW Engineering Report on Douma Speaks at UN Security Council

The UN Security Council met in New York on Monday to discuss the investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into an alleged chemical attack that was said to have taken place in April 2018 in Douma, Syria. The alleged attack was blamed on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the US, UK, and France responded with an airstrike against Syrian government targets.

29.12.2019 - 18:51 [ DailyMail.co.uk ]

PETER HITCHENS reveals fresh evidence that UN watchdog suppressed report casting doubt on Assad gas attack

he global chemical weapons watchdog is facing renewed questions after fresh details emerged about how it suppressed the findings of its own inspectors who raised serious doubts about an alleged poison gas attack in Syria.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that a senior official at the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) demanded the ‘removal of all traces’ of a document which undermined claims that gas cylinders had been dropped from the air – a key element of the ‘evidence’ that the Syrian regime was responsible.

29.12.2019 - 18:50 [ Tim Hayward ‏/ Twitter ]

Once again, Peter Hitchens is the one journalist to break ranks within mainstream media and report on further damning leaks revealing political capture of chemical weapons watchdog OPCW.

29.12.2019 - 18:08 [ Max Blumenthal / Twitter ]

This appears to be Twitter‘s explanation. Make of it what you will.

29.12.2019 - 18:07 [ Tim Hayward / Twitter ‏ ]

Twitter is proactively censoring news about the OPCW scandal and central involvement in it of French diplomat.

29.12.2019 - 18:05 [ Ben Norton ‏/ Twitter ]

Twitter has also censored some of our tweets at @TheGrayzoneNews. These tweets are factual reporting; they don‘t violate any rules. Here is an example of Twitter hiding a tweet with a link to our journalistic interview with Bolivia‘s leftist leader:

29.12.2019 - 18:02 [ Max Blumenthal, Editor, the @GrayzoneProject ‏/ Twitter ]

This is bizarre, I have never seen anything like it before… Italian reporter @SMaurizi had a tweet on OPCW and Douma arbitrarily blocked by Twitter. It contained important info and did not violate any rules.

28.12.2019 - 16:08 [ Wikileaks ]

OPCW-DOUMA – Release Part 4

27 December, 2019

Today WikiLeaks releases more internal documents from the OPCW regarding the investigation into the alleged chemical attack in Douma in April 2018.

One of the documents is an e-mail exchange dated 27 and 28 February between members of the fact finding mission (FFM) deployed to Douma and the senior officials of the OPCW. It includes an e-mail from Sebastien Braha, 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 organisation:

“Please get this document out of DRA [Documents Registry Archive]… And please remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever in DRA”.

The main finding of Henderson, who inspected the sites in Douma and 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 heights. His findings were omitted from the official final OPCW report on the Douma incident.

28.12.2019 - 15:58 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Media’s Deafening Silence On Latest WikiLeaks Drops Is Its Own Scandal

This is getting really, really, really weird.

WikiLeaks has published yet another set of leaked internal documents from within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) adding even more material to the mountain of evidence that we’ve been lied to about an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria last year which resulted in airstrikes upon that nation from the US, UK and France.

This new WikiLeaks drop includes an email from the OPCW Chief of Cabinet Sebastien Braha (who is reportedly so detested by organisation inspectors that they code named him “Voldemort”) throwing a fit over the Ian Henderson Engineering Assessment which found that the Douma incident was likely a staged event. Braha is seen ordering OPCW staff to “remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever” from the organisation’s secure registry.

28.12.2019 - 15:55 [ Caitlin Johnstone / theblogcat.de ]

Das ohrenbetäubende Schweigen der Medien zu den neuesten WikiLeaks-Veröffentlichungen ist an sich schon ein Skandal

Es wird wirklich sehr sehr seltsam.

WikiLeaks hat eine Reihe weiterer geleakter interner Dokumente der Organisation für das Verbot chemischer Waffen (OPCW) veröffentlicht und dem Berg an Beweisen noch mehr Material hinzugefügt, dass man uns über den angeblichen Chemiewaffenangriff in Douma, Syrien belogen hat. Diese Lüge führte zu den Luftangriffen auf Syrien durch die USA, UK und Frankreich.

Diese neue WikiLeaks-Veröffentlichung beinhaltet eine E-Mail des Kabinettschefs der OPCW, Sebastien Braha (der Berichten zufolge von den Inspektoren der Organisation so verachtet wird, dass er den Spitznamen „Voldemort“ bekam), der einem Tobsuchtsanfall gleicht, weil eine Ingenieur-technische Einschätzung von Ian Henderson herausfand, dass der Douma-Vorfall wahrscheinlich eine Inszenierung war. Braha wurde dabei ertappt, dass er OPCW-Mitarbeiter angewiesen hat, aus dem Sicherheitsregister der Organisation „jedwede Spuren davon aus Registratur/Speicherung/was auch immer zu beseitigen“.

25.12.2019 - 14:09 [ Hartmut Barth-Engelbart ]

Nun ist gewiss, weshalb RAI-News 24 das Assad-Interview cancelte (Video)

Herr Präsident, Sie sind mehrere Male bezichtigt worden, chemische Waffen eingesetzt zu haben. Und dies war das Instrument vieler Entscheidungen. Die Schlüsselpunkte und roten Linien für viele Entscheidungen. Vor ungefähr einem Jahr fand das Douma-Ereignis statt. Das als eine weitere rote Linie angesehen wurde, nachdem dort Bombardierungen stattfanden, die weitaus schlimmer hätten ausfallen können, doch es hörte auf. An diesen Tagen kommt durch Wiki-Leaks heraus, dass in dem Bericht womöglich etwas falsch dargestellt wurde. Also niemand ist bislang in der Lage mitzuteilen, was wirklich passiert ist, doch in der Berichterstattung über das Geschehen könnte etwas falsch gelaufen sein.

Seit Anbeginn dieses Narrativs betreffend chemischer Waffen, haben wir gesagt, dass wir diese nicht einsetzen. In unserer Lage ist es unmöglich, sie zu verwenden. Aus vielen Gründen. Sagen wir logistische Gründe.

Geben Sie mir einen!

Ein ganz einfacher Grund. Wenn Sie vorrücken, weshalb sollten Sie Chemiewaffen einsetzen? Wir sind am Vorrücken, warum sollten wir davon Gebrauch machen? Wir befinden uns in einer hervorragenden Lage, also warum sollten wir sie verwenden? Insbesondere 2018. Dies ist einer der Gründe. Zweitens, ein sehr konkreter Beweis, der jenes Narrativ widerlegt. Sollten sie Chemiewaffen zum Einsatz bringen. Dies ist eine Massenvernichtungswaffe, wir sprechen hier von tausenden Todesopfern zumindest hunderte. Dies hat sich jedoch niemals zugetragen. Es gibt nur diese Videos von inszenierten chemischen Attacken. Der Report, den Sie soeben erwähnt haben, die kürzlich erfolgten Leaks, besagen, dass es eine Diskrepanz gab zwischen dem, was wir in dem Video zu sehen bekamen, und was sie als Experten wahrgenommen haben. Der Chloranteil, von dem sie sprachen. Zunächst einmal Chlor ist kein Material für Massenvernichtungswaffen. Zweitens. Die Menge, die sie gefunden haben, könnten Sie in Ihrem Haus haben, zumal es in vielen Haushaltsartikeln vorkommt, die man beispielsweise zur Reinigung benutzt. Die exakt selbe Menge. Dies ist was die OPCW-Organisation getan hat. Sie hat den Bericht verfälscht und getürkt, nur weil die Amerikaner es so wollten. Glücklicherweise beweist dieser Report, dass alles was wir die vergangenen Jahre seit 2013 gesagt haben korrekt war. Wir hatten recht, sie lagen falsch. Dies ist ein Beweis, ein konkreter Beweis in Bezug auf diese Angelegenheit. Also nochmals, die OPCW ist voreingenommen, politisiert und amoralisch. Und diese Organisationen sollten eigentlich parallel mit den Vereinten Nationen zusammenarbeiten um weltweit mehr Stabilität zu schaffen. Stattdessen wurden sie als amerikanische und westliche Arme benutzt, um weiteres Chaos zu schaffen.”

24.12.2019 - 17:36 [ theGrayzone.com ]

Newsweek reporter quits after editors block coverage of OPCW Syria scandal

According to whistleblower testimony and leaked documents, OPCW officials raised alarm about the suppression of critical findings that undermine the allegation that the Syrian government committed a chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma in April 2018. Haddad’s editors at Newsweek rejected his attempts to cover the story. “If I don’t find another position in journalism because of this, I’m perfectly happy to accept that consequence,” Haddad says. “It’s not desirable. But there is no way I could have continued in that job knowing that I couldn’t report something like this.”

Guest: Tareq Haddad, journalist who recently resigned from Newsweek over its refusal to cover the OPCW’s Syria scandal.

17.12.2019 - 17:02 [ Wikileaks ]

OPCW Douma Docs

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 Douma, 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 Arias, Director General of the organisation. This was exactly two weeks after the organisation published its final report on the Douma 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 statements made by the members of the FFM.

17.12.2019 - 16:55 [ WSWS.org ]

Neue WikiLeaks-Dokumente entlarven Lügen über die Chemiewaffenangriffe in Syrien von 2018

Am 14. März 2019 sandte ein Mitglied der FFM, die nach Duma geschickt wurde, um die beiden Zylinder zu analysieren, in denen sich das Giftgas befunden haben soll, ein Memo an OPCW-Generaldirektor Fernando Arias. Darin schrieb er, etwa zwanzig Inspektoren hätten Bedenken wegen des endgültigen Berichts geäußert, der Anfang März 2019 veröffentlicht wurde.

Der Autor des Memos weist darauf hin, dass Mitglieder der FFM das Gefühl hatten, der Bericht „gibt nicht die Ansichten der Teammitglieder wieder, die in Duma tätig waren“. Weiter hieß es, nur einer der OPCW-Inspektoren in Syrien, ein Sanitäter, sei letztlich an der Erstellung des endgültigen Berichts beteiligt gewesen. Er weist darauf hin, dass seine Untersuchung der Herkunft der Zylinder, die auf einem Bett bzw. auf dem Dach eines Wohnhauses lagen, aus dem endgültigen Bericht vom März ausgelassen wurde.

WikiLeaks veröffentlichte außerdem den ersten Entwurf des vorläufigen Berichts der FFM, laut dem die Ermittler „keine befriedigenden Erklärungen liefern konnten für den relativ geringen Schaden an den Zylindern, die angeblich aus einer unbekannten Höhe abgeworfen wurden, im Vergleich zu den Zerstörungen an den mit Stahlbeton verstärkten Dächern“. Die Tatsache, dass die Beweise nicht darauf hindeuten, dass die Zylinder von Assads Flugzeugen abgeworfen wurden, fehlte im endgültigen Bericht.

30.10.2019 - 04:41 [ The Grayzone / Twitter ]

A second whistleblower from the OPCW has come forward saying the alleged gas attack in Douma, Syria could have been staged by the rebels to trigger US military intervention. Prominent British journalist Jonathan Steele revealed this in an interview on the BBC on October 27, 2019

28.10.2019

23.10.2019 - 18:21 [ Karin Leukefeld / Nachdenkseiten ]

Whistleblower – der OPCW-Bericht zum angeblichen Giftgasangriff in Duma entspricht nicht der Wahrheit

Ein angeblicher Giftgasangriff der syrischen Armee wurde im April 2018 als Begründung für einen massiven Militärschlag der USA, Großbritanniens und Frankreichs herangezogen. Schon unmittelbar nach dem Vorfall gab es erhebliche Zweifel an der „Giftgasthese“. Diese Zweifel wurden jedoch von Medien und Politik unter Verweis auf einen Bericht der OPCW vom Tisch gefegt. Dieser Bericht ist jedoch selbst innerhalb der OPCW höchst umstritten. Karin Leukefeld hatte die Gelegenheit, für die NachDenkSeiten an einem Forum teilzunehmen, auf dem nun ein Whistleblower aus dem Untersuchungsteam der OPCW dem Bericht der Organisation massiv widerspricht.

23.10.2019 - 18:03 [ Wikileaks ]

OPCW Whistleblower Panel on the Douma attack of April 2018

WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson took part in the panel to review the testimony and documents from the OPCW whistleblower. He says: “The panel was presented with evidence that casts 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 Douma 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 José Bustani, the first Director-General of the OPCW, who concluded that: “The convincing evidence of irregular behaviour in the OPCW investigation of the alleged Douma 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 certainly clearer now, although very disturbing”

17.05.2019 - 14:35 [ Jonathan Cook ‏/ Twitter ]

Caitlin Johnstone on how the OPCW withheld information to deceive us about the most likely perpetrators of last year‘s deadly chemical attack in Syria (our friends, the jihadists) – and how the media are now assisting them in the continuing the deception

17.05.2019 - 14:20 [ Caitlin Johnstone / Medium.com ]

CONFIRMED: Chemical Weapons Assessment Contradicting Official Syria Narrative Is Authentic

We now have confirmation that, for whatever the reason may be, this assessment was hidden from the public by the OPCW.

British journalists Peter Hitchens and Brian Whitaker have both published matching statements from the OPCW on this report. Hitchens has been an outspoken critic of the establishment Syria narrative; Whittaker has been a virulent promulgator of it. The statement begins as a very mundane and obvious assertion that it takes information from numerous sources and then publishes its conclusions, but concludes with an admission that it is “conducting an internal investigation about the unauthorised release of the document in question.” This constitutes an admission that the document is authentic.

17.05.2019 - 14:18 [ Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media ]

Assessment by the engineering sub-team of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission investigating the alleged chemical attack in Douma in April 2018

(13.05.2019) As emphasized above, in a real chemical attack with chlorine or any other irritant gas, most victims would try to escape and non-fatal cases requiring prolonged hospital treatment would far outnumber fatal cases. The images of the victims seen at Location 2 show that they were evidently exposed to an irritant gas but were unable to escape. A careful examination of these images leaves little doubt that the victims were murdered as captives. The staining of the victims’ faces by mucus flowing from their noses and mouths shows in at least some cases the mucus flowed up their faces towards the eyes. This implies that they were hung upside down while exposed to the agent. Bizarrely, the eyes of most victims appear to have been masked so that the eyes were not affected by gas or mucus. In a few victims there are visible strap marks suggesting that the eyes were protected by something like swimming goggles. A possible motive for masking the eyes may have been to make it less obvious that the victims had suffered prolonged exposure to an irritant gas.

We conclude that the staging of the Douma incident entailed mass murder of at least 35 civilians to provide the bodies at Location 2. It follows from this that people dressed as White Helmets and endorsed by the leadership of that organization had a key role in this murder.

16.02.2019 - 12:25 [ Bruce Steedman / Twitter ]

@snarwani BBC Syria Producer says „i can prove without a doubt that the #Douma hospital scene was staged“. His Twitter a/c is now all of a sudden private, but too late for the archived version:

08.07.2018 - 10:25 [ Press TV ]

Watchdog finds no evidence of nerve agents in Syria‘s Douma attack

„The results show that no organophosphorus nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody,“ read the report.

06.05.2018 - 10:26 [ Heise.de ]

US-Außenministerium hat Zahlungen für die Weißen Helme eingestellt

(4.5.2018) Eine Anfrage von CBS, welche Programme weiter finanziert werden, wurde von Außenministerium nicht beantwortet. Vermutlich wurde die finanzielle Unterstützung der Weißen Helme im Zuge des Beschlusses von US-Präsident Ende März Trump umgesetzt, die für Wiederaufbauhilfe vorgesehenen 200 Millionen USA-Dollar einzufrieren.

06.05.2018 - 10:04 [ New York Times ]

As Trump Seeks Way Out of Syria, New Attack Pulls Him Back In

(8.4.2018) The reported chemical attack on Douma, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, on Saturday seems to have squeezed Mr. Trump between conflicting impulses, and raised the political and military stakes as he charts the United States’ future in Syria.

On one hand, he has emphatically expressed his desire to bring American troops home as soon as possible in line with his “America First” approach. On the other, he has vowed to punish some bad actors, and withdrawing from Syria could open him up to criticism at home and abroad.