Leaked Report: Douma Chemical Attack Likely Staged

‘Further Evidence US Attacked Syria Based on False Flag’, Tony Cartalucci, May 15, 2019, journal-neo.org*

“Recent revelations mean the US not only falsely accused Damascus of having carried out the attack – but launched military strikes against Syria based on an entirely false pretext. To date, the US has categorically failed to produce any convincing evidence backing their original claims.

Conversely, a subsequent investigation carried out by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) produced damning evidence suggesting a false flag event was carried out by US-backed militants. [as in: stars of stage and screen: the White Helmets]

This included a chlorine gas cylinder found in a militant weapons workshop inspected by OPCW investigators closely matching the two cylinders allegedly used in the 2018 Douma attack itself.

While US-backed militants insisted two gas cylinders were dropped on Douma by government helicopters, the OPCW noted that the alleged craters caused by the cylinders’ impact matched those on nearby buildings clearly caused by high-explosive ordnance.

The final OPCW report regarding the Douma incident claimed:
The [the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria] team noted that a similar crater was present on a nearby building. 

The implication is that the cylinders may not have created the craters attributed to them by US-backed militants and the Western media supporting their version of the story. Instead, it implies that the cylinders were manually put into place near preexisting craters created by conventional ordnance.


“While the final OPCW report included photographs of damage on the adjacent building, it did not elaborate further or explore the obvious implications of similar craters seen nearby explicitly.

However, more recently, a previously unpublished report by the OPCW titled, “Engineering Assessment of Two Cylinders Observed at the Douma Incident – Executive Summary” (PDF), did elaborate (emphasis added):

Experts were consulted to assess the appearance of the crater observed at Location 2, particularly the underside. The expert view was that it was more consistent with that expected as a result of blast/energetics (for example from a HE mortar or rocket artillery round) rather than a result of impact from the falling object. This was also borne out by the observation of deformed rebar splayed out at the underside of the crater, which was not explained by the apparent non-penetration and minimal damage of the cylinder. The likelihood of the crater having been created by a mortar/artillery round or similar, was also supported by the presence of more than one crater of very similar appearance in concrete slabs on top of nearby buildings, by an (unusually elevated, but possible) fragmentation pattern on upper walls, by the indications of concrete spalling under the crater, and (whist it was observed that a fire had been created in the corner of the room ) black scorching on the crater underside and ceiling.

The engineering assessment would conclude (emphasis added):

In summary, observation at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft. 

The assessment further adds weight to what many analysts concluded at the time when the OPCW published its final, official report on the incident – that the event was staged.

Conversely, a subsequent investigation carried out by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) produced damning evidence suggesting a false flag event was carried out by US-backed militants. This included a chlorine gas cylinder found in a militant weapons workshop inspected by OPCW investigators closely matching the two cylinders allegedly used in the 2018 Douma attack itself.

While US-backed militants insisted two gas cylinders were dropped on Douma by government helicopters, the OPCW noted that the alleged craters caused by the cylinders’ impact matched those on nearby buildings clearly caused by high-explosive ordnance.

The assessment further adds weight to what many analysts concluded at the time when the OPCW published its final, official report on the incident – that the event was staged.

At face value Damascus lacked any motivation to carry out the 2018 attack. It occurred on the eve of total victory for Syrian forces over US-backed militants dug in around the Syrian capital. Syria had used extensive conventional force to overcome militant positions and even if Damascus believed the use of chemical weapons would expedite victory, it is unlikely it would drop only 2 gas cylinders containing a negligible amount of chlorine toward that end.

Conversely – US-backed militants facing inevitable and complete defeat along with a US government in desperate need of a pretext to use military force to slow down or stop the advance of Syrian troops – had every motivation to stage the attack, blame it on Damascus, and lie about it ever since.

If political analysis of the alleged attack exploring the possible motivations of both sides in carrying out the attack weren’t conclusive enough, this recently published OPCW engineering assessment further lays the issue to rest.”

*(Republishing of the articles is welcomed with reference to NEO, i.e. CC with attribution.)

‘Leaked Report: Douma “Chemical Attack” Likely Staged’, May 14, 2019, Kit Knightly, off-guardian.com

The report, signed by Ian Henderson (an investigative team leader for the OPCW), is an analysis of the two key locations which were used as evidence of the Syrian government launching a chemical attack using chlorine gas in Douma, last year.

The photographs, “analysed” in depth by Bellingcat and other establishment mouthpieces, were claimed as the “smoking gun”, proof of the Assad’s guilt. However, the OPCW fact-finding mission appears to see things rather differently.

The report is fifteen pages long, detailed and thorough, but the most important paragraph is saved for the end (emphasis ours):

‘In summary, observations at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being dropped.’

So there you have it, an apparently genuine OPCW report (kept from the public for as yet unclear reasons), which appears to support the prevailing view of the alt-news community: Douma was staged.

People like Vanessa Beeley and Piers Robinson et al, who have been relentlessly smeared in the mainstream media, have been shown to be right. Again.

This is not the first hole that has been blown in the Douma chemical bomb story (pun very much intended).

Firstly, initial reports from US-backed NGOs were that sarin had been used, not chlorine. This was dropped from the narrative after a preliminary OPCW report found “no evidence” of sarin being deployed.

Also, within days of the alleged attack, noted war reporter Robert Fisk was on the ground in Douma, talking to doctors who claimed no chemical attack had taken place at all.”

‘Evidence that Douma ‘chemical attack’ was staged: OPCW’s unpublished engineers’ report’, May 13, 2019, timhayward.com

“The alleged chemical attack on Douma in April 2018 was the pretext for airstrikes on Syria by France, UK and US. The final report on the alleged attack published by the OPCW left unexplained why its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) had made no engineering assessments during its visit to Douma in April 2018, when experts could have inspected the sites with cylinders in position, rather than six months later when inspection was no longer possible and assessments had to rely on images and measurements obtained by others. A Briefing Note by the Working Group on Syria Propaganda & Media highlighted this as an obvious anomaly.

OPCW staff members have communicated with the Working Group.

We have learned that an investigation was undertaken by an engineering sub-team of the FFM, beginning with on-site inspections in April-May 2018, followed by a detailed engineering analysis including collaboration on computer modelling studies with two European universities. The report of this investigation was excluded from the published Final Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission, which referred only to assessments sought from unidentified “engineering experts” commissioned in October 2018 and obtained in December 2018.”

In the coming days, the numbers of the Dead due to these false flags will be tallied up. No one expects apologies from the West, nor do they expect that the victims' families will receive Blood Money for their evil deeds. I'm trying my best not to scream and rant and curse, but I will go take a brief mental health break before I enter some tweets.

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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Steven D's picture

I forget where, giving reasons why the US military should remain in Syria despite the eradication of ISIS.

These clowns desperately want wars anywhere they can get them.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

wendy davis's picture

@Steven D

this reason may be that syria's about to take back idlib province, then perhaps turn toward the golan heights that bibi's claimed. BFFs bibi and trumpie don't want that,now do they?

but the tweeters in the OP said that the coalition bombed aleppo again in the night, lots of folks were killed, including women and chirren. i'd tried to find it again so i'd get it right, but i did fail.

i'd wanted to use this as the opening art from my media files, but i couldn't remember what
anthony freda had called this one. this is one of the poor darlings used so cavalierly by the white helmets.

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

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wendy davis's picture

would ever answer this news, so i thought i'd check in w/ bellingcat and eliott higgins on twitter. now eliott's still trying to prove that the russians had shot down flight MHI7 over Ukraine, and has photos of 'oppo' drones shot down over syria, cooking, tra la la, but i gotta say this this is most excellent satire:

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Roy Blakeley's picture

It actually makes a much stronger case that the "attack" was a hoax than the summary. The conclusion that there was a higher probability that the cylinders were placed at the two locations than delivered by aircraft is a gross understatement. The evidence cited essentially eliminates the possibility that they were delivered by aircraft. There is always a possibility that it is not genuine, of course, but, having read the document, I find that possibility remote.

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wendy davis's picture

@Roy Blakeley

for reading the whole 15-page document, amigo, and i appreciate your sense that these sources have low-balled what it said. i hadn't included the photos of the rooftop, as i'd hoped the text might stand instead.

but the none of the syrian propaganda, etc. investigators had ever named the 'white helmets, which is part of the reason 'd brought some of the tweets.

i'm blown out water tired; got up too early to start a fire, as i was cold. but may i leave these here? this is vanessa beeley's pinned tweet: ‘SYRIA EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Beeley Meets the White Helmets and Armed Group Leader in Dara’a Al Balad’, October 17, 2018

for more exposés, this is 21stcenturywire.com’s White Helmets tab.

thanks for reading and commenting, roy.

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earthling1's picture

are party to mass murder?
Don't tell them that or they will get real pissy, not at our regime, but at you for pointing it out.
Can this country get anymore patheic?
Thanks for the post,Wendy.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

wendy davis's picture

@earthling1

those who'd done the exposés had been smeared, reviled, shat upon, and spat upon. and the white helmet film won an oscar. but yes, when asked why this mattered? false flags and propaganda Rule. but the coalition who'd bombed, stil are bombing syria is a collective of EU nations and the US.

i just watched an RT video (w/ a bit o' beeley tossed in) from the oscars: 'it was trump who didn't allow Head White Hellllmet man into amerika to accept the award'. so fucking depressing. i sent myself an anti-nato op-ed today with some seriously worthy quotes on consciousness and its sorta opposite; dunno if any will fit here, but comrade X's at the café did; i'll go fetch it....

"The Global Policemen are sustained by covert malice under the pretense that protects from overt malice. Everywhere is fraud."

purdy well said for a commie, no? ; )

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snoopydawg's picture

@earthling1

Even before it dropped the bombs on Japan which resulted in heinous deaths it had no problem killing innocent people. One of the comments on the moon of Alabama essay describes how the children were killed. He said that was in the report. If anyone is interested you can read it on the site. It's too heinous for me to share it.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

but should have suspected that bernhard covered it, as he's been on the trail for a long time. but i'll risk offending all here by quoting the comment on the working group's analysis of the withheld document:

"I've just finished reading the Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media's brief on the OPCW's Final Report, which in turn I read after the assessment of the engineering report linked above. we need to bear witness to the depravity of the west, imo.

It is mind-boggling the depth of barbarity and depravity the US/UK/France/OPCW have descended into in order to carry out this atrocity and then to cover it up. The murdered children were evidently murdered beforehand offsite by hanging them upside down by the feet so that they couldn't escape the chlorine fumes, with goggles over their eyes to prevent inconvenient tell-tale evidence of damage to their eyes, with mucus emissions from mouths and nostrils dripping downwards towards their foreheads (showing that they were hung upside down) and leaving stains on the skin even though their heads and hair (but not the rest of their bodies) had been washed to remove the mucus and were still wet in the videos.

I recommend reading the Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media articles - they are very meticulous and very high quality. I wish the OPCW did such high quality work instead of the dishonest and criminal propaganda they have managed to cover up mass murder and help the perpetrators evade justice. The Directors General of the OPCW - current and previous - should be jailed for life with a prohibition on parole.

Posted by: BM | May 13, 2019

i've been combing the white helmets tab at 21st century wire for some of beeley and others' shorter videos demonstrating the evil. some videos have been removed, but i want to find one on the exposés of bana alabad, as well as the ones demonstrably depicting the fake white helmets' fake 'rescues': "cut! let's do another take! put the child back in the rubble!"

but the comment certainly reminded me of the videographers who'd sought refuge in the trade union building in odessa after the nazis had burned it to the ground. gut-wrenching descriptions and low-light photos. iirc, some people had leapt out the windows. gawd's blood. men, babushkas, and chirren.

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suppressed the engineering study from their report that implicated the Syrian government.

In 2002 founding director, Jose Bustani, was threatened by John Bolton to force him to resign, "We know where your kids live". At the time, Bustani was negotiating with Saddam Hussain to allow inspectors to search for chemical weapons. This would have eliminated one of the justifications for the invasion of Iraq. He refused to resign but was removed by a vote of the OPCW after the US threatened to withhold funding.

The OPCW received the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in eliminating Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

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wendy davis's picture

@artisan

what you mean by this, please? "The OPCW suppressed the engineering study from their report that implicated the Syrian government."

i think i do follow the rest, not that i'd ever heard that story before.

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@wendy davis
The final report included findings that were consistent with the White Helmet's version, that the gas was dropped from the air and crashed through the roofs. The newly released study says this couldn't have happened.

"2.14 The analyses indicated that the structural damage to the rebar-reinforced concrete terrace at Location 2 was caused by an impacting object with a geometrically symmetric shape and sufficient kinetic energy to cause the observed damage. The analyses indicate that the damage observed on the cylinder found on the roof-top terrace, the aperture, the balcony, the surrounding rooms, the rooms underneath and the structure above, is consistent with the creation of the aperture observed in the terrace by the cylinder found in that location.
2.15 At Location 4, the results of the studies indicated that the shape of the aperture produced in the modulation matched the shape and damage observed by the team. The studies further indicated that, after passing through the ceiling and impacting the floor at lower speed, the cylinder continued an altered trajectory, until reaching the position in which it was found.

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wendy davis's picture

@artisan

i hadn't meant to be such a thick-wit; it just happens now and again, say ten or so times a day. but i will give the OPCW credit for busting the 'sarin gas' rubbish last year, iirc.

now as to the opcw and the skripals and rowleys...(if the former ever really did exist...) but at least we know that the russians did it, so there's that.

lol; speaking of thick-wittedness: a few of the letters on the keyboard on my laptop were wearing off, can't afford a new keyboard at the moment, so mr. wd bought me some white marker thingie w/ a fine point. i cleaned the few i'd remembered, painted them...and i just looked down and realized i'd forgotten the N key.

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@wendy davis
Here's the story about Bolton threatening the director.

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wendy davis's picture

@artisan

but one does tend to wonder how and to what sort of parents he was raised. without knowing, i'm gonna speculate under male authoritarian rule, and link to arthur silber's main site with links to his sister site One Upon a Time w/links to the short version of austrian psychologist alice miller's 'Child Mistreatment, Child Abuse'.

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snoopydawg's picture

Thought I'd share this with you. Lmao!

So his sources are Pompeo and the CIA not anyone that has proof that he did. I responded that Pompeo just admitted that the CIA lies to us. And that Hillary's campaign made up Russia Gate and Wikileaks released the emails showing that.

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wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

@REDZER_18 (

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wendy davis's picture

Spiez Laboratory, the Skripal Case, and the OPCW, off-guardian, april 17, 2018, or sergei lavorov v. the machine, off-guardian, no author?, 4/17/2018

i don't have time right now unwind any of it.

on morning edit:

"In the immediate run-up to this event, we’d like to remind our readers that on April 14, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov revealed publicly that, “according to Swiss state Spiez lab” and contrary to British government’s claims that the Skripals were poisoned by a military grade Novichok-like nerve agent, the “substance used on Sergei Skripal was an agent called BZ”. As reported by RT:

The Swiss center sent the results to the OPCW. However, the UN chemical watchdog limited itself only to confirming the formula of the substance used to poison the Skripals in its final report without mentioning anything about the other facts presented in the Swiss document, the Russian foreign minister added. He went on to say that Moscow would ask the OPCW about its decision to not include any other information provided by the Swiss in its report.

Lavrov said that the Swiss center that assessed the samples is actually the Spiez Laboratory. This facility is a Swiss state research center controlled by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection and, ultimately, by the country’s defense minister. The lab is also an internationally recognized center of excellence in the field of the nuclear, biological, and chemical protection and is one of the five centers permanently authorized by the OPCW.”, etc.

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wendy davis's picture

that mainstream media wouldn't report this nes at all. i did bingle, and they were correct...so far. every site that has it an alternative media site.

it's closing time for me, and besides a song comrade x had brought to the café, i'll bring this quote from john wight at RT no more nato, quoting the cogent analysis of Roman imperialism provided by political economist Joseph Schumpeter in the second decade of the 20th century:

“There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome's allies; and if Rome had no allies, then allies would be invented. When it was utterly impossible to contrive such an interest...why, then it was the national honor that had been insulted. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbors, always fighting for a breathing space. The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies, and it was manifestly Rome's duty to guard against their indubitably aggressive designs. They were enemies who only waited to fall on the Roman people.”

g'night.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFDn94oZJ0]

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wendy davis's picture

courageous moxie, constantly putting herself in harm's way to bring light to the darkness afoot in syria. but she unwound this for us on may 12: 'Terrorist massacre of children in Syrian Christian town of Al Suqalibiyah on borders of North Hama and Idlib'

"The Western-sponsored terrorist groups, led by Nusra Front or the HTS rebrand, attacked the city with Grad missiles and mercilessly mowed down children in their homes and as they were playing in the Monastery which doubles up as a school and community center. Following the recent Syrian Arab Army advances and liberation of the surrounding countryside, civilians in the town had finally begun to relax. The threat of missiles, death and destruction seemed, finally, to have ended. This morning it returned and claimed the lives of children, innocent children. (with photos)

The following are the names of the children and one adult who were martyred and the names of the children who were injured in the attack:

1. Marcel Naama. Child. Critical head injury. Transferred to Hama Hospital and on life support.
2. Bashar Naama. Child martyr.
3. Ali Mohammad. Child, injured by shrapnel
4. Carmen Adnan. Child, shrapnel injury.
5. Michael Farouh. Child, shrapnel injury, in critical condition
6. Joud Farouh. Child, shrapnel injury
7. George Farouh. Child, shrapnel injury
8. Hala Mkashkash. Adult martyr.
9. Jessica Karajian. Child martyr
10. Suhair Adnan. Child martyr
11. Engi Faisal Razouk. Child martyr.

There should be no ceasefire now. The Syrian Arab Army and allies should liberate all of Idlib from this army of mercenaries and psychopaths promoted, armed and financed by the West and protected by the state-media criminals who have dismissed and “disappeared” their crimes for more than eight years."

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Lookout's picture

...but a slew of other reports - over the last several years confirm the false flag gassing.
https://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/04/reviving-the-chemical-weapons-lie...

The following are links to a small sample of factual reports publicly available which clearly show that the alleged “Sarin Attack” in 2013 was in fact the work of western and Gulf-backed ‘opposition rebels’ (terrorists) and not the Assad government, and all of these reports have been more or less ignored by CNN, BBC and the entirety of the western mainstream media – because they do not fit into the western ‘regime change’ and US-led military intervention narrative:

Seymour M. Hersh
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line

Peter Lee
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/23/hersh-vindicated-turkish-whistleb...

C.J. Chivers
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/world/middleeast/new-study-refines-vie...

Alex Newman
https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/17443-mit-repo...

Carla Del Ponte, UN Inspector
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/uns-carla-del-ponte-...

Carmen Russell-Sluchansky
http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-failed-pretext-for-war-seymour-hersh-el...

Swedish Doctors for Human Rights
http://theindicter.com/swedish-doctors-for-human-rights-white-helmets-vi...

Patrick Henningsen (2013 chlorine incident)
http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/03/27/iraq-2-0-west-will-now-lean-on-un-...

Robert Parry
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/08/un-team-heard-claims-of-staged-che...

Julie Lévesque and Prof Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-ghouta-chemical-attacks-us-backed-false...

MIT Researcher: Syria WMD ‘Facts’ Were Manufactured to Fit a Conclusion for Ghouta in 2013
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/06/mit-researcher-syria-wmd-facts-wer...

More on the MIT study debunking West theory on Ghouta:
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/01/20/mit-study-further-destroys-washing...

*Guide: Mainstream Media Fake News Which Leads to Wars – By Patrick Henningsen
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/02/14/fake-news-week-a-guide-to-mainstre...

Looking at recent news and the damage to Saudi et al tankers makes me think US Navy seals or Israeli commandos.

The US is the evil empire and our buddies Israel and Saudi Arabia speak our evil language too. What do these idiots think a war with Iran will accomplish? What a mess!

Nice to see confirmation of what we've been saying for quite a while around c99. Thanks for posting it.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

compendium of links, amigo. but what i'd failed to convey was that vanessa beeley and a few others, actually go into the eye/s of the storm in syria, interviewing White Helmet detractor witnesses, filming fake white helmet rescues, as well as buildings they occupy with al nusra logos galore and canisters of...whatever chemicals.

but yes, i spent far too much time on 21st century wire's white helmets tab so that we might bear witness to what she and others have so courageously reported. i'm utterly unable to imagine doing it, myself. ut i'm so glad that she and others have that fire in their bellies.

but as of yesterday, i'd seen no MSM reporting on the withheld OPCW investigative report; have you my chance, lookout?

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@wendy davis

Jacked-up oil and gas prices, making Big Oil even bigger and the Oil Barons richer than ever.

This sort of BS makes me HOPE the Old River Control fails sooner rather than later - what good will all their oil do them when they can neither export nor import nor refine it?

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

wendy davis's picture

but not far if one considers the current washington administration and client governments:

from telesur english today: 'Breaking: Code Pink leaders say U.S. authorities entered the Venezuelan embassy in D.C. to arrest protectors, violating international law and conventions.

"United States security forces have broken into the Venezuela embassy in Washington Thursday and have taken the four remaining members of the Protection Collective, Code Pink organization announced. The announcement was confirmed by the activists' lawyer, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard.

Such action violates several articles of the Vienna Convention and breaks international law.

teleSUR reporter Jorge Gestoso on site outside the embassy says there are security service, federal agents and dozens of D.C. police officers heavily armed at the back entrance of the embassy. According to Gestoso the authorities dressed in military gear took up position in the embassy's basement where there are no surveillance cameras. This allowed U.S. authorities to make the arrests out of the site of the public and the media.

International law expert, Jose Pertierra, speaking exclusively to teleSUR from Washington said this tactic of trying to remove the protectors via the basement by U.S. authorities is being done "in order to avoid a war of images where they can have police act without the public seeing them."

Pertierra adds that this security force operation violates international law that prohibits a hosting nation from invading the sovereign territory of another country’s embassy.
The law expert said the protesters will likely sue the U.S. administration if they are arrested, "which is not in the interest of the government."

The activists who had been inside the building since mid-April had lost weight since barricading themselves in the embassy to protect against the illegal takeover by U.S. authorities and Venezuelan opposition of the building. Their food supplies had been cut off by U.S. authorities and Venezuelan opposition activists also stationed outside the embassy.
Carlos Vecchio, appointed by self-declared interim president of Venezuela Juan Guaido as envoy leader to the U.S., ordered the electricity and water illegally turned off at the embassy over the past week.

Yet on Wednesday, May 15, zeese and flowers: ‘Showdown at the Venezuelan Embassy: Federal Authorities Back Down After Threatening to Evict Peace Activists Inside

A very lengthy description of the day-long stalemate that day, ending in:

"We explained the same things to this new officer. Ten minutes later the first officer returned. We told them both that our position hadn’t changed, that we will leave voluntarily only when presented with a mutual PPA.
The officers thought for a moment. Then they informed us that they were going to close the door behind secure it. They said they would station a federal Marshall outside the door.
We told them, “make sure the entire embassy compound is under police protection because these violent terrorists have broken in three times and have yet to be prosecuted.” He replied that they would, but added that if we changed our mind, all we had to do was knock on the front door and they would let us leave peacefully.” They then shut the door and placed plastic zip ties–the same ones typically used for handcuffs– around the handles of the door.

Mara, our attorney, walked the embassy compound with the police to ensure it was fully protected. It was.

The secret service has been removed from duty, replaced with DC Metro police and officers of Federal Protective Services, which is part of DHS. Finally, for the first time, Federal authorities are now protecting the embassy—and us—from the terrorists who have been attacking us.

Monday and Tuesday night we slept peacefully for the first time in weeks."

and telesur had reported:

"Long-time civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson was able to bring four bags of food and supplies to the remaining four activists inside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. Wednesday afternoon.

teleSUR correspondent in Washington Jorge Gestoso tweeted about the delivery, "Rev. Jesse Jackson manages to deliver food to the activists who protect the Embassy of Venezuela in Washington after a violent resistance and struggle by Guaido supporters were determined to prevent them from receiving food and medicine."

After bringing the food to the activist, Jackson told reporters outside the embassy: "Do not starve Venezuelans into submission. War is futile. We must use diplomacy to bring both sides to the table with the help of the U.N. to figure out a resolution. We’re in a dangerous course in our foreign policy in the hemisphere. War drums are beating. … This does not make rational sense." and so on.

so someone apparently put the hammer down. telesur had said 'more news later' on the arrests news.

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