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DISINFO: OPCW reports are made from information provided by terrorists

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

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false flag Douma OPCW White Helmets Aleppo Chemical weapons/attack Syrian War

DISINFO: OPCW reports are made from information provided by terrorists

SUMMARY

The two reports of the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the two alleged chemical incidents in Aleppo and Saraqib confirm the political bias of the current OPCW administration in cases related to Syria. The mission’s primary source of information is social media and NGOs associated with terrorist groups. In the report on Aleppo, the organisation ignored the conclusive evidence provided by the Russian military in particular, noting that the second report only confirmed that the alleged attack in Saraqib was nothing but a new chemical provocation by the opposition.

RESPONSE

Recurring disinformation narratives attacking the independence and integrity of the OPCW. The campaign to discredit OPCW started around mid-2018 when the organisation was being granted new powers to assign blame for chemical attacks. According to the OPCW's director-general, the organisation has been targeted by a disinformation campaign aiming specifically to "undermine the official reports of the Fact-Finding Mission about investigations in Syria”. 18 countries issued a joint statement, which called for an end to the unacceptable Russian defamation of the OPCW. The OPCW conducts probes into all allegations of chemical weapons' use in Syria, and its findings serve as the basis for publicly available reports and expert notes, and in its last report issued on October 1st concerning Saraqib, the OPCW was clear by stating that it has based its findings on “sample analysis, data examination and witness interviews”, and “materials that were made available by the interviewees, and hospital records… including information provided by the Syrian Arab Republic and others”. The OPCW's supposed complicity in "suppressing" the truth is a standard talking point in pro-Kremlin reporting on Syria. See our previous debunking of this narrative here, here, here, and here. Read previous disinformation claims alleging that evidence confirms chemical attacks in Syria were falsified by the White Helmets, and that the chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by the media of the Western countries.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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