{"id":85624,"date":"2019-02-16T14:57:19","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T21:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=85624"},"modified":"2019-02-16T14:57:19","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T21:57:19","slug":"real-obscene-masquerade-how-bbc-depicted-staged-hospital-scenes-as-proof-of-douma-chemical-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/02\/16\/real-obscene-masquerade-how-bbc-depicted-staged-hospital-scenes-as-proof-of-douma-chemical-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Real \u2018obscene masquerade\u2019: How BBC depicted staged hospital scenes as proof of Douma chemical attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanessa Beeley is an independent investigative journalist and photographer. She is associate editor at 21st Century Wire.\u00a0Courtesy RT<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
In an extraordinary turn of events, corporate media appears to have been exposed again as an extension of state foreign policy, by a member of the establishment media cabal, manufacturing consent for regime change in Syria.<\/div>\n
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Riam Dalati is on the BBC production team based in Beirut and describes himself, on his Twitter page, as an\u00a0esteemed colleague\u201d<\/em>\u00a0of Quentin Sommerville, the BBC\u2019s Middle East correspondent. Dalati broke ranks with his UK Government-aligned media, on Twitter, to\u00a0announce<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0after almost 6 months of investigation, I can prove, without a doubt, that the Douma hospital scene was staged.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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A ‘victim’ of the alleged ‘chemical attack’ gets ‘treatment’ in Douma hospital.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0HO \/ Douma City Coordination Committee \/ AFP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

ALSO ON RT.COM<\/span>BBC producer says hospital scenes after 2018 Douma \u2018chemical attack\u2019 were staged<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>The scenes in question are those manufactured by the White Helmet pseudo-humanitarian group and activists affiliated to Jaish al-Islam, the extremist armed group in charge of Douma at the time of the alleged chemical weapon attack on April 7, 2018. The scenes of children being hosed down, following a\u00a0chemical attack\u201d<\/em>\u00a0were immediately accepted as credible and appeared alongside sensationalist headlines in most Western media outlets, including the BBC, CNN and Channel 4. Simon Tisdall of the Guardian wrote an opinion piece, with the headline \u2018After Douma the West\u2019s response to Syria regime must be military\u2019 \u2013 only two days after Douma, effectively calling for all out war.<\/p>\n

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vanessa beeley<\/span><\/span>@VanessaBeeley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0@<\/span>bbclysedoucet<\/span><\/a> will the #<\/span>BBC<\/span><\/a> take instructions fm regime change “troll” Idrees Ahmad? This is turning into a very interesting infight between those who were all on the same side until recently. How will the BBC manage this credibility crisis? @<\/span>21WIRE<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>ukcolumn<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>RussiaUN<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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While Dalati\u2019s tweets have clearly distressed some notables in the establishment camp, Dalati is no stranger to such controversy. Almost immediately after the alleged incident in Douma, he tweeted out his frustration that\u00a0activists and rebels\u201d<\/em>\u00a0had used\u00a0corpses of dead children to stage emotive scenes for Western consumption.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The emotive wording of Dalati\u2019s tweet, he was\u00a0sick and tired\u201d<\/em>\u00a0of such manipulation of events, suggested that this was not the first time children had been used as props in a macabre war theatre designed to elicit public sympathy for escalated military intervention in Syria disguised as a necessary\u00a0humanitarian\u201d<\/em>\u00a0crack down on\u00a0Assad\u2019s gassing of his own people.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Organ<\/picture>Organ theft, staged attacks: UN panel details White Helmets\u2019 criminal activities, media yawns<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Dalati had been referring to the arranging of two children\u2019s corpses into a\u00a0last hug\u201d<\/em>\u00a0still life composition, a photo that went viral, rocketed into the social media sphere by activists who had collaborated with the brutal Jaish al-Islam regime while it tortured and abused the Syrian civilians under its control.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Dalati\u2019s apparent outburst could be explained by his participation in the production of the controversial September 2013 BBC Panorama documentary, \u2018Saving Syria\u2019s Children\u2019. An independent researcher, Robert Stuart, has made it his life\u2019s work to present a compelling argument that\u00a0sequences filmed by BBC personnel and others at Atareb Hospital, Aleppo on August 26, 2013 purporting to show the aftermath of an incendiary bomb attack on a nearby school are largely, if not entirely, staged.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Perhaps Dalati had witnessed one too many stagings of events that would precipitate the potential for war in Syria between the US and Russia.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason for Dalati\u2019s exasperation, the tweet was deleted before a watered down version appeared. Dalati claimed that a\u00a0breach of editorial policy\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and lack of context was behind this alteration. Apparently BBC employees are not allowed to be\u00a0sick and tired\u201d<\/em>\u00a0of the exploitation of children to promote a war that will inevitably kill more children. Simultaneously, Dalati\u2019s account was protected, making tweets visible only to approved followers.<\/p>\n

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Charles Shoebridge<\/span><\/span>@ShoebridgeC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Here is an example of how BBC’s Riam Dalati, along with so many in US UK media, saw it as their role to smear those who raised legitimate questions suggesting for example that #<\/span>Syria<\/span><\/a> chemical attack scenes eg Douma may have been staged. Now, Dalati (see above) admits it was true<\/p>\n

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On two significant occasions to date, Dalati appears to deviate from the BBC narrative road map in Syria. However, Dalati had participated in the corporate media lynching of journalists and academics who had dared to question the dominantchemical attack\u201d<\/em>\u00a0narrative, at the time of the alleged incident in Douma, dismissing them as conspiracy theorists. Theseconspiracy theorists\u201d<\/em>\u00a0included acclaimed journalist, Robert Fisk and Uli Gack, an experienced war correspondent with ZDF, a German public media outlet. Independent journalist, Eva Bartlett, and Pearson Sharpe of One American News Network also reported evidence of staging and mainstream media distortion of events in Douma.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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vanessa beeley<\/span><\/span>@VanessaBeeley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hey @<\/span>mwendling<\/span><\/a> remember this question you asked me before your smear puff piece? “Do you believe that the alleged chemical attack in Douma was staged, a false flag\u201d event, or was faked?” Any comment now? #<\/span>BBC<\/span><\/a> #<\/span>Douma<\/span><\/a> #<\/span>WhiteHelmets<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>21WIRE<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>stranahan<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>GarlandNixon<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>RussiaUN<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0I visited Douma shortly after the alleged attack. I interviewed medical staff and civilians who were adamant that a chemical attack had not taken place. Doctors and nurses, some of whom were on duty on the night in question, told me that adults and children were suffering the effects of smoke inhalation. They described the panic generated by the activists and White Helmet operatives who arrived crying\u00a0chemical attack\u201d<\/em>\u00a0before they hosed down the traumatised patients.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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20-year-old Suleiman Saour told me:\u00a0At 7pm we had been receiving wounded people all day long. At 7pm someone came in carrying a little boy, he laid him on a bed and said he had been hit with chemical weapons. Basically I checked the boy […] he was suffering from smoke inhalation [..] we washed his face, used a spray and Ventolin. Later on we found out the child had asthma and it got worse because of the smoke.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"UK<\/picture>UK begins \u2018resettling\u2019 White Helmets as refugees<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Academics, Professors Piers Robinson and Tim Hayward, came under concerted attack as did other members of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media when they analysed the events and questioned the veracity of it being a chemical attack. In the UK, the Times published no less than four articles labeling myself and the\u00a0rogue\u201d<\/em>academics as\u00a0Assad\u2019s useful idiots,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0timed to perfection on the day that the UK, US and France launched their unlawful bombing campaign against Syria. A bombing campaign that was fully enabled by the ignominious rush to judgement by corporate media in the West.<\/p>\n

It has taken Dalati six months to arrive at the same conclusion as those he condemned as compromised\u00a0conspiracy theorists,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0therefore we must question his motives for suddenly releasing these conclusions. Peter Ford, former UK Ambassador to Syria, gave me his opinion on Dalati\u2019s revelations.<\/p>\n

The UK joined Trump and Macron in illegally bombing Syria largely on the basis of a video clip shown ad nauseam on the BBC, which a BBC Syria producer has now said he has evidence was staged. The BBC in their statement are not denying the claim. The implications are shattering: firstly that the state broadcaster effectively connived at a manipulation of public opinion, and secondly that the British government launched its attack on Syria on a false and fabricated premise. This demands a public enquiry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s statement highlights the seriousness of Dalati\u2019s statement which must surely raise questions about the possibility of previous\u00a0chemical attack\u201d<\/em>\u00a0narratives also being manipulated, staged or fabricated. Swedish Doctors for Human Rights investigated the alleged chlorine gas attack in Sarmin, March 2015 and found the medical procedures conducted by doctors at the scene to be extremely questionable.<\/p>\n

Dr Leif Elinder, a Swedish medical doctor and paediatric specialist, found that\u00a0after examination of the video material, I found that the measures inflicted upon those children, some of them lifeless, are bizarre, non-medical, non-lifesaving, and even counterproductive in terms of life-saving purposes of children.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0This video, produced and presented by the White Helmets and their colleagues at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), was shown during a UN Security Council\u00a0closed door\u201d<\/em>\u00a0session to promote a no-fly zone which translates to protection for the US coalition-backed terrorist forces on the ground in Syria.<\/p>\n

As BBC producer has stated publicly that the hospital scenes during the Douma\u00a0attack\u201d<\/em>\u00a0are staged, the BBC has distanced itself by stating that these are the personal claims of an employee which do not mean an attack did not take place. The July 2018 OPCW interim report has already discredited the early sensationalism of western media reporting.\u00a0No organophosphorus nerve agents or their degradation products were detected, either in the environmental samples or in plasma samples from the alleged casualties,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0it stated. No Sarin.<\/p>\n

ALSO ON RT.COM<\/span>White Helmets stealing children for ‘chemical attack’ theater in Idlib<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>The OPCW Fact Finding Mission (FFM) has not yet reached a conclusion that a chemical attack of any kind took place in Douma. The environmental samples were reported to contain chlorinated organic molecules such as trichloroacetic acid and chloral hydrate, which could be attributed to something as basic as chlorinated drinking water. Despite this ambiguity, the BBC initially ran with the headline that \u2018Chlorine was used\u2019 in the Douma attack before altering to \u2018Possible Chlorine at Douma Attack Site\u2019. Another mistake? Or another deliberate attempt to mislead and shore up the UK FCO regime change storyline in Syria?<\/p>\n

Dalati\u2019s revelations must also be viewed in context. They follow similar conclusions arrived at by corporate media colleague and journalist, James Harkin, a Guardian contributor who published a long-winded Douma investigation in the Intercept. Harkin also conceded that the Douma hospital scenes were likely staged and that the Sarin canard was a non-starter.<\/p>\n

It is very unlikely, despite the BBC protestation, that Dalati would risk publishing his claims without approval from BBC hierarchy. Timing is always crucial when examining events that have the potential to expose colonial media, particularly the BBC, as the refined state PR agencies they are in reality.<\/p>\n

Based on an informed and intelligent interpretation of events with historical context, we could speculate that the OPCW is about to release its final findings on the Douma attack. A report which has the potential to lay bare the full extent of the BBC\u2019s deception and falsification of facts in Douma. A report which could raise unpleasant questions about corporate media reporting, particularly on alleged chemical weapon use by the Syrian government, throughout the 8 year conflict in Syria. Was Dalati\u2019s shock information release nothing more than a damage limitation tactic by the BBC or is Dalati genuinely a rogue truth-teller? Only time will tell.<\/p>\n

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Charles Shoebridge<\/span><\/span>@ShoebridgeC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1\/2 Important to note that Dalati #<\/span>Douma<\/span><\/a> revelation likely isn\u2019t some mea culpa, but the start of a damage limitation process by preempting perhaps imminent @<\/span>OPCW<\/span><\/a> report, the likely inconvenient findings of which BBC & UK govt by now almost certainly awarehttps:\/\/<\/span>twitter.com\/shoebridgec\/status\/1095825075591397376\u00a0<\/span>\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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Charles Shoebridge<\/span><\/span>@ShoebridgeC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A belated honesty that he appears even in his own tweet to admit he’s sat on for six months. Some might think it suspicious that the ‘honesty’ only emerges after Harkin’s report, and perhaps just before the OPCW report makes continued denial unsustainablehttps:\/\/<\/span>twitter.com\/ShoebridgeC\/status\/1095785601226420231\u00a0<\/span>\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What Dalati has done is highlight the hypocrisy and bias of Western media and government officials. The BBC report on the Russian\u00a0production\u201d<\/em>\u00a0of Douma-chemical-attack-denying witnesses at the HQ of the OPCW in the Hague emphasises the dismissal of the event as a\u00a0despicable stunt\u201d<\/em>\u00a0by the UK, US and France who boycotted the proceedings. French ambassador to the Netherlands described the Syrian civilian testimonies as an\u00a0obscene masquerade.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The Guardian ran with this statement as its headline, reducing Russia\u2019s attempt to bring some clarity to the Douma attack to the unveiling of\u00a0supposed witnesses\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in order to discredit such attempts to derail their preferred narrative.<\/p>\n

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@<\/span>patrickwintour<\/span><\/a> #<\/span>Guardian<\/span><\/a> “Diplomatic” Editor – do you still claim the Russian presentation of #<\/span>Douma<\/span><\/a> witnesses at The Hague was “obscene masquerade”? You know, now the #<\/span>WhiteHelmet<\/span><\/a> hospital scenes are confirmed by BBC to be a really obscene masquerade. @<\/span>21WIRE<\/span><\/a> @<\/span>PiersRobinson1<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Now, it appears that the real obscene masquerade took place in the Medical Point in Douma, was constructed by the UK FCO-financed White Helmets, and was adopted by the BBC and other state stenographers as gospel in order to further criminalise the Syrian Arab Army just as the final liberation of Douma from Jaish al-Islam brutal rule was fast approaching. This obscene masquerade resulted in the unlawful bombing of Syria by the US, France and the UK. As Peter Ford stated,\u00a0this demands a public enquiry.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Vanessa Beeley is an independent investigative journalist and photographer. She is associate editor at 21st Century Wire.\u00a0Courtesy RT In an extraordinary turn of events, corporate media appears to have been exposed again as an extension of state foreign policy, by a member of the establishment media cabal, manufacturing consent for regime change in Syria. Riam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}