Talk:Alleged Chemical Attack Khan Sheikhoun 4 April 2017

Subpages

 * /Victims
 * /Chemical agent
 * /Timeline

Initial Story
Maybe the incident was today? 4 April? Need confirmation. I assumed it was yesterday because of the quantity of images and media dissemination in essentially only a couple of hours. I just saw one report of an ambulance service driving from Idlib at 06:30 local time --Charles Wood (talk) 10:56, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Low sunlight in some photos suggests it's near sunset on the 3rd or sunrise on the 4th. Whatever is specified - if the date's wrong, probably worth an early move to new page, but no panic. We'll figure it out soon. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:38, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * This NY Times Report says the attack occurred at dawn on 4 April 2017. Another report I saw had a private ambulance service start driving to the scene from Idlib at 06:30. Sunrise in the area is 06:17 and it's starting to get light 30 minutes before say 05:47. One consequence is the victims especially children should be in night clothing. --Charles Wood (talk) 20:31, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Reports on Twitter show images branded with White Helmets / Syrian Civil Defence logo. The images are obviously screenshots of video. Images appear to show predominately youths and infants dead. There are also images of WH personnel spraying bodies (alive or dead?) with water.

Symptoms are consistent with Sarin in that there is profuse white foam on the mouths of some victims. However there is no sign of incontinence or vomit - most victims are in their underwear so it would be obvious.

More images at Twitter Thomas Van Linge However he is not a primary source and is repeating images provided ultimately by the White Helmets. --Charles Wood (talk) 08:27, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

More tweets: --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:37, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Thomas Van Linge: local sources are now reporting 70 dead and 500 affected by the chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun
 * Thomas Van Linge: Video(18+): 43 children that have suffocated to death in alleged chemical attack targeting civilians in #Idlib
 * AEJKhalil: DEATH TOLL RISES TO 70 MARTYRS SO FAR, 200 WOUNDED #RUSSIA/#ASSAD TERRORISTS SARIN GAS ATTAK
 * AEJKhalil: (photos, noting mostly children)
 * AEJKhalil: (bearded man with foam that's perhaps too white and too copious to be genuine)

Death Toll
... (currently reported at 70, and perhaps rising) ... ... Now 100+ and 400 injured ... ... (earlier it was dozens, 38, 54, etc.) ...


 * The SOHR cites at least 72 dead, including at least 20 children. (tweet - tweet)


 * The UOSSM cites over 100 (twet - tweet)


 * The VDC so far lists 69 killed including 69 civilians and zero rebel fighters. 27 men, 16 boys, 19 women, 7 girls. There are 19 named Yousef (9 men, 4 boys, 5 women, one girl), 8 named Qadah, 5 named Khaled, etc. It says most from Khan Sheikhoun, several from Morek, Marzaf, Latamna, blank. None is listed as from Khattab.
 * The Yousefs should normally have other women attached, with their fathers' names as usual for observant Muslims. Five women to eight men (and one girl, and just 4 boys) is just high enough to wonder if these are married couples. That would suggest Christians, or at least secular-leaning "modern" people. In fact VDC says Malak Turky al-Yousef is married to Nihad Alyousef, but Safia is Wife of Najeeb al-Jawhar, and the others are marital status unknown. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:23, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Later on, VDC lists 79. 8 men were added, 1 boy, 1 girl. Still 19 Yousefs. They're not done counting, and even when they are, they often stop short of the largest (and sometimes most likely) tallies (see the Dec. 12 sarin attack) --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:57, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
 * 92 now, and I suspect the final tally is over 100 like they said. How much over remains unclear. --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:33, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
 * The 92 seems final (same search as above), plus at least one: Ibraheem Hasan Abodia from Khan Sheikhoun, died from regime's CW (story change) in Turkey, only on April 10 (or he was listed then, or whatever). 93 including zero militants, 40 civilian men, 20 boys, 21 women, 12 girls - an unusually balanced group. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:33, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
 * All between 4-5 and 4-22 = 3 total dead listed later, which adds to the 92 for 95 listed. --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:46, 23 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Some reports say 43 children were killed, suggesting an overall death toll more in the 100+ range. I'm sure rebels could scrape up at least that for something important enough. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:23, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

In Context
At 70 and perhaps still rising, this would be the third largest alleged death toll from an alleged CW attack in Syria so far. For reference:
 * 1) 21 August, 2013, Ghouta, Damascus: regime sarin rockets blamed, min 420, max 1,429 killed
 * 2)  12 December, 2016, near Uqrabiyat, Hama: reported 93 or more killed, Russian sarin bombs are blamed
 * 3) this - likely to be the same story as above.


 * At 100+ it'll be #2, but that's how I made the list. The April 2014 JaN attack in Nawa, Deraa, killed about 70 soldiers and almost belongs. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:32, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

No one much heard of the December incident, but it might rise again now as 'a shamefully-ignored precedent'. That was in 3 towns in rural Hama run by ISIS. Russian bombing, probably with sarin, was blamed. Now that it's in the turf of the overtly foreign-supported Islamists, the claim has a much, much higher chance of serious and even sustained media coverage (people care, or are supposed to care, just as little about ISIS claims as they do about Syrian government claims)

Also for context on how the rebels encounter these high death tolls in these top 3 cases:
 * 1) evidence suggests it was hostages killed in gas chambers with a variety of non-sarin chemicals, sometimes finished off with neck wounds)
 * 2) evidence is extremely sparse, so the picture isn't clear, but it seems likely to be the same kind of scenario
 * 3) evidence is fairly copious, likely to yield some good clues (that may reflect back on the above precedent case) --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:24, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Preceding Reports
30 March 2017, Latamina, Hama Chemical Weapons Attack in Latamneh, Hama Injures 70. The source is UOSSM. More links on HDBG's twitter feed, including a video showing miosis and a link to a report in which a doctor attributes the attack to "organic phosphorus". Possible motive is to draw US into supporting a safe zone in NW Syria --Pmr9 (talk) 12:43, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Ok, that's odd. March 25 was the chlorine attack that killed Dr. Darwish at the cave hospital. I think that's Dr. Islams' video on that day where he said chlorine, but then said in the tweet they thought it was sarin. Or was that from March 30? Then March 30 and mixed claims including sarin signs and chlorine reports - and now sarin overtly claimed ... I guess the regime trying to sneak it back in under cover of their "accepted" chlorine use? Wouldn't that just shame us all for our silence? --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:30, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Hazmat team
Although most of the "rescuers" seen at the White Helmets cave compound in the early morning hosing scene are poorly protected against sarin, there is also a better equipped hazmat team on the site. They wear white overalls and yellow rubber gloves.

The hazmat team seems to spend most of their time in the caves to right side or eastern side of the rock facade. They are seen in the back in the Reuters / Ammar Abdullah photo. In other photos and video they are seen inside resting and taking recreational oxygen in between what they are actually doing. The room to the east also seems to be better equiped to handle chemical weapons, than the green colored treatment room to the west. The video also shows some kind of laboratory table with two women seen working on it. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 10:56, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Timing

 * ''Moved to /Timeline

Possible kidnapping cues

 * ''(See below for the .)

Just out, a piece by Leith Fadel about civilians, who were kidnapped in Khattab (the closest to Hama the offensive went) on the weekend before the army took it back, and "all taken to Khan Sheikhoun". Number unknown, allegedly reported by a family member. No connection to this event alleged (by Leith). --CE (talk) 13:17, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes, this has the signs of hostage massacre. Typically in history rebels and other less civilized combatants have killed their hostages right before they have been forced to retreat from a town. Were the people killed in their home towns or where they transported before the massacre. Maybe the adults had been killed earlier and the children moved to Khan Sheikhoun. But why kill them now? Revenge? -- Petri Krohn (talk) 14:25, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Antonopoulos has now written that it had been around 250 people kidnapped, from Khattab and Majdal, and that "local sources" claim to have identified some from the dead. He also points out that on the video material there are openings seen carved into rock. A "missile factory" with enough room to host 250 hostages and maybe stocks of some chemical junk material? Maybe worth to take a look on the map. Later. --CE (talk) 14:40, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Thomas van Linge tweets, using Aleppo Media Center photos:
 * ''Syria: warplanes also struck a @SyriaCivilDef center in Khan Shaykhun, further hindering rescue operations in the struck city
 * The three photos show the same compound as in the CW victim photos. I am now more convinced that this is the Lataminah cave compound.
 * So what happened first? Did AssadPutin bomb the place before or after the dead CW victims were brought over for treatment? Update: The bombing happened later, the building is still intact in the chemical victim videos. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 21:05, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * His next tweet shows "Turkish medical workers" in Turk-oise shoes "wearing fully protective suits when transporting the victims of the chemical attack to #Turkey" Huh? Where is this coming from? --CE (talk) 21:18, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Just put this to the news - Turkish Health Ministry says 31 victims were brought to Turkey, three of them died, the autopsies point to exposure to Sarin. Justice Minister says "it has been determined that al-Assad used chemical weapons". *sigh* --CE (talk) 15:46, 6 April 2017 (UTC)


 * P.S. - Here is a video by Hadi Alabdallah of the compound after the alleged attack. This should be enough for geolocation. + three more videos -- Petri Krohn (talk) 21:24, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

The photo of the guy w/ the Canon strap carrying the kid wrapped in blue plastic is a Reuters photo by Ammar Abdullah. It is part of a vid of which I have found only a 3 sec snip. There is another pic of the Canon guy w/ the kid walking out of a door, presumably from the same vid. Would love to find the whole vid.

And the reason I raise it is the grey van in the background, parked in the opening. Grey w/ scarlet design on the side. It's an ambulance, and "AMBULANCE" is painted in English on the window. Number "13" can be seen adjacent the tail-light. The same or identical van is seen in the image of Canon-guy walking out the door, but you can't see the number on that van, so it may be a different one.

Then hop to the Shajul Islam vid, featured in the "Shady Doctor" section below. An identical van is seen twice in that vid. Once at 01:04 and again at 10:15 -- different visits, different patients, different time of day. But almost certainly the same van. That van does not have "13" on the fender, so there may be a bunch of these ambulances operating in this area -- at least 2 for sure. Same vans show up in vids #42 and #44 in Petri's playlist. So the presence of the same or similar ambulances ties a number of locations together, and if that's a Nusra compound in the photo above, it suggests these may be Nusra ambulances. Pierpont (talk) 17:32, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Shady photographer
The photo linked by Petri, taken by Ammar Abdullah for Reuters and reproduced in the Guardian, shows that this is some kind of quarry with passages in the rock wall. Whether this is the Lataminah compound I'm not able to judge, but it doesn't make any sense for the children to be in a place like this unless they were captives: it's not where their homes were, and it's not a hospital. I think serious consideration should be given to Petri's suggestion that the massacre was carried out on 30 March in Lataminah, reported by UOSSM at the time as causing 70 casualties but no fatalities, and that the videos recorded on that day were uploaded today as showing a chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. Are there any videos of the 30 March attack? Pmr9 (talk) 18:31, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * If you look at the old videos you will see that the cave compound was also a field hospital. On the Guardian photo you see two ambulances. I think this cave is a White Helmets compound. (This does not exclude it being a al-Qaeda compound at the same time.) -- 18:53, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Unsurprisingly there are some pics on Ammar Abdullah's Reuters page that show he's deeply embedded with Nusra. Here family photos with a commander of a Nusra subdivision, there right at the place to film the green buses go up in flames during the Aleppo evacuation. --CE (talk) 19:49, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Shady doctor
Some shady "doctors" (and Mohammed Alloush) in this twitter thread linked in the Antonopoulos article. Connections? --CE (talk) 18:44, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Dr Shajul Islam, apparently in charge of the hospital in Khan Sheikhoun, is definitely shady, and is no longer a doctor, at least in the UK. Some commentators have noted that in the middle of a mass casualty incident he was more concerned with tweeting and making videos than with attending to patients.


 * Shajul Islam, who qualified in London, was struck off the UK medical register in 2013 (http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i1831). He had been arrested on returning to the UK from Syria in 2012, and charged with kidnapping two journalists: John Cantlie, and Jeroen Oerlemans. However the trial collapsed when the two victims failed to appear as prosecution witnesses: Cantlie had been kidnapped again alongside James Foley.  It's not clear what happened to Oerlemans.  This didn't stop the General Medical Council, which is not bound by the same rules of evidence, from striking him off. Pmr9 (talk) 22:00, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks, fascinating. --CE (talk) 06:06, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Ditto - this (or all personnel) deserve a section. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:37, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Further material on Shajul Islam, based on following up Petri's reference below to SI's tweets. SI has a website medicalaidsyria.com or medicalaid4syria on which he describes himself as a British-born doctor, and for which he is listed as the registrant with an address in east London, established 8 Sep 2016.  This appears to match a charity named Medical Aid and Support for Syria registered on 11 Aug 2016.  To be struck off the medical register is far more than having a license to practice revoked - it is a permanent expulsion from the medical profession, based on the finding that the offender is not fit to be a doctor.  Someone with this status should not be in charge of a charity, and should not be receiving funding from the UK government as SI implies he is. Pmr9 (talk) 20:50, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Dr. Islam today thanks everyone for one hundred thousand pounds donated in one week. --CE (talk) 17:15, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

Bellingcat says Dr Shajul Islam from Binnish hospital" ... "At 6:24am UTC Dr Shajul Islam, based in Binnish, 50km north of Khan Sheikhoun tweeted “OUR HOSPITAL GETTING FULL FROM THE SARIN ATTACK TODAY. ANYONE THAT WANTS EVIDENCE, I WILL VIDEO CALL YOU.” So that's in Binnish, north of Sarmin, not a place of that name in K.S. For anyone trying to geo-locate it (a decent view at the very end of the 10:30 video) or make sense of the story, he might be there, not in Khan Sheikhoun. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:54, 9 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Elsewhere in the clip he talks about victims coming from Khan Sheikhoun. I got the sense he wasn't in Khan Sheikhoun, and certainly not in the underground bunker. Being in Binnish is plausible, but there is about an hours drive getting patients between the two locations. Assuming the usual stuffing around It's unlikely the first victims hit Binnish much before 08:30 local time --Charles Wood (talk) 22:30, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Water triage

 * ''Moved to /Timeline

Chemical Questions

 * ''Moved to /Chemical agent

Rescue and recovery operations
If dead children are paraded in front of cameras, it does not show a chemical weapons attack. It is proof of murder, someone massacred these children and their families. To claim a gas attack, you have to show photos and videos of the attack site; dead families inside or outside their homes. Dead animals. Rescue workers breaking into houses and discovering the bodies. The White Helmets are an Oscar-winning film crew, with GoPro action cams attached to their signature helmets. They film each and every real and fake rescue operation they take part in. So why no video of the Khan Sheikhoun rescue and recovery work?

How were the victims taken from the place of the attack to the place where they were first filmed? Who did the rescue work? Where where the White Helmets and their camera crews when this happened?

If this was a real rescue operation, the White Helmets would have to go through each house to check if there are any occupants in need of help or any bodies to be recovered. Basic urban search and rescue teaches that each house or apartment be marked with spray paint after being checked. I am sure the White Helmets would know this, they have received the best hazmat and chemical weapons training from the leading Western experts. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 07:49, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

I do not think any rescue work ever happened. No video of it exist or will ever show up. We can however get some insight into the events preceding the scenes at the field hospitals. Look how the victims are clothed. Many are seen in their underwear. Who undressed them and where? -- Petri Krohn (talk) 08:04, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * The woman in this video describes a busy scene, ongoing rescue operation at 9:30, almost 2 hours after the attack. --Q (talk) 12:55, 21 April 2017 (UTC)


 * This is not a description of Search and Rescue. Someone kidnapped the woman's four children while she was away, took them to some White Helmets compound and gassed them to death. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 19:17, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

White Helmets tell their story
Finnish state broadcaster YLE had a 50 minute special on the "Gas attack." A White Helmet named Ismail al-Abdullah is interviewed. He gives hoax testimony, that he could as well learned from watching videos (section starts at 10 minutes). The same guy is interviewed here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

From the testimony it is clear he knows nothing of what happened to the victims before they arrived at the White Helmets base. He woke up and heard people screaming. He rushes to the "location", but he is evidently speaking of the White Helmets location, not location of the alleged attacks. He then pours water on the victims and coordinates with ambulances to take survivors to Turkey. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 11:42, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Bombing video
I find nothing out of the ordinary in the HAQ News Agency bombing video. It is typical for Syrian planes to drop four bombs at once. The blasts are just like ones of 250 kg or larger from Soviet of Russian thermobaric bombs. Here is a video with a collection of "parachute bomb" strikes. The Khan Sheikhoun strike could well be on this list. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 19:31, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Alleged bomb location
Telegraph article Gives specific location for one bomb strike "Corniche St" in the north part of the town. We have already seen an alleged fresh crater near the grain silos/bakery. I assume Corniche St is nearby? I can't find any street map to confirm. One other snippt is the wind is listed as blowing to the west - that's consistent with the Hama weather data. It also makes the Bellingcat 'analysis' somewhat dubious. --Charles Wood (talk) 03:19, 6 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Christiaan Triebert tweets that Pentagon and Brown Noses located the bomb crater, by which Hadi Abdallah is seen in his report video, at the same place - in front of the silos, near (somewhat) to where the strange US media image had its yellowish puddle. Pretty exactly here it is on wikimapia. --CE (talk) 03:40, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

A SMART News reporter visits the site of the bomb crater. Video: Testimony of the survivors of the regime chemical attack on Khan Shaikhoun in idleb At 1:08 he enters one of the buildings on the main street. He seems to be saying that people in the cellar floor had died of the attack. Who would live here? No furniture. Only a dirty rug on the floor for sleeping with an even smaller mattress serving as a common pillow. Internally displaced people, maybe. Or prisoners and hostages. The five shoes left next to the mattress belong to women and children. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 02:19, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
 * That's not quite the spot the US marked - this is on the highway, just SW of the silos. At 1:02 we see the crater, facing north and nearer (south of the crater) chunks of pavement and dirt. Could these be tossed from that impact? If so, direction of projectile was south, fired from the north. US map shows one track only flying apparently a bit south of Khan Sheikhoun. But I supposed a fancy missile could swoop north, turn around, head south, and do this? --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:19, 9 April 2017 (UTC)




 * CNN reports "US military and intelligence analysts have now confirmed it was Syrian regime warplanes that struck a hospital in Idlib province with chemical weapons. The US picked up the radar intelligence that regime warplanes were in the air and got the infrared signature of bombs detonating at the hospital according to a US official with direct knowledge of the information." But the US map shows a spot about 150-200 meters SW of the silos area as impact point. If the hospital (labeled separately in the right spot east of town) is where people were gassed - what were they all doing there? (I guess this is just some kind of mix-up? Or is there another hospital in the allegedly hit area? Nothing that looks like one, but they usually don't) --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:09, 9 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Is US intelligence claiming the White Helmets field hospital was the site of the exposure to sarin? Quote: "regime warplanes that struck a hospital in Idlib province with chemical weapons." Actually I agree, the cave complex is he most likely place for exposure. The victims where then moved to Shajul Islam's hospital downtown. But what were the civilian-looking people doing in this al-Qaeda / al-CIAda military complex at 6 am in the morning? See "" below. And why were only civilians affected and none of the White Helmets? -- Petri Krohn (talk) 03:40, 9 April 2017 (UTC)


 * See the Avigdor Lieberman quote Resup added to the section today. Apparently the claim is that "Assad" hit first near the silos, then the victims were evacuated to Whora Hora, where "Assad" hit a second time. All in 9 minutes. 100%. Or something  --CE (talk) 03:42, 9 April 2017 (UTC)


 * It may be that weird. Russia and Syria say the place they bombed was a place al-Nusra had CWs stored - US seems to say they say that was the hospital (cum-hostel?). But really .. is it that weird? I suspect not. For one thing, they're 8 hours off on timing, so we don't have a clear everyone agrees scenario. Something's amiss, and it might be six things or more. Takes untangling. (and sorry I've been so lame so far) --Caustic Logic (talk) 04:03, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Crater
What kind of explosion would create the crater seen? A 122 mm Grad rocket hardly pierces the asphalt. Also note, that the electricity distribution box right next to the crater has not been damaged by the blast. The damage to the surrounding warehouses is said to be 6 months old. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 06:22, 9 April 2017 (UTC)


 * The size of the crater depends a bit on the fuzing type and fuze. The KS crater could easily be made by a 122mm HE rocket if it delayed a few milliseconds to detonate.
 * I find it less believable an S5 missile did it as that only has 800 gram warhead.


 * A third alternative is that the crater is old and a relic from a previous battle. This is less likely as it would presumably be filled in. However, the undamaged structure beside it could have been placed later if it was an old crater. It it was present at the detonation it would surely(?) have some shrapnel damage and paint scouring. --Charles Wood (talk) 08:47, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Petri brought this, all images from that day, starting around noon. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:16, 11 April 2017 (UTC)


 * These images are from at least 3 different days, I made a video collection instead, I also added some of my observations there. Note that there is a video tsunami from April 6th, but I only managed to find a single video from the day before. --Q (talk) 12:18, 21 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Interesting - how did you decide it was three different days? (sorry to be brief and not dig for an answer at the link - pressed for time - as I guess some readers will be) --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:08, 21 April 2017 (UTC)


 * There are many clues and I didn't reach the conclusion this way, but this is probably the most straightforward explanation:
 * * There are 2 videos published on April 4th.
 * * SMART has a batch of photos from April 5th, and these photos show the same scenes that also appear in their video published on April 5th.
 * * The next group of videos have several similarities, the "press briefing" setup, their publishing dates on Youtube are April 6th, late afternoon-evening(local time), there are common characters and other visual clues. The video in this Facebook post fits perfectly to this group, and the description has the exact filming date, April 6th("Thursday").
 * --Q (talk) 15:14, 21 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Not sure if this is/should be in your collection. Hadi Alabdullah by the crater on 4 April before any substantial alterations but with chemical staining on road significantly reduced. Had On Site --Charles Wood (talk) 21:43, 21 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Q. I don't have time to review that, but there's some explanation for anyone else, or me eventually. it wouldn't be surprising if they come from different days. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:02, 25 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I noticed in the 'professional' SMART video of April 5 some dead birds in a cage. I assume Krazy Kaszeta Kemistry ™ has a simple explanation why 'non persistent' Sarin was still killing birds a day later. I suspect that explanation won't include the locals faking it. --Charles Wood (talk) 12:38, 21 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I just found this video from Faruq Shami, it shows the White Helmet sample collection team in action on April 4th. It's a long video (15 min), and there are several interesting scenes, so I recommend everyone to watch it, the crater part starts at 07:56. It's April 4th, at ~17, this is so far the first recorded sample collection attempt. The red signs that appear in later videos originate from this team. Mostly soil samples are collected, but I can see a dead bird and something that looks like a metal piece as well. The small metal piece in the crater was moved, but it wasn't collected for some reason. --Q (talk) 17:04, 24 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I updated the pastebin with two new videos, White Helmets collecting samples, and a great drone video that shows the surroundings of the crater and the nearest neighborhood. --Q (talk) 17:14, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

It might have been there already. It looks like a power pole was knocked down by this impact, they set up this electric box to help (?) and that probably hadn't all been done by noon. But maybe. Anyway, the north view video (see ) shows no plume rising from the crater area after the first round of alleged air strikes.

So was it hit earlier? Or later yet, and they still had that fresh electric box placed before the first images? Or did no violence happen there at all this day? It doesn't look obvioulsy old - as Charles notes, it's not filled-in, and the debris spread looks realistic (but maybe lacking in tossed-up dirt) --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:16, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Furthermore, doesn't that crater suggest a blast, and maybe a powerful one? And wouldn't that vaporize any sarin it also released? --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:16, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Direction of travel: the crater details to me suggest it came from N-NW, seeming to raise and crack the pavement to the S-SE. It actually lines up pretty well with the damaged building that way, but if they've been that way for months, I suppose that's a coincidence. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:16, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Whora Hora

 * ''(I have decided to name this place Whora Hora after bin Laden's more famous cave hideout and hospital. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 20:36, 6 April 2017 (UTC) )

I found one possible location for the White Helmets cave complex. There is a plot for a warehouse carved into the hillside on the eastern side of the M5 motorway, 1.2 km north, northeast of the point where the missile struck next to the grain silos. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 00:47, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

...but Aldin on Twitter found the real one. No coordinates. :( -- 05:09, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
 * This is at 35.441414, 36.671107 just outside the eastern edge of the town. Between the time of the google maps photo and the more recent satellite photo there have been large-scale excavations, and ventilation shafts have appeared in the field above the quarry.


 * As there was a hospital in town under the direction of struck-off Dr Shajul Islam, there was no reason for casualties to have taken to this quarry outside town. It's interesting that one of the photos uploaded by Petri shows a child being carried out of one of the bunkers by the WH cameraman who was photographed from behind by the Reuters cameraman. A careful comparison of videos and stills for continuity errors may show that children are decontaminated after they come out of the bunker, with obvious implications. Pmr9 (talk) 16:29, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

On April 3 Shajul Islam tweets a two minute video with a look inside a 800 m2 cave complex that he says is under 30 meters of mountain. One future hospital room is shown and seems to be about 7 x 3.5 meters in size. Cinder blocks are waiting for inner walls to be built. Shajul Islam says the hospital will have "about 10 to 15 rooms this size". Who said Osama bin Laden could not receive kidney dialysis at Tora Bora? This hospital will have CT scanners an everything - all paid for by the UK government. The video connects Dr Shajul Islam to the White Helmets cave hospital. SI operated other hospitals in Syria, but he was in Khan Sheikhoun and the soft earth in the caves is similar to what we see in the White Helmets base. This put Shajul Islam in control of both of the hospitals in Khan Sheikhoun. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 18:34, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Dr Shajul Islam‏ @DrShajulIslam - April 3:
 * ''"After 5 hospitals hit and closed last week, this is the future of hospitals in Syria. Help by donating MedicalAidSyria.com
 * April 4: ''This is not a SAMS project. One nation UK will be buying equipment for this hospital."


 * If the cave hospital outside Khan Sheikhoun was so unfinished that the chambers were just cinder blocks with no inner walls, this is strong evidence against the opposition version (channelled by Kareem Shaheen in The Guardian) that victims were taken there to be treated, and consistent with the alternative that these chambers were used to hold captives. Do we have any images of victims inside the cave hospital, or being carried out of it (apart from the one photo of the WH cameraman? Pmr9 (talk) 20:27, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * "Whora Hora" is a huge complex and is being enlarged all the time. In other videos we see the inside of the existing hospital. I believe there are two other entrance courtyards to the cave complex. The two others may be used for weapons storage and for chemical weapons. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 20:56, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Here is one video, from Petri's playlist, that shows the inside of the existing cave hospital. --CE (talk) 21:27, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Shajul Islam didn't arrive in Khan Sheikhoun area until late March. On March 19 he was still in Idlib. His first twitter mention of KS area is on March 23 when he says "As the battle to free #hama continues we are saving lives from a cave on the front lines. Dua requested". He had previously been in Aleppo until its liberation and then in Idlib. His presence at the site of the attack was certainly opportune for the jihadis. Steve McIntyre 20:40 EDT 7 April 2017


 * I suspect that the to-be-finished larger "hospital" (plus whatever) is actually the al-Khazanat base (see below). The large structures don't seem to be created yesterday. Found some more info about the hostage-killing event in February (last link most relevant) at the former army underground refueling base, and the place was the headquarter of Liwa al-Aqsa, a super hardcore takfiri group affiliated with ISIS. After heavy infighting with Nusra they agreed to a deal and left to Raqqa, not before murdering 80 of their hostages from an "FSA" gang Jaish al-Nasr at some point supported by the US. Search for the hostages then took place on the 5km² large areal. It is planned to be taken over as base by Nusra (now known as Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham), says the February 22 article.
 * There's also the chance that the two are connected anyway as they are less than two kilometers away from each other--CE (talk) 03:26, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

I have collected 16 videos that show original footage from the compound into YouTube playlist. The videos are ordered by the approximate timeline. There are three different narratives or acts. I am not sure they can all play out on the same day. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 03:52, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

Is this the al-Lataminah cave compound?

 * ''(No, it is not.)

Yes, the location of the White Helmets base must be the Al-Lataminah cave compound just south of Al-Lataminah. It was bombed by Russia on the first day of their campaign. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 17:25, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Lataminah is about eight kilometers south-west of Khan Sheikhoun, I don't think the SAA would be confusing them. The thesis that it happened and was filmed earlier is interesting, though. FWIW, here's a marker on wikimapia in Khan Sheikhoun which is eight years old, on something that could be a small rocky formation, with the first comment reading autotranslated "Ohla Abu Yahya .. King of Khan Sheikun and neighboring areas, we forget the sweet days in the university city and the moments of land bread and the voice of the breads of the bread from the decks like Grad missiles atmosphere". --CE (talk) 19:02, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

...or did al-Lataminah move to Khan Sheikhoun
I just noticed Adam's blog post on the Alleged Chlorine Attack in Latamna. (I have been too busy following the spy drama at the White House to have time for Syria.) The photos could be from the Whora Hora base in Khan Sheikhoun and not from the al-Lataminah cave compound. The chlorine cylinder is the same as seen in this photo from the Khan Sheikhoun base. I thought I had geolocated the photo to the second south-facing entrance, just east of what we know is the White Helmets Field hospital. I suspect the photo with the fire truck could be at a west-facing entrance to the cave complex, at the old stone quarry to the west. (I suspected there would be another entrance, but did not have proof before.) -- Petri Krohn (talk) 00:30, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

...or is it Camp Khazanat?
Rescanning wikimapia following this morning's Konashenkov statement, on the eastern outskirts of the town there is a "Camp Khazanat Army fueling base" complete with "vehicle shelters" and "underground fueling storage" that looks like it could fit our "quarry" of interest. --CE (talk) 06:06, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * The facility in the videos shows the facility was surrounded by green fields. The Camp Khazanat Army fueling base is surrounded by olive groves
 * There are numerous limestone quarries around Khan Sheikhoun especially to the East and North. Some of them are surrounded by fields, not olive groves.
 * Ian Grant suggests this facility to east of Town is the site. He has a better resolution photo showing air-vents in the fields to the North of it. See His Tweet with image
 * The gas related attack occurred before dawn. The Russian attacks occurred 11:30 to 12:30 local time.
 * The SyAAF doesn't have a history of night operational sorties - with the exception of some L-39 flights that don't appear to be offensive in nature. --Charles Wood (talk) 06:47, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

No luck finding any visuals of the place so far, but I found this tweet from February 23, 2017 by @markito0171:
 * #Syria ~80 corpses found in fuel-tanks of Camp "Khazanat"/Khan Shaykhun -executed by "Liwa al Aqsa" before their retreat to #IslamicState

--CE (talk) 06:24, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * That does sound intriguing - and I was going to suggest the same spot before work, noting the underground storage notes. But ... --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:06, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * This may be video of the 80 bodies. Massacre tanks in Khan Shaikhoun (Feb 25, 2017) -- Petri Krohn (talk) 10:54, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Having now looked, camp khazanat doesn't seem at all cliffy enough. And now I'm about 70% sure it's the Latamnah compound as Petri suggests. The images are afternoon sunlight. If that conflicts with anything, great. Otherwise, I wouldn't say people lived or were gassed here. It's supposed to have a hospital, and the victims seem trucked in. It's not so far from Khan Sheikhoun that doesn't make sense - this might be the best hospital around for CW victims (the mud bath by un-suited men isn't encouraging, but...) Graphic forthcoming. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:06, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Here is a photo of the Al-Lataminah cave compound. I do not think they match. Besides, the Khan Sheikhoun caves must be facing south. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 11:04, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Nice video find, Petri. I see nothing that would say it is NOT the place. It's a rather large area on the map, and they are on top of something. At 0:11 you can see that they are partly surrounded by the sort of green knolls we see in the event videos, and at 4:01 the camera goes over what seems to be a road carved into the surface through the whole picture, with people standing in front and behind it, and a higher structure to the left. Inside of that could be what we are searching for. Nothing definitive, but nothing to dismiss it either.
 * CL, your attempted match doesn't really convince me. The greens should be on different sides of the "road", the curves seem wrong, the buildings don't seem to match. --CE (talk) 14:38, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * I just noticed that all but one comment on the video are from the last 24 hours. I ran them through translation and they are all from knuckleheads cursing Assad in flowery poems, not realizing the date of the video. Somebody sells it as from the current "chemical weapons" event. --CE (talk) 15:07, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Another video of the body recovery. At 0:29 a White Helmet is interviewed in front of a cliff similar to the White Helmets base. They could have come back to base for the interview. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 00:04, 6 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Okay, it seemed a good fit from the little I could see, but I guess it's not even that. The sun would be too low for that azimuth, come to think of it. I won't be digging for where this happened. It might be useful, but ... definitely too much going on. I'm skipping some stuff. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:18, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Scene Overview
This is what video shows at around 6:30 to 7:00 am (possibly not of April 4, but...) I used Bellingcat's field-of-view study (see here), which seems accurate. Here, blue lines from the camera to each plume, pink circles for rough area of high-rising, high-explosives plumes, and red for the oddball white plume that might be some CW. Just where each is along the line of sight is a guess - it's set broadly (big ovals), but they could be closer or further out on their lines (the ovals are not angled right to follow the line, so image that.) The red circle may be more exact: it's a short cloud but seems to cast a shadow on the tel, so must be only a bit northeast of it, approximately at that (school?). Crater date I think is/will be explained. Hospital timeline explains that later blast. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:49, 11 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Bomb cloud sizes vary a lot. That could indicate either different size bombs or bombs that don't completely detonate. The really small one could be just the primer going off and not the main body. Of course a CW bomb is also an option but the variance in size should be considered.


 * Ultimately, actual fragments from the anomalous bomb will help resolve the question. They haven't been forthcoming, so the balance of uncertainty starts to favour a damp squib rather than a devil's brew. --Charles Wood (talk) 10:02, 11 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Agreed on smaller bomb/primer possibility. With fragments, there will be an issue of possession, that it's not cooked up--Resup (talk) 10:39, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Amnesty upload time search indicates that video was posted before what we were told was the attack time ....--Resup (talk) 10:25, 11 April 2017 (UTC) Video ID: MYOMEDK_uVs Upload Date (YYYY/MM/DD): 2017-04-04 Upload Time (UTC): 04:59:28 (convert to local time)
 * Converting to local time means add 3 (2 for time zones, 1 for DST) giving 7:59, which is almost slow, but reasonable. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:03, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Weather & gas extent
According to Intellicast, weather at Hama (close enough) had light winds from the East / East NE sector at 6 mph around dawn.

This means any gas plumes would head west and a bit south from impact points.

Wind speed was ~ 6mph / 2.6m/s. The sky was partly cloudy. Temperature a cool 48F / 9C. This implies a stable gas plume that is not very wide but quite long. Typically lethal maybe up to 10m either side of centreline for 500m max 1000m. Numbers will vary depending on buildings and local topography. The plume will be a bit snakey but always quite thin.

People on ground level would be affected, but a couple of storeys up and they would only get minor eye irritation.

This is assuming only a single 122m size missile delivered the gas. NB Syria has no 122mm rocket gas capability. Iraq did have that type of missile. --Charles Wood (talk) 20:49, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Postol assessment 041117.pdf States winds were blowing to South-East - away from inhabited areas. I have seen two different sources that indicate the winds had a Westerly component at 10m blowing towards inhabited areas. This is not withstanding the apparent easterly component of the first video bomb clouds which I put down to different wind direction above and below the inversion. --Charles Wood (talk) 18:41, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

I can find no historical weather data for Khan Sheikhoun or even Hama for April 4th. The nearest weather stations are at the airport in Latakia, in Qoubaiyat-Akkar in Lebanon, and in Cezayirlioglu Ciftligi in Turkey. All show north or southeasterly winds at 6:30 am on April 4th. The bomb blast video however shows the wind blowing from the west. Which makes on question if it was actually filmed at some earlier date. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 06:50, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

The nearest reliable data is METARS data from a number of Syrian airports OSLK/Latakia has winds blowing from the North East direction at 03:00 UTC. Other data is intermittent --Charles Wood (talk) 07:06, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Other sources tend to be very unreliable and often are an interpolated value on a mesoscale grid. METARS are the gold standard. --Charles Wood (talk) 07:11, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Also forgot to mention. Wind direction above and below an inversion can be wildly different. There would have been a strong inversion there assuming the light winds everyone seems to agree on. The general name for this phenomenon is backing and veering with altitude (certainly not an Eckman spiral as the armchair experts are wont to say). This is especially obvious when an inversion is present.


 * I noticed in the video a direction change on some bomb clouds with altitude. The 'kink' will be at the inversion level which would likely be under 100m and perhaps significantly lower. --Charles Wood (talk) 07:32, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Visual assessment: in this video, the faintly yellowish gas plumes seem to me to be moving right to left, when facing south, which means from the west, roughly (about opposite of what the Hama records suggested). One apparent origin point seems to be a bit SW of town. Overall breeze might be a bit from the W-SW. Reviewing. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:19, 15 April 2017 (UTC)




 * I looked at the video. I didn't see any movement in the cloud/mist. The only clue is tapering of the density. I'm not sure that is a sound approach.


 * Re Hama weather data. It's one of several sources, none of them consistent. The only constants I have seen from the different sources is there is a component from the North and the wind speed is very low ~ 2 m/s


 * The good thing about your new video is the clouds appear to be below the inversion, so whatever they are doing it will be consistent across the field of view - unlike the bomb plumes which had a clear change in direction with altitude. --Charles Wood (talk) 12:37, 15 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Looking again, it's not as clear as it seemed, but I still see slight movement to the left, but it is roughly still. Definitely no movement the other way. Also, it may have drifted the other way earlier. Partly I'm thinking about origin areas. Above I noted the white cloud northeast of the tel. That is the same color as this. It might be what spread all to the left, and something spread a bit to the right along the tel's north face. Or maybe a similar cloud emerged at the crater area off the left side and drifted right, as the other's smoke drifted southwest behind the tel. There also seems to be a center of spread off to the southwest, right side distance, spreading west and northwest, split around a low hill, perhaps. Might be that impression making me see the consistent movement. --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:35, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Color: I retract yellow-ish - I can't make out a color, even after enhancing it. This seems to be a widespread white fog. Is this sarin? It was said to smell bad, burn the eyes, and be yellow, but this seems white, though it might stink. I should think if this was all sarin, half the town would have died. So if not, could it be anything legit from the attack, or is it maybe the other, less toxic poison used? Or just some effects smoke to paint their picture of big sarin release? --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:35, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Theodore Postol now says he had the weather data 180 degrees wrong. The wind was blowing from the east. See: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 15:27, 22 April 2017 (UTC)
 * With Error Fixed, Evidence Against ‘Sarin Attack’ Remains Convincing - ThuthDig, April 21, 2017


 * Well he is simply wrong. I explained elsewhere about this. Not only does the regional data disagree with him, the video evidence disagrees with him. In this video at 1:05 wind is blowing towards the rising sun i.e. from West to East (plus some not well seen North/South component). They very helpfully zoom in in the base of the cloud and so we know it's under the inversion and therefore highly relevant to ground level gas dispersion. --Charles Wood (talk) 20:42, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * OK, we've switched positions somewhat on the wind and disagreeing differently. That's the video I called unclear above. Better version. There's a definite shear to the left higher up (so east, towards the sun, but it seems past tense, now sitting still), but surface wind matters (as you've noted, and know more than I about). At the base, I'd say the direction is a bit to the left, so the east, and towards the camera. This seems to be looking a bit SE, so that I think makes it almost northerly wind (to the north). It doesn't seem strong. AND I'll add the main 3-plumes view shows about the same, if clearer - a bit left and towards the camera, looking almost due south. So that would seem well-founded, but...


 * here we face north-NW and the wind clearly moves to the left, away from the sun, so to the west or W-SW. And here (and odd view, possibly not connected) it's the same, facing NE, it rolls away and to the left. So seems like winds changed a lot, if these all show the same day - almost seems wind always move left, whether you're facing north or south. Is that even plausible (to have such variation in one short span)? But the predicted direction Postol used is pretty close to one of the seen directions. So ... I just switched my position again after noting the 3-plumes view - it seems like a tie, and both directions are right. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:39, 25 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Your video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHQA7hliJCY is obviously a different day. Wind much faster and heavy cloud in background. The clincher of course is it was uploaded on April 3
 * The second one also was uploaded in 3 April.


 * Regarding wind and elevation. It's entirely possible for the ground wind to be a significantly different direction to the winds higher above an inversion. There was an inversion in KS on the day. The winds were very light, so changes with direction with altitude are entirely possible, if not expected.


 * Getting onto Postol. He got the direction wrong by 180 degrees in his first go and managed to produce something looking authorative.
 * He then switched direction (as a result of my telling him of his error) and produced yet another authorative looking report.


 * I don't think either report is worth consideration. The data he uses is completely unreliable to start with and he makes conclusions he can't possibly make given the lack of data. At best it's a hypothetical / descriptive exercise but nothing of scientific or forensic merit for the facts on the day at Khan Sheikhoun. --Charles Wood (talk) 10:35, 25 April 2017 (UTC)


 * OK, sorry then - both were uploaded even Aug. 3 in Syria time - one about midnight (almost the 4th) and the other hours earlier. No wonder the winds were so different. Pretty consistent visual direction then, FWIW. And the basement home would be upwind from the crater. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:37, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Russian Version of Events
Russian spokesman Konschenkov made a statement to the effect the gas was released from a weapons factory. Second-hand source at Al-MAsdar news (can we get a better source?)

The BBC has now weighed in quoting Hamist DeBretton Gordon dismissing the claim.


 * A chemical weapons expert, Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, told the BBC that the Russian version of events was "pretty fanciful". The idea that a nerve gas like Sarin could spread after a weapons manufacturing process had been bombed was "unsustainable", he added.

The HDBG objection apparently includes the assumption the chemicals are being manufactured on the site - rather than being assembled into weapons for shipment using shipped in precursor materials.

Sarin is usually delivered as a binary weapon with in-flight mixing, though immediate pre-launch mixing is possible. In either case precursors are kept in close proximity and accidental mixing by nearby explosion is quite feasible.

Further, the main precursor ingredient of binary Sarin is either methylphosphonyl difluoride or a mix of methylphosphonyl difluoride and methylphosphonyl dichloride. Both chemicals are extremely toxic and produce nerve-gas symptoms including death in sufficient concentration.

A plausible inference is containers of one or both precursor chemicals was ruptured in the raid and produced the symptoms. --Charles Wood (talk) 11:24, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I've sourced the Konashenkov statement now with TASS on the frontpage. The biggest remaining (see my observations on the Khazanat video Petri found) problem to make sense of this, in any way, seems to be the off timing you pointed out, with the admitted Syrian strike around noon while the videos show and have been released much earlier (at least the latter on the same day). --CE (talk) 18:49, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * NY Times article puts it variously before 7am and before first prayers (quote text may have changed? I'm sure it said Mariam was being examined at first prayers) -
 * A 14-year-old resident of the attacked town, Mariam Abu Khalil, said she had left home for her examination on the Quran — scheduled for early morning because fewer bombings were expected then — when the attack took place. On the way, she saw an aircraft drop a bomb on a one-story building a few dozen yards away. In a telephone interview Tuesday night, she described an explosion like a yellow mushroom cloud that stung her eyes. “It was like a winter fog,” she said.
 * Quite what a 14 year old girls is doing being examined on the Koran remains to be explained. --Charles Wood (talk) 19:38, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * First Prayer, Fajr, 04:47 am. Sunrise 06:14 am - see Syria Prayer Times --Charles Wood (talk) 19:45, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * FWIW and because I love the guy and don't know where else to put it, here's a just released video from our old friend Texas from Donbass. He's in a bar with a very french Frenchman who says he fought in Singal with the Kurds (where they liberated the Jezidis) and twice witnessed ISIS using poison gas against them. Texas doesn't know about the timing problem and therefore takes this as an example why the straight-forward and logical Russian/Syrian version (including the claim that the stuff was produced to be used in Iraq) is correct. --CE (talk) 19:30, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

This Chemical Weapons expert says a damaged CW weapons store is quite feasible. Channel 4 interview with Jerry Smith. NB Smith interview starts at 2:20 after old-mate Tennari who actually sounds on the ball and accurate for once! --Charles Wood (talk) 06:16, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Time Problem: I didn't note this here yet? Russia suggests the poisoned people - seen around 8am, were hit by chemical released in this SyAF attack. But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said their first strike of the day was at 11:30 a.m., as CNN reported. Elsewhere, they agree it was a CW depot they attacked, five hours too late to explain the earlier reports and videos, but don't say if it caused any deaths. So we have a time issue; is Syria denying their morning strike, or is Russia's explanation that flawed? --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:31, 15 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Konoshenkov also stated 11:30 to 12:30 local time. This is consistent with the underground bunker raid (the same as the 'hospital' raid also mentioned?)


 * The US published a flight track of one aircraft (I thought they operated in pairs?) in the 06:30 - 07:00 time window. There isn't actually any video of an aircraft dropping bombs in the 06:30-07:00 time window. Only bomb mushroom clouds. However it seems likely there was an aircraft and it did drop bombs just after sunrise as generally reported.


 * The question then arises, why did Moallem and Konoshenkov both omit to mention the early morning raid? One possibility is they didn't know about it when they spoke. This could indicate the raid was locally ordered without reference to higher command - a Syrian version of Jack D. Ripper (جاك د الكسارة)? However to counter this, there is video of some very high ranking General Staff officer later congratulating the pilot believed to have carried out the warehouse raid.


 * So either it was a Jack D. Ripper moment and the General Staff (and Bashar) had no idea about it, possibly not even now. Or, we simply don't know why. --Charles Wood (talk) 14:50, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

Whitehouse Dossier
Bloomberg has published a sneak preview of an upcoming Whitehouse Dossier on the Russian version of events [https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-04-11/what-reset-white-house-to-call-out-russia-s-fake-news-on-syria What Reset? White House to Call Out Russia's Fake News on Syria]

Of immediate interest - out of many possible item - is the 'refutation' of the Russian timing of the raid of 11:30 to 12:30. As discussed here on ACLOS there were in fact two raids, one at 06:30-07:00 and a second one including the hospital at 11:30-12:30. If The Whitehouse doesn't know these minutae - and they really should - then what value the entire dossier?

Stand by for an exciting series of smears. --Charles Wood (talk) 15:49, 11 April 2017 (UTC)


 * So there it is (as linked by NYT), four pages. No offical markings of any kind, just plain text. I'm at paragraph four which says that social media accounts "indicate" that the attack began at 6:55 am. Apparently they didn't read that circulated flight path thing with 6:37-6:46 timing. But scanning further down they time the first hospital attack reports to 1:10 pm. Will read later. EDIT: Apparently the four pages are a summary of this "background press briefing", or the briefing based on the summary. Questions are asked (yet to read as well). --CE (talk) 20:33, 11 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Finally, time to give the Whitehouse some marks. They managed to publish a pdf of a scan of a printed document - rule 101 in publishing electronic information without too much embarrassing metadata. --Charles Wood (talk) 01:22, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Reading the transcript of the associated briefing I see the spokesman focusing on the single bomb crater by the grain silos as the chemical weapon site. Mysterious mention of 'leakage' - possibly related to white discolouration on early photos?

Many people have made suppositions about the round object in the crater. No-one has really mentioned the long tube like object - about the same diameter as a 122mm rocket but squished. With regard to the round object, various people have said it's a filler cap for a (very large) CW bomb - obviously not used here.

(Editorial follows): My best guess for the round object is it's a base-plug for 152mm artillery shell of the type used in Iraq for CW, specifically Sarin. We have evidence that some shells survived the invasion and at least one Sarin shell was used in an IED to attack US troops - Deadly Nerve Agent Sarin Is Found in Roadside Bomb See Examining a Rare Nerve-Agent Shell That Wounded American Troops in Iraq. I suggest it's quite plausible that a 152mm Sarin shell was detonated on the road during the bombing attack to incriminate the Syrian Government. --Charles Wood (talk) 02:47, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

There is a photo, I guess you mean this. +Some other parts are visible too. --Resup (talk) 03:07, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Postol Assessment
, good idea to upload a copy, Charles. Well, most interesting is certainly that he's "almost certain" that the thing in the crater was detonated on the ground, not dropped from a plane. Noticed the different wind direction from your data as well, but he agrees with you on the tube. Pretty damning quick analysis. Will it make it to people's hypnotube? --CE (talk) 18:47, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

152mm shell? 122mm rocket casing? Same difference but I like his story better. Asides from the wind direction I can't really fault it. --Charles Wood (talk) 18:56, 12 April 2017 (UTC)


 * There are 2 circles visible on the round object in the crater and the ratio of their diameters don't match well with those on the 152mm shell cap. It would be a better match with a smaller diameter shell, asuming it has about the same mantle strength. --Ms19 (talk) 23:25, 12 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Agreed on the not-a-152 mm cap. Visually comparing the flattened tube in the crater and the cap make it quite likely the cap was originally on one end of the tube. Further, the cap in the crater appears still fixed to a cm or 2 of the body/tube it was originally attached to. It seems likely the cap and a bit of (weaker) tubing was blown off the main body/tube when it ruptured, but didn't travel far. --Charles Wood (talk) 03:43, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

The crater looks like it was caused by a GRAD rocket, where the warhead burrowed itself into the pavement before exploding. The green color is typical for Grads and would never be used for any type of airdropped munitions. A GRAD rocket consist of several parts that are screwed on to each other: the warhead, one or two engine sections and the engine nozzle. Photos of the section and the assembly process were seen when we studies the UMLACA / Vulcano rocket, that consisted of GRAD parts. It is likely that the rocket engine part would have an end cap. It is also typical that the engine tube sticks out of the ground after the warhead has exploded. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 05:27, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

P.S. - See here my photo of a GRAD rocket almost totally burrowed in into the pavement. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 05:41, 13 April 2017 (UTC)


 * There are numerous images of spent 122 mm rockets. I have yet to see one where the damage is more than the first 500mm of the motor casing nearest the warhead. None I have seen have been completely longitudinally crushed and had the end-cap neatly blown off as though by internal pressure from the motor tube. If anything the end-cap is pushed back into the motor tube. --Charles Wood (talk) 07:25, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

(Tube): His theory, crushed by a charge placed outside/on a side, "like a paste tube hit by a mallet", seems quite convincing in explaining rupture along the side of the tube. Pressure inside and shell flattening/crushing created  by such blow causes a crack in the shell which spreads longitudinally and splashes the liquid sideways. Doing something else (firing a Grad normally, or detonating a bomb ) will shatter the shell into pieces, flying out radially. Maybe it can be engineered for 'paste tube crushing' to occur inside a bomb, but there is no history of this been done or no other fragments indicating it was inside something else.

(Dosage/timing): apparently what matters is total quantity inhaled (for an average size person ). 15 liters per minute is exchanged in breathing; and some 70 - 100 mg per m^3 concentration for a 1 minute exposure is  lethal (wiki gives such concentration 35 mg/m^3 for 2 minute exposure which will kill in 50 % of the cases). in Postol report, Fig. 9, he takes 100 mg/m^3 per minute of exposure as lethal (that is, 1.5 mg consumed), so it's 10 minutes exposure at 10 mg/m^3  concentration, 20 minutes exposure at  5 mg/m^3  concentration, etc. But exposure time and concentration dependence on distance is hard to figure, cloud is spread by the wind, so exposure time is roughly duration for  cloud fume to pass, with concentration, whatever it is near ground in the fume when it arrived. Cloud will drop some droplets which will evaporate, making exposure somewhat longer at lower concentration. So unsure, with all this going on (drift by the wind, buoyancy, diffusion, drops) whether his numbers in Fig. 9 can be literally trusted, or how he actually arrived to those numbers. Can be modeled, like a weather forecast simulation, but pretty complicated; unsure how he actually did it. --Resup (talk) 11:53, 13 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I remember researching this last time. Sarin is one of those toxins where cumulative dose over a longer period of time is less lethal than the same cumulative dose in a short period. The difference is not great though.
 * As for modeling - I used to do that professionally and even wrote my own computer models in Fortran! These days it's easier to use an EPA approved model and in the case of Sarin, one optimised for heavier than air vapour. You can download SLAB which is public domain and easy to set up. I used that in research on the 2013 Ghouta gas event. In this case, there is so little data available I'm not sure it's worth it other than plug in a few guesses and see what happens. Uncertainty at present is the quantity of liquid, the initial area it is initially dispersed into as liquid or mist, and the actual wind direction (reports vary). --Charles Wood (talk) 13:06, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
 * I see that SLAB has a manual describing their model, I gather fluid dynamics of a rectangular fume, both moving and resizing. If you know and can post references to open -source papers on modeling (like different or better models), that's appreciated. --Curious to see how it is done. Thks!--Resup (talk) 20:11, 13 April 2017 (UTC)


 * It's got a lot more complex than when I did it. For instance my models (and SLAB) are statistics based while some of the newer models are fluid dynamic based. The older models are plume based with statistical dispersion from the plume centreline in vertical and horizontal axes on a time and distance basis. Or they are puff based where you approximate the dispersion by breaking up the source into many individual puffs of gas over time and moving them around the model field under the influence of wind. Each puff expands in the X,Y,Z direction with a Gaussian concentration in each axis increasing over time. For time T you sum up the effect of all the puffs at each XYZ point in the model space. Start at the wikipedia article and chase up some of the models that take your fancy to learn how this really imprecise science works. --Charles Wood (talk) 03:26, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * By the way, SLAB is a 2.5D model - that is it generates values down a plume and on either side of the plume and in the air above the plume. Its input is a single wind speed, and atmospheric stability value. It's up to you to then apply wind direction to come up with exposure on an actual map. Puff models with time varying spatial wind data and time varying gas introduction are much more accurate but obviously need much more data to run. --Charles Wood (talk) 03:50, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Addendum
An update of Postol's assessment entitled "Addendum to A Quick Turnaround Assessment of the White House Intelligence Report" has been posted on SST by Publius Tacitus, who appears to have received it directly from Postol. In this addendum, Postol suggests that the people excavatng the alleged impact site "knew that the area was not seriously contaminated". This sounds as if he is shifting from his earlier proposal that a sort of sarin IED was placed at the alleged impact site, causing casualties downwind, towards something more like the ACLoS working hypothesis that no CW agent was released Pmr9 (talk) 15:07, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Found a PDF of the addendum at unz.com. ACLOS copy here. --CE (talk) 18:50, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

So after three preliminal reports, Postol apparently posted a summary (pdf at MoA) entitled "The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur". In it, no mention of the most "explosive" claim of the initial assessment: that the load cannot have been dropped from a plane; instead rather weak claims based on the wind direction (again not sourced where he got the data from, contradicting what Charles Wood dug up). Anybody seen the good Prof alive lately? --CE (talk) 23:02, 19 April 2017 (UTC)


 * The wind table he used in the final document is sourced from World Weather Online Khan Sheikhoun 04 APR 17


 * Of note, the table lists wind direction FROM not TO as Postol seems to have assumed.


 * Of even more note, World Weather Online doesn't use observations, it uses outputs of computer models. Local variations won't be handled at all well, especially in low wind-speed conditions. In the Khan Sheikhoun case WWO list wind *from* SE. i.e. towards NW. This is in disagreement with actual regional observations.


 * However all is not lost. As referenced elsewhere, the regional wind observations are essentially from the North at very low speed and with some ambiguity about the East or West component. Plus the KS video evidence shows a West to East component at least at altitude.


 * Conclusion: if Postol correctly used better quality weather sources he'd still come to roughly the same conclusion. --Charles Wood (talk) 04:58, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

Here is the latest from Postel, published on Washingtonsblog on April 18. Postel seems to be seriously behind us in his analysis. He still does not have any idea of the of the events on the videos. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 15:25, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

He totally acknowledges the wind error, citing it in the title of a correction-expansion follow-up at TruthDig: With Error Fixed, Evidence Against ‘Sarin Attack’ Remains Convincing Apr 21, 2017 By Theodore A. Postol. Seems to have a good idea of the one locale anyway, I agree now wind appears e-w at attack time (how exactly right the directions he gives are, I don';t know, but probably close and not backwards anyway). I add my thoughts on his dead goat analysis here (and sent some thoughts by e-mail) --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:55, 24 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I have to disagree. He has almost zero evidence to say where a potentially toxic cloud blew. The winds are far too light for one - normally at that speed they are recorded as 'variable' with no direction assigned. His data source is a generalised global computer model with no actual observations involved. The regional winds from multiple independent sources show very light winds substantially towards the South and with a slight West to East component - this is supported by the videos. The nearest actual observational data is Hmeinim airbase about 70k due West where the wind at 7am local was blowing due West at very low speed - but this is likely a coastal effect.
 * The model is questionable, but these videos seems to show east-to-west wind - plmes seen from the south, blowing right to left 1 - 2. Another isn't clear. Later fog scene as we discuss basically still. What shows opposite direction? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:39, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Being resolved (?) in the section. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:50, 25 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Syrian METARS Latakia and Damascus


 * Of far more use is to locate where people actually died and work backwards. That means locating the Al-Yousef and Amash houses. Any ideas? --Charles Wood (talk) 13:20, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * One site with a family said to die in the basement (a nuclear family, not extended) is geolocated - someone on Twitter asked and I agreed - it's W-SW of the crater, FWIW, in Postol's red zone, southern edge, just a bit off-frame in his graphic. So it fits, if that's the wind direction, not that they really lived there. (details later) --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:39, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Via Andrew in first comment here: video and location pic I agree with (but not rotated to true north). But I wouldn't even work backwards from this - they likely picked the places to identify based on the wind. Which ... would work, but not for the right reason. So... if we did, this would mean a wind to the southwest, more-or-less. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:50, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

ACLOS Criticism
Suggested we gather the various critiques we all come up with here, in advance maybe of some news article, using news I guess loosely, since that could take a while. From the report mainly, citing other sources --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:44, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Not so big as to cover all points here, but at least some of the most important ones (I had a few ready to paste but lost my work, and will do more when I have a text version...). --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:20, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Outline I'm using: page.paragraph with section headers, and points within denoted by letters:

The Assad Regime Syrian Army's Use of Chemical Weapons on April 4, 2017

(Introduction)
 * 1.1
 * 1.2

Summary of the U.S. Intelligence Community's Assessment of the April 4 Attack
 * 1.3
 * 1.4
 * 1.5
 * 1.6.a:
 * 1.6.b: "… the absence of other visible injuries."
 * "… the absence of other visible injuries" is hard to prove unless you know what all there was and wasn't. [They missed some. And some more. But these might skip "conventional strikes" and go deeper into human traditions and lower on the technology ladder. --[[User:Caustic Logic|Caustic Logic]] (talk) 15:02, 15 April 2017 (UTC)


 * 1.6.c:
 * 1.7

(page 2)
 * 2.1
 * 2.2

Refuting the False Narratives


 * 2.3
 * 2.4.a: “Moscow has since claimed that the release of chemicals was caused by a regime airstrike on a terrorist ammunition depot in the eastern suburbs of Khan Shaykhun. However, a Syrian military source told Russian state media on April 4 that regime forces had not carried out any airstrike in Khan Shaykhun, contradicting Russia's claim.”
 * They may have said this to Russian media somewhere, but that means little when they also said to global media they did conduct a strike, just about five hours later: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said their first strike of the day was at 11:30 a.m., as CNN reported. Elsewhere, they agree it was a CW depot they attacked, but don't say if it caused any release or deaths. If one insists on seeing the allies contradict each other, one could take the un-cited statement as definitive and ignore what CNN reported. If one takes the logical track, they agree Syria struck a terrorist chemical stash, but we do have a time and relevance issue - if Syria carried at no strikes at the time of the gas attack, then Russia's story that this was its cause can't work. While it's possible Syria denies a genuine early strike, it's possible they're being honest and all blasts and gas release that happened then was something else (rebel rockets, or maybe even a coalition jet out of Turkey). This would mean the White House is outright lying about the 6:30 flight track, perhaps using the 11:30 one re-labeled. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:54, 15 April 2017 (UTC)
 * No, it wouldn't prove they're showing the wrong track... perhaps that was a real flight thatn just didn't launch an attack - like a reconnaissance flight before a planned strike. In that case, terrorists expected it or were tipped off, and launched their false-flag event as the jet was overhead. --Caustic Logic (talk) 06:19, 16 April 2017 (UTC)


 * 2.4.b: "An open source video also shows where we believe the chemical munition landed—not on a facility filled with weapons, but in the middle of a street in the northern section of Khan Shaykhun. Commercial satellite imagery of that site from April 6, after the allegation, shows a crater in the road that corresponds to the open source video."


 * 2.5
 * 2.6

(page 3)
 * 3.1
 * 3.2.a: "Russia's allegations..."
 * 3.2.b: "Last November..."
 * 3.2.c: "In May..."
 * 3.2.d: "In October, 2016, Moscow also claimed terrorists used chlorine and white phosphorous in Aleppo, even though pro-Russian media footage from the attack site showed no sign of chlorine usage. In fact, our intelligence from the same day suggests that neither of Russia's accounts was accurate and that the regime may have mistakenly used chlorine on its own forces. Russia's contradictory and erroneous reports appear to have been intended to confuse the situation and obfuscate on behalf of the regime."
 * Word salad. One claim is cited but neither is true. There's no proof of chlorine, but the WH thinks it was used anyway, just by the regime, even though soldiers were hit. It must've been a mess-up. And Russia helped, with their one conflicting story and no proven chlorine, to shift the blame onto the desperate cornered "terrorists" with plenty of chlorine, facing their end in Aleppo. What manipulations! --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:44, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Presumably this refers to an incident I have listed (Red Flags report) as somewhere in Hama province on Sept. 28 - Al-Masdar reported 18 soldiers affected by an apparent chlorine attack - none were dead yet, but that often takes a while. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:46, 15 April 2017 (UTC)


 * 3.3.a: "Moscow's allegations ..."
 * 3.3.b: "Moscow has also ..."
 * 3.4

International Condemnation and a Time for Action
 * 3.5
 * 3.6.a: "The United States ... we must demonstrate that subterfuge and false facts hold no weight, that excuses by those shielding their allies are making the world a more dangerous place, and that the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons will not be permitted to continue."

(page 4)
 * 4.1.a: ...

Abdel Hameed Alyousef

 * moved to Talk:Alleged Chemical Attack Khan Sheikhoun 4 April 2017/Victims

Sample collection and lab tests

 * ''Moved to /Chemical agent

UOSSM
I'm putting this here for now but it will probably need to be moved. The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) appears to have a key role in this operation: it reported two previous alleged organophosphate attacks in this region, and the chlorine attack on 25 March.

I'm beginning to think that UOSSM may be, like the White Helmets, an information operation that doesn't actually do any humanitarian work.

The news postings on their website appear to be more or less politically neutral, and focused on humanitarian issues until April 2016, when the stories suddenly become overtly pro-opposition and begin running stories about barrel bombs, destroyed hospitals, and the "last pediatrician in Aleppo". This appears to coincide with the first statements from Hamish DBG that he is working with UOSSM and an article in which he reports a meeting of UOSSM with him, David Nott and Ghanem Tayara on the Syrian border. This suggests that UOSSM was effectively hijacked at around this time for strategic communications and narrative development. The first UOSSM story about about a chemical attack is dated 11 August 2016. Pmr9 (talk) 16:15, 16 April 2017 (UTC)

Some clues from Hamish DBG's talk to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group Friends of Syria:


 * UOSSM is an amazing predominantly British charity that goes with virtually no funding here

but there's no registered charity of this name, or any similar name, on the UK charities register.


 * UOSSM which is an international medical charity, a British, French, Canadian charity, and US charity, and we run a number of hospitals across Syria.   Sadly that was two years ago, we had 1,200 doctors. Today 32 of our hospitals are still running, but most at 25%.   In Aleppo today, we have 16 doctors still working in our two hospitals.  Twelve months ago there were a hundred.

This implies a huge operation, employing 1200 doctors. The website says “operates 16 field hospitals, supports 120 hospitals. On a map on their website under "research" it appears that all these hospitals are in opposition-controlled areas, mostly Idlib. But the website states that "UOSSM provides free medical aid to the people of Syria regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion or political affiliation." --Pmr9 22:19, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Key personnel

 * Dr. Ghanem Tayara, Chairman of UOSSM International
 * Avi D'Souza, Global Director Of Communications, address in Paris
 * Douaa Alhariri, Marketing Coordinator UOSSM Intl, Turkish phone number
 * Hamish DBG describes himself as an adviser,
 * Raphael Pitti, HDBG's French equivalent, is a board member.
 * Ahmad al-Dbis, [Safety and Security Director] also described as "regional hospitals and trauma director". This may be the "Dr Ahmad" trained to collect CW samples by Hamish DBG
 * Dr. Anas Al Kassem [chairman of UOSSM Canada, described as a trauma surgeon in Canada]

Previous reports of chemical attacks on the UOSSM website include
 * 12 Dec 2016 - Chemical agent attack was reported today in the eastern suburbs of Hama in the Aqeerbat area.
 * At least 93 civilians have been killed and over 300 wounded. The attacks happened at approximately 6:30 a.m. on December 12 Damascus time amidst heavy airstrikes which lasted over an hour.
 * 25 March 2016 - Syrian Doctor Killed By Chemical Weapon While Operating On Patient
 * A barrel bomb with a chemical agent hit the front entrance of the Latamneh Hospital in Hama and entered causing severe respiratory and neurological injuries to many staff members. The gas attack killed Dr. Ali Darwish, a specialist orthopedic surgeon, while he was in the operating room.

Oddly, the 30 March organophosphate attack reported by ReliefWeb and sourced from UOSSM does not appear on UOSSM's website --Pmr9 22:19, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Had to look up what that acronym stands for and added the long version for others. Googling it I found this report about their response to the event, published today. They were "among the first responders" and apparently they delivered the people to Turkey who then died and their autopsy revealed Sarin use. --CE (talk) 01:07, 15 April 2017 (UTC)
 * UK trauma doctor David Nott works with UOSSM and has been an active media figure on the BBC and others describing (exclusively) regime atrocities including hospital bombings. The BBC produced this emotive film of one of his trips to Syria. -- Withnail (talk) 06:43, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

Victims

 * ''See /Victims

Bodies of the Child Victims

 * Moved to /Victims

Head Wounds

 * moved to /Victims

Body language
(Mainpage): This body language expert says Assad is telling truth about Syria chemical weapons, while McMasters is lying Alex Christoforou, The Duran, April 20, 2017
 * Pretty fascinating stuff. But it can be trained, and good politicians (+actors and secret service agents) likely will come across pretty convincing body language wise (like some Bill Clinton stuff, maybe). So this assumes that dictators are not supposed to be versed in those arts of deception democracy, even second generation British-educated dictators, with charisma on, and a lot at stake. I don't think he is too worried about his pending reelection campaign at the moment, and if he steps in from of the camera, he is in pretty comfortable state doing it at the time, or otherwise would not do it at all. Appears pretty convincing, but it is also similar in appearances to his other interviews, and could be personal style, or just that he is pretty good at it. While that other military folk just habitually grinds his teeth all the time, and for the first time on camera. (More video studies of dictators may be in appropriate)--Resup (talk) 03:45, 23 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Your body language when you're happy to get rid of a Samantha Power, just to be hit by a General McMaster. Like WTF?! ;o) --CE (talk) 04:03, 23 April 2017 (UTC)


 * In my professional work I get to meet a lot of consummate liars - people charged with crimes with years of punishment ahead. I know they are lying because I see all the evidence - most of which a jury will never see. I doubt I could pick their lies on body-language alone asides from their effort to appear cruelly mistreated, shocked, anxious to help allay any suspicions, and especially overt friendliness towards me as their only possible hope to escape their due justice. They range from boobs who became 'accidental criminals' to serious professionals who appear to be psychopaths.


 * Based on this fleeting exposure to criminals, I'd say in general Bashar is relaxed and on-message and not knowingly telling major lies. The only times he's been obviously stressed are the interview before the Russians intervened and he'd just lost most of Idlib, and this interview where he looks truly shocked and quite ragged at what's happened.


 * In all his interviews he is doing a simple job to provide PR and cover for the Army. Not much else. He does this job reasonably smoothly except for the two horror interviews. He remains on message whether or not that is fully justified. He is also pretty rational and pragmatic and leaves buffoons like Johnson and Trump for dead in the authority stakes.


 * Is he lying? I doubt he thinks so, which is more than half the battle. Is what he says 100% true? History will decide. --Charles Wood (talk) 05:13, 23 April 2017 (UTC)