Sarin gas was never used in Douma. The video from the hospital was forged. These are statements made by American and British journalists all of a sudden. They were started by a story published by The Intercept which has become a kind of successor to WikiLeaks. Then, it was continued by a BBC producer who stressed in his Twitter that he was sure the video made right after the chemical attack in Douma by the White Helmets was staged.
For why western journalists decided to notice the proof that everything was staged see Anna Voronina's report.
There were six months of investigation, a trip to the scene in Douma, and dozens of locals, activists, journalists, and experts interviewed. After that, the head of the center of investigative journalism, a researcher at Harvard University, James Harkin, concluded that the footage from a hospital in Douma taken allegedly after a chemical attack was surely staged.
"Nurse ANAS Sobheha told me everything he saw that day. At around 7 p.m., a child of about six years old was brought into the hospital. His face had turned blue. He had asthma, and there had been a fire at his home, and the smoke had made it worse. I gave the boy some medicine and he got better quickly. About 20 minutes later, one of the White Helmet workers came in holding a baby and screaming about a chemical attack. Everyone started freaking out. But there was only this child, and he’d just inhaled smoke from a fire".
Harkin called everything that happened later "a cloud of misinformation that enveloped the international community", due to, first of all, the footage made by the White Helmet workers. He emphasized in his article the movement was backed by ARK, a British-led organization, which provided training and equipment to the activists. It paid Syrian activists to make propaganda films against Assad since 2012. ARK was run by a former British diplomat and funded by the US State Department and the British Foreign Office.
By the way, British journalists were also skeptical about the video from the hospital provided by the White Helmets. But they only found the courage after Harkin's article was published.
"After almost 6 months of investigations, I can prove without a doubt that the Douma Hospital scene was staged. No fatalities occurred in the hospital. In fact, one of the 3 or 4 people filming the scene was Dr. Abu Bakr Hanan, a "brute and shifty" doctor affiliated with Jaysh Al-Islam. The narrative was "there weren't enough doctors" but here is one filming and not taking part in the rescue efforts".
Russian experts repeatedly pointed out forgeries made by the White Helmets. In turn, Yevgeny Poddubny, VGTRK's military correspondent, conducted his own investigation. He found the boy who was allegedly injured during the chemical attack, Hassan Diab. The boy, as well as the other children in the video, was given dates, some rice, and cookies for filming.
To make the truth public worldwide, Russian experts even brought witnesses to the Hague, to the headquarters of the OPCW, so that they personally could tell journalists about what happened. But they were heard only about now when all the fuss about Douma had almost subsided.
Konstantin Sivkov, military analyst: "The Douma events did what they were supposed to. They led to certain diplomatic measures, military and political actions, and strategic military actions taken, as well as certain military operations. As the grounds for any measures, the Douma events aren't of any importance right now".
Nevertheless, Western journalists have started to admit that there were too many discrepancies in the initial story. Even the cylinders, which allegedly contained gas, were in positions as if they had been moved. But the final decision that there wasn't any chemical attack in the city is to be made by OPCW experts.
Anna Voronina, Evgenia Zemtsova, Svetlana Solovyova, Vesti.
