The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention, has released its interim report on the incident at Douma last April. Here’s a snippet from its findings:
OPCW designated labs conducted analysis of prioritised samples. The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties.
They did find traces of “chlorinated organic chemicals”, e.g. carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, and certain insecticides, as well as Sucralose and Zoloft.
The OPCW is about as unbiased as can be found, indeed, if anything it’s biased the other way. I think this should be receiving more attention.
And no chlorine gas, the alleged chemical agent used in the attack. CCl4 and CHCl3 are widely used industrial solvents (used to be available in drug and hardware stores in US) and the others are common household chemicals.
It looks like the whole thing was staged. There was no attack. Since Assad’s forces had already won the battle, a chemical attack would have been pointless.
Agreed it would be irrational for Assad to use gas, I remember thinking that the pre-announced missile strike was meant to be a demonstration for the North Koreans of US capabilities.
…….unless, other reports are true and Prez Trump was watching Fox news, saw what appeared to be bodies of noncombatants and was moved, emotionally, to retaliate.