Kayhan Int’l Political Desk

TEHRAN -- The Courage Foundation, an international fund supporting journalists and whistleblowers, has sent a "Statement of Concern” to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) about the intergovernmental organization’s report on a 2018 chemical attack in Syria.
The statement, signed by 18 internationally renowned persons including former senior scientists, engineers and chemical munitions specialists from the OPCW, "details the widespread misgivings about the manipulated and misleading conclusions issued by OPCW management and the implications they carry”.
The statement, a copy of which was available to Kayhan International, also notes that the handling of the Douma investigation by OPCW has much wider political and security-related implications beyond the credibility of an organization.
"In the light of much new evidence available of wrongdoing”, the signatories have appealed to world governments to "ensure that the issues raised at earlier OPCW meetings, at the UN Security Council, and elsewhere are finally dealt with in a transparent, rigorous and accountable manner”.
"We are writing in order to express our deep concern over the protracted controversy and political fall-out surrounding the OPCW and its investigation of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma Syria, 2018,” the signatories have said.
"Since the publication by the OPCW of its final report in March 2019, a series of worrying developments has raised serious and substantial concerns with respect to the conduct of that investigation. These developments include instances in which OPCW-inspectors involved with the investigation have identified major procedural and scientific irregularities, the leaking of a significant quantity of corroborating documents, and damning statements provided to UN Security Council meetings. It is now well established that some senior inspectors involved with the investigation, one of whom played a central role, reject how the investigation derived its conclusions, one OPCW management now stands accused of accepting unsubstantiated or possibly manipulated findings with the most serious geopolitical and security implications. The inspectors’ repeated requests to be given an opportunity to discuss their concerns within the OPCW have been ignored and calls by some members of the Executive Council of the OPCW to allow all inspectors to be heard were blocked.
The inspectors’ concerns are shared by the first Director General of the OPCW, Jose Bustani, and a significant number of eminent individuals have called for transparency and accountability at the OPCW. Bustani himself was recently prevented by key members of the Security Council from participating in a hearing on the Syrian dossier. As Ambassador Bustani stated in a personal appeal to the Director General, if the Organization is confident in the conduct of its Douma investigation then it should have no difficulty addressing the inspectors’ concerns.
To date, unfortunately, the OPCW has failed to respond to the allegations against it and, despite making statements to the contrary, has never allowed the views or concerns of the members of the investigation team to be heard. In fact, senior management has never met with most of the investigation team. It has, instead, sidestepped the issue by launching an investigation into a leaked document related to the Douma case and by publicly condemning its most experienced inspectors for speaking out.
In a worrying recent development, a draft letter falsely alleged to have been sent by the Director General to one of the dissenting inspectors was leaked to an ‘open source’ investigation website in an apparent attempt to smear the former senior OPCW scientist and reveal his identity.
Even more alarmingly, in a BBC4 radio series aired recently, an anonymous source, reportedly connected with the OPCW Douma investigation, breached the Organization’s regulations by giving an interview with the BBC in which he not only denigrated the two dissenting inspectors, but even Ambassador Bustani himself. Importantly, recent leaks in December 2020 have evidenced that concerns were also held by senior OPCW officials who were supportive of the OPCW inspector who had spoken out with respect to malpractice.
The issue at hand threatens to severely damage the reputation and credibility of the OPCW and undermine its vital role in the pursuit of international peace and security. It is simply not tenable for a scientific organization such as the OPCW to refuse to respond openly to the criticisms and concerns of its own scientists whilst being associated with attempts to discredit and smear those scientists.
Moreover, the ongoing controversy regarding the Douma report also raises concerns with respect to the reliability of previous FFM [fact-finding mission] reports, including the investigation of the alleged attack at Khan Shaykhun in2017.
We believe that the interests of the OPCW are best served by the Director
General providing a transparent and neutral forum in which the concerns of all the investigators can be heard as well as ensuing that a fully objective and scientific investigation is completed.
To that end, we call on the Director General of the OPCW to find the courage to address the problems within his organization relating to this investigation and ensure States Parties and the United Nations are informed accordingly. In this way we hope and believe that the credibility and integrity of the OPCW can be restored.”
Signatories

-Jose Bustani, Ambassador of Brazil, first Director General of the OPCW and former Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France.
-Professor Noam Chomsky, Laureate Professor U. of Arizona and Institute
Professor (em), MIT.
-Daniel Ellsberg; PEBI Distinguished Research Fellow, UMass Amherst
Former Defense and State Department official. Former official of Defense
Department (GS- 18) and State Department (FSR- 1).
-Professor Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emoritus, Princeton
University.
-Professor Dr. Ulrich Gosstein, on behalf of Interactional Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNlW- Germany).
-Denis J. Hallidey, UN Assistant Secretary- General (1994-98).
-Professor Pervez Houdboy, Quaid-e-Azam university and ex Pugwash.
-Professor Gotz Nouneck, Pugwash Council and German Pugwash Chair.
-Jhon Pilger, Enmy and Bafta winning journalist and filmmaker.
-Dirk van Niekerk, former OPCW inspection Team Leader, Head of OPCW Special Mission to Iraq.
-Professor Theodore A. Postol, Professor Emeritus of science, Technology, and National security Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
-Professor John Avery Scales, Professor, Pugwash Council and Danish
Pugwash Chair.
-Hans von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator (Iraq).
-Alan Steadman, Chemical Weapons Munitions Specialist, Former OPWC Inspection Team Leader and UNSCOM Inspector.
-Colonel (ret.) Lawrence B. Wilkerson, U.S. Army, Visiting Professor at
William and Mary College and former Chief of Staff to United States Secretary of State Collin Powell.