With remarkable speed, the UN has produced and released its report on the Syrian debacle!
A great deal of material has appeared on this subject very rapidly. Something we haven’t spotted elsewhere yet is a one-stop shop for official and unofficial reports on the events of August 21st in Ghouta, Syria, and previously elsewhere in Syria. So here, in no particular order, is what we’ve spotted so far: work from an interested citizen, academics, an NGO, and intelligence agencies. Plus the aforementioned UN investigation report, and some other odds and ends.
Judge for yourself what’s trustworthy and compelling. Does the open-source material better the official stuff? Is this another milestone event in societal verification?
If there’s something good that we’ve missed, please use the comments feature!
UN Syrian Chemical Weapons Report | The final report released by the UN Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, assisted by OPCW and WHO personnel.
Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons (US Dept. of State) | The press release describes in detail the framework for removal of chemical weapons from Syria.
Syria’s Chemical Weapons (Congressional Research Service) | ACW’s (formerly) very own Paul Kerr helped author this report on Syria’s use of chemical weapons during the civil war.
Brown Moses Blog | Painstaking analysis of the delivery systems used in the August 21st attacks. It comes to similar conclusions to the other reports. Also see numerous previous posts on the subject.
Tesla CW Report (Richard M. Lloyd) | This report analyzes various photographs of suspected chemical attacks, noting the typical signs of chemical munitions (little impact damage on ground, minimal damage to front of weapon, etc.).
Analysis of August 21st Chemical Attacks (Theodore A. Postol) | This report offers a comprehensive analysis of both the motives that each side would have for using chemical munitions, as well as an overview of the weapons delivery system and the gas itself.
Attacks on Ghouta (Human Rights Watch) | HRW researchers reconstructed events and drew probable conclusions both about the agent involved (“Sarin or a similar weapons-grade nerve agent”) and the identity of the perpetrators (“Syrian government forces were almost certainly responsible”).
US Assessment on Syrian CW Use (WH Press Secretary) | The US Intelligence Community’s unclassified report on Syrian CW use. Yes, they conclude that the August 21st attacks were carried out by Assad’s forces.
UK Intel Assessment on Syrian CW Use (Joint Intelligence Organisation) | The British equivalent of the above US report. Note:
It is being claimed, including by the regime, that the attacks were either faked or undertaken by the Syrian Armed Opposition. We have tested this assertion using a wide range of intelligence and open sources, and invited HMG and outside experts to help us establish whether such a thing is possible. There is no credible intelligence or other evidence to substantiate the claims or the possession of CW by the opposition. The JIC has therefore concluded that there are no plausible alternative scenarios to regime responsibility.
French Intel Report on Syrian CW Use (Cheryl Rofer) | Ms. Rofer provides a translation of France’s Intelligence report on the August 21st attacks. Here is the original report, in French.