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Chapter 11: Political wrangling
The chemical attacks in Syria – together with the efforts to deny them – placed the OPCW in an unaccustomed position at the centre of political wrangling. Before the war few people had heard of it and even fewer had much idea what it did. It was…
Chapter 10: To Blame or Not to Blame?
Toxic chemicals have been used in conflicts since ancient times, probably starting with poison-tipped arrows and spears, and there are accounts from centuries ago of armies using smoke or noxious fumes to suffocate enemies or force them to…
Chapter 9: Mainstream Media
Twenty-nine-year-old Tareq Haddad had just started a job as a reporter at Newsweek, with a brief to produce four stories a day. That didn’t allow much time for original research or fact-checking and he mostly found himself rewriting tales picked up…
Chapter 8: The Old Spies’ Network
Among the deniers of chemical attacks there were more than few retired spies who had seen the seamy side of intelligence work at first hand and been shocked by it. Most had good cause to be disillusioned about their former profession and some had…
Chapter 7: An Online Echo System
The information war over Syria was fought mainly on the internet. The explosion of social media during the previous few years meant almost anyone with the inclination could become a citizen journalist. Setting up a website was cheap and easy, and…
Chapter 6: The Queen of Disinformation
In rebel-held areas of Syria a civil defence organisation known as the White Helmets took on a variety of non-military tasks such as searching wreckage for the dead and injured, guiding civilians from danger areas and making damaged…
Chapter 5: Russia’s role
Russia was a founding member of the Chemical Weapons Convention but when conflict broke out in Syria its relations with the Assad regime took priority. The two countries had pre-existing ties, some of which were economic. In 2010, the last year before the…
Chapter 4: Reprisals Averted
Evidence that sarin had been used in Syria presented the United States with a dilemma over how to respond. A year before the Ghouta attack President Obama had warned that chemical weapons were a red line as far as the US was concerned. At the time he…
Chapter 3. A battle of narratives
Claiming that Syrian rebels had faked the chemical attacks wasn’t simply a case of making excuses for the regime: it also served a political narrative constructed by the regime and its “anti-imperialist” defenders. They sought to portray the…
Chapter 2. The ‘propaganda’ professors
Syria’s vague talk of rebels getting sarin from foreign governments or cooking it up in their kitchens didn’t amount to a credible defence against the accusations of using chemical weapons. Meanwhile Russia’s efforts to counter the UN…
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
