- ZDF is the German equivalent to BBC2
- reporter on the ground spoke to Douma refugees in Harjallah
- majority speak of chlorine containers on the ground in Douma before air attack
- say normal military bombardment exploded containers
- even spoke of ‘practice runs’ filmed for release after attack
ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen or ‘Second German Television’) is the licence-funded, state-broadcaster German equivalent to our BBC2 – not a TV station you’d easily imagine is given to flights of fancy or groundless speculation.
Last Friday, the station’s ZDF Heute (ZDF Today) programme broadcast an interview with its correspondent Uli Gack, who is on the ground in Syria. His frank, explosive report – which describes rebels stockpiling chlorine containers and even conducting and filming practice runs – gave a glimpse of what might be broadcast by the BBC had our national broadcaster not spent six or seven decades vetting out all but Establishment-friendly figures from positions of influence:
(Video: ZDF Heute; translation/subtitles: SKWAWKBOX)
British journalist Robert Fisk, on the ground in Douma, last week gave a very similar report. This earned coverage in online newspaper the Independent, but was completely or almost completely ignored by most of the ‘MSM’.
Comment:
Gack treated as straightforward news a probability that the mainstream ‘news’ in the UK has dismissed or ignored – or treated as a tripwire in an attempt to catch Labour spokespeople in a soundbite ‘gotcha’.
The news most of us see if we limit our information-diet to mainstream UK broadcasters is often not the same as citizens of countries with fewer vested interests get to digest. From their viewpoint, Jeremy Corbyn’s caution about bombing Syria without solid evidence and the opportunity for OPCW inspectors to investigate in Douma must look even more obviously correct and statesmanlike than it does to many in the UK.
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I’ve watched the ‘incriminating evidence’ for the 7 Apr incident several times and I can see no substantial evidence of them even being “doused in chlorine”. Other claims that someone shouted “gas” or “chemical attack” and started pouring water on people and applying ventilators seems a more likely interpretation. And, although it may be ‘unwise’ for OPCW to enter, there have been several journalists roaming freely uninhibited by the Syrians, the Russian, or any ‘hidden terrorists’. I heard something about the UN stalling their authorisation papers rather than the Russians preventing them access. All I am sure of is that there is nothing honest about the whole story as reported in Western Media.
After seeing the reports from Robert Fisk, Pearson Sharp and now the German ZDF, is there anyone out there, apart from the Tories, who doesn’t believe that Theresa May has committed a War Crime in sanctioning the attack on Syria?
Meanwhile . . . Russian attempted murder in Salisbury – hundreds of diplomats expelled. Israeli murder of Palestinian official in Malaysia – nothing.
more establishment MSN lies HOW DO WE MAKE A BREAKTHROUGH and get this on MSN
As remarked the first casualty of war is ‘truth’,and i am sure the likes of Seymour Hersh and John Pilger would agree this viewpoint.
Richard Dennis
You can’t “douse” anyone with chlorine as it’s a gas at normal temperature. Chlorine is a common reagent in chemical process so it’s very likely cylinders of it will be present at any factory using chemicals. Should cylinders be breached by bombing that would explain the presence of chlorine in the environment.