Charles Lister is an expert on Middle East related politics. How do we know? Because he told us so and he’s a ‘senior fellow’ at the Middle East Institute (whatever that means). His profile claims: ‘Lister also managed nearly three years of intensive face-to-face engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups’.
That’s quite an achievement considering that most Westerners who encountered these people at close quarters, didn’t have a long life expectancy. Lister’s most recent tweets (he’s a prolific tweeter) concentrate on the chemical weapon attack at Khan Sheikhoun, of which he has just concluded that Assad did it and there is incontrovertible evidence supporting his claim.
Lister criticises Russia for demanding OPCW involvement and then dismissing their results. He knows as well as anyone that there has to be absolute security of the samples for the results to be verified. The integrity of the suspected chemical weapons has to be assured by a chain of custody, whereby the samples are guaranteed to be tamper free. So far as I’m aware, all the samples retained cannot be verified.
Khan Sheikhoun is in a rebel held area. No one could have got close to the ‘scene of the crime’ without the ruling terrorists allowing it. Furthermore, as each hour went by, the alleged site of the attack was open to contamination, manipulation and tampering. Images a day or so apart have already proven that an item was removed from the bomb crater.
Lister supports his accusation that Assad was responsible by quoting the governments of Turkey, Israel, US, France and UK. All the aforementioned governments have not just passively but actively supported any opposition to the Syrian Arab Army, no matter what they did in terms of criminal activities or their extremist ideology. He missed out two other nations who support the claim. Those bastions of democracy, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Turkey has allowed the porous border with Syria to be a crossing point for thousands of terrorists. Israel have treated terrorists at field hospitals and attacked Syrian assets on numerous occasions . United Kingdom has donated £ millions and and given equipment to the extremist White Helmets. United States have killed many Syrian Arab Army troops and destroyed bridges over the Euphrates. France have been undermining the Syrian government and been involved in ‘coalition’ attacks.
So, we can conclude that unless a chain of custody can be absolutely guaranteed for the samples, any results or conclusions are null and void. Lister knows this but continues his claims and arguments as if the integrity had been maintained.
Despite his studious appearance, Lister is an avid supporter of military action. His many meetings with terrorists shows he has a strong stomach for violence – inflicted on to others. His friends in ISIS and al Qa’ida have made the lives of ordinary Syrians an absolute misery and he has been on the sidelines cheering them on, claiming that Assad’s removal is his priority. Well Mr Lister, I think you should give the Syrian people some credit and allow them to decide who should be the head of their nation. Your support and cooperation with terrorist groups are well documented.
Lister reminds me of that other self proclaimed UK ‘expert’, Eliot Higgins. I would put money on neither of them having been in a conflict area similar to the one they are insisting the Syrian people should endure. They must be earning a lot of money for supporting ‘regime change’ and inflicting such conditions on people they don’t even know. They ignore the fact that at least 55% of Syrians are living in government areas and that SAA liberated villages and towns are relieved to be rid of the extremist zealots that Lister and Elliot support… Because they were making their lives intolerable.
If they believe in the cause to remove Assad so much, maybe they should join the hundreds of other brain washed British fools fighting for extremist groups in Syria. That they have only a remote relationship with any real Islamic values doesn’t appear to deter the ‘mercenaries’ already travelled to Syria, I’m sure it wouldn’t bother these two armchair warriors.
If these two British snakes had any good intentions towards Syrians, they would advocate the withdrawing of any uninvited parties, which would include the five governments he gives so much credence to above. It would also mean the 70,000 moderates Lister so laughably claimed were fighting against Syrian Arab Army and its allies. There never were remotely near that number.
