In an important new interview with The Grayzone‘s Aaron Maté, the first Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has revealed new insights into the way the US exerted control over the Organisation in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion and the suspicious way pro-US narratives appear to be dominating controversies in the supposedly impartial OPCW to this day.
The most significant piece of new information revealed in this interview with the acclaimed former OPCW chief José Bustani is his assertion that while the US was orchestrating his 2002 ouster due to the risk he posed of derailing the Iraq war agenda with successful negotiations, his office was packed with hidden surveillance equipment and that his American head of security vanished immediately after this was discovered.
After noticing suspicious phenomena and leaks coming out of his office, Bustani reports that he sent for a trusted security expert from outside the Organisation to investigate over the weekend.
“The fact was that the wall behind my desk, the wall behind the desk of the Director-General was full of equipment, listening equipment,” Bustani reported. “He broke the whole wall and removed everything, and there were bugs in the drawer, my desk, phone. I was shocked I must say. But he did it immediately. It took him the whole of Saturday, half of the Sunday, he took it [away], he removed everything and nobody realized except me and my wife. On Monday when people came to my office, they were shocked with the way the wall was. It was a big hole.”
“And interesting thing is–and I never said this before–is that I had then a person that was the head of the security of the Organization,” Bustani said. “He used to be an American. He had a large office full of equipment. I called him, the Monday after that happened, I called his office to check with him how come he didn’t know, he was in charge of security of the building, how come he didn’t know that there was such bugging equipment behind me. And he wasn’t there. And I was told that he was traveling to Germany, and I asked then, ‘Who allowed him to go to Germany? I am his direct boss. He was my subordinate, he was directly subordinate to me.’ Nobody could say anything. So I said ‘As soon as he returns tell him I want to have a word with him.’ This was the Monday. You will not believe it Aaron, but on Tuesday as I got to the OPCW I am told that I should go up to the head of security office and when I got there the office was empty, and this person disappeared and never showed up again. Never showed up again.”
This is a major revelation. When you’ve got an American infiltrator covertly surveilling a foreign official to advance US foreign policy agendas, what you have is a US spy. We don’t know what agency that spy would have worked for, but what Bustani is describing is US espionage targeting an international watchdog organisation.
Bustani gave additional insights into the ongoing OPCW scandal surrounding the extremely suspicious practices that were implemented in the investigation of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in 2018 which preceded airstrikes against the Assad government by the US, UK and France. He stated emphatically that as Director-General he would “never” have allowed the Douma investigation team to be replaced with a “core team” who never went there or permitted a team of inspectors to meet with US officials during an active investigation, as reportedly happened after the Douma incident.
“This would have never happened if I were Director-General,” Bustani said when asked if he’d have allowed a US delegation to lobby them to come to a specified conclusion in their investigation. “The Inspectors know themselves that they cannot. They cannot. They are not supposed to meet with delegations on issues like inspections in particular. I don’t know how it happened, maybe they were forced to or they were led to by… I don’t know how it in practice happened because if I were Director-General this would never happen.”
Ex-OPCW chief José Bustani on the fact that the OPCW inspectors who investigated the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria were sidelined and replaced with a so-called "core" team who never set foot there: "It would have never happened" under his watch. https://t.co/C6l24YkYdP pic.twitter.com/knPdl7Nh2U
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 18, 2020
“Absolutely not,” Bustani said when asked if he’d have permitted a team of investigators to be replaced mid-investigation with another team who never visited the crime scene. “It would have never happened to me, unless there was a serious violation of the code of conduct on the part of the inspectors. Which fortunately never, never happened.”
Bustani said he knew the whistleblowers who sparked the OPCW scandal from his time at the Organisation, and decried the way they are being smeared, silenced and their anonymity removed for simply voicing objections to an investigation’s methodology in the interest of protecting the OPCW’s legitimacy. He voiced a great fondness for the Organisation and a grave concern for the suspicious abnormalities in its investigative practices involving the United States, and he expressed shock at the way the US, UK and France recently blocked him from offering comments to the UN about those concerns.
Maté pointed out that one highly suspect common denominator in both the current OPCW scandal and Bustani’s 2002 ouster is John Bolton. As US ambassador Bolton is known to have been actively involved in arranging Bustani’s removal as Director-General to such an aggressive extent that he reportedly threatened Bustani’s children, and Bolton’s stint as Trump’s National Security Advisor began immediately before the 2018 airstrikes on Syria after the Douma incident. Bolton claims to have played a role in planning those airstrikes and was active at the highest levels of the US government’s executive branch throughout the entirety of the OPCW Douma investigation.
The mountains of evidence that the US has been meddling in an investigation of an incident which led to an act of war by the United States and its allies keeps stacking higher. The way the US power alliance has been actively suppressing and avoiding that evidence is appalling, and the way the mass media have refused to report on this fact is even more so.
Former OPCW chief José Bustani on media silence over the OPCW Syria cover-up scandal, & how media coverage could make a difference in protecting the OPCW from political exploitation by US & other Western states.
cc @TheIntercept & @democracynow , who have ignored this story. pic.twitter.com/So8ybaZsH0
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 18, 2020
________________________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
43 responses to “Former OPCW Chief Says His Office Was Bugged While USA Pushed Iraq War”
Dear Friends:
Today I contacted a number of high officials regarding what can only be described as a police state torture, or some incarceration of society in the works. I would like to share my letter since you stand strongly against Tyranny – but there is already Tyranny. There is a Covert Terror Program – a Selection process or an incarceration of society, I have many facts but the interpretation remains open as to who the perpetrators are. So far, no one has dared to look into the matter and publicize it.
Letter that I sent to some High Authorities on the war on society: JOINT CHIEFS: HONORABLE RICHARD MYERS; MIKE MILLEY; MARTIN DEMPSEY
Honorable Sirs: as you have protected us from foreign powers, you have also spoken out against abuse of power at home, notably on the deployment of troops against peaceful demonstrators. However, some of these activities are Covert Operations that operate above the law and are far more damaging to our Country. America is most healthy as a Democracy.
I feel that it is my duty to inform you about a Covert Terror Program operating within the borders of our Country, that I have been documenting since 2001. The activities of the program intensified dramatically since President Trump took office – though I have no proof that it is directly tied to him – I simply do not possess that knowledge. I do possess a lot of knowledge of what is occurring in the Covert Terror Program, and I have written a history of it, at least what I know of it.
May I present a couple of brief descriptions that cover a couple of episodes regarding my case (I know of others who have suffered similarly.)
I had read an article on the act of terror of Mr. Navalny’s poisoning and when I saw the word ‘Cholinesterase’ I almost fell off my chair. Here is why:
In late 2016, what looked like a small plane – but turned out deceptively to be a remote control Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, flying just a few feet above me, released a pesticide right on top of me. This happened a second time a few weeks later. I reported the incidents to authorities, journalists, and others, all failed to comprehend the urgency of my communication. Only one Government Agency and one Military Official ever responded to me at all, out of hundreds of letters and communications that I sent out, and they had no answers. Nothing was done about it. But in September 2019, a team of researchers at a prestigious Canadian University found that neurotoxins contained in pesticides impeded the enzyme Cholinesterase required for the functioning of the nervous system. The traumas that the researchers were investigating had affected subjects who had been exposed to such pesticide neurotoxins and they matched my traumas exactly. These subjects were the diplomats/ victims of the so-called ‘Havana Syndrome’. At that time Havana was under heavy pesticide treatment (fumigation) and thus both the U.S. and Canadian diplomats were exposed to it and experienced damage to the nervous system (by accident to be sure). The same circumstances prevailed in China some time later. None of these were ‘attacks’ of any sort. It is just that such nations do not take the precautionary measures that we, in the West, would take.
In my case, however, these were deliberate attacks and planned actions aimed at maiming me. They severely damaged my nervous system.
Thanks to the research, I was able to confirm that what was released from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were indeed, pesticides. My neurologist has concurred with me that an external attack was more likely responsible than an internal medical issue, such a stroke, for example.
Yet, not one word has been written anywhere about my case, very similar in intent and character to that of Mr. Navalny’s. Such terrorism happening in America may stretch credulity; however, it happened.
In the past 20 years I have suffered the American equivalent of an ‘ideological & ethnic cleansing’. It is a fascinating – incredulous 20 year journey of molestation, maiming and attempted murder. I would like to send you the description of an additional event (a few paragraphs) that occurred recently, in the town where I currently live, near Seattle, State of Washington.
This morning, September 20, 2020, I accessed the Facebook of a guest that appeared on the news program ‘Democracy Now’, Christian Picciolini. The moment I accessed his Facebook page, to look up his comments on the ‘Proud Boys’, I had unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft with extremely loud engine noise, grazing the roof of my Condo. This activity had already begun when I tuned in to watch Democracy Now some hours before, but it now grew extremely intense. It went on for hours. The idea was to break down my nervous system and torture me in my own home! Because this is not the first time that this happened. This began in 2016 and has been ongoing since 2016, for over 1,400 days! The cumulative effects have been devastating to my health and life. They have driven me to near suicide. The idea, I have come to conclude, is to drive me out of my home – akin to ‘forcible expulsion’. I have, to date, fled my home on two occasions previously, due to similar events, losing my wife, my friends, my social and economic life – my health. I have never recovered. How can forcible expulsion be operating in a Democracy?
Surveillance & monitoring (in this case of my computer or the Facebook pages that I had accessed) was used to then assault my home.
After the Unmanned aerial vehicle and aircraft attacks, I drove to the John Wayne Marina near town where three Law Enforcement vehicles were stalking me. (White SUV with green lettering). A plane overhead was stalking me. It felt as if a lynching was about to take place. (Please note that this was coordinated with the unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.)
After some time spent reading at the Marina, driving back home I noticed a blue unmarked SUV parked near one of the three Law Enforcement vehicles and the two were discussing something. Soon after I passed them, the blue SUV accelerated behind me and drove on my bumper, within inches, and slightly to the side so that I could see him, for half a mile before I turned off the highway to escape him. He was trying to run me off the road or create a collision with the opposing traffic. It is clear that the blue SUV was connected to the Law Enforcement vehicles.
I know of others whose lives have been crushed as they tried to speak of these covert operations, this war on society.
When we go to Mexico, we don’t encounter any drug cartels; when living in the U.S., which is my country, most of us do not encounter a covert terror program. But here it is. I just described a small part of it.
While the BLM movement has succeeded in gaining recognition, the rest of us are tortured and maimed behind a wall of silence. People targeted by the covert terror are undefended, unnoticed, as if nothing is happening at all. We are vanishing, as we go.
The events that I have so far documented are astonishing – the arrogance and daring disregard for life by the perpetrators are similar to people that we condemn and properly war against.
I thank you for reading my brief report. I hope that you will contact me.
Blessings
Nicolas de la Forge’s letter is difficult to accept as a sober account of reality.
It becomes apparent that a lot of foolish and sometimes wicked things have been done in the name of Americanism…. In 1954 it is being used to justify what is known as McCarthyism; and the same old ingredients are cropping up again. There is the same appeal to prejudice, to fear and to patriotism. Why is it that those who attempt to destroy the core of our democracy insist upon doing it in the name of patriotism?
Kathleen Kearney Naureckas (1936–2020)
https://fair.org/home/kathleen-kearney-naureckas-1936-2020/
‘ ; ‘
/\
“Americanism” as you say Mr. Ron Campbell needs to be redefined in my humble opinion.
¥
£
€
^
That is why I support a Constitutional Convention. In a fair way I’ll pull all the strings I can to make this happen, but the ropes will form in mysterious solution regardless. That is how it seems to me. Peace.
✌
If one looks at the entire history of the United States of America it is very blood thirsty nation being run by evil men. It is time for a change; Ms Gina Cheri Haspel is in charge of the C.I.A. now, and Big Sister has some surprises in store for all of us lowly peons.
Oooh, you know something juicy. Tell us please.
If not, I put Ms. Haspel is the same group as all the supposed intelligence agency folks who fucking think they have taken over the country. Bullets to the brain are one thing, a tsunami of justice is another and it washes over all of the freaking bullshit.
.
If I was a member of any “intelligence agency” I would quit now before it it too late.
.
The country is run by the People.
.
Don’t you fucking forget it.
.
OK, I’ve clicked on all the traffic lights, so I am verified as a real person.
.
I’m not playing around.
Sorry, which country is run by the people?
The country of my imagination Ian P.
.
If nobody imagines anything better then nothing is ever going to get any better.
Speaking of OPCW, BBC and the like … there are none (apart from Caitlin) with more integrity and bravery that Eva K Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley …
ON THE BRITISH STATE-FUNDED BBC’S PENDING SMEAR
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2020/10/16/on-the-british-state-funded-bbcs-pending-smear/
I consider the BBC to be the enemy
“Vee vill do vhat ve vant to you and you shall LIKE IT.”
– The Empire
Oh come on Roundball.
.
That is so WWII
.
The next one will be something to be remembered.
.
Hopefully, it won’t start out as a WW……..
.
You Shaman you….
Ms Johnstone, every corrupt government action brought to light gives me hope that our species is not all bad. From the very top to the very bottom corruption is the way things are done in these United States. Everybody has their hand out to be paid for looking the other way while crime or graft is blatantly committed. Thankfully the Internet is awash with writers, like yourself, seeking to reveal the truth. These two articles are written by authors also seeking the truth about governmental corruption at its highest levels.
~
American Gothic Horror by JHK
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/american-gothic-horror/
~
Treason in America: An Overview of the FBI, CIA and Matters of “National Security” by Cynthia Chung!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/19/treason-america-overview-of-fbi-cia-matters-national-security/
~
May the Heavens Bless all of you!
As an aside, on Dr. Paul’s website (you know….peace and prosperity….I think it’s called), they had some video commentary (that I didn’t watch or listen too) regarding Ms. Pelosi and how she got incredibly bent out of shape when talking to this fellow named Wolf B, who I consider a jerk of the highest caliber.
~
Maybe these things are not unrelated – in regards to the first link you provide? Maybe, maybe not. That is why proof is so tricky because who can get inside anyone else’s head – assuming they still have an idget of integrity…….
~
Thanks Ron Campbell for the links.
Blitzer actually asked her some reasonable questions about why she was blocking the stimulus payment. He was briefly acting like a journalist.
One thing clear about the upcoming United States election is just how corrupt the U.S. government actually is. Is Joe Biden more corrupt than Donald Trump?? Will the ” deep state ” conduct a ” United States color revolution ” as an excuse to enact total martial law?? How bad will the chaos be? How many pieces will the U.S. break up into? These are not ” tin-foil hat ” topics but things people here should be concerned about,
Nice comment. In my imagination, I have already broken up the US of A into several regional entities.
~
The one I’m most of fond of, because it is the one that I am in, is NC, VA, TN, and KY. If WV wants to join, then please do, but if SC is interested, let me be the first to say: screw you.
~
As for Tejas, just check out the original documentation that left open the possibility of splitting that state up into 5. I think that would be a good idea.
~
I’ve got to go, but if you want a full map just get in touch. My contact info is out there and I listen to all good ideas.
~
I’ve advocated for a Constitutional Convention for a long time and nobody thought I was serious.
~
Oh well,
Live and learn.
What an odd piece. ‘he expressed shock at the way the US, UK and France recently blocked him from offering comments to the UN about those concerns’ How was this done?
‘–is that I had then a person that was the head of the security of the Organization,” Bustani said.’ What is his name? Not mentioned.
As US ambassador Bolton is known to have been actively involved in arranging Bustani’s removal as Director-General to such an aggressive extent that he reportedly threatened Bustani’s children’. No details or evidence to work on against Bolton?
Big hole in the wall – no photos. When was the hole made and how covered up?
I’m not saying none of this happened but as written very unconvincing.
Yeah – lets see some proof please.
.
That is fair.
Perhaps these details are elsewhere – I am asking too much.
Fish – No you are not. Honest to goodness. There is NEVER anything wrong with asking for proof. Never. Trouble is these days, folks seem to have forgot what “proof” means. Myself, I always loved getting the proof in geometry and journalism (if it still exists) is basically the same thing.
.
However economics, if there ever was, is so SOFT. Economics ain’t math and it ain’t science and it causes trouble because it is used as a tool by those in power to control……I think the stupid Nobel prizes should be ended forever because they are all full of shit. It is not Nobel’s fault, and thank goodness for dynamite because without it we would have no railroads of full efficacy. So that man made a ton a money figuring out a better way to blow things up. Can’t we do better?
.
Just finished blowing some leaves using lithium batteries, and let me tell you, it feels good to get the blood flowing.
.
Peace,
Ken
I haven’t watched the video yet, but Mate is pretty honest. The US action blocking his testimony has been reported elsewhere. Bolton has been lying for years about affairs in the middle east, and was widely known to want to get rid of Bustani. Finally how on earth would Bustani know when the hole was made?
The more extinct bees get the busier human bees buzz around you watching what you do and say.
Whether you are a busy bee or not, you might as well just assume everything you say and everything you do is being recorded. Who gives a shit because that is just too much plum data to even be meaningful for those keeping “the records”. Still, sometimes for the fun of it, I say some bat-shit whacked out crazy but true if possible things, just in case somebody is listening, and I do this for the fun of it and for my sanity. Plus, if they are (listening), I want to know and I will respond accordingly if they respond. I enjoy creating tests and traps of this sort in my imagination and I know it depends on context, but you wouldn’t know this if you heard the bat-shit crazy stuff I say and do. That is why it is a test, and most of time, I’m just farting around in my yard blowing leaves and such.
.
If the US gubment don’t stop bugging everybody and their brother, then it is what will go extinct. We might all go down this way, but at least we will all go down together.
.
Busy bees in the human form are most annoying. They need to get a life.
.
BK
It is too be expected, that a criminal organization, like the US gov and members of that gov, like Bonkers Bolton, would commit crimes like these. People dealing with the US gov should expect this type of behaviour and take appropriate actions, rather than being surprised after the fact.
If you read or listen to him, especially if you read between the lines of his diplomatic wording, I think you’ll find he wasn’t particularly surprised. But what could he have done about it? Bolton got him removed and Arias installed as his replacement. Shoot and kill Bolton? A service to humanity in itself perhaps, but it would only have hastened his dismissal and demonisation (he and Henderson are supposedly agents of Russian disinformation now).
https://youtu.be/iRdLkmhkCP0
Address by former OPCW DG J.Bustani to the UNSC meeting on progress of resolution 2118, October 5 2020
There must be a law against bugging everybody. Why not accuse those who have been doing this and have a trial fair and square?
~
What you say Ian?
.
You good for this?
;
My Lord knows, so let there be justice.
|
The scales are in the balance.
:
The moment has arrived.
Don’t other “countries” and “large-scale entitles” care about their sovereignty and autonomy, respectively? Or are they just scared and powerless, respectively to stop the “big bad bully”? Or, “could it be”, they think they are “part of the club”.
+
Seems so foolish if you want your life and the life of your ancestors and descendants to have any meaning.
+
That is why this will be the downfall of the “self-professed” elite who think they are running the show and calling all the shots.
=
I can think of many things WAY more powerful than fiat currency and wealth and positions of authority. I bet some of them so-called elite are starting to feel the pull of strings. It may be a gentle tug now, but if they disregard this, then soon the ropes will be pulling them in. This is why it is good to be a peasant and just live your life day-by-day doing the best you can for your family and your neighbors.
:
I think the biggest bullies will get pulled in quicker in the end and I look forward to it. I’ll be pulling as hard as I can.
=
My humble opinion.
It wasn’t just the Director of the OPCW that was bugged. The US sought assistance from other countries in spying on delegations of the UN. The US was trying to turn the vote and get UN approval for the invasion of Iraq. It would use the information gathered from spying to extort other countries’ delegates. A whistleblower at Britain’s GCHQ came forward with a memo from the NSA requesting spying assistance.
.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/22/katharine-gun-whistleblower-iraq-official-secrets-film-keira-knightley
.
“No,” [Katharine] Gun replied, steadily. “I work for the British people. I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people.”
.
In January that year, Katharine Gun was copied into a classified memo sent to GCHQ by a senior figure in the NSA, its US equivalent. The memo was a top-secret request to monitor the private communication of UN delegates for scraps of information, personal or otherwise, that could be used to “give the US an edge” in leveraging support for the invasion. Katharine Gun leaked that memo to the Observer, in the belief that the revelation of the proposed bugging and blackmail tactics might be enough to stop the war.
.
—-
Criminals run the world.
.
The head of the Biden Crime Family is running for President as we speak.
And the head of the Trump crime family is President as we speak.
Don’t say market capitalism and electoral politics don’t offer a range of wonderful crap to choose between!
The absence of morality in the USA administration is not human fallability.
Caitlin’s article is evidence of a nonHuman hijack of human affairs,
using unDead humans to rule and degrade our entire species.
Good article. Thank You.
I mean, WHADD’YA EXPECT. If you didn’t get the picture a decade
ago, you weren’t and probably still AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION.
https://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME
No one is shocked anymore. It is commonplace. Every word you read. Everything you buy, everything you look at is being recorded. If you read alot of sports, you get ads with sporting themes, etc. Bugging another government or organization is common practice.
People of the United States of America your government is EVIL! If you can’t see that clearly, then you are complicit by your silence in all awful the crimes that this government commits in your name. Quit hiding and looking the other way and admit the truth. Take responsibility for this horrible situation in your country, and do something about it!
If your country became the gorilla on the block your government would be evil too. Only thing seperating them is guns, money and opportunity. Governments are run by evil or stupidly brainwashed people.
We should be surprised that a gang of psychopaths, which is what nearly all governments are, would behave in an immoral manner? The only difference I see between the US psychopaths and those of other nations is the difference in capability. Those of the US are being financed by the dollar, which is for the moment the world reserve currency. As long as the other nations of the world continue to accept the dollar as such, the US will be afforded the luxury of printing up as much “money” as they need to continue to inflict their insanity upon the them. It’s a self inflicted wound.
It looks increasingly like the phrase full spectrum dominance means exactly what it says. Not content with spending way more than any other nation on wars and weaponry, with military bases and activities almost everywhere, the US is doing its best to ensure supposedly independent international watchdog organisations become mere fronts to advance the Empire’s agenda.
As Ron Campbell comments here, Bustani’s fortunate they chose bugs not bombs for his office.
Wasn’t the NSA fairly recently caught monitoring the cell phone calls and text messages of just about every important European VIP, including heads of state like Angie? What did the victims of the NSA’s spying say and do about it? Nothing.
And just exactly WHAT are Americans who are enraged by the US’s long-established pattern of behavior going to actually DO about it? For example, are they going to march into their voting booths in November a vote for ANOTHER bunch of R or D candidates, makes no difference which, and expect this pattern to change? No. They’ll vote for Rs and Ds knowing full well that this pattern will NOT change.
And just exactly WHAT are people from all over the world going to actually DO about Assange continuing to be tortured in the UK on US orders — vote for more Rs and Ds who will, after their election, continue to do whatever it takes to get Assange into a US prison? Yes.
The underhanded and devilish ways of the United States government should be expected by everyone. The arrogance and disdain for all normal behavior is the modus operandi of the United States government. Absolutely nothing is too low for them to be engaged in. Mr. Bustani should have known better than to have ” an american ” security chief in his office. Mr. Bustani is very fortunate that a bomb was not placed in his wall with the listening equipment.
The level of Western institutional corruption is simply breathtaking at this point! What a brave man just to speak the truth about these monsters in suits.