4 days agoHow Seymour Hersh accidentally debunked his own reporting about chemical weapons in SyriaOne of the most horrific moments of the Syrian conflict came in August 2013 when rockets laden with the nerve agent sarin hit Ghouta, a rebel-held area on the outskirts of Damascus. Hundreds of people died and thousands more were injured. It was the deadliest chemical attack anywhere in the…Syria9 min readSyria9 min read
Sep 6Egypt-Zambia gold scam: the plot thickensEleven people appeared in a Zambian court last week following the discovery of $5.7 million in cash, 602 bars of fake gold, five pistols and 126 rounds of ammunition aboard a private jet that landed at Lusaka airport on a flight from Egypt. Oddly, though, there was no mention of…Gold5 min readGold5 min read
Aug 24‘King Shad’ and the miracle-working prophet: a new twist in the Zambia-Egypt gold affairOne of four Zambians arrested last week after police found $5.7m in cash and 127kg of fake gold aboard a private jet at Lusaka airport had been jailed in South Africa in 2017 over a previous gold transaction that went wrong, it has emerged. In this earlier deal the arrested…Egypt2 min readEgypt2 min read
Aug 23Egyptians arrested in Zambia may have been seeking shady gold dealMore information is gradually emerging about the mysterious private jet impounded at Lusaka airport in Zambia after a flight from Cairo, and enough is now known to suggest a possible explanation of what was going on. It appears that the Egyptians on board the jet had flown to Lusaka to…Egypt5 min readEgypt5 min read
Aug 21Fool’s gold and fistfuls of dollars: the strange tale of a private jet’s flight from EgyptLast week Zambian drug enforcement officers searched and impounded a private jet after it landed at Lusaka airport on a flight from Cairo. It turned out there were no drugs on board but what the investigators found instead was startling: $5.7 …Egypt8 min readEgypt8 min read
Jun 20Nord Stream sabotage: a look at the evidence so farLast September a series of explosions ruptured three of the four Nord Stream pipelines laid under the Baltic Sea to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany. The explosions released vast quantities of methane, a major contributor to global warming, into the atmosphere. Investigations by three of the affected countries…Andromeda19 min readAndromeda19 min read
Jun 7Nord Stream sabotage revelations make embarrassing news for Ukraine’s alliesIn June last year the CIA received information about a plan drawn up by the Ukrainian military to attack the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. …4 min read4 min read
Jun 2Nord Stream sabotage: German investigators focus on yachtGerman investigators appear to have made up their minds about who was responsible for the explosions that wrecked three of the four Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last September. Der Spiegel magazine reported last week that the public prosecutor’s team are now “certain” that a 15-metre yacht…Nord Stream6 min readNord Stream6 min read
May 25Nord Stream investigation: another strange travel firm comes to lightA second mysterious travel firm has emerged in the Nord Stream sabotage affair. One strand of the investigation concerns six people aboard a 15-metre yacht, the Andromeda, who spent two weeks behaving suspiciously in the Baltic Sea shortly before the underwater gas pipelines were blown up last September. The yacht…Nord Stream4 min readNord Stream4 min read
May 22Nord Stream sabotage: mystery yacht’s Ukrainian connectionsA group of European news organisations jointly investigating the sabotage of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines have uncovered new information about a yacht that was behaving suspiciously in the area. The German authorities have been taking a particular interest in a group of six people aboard the 15-metre Andromeda…4 min read4 min read
