Bellingcaught
Who is the mysterious author of Bellingcatâs attacks on OPCW whistleblower?
After publishing fraudulent claims in a bid to smear OPCW whistleblowers, Bellingcat has been caught in another subterfuge that contradicts its stated allegiance to âtransparency and accountabilityâ: a hidden, external author writing its material.
The website Bellingcat promotes itself as a collective of digital sleuths who âpledge allegiance to truth and evidence and abide by the principles of transparency and accountability.â Its self-described âgroundbreaking investigations,â especially those aimed at Russia and Syria, have led to fawning Western media endorsements of its claim to be an âintelligence agency for the people.â
But Bellingcatâs carefully crafted public image as an âopen sourceâ outlet is belied by its extensive NATO government ties and a conspicuous pattern of conduct in line with its state sponsorsâ interests. Bellingcat has hauled in grants from the National Endowment for Democracy, a US government-funded CIA cutout. Leaked documents reported by The Grayzone revealed that Bellingcat has collaborated with a UK Foreign Office operation that aims to âweaken Russia.â
Bellingcat has also been a regular source of interventionist material on Syria, the target of a decade-long, multi-billion dollar proxy war waged by the US, UK, and their allies. This includes participating in a nearly two-year campaign to whitewash a scandal at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) â one of the most shocking and well-documented pro-war deceptions since the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A series of leaks has exposed how top OPCW officials censored findings which undermined US-led allegations of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma in April 2018. Together with its NATO state sponsors, Bellingcat has worked to bury the cover-up and denigrate two OPCW whistleblowers who challenged it from the inside.
Bellingcatâs disinformation efforts resulted in an embarrassing debacle late last year, when the outlet was caught publishing fraudulent material about one of the dissenting OPCW scientists.
Now, emails obtained by The Grayzone reveal that Bellingcat has engaged in more subterfuge than was previously known.
Messages sent months before the âBellingcat Investigation Teamâ released its bogus article show that Bellingcat was not the sole author of the now-discredited piece published in its name. It also was not the first one.
The communications show that someone outside the Bellingcat organization composed portions of the fraudulent material that ultimately appeared on Bellingcatâs website. An external author even drafted questions that Bellingcat sent to multiple recipients. Bellingcatâs duplicitous conduct took place in the midst of a poorly coordinated effort involving HuffPost UK and the BBC â two outlets that also enjoy close ties to the British state.
The target of the Bellingcat-led smear campaign is Dr. Brendan Whelan, a 16-year OPCW veteran and member of the mission that deployed to Syria in April 2018 to investigate the alleged chemical attack in Douma.
The Douma team failed to find any evidence of chemical weapons use, shattering the pretext for the US, UK, and French airstrikes on Damascus that same month. But the investigatorsâ original report was doctored and suppressed, an act of censorship that Whelan protested in an email which was subsequently leaked along with other damning internal OPCW documents.
The leaks also revealed how the Douma inspectors were sidelined from the probe following Whelanâs protest, leading to a final report that excluded their critical findings. That report, released in March 2019, reached the unsupported conclusion that there were âreasonable groundsâ to believe that chlorine gas was used in Douma, aligning with the US-led narrative of Syrian government culpability.
Last October, over a year after the cover-up became public, Bellingcat claimed to have obtained a âdraft versionâ of an OPCW letter sent to Whelan that disproved all of his concerns. The Grayzone quickly demonstrated that Bellingcatâs âletterâ was a sham.
When The Grayzone obtained the real OPCW letter sent to Whelan, it contained none of Bellingcatâs distorted text. The Bellingcat letter claimed that new scientific âmethodsâ had found âchlorinated pinene compoundsâ in Douma wood samples that proved chlorine gas use. It also stated that Russia and Syria had secretly accepted the OPCWâs conclusions. However, the OPCWâs own published documents undermined both assertions.
Bellingcat has refused to explain the fraud that it perpetrated. Nick Waters, a Bellingcat staffer who was directly involved in producing the anonymously bylined story, deleted embarrassing tweets in which he gloated about his fake scoop. Since then, Waters has ignored queries from The Grayzone.
Bellingcat has now been caught in another act of deception.
Identical typos reveal Bellingcatâs hidden author
Emails obtained by The Grayzone show that at least eight months before Bellingcat published its fraudulent article impugning the OPCW whistleblower, a staffer for HuffPost UK pursued the same story. He is Chris York, a writer responsible for a consistent stream of attacks on prominent critics of the official story of Syrian government responsibility for a chemical attack in Douma â an odd niche for a reporter who scarcely mentioned Syria before 2017.
In one such email, York claimed to be on the verge of publication. Then, for some reason, he pulled back.
Bellingcat not only published the story that York claimed he was about to release, but used text that was identical to his in their final product.
In its October 2020 article, Bellingcat quoted the letter that it claimed the OPCW had leaked. A side-by-side comparison of Bellingcatâs transcription of the letter in its article to the screenshot of the letter that it also published reveals two errors: a typographical error, and an omission of one definite article that appears in the original screenshot.
These errors were not made by Bellingcat. Instead, three months earlier, on July 27, Chris York of HuffPostUK sent an email to Wikileaks containing the same two errors in otherwise identical text. This can be seen by comparing York and Bellingcatâs text to Bellingcatâs screenshot:
âą Bellingcatâs screenshot says âdeveloped methods for analysing woodâ; by comparison, Bellingcatâs article, like Yorkâs email, says âdeveloped methods or analysing wood.â
âą Bellingcatâs screenshot says âdifferent types of wood in the signatures of the chlorinated compounds producedâ; by comparison, Bellingcatâs article, like Yorkâs email, says âdifferent types of wood in the signatures of chlorinated compounds produced.â

Left: Chris Yorkâs July 27 2020 email to Wikileaks erroneously quotes the purported OPCW document. Yorkâs typos are highlighted. Right: Bellingcatâs October 26 2020 article repeats Chris Yorkâs typos, instead of accurately quoting the screenshot that it published in its article. (The screenshot is in the first table above, as well as here: https://archive.is/1O3Du).
The typos are beyond any possible coincidence, and not the only overlap. Nick Waters of Bellingcat not only published Chris Yorkâs errors, but also copied questions that York had sent months earlier.
Bellingcat âinvestigatorâ asks someone elseâs questions
In emailing queries to Wikileaks, Whelan, and me, Bellingcatâs Nick Waters once again used text originally sent by Chris York of HuffPost UK. A comparison shows that Watersâ queries in October are near carbon copies of queries that York sent in July.
Yorkâs and Watersâ questions to Wikileaks contain virtually identical structure and verbiage across multiple paragraphs. (Waters also used the same language in emails that he sent to me and to Whelan).

Bold: Identical language between York and Waters. Bold italicized: Language between York and Waters that conveys the same meaning.

Original emails from Chris York of HuffPost UK and Nick Waters of Bellingcat, sent nearly three months apart. Watersâ message used mostly identical or similar language to York. Watersâ message also follows the exact same structure.
Given that Bellingcat copied someone elseâs text and did not write its own questions, the question that now arises is how and where Bellingcatâs material originated.
One option is that Waters received Yorkâs material and copied his entire set of questions, slightly changing the wording in a lazy effort to disguise the copying job. That would raise the question of how Bellingcat ended up with another outletâs question: did York pass his questions to Waters? Or did someone else?
Another option is that neither Waters nor York wrote their overlapping questions or text to begin with, and received them instead from a mutual source.
What is indisputable is that Bellingcatâs Nick Waters did not write the questions that he presented as his own.
The Grayzone sent multiple queries to Waters and Bellingcat about the overlap between their material and HuffPost UKâs. They have not responded.
âI canât hold off publishing much longerâ: How did Bellingcat get HuffPost UKâs leftovers?
The fact that Bellingcat had its text circulated by another outlet months before raises serious questions about what role Bellingcat played in its âinvestigation.â
The chain of events began in early 2020, when Chris York of HuffPost UK first referenced the âdocumentâ that Bellingcat would later base its story on.
York wrote Dr. Brendan Whelan in February 2020, shortly after the OPCW released an internal inquiry baselessly maligning two whistleblowers it identified as Inspectors A and B. Just days before the inquiryâs findings were announced, the British journalist Brian Whittaker doxed Whelan, whose name he said had been leaked by someone with âaccess to sensitive OPCW information.â That same month, Bellingcat published an attack piece that identified Whelan as Inspector B.
In light of those attacks, the timing and nature of Yorkâs outreach to Whelan suggests that it may have been a part of a coordinated effort to impugn him.
âI was hoping to speak to you about some documents that Wikileaks do not appear to have released yet,â York wrote to Whelan on February 26, 2020. Whelan did not reply. York followed up again on March 7th, which Whelan also ignored.
Four months later, York sent Whelan a final message claiming that publication was imminent. âIâll soon be publishing an article on the Wikileaks Douma leaks, specifically on a document that wasnât publicly released but appears to contradict some of the points Wikileaks and yourself have put forward,â York wrote on July 16.
During this same period, York also reached out to Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson. In one email, York shared with Hrafnsson the same error-laden transcription of part of the text of the OPCW draft letter that would later surface at Bellingcat. Just as Bellingcat would do months later, York additionally accused Wikileaks of hiding the document. Releasing it, York alleged on August 17, âwould have completely contradicted the narrative you put forward that the Douma attack was staged.â
York was so confident in his false belief that the document disproved the whistleblower â and that others beyond him had actually received it â that he chided Wikileaks for failing to issue a public correction in response. â[A]fter HuffPost UK discovered the existence of this document and questioned Wikileaks about it,â York scolded, âyou have done nothing to correct the record and have instead let the disputed narrative about a âstagedâ chemical attack go unchecked.â

August 17, 2020: In an email to Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, Chris York of HuffPost falsely suggests that Wikileaks and an OPCW whistleblower have hid a OPCW âdocumentâ which âwould have completely contradicted the narrative you put forward that the Douma attack was staged.â He also scolds Wikileaks for having âdone nothing to correct the recordâ in response to the document he âdiscovered.â In reality, the OPCW âdocumentâ was never sent to anyone and contained false claims.
The fact that York claimed to have âdiscoveredâ the document suggests that it was only passed to Bellingcat after HuffPost UK dropped the story. Bellingcatâs omission of HuffPost UKâs original role â while simultaneously copying the fraudulent content of its text â demonstrates a flagrant disregard for transparency, and stands at odds with Bellingcatâs professed fidelity to âopen source,â âverifiableâ evidence.
Just as he did with Whelan, York informed Wikileaks that he was on the verge of publishing his story. âIâll be publishing the article at the weekend so a response before then would be appreciated,â York wrote Hrafnsson on July 22. On August 4th, York followed-up with one final plea: âCould I please get a response to this, I canât hold off publishing much longer.â

August 4 2020: Chris York of HuffPost UK tells Wikileaks that he âcanât hold off publishing much longer.â He ultimately never published.
Yorkâs article never appeared at the HuffPost UK.
In a brief phone conservation with me on October 27th, the day after his story surfaced at Bellingcat, York said that he would read the Bellingcat article before responding to my questions. He has since gone quiet and failed to respond to multiple emailed queries from The Grayzone. His editors at HuffPost UK have kept mum as well.
Converging disinformation from Bellingcat and BBC
Although the identity Bellingcat-HuffPost UKâs dodgy source is unknown, the participation of a third outlet in this story â the UK state broadcaster BBC â offers a strong candidate.
Just weeks after Bellingcatâs debunked story appeared, the BBC released a podcast that attempted to advance the same bogus line. âMaydayâ host Chloe Hadjimatheou repeated the Bellingcat letterâs falsehoods about the wood samples and the secret Syria-Russian acceptance of the OPCWâs final report. In yet another uncanny crossover, Hadjimatheou also falsely suggested that one of the OPCW whistleblowers received a payment from Wikileaks. In emails to Wikileaks and Whelan one month before Mayday was aired, Bellingcatâs Nick Waters made the same insinuation.
While her uncritical promotion of the Bellingcat-HuffPost UK letterâs debunked assertions was nothing new, Hadjimatheou did offer one significant contribution. To make her case against the whistleblowers, Hadjimatheou interviewed someone whom she claimed was an anonymous OPCW official operating behind the pseudonym, âLeon.â Hadjimatheou did not specify what role, if any, Leon played in the Douma investigation. The anonymous official also offered nothing of substance beyond what was already claimed in the bogus OPCW letter released by Bellingcat.
It is possible, therefore, that Leon was the real source of the fraudulent information provided to Bellingcat and HuffPost UK. If the BBC is correct that Leon is an actual OPCW official, then the implications are serious. It means that alongside the OPCWâs refusal to account for the Douma cover-up, an OPCW staffer is spreading disinformation about former employees who challenged it.
The OPCW did not respond to The Grayzoneâs questions about whether it is investigating the âdraft letter,â or Leonâs comments to the BBC. If the OPCW is not probing this defamatory conduct, its inaction could be read as a tacit endorsement.
The Grayzone also asked the BBCâs Hadjimatheou about her recycling of Bellingcatâs debunked claims, Leonâs qualifications to comment on the Douma investigation, and other major lapses in her reporting. Hadjimatheou initially said that she would reply to me in writing. After receiving my questions, she backtracked on that pledge and declined to offer any responses.
In the absence of any explanation from these three outlets â BBC, Bellingcat, and HuffPost UK â on how they have targeted OPCW whistleblowers with identical false material repeated by an unidentified OPCW source, another common denominator might help fill in the silence. Just like the BBC, Bellingcat and HuffPost UK have formal British government ties of their own.
The editor of HuffPost UK, Jess Brammar, has helmed the outlet while simultaneously serving as a member of the UK governmentâs Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee, which censors journalism on behalf of âUK military and intelligence operations,â in the name of ânational security.â
For its part, Bellingcat is a founding âpartnerâ in a UK government propaganda operation, the Open Information Partnership (OIP), funded with $13.7 million in taxpayer money. Bellingcat was enlisted in the OIP even though its UK state partners have privately doubted its credibility. A leaked internal assessment produced for the OIP concluded that: âBellingcat was somewhat discredited, both by spreading disinformation itself, and by being willing to produce reports for anyone willing to pay.â
Whoever is behind the attacks on veteran OPCW scientists, Bellingcatâs role in the smear campaign is absolutely clear. While marketing itself publicly as an âopen sourceâ collective of crime-solving digital sleuths, Bellingcat has been used as a proxy in a disinformation campaign to whitewash a major global deception and defame the whistleblowers who challenged it. It is duplicitous enough to let someone else write its material, and sloppy enough to get caught.
Source: Popularresistance.org