all vehicles made it to a Syrian army out-
post. Then they stopped to regroup.
O’Donovan and his deputy,
Mohammed Khafagi, got out of their
SUV and walked to Sellström’s car in
their body armor and helmets. The
Swede rolled down his window. Khaf-
agi was the most familiar with the
local terrain, so Sellström turned to
him with his most pressing question:
“What do we do, Mohammed?” he asked.
Khafagi didn’t hesitate.
“We go in again,” he said.
“What?” Sellström was incredulous.
“If we don’t go today, we’ll never
go,” Khafagi said. “They will knowthat they can frighten us, and your
mission will be over.”
O’Donovan reflected for a
moment, then nodded his approval.
Going back would be risky, but those
dangers would have to be weighed
against what seemed to be a genuine
opportunity: a chance to accomplish
what they had come to Syria to do.
Sellström sat quietly, thinking. He
was being asked to send his team
back down a road where a waiting
sniper was merely the only threat of
which they were absolutely certain.
“Okay,” he said, “we go in.”
Moments later, the four undamagedSUVs lined up for a fresh attempt
to cross into rebel territory. This
one would look markedly different:
rather than cautiously feeling their
way through no man’s land, they
would dash across it like inmates on a
prison break.
Khafagi grabbed a spare armored
jacket and, scooting down into his
seat, used his feet to press it against
the windshield. Team members in
the other cars did the same. When
everyone was ready, the SUVs passed
through the checkpoint and then
tore down the narrow road with
as much speed as the drivers could
muster. The vehicles shot across the
bridge and did not slow until all were
well on the other side.
This time, no shots were fired.Smoking Gun
to collect evidence, the team
divided itself into two groups. Half
would visit the makeshift field hospi-
tals and triage centers where scores of
victims of the attacks still were under-
going treatment. There they would
collect biological samples—blood,
urine and hair—and statements on
video from the poisoning victims.
The others headed off to gather soil
samples and any weapons fragments
they could find.
On the second day of the investi-
gation, in a neighborhood in eastern
Ghouta, the team made an important
discovery: Two impact craters, one on
a rooftop and another in a field, still
contained large rocket fragments,
including crumpled sections of the
original warheads that would have
delivered the poisons. The rocket that
landed in the field had hit soft earth,
and its shaft and engine were still par-
tially buried and clearly undisturbed.
Wearing protective suits, the inspec-
tors placed some of the metal pieces
into evidence bags and collectedEXPOSING
THE TRUTH
Clockwise from top:
Protestors in Paris
in 2020 on behalf of
the victims in Ghouta;
Ban and Sellström in
September 2013, at
the U.N after their
EULHɿQJWRWKH6HFXULW\
Council; Assad in 2010.NEWSWEEK.COM 13
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