Exclusive: The U.S. government and the mainstream media rushed to judgment again, blaming the Syrian government for a new poison-gas attack and ignoring other possibilities, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
With the latest hasty judgment about Tuesday’s poison-gas deaths in a rebel-held area of northern Syria, the mainstream U.S. news media once more reveals itself to be a threat to responsible journalism and to the future of humanity. Again, we see the troubling pattern of verdict first, investigation later, even when that behavior can lead to a dangerous war escalation and many more deaths.
Map of Syria.
Before a careful evaluation of the evidence about Tuesday’s tragedy was possible, The New York Times and other major U.S. news outlets had pinned the blame for the scores of dead on the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. That revived demands that the U.S. and other nations establish a “no-fly zone” over Syria, which would amount to launching another “regime change” war and would put America into a likely hot war with nuclear-armed Russia.
Even as basic facts were still being assembled about Tuesday’s incident, we, the public, were prepped to disbelieve the Syrian government’s response that the poison gas may have come from rebel stockpiles that could have been released either accidentally or intentionally causing the civilian deaths in a town in Idlib Province.
One possible scenario was that Syrian warplanes bombed a rebel weapons depot where the poison gas was stored, causing the containers to rupture. Another possibility was a staged event by increasingly desperate Al Qaeda jihadists who are known for their disregard for innocent human life.
While it’s hard to know at this early stage what’s true and what’s not, these alternative explanations, I’m told, are being seriously examined by U.S. intelligence. One source cited the possibility that Turkey had supplied the rebels with the poison gas (the exact type still not determined) for potential use against Kurdish forces operating in northern Syria near the Turkish border or for a terror attack in a government-controlled city like the capital of Damascus.
Reporting by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and statements by some Turkish police and opposition politicians linked Turkish intelligence and Al Qaeda-affiliated jihadists to the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin gas attack outside Damascus that killed hundreds, although the Times and other major U.S. news outlets continue to blame that incident on Assad’s regime.
Seasoned Propagandists
On Tuesday, the Times assigned two of its most committed anti-Syrian-government propagandists to cover the Syrian poison-gas story, Michael R. Gordon and Anne Barnard.
The controversial map developed by Human Rights Watch and embraced by the New York Times, supposedly showing the flight paths of two missiles from the Aug. 21 Sarin attack intersecting at a Syrian military base.
Gordon has been at the front lines of the neocon “regime change” strategies for years. He co-authored the Times’ infamous aluminum tube story of Sept. 8, 2002, which relied on U.S. government sources and Iraqi defectors to frighten Americans with images of “mushroom clouds” if they didn’t support President George W. Bush’s upcoming invasion of Iraq. The timing played perfectly into the administration’s advertising “rollout” for the Iraq War.
Of course, the story turned out to be false and to have unfairly downplayed skeptics of the claim that the aluminum tubes were for nuclear centrifuges, when the aluminum tubes actually were meant for artillery. But the article provided a great impetus toward the Iraq War, which ended up killing nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
Gordon’s co-author, Judith Miller, became the only U.S. journalist known to have lost a job over the reckless and shoddy reporting that contributed to the Iraq disaster. For his part, Gordon continued serving as a respected Pentagon correspondent.
Gordon’s name also showed up in a supporting role on the Times’ botched “vector analysis,” which supposedly proved that the Syrian military was responsible for the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin-gas attack. The “vector analysis” story of Sept. 17, 2013, traced the flight paths of two rockets, recovered in suburbs of Damascus back to a Syrian military base 9.5 kilometers away.
The article became the “slam-dunk” evidence that the Syrian government was lying when it denied launching the sarin attack. However, like the aluminum tube story, the Times’ ”vector analysis” ignored contrary evidence, such as the unreliability of one azimuth from a rocket that landed in Moadamiya because it had struck a building in its descent. That rocket also was found to contain no sarin, so it’s inclusion in the vectoring of two sarin-laden rockets made no sense.
But the Times’ story ultimately fell apart when rocket scientists analyzed the one sarin-laden rocket that had landed in the Zamalka area and determined that it had a maximum range of about two kilometers, meaning that it could not have originated from the Syrian military base. C.J. Chivers, one of the co-authors of the article, waited until Dec. 28, 2013, to publish a halfhearted semi-retraction. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “NYT Backs Off Its Syria-Sarin Analysis.”]
Gordon was a co-author of another bogus Times’ front-page story on April 21, 2014, when the State Department and the Ukrainian government fed the Times two photographs that supposedly proved that a group of Russian soldiers – first photographed in Russia – had entered Ukraine, where they were photographed again.
However, two days later, Gordon was forced to pen a retraction because it turned out that both photos had been shot inside Ukraine, destroying the story’s premise. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “NYT Retracts Russian-Photo Scoop.”]
Gordon perhaps personifies better than anyone how mainstream journalism works. If you publish false stories that fit with the Establishment’s narratives, your job is safe even if the stories blow up in your face. However, if you go against the grain – and if someone important raises a question about your story – you can easily find yourself out on the street even if your story is correct.
No Skepticism Allowed
Anne Barnard, Gordon’s co-author on Tuesday’s Syrian poison-gas story, has consistently reported on the Syrian conflict as if she were a press agent for the rebels, playing up their anti-government claims even when there’s no evidence.
A heart-rending propaganda image designed to justify a major U.S. military operation inside Syria against the Syrian military.
For instance, on June 2, 2015, Barnard, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon, authored a front-page story that pushed the rebels’ propaganda theme that the Syrian government was somehow in cahoots with the Islamic State though even the U.S. State Department acknowledged that it had no confirmation of the rebels’ claims.
When Gordon and Barnard teamed up to report on the latest Syrian tragedy, they again showed no skepticism about early U.S. government and Syrian rebel claims that the Syrian military was responsible for intentionally deploying poison gas.
Perhaps for the first time, The New York Times cited President Trump as a reliable source because he and his press secretary were saying what the Times wanted to hear – that Assad must be guilty.
Gordon and Barnard also cited the controversial White Helmets, the rebels’ Western-financed civil defense group that has worked in close proximity with Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and has come under suspicion of staging heroic “rescues” but is nevertheless treated as a fount of truth-telling by the mainstream U.S. news media.
In early online versions of the Times’ story, a reaction from the Syrian military was buried deep in the article around the 27th paragraph, noting: “The government denies that it has used chemical weapons, arguing that insurgents and Islamic State fighters use toxins to frame the government or that the attacks are staged.”
The following paragraph mentioned the possibility that a Syrian bombing raid had struck a rebel warehouse where poison-gas was stored, thus releasing it unintentionally.
But the placement of the response was a clear message that the Times disbelieved whatever the Assad government said. At least in the version of the story that appeared in the morning newspaper, a government statement was moved up to the sixth paragraph although still surrounded by comments meant to signal the Times’ acceptance of the rebel version.
After noting the Assad government’s denial, Gordon and Barnard added, “But only the Syrian military had the ability and the motive to carry out an aerial attack like the one that struck the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.”
But they again ignored the alternative possibilities. One was that a bombing raid ruptured containers for chemicals that the rebels were planning to use in some future attack, and the other was that Al Qaeda’s jihadists staged the incident to elicit precisely the international outrage directed at Assad as has occurred.
Gordon and Barnard also could be wrong about Assad being the only one with a motive to deploy poison gas. Since Assad’s forces have gained a decisive upper-hand over the rebels, why would he risk stirring up international outrage at this juncture? On the other hand, the desperate rebels might view the horrific scenes from the chemical-weapons deployment as a last-minute game-changer.
Pressure to Prejudge
None of this means that Assad’s forces are innocent, but a serious investigation ascertains the facts and then reaches a conclusion, not the other way around.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
However, to suggest these other possibilities will, I suppose, draw the usual accusations about “Assad apologist,” but refusing to prejudge an investigation is what journalism is supposed to be about.
The Times, however, apparently has no concern anymore for letting the facts be assembled and then letting them speak for themselves. The Times weighed in on Wednesday with an editorial entitled “A New Level of Depravity From Mr. Assad.”
Another problem with the behavior of the Times and the mainstream media is that by jumping to a conclusion they pressure other important people to join in the condemnations and that, in turn, can prejudice the investigation while also generating a dangerous momentum toward war.
Once the political leadership pronounces judgment, it becomes career-threatening for lower-level officials to disagree with those conclusions. We’ve seen that already with how United Nations investigators accepted rebel claims about the Syrian government’s use of chlorine gas, a set of accusations that the Times and other media now report simply as flat-fact.
Yet, the claims about the Syrian military mixing in canisters of chlorine in supposed “barrel bombs” make little sense because chlorine deployed in that fashion is ineffective as a lethal weapon but it has become an important element of the rebels’ propaganda campaign.
U.N. investigators, who were under intense pressure from the United States and Western nations to give them something to use against Assad, did support rebel claims about the government using chlorine in a couple of cases, but the investigators also received testimony from residents in one area who described the staging of a chlorine attack for propaganda purposes.
One might have thought that the evidence of one staged attack would have increased skepticism about the other incidents, but the U.N. investigators apparently understood what was good for their careers, so they endorsed a couple of other alleged cases despite their inability to conduct a field investigation. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “UN Team Heard Claims of Staged Chemical Attacks.”]
Now, that dubious U.N. report is being leveraged into this new incident, one opportunistic finding used to justify another. But the pressing question now is: Have the American people come to understand enough about “psychological operations” and “strategic communications” that they will finally show the skepticism that no longer exists in the major U.S. news media?
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
JARED & IVANKA ARE NOT QUALIFIED!… TO DISCERN… WHETHER OR NOT… THIS WAS! OR WAS NOT! A FALSE FLAG! AGAIN!!!! IN SYRIA BY TAQIYA LYING MOSLEMS! WHO HAVE DONE IT BEFORE; INCLUDING THE DR. WHO SET THE BOY IN THE SET IN THE AMBULANCE AND PREPARED THE VIDEO. “LOOK SAD!” WE’VE SEEN THIS DERANGED MOVIE… BEFORE!….
please send me this article.
thanks.
Always, always, always, it seems, we are doomed to fulfill the “If you have a hammer, everything in your line of vision becomes a nail” syndrome. We rush to judgment in folly; our hyper-armed state gives the impetus. Disarmarment, the brave and cautious route which encourages the use of brains before brawn, is not profitable for the war mongers/arms dealers/politicians and does not create the drama, hatred and hype which sell newspapers and foment gossip.
looks like a major war with Russia and you better get your gas mask on or you are gonna die
it is inevitable there Will be a war that will lead to a peace treaty 7 Years to be exact during this time their will be a mark that no One will be able to buy and sell anything without receiving it this Will be. a world wide mandate rejecting the God of God’s the creator of heaven and earth and man they the world leaders who already are under the influence of Satan will agree to yield their power to fulfill all things that are written in the holy word of God the bible the distractions of the world and those who hold power will use all means necessary to, deceive people and usher in the war of wars Russia is specifically mentioned in the bible gog and magog Persia Babylon they will go up against Israel God’s holy people chosen elect they will seek to destroy them.demonic forces seek the destruction of all reminders of God’s grace and love towards people who don’t know any better.
only the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds every eye will see him and mourn over the one who lives and loves us the signs are here the weather is testifying of the present time do call on the name of the only one who can save you Jesus Christ he is pleading with u now
Exactly what strategic or tactical advantage would Assad have achieved by using chemical weapons against civilians? With Russia’s help he’s winning. The man is not nice but he’s also not stupid either. The same question also applies to Russia. The world’s disgust and enmity at such an act is totally predictable. So, if Assad really did do this, then my earlier observation that he’s not stupid is invalid.
I really don’t think Trump would be influenced one iota from anything reported in the media- especially not the Times.
Je pense que la propagande americo-israélienne – saoudien – katar et la turki vise à prolonger la guerre en Siry et permettre aux terroriste financer par quelques un et fournir les armes par d’autres ( Partage du gâteau ) entre ceux qui crée des guerres et ceux qui finance les terroristes.
C’est Mme Clinton elle qui a déclaré “que lesUSA ” ET SURTOUT LA CIA ont participé à la création de DAISH et ces affiliés
Je dis affiliés pour dire au monde que une organisation est terroriste et l’autre non
Arrêtez de nous prendre porte des imbéciles et surtout les anglais du Royaume Uni organisateurs des gonfls et des guerre au monde .
Les hypocrite d’Angleterre qui au parlement critique l’action du gouvernement et dans les chambre fermée organisé et gère les guerre ou commendite les guerre par d’autres
Qu’elle démocratie ces terroristes qui sont venus des tous les continents et on parle de la démocratie en Siry et les saoudiens et le katar qui n’ont même pas de démocratie
Les Tshishanes pourqu’oi dont ils en Siry et en Irak, en liby et dans d’autres regions et voilà l’Angleterre ,ka France Les Usa demande ka démocratie ( ??????? )
La dernière journée de Bush à déclarer qu..’il a fait une erreur de jugement sur les armes nucléaires et chimique et finalement les alliés ont détruits l’Irak et maintenant veulent détruire la Siry
Viviane la liberté
How many times will we allow ourselves to be lied and led into a war? Gull of Tonkin incident ring a bell? The Search for Saddam’s WMD’s, etc. etc.
This looks like a prelude to war with Syria. The West always seems to think that when they remove a strong man from power in the Middle East that there is a nice pro Western liberal minded democrat waiting to lead all into the sunny uplands. Then the monsters come crawling out of the woodwork instead and are let loose on the world.
Spot on. That democracy loving humanitarian waiting in the wings never seems to materialize once awe oust the current ruler. Everything just devolved into chaos and dog eat dog. Which is of course the real plan all along. Dropping bombs on peaceful communities is generally frowned upon. But it’s also surprisingly lucrative for select individuals. So they need to maintain a a nice scattering of war torn shitholes to drop them on and keep the money flowing. Going back to the war of 1812, the financial opportunity that war offers a select few has been the true driving force behind nearly every significant international conflict.
This should be the litmus test for any presidential candidate:
“Do you understand that ALL calls for regime change are really just calls to devolve the entire nation into chaos so that we have an excuse to buy 5000 bombs from Raytheon and drop them there? And for that matter do you grasp that the entire congress and Pentagon work directly for Raytheon and Lockheed and not you, the country or their voters?”
Honestly if we could get this one question into the debates we could probably bring about world peace in one election cycle.
People should be killed with ‘nice weapons’. After an artillery strike/air raid, everywhere is drenched in innards, arms legs feet hands heads cooked torsos all minced together. Scenes like this are never shown on the TV news.
This is an absolutely outrageous, illegal action of Trump, the murderer and terrorist of the Middle East. Now bombing Syria again after that country suffered so much from our war on the innocent civilians is simply unforgivable.
Generals, intelligence operatives and weapons suppliers (the real face of the u.s. ruling elite) don’t rush to judgement so much as they coerce others to do so in support of their singular goal of killing all those who resent their blood soaked world conquest programs. Because of their agency for the Deep State / Elite and their sheer joy in killing and destruction, the rule of force rather than any rule of law makes world war inevitable with concentration camps awaiting for any/ all who disagree in route a nuclear exchange of epic porportions after which, any remaining issues become moot.
This war against humanity for gold represents america’s turn to be the Evil Empire realized – nothing more. American rulers, however, are the worst manifestation of this musical chair world-domination game being played by the most non-productive, violent and despicable elements within our society and other societies that model themselves after america (this means everyone else). Armed with a Technology they cannot appreciate or control, it is only a matter of a very short time before these elements kill us all: despite their belief that they can/will survive the consequences of their rapaciousness.
.
World history is about to end badly.
And then there is this:
“Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2012
Terrific article.
It’s deja Vu all over again. Note the timing of this all going in motion almost immediately after Flynn and Bannon were removed from the NSC. As if Assad were any more likely to use chemical weapons than he would be to commit suicide. Because any fool would know they’re effectively the same option. And strategically there was no upside to using them. Trump was keeping Bannon close for exactly this reason. He has made a major strategic error abandoning him, then making a mistake Obama was not even dumb enough to make by striking at Syria. If it comes out that this ‘attack’ was a fraud like the last one, Trump’s response will prove to be a big embarrassment for him internationally. Did he forget that this is what huge numbers of DC insiders are working day and night to do to him?. Will he be savvy enough to cut his losses, or will his ego make him double down? Time will tell, but Trump needs to make his next move very carefully.
BTW, ever notice how these manufactured foreign policy entanglements always tend to pop up and take presidence over focusing on domestic affairs? Like those tax cuts and REAL fixes for Obamacare? Yeah, I’m suspicious too.
Marine Le Pen has condemned Trump and the US for the attack on Syria, her first criticism of Trump.
Your suggestion of blackmail on Trump makes a lot of sense, Zachary. Also have wondered about the high position of the multimillionaire son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has strong Zionist connections. The entire campaign may have been stage managed since the outcome seems what would have been expected with Clinton, war. Clinton came right out of the shadows.
I don’t have TV, so I am amazed to hear that “liberal” pundits such as Matthews and Maddow are approving the program of war this time. Seems the Fourth Reich has taken over.
Here we go again!
Just like Solomon warned, there’s nothing new under the sun. Trump proves himself to be as much a international imperialist as the Presidents who preceded him. Surprise, surprise! And we should be asking ourselves, at who’s behest? Do you think Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner may have had something to do with this decision.
“…The power to declare war is a serious responsibility. Why were the framers so vague in defining the parameters of war and the conditions under which it could be declared? Section 8, Clause 11 is the only place of significance where warfare is mentioned in the Constitution. Little wonder this power has been abused. Luther Martin [one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention] protested:
‘…the congress have also a power given them to raise and support armies, without any limitation as to numbers, and without any restriction in time of peace. Thus, sir, this plan of government, instead of guarding against a standing army, that engine of arbitrary power, which has so often and so successfully been used for the subversion of freedom, has in its formation given it an express and constitutional sanction….’40
“John Quincy Adams predicted the consequences of America’s international military entanglements:
‘America … has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings…. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.… She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors, and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force; the frontlet on her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial
diadem, flashing in false and tarnished luster, the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.’41
“Because the framers provided no Biblical parameters, unbiblical warfare has been the rule ever since. Following is a list of the countries bombed by the United States since World War II….
“From 1945 to the present [2012], the United States has bombed nineteen different countries under the guise of defending America’s sovereignty and promoting democracy. But America is none the better for it, and not one of these countries has become a legitimate democracy – not that this would be anything to celebrate. Something is amiss. Wars fought for political gain or financial profit can only be classified as ungodly acts of aggression….”
For more, see online Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt4.html.
Then find out how much you really know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the right-hand sidebar and receive a complimentary copy of a book that examines the Constitution by the Bible.
One thing we’ve all learned these past several months..
You can’t spell M$M without the CIA..
The CIA and other covert organizations have hundreds of US journalist on the payroll and can produce any “narrative” they desire to reinforce their mission. Bush learned this the hard way, Trump is following the same intelligence that led Bush into Iraq. Hello, who will replace Assad, what is the US interest, what threat is Assad to the US? A government without a strong leader in the Mid- East is a ISIS playground.
Most common way CIA takes its enemies (Trump) out. Get him to commit a war crime, and BAM – Impeached.
I was 100% sure that Trump would be impeached, but now he has earned his wings as an action figure, macho hero who can bomb the hell out of any country he wishes, just like all of his predecessors did. Nobody cares about war crimes in the US; on the contrary, they have an adrenaline rush when those crimes are perpetrated. Trump has been admitted into the Club now, and he will not be impeached,
“…these alternative explanations, I’m told, are being seriously examined by U.S. intelligence”.
That’s nice.
Has anyone told Trump? Or is he allergic to intelligence?
“Regime” definition: usually a democratically elected government that is independent of US & Israeli domination.
Funny how all of these events that wreck & dissolve middle east nations into squabbling & harmless tribes (while simultaneously keeping their oil sales in the Zionist Rothschild petrodollar) just happens to benefit Israel’s security.
That should tell you who’s behind it all.
Real Journalism , of the highest order & integrity, nothing fake about you sir, says a man who lives within the border zone to Turkey and can see Greece through my tiny window.. since Blair & Bush started the charades invading Iraq..
Here on the Balkans , every single person i have spoken to knows the reality, as you report it.
I truly mean, ask anybody , but perhaps best of all ask Ex-NATO Bulgarian Airforce General, with US Command Strategy Training, with glowing conclusions & report from US intelligence in 2009, available on Wikileaks .. and now President of Bulgaria RUMAN RADEV..!
Surely the most Trustworthy and Objective President of State, (with a serious integrity), in all of Europe & much further a field ..
There are mighty forces trying to CENSOR Radev and it is imperative that somebody supports this man now and affords him his right of Voice, on the global political scene.
My thanks for your qualitative & objective reporting.. and also my Respect.
Regards, Tim
The timing of purported sarin attacks in Syria, immediately blamed on Assad, is a little suspicious. In 2013, right after a UN team of investigators arrived in Syria, a false-flag sarin(?) attack occurred nearby. This time, shortly after an announcement that the US would no longer seek to depose Assad, there’s another sarin(?) attack, immediately blamed on Assad.
I hope the latest sarin(?) attack is properly investigated before it ignites a nuclear war. The ouster of Assad, though he may be an unpleasant person (hard to tell for sure from western media coverage), is not worth annihilating life on this planet.
Dear Mr. Parry,
I’ve been looking for any English-language mainstream news outlet that addresses (or at least, attempts to debunk) the claim that the Syrian excuse is not possible. I found this excerpt (summarized below) from the Guardian article entitled “Syria chemical weapons attack: what we know about deadly air raid” by E. Graham-Harrison (April 5, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/syria-chemical-weapons-attack-what-we-know-khan-sheikhun).
What is your opinion of this analysis? It strikes me as very circumstantial and flakey at best. Your opinions would be greatly appreciated by many of us.
-orkan
Clip From Article:
Russia has denied that Syria launched a chemical weapons attack. Does their argument have any credibility?
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Syria’s military has “categorically denied” responsibility for the attack. Russia, which is heavily backing the Assad government, said a Syrian government airstrike had hit a “terrorist warehouse” holding “toxic substances”.
That claim does not fit with facts on the ground, for several reasons. An airstrike on a weapons depot with high explosives would have destroyed much of the sarin immediately, and distributed any that survived over a much smaller area.
“The pattern of casualties isn’t right for the distribution of materials that you would get if you had a location with toxic materials breached by an airstrike. It’s more consistent with canisters that have distributed [chemical weapons] over a wider population,” Guthrie said.
While it is impossible to assess the exact amount of chemical agent used immediately, the extent and distribution of the casualties are consistent with the use of hundreds of kilos.
Sarin is too complicated and expensive for rebels to have manufactured themselves, and while they might potentially have obtained some supplies of stolen nerve agents or other gas, it is very unlikely to be more than a few kilos.
“If they have [sarin], it would be in minute quantities, maybe a kilo or so,” said De Bretton Gordon. The high numbers of woman and children among the casualties was not consistent with a military depot, he added.
Finally, the Syrian manufacturing process for sarin involves creating and storing two key components, both far more stable than the nerve agent itself. They are mixed to create sarin hours – or at most days – before it is used, said Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert and former officer in the US Army’s chemical corps.
So an airstrike on a storage facility would be unlikely to release sarin itself. And because one of the two components is highly flammable isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, you would expect a fireball, which has not been observed.
Orkan – reading a relatively objective source like Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin) yields a somewhat different slant. Note at the end of the article the sections on Degradation (with ranges between 2 wks to 5 yrs) and uses as weapons (there have been several small NGO attacks, in Japan notably). The Toxicity section also shows how much more lethal it is compared to other chemical warfare agents.
To myself, it still sounds very plausible that the Syrian/Russian account is true, though it would bear more investigation (ie; the non-explosive type).
The Guardian dot Com has a live feed running on this story
I am puzzled at the uniform certainty expressed by the MSM that “Assad did it.” No if, no maybe, no wait for some evidence, facts, investigation. Then based on the “Have you stopped beating your wife” presumption of guilt, they move directly to “Some action must of course be taken by the US/Trump, since clearly our great nation cannot allow this (fictional) atrocity to go unanswered. So what sort of action can the exceptional nation, the most militarily powerful nation take against the monster Assad?”
If this was the first attempt to fool the world — and in particular the American people — with a false flag, and thus enable — if not coerce — the American President destroy the Syrian government,… if this were the first time, you know, this might make some sort of perverse logic. But this is an insultingly obvious repeat of the failed 2013 attempt to do exactly the same thing,… to Obama. Do these assholes think that both Trump ***and*** the American people are this stupid?
Here’s my prediction: after the 2013 false flag, and in the internet age, there will be an explosion of outrage and a tsunami of contempt directed at war-mongering deep state and their media stooges. It’s already happening. The false flag propagandists jumped out in front with their “Assad did it!” And their fakenews media presstitutes have responded with their slavish ass-licking confirmation of the bs.
But the internet has jumped instantly to respond and call them out with their “fool me once shame on you, try to fool me again … go fuck yourself, bitch!” They’re going down in flames.
Watch this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_ByQH2QY0
I wish we had waited until we knew for certain this was Assad’s doing. I always guessed we’d regime change Assad in Syria and Iran too regardless of Russian interference because very powerful people obviously wish it so. Maybe Mr. Trump has cut a deal with Mr. Putin to eliminate sanctions if he lets Syria and Iran go? I wouldn’t think he’d want that oil pipeline to go through Syria to Europe though. I literally wish I knew the truth of these things which cause so many people death and pain. I want so much for the US to be on the side of truth and justice.
This article is devoid of even the slightest familiarity with the chemistry of Sarin gas. Robert Parry is a complete and utter joke.
Assuming there aren’t two people of this name, investigation time.
About Louis Proyect
Hmm. Nothing there about expertise in chemistry.
I would expect any bombs being dropped on a munitions storage facility to have been of the blast type. And for all we know, the nice head choppers could have stored their nerve gas in easily shattered containers in anticipation of an air attack. If I’d been in charge of those head choppers, I’d have used large glass jars.
This next part was linked to by somebody named Louis Proyect.
It sort of amazes me how everybody since the German inventors have put Sarin into artillery shells, missile warheads, Lord Only Knows what else. None of the fools knew that they were wasting their time and money. This Sarin stuff is as fragile as eggshells and sugar icing!
If only a Marxist had been around to advise them…..
He is using a false name to impugn another, and pretending have knowledge not shown.
No Doubt!
www*latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-u-s-has-no-doubt-that-syrian-1491507357-htmlstory.html
We’re in the same situation today as Europe was in, 5 months before the Great War (WW1) broke out. The match that ignited WW1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo in August of 1914.
The difference now is the advanced weaponry and military equipment available, which was a far-off dream over a century ago. There was no danger of a total extinction of all species back then, either .. The weapons used were firearms and artillery, along with mustard gas. The tank had just been newly invented (it was a huge, lumbering vehicle) and aerial warfare was mostly waged with bi-planes. Nowadays, a repetition would certainly end up with the extinction of all life on the planet, with the possible exception of those microorganisms immune to a nuclear/thermonuclear blast and/or radiation, as well as cockroaches. All other species would be wiped off the face of the planet .. and those farthest away from the blasts would die a slow death.
President Trump must be made through extensive persuasion to leave Syria alone and rid his administration of lunatics in the Pentagon and in the State Dept. It’s not worth destroying the entire world just to depose Assad. Trump must know that if Syria’s attacked, Russia and China (along with Iran) would step in. WW1 all over again .. but, only this time, with nuclear/thermonuclear missiles.
I was told to read this article after I had seen reported in newspapers and news channels, not just New York Times, and seeing children affected by the poisonous gasses that it was all false news. Feels like Mr. Parry lives in an alternate world of his own. Is it so unlike Assad to order these attacks? And now Mr. Parry thinks the rebels are responsible? That makes no sense. Why is he defending Assad? He is a war criminal and largely responsible for the exodus of Syrians fleeing for their lives. As a survivor of the Holocaust it is all history repeats itself. Who do you serve Mr. Parry?
It’s a matter of both motive and opportunity. Assad is winning on the ground and has zero need to do anything except to continue to crush the head choppers and liver-eaters. But ISIS is losing, and all the western outfits are getting desperate. My Syrian milblogger suggests it was the British this time. Given how Turkey has been behaving, it’s easy to believe somebody there provided the nerve gas, though I’m quite sure others would have done so if necessary.
Simple stuff. Locate an area with a lot of civilians, and establish an arms dump laced with chemical weapons. Send a hot tip to the Syrians about the cache of arms, and have the camera crews and “White Hat” guys ready to spring into action. The Western Corporate Media can be trusted to pile on, as indeed they have.
www*syrianperspective.com/2017/04/terrorists-and-supporters-growing-ever-desperate-as-syrian-army-breaks-the-back-of-the-siege-in-dayr-el-zor-syrian-army-about-to-liberate-hilfaayaa-and-move-to-eradicate-british-cockroaches-in-lataki.html
April 6 phone conference:
“Mr Putin and Mr Netanyahu exchanged views on the incident involving chemical weapons on April 4 in the Syrian province of Idlib. Mr Putin underscored, in particular, that it is unacceptable to make groundless accusations against any party until a thorough and objective international investigation has been conducted.”
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/54239
Can’t you people see that this entire publication is a Russian financed propaganda tool? What up. Russians are being led by a thieving thug and his thieving friends. They are not good guys by any means.
I see you’re a fan of the PROPORNOT guys. Do you have any theories about who finances them?
Gosh, you fooled absolutely everyone so easily! The snake oil salesman always believes that everyone else must be even dumber than himself.
I’ve spent the past half-hour roaming the internet tubes looking for an explanation for Trump’s 180° turn on Syria. About all I found was this at Chris Floyd’s Empire Burlesque site.
“Sympathy for the Devil: Liberal Love for the Donald When He Bangs War Drums”
Once upon a time Digby’s site was at the top of my bookmarks list – the one I visited first. I can’t recall if it was support of torture or plain warmongering which chased me away, but I’ve been long gone.
Since I couldn’t locate a decent explanation for Trump’s flip-flop, I’m forced to devise one myself. Recall how the US “surveils” every single move we make, and has done so for a fair while. It has the full cooperation of the other Five Eyes nations, and therefore none of Trump’s activities would have escaped the spy net. What I figure happened is that a huge dossier on Trump got assembled and is being used to blackmail the man. Probably not embarrassing things, for he seems to be immune to such stuff. Instead, things which would cost him many, many millions of dollars. Or things for which he might face jail time.
For whatever reason, it looks like he has buckled and is cooperating with the neocons. This judgement could be premature, but that’s my best guess/explanation at the moment.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/home/articles/sympathy-for-the-devil-liberal-love-for-the-donald-when-he-bangs-war-drums-06042017.html
Thanks, Robert Parry, for the reminders of so many false narratives foisted upon the public by the supposedly left-leaning and “elite” NY Times. I remember vividly after waiting for more than ten months after the Florida Fiasco of the 2000 Election for the results of the consortium of newspapers who were doing the actual recount of the Florida votes. NY Times headline said something like “Justices did not make the decision after all” (that is almost verbatim, but I’ve never been able to find that headline again).
The point of the entire article was that Bush indeed had won the most votes when Florida’s votes were properly counted. I think there were about a dozen different scenarios of counting those votes “properly” but what the Florida Supreme Court ruled and maintained was that the votes should be counted according to Florida state law where “properly counted” meant where the INTENT of the voter was clear.
Two examples of this were 1) “hanging chads and dimpled chads” and 2) where the vote was cancelled because the proper Gore or Bush box was checked but the voter also wrote in the same name on the voter write-in line. These votes were not counted originally by the machine counters and therefore did require a human eye to “properly” count them.
The fact is that the U.S. Supreme Court Justices ruled in their 5-4 partisan fashion to ignore the Florida Supreme Court until time ran out. Therefore they most certainly did choose our President for us, though the NY Times headline stated specifically otherwise, and it was not until deep into the article (past paragraph 20) that the article clarified that in all vote-counting scenarios except one, Gore had the most votes.
The entire rest of the mainstream media followed in the NY Times Fake-News-Footprint.
Thanks too, Robert Parry, for the reminder that Michael Gordon and Judith Miller were in cahoots with one another (also one can only suppose with Dick Cheney and I. Scooter Libby) in their myriad manipulations of mainstream media.
I’ve always thought Joe Lieberman threw the vote tally to Bush when he went on a night talk show and said (this is not verbatim), “Absolutely, the military ballots should be counted whether or not they were mailed in by the deadline date.” Can’t remember if I picked up on that during that long process, but it was included in a documentary a few years later. Altruism has its failures.
You don’t need to bother about investigations or facts when you are “exceptional” and “indispensable” and “the moral conscience of the world.” What people don’t realise is that Americans are Superior Beings and the sun shines out of their arseholes.
Why would anyone go to such lengths to be apologists for thisdecadent, evil regime? These Shia have no use for their Sunni foes and there is no reason to believe it is anything but as reported.
So classic false flag, it was the first thing I thought of. The rebels tried it before and now they are desperate. They have everything to gain and Assad has everything to lose. The first thing to look for in a criminal investigation is motive.
Of course it could easily be that the Russians or Syrians bombed a rebel warehouse full of chemical agents , unaware of what was inside, a possibility that was initially advanced by the Russians as the cause.
As usual, no not as usual, even more stupid than usual, the Trumpenfuhrer has reversed his position and is contemplating attacking Syria. He is not only stupid and evil he is unstable.
A TRULY POWERFUL PIECE!
THANKS ROBERT.
MY $100 CHECK IS ON THE WAY.
I thought all of Assad’s chemical weapons were destroyed under UN supervision after the last false flag…er…attack?
What this shows is the fundamental weakness in Putin’s position. He has painted himself into a corner in Syria, just as he’s done in Ukraine. Having bombed every other faction, Putin is forced to prop up Assad “to the bitter end”, so to speak and the US can lower the boom on him at any time just be re-igniting the civil war. Putin thus sinks or swims with Assad. More or less literally, in fact. If Assad flls, Putin loses his precious naval base. It’s militarily useless. It doesn’t threaten any country. It doesn’t defend Russia. It couldn’t be defended in wartime.But it’s a prestige object the loss of which would damage his standing with his elderly Soviet-generation supporters back home.
God, I love “Michael Kenny” comments for the very latest Atlantic Council coffee cart scuttlebutt.
From “Putin the author of his own misfortune” to “Putin has painted himself into a corner” to “Putin & Co have fallen into the trap” to “if Putin wins, Israel loses” to “dining with Hitler”, comrade MK never fails to entertain.
Trump met with the King of Jordan but the clowns say only neo-cons and mainstream media. What a joke but one has to make a living I suppose.
“Have the American people come to understand enough about “psychological operations” and “strategic communications” that they will finally show the skepticism that no longer exists in the major U.S. news media?”
As a matter of fact they have. But those people who actually follow events in real time and know the difference between what papers like the Times are reporting and the truth of events, are systematically being. eliminated from commenting on stories put out by these MSM. In just the last two weeks I have been unable to sign into the Asia Times, Newsweek and was banned from the Huffington Post. What has replaced me and others who actually follow events? The overwhelming commentators are spouting the official government line and falling in line with what the MSM has put into print. The Asia Times in particular has recently seem a dramatic upsurge in pro American, pro military , pro empire comments, and totally ignoring the truth. Where is this leading and where will it end?
My question to your readers is. Have any of you been cut from the comments sections lately?
Dan Kuhn: You are right. I noticed the same about Asia Times – upsurge in pro American and pro war comments
“According the US military’s own conclusions, the use of chemical weapons only enhance conventional warfare, but are not suitable for wiping out large swaths of enemy troops. Their effectiveness is such that the Syrian government could not justify their use, thus risk incurring direct Western military intervention.
“Therefore, for what strategic purpose would the Syrian Arab Army deploy chemical agents on a ‘small scale?’ If the Syrian military already holds the initiative with far more effective conventional weapons, what purpose besides inviting the West to intervene militarily, could using quantities of chemical agents far too small to achieve any tactical gain serve?
“Conversely, it is self-explanatory as to why the US, NATO, and their Persian Gulf allies would stage a chemical attack to accuse Syria – to open up the doorway to wider and more direct military confrontation, with US troops already conveniently staged in Syria.
“Wider war is sought against a Damascus poised to achieve victory, endangering the last bastions of foreign-backed terrorists operating in Syrian territory. The US and its allies also seek to frustrate the joint Syrian-Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah coalition that stands poised to reshape the Middle East for the first time in nearly a century based on interests beyond Wall Street, Washington, and London.”
The True Nature of Chemical Warfare – Lessons From the 1980’s Iran-Iraq War
By Tony Cartalucci
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-true-nature-of-chemical-warfare.html
And to the person who said to my words, “we don’t wreck the world for wealth and power” adding the issue of enormity of the US debt, my words were “wreck the world for wealth and power of a few”.
My, Les, you are certainly a one-issue person, perhaps, and had a big cup of deep state propaganda coffee today?
Interesting article on Zero Hedge about BRICS nations, Russia and China particularly, buying gold and working to free their nations from dollar domination, as Qaddafi was doing in Libya when Sarkozy got wind of it and got Clinton involved in overthrowing him. Russia is becoming debt-free very soon, if not already now, they have paid off all of their assumed debt from the old Soviet Union. Russia even wrote off the debts of Cuba and the African nations to the Soviet Union, imagine the US doing that? The US knows China’s world power in holding much of our debt, which is huge and not about to lessen any time soon, because of the constant military expenditures. So, as Zero Hedge suggests, this is all about maintaining dominance of imperialism. Syria is part of this, is incredibly strategic in the Middle East, Israel and US alliance much of this, and in the 1997 document PNAC, Policy for a New American Century, Syria was on the list of countries. Wolfowitz, one of the major authors of PNAC, pushed to overthrow Iraq first of those seven ME countries.
Mr. Parry, I think a review of PNAC might be a good subject for an article on CN.
And thank you, Bill Bodden, for your kind words.
The Truth Behind the Khan Sheikhoun Chemical Attack Revealed
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/04/the-truth-behind-khan-sheikhoun.html
” chemicals, used in yesterday’s gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idleb province, were in fact stored and possessed by the terrorist groups, operating in the area. “
It is necessary to have an inquiry and to obtain some evidence before condemning once again the Assad’s regime in the chemical attack in Syria. Those are the words of François Fillon, candidate to French presidency, who gave an interview today on France Inter, the French national radio station.
Fillon’s position is not only courageous, it is merely logical. But his words were met with agressive contempt and wrath by the French journalists – Bernard Guetta and Patrick Cohen – interviewing him this morning. François Fillon whose position is to maintain a dialogue with Russia and to keep a more balanced and independent French line in international relations is criticized and violently attacked by the medias since the beginning of the electoral campaign. He is accused of having fictitiously employed his wife and members of his family by using public funds allocated to French deputies for discretional use. Those framed accusations have practically destroyed his credibility during the campaign and made him not “audible” in the election race, in favor of Macron, a former counsellor and ministry of Hollande, entirely aligned on American policy.
Telling the truth or simply looking for evidence may cost a job for journalists, and an election for political leaders in a world dominated by mainstream medias.
Incubator babies and WMD’s in Iraq… the legend of 150’000 bodies in the Trepca mines in Kosovo – or the fantastic tale of the poisoned water supply where “smart poison” miraculously sickened only male children of the targeted group … ah the history of Fake News delivered just in time to shape public opinion for another military adventure. The only outrage should be that so few people perceive their intelligence to be insulted by such shamelessly facile & sloppy theater.
The New York times is an Israeli government newspaper, a zionist propaganda rag.
No, I don’t usually watch Bill O’Reilly (gag me!), but tonight I did because of the Susan Rice scandal that’s developing. He’s speaking with Lindsay Graham, and at 20:25 he asks Graham what needs to be done in Syria. His answer:
“Destroy his air power and create a safe zone in Syria where this never happens again.”
O’Reilly reminded him that there are Russian planes on those airstrips and then asks about that. Graham said something like, “I guess they’ll have to move them.”
If Trump moves in Syria, then he is a complete fool! Unbelievable!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJRB6ZHMUOg
Graham then says that this is the time for President Trump to show he’s not like President Obama.
So that’s it. They tell Trump that Obama should have moved years ago against Syria, that because Obama didn’t move, he left a terrible situation. “Oh, President Trump, don’t be like Obama. We know you’ll step up and move against that baby-killer, Assad.”
I can hardly watch. They investigate Trump (who has done nothing wrong) re Russia, the media goes wild accusing Trump of everything (without a shred of evidence). So now Trump is feeling vulnerable, almost guilty (for no reason), and he thinks he must prove that he really is a true patriot, and, why, any patriot would bomb Syria to bits! “See, I’m not in Russia’s pocket, because otherwise I wouldn’t be bombing the airstrips.” And he gets to show that he’s no weak-kneed Obama, he’s better than that.
Take to the bomb shelters, everyone. Incoming!
Get me out of here.
You bring up a aspect of the Russia-Gate hassle that I have been worrying about of recent. Will Trump feel that by his getting tough on Russia that this action will distance him from all or any investigation of his Adminstration being comprised by Putin and his fellow Russians? Wow talk about being painted into a corner.
Listen guys, it’s all very simple:
Obama was Hitler. Assad is Hitler. Putin is Hitler. Trump is Hitler. Iran is Hitler. Hitler has painted himself into a corner. So Hitler has to bomb Hitler to prove that he’s not Hitler. Hail victory!
For more on corner painting Hitlers see comment by Consortium News resident Hitler corner painting expert “Michael Kenny” below.
P.S. Chemical weapons, shocking video, WMD, mushroom cloud, Hitler.
Speaking about times, I was writing a cover for an Indian business magazine on Enron in 2001 around the same time as 9/11. While gathering material for the background I came across The Time Asian and American editions of the same date. The Asian edition had carried a box giving details of Enron’s misdeeds in other countries. To my surprise I found that box was omitted in its US edition.
But other reputed western media is as guilty of supressing facts. If I remember correctly over a year back BBC correspondent Frank Gardiner was reporting about the release of British couple by Somali hijackers. In his report there was a clip where he asked the couple about how they were treated in captivity and both without hesitation had replied that they were treated well. As soon as this clip appeared in the broadcast, it was abruptly withdrawn leaving the anchor aghast. This is the unfortunate aspect of all mainstream media. Once they decide the story is against their country’s ”national interest’ (whatever that may mean), they spare no effort in demonizing the otherside by supressing facts.
Coincidence timing and all leading events would explain to any reasonable human being that it was staged managed and a false flag. Netanyahoo visiting Trump then visiting Putin , Israel admitting for the first time of its nefarious acts in Syria. London Westminster. St Persbourg bombing. Jordanian King visiting Trump. Tillerson saying Assad can stay. Then viola Idlib incidence and Tillerson doing a full 180 . “Russia should reconsider its support for Assad” . Well it doesn’t take much to connect the dots. Tempest fugit and Syrian regime change /partition is running away. Neatnyaoo is implicated in graft and scandals in Israel.Their is a scism occuring in Israel that the Likudniks in Israel r not playing well for the future of Israel or should I say the lack of a future of Israel. Their whole narrative is falling apart since 9/11 to the financial collapse of 2007 the dying Petro=dollar Ponzi scheme . Its all coming undone so these vile elitist need more war and to expand all wars as much as possible. They under estimate the slavic and the Chinese. The Russians have recent memory of Yeltsin , the Chinese will never forget the Boxer wars and the Iranians have the Mosadech fiaso embedded in their DNA> It’s only us stupid western exceptionalist that seem to be living in a parallel universe.
This attack, whoever was responsible, very neatly took the US bombing of civilians in Mosul out of the news (such as it was eve in the US news). Convenient. And all the outraged voices clamoring about “protecting the children” — where was this activism after, oh, say, Sandy Hook? (Maybe we need MORE GUNS in Syria, that’s usually the answer to violence in the US.)
NATO bombs in civilian areas cause “regrettable collateral damage” but any sort of chemical attack, which is ALWAYS instantly judged to be the doing of the Syrian government, constitutes a war crime against humanity? And how convenient again that we instantly had all this camera footage available of suffering Syrians. Where were those cameras in Mosul?
Cui bono? The oldest question in any criminal investigation.
The Times editorial should be titled “A New Level of Dissembling from the Editors”.
When the Nukes Start Flying
When the nuclear missiles start flying
The result will be many millions dying
Planet earth will be all aflame
Nothing will ever be the same
“Our leaders” will be hiding in their safe quarters
Hoping to escape the deadly horrors
Mad men of the earth who caused this fiery hell
“ Honourable” idiots with nothing left to sell
Useless scumbags in a now useless world
Their “victory” dreams are now fulfilled
Now they have nowhere to run or go
The stupid bastards now reap what they sow…
[read much more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2015/02/when-nukes-start-flying.html
Is Trump Going To Go To War? Is he “jumping the gun” as the saying goes? See Link Below:
——————————————————————————–
Donald Trump says he has changed his position on Bashar al-Assad and Syria after chemical weapons attack and has ‘responsibility’ to act
By Barney Henderson, New York Nick Allen
5 April 2017 • 10:48pm
…
Donald Trump has raised the prospect of military action against the Syrian regime after he said that Bashar al-Assad has “crossed a lot of lines” and the US has a “responsibility” to act….
[read more at link below]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/05/donald-trump-says-has-changed-position-bashar-al-assad-syria/
WMDs .. they are called.. none understood WMDS to be the inverse of the truth as expressed by the media.
When the last bunch got angry at the goings on,, they, the so called founding fathers, marched to Philadelphia and wrote up a new constitution dissolved the government that wrote the declaration of Independence, that financed the American revolution, that defeated the British, and that surveyed all of the lands East of the Mississippi and that tolerated democracy in its truest form.. Democracy was just too much for the wealthy ex British colonial Aristocrats, who had been reduced to ordinary everyday Americans. so the so called founders just go rid of the American government that tolerated democracy and replaced it with one that would do as the constitution they wrote demanded. ( a government of the capitalist, by the capitalist, and for the capitalist)
Presto yesterday my Son, you were free… Today you are mine. get to work I need more gas for my jet.
Hey Consortium News, you gonna show how Russia is cracking down on any gay Vlad your hero images? Yeah, suck it up buttercup, your scumbag murderers are getting caught.
The Rainbow Coalition of the Willing?
“Truth Dies in Darkness” is a good description of how the NYT and WaPo now function as corporate propagandists for endless war profiteering, which requires new war income streams.
Meanwhile over at the United Nations Nikki Haley is proving herself as dangerous as her predecessor, Samantha Power and may very likely prove to be worse.
Bill – how in the hell did Nikki Haley EVER get her position? Boggles my mind.
Trump thinks she’s a hottie, that’s how.
The Republicans thought Katherine Harris was hot too after she help them steal the election in Florida through electoral fraud, Remember her? Scary.
What a reading MARATHON! I have just finished reading all the MSM and Coalition Governments’ Reports, and even Secretary of State Tillerson sounding like John Kerry with a lobotomy (President Trump, apparently lost in a Twitter-Storm somewhere, I have not heard anything from, which is, apparently, no problem, since, according to reports, he left some Pentagon Generals in charge of presidenting, or maybe assisting Jared Kushner to, in his absence as he disappeared into the bathroom).
Coming out of my reading marathon now I am feeling somewhat like a New York alligator might swimming in that city’s famous sewers during a diarhia epidemic. Except I don’t think alligators have to think about monsters more scary than themselves, or whether or not it would be suicide to go to war.
I mean, obviously all the reports have to be true, since they wouldn’t let them print it in the newspapers it it wasn’t true, would they?
So we know that Assad is the worst kind of monster of all the kinds of monsters ever yet invented or imagined, that being what all the newspapers, TV-commentators, radio talkers and government spokes-people and even the thinking-tanked coordinated-consensus copra-cerebral contingents are assuring. And we know we really should oughta, you know, gird up our loons, as they say and all go to war, or at least hire some infants to infantry for us against Assad…
But, except, the reports are saying how the monstrously monstrous monster Assad and his hordes of malignant mega-malevolent minions, having got rid of all their chemical weapons some years ago, so they could play the innocents and say, “What chemical weapons? We don’t have any chemical weapons anymore, so how could it be us?”, to be able to play that innocents card and make chemical-weapons attacks, have been sneaking into rebel held territories to manufacture their chemical weapons there!!
I mean, can you believe Assad being a monstrously monstrous monster enough to do that?
Of course you can. If you don’t want to and maybe have trouble, all you have to do is read the newspapers and tune in the news and let them convince you…
So, given that Assad is that monstrous a monster, and that we should declare war (would declaring war give us a legal right to be in Syria fighting against him, after all these years, to finally give us something to answer to all those technicality-freaks who keep fussing about that?), what is to keep Horrible Evil Monster Assad from sneaking into the United States and setting up chemical weapons factories here, just like the MSM News says he has been doing in the parts of Syria under the control of the Da’esh rebels who are at war against him already? And then blowing those factories and their warehouses up here in the USA, just like he did in the Da’esh controlled parts of Syria? Poison gassing us American civilians, in Omaha, or Kansas City, or Miami, or Langley, or L.A. or Seattle, or New York, or D.C.?
I mean, sneaking in and setting up chemical weapons manufacturing plants to make chemical weapons and blowing them up to poison-gas all the civilians in the territory of an enemy… …
That’s a play that would be out of the CIA play-book, if they were able to play that way. which they aren’t, since the most they have managed, at least to date, is screwing up immunization programs to recruit once controllable diseases to re-emerge to massacre civilians…
So we know that Assad is the worst kind of monster of all the kinds of monsters ever yet invented or imagined,…
If we compare Assad’s body counts and refugees created, he falls considerably short of the score racked up by Dubya, Darth Vader and Tony Bliar. That, however, has not hindered our pundits and politicians from adopting self-righteous postures.
Robert Parry’s article and most of the comments above provide more evidence that Martin Luther King, Jr. was right when he predicted the spiritual death of the United States. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee, America.
This iteration of Reichstag will engulf the entire Middle East.
We must stand Demandingly against Empire!
Bombard Congress staffers with calls, tweets
– blah blah blah them for as long as they’ll listen.
Send the message that we’re FED UP with death and destruction.
The obnoxious Lust for Conquest and Control must be assuaged and abated/Terminated.
Or, are we nearer to the rushing vortex whirling descent into wide spread genocide?
Trump is exuberant over Making Deals.
He possibly envisions building condo’s
within all appropriated conquered kingdoms
subdued by hellfire missiles fired from joysticks
aided by suicide-vest wearing self-haters
who reached a point in life where
they purposely choose death over life.
Write and call your Congressman and call your Senator today.. Express your opinion . Do not defer. Trump is not Hitler. He has no charisma , no natural speaking ability, no real backing outside of TV vide-its and Tweet heads . He is nothing if truth be told. The Congress can already smell their own blood in the water in 2018. . It will be difficult for the Republicans to hold the Senate in 2018 regardless if Trump continues in his present direction. He is choosing to follow a 180 degree diametrically opposed path of Obama to ineffectiveness without a single achievement to trumpet. . He can be neutered if he goes any farther with the Regime Change in Syria BS. His business tactics obviously translate poorly to the political arena. XI will be in power at least a decade as will Putin. Trump will be lucky to finish his terrm . I have had it already with him.
You liberals take the cake. I voted for Trump and am very angered by his turnabout on Syria, but do you honestly think things would be better or different with madam warmonger hildabeast? People like you take leave of your senses when a left wing Democrat is president but suddenly rediscover your critical thinking skills when a Republican president is in office.
KenH – yes, where were they when Obama was President? Nowhere to be found.
Trump better pick himself up, I agree. I can’t understand what he is doing, except maybe being overwhelmed by it all. What Trump should have said was, “I am going to wait for a proper investigation before blaming anyone.”
Ken, I agree with you. Left wing has lost all its’ meaning. Being Left wing now means Latte Sipping Liberal living and working in Silicon Valley, or New York near Wall Street Casino or near here in Hollywood taking part in LGBT marches.carrying banners for LGBT rights, non-gender/transgender Restrooms, and so forth. It is a complete corruption of the word Left Wing. Left wing for almost two centuries used to mean a person advocating Unions, Socialist Type economic System, and No Wars. You are right about Obama. In carrying out Neocon agenda of Wars, he outdid Bush, and there was not a murmur from a large majority of so called Democrats. And Blacks were just happy that some body looking like them is occupying the White House. He did nothing for Inner Cities and made all these Wars. Forgetting MLK’s words, the Black elite did not utter a murmur during eight years..
I am progressive who is against this Neoliberal Capitalist World Order, did not vote for Hillary. But let us face it. Trump is not politician. He had good intentions to get out of those expensive and Destructive Wars. He wanted to get along with Russia. I believe he meant it. The Deep State did not expect he will win. And this Cabal got to work immediately discrediting him the day after Election.. Deep State encompasses Wall Street Financial Mafia, Media, Think Tanks inhabited by all those Neocons, MIC,FBI, CIA, NSA and all Intelligence Apparatus. And Congress, with the exception few brace souls, is also in bed with this whole Cabal. Deep State (the whole Cabal) did not give him even one day to govern. He should have been given opportunity to implement some of his agenda – especially Foreign Policy. People could have opposed him on issues with which they did not agree. And it is not going to be pretty. Trump does not have experience and the country is going to be run by Deep State.
I do not agree with much of his agenda, not at all with some of his economic agenda. But Hillary’s Economic and War agenda would have been even worse. He is rich and not well read, not a deep person. I felt that though he is rich, he is some kind of a White Nationalist who feels that the heartland of this country, once a manufacturing power house, has been completely deindustrialized, and it’s people (mainly Whites living in the heart land) have been impoverished compared to what it used to be. And it is true; I lived there for ten years and visit their almost every year. I did not find anything wrong with it (and I am not White). In fact, it was a welcome news in Michigan and the neighboring states – to bring back industrial manufacturing jobs. At least start in that direction.
His economic agenda would help the working and middle class of all colors. Aren’t progressives supposed to want that? At least they say they do but they are only offering socialist/communist solutions that have failed everywhere and have long been discredited. Progressives reject the foundations of America and want to remake it in their image and likeness which is multiracial and socialist with whites preferably occupying the bottom rung as punishment for their alleged sins against everyone. Am I wrong?
Trump is not a white nationalist and it seems just because he doesn’t explicitly hate whites like Obama and most other politicians that that means he’s a supporter of pro-white politics. Remember, Trump said he wanted to be the champion of black America and rebuild the inner cities that they destroyed. Obama never said he wanted to be the champion of the white working class and rebuild the rust belt and Appalachia. I’d have cardiac arrest (and I’m not old) if any politician said they wanted to be the champion of whites.
Ken H I am hardly a liberal. What I am is well informed. Things would be exactly the same only slightly accelerated if Lady Clinton had won the Electoral College instead of The Donald. I voted for Trump, by the way ,because he promised rapprochement with Russia and immigration reform. Period. . Remember when Obama won the Dem Nomination back in 2008 and pivoted to the Right then made Clinton SOS? Then when inaugurated advanced the Clinton Agenda ( Health care, Don’t ask don’t tell) even using some of the very same Clinton-ites like Eric Holder, etc. Well now Trump since being elected has had to walk away from immigration, Obama Care, the tax cut , Forget it, the Infrastructure package (make me laugh) and now it’s Putin is all bad and Regime Change in Syria is on the front burner. This is the Clinton Agenda. Is Trump a Clinton in a $5000 suit with a com over or just a flip flopping phony?. I do not and I do not think that most Americans support Regime Change in Syria under Trump any more than they did under Obama. It’s not because I’m a liberal , it’s because it’s true. He’s trying to change the subject and play the war card because he already blew his Administration by starting off with the Obamacare repeal with nothing to put in it’s place . Now Bannon is marginalized and for better or for worse he was the brains of the outfit. Flynn should have stayed and Trump should have drawn his line in the sand right there. I do not believe he will be able to finish his term now. He f’d it and he already admitted it when he stated that they should have started with tax reform.
My fault. Accept my apology. I know a lot of liberals post on this site and I’ve seen lots of Hillary supporters suddenly acting like peaceniks when war is the same path Hillary would be pursuing and those same people would be cheering like demented sports fans if she were president doing the same thing.
I had high hopes for Trump but in my heart I knew he would let us down. I just didn’t think it would be so soon. I am now beginning to think he was just acting the entire time on the campaign trail acutely aware of what people were seeking in a candidate. Looks like that mask is now slipping.
KenH: Rethinking, you are right. He is a smart and cunning person. But I did think, being a kind of White Nationalist, he wanted reconciliation with Russia, and end those expensive (and brutal) wars. Knowing what Hillary was, I felt good that something good in Foreign Policy may be accomplished.
But it is History. I beginning to think, he may even outdo Hillary in Wars.
The NY Times leads the mainstream media in producing lies and propaganda about the motives and actions of any opponent to the thrust for a wider US empire. It operates in tandem with the US Federal Reserve as booster and cheerleader for the other MSM as they conduct the bi-partisan elite establishment choir. The Parry article exposes the individuals behind the NYT reporting and editorializing. Paul Craig Roberts offered another on his home page yesterday.
The clamor reminds of 03 WMD and 013 Syria gas attack. Another skeptical view comes from News from the Edge of Eternity Networks, with the views of several journalists claiming “false flag” connected to Trump’s escalation of forces in Syria and excuse for a confrontation.
In a piece titled “False flag in Syria? Journalists raise alarms on gas attack” April 5 1017 Sarah Abdullah notes that a Syrian reporter tweeted the attack with chlorine gas would take place 24 hours ahead of the attack itself.
Another reporter, Partisan Girl, says this tweet “shows clear foreknowledge” of the attack by the rebels.
Partisan Girl also reports the White Helmets, propagandists, received sarin body protection suits a month ago.
As earlier pointed out in Stephen’s link to Clearing House another issue is how (from photos) rescuers could be handling the bodies without protection suits and bare hands, which is inconsistent with the damage nerve gas does on follow-up contact to victims.
Other factors are that Syria does not have chemical weapons any longer, this verified by Secretary Kerry.
Also the question who benefits should be asked, the WHY at this time question.
If it was an accidental bombing is another possibility on stored chemical weapons coming from Turkey to the rebels.
All these questions indicate that, only a day or so later from the attack, careful investigation is needed before all the jumping to conclusions Assad did it, which is ubiquitous in most news on the event.
I have a headache, ltr, from this. These are corrupt, degenerate beings in the deep state in control including the fourth estate, and I begin to wonder about the “evil alien hypothesis” getting hordes of humans causing carnage on earth! Well, you can call the White House tomorrow and complain that Trump promised to get out of these wars, and how can he rush to judgement so fast? 202-456-1111. Seems they answer with not a long wait, a few minutes only.
I am so, so discouraged. There is no evidence as to what happened, but ever important person says he or she knows and that is all that matters.
Clearly engineered to get Congressional Support for escalation and regime change in Syria. Currently actions in Syria are limited to fighting ISIS under the legislation giving the President broad authority to take action in any country against terrorists. I guess now we know how that 54 billion will be spent, some of it anyways.
ISIS is still in Syria, Syria is trying to pick up the pieces of its wrecked country. The Middle East countries have been manipulated since the end of World War I by the colonial powers, FobosDeimos! Who are we of this country to tell other cultures how to live their lives? We know nothing except what is reported, all too easily manipulated. These people have different religions with even sects within those, and the leaders have quite the time keeping them together. The Syrians supported Assad in elections a few years ago, and Eva Bartlett on 21st Century Wire has some good interviews, an English woman who went to Syria to investigate for herself, she says Syrians are trying hard to put their lives together after this wreckage, and her words are well worth reading. She knows the Assads. Who says there is a perfect leader?Look at what we get over here, and not just Trump but every one of them! This country is behind more mayhem than all the other countries put together. The fingerprints of a false flag are here, the videos of White Helmets attending to victims without even protective gear which should be used in a chemical attack. It is shameful, and there has been many a time I wished I had been born in a different country, but what with how the US empire has manipulated the world and indeed wrecked much of it for wealth and power of a few, where can one go? I think I am considering learning Russian. I shake my head at what this nation has become! Thank you, too, Joe, for calling the White House. I am calling again tomorrow.
Shortly after 9/11 General Wesley Clarke publicly declared that the Pentagon had plans to attack Syria, Iraq , Iran, Sudan , Somailia, Lebanon, and Lybia.
Jessica: Thank you. You have said it all in poignant words.
It is hard to get away from it, the TV going on in the house most of the time – CNN, MSNBC, Russia Meddling , Russia Threat. . .I go to the Library, and Ocean close by here, stop for coffee, come back, and it PBS news hour going on – Judy Wudroff; again Russia, Russia Threat . . . and now Syria Sarin Gas. And all the Pundits they have on TV chanting the same thing. I go to the study and close the door. It gets to one’s nerves. But for the public (in our house too), it is news, it is James Bond type entertainment, and all that. But for People far away in those unfortunate lands, it is life and death question.
It is going on almost for a year now – this constant pouring out of Garbage, just about all the TV networks. I feel sometimes that I am living in a some kind of Lunatic Asylum.
Turn off the TV. Then you need only hear lunatics when you look for the news.
We don’t wreck the world for wealth and power. Our wars have indebted us horribly and not enriched us in any way. We are now 20 trillion dollars in debt. Israel, through their lavishly funded domestic lobby, has significant influence on our foreign policy and when we go to war and who we go to war with. The deposition of Assad is an important goal of Israel and it’s no coincidence that false flag events like this chemical attack happened since they were designed to knock the U.S. off the fence and back into the regime change game.
A story recently published in the UK:
www*alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/4/5/trump-turns-against-assad-after-chemical-attack-atrocity-
Compare that with this next one:
“Danger Looms As Trump Outsources Military Decisions To Pentagon”
Assad is accused by Trump of killing 86 civilians, but Trump gave his very own generals permission to kill 200 civilians. And Assad is the bad guy?
www*shadowproof.com/2017/04/05/danger-looms-trump-outsources-military-decisions-pentagon/
Killing civilians is a very bad thing to do, but as a relative of mine used to say, Trump seems to be blind in one eye and can’t see very well out of the other one.
The way things are trending now recalls a “joke” following the 1964 election.
They told me that if I voted for Goldwater we’d end up in a land war in Asia.
They were right – I voted for Goldwater, and, sure enough, we ended-up in a land war in Asia.
Is it going to turn out that the election of Trump will give us Hillary after all?
Zachary, good post: where was Trump’s response to the 200 US civilian deaths in Mosul as “an affront to humanity”? And your last question has me reconsidering “the lesser evil” arguments.
The number dead in Mosul has been revised upward to “almost 300” per the Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-mosul-casualties-20170405-story.html
Zachary – “Is it going to turn out that the election of Trump will give us Hillary after all?” Oh, say it isn’t so! This is turning into a nightmare. What is going on with Trump?
Or is their real plan to foment the war to end all civilisation on the planet?
Their war is for the cause of Greater Israel, Realist.
Connie Rice articulated it precisely in her statement in 2006, “What we see now are the birth pangs of a new Middle East”.
The plan is documented here: A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
Following is a report prepared by The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies’ “Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000.” The main substantive ideas in this paper emerge from a discussion in which prominent opinion makers, including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser participated. The report, entitled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” is the framework for a series of follow-up reports on strategy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1438.htm
Well it seems like, it has begun, Finally. U.K., France did not wait for even a few hours to announce that they are on board. I wonder if they are already planning to entertain our population again with the “Shock and Awe”, this time staged over the ancient Historic City of Damascus. There can’t be better place than that !.
I remember very well back that day in 2003, in the Evening when the News Peddlers on TV were showing this Fireworks Show. Somewhat perturbed I went for a walk in the neighborhood. There was cheering and shouting coming out of the windows of many homes. People here in Southern California, in this beautiful climate, are always looking for a party, some entertainment, Super Sundays. The population, schooled in Wars and Violence, has utterly lost all human sensitivity to think and feel that there are Mothers, Fathers, and Children huddled in their basements (not many homes have basements it Baghdad), terrified and scared, with this rain of very Lethal Destructive Power falling over their homes.
The rest of the World knows that Syria did not do it. Western Syria has almost been cleared of these various Armed Terrorist Fraternities, we (in the West) have created there. Syria had no incentive to do it.
Who did it! And all these theories, connecting dots, who said and what and when. What to say, that is what one can expect from the Technologically Advanced Societies. If we are subjected to the “Shock and Awe” treatment, we will know better.
M.K. Bhadrakumar, the retired Indian Diplomat, who writes for Asia times, wrote in his blog a week or two ago; that this two faction fight going on in Washington is a comforting news for The Developing World. They (the unfortunate people who had the bad luck to be born in those countries) will get some rest. The longer it goes, better it is for these countries. But it did not last long. Donald Trump is on board. And it is not a good news for the people beyond the borders of U.S. and The West, who are not submitting to The Western World’s Will.
Dave – “Syria had no incentive to do it.” No, but the West did, didn’t they? Syria and Russia were getting the upper hand. Can’t have that now, can we?
The West has gone completely insane. Trump better open his eyes!
revolution, you are right that it was the West which ultimately organised this false flag on behalf of Israel, not the “rebels”. But, you are wrong that Trump needs to open his eyes, maybe some of us do.
The Washington establishment and its media propagandists are determined to continue fighting this war in spite of what its president says or desires to see implemented.
The fools had better stop to reflect upon what they really wish for. Let’s say they succeed in driving Assad from power. Who fills the vacuum? Probably the immoderate headchoppers al Nusra, Daesh, ISIS or one of the other pseudonyms for al Qaeda. What happens? Shiites, Christians and other religious minorities become immediate targets of genocide. Millions of refugees flee into Europe or die in the attempt. A new faction of rebels made up of these unfortunate targets of Wahabist Islam arises, and with outside assistance, probably from Iran and Lebanon and maybe from Russia, and continues the civil war over the course of years and maybe decades. Maybe someone becomes desperate and acquires and triggers a nuke. Maybe they turn their attention towards the major instigator of most of the conflict in the Middle East: Israel. And, Israel starts nuking factions it wishes to suppress in its god-inspired infinite wisdom. If the Kurds carve out their own state as a consequence of Assad’s overthrow, expect there to be a new major war involving the Turks vs the Kurds.
Does Washington think any of these things through? Or is their real plan to foment the war to end all civilisation on the planet? Thanks, Obama. Thanks, Hillary. Thanks, “Mainstream Media” for facilitating chaos at every turn over potential peace, even to the point of neutering the elected president with your deceits and propaganda.
Yes, it seems most likely that nukes under control of some power will be planted in Israel and the US, so that the hostile power can detonate them when circumstances suggest some other source. Then the real cause can be revealed a generation later, after changes of government all around. This may be the simplest form of blowback on these sources of trouble in the ME, a welcome lesson to troublemakers, that ultimately military bullying has a price. It might well be the healthiest outcome of the US wars of corruption by Israel.
I would suggest that they use captured or simulated US or Israeli weapons or materials thereof, so that tests lead nowhere, and chose the circumstances very carefully for great ambiguity of sources. Also would suggest that they take out the centers of corruption of democracy.
Does Washington think any of these things through?
NO
People here keep asking the same questions over and over, for example: “Does Washington think any of these things through?”
Of course they do, the more chaos, the more sales of “security” which means more political power and more money. Think of the US Establishment as a gambling house which never loses, no matter which game is being played. The worse it is, the better it is. Until it all blows up into mushroom clouds.
You still appear to believe in Trump, maybe you need to read this: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-06/report-bannon-refers-jared-kushner-cuck-and-globalist
We were all just too keen to believe in his “change”, despite all the signs that he is just another Ziocon puppet.
Well the first false flag with Obama did not work. They may well have thought, “Let’s try again, this time with Trump.”
Please do not trust anyone in the US government, military, or intelligence “community”, or in main stream media. Doing so will only help get us all in a lot of really bad trouble.
That’s a very good way to urge others to be more careful.
Mr. Parry threw me for a loop with “Michael B. Gordon” – the middle initial ought to be “R”.
But once I was tracking down the correct guy, I verified that the man is everywhere described as a lying P.O.S.
Example:
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/aluminum-neoconservative-thinktank/
One wonders why Judith Miller got the ax when this equally guilty shill for Holy Israel continues to prosper – and to lie.
One wonders why Judith Miller got the ax when this equally guilty shill for Holy Israel continues to prosper – and to lie.
Perhaps a little gender bias tilted the scales a little more against the scurrillous Ms. Miller. As for her accomplice – the same or similar reasons all the other presstitutes continue to prosper.
Miller got the ax because she refused to admit she had done anything wrong and/or failed to exercise normal caution … I’ve always thought that her editor (Bill Keller) was at least equally to blame. He allowed her to sole-source many articles to the same cadre of people, people she had socialized with for years. My impression was that she felt a deep personal commitment to getting rid of Saddam after years of hanging out with Iraqi ex-pats like Chalabbi. She was willing to “defiantly” take the fall by refusing to admit error … (I never thought she was impressively bright)
Peacemakers around the Earth must “smell the coffee” and rise up ferociously – now – to stop the lying psychopaths intent on initiating World War III. Rise up for the sake of your family, friends, humanity and future generations.
Thank You so much for your firm grasp on truth, Mr. Parry.
Reviving the ‘Chemical Weapons’ Lie: New US-UK Calls for Regime Change, Military Attack Against Syria
By Patrick Henningsen
Global Research, April 05, 2017
(excerpt)
Here it comes again. As the enemies of peace continue to pressure a new US President into deeper war commitments overseas, and as Washington’s Deep State works relentlessly opposing Russian moves in Syria at every turn, the war drums have started again – beating harder than ever now, clamouring for a new US-led attack on Syria. This morning we saw the familiar theme emerge, and just in time to provide a convenient backdrop to this week’s Brussels’ ‘Peace Talks’ and conference on “Syria’s Future”.
The US-led ‘Coalition’ prepares to make its end-run into Syria to ‘Retake Raqqa,’ and impose its Safe Zones in order to partition Syria, more media demonization of the Syrian government appears to be needed by the West.
On cue, the multi-billion dollar US and UK media machines sprung into overdrive this morning over reports based primarily from their own ‘activist’ media outlets. Aleppo Media Center and others embedded in the Al Nusra-dominated terrorist stronghold of Idlib, Syria, alongside their media counterpart the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) funded by the UK and EU, are all now claiming that the Syrian and Russian Airforces have launched a chemical weapons airstrike killing civilians in Idlib.
In their report today entitled, “Syria conflict: ‘Chemical attack’ in Idlib kills 58”, the BBC is also alleging in their report that Sarin gas was used.
The alleged “chemical airstrikes” are said to have taken place in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, about 50km south of the city of Idlib.
Predictably, the BBC and other similar reports by CNN, have triggered a wave of ‘consensus condemnation’ and indignation by the usual voices, the UN’s Staffan de Mistura, Francois Hollande, and, of course, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who said that President Bashar al-Assad “would be guilty of a war crime” if it somehow be proven that his ‘regime’ was responsible.
“Bombing your own civilians with chemical weapons is unquestionably a war crime and they must be held to account,” he said (reported by BBC).
But is the mainstream media’s version of events what actually happened?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/reviving-the-chemical-weapons-lie-new-us-uk-calls-for-regime-change-military-attack-against-syria/5583491
Someone makes a statement that that is what others want to hear, they all begin repeating it and soon it is considered an indisputable fact that inflames the mob. Sort of like what happened join Mississippi a few years back when a woman claimed Emmet Till made a pass t her. Word got around, a mob was formed demanding retribution and Emmet Till was beaten and murdered. Recently the woman qadmitted she had lied. But the dirty work had been accomplished.
US nation is a mob.
It is a myth Obama stopped the Syria war in 2013. It was disgusted Americans phoning their representatives and a public outcry here in Britain that led to the vote failing in the Houses of Parliament. Left and right antiwar groups need to stand shoulder to shoulder.
Correct lack of support for O’s neocon agenda stopped O and possibly Russia shooting down the first Missile O launched ( Lebanese newspaper).
I agree that we all should be very skeptical about claims made by those responsible for unleashing hell in Syria in 2011, with their zombie calls of “Assad must go” and their support for Al Nusra and IS. However, Robert Parry seems to remain absolutely adamant that the Syrian Government can do no wrong, and that there is absolutely no chance that Assad may be guilty of using chemical weapons. I find particularly troubling and hard to believe the official Russian version that CONFIRMS the SAA attack in that specific location where so many civilians were killed in horrible circumstances (including some 20 children), but then claims that the Syrian airplanes somehow happened to hit a chemicsl weapons storage facility that was operated by ISIS. It all sounds too far-fetched. And if true, we should at least condemn Syria for carrying out an attack in an area where so.many civilians could be killed, just as we do when the US blows up innocent civilians and claims “collateral damage” nonsense. I don’t see Parry even conceding the slightest chance that Assad might have screwed up and I am not comfortable with that.
This is the link to the report by RT citing Russia’s MoD: https://www.rt.com/news/383522-syria-idlib-warehouse-strike-chemical/
An ammo dump is a military target, by any laws of war. Failure of a combatant force to clear civilians under its control from proximity to military targets is a war crime, co-equal to using civilians as “human shields” in combat.
I appreciate what your saying FobosDeimos, but should not the question be, why did the rebels have chemical weapons stored in that building in the first place? I can only picture that if an American fighter jet bombed a chemical weapons warehouse that the burden would be put on the enemy who had stored these weapons of mass destruction. So with all due respect shouldn’t we be digging down on this aspect of this event? I mean if Assad is that bad of a leader, then we will in due time find other things to criticize him over. No, my friend this false flag has meanings that I’m afraid will only take us to a place that we won’t like once we get there.
Well, Parry does not even address the official Russian announcement and its implications. He just rules out any possible wrongdoing or mistake on the part of Syria. Where is his well earned reputation for inquisitorial reporting?
FobosDeimos if Robert Parry wrote like you suggest he should, then Parry would be contradicting his opinion of the facts all over the place. The value to reading Robert Parry is due to his investigative style of journalism, plus his diverse view he gives with his reporting puts Parry in a unique place. Robert Parry becomes an oasis in a desert of slanted Neocon CIA written reviews. At least with Parry a reader hears a different side that you won’t find inside our ‘Owned Media Corporatocracy’ that hovers over us citizens constantly. I also believe Robert Parry writes it as he sees it. Parry always goes back to the core of how an event unfolded, and then works his way out with the story to where it currently is.
Also, someone please tell me what those chemical weapons were being warehoused where they were, and who’s WMD’s was it?
First, FobosDeimos persistently misrepresents the report by Robert Parry. The commenter’s claim that Parry “just rules out any possible wrongdoing or mistake on the part of Syria” is false on its face.
Second, the 4 April 2017 statement by the Russian Ministry of Defence acknowledged that the Syrian Air Force has targeted an ammunition depot east of the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Russian MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the warehouse was used to both produce and store toxic gas shells used by militant factions. Parry’s article does not mention the Russian MoD statement, but does acknowledge that a “possible scenario was that Syrian warplanes bombed a rebel weapons depot where the poison gas was stored, causing the containers to rupture”.
Thus FobosDeimos’s declaration that Parry is “absolutely adamant that the Syrian Government can do no wrong” is false.
What FobosDeimos is clearly “not comfortable” with are the facts.
I don’t think this sweeping conclusion is fair to Fobos because he’s expressing skepticism. However, Fobos, Robert Parry does say this:
“None of this means the Assad forces are innocent, but a serious investigation ascertains the facts and then reaches a conclusion, not the other way round.”
His point is let’s not rush to judgment, as usual. Also, as Stephen points out above, with the link to Clearing House, there’s plenty to be suspicious about on this incident before leaping to conclusions. I believe this cautioning is Robert’s main emphasis here.
Thank you D5-5. The problem with the Russian official statement is that if Syria deliberately bombed a chemical weapons site which is in the vicinity of civilians, the Syrian attack must be condemned for being reckless. Of course it would be equally outrageous for ISIS to have chemical weapons, but you can’t just blow up an arsenal like that without any regard for the consequences. There is no such thing as “good” collateral damage, I think.
Fobos, I agree with your view on irresponsible bombing and collateral damage. I have also read the possibility (in my post below referencing a website titled News from the Edge of Eternity Networks) the chemical weapons were brought in, and quite possibly within the last month, from Turkey to the rebels, which would make the bombing ignorant of the existence of the stored bombs. Still, tho, if this bombing would have killed innocent citizens it’s horrific, but also typical of what Assad is accused of again and again. My point here is only to suggest we question further.
Self-righteous declarations about what “must be condemned” have been peddled by the terrorist-supporting governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, NATO-member Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and Western mainstream media ever since the terrorist assault on Syria began in 2011.
The state sponsors of terrorism in Syria have repeatedly demonstrated that they have absolutely no interest in serious, unbiased investigation of “incidents” involving their proxy forces.
There is a big difference between “expressing skepticism” and repeatedly making false claims. FobosDeimos has indulged in the latter.
Seems to me the issue here is this specific comment on this specific article, not the general record of a commentator, which would require a lot of support. I do not have this impression of Fobos myself, so your generalization does not leave me convinced. I am also aware of your many strong contributions to this forum and general tendency to be civil, so I am surprised and bewildered by this attack you’re engaging in.
D-5, I addressed specific comments by FobosDeimos that display a pattern of misrepresentation of Parry’s report concerning the latest rush to judgement in Syria. If you view that as an “attack” then you are indeed bewildered.
Abe, now you’re attacking me. But I won’t argue with you further, and instead wish both you and Fobos a good evening.
One of these things is not like the other
https://thetruthspeakerdotco1.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/eliot-higgins-internet-joke.jpg
This is about as transparent a false-flag as you’re ever likely to see. The Syria lies are on a par with the tear-jerking incubator-baby crap in Iraq.
What’s far-fetched to me is the notion that the average American has measurable brain electrical activity of any kind , much less a measurable IQ. There’s a story that will need to be confirmed with some hard , reliable data before I buy in.
FobosDeimos-
The demonization of Assad, just like that of Putin, is largely contrived. If you read his speeches and interviews you get a much better sense of the man than you do from the MSM. Just like Putin, he enjoys majority support inside his own country. If you haven’t already seen this, you should check out Eva Bartlett. It’s a bit dated, but still relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VNQGsiP8M
Yeah, we are US so let us turn the logic around. Assad can do no wrong according to Robert Parry, but this cheap little shit FobosDeimos can bull about US sending troops into a sovereign country, openly training and financing terrorists renamed “moderate rebels”, conducting bombings without anybody’s but Israel’s permission and so on.
When Syrian military bombs a terrorists’ munitions factory, the Syrian military must know everything that the factory manufactures, but US airforce can bomb a mosque and kill hundreds of worshippers without checking what was inside a mosque. All because US is the Exceptional (shit) nation.
He gives you a right to even talk about Syria, you scumbag?
certainly this is the cautious voice of real journalism
Great article.
Once again the progressives are proving indistinguishable from the neocons when it comes to Russia – and Syria.
It is astonishing that this script is played over and over and it still works-so why change it.
To state the obvious, whenever the odious Michael gordon is involved, one can be sure that a false flag is being cranked up.
And now, the trump admin is jumping on without hesitation or investigation-I’m not sure if haley actually believes the bull that she is spewing or she is still using the staff of Samantha power, but it prob does not matter, result is the same. To say that this is beyond depressing just does not get there for me. The big con by the neo cons and their lap dogs and puppets in the admin seems to be working very well.
The only real problem in this scenario, and it is indeed a serious problem, is that the Russians are not going to roll over and go along with it. Hope is not a strategy but that is all we have at the moment-we hope that someone somewhere in the admin will consider the consequences of this obvious and insane false flag.
It is, unfortunately, becoming increasingly clearer that the US deep state actually wants a war; indeed it could be argued, as it is by John Pilger, that this war has already begun, although is still in its early stages. Provocation follows provocation which ultimately means that Russia, like China is basically left with two options: surrender of fight. This is an insanely dangerous policy concocted by bona fide neo-con lunatics who now effectively control US foreign policy.
I think it was JFK who once said of situations such as these ” … great powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.” Sadly this is exactly what the neocons want and this is where the policy is ineluctably leading.
How many times are the slimebuckets that are running this country and their toys in the press
going to try to pull this stunt is my only question.
It was not hard to predict as I did what “OUR” ho ho ho media were going to do with this incident
no matter what it’s source was.
I have to insist that this is all INTENTIONAL. It’s not sloppy news technique. And so the angry questions
we should be asking WHO DID THIS…&…WHO AUTHORIZED THESE STORIES? must now be asked.
it seems to me.
Dennis Morrisseau
US Army Officer [Vietnam era] ANTI-WAR
–FOR TRUMP–
Lieutenant Morrisseau’s Rebellion
FIRECONGRESS.org
Second Vermont Republic
POB 177, W. Pawlet, VT USA 05775
[email protected]
802 645 9727
Yes, clearly the warmongering Israel/MIC/Saudi media were hoping for an incident to lie about, to distract from the US killing 300 at a mosque in Mosul, and the dissonant terror bombing in the St. Pete subway.
The earlier Sarin incident spoiled such false-flag opportunities. Obviously Assad would not want Syrian forces to use such weapons; RT says this was a stockpile of rebel weapons; and assuming that one side is guilty before investigation is mere propaganda.
The only good news is that the commercial media have once again made complete fools of themselves, and we can be certain that the US & NATO will not be the source of any truth that emerges later.
Bellingcat is back with a vengeance, busily “verifying” rushes to judgement concerning the recent chemical attack in Syria.
The latest Bellingcat shenanigans include more dramatic claims from the reanimated corpse of its darling self-appointed chemical weapons “expert” Dan Kaszeta. Be on the lookout for mainstream media reports citing this muttering zombie.
Theodore A. Postol, Professor of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, has refuted Bellingcat claims about the 2013 chemical weapons attack at Ghouta.
Here is Professor Postol’s report concerning published statements in the media made by Dan Kaszeta
https://cryptome.org/2014/08/postol-debunks-kaszeta.pdf
There they go again:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/05/chemical-realities-russias-khan-sheikhoun-chemical-warehouse-attack-claims/
Bellingcat, “the home of online investigations,” is positioning itself as an “independent” resource for fake news allegations of Syrian use of nerve gas.
London-based Dan Kaszeta, Elliot Higgin’s long-time collaborator from the Brown Moses blog days, is Bellingcat’s resident CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) “expert”.
Kaszeta has fighting the truth with “alternative facts”, fake news and imaginary “chemical realities” since 2013.
There they go again:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/05/chemical-realities-russias-khan-sheikhoun-chemical-warehouse-attack-claims/
Bellingcat, “the home of online investigations,” is positioning itself as an “independent” resource for fake news allegations of Syrian use of nerve gas.
London-based Dan Kaszeta, Elliot Higgin’s long-time collaborator from the Brown Moses blog days, is Bellingcat’s resident CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) “expert”.
Kaszeta has fighting the truth with “alternative facts”, fake news and imaginary “chemical realities” since 2013.
All of Dan Kaszeta’s claims regarding the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack were found to be either incorrect or irrelevant.
Detailed rebuttal of Kaszeta’s claims:
http://whoghouta.blogspot.com/2013/11/response-to-dan-kaszetas-chemical.html
Accurate analysis of all primary and secondary evidence relating to the 21 August 2013 chemical attack at Ghouta indicate it was carried out by opposition forces. According to the most likely scenario, they used looted incendiary rockets, refilled them with sarin they manufactured themselves, and launched them from a rebel-held territory 2 km north of Zamalka.
As if on cue, the BBC gives Dan Kaszeta a major media platform
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39489998
NPR gives Dan Kaszeta a mainstream media platform
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/05/522726068/experts-suspect-nerve-agent-was-used-in-syrian-attack
German national daily newspaper Die Welt (“The World”) online cites “Dan Kaszeta auf Bellingcat, das inzwischen zu einer wichtigen Ressource für den Konflikt in Syrien und auch in der Ukraine” (“Dan Kaszeta at Bellingcat, which has now become an important resource for the conflict in Syria and also in the Ukraine”)
https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article163453507/Die-fast-unmoegliche-Suche-nach-der-Wahrheit.html
Bellingcat, “the home of online investigations,” has been positioned as a primary “independent” resource for the latest fake news allegations of nerve gas use in Syria.
Elliot Higgin’s long-time collaborator from the Brown Moses blog days, Dan Kaszeta serves as Bellingcat’s resident CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) “expert”.
Kaszeta has been fighting the truth with “alternative facts”, fake news and imaginary “chemical realities” since 2013.
Here they go again:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/05/chemical-realities-russias-khan-sheikhoun-chemical-warehouse-attack-claims/
Dan Kaszeta passes gas online at Time
http://time.com/4727073/idlib-chemical-attack-sarin-gas-pralidoxime/
Business Insider features Bellingcat “experts” Dan Kaszeta and Eliot Higgins
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-explanation-for-syria-chemical-weapons-attack-2017-4
Public Radio International (PRI) gives Eliot Higgins a platform
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-04-04/shocking-video-shows-alleged-chemical-attack-syria-will-it-have-impact
PRI competes with National Public Radio, American Public Media and the Public Radio Exchange to provide programming to public radio stations. PRI is the “managing partner” of American Public Radio, which provides satellite radio programing via Sirius XM Radio. APR is composed of PRI, Chicago Public Radio, WGBH in Boston, and WNYC in New York City.
UK Guardian online gives Dan Kaszeta a platform
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/syria-chemical-weapons-attack-what-we-know-khan-sheikhun
This could very well be a false flag crime to make Assad look bad and to condition the American people into accepting U.S. military aggression into Syria. Unfortunately, only a minority of Americans were aware that the allegations against Assad for a previous sarin attack didn’t hold up, and for most Americans that was beyond the capacity of their historical memories.
Bill while riding in my car, and having our local talk radio on it was disheartening for how many callers were calling in demanding America go to war with Assad over this suspect sarin gas attack.
The good news was that the talk show hose Chris Moore wasn’t taking their side, but instead Mr Moore sounded like one of us who comment on this site. Chris Moore is sitting in until Thursday between the hours of 12 and 3 pm. Mr Moore has a regular time slot on Sunday’s between 4 and 9 pm. You could stream his talk show by going to KDKA 1020 and listen for yourself. Chris Moore is one hell of a talk show host, because he allows the callers in to speak as long as it takes to get their thought through, and with that Mr Moore is a gentleman and a great radio person to have running a talk show. Moore is pretty liberal, and even though, or better yet especially since he fought in Vietnam he hates all war. I’m telling you Moore sounds like us here on this comment board. I think he even had Robert Parry on as a guest once or twice, besides people like Paul Craig Roberts, and others.
Also am I missing something here, but if the Syrian Air Force hit a building housing these chemical weapons then shouldn’t the question be, who’s chemical weapons were they? I’ll have to go read more about this, but is it possible these chemical weapons were owned by the rebels? If so, then why not go after the rebels for warehousing such deadly weapons? And why would the rebels have chemical weapons in the first place? Questions, questions, and more questions, yet Americans want to go blow up things and cause more death even before we confirm what actually happened.
Bill and Joe, you would think after all the false flag problems the Public would start with skepticism instead of enthusiastic support on automatic.
Instead we might be asking how do recent events fit together, as with:
*US build up in Syria to what we now understand is for “autonomous zones” (also called “safe zones” more euphemistically) in which the design is to keep Assad from unifying the country via “Balkanizing” Syria;
*Tillerson piously declares “it’s up to the Syrian people” (with the Assad must go mantra abandoned);
*this is followed by a self-righteous Haley exclaiming the US will not accept Assad leadership, as though she and the US have the right to dictate to another country who should be its leader;
*now this nerve gas incident with the immediate feet first leaping to assign guilt to Assad before any investigation whatever.
Instead of fury, It’s time to hurry up and wait, or hasten slowly.
It’s funny you should bring up the American short term memory loss syndrome. Around our house, and around our friends when appropriate I have been saying, how I’ll wait it out too see what evolves, because for way too many times in the pass I have allowed our media to manipulate my emotions, and for all those times in the past where our ‘Owned Media’ could I bought what they were selling. You know like yeah let’s bomb Afghanistan, like yeah go ahead and bomb Iraq, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for every time we bit the deceitful tasting bait. I’m tired of being played the fool. Worst yet I regret that good innocent lives were loss with every yeah let’s get them we rallied behind encouraging these warmongers on to. We Americans are constantly being played, and it’s time we put a stop to this manipulation of the masses. If it starts with one, then count me as one….& I’m in!
Joe: Chris Moore sounds like an exception among the radio talk show hosts. I read somewhere today that Turkey might have supplied “our moderates” with the chemical weapons.
Chris Moore is the only talk show host I can bear. Like I said you could listen using the Internet KDKA 1020. Moore’s regular time slot is Sunday 4 to 9 pm, but his subbing in tomorrow between 12 & 3 pm. Again he sounds like this comment board.
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on,” the sagacious Mark Twain declared. And that was almost a century before Josef Goebbels, cable television, the “internets” and the perpetual propaganda/marketing Mighty Wurlitzer.
Or to paraphrase Winston Churchill: In our time the precious truth is being overwhelmed by its bodyguard of lies.
So what else is new???
For years, I have been uneasy with the term MSM, because, when it comes to having an equal opportunity to the First Amendment Right of Free Speech, clearly it’s the rich white male who is the only person that is afforded the privilege to speak. The term “Owner Media” in my opinion, is a much more accurate description to – what we are being sold..
Owner Media vs Public Airwaves:
The Communications Act Of 1934, loosely interpreted, stated 3 simple things:
1 – The airwaves belong to the people.
2 – The networks may be privately owned. .. But all networks will be governed by the people through the FCC.
3 – What is broadcast across the peoples air space must be deemed “Good & Necessary” for the Public.
I read a report a few years ago that the American Psychiatric Association had done about television. It reported that the average 18 year old has witnessed over 40,000 violent murders, and over 200,000 violent deaths on television.
.. (.. and then, I wondered, just many returning fallen soldiers has the average 18 year old has witnessed on tv?)
I ‘am reminded of an excerpted quote that Henry Wallace wrote in a NYT article titled: “The Danger of American Fascism” April 9th, 1944:
~ “.. It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship. What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us..” ~
Our society recognizes a distinction between crime and violent crime. Perennial war perpetuated on our airwaves with unsubstantiated facts, is the most violent of crimes, and, should never have any access to impunity..
After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street – footprints dressed in red
.. And the wind whispers Mary
A broom is drearily sweeping up the broken pieces – of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
.. And the wind, it cries Mary
The traffic lights, they turn, uh, blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags down stream
Cause the life that it lived, is dead
.. And the wind screams Mary
And, will the wind ever remember – the names it has blown in the past?
And with it’s crutch, its old age and its wisdom – it whispers,
“No, this will be the last”
.. And the wind cries Mary
~ Jimi Hendrix; 1967
cmp great comment. I love Jimi Hendrix music. I will also use, if I don’t forget, to label our media as ‘Owner Media’. I wish I could think of another way to describe the Deep State because that term in my mind has been so over used to the point that I’m afraid it doesn’t describe anything anymore. There again if we all use these terms, and we all understand what we mean when using them, then I guess it’s all alright then to continue using these terms when writing to each other. In any regard your post commenting on the FCC and Henry Wallace was by far great knowledge to gain, and appreciated by me for what you taught me today.
Hi Joe! – As you know, Jimi’s military background had a profound impact on him. And, he also moved to London in late 66. So, when I interpret these lyrics, it is rooted in these foundations. .. But, what a brilliant piece of poetry from a young 24-25 year old man.
I know exactly what you are saying. A friend of mine recently turned me on to Peter Dale Scott, and he has gone a long way to broadening my education and thoughts of the term “Deep State.” .. And, even Peter D.S., he technically defines it as a moving system of variables that changes over time. My thoughts had simply been the un-elected, ever growing surveillance state. But, as you know, P.D.S. goes way beyond this – to include Wall St, Think Tanks, Appointee’s (..Goldman..), Big Donators, etc.. And, I believe that he is right.
I was doing some research a few days ago, on Truman and his statements after JFK’s assassination. And, I came across a brilliant article from Ray McGovern that was posted on this site about (3+1/2) years ago. .. And, you were there too, with your genius and your sincere good will contributions (..smile..). This is really a great Community here, with a tremendous depth of experience, knowledge and respect for fellow citizens. Thanks Again Joe!
Thank you cmp. Excellent comment. I first learned of Henry Wallace through Oliver Stone’s Untold History of The United States. I am amazed that his (Wallace) views aren’t better known. Had he not been replaced as FDR’s VP by Harry Truman; we might occupy a very different world. My take is that probably Elanor (FDR’s better side) and Henry Wallace represented the heart of the New Deal and some of that was lost with Harry Truman (the 1944 equivalent of our DNC)?
Hi Bob! – You are so right about Henry! There is a book that was written back in 1976 with the name of “Henry Wallace, Harry Truman. and the Cold War” by Richard J. Waltonby. In his book, he describes the rise of the Progressive Party and it’s potential of very positive impacts on the post ww2 climate. .. And, I definitely agree, with your sentiments of Eleanor and Henry’s influence with his administration; as well as, Huey Long (The Kingfish!!! (..smile)) and a few others that were in the fight too.
Also, Michael Hudson recently wrote a great piece on his website that describes very well – what we have been saying here too. .. And that is that all of this Identity politics, it is not by mistake, and that we must viscerally reject it, while looking for our universal common bonds.
Check out this NYT piece about Truman vs Henry in 1948. The contents are sounding all too familiar. .. And, of course, the NYT printed it 35 years after the fact. And only then, because the good people of the Iowa State University had spent the dime & the time:
FBI KEPT WATCH ON HENRY WALLACE
Published: September 6, 1983
DES MOINES, Sept. 5— Henry A. Wallace was watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation while he was Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of Commerce for Harry S. Truman, and also in his 1948 run for the Presidency, a newspaper has reported.
The bureau opened Wallace’s mail, tapped his supporters’ telephones and used informers and agents to trail him in search of ”possible Communist or pro-Soviet ties,” the Des Moines Sunday Register reported.
Bureau records show what historians have long suspected: J. Edgar Hoover disliked Wallace, a liberal, and was quick to investigate him, the newspaper said.
The Truman White House, the State Department and the Attorney General’s office also were involved in the surveillance. During Wallace’s 1948 Presidential campaign on the Progressive Party ticket against Truman and Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican nominee, Attorney General Tom Clark ordered a secret investigation of possible Wallace ties to the Soviet Union.
The extent of the surveillance was disclosed in 539 pages of documents released last week under a Freedom of Information Act request. Although many of the documents were heavily censored and some material was withheld, the details surprised Richard Kirkendall, a Henry A. Wallace scholar at Iowa State University in Ames.
”I’m especially surprised that the Truman people saw Wallace as such a threat and saw it necessary to use these unusual and authoritarian methods against him,” Mr. Kirkendall said.
”I think it’s all a mistake,” said Wallace’s brother, James, 87 years old. ”It’s too bad. There was no reason for it. Some of his policies made people think he was a Communist, but there was never any evidence that he was.”
Wallace, who died 18 years ago, was a magnet for controversy, first with his New Deal agricultural policies while Agriculture Secretary from 1933 to 1940, and later, while Vice President from 1940 to 1944; with his support of racial desegregation and his conciliatory stance toward the Soviet Union. He was Commerce Secretary for Truman briefly before leaving Government in 1946.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry of Wallace was under way by early 1943, when he toured South America. An agent wrote to Hoover that Wallace was being influenced by ”Bolivian Communists.”
A 1947 memorandum indicates that the State Department asked the bureau to open and photocopy the contents of an envelope addressed to Wallace. Documents also show Hoover kept Truman informed of Wallace’s activities.
In a 1947 speech, Wallace said the bureau was ”conducting a campaign of terror against liberal government employees.” He said: ”These actions are being kept quiet. We must demand an end to this silent reign of terror.”
The F.B.I. responded: ”Mr. Hoover says he does not intend to dignify Mr. Wallace’s statement with any comment.”
I can’t thank you enough for these references cmp, you’ve expanded my perspective and you’ve demonstrated the absolute value of Consortiumnews where reporting, learning and growing thrive.
I’ll set about expand my frame of reference immediately…
cmp – Excellent point. I have felt it all these years. Using word MSM does not tell us anything. Even calling it the Corporate Media is incomplete. “Owner Media” is close. But we should go further, who are the owners. They are just a handful of people like Murdoch who own the Entire Media – TV Networks, Radio Stations, Newspapers in U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, other EU countries, and in some developing countries as well. And add Movie Studios. They control the minds of the masses all over the globe – it is just breathtaking.
Hey Dave! – You are exactly right. A few weeks ago, a person from Germany had posted here that the same drum beat (rhetoric) that is incessantly being pounded here, is also pounding the same drum over there.
Check out this statement by CNN’s president Jeff Zucker on January 18th, 2017:
~ “.. It doesn’t worry me that Donald Trump hasn’t done an interview with CNN in eight months. I think our credibility is higher than ever, and our viewership is higher than ever, and our reporting is as strong as ever. One of the things I think this administration hasn’t figured out yet is that there’s only one television network that is seen in Beijing, Moscow, Seoul, Tokyo, Pyongyang, Baghdad, Tehran, and Damascus — and that’s CNN. The perception of Donald Trump in capitals around the world is shaped, in many ways, by CNN. Continuing to have an adversarial relationship with that network is a mistake.” ~
I guess, one feels a little grandiose – when one inherits a monopoly. .. Or, maybe even a little arrogant when he believes he is the voice for every culture on the planet.
(.. leave alone, that by Law, his first responsibility is to the American public.)
But, yet again, the robe of legal sanction has been sold out with this new law to protect the internet monopolies and their stealing and selling of our thoughts for profit. It is estimated to be $70 to $120 billion per year. .. How can a new competitor enter the market place to compete with these existing monopolies that have written themselves this new law that obviously designed to tilt the table downhill and rolling straight into their pocket?
You are right. They don’t see themselves as owner’s. They see their own gospel above all else. These titans see the divine.
Thanks Dave! I really appreciate all your great contributions!! Keep up the great work! – Mike
This is a brilliant, sorely needed essay but I truly fear none of our foreign policy elite can understand what you are writing.
I believe the objective is an all out attack by the war criminals into Syria. Their media propagandists are in a frenzy. Can anybody stop these maniacs of militarism or will it all end (no pun intended) in Nuclear War?
Yes. That is their goal, and everybody who knows what has been happening, knows it.
” Since Assad’s forces have gained a decisive upper-hand over the rebels, why would he risk stirring up international outrage at this juncture? On the other hand, the desperate rebels might view the horrific scenes from the chemical-weapons deployment as a last-minute game-changer.”
It’s impossible to imagine a motive Assad might have for using sarin gas against ISIS and the other rebels. Doing so, in violation of his public pledge, would not only outrage his enemies in the US, it would also jeopardize his desperately needed alliance with Russia. Assad, unlike his enemies, is an intelligent, western-educated man–a doctor, no less–whereas the rebels are suicidal fanatics, willing to sacrifice themselves and their associates for their loony cause.
It looks like a false flag incident to me.
“even before investigations could be conducted and for evidence to emerge, Federica Mogherini, the Italian politician High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the Syrian government stating that the ‘Assad regime bears responsibility for ‘awful’ Syria ‘chemical’ attack.’
“The immediate accusation from a high ranking EU official serves a dangerous precedent where public outcry can be made even before the truth surrounding the tragedy can emerge
“Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu, joined in on the condemnation, as did Amnesty International.
“Merely hours after the alleged chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhun, supposedly by the Syrian government, holes are beginning to emerge from opposition sources, discrediting the Al-Qaeda affiliated White Helmets claims.
“For one, seen in [an ‘activist’ media picture], the White Helmets are handling the corpses of people without sufficient safety gear, most particularly with the masks mostly used , as well as no gloves. Although this may seem insignificant, understanding the nature of sarin gas that the opposition claim was used, only opens questions.
“Within seconds of exposure to sarin, the affects of the gas begins to target the muscle and nervous system. There is an almost immediate release of the bowels and the bladder, and vomiting is induced. When sarin is used in a concentrated area, it has the likelihood of killing thousands of people. Yet, such a dangerous gas, and the White Helmets are treating bodies with little concern to their exposed skin. This has to raise questions […]
“With the Syrian Army and its allies in a comfortable position in Syria, making advances across the country, and recovering lost points in rural Hama, why would they now resort to using chemical weapons? It is a very simple question with no clear answer. It defies any logic that on the eve of a Syria conference in Brussels and a week before peace negotiations are to resume, that the Syrian government would blatantly use chemical weapons. All evidence suggests this is another false chemical attack allegation made against the government as seen in the Khan-al-Assal 2013 attack where the terrorist groups hoped that former President Obama’s ‘red-line’ would be crossed leading to US-intervention in Syria against the government.”
Jumping to conclusions; something is not adding up in Idlib chemical weapons attack
By Paul Antonopoulos
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/jumping-conclusions-something-not-adding-idlib-chemical-weapons-attack/
Abe: Excellent anaysis.. It should not surprise any thinking Person that this Sarin attack has been staged as an excuse to intervene in Syria. The planning has been going on for a few weeks now. Trump meeting Saudi Crown Prince, Mattis meeting Saudi Crown Prince, Rex Tillerson trip to NATO, Turkey, Field Marshall Sisi at the White House, Jordan King Abadallah at the White house,Netanyahu in there too at the White House, and in touch- a strategy was developed to intervene in Syria.
Staging Sarin attack, U.K., France, EU head commissioner immediately getting on board. The stage is set for intervention. Russia alone is not strong enough to stop it. They have opted to test Russia.
We have to wait and see how it will unfold now.
The basic rule of a false flag is that those who perpetrated the false-flag immediately “rush to judgement”. This is completely opposite to when a Western bomber kills tens or hundreds of women and children or obliterates a wedding, then we have to wait months for an investigation. Because investigations dissipate the emotions necessary to pull the population into war the judgement of our opponents must be immediate. Even if we doctor the investigations of our opponents, by the time the doctored report comes out – there would be no will for war.
Remember MH17, how “everybody” knew within hours that the Russians did it and the sanctions on Russia were introduced within a few days whilst the MSM were still screaming murder?
@ “Jumping to conclusions; something is not adding up in Idlib chemical weapons attack”
The fact that White Helmet folk are handling bodies in the photos without protective gear (of the total body sort with oxygen tanks) proves that if the deadly agent was sarin, it was the kitchen grade sarin used by the al-Qaeda types rather than military grade sarin that would be used by the Syrian Arab Army if it still had any. Here is what was said in relevant regard about the 2013 Ghouta sarin attack by Yossef Bodansky, who served as Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives from 1988 to 2004:
“To date, the U.S. position in documents submitted to Congress is that the victims died as a result of “nerve agent exposure”. Orally, however, Secretary Kerry claimed the U.S. has proof it was sarin. The French intelligence report also attributes the deaths to “chemical agents” without further identification. The most explicit finding to date comes from the UK’s Defense Science Technology Laboratory. Soil and cloth samples “tested positive for the nerve gas sarin”. The sarin in the cloth was in liquid form that soaked into the cloth. As discussed below, this finding reinforces the conclusion that “kitchen sarin” was used. Hence, so much will depend on the UN’s findings when their tests are completed.
“The claim that the agent used was a “military sarin” is problematic because military sarin accumulates (like a gaseous crystal) around the victims’ hair and loose threads in clothes. Since these molecules are detached and released anew by any movement, they would have thus killed or injured the first responders who touched the victims’ bodies without protective clothes, gloves and masks. However, opposition videos show the first responders moving corpses around without any ill effects. This strongly indicates that the agent in question was the slow acting “kitchen sarin”. Indeed, other descriptions of injuries treated by MSF – suffocation, foaming, vomiting and diarrhea – agree with the effects of diluted, late-action drops of liquified sarin. The overall descriptions of the injuries and fatalities treated by MSF closely resemble the injuries treated by the Tokyo emergency authorities back on March 20, 1995. The Tokyo subway attack was committed with liquified “kitchen sarin”.
“The know how for this type of sarin came from North Korean Intelligence, and is known to have been transferred, along with samples, to Osama Bin Laden in 1998. That the jihadist movement has these technologies was confirmed in jihadist labs captured in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as from the wealth of data recovered from Al Qaida in Afghanistan in 20012.”
Yossef Bodansky, New Granular Evidence Points to Saudi Role in Chemical Weapons Attack, World Tribune (9 September 2013), http://www.worldtribune.com/archives/new-granular-evidence-points-to-saudi-involvement-in-syrias-chemical-weapons-terror-attack/
On the Ghouta attack, see also two other articles by Bodansky, who pinned the attack on a specific al-Qaeda unit under the control of Saudi Prince Bandar, with the knowing participation of the U.S. Embassy in Turkey.
Yossef Bodansky, Mounting Evidence Raises Questions about Syrian Chemical Weapon Attack, World Tribune (28 August 2013), http://www.worldtribune.com/archives/mounting-evidence-raises-questions-about-syrian-chemical-weapon-attack/ (raising a substantial appearance that the Syria chemical attack was a false flag attack planned with the assistance of or knowledge by U.S. intelligence officials).
Bondansky: Syrian Chemical Attack: More Evidence Only Leads to More Questions, OilPrice.com (10 September 2013), http://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/Syrian-Chemical-Attack-More-Evidence-Only-Leads-to-More-Questions.html
See also Michel Chossudovsky, US and Allied Warships off the Syrian Coastline: Naval Deployment Was Decided “Before” the August 21 Chemical Weapons Attack, Global Research (2 September 2013), http://www.globalresearch.ca/massive-naval-deployment-us-and-allied-warships-deployed-to-syrian-coastline-before-the-august-21-chemical-weapons-attack/5347766 (U.S. destroyers to be used in U.S. strike on Syria were deployed *before* the Ghouta sarin attack).
Given that command and controi of al-Nusrah rests with the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey with command staff provided by CIA, there is a basis for a strong suspicion that the U.S. was involved in the planning and timing for the latest chemical attack in Idlib Province. However, it could conceivably have been a situation where an al-Nusrah chemical munitions store was bombed by the Syrian Arab Army, resulting in dispersal as munitions were destroyed by high explosives. But the timing just before the kickoff of the peace conference and as al-Nusrah was nearing total defeat in Idlib Governate seems highly fortuitous for the head-choppers. This is reminiscent of the 2013 false flag sarin attack in Ghouta just as the Syrian Arab Army was on the verge of cutting off the head-choppers’ supply route to Jordan and on the same day that U.N. Inspectors arrived at the Assad government’s invitation to investigate prior use of chemical weapons by the head-choppers.
Unbelievable. I have to quote my mother. ” If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything”. Trump for whatever reason appears to be ” weak minded” (Her ultimate critique).. He is opting in to do what he is told with very little resistance. A 70 year old rich boy in action. Who could expect Change? For better or worse first Flynn and now Bannon are gone. Now what have we? HE in a one and done President already, there will be no infrastructure package to rebuild our infrastructure and create job. What is the point of Trumpageddom.. None. THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA IS BUSINESS> He is all bad but I still believe Hillary would have been worse in the long run. I voted for him but honestly in the past I had always ignored him as completely egoist and inconsequential. I’m always right except when I take to much medication. He is the perfect foil for the MIC and their puppet masters . Oops, they’re coming, It appears that I need to be corrected again.
Excellent. Right on the Mark – all in a few words.
Jim,
Looks like Trump is working on a one term presidency. First, he bent to the fake news crap on Flynn, then the failed trobamacare, spewed by Ryan, debacle and now to essentially firing Bannon and doing bat shit crazy saber rattling. This is against what the core support that elected him wants therefore he will only serve one term. The people that voted for him in this last election will abstain in the next presidential erection show. The thinking being fool me once…….
What politician would do any differently? Not defending Trump here; I think this is a ghastly mistake that only exacerbates tensions, which are already high, with Russia.
I appreciate that you voted for Trump, considering the alternative. I did, too, but I was prepared to be disappointed. I didn’t have to wait long.
There are very few politicians, and very few journalists, that aren’t screaming for another war, with anyone and everyone. This is just another sign of impending death of our civilization.
The hypocrisy of the West is so unbelievable…..It is o.k for Assad to kill using anything BUT chemical weapons!!!!
That’s what I first tough looking at those image of people corps lying down but intact which launch the world medias into frenzy. Every killing weapon is horrible but have we ever seen the damage of an standard GP MK82 – 2000 pounds bomb ? That thing which have a 1200 feet lethal radius will eviscerate any living organisms into thousands of flesh fragments. What’s left of a human body is unbearable to look at. But no complain there on its use. It’s OK.
“The US-led ‘Coalition’ prepares to make its end-run into Syria to ‘Retake Raqqa,’ and impose its Safe Zones in order to partition Syria, more media demonization of the Syrian government appears to be needed by the West.
“On cue, the multi-billion dollar US and UK media machines sprung into overdrive […] over reports based primarily from their own ‘activist’ media outlets. Aleppo Media Center and others embedded in the Al Nusra-dominated terrorist stronghold of Idlib, Syria, alongside their media counterpart the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) funded by the UK and EU, are all now claiming that the Syrian and Russian Airforces have launched a chemical weapons airstrike killing civilians in Idlib.”
Reviving the ‘Chemical Weapons’ Lie: New US-UK Calls for Regime Change, Military Attack Against Syria
By Patrick Henningsen
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/04/reviving-the-chemical-weapons-lie-new-us-uk-calls-for-regime-change-military-attack-against-syria/
Another terrifying clamor for war, immediate war when we have been continually at war, at several wars, since 2001. We needed to depose the government in Afghanistan, which we did in mere weeks, to end protection for the people who had harmed us, but beyond that I have no idea why we have waged any other war or why we stayed in Afghanistan after a new government was formed.
We can have no idea what happened in Syria, but there is a clamor for war that I find terrifying.
We wage war because it is very, very profitable for some in the military/industrial/intelligence complex….also right now Israel and Saudi Arabia both are in favor of Syrian “regime change” so it seems the USA is, as usual, led along by them given what we have in Congress that is on bended knee to them and the Globalist war mongering media — don’t expect things to get better fast or soon….
Meanwhile, basic infrastructure – roads, bridges, schools, sanitation and water systems – is falling apart.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/04/05/asce-a05.html
Taliban offered to give Bin Laden to third country if USA presented evidence, no evidence presented. USA wanted Calco ,Rumsfeld associate to build TAPI pipeline but Taliban gave contract to Argentina.Afghanistan attacked three weeks later. This is the reason for the current occupation of Afghanistan. Mullah Omar and Karzai were not allowed peace treaty by USA, just as USA etc. refused Syria peace treaty five years ago. All wars are Banker’s wars.
This is the reason for the current occupation of Afghanistan
This is the reason for the current very expensive occupation of Afghanistan
I see a dangerous tendency to expect that everyone should immediately believe allegations by the “right” media and governments and that it is dangerous if people remain skeptical and want to base their opinion on evidence and investigations.
For example, this comment in the German Der Spiegel associates the idea that there should be an investigation before people make a judgement about who is responsible with propaganda and RT’s slogan “question more”: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/propaganda-beim-giftgasangriff-in-syrienkonflikt-kolumne-von-sascha-lobo-a-1141980.html
In a complete reversal of what seems appropriate to me, the commetator associates the attitude that an investigation and evidence should be demanded with “emotions”, and he seems to suggest that blindly believing the “right” media and governments would be the “rational” approach.
There are powerful forces in the US that want the Islamist extremists of Al Qaeda and Daesh to take power in Syria, which could lead to a dangerous escalation. Therefore, it is certainly important not to rush to judgement, and rushing to judgement without carefully studying the evidence certainly is not the rational approach.
I read the Der Spiegel article: it is complete BS.
Der Spiegel journalists have no idea of what is happening and are not interested in being objective. I have read their articles on many political issues for many years and find the journalists and their readers’ comments as biased and ignorant as those at the NYT.
The readers of Der Spiegel are unable or unwilling to comprehend anything outside their “safety thinking zone.” They believe everything negative they hear about Russians, Syrians, Iranians. They are being brainwashed by American propaganda, and don’t even know it.
Either they are naive or just happily ignorant. (willfully stupid)
Der Spiegel is a total joke. To say it is a rag would be a compliment. I am able to read the Spiegel in the German language. Basically I have given up reading Der Spiegel. At times I still have a look but if anything its getting worse.
I called the White House, 202-456-1111, and stated that Sean Spicer’s statement about Assad regarding this chemical attack was a reckless rush to judgement before a thorough investigation is made. Also said that President Trump made a promise to wind down these wars. My call was answered with not too long a wait. I think we have to bombard Trump and others such as our reps and senators that we are watching. My NH senator Jeanne Shaheen introduced a bill to investigate RT and Sputnik News as propaganda, and I lambasted her poor staffer with my complaint, said did she not know the propaganda outlets of US, top-of-the-line propaganda producer, also vociferously complained about Democrat hysteria on Russia when US has caused the worst problems on earth with its bloody wars! Said if she keeps this up, she will not get my vote again. I believe we should start hitting back hard!
Jessica thanks for giving out the White House phone number. I just got off the phone with the White House answering service, and my wait was all but maybe 5 minutes total, and the receptionist was very friendly to speak too.
What you mentioned about Senator Jeanne Shaheen is disturbing on quite a few levels. Do Americans have any idea to where such a censorship of the press could lead us to? Also, I read RT every morning faithfully, and the articles I read are seemingly well balanced, and as time marches on RT’s news often proves their reporting to be correct. I wish I could say this about such honored news publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post, but there I digress….
It’s good that we all here can write to each other, and share our feelings about the world we live in. Unlike my many friends and loved ones, who are nice people and smart in their own way, but poorly informed in another way. This poorly informed way is the bait the Establishment liars need to get us all to rally around the flag, and go kill brown people who pray to God a little differently than we do. There again in some American people’s eyes that’s a good enough reason to eliminate these poor souls.
Robert Parry is right first investigate, then indict the guilty for their wrong doing, and not to do it the other way around. I also like that Robert Parry gives us the lowdown on these hot shot reporters who lie for the MIC/Neocon order, and for that I need to make my Springtime pledge to this wonderful site.
Joe, as I wrote above, no professional can be fooled by the “gas-attack” unless he/she wants to: the rush to judgement is deliberate. This is simply Zionist stubbornness to achieve their goal of regime-change in Syria: there can be no lost war for them when they control all these Western politician puppets. They will fight for their regime change goal until the last Westerner.
I was so pleased to read that Russia publicly stated that they will remain in Syria and continue fighting the Western terrorists – let the scumbags achieve their goals over the Russian dead bodies, but it won’t be just the Russian dead bodies.
The West has gone totally mad, maybe it does not deserve to exist.
My concern is based on the fact of just how much of a last stand does the U.S. want to make of this Syrian Iraq war? If sticking to the Oded Yinon Plan is the vital reason for our being there, then the fight turns into a land grab, and a geographical way of splitting the Shia Crescent in half. That is mad, but what’s even madder is I know there are some at the top of the American empire who would like to go the distance and hit Iran. Israel will not give up the Golan for love nor money, and talking about false flags where was Erdogon in all of this sarin gas stuff?
There are reports out there, I have read where the Americans are cooperating with the Russian Syrian Coalition. Read Thierry Meyssan over at Voltairenet, and you will hear a whole different story than what you usually hear. If Trump’s approach is such as his cooperating with the Russians and the Syrians then someone please tell the American ‘Owned Media’ to quit bashing Russia and Syria…sometimes I just don’t know who to believe.
Jessica: I have been following your comments for some time now. Welcome to Consortium News. You’re a great asset. As for Sen. Shaheen, she is just another tribal follower.
I understand and sympathize completely, Jessica.
Wrote a letter to Senator Shaheen a couple of days ago, with essentially the same message.
You won’t see the article below in the “media.”
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Something is Not Adding Up In Idlib Chemical Weapons Attack
By Paul Antonopoulos
April 04, 2017 “Information Clearing House”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46801.htm
The first question to be asked in any investigation is “cui bono,” who benefits? As Mr. Parry points out, there is simply no reason for the Assad government to carry out such an attack, and all the reasons in the world for the terrorists, who are being routed in Syria,
Right and do not forget that all of this is being orchestrated on the eve of Tillerson’s trip to meet Lavrov in Moscow. I have a feeling that The State Sec won’t go after Russia and China veto a phoney SC resolution.
The whole issue makes me think of the creating the”Weapons of Mass Destruction” reason for attacking Iraq.
Strong link here, thanks for posting it!
Peter B. Collins on his website linked to this story.
This Syria chemical attack story by the main stream media is basically made up – there is not enough time to have obtained any evidence.
Even if you accept that the attack was an attack by aircraft, bombing missions are flown in Syria by at least Syria, Russia, U.S., U.K., France, Turkey, Israel.
Other than the possibility of flying a fighter jet under some other country’s “colors,” how could people on the ground identify any such aircraft.
rescuersrescuers
The story you notes has a fact I had initially missed and is extremely important, that being that the “rescuers” were not wearing adequate protective gear, not even wearing gloves, in a claimed sarin gas attack when sarin is absorbed through the skin.
As such, if sarin was used, soaked up in the clothing of victims and on their skin, as “rescuers” began handling victims the “rescuers” would become victims and themselves collapse on film.
In the West today we seem to have decided to run the equivalents of “Stalin show trials” in which no evidence is needed and the decisions come before any hearing in the court, even the court of public opinion.
The fact that the “rescuers” were not wearing full-fledged decontamination protective clothing and were handling the victims and bodies bare-handed is important evidence that the Assad government was not responsible for the gas attack, which has been blamed on use of sarin. Here is what was said in relevant regard to the 2013 Ghouta gas attack by Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives from 1988 to 2004, currently the Director of Research of the International Strategic Studies Association:
“To date, the U.S. position in documents submitted to Congress is that the victims died as a result of “nerve agent exposure”. Orally, however, Secretary Kerry claimed the U.S. has proof it was sarin. The French intelligence report also attributes the deaths to “chemical agents” without further identification. The most explicit finding to date comes from the UK’s Defense Science Technology Laboratory. Soil and cloth samples “tested positive for the nerve gas sarin”. The sarin in the cloth was in liquid form that soaked into the cloth. As discussed below, this finding reinforces the conclusion that ‘kitchen sarin” was used. Hence, so much will depend on the UN’s findings when their tests are completed.
“The claim that the agent used was a ‘military sarin’ is problematic because military sarin accumulates (like a gaseous crystal) around the victims’ hair and loose threads in clothes. Since these molecules are detached and released anew by any movement, they would have thus killed or injured the first responders who touched the victims’ bodies without protective clothes, gloves and masks. However, opposition videos show the first responders moving corpses around without any ill effects. This strongly indicates that the agent in question was the slow acting ‘kitchen sarin’. Indeed, other descriptions of injuries treated by MSF – suffocation, foaming, vomiting and diarrhea – agree with the effects of diluted, late-action drops of liquified sarin. The overall descriptions of the injuries and fatalities treated by MSF closely resemble the injuries treated by the Tokyo emergency authorities back on March 20, 1995. The Tokyo subway attack was committed with liquified “kitchen sarin”.
“The know how for this type of sarin came from North Korean Intelligence, and is known to have been transferred, along with samples, to Osama Bin Laden in 1998. That the jihadist movement has these technologies was confirmed in jihadist labs captured in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as from the wealth of data recovered from Al Qaida in Afghanistan in 20012.”
Yossef Bodansky, New Granular Evidence Points to Saudi Role in Chemical Weapons Attack, World Tribune (9 September 2013), http://www.worldtribune.com/archives/new-granular-evidence-points-to-saudi-involvement-in-syrias-chemical-weapons-terror-attack/ (.) On the purity and toxicity of the sarin involved in the 2013 attack, see also this article by Gareth Porter: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23368-new-data-raise-further-doubt-on-official-view-of-aug-21-gas-attack-in-syria
If the Syrian military forces had conducted the attack earlier this week as alleged, presumably it would have used true military sarin, not kitchen sarin. But we now know that the victims had symptoms of kitchen sarin, the type of sarin manufactured and used by none other than the Saudi and CIA-backed al-Nusrah, the source of the accusation that the Syrian military did it.
See also http://www.mintpressnews.com/russia-reports-discovery-rebel-held-chemical-weapons-site-idlib-gas-attack/226633/ and https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/jumping-conclusions-something-not-adding-idlib-chemical-weapons-attack/
Is World War Three Near? See Link Below:
——————————————————
‘We are compelled to take own action’ if UN fails in Syria – US envoy
Published time: 5 Apr, 2017 15:46Edited time: 5 Apr, 2017 16:21
https://www.rt.com/news/383608-security-council-chemical-syria/
Let us be clear on one thing – this late in the regime-change games, nobody serious can be fooled by the Main Sewage Media propaganda. Another classical false-flag by the terrorists supported by Israel and US can only be swallowed by those who want to swallow it. Trump’s statements are a little bit ambiguous, but it appears that he is fully aligning with Ziocons. Why should Israel bomb SAA when it get get its US puppet to do so at US own expense. Even if Assad used chemical weapons what kind of business is this of US? The Russians are already inside Syria, let them worry about this crime or false-flag, it is onto their heads if it is real.
It appears that Zicons expects Russia to back-off and out of Syria after the bombing in St Petersburg and this false-flag gas attack. Instead a much wider war could start. The Ziocons never give up, but neither do the Russians. The US people have to stop their Government from committing even more crimes.
Finally, here is a Trump’s tweet from the time when he was in opposition to Obama: AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA – IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING! – @RealDonaldTrump
Excellent article.
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I believe this is an excuse for “regime change.” But it could cause World War Three.
More info at link below
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-war-agenda-of-war-criminals-result.html
Yes, the article is an essential “Parry” of the mass media “newspeak.”
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
He may prefer to be independent, and there may be better polling websites, but pressure on the NYT to recognize the superior reporting of their opposition is a good thing. I will repeat this post from time to time.
NYT is not interested in reporting anything that is against its agenda. NYT is happy with the lies it spreads.
Exactly, and so it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition can demonstrate the concerns of a far larger number.
All the news that is print to fit.
All the news that’s fit to spit.
Don’t the Saud family, the tyrannical royal masters/owners of the arab peninsula and its people, also own part of the NYT?
SOME VOICES SPEAK LOUDER THAN OTHERS(US!!!)
The above is an excellent article by Robert Parry re: Syria.
With thanks for his perspicacity as usual.
Bear in mind the remarks of Tim Anderson in his recent
book, THE DIRTY WAR ON SYRIA, (2016) p. 142:
” …Chemical weapons are a crude relic of an earlier era,
such as trench warfare of a century ago. They have no
utility in urban warfare, where an army hunts armed groups
amongst streets, buildings and civilian populations. No real
utility , unless a ruthless party wants to create general panic
or make false claims. In the case of the Syrian Arab Army,
their conventional weapons were [are?] far superior to
crude chemical weapons and their urban warfare training, including
that done in Iran, building by building (al Akras 2013). A stockpile
of chemical weapons had been kept as a deterrent to Israel. which
holds nuclear weapons; but there has been no proven use of them
in recent decades.”
—–Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
US General Wesley Clark blew the whistle in 2007 on the Bush Neocons plan unveiled in the weeks just after 9/11, to bring regime change to Iraq, Libya, Syria and finally to Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Even though Americans are in denial, the World knows the US went to the UN Security Council seeking legal authority to invade Iraq and change the Saddam regime. The UN said NO.
The US invaded anyway, in violation of International Law, undermining the World Order in place since WWII, ushering in the Law of the Jungle to Iraq and the Middle East. The dangerous blind arrogance is the US blames Russia for undermining the World Order.
The Obama Neocons, following through with the 2001 Bush War plan, used NATO in 2011 to change the stable and prosperous Gadaffi regime in Libya for a failed terrorist State. The CIA then started running Gadaffi’s weapons from their station in Benghazi to their preferred proxy terrorist boots on the ground in Syria in 2011, for the next phase of the US 2001 regime change plans.
After 4 years of unopposed US-Saudi-British-French-Turkisk proxy terrorist forces killing and destroying Syrians trying to bring about regime change, the Russians finally stepped in only in 2015 and put a stop to the 2001 CIA plan.
When the Trump Administration announced just a few days ago, regime change in Syria was no longer a US Foreign Policy priority, the CIA couldn’t let that happen, hence this false flag attack which succeeded in changing the Trump regime from Peace Maker to War Monger.
I look at these unfolding Revelations from a different perspective than anyone else. On September 13, 1976, THE KANSAS CITY TIMES published this Vision of the Future.
I’m sure these 40 years later, I’m not the only one who can see this world is Generally unfolding Day by Day, in the Spirit of this letter,
“He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD’S BIDDING: To tell the world, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered […] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of Babylon,” he said.” […] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a war with Russia.” It’s TIME.
THE KANSAS CITY TIMES followed up with a 2nd report on ALL SOULS DAY, November 2, 1976.
I was probably the only human on earth, including THE KANSAS CITY TIMES reporters, to notice at the TIME of the appearance of the 1983 TV movie ‘THE DAY AFTER’ Kansas City was destroyed in a Nuclear Holocaust, the movie pauses at the exact same picture frame THE KANSAS CITY TIMES used in their follow up ALL SOULS DAY report 7 YEARS EARLIER.
I would say that is a definite SIGN nuclear holocaust is a distinct possibility in OUR Generations if saner minds do not prevail.
The original 1976 KANSAS CITY TIMES newspaper records, the video clip at the 9 second mark from THE DAY AFTER movie, and more can be examined here:.
http://ray032.com/2013/09/01/signs-of-the-times/
We do all need to be looking at things from a different perspective. Most people can’t think beyond their next meal, fix, payday or whatever.
Most excellent! May I borrow?
Duke Ferdinand
“Regime” definition: usually a democratically elected government that is independent of US & Israeli domination.
Funny how all of these events that wreck & dissolve middle east nations into squabbling & harmless tribes (while simultaneously keeping their oil sales in the Zionist Rothschild petrodollar) just happens to benefit Israel’s security.
That should tell you who’s behind it all.