Scott Ritter is arguably the most experienced American weapons inspector and in this interview with Dennis J. Bernstein he levels a frank assessment of U.S. government assertions about chemical weapons use.
By Dennis J Bernstein
In the 1980’s, Scott Ritter was a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, specializing in intelligence. In 1987, Ritter was assigned to the On-Site Inspection Agency, which was put together to go into the Soviet Union and oversee the implementation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. This was the first time that on-site inspection had been used as part of a disarmament verification process.
Ritter was one of the groundbreakers in developing on-site inspection techniques and methodologies. With this unique experience behind him, Ritter was asked in 1991, at the end of the Gulf War, to join the United Nations Special Commission, which was tasked by the Security Council to oversee the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. From 1991 to 1998, Ritter served as a chief weapons inspector and led a number of teams into Iraq.
According to Ritter, in the following Flashpoints Radio interview with Dennis Bernstein conducted on April 23rd, US, British and French claims that the Syrian Government used chemical weapons against civilians last month appear to be totally bogus.
Dennis Bernstein: You have been speaking out recently about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Could you outline your case?
Scott Ritter: There are a lot of similarities between the Syrian case and the Iraqi case. Both countries possess weapons of mass destruction. Syria had a very large chemical weapons program.
In 2013 there was an incident in a suburb of Damascus called Ghouta, the same suburb where the current controversy is taking place. The allegations were that the Syrian government used sarin nerve agent against the civilian population. The Syrian government denied that, but as a result of that incident the international community got together and compelled Syria into signing the Chemical Weapons Convention, declaring the totality of its chemical weapons holdings, and opening itself to be disarmed by inspections of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Russia was chosen to be the guarantor of Syria’s compliance. The bottom line is that Syria had the weapons but was verified by 2016 as being in 100% compliance. The totality of Syria’s chemical weapons program was eliminated.
Ritter: They just make it up.
At the same time that this disarmament process was taking place, Syria was being engulfed in a civil war which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis. Over a half million people have died. It is a war that pits the Syrian government against a variety of anti-regime forces, many of which are Islamic in nature: the Islamic State, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda. Some of these Islamic factions have been in the vicinity of Ghouta since 2012.
Earlier this year, the Syrian government initiated an offensive to liberate that area of these factions. It was very heavy fighting, thousands of civilians were killed, with massive aerial bombardment. Government forces were prevailing and by April 6 it looked as if the militants were preparing to surrender.
Suddenly the allegations come out that there was this chemical weapons attack. It wasn’t a massive chemical weapons attack, it was dropping one or two so-called “barrel bombs,” improvised devices that contained chlorine gas canisters. According to the militants, between 40 and 70 people were killed and up to 500 people were made ill. The United States and other nations picked up on this, saying that this was proof positive that Syria has been lying about its chemical weapons program and that Russia has been behind Syria’s retention of chemical weapons. This is the case the US made to launch its missile strike [on April 14].
There are a lot of problems with this scenario. Again, why would the Syrian government, at the moment of victory, use a pinprick chemical attack with zero military value? It added nothing to the military campaign and invited the wrath of the West at a critical time, when the rebels were begging for Western intervention.
Many, including the Russian government, believe that this was a staged event. There has been no hard evidence put forward by anyone that an attack took place. Shortly after allegations of the attack came out, the entire town of Douma was taken over by the Syrian Army while the rebels were evacuated.
The places that were alleged to have been attacked were inspected by Russian chemical weapons specialists, who found zero trace of any chemicals weapons activity. The same inspectors who oversaw the disarmament of Syria were mobilized to return to Syria and do an investigation. They were supposed to start their work this past weekend [April 21-22]. They arrived in Damascus the day after the missile strikes occurred but they still haven’t been out to the sites. The United States, France and Great Britain have all admitted that the only evidence they have used to justify this attack were the photographs and videotapes sent to them by the rebel forces.
I have great concern about the United States carrying out an attack on a sovereign nation based on no hard evidence. The longer we wait, the longer it takes to get inspectors onto the site, the more claims we are going to get that the Russians have sanitized it. I believe that the last thing the United States wanted was inspectors to get on-site and carry out a forensic investigation that would have found that a chemical attack did not in fact take place.
DB: It is sort of like cleaning up a police crime scene before you check for evidence.
SR: The United States didn’t actually bomb the site that was attacked. They bombed three other facilities. One was in the suburbs of Damascus, a major metropolitan area. The generals said that they believed there were quantities of nerve agent there. So, in a building in a densely populated area where we believe nerve agent is stored, what do we do? We blow it up! If there had in fact been nerve agent there, it would have resulted in hundreds or even thousands of deaths. That fact that nobody died is the clearest evidence yet that there was no nerve agent there. The United States is just winging it, making it up.
One of the tragedies is that we can no longer trust our military, our intelligence services, our politicians. They will manufacture whatever narrative they need to justify an action that they deem to be politically expedient.
DB: Isn’t it also the case that there were problems with the allegations concerning Syria using chemical weapons in 2013 and then again in 2015? I believe The New York Times had to retract their 2013 story.
SR: They put out a story about thousands of people dying, claiming that it was definitely done by the Syrian government. It turned out later that the number of deaths was far lower and that the weapons systems used were probably in the possession of the rebels. It was a case of the rebels staging a chemical attack in order to get the world to intervene on their behalf.
A similar scenario unfolded last year when the Syrian government dropped two or three bombs on a village and suddenly there were reports that there was sarin nerve agent and chlorine gas wafting through the village, killing scores of people. Videotapes were taken of dead and dying and suffering people which prompted Trump to intervene. Inspectors never went to the site. Instead they relied upon evidence collected by the rebels.
As a weapons inspector, I can tell you that chain of custody of any samples that are to be used in the investigation is an absolute. You have to be at the site when it is collected, it has to be certified to be in your possession until the laboratory. Any break in the chain of custody makes that evidence useless for a legitimate investigation. So we have evidence collected by the rebels. They videotaped themselves carrying out the inspection, wearing training suits that would not have protected them at all from chemical weapons! Like almost everything having to do with these rebels, this was a staged event, an act of theater.
DB: Who has been supporting this particular group of rebels?
SR: On the one hand, we have the actual fighters, the Army of Islam, a Saudi-backed fundamentalist group who are extraordinarily brutal. Embedded within the fighters are a variety of Western-trained and Western-funded NGOs such as the White Helmets and the Syrian-American Medical Society. But their primary focus isn’t rescue, in the case of the White Helmets, or medical care in the case of the Syrian-American Medical Society, but rather anti-regime propaganda. Many of the reports that came out of Douma originated with these two NGO’s.
DB: You mentioned “chain of custody.” That’s what was most ridiculous about sending in inspectors. The first thing you would want to do is establish chain of custody and nail down the crime scene.
SR: I was a participant in the Gulf War and we spent the bulk of that war conducting a massive aerial campaign against Iraq. I was one of the people who helped come up with the target list that was used to attack. Each target had to have a purpose.
Let’s look what happened in Syria [on April 14]. We bombed three targets, a research facility in Damascus and two bunker facilities in western Syria. It was claimed that all three targets were involved with a Syrian chemical weapons program. But the Syria weapons program was verified to be disarmed. So what chemical weapons program are we talking about? Then US officials said that one of these sites stored sarin nerve agent and chemical production equipment. That is a very specific statement. Now, if Syria was verified to be disarmed last year, with all this material eliminated, what are they talking about? What evidence do they have that any of this material exists? They just make it up.
OPCW inspectors in Syria 2013. (UN Photo)
If I had been a member of that inspections team, I would have been able to tell you with 100% certainty what took place at that site. It wasn’t that long ago that the allegations took place, there are very good forensic techniques that can be applied. We would be able to reverse engineer that site and tell you exactly what happened when. Let’s say an inspection team had gone in and we found that there was sarin nerve agent. Now, the US government can say, there is not supposed to be any sarin nerve agent in Syria, therefore we can state that the Syrians have a covert sarin nerve agent capability. But still you don’t know where it is, so now you have to say we assess that it could be in this bunker.
We bombed empty buildings. We didn’t degrade Syria’s chemical weapons capability. They got rid of it. We were among the nations that certified that they had been disarmed. We just created this phantom threat out of nothing so that we could attack Syria and our president could be seen as being presidential, as being the commander in chief at a time when his credibility was being attacked on the home front.
DB: Amazing. That helps clarify the situation. Of course, it also leaves us terrified because we are so far away from the truth.
SR: As an American citizen who happens to be empowered with knowledge about how weapons inspections work, how decisions are made regarding war, I am disillusioned beyond belief.
This isn’t the first time we have been lied to by the president. But we have been lied to by military officers who are supposed to be above that. Three top Marine Corps officers stood before the American people and told bald-faced lies about what was going on. We have been lied to by Congress, who are supposed to be the people’s representatives who provide a check against executive overreach. And we have been lied to by the corporate media, a bunch of paid mouthpieces who repeat what the government tells them without question.
So Donald Trump can say there are chemical weapons in Syria, the generals parrot his words, the Congress nods its head dumbly, and the mass media repeats it over and over again to the American public.
DB: Are you worried that we might end up in a shooting war with Russia at this point?
SR: A week ago I was very worried. If I am going to give kudos to Jim Mattis it will be because he took the desire of Trump and Bolton to create a major crisis with Russia over the allegations of Syrian chemical weapons use and was able to water that down into putting on a show for the American people. We warned the Russians in advance, there were no casualties, we blew up three empty buildings. We spent a quarter of a billion dollars of taxpayer money and we got to pat ourselves on the back and tell everybody how great we are. But we avoided a needless confrontation with the Russians and I am a lot calmer today about the potential of a shooting war with Russia than I was a week ago.
Dennis J Bernstein is a host of “Flashpoints” on the Pacifica radio network and the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom. You can access the audio of this interview and the audio archives at www.flashpoints.net.
As usual, Higgins is busy retweeting “my latest”
https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/990564909959319552
Fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins of the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat disinformation site is back waging his typical li’l propaganda war on Twitter
https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/990569464654647296
I am abhorred by the titanic lies that are being concocted to justify such foolish “punishing” actions. But in a time where most people are mostly interested in sports events, fun, sex and extreme crime-movies, you can be sure, they believe any political crap they are being fed with.
It was the same thing with the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter. Of course it had to be Putin who ordered this, since the poison found, that is for sure, could only have been produced by the Russians. But what do I hear from “www.zerohedge.com”, a forensic Swiss laboratory has reportedly identified its’ British and/or American origin. Hence Russia has to be punished with more sanctions. What do you say about this?
The US military establishment obviously is aware of the Russian advanced weaponry recently announced by Vladimir Putin . Putin is not bragging, he is too reserved and level headed. There is an interesting article on the new Russian weapons on Unz Review . I strongly recommend reading this article. It can also be found on my Facebook.
It’s ALL the Roachildt’s fault !
This is the same with N. Korea. N. Korea does not have the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons . They may have the knowledge?? Russia and China have been providing them old leaking missiles to launch. Also probably a new one to test rather than in their own Countries that would violate treaty. Now comes the BIG CON ! (???)
Ritter states:
Earlier this year, the Syrian government initiated an offensive to liberate that area of these factions. It was very heavy fighting, thousands of civilians were killed, with massive aerial bombardment. Government forces were prevailing and by April 6 it looked as if the militants were preparing to surrender.
I’d like to know how he concluded thousands of civilians were killed. Whilst largely agreeing with this article, Ritter should be as aware as anyone with regards the slick propaganda machine the terrorists are able to run. It irritates me that he calls the Syrian government a ‘regime’. Well over half the population approve his governance, which is a lot more than any ‘legitimate’ government would accrue in the West.
That because he has killed the other half…the ones who do believe this is a regime. Any leader of any nation who has killed his own population in the way he has needs to be dealt with…as said…it is a humanitarian crisis!
The “civil” war was manufactured by the US?CIA?ISRAEL. They are to be blamed for these deaths not Assad.
Thank you for giving another version of events. We in the USA, need so desperately be informed from other sources than our mainstream media.
Watch RT news ,being in the usa you may have to get it online or failing thay youtube but you will get a far more balanced news reporting than in American or here in UK . Dont believe the rubbish its Russian propaganda ,i have no interest in being lied to and there are some well respected journalists and a huge range of experts and analysts from your country and mine amongst others who wont get on mainstream news channels ,RT even invites on guests who oppose their views and actually sit round an discuss and debate ,believe me the truth usually appears,very refreshing but watch it quick before its banned like everything else “Russian” .Its actually international.
Stephen J. Green is the author of two lengthy investigation U.S.-Israeli relations – Taking Sides: America’s Secret Relations With a Militant Israel (1984) and Living by the Sword: America and Israel in the Middle East (1988).
Fifteen years ago, Green observed that “Sometime around 2002-2003, the U.S. adopted Israel’s security policy, and the rest of the world became the West Bank and Gaza. Iraq, it was decided, would be the first test case.”
The Road to Unilateral Pre-emption
By Stephen Green
https://www.counterpunch.org/2003/04/15/the-road-to-unilateral-pre-emption/
Green frankly observed:
“The State of Israel has practiced pre-emption in its most virulent form–unilateral pre-emption–for decades. If America does continue to apply this doctrine we will discover, as Israel has, that it is destructive of our most important foreign relations, and the international laws and institutions which support those relations. The Bush Administration has done this in the name of internal security and will find, as has Israel, that unilateral pre-emption is the antithesis of internal security….it is in fact the road to isolation.
“In the coming months, as the fighting and chaos continue in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld urgently make the case for carrying the war into Syria and Iran, Americans will be asking how, why and at whose urging we have taken this road. We will begin to have a public conversation about the individual faces of unilateral pre-emption–a number of senior aides in the Executive Branch, particularly in the Pentagon, White House and State Department. These individuals share a radical view of America’s role in world affairs and very close intellectual, emotional and financial ties to the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.
“Ironically, several of these individuals who have advanced the case for unilateral pre-emption in the name of U.S. national security, have themselves faced formal investigations for violation of U.S. national security laws, over the past three and a half decades. The foreign government involved in each instance was the State of Israel.”
Now more than ever, that “public conversation” about U.S. unilateral pre-emption is urgently needed.
In addition to aforementioned abuses, why is our water supply poisoned with fluoride? Fluoride does benefit youth, but in topical application only. Ingesting fluoride has zero benefit to anyone and attracts other metals to be stored in the body, specifically the brain which leads to dementia and Alzheimer’s. Ask your dentist, they will not know as it is taught in dental school to be beneficial, same as the Federal Reserve in business schools – to regulate the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth as it is neither federal nor a reserve. 70% foreign owned private corporation.
As an aside…
Fluoride is the active component in Sarin Gas. It is a halogen that kicks out iodine and harms the thyroid. It is an enzyme disruptor that interferes with biological enzyme action. It is a major component to global warming with dramatically higher effects than carbon. It is a class 5 poison with higher toxicity than arsenic. It cause dental fluorosis in the majority of youth in areas of fluoridation weakening tooth enamel by making it thinner and more brittle. It is eulogized in Dental schools to the point that emotional responses have overshadowed scientific proof of harm to teeth. And most important it is now everywhere in the environment in amounts doing harm to wildlife and vegetation. All based on questionable data showing dental decay is insignificant do to fluoride, whereas good nutrition and reduction of simple carbohydrates produces good teeth. Thousand of industrial, chemical, and pharmaceutical uses and only one positive use for general consumption- dental decay- and that’s bogus! But fluoride has gone from a toxic waste status to a product and no longer under the rules of the EPA.
As for Isreal and its road to property ownership, it appears that the only resource claiming ownership is the Bible. Historical documents of ownership seem to be missing. As for the huge 9/11 event that got us the Patriot’s Act and hating Moslems seems to point to a governmental decision to bring down all of the World Trade Center buildings and have them disappear, indicating some new form of energy weapon that was shared in a way to benefit several causes NOT in the general interests of society. Judy Wood should be commended on her science to bring a critical analysis of what happened to the towers.
Next you’ll be telling us all only to drink grain alcohol and preserve our precious bodily fluids.
This (story) has nothing to do with use of chemical weapon.. but every to do with LIES (like Iraq 2oo3) in order to justify attack /invasion..
it’s amazing the complete SILENCE in the western PROzionist msm – when people (the victims – of the ‘claimed’ attack) are summoned (in the Haque) in order to be listened to. – what really happened that 7. apr. in Douma..
Unless I misunderstand, it is said in this article, dated April 27, that the inspectors have not yet visited the sites of the alleged attacks.
Yet, on the home page of the OPCW, it is stated that such visits took place on April 21 and April 25, and that samples were collected on the 25th.
https://www.opcw.org/news/article/opcw-fact-finding-mission-visits-second-site-in-douma-syria/
Otherwise, Mr Ritter is of course an authority and his conclusions crucial.
The interview with Ritter took place on 23 April 2018:
“According to Ritter, in the following Flashpoints Radio interview with Dennis Bernstein conducted on April 23rd, US, British and French claims that the Syrian Government used chemical weapons against civilians last month appear to be totally bogus.”
The OPCW announcement was posted on 25 April 2018:
“The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) deployed to Damascus on 14 April 2018 to gather facts in connection with the reported use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic on 7 April 2018. Security arrangements for the team’s deployment to various locations in Douma were made by the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) in liaison with the Syrian authorities and the Russian Military Police. Due to the security situation the team was only able to visit Douma on 21 April. The team also interviewed some people related to the Douma incident, who were brought to Damascus.
“Today, the FFM team carried out a visit to a second location in Douma. It also collected samples at this site. These samples will be brought back, together with other samples, to the OPCW laboratory in Rijswik. They will be split and dispatched for analysis by the OPCW designated labs.
“Meanwhile, the OPCW Technical Secretariat was informed by the Russian delegation to the OPCW that it will organise a briefing for States Parties in The Hague on 26 April. The delegation would bring some Syrians to speak about the reported Douma incident.”
Meanwhile, fake “chemical weapons expert” Dan Kaszeta from the Bellingcat disinformation site has been making lots and lots of press statements. For example:
“Chemical experts told Middle East Eye that repeated delays could lead to the evidence from the suspected chemical attack blowing ‘away in the wind’.
“‘You can’t prove chlorine at this point, even if you dig up dead bodies,’ Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert at Strongpoint Security, told MEE on Friday.
“Chlorine – which Bellingcat has concluded, through open source information, was ‘most likely’ used in one of the air strikes – is hard to find after an attack because it is a gas, Kaszeta said.”
The Middle East Eye article deceptively written, mentioning “experts” to imply that a concurrence of multiple opinions when, in fact, Kaszeta is the “expert” for both “Strongpoint Security” (his own business) and Bellingcat (the disinformation site operated by Kaszeta’s long-time collaborator, Eliot Higgins). Higgins earlier had brought attention to Kaszeta via the Brown Moses blog.
Despite his conviction, Ritter’s did good work for which he should be recognized.
The trolls do get paid (with taxpayer money) or else why would they bother to post anywhere.
Was there a relationship between the verdict and his work as weapons inspector? We’ll never know. During the first offenses he was not punished harshly. Perhaps the laws changed in the process and the jury was convinced and the judge decided to give a harsher sentence. Seems like probation, dependent on mandatory therapy, would have been better but I don’t know the success of such programs.
‘Weapons Inspector Refutes U.S. Syria Chemical Claims”
——————————————————————————–
For firefighters who worked in World Trade Center rubble, the future includes a heightened risk of cancer
KAREN KAPLAN
APR 26, 2018
For firefighters who worked in World Trade Center rubble, the future includes a heightened risk of cancer
Firefighters make their way through the rubble of the World Trade Center. The work probably made them more likely to develop certain types of cancer, according to new research.
It’s been nearly 16 years since cleanup work officially ended at New York City’s ground zero, but the health effects for rescue and recovery workers are still making themselves known.
Two studies published Thursday in the journal JAMA Oncology suggest that the firefighters who came to lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center face a heightened risk of cancer — and will continue to do so for years to come.
()
There’s very clear history of our multiple involvement in the use of chemicals (agent orange) as well as planting chemicals and handing over chemical agents to our Appointed Dictators in many, many parts of the globe.
Reagan did it in 1983 when Saddam was our “friend” waging war against Iran at our behest.
– Please let us not forget the strange illnesses that affected US soldiers during Gulf War 1
sickness from the Depleted Uranium we used as well as the toxic vaccines we injected into our men & women.
Relative to the cancerous dust our First Responders were exposed to —
among which quite possibly could have been the Explosive NANO-THERMATE.
My heart goes out to all who suffered and now those who continue to suffer, 17 years out from that WORLD WAR Creating Event that continues unabashed and unabated in it’s uncivilized wake of DEATH, DESTRUCTION (of cultures) AND DISPLACEMENT (of social order). —- A Horribly world-wide introduction to legalized MASS MURDER that we Proclaimed as “A Global War On Terror” !
How “MAGA” it must be for somnolent Americans to realize that our government secretly collaborated with our “friends”, the Saudi’s, to CREATE this GWOT by the single act of Blowing Up the World Trade Center… ! (A GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING… ?)
How many more Arabs must Die and/or LOSE THEIR PLACE IN THE LIFE THEY’VE KNOWN !!! ?
how many more WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS WILL SEE RECORD PROFITS FROM THE DEATH OF INNOCENT HUMANS ??? !
? Ray McGovern brutalized and left bleeding by Hillary Clinton police, ‘So this is America!’
‘
Chemist Kevin Ryan cites energetic materials as potential cause of 9/11 First Responders’ illnesses
By Jerry Mazza
February 18, 2011
— excerpt
The fact that numerous firefighters and other first responders have continued to fall ill, some of them terminally, has been much discussed in the media. But the mainstream media have not raised the most pressing question: Why have first responders developed cancer and other fatal diseases that should not have been caused by the fires in, and collapses of, the World Trade Center buildings? This 9/11 mystery has still not been answered.
Now, Kevin Ryan, a chemist who has studied 9/11 for many years, has come up with a possible solution—that the Twin Towers were not brought down simply by the airplane impacts and the resulting fires. Rather, these buildings were brought down by “energetic materials”—materials that destroy buildings and that can also destroy human tissues.
In his essay introducing new research, Kevin Ryan ties the presence of these energetic materials to the illnesses and substances found in the tissues and organs of ailing responders and of those who have already died.
Ryan’s article introduces a new source of contamination within the World Trade Center environment, which may well serve as a bona fide scientific verification, and as a basis for legal documentation of the damage wreaked on those brave men and women who had one thought only—of saving lives, while unwittingly sacrificing their own.
Ryan’s outstanding work buttresses the recently passed, H.R. 847, the James Zadroga Bill, named after the police officer who died post 9/11, leaving this bill, this legacy signed by President Obama, as Ryan writes, “in an effort to provide services and compensation for those whose health was compromised through exposure to the toxic dust and gases at Ground Zero.”
Ryan adds, “However, these first responders also need help to understand how their illnesses originated so that improvements in treatment can be made. In response to this need, concerned citizens should consider the possible correlation between evidence for energetic materials at the WTC and the environmental exposure which appears to have caused so many illnesses in the first responders.”
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/505
Ray McGovern brutalized and left bleeding by Hillary Clinton police, ‘So this is America!’
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/496
“One of the tragedies is that we can no longer trust our military, our intelligence services, our politicians. They will manufacture whatever narrative they need to justify an action that they deem to be politically expedient.” = nutgraph
And how long has this been going on? I notice, despite mention of other 3-letter organizations, there’s none about the one that corresponds to letters 3, 9, 1. I wonder why that is? Now, where is my white helmet, the one with the dash-cam? I think I set it down somewhere after rehearsal.
Scott Ritter’s statement that Syria was engulfed in a civil war in 2011 is not correct, however. It is a proxy war, fueled by foreign interests, mainly the US and Israel. We should not call it a civil war.
Well said Scott Ritter. Bravo.
I feel the same as you, John, we have been raised on propaganda. I can flash back to my childhood realizing how much of what i was told to believe was the actual reverse. There have been great researchers writing for books and magazines before alternative sites like CN woke us even more to the lies. How i wish i had kept my copies of Ramparts magazine! I stopped listening to BBC and NPR since their ratcheting up nonstop propaganda on Assad and Syria. As for this interruption about scandal by “just sayen”, we know there are plenty of stings cooked up by the FBI and others in “authority”.
Jessika, the archives of Ramparts Magazine are online at http://www.unz.com/print/Ramparts
Enjoy!
And now we wait to see what kind of twists the final report will contain. For me it’s decided the Russian wear the white hats and we the people are screwed.
I came to this same conclusion about a week ago. This was a propaganda ploy for a manufactured reason to escalate tensions with the demonized Russians. I searched reports from actual people in the area of the alleged attack. Some of these reports have been disappeared since first reported. Censorship to correspond with the grand(false) narrative. Americans are sadly, being played and a dangerous game at that. Interesting how the ‘white helmets’ always seem to show up immediately after an alleged attack. Several sites have called me a heretic or an al-Assad apologist. Their propagandists are doing their jobs very well, which is sad.
Describing the recent incident in Douma, Scott Ritter states that “it was dropping one or two so-called ‘barrel bombs,’ improvised devices that contained chlorine gas canisters”.
In fact, during the Israeli-Saudi-U.S. Axis “dirty war” in Syria, there is not a single case of direct evidence that any of the so-called “barrel bombs” were “dropped” from any helicopter or fixed wing aircraft.
From the hole in the road (Khan Shaykhun, April 2017)
to the hole in the roof (Douma, April 2018)
so-called “evidence” of chemical incidents due to alleged “aerial bombs” has been refuted on multiple occasions.
For example in the recent Douma incident, video was posted by a Western-backed “activist” group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JmAOWmkFvk
Bellingcat featured the video in the “Examination of munition” section of their widely publicized April 11, 2018 article titled “Open Source Survey of Alleged Chemical Attacks in Douma on 7th April 2018”.
Commenting on the video, Bellingcat claimed “The external modifications on the above cylinder are particularly interesting as they are consistent with modifications seen on other gas cylinders used in other reported aerial chlorine attacks.”
However, Bellingcat’s “Examination” ignored the fact that the alleged “barrel bomb” depicted in the video apparently defied several laws of physics.
After allegedly ‘falling’ through the hole in the concrete roof of the apartment building, the improvised metal ‘tail fin’ assembly were not damaged. Also the magic “barrel bomb” apparently floated horizontally several feet across the bedroom to rest on on a bed with its head on a pillow.
That’s what passes for an “Examination of Munitions” from the ballyhooed “Bellingcat Investigation Team”.
In a June 2017 article in the American Conservative, Scott Ritter addressed the “distinct narrative” then being “put forward by the governments of the United States, Great Britain, France, and supported by the likes of Bellingcat and the White Helmets”.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ex-weapons-inspector-trumps-sarin-claims-built-on-lie/
Discussing the lack of hard evidence and definitive proof of who was responsible for the April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Shaykhun in Syria, Ritter noted the “manufactured story line promoted by the White Helmets”.
Ritter also addressed the “vociferous” efforts of “Eliot Higgins who, through his Bellingcat blog, has been widely cited by media outlets in the U.S. and UK as a source of information implicating the Syrian government in that alleged April chemical attack”.
Ritter stated that “The lack of any meaningful fact-based information to back up the claims of the White Helmets and those who sustain them, like the U.S. government and Bellingcat, raises serious questions about the viability of the White House’s latest pronouncements on Syria and allegations that it was preparing for a second round of chemical attacks.”
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Unfortunately, the talk between Mr. Ritter and Mr. Bernstein had no examination of the greatly differing narratives regarding how “successful” was the illegal bombing campaign. President Donald Trump claimed all the over-100 missiles struck their targets, while Syrians claim 70 were eliminated using ant-missile defensive equipment – of which a significant number were fired at various strategically vital airfields. If the Syrian narrative is the one which reflects reality, Mr. Ritter’s analysis is insufficient in assessing the reasons and intentions of those who ordered the attack, grossly inaccurate by suggesting a U.S/Mattis-Russian military shared “staging” of the event, and particularly with respect to non-consideration of the damage and danger resultant if all the missiles had indeed struck their intended targets.
Perhaps readers of Consortium News can help in clarifying these and other important, relevant, remaining questions while Mr. Ritter and Mr. Bernstein arrange for conducting a more in-depth and thorough Part 2 of this interview.
The Russians have missiles that didn’t hit their target. The Syrians have remains of missiles that were shot down. Obviously it follows that not all missiles hit their target.
Thank u.
As Mr Ritter’s last comment shows, all of this is a disaster for Trump, and by extension, Putin’s American supporters, but, at best, of no advantage whatsoever to Putin. For Trump to be able to “pat himself on the back”, theree things have to be true. First, the chenical attack must actually have taken place. Secondly, the US rocket attack must have done substantial damage. Thirdly, there must have been no collusion with the Russians. Absent any of those, and serious doubt has been cast on all of them, Trump has dug himself deeper into the Russiagate quagmire and can save himself only by inflicting a decisive defeat on Putin, if not in Syria, then somewhere else, Ukraine, for example. Thus, the more it emerges that the Syria affair was a scam, the more Trump is pushed towards the “shooting war” Mr Ritter refers to.
As for Putin, he’s still as bogged down as ever in Syria. Putin pulls out, Assad falls. Assad falls, Putin is discredited in the eyes of his elderly Soviet-generaton supporters back home and falls too. Even worse, if it turns out that Trump was the victim of the scam rather than part of it, then Putin will have humiliated the President of the US by playing a childish prank on him. Trump’s core supporters, blue collar America, have been brought up to believe, and do indeed believe, that the US is the greatest country on earth. They don’t care a hoot about Ukraine or Syria but they do care about the US being humiliated by a foreign power, be it Russia, North Korea, China, Iran or anybody else. If Putin has made a fool of Trump, support for “putting him in his place” will grow, particularly if Trump is perceived as putting North Korea and Iran in their places.
The “scam” in Syria, which has been ongoing for some time, is the idea that the United States is trying to promote “democracy”, defend human rights, and fight “terrorism”. On all three counts quite the opposite is the case. The U.S. and its Saudi-Israeli and European cohorts have been waging a dirty war upon the people of Syria in order to destroy the independence of the last remaining bastion of Arab nationalism and socialism.
Putin’s “American supporters” are those of us who agree with his respect for, and adherence to, international law, national sovereignty, and human rights. Insofar as President Trump would align himself with those values, he would have our support as well. But that is apparently not the case with Trump–there is no “by extension” except in your convoluted imagination. There was never any “collusion” that is the supposed essence of Russiagate–there was merely the possible interest in peaceable negotiation that Trump may have once thought pragmatic and sensible. But Trump was quickly “disabused” of that notion by powerful factions that grip the American foreign policy establishment and desire continued war profiteering and market exploitations.
Back to Syria. The “scam” of chemical weapons use is part of the propaganda ruse against the Syrian government–trying to present the world with an image of Assad as a barbaric monster. If Trump has bought into that scam, I don’t know what to tell you Mr. Kenny–but it certainly has nothing to do with Putin’s goals of protecting Syrian sovereignty and curtailing the spread of chaos and terrorist strongholds in the Middle East (the underbelly of the Russian Federation). Putin has no interest in childish pranks or “humiliation”. It’s not a “game”…it’s a serious struggle for reason and human dignity to obtain.
You should hope Mr. Kenny that the “gamesmanship” of pushing Trump into open conflict with a nuclear superpower yields itself to the reason and sensibility of “sharing” the world will live in rather than an arrogant insistence on full spectrum dominance.
This Kenny fellow makes an appearance here from time to time, always eager to embarrass himself with his many non sequiturs and logical fallacies. Thanks for bothering to instruct him.
This Kenny cannot be instructed.
Best Kenny be left to wither and die due to lack of attention (after all it is attention he craves, hence his appearance here)
Huge, huge mistake by Consortium News to start citing Scott Ritter. And his past convictions for everyone knows what aren’t the biggest reason. This guy hasn’t been a weapons inspector, or a reputable news source for decades. He’s not a player any more, and he doesn’t know any more than we do.
All he has is his name, his name is going to do Consortium News far more harm than good. Please, for your own sakes, reconsider.
Thanks, but no thanks for trying to smear CN for publishing Scott Ritter’s thoughts.
Absolute rubbish. This is no smear. All I am doing is stating the obvious.
Scott Ritter may have been someone twenty years ago. Now, he is nothing more than a convicted sex predator.
https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ritter-gets-prison-time-2237126.php
That may be an inconvenient truth to CN and some of their readers. But it’s the truth.
Rubbish. No doubt “Just Sayen” and his acronym “Iwasjustthinking” knows who set up the “honeypot” scam to denounce Ritter and cannot let it go.
Rather than insulting me, read the article. Had it happened once, sure you could dismiss it as a “honeypot scam”.
But this didn’t just happen once. Scott Ritter was caught soliciting sex from underage girls on three separate occasions.
He was given a second chance, and let go. He was caught again, given a third chance. And he did it again.
That’s why he went to prison. That’s why he’s a convicted sex offender.
For Mr. Ritter’s sake, and for the sake of any underage girls he comes into contact with, I do hope he received treatment while in prison. It will be a lifelong struggle for him not to re-offend.
I read the article and he is guilty, regardless of what the snowflakes here would like to think.
So, using similar logic in a hypothetical situation, were I to come across an article which presents compelling sounding “evidence” of something salacious you may, or may not have done in the past, should I therefore unilaterally pronounce your guilt? And should I therefore expect others to accept my august pronouncement as some sort of validating absolute?
A visit to what your handle’s initials stand for will go a long way in relieving you of what you are obviously full of.
So, in your view, he is not guilty, regardless of admitting to the offense? His reputation is shot, like it or not.
Nothing indicating having “admitted” his offence has turned up; closest would be his indicating he wasn’t aware of the cop’s “age” during the chat. But what does cyber indiscretion have to do with the article, or Ritter’s expertise with the subject matter?
Ritter’s legal travailles are an old story going back to Hoover’s reign of sleaze. In fact, you don’t even have to go that far back; Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, Julian Assange, Chelssea Manning are just a few recent examples of how our Lords treat those who dare act like decent human beings. Offended by Ritter’s indiscretion? Cast your first, pure stone by all means. But you do yourself and concerned citizens a major disservice by obfuscating Ritter’s valuable input, especially in such precarious times as these.
When people can’t abide to even countenance someone’s informed opinion because of some perceived (and relative) moral failing, I think of my favorite analogue to such; Richard Wagner. Guy was a virulent and unapologetic bigot, idolized by senior NAZI officials. But that doesn’t stop people from flocking to Bayreuth to hear the Ring cycle, does it?
We are facing an “all hands on deck” moment here, as far as civilization’s survival is concerned; be part of the solution, and don’t help the “crazies” (as Ray McGovern calls them) take us all over the brink.
Ritter’s message may work for you and others, but if you wave him in front of the public in general the dirt is going to come out and his message will be gone.
That he couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants – particularly when he knew he had a very public persona – shows a level of stupidity that shouldn’t be ignored.
“nothing more than a convicted sex offender” – well, Just Sayen I know nothing about you , but I’d be willing to bet good money that you along with every human in this world over the age of 10 or so has made mistakes or done things they aren’t proud of. But whatever a person has done is NOT the sum total of who that person is! The fact that you want to make it so, makes me wonder what you are hiding. Or maybe you are just a neocon Bot sent out to cause trouble.
To Scott Ritter I say Bravo! and thank you for your honest assessment of what is happening today. You understand how the system works and we need to hear about it. It takes great courage to do that, especially since you know that there will always be reptiles like Just Sayen who will bring up the “sting” that was used against you..
If you are commenting, then CN is successful in getting the word out! But you’re comments are non sequitur.
Just Sayen is using the classic ‘shoot the messenger’ approach to information that JS doesn’t want us to hear. We already know about Scott Ritter’s alleged misdemeanours and they have no bearing on the matter to hand. The real question is why someone with your prurient views is lurking on this site. Deal with the message from Scott Ritter or stop wasting our time.
@ Just Sayen: “Scott Ritter may have been someone twenty years ago. Now, he is nothing more than a convicted sex predator.”
Please people, leave this alone. Just Sayen is a troll hiding behind what obvious is a pseudonym.
This is the classic ad hominem attack, which is a logical fallacy. https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/1/Ad-Hominem-Abusive (.) What does conviction as a sex predator have to do with the issues raised in the article? Nothing; it has no bearing at all; therefore the attack is a fallacy wielded by a troll.
‘All he has is his name’ – He also has an informed opinion which happens to be corroborated by the evidence we have.
So your argument is that because he masturbated on a webcam then he can’t be trusted as the former UN chief of weapon inspections.
Because sex offenders don’t know anything about nerve agents, sarin, and faked attacks.
What if he was a shoplifter?
Would that have been a no-go as well?
Or didn’t like cats? Or ate dog soup like the whole of South Korea?
Your argument is lame.
In America, sex trumps every other possible consideration in all matters. Notice that their political enemies have tried to slander most every president irrespective of party, even Lincoln and Jefferson, with tales of a lurid past. The practice has now spread to celebrities and public figures in most every field, and note how the charge invariably is considered to delegitimize everything they have ever said or done in their field of expertise–they are summarily sacked without any due process and sent to Coventry. At least Mr. Cosby can be thankful that he actually received a trial. Don’t interpret me as defending his despicable actions, but the only thing that the prestigious universities didn’t throw back in his face was the money he donated to them.
Adopt “Just Sayen’s” principles and we’d have to reject everything a Nobel laureate in science has ever contributed or had to say about his field of study should he ever be charged with a sex offense. That’s just plain stupid. Human beings, especially intelligent ones of accomplishment, are certainly able to compartmentalize their actions–look up the definition if you’ve never heard the term, JS.
Do you know any better?
Just Sayen, what has changed in the WMD inspections process since 1998, when Ritter resigned in protest at the CIA co-opting the Iraq WMD inspection process into spying on Iraq itself? You suggested his skill set and ability to analyze is obsolete. How so? He was spot on accurate in 2003. What has changed since then?
Further, given your rendering his ability in this field a thing of the past, what was wrong with his analysis in this interview? Surely you can point to what is incorrect in his analysis. What are its fatal flaws?
So far, all have you written is a character assassination. Yes Ritter made mistakes he paid for, and he readily acknowledges those mistakes during a very tough part of his life, but that does not diminish his expert skills in analyzing information and presenting his findings in areas of expertise.
Respond if you like, but please don’t respond with “trust” and other extraneous points when you have nothing else to say about the critical matters at hand.
[Is Just Sayen the American form of Hasbara, repeating an unrelated point to deflect from the issues at hand? Reposting from a sub-thread]
Just Sayen, what has changed in the WMD inspections process since 1998, when Ritter resigned in protest at the CIA co-opting the Iraq WMD inspection process into spying on Iraq itself? You suggested his skill set and ability to analyze is obsolete. How so? He was spot on accurate in 2003. What has changed since then?
Further, given your rendering his ability in this field a thing of the past, what was wrong with his analysis in this interview? Surely you can point to what is incorrect in his analysis. What are its fatal flaws?
So far, all have you written is a character assassination. Yes Ritter made mistakes he paid for, and he readily acknowledges those mistakes during a very tough part of his life, but that does not diminish his expert skills in analyzing information and presenting his findings in areas of expertise.
Respond if you like, but please don’t respond with “trust” and other extraneous points when you have nothing else to say about the critical matters at hand.
How many lives might have been saved if Scott Ritter’s brave truth telling had been heeded? How do Bush’s crimes compare with a victimless crime such as Ritter was accused of? I would not be surprised to learn that the sting operation, and unnecessarily harsh punishment had to do with a vendetta against this whistleblower.
The Western allied forced attained their goal of testing weapons notwithstanding Syria used chemical weapons or not. It caused half a billion dollars lost of tax payers’ money which provided some secrets disclosure to our sophisticated
weaponry.
Well I have to say one of my heroes is Scott Ritter the truth teller. My hope is that many of those top officials, politicians, military, Trump in the US, Britain and Italy etc. may end up on a most wanted list for complicity in war crimes and other atrocities and perjuring themselves in courts of law. They may just become ‘stay at home people’ like Bush who would have been arrested had he gone to certain parts of Europe. Haha! It could really happen and the truth strikes fear in the hearts of the guilty!
Not sure I’d go for information about anything to a guy who was convicted (as Mr. Ritter was) of soliciting minors for sex.
This comment is permitted, but not my observations about a College of Policy Debate to counter MSM propaganda?
What is happening to CN’s moderation process?
Actually, the comment which offended you was factual. Please, take some time and review this article: https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ritter-gets-prison-time-2237126.php
Maybe Mr. Ritter had treatment while he was in prison. Maybe he’s rehabilitated now. I don’t know. But it doesn’t change the fact that he has been repeatedly charged and convicted with soliciting minors for sex.
Your personal denunciations do not substitute for evidence and argument on the subject.
Your attempts to subvert the meaning of the article are highly inappropriate.
Here here!
In response to Iain Railton
Surely, “hear, hear”.
“But it doesn’t change the fact that he has been repeatedly charged and convicted with soliciting minors for sex.
+ = “Let he that is without sin cast the 1st stone?”
If we weigh the balance of Facts, Ritter’s sex crimes are a bee sting when weighed in the balance of the MILLIONS of normal people suffering within the real loss of their human existence. Think of a woman giving birth to a STILLBORN child — can you imagine the Terrible Pain? Think of a husband and father seeing the remains their happy home after a strafing w/ bombs and 50 caliber bullets delivered by some ‘alien’ from some whole ‘Other’ world. (as when the europeans discovered “america”)
An historical comparative balance could be ,
the weighing of Ridders’ purported sex crimes against
The Overthrow Of A Stable Gov/t
as designed & planned by the
SECRET MEETING OF CHENEY
AND US OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES
BEFORE THE Y2K ELECTION.
{go back and secure the facts,
not the spoon-fed False Narratives}
Comparative thinking; in terms of PROFIT and LOSS,
THE “BALANCE” IS GROSSLY IN FAVOR OF “THE SPOILER”
——————-
How many other nations can afford a VETERANS ADMINISTRATION ?
Why would you need a Veterans Administration in a world at peace?
Wars are a construct of humans with violent purposes/ideas of power.
(A wicked man hardens his face/but the upright establishes his way.)
I have been watching Jimmy Dore’s YouTube videos the past few weeks and he has a few in particular that highlight then Secretary of State John Kerry being grilled regarding “who” is financing our wars in the Middle East and “how much” they are willing to spend to upend Assad, Hussein, Qaddafi etc.
In the tape Kerry actually chuckles and says, “it is profound amounts of money. They (Saudi Arabia/Qatar) say they will pay what ever it takes for us to go in and do to Syria, Iran etc. what we have done to other countries”.
Right out of the horses mouth.
I suggest everyone browse around Dore’s past few weeks of videos to see the clip with your own eyes.
Add to this the Neocons strategy of “regime change of seven countries in five years” outlined by Gen. Wesley Clark to Amy Goodman (this plan was revealed to him at The Pentagon days after 9/11), and we can all quickly realize that our government is not even trying to keep it a secret what our goals are:
Total military world dominance.
And the American people believe all these wars are to bring “democracy” to these countries?! Ha! It is all for global corporate power and profits, which is why we only have a ONE party system in this country. Anybody else notice that which ever party is in control it is all still completely corrupted because Congress is OWNED by multi-national corporations, The Pentagon and US Intel? Even the MSM are total tools of the same team!
We need a third Progressive party NOW with NO DEALS made with Republicans OR Democrats!
Iwasjustthinking, exactly the tactics used to discredit purveyors of inconvenient information. Don’t attack the message, in this case that is hard to do, but attack the messenger What, for goodness sake, does soliciting sex from a minor, if true, have to do with chemical weapons. I was planning to mention that the same tactic was used to discredit him regarding Iraq.at an earlier time.
Isn’t Mr. Ritter’s background “an inconvenient fact”?
You: “1+1=3”
Him: “1+1=2”
You: “1+1=4!”
Touche.
But the “you” (there are two versions in this commentary – same person I suspect) doesn’t understand maths (yes its maths, not math), thus your succinct logic falls on deaf ears.
Just Sayen, and you said it plenty of time, no? Either way, Ritter seems to get what’s going on, and his opinion seems valid and well worth hearing. Just sayen, why not say again no it can’t be, because he’s got some unrelated faults? and keep sayen it ’til yer blue in the face.
Consortium News is fighting a good fight, but this is not the way to do it. Whatever short-term, “name recognition” boost Mr. Ritter may bring will be offset by the fact that every reader can do a background check in 30 seconds.
They are making a huge, huge mistake by dealing with Mr. Ritter.. I hope your comment is not censored.
What facts have been proven re the chemical attack?
Don’t’ go then. Assange is also not pure from your perspective. But Cheney, Blair, the NYT servants to the CIA, and the Kagans’ clan of war profiteers are good. — Really good for people like you and other hasbarists like “Just Sayen.”
i would like to know how the rebels did to make this “act of theatre”. Bellingcat prove that there was many dead bodies in a building that it can precisely situate, et Bellingcat can also precisely situate the vidéo taken on the roof of the building, where is the chemical weapon. It’s the same location. You should see that : https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/04/11/open-source-survey-alleged-chemical-attacks-douma-7th-april-2018/.
So the question is: how did the rebels to have all these people killed, with some incredible details on bodies that show chemical attack ? I love Ritter but i’m disappointed he talks so little of the rebels videos. He should find explanations for all that…
Are you aware that Bellingcat is a former salesperson of ladies underwear, which is his only reliable expertise, and that he is a darling of the Russophobic Atlantic Council?
After being ridiculed by the professionals in the US and UK, Bellingcat remains an important figure for hasbarists — for obvious reasons. https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/25/the-risk-of-brushing-aside-intelligence/
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/09/14/leaked-report-blows-lid-off-bellingcats-systematic-lying-in-mh17-investigation/
Guess, the ziocons are getting nervous.
Sadly, there surely was no shortage of dead bodies as the Syrian Arab Army wrested Eastern Ghouta from the U.S.’s good friends, the Salafi head-choppers. Video of that sad reality, packaged with self-serving claims from the jihadis or their “NGO” auxiliaries, isn’t very convincing evidence that the casualties were caused by other than the usual, non-prohibited weapons.
It has been shown that bombing was occuring and a large dust cloud was choking civilians hiding in cellars. People went to get treatment and were suddenly caught up in a fake alarm started by White Helmets screaming gas attack and spraying them with water and taking pictures. Unfortunately casualties are a fact of everyday life and amassing a pile of bodies would not be difficult. Lots of pictures and videos showing the truth have been posted. Doctors have been interviewed. No one witnessed a chemical attack.
Scott Ritter is one of my heroes, because he stood up for the truth while under enormous pressure to lie.
Would you a hero alone with a 15-year old girl?
Must be hard typing with socks on your hands…just sayin’. ; )
It’s a legitimate question.
Would you leave an ex-convict, a man with multiple convictions for soliciting minors for sex, alone with a 15-year old girl?
Would you leave an operative setting up honeypot scams alone with a 15-year-old girl?
You are such an obvious hasbarist that your awkward propaganda hurts your cause. This is your people: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/04/the-idf-is-the-most-moral-army-in-the-world-decameron-wonders-whatever-happened-to-human-rights.html
And robjira also raises a valid question, which you have so far not answered; have you now, or have you ever found it hard to type with socks on your hands?
Its pathetic to keep posting your conflation. How does a convicted sex offender automatically get labelled as a liar on fake chemical attacks? The two are not related.
How much are you being paid to troll? Can I get a job like that?
Is Assad Good or bad? see the clip here and decide. Love to hear some comments
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byg0uwtb8_o&lc=z13diprikk3nsxoax04ce5mbapbljrtwcd4.1502599788247888&feature=em-comments
Why don’t you leave the sovereign state of Syria alone? Particularly considering that your artificial and warmongering state of Israel is an apartheid theocracy.
I am all for that
That’s not fair!
It reminds me the same argument the west blamed Late Saddam and attacked the country Whenever US,UK,France say something about Arab world you should first the doubt their malicious intention before start believing it. It is the western powers are creating all trouble in the world. .
This is what should be played or voiced of MSM, 60 minutes ete etc…. the absolute disgust of America Foreign Policy and military aggression should be highlighted to the masses. Shame on CNN, WP, NYP, WE, FOX, the DRIVE, BBC, UK EXPRESS, GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH and every other pro-whitehouse/pro-UK parliment stinking outlet on the planet.
I’m Afraid Kurt, it doesn’t matter what evidence is produced to show it was a staged attack, the West will always rubbish it and carry on with the same lies. If you saw the Syrians who appeared before the OPCW telling their obviously honest story and then heard the MSM evil media say there accounts were fake you would understand this. Perhaps what the Russians and Syrian government should do is stage a fake gas attack of their own and see what the West has to say about it. Yet, even if such a film were to be made and the kids later were seen having a party, the MSM would just say it happened. I personally think there is something odd going on with the MSM, especially the so called independent BBC. It just isn’t feasible that reporters and editors can’t see what’s going on.
It’s simple John: the media people are paid to lie. From the owners to everyone working for them their job is to transmit without question the lies given to them by our government, which is controlled by the deep state.
But you know that………..
At last we can see USA is waking up to their corruption in the white house media and some senators.
Articles such as this one revealing that the yankee claims regarding Syria are obvious bullshit are necessary and help document a reality at odds with the falsehoods put forward by the regime’s apologists. Nonetheless, despite all efforts of people of good will, and despite overwhelming evidence, the regime’s propaganda wurlitzer continues to play on spouting spurious stories which can easily be refulted, but which are dangerous because fools continue to believe them because of their official imprimature. Meanwhile,they could lead to a fatal war with a nuclear adversary.
Further to my post about Robert Fisk, I should add that we in Canada are not much better off than USians when it comes to honest media. We have a public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but I have tried in vain to persuade them to look at alternative news and (informed) opinion sources. The CBC is not far removed from the Washington groupthink when it comes to Syria, Russia, Iran, Ukraine, etc.
I agree. The CBC and the commercial broadcasters in competition with them all spout absurd propaganda concerning Syria, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and elsewhere. That is why an unrepentant representative of a collaborationist family can continue to serve as external affairs minister with only very limited concern about this fact.
What’s the deal with Trudeau? He was supposed to be a refreshing Liberal antidote to the Conservative Harper whom the Bushies had recruited to the side of savage neoconservative foreign policy and ruinous neoliberal fiscal policy. Trudeau has joined right in on the rigorous Russophrenia ginned up by Obomber. His last name might as well be Clinton. I remember that, before Harper, Canada had eluded most of the fiscal traps and crises in banking, investment, real estate, cash flow and revenue raising that characterised the USA during the bubble years of the 00’s and the sudden crash of ’08. Harper ultimately led (or allowed) Canada into the same boat and Trudeau seems complacent to go down with that ship. Back during the Bush administration, many of us American liberals used to praise Canada for not allowing the light of true freedom and democracy to be extinguished in North America. Now it seems “lights out” for everyone. I find myself viewing Trudeau as the same fraudulent disappointment I did Obama. Canada even extradites AWOL American military anti-war resisters. What might I have wrong in my take?
Trudeau is obviously suffering from Tariq Ali has described as, “the Obama Syndrome.”
http://tariqali.org/archives/1640
The world is really just “one” – one central bank (they all collude with each other and go along), one media (they all collude on the narrative), one mind on wars, globalization, multiculturalism, immigration, Russia, etc.
Justin Trudeau is not his father. He was a drama teacher. Some handlers are carefully steering him, kind of like Bush Jr., and he parrots back what they tell him to say. He hasn’t got a clue.
Pierre Elliot Trudeau was one of the most well-read, intelligent people who ever ran a government. He certainly made mistakes, but he would NOT – never – have put up with the lies and the vilification of Russia, Syria and Iran. He would have spoken up and would have agreed with almost everyone here at Consortium. He actually had principles, hard to find today. It appears his son actually learned nothing from his father re foreign policy.
Here is Trudeau, Sr. speaking with reporters, up close and personal. Imagine seeing something like this today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUq9b1XTa0
His son, Justin Trudeau, would have folded within a few seconds. He would not have known what to say.
YouTube and CBC have banned this video in the United States. Cool beans, eh?
It sucks having my curiosity piqued only to be denied access. Not cool beans.
backwardsevolution– if you could get a chance to post a quote or two, or the gist of what Trudeau, Sr. told reporters way back when, my appreciation and thanks. I’d really like to know what my delicate American ears need to be prevented from hearing.
> YouTube and CBC have banned this video in the United States.
And in Germany, and who knows where else…
You can generally work around country limitations on web content by using the tor web browser. See https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
And in Europe. Imagine my shock.
backwardsevolution –
I agree with you completely. I had followed Pierre Eliot Trudeau from 1950’s. He was an intellectual, very well read; he would have never let himself sunk so low like all the current leaders of the West, including Justin Trudeau. You are right about Justin Trudeau.
Unfortunately, just about every institution in the West is sinking deeper and deeper into this stinking sewage of all kind of lies, disinformation and other unlawful acts. There is no integrity left in most of the government and private institutions and their members. Most of the political leaders have been bought, and those who are not, are afraid to speak out. If they do speak out, they will be immediately vilified in the Media with one label or the other, and run out of office – and so they go along and raise their hands in the congress chambers just like politburo members in the Soviet Union.
Looking at all the Western Capitols, there is not a ray of light visible anywhere. It is hard to comprehend how it is all going to end.
We have the same peculiar thing over here in the UK with the BBC, Allen. I just don’t see how educated reporters, journalists and editors can’t see what’s going on. As I said in my post, there is really something quite odd about this situation. They all seem to be abnormally afraid of even just reporting anything that contradicts the Governments account, let alone making any comments on fantasy chemical weapons attacks.
You can just write off the BBC as far as impartial journalism goes.
The BBC was targeted and infiltrated by the British American Project (along with the Labour Party, hence NewLabour).
What is now coming to the fore in the U.K as a whole as a consequence of Salisbury (don’t ask questions), Syria (it was Assad wot dun it) and Jeremy Corbyn’s signed copy of Mein Kampf (got it from an unimpeachable source) has been common knowledge to us salad dodgers since the BBC’s entirely impartial coverage if the Indy ref in 2014 (and all their coverage of Scottish politics since).
I was surprised that Ritter did not mention two recent reports by Robert Fisk in The Independent. Fisk, who has operated out of Beirut for over 40 years, was promptly on the ground in Douma and essentially verifies that there was no chemical weapon attack. No one died. After the airstrikes by F.U.K.U.S. on “three empty buildings” – Ritter is wrong there – Fisk went to the research centre in Damascus which had been destroyed. The evidence he found and heard supports Ritter’s claim that Syria did not have a CW program at that research centre. Fisk notes that OPCW has been certifying Syria as CW-free each year, including last November. I urge CN readers to follow Fisk. Just Google his name and The Independent.
If anyone has a few spare hours, read Fisk’s tome (about 1237 pages) on “The Great War for Civilisation”. It is really about North Africa and West and Central Asia, a region many people inaccurately call “the Middle East”.
Disinformation produced by fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins and fake “chemical weapons expert” Dan Kaszeta of the Atlantic Council’s UK-based Bellingcat blog made its way into the 11 April 2017 Trump White House’s “assessment” of the Khan Shakhun incident.
Kaszeta is an enthusiastic backer of any and all evidence-free “Israeli intelligence” claims about Syria.
A 19 April 2017 Israeli “assessment” presented by anonymous military officials included evidence free claims that Syrian military commanders has ordered the Khan Shaukun attack with President Assad’s knowledge and “estimates” that Syria still has “between one and three tons” of chemical weapons.
The Associated Press report on the Israeli military briefing included an interview with Kaszeta, who said the Israeli estimate appeared to be “conservative”. Kaszeta claimed that “One ton of sarin could easily be used to perpetrate an attack on the scale of the 2013 attack. It could also be used for roughly 10 attacks of a similar size to the recent Khan Sheikhoun attack”.
Back in 2013, Kaszeta peddled similar evidence-free claims by Israeli defense officials.
Now in 2018, fake “expert” Kaszeta is peddling policy recommendations, urging direct U.S. military attacks. and attempting to make a case for “depriving the Assad regime of its air force in its entirety”
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2018/04/10/how-to-dismantle-assad-s-chemical-weapons
The “presence of Russian aircraft complicates this issue immensely”, mentions Kaszeta in an aside.
Good points..
Of course, no one in the MSM is willing to investigate the R&D and stockpile of chemical and biological weapons held by the U.S., U.K. or Israel, or those nations’ propensity to use them- or share them and their manufacture with their terrorist proxies.
exactly.
Disinformation produced by fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins and fake “chemical weapons expert” Dan Kaszeta of the Atlantic Council’s UK-based Bellingcat blog made its way into the 11 April 2017 Trump White House’s “assessment” of the Khan Shakhun incident.
Kaszeta is an enthusiastic backer of any and all evidence-free “Israeli intelligence” claims about Syria.
A 19 April 2017 Israeli “assessment” presented by anonymous military officials included evidence free claims that Syrian military commanders has ordered the Khan Shaukun attack with President Assad’s knowledge and “estimates” that Syria still has “between one and three tons” of chemical weapons.
The Associated Press report on the Israeli military briefing included an interview with Kaszeta, who said the Israeli estimate appeared to be “conservative”. Kaszeta claimed that “One ton of sarin could easily be used to perpetrate an attack on the scale of the 2013 attack. It could also be used for roughly 10 attacks of a similar size to the recent Khan Sheikhoun attack”.
Back in 2013, Kaszeta peddled similar evidence-free claims by Israeli defense officials.
Now in 2018, fake “expert” Kaszeta is peddling policy recommendations, urging direct U.S. military attacks. and attempting to make a case for “depriving the Assad regime of its air force in its entirety”
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2018/04/10/how-to-dismantle-assad-s-chemical-weapons
The “presence of Russian aircraft complicates this issue immensely”, mentions Kaszeta in an aside.
This whole affair sounds like the U.S. and it’s allies France and Britain are now working from the point of ad-lib desperation. Add the Syrian chemical weapons attack bombing to the Salisbury Skirpal father daughter poisoning, and you have a lot of sloppiness with their execution with their false flags. Is the Empire losing it’s convert edge?
Sloppy perhaps. But we no longer have to rely on mainstream media and can get alternative news like this site. Back in the days of 4 channels and radio and newspaper, there was little. Back and to the left, back and to the left
Is it “ad-lib desperation”, or premeditated action? Based on how the events that had unfolded during the last decade or so, premeditated has been winning.
It’s pretty much always the same script, regardless of the type of event at hand; in a nutshell:
1. Government alleges crime against humanity, chemical weapons attack, threat to the US, etc.
2. MSM reports the event, “discovers proof” and convinces the masses that action must be taken
3. Government takes the premeditated action
Knowing that the masses only read headlines, they fall in line and most supportive of the action. Should they fail to support the action, the MSM still reports wide support anyway. As long as the MSM goes along with the government, lather, rinse, repeat…
Why should such a government have any credibility on the world stage? Why would other countries act based on the claims of the US government? And, finally, why would other countries support American aggression against any country for such ill defined and meaningless bullshit as “malign influence”?
Economic influence of the US, and control of institutions of other former democracies by economic power.
When I was a teen back in the 60’s my Dad, a purple heart WW2 Vet who loved his country, often told me,”Don’t trust the newspapers, the military, or the government, they’ll lie to you ever chance they get.” But in the year leading up to President Cheney’s attack on Iraq I thought I might be crazy, then I started reading what Scott Ritter and others had to say and new my old Dad was right. The late great and deeply missed Jeff Huber turned me on to the world of Geo Political truth telling.
This is all very disheartening. And unless you have the time (like retired or unemployed) and resources (internet) to do some basic research, you would never know there are very convincing alternate narratives out there and ones much more convincing. Before the late 1990s, there would have been very few alternative news sources available anyway (shortwave?). In other words, the government lies all they want, for reasons unknown to the rest of us, and there is little reason for optimism. Regardless of how obvious the lies, the press will just avoid publicizing them. Even if the entire world knows the truth, our media avoids enlightening us.
You’ve touched on a lot of truths in your brief comment.
Enlightenment re Vietnam took years to sink in with the public, as newspapers and the nightly network news were our only contacts with that debacle. The folly of the Iraq war was apparent before it even happened, at least in the eyes of those with access to truths not allowed in the corporate media, mainly because of the internet. I remember printing out on-line articles and snail mailing them to my family and friends who had no internet or e-mail. Now connectivity is nearly universal, but the lies and false narratives offered by the “establishment” warmongers have become incessant and totally over-the-top, and probably the majority of Americans are still thoroughly conditioned to click their heels and salute anything said in “defense” of “god and country.”
When WAS the last time our federal government made a “U-turn” on any policy that truly enraged the sensibilities of a majority of the public? Might well have been the Vietnam war, because the feds sure don’t seem to care about our opinion on stopping any other wars, squandering our shrinking revenues, running up debt whilst threatening default, printing bales of currency to gift the investing class, giving criminal banksters who crashed the economy a “get-out-of-jail-free” card while foreclosing on the little guy, ignoring our crumbling infrastructure, short-changing education and public health and threatening social programs like Medicare and Social Security.
An entire generation just coming of age is being enslaved with massive student loan debt even while the jobs they had trained for are being merrily shipped overseas by their capitalist oppressors, keeping them dependent on their parents well beyond what is personally healthy or functional for a society, which we all well know but seem powerless to do anything about because the levers of government are owned entirely by those same oppressors. Normally, an aging man in his 70’s should envy a vigorous young lad in his 20’s making great plans for a lifetime stretching far into the future, but how often I’ve heard from my own cohort that we are actually glad to be old in such a world. Such thinking, based on very real experiences and metastatic pessimism, does not bode well for this country.
Realist-
You’ve certainly nailed it once again. I am single, but my friends are now grandparents, and when I look at these little kids I feel nothing but sympathy for them for the world they are growing up in. We were hiding under our desks during the Cuban missile crisis, but that was nothing compared to the dangers they face on their road ahead, and I am ashamed of my own generation for leaving them such a world. The idealism of the ’60’s was drowned by disco and cocaine, and movies like “Top Gun”. The evil bast**rds won.
Your pessimism is entirely realistic. In addition to the problems you enumerated, we are poisoning the air, water, soil, and our own bodies. Industrial civilization is destroying life on the planet, and there seems to be no movement towards stopping our escalating collapse and eventual species extinction.
No one has mentioned the lying and thieving pharmaceutical industry yet!
You are tight, Harpo, can you imagine what they got away with before the internet? Makes one wonder if anything we were told by MSM pre-the internet was ever true.
“LIES MY TEACHER(s) TOLD ME”
https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/liesmyteachertoldme.php