You may be certain that Syria remains a geo-strategically crucial location for the U.S. empire because its keeps working to manufacture consent for interventionism there, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
The Institute for Public Accuracy published a report Tuesday about the leaked engineering assessment from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons investigation into an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, which directly contradicts the findings of the official OPCW report on the matter. Until the unauthorized release of this internal document the public was kept entirely uninformed of its existence, despite the serious military consequences of the questions it raises; the official story that Syria had dropped chemical weapons on Douma was used to justify an airstrike on Syria days later.
MIT professor Theodore Postol provided IPA with a basic analysis of some of the data in the engineering assessment, adding that he would have a more detailed summary of the engineering report later this week.
“A second issue that is raised by the character of the OPCW engineering report on Douma is that it is entirely unmentioned in the report that went to the UN Security Council,” Postol concludes his analysis. “This omission is very serious, as the findings of that report are critical to the process of determining attribution. There is absolutely no reason to justify the omission of the engineering report in the OPCW account to the UN Security Council as its policy implications are of extreme importance.”
“A leaked OPCW document challenges claim that Assad used chemical weapons in Douma in April 2018, the basis for US military strikes,” tweeted journalist Aaron Maté of the new IPA report. “So far, Western media has ignored it, w/ only exceptions at the margins. Ted Postol is a leading expert; this should be impossible to ignore now.”
A leaked OPCW document challenges claim that Assad used chemical weapons in Douma in April 2018, the basis for US military strikes. So far, Western media has ignored it, w/ only exceptions at the margins. Ted Postol is a leading expert; this should be impossible to ignore now: https://t.co/jaQlyjKy6g
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) May 21, 2019
Hours later, the U.S. State Department issued a statement once again accusing Syria of using chemical weapons, and now when you search Google for information on chemical weapons in Syria, the results you get look like this:
So that’s convenient.
The State Department’s release reads like a government trying to regain control of an important narrative. It begins with an unsubstantiated allegation of a chlorine gas attack by the Syrian government this past Sunday, and warns that the U.S. and its allies will respond militarily if chemical weapons have been used. It condemns Syria’s offensive to recapture the Al Qaeda-occupied Idlib province, then veers off into accusing Moscow of lying about the White Helmets and citing the OPCW as a trustworthy source of authority:
“Russia’s recent allegations against the White Helmets and others are part of a continuing disinformation campaign by the Assad regime and Russia to create the false narrative that others are to blame for chemical weapons attacks that the Assad regime itself is conducting. Similarly, on November 24, 2018, the Assad regime and Russia attempted to fabricate a chemical weapons attack near Aleppo and blame it on opposition forces. At times, Russia and the Assad regime have made these false allegations as a pretext in advance of the Assad regime’s own barbaric chemical weapons attacks.
The facts, however, are clear: the Assad regime itself has conducted almost all verified chemical weapons attacks that have taken place in Syria—a conclusion the United Nations has reached over and over again. The former Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-UN Joint Investigation Mechanism repeatedly verified and reported the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. The Assad regime’s culpability in horrific chemical weapons attacks is undeniable.”
As I wrote the other day, the fact that the OPCW kept the engineering report from receiving not a whisper of attention severely undermines the organization’s credibility, not just with regard to Douma but with regard to everything, including the establishment Syria narrative as a whole and the Skripal case in the U.K. Everything the OPCW has ever concluded about alleged chemical usage around the world is now subject to very legitimate skepticism, and now the State Department is trying to use this same dubious source in its narrative control campaign against a government long targeted by the U.S. empire for regime change.
“Assad once again proving he’s either a total fool or just the biggest troll in history,” Off-Guardian tweeted sarcastically in response to the State Department’s allegations. “In the midst of the scandal over the OPCW repressing evidence that the Douma chemical attack was staged, Bashar just goes and does another one.”
#Assad once again proving he's either a total fool or just the biggest troll in history.
In the midst of the scandal over the #OPCW repressing evidence that the #Douma chemical attack was staged, Bashar just goes and does another one. #covenienttiminghttps://t.co/U9M0FGITvs
— OffGuardian (@OffGuardian0) May 22, 2019
“The US can’t attack Iran so it’s going to unleash its impotent rage on Syria,” tweeted journalist Sharmine Narwani. “One false flag CW attack by US-trained terrorists coming up.”
The notion that Syria would use chemical weapons at this stage in the game is even more nonsensical than it was at the time of the Douma allegations in April 2018. President Bashar al-Assad has recaptured far more territory from the Western-backed extremist factions, the eventual full recapture of the nation by Syria and its allies is a foregone conclusion barring direct military intervention by the U.S. empire, and now the Western imperialists are even beginning to lose the narrative war as well. There’s no reason to believe Assad would use chemical weapons at this point in the game unless you sincerely believe that he gains some sort of sexual gratification from committing war crimes that is so powerful it overwhelms his most basic survival instincts.
U.S. bomber prepares to launch a strike mission from Al Udeid AIr Base, Qatar, April 13, 2018, in support of the multinational response to reports of Syria recent use of chemical weapons. (U.S. Air Force/Phil Speck)
Chemical weapons, particularly chlorine gas, are not an efficient way of killing people. As Moon of Alabama once put it, “Chemical warfare is ineffective. That is why everyone agreed to ban it.” There is nothing about chemical weapons that is inherently more horrific than, say, nuclear weapons. The difference is that they’re just not a very efficient way of killing a large number of people, whereas nuclear weapons are. Syria and its allies have been securing military victory after military victory over the occupying militias that had taken over large territories, and they have been doing so using far more effective conventional munitions. Assad would stand absolutely nothing to gain and absolutely everything to lose by using chemical warfare now.
At this point you almost wish America would just pick a target and stick with it. The U.S. war machine is like a belligerent drunk at a pub with a broken bottle in his hand, menacing customer after customer while everyone silently prays he has a few more drinks and passes out on the floor. From Iran to Venezuela to Syria and other places, the agenda to bully all the world’s nations into allowing themselves to be absorbed into the blob of the U.S.-centralized empire is causing conflict after conflict all around the globe, with devastating consequences for civilians caught in the crossfire.
You may be certain that Syria remains a geo-strategically crucial location for the empire because they keep working on manufacturing consent for interventionism there. They work to manufacture that consent because they need that consent; if everyone saw their government doing horrific things they widely disapproved of, the illusion of freedom and democracy would be shattered, and they’d lose their ability to propagandize the masses. Without the ability to propagandize the masses, they could not rule.
The good news is that we can slow them down by using truth to disrupt their use of their narrative control arsenal. The bad news is that they’re as depraved and determined as ever.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.” This article was re-published with permission.
Caitlin it isn’t just the Douma ‘attack’ that made no sense, neither did either of the other attacks. I don’t know if it is possible to attach images to comments here, so I’ll just give you a text version of a cartoon I saw after the second ‘attack’ (Khan Sheikoun, I believe).
There is a picture of a statue of Sun Tzu on the right and on the left is:
“When your enemy is nearly
defeated, and final victory is at
hand, gas your own people so
that nations greater than yours
will intervene and destroy you.”
– Sun Tzu. The Arto of War.
Page: Never.
It’s funny except that actual human being die because of this nonsense.
Everyone owes a debt of gratitude to Assad. In 2015 when things looked darkest, he could have fled the country, and if he had the black flag of ISIS would be flying now over the Damascus, and we would have seen a horrific bloodbath, including probably every non-Sunni in the country. He stayed to fight the most vicious killers in the World today and with the help of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, managed to save the country.
“Put bluntly, the paper is suggesting that the location of the cylinders was a set-up, that someone inside Douma immediately after the bombings of 7 April 2018 – and no one, not even the Syrians or Russians, deny there was conventional bombing and shelling that night – placed the cylinders in the locations in which they were subsequently examined by the OPCW. Since the first images of the cylinders in these locations were shown on footage before the Syrians and Russians entered Douma, the obvious corollary is that forces opposed to the Assad regime may have put them there. […]
“We all remember how, after falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, we invaded Iraq on these false pretences and – within a few years – claimed that Iran was making weapons of mass destruction, and then threatened Iran with war, something we continue to the present day. What if we are now told that yet once more Syria is using gas against its enemies?
“Strangely, amid the revelations of the OPCW’s hidden report, the US State Department – just two days ago – announced that ‘we continue to see signs that the Assad regime may be renewing its use of chemical weapons, including an alleged chlorine attack in northwest Syria on the morning of 19 May 2019…’
“So here we go again.”
The Evidence We Were Never Meant to See About the Douma Gas Attack
By Robert Fisk
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/27/the-evidence-we-were-never-meant-to-see-about-the-douma-gas-attack/
So our government is now also a disinformation operation.
That has been creeping up for a long time, as individual lies merge together into a continuous narrative of lies. Probably Cheney took the final step over the line, but only now is it being called out for everywhere, all time, as it evidently deserves.
That is not a defense of all the other liars of the world.
In WW2, the BBC was very useful to the British because it mostly told the truth, even when it hurt. The US has surrendered any such advantage. It is a mistake to be noted.
Earlier this week after the Bolton piece by Joe Lauria I spent an afternoon reading about the Iran-Iraq war of the ’80’s. (Disclaimer and aside; that reading was of Wikipedia’s extensive entry on the subject. Many reject Wiki out of hand as biased, compromised, and unreliable. I disagree; the information contained there in most instances agrees with information available through other sources. In this particular entry both Iran and Iraq were seen in a most unflattering light and the political, military, and moral failures of both sides were honestly reported. When Wikipedia first began I too dissed it as “impossible” and likely to be misused. I’ve changed my mind, but as always multiple sources should be pursued by anyone seeking the truth.)
I already knew that Sadam and Iraq had used chemical weapons against the Iranians and the Kurds. What I didn’t know was how many times and how extensively they were used – possibly a dozen times. Another “truism” was dispelled – that chemical weapons are ineffective. Not true. During the period of that war when Iraq was losing on most fronts it was only by using massive chemical ordnance that Iraq was able to stop Iranian advances, causing extensive death and permanent injury. The use against the Kurds was also on multiple occasions and done on a massive scale. Near the end of that war Sadam began attacking Iranian cities and towns with chemical weapons, killing and injuring many civilians.
During and after the war most of this was quietly swept under the rug by western reporting and the reason why is because it was mainly the west that supplied Sadam with the ingredients and the equipment to produce them. Specifically: France, Spain, Netherlands, US, and Russia.
The Wiki entry reported that after the war an unexploded chemical munition was found in Iran and it clearly showed that it was manufactured in Spain. Because of the extensive effective use of those weapons, after the war Iran decided to acquire a chemical arsenal of its own but within several years signed a treaty banning them and they destroyed their arsenal (’93.)
i think that in this case the fault on usa because for years they support terrorists with money
I read the official OPCW report linked in Johnstone’s preceding article. Even in this report it is admitted that “molecular chlorine” or “reactive chlorine” (just plain old chlorine) sampled may have originated from household cleaners, environmental soil or sewage (8-14). And,…”it cannot be unequivocally stated that the wood was exposed to chlorine gas, rather than to hydrogen chloride or hydrochloric acid” (8-10).
Even more shockingly (after stating that no other types of chemical weapons residues were found) it states that the two most common forms of weaponized chlorine gas were NOT present either, “This observation would tend to confirm that the toxic chemical containing reactive chlorine was neither phosgene nor cyanogen chloride” (8-12).
By the way, if this weaponized chlorine gas (phosgene or cyanogen chloride) was NOT in the cylinders, then what WAS in them? Surely before testing walls, wood, dust and cloths for low PPM residues samples were taken from inside the cylinder itself? (unless I missed it, I did not see this reported). This omission would be akin to not investigating the ammunition of a gun found in a crime scene.
The conclusion of the report (9-12) “reasonable grounds that use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place” would never pass muster in any academic circles based on the findings in the official report… even without the strong ballistics/structural evidence shamefully excluded in the leaked report.
It almost seems like the OPCW investigators in Douma wanted to show the world the truth, and knew that the executive idiots at OPCW who scrubbed and politicized the final report would not be smart enough in basic sciences (or logic) to redact key findings.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media and “six pack Joe” Americans aren’t smart enough either.
I love the drunk belligerent at a party bit. So true.
As we commemorate Memorial Day and a member of Veterans For Peace, I must point out that the US government has lost all its credibility concerning the condemnation of other countries using chemical weapons. Our government has used or sold massive amounts of chemical weapons, permanently maiming and killing untold numbers of civilians since WW II and contanimating the ecology of Korea Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Middle East. What we should do is compensate those countries affected. Whether chemical warfrare is really effective is a cynical argument. We should use diplomacy instead of deadly military force to solve international conflicts! The bloodbath
of WWI was described as “the war to end all wars”. Instead it was the major cause of WW II. After the horrific destruction that occurred during WWII, the world has endured one war after another with no end in sight. When will we ever learn from history? The future of civilization is at stake.
The United Nations stood by US-Saudi-Israeli Axis financed and armed the mercenary terrorist forces that have attacked Syria since 2011.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, major support for terrorist mercenaries was provided via NATO-member state Turkey, as well as Israel and Jordan.
The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is Ahmet Uzumcu, a Turkish career diplomat who served as ambassador to Israel from 1999 to 2002, and as the Permanent Representative of Turkey to NATO between 2002 and 2004.
Turkey has been the primary channel for mercenary terrorist forces assaulting the Syrian state. The remaining terrorist forces in the Idlib Governorate continue to be supplied through Syria.
Since Uzumcu announced the creation of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria on 29 April 2014, not a single OPCW report has acknowledged these basic facts concerning the conflict in Syria.
Does anyone really expect us to believe that the OPCW is going to say anything contrary to the “narrative” endorsed by the US-Saudi-Israeli Axis?
Following a consensus recommendation by the OPCW Executive Council in October 2017. Spanish career diplomat Fernando Arias was appointed to replace Uzumcu as Director-General of the OPCW.
Previously, Arias served as Ambassador of Spain to the Netherlands and the Permanent Representative of Spain to the OPCW. He also has served as Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations in New York.
Brazilian diplomat Jose Bustani, the first director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons until he was ousted after falling out with the US government in April 2002. Bustani only served about one year of his second term, and was forced out by the U.S. government because he wanted international chemical weapons monitors inside Iraq and thus was seen as impeding the U.S. push for war against Iraq. The U.S. accused Bustani of “advocacy of inappropriate roles for the OPCW”.
Uzumcu, and now Bustani, obviously understand that the appropriate role of the OPCW is to provide propaganda support for “regime change” operations.
Only one quibble (if my house were on fire, I’d finish reading one of her articles before fleeing): no need to bring in the specter of the destruction of nuclear weapons to compare to chemical weapons, just look at all the death and destruction we’ve accomplished with all of our conventional and “legal” weapons. “Chemical weapons” is just another shibboleth that still has some currency in the fantasy land of the official US narrative – completely for domestic consumption. Like Pavlov’s dogs we’re supposed to be conditioned so that when they shout CHEMICAL WEAPONS! we’re supposed to obediently respond ATTACK!
MIT Rocket scientist Theodore Postol explains how he knows these chlorine gas attacks in Syria are staged
http://opensociet.org/2019/05/23/mit-rocket-scientist-states-syrian-chemical-attacks-were-staged
https://www.newsweek.com/now-mattis-admits-there-was-no-evidence-assad-using-poison-gas-his-people-801542
Even Newsweek, lmao.
Caitlin Johnstone is absolutely rushing it lately. Consistently unmasking US war propaganda.
*Crushing
What Abe said.
You know it’s kind of funny if you go on US Senate congressional records and type in, List of senators voting on Congressional Letter Urges Trump to Keep US Troops in Syria May 2019 you get System is temporarily down.
If anyone has access to that information and wishes to post here that would be appreciated.
Why would we aphids have any need to know the activities of the ants ruling the farm? We’re only good for stroking and milking.
If the US attacks Syria over this bullshit, the US had best be ready to have the Russians shoot back at us.
‘The Guardian’s Brian Whitaker […] has maintained a particularly suspicious proximity to Higgins and his work”
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/natos-war-on-syria-just-got-dirtier.html
April 07, 2017 Pentagon Trained Syria’s Al Qaeda “Rebels” in the Use of Chemical Weapons
The Western media refutes their own lies.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/pentagon-trained-syrias-al-qaeda-rebels-in-the-use-of-chemical-weapons/5583784
The full document, released to Judicial Watch earlier this year via FOIA request, can be found here.
Nov 20, 2015 The One Thing You Need to Know About ISIS
‘Americans please wake up!’
https://youtu.be/vkxFT_hJCdQ
http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf
“There’s no evidence that any of that is true” according to blogger Brian Whitaker, the Guardian’s former Middle East editor.
https://al-bab.com/blog/2019/05/opcw-and-leaked-douma-document-what-we-know-so-far
An expert in evidence-free claims, Whitaker and his chum, fellow fake “journalist” Eliot Higgins of the Bellingcat disinformation site, have a long history of propaganda support for the US-Saudi-Israeli dirty war in Syria.
LOL. The OPCW has been silent on the leaked report, and Caitlin correctly points out that the State Department’s release is timed to “take the air out” of the leaked document. They’re just hoping this information “goes away.” Whitaker’s incompetent propaganda, while arguing against the conclusions of the suppressed report, confirms the authenticity of the document as an internal OPCW report.
A neutral, apolitical organization, or even a politicized but competent organization, would at a minimum have mentioned a “minority report” referring to this internal document and explaining why its findings were rejected.
However, we know from the Skripal affair that the OPCW leadership is hopelessly incompetent and politicized. Their lame explanations for why their subcontracted Spiez lab detected a lethal level of un-degraded Novichok in the Skripals’ blood along with BZ prove it. Their explanations, 1) that Spiez was asked only to confirm or refute Porton Down’s detection of Novichok and not to analyze the dosage or condition of the agent and 2) that BZ was added to the samples to test the competency of the labs, were in Maria Zakharova’s words (as translated from Russian) “bizarre,” and prove without doubt that the OPCW leadership has been captured and completely politicized by Imperial Deep State interests.
Caitlin, I like your analogy of the US acting out like a bumbling, stumbling, nasty drunkard, threatening everyone in a bar with a broken bottle & violence with everyone hoping this boozed up psychopath, passes out & hits the floor in a drunken stupor? That’s exactly what this Nation called America is? A Warmongering, Warfare, punch drunk Country that’s absolutely good for nothing & only exists to taut, threaten, bully & terrorise other Countries into submission, like that nasty drunk, if it doesn’t get it’s way? As depraved & determined as ever is the US Empire to fake yet another chemical attacks & blame Assad, you got that right, in yet another example of America’s useless, chaotic Foreign Policy disaster model of acting as a spoiler & meddler rather than a Liberator? In fact the US was never invited into Syria by the Assad Government so has no legitimate, legal basis to being there, in the first place, so why are they there? Swig on another drink American Empire, stumbling & bumbling on in its drunken rampage towards hitting the floor of oblivion where all waning, dying Empires go, eventually!
In a situation as controversial and scandalous and (now) widely known as this, leaders of integrity who’ve been proven wrong would come forward with a sincere apology for their errors to all concerned. Will Donald Trump, Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron apologize for their illegal April 2018 bombing of Syria, – and prove to the people of Syria and the world they are leaders with integrity?
Peace.
It is remarkable that the US always accuses Assad of using CE just when it would do him the most harm, such as just after the OPCW inspectors arrived in Damascus to investigate use of CW. With this leaked engineering report, it is clear that Israel is bribing the US to pressure the UN to ignore the facts and propagandize the People of the United States.
The best democracy that money can buy (Twain) is not a democracy at all.
Indeed the bully tyrants who rise in an unregulated market economy to control formerly democratic institutions, must invent foreign threats to demand power, which requires “the ability to propagandize” without which “the illusion of freedom and democracy would be shattered.” Thank you, Caitlin Johnstone and CN, for exposing that.
@ “Chemical weapons, particularly chlorine gas, are not an efficient way of killing people.”
Chlorine is only of limited utility because it is heavier than air. It sinks. In WWI fixed position trench warfare, this made it somewhat useful, although the hazards of it blowing back on the launching force’s troops due to a change in the wind was no small hazard. In mobile warfare, you would have to get your intended victims into a sealed chamber or room before releasing the gas.
Syria had stockpiled poisonous gases and delivery systems as a deterrent to Israeli invasion. If aimed at Israeli cities, they wouldn’t kill a lot of people but would cause massive panic. In other words, Syria’s intended use, if needed, was a means of psychological warfare.
The situation in Douma in particular made no sense that the Syrian Army would use such gas weapons because it was attacking and the headchoppers were falling back. If one’s brain is working, you do not charge into a cloud of lethal poisonous gas.
Because of the heavier-than-air problem, chlorine is almost of no conceivable practical use in mobile warfare except to create a false flag incident.
Gas warfare is definitely not a preferred option if you have artillery and bombs, which are safer to use, can be aimed, and don’t migrate on breezes. Explosives are far more effective. The Syrian government had both bombs and artillery.
And you don’t cross the U.S. government’s “red line” when you are winning against your opponents without using poison gases. The entire “Assad gasses his own people” meme has been implausible from the beginning.
A good point, Paul, especially where the government of Syria had no quarrel with the general population of the areas of alleged CW attacks. It is also one of the few Mideast governments that has protected minority rights.
You can blame it all on Putin, don’tcha know?
He personally mixes the chemicals and loads them into the delivery devices.
As good a reason as any to take him out, along with Assad, Maduro, Rouhani… and Xi, for good measure.
Both the Dems and the GOPers, neither of whom can ever have too many enemies, would agreed on this balderdash I am certain.
I find it incredibly disgusting to hear the same lies trotted out about Assad! That’s what depressed me more than this weird weather we’ve had. Bolton and Pompeo, Netanyahu, never stops! Just sickening.
It’s not just these individuals who are cancers threatening the life of the planet, it is the whole body politic from which each of them derives. It’s not possible, but even if we could hypothetically purge all of these bloodthirsty maniacs from positions of power, they would simply be replaced by similar ilk in the next round of elections or appointments. Planet Earth is in big trouble and we know, for the most part, who the critical troublemakers are, but they are mostly beyond the reach of civilised society. Psychopaths perched in far too many of the most important positions of power on the planet. Who’da thunk up such a preposterous scenario? No one sane.
Reminder: the undermining of Assad started under Obama. Never understood why he needed to be overthrown, especially since area was already in such chaos. As I understand it was actually about a gas pipeline, not any human rights issues or “rebels.” It’s all smoke & mirrors.
It’s Israel’s quest for Lebensraum that is the destructive impulse there.
As depraved and determined as ever:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2019/03/01/the-opcw-ffms-report-on-the-april-7th-2018-douma-chemical-attack-versus-the-open-source-evidence/
The U.S. government now relies almost entirely on non-governmental entities to “verify” information, and launches military strikes based on nothing other than so-called “public information” supplied by “social media users, non-governmental organizations, and other open-source outlets”.
The April 2018 ““United States Assessment of the Assad Regime’s Chemical Weapons Use” read like a nearly verbatim compendium of Bellingcat blog excretions, including Bellingcat’s 11 April 2018 “Open Source Survey of Alleged Chemical Attacks in Douma on 7th April 2018”.
The US government “assessment” is identical to Bellingcat’s “assessment” based entirely on “open-source information”:
“social media users, non-governmental organizations, and other open-source outlets reported”
“Videos and images […] photos and video”
“reporting from media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other open sources”
The U.S. government “assessment” only mentioned “Reliable intelligence” once, but presents no further information regarding the specific form of the alleged “intelligence”, nor how its “reliability” was determined, nor whether it came from a foreign nation.
Israel has a long history of supplying the U.S. with dubious or obviously false “intelligence” as an incitement to war.
ABC News reported that the US Government “Assessment” was supplied to Congress by the National Security Council under the direction of rabid pro-Israel Lobby figure and terrorist supporter John R. Bolton.
A 14 April 2018 ABC News report statesd: “In the moments after President Donald Trump ordered coordinated attacks on chemical weapons facilities in Syria, the White House sent a briefing document to members of Congress prepared by the National Security Council outlining the thinking behind its air strikes.”
According to ABC News, in response to arguments made by the Syrian and Russian governments that the April 7 attack was fabricated by Western governments, the NSC memo stated, “Such a widespread fabrication would require a well-organized and compartmented campaign to deceive multiple media outlets while evading our detection.”
Like so many statements in the U.S. Government “Assessment” of alleged “chemical use” in the Syrian conflict, the NSC statement was merely an assertion with no direct evidence to support it.
Gains some sort of sexual gratification:
https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1087822234603999232
The absurdity of our reality TV show life is so hypernormalised, collectively as a nation we simply cannot differentiate the true from the false.
https://opensociet.org/2019/05/22/hypernormalisation-explained/