Exclusive: As President Trump was launching his missile strike against Syria, CIA Director Pompeo and other intelligence officials weren’t at the table, suggesting their doubts about Bashar al-Assad’s guilt, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
There is a dark mystery behind the White House-released photo showing President Trump and more than a dozen advisers meeting at his estate in Mar-a-Lago after his decision to strike Syria with Tomahawk missiles: Where are CIA Director Mike Pompeo and other top intelligence officials?
The photograph released by the White House of President Trump meeting with his advisers at his estate in Mar-a-Lago on April 6, 2017, regarding his decision to launch missile strikes against Syria.
Before the photo was released on Friday, a source told me that Pompeo had personally briefed Trump on April 6 about the CIA’s belief that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was likely not responsible for the lethal poison-gas incident in northern Syria two days earlier — and thus Pompeo was excluded from the larger meeting as Trump reached a contrary decision.
At the time, I found the information dubious since Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other senior U.S. officials were declaring quite confidently that Assad was at fault. Given that apparent confidence, I assumed that Pompeo and the CIA must have signed off on the conclusion of Assad’s guilt even though I knew that some U.S. intelligence analysts had contrary opinions, that they viewed the incident as either an accidental release of chemicals or an intentional ploy by Al Qaeda rebels to sucker the U.S. into attacking Syria.
As strange as the Trump administration has been in its early months, it was hard for me to believe that Trump would have listened to the CIA’s views and then shooed the director away from the larger meeting before launching a military strike against a country not threatening America.
After the strike against Syria by 59 Tomahawk missiles, which Syrian officials said killed seven people including four children, Trump gave a speech to the American people declaring flatly:
“On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women, and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”
As much as Trump stood to benefit politically by acting aggressively in attacking Syria — and thus winning praise even from his harshest critics — the idea that he would ignore the views of the U.S. intelligence community on an issue of war or peace was something that I found hard to believe.
So, I put aside what I had heard from the source about the discordant Pompeo-Trump meeting as the sort of tidbit that may come from someone who lacks first-hand knowledge and doesn’t get all the details right.
After all, in almost every similar situation that I had covered over decades, the CIA Director or the Director of National Intelligence has played a prominent role in decisions that depend heavily on the intelligence community’s assessments and actions.
President Barack Obama and his national security team monitor the Special Operations raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. (White House photo by Pete Souza)
For instance, in the famous photo of President Obama and his team waiting out the results of the 2011 raid to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Leon Panetta is the one on the conference screen that everyone is looking at.
Even when the U.S. government is presenting false information, such as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 speech laying out the bogus evidence of Iraq hiding WMDs, CIA Director George Tenet was seated behind Powell to lend credibility to the falsehoods.
At the Table
But in the photo of Trump and his advisers, no one from the intelligence community is in the frame. You see Trump, Secretary of State Tillerson, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, strategic adviser Steve Bannon, son-in-law Jared Kushner and a variety of other officials, including some economic advisers who were at Mar-a-Lago in Florida for the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
However, you don’t see Pompeo or Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats or any other intelligence official. Even The New York Times noted the oddity in its Saturday editions, writing: “If there were C.I.A. and other intelligence briefers around, … they are not in the picture.”
That made me wonder whether perhaps my original source did know something. The claim was that CIA Director Pompeo had briefed Trump personally on the analysts’ assessment that Assad’s forces were not responsible, but – then with Pompeo sidelined – Trump conveyed his own version of the intelligence to his senior staff.
In other words, the other officials didn’t get the direct word from Pompeo but rather received a second-hand account from the President, the source said. Did Trump choose to rely on the smug certainty from the TV shows and the mainstream news media that Assad was guilty, rather than the contrary view of U.S. intelligence analysts?
After the attack, Secretary of State Tillerson, who is not an institutional intelligence official and has little experience with the subtleties of intelligence, was the one to claim that the U.S. intelligence community assessed with a “high degree of confidence” that the Syrian government had dropped a poison gas bomb on civilians in Idlib province.
While Tillerson’s comment meshed with Official Washington’s hastily formed groupthink of Assad’s guilt, it is hard to believe that CIA analysts would have settled on such a firm conclusion so quickly, especially given the remote location of the incident and the fact that the initial information was coming from pro-rebel (or Al Qaeda) sources.
Thus, a serious question arises whether President Trump did receive that “high degree of confidence” assessment from the intelligence community or whether he shunted Pompeo aside to eliminate an obstacle to his desire to launch the April 6 rocket attack.
If so, such a dangerous deception more than anything else we’ve seen in the first two-plus months of the Trump administration would be grounds for impeachment – ignoring the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community so the President could carry out a politically popular (albeit illegal) missile strike that killed Syrians.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
Glad to hear there was some skepticism from the intelligence community. If true, I could be why the Administration limited the response to a show of force instead of a major policy change regarding the future of Assad. Without knowing what the actual evidence, one must ponder the logic of Syria using chemical weapons at this time now that the war has shifted decisively in their favor especially considering how well they (and the Russians) have played their hand to this point.
Where was Pompeo on the decision to strike Syria in response to the purported Sarin chemical gas attack? Who were the President and other adminstration staff TELECONFERENCING with (as shown in the photo)? They are not just watching FOX NEWS, they are teleconferencing with some individuals – potentially from the INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY and PENTAGON with briefings on updated intelligence re: Syrian chemical gas attack & proposed strike plans.
I do not know if it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else
experiencing problems with your blog. It appears like some
of the written text in your posts are running off the screen. Can somebody else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them too?
This may be a issue with my web browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Cheers
But Rex needs an oil pipeline thru Syria and Assad isn’t letting him build one!
or. the CIA briefed Trump, and a false strike (with 36 undisclosed targets) was planned in response to the false flag.
the CIA stayed away from the meeting to avoid an accidental reveal.
The CIA loves Trump, as he vowed to destroy the 5th column within it.
My bet is deep state black assets were hit.
Sean Spicer posted this WH photo via his account and underneath the photo was a paragraph which included (ed for security), which I took to mean that the photo had been cropped, leaving out the foreground and whatever was left and right of the photo’s viewpoint (wide-angle?). So, what or whom, was cropped out of this picture for security reasons at Mar-a-Lago? We saw what Trump did when the Seal Team 6 attack occurred in Yemen, so exactly who sat in on this Trump “photo op”? Chinese President Xi, maybe?
When he (Trump) was elected (?) We were doomed to be a third rate country, doing the very most at trying to take over the world.
Trump is a megalomanic psychopath so the notion that his bombardment of Syria was because he cares about the suffering of children or that he is the agent of divine vengeance is palpable nonsense.
This was a spontaneous decision without obvious rhyme or reason and nothing more than a gesture – which is why the Syrians were warned it was about to happen.
Cui bono – who benefits? Well right now Trump’s two biggest problems are 1) the Russian-links investigation and 2) The fact that Putin is getting more and more angry that Trump hasn’t carried through any of the pro-Russian policies and promises which he was blackmailed into making, and since the Trump-Putin alliance is obviously on the rocks it looks certain that the Putin will release enough of its file on Trump to lead to Trump’s impeachment (who knows, we might even get to see those famous ‘golden-rain’ tapes).
What better way for Trump to preempt this than by adopting obvious anti-Russian policies and saying in effect, “Sure we accepted money from the Russians but it never allowed us to modify or influence our policies.”
Will all this save Trump’s skin and presidency? Who knows? Cuba almost finished Kennedy, Vietnam destroyed Johnson, and Nixon would be remembered as a great president who got the US out of Vietnam if he hadn’t resigned over Watergate. While Reagan, who posed as a man of peace and was essentially a non-interventionist who subverted anti-American movements (Iran-Contra deal) rather than directly opposing them is remembered as a great president.
Or will the US electorate just see his Syrian intervention as another of Trump’s broken promises, lies and impetuous gambles which achieves absolutely nothing apart from distracting people’s attention from the litany of failures which has already characterized his presidency?
Is Haynes Johnson still alive and at the Washington Post?
After the rabid neocons and Zionists get thru with destroying Syria, it will be on to Iran. The MSM will start broadcasting non-stop lies and propaganda about Iran, with their only solution to destroy Iran in order to make the ME safe for Apartheid Israel.
This all goes back to the Mother of all False Flags, the Israeli masterminded 9/11 attacks, with help from traitors in the WH, the Pentagon, CIA, FBA and NSA. With generous help from the Lying MSM.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it
Until people understand that, nothing will change until the USA implodes from financial, physical and spiritual exhaustion from fighting endless ‘Wars for Wall Street and Israel.’
You are entirely correct.
As you say, until people understand this root cause of the problem, nothing will ever change.
Impeaching Trump, over a crime that Obama committed a thousand times with impunity, seems remote.
The CIA can’t be seen to be supporting Donald’s bombing of Syria now, when the plan is to impeach him later in the year so Hillary can bomb Syria. It wouldn’t be ethical.
Always good to find that at least some commentators – with all the appropriate CV credibility – do not spout the standard Fox/Murdoch/Neocon line! Thank-you! Nuance is the signature mark of an honest and appropriate appraisal.
Trump is good at distracting the real issues by bombing Syria and making neocon & Russian basher happy. After all he hates Muslims & he doesn’t give a damn about babies or want them as as refugees. According to the Syrian regime four of the seven killed by the tomahawk missiles were children.
Trump would ignore intelligence assesment because he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to make peace with the deep state. Whatever the cost, and whatever the justice of the decision. He is a fool.
This administration is terrifying.
Mr President is a C ON – ARTIST he knows how to handle the sheep and gain support of the mass media, but may be some politican that have personal problem with him start to work.
Anybody else is thinking that this might be the beginning of the 3rd WW? This has the potential to be the beginning of an avalanche that no one would be able to stop. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb move, but it was a calculated one, in the attempt to start a war with Russia. But they are just as bad at calculating things about Russia and its people as Napoleon was. Very bad things will happen if Syria goes the “Iraq’s” path.
What, we’ve got one of those “work from home” trolls on CN now?
To the gentleman from Germany who spoke of the fear that has been created in Europe by the United States, I and many others are very sorry about that. I appreciated reading your post from the European perspective. You may not read my post, but I just want to say it, as you are suffering the dreadful effects of the US government. I cannot call it my government, I am so ashamed of its actions.
Right you are, Jessica.
Bellingcat: by and for those “work from home” trolls
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1278239551/bellingcat-the-home-of-online-investigations
Start making more money conducting “online investigations” from home.
Start making more money weekly… This is a valuable part time work for everyone… The best part ,work from comfort of your house and get paid from $100-$2k each week
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Looks like Higgins and Bellingcat are recruiting new “citizen investigative journalists” to “fight for truth in a world of ‘alternative facts’ and fake news” from the comfort of their armchairs.
Now we know where all that Kickstarter money is going
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1278239551/bellingcat-the-home-of-online-investigations
jkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkh
Here…
Relying on “the smug certainty from the TV shows and the mainstream news media” has become the order of the day in the United States Government.
A spate of “Government Assessment” scams have been deployed to circumvent lack of actual evidence, professional intelligence analysis, or even the mercurially minimal “CIA’s belief”.
Who needs evidence when you have all this awesome “open source intelligence” and “online investigation” provided by Bellingcat?
The question is whether Pompeo had “confidence” in anything at all.
Perhaps Pompeo simply wasn’t comfortable agreeing with Hillary Clinton that the US should bomb airfields in Syria.
On January 23, 2017, the Senate confirmed Republican congressman Mike Pompeo from Kansas, as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Pompeo was a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA). The committee investigated the September 2012 attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
The November 2014 Final Report on Benghazi by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) stated that the Committee “found no evidence that the CIA conducted unauthorized activities in Benghazi and no evidence that the IC [Intelligence Community] shipped arms to Syria”.
Pompeo was convinced there was a cover-up and wrote a 48-page report highly critical of Clinton. Pompeo’s report, which he wrote with another Republican committee member, said the State Department was “seemingly more concerned with politics and Secretary Clinton’s legacy than with protecting its people in Benghazi.” He also told reporters that Clinton was “morally reprehensible”. The Committee chairman, Republican Trey Gowdy, did not put his name on Pompeo’s report.
Pompeo also thinks Edward Snowden should be put to death. During a February 2017 appearance on C-Span, Pompeo said Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked secret information and now lives in Russia, should be put to death: “He should be brought back from Russia and given due process and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence for having put friends of mine, friends of yours who serve in the military today at enormous risk because of the information he stole and then released to foreign powers.”
In 2014, the Senate released a portion of its report on the CIA’s use of waterboarding, electric shocks, dogs, nudity, hypothermia and mock executions to torture on detainees between 2001 and 2006. Pompeo took issue with the report, saying in a statement: “Our men and women who were tasked to keep us safe in the aftermath of 9/11 — our military and our intelligence warriors — are heroes, not pawns in some liberal game being played by the ACLU and Senator Feinstein. These men and women are not torturers, they are patriots.”
By launching missile aggression against a Sovereign Country under the pretext that the Syrian government used WMD without any proof, USA lost any credibility if still it has since the aggression of Iraq under the same pretence.
The Syrian government is fighting terrorists and USA and the West are fighting the Syrian government, thar means that USA and the West are siding with terrorists.
Presidents don’t get impeached for acts of war. Acts of war keep them from being impeached.
Perhaps this could come true?
—————————————————–
February 25, 2012
“An Imaginary Message from the Bunker”
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2012/02/imaginary-message-from-bunker.html
Tulsi the only politician talking sense: https://youtu.be/2cduat02QyI
Think this is all about managed chaos and oil/gas pipelines. The Deep State has successfully attached its marionette strings to the bloviating orange buffoon.
The general public fails to understand just how easy it is to manufacture nerve and related chemical warfare agents. For example; sarin, tabun and soman can be prepared by using common household chemicals some of which are still used as agricultural fumigants. Two semesters of college level organic chemistry can sufficiently educate a person on how to manufacture not only CW agents but illicit drugs and high explosives. This type of lab can be set up in a residential basement. These facts are self evident as witnessed with meth labs, terror attacks in the subway system in Japan (nerve agent) and alleged explosives made in an apartment housing complex, prior to the 2005 London 77 bombings. Sergei Popov, a bio-weapons expert and researcher in the former CCCP, explained (on youtube), how miniaturized culture growing instrumentation is so advanced that it can be set up in a basement to produce high quality and bulk quantities of known (naturally occurring) and unknown (genetically altered) micro-organisms. Again, a few semesters of college level microbiology can prepare an individual sufficiently to create and disperse bio weapon s in a major city.
The concern about trivial manufacture of genetically engineered bio agents is a real one. Last year I attended a discussion at a major research university on the ethics of CRISPR gene editing, and this issue was prominently voiced. It’s not that one needs to create a superbug, but that the tools themselves are potential instruments of lethality, in shocking ways.
The CIA Director and/or Director of National Intelligence could have been present by teleconference. See the video conferencing station at the end of the table and what look like participant polling devices where each person is seated.
The incident could have been planned in advance to be made operational in either case: the victory of Clinton or the victory of Trump.
The US has been violating international law for a long time, the power structure, run by corporate military control, does whatever it wants regardless of what the rest of the world thinks. It is a sort of junta. Impeaching Trump would not matter, Pence would go right on with the plan, and in God’s name, too, he’s such a religious fundamentalist. Bush and Cheney should be tried for war crimes, instead they’re multimillionaires.
mike k, the concept of love is good, but these evildoers are immune to any such message, only strong, coordinated opposition worldwide will have an effect, and even then, look how they have managed to increase their control. The British writer David Icke, originator of the hypothesis that we are prey of this foul command who are controlled by evil reptilians from another dimension, which is why things are screwed up on Planet Earth, has advocated loving these beings, I guess to sort of try to help them understand their failings. I fail to see that they can even be influenced by love. It’s more like Frodo’s and Sam’s task in “The Lord of the Rings”, we have to take Sauron’s evil ring and throw it into Mount Doom to destroy it!
Robert F Kennedy Jr. led a rally in DC this weekend, to challenge corporate media lies and control, “Revolution for Truth” Rally. People are pushing back. It’s about time, overdue but better late than never.
All of this is only happening because the US & EU want to have that oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Turkey. And just Assad & the Russians / Iranians are delaying the construction of it, so additional actions by the US is needed to make this possible. The gas attack is thus only used as a false flag reason.
the attack does not matter! it’s just a reason to attack, but they would’ve found another reason. The US and her allies kill more people a week for the last 70 years than how many died in that one attack… they couldn’t give a tiny shit about those who died in the chemical attack.
Samuel – you’re right, they could care less about these people. All an excuse to justify attacking.
Another issue is Bannon. If my understanding is correct, he was excluded from the NSC. A rumor was that he disagreed with the planned strike on Syria, as it did not put ‘America First’. That seems not to be the case as he is there watching the attack as it happens. So what’s going on there?
Perhaps the CIA set him up by declining to be there – Pompeo too busy, etc. ‘The Trump regime went rogue’ don’t blame us.
Former CIA Officer denies that Trump was informed !
-> https://vimeo.com/212455098
This Network manipulated Potus twice:
– Made Obama destroy Lybia
– Made Trump attack Syria
-> https://friedemannwo.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/iiss-americas-institute-for-war
Trump, Soros and Banks – It is all about Money
-> https://friedemannwo.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/the-deep-state-trump-soros-and-why-banks-must-be-saved
I believe gangsters are in control:
When Gangsters Are In Control
When gangsters are in control, endless wars slaughter millions of souls
And countries are destroyed by the hit men of the gangster ghouls
The unethical money changers finance their dirty depredations
And corporate cannibals profit from the bloody confrontations
Government by gangsters is now “the rule of law”
And “justice” is in the hands of criminals and outlaws
The language is twisted and debased
To suit these evil demons of the “human race”
Fancy titles and Houses of ill repute
Is where these villains consort and debut
Making “laws” to screw the masses
Yet, people continue to vote for these asses…
[much more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/01/when-gangsters-are-in-control.html
Hello backwards evolution. You are one of the first to respond to a comment of mine involving Love. I usually capitalize love in order to signal that I am speaking of spiritual Love, which is unconditional Love. That Love is for everything without exception, the environment, all persons regardless of their faults or crimes, whatever exists or may come into existence.
The lack of this unconditional Love in our hearts and minds, determining our decisions and behavior, is the fundamental cause of all the human generated crises we are experiencing today. At the level of human consciousness existing among the vast majority, materialism and skepticism are the predominate qualities. All sorts of pseudo, flawed religious or ethical ideas are given lip service or half-hearted endorsement by many, but the lack of real Love is evident from our inadequate behavior towards each other and our world. As you have said, real Love needs to be demonstrated in our behavior, if it is not so manifested then it is not real Love. By their fruits you can know where people are coming from.
What would a world governed by unconditional Love look like? I invite you to entertain a meditative fantasy of how it would be…… There would be no war. People would cooperate to ensure and further each other’s happiness. The Earth and all it’s wonderful life forms would be cherished and supported. Technology would be restrained and limited to what is sustainable and nonpolluting. Beauty would be everywhere because our Loving artistic skills would shape our dwellings and every aspect of our human creations. The future health and security of all Beings would be considered in every decision. Everyone would be educated to think deeply and freely for themselves, and to always practice unconditional Love in all their affairs. Do your own pleasant daydreams about that possible world, without concern for the moment about how such a world could be brought about to replace the unhealthy nightmare we are blundering ever deeper into.
The point of this meditation is to realize that the key to such a world is Love, and that such a world does not depend on some unlikely magic to exist, but in many ways is entirely obvious and doable if the one condition is met – a population with unconditional Love in their hearts and minds, determining all their thoughts and activities. Now if you are so minded, I also recommend meditatively envisioning how bad it can get if instead of the Love we have spoken of, we are filled with fear, greed, violence, selfishness, ignorance, etc. What will that world be like? See it and feel it in all it’s ugliness and horror. When you have had your fill of this dark fantasy, go back to the possible world based on Love.
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.”
Burt Bacharach & Hal David
The above meditations are loosely based on a Tibetan model, and are meant to be used repeatedly as needed, in order that the importance, reality, and availability of Love becomes deeply planted in our minds and hearts.
Of course those who feel either that such practices are irrelevant, fanciful, unrealistic, or unnecessary can go on their way and disregard what has been shared here. Ayn Rand for example felt that such ideas were definitely harmful and counterproductive. And those who feel they are already always full of unconditional Love and manifesting it in their lives maximally may also dispense with this advice.
It should go without saying for my more deeply reflective confreres on this comments thread that the implementation of the once cultivated deeply loving feelings fostered by these meditations and others is a further important step involving present moment consideration of what the best way to express Love might be in the situation arising – a smile, a soft answer, a helping hand…..? This will be a learning and discovering process to engage….. The wisdom that this process needs will grow with further practice. And there will be complex problems that will challenge our intelligence to find Loving answers to.
mike k – lovely post. Thank you. You have a great day, Mike.
It’s complex geopolitics and whoever becomes president moves right into the power structure to be played and shaped by forces of the Deep State or Military Industrial Complex, as well as being part of the playing. Right now Turkey seems to be a wild card and Iraq is a new version of the chaos that was started under Bush and Cheney. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s very smart Foreign Minister, called it well the other day when he said that the US government operates by “Managed Chaos”.
Who wants to impeach DJT? Did those sources set him up knowing he would jump on an opportunity to vent his Ego?
In the original reports, the NYT never mentioned the White Hats. They printed the videos and photos were provided by “activists” in the area. I believe this obfuscation is extremely important seeing that the White Hats have lost much of their credibility for “staging” events in Syria to support our involvement.
So, why would someone (DJT) who is so critical of the media, actually believe anything told by the media? If he held true to his normal discourse, he would have dismissed the concoction as a lie. He would have said something like….”I’ve talked with Assad and Putin and they are not responsible…the liberal media are liars.”
The obvious question is, “Why break from the norm established many months ago?”
We should all question the motives of DJT and the Establishment-controlled media.
so what does this all mean? Do we now have another Cheney-like figure in the background getting us into another debacle like Iraq? The Trumpster doesn’t have the intelligence to put something like this together.
I feel like I can’t even call it the Trump Regime any more. I think he’s now out of the loop , for all intents and purposes.
Man , what a bad week ! I was never a Trump fan , but I had hopes that he wouldn’t be a warmonger like Hillary. So much for that.
Now , after watching Bernie Sanders on Meatheads of The Press , I’ve given up on him as well. If Tulsi also tosses me under the bus , I hope the accident is fatal.
BTW , I’m not on twitter , but those that are should try to make this go viral : #No_EFF_YOU_LindsayGraham.
On the bright side , we must be very close to rock bottom. I mean , we’ve lost everything that’s at all meaningful. As a country , we’re like an unemployed , drug-addicted , psychotic , foul-smelling , compulsively lying and cheating pedophilic thief. From this point , things can only get better , right ?
Right ?
The USA has been deeply IN Syria for five years promoting the death of 500,000 humans.
And also, isn’t it ironic that, if Iran is the chestnut, the CIA screwed things up when they overthrew Mossadegh in 1953 and installed the Shah, leading to the mullahs in control? But overall, it does seem to be about Israel, many if not most of the neocons being Zionists, and now we see support for Israel is as important for Trump as it was for Clinton.
backswardsevolution, we honestly just don’t know what strategies and motivations play behind the scenes, all of which change and are adjusted regularly due to ongoing developments. Which is why I take what I read with questioning all the time and attempt to look further. One thing we know is a given, that corporations rule and resources of a finite planet are under greater strain. We are “prey of a foul command”, words from 60s folksinger Richard Farina in “Children of Darkness”.
Yes, simply all wars are Bankers wars.
Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, re Syrian chemical weapons attack and how Russia wants the U.N. to use its experts to find out what happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=419lQljnS-0
A Russian reporter responded that it’s too dangerous for experts to go to the site. Zakharova said that Assad has no objection to experts going in. She said the “moderates” are there, so the U.S. should be able to get access. Ha!
Yes , she was great. I liked her description of the U.S. analysis of the chemical weapons attack : ” Colin Powell with a test tube , v2.0 “.
And now he sends a boat to Korea. How many of you will comment when that fires missiles at Pyongyang? IMO Syria was all about threats to China and N Korea – he’s intending to do what he says, and Syria was a convenient way of demonstrating it.
Polly – if he goes after North Korea, that would be insanity.
I do believe there is far more brewing than just ideology. I believe all of these Middle East wars are resource wars, especially as world populations have increased so much that control by corporations and dominant nations becomes more difficult. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr had an article last year on “Ecowatch” titled “Syria: Another Pipeline War?” and it was widely picked up by many sites, then disputed by others including Truthout. Behind the scenes are always many events directed by those of power, money, and control. Tillerson’s recent contradictory positions on Syria and the absence of Pompeo here does suggest to me this is about the Qatar gas pipeline which Assad resisted because he preferred to do business with Russia.
Jessica – it might be about a pipeline from Qatar, but (see my post above to you) that could have gone through Iraq and Turkey without a war. My bet is on the 7 countries taken out in 5 years, but I guess we’ll find out eventually. Everybody seems to be posturing towards Iran (one of the 7 countries).
Syria is on the list to be attacked but the rejection by Assad of Qatar’s pipeline was the trip wire for the war. Qatar and the Saudi’s are the main financial backers of Daesh. Through Iraq would be much longer, perhaps too moutainous and Iraq is in constant warfare (Syria was peaceful at the time of Assad’s Qatar pipeline rejection). Afghanistan was attacked three weeks after the Taliban gave the TAPI pipeline to Argentina and not Rumfeld’s CalCo.
Many readers and contributors on this blog are familiar with the strong man, with 4th grade education, who slithered into power between 1971-1979 and wreaked havoc in the East African country of Uganda. The monster’s name was General Idi Amin Dada.
Before slithering out of Uganda unscathed and dying of natural causes (kidney failure) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia , this monster and those who supported him bloodied almost every inch of Uganda, particularly, the fresh water Lake Victoria with slaughtered human beings. Approximately, 500, 000+ human beings were murdered in Uganda during his eight years reign of terror. No western power ever demanded that Idi Amin be changed with any crime or dared asking why Saudi Arabia offered him a sanctuary in Jeddah !
What has bothered me most about the ascent of Idi Amin to power was (a) his level of education (b) the length of his murderous reign , 8 years (c) how he managed to escape to Saudi Arabia.
I had to ask myself, did this 4th grader outsmarted the western intelligence agencies or was there some other hidden agenda which made Idi Amin acceptable to his western collaborators when they enabled him to terrorize Ugandans while feeding the River Nile crocodiles with the human flesh of some of the 500,000+ victims he exterminated during his 8 years reign of terror?
The link below indicates that there was a policy called “The Alliance of the periphery” that made Idi Amin activities in Uganda acceptable to the people who staged the coup on his behalf. Idi Amin was a very effective tool to the faceless elites who were behind This policy and rice of Idi Amin to power. What is happening in Syria indicates that these elites are not done yet:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/idi-amins-israeli-connection
i think robert parry has a soft spot for the cia. he publishes them constantly.
i think the cia:
1. cooperated with the dnc on “the russians are coming and trump’s one of ’em”
2. worked with al-cia-duh in syria to produce the video of ‘gas victims’ in syria
3. when the video was done, worked with al-cia-duh to produce ‘gas attack’ victims
4. made sure the videos got to the western tnc msm
5. made sure the narrative was : assad gassed his own people
5. suggested to trump that a cruise missile strike was just the thing to demolish the rep they’d built for him as ‘one of the russians’
the speed with which trump spun on his heels … just last week tillerson was saying ‘assad must not go’ … may indicate that in addition to the carrot of restoring his standing with the neocons and tnc msm, they might have beat him with the stick of who-knows-what-trump-crimes they have evidence of via their ‘intelligence’ and ‘sigint’.
the cia is never on our side. the cia is always on its own side, and the managed chaos has been a big profit center since 2000. now, even when they’re not in the picture, they’re running their witting/unwitting agent in the whitehouse.
trump’s one chance was to destroy the cia on his inauguration day. he didn’t do it.
Another commenter said that he sees this as the reason for the attack on Syria: “Israeli Jets Are Targeted By Missiles in Syria Operation”.
http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian/20170318/281775628973312
Israeli jets have been flying missions into Syria, bombing some installations. “Russia has long threatened to complicate Israel’s freedom of action.” Apparently four Israeli jets flew into Syrian territory, and Syria said that one had been shot down and a second was hit. Israel denies this.
“There have been growing concern in Israeli security circles at events turning the war in Syria in favor of the Assad regime…”
Hilarious. Just yesterday we heard how much the CIA cares about the truth, now we’re hearing ridiculous claims that the CIA director wasn’t in a photo because he disagreed with the Assad chemical weapons assessment.
US behaviour since 9/11 shows that facts are irrelevant when deciding foreign policy. This decision is no different than attacking Libya, Iraq or anywhere else.
Regardless of what the intelligence said, Trump violated US as well as international law by attacking the SAA. He can now be threatened with impeachment at any time.
We Germans,and i think the other european People too,feel a very special fear when we see ,what the Americans are doing in Syria.It feels,as if the devil itself lays his Hands on the planet.
I think Assad is not guilty for the chemical “attack”.Simply because it would absolutely make NO SENSE!He may be a bad guy,but a smart one.The opposite,we find on the other side of the world.Would you take your gun to shoot some Familys walking down fifth Avenue? You wouldn’t!Because it would absolutely make no sense!
The american Attack helps only Al Quaida and ,let me say “some men behind…”The Syrians and especially the Russians,which work smarter than we all,have absolutely no advantage by a chemical attack of a minor target just to kill some women and children.Normally,it shouldn’d be nessesary to explain that.
When them Americans make the world more and more Trouble,we Germans and some others of our eurupean community will get some bombs on our beautiful countries and for sure,we won’t get war in our countries.WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN.I hope the Americans love their children too.In a WW 3,America woud be erradiculated too.You could nothing do against that.Nothing!The Russians have the bigger balls,and the better Military Equipment.And they are Christians.They don’t work for the devil since the end of communism.I think,that is the main reason,why the western elites hates them .The Russian Pope KYRILL said:our Problem with the west is ,there are no christians any more.
Probably it helps our children simply to think about that!
The Russian Pope KYRILL said:our Problem with the west is ,there are no christians any more
That depends on what kind of Christians Pope Kyrill was referring to. There were the Spanish Inquisitors and Albert Schweitzer. In Northern Ireland there was Ian Paisley but Martin Luther King, Jr. here in the United States. Unfortunately, we have another alleged Christian, Mike Pence, waiting in the wings to replace Donald Trump whose god is Mammon and who is surrounded by some of Mammon’s high priests.
I’m curious to know what your reaction and that of other Germans is to Angela Merkel buying into what appears to be a false flag (agent provocateur) in Syria and the propaganda out of Washington.
Merkel is the biggest Katastrophe since Hitler and the GDR.She .is elected mostly by retired People who can’t realize the difference between 1980 and 2017.But:she is only the Queen of the Anglo-American Connection in Europe.And to those guys belong nearly all our medias.We are an occupied district since WW2,a Kind of Indian Reservation.Our Country is the biggest US-Aircraft carrier of the world.And today the “guys” send guns and tanks and bombs and Terror (Ucraine!)to the russian border.And nobody can do anything against that fiasco.Our other Partys also work for the “guys”.And if a new free Party wants to end this,our,or should i say your media call them day and night NAZI,crazy,psychotic and so on.Everybody who shows Sympathie for a free and Independent country must be careful.He probably has Family ,Kids and still a Job.
So we have absolutely no perspective for the future.Merkel will be elected again and it doesn’t matter if not,and the things will go on the way the “Guys” like it.
Therefore I think the russian Pope is right!The “Guys” pray to Mammon,and nobody else.Then everything in our satanic world suddenly makes sense.We should free our thinking from the idea:the “guys” are only stupid.Theyaren’t!
Greetings from Germany
Matt
Well, if someone needed more evidence of US despotic regime here it is. RP has to turn to the art of American Kremlinology, trying to discern from facial impressions, gestures, eye contact, order of speaking, closeness of seating near the leader as well is secret meaning of officially published pictures who is on them and who was cut out of them and relying on the sources who know someone who knows someone who heard something.
All that while there is nothing complicated about despotism of the Deep State that is in charge completely after Trump was slapped in his face and sent to propaganda corner where he belongs as a political puppet an entertainer with no real power to even change drapes color in WH.
The reality is that the phony sarin provocation and attack on Syria was prepared and coordinated with ISIS and Al-nusra outcrop both attacked nearby SAA positions within twenty minutes after attack.
Some even suggest that Trump was told about the attack after missiless started flying.
Let’s talk reality, not puppetry.
Proof that Trump acted despite knowing it was a false flag is grounds for a war crimes prosecution and is not only criminal but stupid. The cynical machiavellianism is breathtaking if the move was made to neutralize media criticism. It is obvious to anybody looking at the evidence other than from controlled media sources that the jihadis, not the Syrians, are to blame for the gas incident.
You all voted for a TV Person. Mr. Showmanship. You deserve television. I hope Mr. Trump keeps you entertained. After all, who cares, it is all about, what keeps the eyeballs on Mr. Trump. He does not give a concern about who lives or dies, he cares about his ratings. Apparently, he gained a few points with his war mongering. That is all that matters to him. I love our Dear Leader
I agree that we “deserve television”, and worse if such exists. But we made the correct choice in this election. The choice was between Clem Kaddidlehopper and Count Dracula (in drag), and we made the right choice. Now the Great One has flagrantly violated the US Constitution, blatantly lied to the public about a false-flag atrocity, and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity using the US Armed Forces.
So now we must once again do the right thing and impeach Mr. Kaddidlehopper. If we fail to do this, we banish the rule of law from our Republic forever.
Trump ought to listen to what Assad’s wife (U.K. born and educated) has to say about negative and positive attention:
“I think these comments are primarily used to test who we are as individuals, and if you do not remain grounded when you hear the positive, you’re more than likely to fold when you hear the negative.”
I like that! Trump needs to stop listening to the neocons and the globalists. They’re going to fight him because they have an agenda. He needs to get back to his original policies: no more wars, and rebuild the U.S.
Info of interest at link below:
——————————————————————
The Syrian WMD Show Was Trump’s Production
By Moon Of Alabama
April 08, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – “Moon Of Alabama”…
…
Those who warned that Trump would launch a new world war now laud him for nearly doing so:
Editorial boards of NYT, WaPo, WSJ, USAToday, DailyNews, SJ Mercury News, Houston Chon & Chicago Sun Times all endorsed Trumps Syria strikes.
“Russia Gate” is – for now – forgiven and forgotten. The NeverTrump-ers laud the strike and want more of them, ever more war and “regime change” in favor of al-Qaeda’s rule….
[read more at link below]
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46822.htm
I find it difficult to accept that the CIA may have been the good guys — this time — in the lead-up to the disgraceful missile attack on Syria. The agency has been knee-deep in the effort to help the thugs who are trying to oust Assad and the CIA has a long and sordid history of being involved in illegal and brutal coups around the world.
Also, you make it sound like the threshold for impeachment would have been crossed if it’s proven that Trump carried out the attack against the advice of his intelligence. I think the threshold was passed the second those missiles left the ships. This was a violation of international law since we were attacking a sovereign nation that didn’t attack us and we didn’t have UN approval. Trump also didn’t have authorization from Congress to make war, as is required by the Constitution.
Trump has flouted the rule of law and ignored the Constitution. Impeachable.
The Next Country On the War List? See Article Link Below:
———————————————————————
Eric ZUESSE | 08.04.2017 | OPINION
Invade Iraq 2003, Invade Iran 2018
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/04/08/invade-iraq-2003-invade-iran-2018.html
Stephen – yeah, Iran is the big prize they’re all salivating over. Trump had better not listen to Israel on this. If he does, then he is a bigger fool than I thought.
After reading all of these well thought out comments, and especially Robert Parry’s take on how Trump will be Trump, and damn any intelligence briefing, I have come to the belief that what Trump did was purely personal. Personal not for the dead babies, but personal that his favorably poll numbers are down. Come on we are talking about a guy who made a rather nice living by working as a tv reality star, and his always striving to get good ratings. Possibly we should be judging this president using tv judging matrix qualifications, instead of looking at him as a politician.
Joe – yep, Trump had it right when he said he was going to let other countries fight their own battles and he was going to stay out other countries’ business. He needs to get back to that.
This Syrian missile hit did not do any damage, other parties were warned ahead of time that the missiles were coming. If that’s all that comes of this, nothing will be lost and Trump can regroup. But, you’re right, if he starts governing by popularity numbers or he starts listening to the majority of people out there, we are in a world of trouble.
As soon as I heard that Bannon was out and Jared Kushner was in, I immediately thought that Israel was calling the shots. If you listen to the Lindsay Graham video (below), you will hear him mention his worry about Iran (and Israel wants Iran taken out). Graham also mentions that Obama did not act four years ago:
“Right now Assad is winning. He’s backed by Russia and Iran. Assad was on the ropes four years ago and Obama refused to act against sound military advice to help the Syrians…”
So Assad is winning. IF the attack was a false flag, then it was probably because Assad was winning. We can’t have that. My God, that would mean all the destruction in Iraq and Syria would have been for naught, Syria will rebuild, and Iran will remain strong. Israel is not going to like this one bit. I mean, they want the Golan Heights that they stole from Syria years ago. And the oil companies, they want the northeast.
Lindsay Graham says he’s more worried about Iran than Raqqa, Mosul, or Syria. If Syria goes, then it’s on to Iran! These mad men need to be stopped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMfYSWBRPxE
Wow, I have to hand to Tucker Carlson, I would have got up and left the table after listening to Graham contradicting himself after about the first three minutes. That’s saying something, because I’ve been known to be patient and able to talk to anyone my whole life.
Graham is a big bought and paid for bag of wind. If you listened to him through out the interview he never did make sense. Tucker was confused to who is fighting who, and Graham was having a hard time getting his story right. Graham goes the distance bragging how getting rid of Gadafi and Hussein made Libya and Iraq better. Better in what way? Graham plays the 911 card when asking Tucker, wouldn’t you have wished on 9/10/01 we had had troops in Afghanistan. I wish Tucker would have answered with, yeah sure and in Saudi Arabia as well.
Graham is dense. He lies about who sponsors ISIS while he makes it sound like Assad isn’t fighting ISIS but that Assad is fighting some imaginary good guy rebel instead. What Graham and the others regret is that they had listened to Zbigniew too much, and now we have to go kill our expensively trained and equipped proxy mercenaries. First we need to check out this operation before killing any of these well lethally trained by our CIA terrorist with our cuddly allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Because of our backing terrorist in the Middle East, this is why up in Ukraine we accept Poroshenko’s Nazi barricades and make them blend into Ukraine’s regular army. At least this shows someone down in DC is starting to realize how appearances mean everything.
Getting back to Trump, I’m leaning to his recent missile attack as a way for him to get back on top. Seriously you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and I’m becoming of the opinion that this ancient pow wow Trump is struggling to be loved. Even if you don’t like Trump, you must admit that this last month hasn’t been too good to him, or him to himself, whichever way you want to look at it.
Oh and yes by listening to Graham it will soon be game on with Iran.
Oh backwardsevolution I didn’t address the Bannon vs Kushner situation. You are no doubt right that Israel doesn’t like Bannon, and if what is said about Bannon’s prejudices regarding the Jewish are true, then why should Israel want Bannon any where’s near the top of the totem pole. I’m not even Jewish and I don’t think I’d care to hang out with this ex-Goldman Sachs slob. Bannon maybe the smartest guy in the room, but for me his mannerisms of ethics would need to be more fully understood before I could be certain to what he’s all about. Something tells me I would tire of him easily.
Now Jared I see as being groomed for much bigger and better things, and why not he’s Trump’s son in law and Jared is only 36. I want to like Trump’s kids, and I think it’s due to my being an old sentimental goat, plus I see no point in being mean. Where I do worry about Jared, is yes who maybe influencing him, or is Jared truly capable and ready to assume the duties his father in law has set out for Jared to accomplish? I’d worry about Jared even if he weren’t Jared and was somebody else, at any age being put into the positions his father in law is putting him in to.
Israel now owns the Oval Office. I mean Barack was a nightmare for Netanyahu and his Zionist thugs. And don’t forget big donor Sheldon Adelson. I’ll tell you this, when my dad took me around all his Italian buddies I didn’t necessarily always agree with them, nor did I always make them happy. Now if Jared is his own man, then this coupled with his own ethics of right and wrong are acceptable, well then Jared may work out. On the other hand if Jared is beholden to Sheldon or Bibi & Co. then we are all in a world of shit.
Joe – good comments. You know, I don’t know enough about that Steve Bannon. I’ll have to study up on him.
As far as the son-in-law, I’ve heard he is very pro-Israel, that Israel is always in the back of his mind. I also read that Bibi stayed at his father’s house while in the U.S. If true, I don’t know whether you want that either.
One is a bit of a slob, the other is immaculate. Can’t always go by appearances, though, can we?
I’ll do some reading. Thanks, Joe.
I don’t want to leave you with the idea I judge people by their looks. Looks aren’t everything, why in fact I am more skeptical of the innocent looking choir boy type more so than I am of the Sicilian swampy looking dude. I’m referring to Bannon’s MO and his resume. He’s a brilliant chump, and a dangerous one if I may add. His philosophy seems to be guided by hate, and that’s something we should all be aware of. I seriously think Steve is plagued with a mental disorder, and that we should pray for his rich ass because in the end some of what he will do may effect us and or our kids.
Guess what Joe we are in a world of shit.To many Zionists calling the shots. To many Zionists deciding who is going to sit in Congress.Jews are ok Zionists are the most dangerous crew on earth. There is only one hope for were we are at now. A peace movement like never before. You all have a nice peaceful day. Ya Ha NPD? I read these comment sections on a slew of websites a lot of well meaning people with no direction. I’m 77 years old have travelled this world extensively there is one thing I know 90 percent plus of the people on this planet want Peace. They want to love there partner there Kids there Grandkids and just get along. It’s time for the 90 percent plus to get off there ass and do something. Ya Ha NPD
Bruce I once watched Anthony Quinn the actor give a little speech where he said almost exactly what you said. The famous actor said how he had traveled the world, and found all people to be much the same. They want to have a warm bed and good food to bestow upon their family and love ones, and they all go to work, come home to relax, and get a good nights sleep before starting their routine all over again. What Quinn then asked, was why is there war, when so many of us are alike?
One more thing. A long time ago I was in Haiti when Papa Doc was in power. As bad as those Haitian people had it, I could not get over how genuinely nice they were. I’m told by missionaries and military people that this is not uncommon, and that where there is an evil dictatorship you will often find the average guy and gal on the street to be saintly souls.
I don’t like the way Tillerson is suddenly talking. A week ago it was “Assad can stay,” now it’s “he must go” again. Nikki Haley has never stopped making this an existential war against Russia. Whose remarks are more consequential? Theirs or Trump’s, especially when Trump contradicts himself from one moment to the next? Does whoever is next in the chain of command act on their words or only on Trump’s? Are we suddenly going to have an Al Haig moment (when the then secretary of state declared himself to be in command after Reagan was shot) if Trump breaks down under the pressure (even if the 25th amendment is not employed)? It gets foggier all the time to me as to who is really in charge (as the figure head, I dunno who calls the shots from behind the scenes). I think basically we have a secret junta with a sock puppet figure head.
Joe: Go to the site Jessica wrote above. It is interesting. Assad will go. It has been in the works for some time now – Pentagon had
made plans in 2013. We have to wait and see what happens in Moscow next week where Tillerson is headed to. What kind of deal is struck.
Dave – if that’s the case, then I feel very sorry for Syria. Assad has tried very hard to be good to his people, and he has been. He has something like an 80% approval rating. Why should he step aside? So Syria can lose the Golan Heights to that thug country to the left of them?
Dave I read Jessica’s suggested link, and found it very worth while.
When I look at Syria I see a jumble of interest all intersecting and bumping up against each other in one place. Sunni wanting to dominate Shia, Israel and the Golan, Turkey against Assad and the Kurds, why there so many varieties of interest that I’m thinking of flying me and my asshole neighbor over there so as I may kick his racist ass. Seriously Syria has turned into one big boxing ring, except these people are playing for keeps.
I do think Trump was influenced if not mostly by but by at least enough of his personal interest to stay on top in the polls. I mean consider Trump’s past of staying ahead in the ratings war, then apply that mindset to what’s happening now as he sits in the Oval Office or somewhere in Mar-a-Lago. Trump by his nature needs to be the tallest and loudest and popular, or he just isn’t Donald J Trump.
The 7 nations in 5 years plan was always about creating chaos. I do believe that in the end that for America on the whole it is, or will be about gas pipelines. Although Israel and Saudi Arabia own our congress, as probably more so now than ever they own our President. I wonder if Donald realizes this though?
The war criminals have an agenda. They destroyed Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and other countries. They feed off death and destruction. The corporate cannibals make massive bloodstained profits. The political puppets do as they are told by the Military Industrial Complex and the conditioned masses obey orders to go fight in the planned wars of the criminal elites. Will the people ever wake up and put these gangsters on trial?
Read more at link below:
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-war-agenda-of-war-criminals-result.html
A closer look at the facts by some VERY clever private investigators already makes the “Sarin gas attack” narrative very unlikely.
http://logophere.com/Topics2017/17-04/17_015-BLA-ShajulIslam.htm
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Alleged_Chemical_Attack_Khan_Sheikhoun_4_April_2017#Shady_doctor
Very interesting links. Thank you.
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”Who needs Pompeo.
I read that Ivanka’s tears were what made Trump sign on to the attack.It is on Drudge Report.
If that is in anyway true that a former faux designer just a year ago is swaying her father in geopolitical events we are in a world of trouble.
I fear Trump read the Rove/Bush playbook from 2000.If I recall Bush was also going to restore our country and then he took us on his adventures to bring democracy to Arab lands ,Countries that are still stoning people.Lets hope Trump is not going in the same direction middle east first America second.
Whatever happened to statesmen?Where is anyone with common sense in Congress?
All I can say is strap yourselves in .. we in for a bumpy ride with .Ivanka and Jared calling the shots.
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate” I thought you were going with Guns n’ Roses. Civil War is a great song.
I read that Ivanka’s tears were what made Trump sign on to the attack.It is on Drudge Report.
Where were Ivanka’s tears for the thousands of children slaughtered, maimed, and rendered homeless after all the massacres inflicted on Gaza and Lebanon by Israel? Same question for all the other hypocrites in this latest event.
Golly gee. Could it be that Trump doesn’t trust the CIA due to it’s treasonous behaivor towards the President?
Before the photo was released on Friday, a source told me that Pompeo had personally briefed Trump on April 6 about the CIA’s belief that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was likely not responsible for the lethal poison-gas incident in northern Syria two days earlier — and thus Pompeo was excluded from the larger meeting as Trump reached a contrary decision.
At least this shows Pompeo was capable of speaking truth to power. The question now is, “Will Pompeo get fired or will he get the message he is supposed to tell Trump what he wants to hear?”
A long time ago a psychiatrist named Smiley Blanton wrote a book with the title Love or Perish. That says it all.
A planetary initiation is an existential test that must be undergone and passed appropriately in order for an intelligent species to go on to further evolutionary possibilities. We humans on Earth are now facing such a test.
mike k – if you’re not loving, you’re hating. Part of loving is the ability to think of future generations, to think responsibly towards the planet, not over-populating and raping it. When greed enters, all intelligence seems to fly out the window, doesn’t it?
The details and day by day revelations will be numerous in this time of the end stage of capitalism, the collapse of industrial civilization, the collapse of the ecosphere, population explosion, extinction of key species, and the numerous climatic tipping points occurring, all out war, and the confusion pervading and accelerating amid all of this will tend to make us lose touch with the simple core problems that are behind all of these happenings.
Capitalism is just a label for unbridled greed leading to war, starvation for many and destruction of our world. Unless this is totally stopped, and an entirely different cultural direction based on equality and mutual aid is established, this human experiment on Earth is nearly ended.
“Did Trump choose to rely on the smug certainty from the TV shows and the mainstream news media that Assad was guilty, rather than the contrary view of U.S. intelligence analysts?”
Yes, the man gets his news and ideas from popular culture and the rancid media. Then he acts compulsively without thinking.
Trump: “But I saw it on television! Everyone agreed that Assad was responsible!
Before Trump’s attack on Syria last week, I saw reference to a gas pipeline in ME in an article and wondered if the gas issue might be part of this. So I put something about that into Google and hit this, can’t put in link but go to it with “Texans Have a Pipeline to President Trump on Syria”, from KXAN Austin, states that several Texans will have a big say on the decisions in Syria, mentions Tillerson and Exxon, Rick Perry, uses that photo accompanying this article of Trump in meeting, also states that “Assad will have to be removed”. Might this be a move most based on resource wars? And that there is something brewing on world stage that caused such a fast move on Syria?
Jessica: I just read it. It is very interesting. Assad will go. On East European Front, we have to wait. Tillerson is going to Moscow next week.
Jessica – I used to think this was over a gas pipeline too, but got set straight by another commenter who said that if they wanted an oil pipeline from Qatar, they could have easily gone up through Iraq and then over through Turkey. They wouldn’t have started a war over just this.
This is all to do with Israel’s fear of Iran, it’s the taking out of 7 countries in 5 years that General Wesley Clark talked about.
Trump announced last week that he was going to let Assad run Syria, then chemical attack suddenly happened, and I think the neocons pushed Trump to react, stupidly.
When Assad refused the pipeline he accepted a competitive pipeline. Look at the map perhaps a thousand miles longer throug Iraq and when was the last time Iraq was stable enough for a new pipeline. Syria was peaceful when Assad refused the pipeline.
Syria was targeted by neocons along with six other nations at least nine years ago. A recent cause for the USA attack is Assad refusing Qatar gas line through Syria. Of course being Russia’s ( with Russian Mediteranean naval base) and Iran’s ally and Isreal wanting permanment confiscation of Golan Heights.
Earlier today, a friend sent me a link to a story, “Pentagon Trained Syria’s Al Qaeda “Rebels” in the Use of Chemical Weapons.” This suggested the possibility of yet another false-flag psyop involving sarin in Syria. Thus, Robert Parry’s question about the attitude of DCI Pompeo seems apposite.
Fake “chemical weapons expert” Dan Kaszeta and fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat are key deception operatives driving Western conspiracy theories about “chemical attacks” in Syria.
In the past four days, Kaszeta has been cited as a go-to “expert” by the BBC, UK Guardian, CNN, Time magazine, NPR, Germany’s Die Welt and Deutsche Welle, Business Insider, Popular Science, Asia Times and other media outlets.
For the past several days, Kaszeta, Higgins, Bellingcat and their fanboys have been hurling a desperate barrage of Twitter Tomahawks, predictably agreeing with themselves that Syria and Russia were somehow responsible for the incident. Higgins continues to spew his “the Russians are lying” froth.
Even Joshua Frank, managing editor of Counterpunch, joined the fray. Frank cited leading conspiracy theorist Kaszeta, demonstrating the serious lack of discernment among of “progressive” journalism outlets.
Not content with merely quoting Kaszeta, BBC News online went so far as to publish an essay authored by Kaszeta titled “Syria ‘chemical attack’: What can forensics tell us?”
At the end of his BBC News essay, in a furtive effort to quickly “tie the whole narrative together”, Kaszata mentioned that “In 2013, the chemical hexamine, used as an additive, was a critical piece of information linking the Ghouta attack to the government of President Assad.” This intriguing tidbit links to a December 2013 New York Times article quoting Kaszeta’s own claims about the “very damning evidence” of hexamine.
However, Kaszeta’s claims about hexamine were already debunked in 2014.
http://whoghouta.blogspot.com/2014/04/hexamine-again.html
Kaszeta continues to claim that Hexamine was used in the 2013 Ghouta attack, despite the evidence that Hexamine is not soluble in alcohols, making it ineffective for this purpose.
Accurate analysis of all primary and secondary evidence relating to the 21 August 2013 chemical attack at Ghouta indicate it was carried out by Western-backed forces supplied via NATO-member Turkey.
Higgins and Kaszeta also never mention the fact that both the state of Israel and the US Department of Defense possess advanced chemical warfare capabilities and are known to support Al Qaeda terrorist forces (primarily Al Nusra) in Syria.
The self-referential nature of Higgins and Kaszeta’s signature “Bellingcat method” of propaganda is well established. Higgins and collaborators concoct fake “analysis” of online images and videos from the internet. Then they manufacture “investigation reports” based on their own “analysis”.
Bellingcat’s “online investigation” scams are broadcast via social media and regime change think tanks like the Atlantic Council. Mainstream media cite these self-appointed “experts”. Government officials then cite the mainstream media and these internet “experts”.
Just as in 2013, today we have a major casualty producing chemical attack associated with Al Qaeda terrorist forces in Syria.
Just as in 2013, today we have deception operatives Eliot Higgins and Dan Kaszeta propagating fake news about the event.
Back in April 2014, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh wrote, “The Red Line and the Rat Line,” revealing CIA-managed operations to supply Libyan arms to the Western-backed terrorist forces in Syria via NATO-member state Turkey.
Unsurprisingly, Higgins and Kaszeta immediately attacked Hersh and others who pointed out the deficiencies of Western government and mainstream media narratives about the Ghouta attack.
Geopolitical analyst Tony Cartalucci, writing in support of Hersh, pointed out missing details in Hersh’s account. In “How the West Gassed Thousands to Death in Damascus” http://journal-neo.org/2014/04/19/how-the-west-gassed-thousands-to-death-in-damascus/ Cartalucci highlighted the long history of US support for terrorist factions in Syria:
“Al Nusra and other extremist networks inside of Syria have had the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel’s backing since at least as early as 2007. Since 2011, Qatar and Turkey have also played immense roles in supporting Al Nusra – with NATO-member Turkey providing them sanctuary and even logistical support […]
Cartalucci reminded readers of the CIA-managed terrorist training camps in Jordan:
“While Hersh claims Turkey was training terrorists on Syria’s northern borders to carry out the attack, it has been revealed that the United States itself was too, as well as training Saudi-backed terrorists staging in Jordan to the south of Syria.”
US motivations for military intervention were discussed:
“Hersh also reveals that not only was the US eager to militarily intervene based on flawed and fabricated intelligence, but that it was eagerly expanding the scope of its intervention – from disarming Syria of its chemical stockpiles, to decimating all of Syria’s military – to give the militants it was backing an upper-hand in a conflict they were sorely losing.”
Cartalucci also discussed the likelihood that CIA has aided and abetted the Damascus attack:
“Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 – and its involvement in Syria has most certainly not been unilateral. Its role in handing weapons, funding, and support to militants along the Turkish-Syrian border has been admittedly augmented by US CIA officers […]
“If Turkey aided and abetted terrorists in carrying out a false-flag chemical weapons attack in Damascus, it is inconceivable that the US CIA did not know about it, and very unlikely they did not participate, however indirectly.”
Cartalucci concluded that Hersh’s account, while vitally important in highlighting US covert support for militant factions in Syria, was insufficient:
“Ultimately, Hersh’s work is incomplete, and leaves the impression that Turkey went rogue, carrying out an attack to bring an unwilling US into a war they did not desire. In reality, to this day, the United States is still openly backing and arming militants it itself has designated as terrorist organizations, providing them with increasingly deadly armaments that will perpetuate the bloodbath they themselves, on record, began engineering as early as 2007.
“What Hersh’s work reveals, however immense, is but one of several grotesque tentacles breaking the surface of very murky waters beneath which lurks a leviathan of state-sponsored terrorism that is responsible for the gassing of thousands, and the deaths of tens of thousands within and along Syria’s borders, and a region now teetering on the edge of a much larger and more costly war. It illustrates how the world is run by ‘the bad guys’ who perpetrate crimes against humanity not only with absolute impunity, but with so-called international agencies covering up their tracks.
“The United Nations is expected to be utterly silent over these revelations, while it continues to disingenuously wring its hands over a humanitarian crisis the West is both intentionally creating and then leveraging for geopolitical gain.”
After the loss of Idlib province to a terrorist offensive in the first half of 2015, the Syrian government requested military assistance from Russia in the fight against Islamic State and Al Qaeda forces. Russian airstrikes proved particularly effective against Islamic State oil trade and supply routes in the Syrian Desert. The US ruled out military cooperation with Russia in Syria.
Syrian Arab Army forces began liberating and holding territory, particularly in the extremely strategically vital corridor connecting Damascus and Aleppo.
Following the liberation of Aleppo, Russian-Syrian military cooperation imperiled the remaining Al Qaeda (headquartered in Idlib) and Islamic State (based in Raqqa) terrorist forces in Syria.
Just as in 2013, today’s Western government and mainstream media narratives about the attack in Idlib are based on disinformation generously supplied by the likes of Higgins and Kaszeta.
Considering CIA’s history of support for terrorist forces operating in Syria, we should be careful how we construe CIA’s absence “at the table” for Trump’s Tomahawk barrage.
Great link to Journal-NEO.
Good point.
Seymour Hersh’s work is often curiously “incomplete”.
I don’t find it strange that Trump would shut out the CIA from his decision making in spite of what other presidents have done. He has done it since before the inauguration when he refused intelligence briefings. I imagine he blames them for fomenting the “Russia/Trump” faux scandal, not without cause. It looks like intelligence, right or wrong, was irrelevant to this decision.
There is no way any president can cut out the deep state. All of this smells of a false flag. Confusion and trickery is what Trump will use.
Backing up Pompeo and in conflict with Tillerson’s “assessment,” the pentagon has acknowledged it cannot assign blame, according to head of the US Mobility Command, General Carlton D. Everhart.
Jean Perier New Eastern Outlook April 6 “Who has committed the gas attack in Syria?”
I hope the humor I hear on this site is all gallows humor. This stuff is really too serious for any other air of levity; too many people are dying from the things we are discussing.
The quality of the comments on here have indeed degenerated over the past year. A certain sophomoric quality that was rarely seen in the past. Thankfully most are still above board compared to many sites. The quality of the journalism here deserves respectful and elevated discourse.
Scoop!! Trump and his buddies were actually watching Howdee Doody reruns.
Is Trump and his war wackos playing with fire?
—————————————————————————————————————
Syria air strikes: Russian warship armed with cruise missiles heading for Syria as tensions rise with US
Russia says ship will respond to the ‘changing military situation’
Lizzie Dearden 5 hours ago
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-air-strikes-missiles-trump-assad-putin-russia-sharyat-admiral-grigorovich-warship-cruise-a7673671.html
This is grasping at straws. There is no significance from DCIA and DNI not going to Florida for the weekend. Plus two things, the photo was taken after the strikes, not a debate to launch them. And DNI Coats was on video. See https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/04/07/white-house-releases-photo-mar-a-lago-situation-room/100167552/
Your first impression was probably right. The not-first hand source probably got it wrong. But more importantly, the NSC doesn’t need to get the info from the president. You make it sound like Trump is pulling a fast one by freezing out Pompeo and the exclusive info at his briefing. That’s not possible.
Thanks for keeping the site going. Great work.
I don’t really care about the details of Trump’s criminal missile strike. It is enough for me that he is going along with the whole years long plot to take apart Syria, then Iran, then Russia, then China. That’s the real ongoing crime against humanity.
This is what Westley Clark told us after he was at a meeting where the neo cons said they were after seven countries.
DannyWeil: I watched recently on Youtube – Wesley Clark telling it on Amy Goodman show in Nov. 2007 when he was running (or thinking of running ) for nomination as the Candidate for Democratic Party. I also Watched him speak at the Commonwealth Club (San Francisco) , on Youtube telling the same story. He was really funny – telling the Pentagon plans to go after seven countries. I wish there is a TV Station they can show it to the whole World.
Add the Charlie Rose Show to the interview list.
Mark, am I getting this right? The photo was taken post decision and either at the same time as or right after the missiles were fired? But we’re left with Robert’s indication that he knew not all in the intelligence community agreed with blaming Assad, and below I reference Jean Perier at New Eastern Outlook indicating the pentagon’s head of the US Mobility Command, General Carlton D. Everhart, also stated it cannot assign blame Assad. So, could you explain “That’s not possible” a little further?
Mark, let me try to give a little context for my question. I’m looking at the very specific nature of what the source told Robert Parry: a contrary conclusion, the precise date, and the implication Pompeo was excluded from the meeting. Robert is always understated, but is apparently sensing something. He includes “other intelligence analysts with contrary views” and there’s my reference to General Everhart. So if there is a significant split in the intelligence community Trump was choosing to ignore it, so he could go ahead with this highly dangerous missile strike maneuver. I think that’s what Robert is trying to look into here. And if this is the case, Trump’s ego, abetted by his emotional drama, is in charge, not information. This would seem grounds for impeachment, and why this consideration is important.
The claim about impeachment is not understated. Because ignoring intelligence is certainly not an impeachable offense. The President can ignore any information he wants to and be as irrational as he wants to be. Neither break any laws, much less violate the constitution.
It would seem that Donald here, based on being upset with photos of dead children from the chem incident, has impulsively and instantly acted out of that emotion and fired missiles that have killed other children (would that tear him up I wonder) as some way of satisfying himself and whatever additional political points he may have gained. And this falls under “The President can ignore any information he wants to and be as irrational as he wants to be.” Is there any protection you know of if it turns out we have a madman in the White House?
The photo was after the launch, they are getting briefed on the results. Robert implies that Trump’s senior advisors only get information from the IC through Trump himself. So Trump could tell his NSC something different than what he was briefed and they wouldn’t know it. That’s not possible.
Someone whispered into Trump’s ear “sarin gas;Assad; retaliate”. This is also a plausible scenario, so the one who gave misleading advice should be outed soon. If such a thing doesn’t unfold in a few days, than perhaps Trump did hatch this crazy-ass scheme on his own…which is equally hard to believe, given all of the words about no more regime-change wars, detente with Russia, Having Silk Road talks with China, Russia (next week), procuring the help from China and Japan for gigantic infrastructure upgrade here ( jobs and $ for the Americans), which all flies in the face of the Anglo-American Imperium Established in the post-war forties…ie, shifting from Trans-Atlantic to Trans-Pacific Community, which has European, British, American, and Canadian Establishment panties in a knot. Trumps campaign promises & plans are essentially our version of “Brexit” which, along with our brother Brexiters, is saying “ENOUGH with this goddamned Empire and its deadly, bloody, geopolitical games already. We need to rebuild and recover ourselves!”
Mark, thank you for posting the alternative version of the photo, which identifies who is attending and also who is attending by video conference.
In case anyone is interested, here is that information:
Clockwise from left:
Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, son-in-law Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and Chief of Staff Reince Preibus.
In the back row are Sean Spicer, Stephen Bannon, senior advisor Stephen Miller, national security aide Michael Anton, Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell, and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. Guarding the door is Air Force Major Wesley Spurlock III, a White House military aide.
Participating by video conference from Washington: Vice President Pence, Sec of Defense Mattis, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.ar
Conclusion:
Once again, as in 03 with WMD, “the facts were fixed around the policy.” Or again in wag the dog style, the policy came first to serve political expedience. The absence of Pompeo from either this photo or presence in the video conference is significant in terms of divided intelligence from that community. Maybe Pompeo will be replaced. Waiting only two days to respond to the complexity of the situation instead of clarifying it is irrational to an astonishing depth of ignorance and brute force, which makes George W. Bush look wise and mature. American imperialism run amok continues.
maybe reconsider referring to independent.co.uk, this story might not be worth supporting? is this true?
“..post mortems showed victims had been exposed to sarin and chlorine gas..”: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-us-air-strike-latest-bashar-al-assad-claims-children-killed-chemical-weapons-latest-a7671946.html
donald trump is on vacation in the picture? is that made clear in the article?
“.. Donald Trump has referred to Mar-a-Lago as his Southern White House and uses it as a Camp David-style presidential retreat..”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar-a-Lago
The Independent (UK) has two of the best reporters covering the Middle East – Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn. Other than that The Independent is MSM in the UK.
Question is whose gas?
It is even more shocking thjat all European governments went along with Trump, although they discribed Trump initially as a dangerous populist. It shows how much Merkel, Hollande and May-Johnson in the UK a part of the group think. It looks really pretty hopeless at the moment. To me it looks like that NATO troops have surrounded the Kaliningrad Oblast already, they are just waitiung for the signal to start the blockade. I can only hope that the Kremlin keeps its nerves, just like they have done so far and keep on the good chess game they have been playing until now. But who knows, there might be enough people in the US and in Europe who look through all that and if things really escalate, perhaps we will see another anti-Vietnam-war-like movement spring up.
Blackmail
Possible, and if the Trumpster is being blackmailed, what might that be related to? Jeffrey Epstein? If so, Trumps days are numbered…
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/
I should had that Canada also went along with this lie. Just after the gas attack and the MSM hysteric outrage, our pet prime minister Trudeau went on TV to says that we should wait for a complete investigation from the UN council. Immediately after the US attack on Syria, here he was again fully supporting the murderous US bombing. He caution an illegal action against all international laws including the murders of Syrian people. Canada is a greatest vassal state of the US after Britain. Our Radio-Canada news network is an American propaganda machine extension. Our Radio network is even worse.
CBC is every bit as insufferable as NPR.
Harper really laid waste to Canada & each U.S. President only lowers the bar for the next one like His Hairship to look good like Obama looked so refreshing after the Bush years. In the meantime the circling of the drain continues with no deviation from neoliberal economics and neoconservative foreign policy.
The Fix is in and has been for decades now.
Justin took it to the next level today when he stated for the cameras that “Assad must go”.
HLT: I was having similar thoughts. NATO troops are having exercises in Poland next to that enclave with thousands of troops and hundreds of Tanks for some time now. U.S. and all the Vassal States of Western Europe, and Canada, they are all in it. It is getting from bad to worse. It will be hard for Russia to defend.
Just for your information. A lot of US equipment, conveniently painted in desert colors, has already been shipped to Libanon and Jordan (via Romania by train en from Romania by ship to the Middle East).
Don’t you know…he was in Syria with the Mossad letting the gas out!
Gas! Gas! Gas! That’s what they scream at you in those CBRNE (Chemical Biologic Radiologic Nuclear Explosive) training exercises. Then, you’ve got fifteen seconds or so to don and seal your Mark V gas mask. Sounds simple, but it’s not. And if you don’t get it sealed, you’re gonna die. You’re gonna die a horrible death, because weapons grade sarin is uniformly fatal. So…who conducts these training exercises? Usually, as I recall, it’s some Army Medical Department Staff Sergeant or a Navy First Class Hospital Corpsman. Nope, it doesn’t take an officer. It doesn’t take an intelligence analyst. It doesn’t take some politically appointed CIA spook, and it certainly doesn’t take the Director of National Intelligence to look at the pictures and videos from Bellingcat to tell The President that there was NO SARIN GAS used in that attack. Yes, there may have been toxic vapors from an exploded chemical stockpile of organophospates (fertilizer) or perhaps insecticides like malathion. BUT THERE WAS NO SARIN.
In all fairness to Pompeo, his predecessors have told so many lies for so long, could you really blame The President if he just didn’t believe a word Pompeo said? Personally, I would have taken Staff Sergeant Snuffy’s or HM1 Shmuckatelli’s advice long before Pompeo’s. And, you know what? I would have gotten the right answer. They both would have told me, “Sir, that don’t look like no sarin gas I ever heard of.”
Yep, President Trump committed a war crime. Despite that, the blame lies with our pathologically lying intelligence community. They have no credibility whatsoever.
All the GAS is in the White House.
Hold on there, F.G.
Bellingcat has an honor graduate at the US Army Chemical School and Secret Service advance coordinator who was “heavily involved in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 Anthrax incidents” http://www.wikistrat.com/experts/daniel-j-kaszeta/
Dude wrote the book on “CBRN and Hazmat Incidents at Major Public Events”.
That’s gotta look “credible”.
Screaming gasbag
https://twitter.com/DanKaszeta/status/850288010625245184
Bellingcat method:
“So further investigation is impossible and you’re take [sic] the word of people who are usually conspiracy theorists”
https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/850785275445989376
Bellingcat has built itself a widely acknowledged reputation as a neocon propagandist whose name does not belong in the same paragraph with the word “credible”.
Bellingcat has an incredible reputation in an incredible coalition of incredible news organizations.
Formed by Google in June 2015 with Bellingcat as a founding member, the First Draft Partner Network includes all the usual mainstream media war propagandists.
First Draft “partners” include the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, the UK Guardian and Telegraph, and BBC News. All are stalwart mainstream media organs for Western “regime change” propaganda.
The First Draft coalition of Propaganda 3.0 organizations also includes the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab and Stopfake. Kiev-based Stopfake site functions as a direct media outlet for Higgins’ Bellingcat “investigation reports” and uses the same fake fact-check post-truth strategy that Higgins employs.
In a remarkable post-truth declaration, Google’s new First Draft hybrid war propaganda coalition insists that members will “work together to tackle common issues, including ways to streamline the verification process”.
In the post-truth regime of US and NATO hybrid warfare, the deliberate distortion of truth and facts is called “verification”.
The Washington Post / PropOrNot imbroglio, and First Draft Coalition member organizations’ zeal to “verify” US intelligence-backed fake news claims about Russian hacking of the US presidential election, reveal the post-truth mission of this new Google-backed hybrid war propaganda alliance.
Incredible.
Handy list of fake originators, (not that there are any surprises), thank you.
We must remember O & H and their allies inserted this horror of terrorists into Syria.
Interesting article:
——————————————————–
I believe something very evil is running amok.
See link below.
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/11/something-is-very-evil.html
Especially observant. How was the rapid-fir decision reached, by watching television of reading the Washington Post?
Like any narcissist Trump didn’t need any information to make the Syria shot; he just felt in his gut what would get him some positive attention, and fired! People who would be harmed and peace that would be pissed away never entered his thick head.
Yes, I agree
mike k – I don’t know about that. Trump did not fire on Damascus. There were a lot of fireworks, but not much damage (as far as I know now). People were even warned ahead of time that the missiles were coming. It was a very methodical hit that did nothing, except waste money and get the neocons off his back for one second.
I’m not saying Trump isn’t a narcissist (all Presidents are), but I don’t think he wants war. Let’s see if he’s stupid enough to be pushed in that direction by the Democrats and neocons, though. I think Trump’s aim was to let other countries fight their own battles and concentrate on domestic policy. Vested interests are trying desperately to get him to change his mind.
It did seem to be for show.
Has Pompeo fired the top five or six levels of Executive Service CIA officials? If so, perhaps Trump might believe their assessment. This was political and he can’t trust the CIA in any case. He made a foolish mistake, but now he can make a trip to meet Putin and no one can call him Putin’s Stooge. If he attacks again, he should be impeached. He made sure that everyone was notified in advance and the Russians still hacked about half of our missiles and they didn’t get through. It was a WAR CRIME. Had the CIA been involved, it might have been worse.
He gets one more week with me. When and if Tillerson goes to Moscow–we’ll see how he behaves thereafter.
Trump’s credibility expired for me long before he was elected. In fact he never had any business being president of the US in his whole life. He is and has been a capitalist criminal his whole life, he has no other “skills.”
I find it incredulous that Trump ever had any credibility with anyone.
Hello W. R. Knight, Only with fools and those with very reduced IQ’s! Unfortunately, this seems to be an exceedingly large number of people/consumers existing in the US of ‘Merica!
He seemed credible enough to me at some point in the early 80s, until I heard him speak for the first time.
He was basically elected as a protest against Hillary and the 16 other rubes running for the Republican nomination. Apparently, a nation of 330 million inhabitants could not find a single one capable of leading it.
We are about at a point similar to where Nero appointed his horse to the Senate, except that there are already 100 horses’ asses occupying those seats.
very good. As has been said by some insightful person re politicians in general..”Why are there more horse’s asses than horses ?”
What does CIA’s Mr. Pompeo say about this??? I have seen no comments from him in the NYTimes or on my Internet feeds. Surely he, if anyone, should know what actually happened, what he said — if he did — to the President about this planned attack, and whether what DT CLAIMED the Intelligence Community said is true or not.
I agree with the sentiment of “Realist”, but, like DT, he ought to get his facts straight. That was Caligula’s horse, not Nero’s.
Well, I would assume that any briefing that Pompeo gave to the President would be Top Secret so he can’t comment on it in the NYTimes.
If he were a man of integrity then he could always resign, and when asked for the reason he could answer: You All Know Why.
But that would require a man of integrity so…. no…. I don’t expect him to resign.
In conjunction with what you’ve stated here Mr. Parry, which I tend to agree with, I would like to make some observations drawn from this and other relevant articles.
We, citizens of the U.S. or its vassal states, are no longer of any real concern to the oligarchs who rule the western pseudo democracies (now revealed as nothing other than capitalist vehicles for oligarchy enrichment and consolidation of power, thus citizens, ney consumers, get only poll numbers on hashtags and bullshit deception masking as political action. The game is now played in the high towers of the empire and the courtiers are eager to play war as it makes them appear decisive when the only goal is political power and wealth.
Short term wealth accumulation by these actors has provided them with a form of myopia. The consequences of today’s “victory” is not considered even in terms of next week or perhaps tomorrow. Today we win! Money in the bank. Let’s roll!. “I’ve got the Glen Garry – Glen Ross leads, First prize is a Cadillac, second prize is a set of steak knives, third, you’re fucking fired!”
Why would liars and plotters let inconvenient truths spoil their plans? Any idea that those in charge of the fate of our world, and all of us care one whit about the truth should be set aside when trying to understand what these evil men are up to. Evil deeds thrive best in darkness and secrecy. The cult of secrecy that surrounds our government in America should give us a clue to the kind of things they are up to “for our sake.”
Thanks for your insightful look behind the curtain of secrecy, Robert.
Thank you.
Let’s not deceive ourselves. The decision to go to war in Syria is not based on who is culpable for this or that atrocity. We wouldn’t even bother to gather half the intelligence except for the fact that we need it to construct the desired narrative to justify our war-making fetish. We use it to dupe the public about past false-flags , and to plan for how we’ll dupe them on future false-flags.
When LBJ wanted to display his manhood , he pulled it out and flopped it on the table. When Trump does it , he launches Tomahawks.
General Wesley Clarke publicly revealed after 9/11 that Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Lybia were all on the neocon list of countries to be attacked by the USA.
It sounds as if Trump decided on “military response” very early on and was just waiting for the pentagon to finalize a plan …
I suspect they guided him away from starting WWIII (by striking Russian personnel/assets) or some new massacre of Syrian troops (without a credible “oops” this time) …
I even wonder if Trump is shocked and/or displeased to have wrecked so little damage on that airfield, perhaps contrary to the shock-and-awe he thought he was ordering up.
Did the Pentagon exert significant “caution” while complying with Trump’s demands?
don’t know about this site, but it reports that the coalition is halted … due to the suspension of the de-confliction agreement …
http://www.geopolmonitor.com/international-coalition-suspends-air-operations-syria/
may these warmongerers rot in hell.
‘It was a huuge crowd of missiles. I believe I saw one million, a million-and-a-half, missiles. It was the biggest crowd of missiles. Ever. I’m telling you. Very big. I’m telling you. Believe me.’ /s
I does seem to have been symbolic and to lower the Russia gate heat.
This “high degree of confidence” meme seems now to replace any evidence, as we saw in all the recent “Russian hacking” stories. “US intelligence” seems non-existent or hidden.
It’s only grounds for impeachment if Congress thinks it is, and they don’t.
After all, it’s not the same as a blow job.
No! Congress has no discretion on this. Bombing a country is an act of war. An act of war needs congressional approval, which was not given.
I’m guessing in a perfect or an analog
world the Constitution and its contents might actually be feesible to PERMIT. BUUUUUUTTTT……
We don’t have that luxury ….well the top 10% do but the remaining 90% of
us are overworked in poverty.
Yeah, WRK, a blow job, now THAT’D be something SERIOUS! Killing hundreds or thousands (or more) ‘furriners’ ain’t no big deal, but getting a blow job, I’m sure THAT’S what our founding fathers envisioned as rising to the level of an impeachable offense…I mean this just involves some people 5 or 6 thousand miles away who have some crazy religion, wear the non-preferred skin color, don’t speak ‘the queen’s English’, and hell, they haven’t even hosted a reality show on TV, so what good ARE they?? Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get to bed so I can get up for the early Sunday morning service. Praise Jebus.
Depends on what the meaning of as is.
Does anyone not understand or fibd suspicion that
1. There was no benefit to Assad’s forces by launching 1 chemical bomb on a munitions factory ??
2. It made no sense
3. As a former NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical ) officer, I saw no one collapsing among the White Helmets who weren’t using chemical protective gloves/suits
4. That it was Al Quaida that reported this
As a 1974 USMA West Point Grad I’m thoroughly disillusioned and angry at this act of war for a false flag.
They no longer even try to make it believable. MSM reports what they want and if some people dont believe it they don’t care. Those too effective in expressing their disbelief go on a list so there is some self censoring which is the purpose behind the Snowden and Vault 7 self leaks. As Rove said 15 years ago, reality is what we make it to be. Living in the Matrix man.
Our political system(s) in the West have crossed the Rubicon. Reality or seeking the inconvenient truth is no longer a concern or an impediment to the pursuit of wealth and power consolidation by our capitalist stooge politicians. As we see in this horrible new age, war is the major vehicle by which those in power have chosen to pursue these goals.
These are clearly good points, and the article is an essential counterpoint to the mass media deceptions seeking to lead the US to war.
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
He may prefer to be independent, and there may be better polling websites, but pressure on the NYT to recognize the superior reporting of their opposition is a good thing. It is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition can demonstrate the concerns of a far larger number. I will repeat this post from time to time.
Obama VP Biden was also sidelined from NSC meetings when he disagreed with the groupthink. Hillary wanted to give the military whatever they wanted, while Obama demanded proof that a troop increase (“surge”) in Afghanistan would produce results. The military stonewalled him and he went along anyway. The NSC (2400 staff members) surrounds the admin with groupthink, offers them several varieties of military action as the only options, the media clamors for war claiming that the people demand it, and the admin capitulates sooner or later.
The military advisors must be reduced to a few persons in a much broader crisis team, a small part of an executive policy team advised by a much larger College of Policy Analysis. Congress must also re-establish checks and balances between the branches, once elections and mass media are protected from money power by constitutional amendments.
The NYT is not into providing superior reporting to their readers.
The NYT is into manipulating their readers at the say-so of establishment power players.
The NYT needs to die off. It’s the Pravda.
http://www.unz.com/article/an-obituary-of-the-new-york-times/
And a bit more further afield
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/16/new-york-times-mark-thompson-jimmy-savile-bbc
The above Guardian article puts it mildly, you will see pithier accusations on the “hotter areas” of the net
Never underestimate the Washington underground state to come up with some ingenious plan to get rid of Trump. It maybe that the investigators who examine the site will come to the obvious conclusion that there was no sarin gas attack and that the the whole thing was staged. If this happens and Trump can be shown to have bombed Syria against the advise of the CIA etc, then there are the very grounds needed to impeach him!
Exactly this ^^^^^^! Thanks.
The deep state would not want to discredit false flags, wars of agression and thier terrorist allies.
I could not agree more. The Deep State is not going to mass-around with false-flags, the US will never officially admit or state in the MSM that this was not Assad’s gassing. It will remain Assad’s as long as the US Deep State exists.
Regarding Trump and his nasty little (so far) war here is John Helmer of Dances with Bears:
“Last night, in a 2 minute-51 second declaration of US war on Syria, Trump mentioned God three times – once to identify His parentage of children; once to invoke His advice on launching the new US war; and once to bless what remains of “America and the entire world”. This is the first time in American history that divine authority has been invoked instead of the US Congress — as required by Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution, and the by War Powers Resolution of 1973.”
Even George W Bush who mentioned God so many times in his speeches, never replaced Congress’ authorization with God’s authorization for war.
Please god, make it be true!
The insanity that is the USA right now is making me physically ill.
Mossad and Bibi are running the White House with Jared their call boy.
The death cult of Chabad Lubavitch at the helm in an attempt to will the world to Armageddon.
You Sir ? Well, you kick ass Sir.