If you watched ABC World News last night (6/13/13), the story of Syria and the use of chemical weapons had shifted pretty dramatically. Anchor David Muir declared at the top of the show: “The White House now confirming Syria’s president has in fact used chemical weapons to kill.”
And moments later:
The White House confirming what U.S. authorities have long suspected: that Syria’s president has used chemical weapons on his own people.
That’s a curious definition of “confirmation”–these remain claims, backed by what we are told is more solid intelligence than the government had previously claimed. But it’s not “confirmation,” any more so than Colin Powell “confirmed” Iraq’s WMDs at his United Nations address in 2003.
So what do we know? Yesterday the New York Times posted an article about U.S. intelligence agencies becoming more confident about their assessments of several suspect chemical weapons attacks. What used to be reported “varying degrees of confidence” was now “high confidence.”
But the intelligence remains, at this point, at arm’s length. The Times piece (which last night was headlined “Syria Has Used Chemical Arms on Rebels, U.S. and EU Say”) put it this way (6/14/13):
According to a CIA report, which was described by an American official who declined to be identified, the United States has acquired blood, urine and hair samples from two Syrian rebels–one dead and one wounded–who were in a firefight with Syrian government forces in mid-March northeast of Damascus. The samples showed that the rebels were exposed to sarin.
That could all be entirely accurate. But at face value, what we know is that someone anonymously described to the Times what this document supposedly says. The Obama administration released a statement reinforcing that position, but it is unclear how much evidence exists–because we are apparently not being allowed to see it.
And it is important to note that even when U.S. intelligence was more tentative, media accounts portrayed it as definitive—USA Today had the headline “U.S. Now Says Syria Has Used Chemical Weapons” back in April; the New York Times went with “”White House Says Syria Has Used Chemical Arms.”
The Russian government, meanwhile, is unconvinced (Guardian, 6/14/13):
Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, said U.S. officials had briefed Russia on the allegations against Assad. “But I will say frankly that what was presented to us by the Americans does not look convincing,” he said. “It would be hard even to call them facts.”
No one should take his word for it, of course. But history shows that U.S. government assertions about the WMDs of official enemies need to be treated skeptically as well.
As a result of this “confirmation”, the Canadian government apparently is reversing its abnormally sensible policy of not arming the rebels and once again (as usual) endorses U.S. war-mongering.
Something that seems to be forgotten; ever heard of ‘False Flag’ ops? You know, doing something bad to your own people (or indeed, anyone at all) in order to claim a ‘Casus Belli’, a cause for war? Or alternatively, just stating that some target has done something so horrendous that it calls for ‘Humanitarian Intervention’?
Well, try this for size; the UK Daily Mail had this article up online, but soon removed it (I wonder who got busy??):
‘U.S. ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime’
Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying ‘the idea is approved by Washington’
Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that use of chemical warfare was ‘totally unacceptable’
By LOUISE BOYLE – PUBLISHED: 19:16, 29 January 2013 | UPDATED: 14:04, 30 January 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270219/U-S-planned-launch-che mical-weapon-attack-Syria-blame-Assad.html
Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.
A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.
Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.
According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam’s Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.
It reads: ‘Phil… We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.
‘We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.
‘They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.
‘Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?
‘Kind regards, David.’
Britam Defence had not yet returned a request for comment to MailOnline.
Read more: U.S. ‘planned to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’ | Mail Online ‘
Luckily, someone took a screen shot of it:
http://www.oplysning.org/uploads/9/1/4/3/9143605/7191843_orig.png
So, Messrs. Obomba, Cameron, Haig et al, NOW what ya got to say for yourselves?
PS, also remember the ‘Incubator Babies’ of Kuwait; also, the Brits falling over themselves to restart arms sales to Saddam, after Halabja; and Churchill, ordering the use of poison gas on the Kurds, to ‘Teach them a lesson’.
Well at this point the Syrians are not to be believed.The Russians????And now our own government.Hey opinions are free.But we should not arm one more person unless they are allies.You see any allies in that little arena?
it is not a crime to possess WMD. Proof will require someone identified person to declare what he/she learned that is relevant to the issue. So far, we have an anonymous person who tells us that sample s taken from one dead person and one living showed gas. Basically, that statement would be rejected as hearsay in court, even if the person was willing to give his/her name. this is a bad joke.
Dear Peter :
good catch, but is that really as important as it is claimed, don’t we know that Assad’s militias killed at least 93.000 civilians, used cluster bombs, scud missiles military planes and phosphorus bombs in civilian areas, haven’t we watched the Assad’s mafia torturing innocent civilians, with horrible stories about the extreme cruelty in torturing people to death, including Hamz elkhatib , the 13 year old boy who was tortured,his body returned to his family mutilated with broken bones and many forms of torture and cruelty Ibrahim al kashoush a singer , whose larynx was removed while alive and he was tortured to death and many many more
do we still need to Know about chemical weapons?
Even if two rebels have been found to have been exposed to sarin, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Assad’s forces were responsible. The Turks raided a rebel base and discovered that the rebels were in the process of manufacturing sarin bombs.
The whole ‘proof’ of chemical weapons use seems to be rather timely for an administration that has a serious surveillance scandal to deal with.
Indeed, three obvious questions – what is the chain of custody of these blood, urine, and hair samples; how do we know they were from Syrian rebels and not Syrian citizens attacked by rebels; and even if they were from rebels, how do we know they weren’t rebels who were involved in the preparation and USE of sarin, as has been reported?
@Ahmed: No, “Assad’s militias” have not killed “93,000 civilians”. It is ESTIMATED that 93,000 PEOPLE have died in Syria, that includes civilians (some killed by rebels, others by the government), armed rebels, and government troops. UN report yesterday said it couldn’t say who had killed more people, the rebels or the government.
@Alhazred: this has nothing to do with distracting from scandals, and EVERYTHING to do with the rebels loss of Qusair, and the fact that the government is now on the offensive. Recommended reading: http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/us-to-send-arms-to-syrian-rebels.html
1. Robt Fisk, respected rptr. sez’ he has seen no troops or rebels with gas masks. Nor has he seen evidence of any gas use. 2. How stupid would the gov’t be to use such materials in light of our “red line” knowing the Israel (and its big brother) are itching to find some excuse to intervene and take out another enemy of Israel? Read post from Eli Stephens and realize just how America, has and is being used. Meantime, war monger war profiteers are sacking the American Treasury just as fast as the creeps at NSA and their lying private contractors. Chertoff Group etc. all part of it.
There are numberless tries to involve the US since the invention of internal conflicts in Syria. Israel is doing everything possible and impossible to get the US public again on its side because you name it: All is about Israel as usual and Syria a dangerous multipluristic neighbour and a true witness on fake-Israel by milenia. The friendship with Iran and Russia amongst many other countries in the region made Syria the most important place between the cultures and it was very hard for Israel to sell fake info. Until now. Arabian spring and a number of conveniant news is going to make the US population believe that Assad is just another massmurder while this man got more culture in his little finger then most of the so called western leaders. History shows, there is nothing more dangerouse on earth then a scandalized US population ready to kill and giving permitt to kill. The big players did know this always and so we play.
Just a thought on a different point: The NYT article says “an American official who declined to be identified” described “a CIA report.” From that I think we can safely assume two things: The report is classified and this is not an official release. Which means – GASP! – that this is a *leak*! This is a leak of *classified information*! Horrors! Why isn’t this person being prosecuted? Why aren’t they being hunted down? Why, oh dear God, why??
We know that there are many people in government that would welcome another war in the Middle East, and the chemical warfare excuse is just an excuse. Nations, especially powerful empires, do not engage in war for humanitarian reasons. But when they want war – and their populations are generally opposed to it – finding something that sounds like a humanitarian reason can be very handy. Unlike the situation with Saddam’s chemical weapons, there doesn’t seem to have been an obvious massacre, just samples from a couple of rebels. So we can’t be sure that some of the rebels themselves did not concoct and use small batches of Sarin themselves, and perhaps suffer an accident or been attacked by another rebel group. A Japanese cult manufactured their own Sarin and used it in an attack on that nation’s subway. It was of low-quality. Does any of this latest evidence show the quality/purity of the chemical? The US has suspected that Syria has a stockpile of weapons in which they have MIXED Sarin gas. The problem there is that, once mixed, it has a short shelf life and degrades very quickly. In a more sophisticated arsenal the Sarin weapons would be designed with separate components that would mix just before launch or in flight. These weapons can be stored for a much longer time without degrading. Tissue samples may offer some proof, but shrapnel from one of the delivery containers would help too. The more sophisticated the container, the more likely it is to be a state weapon. Also, Obama did no one any favors by declaring a “red line” that had to be crossed to scale up our intervention in Syria (rest assured that we have been intervening all along). For those who really want a wider war, there would have been a lot of incentive to actually plant Sarin where it would be discovered and used as a casus belli. Whether the government has done that to give itself an excuse, or other interests planted it to help their cause is anyone’s guess. Arming the “rebels”, however, is the last thing we should do, since most of them would easily qualify as terrorists, not as a new Syria’s founding fathers.
@ Ahmed Sakkal: The 93,000 figure is for TOTAL deaths, not just deaths from Assad’s forces. Both sides have been accused of brutality, and most have been reported by the very biased Western MSM as being done by Assad (remember the ‘Incubator Babies’ story about Kuwait? Remember ‘WMD’ in Iraq? Remember ‘Iraqi troops and tanks massed on Saudi border? Remember ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ ‘incident’? The list is near endless; all above examples led to wars, and all are now accepted to have been totally untrue). The MSM has deceived us again and again.
Here is something of importance (which fully backs up what many ‘Truth Campaigners’ have been saying since 2011):
Dumas, “Top British Officials Confessed to Syria War Plans Two Years before Arab Spring”
http://nsnbc.me/2013/06/16/dumas-top-british-officials-confessed-to-sy ria-war-plans-two-years-before-arab-spring/
‘Christof Lehmann (nsnbc),- The former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas admits, the war on Syria was planned two years before “The Arab Spring”. Dumas states in a TV interview, that “top British officials” confessed that they were preparing a war on Syria and asked “If I wanted to participate”.
The former French Minister of Foreign Affairs appeared in aTV interview with the French TV Channel LPC, saying:
“I am going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me, that they were preparing something in Syria”.
Dumas continued, indicating that the subversion and invasion of the Syrian Arab Republic with the help of “rebels” was primarily a British plan, while he carefully avoided implicating himself and France, saying:
“This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to participate. Naturally, I refused, I said I am French, that does not interest me”…
Kind of changes the whole ball-game, doesn’t it?