David Gregory (cc photo: CSIS)
At the top of Sunday’s Meet the Press (6/16/13), host David Gregory declared, “Confirmation this week that chemical weapons were used.”
That’s the kind of language you’re likely to hear in the corporate media when it comes to Syria. And while it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what the word “confirm” means, it also betrays a lack of skepticism when it comes to government claims about the WMDs of “enemy” countries.
If you thought any lessons should have been learned from the Iraq War debacle, then it might make sense to look at an outlet that got that right: McClatchy (which was Knight-Ridder back then). On Friday (6/14/13), the wire service’s Matthew Schofield reported a useful piece, headlined “Chemical Weapons Experts Still Skeptical About U.S. Claim that Syria Used Sarin.” His lead:
Chemical weapons experts voiced skepticism Friday about U.S. claims that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had used the nerve agent sarin against rebels on at least four occasions this spring, saying that while the use of such a weapon is always possible, they’ve yet to see the telltale signs of a sarin gas attack, despite months of scrutiny.
One expert explained:
Philip Coyle, a senior scientist at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, said that without hard, public evidence, it’s difficult for experts to assess the validity of the administration’s statement. He added that from what is known, what happened doesn’t look like a series of sarin attacks to him.
The piece also explains that a detailed report of a suspected chemical attack published by the French paper Le Monde was questioned by chemical weapons expert Jean Pascal Zanders:
Only one detailed independent report of a chemical attack has surfaced in that time, however–a lengthy report in the French newspaper Le Monde last month that triggered both French and British letters to the United Nations.
Zanders, however, said that much about that report bears questioning. Photos and a video accompanying the report showed rebel fighters preparing for chemical attacks by wearing gas masks. Sarin is absorbed through the skin, and even small amounts can kill within minutes.
He also expressed skepticism about the article’s description of the lengthy route victims of chemical attacks had to travel to get to treatment, winding through holes in buildings, down streets under heavy fire, before arriving at remote buildings hiding hospitals.
Zanders, who also has headed the Chemical and Biological Warfare Project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and was director of the Geneva-based BioWeapons Prevention Project, noted that had sarin been the chemical agent in use, the victims would have been dead long before they reached doctors for treatment.
And it should be noted that the administration curiously did not make spokespeople available to ABC‘s This Week or the PBS NewsHour to discuss the new Syria policy.
Why does that old logo for RCA Victor come to mind every time I read about corpress complicity with gummint pronouncements?
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/VictorTalkingLogo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company&h=240&w=269&sz=19&tbnid=bgeL44b79saU2M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=101&zoom=1&usg=__b5isU82d6Bo9QecFN3h8i2EKRII=&docid=1Nou1UpmwE5xJM&sa=X&ei=-I2_Ue-pF4X7ygHfmIDoBg&ved=0CDsQ9QEwAg&dur=432
we have seen this before and know what it is what now,
Saying it is so and proving it by supplying empirical evidence is two different matters. When did the lamestream media become so scared of the government that they almost sycophantically parrot what the feds say?
David Gregory is a disgrace to his profession.
The Obama admin speaks of “conclusive evidence” but offers no actual hard proof. The UK and France claim sarin was used in small quantities based on their research on smuggled samples. But a Brit official admitted that despite suspicions that the trail led to regime forces – there was no actual way to prove it.
Interesting that after months of inaction, following the taking of al-Qusayr and with a battle for Aleppo pending – chemical use became a pressing concern and “evidence” appeared leading to the arms authorization.
As for arming chosen groups and keeping arms in the hands of the “good guys” it’s hard to imagine anything more ridiculous. Despite their differences, opposition fighters cross lines and often fight together. Concerns have been expressed about al-Nusra Front and other salafi/wahhabist hardliners, but the FSA itself is reportedly 60% in favor of an Islamist state – a claim made in a video posted on the Juan Cole site that features a man who knows the FSA intimately.
The problem with a “Red Line” is that it gives the government the ability to run a Red Herring on us. By first declaring very vocally we have this RED LINE and then saying IT WAS CROSSED. It leads us in the public to say, “OK time to go, time to weigh in one the side of the good guys.”
But nowhere in all of that was their any objective proof of what, where, when, How and how much. This is just another version of the Yellow Cake episode or the Aluminum Tube episode. I doubt that anyone will get Secretary Kerry to give the smoking gun speech.
Come on folks. Show me the Carfax.
Who is the faction of the rebels that we are going to support, (after the proof of someone crossing he Red Line?) Is our aid the “first step” in joining the fight. Iraq killed over 4000 American youth and Many more Iraqis. What was the outcome? Victory? NO. Peace? NO. Democracy? NO. Then what? Aside from profits for the military industrial congressional complex what? Well we are a lot broker as a nation than when we started….!!!
One of the nice things about war in Syria is we get to fight our enemies but not directly and not on our territory.
We also have to remember that Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Britain, France, and whoever else including us, ALL have self interest motives for helping one side or the other. That means its going to be awful hard to end this war.
Pogo said in his comic strip some 60 years ago, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
AUWE. AUWE
This “Le Monde” spin reminds me of the way Didier Eribon dealt with confidential material that I believe he gave “Le Monde” about Pierre Bourdieu. Is “Le Monde” still up to no good? This makes me hope that the French cineaste who is on the 911 truth commission is the real deal. He is supposed to be an heir to Truffaut, I believe. I hope that it is the Truffaut of “Les Quatre cent coup” to which he is heir. I hope that he is not the heir of the latter day Truffaut, i.e. the one that Pedro Costa denounced in graffitti that I understand is still on a film school wall in Lisboa.
Helas! J’ai voulu dire “Les Quatre Cent Coups.” Excusez-moi!!!…I must have had GMO today…I feel like breaking out into an old Francoise Hardy tune…”Tous les garcons et les filles de mon age se promenent dans les rues de Bourdeau…”
Une chanson bien sucree, mais tres jolie quand meme:
Prove it or qualify your statements or stop talking about it… This kind of BS talk is going to force us into war, though that is probably the point anyhow.
Have we forgotten that Congress passed an Act legalizing domestic deceptive propaganda? http://www.rt.com/usa/propaganda-us-smith-amendment-903/
The violence on both sides is nauseating.We and the Russians should cut off all military aid with a joint statement like this…….These people are fricking nuts.Putting guns in their hands would be the dumbest thing one could do
if the world were sane…we and the Russians would agree that these people(on both sides)are mentally deranged animals who should never again be handed any weapon stronger than a spit ball shooterBut our leaders show their own mental “derangement”as they prepare to flood this meat grinder with more bombs and bullets.That by the way will certainly be used against us some day.
We, the dons of Nagasaki, depleted uranium,and agent orange are telling Syria to refrain from what? We’ve killed more with our own chemical weapons than Saddam and Assad could in their wildest dreams. Just ask the folks in Fallujah. We talk about chemical weapons while the VA here in the USA can’t afford to treat and compensate millions of our own veterans afflicted with agent orange or depleted uranium dust. Our weapons are intergenerational; we make sure the terror of mutant disease is passed down through the Genes in Japan, Iraq, and Vietnam. God forgive us, if he has that much mercy.
Well John I suppose we can sit back….look at the wars we have been in.Count the dead,and just refrain from ever saying a word or lifting a hand to end slaughter because we too have done wrong.That is the old canard that since we have all sinned, no one can stand up for right when so much wrong is happening all around us.God help us all if that be the truth.