When the PBS NewsHour covered John Kerry’s dramatic presentation on the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21, reporter Jeffrey Brown (8/30/13) zeroed in on the death toll:
KERRY: The United States government now knows that at least 1,429 Syrians were killed in this attack, including at least 426 children.
BROWN: The chilling numbers stood out from the U.S. intelligence assessment released this afternoon. And, lest anyone doubt, the secretary of State insisted, its findings are as clear as they are compelling.
On ABC World News (8/30/13), Martha Raddatz emphasized the numbers as well:
It is the images and the stories from the survivors that are clearly the most compelling. And that number 1,429–1,429 killed, including those 426 children.
On NBC Nightly News (8/30/13), anchor Lester Holt said that Kerry had “revealed that more than 1,400 people had been killed in the chemical attack, including more than 400 children.” Note: “revealed,” not “said” or “claimed” or “alleged.”
And the New York Times editorial page (8/31/13), in a piece about the need for stronger legal justification for launching an attack on Syria, wrote definitively that such action would be “in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed more than 1,400 people.”
But where does that number come from–and why is substantially higher than other estimates? As the AP (8/31/13) reported:
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization that monitors casualties in the country, said it has confirmed 502 deaths, nearly 1,000 fewer than the American intelligence assessment claimed.
Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the organization, said he was not contacted by U.S. officials about his efforts to collect information about the death toll.
“America works only with one part of the opposition that is deep in propaganda,” he said, and urged the Obama administration to release the information its estimate is based on.
And Hannah Allam and Mark Seibel of the McClatchy news service (9/2/13) noted that substantially lower death tolls were released by Britain (more than 350) and France (281).
Much of the case the U.S. is making against Syria is based on intelligence that the government is so far unwilling to make public (Washington Post, 9/2/13)–and some of what is available is not terribly convincing (Truthout.org, 9/3/13).
So journalists should, at a minimum, attribute these estimates to the government–and note that they are not in line with other reputable estimates of the death toll in Syria. Ideally, reporters should ask John Kerry to explain the discrepancy. He just made the rounds on all the major Sunday chat shows, and no one who was interviewing him thought to bring it up.
Are you kiddin’ me? Assuming that the US gummint really believes Assad was responsible (a bit of a stretch, but just pretending) why would that piss “us” off?
1400? The US does that by accident every day before breakfast.
Back before Saddam got uppity, he did multiples of that against the Kurds and Iranis with gas he got from “us” and with satellite intel so he’d know where to put it.
“We”‘re still killing Vietnamese. Laotians and Cambodians with the legacy of the chemicals “we” sprayed on their countries in the 60s and 70s. (Dunno if the continuing toll of land mines and cluster bombs are relevant in a discussion about chemical weapons, but I imagine those who lost limbs or a loved one TODAY might think so.)
Oh, but he’s using them on “his own people”.
How many deaths do you think US corporations are imposing on Murricans with the food most folks have available to them, the work environment they’re exposed to, polluted water… Cancer Alley probably gives us 1400 a day. Every day.
What I can’t understand is why are we so fired up to attack Syria. It is not our country, they are not our people, and we sure as hell wouldn’t stand by and let another country bomb us if we were to kill (in a military attack) several thousand of our people by whatever means we decided on. Those who are so ready to jump up and attack Syria, then I suggest you go downtown to the local Gun Shop, get yourself loaded up with automatics and grenades, and head on over. If you not willing to do that (and by willing, I don’ mean pretend you are, I mean get your hineys of the couch and get a plane ticket there), then shut the hell up and stay out of the rest of the worlds business. Otherwise, one day the world IS going to turn on us.
howcome overestimated, over reacted
It differs from France’s very precise death toll of 281.
And also, they seem to keep forgetting that the rebels have admitted responsibility. This is awful I feel sorry for President Putin at the G20, he may be an Assad ally but he is the only one taking a balanced view of the situation and suggesting that they should wait for the UN report.
Plus, UK and US appear to be completely insane, with current Governments.
I, too, was struck by the preciseness of the estimated deaths. It is a well known form of scientific deception to give a degree of precision beyond what is warranted.
John Kerry would have us look at the evidence, but when I go to the White House press release I find an absence of names of NGO’s, intelligence officials and the like. I remember how Amnesty was duped back in 2002, and used to bring about support for the first war in Iraq (George H.W. Bush’s war). So I want to know the names of the sources so I can independently assess their credibility. Doctors without Borders, it should ne noted, gives estimates of dead only in the hundreds. And it denies any certainty about the kind of chemical weaponry involved.
The war profiteers want to make this attack a rush job not only because the truth will slowly degrade their case over time, but also because the window of opportunity to launch American military assets in defense of the foreign death squads is closing as Assad continues to overpower the gulf state financed invaders.
When it is demonstrated that this incident is orchestrated by the opposition forces watch how rapidly Mr Kerry’s enthusiasm for a military strike of conscience disappears.
always easier to attempt to win a case with bigger numbers when your essential analysis is faulty
Data produced by CounterSpin is designed to show a mainstream media slant towards conservative and/or corporate interests.
interpreted to mean hes a good little repuglicon…
source,,, wikipedia
Just to add to the comment below – don’t forget the US’ terrible medical care that the poor often receive in America. In NJ most the best doctors straight out tell people who are self-pay, medicare and some PPOs that they are not accepting those kinds of patients. I am sure you could add those covered by Obamacare to that list., Personally I have know several hardworking people who could have lived longer lives or who now experience daily chronic pain as a result of having been poor and unable to access decent care for their injury/illnesses. What I love is how brainwashed everyone in this country is to take all their suffering upon themself as their own fault. Go to a shrink and talk about your suffering, become a Buddhist and meditate on everyone’s suffering. Meanwhile our suffering is often completely out of our hands, as is the suffering of those who live in Syria. But it is easier to pretend the self-made person myth is true and turn and look elsewhere – even when it comes to ourselves.
Oh I’m sure they thought to bring it up, but fear of retaliation by their corporate masters made them think again.
Death Toll Reports from those who are there:
Doctor’s Without Borders: 355
French Govt Report: 281
SOHR: 502
Syrian Natl Coalition: 395
Where on earth is the executive branch getting its data? Randal Marlin’s post deserves quoting: “John Kerry would have us look at the evidence, but when I go to the White House press release I find an absence of names of NGO’s, intelligence officials and the like. I remember how Amnesty was duped back in 2002, and used to bring about support for the first war in Iraq (Bush’s war). So I want to know the names of the sources so I can independently assess their credibility.”
Me too.
i have been contemplating one(and only one) silver lining of reason in all this.Since everything Obama has been doing in this lead up seems so counterintuitive to any logic…..could it be that he has actually done something correct?Could it be he decided early on to ratchet this conflict up to the point of launch so as to give Assad an out?An out that would be acceptable to most everyone?The turning over of his chemical weapon systems to the world body?Christ Im hoping that is his game.Because if not….Im at a loss.
That came from the propaganda push to drum up support for an attack on Syria that was supposed to happen this past week.
Now that’s it’s starting to fall apart, the chicken hawks “got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
No doubt, their propagandists are busy at work, again.
auspiciousbunny: Right on. That is exactly the truth about suffering. We don’t invite suffering upon ourselves, generally speaking; rather, it is most often brought to us, mostly by choosing the wrong parents and the wrong part of the planet to be born in.