So, wait. It wasn’t the Syrian regime, but rather the Syrian rebels who used sarin nerve gas recently? That’s the story being reported tonight by Reuters, from actually named sources among U.N. investigators. But will anybody notice? Or, with Israeli airstrikes already under way, and the neo-cons already demanding another new war, is the news too little, too late…again?
The week before last, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, reading from a letter sent by the White House to Congress, announced that the Administration believes that the Syrian government recently used chemical weapons against its own people. If true, it would be a move which President Obama had previously described as a “red line” and a “game changer” in the Administration’s policy on the two-year old civil war still raging in that country.
Hagel’s statement was somewhat measured [emphasis added]: “Our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin.”
A few days later, during a Presidential press conference, Obama himself was also measured, even back-tracking somewhat on the claim that it was “the Syrian regime” which used the chemical weapon, as Hagel had initially announced, setting off “Breaking News!” tweets around the globe.
“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them. We don’t have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened,” the President said, seemingly responsibly. “And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.”
He went on to decry “rushing to judgement without hard, effective evidence,” that he planned to work with “neighboring countries to…establish a clear baseline of facts”, and that he had “called on the United Nations to investigate.”
But the war genie was already out of the bottle. At least for many in both the corporate media and the neo-con Right…
Sen. John McCain, for example, as is his wont, rushed to whatever TV cameras he could find to announce that the intel, as is, was “a compelling argument for the president to take the measures that a lot of us have been arguing for all along.”
Syrian rebels, McCain ominously warned on CNN, need to be given “a safe zone, we need to supply them with weapons going to the right people, and we need to be prepared to secure these caches of chemical weapons in the event that [Syrian leader Bashar al Assad] uses them.”
And then, with the war hawks squawking over the last several days, it is now being reported that Israel has launched a series of airstrikes against Syria, on the outskirts of its capital, Damascus.
To date, there has been very little pushback against Israel for having unilaterally done so. In fact, the response from the usual quarters has been just the opposite.
“Now THAT’s a red line,” CNN’s paid contributor and former George W. Bush Press Secretary (and current apologist) Ari Fleischer tweeted in response to news of the first Israeli attack inside of Syria on Friday.
“Next time Pres O says he’s drawn a red line, ask if he used invisible ink,” tweeted Fleischer the week before, after the Administration’s initial announcement of the use of sarin in Syria.
Today, the same man who fought so hard to push the nation towards war over invisible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, kept up his courageous war of words in celebration of the second reported Israeli strike. “The power of a red line: it’s bright &easy 2see. Message – don’t cross it. They don’t come in shades & aren’t meant 2b erased,” CNN’s Fleischer bravely chest-thumped from behind the safety of his home office keyboard.
It seems hard to believe that there would be as much of a celebration, or even collective “oh, well, guess we saw that coming,” had Syria, for example, flown warplanes over Tel Aviv or Jerusalem to drop bombs inside of that sovereign nation. But, after all, we’ve been told Assad is very bad guy who is not only said to have killed some 70,000 of his own people in the two year old civil war there (a fact which few seem to dispute), but now we know he’s even crossed a “red line” with the “game changing” use of chemical weapons! Who can blame Israel for taking action where, to hear McCain and Fleischer and friends tell it, Obama is just too weak to do so!
Of course, it’s far from clear that Israel’s attacks had anything whatsoever to do with taking out chemical weapons facilities or stockpiles in Syria. From the various anonymous U.S. and Israeli officials cited by news agencies, Israel was striking “a shipment of missiles destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement … a consignment of advanced, long-range, ground-to-ground missiles destined for Hezbollah”
“The shipment did not contain chemical weapons, but the missiles were potentially ‘game-changing,’ one official told the Associated Press,” Washington Post is reporting.
(Without citing evidence, the fully-discredited-yet-still-well-paid Fleischer described the missiles as “delivery systems for chemical weapons”.)
So, the use of chemical weapons (by whom, we still do not know) is a “game changer”. The President failed to act (as the neo-cons tell us), by asking the U.N. to investigate and gather more information before the U.S. goes to war. In the meantime, Israel strikes against “game-changing” weapons in Syria, according to anonymous sources for unproven reasons. And few, if any, rush to cameras to condemn Israel for doing so. Most, including CNN’s paid contributors like Fleischer, celebrate their having done so.
But what of those “game changing” chemical weapons? Lo and behold, a report out tonight, based on information from U.N. investigators, seems to indicate that it’s the Syrian rebels — the one that McCain et al are calling for Obama to support immediately — who may have used the sarin nerve gas which kicked off this entire sequence of events.
The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.
“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.
“This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added, speaking in Italian.
So, it was the rebels, according to actual named sources, not the Syrian regime which may have used the sarin gas that set off the chain of events described above over the past week and a half?
Will anybody bother to notice that report? So far, the courageous Fleischer’s Twitter feed has remained silent tonight and Grampa McCain is probably already asleep for the night.
Will McCain and Fleischer and the other war hawks soon retract their chest thumping and sabre rattling in light of the U.N. reports? Will they call for the U.S. to take action against the rebels in Syria who may have used chemical weapons?
Will there be an investigation, any investigation at all, into Israel’s aggressive — some might say, unprovoked — military actions over the past three days?
Or, as is far more likely, will we all largely ignore the Reuters report on the U.N. investigators’ findings entirely and carry on, as is, with our previously scheduled war-mongering and our continuing failure to hold war criminals responsible … so long as they may potentially include those from either the U.S. or Israel?
UPDATE 5/6/2013: This statement was released by the U.N.’s commission this morning, in response to last night’s news report:
The Chair of the Commission of Inquiry, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, reminds all parties to the conflict that the use of chemical weapons is prohibited in all circumstances under customary international humanitarian law.
In line with its mandate, the Commission is currently investigating all allegations of violations of international law in the Syrian Arab Republic and will issue its findings to the Human Rights Council on 3 June 2013, as mandated by resolution 22/24
More details on the work of the commission can be found here.
At the same time, the Jerusalem Post is reporting today that at least 40 Syrian soldiers were killed, and another 100 are still missing, after air strikes by Israel over the weekend, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The paper also notes that, according to Kuwait’s daily Alrai, Syrian President Assad has “threatened retaliation without warning to any further attack on his country.” Assad is said to have notified both Washington and Moscow “that orders had been given to allow deployed ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missile batteries to be used against Israel without advance notice in the event of another attack.”
ALSO very much worth noting today… FAIR has issued a report this morning on the lack of skepticism by U.S. media about the government’s claims about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. It also notes that both the New York Times’ Bill Keller and ABC’s Cokie Roberts over the weekend, expressed the view that wariness by the U.S. public over the claims, in light of similar claims about Iraq which turned out to be bogus, is a “problem” for those who feel “we need to have every single option available in a very dangerous world.”
UPDATE 5/6/2013 12:42pm PT: Despite the U.N. commission’s call for caution in light of last night’s report, investigator Carla Del Ponte — “a former Swiss attorney general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia” — is standing by her initial assertions today, according to this Reuter’s update:
“What appears to our investigation is that it was used by the opponents, by the rebels,” she said. “We have no indication at all that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons.”
OBAMA 2014 BUDGET
DISCRETIONARY
Defense-57%—Yes!- — 57% Sequester this sucker!
Education-6%
Govt.-6%
Vet benefits- 6%
Housing -5%
Health 5%
International-3%
Energy/Environment-3%
Science-3%
Transportation 3%
Labor-2%
Food/Agriculture-1%
Assad and the al-Qaeda/Salafist rebels…
It’s a pity they can’t both lose.
I’ll give 10 to 1 odds that the Sarin gas came from US labs distributed though the typically diffuse business partners (cover organizations) of the CIA.
Chris Hayes mentioned the UN report tonight. Then said the UN had already walked it back. Then showed Jay Carney doubting that it was the rebels and saying it was most likely the Assad government who’d used the sarin. Or words to that effect.
David Lasagna @ 4:
Yes, I saw that. Which is one of the reasons I posted the entire statement from the UN above, so you could decide whether they actually “walked it back” or not for yourself.
Seems to me that here’s what actually happened:
1) Carla Del Ponte said: “There are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas…on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities.”
2) The UN “clarified” to say they have: “not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict.” — Which does not really dispute del Ponte’s statement.
3) Then Del Ponte reiterated: “What appears to our investigation is that it was used by the opponents, by the rebels … We have no indication at all that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons.”
Now, if that’s a “walk back” as many in the media have rushed to report, all I can say is, geez, I wish they were that unbelievably careful and conservative with the statements about the Syrian government (or Iraq, for that matter) using WMD. Interesting how careful the media, even Chris Hayes, is when reporting something that is not supposed to be the officially approved U.S. government narrative, eh?
they’ve done this before
Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists
Yes, Brad. Completely with you on all that. And I realized as I was going to bed late last night after throwing in that little comment, which I meant solely as another news/media update, that I wanted to come back today and add something like–
Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow are both really smart and do a lot of good work. But they still throW their fair share of propaganda enabling bullshit out there.
There was a great moment last week on Rachel’s show. She was doing a strong piece condemning the the new Bush Library and its blatant efforts to rewrite history and fuck with the minds of all the kids who go there.
As her guest to discuss these things she had on Lawrence Wilkerson. He, with good humor, illustrated our enormous capacity for rehabilitating liars by pointing out that the expert, Philip Mudd, she’d just had on her show explaining to her the meanings of the latest from the Boston bombing was the same guy who insisted that Tenet put the lies back in Colin Powell’s U.N. speech that Wilkerson had taken out. It was beautiful.
Sorry, I screwed up the formatting again. Somehow I inadvertently put in another blockquote after the blockquote about believing Brad. Didn’t mean to do that.
{Fixed it for ya. – BF}
Comment deleted by EAC. Oops, posted in wrong piece.
Shame on Brad for not correcting the headline –
Brad believes one UN official and discounts the fact of the tons of chemical weapons Syria clearly has, the Pentagon blaming the regime, disclaimers by the U.N. and the fact that Assad’s thugs already used Agent 15 last year, killing 6.
ONLY Del Ponte is stating the rebels are at fault, with the main UN panel not yet issuing a finding.
Brad Friedman is wrong and John McCain is right. Time for the U.S. to take on an inhuman International War Criminal directly accused of Crimes Against Humanity by the United Nations, Bashar Assad, with 50,000 plus noncombatants dead already.
Thanks for your thoughts, Irwin. The headline is accurate. As to what I believe, that’s rather beside the point. I accurately covered both what Del Plante said, as well as what the UN commission she’s working with said.
As to John McCain being “right”, not sure how he can be since he recently said this (among other silly things):
So did Assad use chemical weapons, as McCain says? Or do we need to secure them in case he does? Which one? Just curious.
Also, what do you mean by “take on” Assad? What would you like the U.S. to do? Back the al-Qaeda based rebels against him? (I’m not arguing for or against any of it, just curious as to what either you or McCain are actually calling for.)
Nice to see Irving still shilling for the neocons while posing as a liberal. What do online disinfo artists get paid nowadays?
I spent an unpaid hour on a detailed reply late last night, but since it utterly refuted every belief of Brad and LMK – not posted.
Here is this from the incredibly brave and brilliant Marie Colvin who snuck into Homs last year. (edited a bit)
Marie Colvin, Paul Conroy in Homs
2-20-12 Sundaytimes-co-uk
The widows’ basement reflects the ordeal of 28,000 men, women and children
clinging to existence in Baba Amr surrounded by Syrian forces. The army is launching Katyusha rockets, mortar shells and tank rounds at random.
Snipers on the rooftops shoot any civilian who comes into their sights. Residents were felled in droves in the first days of the siege
On the lips of everyone was the question: “Why have we been abandoned by the
world?” Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said last week: “We see neighbourhoods shelled indiscriminately, hospitals used as torture centres, children as young as 10 years old killed and abused. We see almost certainly crimes against humanity.”
Ahmed, 16, her sister’s eldest child, was killed by a missile when he went to try to
find bread. “The kids are screaming (in terror) all the time,” Hamida said. “I feel so helpless.” She began weeping. “We feel so abandoned. They’ve given Bashar al-Assad the green light to kill us.”
Akhmed Mohammed, a military doctor who defected from Assad’s army, shouted:
“Where are the human rights? Do we have none? Where are the United Nations?”
Akhmed Khaled, who had been injured when a shell hit a mosque.
He denounced the Assad regime’s claim that the rebels were Islamic extremists and
said: “We ask all people who believe in God — Christians, Jews, Muslims
TO HELP US!”
By the way, she was MURDERED by Assad’s thugs who traced the satellite uplink signal and shelled it.
dailymail _ co.uk/news/article-2104711/Marie-Colvin-Sunday-Times-reporter-leave-Syria-day-died-says-mother _ html
Irving, you shilly boy, you keep ignoring context. Nothing you have cited is any worse than what was alleged against Saddam, and we know what a disaster that invasion was. We aren’t buying your neocon BS and snowjobbery anymore. Just because a leader appears “evil” to you or others (or even to me and Brad), does not give the US the right to intervene.
You also demonstrate the usual neocon hypocrisy of opposing the “evil” of leaders you don’t like while scrupulously ignoring the even greater evils of those leaders you do like.
Gulf War lasted 3 days. More troops died in accidents than from enemy fire.
Occupying Iraq for 8 years – 4400 dead soldiers.
NO one wants to invade Syria and try and run it now. That is one bad deal.
However those who advocate doing NOTHING are no better than the Polish boy in the Holocaust movie ‘Shoah’ taunting the Jews packed into train cars by moving his hand across his throat.
Dear Mr. Shillway, no one here is “taunting” victims so score one major analogy fail on your side of the ledger.
And for the folks keeping score at home, notice Mr. Shillway’s resort to emotional appeals as well as bad comparisons. These things are the hallmarks of poor thinkers AND disinfo artists. Which is it? You be the judge.
Irwin Mainway said @ 13:
I don’t know what that means, but if you are implying that in some way your post was censored here, or not allowed to be posted, that is untrue. We do not do that, unless the person posting has violated one or more of our few rules for commenting at The BRAD BLOG and (in cases other than just out and out commercial spam), we go to great lengths to try and give warnings to the rule breakers before out and out putting them into the mod file. There were no posts in our mod queue today, so not sure what the above is in reference to.
LMK said @ 16(and elsewhere):
Please do your best to mind our Rule #2, which bars personal insults against other commenters. Argue, disagree all you like. But it’s appreciated if you can avoid the personal attacks. Please consider that one of those friendly warnings I alluded to in the above. Thanks.
No prob, Brad; I wondered if that was over the line or not.
I wouldn’t mind force feeding your best bud Bashar a Bag-O-Glass, LMK.