-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
President Obama claims that a chemical weapons attack was carried out by the Syrian government in Ghouta on Aug 21. The Obama Administration then sent an “intelligence official” to Foreign Policy magazine to leak the intelligence supporting that claim. That intelligence consisted of captured phone call between an official of the Syrian Ministry of Defense and the leader of a chemical weapons unit. The phone calls were described as panicky with the official demanding answers.
You can kiss that intelligence collection method goodbye. This “leak” also may have endangered the NOC who placed the device. As the phone call shows, the Assad regime is responsible, but that regime includes everyone from Syrian President Assad to the lowliest private in the Syrian army.
The phone call does not indicate who gave the order. The repeated referrals to the entire “regime” means that the Obama Administration hasn’t narrowed it down. The easiest way to prevent irate phone call from a Ministry of Defense official is to claim that Bashar al-Assad or his brutal younger brother, Maher, gave the order. That would have put an end to any future phone calls.
One intelligence official asked: “Was the attack on Aug. 21 the work of a Syrian officer overstepping his bounds? Or was the strike explicitly directed by senior members of the Assad regime? It’s unclear where control lies.” Intelligence analysts say that without the intercepted call does not establish who gave the order and could indicate that it was a mistake.
Assad is head of a weak regime, whose Alawite constituency is far outnumbered by the Sunni population. The use of chemical weapons in such circumstances is a typical behavior. It seems unlikely that a single, limited US strike of Syria will change the motivation for using chemical weapons. After Syria survives the US strike, the next chemical weapons usage will place the US in an increasingly difficult position. Future US strikes will become more and more politically difficult.
The Syrian civil war has provided a vehicle for a resurgence of al-Qaeda. A Syrian rebel group, the Al-Nusra Front, has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri. The Syrian Free Army, a group of rebels made up of Syrian soldiers who have defected, will “collaborate with any faction allowing them to topple” Assad. Networks are being set up to funnel foreign jihadis into Syria. In areas controlled by Al-Nusra, Sharia law is being enforced.
With a choice between Assad and his chemical weapons, and another Islamic state sworn to the destruction of Israel, it’s time to sit one out.
H/T: The Guardian, National Post, Juan Cole, Charles P. Pierce, Bloomberg.
Well aware of Redford and Robertson’s collaboration and that – “they’ll just want U.S. to get it for them”
The quote is in Michael Ruppert’s book “Crossing the Rubicon”
(that I’ve read 4 times).
If you are talking about Phil Marshall – I’m well aware of that too;
as I worked on Sonny Bono’s case also.
Madsen flew out there and got to the bottom of the case quickly
@LaserHaas – Watch this clip from the 1975 movie Three Days of the Condor (based on the book 6 Days of the Condor). In this clip Max von Sydow plays a sociopath hit-man who tries to explain how the “2nd string” works when they get activated. Take heed from it. This is also a good movie that explains what George HW Bush and son did before it happened in the middle east!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJ1EPuYkZQ
Also read this awful story about a avid blogger who worked for the intelligence community met his fate earlier this year with his two kids. Clearly NOT a suicide. What he was working on was something so ground-shaking THEY just had to send in the sociopaths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXI8lnqEahQ
@Nal – “…German intelligence (BND) intercepted a phone call between a Hezbollah commander and an unidentified official at an Iranian embassy that provided evidence that the Syrian government was behind the alleged Aug. 21 chemical-weapons attack, a German newsmagazine has reported… “
Hmmm… this reminds me of a very neat rick the Israelis pulled during Reagan administration to get us to attack Libya for the Locekerbie Scotland Incident. It’s called the “man in the middle” exploit – or as Israeli Mossad LAP unit calls it: “Trojan dick trick”.
How it works is that they put a radio-repeater in the target country they know is being monitored by the US intelligence community. Then they start broadcasting in the clear in the native language of target country as if having a conversation between two or more people on a radio-phone, cellphone, or landline. Reagan bought it hook line and sinker and bombed the hell out of Libya. Source: Victor Ostrovsky
“[Israeli] Mossad is out of control, that even the prime minister, although ostensibly in charge, has no real authority over its actions …” – Victor Ostrovsky (ex-Mossad)
S O T B;
They warned me to “back off” in 2004 (my own attorney was actually brazen enough to email me the threat from Paul Traub).
eToys shareholder Robert Alber was also offered a bribe and turned it down. He was told “people like you who turn down bribes Wake Up Dead”!
Then Alber’s lifetime friend (Gary Ramsey) who was also co-owner of their Kingman, Arizona home – simply vanishes into thin air.
Alber was then assaulted by career criminal Michael Sesseyoff;
and Robert Alber had to shoot/kill Sesseyoff
—————————————
Marty Lackner was involved in the fraud – and he had a special brother. When Marty offered to help me in the Petters-Fraud.com case, he was “suicided” that weekend. 40ish, wife, kids and left No Note.
Note under indictment
Because his brother was J. Lackner.
Minnesota Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of criminal division J. Lackner.
——————
John “Jack” Wheeler was a West Point man, Chief Exec of MADD, helped build the Vietnam Memorial, worked for Presidents Reagen, HW Bush, GW Bush.
But – what I wanted him for – is his tenure at the SEC.
He walked into someone’s office (possibly Colm Connolly’s) and they hit him in the head – threw him in the dump in Delaware.
Romney’s Bain owns Clear Channel, which was founded by McCombs, who also owns Blackwater.
However, if I back down – no one else is fighting
Backing down is not an option.
Praying I’m not suicided, hit in the head or tossed in the dump is what I do (OFTEN).
Correct! It was from Israeli Intelligence (Unit 8200 – Google it). I am amazed at how much Israel knows so much about all of this. Remember the old fart joke? “The one that smelt it dealt it”.
And Bebe Netanyaho is a little too vocal in all of this. I mean he authorized the not too long ago illegal military Operation Orchard against Syria and now we are to believe his hands are squeaky clean on the US SecState John Kerry verified Sarin gas attack?
They are now trying to implicate the Chechens (the same terrorists in the Boston Bombing) in supplying the Sarin to Assad’s alleged wayward loose-cannon soldiers. But if that is true, which I doubt, who else is involved with them up to their necks?
Laser you can call me SOTB as my friends here do. Yes I see you are becoming a “hot potato” right now. I mean you are taking on one of the hugest most powerful corporate industries in America. I know as I’m familiar with them. They may be a little more powerful than you anticipated. If I were you I’d watch my 6 closely… 😉
Read up on JOHN PERKINS (ex-NSA) and his 2004 book. It should chill-the-hell-outta’ ya’. These “2nd string” people are arguably psychopaths (or sociopaths) that have NO DISCERNIBLE MORAL compass. There’s only so much the 1st string people will take from a fly buzzing around their collective heads until they call in the 2nd string. You don’t want to meet them as you can only do it once… as they say…
Hey “sonof–” , Anonymous, Otteray and anyone else who cares.
eToys fraud & corruption story is gathering more attention.
See Reuters WestLaw thingy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014586316#post4
Intercepted call bolsters Syrian chemical-weapons charge, Germans say:
German intelligence intercepted a phone call between a Hezbollah commander and an unidentified official at an Iranian embassy that provided evidence that the Syrian government was behind the alleged Aug. 21 chemical-weapons attack, a German newsmagazine has reported.
…
A senior U.S. official, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the information is classified, said the intercepted call wasn’t the same communication that American officials had cited to bolster their case that Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible for the attack.
…
It also said Assad’s forces had used a highly diluted chemical agent in previous attacks on rebels and that the high death count Aug. 21 might have been the result of “errors made in the mixing of the gas” that made it “much more potent than anticipated.”
That would be consistent with a suggestion from an Israeli official, cited by The New York Times, that the attack was “an operational mistake.”
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Steven-Haas/1354174894
Sorry I screwed up the ZoomInfo link above…
@laserhaas – Ummm… OK never mind. I now know who you are from reading your back-story at ZoomInfo. You really have no HS diploma? And you decided to take on the most powerful people in USA? Wow that is really ballsy if not borderline insane… Good luck dude! You’ll need it!
@itchinBayDog – First, how do you not see the difference? A judicial body in USA with the power of capital punishment can carry it out any way they think is humane. California was the largest death penalty state that used gas. Connecticut used the chair and then evolved to lethal injection then threw the whole program away.
If Assad did it…which I doubt seriously… he would have done it with extreme malice and anger. I would assume the US state of MISSOURI only executes inmates after a due process trial and sentence from a duly sworn jury and/or duly elected judge. I’m sure they use the State’s Constitution and the US Constitution in metng out justice. Assad would not.
I’m pretty sure SOMEBODY ELSE gassed those people to make it look like Assad did it so Obama would send in the 5th Fleet from Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea (6 vessels (i.e. USS San Antonio et al) are at ready stations right now awaiting orders from JCS Dempsey). That would be the USS Nimitz (Old Salt) on the way with it’s strike force 11. The carnage would not be minimal. It would make Operation Orchard look like a walk in the park.
If Mr. Obama doesn’t order a STAND DOWN after G-20, my guess is that he will lead off with RGM/UGM-109E Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM Block IV), all aimed at Syrian strike packages which Assad will not be able to recover from. However, I do not think Putin and Jinping will sit by idle KNOWING someone else was the real guilty party.
And that little maniac in DPKR will probably do something stupid in memory of his father’s insanity. He loves Syria so much too.
If it is ok for Mizzoura to kill inmates with gas then why is Assad some sort of war criminal?
Wayne Madsen tells the truth.
But he and Alex Jones are also kumquats.
They could have taken our evidence against Romney and did a PRIZE winning series; and may have actually halted the POTUS quest early.
Geniuses – Both of them!
I despise Alex Jones and his moron buddy Texxe Mars. However, Wayne only deals with those morons for the money ($$$). Alex pays well.
Wayne is not ALWAYS right, ya’ know. I follow his intel as he was once a NSA/NAVY spook that knew where you-know-what was buried (old jaded expression now). Wayne is not right about Mr. Obama MOST of the time. He was a big follower and scholar of the late investigative-journalist Jack Anderson. He got bummed out about Mr. Obama as he will not authorize his White House press pass which is a personal insult to him and he is taking it out on Mr. Obama on his website.
Mr. Obama does not hold Wayne in the same light as the White House viewed Jack and that just torque’s him off. So he makes up stories about Kenya and birther nonsense (which he has since recanted), makes up stories about Mr. Obama being gay (as if that was a crime or something), and that he and his parents where CIA operatives while in Indonesia. To the last one I say BFD! He’s now the CinC of CIA now… duh!
So this last scandal he thinks he has uncovered that ranks up there with Reagan’s Iran-Contra is probably a bit uber-B.S. IMHO. I know John O Brennan is no boy scout and maybe he has done some things he shoulda’ thought twice about back in the day but I do not think Mr. Obama is tied up in John’s past B.S. John was the single source of CIA drone strike program from day-1. He also was in bed with the Saudi’s like GWB was. Why Obama hired him to be CIA director puzzles the hell outta’ me.
Anyway, I went to Wayne’s website just now and typed in ROMNEY as I have a paid account with him. It had so many hits it wasn’t funny. You will have to be a little more specific about your package on Romney. What do you mean “we”? Who are you with if I may ask…
@laserhaas – Speaking of GATES. It appears, at least to Wayne Madsen, there will be a OBAMA-GATE coming soon:
@laserhaas – Does it trouble you that Israeli Unit 8200 broke this story with a “alleged” chatter-intercept OUR NSA DID NOT INTERCEPT? I mean NSA (FISA) also target’s SW Asia (aka Middle East) heavily. They missed this???
I would never feel that this particular agency (i.e. the UN) do anything to help everyone, but, it appears that Ban Ki-Moon (BTW Rev Moon’s cousin) should be allowed to do Syrian inspections to see who REALLY did this. And in discovering that fact, Mr. Obama should allow Moon to take action NOT U.S.!
Ever since a certain “US-friendly-nation”‘s Operation Orchard, Syria has been their personal “wet-dream” (excuse the analogy). They would do ANYTHING to get Syria put on the next US Invasion short-list. Why? It would allow for a “next-steps” maneuver on Iran.
Why Iran? Ahmadinejad is gone now. Nobody is threatening this tiny country anymore. Yes they really AREN’T trying to make a nuke like their neighbors in Pakistan and India already have (and have already used above ground in later-half of 20th century)!
Funny, this same tiny country has them too in a secret facility in the Negeb Desert called Dimona. Now why would a tiny country need nukes for? LaserHaas the rat is there but no one is smelling it yet. What does the rat want if it isn’t REALLY being threatened by Iran?
Could it be what Jed Clampet called Black Gold or Texas Tea? I mean if you control Iranian fields you have more than Saudi Arabia ever dreamed of! Imagine that, conquering by way of deception. What kind of world have we become in where the world’s most powerful country is being “controlled” by the world’s most tiniest?
Since JT revealed that NSA has been bugging UN encrypted video conferencing lately, it would be nice to know what’s really going on behind the scenes. Those EVC’s are not always done in large groups. Sometimes they are 1-on-1 from envoy to prime minister or president back home.
After Weds at G-20 Mr. Obama will be told who really did this by Russia and China. But the $64,000 question is will he do anything about it? Or will he still keep pushing Congress to decide. Of course they will decide wrong like they did with Iraq.
I know let’s send in Eric Prince! Remember his bone-head CIA-op in where he sends in Raymond Allen Davis to shoot up Lahore Pakistan back in 2011? What was that all about? What does he think he’s running a Bourne Supremacy type agency or something? (i.s. Treadstone?)
Who needs Comedy Central with all of this going on?
Reblogged this on Advice You Didn't Seek: and commented:
I hope Congress will ensure this is answered fully…
sonofthunderboanerges
Romney-gate
Eric-gate
They all gate U.S. to where we got No Chance for peach or justice…
I have no faith that Congress will not give whatever Pres. Obama asks for. While I do not agree with John McCain’s idea to bomb the airfields and to set up a safe zone(setting up a maintaining a safe zone would endanger soldiers and airmen), but if we are not trying to get Assad out of power quickly, what good will the strikes do?
The question that some of us have regarding taking decisive action to remove Assad relates to what factions will replace him.
The concern of some is that Obama’s rush to jump out of the Assad frying pan may land us in the radical fire.
This is a situation where a minimal strike to make a loud noise seems useless or perhaps worse.
And a meaningful strike to weaken Assad may lead to an even worse situation.
At least the administration has slowed the wild rush to war and will consult with congress.
But if there is a reasonable policy that includes intervention, I don’t see it.
The fact that I don’t see it does not mean there is no reasonable path. But that is exactly why some of us would like to see more discussion.
I think we have seen a similar situation when some one said words to the effect that what we need is ‘more jaw, jaw and less.. ‘ well maybe you get the idea.
If King Obama has a limited response might that not cause Assad and his bro to act even more desperately and be more likely to use more nerve gas? Then what? More ‘limited’ responses?
@laserhaas – I find it astounding what Eric Prince is doing in the intelligence community. Before you know it we won’t need a CIA etc as we will have Academi to the rescue… 🙂
Nice to know Eric keeps changing the name of his company… What’s next? Whitewater? D’oh! Sorry already used… 🙂
If the Syrian nerve agents used were VX/GF, then guess what MIC makes that and sent stockpiles to Iraq before? CARLYLE GROUP! Smell a rat yet? – Source: Frank Gregory Ford