-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.
Right here is the right blog foor everyone who really wants too fin out abbout this topic.
You realize a whole lot its almost hard too argue with
you (not that I personwlly would want to…HaHa).
You definitely put a fresh spin on a suject which has
been discussed for ages. Wonderful stuff, just wonderful!
Nal,
I thought you’d find the following article interesting:
Syria Chemical Attack Possibly Carried Out Without Assad Permission, German Newspaper Reports
Reuters | Posted: 09/08/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/08/syria-chemical-assad_n_3889551.html
Excerpt:
BERLIN, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Syrian government forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack close to Damascus without the personal permission of President Bashar al-Assad, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday, citing German intelligence.
Syrian brigade and division commanders had been asking the Presidential Palace to allow them to use chemical weapons for the last four-and-a-half months, according to radio messages intercepted by German spies, but permission had always been denied, the paper said.
This could mean Assad may not have personally approved the attack close to Damascus on Aug. 21 in which more than 1,400 are estimated to have been killed, intelligence officers suggested.
Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) could not be reached for comment.
Bild said the radio traffic was intercepted by a German naval reconnaissance vessel, the Oker, sailing close to the Syrian coast.
Last week the head of the BND, Gerhard Schindler, gave confidential briefings to the German parliament’s defence and foreign affairs committees. Bild said Schindler told the defence committee that Syria’s civil war could continue for years.
The chief of staff of Germany’s armed forces, General Volker Wieker, also told lawmakers the influence of al-Qaeda linked forces with within the rebels was becoming stronger and stronger.
@LaserHaas – OK but remember when King Leonidas I said “molon labe” (or come and take) to Xerxes, he did not realize that the young man he befriended, Ephialtes, but wouldn’t take into his army betrayed him at the Battle of Thermopylae.
MORAL: Always keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Always watch your six o’clock position. It’s like what Max von Sydow said in the movie… even a once thought close friend can betray you and give you up… Your duty is not to do or die NEEDLESSLY. Always use stealth and guile to your advantage and never trust anyone… sometimes not even yourself… (if that makes sense?)
Thanks laserhaas……
Ours is not to wonder why.
Duty is we do or die!
I’m doing (in case you haven’t notice); and they are dying – piece by main stream piece. Their position is untenable.
And there’s nothing I can do about their mens rea;
should retaliation, in the extreme, become paramount.
Molon Labe!
N’est-ce pas!
@LaserHaas – Watch this scene from the movie Safe House (1998) with Patrick Stewart. He is a ex-CIA whistle-blower who is uber-paranoid. In this scene we see the SAME actor from 3 Days of the Condor playing the USPS assassin. However, the point to be taken from the movie for you is the method in which Patrick sets-up a computer that automatically spills the beans to the MSM about some UBER-top-secret stuff he won’t reveal unless he is “suicided”. It’s a count-down system that is like a dead-man switch. If he doesn’t respond in so many minutes each day the system automatically uploads the uber-secret stuff to every news man/woman on the planet. Very good movie. You should rent it or something:
@LaserHaas – OK if you won’t back down then at least stop mentioning Billy Joe “Red” McCombs. You do know his head psychopath is Erik Prince? Erik employs THOUSANDS of quasi-sociopaths and psychopaths. Academi makes over $325m per year from US Govt. contracts. There are OTHER sociopaths-for-hire companies worldwide but this one is notorious for selling their services to the highest bidder – govt or corporate-civilians. Since Bobby Ray Inman is on their BOD you know they get the creme-of-the-crop from ex-alphabet soup land (i.e. CIA, ONI, NSA, DoD, DIA, etc.) Case in point: Academi lead sociopath: Raymond Allen Davis – shoots up Lahore Pakistan – kills 2 men – FOR WHAT?
So watch your six and don’t do like DCIA Porter Goss did in 1970 in London (UK) and ex-KGB Litvinenko (also in London) and drink from the wrong glass… or just stay away from London? 🙂 Also stay away from San Diego: Gary Webb? What did he expose?
“Sometimes Paranoia is Justified” –
@LaserHaas – Yes I know about people like Wheeler and the movie director Tony Scott. Their deaths were much more than simply a jaded cause-of-death-phrase called “suicide”. Clearly Scott was drugged and convinced he had brain cancer and he jumped off the bridge. But his postmortem showed no signs of cancer. So someone used some form of chemically-enhanced-hypnosis on him (i.e. you are a chicken start clucking?) Scott was suicided because of his past exposé movies and future movies.
Wheeler is a real mystery. Wayne Madsen has been investigating this and claims that the FBI is SLOWLY investigating this as they think Wheeler was mentally-ill. However, Wheeler was connected to the intelligence community just like Philip Marshall (also suicided recently). Wheeler had something to do with USAF. Also FBI was forced into action by VPOTUS Biden’s son.
Your revelation would interest Wayne. You should contact him as a whistle-blower and tell him your Wheeler-story. He will act on it right away and start MSM’ing for you. He will also take up your cause and publish it to the world. Your connection to Goldman Sachs will really pique his interest:
Wayne Madsen Report
P.O. Box 4232
Washington, DC 20044-4232
Email: wmreditor@waynemadsenreport.com
Also I would take a prescription from Doctors Heckler & Koch. I here it can be as low as $300. You can buy the lead-diet from Walmart. Sociopaths don’t leave home without it… 😉