Ann Wright / United National Antiwar Coalition & Margaret Kimberley / Black Agenda Report – 2018-04-26 18:55:42
https://unac.papillonweb.net/2018/04/19/blowing-up-lack-of-evidence-in-syria-chemical-attack/
Blowing up Lack of ‘Evidence’ in Syria Chemical Attack
Ann Wright / United National Antiwar Coalition
(April 19, 2018) — Just a few hours before the arrival in Syria of UN chemical weapons inspectors to investigate the use of chemicals in Duma, a Damascus suburb where last week 42 persons were reportedly killed, the attack against Syrian government chemical facilities by the US and its British and French allies with neither UN nor Congressional authorization is a bit suspicious — to put it mildly.
For the three Western nations to bomb before the international inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) could check the bodies of those killed for chemicals, take soil samples, talk to survivors and compare the results with what is in the Syrian government chemical facilities is bewildering — unless the US, UK and France knew the UN inspectors were going to find NOTHING to substantiate their assessment. Without any evidence, but with merely a “high possibility”, the three countries were going to attack Syria anyway.
With the alphabet soup of militias in Syria, hired and equipped by the US, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Russia, the UAE, Qatar and Israel, each group has the capability of executing a Duma attack. Chemical attacks are easy to do, especially by groups that have access to the targeted area and to chemicals that can be used as weapons.
The question of why a group would execute such an attack should be leave fingerprints on the operation.
What would be the purpose for the Syrian government to use chemicals when they know Western countries are itching to use missiles to hit locations their militias have been unable to reach?
Would the Syrian government and their Russian allies purposefully use chemicals to invite an attack?
Are militia groups trying to keep their international sponsors and need an immediate reason to get continued funding especially when President Trump said last week that he wants to pull 2,000 US troops out of Syria?
Proof of responsibility for the attack was still missing the day before the missile strikes when Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said, “the US is looking for evidence” and the British government merely said “it is highly likely the Syrian government did the attack.”
This US strike follows in the line of other Presidential administrations that have ordered US military attacks that have gotten our country into civil wars, invasions, and occupations by telling Congress and the American people lies:
Remember the Maine? (Cuba)
Remember the “Tonkin Gulf Attack”? (Viet Nam)
Remember US medical students “at risk?” (Grenada)
Remember “I saw Saddm’s troops throw Kuwaiti babies out of incubators”? (Iraq War 1)
Remember Iraq’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction”? (Iraq War II)
Remember the earlier gas attacks in Syria in which the British Parliament refused to authorize an attack on the Syrian government because it was unclear who was responsible — and Obama threw the decision of a US attack to Congress — which to their credit voted No?
Remember Gaddafi is going to massacre the people of Benghazi and is giving Viagra to his troops to rape the women? (Libya)
Remember the “nerve gas” attack in Salisbury, England that still has not been linked to Russia?
Remember Russia’s March 17 warning that the US was planning to stage a chemical attack in Syria to provoke a military “response”?
President Trump has been played by the war hawks in his cabinet — CIA Director Mike Pompeo and his new National Security Advisor, the eternal war-monger John Bolton.
Meanwhile the people of Syria continue to be killed by the bombings from all sides.
Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the weapons of mass destruction lies of the Bush administration for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
Syria and Press Propaganda
Margaret Kimberley / Black Agenda Report
“Trump protects himself with war
as Democrats and the rest of the
ruling elite support his militarism.”
(April 24, 2018) — It is difficult for Americans to find out what is happening in their country and around the world. That is because corporate media outlets have nearly complete control over what they see and hear and because those interests are closely allied with the state.
The promise of the Internet, the hoped-for level-playing-field for communication and information gathering, is also under corporate control. It is now part of a well-coordinated censorship effort and attack against left wing sites such as Black Agenda Report.
The lies which allowed the United States, France and Britain to attack Syria are presented without contradiction. The people with knowledge and expertise who can counter these narratives are disappeared from access to newspapers or television stations. The close relationship between the deep state, the corporate media, and the establishment elite at home and abroad continues without hindrance.
“British prime minister Theresa May refused
to allow a parliamentary vote on the Syrian missile strike.”
Donald Trump may be labeled a fascist but he attacked Syria with the help of France and Britain. Apparently every leader of a “free world” country is also a fascist. They certainly behave that way as they trample on the rights of millions of people.
Far from being the “civilized” nations that Trump referred to in his televised address, these three countries are among the most criminal that have ever existed. They all grew rich on the slave trade, indigenous genocides, the plantation economies in the Americas, and the theft of resources all over the world. Now they run roughshod over their own people.
British prime minister Theresa May refused to allow a parliamentary vote on the Syrian missile strike and showed the hollowness of claims that hers is a democratic nation. The same can be said of her partners in crime.
France impoverished Haiti with nearly 100 years of theft, murdered Algerians in the streets of Paris and keeps its former African colonies financially dependent. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy took millions of dollars from Muammar Gaddafi and then had him murdered, just like a mob boss would do.
Now they have connived with the help of press propagandists in all three countries to fool millions of people as they try to continue their gangsterish aggression against Syria.
“Sarkozy took millions of dollars from
Muammar Gaddafi and then had him murdered,
just like a mob boss would do.”
If even mediocre journalists were allowed to report freely on this issue the crime would be obvious. Consider the timeline of events.
* On March 4, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a chemical agent in Britain. The British government immediately blames Russia, which has no motive to harm a former spy they swapped eight years earlier.
* On March 7, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives in London for an official visit.
* On March 12 French president Emmanuel Macron states that France will attack Syria if any chemical weapons are used there.
* On March 13, the Russian military claims to have evidence that a chemical attack will be carried out against Syrian civilians as a pretext for war.
* On March 16, France warns French journalists to leave Syria. Mohammed bin Salman arrives in Washington on March 19.
* On April 8 he goes to Paris for yet another official visit.
* That same day Saudi funded jihadist groups and the White Helmets, who were created by a British intelligence officer, claim that a chemical weapons attack occurred in the city of Douma.
* On April 14 the United States, France and Britain join in the missile strike.
“They have connived with the help of
press propagandists in all three countries
to fool millions of people.”
The aggressors are very transparent. The plot was carried out in the open. But because they have a compliant media behind them they have no reason to worry.
No journalist asked why Sergei Skripal and his daughter are in effect held hostage and denied access to Russian officials as a treaty between the two countries demands. No one questions a strangely worded statement allegedly from Yulia Skripal but issued by the London Metropolitan Police in which she said she didn’t want help from her government or contact with her own relatives.
Why shouldn’t Mohammed bin Salman openly plan with presidents and prime ministers? Who will question him? The New York Times and MSNBC and the Washington Post and the BBC and AFP certainly will not.
We will probably never know the name of the person or persons who poisoned the Skripals but common sense tells us that the intended murders were ordered by someone with a motive to create a pretext for war.
“The plot was carried out in the open.”
The actual air strike was limited because of back channel negotiations between these countries. The danger may look like Kabuki theater but no one should assume that the peril is over. The criminals in Washington, London and Paris may yet go too far and provoke a major hot war.
All three heads of state have their own concerns. Macron was put into power to kill off his country’s welfare state and any remnants of left politics. May is struggling with Brexit negotiations and cruel austerity measures that have made her so unpopular she actively avoids voters. Trump may be impeached but he protects himself with war as Democrats and the rest of the ruling elite support his militarism.
Regardless of individual rationales these three people pose a threat to the entire planet. They are aided and abetted by corporate media who act as scribes and present war propaganda as fact.
The Nuremberg trials after World War II established that planning aggressive war is a crime and so is the propaganda that promotes it. May, Trump and Macron are guilty but so-called journalists are as well. The criminals could not commit their dirty deeds without their help.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
