I have been trying to gain as much information as possible about the alleged Sarin gas incident in Syria. This is difficult because there are classified reports which are not released to the American public. Some, but not all of these reports have been viewed in private sessions with top Republicans. Actually, that is not quite accurate. These people have been “briefed” regarding these classified reports, they have not necessarily been allowed to see the raw data.
The White House is claiming that 1,429 people were killed in a gas attack. That number is disputed by other sources and at least some of the casualties were not from gas. This is significant because the White House position is that Syria launched missiles loaded with Sarin gas in an assault. If that is true, it seems likely that there would be more than 1,429 deaths and certainly more than the lower estimates of 325 to 355 from groups like Doctors without Borders.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/13/us-syria-crisis-intelligence-idUSBRE98B1C220130913
The video documenting this event has clearly been edited. In some cases this is brutally obvious even to a rank amateur. For example one guy appears to have been died in more than one video allegedly taken at different times. The video’s themselves seemed a little too convenient. This has the look and feel of a staged event or at least an event where someone knew what was going to happen at a specific time and a specific place. It is clear that some people were gassed and one could assume that at least some Sarin gas was involved.
The first big smoking gun was an apparent intercept of a phone call involving a senior Syrian Defense official. In this call, this person was allegedly demanding to know who had authorized this. Obviously, this is not necessarily proof that the regime was involved and may actually be evidence of the opposite.
The latest smoking gun is that Syrian troops in the area were given the order to put on gas masks. This was followed shortly by the missile attack that apparently included gas. But common sense says that this is not evidence that the missiles contained gas, it is only evidence that something triggered the Syrian military to put on gas masks. One would assume that if the rebels used gas, and the Syrian military picked up on this, the same order would be given.
Following is an excellent article on al-monitor which provides insight on events:
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/obama-syria-strike-israel-smoking-gun.html
One unidentified source gave a possible alternative theory:
Let’s say that a rebel group like Jabhat al-Nusra (affiliated with al-Qaeda), or the ISIS organization (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also affiliated with Sunni extremists), wanted to hit the Free Syrian Army (FSA). They could have exploited the Syrian army bombardment to launch a gas bomb on the same neighborhood, under cover of Assad’s shelling.
And by the way, says the source, the neighborhood that was attacked is considered to “belong” to the FSA, the key opposition organization. In such a situation, he explains, the extremist rebels win on all counts: They strike their competitors and also galvanize America into military action against Assad, finally. This is a classic win-win situation, and from the huge amount of evidence that I accumulated, I can’t say that it is totally illogical.
In addition, adds my source, Assad would have to be totally detached from reality or be a Shiite suicide bomber to use such large quantities of chemical weapons and in such intensity, precisely when the rebels are weakening and he is gaining momentum. It seems to me — he says — like a classic “false flag” instance: when an operational tactic is executed by a certain party, but attributed to another party whether intentionally or accidentally. I suggest we wait patiently until the UN inspectors complete their report; perhaps it can illuminate the situation more precisely, so says my source.
It is important to note that the writer, Ben Caspit, an Israeli journalist, took this data and discussed it with Israeli intelligence people who scornfully claimed that they had undeniable proof that the chemical attack was done by the Assad regime. He concludes that Israeli intelligence really believes this, but he correctly points out they are not perfect and have been wrong about important issues in the past.
The White House desperately wants to believe that Assad was responsible for that gas attack; otherwise this situation is even more ridiculous. Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham also want to believe that, because they both jumped on the bomb Syria bandwagon.
Russia and Assad want the world to believe that it was al Qaeda who used gas, for obvious reasons.
I frankly don’t trust either of them and that, in and of itself, is a huge problem. How on earth can we trust an administration that has lied so often about so much? I mean these guys still haven’t given us a straight answer on Benghazi. And John Kerry, as I pointed out before, has less than zero credibility. On the other hand I wouldn’t trust either Putin or Assad to give an accurate report on the daily high temperature. So I guess we are left to decide which liar to believe.
If I had to choose right now, I have to admit that the argument by Russia and Assad makes more sense. I have reached this conclusion based on two obvious facts. First, there aren’t enough dead people. Second, it was the rebels, not Assad, who had the most to gain from a gas attack.
There are a lot of supposedly smart people who have been briefed on the intelligence who are absolutely certain that Assad ordered the attack and that gives me pause. But, there seems to be zero motivation for Assad to use chemical weapons and if he did use them, they sure didn’t work very well. I just have this nagging feeling that if Syria had really launched missiles with Sarin gas warheads that we would be dealing with a lot more dead people. On the other hand, if the rebels did this, the casualty figures are just about exactly what I would expect. If Assad did this, he is really stupid. There is no evidence that Assad is stupid. If the rebels did this it was a spectacular success. They came close to getting Obama to bomb Syria and they did convince Obama to arm the Syrian rebels. If this was a false flag scam by the rebels, it worked brilliantly because Barack Obama, John Kerry, John McCain, Lindsay Graham and a cast of thousands all fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Hopefully, someone will investigate this and tell everyone the cold hard truth, regardless of who it helps or who it hurts. Sadly there isn’t a single person, in either political party, that we could trust to do that.
TDM