In a report that is sure to be considered blockbuster news, the rebels told Dale Gavlak, a reporter who has written for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC, they are responsible for the chemical attack last week.
Gavlak is a Middle Eastern journalist who filed the report about the rebels claiming responsibility on the Mint Press News website, which is affiliated with AP. In that report allegedly the rebels told him the chemical attack was a result of mishandling chemical weapons.
Prince Bandar: a CIA favorite and an evil figure on the international scene who well represents the corrupt ways of the Saudi autocratic clique.
This news should deflate the accusations, against the Assad regime, coming from the U.S., Britain, France and the Arab League.
Since the chemical attacks last week, the Assad government was immediately blamed. On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry said: That Assad’s guilt was “a judgment already clear to the world,” according to theguardian.com.
As a result of Assad’s government being blamed for the chemical attacks, five U.S. warships are now stationed off Syria‘s coast. These destroyers are poised to deliver cruise missiles in a strike that is due to begin any time now. According to the report on Mint Press there have been several interviews conducted with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital.
The interviews conducted of residents, rebels and their families in Damascus and Ghouta are painting a different picture of what actually happened. Many believe that rebels received chemical weapons provided through the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. It’s being reported that these weapons are responsible for last week’s gas attack.
The father of a rebel who was killed in what’s now being called an accident by many in Ghouta and Damascus said: “My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim. The father said at least 12 rebels including his son were killed by the chemical weapons.
Allegedly they were killed in the tunnel that was used to store the chemicals. These were provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha. He is said to be leading a fighting battalion in the effort to unseat Assad. The weapon was described as a “tube-like structure” by Abdel-Moneim.
Gavlak reports he was told by rebels that the gas “attack” was the result of rebels mishandling the chemical weapons they acquired from the Saudis. He says in the Mint Press report the following:
“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”
When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.”
Gavlak continues in his report: “A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material.
We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions, ‘J’ said.”
The humanitarian agency, Doctors Without Borders, reported that around 355 people had died from what was believed to be a neurotoxic agent. They reportedly treated 3,600 people with symptoms of, frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision.
According to the report dozens of rebels said they were receiving salaries from the Saudis.
It’s said that Bandar was educated in the U.S. both military and collegiate. He is also said to have “served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy.”
Prince Bandar’s intelligence agency is said to have been the first to bring allegations that Assad’s regime used Sarin gas in Feb.
DCE commentary
What kind of person gives someone chemical weapons and doesn’t tell them? As a result of the Saudis giving the rebels chemical weapons hundreds of innocent people died. Not mention the fact that evil men here in the U.S. and elsewhere are trying to draw us into a war we have no business being involved in.
Isn’t there enough heartache, strife, sickness, poverty, injustice and a host of other ills in this world? These evil men just added more heartache into the world by giving the rebels these chemical weapons. The hearts of the men responsible for this are black and they only care about one thing, destroying nations.
This kind of evil happens because of sin and mankind’s rebellion to God’s word. Little do these men realize is that nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account, Hebrews 4:13.
Rest assured that God has seen this vile act, and every person involved will have to answer for their crimes against humanity on judgment day. Hopefully, this breaking news will be enough to keep the United States from going to war. The result of bombing Syria will be a match that will light the fuse to an all-out war in the Middle East.
The Problems With Obama’s Case Against al-Asad
by MUSA al-GHARBI
It doesn’t matter whether or not Bashar al-Asad used chemical weapons. The US and its allies are likely to carry out an attack on Syria in the very near future; the reasons for this have nothing to do with the recent incident in Ghouta.In response to the chemical attack in April of this year, two months later the United States declared that the al-Asad regime had crossed its “red line” and began to provide arms to the rebels. They provided enough assistance to complicate the regime’s campaigns in critical areas, but not nearly enough support to allow the rebels to march on Damascus.
According to The Washington Post, this policy was decided weeks before the reports of chemical weapons use had surfaced; in fact, CBS News reported that these efforts were already underway before the chemical attacks occurred—they were merely stepped-up in June. That is, the reports of chemical weapons use in Syria were used as a pretext to justify a deeply unpopular decision the Administration had already committed to.
There were a number of serious problems with the Obama Administration’s case against al-Asad. Having reviewed the evidence of the US and its allies, the UN declared it to be unconvincing and ordered their own investigation into the incident. Subsequently, their chief investigator would claim that the evidence strongly suggested that it was the rebels who carried out the attack.
This should not have been surprising—al-Qaeda has a history of resorting to these tactics, and the means, motive, and demonstrated intent to do so. The attacks were small-scale, using a chemical agent that the organization is known to possess. Moreover, the attack was carried out on an area which was actually under government control at the time, rather than a rebel-held area.
The evidence was so strong against the White House narrative that the only people to endorse their account were those previously committed to intervention (France, the UK, Israel, the monarchs). And even though many of the Administration’s claims regarding this incident have been proven problematic, at best—in an Orwellian fashion, the White House continues to put forward their narrative without any regard for the facts, and without tempering their claims at all in light of subsequent evidence.
The Administration’s response to the latest incident has been equally disturbing. After demanding a UN investigation, following al-Asad’s surprise decision to facilitate the inquiry (claiming he could prove the attack was carried out by the rebels)—the US and its allies expressed a total disinterest in whatever the investigation may find and indicated that they were not going to wait around for the results. They never intended to: it was their hope that al-Asad would play into their narrative by obstructing the investigation—this would allow the US to assert “he must have something to hide,” and more easily presume guilt in the absence of evidence. Astonishingly, they have decided to stick to this course despite al-Asad’s compliance.
The allied powers are already positioning their naval assets in anticipation of surgical strikes (despite the fact that the architect of this plan has since come out against it); the United States is preparing 20,000 soldiers for deployment into the Syrian theater although the Administration does not have Congressional approval to engage (rendering the White House’s actions legally questionable). The UK has drafted a UNSC resolution blaming al-Asad for the attack and sanctioning violence as a response, declaring their intention to strike even without a UN mandate (i.e. in violation of international law), regardless of the ongoing UN investigation, and in defiance of warnings by the UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi (fortunately, the British Labour Party has interfered with this plan, at least temporarily).
What’s the rush? As they say, timing is everything.
The Obama Administration’s previous decision to arm the rebels came just after the fall of the pivotal city of al-Qusayr, as the Syrian Army was preparing for a major campaign to purge Aleppo of rebel forces. At the time, Saudi Arabia and France argued vehemently that some kind of immediate intervention was needed to interrupt these efforts, which were otherwise likely to be successful—and devastating for the rebellion. This new chemical weapons incident just happened to occur at a moment when the regime is on the verge of a general de facto victory over the insurgency while the world’s attention was focused primarily on the unfolding crisis in Egypt.
It is disquieting that these chemical weapons incidents happen to occur at times when the rebels are in their most desperate need of foreign intervention, which also happen to be the times when it would make the least sense for the regime to resort to these tactics. Apparently, this trend does not worry the Obama Administration, who claims there can be “no doubt” that al-Asad carried out the attack. And even though by its own account of the events, the Syrian Ministry of Information was outraged by strike, which the state did not authorize, the Administration has been labeling the incident as a provocation which demands “punishment.”
All of this suggests rather strongly that policy is informing the Administration’s evaluation of intelligence, rather than having the intelligence guide its policies. We saw the same trends in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, with the White House calling the intelligence on Hussein’s WMD’s a “slam dunk.”
Then, as now, the truth or falsity of these claims is irrelevant.
Even if no chemical weapons had been deployed in the Syrian theater by anyone, given the dynamics of the conflict, the Administration would be using some other means of justifying intervention. Much like R2P, the “War on Terror,” or spreading “democracy/ human rights,” WMD claims are used almost exclusively to justify interventions against “inconvenient” actors. Western powers are more than happy to cooperate with agents carrying out the very atrocities they are condemning when geopolitically expedient (consider for a moment that Saudi Arabia is one of the primary allies “bringing democracy” to Syria); when there is little to gain from an intervention, they are eager to turn a blind eye to astonishing human suffering. The ideologies are used to justify rather than determine policy.
The arguments derived from these tropes are typically heavily-reliant on sketchy and politicized intelligence, exaggerated claims, empty rhetoric, and at times, outright lies. Syria is a prime example of these trends: the popular discourse of the conflict is the virtual antithesis of what seems to be happening on the ground.
But even in those cases where the accusations are more-or-less true, one cannot lose sight of the fact these intercessors are not acting out of altruism, but are exploiting others’ tragedy and horror in the service of their own geopolitical ends. Often more lives are lost under R2P than stood to be lost without intervention, greater oppression follows Western “liberation,” greater atrocities unfold as a result of Western “punishment” for “crimes against humanity,” more extremists are created as a result of the “War on Terror.” But it is irrelevant whether or not the espoused “moral” end is achieved, as long as the geopolitical aim is successful.
As the Obama Administration has made abundantly clear, the impending Western strikes in Syria will not be aimed at deposing al-Asad. The goal is not to resolve, but to perpetuate the conflict. It is unacceptable to Western policymakers that al-Asad emerge victorious in the conflict, as he stands poised to do in the near-to-medium term. However, a rebel victory is not a plausible option at the moment either—even if the US agreed to a Libya-style intervention (insofar as “victory” is understood as liberal or West-compliant factions of the rebels being able to effectively seize, wield, and maintain power and legitimacy in the aftermath of al-Asad being deposed). So because the “right” people are not able to win, the goal is to prevent anyone from prevailing.
The strategy will allow Hezbollah, the Syrian Army, and al-Qaeda to tear one-another down, too consumed by the conflict with one-another to pose a meaningful threat to the West, its allies, or its interests. Simultaneously, the “allied” forces will attempt to build up the capacity of the “good guys” until they are capable of rendering a more acceptable military solution viable. Finally, laboring under the delusion that “equalizing force” will somehow bolster rather than prevent a negotiated settlement, they will also continue their inconsistent and half-hearted pursuit of a diplomatic resolution—even as they continue to undermine these efforts by insisting that the President step down as a precondition to talks. One way or another, the war will not be permitted to end unless and until the US achieves its goal.
Of course, this strategy is incalculably devastating to the people of Lebanon, Syria and the greater region—but that is of little concern. Just as geopolitical interests trump “intelligence,” they trump morality as well.
Musa al-Gharbi is a research fellow with the Southwest Initiative for the Study of Middle East Conflicts (SISMEC); he has a MA in philosophy from the University of Arizona. You can follow him on Twitter @Musa_alGharbi.
Miley Cyrus or Syria?
Prefatory note by P. Greanville
Or, how low can we fall? As much of the world already knows, the citizens of the most powerful (and destructive) nation on earth are also the most stupid and irresponsible when it comes to politics. A truly deadly combination that not even the devil could make up. So the question investigated by SodaHead, which specializes in trivia and pop culture, is not so trivial after all. We quote:
CNN made it their homepage feature.[pullquote] At the same time, there’s been increased interest in Syria, as the U.S contemplates whether or not to strike the country over its use of chemical weapons against Syrian citizens.
So, how do the two compare as far as clicks? The analytics results on Google speak for themselves. Look at the results for yourself and then answer truthfully: Which story subject would you more likely click on?”