sarin

“I believe that we must absolutely remember these pictures,” said the Bolivian ambassador. “After the invasion there were 1 million deaths and it launched a series of atrocities in that region.” (AP/Mary Altaffer)
On Tuesday 4 April there were reports of children and other civilians killed by chemical poisoning in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Syria. There were contradictory reports, some saying they smelled the gas; others claiming it caused immediate death like odorless sarin.

Three years ago, Syria was declared free of chemical weapons under an agreement proposed by Russia which forestalled an expected attack on Syria led by the United States.
This came after a massive propaganda campaign in western media alleging a devastating sarin gas attack near Ghouta, Syria, which is reported to have killed thousands. The attack was blamed on Syrian president Assad, with the small amount of substantiating evidence provided by Israel.

Neo-conservative stategist Robert Kagan speaks at a Brookings Institute event.
The Kagan family, America’s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency.

President Barack Obama, left, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, right prior to the opening session of the G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey.(SPUTNIK, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, file)
A review of events leading to the very edge of full-blown U.S. shock-and-awe on Syria three years ago provides a case study with important lessons for new policymakers as they begin to arrive in Washington.

On this penulitamte episode of our Homeland series Tom and I begin by venting about our hatred of Alison.  Next we move onto the shows continual use of women as negative characters.  WE discuss the similarities between Alison and real life Russian spy Anna Chapman.  We look at the parallels between these two characters and the notion that Alison will receive a hero’s welcome if she returns to Russia.  Next we explore if the Russian government would actually let an attack happen, as Homeland suggests, in order to galvanize the West to fight ISIS.

It was the chemical weapons attack that so nearly led to direct war between the US, the UK, France and the Syrian government; a war which most likely would have delivered the whole of Syria to IS and Al-Qaeda extremists.
The horrific Ghouta attack of August 21, 2013, which killed hundreds of civilians, including many children, was blamed on President Assad and his government by Western political leaders and elite media commentators.

On this episode of our Homeland series Tom and I spent the first half of the episode dissecting the falsehoods that this particular episode as put forth in terms of the legality of spying.  Suddenly aware of the rule of law and constitutional rights we see all the major characters in this episode pushing this agenda of doing everything by the book.  Tom and I discuss how this is an obvious ploy to reassure the watchers that the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies are now longer breaking the law when they spy on you.  While all the characters are trying to gather legal evidence of Al

An article by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books provides some very interesting information pointing to Turkey as having been the prime mover behind the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta. The article comes as the case that the Syrian government committed the atrocity is looking increasingly weak and desperate. Hersh has used his […]

The UN has issued a picture of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon receiving the Chemical Weapons Report on Syria from the Head of the Investigation Team Avi Sellstrom. Zooming in on the letter (as apparently first noticed by journalist Denis Fitzgerald https://twitter.com/denisfitz ) in the photo reveals that it is a “Letter of Transmittal” in which the […]

America’s Ridiculous Position on Syria
 
 
by JOHN CHUCKMAN
I read that an American Senator, Bob Menendez, wanted “to vomit” when he was supplied with a copy of Vladimir Putin’s New York Times’ op-ed piece about Syria.
Well, I’m sure it wasn’t just a matter of Sen. Menendez’s delicate stomach: there have been many times in the past I wanted to vomit over something in The New York Times.