agreed... the WH has demonstrated very little credibility in the past... not much has changed since.Originally Posted by Todd
Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows
Here's some follow up. 3 alleged attacks in the last week in Mosul area by possible ISIS led rebels. And a third assessment by Dr. Postol.
http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/17042017
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/04...-Joseph-Martin
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/...tml#more-67102
The wisdom of Swordy:
On bringing the troops home
On fighting corruption:
Fascism Defined
Interesting distinction... and i agree. Osan you are an incredible writer and thinker!
I agree and don't consider it service as it only serves greed and power of both the forces and those who they work for. Overall, currently and historically, it harms the security of ordinary U.S. citizens because of blowback created by our military's endless and unnecessary aggression and U.S. debt.
I wish i could understand it; yes they are basically good people but this is not all they know as I have attempted to give them alternative viewpoints and upon doing so, I only receive anger, loud voices, and red faces in return. They are not open to anything except what they want to believe.
I agree and believe one day this country will pay the price for its endless foreign aggression. I may be wrong but empires don't last forever and if we are not brought down by blowback from anger at our aggression, we will most likely be brought down from the debt that having an empire created.
Professor Postol has expanded his research for a FOURTH time on the Sarin Attack... Here is his latest report:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...-did-not-occur
I'm stealing this.
"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.
Thanks . . . good pictures of the crater site in the road intersection that I haven't seen.
But, I noticed wind direction is reported in the weather report as the opposite direction of his arrows in his analysis (?)
Wind direction at 9am is E(ast) 4mph . . . his arrow is instead towards the east, and those areas/hamlets of the village,
which is where villagers came from (mostly, as in other reports - Reuters) and towards this intersection coming upon some dead.
Looking more or less from east-southeast side of street . . . shadow would be before noon
So, if I read the weather data as stated -
in the opposite direction of the above photo is the intersection shown from jpg taken on the northern-ish side of the crater of Reuters' photo,
and that is upwind and how rebels could escape out of town from a sarin attack at this street corner.
Last edited by Jan2017; 04-20-2017 at 04:33 PM.
Taken a step further, it also lends credence to the very real possibility that the 'rebels' were in possession of such chemicals in the past, and used them... which would favor the Russian/Assad line of thinking in the recent attack
-Major General Smedley Butler, USMC,There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Winner
Author of, War is a Racket!
- Diogenes of SinopeIt is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.
Good Point...
You're right. I missed that. If anyone had been affected by an E or SE wind, it should have been people in areas to the N or NW of the crater. The dead goat was lying to the SE of the crater, so that would also negate the 'rebels' argument regarding the goat (unless they physically moved the goat).
Sorry, i don't understand what you are saying here.
So, if I read the weather data as stated -
in the opposite direction of the above photo is the intersection shown from jpg taken on the northern-ish side of the crater of Reuters' photo,
and that is upwind and how rebels could escape out of town from a sarin attack at this street corner.
Overall, i think the following are his main points in his latest 4th paper on this:
- He indicates the earliest photo he could find of an individual standing by the sarin-release crater where the alleged release occurred. He says the "photo was posted on April 4 and the shadow indicates the time of day was around 10:50 AM. Thus the individual was standing by the crater roughly 4 hours after the dispersal event. If the dispersal event was from this crater, the area where this unprotected individual is standing would be toxic and this individual would be subjected to the severe and possibly fatal effects of sarin poisoning. As a result, this throws substantial suspicion on the possibility that the crater identified by WHR would be the source of the sarin release."
- He writes: "The wind conditions at the time of the release, which would have been at about 7 AM on April 4, would have carried the plume across an empty field to an isolated Hamlet roughly 300 m downwind from the crater." But as you pointed out, the original weather report indicates the wind was coming from the E / SE, so this doesn't make sense.
- He indicates that the area where the casualties were shown in the many videos could not be the same area in Syria near to where the crater exists because the rock formations shown around where the victims were lying are not part of the geography near the town of Khan Shaykhun: "The last collection of 18 video frames is from the area where mass casualties were piled on the ground haphazardly dead or dying. Among these casualties were infants as well as men and women. This scene clearly could not have been at the location of the Hamlet as one can see that the walls surrounding the area are carved out of rock. Thus, this scene could not possibly have been at the Hamlet."
- He complains that there is not enough of a data sample from videos of victims to satisfactorily make conclusions: "These video frames were generated by reviewing*hundreds*of videos posted on YouTube plus additional videos and video frames found on Twitter. Among the hundreds of videos reviewed there seems to be no more than 50 to 60 seconds of actual original scenes like those laid out in the collection of 18 videos below. The vast majority of time in the videos contains the same repeated sequences of the same dead and injured infants and adults that could all be collected into less than a couple of minutes of independent scenes. This raises a serious question about how much real data has been supplied that would indicate an actual significant nerve agent attack."
Wind blowing from the south,
so direction to escape after a rebel sarin surface-to-surface missile or ground explosion would be south down that intersection.
A missile-launching truck (as used before in Syria) fires then heads farther south down that road (?)
UN commission on Syria not ruling out various sources of ‘chemical agent release’ in Idlib
The UN commission investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria says it cannot yet say for certainty what the source of the gas allegedly used in Idlib really was. The body says the release of gas coincided with airstrikes in the area.
“Between 6:40 and 7:00am on April 4, a series of airstrikes [hit] the town of Khan Shaykhun. This is a consensus.
These airstrikes coincided with the release of a chemical agent, likely sarin or a sarin-like [substance],” the commission’s chair,
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, told journalists during a Friday press briefing.
Pinheiro was presenting preliminary results of the investigation in the chemical incident at a closed UN Security Council meeting.
“The commission continues to explore all avenues and theories… there are so many… regarding the release of this nerve agent
and all other incidents in Khan Sheykhun on that day,” he said.
“We weren’t able to identify which air force conducted the attacks. We have just concluded that [the attacks] have occurred.”
Answering a question about a US report on the issue, he said that the commission has read all the available documents,
but “we are not in a position to reach a conclusion yet.”
Pinheiro admitted that the commission has not conducted any investigation on the ground, instead relying on information
shared by “several countries,” sources in the rebel-held Syrian town as well as photographic and video evidence.
“We are conducting interviews with eyewitnesses, medical professionals, military, chemical weapons experts while simultaneously
collecting and analyzing photos, videos, satellite imagery and other materials checking all of them for credibility and reliability,”
Pinheiro said.
“We also asked several countries to share their reports about the incident.”
https://www.rt.com/news/385658-un-co...ical-versions/
Last edited by Jan2017; 04-24-2017 at 12:46 PM.
Right, the wind is blowing toward the N / NW so escaping the sarin cloud would require moving upwind to the S / SE. Here is an updated document written by Professor Postol:
IMPORTANT CORRECTION TO The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur
IMPORTANT CORRECTION TO
The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur:
Analysis of the Times and Locations of Critical Events in the Alleged Nerve Agent Attack at 7 AM on April 4, 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria
Introduction
This report corrects an important error in the earlier report released on April 18, 2017 titled The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur: Analysis of the Times and Locations of Critical Events in the Alleged Nerve Agent Attack at 7 AM on April 4, 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria.
In my earlier report released on April 18, 2017 I misinterpreted the wind-direction convention which resulted in my estimates of plume directions being exactly 180° off in direction. This document corrects that error and provides very important new analytic results that follow from that error.
When the error in wind direction is corrected, the conclusion is that if there was a significant sarin release at the crater as alleged by the White House Intelligence Report issued on April 11, 2017 (WHR), the immediate result would have been significant casualties immediately adjacent to the dispersion crater.
The fact that there were numerous television journalists reporting from the alleged sarin release site and there was absolutely no mention of casualties that would have occurred within tens to hundreds of meters of the alleged release site indicates that the WHR was produced without even a cursory low-level review of commercial video data from the site by the US intelligence community. This overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the WHR identification of the crater as a sarin release site should have been accompanied with an equally solid identification of the area where casualties were caused by the alleged aerosol dispersal. The details of the crater itself unambiguously show that it was not created by the alleged airdropped sarin dispersing munition.
These new details are even more problematic because the WHR cited commercial video as providing information that it used to derive its conclusions that there was a sarin attack from an airdropped munition at this location.
As can be seen by the corrected wind patterns in the labeled photographs on the next page, the predicted direction of the sarin plume would take it immediately into a heavily populated area. The area immediately adjacent to the north northwest of the road is may not be populated, as there was likely heavy damage to those homes facing the road from a bombing attack that occurred earlier at a warehouse to the direct east of the crater (designated on map below). However, houses that were immediately behind those on the road would have been substantially shielded from shock waves that could have caused heavy damage to those structures.
Since the reported wind speeds were very low, and the area is densely packed with buildings, a sarin dispersal would certainly not have simply followed a postulated plume direction as shown with the blue lines in the map below. Sarin aerosol and gas would have been dispersed both laterally and downwind by building fronts and would also have been dispersed downward and upward as the gases and aerosols were gently carried by winds modified by the presence of walls, space ways and other structures. A purely notional speculation on how a sarin plume might be dispersed by the structures as prevailing winds push the aerosol and gas through the structures is shown in the figure at the bottom of page 4.
The complicated wind pattern inside the densely populated living area would have resulted in sarin accumulating in basements and rooms that are roughly facing into the wind. There would also have been areas in spaces between buildings where sarin densities were much higher or much lower as the gentle prevailing winds moved around corners and created pockets of high and low density sarin concentrations.
In addition, the crater-area where the alleged sarin release was supposed to have occurred was close enough to the densely populated downwind area that significant amounts of sarin that would have fallen near the crater during the initial aerosol release would have resulted in a persistent plume of toxic sarin being carried into this populated area as the liquid on the ground near the crater evaporated during the day.
The close proximity to the crater would have certainly led to high casualties within the populated area.
The images on page 4 are taken from two different videos published on YouTube by the same crew of journalists who reported in detail on the site of the alleged sarin attack. Additional video frames from these two videos are shown on pages five and six.
In one of the video reports the journalist takes the observer on a short walk to the location of a dead goat. A close-up of the dead goat suggests that the animal was foaming at its mouth and nose as it died.
Video taken from a drone at high-altitude operated by the television crew shows the location of the dead goat, which is clearly well up wind of the sarin release point. Under all but implausible conditions, the wind would have carried sarin away from the goat and it would not have been subjected to a significant dose of sarin had largely been within the area where it was found.
If one instead guesses that the goat might have been wandering around and had wandered into the path of the newly dispersed sarin, the goat should have been found on the ground near the release point as the sarin dose within the plume would have killed it very quickly.
Other images from the video report are of two examples of dead birds. Neither of these video images can be connected to the crater scene as there was no continuity of evidence from the movement of the cameras.
This assessment with corrected wind directions leads to a powerful new set of questions – why were the multiple sets of journalists who were filming at the crater where the alleged sarin release occurred not showing the numerous victims of the alleged release who would have been immediately next to the area?
It is now clear that the publicly available evidence shows exactly where the mass nerve agent poisoning would have occurred if in fact there was an event where significant numbers of people were poisoned by a nerve agent release. This does not rule out the possibility of a nerve agent release somewhere else in the city. However, this completely discredits the WHR’s claims that they knew where the nerve agent release occurred and that they knew the nerve agent release was the result of an airdropped munition.
See here for additional images/photos and discussion by Professor Postol.
Thanks for the update.
It's difficult to understand why the UN investigators have waited this long to actually travel to the area, talk with people living in the area, and investigate from there. I realize the area is controlled by al qaeda rebels, however, if these rebels want the U.S. to invade Syria and overthrow Syria's government, I would think they would welcome the UN investigators (if indeed Syria's government was responsible for the sarin attack).
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04...stigation.html
Russia upset over being blocked from Syria chemical weapons investigation
Russia has protested the U.S.’ refusal to allow its inspectors to participate in a formal investigation into a chemical weapons attack that struck the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhan in northern Idlib, Syria, earlier this month.
According to Reuters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the matter in a phone call on Friday, with Tillerson reinforcing his backing of the current investigative system carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
As it stands, OPCW – an independent international watchdog – is probing the source of the attack and is expected to issue a report within the next two weeks.
Despite predictions that Trump’s election to the White House would usher in a new era of strong ties between the two countries, the President said last week that relations with Russia “may be at an all-time low.”
U.S officials have unequivocally blamed the Syrian government for the chemical attacks, in which the use of the nerve agent sarin is suspected. Yet Moscow has staunchly defended its Damascus allies, instead pointing the finger at rebels battling the regime.
After sarin struck other opposition-controlled areas outside of Damascus in 2013, igniting international outrage, Syrian President Bashar Assad – while denying responsibility – agreed to declare and dispose of its some 1,300 tons of chemical weapons – including sarin, VX and mustard gas. Under the guise of Russian leadership, the entire stockpile was said to have been destroyed.
However, various violations have since been reported and Israel defense officials last week cautioned that Assad’s forces still possess up to 3 tons of such toxic weapons. Former Brig. Gen. Zaher al-Sakat also told Fox News that he believed the government had retained much of its chemical arsenal despite the agreement, with some of it in the offshore protection of allies Iran and the Lebanese Shia militia, Hezbollah.
And while peace seems a far-fetched ideal in war-ravaged Syria and Moscow-Washington ties are less than stellar, Russia has agreed to participate in talks with the U.S and the United Nations in Geneva this week in yet another effort to bring an effort to the more than six-year civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced up to half its population.
Why is US Media Ignoring Prof. Postol's Study on Syria Chemical Weapons Attack?
The Trump Administration announced today that it was placing 271 Syrian scientists under sanctions for what it claimed was their work on producing chemical weapons for the Assad government. As with the chemical attack in Idlib earlier this month, for which the US blamed Assad, there was no proof provided. RPI Director Daniel McAdams joined RT today to discuss the current state of US policy toward Syria and the double standards when it comes to reporting and investigating civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq:
Airwars: U.S.-Led Coalition Airstrikes Killed 17 Syrian Civilians in Tabqa
Apr 26, 2017
The journalistic monitoring group Airwars says 17 civilians, including nine children, reportedly died in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the Syrian city of Tabqa in Raqqa province on Monday. The victims reportedly included the 6-month-old baby Abd al-Salam and the toddler Ali Abu Aish, along with their entire family. The local journalistic group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently says the civilians were killed when coalition warplanes bombed their cars and then attacked them with machine gun fire as they were trying to flee the besieged city.US Airstrike Kills Family of Eight Fleeing Syria Fighting
Five Children Among Slain in Attack Outside Tabqa
April 24, 2017
US officials have made much of Kurdish YPG forces attacking the town of Tabqa, which is at least somewhat under ISIS control. Locals are trying to flee the fighting, however, and that seems to be where the US is most involved, attacking and killing a family of eight outside of Tabqa as they tried to get away.
Reports from multiple local groups say that the family of eight, including five children aged 15 or under, were in a vehicle fleeing the town, and that the US attacked and destroyed the vehicle, killing all within. The Pentagon has yet to comment on the killings.
Usually, when the US blows up a vehicle full of unidentified people, the victims are labeled “suspects,” whether or not there were children among them. This appears to be difficult in this case, with multiple NGOs that had been documenting ISIS abuses in the area unwilling to keep silent on the incident.
Civilian deaths have been soaring in recent months in the US air war in both Iraq and Syria, though the official Pentagon count is virtually unchanged, with officials admitting to less than 10% of the civilians slain in cases documented by NGOs. Most such incidents aren’t even investigated by the Pentagon, which dismisses them out of hand as “not credible.”
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/04/24/u...yria-fighting/Report: US Attack on Syrian Mosque Full of Civilians ‘Likely Unlawful’
Pentagon Failed to Analyze Target Before Attack
April 18, 2017
On March 16, US warplanes attacked a crowded mosque in Aleppo Province, killing at least 38 people during a religious lecture. Human Rights Watch (HRW), having conducted their own investigation into the matter, says the attack was “likely unlawful.”
The US has promised their own investigation into the matter but so far haven’t offered much of anything, jumping between conflicting claims that it was an al-Qaeda target, that it wasn’t a mosque at all, and speculating that the Syrian military might’ve coincidentally attacked the mosque during an active US airstrike, despite pieces of US munitions being found inside the mosque.
HRW attributed this to a lack of target analysis ahead of the attack, saying that officials were unaware that the site was a mosque and unaware that they attacked during the start of evening prayers, saying that even cursory analysis could’ve figured at least some of this out.
HRW went on to advise the US to “do its homework” before launching such strikes. The Pentagon, however, is always interested in being able to deny incidents, irrespective of the lack of credibility of such a denial, and claiming they didn’t know it was a mosque, because they didn’t check, might ultimately be enough for the Pentagon to keep the incident out of their official toll of civilians killed, despite killing a number of civilians in the process.
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/04/18/r...kely-unlawful/Airwars: Dozens of Iraqi Civilians Reportedly Killed in Airstrikes Last Week
Apr 18, 2017
The journalistic monitoring group Airwars says dozens of Iraqi civilians were reportedly killed last week in airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition or the U.S.-backed Iraqi Air Force. Much of the bombing occurred in Mosul’s Yarmouk neighborhood. On April 10, airstrikes there reportedly killed more than 30 civilians, including children. The following day, as many as 13 civilians were reported killed in airstrikes that destroyed homes in the same neighborhood. Six more civilians were reportedly killed in airstrikes in Anbar province that same day.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/...ikes_last_weekAirwars: Up to 20 Syrian Civilians Reportedly Killed by U.S. Airstrikes Last Week
Apr 18, 2017
Meanwhile, in Syria, Airwars says as many as 20 civilians reportedly died in multiple U.S.-coalition airstrikes carried out in Raqqa governorate early last week. On April 10, up to 10 civilians, including at least two children, were killed in a series of alleged U.S.-coalition airstrikes on two separate villages. That same day, local media reported an alleged U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed members of two families, including at least one child, when a home was bombed.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/...ikes_last_weekUnder Trump, U.S. Military Has Allegedly Killed Over 1,000 Civilians in Iraq, Syria in March
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria may have already killed 1,484 civilians in just Iraq and Syria this month alone, more than three times the number killed in President Barack Obama’s final full month in office, according to British monitoring group Airwars. For the first time, the number of alleged civilian casualties*in events carried out by the U.S.-led coalition has exceeded the death toll of attacks launched by Russia.
The U.S. military said Saturday that a U.S.-led coalition strike hit an area in the Islamic-State-held Iraqi city of Mosul where officials on the ground said around 200 civilians may have been killed. Those figures would make it one of the deadliest-to-citizens*U.S.-led bombings in 25 years.
Amnesty International has asserted that hundreds of civilians have been killed in the city and questioned the legality of the attacks.
“Evidence gathered on the ground in East Mosul points to an alarming pattern of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside,” said Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International, who carried out field investigations in Mosul.
“The high civilian toll suggests that coalition forces leading the offensive in Mosul have failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis responded Monday by insisting that coalition troops “always do everything humanly possible to reduce the loss of life or injury among innocent people. The same cannot be said for our adversaries.”
Reports of high civilian death tolls under Trump’s command have persisted since his first days in office. A week after entering the White House, Trump green-lighted a raid in Yemen that cost the life of a U.S. Navy Seal and reportedly killed at least 25 civilians. The Pentagon’s insistence that significant intelligence had been obtained has been widely disputed.
A U.S.-led airstrike was similarly said to be responsible for the deaths of 30 civilians in Syria’s Raqqa Province last week. A few days earlier, the U.S. military confirmed it had conducted airstrikes in an area of northern Syria where local reports say a mosque was struck, killing more than 40 people. The military denied bombing a mosque.
The total number reportedly killed in February was 455, while January, in which Trump took office, saw the number reach 613.
http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-war-c...s-syria-577353
Iraqi Officials: Last Month’s US Mosul Strike Killed Nearly 300 Civilians
Attack Was Single Deadliest US Strike of the War
April 05, 2017
On March 17, US warplanes attacked a handful of buildings in the city of Mosul, leveling the buildings and burying a massive number of civilians within. US officials have since admitted that they were “probably” responsible for the deaths of civilians in the attacks.
Estimates varied, and the Iraqi government has now offered some guidance on the matter, confirming they’ve recovered 278 civilian bodies from the rubble so far, and that there are still more to be found. This was at the higher end of estimates previously offered by third parties.
This confirmation of the toll, which is likely to keep rising as bodies are found, already makes this the single deadliest US strike of the entire ISIS war. It is also in the ballpark of the deadliest airstrikes in the history of modern warfare.
With Pentagon officials conceding at least “probable” blame, and Iraq providing specific death tolls, it remains to be seen how the Pentagon will handle this incident in next month’s report on civilian tolls. The Pentagon’s reports usually dramatically under count the number of civilians claimed, but the sheer size of this incident will make it difficult to bury.
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/04/05/i...300-civilians/Al Qaeda Is Attacking Major Syrian Cities with US Weapons — but You Wouldn't Know That from the Media
Rebranded Syrian al-Qaeda, Tahrir al-Sham, has been leading offensives in Hama and Damascus while mainstream media whitewash it
March 22, 2017
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a military alliance that represents an attempt to rebrand Syria's original al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat Al-Nusra, initiated an assault near the city of Hama on March 21, in collaboration with fighters from the so-called Free Syrian Army, or FSA, which has for years been supported by the U.S. and its allies.
In the days before, the same al-Qaeda-linked group and another extremist Islamist militia, Ahrar al-Sham, launched two other attacks inside and on the outskirts of Syria’s capital, Damascus, targeting civilian areas under the control of the Syrian government.
In her coverage of the assault on Damascus, the Washington Post's Liz Sly provided a prime example of how this media whitewashing works: Sly did not even mention*Tahrir al-Sham's links to al-Qaeda, referring to the group simple as "extreme." She also described a U.S.-vetted FSA faction that was fighting alongside rebranded al-Qaeda, Faylaq al-Rahman, as "moderate."
Another disturbing development that has been virtually ignored by U.S. mainstream media are the videos of Tahrir al-Sham and the FSA-affiliated Jaish al-Izza, which is fighting alongside rebranded al-Qaeda in the Hama offensive, attacking the Syrian army with TOW anti-tank missiles, which were manufactured by the American weapons company Raytheon and supplied to CIA-vetted rebels.
Echoing Western governments' extensive support for armed rebels committed to overthrowing the Syrian government, Western media outlets have for years consistently downplayed the influence of extremists in the Syrian opposition.
Recent reports continue this trend. Headlines on the jihadist offensives in Hama and Damascus refer to sectarian extremist fighters ambiguously as "Syrian rebels," and articles bury the extremists' ties to al-Qaeda several paragraphs down in the story, where most readers, who simply skim headlines and leads, do not tread.
AlterNet analyzed numerous reports in major outlets and detailed how they have egregiously understated the role of al-Qaeda-linked militants in the recent attacks in Syria — while, at the same moment, fueling paranoia about infrequent attacks in the West.
[...]
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-pro...IYjLWQ.twitter
More Than 1,000 Civilians Reportedly Killed by U.S.-Led Airstrikes as Trump Expands War on Terror
March 27, 2017
Details are emerging about U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that are believed to have killed over 200 people in a single day in Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition has admitted launching airstrikes on March 17 targeting a crowded neighborhood in Mosul. They are among the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in the region since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to some reports, one of these strikes destroyed houses where hundreds of people were taking refuge amid the city’s heavy fighting. Up to 80 civilians, including women and children, may have died in one house’s basement alone. This bombing is just one of an onslaught of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that has killed as many as 1,000 civilians in March alone, according to the journalistic project Airwars. For more, we speak with Chris Woods, founder of Airwars, a nonprofit group that monitors civilian deaths from international airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
[...]
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/...vilians_killedUS Dropping 500 Bombs Per Week on Mosul so Far in March
Air Force Insists All Bombs Dropped 'In Support' of Iraqi Military
March 29, 2017
Brig. Gen. Matthew Isler, the deputy commander for the air war in Iraq and Syria, today offered details on the ever-growing scope of the air campaign over the massive, densely populated Iraqi city of Mosul, saying the US is in its “most kinetic” phase so far of the war.
In raw numbers, that means the US and its coalition partners are dropping an average of 500 bombs on the city of Mosul every single week so far in March. That number is growing, too, with the largest week seeing just over 600 bombs dropped.
Air Force officials insist all of the bombs being dropped on Mosul are being dropped “in support” of the Iraqi military’s ongoing invasion of the city. This increase in bombings is also leading to a substantial increase in the number of civilian deaths from US airstrikes as well, with several hundred civilians killed this month.
Isler insisted every single one of the 8,700 bombs dropped around Mosul since the invasion began was individually approved by an Iraqi general or a Kurdish Peshmerga figure. It is worth noting that Iraq has paused its Mosul offensive in recent days specifically because of the growing death toll of the US strikes, saying they could no longer conduct operations in the densely populated Old City under the current strategy.
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/03/29/u...-far-in-march/The U.S. military's stats on deadly airstrikes are wrong. Thousands have gone unreported
February 2017
The American military has failed to publicly disclose potentially thousands of lethal airstrikes conducted over several years in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, a Military Times investigation has revealed. The enormous data gap raises serious doubts about transparency in reported progress against the Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban, and calls into question the accuracy of other Defense Department disclosures documenting everything from costs to casualty counts.
http://www.militarytimes.com/article...-qaeda-taliban
Last edited by charrob; 04-27-2017 at 03:11 PM.
Former CIA officer Philip Giradi:
4/6/17 Philip Giraldi says IC-Military Doubt Assad Gas Narrative
Philip Giraldi, former CIA officer and Director of the Council for the National Interest, says that “military and intelligence personnel,” “intimately familiar” with the intelligence, say that the narrative that Assad or Russia did it is a “sham,” instead endorsing the Russian narrative that Assad’s forces had bombed a storage facility. Giraldi’s intelligence sources are “astonished” about the government and media narrative and are considering going public out of concern over the danger of worse war there. Giraldi also observes that the Assad regime had no motive to do such a thing at this time.
https://www.libertarianinstitute.org...gas-narrative/https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/0...he-dog-moment/Former CIA Officer: "The Intelligence Confirms The Russian Account On Syria"
Apr 8, 2017 11:15 PM
[...]
But a number of intelligence sources have made contradictory assessments, saying the preponderance of evidence suggests that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels were at fault, either by orchestrating an intentional release of a chemical agent as a provocation or by possessing containers of poison gas that ruptured during a conventional bombing raid.
One intelligence source told me that the most likely scenario was a staged event by the rebels intended to force Trump to reverse a policy, announced only days earlier, that the U.S. government would no longer seek “regime change” in Syria and would focus on attacking the common enemy, Islamic terror groups that represent the core of the rebel forces.
The source said the Trump national security team split between the President’s close personal advisers, such as nationalist firebrand Steve Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner, on one side and old-line neocons who have regrouped under National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, an Army general who was a protégé of neocon favorite Gen. David Petraeus.
[...]
Intelligence Uprising
Alarm within the U.S. intelligence community about Trump’s hasty decision to attack Syria reverberated from the Middle East back to Washington, where former CIA officer Philip Giraldi reported hearing from his intelligence contacts in the field that they were shocked at how the new poison-gas story was being distorted by Trump and the mainstream U.S. news media.
Giraldi told Scott Horton’s Webcast: “I’m hearing from sources on the ground in the Middle East, people who are intimately familiar with the intelligence that is available who are saying that the essential narrative that we’re all hearing about the Syrian government or the Russians using chemical weapons on innocent civilians is a sham.”
Giraldi said his sources were more in line with an analysis postulating an accidental release of the poison gas after an Al Qaeda arms depot was hit by a Russian airstrike.
“The intelligence confirms pretty much the account that the Russians have been giving … which is that they hit a warehouse where the rebels – now these are rebels that are, of course, connected with Al Qaeda – where the rebels were storing chemicals of their own and it basically caused an explosion that resulted in the casualties. Apparently the intelligence on this is very clear.”
Giraldi said the anger within the intelligence community over the distortion of intelligence to justify Trump’s military retaliation was so great that some covert officers were considering going public.
“People in both the agency [the CIA] and in the military who are aware of the intelligence are freaking out about this because essentially Trump completely misrepresented what he already should have known – but maybe he didn’t – and they’re afraid that this is moving toward a situation that could easily turn into an armed conflict,” Giraldi said before Thursday night’s missile strike. “They are astonished by how this is being played by the administration and by the U.S. media.”
[...]
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...ria-escalationVeteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity:
Two dozen ex-U.S. intelligence officials urge President Trump to rethink his claims blaming the Syrian government for the chemical deaths in Idlib and to pull back from his dangerous escalation of tensions with Russia.
MEMORANDUM FOR:*The President
FROM:*Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)*
SUBJECT:*Syria: Was It Really “A Chemical Weapons Attack”?
1 – We write to give you an unambiguous warning of the threat of armed hostilities with Russia – with the risk of escalation to nuclear war.*The threat has grown after the cruise missile attack on Syria in retaliation for what you claimed was a “chemical weapons attack” on April 4 on Syrian civilians in southern Idlib Province.
2 – Our U.S. Army contacts in the area have told us this is not what happened. *There was no Syrian “chemical weapons attack.”*Instead, a Syrian aircraft bombed an al-Qaeda-in-Syria ammunition depot that turned out to be full of noxious chemicals and a strong wind blew the chemical-laden cloud over a nearby village where many consequently died.
3 – This is what the Russians and Syrians have been saying and – more important –what they appear to believe happened.
[...]
For identifying information on the individuals designated today, click here:US Sanctions 271 Syrians, Freezes Their US Assets:
Two weeks after launching missile strikes on Syria, the U.S. Treasury announced it has sanctioned 271 employees of Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center in response to the alleged sarin attack conducted by the Assad regime on Kahn Sheikhoun. It's one of the largest sanction actions in U.S. history.
The action was announced in a statement by the Treasury Department, and Treasury Security Steve Mnuchin simultaneously briefed reporters at the White House.
The action - which takes place in lieu of a probe demanded by Russia and Syria to determine if Assad was indeed responsible for the recent sarin attack - freezes the individuals’ U.S. assets - which we doubt exist - and generally prohibits U.S. persons from dealing with them.
The sanctioned employees "have expertise in chemistry and related disciplines and/or have worked in support of SSRC’s chemical weapons program since at least 2012” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and added that "These sweeping sanctions target the scientific support center for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s horrific chemical weapons attack on innocent civilian men, women, and children."
On the surface, the move seeks impact by targeting officials with expertise needed for developing these weapons and those who may seek to travel and use financial system outside of Syria, according to administration official quoted by Bloomberg.
The new sanctions are the latest U.S. response to Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons, most recently in rebel-held northern Idlib, in an attack that killed more than 80 civilians. The U.S. retaliated earlier this month by launching missiles against a Syrian airfield.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...heir-us-assetsFull statement from the Treasury below:
Treasury Sanctions 271 Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center Staff in Response to Sarin Attack on Khan Sheikhoun
Action Targets Syrian Government Agency Responsible for Developing Chemical Weapons and the Means to Deliver Them
Washington – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is taking action in response to the April 4, 2017 sarin attack on innocent civilians in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, by the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In one of the largest sanctions actions in its history, OFAC is designating 271 employees of Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), the Syrian government agency responsible for developing and producing non-conventional weapons and the means to deliver them. These 271 SSRC employees have expertise in chemistry and related disciplines and/or have worked in support of SSRC’s chemical weapons program since at least 2012.
“These sweeping sanctions target the scientific support center for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s horrific chemical weapons attack on innocent civilian men, women, and children. The United States is sending a strong message with this action that we will hold the entire Assad regime accountable for these blatant human rights violations in order to deter the spread of these types of barbaric chemical weapons,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “We take Syria’s disregard for innocent human life very seriously, and will relentlessly pursue and shut down the financial networks of all individuals involved with the production of chemical weapons used to commit these atrocities.”
Today’s action follows OFAC and the Department of State’s sanctions announced on January 12, 2017 against 18 senior regime officials and five branches of the Syrian military, along with entities associated with its chemical weapons program, in response to findings by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism, that the Syrian regime was responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015.
Today’s designation, less than three weeks after the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, more than doubles in a single action the number of individuals and entities sanctioned by the United States pursuant to Syria-related Executive Orders (E.O.s). These sanctions are intended to hold the Assad regime and those who support it – directly or indirectly – accountable for the regime’s blatant violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 2118.
Today’s action was taken pursuant to E.O. 13582, which targets the Government of Syria and its supporters. The named individuals are designated for materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, and having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Government of Syria. As a result of today’s action, any property or interest in property of the designated persons in the possession or control of U.S. persons or within the United States must be blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-ce.../20170424.aspx
Mmmmmm........ how convenient........
There is no spoon.
The View From Khan Shaykhun: A Syrian Describes The Attack's Aftermath
"Before reaching the town, just a few miles away, it became clear this was no ordinary strike.
Fellow activists in Khan Shaykhun, communicating via walkie-talkie, warned them that the bombs had released chemicals.
They heard the word "sarin" — a toxic nerve gas — and pulled over.
"We were afraid of inhaling the smoke. We didn't want to die, to be honest," he told NPR in a conversation over the WhatsApp messaging app.
They waited for about 15 minutes, until they saw the flood of victims being evacuated past them. Then they decided to venture in.
"I saw something I'd never seen in my life," Hussein said.
"Dozens of children, women, men and elderly people lying on the ground, getting hosed down with water, out in the cold.
Children trying to breathe a gasp of air, with saliva and foam coming out of their mouths and nostrils."
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallel...acks-aftermath
Incontrovertible Laboratory Results Concluding Exposure to Sarin
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 19 April 2017 —
"The bio-medical samples collected from three victims during their autopsy were analysed at two OPCW designated laboratories.
The results of the analysis indicate that the victims were exposed to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance. Bio-medical samples from seven individuals
undergoing treatment at hospitals were also analysed in two other OPCW designated laboratories.
Similarly, the results of these analyses indicate exposure to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.
Director-General Üzümcü stated clearly: “The results of these analyses from four OPCW designated laboratories indicate
exposure to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.
While further details of the laboratory analyses will follow, the analytical results already obtained are incontrovertible.”
In the meantime, the Fact-Finding Mission is continuing with interviews, evidence management and sample acquisition.
The Director-General reported that an FFM team is ready to deploy to Khan Sheikhun should the security situation permit."
https://www.opcw.org/news/article/op...sure-to-sarin/
Last edited by Jan2017; 04-25-2017 at 12:57 PM.
Whoever thinks it's wrong to nerve gas your own countrymen can get the hell out.
- Don't lie.
- Don't cheat.
- Don't steal.
- Don't kill.
- Don't commit adultery.
- Don't covet what your neighbor has, especially his wife.
- Honor your father and mother.
- Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.
- Don’t use your Higher Power's name in vain, or anyone else's.
- Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
"For the love of money is the root of all evil..." -- I Timothy 6:10, KJV
Thanks for adding additional info. Based on your first image/picture which shows that it's 10:55 am on April 4, 2017, that would mean that the man that's standing there without a hazmat suit, no clothes, skin open to sarin exposure, should theoretically (as Dr. Postol states) be very ill from sarin. According to Dr. Postol, because of the temperature and wind speed, 4 hours after the initial sarin exposure inside the crater (at 6:55 am), the crater would still contain lethal amounts of sarin to any life standing near it. That would indicate that the crater could not be the place where the sarin exposure initiated. I agree with Dr. Postol, it's important for the UN investigators to find out exactly where the victims of sarin exposure were located on the morning of April 4. Were they near to that crater or somewhere else in Syria?
The View From Khan Shaykhun: A Syrian Describes The Attack's Aftermath
"Before reaching the town, just a few miles away, it became clear this was no ordinary strike.
Fellow activists in Khan Shaykhun, communicating via walkie-talkie, warned them that the bombs had released chemicals.
They heard the word "sarin" — a toxic nerve gas — and pulled over.
"We were afraid of inhaling the smoke. We didn't want to die, to be honest," he told NPR in a conversation over the WhatsApp messaging app.
They waited for about 15 minutes, until they saw the flood of victims being evacuated past them. Then they decided to venture in.
"I saw something I'd never seen in my life," Hussein said.
"Dozens of children, women, men and elderly people lying on the ground, getting hosed down with water, out in the cold.
Children trying to breathe a gasp of air, with saliva and foam coming out of their mouths and nostrils."
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallel...acks-aftermath
Incontrovertible Laboratory Results Concluding Exposure to Sarin
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 19 April 2017 —
"The bio-medical samples collected from three victims during their autopsy were analysed at two OPCW designated laboratories.
The results of the analysis indicate that the victims were exposed to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance. Bio-medical samples from seven individuals
undergoing treatment at hospitals were also analysed in two other OPCW designated laboratories.
Similarly, the results of these analyses indicate exposure to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.
Director-General Üzümcü stated clearly: “The results of these analyses from four OPCW designated laboratories indicate
exposure to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.
While further details of the laboratory analyses will follow, the analytical results already obtained are incontrovertible.”
In the meantime, the Fact-Finding Mission is continuing with interviews, evidence management and sample acquisition.
The Director-General reported that an FFM team is ready to deploy to Khan Sheikhun should the security situation permit."
https://www.opcw.org/news/article/op...sure-to-sarin/
The Chlorine Cases:
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/0...-sarin-claims/
The chlorine-gas cases have resulted in only a few fatalities, which also undercuts the claims that the Assad government was responsible for them. Why would Assad risk more outside military intervention against his government by using a chemical weapon that has almost no military value, at least as allegedly deployed in Syria?
U.N. investigators – under intense pressure from the West to find something that could be pinned on Assad – agreed to blame him for a couple of the chlorine allegations coming from rebel forces and their civilian allies. But the U.N. team did not inspect the sites directly, relying instead on the testimony of Assad’s enemies.
In one of the chlorine cases, however, Syrian eyewitnesses came forward to testify that the rebels had staged the alleged attack so it could be blamed on the government. In that incident, the U.N. team reached no conclusion as to what had really happened, but neither did the investigators – now alerted to the rebels’ tactic of staging chemical attacks – apply any additional skepticism to the other cases.
In one case, the rebels and their supporters also claimed to know that an alleged “barrel bomb” contained a canister of chlorine because of the sound that it made while descending. There was no explanation for how that sort of detection was even possible.
Yet, despite the flaws in the rebels’ chlorine claims – and the collapse of the 2013 sarin case – the Times and other mainstream U.S. news outlets report the chlorine allegations as flat-fact, without reference to sourcing from the U.N. investigators whose careers largely depended on them coming up with conclusions that pleased the majority of the five-member Security Council – the U.S., Great Britain and France.
If this fuller history were understood, much greater skepticism would be warranted by the new allegations about Assad ordering a new sarin attack. While it’s conceivable that Assad’s military is guilty – although why Assad would take this risk at this moment is hard to fathom – it’s also conceivable that Al Qaeda’s jihadists – finding themselves facing impending defeat – chose to stage a sarin attack even if that meant killing some innocent civilians.
Al Qaeda’s goal would be to draw in the U.S. or Israeli military against the Syrian government, creating space for a jihadist counteroffensive. And, as we should all recall, it’s not as if Al Qaeda hasn’t killed many innocent civilians before.
New Syria Sanctions; Gas Attack Claims Still Unproven:
Apr. 25 - President Trump has yet to provide any credible evidence that the gas attack in Syria earlier this month was carried out by Assad, and in the meantime very serious questions about the veracity of White House claims are arising from very credible experts. Yet the Administration seems ever more determined now that it has done a 180 degree turn and demanded regime change for Syria. Late last week the White House announced sanctions on 271 Syrian scientists who Trump claims are working on chemical weapons. The proof? None. How to explain this sudden embrace of the neocon line on Syria and elsewhere? It might be telling that according to recent press reports the architect of the disastrous Iraq war, Paul Wolfowitz, is lending advice on the Middle East to Defense Secretary Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. They have all apparently been friends for years. More in today's Liberty Report:
France confirms the same "sarin-signature" as used before in 2013 . . .
when rebels in Syria were determined by UN to have used surface-to-surface missiles in Ghouta, Syria.
6am winds were light from the south toward mountains for the heavier than air chemicals, and if I understand MIT prof analysis, casualties were off to right of the two-story buildings and towards the mountain foothills where gas migrated toward (?)
Last edited by Jan2017; 04-27-2017 at 05:27 PM.
Jan2017, thanks for adding info. Yes, I read the same: that France confirms Assad gassed his people in idlib recently because the "sarin-signature" used in the 2013 East Gouta attack is the same "sarin-signature" that was just used in Idlib, Syria.
This is despite the many sources that have stated that the "rebels" in Syria were responsible for the 2013 "red line" East Gouta attack. These sources are:"This method is the signature of the regime and it is what enables us to establish the responsibility of the attack. We know because we kept samples from previous attacks that we were able to use for comparison." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mi...-idUSKBN17S0RY
- Turkish parliamentarians gave court testimony in Turkey that members of Turkish intelligence were behind the East Gouta attack.
- Seymour Hersh's source for his article "The Red Line and the Rat Line" which completely describes Turkish intelligence as supplying the sarin to "rebels".
- James Clapper (DNI) told Obama during Obama's morning intelligence briefing that the evidence Assad was behind the 2013 sarin attack just wasn't there. Directly following this, Obama withdrew U.S. forces from attacking Syria.
- James Mattis himself acknowledged in a video previously posted in this thread that except for the current alleged sarin attack in Idlib, Assad had never used a nerve agent/sarin on his own people.
- United Nations now acknowledges they have no evidence Assad was behind that attack.
- U.S. intelligence now agrees Seymour Hersh's narrative is correct: that they, U.S. intelligence, learned it was Turkish intelligence behind the attack after the attack occurred and U.S. intelligence intercepted Turkish intelligence congratulating each other on pulling off the attack.
- MIT rocket scientists who proved the rocket that had sarin came from rebel territory, not a Syrian military base.
- Even the New York Times retreated on their 2013 Syria-Sarin Claims.
It's difficult to understand how French "intelligence" can put out a statement that is so obviously inaccurate. If the current sample is the same "sarin-signature" as the sarin from 2013, that would seem to indicate that the sarin, once again, came from members inside the Turkish government.
Last edited by charrob; 04-28-2017 at 05:38 AM.
6am winds were light from the south toward mountains for the heavier than air chemicals, and if I understand MIT prof analysis, casualties were off to right of the two-story buildings and towards the mountain foothills where gas migrated toward (?)
My understanding is that he believes the casualties would be behind the first row of buildings on the left on that road; i think he had information that the first row of buildings right on the road were bombed so probably not inhabited. Behind those buildings, however, was a large population that would have been affected.
Here was the official declassified report from the White House on this:
WH report: The Assad regime's use of chemical weapons on 4 April 2017
The White House on Tuesday released a 4-page report, prepared by the National Security Council, which contains declassified U.S. intelligence on the 4 April chemical weapons attack in Syria. The document calls Russia’s claim that the source of the gas was a rebels’ storage facility a “false narrative,” accusing Russia of “shielding” a client state which has used weapons of mass destruction.
Senior White House officials, speaking to the New York Times on the condition of anonymity to discuss the declassified intelligence report, said Russia’s goal was to cover up the Syrian government’s responsibility for the chemical attack. The sources said that the Syrian government, lacking enough troops to respond to pressure from opposition forces around Syria, used the deadly sarin to target rebels who were threatening government-held territory.
Here is the released report in full:
The United States is confident that the Syrian regime conducted a chemical weapons attack, using the nerve agent sarin, against its own people in the town of Khan Shaykhun in southern Idlib Province on 4 April 2017. According to observers at the scene, the attack resulted in at least 50 and up to 100 fatalities (including many children), with hundreds of additional injuries.
We have confidence in our assessment because we have signals intelligence and geospatial intelligence, laboratory analysis of physiological samples collected from multiple victims, as well as a significant body of credible open source reporting, that tells a clear and consistent story. We cannot publicly release all available intelligence on this attack due to the need to protect sources and methods, but the following includes an unclassified summary of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s analysis of this attack.
Summary of the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of the 4 April attack
The Syrian regime maintains the capability and intent to use chemical weapons against the opposition to prevent the loss of territory deemed critical to its survival. We assess that Damascus launched this chemical attack in response to an opposition offensive in northern Hamah Province that threatened key infrastructure. Senior regime military leaders were probably involved in planning the attack.
A significant body of pro-opposition social media reports indicate that the chemical attack began in Khan Shaykhun at 6:55 a.m. local time on 4 April.
Our information indicates that the chemical agent was delivered by regime Su-22 fixed-wing aircraft that took off from the regime-controlled Shayrat Airfield. These aircraft were in the vicinity of Khan Shaykhun approximately 20 minutes before reports of the chemical attack began and vacated the area shortly after the attack. Additionally, our information indicates personnel historically associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program were at Shayrat Airfield in late March making preparations for an upcoming attack in Northern Syria, and they were present at the airfield on the day of the attack.
Hours after the 4 April attack, there were hundreds of accounts of victims presenting symptoms consistent with sarin exposure, such as frothing at the nose and mouth, twitching, and pinpoint pupils. This constellation of symptoms is inconsistent with exposure to a respiratory irritant tike chlorine — which the regime has also used in attacks — and is extremely unlikely to have resulted from a conventional attack because of the number of victims in the videos and the absence of other visible injuries. Open source accounts posted following the attack reported that first responders also had difficulty breathing, and that some lost consciousness after coming into contact with the victims — consistent with secondary exposure to nerve agent.
By 12:15 p.m.local time, broadcasted local videos included images of dead children of varying ages. Accounts of a hospital being bombed began to emerge at 1:10 p.m. local, with follow-on videos showing the bombing of a nearby hospital that had been flooded with victims of the sarin attack. Commercial satellite imagery from April 6 showed impact craters around the hospital that are consistent with open source reports of a conventional attack on the hospital after the chemical attack. Later on 4 April, local physicians posted videos specifically pointing out constricted pupils (a telltale symptom of nerve agent exposure), medical staff with body suits on, and treatments involving atropine, which is an antidote for nerve agents such as sarin.
We are certain that the opposition could not have fabricated all of the videos and other reporting of chemical attacks. Doing so would have required a highly organized campaign to deceive multiple media outlets and human rights organizations while evading detection. In addition, we have independently confirmed that some of the videos were shot at the approximate times and locations described in the footage.
Further, the World Health Organization stated on 5 April that its analysis of the victims of the attack in Syria showed they had been exposed to nerve agents, citing the absence of external injuries and deaths due to suffocation. Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontiéres; MSF) said that medical teams treating affected patients found symptoms to be consistent with exposure to a neurotoxic agent such as sarin. And Amnesty International said evidence pointed to an air-launched chemical attack. Subsequent laboratory analysis of physiological samples collected from multiple victims detected signatures of the nerve agent sarin.
Refuting the false narratives
The Syrian regime and its primary backer, Russia, have sought to confuse the world community about who is responsible for using chemical weapons against the Syrian people in this and earlier attacks. Initially, Moscow dismissed the allegations of a chemical weapons attack in Khan Shaykhun, claiming the attack was a “prank of a provocative nature” and that all evidence was fabricated. It is clear, however, that the Syrian opposition could not manufacture this quantity and variety of videos and other reporting from both the attack site and medical facilities in Syria and Turkey while deceiving both media observers and intelligence agencies.
Moscow has since claimed that the release of chemicals was caused by a regime airstrike on a terrorist ammunition depot in the eastern suburbs of Khan Shaykhun. However, a Syrian military source told Russian state media on April 4 that regime forces had not carried out any airstrike in Khan Shaykhun, contradicting Russia’s claim. An open source video also shows where we believe the chemical munition landed—not on a facility filled with weapons, but in the middle of a street in the northern section of Khan Shaykhun. Commercial satellite imagery of that site from April 6, after the allegation, shows a crater in the road that corresponds to the open source video.
Moscow has suggested that terrorists had been using the alleged ammunition depot to produce and store shells containing toxic gas that they then used in Iraq, adding that both Iraq and international organizations have confirmed the use of such weapons by militants. While it is widely accepted that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has repeatedly used sulfur mustard on the battlefield, there are no indications that ISIS was responsible for this incident or that the attack involved chemicals in ISIS’s possession.
Moscow suggested this airstrike occurred between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. local time on April 4, disregarding that allegations first appeared on social media close to 7:00 a.m. local time that morning, when we know regime aircraft were operating over Khan Shaykhun. In addition, observed munition remnants at the crater and staining around the impact point are consistent with a munition that functioned, but structures nearest to the impact crater did not sustain damage that would be expected from a conventional high-explosive payload. Instead, the damage is more consistent with a chemical munition.
The Syrian regime has used other chemical agents in attacks against civilians in opposition held areas in the past, including the use of sulfur mustard in Aleppo in late 2016. Russia has alleged that video footage from 4 April indicated that victims from this attack showed the same symptoms of poisoning as victims in Aleppo last fall, implying that something other than a nerve agent was used in Khan Shaykhun. However, victims of the attack on 4 April displayed tell-tale symptoms of nerve agent exposure, including pinpoint pupils, foaming at the nose and mouth, and twitching, all of which are inconsistent with exposure to sulfur mustard.
Russia’s allegations fit with a pattern of deflecting blame from the regime and attempting to undermine the credibility of its opponents. Russia and Syria, in multiple instances since mid-2016, have blamed the opposition for chemical use in attacks. Yet similar to the Russian narrative for the attack on Khan Shaykhun, most Russian allegations have lacked specific or credible information. Last November, for instance, senior Russian officials used an image from a widely publicized regime chemical weapons attack in 2013 on social media platforms to publicly allege chemical weapons use by the opposition. In May 2016, Russian officials made a similar claim using an image from a video game. In October 2016, Moscow also claimed terrorists used chlorine and white phosphorus in Aleppo, even though pro-Russian media footage from the attack site showed no sign of chlorine use. In fact, our Intelligence from the same day suggests that neither of Russia ls accounts was accurate and that the regime may have mistakenly used chlorine on its own forces. Russia’s contradictory and erroneous reports appear to have been intended to confuse the situation and to obfuscate on behalf of the regime.
Moscow’s allegations typically have been timed to distract the international community from Syria’s ongoing use of chemical weapons—such as the claims earlier this week—or to counter the findings from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-United Nations (UN) Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), which confirmed in August and October 2016 reports that the Syrian regime has continued to use chemical weapons on multiple occasions long after it committed to relinquish its arsenal in 2013. Russia has also questioned the impartial findings of the JIM—a body that Russia helped to establish—and was even willing to go so far as to suggest that the Assad regime should investigate itself for the use of chemical weapons.
Moscow’s response to the April 4 attack follows a familiar pattern of its responses to other egregious actions; it spins out multiple, conflicting accounts in order to create confusion and sow doubt within the international community.
International condemnation and a time for action
The Assad regime’s brutal use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and poses a clear threat to the national security interests of the United States and the international community. Use of weapons of mass destruction by any actor lowers the threshold for others that may seek to follow suit and raises the possibility that they may be used against the United States, our allies or partners, or any other nation around the world.
The United States calls on the world community in the strongest possible terms to stand with us in making an unambiguous statement that this behavior will not be tolerated. This is a critical moment— we must demonstrate that subterfuge and false facts hold no weight, that excuses by those shielding their allies are making the world a more dangerous place, and that the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons will not be permitted to continue.
We must remember that the Assad regime failed to adhere to its international obligations after its devastating attacks on Damascus suburbs using the nerve agent sarin in August 2013, which resulted in more than one thousand civilian fatalities, many of whom were children. The regime agreed at that time to fully dismantle its chemical weapons program, but this most recent attack—like others before it—are proof that it has not done so. To be clear, Syria has violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the UN Charter, and no drumbeat of nonsensical claims by the regime or its allies can hide this truth. And while it is an embarrassment that Russia has vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions that could have helped rectify the situation, the United States intends to send a clear message now that we and our partners will not allow the world to become a more dangerous place due to the egregious acts of the Assad regime.
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire....-2017?page=0,0
Last edited by charrob; 04-27-2017 at 08:54 PM.
“I don’t think that there will be any curtailing of Donald Trump as president,” he said. "He controls the media, he controls the sentiment [and] he controls everybody. He’s the one who will resort to executive orders more so than [President] Obama ever used them." - Ron Paul
Who Made the Sarin Used in Syria?
Scientific American September 2013
Some telltale signs could hint at the origins of the nerve poison
Clues to the source of the chemical poison that U.S. officials say killed more than 1,400 people in Syria last month (August 2013)
may come from the weapon casing, not the material itself.
It is for such reasons that some experts say examining pieces of the rockets that the sarin arrived in is likely to be more telling,
says Michael Kuhlman, chief scientist for national security at Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit research group in Columbus, Ohio.
Fragments of the weapons will be on site in the same places where inspectors will be digging up soil samples for evidence of sarin.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ade-the-sarin/
The Su-22: The Plane That Dropped Chemical Weapons in Syria?
April 8, 2017
Powered by a Lyulka AL-21F-3 turbojet, the Su-22 travels at supersonic speeds even at low altitude . . .
The longer and heavier Su-22 fighter-bomber was originally armed as the Su-7, but can now carry twice the bomb load on its ten hardpoints, and additionally mount up to two short-range heat-seeking air-to-air missiles for self-defense.
Today, the Su-22 serves as the workhorse of the Syrian Air Force in its relentless aerial bombing campaign in Syria,
which as much aims to make life in rebel-held areas intolerable for the civilian population by hitting hospitals and bakeries, as to destroy rebel fighting positions.
Cluster bombs, thermobaric weapons, and S-8 and S-24 unguided rockets are commonly used in these attacks. Around fifty-three Su-22 two-seaters served in the Syrian Air Force at the start of the conflict, four of which have been lost, including at least one shot down by enemy fire. Around thirty aircraft are still operating in three squadrons, flying an estimated twenty-five combat sorties a day."
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...a-20084?page=2
The Sukhio [Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB-51 - USSR) now, Sukhoi Aviation Military Industrial Combine (Sukhoi AIMC)]
Su-22 is 62 foot long flying at supersonic speeds . . . US radar probably has the speed it was flying from radar (?)
I can see a couple reasons how it is less plausible that the 3½ ft wide crater with missile fragment came from that aircraft -
rather than from modified missile trucks down the road as reportedly already used by al Nusra Front in Syria in 2013 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6CZ...ature=youtu.be
Last edited by Jan2017; 04-29-2017 at 05:39 PM.
All the proof you need right here:
“I don’t think that there will be any curtailing of Donald Trump as president,” he said. "He controls the media, he controls the sentiment [and] he controls everybody. He’s the one who will resort to executive orders more so than [President] Obama ever used them." - Ron Paul
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