The U.S. knew Hussein was launching some of the worst chemical attacks in history -- and still gave him a hand.
BY SHANE HARRIS AND MATTHEW M. AID | AUGUST 26, 2013
The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America's military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy has learned.
In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.
The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq's favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration's long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn't disclose.
U.S. officials have long denied acquiescing to Iraqi chemical attacks, insisting that Hussein's government never announced he was going to use the weapons. But retired Air Force Col. Rick Francona, who was a military attaché in Baghdad during the 1988 strikes, paints a different picture.
DON'T MISS
"The Iraqis never told us that they intended to use nerve gas. They didn't have to. We already knew," he told Foreign Policy.
According to recently declassified CIA documents and interviews with former intelligence officials like Francona, the U.S. had firm evidence of Iraqi chemical attacks beginning in 1983. At the time, Iran was publicly alleging that illegal chemical attacks were carried out on its forces, and was building a case to present to the United Nations. But it lacked the evidence implicating Iraq, much of which was contained in top secret reports and memoranda sent to the most senior intelligence officials in the U.S. government. The CIA declined to comment for this story.
In contrast to today's wrenching debate over whether the United States should intervene to stop alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government, the United States applied a cold calculus three decades ago to Hussein's widespread use of chemical weapons against his enemies and his own people. The Reagan administration decided that it was better to let the attacks continue if they might turn the tide of the war. And even if they were discovered, the CIA wagered that international outrage and condemnation would be muted.
In the documents, the CIA said that Iran might not discover persuasive evidence of the weapons' use -- even though the agency possessed it. Also, the agency noted that the Soviet Union had previously used chemical agents in Afghanistan and suffered few repercussions.
It has been previously reported that the United States provided tactical intelligence to Iraq at the same time that officials suspected Hussein would use chemical weapons. But the CIA documents, which sat almost entirely unnoticed in a trove of declassified material at the National Archives in College Park, Md., combined with exclusive interviews with former intelligence officials, reveal new details about the depth of the United States' knowledge of how and when Iraq employed the deadly agents. They show that senior U.S. officials were being regularly informed about the scale of the nerve gas attacks. They are tantamount to an official American admission of complicity in some of the most gruesome chemical weapons attacks ever launched.
Meet Your New allies in Syria, al Qaeda
OOrah for Libya - Another Mission Accomplished:
The second video is of Syrian truck drivers pulled over by al Qaeda (US allies in Syria) in Iraq. The drivers unfortunately were Alewites, the tribe of the leader Assad, our vicious gas using enemy. ( I’ll get into the other video later from Foreign Policy).
ReplyDeleteOur Allies, AQ in Iraq and Syria, interview the three drivers, working for a living and ask them how they pray. The poor bastards did not know how many times they were to bend down.
Then we have the third video, of Libya two years after we had Khaddafi murdered in the street. Very well done that operation. FUKUS, the gift that keeps on giving and there is more…
ReplyDeleteWe killed over 100,000 Iraqis (but we never used the wrong chemicals mind you) to get to Saddam.
ReplyDelete100,00 civilians, they weren’t like freedom loving Americans, so it really is no big deal when you think about it.
Anyway,
We hanged the only guy that could keep a lid on the place, except of course our guy, Freedom of Medal winner, L. Paul Bremer.
We are not ruled by incompetents. We are ruled by criminals. They like to call themselves “Gang of Eight,” “Gang of this” and “Gang of that”. Far too modest they are. Th gang is bigger and much, much worse than the street thugs in lock-up in US super-max federal prisons.
ReplyDeleteThere is no wall long enough.
Kerry Cites Clear Evidence of Chemical Weapon Use in Syria
ReplyDeleteBy MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER 9:16 PM ET
Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons in attacks on civilians in Syria last week was undeniable and that the Obama administration would hold the Syrian government accountable.
The U.S. has put off a meeting that had been scheduled for Wednesday in The Hague between senior diplomats from the United States and Russia as Washington mulls its response to what it says was a chemical weapons attack by the regime of President Bashar Assad, a senior State department official tells CBS News.
ReplyDelete"Given our ongoing consultations about the appropriate response to the chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21, we have decided to postpone Under Secretary (Wendy) Sherman and (U.S. Ambassador to Syria) Ambassador (Robert) Ford's meeting with a Russian delegation," the source said.
The meeting was to have taken up plans for an international peace conference aimed at ending Syria's civil war.
"We will work with our Russian counterparts to reschedule the meeting," the official continued. "As we've long made clear - and as the events of August 21 reinforce - it is imperative that we reach a comprehensive and durable political solution to the crisis in Syria. The United States remains fully invested in that process. We will continue working with Russia and other international partners to move towards a transition based on the framework laid out in the Geneva Communique."
Earlier on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said there is "undeniable" evidence of a large-scale chemical weapons attack in Syria, with intelligence strongly pointing to Assad's government and, "This international norm cannot be violated without consequences." Kerry called the use of such weapons a "moral obscenity."
Kerry's tough language marked the clearest justification yet for U.S. military action in Syria, which, if President Barack Obama decides to do so, most likely would involve sea-launched cruise missile attacks on Syrian military targets.
Speaking to reporters at the State Department, Kerry was harshly critical of chemical warfare.
On to the tortoises
ReplyDeleteFederal funds for a Nevada-based desert tortoise conservation center are running dry and wildlife officials plan to close the facility and euthanize hundreds of tortoises that were once classified as “endangered” and are currently considered “threatened.”
The desert tortoise can be found in the southwestern United States, but its population has been dwindling. In some areas, the tortoise population has decreased by 90 percent since the 1980s, and in the Mojave desert the population is considered “threatened.” It is illegal to touch, harm or harass these animals, and the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center has tried to increase their population ever since they were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
Still, only 100,000 desert tortoises are estimated to remain in the wild.
But federal funds are running dry at the Las Vegas Valley facility, and rather than release the animals, officials plan to euthanize about half of the 1,400 tortoises. The 220-acre facility will shut its doors in 2014, and the tortoises deemed feeble to survive in the wild will be set free. Many of the tortoises at the center were formerly kept as pets and are unable to survive in the desert.
“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,” US Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray told the Associated Press.
It has been reported for some time that al Qaeda in Iraq is in possession of sarin gas left over from the Iraq/iranian. Al Qaeda tried spiking IEDs with sarin during the US adventure in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteOn this day in 1961, the Hockey Hall of Fame opened its doors in Toronto for the first time.
ReplyDeletePolitics
ReplyDeleteHOW can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
William Butler Yeats
These two young people have it right -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5d4HUx3who
Are not they lovely?
No they are not lovely.
DeleteThey are evil doers.
What part of Iran are you from?
DeleteKnowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
ReplyDeleteWisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I'm telling you O'blunder is a bloody genius!
ReplyDelete>>>>Hugging the Brotherhood to Death
August 27, 2013 By Daniel Greenfield
When the dust settles in Cairo, at least long enough to make out anything through the smoke and flames, it may turn out that the Muslim Brotherhood has suffered its worst blow at the hands of none other than Barack Hussein Obama.
The blow will not have been intentional.<<<<
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/how-obama-hugged-the-brotherhood-to-death-2/
O'blunder's track record to this point is quite good. Libya is a mess, admittedly, but a threat to no one, Egypt seems a masterpiece, so too Syria, if his bombing campaign doesn't put too much pressure on Assad. That necessary war in Afghanistan is a question mark, but it's small potatoes compared to his other successes.
What do you want in a Commander-in-Chief? This guy seems to have it mostly all together.
Top Ten Racist African-Americans
ReplyDeletehttp://frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/top-10-racist-african-americans/
My young, adopted foreign girl has not called, what of her flowing locks of raven black hair, oh why has she foresaken me?
ReplyDeleteWhy?
Oh, woe is me.
Wrong-O, peckerwood. We had a long talk today. They are working her very hard there at the Planck Institute of Brain Research. She might be able to take your scan, figure out your problem, when she gets back.
DeleteI'm going to bed. Have an important business meeting tomorrow. And don't want to read anymore of your drivel.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI notice that this vile post is not removed....
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI notice that this vile post is not removed....
DeleteAugust 27, 2013
ReplyDeleteIs Iran behind the Syria gas atrocity?
By James Lewis
Things are moving fast to a Cuban Missile Crisis in Syria, where Obama has been outfoxed by a combination of Russia's Putin and the war theocracy of Iran.
Today we see the makings of a regional war, with weapons of mass destruction and intercontinental missiles in the mix.
World headlines now show gassed bodies of Syrian children near Damascus, challenging Obama to put up or shut up on his ever-retreating "red lines".
The most accurate account of the gas attack this week comes from Debka.com, a site that is close to Israeli intelligence, meaning that it varies between telling the truth and spreading information useful to Israel. However, the French conservative newspaper Le Figaro stole the story from Debka this week, and published it as its own.
Here is the story:
The sarin nerve gas atrocity of Wednesday, Aug. 21, alleged to have claimed more than 1,000 lives, was the work of the 155th Brigade of the Syrian army's 4th Division, headed by President Bashar Asad's younger brother Gen. Maher Assad.
The poison gas shells were fired from the big Mount Kalmun army base south of Damascus, one of the three repositories of Syria's chemical weapons. ... Not a single shell or gram of poison gas is loaded for use at any of the three sites without an explicit directive from the president or his brother. ... Therefore, the clamor raised by the US and French presidents, Western prime ministers and Russian leaders ... is nothing but playacting. The facts are known and the evidence is present. And the price for refusing to come down to earth and putting an immediate stop to this horrifying precedent may be unimaginably grim -- not just for Israel and Jordan -- but for the rest of the Middle East and beyond."
If this is true -- and I believe it is -- there are four urgent questions.
1. Who is behind it? (Iran, Syria, maybe Putin)
2. What is their aim? (To trap us).
3. Is it a trap? (Yes)
4. How should the West respond? (VERY carefully).
Let's take it from the top.
1. Who is behind it?
The best evidence shows the gas atrocity was conducted by Syria's ruler brother Maher Assad. The control of Syria's chemical weapons is not a secret to Western intelligence. All the nonsense about a UN investigation is playacting to keep Western audiences deceived.
The chain of command in Arab dictatorships like Syria is based on sons, brothers, and cousins, because nobody else can be trusted. Bashir Assad himself is the son of Hafiz Assad, his mass-murdering father.
Assad is a Shi'ite, ruling a majority Sunni nation. He is always in the minority, ruling by divide and conquer. He needs outside help to stay in power, through Iran and its proxy terror force, Hizb'allah.
Russia is also on his side, up to a point.
2. What is their aim? (To trap us).
DeleteObama is an amateur paddling in a shark pool. He is constantly suckered. His standard con job -- which got him elected twice -- does not work with serious con artists in the Middle East and Russia. For the last five years Obama has tried to sell carpets to Persian rug merchants, and they delight in tricking him. The new "moderate" president Rouhani of Iran just revealed how he suckered Obama when he was the chief negotiator on nuclear weapons. At the end of Rouhani's time Iran was running 17,000 uranium centrifuges. Rouhani has boasted about that in public, and the Western media covered it up.
Obama has retreated time and time again, in the face of clear and present danger from mullahs who preach martyrdom with nukes and long-range missiles. They threaten not just Israel, but the Arab oil regimes that have been Iran's deadly enemy for a thousand years. When Obama pushed over Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt, the pillar of peace in the Middle East, the mullahs saw their chance to forge a Shi'ite Crescent between Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, all controlled by Tehran.
The purpose is to surround Israel with thousands of modern missiles armed with chemical and possibly nuclear weapons. It is also to knock down the Turks (who are Sunnis), the Egyptians (ditto), and most of all, the House of Saud, sitting on the biggest pool of usable oil in the world. In Arabia, very small tribes control enormous oil wealth.
Arabia is the biggest strategic objective for Iran.
Iran's war theocracy plus oil means world power.
Obama has failed miserably in the last five years to knock down the Iranians before they had nukes. The United States could have done it, the way we did it with Saddam, with minimal risk, by imposing a no-fly zone over Iran with our overwhelming naval and air power.
Obama failed to act, and allowed that window of opportunity to slam shut.
Today the mullahs are within reach of their aim of owning their own nuclear bombs. They fully understand Obama's soft spots.
3. The trap
The gas attack on civilians, including children, near Damascus last week, was instantly filmed and broadcast to the world. It is therefore a deliberate slap in the face to the Obama Administration, which proclaimed gas attacks to be the real "red line."
This is a deliberate, brutal, and murderous challenge to Obama's pretensions.
The aim is to draw the U.S. into a classic quagmire on the side of our Sunni "allies," who are nothing but Al Qaida thugs, the same people who betrayed us in Benghazi.
Obama is therefore caught between a rock and a hard place. He cannot openly intervene, nor can he ignore the humanitarian disaster that was conveniently broadcast by YouTube and all the other web media as soon as it happened.
4. How should the West respond?
DeleteLook at the lineup against us.
The Syrians committed a crime against humanity to be broadcast on YouTube.
That is only possible if they felt they had powerful backing in the inevitable aftermath.
That backing comes from Iran, and possibly Putin.
Iran is run by an expansionist global martyrdom ideology, like Imperial Japan in World War II. This is not the Soviet Union after Stalin, which became a rational power that did not want national suicide. The Iranians are constantly trying to sound crazy, to intimidate the world, including the Big Satan (the United States) and the Little Satan (Israel). They are medieval fanatics fighting for Allah. They have not changed in a thousand years. Maybe they are pretending, but they don't seem to know that themselves. They are split, and the crazies look like they are in charge.
Vladimir Putin may be encouraging this behind the scenes, to administer a slap in the face to this administration.
Putin wants us to lose, but he does not want Iran to win.
Logically, Vladimir Putin is the key to this conundrum, because he can scare the daylights out of the mullahs running Iran. They don't respect the United States, especially under Obama, the classic starry-eyed useful idiot. They know we have an awesome military, but they also know that Obama does not have the strategic vision or the will to use our military to win the Jihad War.
Putin is different, because he uses massive military might, as he did in knocking down the Muslim rebels in Chechnya with massive artillery strikes against civilian populations. The Western media never reported that because they, too, are afraid of Putin. Get on his wrong side, and journalists regularly disappear.
Obama therefore has do make a deal with the devil we know, against the devil we don't know. We don't know what the mullahs will do with nuclear weapons.
If Obama has any brains -- and he does -- he is negotiating with Putin behind the scenes to cool this crisis down, and so see what Putin wants in return for his help. That is why Obama did that public farce in Martha's Vineyard, clowning on the golf course while his team was on the phone to Putin and others.
First, we have to stay out of Syria overtly.
We are already deeply involved covertly, as reported in the web media. We are using Jordanian, Turkish, Israeli, and possibly Kurdish forces to support the Sunnis in Syria, with the aim of establishing a Sunni salient to cut Iran's Shi'ite Crescent in half. Any US-UK air offensive will be described as a response to the horrors of the gas attack, but it will in fact support the Sunni salient in Syria. The Sunni "rebels" are being paid by Saudi Arabia.
Second, we cannot ignore the rise of Iran's nuclear weapons. That has been Obama's crucial failure of in the last five years. If Iran gets nukes and missiles they will have a decisive edge for decades to come. In that case the Saudis will make sure Egypt is armed with nuclear weapons as well, to defend the Sunni majority in the Muslim Middle East. It means nuclear proliferation, with a constant risk of fanatical terror groups getting weapons of mass destruction.
The bottom line is that Vladimir Putin does not want the mullahs to get nukes either. The reason is that Russia is less than an hour from Iran by civilian airplane. Ballistic missiles will reach Moscow in fifteen minutes. Putin is acutely aware of that. He does not want Muslims with nukes, because the history of Russia is the history of foreign invasions, including Islamic hordes.
Obama therefore has to reach a great powers agreement with Putin to control the Middle East, in collaboration with Israel, Egypt, and the Saudis, who hold the purse strings.
Conservatives may dislike Obama, and with good reasons. But right now we have to support any rational agreement to stave off nuclear disaster in the Middle East.
One days worth of Barry or Michelle's vacation expenses would pay to keep them Torti alive ad infinitum.
ReplyDeleteThey could raise their offspring as non-pets and release 'em instead of mass slaughter.
Too easy.
Here is the post you deleted yesterday.
ReplyDelete"You and your bullshit "Israel firsters" crap.
pull your head out of your puckered ass long enough to understand that Israel IS on the border of Syria and it's in a state of war with them NOW.
They have had rocket attacks THIS WEEK.
Why do you have to be such an asshole?"
Please explain what was so horrible, so personally devastating, so out of line FOR THIS BLOG that this comment should be censored?
You call me an asshole, as does rufus.
Is it the point that I pushed back at your slanderous label of "israelfirster"?
A QUITE offensive term.
Because it says Israel is in a State of War with Syria, which is incorrect. Assad is actually tight buds with Israel. Your problem is with the Sunni rebs.
DeleteI think it is correct, Miss T. Show me the peace treaty. I don't think there is one. They have been in this situation for decades now.
DeleteI've been told to suck d here and it's not taken down. Been called as asshole many times. Been called demented old man. Even been called a Christian liberationist (this hurts), been called the boobie a thousand times, have gotten to like that, almost, nothing ever taken down.....
DeleteI've even been called a 'peckerwood'!
DeleteOnly one here so designated.
Not taken down, and, oddly, I'm glad of that, as I'm kinda proud of the title.
.
DeleteI agree it should not of been taken down.
Part of it is because the comment doesn't seem that bad to me. Part of it is just personal. There is little doubt you are an Israeli-firster. However, when Deuce pulled your posts, I ended up pulling all of mine that were in response to yours. A lot of effort down the drain.
.
So, is "Israel-firster" anti-Semitic? Its origins are certainly anti-Semitic, and the idea that Jews are incapable of being loyal to the country of their citizenship and are only loyal to world Jewry, or the Jewish state, is an age-old anti-Semitic trope. This doesn't mean that those who use it are anti-Semitic. They just might be ignorant, like J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami, who to my surprise buys into the trope. Obviously, "Israel-firster" is a term deployed by opponents of Israel, and opponents of a close relationship between the U.S. and Israel, to stoke resentment of Jews they find objectionable (though the two most important scapegoating stokers, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, have been too sophisticated to use the actual term in their public pronouncements -- though Mearsheimer has clearly gone off the deep end in other ways).
DeleteHere is David Bernstein on the origins of the term:
The "Israel-firster" slur was not used in "mainstream" discourse until the last few years.
Before that, you can find it occasionally in the early 1980s and 1990s in sources such as Wilmot Robertson's anti-Semitic Instauration journal, a 1988 anti-Semitic book called "The F.O.J. [Fear of Jews] Syndrome, and a 1998 anti-Semitic book "Rise of AntiChrist." I also found a couple of references to "Israel-firsters" in the extremist anti-Israel publication, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and from writers associated with this journal.
By the early 2000s, one can find "Israel-firster" being used by a variety of anti-Semitic "right-wing" sources like DavidDuke.com and the Vanguard News Network. As the decade wore on, the phrase occasionally pops up in far left anti-Israel sites that have ties to the anti-Semitic far-right or are known for playing footsie with anti-Semitism, like Antiwar.com, Norman Finkelstein's website, and Indymedia.
words matter.
Deleteyour choice of words matter.
To ME the term "israel firster" is ANTI-SEMETIC
It's like calling a tea-party person a teabagger.
It's like calling a black person a nigger.
So call me a "Israel-firster" and I guess it makes you akin with David Duke and the Klan.
DeleteI don’t care what you think it sounds like. Your foreign policy concerns are “ Israel First” I’ll leave the linguistic gymnastics to others.
DeleteYou would hardly call yourself an “American Firster” now would you?
I call myself a loyal American 1st.
DeleteI cam concerned about the security of the jewish State of Israel and it's people
It's you that have the issues about loyalty not I
My foreign policy concerns are American 1st.
DeleteHowever I specialize in Israeli/American relations.
You are hung up on Israel and your hatred reeks thru everything you say.
Face facts.
DeleteYou're a "Israel laster", a "Israel die", a "Fuck Israel and the Jews" kind of guy.......
And that pisses you off that some AMERICANs dont allow you to speak for them in DC.
Russia, and Saudi Arabia made a lot of money, today. Between them, they export about 14 Million barrels of oil a day, and that oil is Up $2.00 bbl this morning. Ain't War wonderful?
ReplyDelete$28 Million X 365 = $10,220,000,000.00
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, a gallon of gas is $3.55 today, lower'n it's been in munts.
ReplyDeleteYep, jes keep f'n that chikin, sweetheart.
Delete"The US imports 477,000 barrels of oil per day from Russia, times two dollars, times 365 is $350 million dollars. Saudi $992 large. Fixed it for ya Rufus." --Math Class Barbie.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't fix shit. I didn't say they exported 14 Million bbls of oil/day to the U.S.
DeleteGo back to "remedial reading," Barbie.
Apparently none of the 24K+ students who sat for the 2013 Liberia University entrance exam got a passing mark, and fewer than a hundred managed to pass the either the english (pass level 70%) or math (pass level 50%) sections required to qualify to be part of the normal class of 2k-3k students admitted every year...
ReplyDeleteDetroit writ large.
Go back to "remedial reading," Barbie.
ReplyDeleteWho gives a shit if China has to shell out more for energy?
It isn't just "China" prices that are up this morning, Barbie. WTI is up $2.90, as I type.
DeleteOil is what the hillbillies call "fungible," sweetheart.
The market for oil is larger than the US.
ReplyDeleteThe US does not exist in a vacume.
Your thinking on a playhouse level, Ms T.
The Rissians are playing at Mattel levels, manufacturing and distributing Barbies all over the world
Ms T's is thinking locally, while the. Enemies of the US are acting globally
ReplyDeleteClever girl
Miss T recognizes, as I do, the pure genius of Obama.
ReplyDeleteLook what he has done for Egypt! Destroying his buds the MB even as I type.
Don't worry so about Syria, folks. Two day fireworks show. Then back to the golf course. Won't change a thing.
Will have, in his mind, proven his point, don't mess with the Big O.
Miss T recognizes, as I do, the pure genius of Obama.
ReplyDeleteLook what he has done for Egypt! Destroying his buds the MB even as I type.
Don't worry so about Syria, folks. Two day fireworks show. Then back to the golf course. Won't change a thing.
Will have, in his mind, proven his point, don't mess with the Big O.
By the way, at this stage in his presidency, GW Bush had taken 350 Vacation Days.
ReplyDeleteObama has taken 85.
as of about 10 days ago.
You're counting those working days at the Ranch, the Texas White House.
DeleteNot fair.
Besides, if you paid any attention to the Obama daily scheduling Deuce was putting up, even when Obama is working he is not really working.
He slept through Benghazi.
He was playing cards when Osama was taken down.
Never had a job in his life, and doesn't have one now, either, the way he loafs around.
The War Party and Syria
ReplyDeleteBy: Patrick J. Buchanan
8/27/2013 09:40 AM
“Congress doesn’t have a whole lot of core responsibilities,” said Barack Obama last week in an astonishing remark.
For in the Constitution, Congress appears as the first branch of government. And among its enumerated powers are the power to tax, coin money, create courts, provide for the common defense, raise and support an army, maintain a navy and declare war.
But, then, perhaps Obama’s contempt is justified.
For consider Congress’ broad assent to news that Obama has decided to attack Syria, a nation that has not attacked us and against which Congress has never authorized a war.
Why is Obama making plans to launch cruise missiles on Syria?
According to a “senior administration official … who insisted on anonymity,” President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people last week in the two-year-old Syrian civil war.
But who deputized the United States to walk the streets of the world pistol-whipping bad actors. Where does our imperial president come off drawing “red lines” and ordering nations not to cross them?
Neither the Security Council nor Congress nor NATO nor the Arab League has authorized war on Syria.
Who made Barack Obama the Wyatt Earp of the Global Village?
Moreover, where is the evidence that WMDs were used and that it had to be Assad who ordered them? Such an attack makes no sense.
Firing a few shells of gas at Syrian civilians was not going to advance Assad’s cause but, rather, was certain to bring universal condemnation on his regime and deal cards to the War Party which wants a U.S. war on Syria as the back door to war on Iran.
Why did the United States so swiftly dismiss Assad’s offer to have U.N. inspectors — already in Damascus investigating old charges he or the rebels used poison gas — go to the site of the latest incident?
{…}
ReplyDelete{…}
Do we not want to know the truth?
Are we fearful the facts may turn out, as did the facts on the ground in Iraq, to contradict our latest claims about WMDs? Are we afraid that it was rebel elements or rogue Syrian soldiers who fired the gas shells to stampede us into fighting this war?
With U.S. ships moving toward Syria’s coast and the McCainiacs assuring us we can smash Syria from offshore without serious injury to ourselves, why has Congress not come back to debate war?
Lest we forget, Ronald Reagan was sold the same bill of goods the War Party is selling today — that we can intervene decisively in a Mideast civil war at little or no cost to ourselves.
Reagan listened and ordered our Marines into the middle of Lebanon’s civil war. And he was there when they brought home the 241 dead from the Beirut barracks and our dead diplomats from the Beirut embassy.
The only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. Congress should cut short its five-week vacation, come back, debate and decide by recorded vote whether Obama can take us into yet another Middle East war.
The questions to which Congress needs answers:
–Do we have incontrovertible proof that Bashar Assad ordered chemical weapons be used on his own people? And if he did not, who did?
–What kind of reprisals might we expect if we launch cruise missiles at Syria, which is allied with Hezbollah and Iran?
–If we attack, and Syria or its allies attack U.S. military or diplomatic missions in the Middle East or here in the United States, are we prepared for the wider war we will have started?
–Assuming Syria responds with a counterstrike, how far are we prepared to go up the escalator to regional war? If we intervene, are we prepared for the possible defeat of the side we have chosen, which would then be seen as a strategic defeat for the United States?
–If stung and bleeding from retaliation, are we prepared to go all the way, boots on the ground, to bring down Assad? Are we prepared to occupy Syria to prevent its falling to the Al-Nusra Front, which it may if Assad falls and we do not intervene?
The basic question that needs to be asked about this horrific attack on civilians, which appears to be gas related, is: Cui bono?
To whose benefit would the use of nerve gas on Syrian women and children redound? Certainly not Assad’s, as we can see from the furor and threats against him that the use of gas has produced.
The sole beneficiary of this apparent use of poison gas against civilians in rebel-held territory appears to be the rebels, who have long sought to have us come in and fight their war.
Perhaps Congress cannot defund Obamacare. But at least they can come back to Washington and tell Obama, sinking poll numbers aside, he has no authority to drag us into another war. His Libyan adventure, which gave us the Benghazi massacre and cover-up, was his last hurrah as war president.
The "Syrian Army" has been unable to defeat sundry rebels with two years and constant reinforcement. What consequences do you see coming from this underwhelming fraternity?
Delete“Congress doesn’t have a whole lot of core responsibilities,” said Barack Obama last week in an astonishing remark.
ReplyDelete:):)
Jesus!
H!
Christ!
If he'd said 'Congress is not attending to its core responsibilities' he would have been onto something.
The usual suspects never miss an opportunity to goad the US into another ME war
ReplyDeleteBernard Henri-Levy, Joe Lieberman, Leon Wieseltier, Paul Berman, Marty Peretz, and a bunch of their neo-conservative friends (such as "Dr. William Kristol"):
We urge you to respond decisively by imposing meaningful consequences on the Assad regime. At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship's military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons. It should also provide vetted moderate elements of Syria's armed opposition with the military support required to identify and strike regime units armed with chemical weapons.
Moreover, the United States and other willing nations should consider direct military strikes against the pillars of the Assad regime. The objectives should be not only to ensure that Assad's chemical weapons no longer threaten America, our allies in the region or the Syrian people, but also to deter or destroy the Assad regime’s airpower and other conventional military means of committing atrocities against civilian non-combatants. [...]
Left unanswered, the Assad regime's mounting attacks with chemical weapons will show the world that America's red lines are only empty threats. It is a dangerous and destabilizing message that will surely come to haunt us—one that will certainly embolden Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons capability despite your repeated warnings that doing so is unacceptable.
Gotta love it. When Dubya flies across the country for a photo op with a chainsaw, it's "working days at the ranch."
ReplyDeleteWhen Obama takes the family out for an ice cream cone it's "loafing around."
working days at the ranch, my dick.
That said, while Obama might not be any more indolent, than the late, great W, he, also, certainly isn't any smarter.
DeleteIf he's not careful, he's going to end up in one holy, hell of a mess in the snakepit.
:) heh
DeleteWell, hell, Rufus, just fighting back. All I ever seem to see is Obama twisting his body trying to urge some putt in the hole.
One must admit he's got great body language that way.
It isn't just "China" prices that are up this morning, Barbie. WTI is up $2.90, as I type.
ReplyDeleteGood for Texas, good for us. I'd rather pay Amurricans to drill my oil, and get taxes from them, than pay Putin and the sheiks.
But Ms T, the US still imports over one million barrels, per day from the Wahabbi sheiks and Russian Czars.
ReplyDeleteYou are still thinking locally.
.
DeleteNo, rat, you are thinking locally.
The US exports of petroleum products offset about 30% of our imports. In 2011, petroleum product exports were the biggest item in our total exports. Saudi Arabia/Wahabbi supply about 13% of our total imports. The 30% export total pretty much offsets the cost of all the oil we import from the entire Persian Gulf.
.
We do ship a lot of refined products, Q.
DeleteThe US does import Venezuela's crude and then exports the tefined fuels.
13% seems like a lot, to me.
The 'swing' allotment
About a million barrels a day, from the Wahabbi. More if we add in the Russians.
That is a lot of dependency, seems to me.
The Gulf Coast refiners saw the shortage of light sweet crude looming, and got there the firstest with the mostest, installing coking towers, etc. and getting ready for the heavy sour stuff that they knew was coming.
DeleteAs a result, they do a monster business bringing in the tough stuff from Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, etc, refining it, and selling the products back out onto the market (in many cases, back to the original producers.)
If the Gulf Coast guys weren't doing it, someone else would (such refineries are being built in Venezuela, China, and the usual suspects, as we speak.) In anything but the shortest of terms the world price of oil, and products, wouldn't be affected in the least.
As Rat correctly stated, the salient fact is we use about twice as much as we produce, and the cost of all of our products are directly tied to the World price of oil.
The Israeli have blazed the trail for Obama to follow.
ReplyDeleteA couple of Tomahawks, a few drone strikes in the expanded battle space, then fall back and ...
...keep our finger on the pulse.
Some tit for tat, with the tat being a fabrication.
A US standard operating procedure since the USS Maine exploded in Cuba.
Followed by episode after episode of US interventionism, for fun and profit.
General Bulter was on time and target.
War is a Racket.
Drones v air defense systems
ReplyDeleteThe Russians had that track mounted AA quad gun, radar guided as I recall.
It may well be part of Syria's air defense system, the drones have never operated in defended battle space.
Syria, definately not Colonel Q's Libya
The Israelis seem to have just turned Bashir's lights off for a couple of hours when they knocked out that under-construction nuclear reactor; maybe we'll be able to do the same - if he hasn't fixed that little problem by now. :)
DeleteThe first thing any newly-elected President should do is Demand a Recount.
DeleteThe question asked above was, "how's that Libya thingie working out?" Let's see.
DeleteProtesters yesterday stopped production at Repsol-operated Sharara and Eni-operated El Feel, or Elephant, fields in western Libya, according to National Oil Corp. Director of Measurement Ibrahim Al Awami. Output from the North African nation slumped to about 200,000 barrels a day, compared with 640,000 in August and its optimal capacity of 1.6 million, NOC Chairman Nuri Berruien said today in an interview from Tripoli.
Bloomberg
from 1.6 mbpd to 200k - a couple more "successes" like that, and we'll All be walkin' to work.
Who would want to limit the supply of oil in the world?
ReplyDeleteA series of actions leading to global sanctions of Iranian oil.
Unrest in Egypt, giving the market 'jitters'
With Libya's production down.
Oil prices are raising.
Who benefits from that?
Follow the money
Seems sometimes like the only one that doesn't benefit is Me. (at least, you got a horse.)
Delete:)
The HUGE Winner in all this is Russia.
DeleteThe second-place winner would be Saudi Arabia (although, the neighborhood might be getting a little more interesting than they would like.)
Follow the money
ReplyDeleteWhat if we can breathe in space, but the government just tells us we can't so we don't try to escape?
Russia evacuates 90 people ...
ReplyDeleteSays West Acting Like 'Monkey With Hand Grenade'...drudge
You can't say that here and get away with it.
You can't be a rodeo clown dressed like Obama. You can't paint a picture of Putin wearing Victoria's Secret.
Delete"Follow the money"
ReplyDeleteWhat a simplistic stupid statement from a simple stupid man.
As if the internal disputes in Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon were all about a bank account, presumably a Swiss one, the world being the vast conspiracy that it is.
:) heh
ReplyDelete>>>Hossein Sheikholeslam, the director general of the Iranian parliament’s International Affairs bureau, claimed the United States would not dare attack Syria but said that if it does, “the Zionist regime will be the first victim.”
“No military attack will be waged against Syria,” Sheikholeslam was quoted as saying on Monday by Iran’s state run Fars News Agency.
“Yet, if such an incident takes place, which is impossible, the Zionist regime will be the first victim of a military attack on Syria,” Sheikholeslam said in an apparent response to the Obama administration’s increasingly stern rhetoric against Syria.<<<
http://freebeacon.com/iranian-official-israel-to-be-first-victim-of-u-s-attack-on-syria/
Iranian Official: Israel to Be ‘First Victim’ of U.S. Attack on Syria
Claims U.S. does not have ability to strike Assad
.....
What a first class truly wonderful name:
Sheikholeslam
Teaching A Snake To Juggle -
ReplyDeleteObama’s third war
The folly of striking Syria
By RALPH PETERS
Posted: 11:21 PM, August 26, 2013
Ralph Peters
You might as well try to teach a snake to juggle as hope the Obama administration will think strategically. The “peace president” is about to embark on his third military adventure, this time in Syria, without having learned the lessons of his botched efforts in Afghanistan and Libya. He hasn’t even learned from the Bush administration’s mistakes — which he mocked with such delight.
Before launching a single cruise missile toward Syria, Team Obama needs to be sure it has a good answer to the question, “What comes next?”
If Obama does a Clinton and churns up some sand with do-nothing cruise-missile strikes, it will only encourage the Assad regime. But if our president hits Assad hard and precipitates regime change, then what?
Sideshow: A UN inspector yesterday, gathering evidence at the site of a chemical attack in Syria — but the real issue is: What effective action can we take?AP
Sideshow: A UN inspector yesterday, gathering evidence at the site of a chemical attack in Syria — but the real issue is: What effective action can we take?
If al Qaeda and local Islamists seize Damascus, what will we do? The enfeebled “moderate opposition” we back rhetorically couldn’t dislodge hardcore jihadis, no matter how many weapons we sent (the jihadis would simply confiscate the gear).
What if we weaken the regime to the point where the fanatics rev up their jihad to drive out Christians and other minorities? What’s your plan then, Mr. President? After your night of explosive passion, will you still love the opposition in the morning?
Exactly which American vital security interests are at stake in Syria, Mr. President? Your credibility? Put a number on it. How many American lives is your blather about red lines worth?
Chemical weapons use? Horrible and illegal, a war crime. So is the mass slaughter of civilians. Is it really so much worse to be gassed than tortured to death by al Qaeda or burned alive in your church? Which is more important, the number of dead, or the means that killed them?
Islamist terrorists have killed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands, of innocent Muslims. Aren’t they the real enemies of civilization?
DeleteMr. President, do you really think it’s wise to send our missiles and aircraft to provide fire support for al Qaeda? That is exactly what you’ll be doing, if you hit Assad.
Assad’s an odious butcher, filth on two legs. But in the world of serious strategy, you rarely get a choice between black and white. You choose between black and charcoal gray.
Employing our military assets to support either side in Syria would be a mistake. Employing them without a worst-case plan for what might follow would be criminal.
We just can’t seem to learn, though. Invading Iraq, the Bush team, egged on by ideologues who never served in uniform, refused to allow our military to plan for an occupation. That sure worked out. Then, in Libya, the Obama administration deposed Khadafy, but refused to plan seriously for the aftermath. Welcome to Benghazi.
There are wars worth fighting. It was essential to go to Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 (although staying there was idiocy). There will be future conflicts that demand our blood to defend vital interests. But we’ve now had a decade of do-gooder wars that haven’t done much good.
For the record, I don’t regret getting rid of Saddam or Khadafy. I regret the ineptitude with which we did these things. When you propose a war, don’t ever expect a cheap date.
Now there’s an unholy alliance pushing for attacks on Syria. We have liberal zealots, such as our UN ambassador, Samantha Power, who believe that our military’s primary purpose is to protect people who hate America. We have a few Republican senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham who support any war, any time. We have a president who thinks that, “Gee, maybe, well, gosh, I said I’d do something, so maybe I should...” And we have elements in the defense industry who long for a return to our free-spending years in Iraq and Afghanistan and view a war in Syria as a great way to beat the sequester.
And the one thing every member of that bomb-Syria-now coalition has in common? Not one will have to fight.
Ralph Peters is a retired US Army officer and Fox News’ strategic analyst.
......
Teaching a snake to juggle is easier than teaching rat to think.
.
ReplyDeleteI was just watching John McCain being interviewed on FOX and I had to turn it off before I put my foot through the TV.
It's the same story he has been telling for months; however, now when Neil Cavuto would try to pin him down by stating that we have seen what this type of action brings us in Libya and Iraq and questions what makes this different, John-John states "Obama stated the chemical weapons were a red line and if we don't do something we will lose face. Whenever, Cavuto would pin him down, he always came back to the 'Obama said...' excuse. When asked what is the difference if a person is bombed or shot or tortured, dead is dead? John said well "Obama said...' The man is clueless. Willing to kill thousands so him and Obama can save face.
The only funny part was when Cavuto kept saying that we could be helping al Queda. John's response? A very defensive "Sure there are terrorists there but I know who the resistance is and don't let anyone tell you we don't." (Repeated on several occasions.)
Funny but not funny enough to keep me from turning off the TV.
.
.
DeleteThe McCain quotes were actually paraphrased from memory but close enough.
.
Most here, Q, thought he should have been elected President.
DeleteMaverick McCain, standard bearer of the Republican Party.
Last Man Standing.
.
DeleteI blame you for him even being around, rat. He keeps getting elected every six years. Surely, you could have done something to prevent that.
:)
(Kidding, I'm a kidder)
.
His spread is diminishing and he's got until 2016 or beyond. Doubt he'd run, but who can know?
DeleteThe Presidental vote spread is diminishing, too. By 2016 I doubt AZ can be taken for granted by the GOP. Demographics, the population is getting younger.
To date, the only use of chemical weapons in Syria has been by the Syrian so-called opposition, you know, the same people (?) who indulge in cannibalism, who are rapists, torturers, thieves and terrorists, who recently sliced the heads off Kurdish children ... and why were the videos uploaded from outside Syria the day before the "attack" happened?
ReplyDeleteAnd just as the UN inspectors arrive... there is a so-called "chemical" incident, a false flag one of course, again, but once again, not a very intelligent ploy by the Syrian "opposition". If one is going to set up a false flag chemical weapons attack, one has to make sure it is deployed in an area where there is a massive advantage in using such weaponry, namely in an area where there is massive advantage to be gained in an active theatre of war.
So, in an area where there has been fighting until recently but where the Syrian Arab Army (Government) has been making steady progress and where the terrorist opposition forces have been getting hammered, it does not make sense for the Government forces to use nerve gas, and it makes no sense at all to use it against large numbers of civilians, including children, who appear to comprise the majority of the victim
Quite apart from all this, why were the "videos" providing "evidence" of this alleged chemical weapons attack posted on August 20, when the attack was supposed to be made in the early hours of August 21? They were certainly not uploaded from Syria.
And let us observe this from another angle: does the presence of the UN team in Syria to investigate use of weapons of mass destruction favour the Government? Yes, because it will discover the Government has not used any. Will it favour the terrorists? No, because they have used chemical weapons before and everyone knows so, that is why the west went silent about previous attacks after accusing the Government. After all, in May the UN investigation team leader, Carla del Ponte, stated there was evidence the "opposition" had used chemical agents, including Sarin gas. This came after two Syrian "opposition" leaders were caught on an audio recording of a phone conversation discussing attacks with chemical weapons and let us not forget the "opposition" laboratories last year filmed gassing rabbits with nerve agents. In this column I predicted today's event at the time.
The Syrian authorities strongly deny today's claim as being completely untrue. For the Government, these wild and absurd allegations denote the hysteria and demoralized state the "opposition" is in, as it is pressed back on all fronts.
Let us go further: with the US troops massing in Jordan, is this the event Washington needs to justify an intervention? We have seen it all before... and who would be surprised at anything Washington pulls out of the hat? After all the spectre of an August attack in Syria by Washington has been circulating for months.
And let us be intelligent here: if the attack was supposed to be launched in Syria on August 21, then why do the videos supposedly covering the supposed event show the date August 20? Because they were uploaded from London... or Washington?
Well stated.
Delete.
DeleteThey had Gen. Keane on Fox talking about Syria. When asked about the opposition to the war by the American public and guys like Peters he responded the president does not govern by polls and the reason people are against any intervention is that they just don't 'know the facts', something Gen. Keane evidently does.
.
Above those other folk's pay grades, Q.
DeleteRe'd tell us, but then he'd have to kill us.
.
DeleteFunny thing about pay grades.
There seems to be an inverse relationship between pay grade and common sense.
.
Generals always know the facts. Open a chart on the timeline of Western Civilization, throw a dart, pick the general closest to it and you are bound to find genius. Guarantee it.
DeleteMost here voted against Obama and for the only people, McCain and Romney, that had any chance of beating him, thus not throwing their vote totally away.
ReplyDeleteIt's easier to teach a snake to juggle than.......etc
Sentenced to death for a sip of water
ReplyDeleteAs her religion faces persecution across the Middle East, a Christian woman explains why she faces hanging in Pakistan for the crime of ‘blasphemy’
By ASIA BIBI
Last Updated: 1:33 AM, August 25, 2013
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/sentenced_to_death_for_sip_of_water_7zwT2vBrUGqhDzasfQxkKK/3
Read it and weep.
Just as I was about to adopt her
DeletePoison gas isn't the only way to subject a civilian population to a toxic horror show and there's ample evidence afoot that the U.S. has hardly mended its hypocritical ways:
ReplyDelete"UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 2013 (IPS) - A long-awaited study on congenital birth defects by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Iraq is expected to be very extensive in nature.
According to WHO, 10,800 households were selected as a sample size for the study, which was scheduled to be released early this year but has not yet been made public.
Many scientists and experts have started questioning the time delay in publishing the study, but there is another aspect that is a cause for concern among some health experts.
The report will not examine the link between the prevalence of birth defects and use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions used during the war and occupation in Iraq, according to WHO. . . . But Susanne Soederberg, a professor and Canada research chair at Queen’s University who is also waiting for the study to be published, did not mince words.
“I strongly believe that the WHO, like most international organisations, is not a neutral body, but is influenced by the geopolitical powers of its members,” she told IPS. “So, yes, there is reason why a group of very smart scientists are not exploring the ‘why’ question in their study.”"
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/07/whos-iraq-birth-defect-study-omits-causat...
Police seized a painting of Russia's president and prime minister in women's underwear from a gallery in St Petersburg, saying the satirical display had broken unspecified laws. At least it wasn't a rodeo clown.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteSpeaking of paintings, here is one Anonymous-Bob might want to pick up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgIRT8QUwqA
This painting is being shown at the Florida Capital Rotunda but the artist also has copied the same image on a 50 foot mural, 8 feet tall Bob may want to buy and put up on his barn wall.
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/state/graphic-mural-of-zimmerman-shooting-martin-unveiled-at-florida-capitol
.
Wait just a minute here Quirk-O. All the evidence pointed to Zim being on the ground getting his brains beaten out on the concrete by a young thug with a criminal record expelled from school and his parents homes. The bullet was fired from inches away, upwards, into TM.
DeleteThis painting shows Zim standing firing at TM, which was not at all the reality.
What are you trying to do here O Noble Quirk?
Bend the truth? Bend history?
You need to explain yourself.
Never have I known you before to engage in such a blatant distortion of the truth. Never as blatant as this, in all the times you have distorted the truth.
If I had a barn, I certainly would not deface such a noble structure with gross propaganda such as that.
Today, you have further damaged your already meager reputation.
By the way, rat-brain was predicting that 'the Feds' would take Zim to trial on some federal charge. No sign of that yet. I as recall we had something of a bet.
DeleteYou may not realize it Quirk, but you are allowed, if you are getting your brains beaten out on the concrete there in Detroit, even without a stand your ground law, to shoot your attacker in self defense.
DeleteIn Florida many more blacks proportionately have used the stand your ground defense than whites.
You may not have realized this before.
.
DeleteTake it up with the artist.
I report, you decide.
The question was a simple one, do you want to buy the mural or not. We didn't ask for a speech. If you can't decide, we'll have to ask you to move along.
Sheesh
.
The Feds still are holding his weapon in evidence,
DeleteThe Federal case is not closed
Funny thing, now you are extolling the virtue and judgement of Eric Holder.
Another twist and turn from our anoni
Top 5 Beer Drinking States:
ReplyDelete1. North Dakota
2. New Hampshire
3. Montana
4. South Dakota
5. Wisconsin
It's the nordic influence in these areas.
DeleteIt is always amusing to see how MSM machine works.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as the government needs the "solidarity" of the nation, all MSM get united and disciplined.
Usually it takes from two weeks to four weeks to make the public opinion to chew and swallow whatever is needed for - yes! - the national interests.
This time it will not be any different. 2-4 weeks of mass propaganda - and U.S./EU public opinion will be honestly and sincerely confident that they are "Knights in White Satin."
It is always like this.
It won't be weeks but days. Gotta do it before Congress gets back to work.
DeleteIt's something about the month of August.
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ, what a day. I've agreed with Ralph Peters AND Pat Buchanan.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming unglued.
:) heh
DeleteIt's tough.
Your first task, Ruf, is to somehow come to terms with the fact that The One is about to launch an attack in support of al-Qaeda.
After that, these other matters will seem more tractable.
Let's see if anything has really changed:
DeleteLet's see him agree with me!
(you may be muttering 'impeachment' before this is over - watch yourself)
DeleteTHE IMPORTANT ATTACK IS THIS:
DeleteNYTimes site inaccessible after attack
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Readers who tried to click on the New York Times' website got nothing but error messages Tuesday afternoon in its second major disruption this month. A hacker group calling itself the "Syrian Electronic Army" claimed responsibility.
Within minutes of the attack, the New York Times announced in a Twitter message that it would continue to publish news. The company quickly set up alternative websites, posting stories about chemical attacks in Syria. "Not Easy to Hide a Chemical Attack, Experts Say," was the headline of one.
The cyberattacks come at a time when the Obama administration is trying to bolster its case for possible military action against Syria, where the Administration says President Bashar Assad's government is responsible for an alleged deadly chemical attack on civilians. Assad denies the claim.
"Media is going down..." warned the Syrian Electronic Army in a Twitter message before the websites stopped working, adding that it also had taken over Twitter and the Huffington Post U.K.
He'd never admit it if he did agree with you.
Delete"Media is going down..." warned the Syrian Electronic Army in a Twitter message before the websites stopped working, adding that it also had taken over Twitter and the Huffington Post U.K.
ReplyDeleteNow that we've decided it was Assad who gassed the people in that town, what kind of gas was it? Mustard? Sarin? Nobody knows. As well ask what kind of bomb blew up the USS Maine
ReplyDeleteWhose 'we'.
DeleteFor me, I don't know who the hell did it.
I suspect parathion was the agent though.
Secretly purchased from Dow, with Lester Crown money.
Lester is behind everything, that's my insight, and advantage, over all the rest of you in seeking out the truth of things.
Who is we...dammit
DeleteA sure sign of desparation and defeat:
DeleteHe Plays the Lester Card!
Heh, what a world.
ReplyDeleteSyrian Electronic Army.
McCain today called the rebs 'freedom fighters' as they continued the process of killing Christians on sight and burning down their churches.
McCain has joined, perhaps has even preceded, Rufus in 'coming unglued'.
ROBERT FISK
ReplyDeleteTuesday 27 August 2013
Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?
‘All for one and one for all’ should be the battle cry if the West goes to war against Assad’s Syrian regime
>>>If Barack Obama decides to attack the Syrian regime, he has ensured – for the very first time in history – that the United States will be on the same side as al-Qa’ida.
Quite an alliance! Was it not the Three Musketeers who shouted “All for one and one for all” each time they sought combat? This really should be the new battle cry if – or when – the statesmen of the Western world go to war against Bashar al-Assad.
The men who destroyed so many thousands on 9/11 will then be fighting alongside the very nation whose innocents they so cruelly murdered almost exactly 12 years ago. Quite an achievement for Obama, Cameron, Hollande and the rest of the miniature warlords.
This, of course, will not be trumpeted by the Pentagon or the White House – nor, I suppose, by al-Qa’ida – though they are both trying to destroy Bashar. So are the Nusra front, one of al-Qa’ida’s affiliates. But it does raise some interesting possibilities.
Maybe the Americans should ask al-Qa’ida for intelligence help – after all, this is the group with “boots on the ground”, something the Americans have no interest in doing. And maybe al-Qa’ida could offer some target information facilities to the country which usually claims that the supporters of al-Qa’ida, rather than the Syrians, are the most wanted men in the world.<<<<
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/does-obama-know-hes-fighting-on-alqaidas-side-8786680.html
OOrah, were number one in picking winners.
DeleteOn the other hand Krauthammer on Fox just made a good defense of the action on the grounds that if Assad is gone it weakens Iran, which in his view is the main problem.
ReplyDeleteWhy not just supply Assad with enough Parathion to take out Iran, then?
Delete...I think the good doctor fell on his head one too many times.
Or was the pool simply too shallow?
Rachel Maddow is the only one all day that has laid into the whole idea of the impending clusterfuck.
DeleteMaybe she's seeing Chelsea Manning on the Sly.
DeleteHer argument is, "What's the hurry? Call Congress back, and debate it; that's what congress is for."
DeleteHard to disagree with that.
"It was during his freshmen year in medical school that he had the accident that changed his life. He dove off the diving board at a swimming pool and hit his head on the bottom. Since then, he’s been confined to a wheelchair, something few people know unless they’ve seen him in person or on television. While he was forced to make certain lifestyle changes, Krauthammer did not let the accident affect his ambition."
DeleteMy thesis is it was the rebs that used the parathion. We should supply parathion to the rebs and let them take out the Iranians, the weevils.
DeleteSure after you gas them all, you can throw them in the ovens. Take a hike asshole.
DeleteJeez, after using words like -
Deleteparathion
Dow
weevils
Lester Crown
etc
-- I'd think you'd get the point I wasn't really being serious but was mocking the absurdity of the whole situation.
Chill out, Deuce.
And it is absurd.
DeleteAnd as my daughter will be with me tonight I will try and get set up again with a proper google account.
DeleteSo you will know for certain and not be guessing who it is you are calling an asshole, which I had thought was a forbidden word here.
"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes." -- William Gibson
DeleteHey computer Genius and Linux Jihadi !
ReplyDeleteThe Times attack was on their DNS servers.
Answer me this:
What the Hell is wrong with my Verizon Account?
Whenever I download anything from ANY site, the first download takes forever to start.
Subsequent downloads behave normally, little delay.
THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER A YEAR, and the delay affects everything, not just downloads, what the Hell is going on?
Thanks,
Your DNS Slave.
.
DeleteVerizon?
Easy peasy. It takes a while for the NSA to pull your data.
They keep getting you mixed up with Dougo from Dakar.
Just go in for the cavity search and the problem should be cleared up in no time.
.
.
Sometimes the DNS lookup to my own website drops me on the GoDaddy signup page, and I have to use the raw IP. In your case, Doug, what are you running, XP? I betcha if I took a look under the hood it would look like the underside of a piece of plywood you left flat in the yard for a year. Potato bugs and shit.
DeleteNaw, it ain't the NSA this time. The Syrian Army has them blocked.
ReplyDeleteProbly the Onion counterattack got out of control.