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How the OPCW Leak Makes Trump a War Criminal Suppressed report removes any “legal justification” for the April 2018 bombing

Eric Zuesse

On May 13th, Tim Hayward of the Working Group on Syria made public on his website an utterly damning document that had been suspiciously excluded from the final investigative report by the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) regarding the U.S.-and-allied allegation that on 7 April 2018 the Syrian Government had sarin-attacked residents in its town of Douma and had killed a large number of non-combatants.

Seven days after that alleged incident, the U.S. and two of its allies, UK and France, massively missile-invaded Syria on April 14th, in alleged international ‘response’ to that alleged national war-crime on the part of Syria’s Government.

It now turns out that that alleged national war-crime was totally staged by America’s own proxy-soldiers, Islamic terrorists who were trying to overthrow Syria’s Government, and so the attack against Syria on 14 April 2018 by U.S., UK and France, constitutes an international war-crime, an unequivocal violation of the U.N.’s Charter.

This excluded finding by the OPCW is proof that “the US Government’s Interpretation of the Technical Intelligence It Gathered Prior to and After the August 21 Attack CANNOT POSSIBLY BE CORRECT”.

That’s the way an independent detailed study by the two top U.S. experts had concluded their study of the U.N.’s evidence concerning the U.S.-and-allied allegations that there had been a 21 August 2013 sarin-attack by the Syrian Government against its town of East Ghouta. Their finding then was virtually identical regarding that U.S.-alleged sarin-use by Syria’s Government — identical to this recent OPCW finding.

And that finding regarding the earlier ‘incident’ likewise was suppressed, instead of reported by the ‘news’-media. The two investigators in that earlier report, which was issued on 14 January 2014, were MIT’s Ted Postol and Richard Lloyd.

The clearest summary-report about the newer suppressed finding was “signed by Ian Henderson (an investigative team leader for the OPCW” and is best summarized by Kit Knightly’s May 14th “Leaked Report: Douma ‘Chemical Attack’ Likely Staged” at Off-Guardian.org (a terrific website of investigative journalism that exposes lies by mainstream ‘news’-media, such as Britain’s Guardian).

As Knightly especially pointed out, that OPCW investigative team’s report to OPCW had concluded:

“In summary, observations at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being dropped.”

As we shall later show, that statement at the end of the OPCW team’s report, was a huge understatement: they had, in fact, proven that “both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations [by the anti-Government side, as a set-up to stage the event and blame it on the Government] rather than being dropped [by a plane, from the Government, as the U.S. alleged].”

So: that’s virtually a clone of the earlier Postol-Lloyd finding regarding the 13 August 2013 incident, except that, whereas the earlier incident was real and had been carried out by America’s Syrian proxy-forces (fanatic Islamists), this more recent ‘incident’ was (as now is clear not only from the latest revelation) entirely staged by the U.S.-and-allied side. It had not existed at all.

Obviously, if that finding is confirmed by an international tribunal not for internal war-crimes but for international war-crimes, then Donald Trump, Theresa May, and Emmanuel Macron, could be sentenced to prison, or worse, but is there any tribunal anywhere that could handle such cases? Almost certainly not.

Leaders, such as those, stand above any law. And isn’t that the real problem here?

On 17 May 2019, Russia’s Tass news agency headlined “Militants preparing provocation with chemical weapons in Syria” and reported that, “Militants from Jebhat al-Nusra terrorist group (banned in Russia) are preparing a provocation to accuse Russian servicemen of using chemical weapons in Syria, the Russian Center for reconciliation of the conflicting sides said on Friday [May 17th].”

Jabhat al-Nusra is Syria’s branch of Al Qaeda, and U.S. President Barack Obama’s efforts to overthrow the Syrian Government depended very heavily upon that organization to train the non-Kurdish proxy-forces that the U.S. regime and its press called ‘rebels’ instead of jihadists (which they actually were). The U.S. armed and protected al-Nusra.

Back on 13 February 2018, less than two months prior to the faked 7 April 2018 Douma chemical ‘attack’, Russia’s RT had headlined “Tip-off received on Al-Nusra, White Helmets plotting chemical weapons provocation in Syria – Moscow”, and reported that:

Russia’s Center for Reconciliation in Syria says it’s been warned that Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists brought in chlorine containers to a local village, where they aimed to work with the White Helmets to stage “a provocation.”

…According to the source, on the afternoon of February 12, rebels from the Jabhat Al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) terrorist organization brought three cars packed with more than 20 cylinders of chlorine along with personal protective equipment to Serakab.

Additionally, according to the caller, representatives of the local branch of the White Helmets, wearing individual means of protection, conducted rehearsals of “giving first aid” to “local residents” who were supposedly suffering from poisoning.”

That appears to have been an accurate description of what the OPCW investigators found in Douma after the faked 7 April 2018 incident there. However U.S.-allied press didn’t report anything of the kind, neither before nor after that faked incident. The reality was suppressed instead of reported there. The latest suppressed finding by the OPCW is a repeat of that pattern.

Further indication of how clear the evidence actually is that the 7 April 2018 Douma incident was staged has been presented by the excruciatingly detailed May 12th document from the team of Paul McKeigue, David Miller, and Piers Robinson, headlined “Assessment by the engineering sub-team of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission investigating the alleged chemical attack in Douma in April 2018”.

It explains “that the cylinders were manually placed in position is ‘the only plausible explanation for observations at the scene’,” BECAUSE (and this is quoting now directly from paragraph 32 of the OPCW Engineer’s suppressed report of his team’s findings) “The dimensions, characteristics and appearance of the cylinders, and the surrounding scene of the incidents, were inconsistent with what would have been expected in the case of either cylinder being delivered from an aircraft. In each case the alternative hypothesis produced the only plausible explanation for observations at the scene.”

The full paragraph 32 opened by saying that “At this stage the FFM engineering sub-team cannot be certain that the cylinders at either location arrived there as a result of being dropped from an aircraft.” But when it went on to say “In each case the alternative hypothesis produced the only plausible explanation for observations at the scene,” that “alternative hypothesis” referred to the alternative to the cylinder’s “being dropped from a plane.

That “alternative hypothesis” refers to people on the ground having placed it there. That “alternative hypothesis” referred to the event’s having been staged by people on the ground. That “alternative hypothesis” referred to the U.S. side’s proxy-forces (America’s ‘Syrian rebels’) having staged this event and filmed its alleged aftermath so that the U.S.-UK-led White Helmets could then feed it to the U.S.-and-allied ’news’-media so as to enrage their publics against Syria’s Government enough for those publics to think that the subsequent U.S.-and-allied bombing of Syria, On 14 April 2018, was a ‘humanitarian’ action.

The OPCW’s Engineering team stated there, very clearly, that the U.S.-and-allied allegations that those cylinders had been dropped from a plane or planes “CANNOT POSSIBLY BE CORRECT,” as Postol and Lloyd had previously said about the U.S.-and-allied alleged Syrian Government 21 August 2013 sarin gas attack against East Ghouta. This is a tactful way of saying that the U.S. and its allied regimes had lied about it.

Britain’s Daily Mail headlined on May 16th “Strange News from the OPCW”, and Peter Hitchens, at his blog there, reported that “I have received the following reply from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.” It said that, “the OPCW Technical Secretariat is conducting an internal investigation about the unauthorised release of the document in question.” This had been an “unauthorized release”; no question was being raised as to the document’s authenticity.

Who will get the rope to hang Trump, May, and Macron? Of course, nobody. This is the type of world we are living in. Accountability and punishment are only downward, to the individuals below (and many of them are railroaded); credit and rewards are only upward, to the masters above; and so there is no ultimate downside for the people at the very top to perpetrate any crime. There really is no legal jeopardy for people in the positions of Trump, May, and Macron. Such people administer whatever laws actually apply to themselves.

There is no accountability for such people, in our world.

They are above the reach of any law. And their press say that they are a free press, and that their nation is a democracy. Has the term “democracy” now lost all significant meaning? Or is everything that’s important now, just propaganda, just lies? Is that what we should expect? How can democracy even function under such conditions? It obviously can’t.

The lengthy presentation and analysis of this Engineering report, that the group to which the document had been leaked issued, closed by saying “We thank the OPCW staff members who have communicated with us at considerable personal risk.” All of the decent people there must be terrified, much like a woman who has just been raped is. But this is on a much bigger scale.

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Hassan Abdullah
Hassan Abdullah
Mar 18, 2020 1:46 PM

This referee was not with a couple of dissenting investigators targeted by the request. The email confirms charges by Henderson and his partner about senior management’s destruction of evidence accumulated by the team that disposed to Syria. Regards: digital marketing agency Pakistan

JudyJ
JudyJ
May 29, 2019 10:14 PM

Peter Hitchens has written again today to the OPCW with further detailed questions regarding their defensive line on the suppressed engineering report. Good for him. A journalist with a genuine eye for detail, objectivity and a conscience.

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

Shaka Zulu
Shaka Zulu
May 30, 2019 12:47 AM
Reply to  JudyJ

I’ve never seen so much inept dancing around, to Hitchen’s questions since May’s dancing routines on video.

Nose N Bottom
Nose N Bottom
May 29, 2019 2:16 AM

Staged da, but who will grow a pair and do a damm thing about it.

Probable Cause
Probable Cause
May 26, 2019 8:28 PM

Brian Whitaker’s thoroughly anemic argument that Henderson’s report was excluded ‘because it came too close to apportioning blame is’ such transparent nonsense that it should be used in a university Logics course (or as training for a suicide hotline operator).

He gives the example “The final OPCW report concludes that cylinders were dropped from the air BUT did not say WHO dropped them.” (maybe the Man in the Moon?).

Fine, point taken. BUT, did Hendersons’ report, saying that it was more probable that they were manually staged BUT didn’t say WHO placed them. (again, maybe the Man in the Moon?)

Pfffft…..there goes your intricately crafted argument, Mr. Whitaker. Up in so much jingoistic smoke.

That’s two independent strikes now. The staged hospital scene and the staged cylinders. But of course, it still could be a zebra and not a horse roaming the Wyoming prairie. Anything’s possible I suppose.

mark
mark
May 26, 2019 8:06 PM

That ar*ehole MP Woodcock was shilling for war against Syria yet again the other day on the strength of a gas attack claim by his pet Al Qaida head choppers and throat slitters. That’s what you get when you vote Labour now. Bomber Benn, Bomber Bradshaw, Bomber Bryant, Bomber Woodcock.

Curious Mind
Curious Mind
May 26, 2019 10:23 PM
Reply to  mark

Who would win a competition for pompous arses in government, the US or the UK?

wardropper
wardropper
May 25, 2019 3:13 PM

I hope it isn’t just wishful thinking on the part of some of us here that our owners are beginning to be terrified of being exposed.
I fear that the sort of money these owners have makes them feel immune to any and all fluctuations in public awareness, natural disasters, or stock market crashes.
After all, many of them shamelessly flaunt their wealth and power, and even challenge us with their obscene attitude, basically saying, “Sure, we are wealthy enough to manipulate anything we like. So, what are you going to do about it?”
In the face of which most of us are silent, because we don’t have an answer.

TheThinker
TheThinker
May 25, 2019 5:38 PM
Reply to  wardropper

Hi WarDropper

I don’t think it is wishful thinking on our part, Look at some of the shifts of language being used. At Davos this last couple of years, they are using language like populism is a scourge and we need to label the demos as populist, like it is a dirty and sinister moniker for those who think differently. Trying to demonise the Demos, means they definitely have recognised a shift in the Overton Window and its not in their favour.

That’s why they want state regulation of the social media and more generally the www – they can’t necessarily control the narrative as they have done before. Another sign that shutting down dissenting voices finding their own news or platforms is bad for them.

Also the way they have shut down voices like Assange, and political movements like Catalonia and GJ in France. We have watched the police become militarised beating the crap out of old people. I do think those things have mindful impact and the silent majority draws its conclusions.

Also, the way whether rightly or wrongly, citizens of the world are using their voting rights to punch their BS governments on the nose (where the propaganda is wearing thin)

I know the Philip Green’s of the world, think they are beneath us, but now his Arcadia empire is in trouble, I stopped giving this man my money after the BHS debacle. I know if many many thousands of us do that, it results in this odious man’s bank balance dwindling.

One of my kids (age 20) debates with me, saying well if you don’t shop in Greens shops, all those people lose their jobs and the sweatshops he doubt uses, in impoverished Countries also lose their meagre wages, so my actions have other outcomes. But, I argue, sweatshops should not be a thing and those people will find another job which treats them better. We shouldn’t accept that, which is the status quo as it’s not the right thing to do morally or ethically.

They also say, many people know what is going on in the world, but they cannot find the ways to change the world for the better, they can’t see a way to, so they just get on with their own lives as best they can, and put the worlds ills to the back of their minds, this is apparently called Functionalist – I think that’s how people deal with the barrage of MSM stories, fictional or factual or the vast horrors being perpetuated in our everyday spheres.

Good Grief
Good Grief
May 26, 2019 8:55 PM
Reply to  TheThinker

Populism vs. Democracy……..my gosh, how far can one bend semantics before it finally ruptures blood and gore all over the floor?

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
May 25, 2019 1:35 PM

Its all just lies and bullshit and straight out propaganda now Eric. All the pigs squealing for more wars, more interventions, more demonising of anyone who dosn’t get on their knees and lick boots: Putin, Assad, Maduro, Ortega, Xi, the Houthis, any country that says no, any organisation that reveals the war crimes of these psychopaths, black is white, war is peace, on and on. And you’re correct Wardropper – today’s ‘general public’ not only tolerate war criminals, they couldn’t give a tinkers fig about what is being done in Yemen or Palestine or Venezuela or Anywhere. Could Not Care Less. As long as they have Their creature comforts for Themselves and trinkets and shiny gadgets and plasma TV’s and fancy cars…. Who Cares? Most probably are oblivious how close to War with Iran the Anglo Zionist Empire is. Too busy catching up on what the Kardashians are doing. Or dreaming of their next overseas holiday. Excellent again Eric.

Not if but when
Not if but when
May 25, 2019 12:54 AM

Assange: ‘Everyone else must take my place’

Totally agree.

Parlor Tricks
Parlor Tricks
May 26, 2019 8:47 PM

Seems the MSM is deviously cherry picking the juicier 1st amendment parts of his place, while still throwing him to the wolves. How can you not love such debauchery?

wardropper
wardropper
May 24, 2019 6:55 PM

This is no exaggeration either.
The trouble is, today’s general public tolerates war criminals.

General Public
General Public
May 26, 2019 8:34 PM
Reply to  wardropper

Not always. Sometimes we champion them.

wardropper
wardropper
May 26, 2019 9:29 PM
Reply to  General Public

Sadly true…

Tim Jenkins
Tim Jenkins
May 24, 2019 5:25 PM

Nice piece, Eric: kinda reminds me of what journalism used to look like,
in a time when people had attacks of conscience.

A moral compass & some principled beliefs, harnessed to self respect, seems strikingly,
missing in action. ‘Q’ dos to the guys at the OPCW …

Honest Humanity, invaluable in futures bright 😉

USAma Bin Laden
USAma Bin Laden
May 24, 2019 4:09 PM

Well, even Noam Chomsky once stated, “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.”

If the Nuremberg Laws were Applied…
https://chomsky.info/1990____-2/

So Trump and his regime would only be joining a very (ig)noble line of American regime predecessors.

The American Empire is war criminal nation. Period. Full stop.

And America has been a war criminal nation throughout its genocidal history.

People here who act like this is a *new* phenomena are either willfully ignorant or simply dishonest.

Throughout the Cold War, America engaged in massive war crimes and criminal wars that surpassed even those that it is waging today. Remember a minor little “kinetic military action” called the Vietnam War?

Hell, America itself was spawned through wars of aggression against the Native Indians whose land the Euro-Americans stole and continue to occupy to this very day.

Most of what is euphemistically called the American “southwest” is actually Northern Mexico, whose land that America stole in the US-Mexican War in the 19th century. The US-Mexican War was a war for American land theft and colonization of Northern Mexico–rationalized behind messianic deceptions about US Manifest Destiny.

Today, America’s Manifest Destiny is to colonize the entire world, rationalized behind Messianic deceptions about “defending freedom and democracy.”

D'Esterre
D'Esterre
May 24, 2019 10:37 AM

“And their press say that they are a free press, and that their nation is a democracy. Has the term “democracy” now lost all significant meaning? Or is everything that’s important now, just propaganda, just lies? Is that what we should expect?”

I’m a pensioner. For as long as I can recall, going right back to my childhood and the Korean war, the news media has presented us with propaganda-as-news.

Of course, we didn’t know at the time that we were being propagandised; awareness of that – for me at least – came first in the 1990s, when I was in the university system, and with the rise of the internet. It was at university that I first encountered Noam Chomsky and his revisionist accounts of seminal events from my youth; the Cuban missile crisis, for instance. Then the internet gave me access to dissenting voices.

From the late 1990s, a much younger family member with an interest in history was learning about the world events through which I’d lived. But said family member was getting their knowledge online, and from those dissenting voices, such that everything I thought I knew was being challenged. Nowadays, I never take at face value anything I read or hear on the mainstream news. Unless possibly it’s reportage on natural disasters. And not always even then.

What does this mean for our democracy? I conclude that it’s a sham; and it has been for all of my life.

Peace
Peace
May 25, 2019 1:47 AM
Reply to  D'Esterre

D’Esterre, you and I seem to be in the same boat and I wonder how many others are with us?
And I have become so cynical of everything that if a “real news reporter” published a story about an investigation proving that all of the royal families of the past that were ousted from their countries back in the 1800’s, pooled their money, formed an aliance and moved to the US with the plan to take over the world one country at a time I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Sort of a payback full of revenge to all of the commoners.

D'Esterre
D'Esterre
May 26, 2019 7:06 PM
Reply to  Peace

Peace: “…all of the royal families of the past that were ousted from their countries back in the 1800’s, pooled their money, formed an alliance and moved to the US with the plan to take over the world one country at a time…”

Isn’t that what’s happening? Heh! Just joking… But I agree: the old “truth -is-stranger-than-fiction” saying applies to pretty much everything we thought we knew about what’s been happening in much of the world. Although maybe truth-is-grimier-than-propaganda is more apt.

mark
mark
May 26, 2019 8:18 PM
Reply to  D'Esterre

D – I only finally woke up after Iraq. Then I slowly realised everything we’d been told for decades was a pack of lies. Since then it has only got worse. So how much, if any, of the accepted historical narrative is actually true? If they’ve lied to us about Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Skripal, 9/11, “terrorist atrocities”, what else have they lied to us about? Or what haven’t they lied to us about? What about the “holocaust”, for starters? With their track record, how can you take anything at face value?

JudyJ
JudyJ
May 26, 2019 8:52 PM
Reply to  mark

…Yugoslavia.

D'Esterre
D'Esterre
May 26, 2019 7:15 PM
Reply to  JudyJ

JudyJ

Oh god, yes: Yugoslavia! That is a shabby, shabby story which reflects very poorly upon the West.

I was firmly challenged by the aforementioned much younger family member over what I thought I knew; which, of course, had come from the msm, the source of all of our news at the time.

You may have already seen this piece, but if not, it’s an enlightening read. For all the wrong reasons…. It infuriates me:

http://thesaker.is/srebrenica-and-jasenovac-the-genuine-difference-between-a-phony-and-real-genocide/

HistoryOnParade
HistoryOnParade
May 26, 2019 10:59 PM
Reply to  D'Esterre

Ah yes, Jasenovac…….where Nazi SS actually walked away in disgust because they couldn’t stand the inhumanity of it all.

Pavelic and Bandera, buzzards of a feather. The ethical standards of their ideological progeny championed by Washington and the MSM to this very day. Maybe a buzzard should be replacing the American eagle in deference.

It infuriates me, you say? Welcome to the club.

Hmph
Hmph
May 26, 2019 10:45 PM
Reply to  JudyJ

Rubin and Shea on CNN every hour on the hour reminding America of a hundred plus thousand Kosovars missing and presumed dead and assorted other genocidal acts that MUST be stopped, all turned into propagandistic guff by day’s end…..fed by the KLA and nurtured by the MSM. (sound familiar to Syria?) Who could forget?

Elliot Abram’s El Salvador’s death squad empresario twin, Willie Walker, assigned to finagle Racak. (Sound familiar to Syria?) Who could forget?

I’m sure Bush whispered in Clinton’s ear….”If it’s that easy to snow the public, I think I’ll have a go at Iraq.” Then Obama tried upstaging him with “I think I’ll have a go at Syria (and a few more for good measure) .””

At least Saddam was a bad guy AND another CIA asset gone rogue. Can’t have that.

I wish we could just say that Brennan was behind it all, but life’s not that simple.

D'Esterre
D'Esterre
May 26, 2019 8:54 PM
Reply to  mark

Mark: “I only finally woke up after Iraq. ”

Some time before, I’d been at uni, and had read research on the political situation in the ME, including information about the sanctions which had been applied to Iraq. When information on the so-called “weapons of mass destruction” hit the news, I knew immediately that, if what I’d read at uni was correct, there could not be any truth in the story. Which, of course, turned out to be the case.

In the country where I live, many citizens were unhappy about the possibility that our government would be pressured by the US to send troops in support of GW Bush’s insane adventure in Iraq. Not long before the invasion, rather a lot of us in our capital marched on Parliament, on the one hand in protest against what the US and its allies were preparing to do, and on the other, imploring our government of the time not to succumb to US pressure.

It is to the then-PM’s credit that no troops were sent at that stage; although later on, some soldiers went to help with repair of war damage and reconstruction. Of course, such was the quagmire in Iraq, our troops ended up being involved in fighting.

I’d add that, a couple of years ago, I mentioned to an Australian that we’d been part of a protest march about Bush’s insane invasion of Iraq. Said Australian was speechless at the thought of a protest of that sort, and that I’d characterised as “insane” the invasion of Iraq; which, of course, tells us everything we need to know about Australians. Well…. Queenslanders, anyway!

“With their track record, how can you take anything at face value?”

In my view, we can’t and I don’t. Unless there is corroborating evidence from dissenting journalists and commentators, I take at face value absolutely nothing reported on the msm, going right back to the Korean war. This is a most unfortunate situation: there are millions of innocent victims of the West over all those decades. The tragic thing is that those victims aren’t the ones we were told about: by and large, it’s the people we were told were the “baddies”.

You raise a troubling issue – that regarding the “holocaust”. Did we waste our tears on a chimera? I certainly hope not, and I’ve read (and heard) enough accounts to take as truth that the events as described did happen, and broadly as recounted. But the outright lies told by the West about so many other conflicts since the end of the war have contaminated that truth for many people.

Hmph
Hmph
May 26, 2019 11:12 PM
Reply to  D'Esterre

Questioning the Holocaust is a fool’s errand. Whether it be 6 million or 600,000, does it really matter? Nazis were into atrocities all around as a legitimate tactic of war, that’s enough for me.

D'Esterre
D'Esterre
May 30, 2019 10:32 AM
Reply to  Hmph

Hmph: “Questioning the Holocaust is a fool’s errand.”

Read what I wrote; in my view, there’s enough evidence to conclude that the events – broadly as described – in the Holocaust happened.

I pointed out, however, that the catalogue of lies on the part of the West over the intervening years has caused many people to question the Holocaust. I first encountered that sort of scepticism at uni.

Hmph
Hmph
May 26, 2019 11:24 PM
Reply to  mark

I woke up after Yugoslavia and believe me, it was a rude awakening. Washington and the MSM haven’t let me down since.

I draw the line at 9/11 denial though. If anyone doesn’t think fanatical salafists couldn’t and wouldn’t have managed that on their own, I can’t help them.

mark
mark
May 23, 2019 4:22 PM

None of this matters. It will just be totally ignored by the presstitute MSM, who are even now spinning similar yarns about gas attacks as the Syrian army cleans their per terrorists out of Idlib.

mark
mark
May 24, 2019 12:47 AM
Reply to  mark

Sky News is particularly bad now. Wall to wall “Evil Assad and the Evil Russians Bombing Hospitals”, complete with interviews of notorious jihadi head choppers and throat slitters, a guy balled Bilal Something who is a well known terrorist. Doing puff pieces on the head choppers and calling for Syria to be bombed again. Followed by a similar lengthy piece about how “the Russians” are busy stealing the EU elections, and much else in a similar vein.

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
May 25, 2019 2:40 PM
Reply to  mark

The last time I watched TV was the day Assange was hauled out of the Embassy. Managed to stomach about 8 mins of coverage on ABC here in Aussie, and their Chief European ‘correspondent’ Philip Williams, an absolute odious peice of chinless slime, could barely contain his glee at JA’s arrest. The same Williams who reported from Israel during Operation Cast Lead (wearing a helmet) screeching how terrified Israeli’s were at the exact time Gaza was being bombarded to rubble, and hundreds of children were being slaughtered. I know what Sky News, the Murdoch rags, The Guardian Idpol zombies, The BBC, creatures like Madcow will be saying. They serve Power and protect the status quo. They protect the system. They are presstitutes. They have lakes of blood on their hands. They are completely unworthy of even having the word ‘journalist’ attached to their name. Their actions show their real role.

Nutritionist
Nutritionist
May 26, 2019 9:12 PM
Reply to  mark

Pie in the Sky News, for those suffering from cerebral-nutrient deficit and hungry enough to eat anything.

The CheshireCat
The CheshireCat
May 26, 2019 9:08 PM
Reply to  mark

Oh, but they now qualify these attacks with “seems it could very well be, certainly appears to be, might follow the pattern of previous be’s” and other multi-level qualifiers.

Not if but when
Not if but when
May 23, 2019 1:40 PM

It’s now beyond ridiculous that the world is now under immediate threat from US institutions and their so-called ‘allies’ across the globe.

davemass
davemass
May 23, 2019 12:49 PM

We are all doomed, cos none of this shower will face a modern ‘Nuremburg’…

Squeaky Clean
Squeaky Clean
May 26, 2019 9:00 PM
Reply to  davemass

Now that you mention ‘shower’, I have this incessant recurring urge to take one when perusing Main Stream anything, in hopes of washing the western journalistic, jingoistic stench of the past few years from my ears.

harry law
harry law
May 23, 2019 12:31 PM

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” was coined by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. With their Trillion dollar defence bill including its threats to NATO countries to arm up and spend more on defence and generally acting like the mafia in dictating who other countries can trade with, they really have taken Chairman Mao’s words to heart. Turkey is now in the cross hairs [or the little shopkeeper determined not to pay ‘protection money’] the horses head has been left in Turkeys bed and US credibility is now at stake. Interesting times.

Oxymorons R US
Oxymorons R US
May 26, 2019 9:04 PM
Reply to  harry law

US credibility? Wasn’t that flushed out to sea long ago? Well before Trump, if I recall.

harry law
harry law
May 23, 2019 10:15 AM

George Bush and Tony Blair are equally war criminals, but the likely hood of them joining Trump at the Hague are zero, as Dr David Morrison explains here, the UK, France and the UK are above International Law, for all time.
“Roosevelt and Churchill built into the architecture of the United Nations the principle that the US and UK are above the rule for all time They accorded themselves permanent seats on the Security Council, the only United Nations body with any authority, and gave themselves a veto on decisions of the Council
The result is that they can engage in aggression against other states, as and when they like, without fear of a slap on the wrist by the Council, let alone being
Subject to economic sanctions or military action mandated by the Council. (Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would participate in the United Nations once Churchill explained to him that the Soviet Union would have a veto as well. Nationalist China was added to the list at the insistence of Roosevelt, and Churchill insisted that France be added as a counterweight to China.) In fact, there is a fundamental contradiction written into the UN Charter. On the one hand, Article 2(1) states: “The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.”But, on the other hand, Article 23 of the Charter grants five of its Members permanent seats on the Security Council, and Article 27 gives each of them a veto over decisions of the Council. Clearly, all Members are equal, but some Members are more equal than others”.

“Academic lawyers in their thousands may protest that taking military action against Iraq was illegal because it lacked proper authorisation by the Security Council, But it is of no consequence in the real world when there is no possibility of the UK, or its political leadership, being convicted for taking such action. It is meaningless to describe an action as illegal if there is no expectation that the perpetrator of the action will be convicted by a competent judicial body. In the real world, an action is legal unless a competent judicial body rules that it is illegal”.
“In the Attorney Generals advice to Blair he addressed the question that every client needs to have his lawyer answer, namely, what are the chances of me being done if I follow your advice? In this instance, would the UK get convicted of aggression? And would the Prime Minister himself face a trial for “the planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression” as happened to Hermann Goering at Nuremberg? The Attorney- General’s answers were: there’s very little chance of it”. http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/iraq/ags-legal-advice.pdf
The crime of aggression has been added to the ICC legislation, unfortunately the US has the American Service-members protection Act [ASPA] which authorizes the U.S President to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.” This authorization has led the act to be nicknamed the “Hague Invasion Act.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act

lundiel
lundiel
May 23, 2019 8:49 AM

We’ve turned a full 180° when the Daily Mail is more trustworthy than the Guardian.

Philip Roddis
Philip Roddis
May 23, 2019 7:28 AM

See Caitlin Johnstone today: ‘America is like a bad dad‘. One who:

“… patrols the neighborhood with a loaded pistol in each hand, and if anyone so much as looks at him funny he runs up to them and points both barrels in their face until they lay on the ground with hands behind head and apologize. With particularly noncompliant neighbors he’ll burst into their house late at night and beat them within an inch of their lives until they agree to his demands, then get all his other neighbors to testify in court that he did it in self defense. Sometimes he’ll even stage events to make it look like a neighbor attacked him, then he’ll go to their house and murder them in cold blood.

Tutisicecream
Tutisicecream
May 23, 2019 5:05 AM

Clearly the OPCW leaked report shows that war crimes have been committed. Not just by Trump, Macron and May but also by those who have supported and propagated the fraud of chemical attacks for so long. Those at the Fraudian, sorry the Guardian have been most complicit in spreading lies and deception under their fake claim that at their rag, facts are sacred…

As Eric and Kit have gone to great lengths to show, we are facing not so much as a crisis of democracy but a critical meltdown of the Neo-liberal cloaked rapacious capitalist order. As with all deceptions you get to a point where nothing can be believed anymore, absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile the Empire goes on threatening, building its forces against its enemy. The Nemesis of capitalism is itself. A band of warring brothers…Oh and sisters, lets not forget Hillary Clinton also.

John
John
May 23, 2019 2:45 AM

**EXCLUSIVE** First pictures of judge at The Hague waiting for western leaders to be tried for crimes against humanity and crimes against peace: https://www.123rf.com/photo_20180538_symbols-of-death-penalty-like-noose-judge-s-wig-and-skull.html

Savorywill
Savorywill
May 23, 2019 2:24 AM

I think we do have to take into consideration that Trump did warn the Russian and Syrian governments about the impending attack in the first incident, so there were no casualties with military personnel of either country and then, in the second attack, Trump announced it before the missiles landed, giving people time to flee the location, resulting, again, in few, if any, casualties (that I could find by googling the question). I think his heart isn’t into killing people, actually. Far more moderate, in this respect, than Clinton, Bush, or Obama, and we can count ourselves lucky that Hillary didn’t win, as she would have surely done far worse.

Loverat
Loverat
May 23, 2019 8:45 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

‘I think his heart isn’t into killing people, actually’.

Well, I guess it will be nice to have a US president whose heart isn’t really in it. Mind you, I would prefer a US president who speaks out against mass murder and means it.

The problem we have is Trump is controlled. He is weak. He is controlled by Bolton and Pompeo and the layers of Deep State. Look at his behaviour and non-delivery on election promises. I think in the background, they tell him he must intervene in this or that – and feed him the odd scrap in return, like torpedoing the Iran agreement (which they want anyway), or allowing him to play the peacemaker over North Korea.

Trump is pathetic and weak.

Savorywill
Savorywill
May 24, 2019 6:00 AM
Reply to  Loverat

In my opinion, he has Bolton and Pompeo as representative of one perspective, but he also has other influences around him, as he described recently, who advocate finding solutions not using military force. I suspect that it is all for show but, in the end, it is Trump, as president, who makes the final calls, and he did run for president on a ‘non-interventionist’ platform. I don’t think that Trump will actually do a regime change push in Venezuela, using military force, nor in Iran. He mentioned recently that the doors are open to talk to the Iranian leaders. Of course, I could be wrong, but I hope not.

wardropper
wardropper
May 24, 2019 7:27 PM
Reply to  Savorywill

I have to say I am certain that no American president during the last fifty years or more has made those “final calls” of which you speak…
The office of “President” no longer commands international respect, because many people now realize that any and all final calls are made by others.
Presidents are now elected upon their ability to fit into that scenario, which is why they all DO fit into it. Any others are screened out at much earlier stages of their political careers.

mark
mark
May 26, 2019 8:28 PM
Reply to  wardropper

Trump will do whatever Adelson and Nuttyyahoo tell him to. He is just their bitch.

wardropper
wardropper
May 26, 2019 9:27 PM
Reply to  mark

Yep. Like all the others.

cheap shot
cheap shot
May 26, 2019 11:42 PM
Reply to  mark

Adelson is a particularly repulsive character, both physically and otherwise. Sometimes I think his twin sister married Netanyahoo.

wardropper
wardropper
May 24, 2019 7:19 PM
Reply to  Loverat

Nor did Obama deliver on election promises.
I think we are in agreement that the US’s richly-deserved reputation as a rogue nation goes above and beyond any party politics over there.

mark
mark
May 26, 2019 8:26 PM
Reply to  Loverat

Trump is the weakest president in history. He bombed Syria to keep Little Princess Shiksa Ivanka happy. “Daddy, you have to bomb Syria.”

keepin' it real
keepin' it real
May 26, 2019 11:37 PM
Reply to  mark

An incredible story, but true.

tunde
tunde
May 25, 2019 2:05 PM
Reply to  Savorywill

Trump hasn’t been given a chance to do worse because he faces a problem of persuading the securocracy that he will act their script (isolate Russia). The blustering, bullying and haranguing that has characterized his presidency certainly doesn’t indicate a man whose character seeks a diplomacy of restraint. I also see this comparison with what HRC “may” have done as a kind of self-justification of why some people vehemently opposed her versus siding with Trump. Venezuela, Libya, J’lem, the Golan etc. Little vignettes into Trump’s worldview. I hope I haven’t come across as attacking you, i just think we should see the facts as they are instead of this alternate, “well, at least he’s not as bad as Hillary”.

Ramdan
Ramdan
May 23, 2019 12:58 AM

This is the type of world we are living in. Accountability and punishment are only downward, to the individuals below (and many of them are railroaded); credit and rewards are only upward,

“The Tao of heaven is to take from those who have too much
and give to those who do not have enough.
Man’s way is different.
He takes from those who do not have enough
to give to those who already have too much.” Tao-Te-Ching

It’s been like this forever, we only thought it was not. We wanted to believe we were a “civilization” and that we were beyond that point…but we were not. Now, we are just realizing how blind we’ve been.

Brian harry
Brian harry
May 22, 2019 11:41 PM

“Has the term “democracy” now lost all significant meaning?”

“Democracy” has become an Orwellian word meaning “Fascist”……’The people at the top’, Trump, May, Macron, now realise that THEY are being watched, and not trusted, and they are beginning to panic.
Just as Julian Assange is being persecuted for revealing the truth about the USA(by using their own data), the Truth is coming to the surface, and EXPOSING the real criminals.
Sad but true, it is TRUMP, MAY and MACRON who are the villains in all this……Hang ’em.

Loverat
Loverat
May 23, 2019 11:08 AM
Reply to  Brian harry

Indeed, the truth is coming out . And my opinion is they are petrified it’s all going to collapse around their ears. Just look at their language – they are really rattled.

Paid NATO warmongers like Eliot Higgins and Idrees Ahmad becoming increasing unhinged as each Syria narrative unravels. Both completely exposed – the only thing these liars can rely on is people not reading the OPCW documentation.

Not in favour of the death penalty. But let’s look at Syria and the amazing examples of reconciliation and forgiveness. Rise above the natural temptation for vengeance.

Higgins and Ahmad, perhaps should be sent to Syria after the war and forced to do community service to help repair what they have destroyed through their lies.

wardropper
wardropper
May 24, 2019 7:31 PM
Reply to  Loverat

Agreed, but Higgins and Ahmad wouldn’t last a day in Syria.
The carnage people like them bring about is not so easy to forgive by its victims.

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
May 24, 2019 4:49 PM
Reply to  Brian harry

Quite right Brian harry – What a surreal “reality” we now enjoy! Events that actually occur in the actual ‘physical world’ are now irrelevant. “Reality” as it once connected to the physical world has now morphed into the completely manufactured ‘false reality’ created by our psychopathic Western elites and their minions in the CIA and MI6, and dutifully disseminated to brain dead Western populations by corporate MSM outlets. One can literally listen, read or watch such propaganda on thousands of media outlets and receive the same entirely false “message” presented as “reality.” The West’s modern propaganda apparatus is almost seamless at this point. Truly progressive media like OffG are like some faint heretical “white noise” in a system of complete thought control.

In our neoliberal capitalist paradise where rule is by the wealthiest 1%, everything on planet earth is now “monetized.” It should not surprise us that now the “truth,” and thus “reality itself,” is now simply another “commodity” to be purchased by the highest bidder. Western oligarchy through MSM now simply creates our “reality” out of thin air much as Papal Bulls or royal edicts once did. And we the modern peasantry for the most part continue to act as if we still believe in the “infallibility of the Pope,” or the “divine right of kings” to rule us, rather than trusting our own powers of reason and solidarity and resistance.

Brian harry
Brian harry
May 25, 2019 7:15 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

“We make our own reality now”….Karl Rove, (G Dubya Bush’s Propaganda chief)