[rod5591]

"Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)"--A handful of CIA veterans established VIPS in January 2003 after concluding that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had ordered our former colleagues to manufacture intelligence to “justify” an unnecessary war with Iraq.

Anyone familiar with this group? Members are: Eugene D. Betit, Intelligence Analyst, DIA, Soviet FAO, (US Army, ret.) William Binney, Technical Director, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.) Marshall Carter-Tripp, Foreign Service Officer and former Office Director in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, (ret.) Thomas Drake, Senior Executive Service, NSA (former) Robert Furukawa, Capt, CEC, USN-R, (ret.) Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.) Mike Gravel, former Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service; special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps and former United States Senator Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq and Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan (associate VIPS) Larry C. Johnson, CIA & State Department (ret.) Michael S. Kearns, Captain, USAF (Ret.); ex-Master SERE Instructor for Strategic Reconnaissance Operations (NSA/DIA) and Special Mission Units (JSOC) John Brady Kiesling, Foreign Service Officer (ret.) John Kiriakou, former CIA analyst and counterterrorism officer, and former senior investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Linda Lewis, WMD preparedness policy analyst, USDA (ret.) (associate VIPS) David MacMichael, National Intelligence Council (ret.) Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.) Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East, CIA and National Intelligence Council (ret.) Torin Nelson, former Intelligence Officer/Interrogator, Department of the Army Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (Ret.) Coleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel (ret.) Scott Ritter, former MAJ., USMC, and former UN Weapon Inspector, Iraq Peter Van Buren, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (ret.) (associate VIPS) Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA Robert Wing, former Foreign Service Officer Ann Wright, U.S. Army Reserve Colonel (ret)

[Jeff Chandler]

William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) was a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and later a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities, becoming “the loudest and most credible skeptic of the Bush administration’s contention that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.”[1] He received harsh criticism from the political establishment but became a popular antiwar figure and occasional talk show commentator as a result of his stance, later proven to be correct.

In 2001 Ritter on two occasions was detained and later arrested on charges of soliciting minors for sex on the Internet that were both dismissed.[2] He was arrested on similar charges in 2010 that led to a conviction and sentence of one and a half to five and a half years.[3]

[Pollster1]

Accidental release of active gas seems very unlikely. Far more likely options are:

(1) ISIS wanted to derail the “peace talks” and grab for more by releasing gas and blaming it on Assad, so they gassed their own children, or

(2) Assad wanted to derail the “peace talks” and keep more or all of his country by releasing gas and blaming it on ISIS, so he gassed his own people.

We cannot know which it is, although I find the phrase “peace talks” to be silly when neither side wants more than a brief pause in the fighting until they win a total victory.

[Uncle Miltie]

“Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush are hailed as honorable leaders, rather than viewed as politicians who countenanced gross abuses of power.”

- Consortiumnews.com from their “About” page here:

https://consortiumnews.com/about/

[DoughtyOne]

The only problem with what they are trying to foist off on us here, is that Trump stated Assad has used gas a number of times in recent months.

Thus I am tasked with believing Assad’s planes just happened to hit numerous caches of chemical weapons each of those times over recent months.

Sorry. No sale!

Assad was playing fast a loose, and he got taken to task for it.

What next? Are we going to see reports from the wives of various people to confirm Assad couldn’t have done it?

[lobelia]

Sarin does not work that way; according to weapons expert, Thomas Wictor:
“Sarin released in a warehouse would touch metal and produce hydrogen, which would create a massive fireball and incinerate the nerve agent.”

[Rockingham]

Chemical weapons bombs are highly specialized devices because conventional explosions do not lead to useful dispersal and tend to burn up or over-dilute the chemical components. And that is more or less what would have happened if a munitions deport with nerve gas weapons was blown up.

[bigbob]

Even if true, makes no difference.

[McGruff]

Just ask yourself who stood to benefit from this.

[piasa]

VIPS are absolute scumbags.

[piasa]

I’m very familiar with the group. They are affiliated with Dan Ellsberg, the guy who helped write, then steal, the Pentagon Papers... and with Lyndon LaRouche.

[piasa]

They are also strongly associated with John Kerry and the late Ted Kennedy.

[piasa]

And with the picturesque Congresscritter Henry Waxman of California.

[piasa]

They coordinated with former ambassador to Gabon Joe Wilson, who is in turn linked to French intelligence via a former wife, and the late Gabonese leader Omar Bongo, Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Alamoudi of Rock Creek Corp, and Hillary Clinton.
With the latter two the connection is through their dealings with heavy metals mining interests in Africa.

[AlaskaErik]

Oops!

[BeauBo]

There were significant reasons why the Assad regime would use nerve gas on this target.

Khan Sheikhoun is right on the main road (M5) of the Syrian heartland. It is the frontline for the Regime to push further North.

The main target in Khan Sheikhoun would be the munitions production facilities, which are inside of manmade caves, quarried into the solid rock, a bit like Cheyenne Mountain. Russian partisans sheltered in underground caves while fighting Nazi occupation, and have prepared similar cave-like military facilities in many of their client states. They tunneled out caves in Afghanistan that a whole Armored Battalion could comfortably park and live inside, with multiple entrances, in case some were bombed shut. 500lb aerial bombs or barrel bombs would not worry folks inside those caves, but they are open to the air outside the entrances - the wind just blows in for ventilation. The Syrian Army used these facilities for a long time before the rebels captured them, so they knew well that conventional bombing would be ineffective.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Ray McGovern can never be trusted. He is so filled with hate that it clouds any professional judgment he might have had. Works with Marxist/anti-intelligence groups and has since the late 1970’s. He might show up in “Counterspy” magazine (Philip KGB Agee operation). The same for David MacMichael (who has made a career of being an “intelligence expert” when some of his credentials and work has been criticized by many others.

Scott Ritter - personally I think he turned into a wackjob over Iraq.

Coleen Rowley, ex FBI agent. Spurned by Clinton’s FBI re her accurate warnings about potential Islamic terrorists before 9/11. Turned to the Left and never returned.

Ann Wright rings some bells.

Robert Parry - hardcore leftist writing since the 1970’s if I recall correctly. Occasionally has an accurate article but he is not to be trusted, ever.

What is important is to find out the real authors of this article using Parry’s name as a cover for it.

Also important to find out how old Clintonites and Obamites are in this list. Maybe some disillusioned Bushies too.

Don’t discount them because they are the “opposition”. Check their backgrounds, credibility, predictions/actual happenings, etc.

Then make up your minds whether to believe them wholly, partially or not at all.