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[video] On CNN's The Lead, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) explains his opposition to U.S. military intervention in Syria's civil war: "It's not even clear it was a chemical attack. If it was a chemical attack, then the residue left on the clothing of victims would have poisoned other people. That hasn't happened."

A week after accusing Israel of giving Al-Qaeda chemical weapons to use against civilians in Syria, British MP George Galloway was caught lying about his remarks during a debate in Parliament. … On Thursday, during a debate in the British Parliament on whether to take part in a military offensive against Syria, Galloway was challenged by Matthew Offord, a representative of Hendon in North London. Offord said he had received several e-mails from constituents on Galloway’s hateful remarks, then said, “I would find that very hard to believe that the honorable member said that, so would he like to take...

WASHINGTON, August 29 (RIA Novosti) – An urgent meeting of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – reportedly called by Russia – ended in less than an hour on Thursday without any indication of progress or agreement on the crisis in Syria following last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack, US media reported. It was the second time in two days that the five permanent Security Council members – the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China – came out of a meeting with no apparent progress. Russia, which on Wednesday blocked a British resolution seeking the...

The Obama administration has selectively used intelligence to justify military strikes on Syria, former military officers with access to the original intelligence reports say, in a manner that goes far beyond what critics charged the Bush administration of doing in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war.According to these officers, who served in top positions in the United States, Britain, France, Israel, and Jordan, a Syrian military communication intercepted by Israel’s famed Unit 8200 electronic intelligence outfit has been doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion reached by the original report.The doctored report was leaked...

The obvious question that needs answering: What was the Original Source of the Syrian "revolution" ? If it was NOT domestic (initiated and lead by domesting Syrian citizens), but was Foreign-initiated and lead... That was the Original Act of War. Asking for anyone who has real information to come clean, out with the truth, here on this thread. Calling on news media to ask this question. Calling on members of Congress to ask this question. The truth needs to come out - who is behind the Syrian revolution. If the Syrian government is putting down a foreign-initiated coup d'état -...

In the no s**t Sherlock category we have this news: The intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle to an alleged chemical weapons attack is no "slam dunk," with questions remaining about who actually controls some of Syria's chemical weapons stores and doubts about whether Assad himself ordered the strike, U.S. intelligence officials say. President Barack Obama declared unequivocally Wednesday that the Syrian government was responsible, while laying the groundwork for an expected U.S. military strike. "We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out," Obama said in an interview with "NewsHour" on PBS....

Somehow we doubt that Putin just folded... Sky Sources: Russia to call for urgent meeting of five permanent members of UN Security Council — Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) August 29, 2013 Some more from BBG: RUSSIA CALLED FOR THE SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, DIPLOMAT 5 PERMANENT COUNCIL MEMBERS U.K., U.S., FRANCE, CHINA, RUSSIA FIVE PERM. SEC. COUNCIL MEMBERS TO MEET AT 2:30P Hopefully Putin doesn't whip out incontrovertible proof the chemical gas attack was linked to Al Qaeda, Qatar... and the US of course.

President Barack Obama said that an introduction of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war would constitute a "red line" with "enormous consequences" that "would change [his] calculus." That was a year ago. This past March, Obama said, "We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people, or the transfer of those weapons to terrorists. ... We will hold [Bashar al-Assad] accountable." Credible sources -- including Britain, France and U.S. intelligence agencies -- accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons on two or more occasions, once last December and possibly twice during March. Obama took...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed at least 100 people is no "slam dunk," with questions remaining about who actually controls some of Syria's chemical weapons stores and doubts about whether Assad himself ordered the strike, U.S. intelligence officials say. snip However, multiple U.S. officials used the phrase "not a slam dunk" to describe the intelligence picture - a reference to then-CIA Director George Tenet's insistence in 2002 that U.S. intelligence showing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk" - intelligence...

Video at link.

As far as I'm concerned, this doesn't change the rationale for not bombing Syria one bit. All it does is set up a war crimes trial in the Hague in the future. Foreign Policy: Last Wednesday, in the hours after a horrific chemical attack east of Damascus, an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense exchanged panicked phone calls with a leader of a chemical weapons unit, demanding answers for a nerve agent strike that killed more than 1,000 people. Those conversations were overheard by U.S. intelligence services, The Cable has learned. And that is the major reason why American...

Many have been alarmed by the rapid escalation in Syria this week after years of horrific violence. With the reported use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, U.S. officials say America could begin missile strikes within the week. But why now? What exactly do we hope to achieve? Glenn Beck tackled the issue on his television program Wednesday evening, arguing that the focus of the administration may not be on the war itself — but on the subsequent layout of the world. “This administration knows that we are on the brink of World War III. The global economy is...

There is a growing volume of new evidence from numerous sources in the Middle East — mostly affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its sponsors and supporters — which makes a very strong case, based on solid circumstantial evidence, that the August 21, 2013, chemical strike in the Damascus suburbs was indeed a pre-meditated provocation by the Syrian opposition. The extent of US foreknowledge of this provocation needs further investigation because available data puts the “horror” of the Barack Obama White House in a different and disturbing light. On August 13-14, 2013, Western-sponsored opposition forces in Turkey started advance preparations...

US President Barack Obama says the US has concluded that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attacks near Damascus. He said the use of chemical weapons affected US national interests and sending a "shot across the bows" could have a positive impact on Syria's war.

Is the President of the United States certain chemical weapons were used to kill innocent civilians in Damascus last week, and is he certain that the Assad regime was, in fact, responsible for the attack? Is the evidence clear and compelling? Will such evidence stand up in the court of public opinion? The U.S. administration thinks so, and will make the evidence public soon. We are told such evidence will include: Intercepted telephone calls between Assad regime officials and military leaders discussing the chemical attack, picked up by U.S. intelligence. Intercepted communications from the Syrian military picked up by Israeli...

>CONFIRMS several recent posts on this blog-Nazis and Muslim Brotherhood compared-UN Panel implicates Syrian Rebels in Chemical weapons attacks-Alarming Footage: Syrian Rebels Used Chemical Weapons-History Repeats: CIA Docs Reveal US Aided SaddamÂ’s Chemical Attacks-Obama Busted Funding Secret Jihad Takeover August 27, 2013 By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack Recent news of a chemical weapons attack in Syria smacks of desperation. The question comes down to who is most desperate right now, the Assad regime or the Muslim Brotherhood rebels? Consider that since June, AssadÂ’s forces have been winning. According to a CBS News report from last month, victories for the...

The Syrian government is demanding that the United Nations immediately investigate three alleged chemical attacks carried out by rebel groups on the outskirts of Damascus last week, Syria’s envoy to the UN said. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said he had requested UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the team of experts currently in Damascus investigating an alleged use of chemical weapons last week also investigate these other attacks. The attacks took place on August 22, 24 and 25, Bashar Jaafari told journalists Wednesday. The “militants” used toxic chemical gas against the Syrian army, the Syrian diplomat told reporters. .... read more...

The Obama administration is right to be caution about US intervention in Syria. For the US to launch a military strike without UN Security Council sanction would constitute an illegal 'act of war' against a sovereign state. (The Kosovo precedent cannot make an illegal act legal). Awkwardly, reality is rather different: There has been absolutely no evidence published to support the allegation that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were responsible for this latest, or any other gas attack in Syria. Unwelcome as it may be to certain European and regional governments, who have been cheerleading the case for American intervention, neither...

CAIRO, August 28 (Itar-Tass) - Evidence provided by eyewitnesses and people who suffered from a poisonous gas attack in the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus obviously points to the fact that the neuro-paralytic gas sarin was used there by the paramilitaries of Syria’s irreconcilable opposition, Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor of UN international criminal tribunals said in an interview with Swiss television Wednesday. Her words were cited by Surya al-Aan news portal.

BEIJING — An attack on Syria would be dangerous and irresponsible, and the world should remember the Iraq war was started by U.S. allegations of weapons of mass destruction which turned out to be false, China's official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The United States has served Syrian President Bashar al-Assad notice that it believes he was responsible for chemical weapons being used against civilians last week. Military chiefs from the United States and its European and Middle Eastern allies have met in Jordan for what could be a council of war, should they decide to punish Assad, who...