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The great investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, in two previous articles in the London Review of Books («Whose Sarin?» and «The Red Line and the Rat Line») has reported that the Obama Administration falsely blamed the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the sarin gas attack that Obama was trying to use as an excuse to invade Syria; and Hersh pointed to a report from British intelligence saying that the sarin that was used didn’t come from Assad’s stockpiles. Hersh also said that a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set...

Despite being humiliated by backing down on his pledge to initiate military action against Syria if they used chemical weapons, Democrats celebrated the removal of WMD from Syria by Russia as a triumph for President Obama. What do you suppose they're thinking today, following the largest poison gas attack by Syria against civilians last week?

MOSCOW, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the deadly gas contamination in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib was caused by the explosion of chemical weapons produced by the rebels. Media reports said about 70 people were killed with 200 others wounded Tuesday in a toxic gas attack by Syrian warplanes on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. Syrian air force delivered a strike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun against a large ammunition depot and a cluster of military equipment belonging to terrorists, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement....

... The entire event looks like an horrific operation by anti-Assad forces trying to create assistance for their regime change efforts by killing their own people. Yes, they are that desperate; and yes, there are vested interests in the U.S., including the CIA, who would support such an objective. ...

[Original title too long: Erdogan Holding U.S. Tactical Nukes At Inkirlink Taking Control Of The Second Most Powerful Army In NATO And Is Hailed As Mahdi] Turkey, in less than 24 hours was occupied by ErdoganÂ’s pro Muslim Brotherhood militia and entered the U.S. base where tactical nukes at Incirlik are held. Period. Plain and Simple. Yet there are no headlines in any media that reveals this global catastrophe in this way. Why? Even the air base, which is used by NATO and stores US tactical nuclear weapons, has been invaded by ErdoganÂ’s militia. The militia entered the base in...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1330.htm December 17, 2008 HP-1330 Treasury Designates Bank Melli Front Company in New York City Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated ASSA CORP., a front company created and controlled by Iran's Bank Melli and domiciled in New York, and its parent organization, ASSA CO. LTD, located in the Channel Islands. "This scheme to use a front company set up by Bank Melli -- a known proliferator -- to funnel money from the United States to Iran is yet another example of Iran's duplicity," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial...

Authored by Marie DuMond via Beyond Parallel A Predata-Beyond Parallel prediction indicates there is a 43% chance of North Korean WMD activity taking place in the next 14 days. In the next 30 days, there is a 62% chance for North Korean WMD activity. Beyond Parallel defines WMD activity as nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches. As seen below, Predata’s North Korea WMD overview signal captured a notable spike in conversations beginning on March 4, just two days prior to North Korea’s March 6 missile launches, and the signal has remained elevated since. Further, the signal’s 30-day exponential moving average...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A disgruntled, former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist promised to build 40 nuclear weapons for Venezuela in 10 years and design a bomb targeted for New York City in exchange for "money and power," according to secret FBI recordings released Wednesday. In the recordings, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni tells an agent posing as a Venezuelan official that the bombs would prevent the United States from invading the oil-rich nation and brags to his wife that the passing of secrets would make him wealthy. "I'm going to be the boss with money and power," the naturalized U.S. citizen...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group's annual report. It also funded reporters and partnerships with other news outlets. The Ploughshares Fund's mission is to "build a safe, secure world by developing and investing in initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate the world's nuclear stockpiles," one that dovetails with President Barack Obama's arms control efforts. But its behind-the-scenes role advocating for the Iran agreement got more...

WALLACE: ...in October of 2002 in which you authorized the use of force, you went further than the president ever did. Let's watch:(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)ROCKEFELLER: I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11th that question is increasingly outdated.(END VIDEO CLIP)WALLACE: Now, the president never said that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. As you saw, you did say that. If anyone hyped the intelligence, isn't it Jay Rockefeller?ROCKEFELLER: No. I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I'll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I took a...

In August 2007, because certain intelligence agencies were not convinced of Israeli claims that President Bashar Assad was engaged in the construction of a nuclear weapons facility, Israel sent sent 12 members of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit into Syria in two helicopters to collect soil samples outside the site in question. Needless to say, this was a highly dangerous operation. And it very nearly went wrong. The commandos were almost exposed when a Syrian patrol drove past the landing site where the helicopters were parked. But it was well worth it. The results provided "clear-cut proof" of the nuclear...

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump will be “surprised” by Iran if he annuls the nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday, according to the Trend news agency. “As I said earlier, Trump will be surprised if he tries to renegotiate the deal,” Zarif was quoted as having told the Iranian IRNA news agency. “We believe that nuclear deal is an international one and we are not worried about it at all,” he continued. “We are not going to be wary of what Trump does and we will have our options,” Zarif added, noting...

WASHINGTON — When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state. In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the...

An American cyberattack on North Korea half a decade ago was fruitless overall, sources say. The National Security Agency (NSA) led a mission in 2010 to damage North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported on Friday. Operatives tried using a variant of the Stuxnet computer virus deployed against Iran that same year, the news service said, with developers crafting a version that would activate once it reached Korean-language settings on targeted machines. Operatives hoped the virus would disable centrifuges for enriching uranium, much like it had when used against Iran, Reuters said, but the cyberattack stumbled when it encountered North...

.... Several U.S. officials briefed on the options told me they include declaring a “no first use” policy for the United States’ nuclear arsenal, which would be a landmark change in the country’s nuclear posture. Another option under consideration is seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution affirming a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons. This would be a way to enshrine the United States’ pledge not to test without having to seek unlikely Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The administration is also considering offering Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty’s limits on deployed...

A retired four-star Marine Corps general who served as the nation’s second-ranking military officer is a target of a Justice Department investigation into a leak of information about a covert U.S.-Israeli cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program, a senior Obama administration official said. Retired Gen. James E. “Hoss” Cartwright served as deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was part of President Obama’s inner circle on a range of critical national security issues before he retired in 2011. The administration official said that Cartwright is suspected of revealing information about a highly classified effort to use a computer virus...

A top White House national security adviser and key proponent of the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran is the focus of a congressional inquiry following disclosures the FBI may have denied him top-level security clearances, according to communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who led the administration’s efforts to mislead Congress about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is under scrutiny in the wake of disclosures he was declined interim clearance status by the FBI in 2008, when the administration was moving into the White House. Since that...

Barack Obama’s plan for military intervention in Syria was abruptly derailed by David Cameron and British members of parliament, US secretary of state John Kerry claimed on Thursday. The American president said he would bomb the Syrian regime if it used chemical weapons but he did not follow through on his promise. The failure to enforce his stated “red line” after President Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas in a Damascus suburb in August 2013 is seen by some as the worst stain on Obama’s legacy. The British parliament’s vote against air strikes has long been cited by Obama and others...

A former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says in a new book that while Bill Clinton was in the White House, a key component of the president's nuclear launch protocol went missing. "The codes were actually missing for months. This is a big deal," says Gen. Hugh Shelton. "We dodged a silver bullet."

WASHINGTON — The United States has determined that Syria has been seeking nuclear weapons from North Korea. "We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria," Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Semmel said. "We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen." One North Korean-flagged ship, Al Hamad, arrived in the Syrian port of Tartous on Sept. 3. Three days later, the Israel Air Force attacked an unspecified target in northeastern Syria along the Euphrates...