Posted on 08/28/2013 5:36:47 AM PDT by quimby
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 officials now say they're certain that the attacks were the work of the Bashar al-Assad regime -- and why the U.S. military is likely to attack that regime in a matter of days.
But the intercept raises questions about culpability for the chemical massacre, even as it answers others: Was the attack on Aug. 21 the work of a Syrian officer overstepping his bounds? Or was the strike explicitly directed by senior members of the Assad regime? "It's unclear where control lies," one U.S. intelligence official told The Cable. "Is there just some sort of general blessing to use these things? Or are there explicit orders for each attack?"
(Excerpt) Read more at thecable.foreignpolicy.com ...
Al Qaeda has its hands in lots of things, and if they can have plants in the Afghan army who kill US troops, then they can have infiltrated the Syrian army as well.
None of this explains why Assad would have used chemicals on people within easy driving distance of the visiting UN inspection team.
That's a suicide wish and demonstration of a desire to lose.
And every indication is that Assad does not desire to lose.
However, we have not analyzed this intercept. Could the call itself be an enactment, an operation run against both the intercept people and against Assad?
How do we know the intercepted call is really what it appears to be on its surface?
Ok... so they used nerve gas.
Was it on Americans? Nope.
Was it IN America? Uh uh.
Was it AGAINST Americans? Nada.
So...we’re involved why?
If the Commander didn’t know, then it proves it was not an authorized attack. Maybe someone rogue. But, this proves the regime did not do it
If we do not fight for our own Ambassadors and people, why are we going to war for strangers?
What Difference Does It Make?
arab militaries don’t do anything unless their officers order it and their officers don’t order anything unless the regime orders it
the penalty for independent decision making is summary execution
this sounds like a CF orchestrated by a rogue rebel group who got themselves inserted into a key unit
or another false flag attack
so far all the victim pictures are civilians- anyone seen a dead al Qaeda .... errr...”rebel”... fighter?
Washington Times reports that the UN is saying it was the Rebels that set it off.
If the call did transpire, all it shows is that the Syrian govt has chemical weapons, not that it used them. An accusatory question is not evidence of a chemical weapon attack - it is evidence of a chemical weapon stockpile.
What happens when you take out chemical weapon stocks with air strikes?
Just curious, not trying to be a smart arse.
Unless the allegations are correct and the west helped the rebels with planning and executing a chemical weapons attack. Another cover-up? Could be.
The west maybe has been caught in something ... unheard of? With the candy and nuts, in D.C. anything is certainly possible.
The original sources seem to be Israeli and they reported it was a conversation between two officials about treatments. Later there was a claim that was attributed Assad’s brother These were reported here in FR’s during the past two weeks.
This report claims a US source
It will possibly release the chemicals into the environment and cause more deaths.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/israeli-intelligence-intercepted-syria-chemical-talk
So we're relying on reporting of one man's words to go to war. Stinks to high heaven.
I am not a targeteer but I believe you use weapons of type and number that will penetrate the storage facilty and containers and incinerate or vaporize the agent you believe you are targeting. and you choose your weather to minimize collateral damage to nearby residents in case it is capable of becoming airborne
and if not, you just disable the dam facility and make it so dirty a special EOD cleanup crew goes in to finish the EOD job on the ground - as we did in Iraq
An al Qaeda-affiliated rebel commander in Syria has pledged to target communities of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority with rockets in revenge for an alleged chemical attack near Damascus, according to an audio recording seen on Sunday.
The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group's behaviour in Syria would not change as a result. Al-Nusra claims to be have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets. On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a merger with al-Nusra, but Mr Jawlani said he had not been consulted on this. Al-Nusra has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.
“It will possibly release the chemicals into the environment and cause more deaths.”
Yes indeed it will.
Who will be blamed? Why would we want to do this to the Syrians?
EXACTLY, no-to-illegals. That thought has crossed my mind MANY times. The enemies within. There are many of them.
The only apparent reason is to destroy the evidence that the weapons came from Iraq, protecting the liberal narrative that Bush lied about Iraq having those weapons.
Since the incident took place a week ago today, those reports may have been related to the earlier incidents.
This story does not claim a US source, It claims a US official "overheard" the conversations. It implies the US intercepted the conversations, but they could have heard the israeli tapes.
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