John Kerry Sure Made It Sound Like the U.S. Is Going to Bomb Syria

New York Magazine ^ | 8/30/2013 | Joe Coscarelli

[nickcarraway]

"My friends, it matters here if nothing is done. It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens," said Secretary of State John Kerry in a speech this afternoon. "Just longing for peace does not necessarily bring it about." As Kerry called Bashar al-Assad "a thug and a murderer," the White House said in an intelligence report that it has "high confidence" the Syrian government was responsible for chemical-weapons attacks on civilians. "This is common sense. This is evidence. These are facts," said Kerry, calling the proof "clear" and "compelling."

"So the primary question is really no longer 'What do we know?'" said Kerry. "The question is whether we — we collectively — what are we and the world going to do about it?" Whether or not the government acts in response, he repeated, "matters deeply to the credibility and the future interests of the United States," not leaving much room to wonder which way the Obama administration is leaning.

[BenLurkin]

"The question is whether we — we collectively — what are we and the world going to do about it?"

Every creep in the Hussein administration wants America to sacrifice itself for "the world." Screw them and screw "the world."

[Lexington Green]

Kerry’s own Gulf of Tonkin.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The 60s peaceniks are now spoiling for war.

As some hippie reprobate reportedly said at the Clinton Inauguration when the F-16's flew over, "Hey, Man, those are OUR airplanes now!"

[dfwgator]

As some hippie reprobate reportedly said at the Clinton Inauguration when the F-16's flew over, "Hey, Man, those are OUR airplanes now!"

That was no hippie, that was the late Ron Silver, who totally changed his tune after 9/11.

[Toespi]

It is surreal. What in the hell is going on? I just can’t help but believe that this as something to do with Benghazi. Polls are saying over 80% of Americans are against intervention in Syria,, there isn’t a coalition, and Obama is risking serious blowback regarding unilateral war action. Whatever is going on ties into a desperate attempt to further the Benghazi coverup which must be so damning that this crowd is going all in. Interestingly, I think Graham and McCain are involved because McCain is acting rabid and insane.

[Yosemitest]

EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack
Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.
By Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh | August 29, 2013

This article is a collaboration between Dale Gavlak reporting for Mint Press News and Yahya Ababneh.

Ghouta, Syria — As the machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week’s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.

Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.

The U.S., Britain, and France as well as the Arab League have accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the chemical weapons attack, which mainly targeted civilians. U.S. warships are stationed in the Mediterranean Sea to launch military strikes against Syria in punishment for carrying out a massive chemical weapons attack. The U.S. and others are not interested in examining any contrary evidence, with U.S Secretary of State John Kerry saying Monday that Assad’s guilt was “a judgment … already clear to the world.”

However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.

“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels were killed inside of a tunnel used to store weapons provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, who was leading a fighting battalion. The father described the weapons as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”

Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that it would similarly attack civilians in the Assad regime’s heartland of Latakia on Syria’s western coast, in purported retaliation.

“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.

A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,” he said.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” ‘J’ said.

Doctors who treated the chemical weapons attack victims cautioned interviewers to be careful about asking questions regarding who, exactly, was responsible for the deadly assault.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders added that health workers aiding 3,600 patients also reported experiencing similar symptoms, including frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision. The group has not been able to independently verify the information.

More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.

Saudi involvement

In a recent article for Business Insider, reporter Geoffrey Ingersoll highlighted Saudi Prince Bandar’s role in the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war. Many observers believe Bandar, with his close ties to Washington, has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.

Ingersoll referred to an article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks alleging that Bandar offered Russian President Vladimir Putin cheap oil in exchange for dumping Assad.

“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” Ingersoll wrote.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Bandar allegedly told the Russians.

“Along with Saudi officials, the U.S. allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise,” Ingersoll wrote.

“Bandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy,” he added.

According to U.K.’s Independent newspaper, it was Prince Bandar’s intelligence agency that first brought allegations of the use of sarin gas by the regime to the attention of Western allies in February.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the CIA realized Saudi Arabia was “serious” about toppling Assad when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar to lead the effort.

“They believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn’t: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it, wasta, Arabic for under-the-table clout,” it said.

Bandar has been advancing Saudi Arabia’s top foreign policy goal, WSJ reported, of defeating Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.

To that aim, Bandar worked Washington to back a program to arm and train rebels out of a planned military base in Jordan. The newspaper reports that he met with the “uneasy Jordanians about such a base”:

His meetings in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah sometimes ran to eight hours in a single sitting. “The king would joke: ‘Oh, Bandar’s coming again? Let’s clear two days for the meeting,’ ” said a person familiar with the meetings.

Jordan’s financial dependence on Saudi Arabia may have given the Saudis strong leverage. An operations center in Jordan started going online in the summer of 2012, including an airstrip and warehouses for arms. Saudi-procured AK-47s and ammunition arrived, WSJ reported, citing Arab officials.

Although Saudi Arabia has officially maintained that it supported more moderate rebels, the newspaper reported that “funds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar.”

But rebels interviewed said Prince Bandar is referred to as “al-Habib” or ‘the lover’ by al-Qaida militants fighting in Syria.

Peter Oborne, writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has issued a word of caution about Washington’s rush to punish the Assad regime with so-called ‘limited’ strikes not meant to overthrow the Syrian leader but diminish his capacity to use chemical weapons:

Consider this: the only beneficiaries from the atrocity were the rebels, previously losing the war, who now have Britain and America ready to intervene on their side. While there seems to be little doubt that chemical weapons were used, there is doubt about who deployed them.

It is important to remember that Assad has been accused of using poison gas against civilians before. But on that occasion, Carla del Ponte, a U.N. commissioner on Syria, concluded that the rebels, not Assad, were probably responsible.

Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates .

Dale Gavlak is a Middle East correspondent for Mint Press News and has reported from Amman, Jordan, writing for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Gavlak covers the Levant region, writing on topics including politics, social issues and economic trends. Dale holds a M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. Contact Dale at dgavlak@mintpressnews.com

Yahya Ababneh is a Jordanian freelance journalist and is currently working on a master’s degree in journalism, He has covered events in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Libya. His stories have appeared on Amman Net, Saraya News, Gerasa News and elsewhere.

[Yosemitest]

"What in the hell is going on? "

This is "what's going on" .

The ILLEGAL ALIEN IN CHIEF is allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to KILL CHRISTIANS in Syria, and take over another country.

It really is a "more progressive, blood lust".
Little do they know that they are fulfilling what our Heavenly Father said would happen.
Yet they are seeing the Greater Exodus happening before our eyes,
and most either are too involved in their "day-to-day lives", or they just don't want to see, that what God SAID would happen ... IS happening now.
Hussein of America is INTENTIONALLY DESTROYING AMERICA, from the inside out.

STATE DEPT. SPOKESWOMAN ADMIT U.S. DOESN'T KNOW IF ASSAD ORDERED CHEMICAL ATTACK




Toxic Catch: SYRIA REBELS' CHEMICAL LAB Uncovered Near Damascus, ( 4:51 )

Published on Jul 14, 2013

Syrian state TV says the military has found a chemical laboratory
which produces poisonous materials in the town of Jobar on the outskirts of Damascus.
Sources claim the REBELS were planning to stuff shells with the chemicals and use them to attack the capital.
RT's Middle East correspondent Paula Slier reports.

---

The Muslims are guilty of the chemical attack, not the Christians, and the ILLEGAL ALIEN IN CHIEF knows it.
But the ARAB-KENYANand MUSLIM defiling the Oval Office doesn't care.
Barack Hussein Obama II, (a.k.a. Barry Soetoro) just want to turn Syria into another Muslim Brotherhood run country, and kill Christians.
It's just that simple!

[Old Yeller]

Obama realizes this is his last change to provoke Iran into attacking Israel to draw them into this mess.

DING! DING! DING!

[GnL]

[Rummyfan]

The 60s peaceniks are now spoiling for war. Its surreal. What could be next?

Indeed! About the only thing I'm sure of is that they will f**k it up and the situation will be even more of a mess.

[sport]

I believe that it will happen. It is just a matter of time until it happens. Obama is going to have to do something or Assad will beat his cohorts, the muslim brotherhood. What happens after that is anybody’s guess.

[musicman]

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[sport]

I would put Assad’s character up beside Kerry’s any day.

[Grampa Dave]

Kerry and Madam Kerry having dinner with the evil WMD villian, Assad, 2009.

In the meantime, this awkward photo of Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife dining with the Assads in 2009 has gone viral amidst Kerry's harshest criticism of the Syrian government to date. Describing the government's use of chemical weapons against civilians as a "cowardly crime" and a "moral obscenity," Kerry said, "There must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people."

[cunning_fish]

>>>As Kerry called Bashar al-Assad “a thug and a murderer,”<<<

Is it a new normal for a diplomat to call a foreign elected leader like that?

[kevao]

This evidence coming from the NSA and CIA who know NOTHING about Benghazi, but everything about Assad?

Let alone the Boston Bombers. If NSA can't even protect the homeland, then what good are they? They've collected records of all my emails and phone calls, and to what good?

[tennmountainman]

Yep. Clapper, head of NSA got caught lying to congress about domestic data collection.

I don’t trust a word about this Syrian intel.

[cunning_fish]

>>>“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” Ingersoll wrote.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Bandar allegedly told the Russians.<<<

Not realistic at all. Not even a Saudi prince can live another year after threats like that.

[WVNan]

Does anybody recall the clear and compelling proof of poison gas attacks by Sadam Hussein against the Kurds, and the endless outcry from the liberal democrats about Bush’s war for “no reason”? Talk about short memories....

[mac_truck]

Obama won't bomb, the NSA/CIA will obfuscate and John effing Kerry will be transformed into an international scape goat.

I'll bet he resigns for 'personal' reasons by the end of the year and Susan Rice takes over at State.