The White House announced on Thursday that US intelligence has conclusive proof of chemical weapons use by the Assad government, though a prior report by the UN on the opposition’s use of such weapons complicates matters. President Obama is said to be considering plans for greater military intervention in Syria following the pro-Assad forces’ crossing of his administration’s ‘red line’. The increased support will include arming the country’s opposition fighters and could mean enacting a no-fly zone adjacent to Jordan’s border. Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon official, spoke with RT regarding this week’s announcements by US officials. RT: Washington claims Assad has used chemical weapons. Can we trust that conclusion? Michael Maloof: In my view, we have to be very skeptical. I was at the Pentagon when intelligence assessments were made regarding Iraq and its WMD programs, and we know what the results were. A trillion dollars later, 4,500 [American] lives and we have nothing to show for it and there were no WMD. As previous commentators have pointed out, US intelligence assessments have to be looked at very, very carefully. This actually goes against the UN’s preliminary determinations. I think the US decision to arm is a very dangerous one. It will inevitably lead to uncontrolled sectarian violence as a result, and it actually could have an impact I believe on convening the Geneva II meeting, which the United States and Russia were supposed to chair. I think the United States is acting at the behest of Qatar and Saudi Arabia in order to push the Sunni-Wahabi agenda into Syria and ultimately into Lebanon – and this is very, very dangerous. RT: Surely ANY indication of the use of weapons of mass destruction is enough to apply tougher measures? MM: Well, it depends upon who fired it. It depends upon who launched the gas. There is evidence – and this is from the United Nations, a very impartial group – that looked at it, and they claimed it came from the opposition, they have a capability. The intelligence assessment, which of course I haven’t been able to see since it’s classified, really needs to be looked at very carefully and scrutinized and questioned seriously in light of our previous experience in Iraq. RT: What’s the significance of the timing of these allegations? MM: The timing was to give the opposition a little bit of backbone, because they are desperate. The tide has turned in favor of the Assad government; the timing is meant to boost morale. But the opposition is so fractured, how do you determine who will get the foreign arms? So that it doesn’t get into the hands of the foreign fighters, the Al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda types. There’s no guarantee about this, and that’s why I believe it’s going to prolong the conflict. ‘No-fly zone on the cards’ As to why the White House has determined that Syria’s government has crossed a ‘red line’, Deepak Tripathi, Honorary research fellow at the University of Roehampton, tells RT President Obama faced pressure on all sides. RT: London said it is undecided on whether to follow up on these accusations. What do you make of it? Deepak Tripathi: I think president Obama’s announcement that he has concluded that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons leaves no doubt that there will be some direct intervention from the US. Perhaps arms supplies, which had been going to the rebels through Jordan via Saudi Arabia and Qatar in any case. But that may not be enough against the background of several Syrian government victories. So, I think that the possibility of a limited or more broad no-fly zone for Syria is a distinct possibility at some stage in the near future. RT: US allies have previously supported the US in their previous escapades. Could the US go it alone in arming the rebels? DT: US allies, especially France and Britain, have been pushing the US and Mr. Obama in particular towards this decision. Mind you Mr. Obama has been under pressure domestically as well. In the past week, former President Clinton’s comments describing Mr. Obama as a “fool” if he didn’t intervene in Syria really hurt Obama’s pride, and I think he made this decision against the background of both domestic and foreign pressures. … Read More
The CIA: Keepers of the Hit Lists. War Crimes as Policy
After the exposure of the al-Jadiriyah torture center, journalists reported that heads would roll. But a major CIA asset, Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Asadi, maintained command of the National (formerly Special) Police, undermining the reforms promised by the new Interior Minister, Jawad al-Bulani. … Read More
Syria claims sarin seizure at rebel hideout as Russia ‘blocks’ UN’s Qusair resolution
Syrian Arab News Agency reports that sarin, together with automatic rifles, pistols and homemade bombs (IEDs) was seized in the Faraieh neighborhood of the city of Hama. Sarin (or GB) is an extremely toxic, though colorless and odorless, substance that disrupts the nervous system, over-stimulating muscles and vital organs, if it comes into contact with skin. This potentially extremely harmful nerve agent was originally invented and manufactured to be used as a chemical weapon. According to UN Resolution 687, Sarin is classified as a weapon of mass destruction. The threat of chemical weapons deployment in Syria has become a major international concern, with American President Barack Obama even saying previously that the use of chemical arsenal by the Syrian government would be a “red line” and might precipitate a foreign military intervention. However, in early May an independent UN commission came to the conclusion that Syrian rebels had used sarin nerve gas, while allegations of its use by the government have not yet received any official confirmation. Russia ‘blocks’ another UNSC resolution on Syria On Saturday a UN Security Council (UNSC) assembly failed to adopt a British-drafted resolution on the situation in Qusair, which the Syrian Army has blockaded and is said to be eliminating a large group of opposition forces that occupied the town several weeks ago. Rebels besieged in Qusair are pleading for military help. They claim that many civilians have been wounded in the assault of the government forces and that these people are in desperate need of medical attention. The UK-drafted UN statement obtained by Reuters claims that Assad’s government must “allow immediate, full and unimpeded access to impartial humanitarian actors, including UN agencies, to reach civilians trapped in Qusair.” According to Reuters’ sources in the Security Council, Russia blocked the resolution during private discussions on Saturday, explaining that the UNSC had made no statement when the rebels came to Qusair in force and seized the town. It is “not advisable to speak out as the UN Security Council didn’t when Qusair was taken by the opposition,” a Russia diplomat reportedly said in the UNSC. So far Russia has officially vetoed three resolutions on Syria in the UNSC saying they were “unbalanced” targeting Assad’s government while sending weak to no message to the opposition fighters. Earlier this week the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on the worsening human rights situation in Syria and in particular in connection with battle for Qusair. The document puts the blame for Qusair violence solely on Damascus troops and condemns the involvement of “foreign combatants” fighting on the side of the Syrian government. The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that the resolution deliberately ignore numerous human rights violations and abuses of Qusair civilians committed by armed foreign jihadists, some of whom have links to Al-Qaeda. The “foreign combatants” mentioned in the resolution are fighters of the previously neutral Hezbollah group which have joined Syrian military in the offensive on Qusair, overturning the balance in the stand-off to the opposition’s disadvantage. The Syrian opposition has even threatened not to attend the peace conference in Geneva that is being prepared by Russia and the US for July because of Hezbollah’s involvement. The ongoing siege of Qusair has raged for two weeks now. On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that he is “following with the gravest concern” the situation in Qusair. He reminded the government of Bashar Assad of its responsibility to protect civilians on the Syrian territory, including those threatened by militants, and urged to allow thousands of Qusair residents to flee the town. In another statement issued on Saturday the UN Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos and the UN Human Rights Head Navi Pillay maintained that there are as many as 1,500 injured people in Qusair who need immediate evacuation for emergency medical treatment. UN officials said that if the information they are receiving is correct, “the general situation in Qusair is desperate.” “We urge the parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian agencies to evacuate the wounded and provide life-saving treatment and supplies,” Amos and Pillay said in their statement. Qusair, with an original population of 30,000, is less than 10 km from the Lebanese border and some 25 km from the city of Homs. In the meantime there have been reports of intensifying clashes between the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Assad’s forces near Aleppo. Allegedly, the troops have captured Mount Shuwaihinah, a dominating point in the area. FSA brigades are reportedly calling for reinforcements to be sent in from other areas. … Read More
Was ‘terrorist’ Buford Rogers actually being groomed as an FBI informant?
The FBI felt the need for extra recognition this week by announcing that they had foiled another “terror plot” in Montevideo, Minnesota, but they only managed to charge 24-year-old trailer park icon, Buford ‘Bucky’ Rogers, with “felon in a possession of a firearm”. … Read More
Elderly nun goes on trial for worst breach ever of US atomic complex
Court proceedings began Tuesday in Knoxville, TN for Sister Megan Rice and two other members of the Transform Now Plowshares, an anti-nuke protest group that is charged with crimes related to the July 28, 2012 break-in of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.Prosecutors have charged Rice, 57-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli, 64, under the Sabotage Act for trespassing on the protected site where the United States stores a significant portion of its enriched uranium supply used in weapons making. If convicted, the charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.The three defendants willfully admit to their actions last summer but insist on exercising their right to a trial. They were initially charged with destroying property within the complex, depredation against property of the United States in an amount exceeding $1,000 and trespassing onto US Department of Energy property. After refusing a plea deal, though, prosecutors tacked on the sabotage count of injuring national-defense premises last December.“We chose to exercise our constitutional right to a jury trial and refused to bow down to their threats,” the trio said last year before the charges were upgraded. “We remain convinced that making and refurbishing nuclear weapons at Y-12 is both illegal under US and international law, and it is also immoral. Ultimately, we are required to follow the law of love and our consciences.”When the Sabotage Act charge was tacked on in late 2012, the defendants issued a statement saying, “Our consciences compelled us to act at Y-12 Oak Ridge nuclear facility because we knew that the nuclear weapons of mass destruction illegal produced there threaten the well-being of our entire planet.””They are innocent of all these charges and feel that everything they did was legal and moral, and I think they believe that this (new charge) is ridiculous,” defense attorney Bill Quigley told Huffington Post of his clients after the December indictment was unsealed.Prosecutors said the defendants cut through a fence at the Y-12 facility last year and then spent roughly two hours walking the premises, spray-painting slogans and vandalizing the walls of buildings using hammers and human blood.Speaking to the New York Times last August, Sister Megan Rice blamed “the criminality of this 70-year industry” on her case. “We spend more on nuclear arms than on the departments of education, health, transportation, disaster relief and a number of other government agencies that I can’t remember.”After the trespass, though, spending has only gone up at Y-12. Despite being called the nuclear sector’s equivalent of Fort Knox, three protesters with an average age just shy of 70 had no problem entering the site last year and going undetected for hours, allegedly causing $70,000 in damage during that time. A federal spokesman for the site later told The News Sentinel that the government spent $15 million in direct costs following the breach, largely on “modifications to the PIDAS (perimeter intrusion, detection and assessment system), with the installation of additional concertina wire and animal fencing, physical security upgrades — such as additional sensors and cameras — and additional personnel and miscellaneous costs.” After the breach, an Energy Department inspector general wrote of finding “troubling displays of ineptitude” at the complex and a handful of local officials were reassigned. … Read More
‘Re-writing legal language and political nudging – new US strategy for Syria’
For two years, the US government tried to publicly shy away from direct contact with radicals in Syria. Staunch advocates of peace, they did not want anything to do directly with weapons supplies to rebel forces. But in the light of concrete accusations of alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, some fear the US will no longer hold back, instead taking a more direct role in the dismantling of the Assad regime. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has announced that the country may finally push for a more direct involvement in the Syrian crisis. Geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen spoke to RT, expressing disbelief at the recent announcement and underlining the kind of strategies and power plays the West will now use to make their partnership with the Syrian rebels more official – as opposed to hushed and indirect, which he alleges has been happening all along.RT: President Obama talked about options and now his defense secretary is doing the same. Does Washington mean business in this case or is this just rhetoric?Patrick Henningsen: What they’re trying to do here is re-write the legal language that defines chemical weapons. You can see already in the US the government’s official position is that a pressure cooker constitutes a weapon of mass destruction. So that’s one side – the legal side. And the other side is called ‘political nudging’…so they’re nudging their way into Syria via different pathways. And of course they’re trying to nudge Russia out of the way in the process.RT: How much is this in danger of being a mission creep? Do you think the US could be stuck in a potentially explosive civil conflict in an unstable place?PH: A lot of this is public relations theatre. Unofficially the US, Britain and NATO have been airlifting quite a lot of weapons into Jordan via Croatia and other places, through turkey – another NATO country. So what they’re trying to do is make their position official rather than unofficial. This is aside from the fact that they have full support for the Saudis and the Qataris who are sending arms there as we speak. But they’re saying the weapons they’ve requested are surface-air missiles, anti-tank, depleted uranium munitions… this is kind of a ridiculous scenario where the rebels have this sort of wish list of arms they’d like to get and the US is hammering the UN to get them to try to do this ‘ legally’, quote unquote. But of course ‘legally’ is a very relative term, if you look at the history of the United States and Britain getting intervention green-lights in the last 10-15 years.RT: The rebels have long been able to purchase weapons. What would be the impact if simply the US weapons were able to go there?PH: What it’s going to do is making instead of an under-the-table operation a public operation. Of course one of the things it’s going to do as well is allow for Israel’s position on Syria to be formalized. Israel is very interested in taking a piece of Syria – the Golan Heights area. I said this on your program over a year ago and some people thought it was crazy, but that’s what the agenda is and you can see Israel moving in that direction already. So there’s a lot of different factors at play surrounding Syria right now and you’ve got Lebanon off to the side as well and the issue of Hezbollah, which Israel would like to eliminate on Lebanon. So there are all contributing to the interesting and not so nice mix we have going on with intervention in Syria.RT: Hegel’s statement came on the same day as the opposition reported what they call a massacre by government troops. What do you read into the timing of these two announcements?PH: One of the problems with reports of massacres is that the sole source of most of these statistics and reports is the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in London. And already their numbers and their reports have been proven to be fabricated, false and distorted. So this is the sole basis of intervention in Syria. This plus reports of uses of chemical weapons – but not real chemical weapons. So, we have a major problem: we’re basing the whole premise of intervention on stuff a lot of which is fiction. They’re trying to build their case to suit their already pre-existing conclusions. It’s a failure of politics, a failure of diplomacy. And it’s also a failure of logic, quite frankly. … Read More
Unabomber lawyer to defend suspected Boston terrorist Tsarnaev
United States Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler approved on Monday a request made by public defender Miriam Conrad to add a high-profile name to the roster of attorneys representing the 19-year-old accused bomber. Judy Clarke will now join the legal counsel that will defend the surviving suspect of the Boston bombing when Tsarnaev is put on trial for using a weapon of mass destruction, a felony terrorism count that comes with a possible death sentence if convicted.Clarke, a San Diego, California-based attorney with decades of federal experience under her belt, previously represented “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, convicted Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and the Arizona man who shot former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. In those three cases as well as others, Clarke succeeded in having her clients receive only life imprisonment sentences in lieu of the death penalty.Authorities say Tsarnaev killed three people and injured more than 200 others when he and his brother Tamerlan, 26, detonated a pair of homemade bombs during the Boston Marathon two weeks ago. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died days later after a gunfight with police, but his brother survived and is now accused of crimes not dissimilar to those of clients Clarke worked with in the past: Kaczynski was convicted of killing three people and injuring nearly two dozen others with a series of homemade explosives and is considered a domestic terrorist by the FBI; Rudolph earned that distinction as well after being convicted of killing two and injuring 150 others in the 1996 Olympic blast.In approving the defense’s request to enlist Clarke as a representative for Tsarnaev, Judge Bowler said the accused bomber required an attorney with experience in a case where prosecutors will likely seek the death penalty.“In light of the circumstances in this case, the defendant requires an attorney with more background, knowledge and experience in federal death penalty cases than that possessed by current counsel,” Bowler said. The appointment will “provide the defendant with adequate and proper representation.”Northampton, Massachusetts lawyer David Hoose has gone toe-to-toe with Clarke in court, and speaking to Fox News he described her as “simply the best.”"She has an ability to relate to people who are charged with these horrific, horrific crimes and to humanize them, to portray them as human beings to the government and to a jury,” Hoose said.Just last week, Clarke told attendees at a legal conference in Los Angeles about being “sucked into the black hole, the vortex” of death penalty cases nearly two decades ago when she represented Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman convicted in in 1995 of drowning her two young children.”I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I oppose the death penalty.”Conrad also asked the court to appoint a second death penalty lawyer, Washington and Lee University School of Law Professor David Bruck, but that request was rejected for the time being. … Read More
