Given this, it is conceivable that the chemical weapons attack in Syria this week is a total hoax, perpetrated by The White Helmets , with the goal of tricking the US into taking military action against Assad, something the White Helmets have pushed for years.
As Max Blumenthal points out , The White Helmets, who call for a military imposed no-fly zone in Syria, were founded in collaboration with a wing of the USAID -- the wing that has promoted regime change around the world -- and have been provided with $23 million in funding from the department.
Money to the White Helmets is just part of the $339 million that the USAID has allotted for "supporting activities that pursue a peaceful transition to a democratic and stable Syria."
Russian deputy ambassador to the UN said on Wednesday that allegations that Assad used chemical weapons this week are based on "falsified reports from the White Helmets" , an organization that has been "discredited long ago".
This doesn't mean the White Helmets were involved in Tuesday's attack, or that the attack itself didn't really happen, we're just asking the question.
With that said, clearly the neocons and all anti-Assad forces have a lot more to gain from this week's chemical attack than does Assad. And Assad has much more to lose than any of those groups. And this week's attack followed the same script used during the 2013 attack, and that attack was wrongly blamed on Assad, as we suspect this attack is as well.
Although, it is too early to know what really happened, one of the possibilities is that the Syrian military bombed an al-Qaeda hideout, not knowing that chemical weapons were in the building, and the gas spread, killing people, as Russian officials have pointed out . But it's odd that the White Helmets just happened to be on the ground, and rapidly produced an HD video complete with a script that was read on most major media outlets within hours of the attack.
Other than the people responsible for the alleged chemical attack this week, nobody really knows what happened, including us. Now that the US has attacked Syria, Russia's ally, the question is, will Russia back down? If they don't, we may look back at this week's attack as a flashpoint to the start of a military confrontation with Russia. And given that this could lead to World War 3, we think it's worth the time to consider all possibilities, including the ones mapped out here.
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Article co-authors Dina Formentini and Chris Ernesto are members of St. Pete for Peace, a non-partisan antiwar organization providing peace oriented education events and services to the Tampa Bay, FL community since 2003.
(Article changed on April 9, 2017 at 02:29)
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