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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 4/18/17

New Evidence that Syrian Gas Story Was Fabricated

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McCain criticizes Trump's inaction after dozens had reportedly been killed in rebel-held, northsyrian Khan Sheikhoun by the toxic nerve gas SARIN dropped by airplanes {_CNN breaking news 04/04/2017_}
McCain criticizes Trump's inaction after dozens had reportedly been killed in rebel-held, northsyrian Khan Sheikhoun by the toxic nerve gas SARIN dropped by airplanes {_CNN breaking news 04/04/2017_}
(Image by quapan)
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Reprinted from downwithtyranny.blogspot.com

(This piece is organized in two parts, the story to this point and the new evidence. To go directly to the new evidence, click here.)

Since our last report on the Syrian "gas attack" story (see "Another Intelligence Group Makes the Case: Assad's Responsibility Is Not Proved"), events have moved along. Nothing, though, has dismissed the doubts of those willing to entertain doubts that the story as told by the White House -- and repeated by Democrats and Republicans alike -- is baseless, a fabrication.

First, British scientists were given samples from the alleged gas attack that contained traces of sarin. The presence of sarin had previously been doubted, since first-responders were videoed handling victims with their bare hands (see image at the top), actions that would have killed them if sarin were present on the victims' bodies. On this evidence -- the discovery of sarin in samples given to analysts -- British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft concurs with the U.S. that Assad's responsibility for a gas attack is "highly likely." In other words, an estimation.

Second, a small crater that was said to have been made by a sarin-containing munitions blast has been studied by Dr. Theodore Postol, professor emeritis at MIT, and he showed that the blast dispersal pattern is "more consistent with the possibility that the munition was placed on the ground rather than dropped from a plane." Postol continues, "Analysis of the debris as shown in the photographs cited by the White House clearly indicates that the munition was almost certainly placed on the ground with an external detonating explosive on top of it that crushed the container so as to disperse the alleged load of sarin [downward]."

Dr. Postol's report has been referenced in such pieces as this, by Robert Borosage writing at The Nation. Postol's original document is available here.

The Story to This Point

Gareth Porter, an investigative reporter who writes on national security policy, summarizes events to that point as follows (my emphasis):

The Trump administration officials dismissed the Russian claim that the Syrian airstrike had targeted a munitions warehouse controlled by Islamic extremists as an afterthought to cover up the Syrian government's culpability for the chemical attack. Moreover, the Trump officials claimed that US intelligence had located the site where the Syrian regime had dropped the chemical weapon.

However, two new revelations contradict the Trump administration's line on the April 4 attack. A former US official knowledgeable about the episode told Truthout that the Russians had actually informed their US counterparts in Syria of the Syrian military's plan to strike the warehouse in Khan Sheikhoun 24 hours before the strike. And a leading analyst on military technology, Dr. Theodore Postol of MIT, has concluded that the alleged device for a sarin attack could not have been delivered from the air but only from the ground, meaning that the chemical attack may not have been the result of the Syrian airstrike.

[...]

[T]he US military allegedly knew in advance that the strike was coming: Russian military officers informed their American counterparts of the Syrian military's plan to strike the warehouse in Khan Sheikhoun city 24 hours before the planned airstrike, according to the former US official who spoke with Truthout. The official is in direct contact with a US military intelligence officer with access to information about the US-Russian communications. The military intelligence officer reported to his associate that the Russians provided the information about the strike to the Americans through the normal US-Russian Syria deconfliction telephone line, which was established after the Russian intervention in 2015 to prevent any accidental clash between the two powers. The officer said that Russia communicated to the US the fact that the Syrians believed that the warehouse held toxic chemicals.

That information was considered so politically sensitive that after its initial dissemination, it was available only to a few officials, the US military intelligence officer told his associate.

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A writer who contributes to a number of publications, including digby's Hullabaloo, Down With Tyranny, Naked Capitalism, Truthout and Alternet.

On Twitter — @Gaius_Publius

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