Evidence Said to be "Thin"

credit: AFP/Getty Images

Whaa? Despite repeated reassurance to the contrary from the Current Imperial Occupant (CIO), his Secretary of State at first refused to rule out American troops invading Syria if the situation in the country spiraled out of control. Kerry said in testimony before the Senate, "it would be preferable not to" insert language in the authorization against ground forces in case chemical weapons fell into the hands of Islamist rebels. He quickly realized he made a serious verbal faux pas and backtracked. He did not explain how a limited airstrike would prevent the unthinkable. Nor could General Martin Dempsey when asked just what the US hoped to accomplish with a military strike doomed to only unintended consequences. Just a month ago the nation's top general warned in a letter to Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) that US military intervention could empower radical groups on the rebel side. Kerry also left Senators scratching their heads when he said the President was not asking for a war authorization. The draft resolution allowing aggressive military action against Syrian--an act of war in most English dictionaries--prohibits the use of ground forces. No matter how much the US calibrates, it is the Syria and its allies response to an attack by "the Great Satan" that is the wild card.

Update: Aware that Congress has no appetite for igniting a wider war in the Middle East, the Obombanator threatened to override Congress if they vote against war. While denying he made an ultimatum that invested his personal credibility in an attack, the Current Imperial Occupant said, "As commander in chief, I always preserve the right and responsibility to act on behalf of America's national security." But the Nobel Peace Laureate did not explain how a civil war in Syria directly affects America's national security or endangered American military forces in the region during a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. He would almost certainly face articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans who have little regard for a president they erroneously consider to be a socialist, if he violated the war powers provision of the United States Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973. President Putin said in an interview he would be willing to support a military strike if the UN sanction the action against President Bashir al Assad based on concrete evidence of a gas attack committed by Assad's government. So far the Russians are unimpressed with American intelligence implicating Syrian security forces in the Ghouta attack. The Obombanator and Putin will meet at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.

{13.09.13}A Texas Republican Congressman told The Hill newspaper that he had seen the classified American intelligence accusing Syria's Bashir Assad of using gas on his people in Ghouta and thought the documents "pretty thin". He also said the evidence could be interpreted to make the case that the other side used the weapons, and the case against Assad actually pulling the trigger was "suspect". Russia has been claiming for some time that the rebels used poison gas on several occasions. The thin evidence has not stopped Congressional leaders from falling into line behind another president determined to "degrade" another dictator's arsenal regardless of the ramifications. US Person thinks it is Libya and Iraq and Vietnam all over again. The decision to attack has been made; now comes the sale with 'facts' tailored by the prevaricators inside the US security establishment to fit the occasion. In the case of Iraq, the 'facts' were fabricated. That's not a crank blogger saying that, but the then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), a blue-blooded member of the American plutocracy. Fortunately the House of Representatives will not reconvene officially until September 9th, so there is still time for the truth to be revealed. That the Current Occupant apparently is willing to ignore the United States' UN treaty obligations or not even attempt to present Assad's alleged war crime to an international tribunal like the International Criminal Court is perhaps the most disturbing fact of all to emerge so far.

Meanwhile it may be two weeks before international laboratories have completed their analysis of the biological and physical samples take by a UN team from Ghouta [photo]. Blood, hair, and urine from alleged viticims were collected as well as biological samples from corpses. Soil and residues from shell fragments were also taken. Dr. Ralf Trapp, former member of the OPCW told BBC that analyses should be able to determine if the agent was designed for military use or was improvised. Samples arrived at the central lab of the Organization to Prohibit Chemical Weapons in the Hague on Saturday and have been distributed to designated laboratories including Edgewood Chemical and Forensic Analytical Center and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the U.S. Labs in China, Russia, UK and France are also included. Each sample is marked, photographed and cross checked and sent to three separate, approved laboratories. To further deter cheating or mistakes, two dummy samples are used containing no nerve agent or a breakdown product. Two separate testing procedures must be used, and they are conducted blind.