Seymour Hersh exposes US government lies on Syrian sarin attack

Barry Grey

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has published an article demonstrating that the US government and President Barack Obama knowingly lied when they claimed that the Syrian government had carried out a sarin gas attack on insurgent-held areas last August.

Hersh’s detailed account, based on information provided by current and former US intelligence and military officials, was published Sunday in the London Review of Books. The article, entitled “Whose sarin?,” exposes as a calculated fraud the propaganda churned out day after day by the administration and uncritically repeated by the media for a period of several weeks to provide a pretext for a military attack on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The article also reveals sharp differences within the state apparatus over the launching of an air war that one high-level special operations adviser said would have been “like providing close air support for [Al Qaeda-affiliated] al-Nusra.”

In the end, internal differences over the launching of direct military action, compounded by massive popular opposition to another unprovoked war in the Middle East, led the administration to pull back and accept a Russian plan for the dismantling of Syrian chemical weapons. This was followed by the opening of talks with Syria’s main ally in the region, Iran.

Hersh’s account of systematic manipulation of intelligence aimed at dragging the American people into yet another war based on lies underscores the fact that Obama’s retreat in Syria by no means signaled a turn away from militarism. Rather, it reflected a provisional change in tactics in relation to US hegemonic aims in the oil-rich Middle East, and a decision to focus more diplomatic and military resources on Washington’s drive to isolate and contain what it considers more critical antagonists: Russia and, above all, China.


John Kerry's Anti-Palestinian Agenda

Stephen Lendman


Kerry doesn't have an agenda of his own until his Jewish swen-
gali
establishes one for him. Out of sheer politeness we'll refer
to this particular one as 'John Kerry's agenda'. But it is anti-Pale-
stinian through-and-through of course. No surprise there, con-
sidering where it originated from and considering too, it must be
said, who really owns the government of the United States. -Ed.

He's no peacemaker. He never was throughout 30 years in state and federal government service. He's one of America's privileged. He's super-rich. His record shows exclusive support for wealth and power. He spurns popular interests.

He's been conducting Middle East shuttle diplomacy for months. He's Israel's man at State. He's no honest broker. He never was. He's not now. His dirty hands are manipulating dead on arrival Israeli/Palestinian peace talks. They're more pretense than real. They demand unconditional Palestinian surrender. Israel is all take and no give. So is Washington. Peace in our time reflects a convenient illusion.

Last week, Kerry met with Netanyahu and Abbas. He presented a new plan. It's largely old wine in new bottles. It focused on security issues.

On December 5, The New York Times headlined "Kerry, Seeking to Nudge Along Peace Talks, Offers Netanyahu Ideas on Security," saying: So far, "little visible headway" was achieved. Kerry is back trying again. He brought "American ideas," said The Times. They one-sidedly favor Israel. They offer Palestinians sticks, not carrots. So-called peace talks reflect same old, same old. Kerry brought nothing new. According to The Times: "Saeb Erekat, the senior Palestinian negotiator, said that Mr. Kerry did not present anything in a final form during the meeting in Ramallah."

Kerry's so-called peace proposal ignores it altogether. PA officials rejected it. An unnamed one said: "The Palestinian side rejected (it) because (it) would only lead to prolonging and maintaining the occupation."


Mandela Eulogies: Reinventing His Disturbing Legacy

Stephen Lendman

Mainstream praise is unanimous. It ignores reality. It got short shrift. It reinvents Mandela's disturbing legacy. It turned a Thatcherite into a saint. A previous article discussed it. Editorials, commentaries, and feature articles read like bad fiction. Tributes are overwhelming.

They reflect coverup and denial. The true measure of Mandela is hidden from sight. It's willfully ignored. Illusion replaced it.

Obama issued a disingenuous statement. He called Mandela "a man who took history in his hand, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice." "We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again."

They infest world governments. They run America. They inflict enormous harm. Mandela exceeded the worst of South African apartheid injustice. He deserves condemnation, not praise.

White supremacy remains entrenched. Extreme poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, malnutrition, and lack of basic services for black South Africans are at shockingly high levels. They're much worse than under apartheid. Mandela embraced the worst of neoliberal harshness.
Mandela could have changed things. He never tried. He didn't care. He sold out to wealth, power and privileged interests. He did so shamelessly. His life ended unapologetically.

His successors followed the same model. They still do. They're stooges for predatory capitalist injustice. They're figureheads. They enforce white supremacist dominance. They betray their own people in the process.


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