"At least 70 people have been killed and hundreds injured (500-700) in an alleged chemical attack on the distict of Douma in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, the mainstream media (MSM) reports citing “rescuers and medics” in the militant-held area. [for example: BBC, SkyNews]
Obviously, the alleged attack was immediately blamed on the Syrian government.
According to mainstream and pro-militant “analysts” and “media outlets”, the “Assad regime” has nothing to do but to conduct chemical attacks in Douma. Especially, considering that the militants’ defense fully collapsed in Eastern Ghouta, Douma is now the only militant stronghold in the entire area and Jaish al-Islam has no chances to win the battle for Douma even theoretically.
First reports, about the alleged chemical attack in the area appeared on April 7 when the Syrian Army re-newed its military operation against Jaish al-Islam militants controlling Douma. It’s interesting to note that according to initial reports by Jaish al-Islam-linked media only 15 people had been affected by the attack. However, by April 8, the story had reached the MSM and the death toll had grown to “at least 70”.
The notorious al-Qaeda-linked propaganda organization White Helments as always played a key role in sppreading the story.
The White Helmets closely cooperated with the Syrian al-Qaeda branch – Jaish al-Islam, and continued to cooperate with the group after it was re-branded to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and then Hayat Tahrir al-Sham."
https://southfront.org/old-new-story-msm-claims-70-people-killed-douma-chemical-attack-assad-regime/
————-
"Animal" Assad? Our beloved president has once again been watching a bit too much TV news. Does it ever occur to him to pick up the secure phone and call the watch officer at CIA, NSA or wherever and ask if they think the news reports are correct? All of these information feeds to the MSM and thence to DJT's ears are news feeds from the propaganda apparatus of the rebels, much of it supported financially by the British government's foreign ministry and delivered through MI-6. What on earth motivates the UK in this devilment? And then, of course, there is the extreme group think on the part of the US and European MSM in parroting these objectively unproven claims. I have grown weary of pointing to the congruence of such thematic material and Zionist policy goals with regard to Syria. pl
“Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse”
Degringolade
The Carthage suburb of Tunis is a delightful place. pl
Colonel:
I stand corrected:
“Ceterum censeo Damascus delendam esse”
Perhaps the UK would like to misdirect attention from their recent sabre rattling “nerve agent” poisoning which more than likely was a case of bad shrimp
Dave Lewis
Shellfish toxin? if so I am really surprised that they are alive. pl
It is indeed. Remember smoking some hooka pipes with the locals near the Dermech station back in the day. Did some 2 summers of archaeology there, so spent about 5 total months in the area. Rode horses along the beach up by La Marsa just north of there.
re: “the propaganda apparatus of the rebels, much of it supported financially by the British government’s foreign ministry and delivered through MI-6”
A charitable foundation has been established in the name of the Labour MP Jo Cox who was killed by a mentally unstable person during the Brexit campaign in the UK in 2016. Labour MPs and candidates have been doing fundraising for this foundation: “The Jo Cox Foundation brings together people & organisations to fight for the fairer, kinder & more tolerant world the late Jo Cox MP believed in.”
I felt like I got punched in the gut when I saw that a part of the funds raised were going to the White Helmets. “The White Helmets have used the grant to purchase eight ambulances which are now operational in Syria. They are also using our support to set up a ‘Hero Fund’. This is supporting the families of over 150 White Helmets who have lost their lives carrying out life-saving humanitarian work in Syria.” (https://www.jocoxfoundation.org/the-jo-cox-fund/)
The British Labour Party uses a killed MP in order to do fundraising for terrorists. They are evil beyond what I had imagined to be possible.
Anything to keep the Brexit fiasco off the front page.
I think you already understand why the UK pushes hard in this direction but it has been facinating to watch how strong this lobby has become in the UK. The leader of the Labour party now has to devote significant time on whether he is sufficiently tough on anti-semites. It is an absurdity.
I am very grateful for the chance to occasionally comment, even if my observations are generally trivial.
Pat, really,you seem to have come back in a mood much more likely to mine…Just i ca not disagree with you in almost anything…Do you think this will turn boring?
I also find the shellfish toxin another unbelievable alibi for the historical clumsiness of the MI6…”b” is all out with this crazy theory…that his regulars come out with these last days….
What shelfish toxin when the Skripals are being offered a new identity in the US uncer witness protection program by CIA coverage?
En fin…
re: Skripal and ‘shellfish toxin’
This is a pic of folks walking around in a US VX storage facility – protect, protect, protect …
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58b084e801fe58fe4f8b614d-2000/vx-nerve-agent-newport-chemical-depot-ap971119091.jpg
The allegedly used Novichock is said to be “8-10 times as toxic as VX”. Given how toxic VX is itself, that’s sadly impressive in terms of lethality.
No doubt to sane minds VX is already SERIOUSLY BAD stuff. And Novichock is 8-10 times worse?
Anyway, it was written last week or so that the poison was applied to the doorknob of Skripal’s house, where he and his daughter were poisoned by touching it. That may be so, or not – but not my point.
My point is this: With VX a droplet is toxic enough to hamstring or kill a person. According to Wiki linked sources 150 mg VX by skin contact would make a person hamstrung. 150 mg is … basically nothing, that is, a very unhealthy little something.
VX is itself a particularly toxic nerve agent. Now, one has to place Novichock in these realms of hyper toxicity.
Novichock is said to be 8-10m times as “particularly toxic” as VX, so likely a “doplet of a drop” would suffice to hamstring or kill. What are we talking about – 15-20 mg in case of skin contact.
Bad news. But not surprising news: It has to be underlined that the point of stuff like VX is to make a soldier inable to fight quickly (or to persistently
minetoxin an area) – by death or serious and very quick illness. Alas.Now, I wonder why it was taking 4 hours until Skripal and his daughter became ill and collapsed after contracting something as very unhealthy as Novichock (or VX).
In interesting contrast, a cop who searched the Skripal house was reported to have felt sick just 15 minutes after starting to work there.
So the same hyper military developed super toxic poison sets a cop ill after 15 minutes but allow Skripal and daughter to go and have dinner to only become sick after 4 hours? Seriously?
It’s an odd difference in effect, to formulate it politely. After all, Skripal maybe many things but he likely isn’t, say, a magically toxin resistant White Helmet.
And just as notable is that now, three or so weeks after the posioning, Skripal and his daughter are ‘doing much better’. How … marvellous.
As one can say, if one stands and has the silly idea to piss into the wind, he’ll stink, and the UK story about
Russia, no!Putin, poisoning Skripal stinks a lot.IMO, Trump is largely forced into this kind of rhetoric by the accusations and investigations of “collusion” with Russia. If he calls BS on the claims of Syrian govt chem attacks, the MSM, MI6, former US intel people turned media talking heads, etc would have him for lunch. They would all say that failure to recognize the evil that is the Assad govt, let alone failure to act, is final proof of an unholy friendship with Putin. The Borg deserves credit for this dastardly side benefit of the collusion accusations.
Are we sure that if he called the CIA or NSA watch officer that he’d get accurate intel?
Also, are we sure that Trump doesn’t already have the accurate intel and is just producing the appearance of doing as the Borg demands, but has, in reality, established communications with Putin and worked out an understanding of how this game must be played at this point?
I mean thinking that with all the resources at his finger tips, Trump is going to resort to acting based on what the “lying media/ “fake news” has to say seems, to me, to be a highly improbable (and insulting to Trump) assumption.
VOA reported that Jaish al Islam used chemical weapons in Aleppo two years ago. Jaish al Islam is the group running the show in Douma. This evidently is an unimportant piece of information to the yellow press.
https://www.voanews.com/a/kurdish-officials-rebels-may-have-used-chemicals-aleppo/3276743.html
Colonel,
Not only the UK , now it is France ( after meeting with the UK) :
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaRqLyBW0AAZPTt.jpg
Nikki has managed to convince the French Ambassador to propose an Emergency Session at the UBSC for tomorrow.
Guess who is visiting Macron presently : MBS.
And then we have the Israelis:
Defense minister: Israel will likely have to go it alone on Syria
SRAELI OFFICIALS: U.S. MUST STRIKE IN SYRIA
Something must be in that funnel for striking Syria .
Richard
Using cut-out foundations and other entities often in series is a standard way of funding a covert project. pl
Say whatever you want about John Bolton, but he sure doesn’t waste any time.
Who are the British Neocons? Never read about their connections to the Straussians/Jacksons.
The Russians need to show some fangs this time, otherwise the Israeli agents and US state security apparatus will be staging these attacks every other week.
I’m afraid a US destroyer needs to be sunk or a V-22 Osprey FOB somewhere in Eastern Syria struck “from within ISIS territory”, for reign in the bellicosity of the Anglo-Zionists. The challenge would be de-escalating.
With or without Trump, the political position of the Western Fortress vis a vis Russia, Iran, and China is at a cul de sac and. Furthermore, there is no positive program or suggestion proferred to these states. O submit to you these ppstures are untenable and will have to be discarded.
It is clear to me that Donald Trump is a coward and is responsible for his actions. Yes, there is a powerful force pushing for war. So what. I have complete contempt for him as a man now. And I voted for him.
Trump’s comments today, in my opinion, exposed impotent rage. If I am correct, the United States must have been warned again by the Russian Federation against any untoward moves in Syria. My impression has been, based on reading public Internet sources, that Russia has now sufficient offensive and defensive assets to retaliate aginst attacks
If Donald Trump really believes that Assad, and Putin no less, are behind this gas attack, we have a serious problem in Mission Control. In fact, if he doesn’t believe it and yet thinks that by going off like a fool on a hair trigger there is something to be gained, we have a burgeoning problem in Mission Control. I see no way this Administration, or the country, can come out the better with the Foreign Policy team Trump has put in place. Nikki Haley is beyond embarassing, a national disgrace, and Trump abides her. Every time the woman opens her mouth, she calls Trump’s judgement into question in the mind of any rational person.
Peter, it’s my hypothesis that the world’s financial system is in dire need of a reset. Too much debt has accumulated and the game is on to find some party to blame for pricking the bubble. The powers that be don’t care if it’s the North Korean’s, the Chinese or the Russians. Hell, Martians would suffice so long as Wall Street doesn’t get the blame. Baiting another party into an action that triggers the crash is therefor the name of the game. It’s even possible that those doing this do not consciously understand the motivations of their actions, not unlike an addict in the last stages of a bender.
The proper counter to this strategy is to suffer or deflect all this relatively harmless stupidity quietly until the crash eventually happens on its own, i.e. waiting for the addict to pass out from exhaustion. Time is on the side of the patient.
You do not want to see a ship or plane destroyed just to prove a point. With today’s missile technology one hit can turn into hundreds on each side in minutes.
Guess it’s time the Military Industrial Complex (aka Deep State) dusted off their old agitprop mantle and once again use their little girl Nurse Nayirah to their rescue. She was a great agitprop that they used to get the first Gulf War up and running full steam. What is that little Kuwaiti maiden doing today? Didn’t we catch a side glimpse of her wearing a white helmet, oops my bad it was a case of mistaken identity after all.
This latest agitprop will probably recycle Nayriah once again where she will proclaim that she saw Assad’s troops throwing the babies out of the incubators, like she once said the Iraqis in Kuwait did.
Trump’s DHS White House adviser Thomas Bossert was flapping his gums stoking the fires of the agitprop.
Hopefully somebody will listen to the words of warning by Retd. former member of the Russian General Staff, Retd. Lieutenant-General Evgeny Buzhinsky regarding all the agitprop (Skripal UK false flag, et.al):
‘Last WAR in history of MANKIND’ Russia general warns world heading for COLOSSAL conflict
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/940605/Russia-news-Vladimir-Putin-World-War-3-Theresa-May-UK
Dear Colonel,
Trying to suss our CIC, he seems both mercurial but easy to distract and fairly ignorant of what a president is and does (other than tweet and hold rally’s and try to keep himself story number 1 on the news) – he could have made his Russian collusion problems go away on day one by declassifying whatever was needed – perhaps no one told him and he is unwilling to read or do any of his own research?
I suspect that one or more of his “trusted” advisors are amplifying MSNBC or FOX themes adding “we have to do something,” and he doesn’t follow the Reagan maxim for his advisors: Trust but Verify (with the IC) part.
His cabinet has far fewer adults these days.
Peter,
SInk a US ship because some agent in Syria killed civilians in an obvious false flag attack? That seems like a damn dumb idea.
Eric
I have no idea what Trump’s tweet really implies. The last time he unleashed a few cruise missiles at some remote Syrian airbase. Then he’s also tweeted that we’ll be out of Syria soon.
This news report of his conflict with the Pentagon over Syria is interesting.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5584183/amp/Trump-wants-Syria-dont-say-timeline.html
Here’s the issue we face in general. None of the news reports in western media can be trusted on any subject. None of the claims by Western governments can be trusted at all on any matter. In this environment of deceit and falsity we get Trump’s cryptic tweets. The one positive thing for shining a spotlight on the machinations of the Deep State is the possibility of what might be released by DOJ IG Horowitz and US Attorney Huber who are investigating the Deep State conspiracy.
Babak,
I have been convinced for many years that what is presented to we, the people, is very much like a Sicilian puppet opera. I also believe this theater has been trending toward increasingly shabbier scripts read by the puppeteers; or maybe I’m just getting older and more cynical so that I notice the shabbiness more than I used to.
I agree with your statement about western policy being stuck in a cul de sac based on what little I know + basic reasoning (e.g. what are we going to do about it? Start a nuclear war?). Thus the show appears to just go on endlessly with gains on the margins and then losses on the same.
I often think that what is really happening has nothing to do with the drama that the puppets act out. Rather, it is an ever shifting series of alliances and conflicts between a small set of elites seeking to protect and enhance their personal fortunes and power. The citizens ruled by these people are mere pawns.
Since there is all kind of fantastic theories out there on the Skripal case, what about this one?
It is said that one of the Skripals´cats is missing…call-name “Musya”…I wonder whether it was this cat-agent the one which procured the phone to Yulia so as she could make that misterious call…
Take into account that cats pass always unnoticed in old huge buildings like hospitals…or palaces…Remember the famous cats from The Hermitage…It is said that Russian cats are very clever….Who knows…perhaps we are assisting to the disclosure of a new state-of-the-art kind of agent…
https://i.giphy.com/W8OfQ8S1PXWKY.gif
https://i.imgur.com/LFbR7YJ.gif
Here is our super cat-agent at the hospital morgue looking for the Skripals…in the very noses of two MI6 BoJoBots of the last generation….
https://hkgame.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/int_hallway_0000_2.gif?w=662
Apparently it doesn’t pay to become ill in the U.K. if you are Russian.
Russian woman dies after she was ’embalmed alive’ | Daily Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5590893/Russian-woman-embalmed-alive-instead-saline-drip-horrific-medical-blunder.html
Nothing like jumping from frying pan to fire. The orange front goy might take the bait to divert attention from his bumbling trade war with the chicoms. According to Israeli TV channel i24NEWS citing US officials the US military is going to provide President Donald Trump with: “a set of options for carrying out strikes against the Syrian government”. Furthermore according to izzies: “Both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CENTCOM, the US forces in the Middle East, were compiling target lists and attack options to be presented to Trump and his national security team within hours, the officials said”.
Donald has a family. And the ziocons are not known for a decency.
See how Mr. Cheney suddenly had a change of heart when his own daughter turned gay.
The ziocons could be disciplined by the international law only when their immediate families – children, grandkids, and great grandkids – face obliteration. The horror of our time is in the total lack of responsibility on the top. The unnatural selection of opportunist for the important governmental positions is coming into fore. The puppeteers (banksters & Israel-firsters) have created their worst enemies – actually, mortal enemies – by weeding out the honest and competent people from the position of power in the government, security apparatus, and MIC.
A sampling: https://theintercept.com/2018/03/29/john-bolton-trump-bush-bustani-kids-opcw/
“We know where your kids live.”
A Moldovan thug in Israel opens his mouth to instruct the US military: https://www.rt.com/news/423532-israel-syria-strike-us/
“Israeli officials have called on the US to attack the Syrian Army, following what they called a “shocking attack” in Douma. … The Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also slammed the international community, for what he called willful ignorance of the human tragedies in Syria and other countries, and unjust criticism of Israel’s actions. The minister said in particular that the world was “complacent” about the deaths of civilians in Syria, all while condemning the IDF for killing Palestinians “in self-defense.”
At the same time, Lieberman did not rule out Israel’s own intervention in the Syrian conflict. … He also criticized US President Donald Trump’s recent statements concerning the potential US troop withdrawal from Syria, by saying that “President Trump didn’t ask” him for an opinion on the matter.”
— Who needs any elections in the US when the former Soviet in Israel dictates the US policies abroad?
VT has a long article with pictures showing chemical weapons factory/storage of “rebels” in E. Ghouta, just captured by SAA.
Pictures include shells/weapons from Porton Down.
Article also says that USA soldiers and “British chemical warfare personnel” were captured there and are held by SAA.
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/04/08/proof-intel-drop-trump-bolton-behind-syria-chemical-attacks-confirmed/
In another article Vanessa Beeley visits the factory (must be same place), takes pictures.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2018/04/08/syria-the-egregious-western-media-chemical-weapon-fraud-in-eastern-ghouta/
You really take advantage of your subscription to that Daily mail…Seems a tabloid, doesn´t it?
For 8 years Sergei Skripal lived in England in the open while his daughter lived in the open in Russia.
Bolton finally enters stage right and we get “the most horrific attack on the UK public since the Nazis” according to the borg.
A few days ago I commented elsewhere that “if” the Skripals had been poisoned their bodies would contain the metabolites indicative of the poison and thus Yulia would never be permitted to return to Russia.
Today we find both are to be disappeared by the CIA.
At their own request? of course not.
Amidst all this sound and fury, a couple of simple questions stand out.
First question: Why Douma? The answer, I would submit, is that the recent evacuations of civilians from the area permitted the White Helmets, acting in their ‘humanitarian’ role, to access Douma and stage this drama.
Second question: Why Douma? Why would the Syrian government and its military attack with chemical weapons a town that they have surrounded, and which could fall to them at any moment?
That these two simple questions and their answers are lost in the hullabaloo being raised in the West shows how little the public in this part of the world knows or cares about the Syrian conflict. Or anything else, for that matter, beyond their creature comforts.
Thank you for re-opening the comments. Like Harry said ‘I am very grateful for the chance to occasionally comment, even if my observations are generally trivial.’
As other Skripal explanations fall under the weight of their own inconsistencies, the option of there having been something nasty (but unintended) in the seafood risotto is looking better and better. Filter-feeding shellfish that concentrate toxins in algal blooms survive Occam’s Razor a lot better than fiendish Russian agents using incredibly inefficient methods to eliminate a non-threat.
Colonel,
Looks like the Israelis are bombing T4 – East Homs presently
Col Lang, some men were born for such a time as these. You have status, credibility and a network. The neocons or globalist or whatever one wishes to call these networks of warmongers who are just plugged into a system that feeds off itself does a disservice to the military men and women who will eventually be called upon to die or be mutilated by modern warfare. The hegemon that seems to work for what Smedley Butler called the white shoe boys is despicable and not worthy of the United States of America nor its constitution nor the men and women who live their lives believing in it.
I would point again to Mark Curtis’ book on Britain’s longtime collusion with radical Islam as a strategy for “containing” secular Arab nationalism:
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Affairs-Britains-Collusion-Radical-ebook/dp/B0051YNTLW
According to Jack Posobiec Trump didn’t write the tweets. True or seeking an out? The only plus point so far is the impressive push back against all this.
Looks like Israel and France taking the lead anyway, for now. Macron always was a creation.
In the context of Israel seemingly taking the lead this article is interesting in that he states Trump has told Netanyahu the US will be leaving Syria and that it is Israel’s to handle.
https://www.axios.com/netanyahu-couldnt-convince-trump-to-rethink-syria-policy-25c33377-15e5-48c4-b947-dbde9a87fd87.html
“The Russians need to show some fangs this time, otherwise the Israeli agents and US state security apparatus will be staging these attacks every other week.”
Shooting things down in revenge has never been the Russian way – they work to a different timescale to the West. Syria will end up a single country again with all the unwanted foreigners out.
Shellfish toxin? if so I am really surprised that they are alive. pl
That theory was analyzed at my site and it is compelling.
The Skripals ate a risotto pesce with mussels. They fell ill some 30-40 minutes later with exactly the symptoms that are expected for a paralytic reaction from shellfish poisoning (PSP).
Shellfish poison is a natural “nerve agent”, Saxitoxin, that works with a similar biological mechanism as real nerve agents. (Saxitoxin had been weaponized in the U.S. in the 1960s and used as an assassination weapon by the CIA.)
PSP is survivable with mechanical respirator, oxygen and heart rate stabilization applied. This was done for the Skripals pretty immediately after they fell ill.
There are additional indications that Saxitioxin was involved including the public statement from the hospital emergency doctor who said “no nerve agent, only poisoned” hit the Skripals.
As for Trump’s tweets please note that he is unlikely to have written them himself:
https://twitter.com/joanneleon/status/983044602243502081
Joanne Leon @joanneleon
According to my search, Trump has never used any of these words/phrases in a tweet before today (Bolton’s first weekend as nat sec advisor):
“chemical attack”
“atrocity”
“inaccessible”
“lockdown”
“encircled”
“Syrian army”
b
We are being herded toward war with Syria and possibly Russia. War fever has set in. I accept your analysis of the Skripal affair given what is known at present. I am quite familiar with this toxin and this seems plausible to me. pl
Trump says we are leaving Syria sometime soon, and the UK Wurlitzer starts grinding out propaganda to reverse the President’s impulse to get back to his campaign pledges to end the US engagement in permanent wars. British game for a long time has been to keep a wedge between the US and Russia and this latest White Helmet gambit is just what the doctor ordered. Israel strikes at Syria on the day that John Bolton arrives with his lunch pail at the White House. More testing of Trump? London and Tel Aviv working off the same psych profile of the US President?
Porton Down has stated they don’t have any tracers showing the Skripal attack was Made in Moscow. Some British scientists recall the Blair dodgy dossier and probably hear the footsteps of the ghost of Kelly, the British chem weapons specialist who told BBC that Saddam had no arsenal of WMD and then got “suicided.”
I bow to the ladies expertise, b #45, but to this nitwit it looks a lot like Trump’s basic style.
The Mondoweiss more specifically team Weiss/Norton once did a pretty good style comparison on an author publishing both on the Indian Times and First Things that had caught my attention around the same time.
Is she part of the larger effort analyzing Trump’s tweets? There is a database stopping at one point in time, which is quite interesting. If you look at it more closely. It sure would make sense to consider that, maybe from early on, not all tweets were done by Trump. But I have to admit, I am not too interested in the man’s psychological profile. And maybe for the wrong reason, I distrust his populist strain.
oops: the lady’s expertise.
https://twitter.com/joanneleon/status/983039453840191489
All
Two different people resident in Cologne but with different IP addresses in that city are using the name “LeaNder.” LeaNders – do you know each other? If so, what is the purpose of this farce? Which of you should I purge from the system? pl