I watched Jay Carnie today as he spluttered and tried to bully his way through a statement to the WH press corps on Syria. When asked for something more than an inference from supposedly unique capabilities he could not answer and replied that an assessment is expected from the IC any day now.
A little bird tells me that the only direct "evidence" in hand is a third party intercept report provided by the Israelis that could be interpreted as a coded order to carry out such an operation.
Sure. pl
I am told that Israeli intercept is actually quite old.
They recorded it from their CNN feed when Powell played some tapes in the UNSC of intercepts in Iraq that exposed the WMD cover up by Saddam.
b
Yup. Very similar. pl
Colonel, I have forced myself to watch MSNBC today, and what I have witnessed thus far is worse than I expected.
A continuous parade of experts/pundits all in full jingoistic mode, without even the pretense of a token opponent.
Many of them appear to be using the occasion to “redeem” their journalistic cred by being right this time as opposed to wrong on Iraq. Peter Beinhardt explicitly made such a statement.
Andrea Mitchell uttered this blooper, to paraphrase: “we need to call the bluff of dictators such as saddam hussein”
oops, “I mean assad”–said wiith a nervous giggle.
She then turned to the “what effect will all of this have on Israel” meme.
I am glad I experienced this first-hand–it would never have been so effective just hearing about it.
I also think the rush to war on 3 days notice is planned to preempt any organized public opposition. Not sure there would be much anyway, but just speculating . . . .
Handsome bird. You can really see how they’re related to the Jay family.
So we will replace The Ride of The Valkeries
with The Battle Hymn of The Republic as our
anthem? Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
ending of the Republic. What key anyone.
Col.: Get a load of the names signed on this article/petition.
http://m.weeklystandard.com/blogs/experts-obama-here-what-do-syria_751267.html?page=1
Holy hell.
Has the Chairman of the JCS been absent from public appearances and pronouncements during the last few days??
With a grain of salt.
http://www.cyberwarnews.info/reports/a-look-into-the-britam-defence-data-leak-files/
Franklin Lambs details the Saudi-Israeli connection: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/27/forcing-obama-into-prolonged-syrian-war/
Zimmerman telegram?
I think its safe to say that the coup in Cairo, and the CW use in Syria are not unrelated….
OMG (ik)
It’s signed “sincerely”…
then the 1st 10 signers include
Elliot Abrams
Max Boot
Abrams is one of the few humans I actively hate; Boot is merely amusing – I think he’s still a Trotskyite, masquerading as a NeoCon, because it turned out to be the best way to destroy the USA.
Also both of the Kagans, Eliot Cohen, Paul Bremer, Bill Kristol, “Senator” Lieberman, Marty Peretz, Karl Rove, and Dan Senor.
That whole list is a rogue’s gallery worthy of Batman.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4422236,00.html
“The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported that Israel gave Washington and European countries information that included documents and pictures proving that chemical weapons were launched from a Syrian army post in the vicinity of Damascus. According to the report, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz informed US Joint Chiefs Of Staff General Martin Dempsey that Israel has evidence of use of chemical weapons.”
Is this a vicious circle : Israeli newspaper quoting a Kuwaiti Newspaper which is aware of the IDF report?
Just in case the Israeli product will provide the definitive casus belli.
[google trans.]
“Mossad: “poison gas missile by Syrian government forces”
According to the findings of Israeli intelligence community, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the gas attack in Damascus.One unit of the Military Intelligence Service Amam, which specializes in wireless spy “Unit 8200″, controlled at the time of the gas attack, the communication of the Syrian army.A former Mossad officer told FOCUS, the analysis has clearly shown that the bombardment with poison gas missiles was made by Syrian government forces”.
http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/krise-in-der-arabischen-welt/syrien/bundeskanzlerin-im-focus-interview-giftgasmassaker-in-syrien-merkel-fordert-zugang-fuer-un-inspekteure_aid_1080416.html
The term “controlled” leapt out @ me although I don’t know how accurate the translation is.
The killing of Lebanon’s Rafic Hariri led to the use of telecommunications data being introduced as evidence of Hezbollah’s guilt. Given that several Israeli assets were caught as employees of Lebanese telecom companies, Israel’s penetration & control of Lebanon’s telecom sector became a huge issue.
So much so that the Lebanese put together a case against Israel and successfully presented it for ccondemnation at an international conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Mexico city:
“During the press conference, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority head Dr. Imad Hoballah said that Israel has set up electronic warfare towers along Lebanon’s border and can crack encrypted data, jam communications, view phone subscribers’ information, and tap their lines.
Israel “controls information and data packets, and can enter a network, shut down parts and transfer information or delete it,” he added.
“They can fabricate calls that originally did not exist.”
Israel can obtain information about mobile phone owners, their location, their numbers, and their other phones, he also said“The network is penetrated at any control point, via a person inside the [phone] company, an agent, or another means.”
Hoballah also said that Israel has penetrated UNIFIL’s telecommunications.”
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nownews/press_conference_describes_israeli_telecom_attacks
“They can fabricate calls that originally did not exist”….
A propos:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/26/the-middle-east-explained-in-one-sort-of-terrifying-chart/
Check the reference about Financial Times letter to the Editor 🙂
“They can fabricate calls that originally did not exist”.
Come now, just because DNI Clapper and NSA head General Alexander lied under oath before Congress doesn’t mean they will lie a second time.
I watched some of it too. Stunningly depressing. I feel helpless in the face of this horseshit. Abandon all hope…there is no countering this relentless lying. Nothing…
Looks like neo-cons from the Project for the new American Century are getting the band back together. This is really bad.
Some of the same usual suspects who wrote to Bill Clinton to have a regime change in Iraq
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
I wonder if the Saudis sold out Morsi for Asad’s head, or at least, if that’s the deal they think they made….
I haven’t heard anything more of the Russian satellite observation of two rocket launches from rebel territory just before the reported chemical attack. I thought they gave that evidence to the UN.
I found this article on a website of Walid Shoebat showing video footage of rebel launchings of possible chemical rockets. I know nothing of Shoebat beyond that he claims to be a former Muslim Brotherhood activist and now a Christian peace activist. The evidence he presents seems far more concrete than the hysterical, emotional ravings coming out of the White House.
http://shoebat.com/2013/08/27/evidence-syrian-rebels-used-chemical-weapons-not-assad/
Well, well, the “Too Little, Too Late” lie has been exposed, the UN’s spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that the UN request for access to the site had been granted within 24 hrs of their request, not 5 days later, as Kerry, and others, have been touting…!
http://webtv.un.org/watch/daily-press-briefing-sg-travel-to-the-netherlands-syria-iran-palestine-darfur-afghanistan-sg-appointment-major-general-imam-edy-mulyono-indonesia-force-commander-of-the-minurso/2632263081001“ rel=”nofollow”
Watch from the 12:30 mark…
Yes, all highly experienced military people. Not!!
Even tho Bremer wears combat boots with his blue blazer
PL,
Beautiful cardinal. They’re frequent visitors while i read the paper on my deck in the morning. Just this morning the goldfinches returned to my garden to feast on the purple coneflowers.
The phrase in the article is in German:
“Eine Einheit des Militärnachrichtendienstes Amam, die auf Funkspionage spezialisierte „Unit 8200“, kontrollierte zur Zeit des Gasangriffs die Kommunikation der syrischen Armee”
It translates as:
“A unit of (the Israeli) military intelligence service Amam, the SIGINT specialised “unit 8200″, CONTROLLED syrian communications during the time of the attack.”
In German I’d usually expect a formulation like “abgefangen”, ‘intercepted’.
IMO this could be both sloppy writing or deliberate ambuiguity, though I suspect sloppy writing. Wih conscription ended, few younger journalists served in the military.
As for your your idea that perhaps the Israelis tampered with messages: I don’t think they’d need to. They can have their way much easier, simply by spinning what they get into something they want.
They could have taken an intercepted ambibguous “Do it.” type of communication and turned that into proof by ‘linking it’ to the attack, because it happened to happen at a time about some time before the attack or something of the sort.
It might have been about anything, perhaps: “Attack that town (conventionally)”, or: “Do it (Buy Humus)!”, or “There will be grave consequences (which with the US can mean an entire invasion)!” – and simply by linking one to the other they can probably turn it into many a thing that one wants or needs.
I suspect something of the sort.
‘Linking’ was how (iirc) the Israelis pinned the Hariri assassination on Hezbollah.
“kontrollierte zur Zeit”
This my favorite linguistic bugaboo. In German, Russian and some other languages, “Kontrolle/kontrol'” etc. usually means “monitoring” but often, and to great confusion, gets translated as “control.” I’ve even seen it done in a UN treaty document.
Amusingly, “gelinkt werden” in German means ‘to get conned’. In this context, a pun unpleasantly close to reality.
See http://translationpost.com/index.php/the-eurozone-and-german-control/
CP. Thanks for the translation.
What are the German terms for “monitor” and “intercept”? My impression is that the Israeli source is quoted as using the word “control”
My intent is to demonstrate that Unit 8200 has the technical ability to manipulate communications as illustrated by the vote by the the International Telecommunications Union to condemn Israel for those extensive activities in regards to Lebanon.
The only name missing is Jane Fonda’s.
“monitor” = ‘überwachen’
“intercept” = ‘abfangen’
As for monitor, keep in mind that the Israeli probably is not a native German speaker. I wouldn’t out too much emphasis on the language.
There might not be a there there.
Like I said, they don’t need to outright falsify.
Why risk getting caught cheating, when you can just spin at much lower risk with about equivalent effect?
That would also be much more in line with what the neocons did ion the US. They took raw intel and spun it to mean anything they wanted.
Huh? She’s commonly riduiculed for opposing US military action (VN), not support it. The “usual suspects” list is all guys who supported the US invasion of Iraq; what’s the connection?
I think her excesses ran in the other direction.
Apparently you miss the irony of her opposing our governments actions by giving propaganda support to the NVA while our armed forces were engaged in combat with them and my linking that to Elliot Abrams supporting the Constitution by trading arms for hostages in Iran Contra and his now supporting a second war in the Middle East based on some slam dunk evidence. Two peas in a pod, she at least could claim the excuse of being an actress and not being the Assistant Secretary of State.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair
From my reading, it appears that some form of chemical agent was delivered by rocket in the mentioned attack. It may not have been up to so-called military-strength concentration. The presumption is that only Assad government forces could have delivered this attack, not to take it for granted.
The crucial problem with chemical weapons under discussion is imprecise area denial due to death rather than temporary incapacitation. Technology exists to target precisely for a strategic purpose. This must be a norm for projection of force. The discussion and the evidence seem to dance around this point. Maybe the best conclusion is that the recent incident measures barely less than X, where X in future would result in some future consequences. A line must be drawn against crude, brutish, indiscriminate weapons, literally on the winds, especially any agent that can cause durable or inheritable, genetic effect.
Military forces of Britain or France would be able to carry out retribution on the scale under discussion.
Uhm, Walid Shoebat?
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/07/11/terrorism.expert/index.html
Its at times like this that I really value Coln. Langs site as a place where reason and analysis trumps spin and newsbable.
I had been very busy with work of late. Its been tough to find time to keep up with events. Im glad to see my prejeduces and suspicions were not so far off the mark.