Brandon Turbeville

Activist Post

With each passing year and with each predictable “crisis,” whether the issue is war, guns, or economic policy, it seems that the level of propaganda becomes more and more infantile each time an agenda is set to unfold. Nowhere is this more evident than with the manufactured crisis in Syria, itself wholly created, directed, and maintained by the Anglo-American, NATO military and intelligence networks.

Indeed, while Assad’s lengthy holdout against the NATO-backed death squads of fundamentalists, dupes, and mercenaries as well as the occasional Western special forces or intelligence agent, may have held the more overt invasion at bay for a short time, it appears that the attempt to engage Syria directly is fast becoming a real possibility.

Thus, pro-war propaganda is being churned up yet again, this time from the reliably pro-imperialist Council on Foreign Relations. In true remedial fashion, the company line comes complete with suggestions of the use of chemical weapons, civilian casualties, and even weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

This time, however, the confirmation of the use of chemical weapons against Syrian “rebels” (i.e. terrorist death squads) comes in the form of a “secret” State Department cable that was “leaked” to mainstream news outlet The Cable. As many may remember, the Obama administration has repeatedly described the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime as a “red line” that bears “consequences” for which Assad and his government will be “held accountable.”

Nevertheless, according to Foreign Policy, the mouthpiece magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. diplomats stationed in Turkey have conducted a detailed investigation in regards to claims that Bashar-al-Assad has, in fact, used chemical weapons against the Syrian death squads.

Predictably, these covert investigations have determined that there is a “compelling case” that Assad’s forces have indeed used these chemical weapons, although the cable implies that these death squads are honorable freedom fighters. The cable was signed by U.S. consul general in Istanbul, Scott Frederic Kilner, and sent to the State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. last week.

Interestingly enough, however, the investigation, which was described as “one of the most comprehensive efforts the U.S. government has made to investigate claims by internal Syrian sources,” utilized a series of interviews, with “activists, doctors, and defectors” to make its determinations.

Of course, anyone educated on the Syrian destabilization should immediately recognize this list of sources and research material as nothing more than the Syrian death squads themselves, with actual Syrian traitors thrown in for good measure in the form of “defectors.”

Those who have followed the Syrian situation should recognize the designation of “activists,” “protestors,” and “rebels,” as simply a more politically expedient term used for what should more aptly be deemed death squads.

Even some of the “doctors” with whom the interviews were conducted are of questionable relation to the death squads. Foreign Policy reports that it was the “rebels’ Homs medical committee” that “circulated the report that “detailed the symptoms of several of the victims who were brought to a makeshift field hospital inside the city and claims that the victims suffered severe effects of inhaling poisonous gas.”

So far, claims are centering around the death of 5 people.

Foreign Policy writes,

‘It was a chemical weapon, we are sure of that, because tear gas can’t cause the death of five people,’ said Dr. Nashwan Abu Abdo, a neurologist who spoke with The Cable from an undisclosed location inside of Homs.

Abdo said the chemical agent was delivered by a tank shell and that the range of symptoms varied based on the victim’s proximity to the poison. The lightly affected people exhibited gastrointestinal symptoms, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain, he said. Victims who received a higher concentration of the poison, in addition to the gastrointestinal symptoms, showed respiratory symptoms as well.

‘The main symptom of the respiratory ailments was bronchial secretions. This particular symptom was the cause of the death of all of the people,’ he said. ‘All of them died choking on their own secretions.’

The doctors said their conclusion that the poison was a chemical agent and not tear gas was based on three factors: the suddenness of the deaths of those who were directly exposed, the large number of people affected, and the fact that many victims returned with recurring symptoms more than 12 hours after they had been treated, meaning that the poison had settled either in their nervous systems or fat tissue.

Another interesting comment, however, is that the “doctors” are incapable of providing the enthusiastic Western media and war propaganda machine with the exact type of “chemical weapon” which was used.

As Foreign Policy reports,

The doctors on the scene said they were not able to pinpoint the poison because they lacked the advanced laboratory equipment needed. They took blood, hair, saliva, and urine samples, but those samples are no longer viable for testing because too much time has passed.

Considering the track record of the Western governments involved in the Syrian destabilization and the Western media as a whole, it would not be completely without merit to assume that these cases of alleged “chemical weapons-based poisonings” simply never occurred to begin with. After all, we must remember the blatantly invented cases of Saddam Hussein’s WMDs or incubator babies of years past or the equally false claims that Ghaddafi had handed out Viagra to soldiers in order to rape civilian women.

Yet, another option might be that the death squads themselves may have been hoisted by their own petard. Let us not forget that it has been the death squads, not Assad, who have threatened to use chemical weapons against the Syrian army and, as a result and by default, the Syrian people. Indeed, the death squads even recorded a video which was distributed to media outlets where these threats were made, as well as a video demonstration of the effects of the chemical agents in their possession on captive mice.

Perhaps the death squads were struck by a shell while in possession of chemical weapons of their own making? Perhaps the death squads were in the process of transporting the chemical weapons and, demonstrating the intellectual prowess they have become so renowned for, made a mistake and damaged the canister, releasing it upon themselves?

While we may never know the answer to these questions for certain, the history of the Western media outlets and the governments and corporations they serve in peddling their pro-war propaganda shows that their reports cannot be trusted in any event.

Still, the Council on Foreign Relations, via Foreign Policy is openly, yet cleverly, promoting direct military intervention in Syria by the United States. In a calculating presentation, Josh Rogin attempts to paint Barack Obama as weak on Assad, even as Obama and his administration has been supporting and operating terrorist death squads, with all the requisite civilian casualties, in order to overthrow him for the entirety of his first term.

One does not have to read to deeply between the lines to understand that Foreign Policy is insinuating that Obama’s failure to launch a full-scale attack against Syria early on has led to the use of chemical weapons against peaceful protestors and innocent civilians – a lie which itself should cause the entire report to be questioned and almost entirely disregarded. Foreign Policy writes,

The White House’s threats to react to Assad’s WMD activity have softened over time. In Obama’s Aug. 20 statement, he indicated that ‘a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around’ would trigger U.S. action.

Obama then shifted his warning to Assad about red lines in December, after intelligence reports stated that the Syrian regime had moved some precursor chemicals out of storage and mixed them, making them easier to deploy. Now, Obama’s red line is that the United States will react if Syria uses these weapons.

‘The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable,’ Obama said Dec. 3, directing his comments at Assad. ‘If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.’ That same day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton added: ‘we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.’





Brave - The Browser Built for Privacy Outside analysts worry that the administration’s red line may have shifted again.

‘Given the fact you have that in a cable, this indicates that the Obama administration may not simply jump into the conflict because chemical agents are used,’ said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ‘Assad has a much better idea now of what he can do and get away with.’

‘This shows that actually the red line on chemical weapons is not clear and that the regime may be able to use some chemical agents, and the response might not be immediate,’ he said.

In the end, this entire scenario should be considered nothing more than war-propaganda aimed at tugging on the heartstrings and overwhelming the minds of the American people with an entirely false narrative.

Keep in mind, both the Foreign Policy and The Cable articles are based upon a “secret” cable which was “leaked” to the mainstream news outlets, just in time for a fresh wave of war-mongering.

Obviously, it does not take a seasoned intelligence analyst to understand that this document was not truly leaked in the sense that the general public might interpret it. This cable was most likely created entirely for the purpose of being leaked in the first place. It is nothing more than carefully crafted misinformation aimed at drumming up support for direct intervention in Syria.

Of course, out of all the variables that exist amidst such a volatile situation, one thing is almost for certain – no one will be Bradley Manning’d for this leak.

Read other articles by Brandon Turbeville here.

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of three books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, and Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident. Turbeville has published over 190 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.