Seymour M. Hersh
Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.
In his nationally televised speech about Syria on 10 September, Obama laid the blame for the nerve gas attack on the rebel-held suburb of Eastern Ghouta firmly on Assad’s government, and made it clear he was prepared to back up his earlier public warnings that any use of chemical weapons would cross a ‘red line’: ‘Assad’s government gassed to death over a thousand people,’ he said. ‘We know the Assad regime was responsible … And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike.’ Obama was going to war to back up a public threat, but he was doing so without knowing for sure who did what in the early morning of 21 August.
He cited a list of what appeared to be hard-won evidence of Assad’s culpability: ‘In the days leading up to August 21st, we know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighbourhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces.’ Obama’s certainty was echoed at the time by Denis McDonough, his chief of staff, who told the New York Times: ‘No one with whom I’ve spoken doubts the intelligence’ directly linking Assad and his regime to the sarin attacks...
http://www.lrb.co.uk/2013/12/08/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
20131210
20120611
Obama’s cyber attacks on Iran were carefully considered, but the nuclear arms race offers important lessons. - Slate Magazine
Sen. John McCain rarely ceases to boggle the mind.He did it again today, highlighting a provision that he inserted in the defense authorization bill requiring U.S. Cyber Command “to provide a strategy for the development and deployment of offensive cyber capabilities.” “I am very concerned,” he stated, “that our strategy is too reliant on defensive measures in cyber space, and believe we need to develop the capability to go on the offense as well … I believe that cyber warfare will be the key battlefield of the 21st century, and I am concerned about our ability to fight and win in this new domain.” Two strange things stick out in this statement—which, by the way, was not an off-the-cuff remark but a formal appendage to a report on the defense authorization bill by the Senate Armed Services Committee, where McCain is the top-ranking Republican... http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2012/06/obama_s_c...
20120406
20111101
20110604
20110526
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20110313
Obama's new Gitmo policy is a lot like Bush's old policy
It was another important moment in the education of Barack Obama.
He began his presidency with a pledge to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year. Within months, he realized that was impossible. And now he has essentially formalized George W. Bush's detention policy.
With Monday's announcement that the Obama administration will resume military tribunals at Gitmo, conservatives rushed out triumphant I-told-you-sos. Liberal supporters were again feeling betrayed. Administration officials had some 'splainin' to do.
And so they assembled some top-notch lawyers from across the executive branch and held a conference call Monday afternoon with reporters. The ground rules required that the officials not be identified, which is appropriate given their Orwellian assignment. They were to argue that Obama's new detention policy is perfectly consistent with his old detention policy.
Not only had he revoked his pledge to close Gitmo within a year, but he also had contradicted his claim that the policy "can't be based simply on what I or the executive branch decide alone." His executive order did exactly what he said must not be done, in a style pioneered by Obama's immediate predecessor in the Oval Office.
"This detention without trial - what's different from the Bush administration?" a French reporter from Le Monde asked during the call.
Good question. The answer, from the Anonymous Lawyers, was technical. "We have a much more thorough process here of representation. . . . There's an opportunity for an oral presentation to the board."
CBS's Jan Crawford was not impressed by this answer. "What specifically is different in this than what we were living under that was so bad in the Bush administration?" she asked.
The Anonymous Lawyers replied that cases would be reviewed every six months instead of every year. They also spoke about their "intent to comply with Article 75 of Additional Protocol One."
This still wasn't working for Yochi Dreazen of the National Journal. "It seems like what is happening now with this executive order is effectively ratifying the status quo," he said. "Is that a fair read?"
The Anonymous Lawyers did not think that was a fair read. Over and over again, they repeated their theme: "The basic message is the National Archives speech remains the framework under which Guantanamo closure is being done."
Oh? Let's review.
20110216
20110215
Phun with Budgets
Hmmm... Obama's budget: $3.7 trillion proposal would make deep cuts
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/14/news/economy/obama_budget/index.htm Pentagon to present biggest proposed budget ever
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/13/2845662/pentagon-to-present-biggest-p...
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/14/news/economy/obama_budget/index.htm Pentagon to present biggest proposed budget ever
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/13/2845662/pentagon-to-present-biggest-p...
20110213
Obama assertion: FBI can get phone records without oversight
"WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process or court oversight, according to a document obtained by McClatchy. That assertion was revealed — perhaps inadvertently — by the department in its response to a McClatchy request for a copy of a secret Justice Department memo. Critics say the legal position is flawed and creates a potential loophole that could lead to a repeat of FBI abuses that were supposed to have been stopped in 2006..." http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/11/108562/obama-assertion-fbi-can-get-phon...
20110205
Obama delivers major speech on personal faith
Gross. "..."My Christian faith has been sustaining for me over the last couple of years and even more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time," the president said Thursday, referring to his wife. "We are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us but that we are true to our conscience and true to our God." "When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, I ask him to give me the strength to do right by our country and our people," Obama said later. "And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord and I ask him to forgive me my sins and to look after my family and to make me an instrument of the Lord..." http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/03/obama-to-deliver-major-speech-on-per...
20110131
"Corporate Profits are up."
“Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.”
-President Barack Obama, State of the Union, January 2011 http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/can-you-believe-president-obama_01312011
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