Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Moon of Alabama — The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur - Khan Sheikhun Summary Report by Prof. Postol


Reference.
MIT Professor Theodore Postol, a well known missile expert and former scientific advisor to the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, analyzed the available evidence of the alleged April 4 Sarin attack on Khan Sheikhun in Syria. He comes to the conclusion that the White House allegations and its report are false. The White House report was not created or vetted by knowledgeable intelligence analysts. This confirms our own analysis published earlier on Moon of Alabama.
Here is Prof. Postol's summary report: The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur, April 19(pdf, 18 pages).
Previously three preliminary versions of Prof. Postol's analysis were released by him:
Moon of Alabama
The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur - Khan Sheikhun Summary Report by Prof. Postol

Also

Washington's Blog
The Nerve Agent Attack that Did Not Occur: Analysis of the Times and Locations of Critical Events in the Alleged Nerve Agent Attack at 7 AM on April 4, 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria

24 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Tom, you are getting down in the noise here....

Whether there was WMD there or not is not the issue... the issue was the attack was botched period...

This is like the left complaining "Bush lied!" about the WMD in Iraq 15 years ago...blah blah... when Bush mistake was trying to legally justify the invasion in the first place... he should have just said "we are going to take down Iraq and if you don't like it, go fuck yourselves... etc...."

Noah Way said...

A pretense of justification is to create the appearance of a moral - if not legal - action.

When the pretense is shown to be false, there is no moral justification for the illegal action.

Noah Way said...

Note that the Russian election hack has fallen out of the news cycle since Trump took a hard line on Syria (and by extension, Russia). Draw your own conclusion.

Matt Franko said...

Its definitely revealing Noah... dog that didnt bark...

Tom Hickey said...

As I said, in the post — reference.I did not report on it as the material was coming out. This puts the links together in one place.

Peter Pan said...

It wasn't a moral action, it was a publicity stunt. No one except gullible American patriots are impressed.

John said...

Matt: "...when Bush mistake was trying to legally justify the invasion in the first place... he should have just said "we are going to take down Iraq and if you don't like it, go fuck yourselves... etc...."

And why do you suppose he didn't say exactly that? Because he's a pussy? Because he's a stickler for international law? or perhaps because support for this insane war would have been zero, except among neocons and Fox News types. Next time you see a messed up Iraq war veteran (amputee or mentally scarred), explain that Dubya, or whichever emperor god is sitting on the White House throne, has no duty to anyone or anything, and that he merely has to give the order to invade an innocent country and proceed to destroy it, no matter what the consequences. Because we're America... and we stand tall...shining city on a hill...indispensable nation... exceptional nation... and and all that other moronic shit.

In any case, in the end, having tried to convince people of the loony case for war, Dubya did in fact say pretty much what you wished him to say. Faced with no international sanction for the war, Dubya made it clear that he didn't care anyway about the law, braying like the donkey he was about pink slips, axis of evil, mushroom clouds and, my personal favourite, Gog and Magog, although that indication of Dubya's unhinged religious mania only came out later. So the Gog and Magog aficionado and religious psychopath said and did as you advised. How did it work out? In US military and intelligence circles, it is almost universally acknowledged to be the worst decision any president has made. For the US, that is, because everyone else can go to hell because we're America...and we stand tall...you know the Pavlovian drill...tongues out...national anthem...salivate...kill.

So Iran is the beneficiary, the Middle East is on the verge of falling out of US control, the US army was broken (hence the drones, in and out special forces operations, etc), thousands of troops dead, tens of thousands of troops permanently mentally or physically disabled and the terrorist threat has skyrocketed. In 2001 Al Qaeda was hiding in a few caves; in 2017 Al Qaeda their crazy spawn have territory from west Africa to Iraq and beyond. Mission accomplished, just as that oohrah-like banner stated with such confidence, but for the jihadis...

Matt Franko said...

I'm not saying it was a good decision I'm saying trying to spin it and legally justify it was not a good idea....


"Iran is the beneficiary "

Well it looks like Iran could be next...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tillerson-iran-left-unchecked-could-follow-north-korea-s-path-n748496

Btw USAF testing tactical nukes(and promoting it):

http://www.realcleardefense.com/2017/04/19/inert_upgraded_b61_gravity_bomb_dropped_by_usaf_f-16c_292299.html

Matt Franko said...

"Gog and Magog, "

Well he was from Texas....

lastgreek said...

Tom, not sure if you came across this article by Jeffrey Lewis in FP yesterday:

Is the United States Really Blowing Up North Korea's Missiles?

There is just no evidence to support the fantasy that Kim Jong Un's rockets are falling prey to a super-secret U.S. cyberprogram


http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/19/the-united-states-isnt-hacking-north-koreas-missile-launches/

John said...

Matt: "Well it looks like Iran could be next..."

I don't doubt it, but war with Iran will make Iraq look like the proverbial tea party. Don't forget, when Dubya mooted attacking Iran, there was mutiny: the military refused point-blank because it is such a deranged idea, second only to war with a major nuclear power like Russia or China. Any attack would guarantee a nuclear Iran within a couple of years. Moreover, Iran is the one major country in the region doing something about the Wahhabi jihadi sickos (you know, the ones who crucify magicians because they're in league with satan), and has helped the US and Europe in combatting the threat. So did Assad, but that didn't stop the empire turning the jihadis on secular liberal Syria.

Like Iran, Syria once had a democratic and liberal parliamentary system of government. Guess who overthrew it? The populations of every country in the Islamic world want a liberal democratic parliamentary system. As I've said before, look at Pakistan, a country supposedly hellbent on forcibly Islamising the world. Wacko Islamist parties stand in elections, and almost nobody votes for them! Yet these alleged Islamist headbangers have TWICE elected a woman prime minister! Unfortunately, all these countries which are inching towards a western system of governance and civil society are all under attack by the Saudi jihadi gangster petrostate with its vast training facilities, weapons and money to spread the jihad. In turn, this psychopathic jihadi state is backed by the empire. Washington wants the jihadis under control to use as a weapon against Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and in time India, Russia and China. As long as the religious wackos turn their sights away from the empire, all is fine with the world. Psychiatric treatment beckons for anyone who believes that the empire can pull this off, and without so much blowback that it'll make 9/11 look like a misdemeanour.

So, yes, I don't doubt Trump and his loony tunes advisers and cabinet may push for war with Iran, and maybe even North Korea. The military may even go along with it, but be in no doubt that the result will be the opposite of the desired effect. The US military knows that. They're not celebrity television entertainers and fraudsters; they're professionals, and they know a damn stupid idea when they hear it, and they also know a damn fool when they see one, especially the chickenhawk with "heelspurs" who somehow thinks himself the equal of Napoleon, Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Rommel, Patton and Eisenhower. Four years is a damn long time, and the obese chickenhawk is getting far too comfortable in those flight jackets...when he's not playing golf...

Peter Pan said...

Operation "Remove Bone Spur" is underway...

Peter Pan said...

Pakistan and India are parliamentary crazy states. Only a matter of time.

Tom Hickey said...

Tom, not sure if you came across this article by Jeffrey Lewis in FP yesterday:

Is the United States Really Blowing Up North Korea's Missiles?

There is just no evidence to support the fantasy that Kim Jong Un's rockets are falling prey to a super-secret U.S. cyberprogram


http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/19/the-united-states-isnt-hacking-north-koreas-missile-launches/


As I said, I am leaving this kind of thing alone because it is impossible to determine the facts based evidence. The evidence is now being widely faked or misreported in the media.

MRW said...

I don't doubt it, but war with Iran will make Iraq look like the proverbial tea party.

No shit. A military analyst told me years ago what the real problem is bombing Iran from the west. If you look at a topographical map of Iran, there is a high mountain range that runs NW-SE about a third of the way in that US forces would have to get over to hit Tehran and the majority of the Iranian population.

He said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard aren’t the Iraqi Army. They are a formidable force and highly trained and disciplined. The regular army/air force/navy as well.

Back to the mountain range: the Iranian Revolutionary Guard installed anti-aircraft missiles and gun sights all along the western side of the mountain range. They can see invading forces arriving and they have Russia’s deadly S-300 air defense system installed over the objection of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Russia contracted to sell them the S-300 in 2007, but then didn’t deliver in deference to US requests. When Obama lifted the sanctions in 2016, the deal went thru.

Iran completed their test this past February, and the system works. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-04/iran-test-fires-russian-made-s-300-anti-aircraft-missile-system.

Russia is up to S-500, but isn’t talking about it. It also has bombs which the US has absolutely no counter to, according to our military. I’ve forgotten the name they gave them. Something like Flash and Awe. They can pulverize a US aircraft carrier. A US admiral sees one and has three seconds to react before his aircraft carrier is vaporized. It travels at Mach 6 or something, altho’ those are old figures. It travels 25-45 ft above the water and can chase its target AT MACH 6 OR 7 if the target decides to move.

Joe said...

The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is why did the Syrian government come up with some cockamamee bullshit story about how they were bombing the area and they must have hit a storage depot for chemical weapons, dispersing them into the air? They had zero reasons to do the attack and about a bajillion reasons to not do the attack. It was a strategic blunder that only a dubya like idiot could have made. Why not just say "I dunno dude, wasn't us.."?

Couple possible reasons
1. The Syrian govt did do it. Possibly a commander acting on his own (normally that's just a bullshit excuse, but in this case, it's so against the govt's interests, I could believe it)
2. The govt panicked. Not likely, even people panicking are likely to say it wasn't them.
3. There is some actual conspiracy here. Eg Exxon and Russia want their 500 Billion deal, so let's do a small chemical attack, Trump can flex his cock on the matter and prove he's not Russia's bitch, get the elite to cum in their pants about how presidential he is, Zakaria can fuck the missile strike (an aside, Goddamn! Y'all see Scahill mushroom stamp Zakaria? He whipped it out and just fuckin slapped shit out of him, cnn, and the rest of the media). Gotta admit, domestically, the elites ate that shit up. Top 5 papers ran 18 editorials on it and ALL were favorable to it...
4. Just simple incompetence.

lastgreek said...

...axis of evil...

Hey America! You want a civilized immigration policy? Deport the neocon and Iraq-war promoter David Frum back to Canada.

Btw... his mother, the late Barbara Frum, who was a news anchor at the CBC, was a good woman.

Joe said...

And boy oh boy was Chomsky and Herman completely right about the media. Any dictator would be absolutely thrilled to have a media as conformist as the US media. How the US media operates truly is brilliant. No smoke filled room barking top-down orders necessary. Just set up the right incentive structure and out comes something way better than any official state media could ever be. The individual agents can act completely freely, it's just that if you're the type of person to cross the wrong lines, you don't get that plum high paying tv show job.

lastgreek said...

John: ... Napoleon, Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Rommel, Patton and Eisenhower...

Trivia Q.: Of all the great men above, only one never saw combat. Who was it? :)

MRW said...

Eisenhower.

Tom Hickey said...

They had zero reasons to do the attack and about a bajillion reasons to not do the attack.

Idlib province is owned by AQ and ISIS. The Syrian government doesn't operate there and Syrian troops would have to fight their way in. So they are limited to air attacks.

The Syrian government has not mounted an attack on Idlib yet. The building hit was identified as a weapons depot. AG and ISIS generally put their weapons depots in the vicinity of civilians, including in schools, hospitals and mosques to prevent strikes or if there is a strike to create an international incident over it.

I am not saying this is what happened since I have no way of verifying it, but the story is completely plausible given the conditions.

There are a lot of questions that have been raised and there are also a lot of possibilities that are plausible. There is no way to know from reports, which are easily faked and there are no objective observers. At this point, the case is so cold that there is little likely hood of an impartial investigation, even if there were impartial investigators.

Russia and Syria have proposed a combined investigation but the West has rejected that proposal and wants to do its own "investigation."

Welcome to the Disinformation Age.

lastgreek said...

MRW: Eisenhower.

Indeed. But it wasn't for a lack of trying :)

Joe said...

"They had zero reasons to do the attack and about a bajillion reasons to not do the attack."
What I meant by that was, that Assad is winning currently. He could have killed more than twice as many people with regular bombs and gotten less than half the media attention. Assad knows that, Putin knows that, and the "rebels" and their Gulf backers also know that.. Assad has shown he doesn't mind killing people and devastating cities. Just days after the US announced regime change was no longer a priority, basically, there's only one thing that would renew the calls for regime change and invite further western intervention against Assad's regime, and that's a chemical attack (we lose our minds over killing 76 people with gas, but ripping them apart with bombs doesn't bother us so much, crazy I know). And sure enough, there was a chemical attack, and calls for regime change are back (whether these calls are just for public consumption is another matter).

And then there was that Guardian reporter that claimed he was there and the building that was allegedly bombed appears to not have been bombed at all. Now how a guardian reporter got in there without getting his throat slit, I don't know, which is why I said claimed to have been there.

None of this makes any sense on the face of it.

The only thing I'm sure of is that someone is lying.

Tom Hickey said...

And then there was that Guardian reporter that claimed he was there and the building that was allegedly bombed appears to not have been bombed at all.

Right, and how did the White Helmets get there in AQ land? And how was there a video crew conveniently on the scene, too.

Many questions to be answered that never will be.