On 9/6/13 8:23 PM, Shane Mage wrote: > > MEMORANDUM FOR: The President > > FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) > > SUBJECT: Is Syria a Trap? > > /Precedence/: IMMEDIATE > > We regret to inform you that some of our former co-workers are telling > us, categorically, that contrary to the claims of your administration, > the most reliable intelligence shows that Bashar al-Assad was NOT > responsible for the chemical incident that killed and injured Syrian > civilians on August 21, and that British intelligence officials also > know this. In writing this brief report, we choose to assume that you > have not been fully informed because your advisers decided to afford you > the opportunity for what is commonly known as “plausible denial.” > >
We should oppose Obama but we should oppose bullshit smears of the Syrian rebels from people like Ray McGovern, who is the author. I just wrote him this: Mr. McGovern, I know that you are playing on your background as an ex-CIA agent who joined the peace movement but I really wonder if you think anybody can believe this? "There is a growing body of evidence from numerous sources in the Middle East — mostly affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its supporters — providing a strong circumstantial case that the August 21 chemical incident was a pre-planned provocation by the Syrian opposition and its Saudi and Turkish supporters. The aim is reported to have been to create the kind of incident that would bring the United States into the war. "According to some reports, canisters containing chemical agent were brought into a suburb of Damascus, where they were then opened. Some people in the immediate vicinity died; others were injured. "We are unaware of any reliable evidence that a Syrian military rocket capable of carrying a chemical agent was fired into the area. In fact, we are aware of no reliable physical evidence to support the claim that this was a result of a strike by a Syrian military unit with expertise in chemical weapons." In the first two paragraphs you describe a conspiracy involving the Saudis, the Turks, and the Syria rebels to open canisters and cause the death of many people. Do you actually have any "sources in the Middle East" or are you just spreading the manure that appeared in the Mint Press News? This cock-and-bull story that you are repeating with the modification that canisters were opened on purpose rather than accidentally is simply asserted with nothing to back it up. One of the strange things I have seen with people like you anxious to shore up the Baathist dictatorship is a rather cavalier attitude toward the truth. I have seen Carla del Ponte, Milosevic's crooked prosecutor, held up as an authority on the rebels being behind chemical attacks and now we have this from you. What makes you any different from Judith Miller with her slimy interview with a guy in a baseball cap who guaranteed that Saddam had WMD's? Well, if it is any consolation, you still seem to have a knack for spreading disinformation--a skill that you learned at Langley. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
