Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took to the pages of the Washington Post over the weekend to pound sand over President Obama's refusal to invade Syria and overthrow its government. read on...
No more wool over their eyes, Americans continue to demand answers from political leaders like Senator John McCain over the US "we have always been at war with Eastsaia" policy in the Middle East.
Witness this amazing video, in which Senator McCain settled in to what he expected to be a nice friendly townhall meeting about Obamacare. Soon he found himself confronted by a well-informed and angry constituent demanding to know why the Senator supports al-Qaeda in Syria. read on...
One of the U.S. government’s main arguments for why we are supposed to have concluded that Syrian government forces were responsible for the August chemical weapons attack in Damascus is that the rebels being armed by the U.S., whose ranks include al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic extremists, didn’t have access to such weapons. But now inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) — which are in Syria disarming its stockpiles after the government under President Bashar al-Assad declared its possession of CW and agreed to allow the teams in for that purpose — are asking to also visit CW sites that were captured by the rebels and are under their control. read on...
RPI's Daniel McAdams speaks with Marc Clair of the Lions of Liberty. Working for Ron Paul, the origins of the Ron Paul Institute, the left-right coalition behind the Ron Paul Institute, the great value of counting Dennis Kucinich among our advisors, the Ron Paul Channel, Syria, Iran, Africa, blowback, and more. read on...
In a stunning blow to the "humanitarian interventionists" of the Obama administration and another boost for Russian diplomatic efforts, the five permanent Members of the UN Security Council appear to have agreed to a resolution governing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons that rejects each point the US administration not long ago deemed essential to such an agreement.
Secretary of State John Kerry as recently as last week "insisted" that any UN resolution dealing with Syrian chemical disarmament must be filed under Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which provides for the use of force if the agreement is not satisfactorily implemented. Russia, which had been tricked by the Obama administration over its Chapter 7 demands on Libya that ended in a disastrous war, refused to fall again for the ruse. Even as Kerry lied last week to the US media that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov had agreed to a Chapter 7 resolution, the Russians denied Kerry's claims. Now we see that Chapter 7 is dead in the water. read on...
The US and Russia yesterday reached what looks to be a solid agreement on how to proceed with the dismantling of the chemical weapons stores of the Syrian government as well as destruction of Syria's production capabilities. Syria agreed to the Russian-proposed deal (with a little inspiration from US Secretary of State John Kerry) with the understanding that giving up its chemical weapons would avert a US military attack.
The agreement seems full enough of ambiguities regarding the consequences of less than full Syrian compliance to allow the US government some face-saving saber rattling about retaining the option to strike unilaterally, while being vague enough in defining what exactly constitutes non-compliance to make difficult a clear cut case for a UN Chapter 7 use of force resolution. In other words, seemingly win-win. read on...
US military contractors are ready to rake in hundred of millions of dollars from missile sales alone if the US launches a "limited" attack on Syria. Ray Downs describes the details in Vice:
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So now we know that Elizabeth O'Bagy, the "expert" cited by Secretary Kerry, Senator McCain, and others as an important impartial source claiming that moderates, not radicals, dominate among Syrian insurgents is a liar.
Her padded resume was a convenient excuse for her termination from her main job at Kimberly Kagan's Institute for the Study of War (where arch-neocon William Kristol is Chairman).
However the real scandal is not O'Bagy's falsely claimed PhD, but rather that at her other job, for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, she had been at the enter of a massive propaganda and influence campaign aimed at the American people, pushing the idea that there were moderates in Syria who the US should be supporting. O'Bagy played a key role in that influence campaign and she was being paid to lie about the insurgents by the US government itself! Yes, the real scandal is that O'Bagy was being paid as a State Department contractor to pose as a Syria expert and convince Americans that the Syrian insurgents should be supported. read on...
With the increasing possibility of no vote being held on a Syria attack in the House and Senate, President Obama's uphill battle to win over lawmakers and the US public -- and his probable defeat in Congress -- may have come to an end.
Those opposed to the administration's plans for an attack on Syria may well have reason to cheer this dramatic turn of events, particularly as the massive loss of life from both the "unbelievably small" Tomahawk strike and the subsequent slaughter of more civilians by the insurgents who would benefit from the strikes will have been -- for now -- avoided.
However welcome is this shift in momentum toward peace, there is also disappointment that, as the corporate media struggles to put a positive spin on the incredibly reckless actions of the US regime, the US administration will not have to answer the most serious questions raised by its assertions on Syria. read on...
