The smoking gun comes from ....

I watched Jay Carnie today as he spluttered and tried to bully his way through a statement to the WH press corps on Syria.  When asked for something more than an inference from supposedly unique capabilities he could not answer and replied that an assessment is expected from the IC any day now.

A little bird tells me that the only direct "evidence" in hand is a third party intercept report provided by the Israelis that could be interpreted as a coded order to carry out such an operation.

Sure.  pl

Comments

[b]

I am told that Israeli intercept is actually quite old.

They recorded it from their CNN feed when Powell played some tapes in the UNSC of intercepts in Iraq that exposed the WMD cover up by Saddam.

[turcopolier]

b

Yup. Very similar. pl

[steve]

Colonel, I have forced myself to watch MSNBC today, and what I have witnessed thus far is worse than I expected.

A continuous parade of experts/pundits all in full jingoistic mode, without even the pretense of a token opponent.

Many of them appear to be using the occasion to "redeem" their journalistic cred by being right this time as opposed to wrong on Iraq. Peter Beinhardt explicitly made such a statement.

Andrea Mitchell uttered this blooper, to paraphrase: "we need to call the bluff of dictators such as saddam hussein"

oops, "I mean assad"--said wiith a nervous giggle.

She then turned to the "what effect will all of this have on Israel" meme.

I am glad I experienced this first-hand--it would never have been so effective just hearing about it.

I also think the rush to war on 3 days notice is planned to preempt any organized public opposition. Not sure there would be much anyway, but just speculating . . . .

[Medicine Man]

Handsome bird. You can really see how they're related to the Jay family.

[SteveG]

So we will replace The Ride of The Valkeries
with The Battle Hymn of The Republic as our
anthem? Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
ending of the Republic. What key anyone.

[Medicine Man]

Col.: Get a load of the names signed on this article/petition.

http://m.weeklystandard.com/blogs/experts-obama-here-what-do-syria_751267.html?page=1

Holy hell.

[r whitman]

Has the Chairman of the JCS been absent from public appearances and pronouncements during the last few days??

[swampy]

With a grain of salt.

http://www.cyberwarnews.info/reports/a-look-into-the-britam-defence-data-leak-files/

[Castellio]

Franklin Lambs details the Saudi-Israeli connection: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/27/forcing-obama-into-prolonged-syrian-war/

[haldlock]

Zimmerman telegram?

[mac]

I think its safe to say that the coup in Cairo, and the CW use in Syria are not unrelated....

[elkern]

OMG (ik)

It's signed "sincerely"...

then the 1st 10 signers include

Elliot Abrams
Max Boot

Abrams is one of the few humans I actively hate; Boot is merely amusing - I think he's still a Trotskyite, masquerading as a NeoCon, because it turned out to be the best way to destroy the USA.

[Medicine Man]

Also both of the Kagans, Eliot Cohen, Paul Bremer, Bill Kristol, "Senator" Lieberman, Marty Peretz, Karl Rove, and Dan Senor.

That whole list is a rogue's gallery worthy of Batman.

[The beaver]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4422236,00.html

"The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported that Israel gave Washington and European countries information that included documents and pictures proving that chemical weapons were launched from a Syrian army post in the vicinity of Damascus. According to the report, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz informed US Joint Chiefs Of Staff General Martin Dempsey that Israel has evidence of use of chemical weapons."

Is this a vicious circle : Israeli newspaper quoting a Kuwaiti Newspaper which is aware of the IDF report?

[lally]

Just in case the Israeli product will provide the definitive casus belli.

[google trans.]

“Mossad: “poison gas missile by Syrian government forces”
According to the findings of Israeli intelligence community, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the gas attack in Damascus.One unit of the Military Intelligence Service Amam, which specializes in wireless spy “Unit 8200″, controlled at the time of the gas attack, the communication of the Syrian army.A former Mossad officer told FOCUS, the analysis has clearly shown that the bombardment with poison gas missiles was made by Syrian government forces”.

http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/krise-in-der-arabischen-welt/syrien/bundeskanzlerin-im-focus-interview-giftgasmassaker-in-syrien-merkel-fordert-zugang-fuer-un-inspekteure_aid_1080416.html

The term "controlled" leapt out @ me although I don't know how accurate the translation is.

The killing of Lebanon's Rafic Hariri led to the use of telecommunications data being introduced as evidence of Hezbollah's guilt. Given that several Israeli assets were caught as employees of Lebanese telecom companies, Israel's penetration & control of Lebanon's telecom sector became a huge issue.

So much so that the Lebanese put together a case against Israel and successfully presented it for ccondemnation at an international conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Mexico city:

"During the press conference, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority head Dr. Imad Hoballah said that Israel has set up electronic warfare towers along Lebanon’s border and can crack encrypted data, jam communications, view phone subscribers’ information, and tap their lines.

Israel “controls information and data packets, and can enter a network, shut down parts and transfer information or delete it,” he added.

“They can fabricate calls that originally did not exist.”

Israel can obtain information about mobile phone owners, their location, their numbers, and their other phones, he also said“The network is penetrated at any control point, via a person inside the [phone] company, an agent, or another means.”
Hoballah also said that Israel has penetrated UNIFIL’s telecommunications."
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nownews/press_conference_describes_israeli_telecom_attacks

"They can fabricate calls that originally did not exist"....

[The beaver]

A propos:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/26/the-middle-east-explained-in-one-sort-of-terrifying-chart/

Check the reference about Financial Times letter to the Editor :-)

[Fred]

"They can fabricate calls that originally did not exist".

Come now, just because DNI Clapper and NSA head General Alexander lied under oath before Congress doesn't mean they will lie a second time.

[jonst]

I watched some of it too. Stunningly depressing. I feel helpless in the face of this horseshit. Abandon all hope...there is no countering this relentless lying. Nothing...

[bth]

Looks like neo-cons from the Project for the new American Century are getting the band back together. This is really bad.

[The beaver]

Some of the same usual suspects who wrote to Bill Clinton to have a regime change in Iraq

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

[kao_hsien-chih]

I wonder if the Saudis sold out Morsi for Asad's head, or at least, if that's the deal they think they made....

[The Twisted Genius]

I haven't heard anything more of the Russian satellite observation of two rocket launches from rebel territory just before the reported chemical attack. I thought they gave that evidence to the UN.

I found this article on a website of Walid Shoebat showing video footage of rebel launchings of possible chemical rockets. I know nothing of Shoebat beyond that he claims to be a former Muslim Brotherhood activist and now a Christian peace activist. The evidence he presents seems far more concrete than the hysterical, emotional ravings coming out of the White House.

http://shoebat.com/2013/08/27/evidence-syrian-rebels-used-chemical-weapons-not-assad/

[CTuttle]

Well, well, the "Too Little, Too Late" lie has been exposed, the UN's spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that the UN request for access to the site had been granted within 24 hrs of their request, not 5 days later, as Kerry, and others, have been touting...!

http://webtv.un.org/watch/daily-press-briefing-sg-travel-to-the-netherlands-syria-iran-palestine-darfur-afghanistan-sg-appointment-major-general-imam-edy-mulyono-indonesia-force-commander-of-the-minurso/2632263081001" rel="nofollow"

Watch from the 12:30 mark...

[oofda]

Yes, all highly experienced military people. Not!!
Even tho Bremer wears combat boots with his blue blazer

[The Twisted Genius]

PL,

Beautiful cardinal. They're frequent visitors while i read the paper on my deck in the morning. Just this morning the goldfinches returned to my garden to feast on the purple coneflowers.