Video Evidence of False Claims Made in the White House Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017 by Ted Postol - Publius Tacitus

Here is the third paper by Professor Emeritus Theodore "Ted" Postol on the alleged Syrian Government chemical weapons attack. To reiterate--there was no Syrian Government chemical weapon attack.

Video Evidence of False Claims Made in the White House Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017

Theodore A. Postol
Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This is my third report assessing the White House intelligence Report of April 11, 2017.  My first report was titled A Quick Turnaround Assessment of the White House Intelligence Report Issued on April 11, 2017 about the Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria and my second report was an Addendum to the first report.

This report provides unambiguous evidence that the White House Intelligence Report (WHR) of April 11, 2017 contains false and misleading claims that could not possibly have been accepted in any professional review by impartial intelligence experts.  The WHR was produced by the National Security Council under the oversight of the National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster. 

This image was extracted from a video of a worker during midday (note shadows) on April 5, 2017 next to the crater where sarin was allegedly released according to the White House Intelligence Report (WHR) issued of April 11, 2017.  The WHR asserts that it reviewed commercial video evidence and concluded that sarin came from the crater next to a man.  Other video frames show unprotected workers in the crater showing no evidence of sarin poisoning at the same time the dead birds are being packaged.  The URLs to this and a related video are contained in this report.

The evidence presented herein is from two selected videos which are part of a larger cache of videos that are available on YouTube.  These videos were uploaded to YouTube in the time period between April 5, 2017 and April 7, 2017.  Analysis of the videos shows that all of the scenes taken at the site where the WHR claims was the location of a sarin release indicate significant tampering with the site.  Since these videos were available roughly one week before the White House report was issued on April 11, this indicates that the office of the WHR made no attempt to utilize the professional intelligence community to obtain accurate data in support of the findings in the report.

The video evidence shows workers at the site roughly 30 hours after the alleged attack that were wearing clothing with the logo “Idlib Health Directorate.”  These individuals were photographed putting dead birds from a birdcage into plastic bags.  The implication of these actions was that the birds had died after being placed in the alleged sarin crater.  However, the video also shows the same workers inside and around the same crater with no protection of any kind against sarin poisoning.

These individuals were wearing honeycomb face masks and medical exam gloves.  They were otherwise dressed in normal streetwear and had no protective clothing of any kind. 

The honeycomb face masks would provide absolutely no protection against either sarin vapors or sarin aerosols.  The masks are only designed to filter small particles from the air.  If there were sarin vapor, it would be inhaled without attenuation by these individuals.  If the sarin were in an aerosol form, the aerosol would have condensed into the pours in the masks, and would have evaporated into a highly lethal gas as the individuals inhaled through the mask.  It is difficult to believe that such health workers, if they were health workers, would be so ignorant of these basic facts.

In addition, other people dressed as health workers were standing around the crater without any protection at all.

As noted in my earlier reports, the assumption in WHR that the site of the alleged sarin release had not been tampered with was totally unjustified and no competent intelligence analyst would have agreed that this assumption was valid.  The implication of this observation is clear – the WHR was not reviewed and released by any competent intelligence experts unless they were motivated by factors other than concerns about the accuracy of the report.

The WHR also makes claims about “communications intercepts” which supposedly provide high confidence that the Syrian government was the source of the attack.  There is no reason to believe that the veracity of this claim is any different from the now verified false claim that there was unambiguous evidence of a sarin release at the cited crater.

The relevant quotes from the WHR are collected below for purposes of reference:

• The United States is confident that the Syrian regime conducted a chemical weapons attack, using the nerve agent sarin, against its own people in the town of Khan Shaykhun in southern Idlib Province on April 4, 2017.
• We have confidence in our assessment because we have signals intelligence and geospatial intelligence, laboratory analysis of physiological samples collected from multiple victims, as well as a significant body of credible open source reporting
• We cannot publicly release all available intelligence on this attack due to the need to protect sources and methods, but the following includes an unclassified summary of the U.S. Intelligence Community's analysis of this attack.
• By 12:15 PM [April4, 2017] local time, broadcasted local videos included images of dead children of varying ages.
• … at 1:10 PM [April4, 2017] local … follow-on videos showing the bombing of a nearby hospital …
• Commercial satellite imagery from April 6 showed impact craters around the hospital that are consistent with open source reports of a conventional attack on the hospital after the chemical attack.
• Moscow has since claimed that the release of chemicals was caused by a regime airstrike on a terrorist ammunition depot in the eastern suburbs of Khan Shaykhun.
• An open source video also shows where we believe the chemical munition landed [Emphasis Added]—not on a facility filled with weapons, but in the middle of a street in the northern section of Khan Shaykhun. Commercial satellite imagery of that site from April 6, [Emphasis Added] after the allegation, shows a crater in the road that corresponds to the open source video.
• observed munition remnants at the crater and staining around the impact point are consistent with a munition that functioned, but structures nearest to the impact crater did not sustain damage that would be expected from a conventional high-explosive payload. Instead, the damage is more consistent with a chemical munition.
• Russia's allegations fit with a pattern of deflecting blame from the regime and attempting to undermine the credibility of its opponents.

Summary and Conclusions

It is now clear from video evidence that the WHR report was fabricated without input from the professional intelligence community.

The press reported on April 4 that a nerve agent attack had occurred in Khan Shaykhun, Syria during the early morning hours locally on that day.  On April 7, The United States carried out a cruise missile attack on Syria ordered by President Trump.  It now appears that the president ordered this cruise missile attack without any valid intelligence to support it.

In order to cover up the lack of intelligence to supporting the president’s action, the National Security Council produced a fraudulent intelligence report on April 11 four days later.  The individual responsible for this report was Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, the National Security Advisor.  The McMaster report is completely undermined by a significant body of video evidence taken after the alleged sarin attack and before the US cruise missile attack that unambiguously shows the claims in the WHR could not possibly be true.  This cannot be explained as a simple error.

The National Security Council Intelligence Report clearly refers to evidence that it claims was obtained from commercial and open sources shortly after the alleged nerve agent attack (on April 5 and April 6).  If such a collection of commercial evidence was done, it would have surely found the videos contained herein.

This unambiguously indicates a dedicated attempt to manufacture a false claim that intelligence actually supported the president’s decision to attack Syria, and of far more importance, to accuse Russia of being either complicit or a participant in an alleged atrocity.

The attack on the Syrian government threatened to undermine the relationship between Russia and the United States.  Cooperation between Russia and the United States is critical to the defeat of the Islamic State.  In addition, the false accusation that Russia knowingly engaged in an atrocity raises the most serious questions about a willful attempt to do damage relations with Russia for domestic political purposes.

We repeat here a quote from the WHR:

An open source video also shows where we believe the chemical munition landed—not on a facility filled with weapons, but in the middle of a street in the northern section of Khan Shaykhun [Emphasis Added]. Commercial satellite imagery of that site from April 6, after the allegation, shows a crater in the road that corresponds to the open source video.

The data provided in these videos make it clear that the WHR made no good-faith attempt to collect data that could have supported its “confident assessment.” that the Syrian government executed a sarin attack as indicated by the location and characteristics of the crater.

This very disturbing event is not a unique situation.  President George W. Bush argued that he was misinformed about unambiguous evidence that Iraq was hiding a substantial store of weapons of mass destruction.  This false intelligence led to a US attack on Iraq that started a process that ultimately led to the political disintegration in the Middle East, which through a series of unpredicted events then led to the rise of the Islamic State.

On August 30, 2013, the White House produced a similarly false report about the nerve agent attack on August 21, 2013 in Damascus.  This report also contained numerous intelligence claims that could not be true.  An interview with President Obama published in The Atlantic in April 2016 indicates that Obama was initially told that there was solid intelligence that the Syrian government was responsible for the nerve agent attack of August 21, 2013 in Ghouta, Syria.  Obama reported that he was later told that the intelligence was not solid by the then Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.

Equally serious questions are raised about the abuse of intelligence findings by the incident in 2013.  Questions that have not been answered about that incident is how the White House produced a false intelligence report with false claims that could obviously be identified by experts outside the White House and without access to classified information.  There also needs to be an explanation of why this 2013 false report was not corrected.  Secretary of State John Kerry emphatically testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee repeating information in this so-called un-equivocating report.

On August 30, 2013 Secretary of State Kerry made the following statement from the Treaty Room in the State Department:

Our intelligence community has carefully reviewed and re-reviewed information regarding this attack [Emphasis added], and I will tell you it has done so more than mindful of the Iraq experience. We will not repeat that moment. Accordingly, we have taken unprecedented steps to declassify and make facts available to people who can judge for themselves.

It is now obvious that this incident produced by the WHR, while just as serious in terms of the dangers it created for US security, was a clumsy and outright fabrication of a report that was certainly not supported by the intelligence community.

In this case, the president, supported by his staff, made a decision to launch 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.  This action was accompanied by serious risks of creating a confrontation with Russia, and also undermining cooperative efforts to win the war against the Islamic State. 

I therefore conclude that there needs to be a comprehensive investigation of these events that have either misled people in the White House White House, or worse yet, been perpetrated by people to protect themselves from domestic political criticisms for uninformed and ill-considered actions.

Sincerely yours, Theodore A. Postol

Professor Emeritus of Science,
Technology, and National Security Policy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email: postol@mit.edu

 

Video Evidence That Reveals the White House Intelligence Report
Issued on April 11, 2017 Contains Demonstrably False Claims about a Sarin Dispersal Crater Allegedly Created
in the April 4, 2017 Attack in Khan Sheikoun, Syria

VIDEO #1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeosawyrgyo

Dead Birds Video

 

VIDEO #2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyFAl2gjZJQ

Idlib Health Directorate Tampering with Alleged Sarin Dispersal Site Video

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Imagine]

Seymour Hersh says: Hillary approved sending Libya's Sarin to Syrian Rebels [Patricia Ramirez]:
http://www.inquisitr.com/3059683/hillary-clinton-pulitzer-prize-winning-journalist-says-presidential-candidate-approved-sending-sarin-gas-to-syrian-rebels/#xz1U8y5w0Y57qfIC.99

"Document:Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels"
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:Seymour_Hersh_Says_Hillary_Approved_Sending_Libya’s_Sarin_to_Syrian_Rebels

Sees more. Harsh!

[Mikey]

Can't answer the 1st question, but the 2nd, I think is they are in denial.

[The Beaver]

@b

Do you mean these:
https://twitter.com/IraqiSecurity/status/849700538086305794

[Valissa]

Geez.. let's see... when Obama started doing things he campaigned against, the great majority of his liberal supporters similarly let him off the hook. Some of the progressive blogs spoke out against Obama when he did that, but by and large his supporters continued to support him. Same thing with George Bush, Clinton, etc.

What is going on here? Do you really not understand what is going on? Surely after so many years of voting for presidents that have disappointed you, you must have figured out what is going on by now. It's not complicated.

[Valissa]

Brilliant adaptation :) Thanks for the laugh!

[Imagine]

4/13/17 US announces March dry-run tests of dropping new [unarmed] nuke B61-12 gravity-bomb on Nevada desert:
https://nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/pressreleases/nnsa-air-force-complete-first-b61-12-life-extension-program-qualification
https://www.rt.com/usa/384786-nuclear-bomb-test-nevada/

Timing of announcement is weird. Why not keep it quiet?
Could be part of escalation of routine tests, but if I were N.K., I would consider it an in-your-face Sending A Message.

We Come In Peace. Ack ack ack ack.

[different clue]

MRW,

I think wisedupearly is highlighting this as "MEMRI tee-ing up the Curveball 2.0" type of warning.

[different clue]

Babak Makkinejad,

That innuendo is being held in reserve, ready to use again, if Trump needs a whack on the nose to remind him of his recent training.

[Mark Chapman]

Yes, he is alleged to have said he buried chemical weapons he was ordered to use 'with his own hands'. And so of course he could lead western authorities straight to them. Badda-bing, badda-boom, Assad still has chemical weapons, here's your proof.

They really want Assad's scalp bad, and are prepared to construct any narrative - no matter how baldly self-interested or convenient - to get him. But the west is used to getting its own way and has so far not been getting it much in this conflict. That must be troubling. It's certainly caused the west to abandon subtlety.

[Old Microbiologist]

It will serve the immediate purpose to cause further obfuscation of the real events happening in Syria and to further drive the message the US must invade to protect the people. There will be a lot more false flags just watch and wait.

It is very similar to the testimony of the defected drug testing director from Russia which later turned out to be completely false and the scandalous test results were also negated, but the damage was done for the Russians in the Olympics. We will eventually see this guy's testimony will be bought and paid for but it willl be way after the fact.

The US itself along with Russia verified the turn in of the chemical weapons and precursor chemicals so now they are claiming it was faked? Next they will claim the destruction never happened yet it was under US supervision and of course, it will once again be a Russian plot. Boris and Natascha perhaps? That is how comical this all appears. In a way these PSYOPS games are sophomoric and very unprofessional. I am embarrassed at the poor effort put into this. The White Hats must figure even crap like this will bear weight if pushed hard by the MSM and Trump administration.

[johnf]

Its Easter Sunday. Christ has arisen. Amid darkness, a light at Easter.

First Lady Melania Trump awarded the 2017 International Women of Courage Award to Sister Carolin Tahhan Fachakh of Syria during a ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Sister Carolin had some decidedly awkward opinions of her own which she didn't hesitate to express:

"Sister Carolin Tahhan Fachakh of the Salesian Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, who runs a nursery school in Damascus, Syria, told reporters Tuesday that she “likes” the Syrian strongman, and that he’s been very helpful and protective of Christians in the country...

Tahhan also said she believes there’s no truth to the reports that it was al-Assad who used Sarin gas to target a civilian population last week, an allegation which prompted the Trump administration to bomb a military base in Syria...

Tahhan described Trump’s decision to bomb the Shayrat Air Base, the alleged source of the chemical attack, as “a step back from peace.”

“Every time we say there is hope for peace, let’s move forward, something happens to set us back. The situation is ugly now...

Tahhan also said that she doubts al-Assad launched the chemical weapon attack in April because he knew the eyes of the world were on him and Syria, and that the threat of the U.S. or another country bombing as a response was real.

The sister regretted the fact that Syrian children are being raised in a “culture of war,” capable of distinguishing from their sound the difference between a cannon shot or a missile....

Therefore, together with other Franciscan sisters who run the school, they try to offer them a climate of peace and serenity, “where every child who is in need can play in the big courtyard and study.”

Asked about the international perception of al-Assad being a “monster” or a dictator, she responded: “I like our president. He’s very close to us, as is the first lady. They’re very close to the Church. Speak easily, call him a dictator, but to me, he’s not. We’re at ease.”...

Tahhan is not only defiantly against the portrait of al-Assad given in the West. She also challenges the perception that Muslims and Christians cannot coexist peacefully in Syria, saying that to this day, six years into the war, most still get along.

The problem, she said, is terrorism, not Islam.

Beyond the school for children, the Salesians in Baghdad also run a school to train women in sewing and tailoring. In the past 7 years, more than 500 woman have attended class.

“The majority are Muslims. If I said we would only choose Christians, then I would become a fanatic myself,” Tahhan said.

“When a missile falls or there’s an explosion,” she continued, “many Muslims knock on our door and ask, ‘Sister, are you OK? Do you need anything?'”

https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/04/12/syrian-nun-honored-us-says-assad-not-dictator/

Its good to know the spirit of Jesus is still alive in the East, however hard we work to eradicate it.

[Old Microbiologist]

Well, what can the voters actually do until the next election? Have you ever tried to contact your Congressman or Senator. I have tried multiple times and I get a form letter in reply with verbiage having nothing to do with my communications. That has happened many times. They are deaf to the voters until it gets close to another election. Now I am an expatriate American and have no representation whatsoever in Congress and no ability to get any support other than weak support from our Embassy which is openly hostile to American citizens.

I recall back when I was trying hard to retire from active duty in 1997 (a period of relative peace) and was refused without reason 3 times. My Branch refused to say why I couldn't retire yet I had 26 years of service. The IG refused to intercede citing needs of the Army and my Congressman also refused (I made an appointment and physically went to his office) stating he never interferes with the military on personnel matters and blew me off completely. I was flabbergasted. I waited another 2 years and it was approved. I had been offered a very lucrative civilian job at a nearby University which I had to turn down. But, after I retired I rolled right over to a GS-15 (after a brief 2 year period as a contractor) and stayed at my same job throughout being a prolific scientists with multiple funded projects. I only took the GS slot as the Principal Investigator rules changed and contractors could no longer be PI's on their own funded projects. Only direct government employees could do that so I forced a Term GS-15 slot to open up. I was paying my own salary anyway through grants so a real no brainer as 45% of what I brought in went to command overhead. I was begged to stay as I once again had a great job offer. Staying was a poor decision and I regret it but we only live life once. So, my point is that Congress doesn't answer nor care what citizens do or think.

[b]

Thanks TTG, Beaver, Mikey

though none of those seems to fit the "round plate in a hole".

I am also not content with the theory of a chemical shell. The crater is too big for a soft-shell chem projectile to land. Postol's theory is that someone blew up a chem projectile by an extra piece of explosives on the ground. The crater is, in my eyes, too big for that too.

This really needs a specialist with some experience in these issues. Surely the CIA or DIA would have such people available. But those were likely not asked.

The White House report is a sham - that's for sure. It doesn't fit to any plausible story of what really happened. None of the relevant agencies signed off on it.

The media will not pick up on it. They are too happy that Trump has now "moderated" (they actually used that word) from a more isolationist position towards their desired "kill more non-white people anywhere" position.

[robt willmann]

Two items, although mostly off topic.

First, president Trump on 6 April renewed a declaration of a "national emergency" as to Somalia, which was first declared by president Obama on 12 April 2010. A national emergency ... Somalia?--

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/06/message-congress-regarding-continuation-national-emergency-respect

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1621

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1622

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/chapter-34

This apparently has resulted in "trainers" being sent to that country.

Second, an active duty Navy Seal, a/k/a Jay Voom, has been exposed as having performed in pornographic movies with his porn actress wife, and apparently a couple of others--

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-seal-porn-20170414-story.html

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/04/15/active-navy-seal-investigated-staring-porn-movies-pay-bills/amp/

At some point, this activity was claimed to have been done to make extra money to deal with financial problems. Part of the financial difficulty the couple developed came from a real estate venture that went sour. I apologize in advance for making an obvious joke, but the sitting president, as a real estate operator, may be able to assist them with a few pointers, because, alas, it is a little late for them to attend "Trump University"--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1N_B6Y4ZQ

[MRW]

My apologies, wisedupearly.

[Willybilly]

Simple, liars leading liars in denial, equals: Sheeple wall to wall.

[J]

Tillerson in Moscow with a U.S. Cyber spook by his side, caused anger on the Russian side. The Russians knew exactly who she was and her career in cyber warfare against Russia. Lavarov refused to look at Tillerson during their press conference, and Putin refused to be photographed with Tillerson because Tillerson's entourage choice.

[English Outsider]

"Thomas Frank’s “What to Make of the Age of Trump” description of the Democratic Party is the best blueprint of the actual structure of the ruling elite that I have seen"

It is also a brilliant demolition of neo-liberal economic prescriptions. I wish all progressives could be as forthright and as perceptive. There's a lot of common ground there, though no one yet to occupy it, between the economically literate progressives and the deplorables. Frank's presentation was for me the clearest and best articulation I have yet seen of the reasons for the rejection of the status quo by Trump/Sanders supporters. In that respect Frank is from much the same stable as Steve Bannon, though I think both would be dismayed by the comparison.

Unfortunately Frank sets out no concrete solutions for the economic plight of the middle and working classes that he sets out so clearly. I don't see him examining the mass importation of cheap labour, either. It's head in the clouds thinking not to acknowledge that the use of cheap labour, whether exploited in situ by out-sourcing or exploited by direct importation, is one of the main reasons for that economic plight. Trump got that more or less right in his election campaign. Thomas Frank doesn't.

Your own comment indicates that you consider Trump's reneging on his campaign commitments on foreign policy will be mirrored by a similar abandonment of his domestic/economic policy. I hope you're wrong. You say that the US and the EU are splintering apart and I agree that that is self evident. But "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation" and it may be that we still have some way to go. The hope was that Trump would use what time is left to change course. If you're right, and Trump is not going to use his time in the last chance saloon to any effect then the Trump movement will not merely have lost its leader. It will have lost its raison d'etre.

[John Jones]

Jackrabbit

Do you have a email I can contact you with?

[fanto]

Kooshy,
"as long as the Borg is not authorizing it to become national news."
It seems to me also, that there must be somewhere a centralized 'clearinghouse' of permissible and not permissible news. It is amazing how the media are led like cattle be a nose ring. This brings up the question who is behind it, how it is organized that there is around the clock watch, globally, because the European media are linked in the system. I wonder why the RT and the Chinese media have not picked up this video.

[turcopolier]

b

These pictures remind me of one from Iraq-Iran war days of an Iraqi chem warfare worker filling an aerial bomb warhead with what was said to be VX. He was wearing a painter's mask, rubber gloves and was using a kitchen funnel. One drop of VX on the skin will kill you in about 60 seconds. We had our doubts about that picture as well.

Unless things have changed a lot since my departure, both DIA and CIA had technical intelligence departments quite capable of understanding this situation but perhaps unable to offer more than a mute hostility in opposition. For that reason this administration, like the last, has chosen to write a white paper full of assertions but little evidence. I did not a post a comment a few days ago that seemed to e clearly a message from someone I know in the WH. This message pathetically expressed surprise and dismay that I oppose the Borgist vision of the world. This person also asserted that the people I am posting are "not experts." Is Dr. Postol not an expert? pl

[Valissa]

Interesting... I wonder if it was Tillerson's choice to bring her or if she was sent as a minder by the Borg. Trump was stupid the way he attacked the IC when he got into office (not that it wasn't somewhat deserved). Good chance there has been payback for that behind the scenes (that we will never know the details of).

Do you have a link?

[Bill H]

You answered your own question. It does no good to have a new nuclear weapon unless it is known that you have it. Notwithstanding all of the "the nuclear option is on the table" statements, nuclear weapons are a deterrent, and they cannot deter if they are kept secret.

[Rawdawgbuffalo]

Bush, Obama & Trump Middle East Policy is one in the same: http://wsenmw.blogspot.com/2017/04/bush-obama-trump-middle-east-policy-is.html

[Jackrabbit]

edit: "Beautiful plumage!" ==> "Beautiful umbrage!"*

typo: "You own bird-brain ..." => "Your own bird-brain ..."

* UMBRAGE is the CIA program for false attribution of cyber attacks