Seymour Hersh Does It Again! Killing in the name of …

Tuesday, 8 April 2014, 7:36 am
Opinion: Michael Collins

Who were the culprits for the chemical weapons attack in Syria?

What was really going on in Benghazi when Libyan terrorists killed Ambassador Stevens and others?

Why is the United States covering up and collaborating with a moral leper, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan?

Seymour Hersh answers these questions in his April 6 article The Red Line and the Rat Line - Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdogan and the Syrian rebels April 6, London Review of Books

Hersh's latest article is a follow up to Whose Sarin, December 13, 2013, also published by the London Review of Books. In December, Hersh went behind the scenes to debunk the claims by the Obama administration that it had a slam-dunk case against the Syrian government for the August 2013 chemical weapons attack on civilians near Damascus, Syria. Despite the best efforts to keep the story out of the news and the spirited response of neoconservative and Obama trolls, the story was well read in the United States thanks to the Internet.

Subsequent research, using White House information and the United Nations report, demonstrated that the attack could not have come from territory controlled by the Syrian government. This is independent support and verification for Hersh's claim in Whose Sarin?

Hersh takes us further down the path of truth about who was responsible for the chemical weapons attack in Syria

Whose sarin? The government of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan made it happen

Hersh points out that the United States military and intelligence community was concerned about the role of Turkey in supporting the Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda militia fighting the Syrian government. Specifically, intelligence officials were concerned about a false-flag brewing within the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT. A Hersh source revealed:

‘We knew there were some in the Turkish government,’ a former senior US intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence, told me, ‘who believed they could get Assad’s nuts in a vice by dabbling with a sarin attack inside Syria – and forcing Obama to make good on his red line threat.’ The Red Line and the Rat Line, Seymour Hersh, LRB, Apr 6

Intelligence sources also knew that: Turkish and Saudi agents were seeking sarin gas precursors; Al Nusra has a chemical weapons potential and program; "there was evidence linking the Syrian opposition to the first gas attack, on 19 March" near Aleppo; and that local Turkish authorities caught Syrian rebels with sarin gas precursors attempting to cross into Syria from Turkey. Hersh, Apr 6

Hersh's sources claim that Denis McDonough, Obama chief of staff, made sure that President Obama was unaware of intelligence implicating Turkey in chemical weapons production and use by Syrian rebels, according to Hersh's sources. Hersh, Apr 6

Ironically, after the Obama administration and the rest of the attack Syria cabal blamed Syria for the chemical weapons attack and as the U.S. readied a devastating attack, British intelligence sent a warning:

[British Intelligence had "obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff." Hersh, Apr 6

What was really going on in Benghazi and hot that fits in to the planned attack on Syria?

Ambassador Christopher Steven and three others were murdered in September 2011 at what was described as a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. A Senate Intelligence Committee report criticized security measures but failed to tell citizens information absolutely critical to understanding the incident. That information was contained in an annex to the report, viewed by just a few officials. According to Hersh's source:

"The consulate’s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms,’ [from Libya to Syrian rebels] the former intelligence official, who has read the annex, said. ‘It had no real political role.'" Hersh, Apr 6

The Benghazi report annex revealed that the Libya to Syrian rebel weapons transfer was part of a more complex ratline that provided weapons to Syrian rebels. A secret agreement between the U.S., UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar was reached in early 2012. Through a series of front companies, the CIA and MI6, British intelligence, transferred weapons once supplied to bring democracy to Libya to Syria. Disgraced General David Petraeus directed the operation.

Al Nusra, heavily backed by Turkey, had close ties to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group; the Al Qaeda aligned jihadists who helped topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

Hersh's investigation uncovers the "highly classified" report detailing the function of the so-called consulate, information that is vital to understanding who was behind the attack and their motivation.

A forced alliance with a moral leper, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan

Turkey is ruled by one of the most corrupt, unscrupulous, and morally repellant figures in recent history. Along with key allies and family members, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been caught on published wiretaps engaging in a variety of criminal activities. The list is long and includes bid rigging, direct interference in court cases, firing hundreds of prosecutors and detectives who have uncovered his corruption, and staging a missile attack on his own country as an excuse to attack Syria.

Erdogan is also participated in the scandalous custom of child brides in Turkey when he went to court in 2003 to allow his son to marry a minor.

The man is a degenerate and a tyrant. He's also a strong supporter of the U.S. - NATO attack on Syria and the head of a major NATO country. The "rat line" that supplies the extremist Syrian rebels could not function without Turkish participation.

As Hersh's sources tell it, the Obama administration is upset with Turkey's affinity for the most extreme elements of the Syrian rebels, those aligned with Al Qaeda. A Hersh source describes a tense White House meeting between Obama and Erdogan. Obama confronted the Turkish intelligence chief and said:

When Erdogan tried to draw [Turkish intel chief] Fidan into the conversation, and Fidan began speaking, Obama cut him off and said:

‘We know.’ Erdogan tried to bring Fidan in a second time, and Obama again cut him off and said: ‘We know.’ At that point, an exasperated Erdogan said, ‘But your red line has been crossed!’ and, the expert told me, ‘Donilon said Erdogan “f…ing waved his finger at the president inside the White House”.’ Obama then pointed at Fidan and said: ‘We know what you’re doing with the radicals in Syria.’ Hersh, Apr 6

According to Hersh's sources, the administration is unable to out the Turkish government for its robust support of Al Qaeda and other extremists in Syria:

‘I asked my colleagues if there was any way to stop Erdogan’s continued support for the rebels, especially now that it’s going so wrong,’ the former intelligence official told me. ‘The answer was: “We’re screwed.” We could go public if it was somebody other than Erdoğan, but Turkey is a special case. They’re a Nato ally. Hersh, Apr 6

Implications and questions raised by Hersh's latest

Seymour Hersh deserves great credit for pursuing his investigation into the scandals of U.S. foreign policy. After reading the two articles on Syria, one must agree that the machinations of the Obama administration are no different from those of the Bush administration.

Some questions and implications come to mind immediately after reading the Hersh article.

Was Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi to assure that surface to air missiles were not transferred to Syria as part of the rat line to rebels?

Hersh doesn't come right out and say this but one can infer that was the case. He points out that the Benghazi consulate was not really a consulate. It was a transfer point for sending weapons from Libyan rebels to Syrian's of the same ilk (i.e., extremist jihadists). Hersh talks about the Obama administration's desire to keep certain weapons from the Syrian rebels. He went into some detail about manpads, devastating weapons used to bring down aircraft, as he wrote about Benghazi.

If Ambassador Steven's was in Benghazi to make sure that manpads were not shipped to Syrian rebels, was the attack on the facility a means of diverting attention to allow the manpads to reach extremist rebels?

We know that local Libyan militias provided consulate security and that their security was sorely wanting. We also know that there was a close relationship between Libyan rebels and the extremist Al Nusra rebels in Syria. Could the Libyan extremists stage an event to help their brothers in arms in Syria?

If the Libyan militia security force staged the attack as a diversion to get manpads to Syrian rebels, could it be that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and others in favor of maximum armaments were behind the attack on the consulate?

Erdogan and the neoconservatives in the U.S., UK, and France have been adamant on supplying the best weapons possible to take down the Al Assad led Syrian government. Erdogan's foreign minister was taped developing a plot to attack his own country with missiles to justify a military incursion into Syria just days ago. Erdogan's government is a documented criminal enterprise. Such a plan would be right up his alley.

Hersh's article is an exemplary piece of investigative journalism. His continued efforts will answer these questions and raise many more. Even if he didn't write another word on Obama administration foreign policy, his work in the two articles on Syria represent a major contribution and an example that the mainstream media should emulate.

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