Former
U.S. intelligence analysts claim current intelligence analysts have
told them Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not responsible for the
Aug. 21 poison gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, which
killed 1,429 people, of whom more than 400 where children.
They claim the “growing body of evidence” reveals the 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,” one former U.S.
intelligence analysts said.
The analysts referred to a meeting a week before the Aug. 21 incident
in which opposition military commanders ordered preparations for an
“imminent escalation” due to a “war-changing development” that would be
followed by the “U.S.-led bombing of Syria.”
In addition, the former U.S. analysts said that Israel welcomed
limited U.S. military action but not so much that it would strengthen
rebel groups, which are “increasingly dominated by Sunni jihadis.”
In an open memorandum to U.S. President Barack Obama, who is
contemplating a strike on Syria’s military in response to this incident,
members of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, or VIPS,
said that even British officials are aware that it wasn’t al-Assad who
committed the atrocity.
The British Parliament recently voted not to engage British military
forces, even though British Prime Minister David Cameron sought such an
endorsement in support of the Obama administration.
Following the vote, Cameron said there would be no British participation in any military action against the Syrian government.
The veteran former U.S. intelligence analysts who remain in contact
with current U.S. intelligence officials said they believe Obama wasn’t
informed in order to preserve “plausible denial.”
Formed in January 2003, VIPS is a group of current and former U.S.
intelligence community officials. Members include analysts from CIA, the
State Department’s Intelligence Bureau, or INR, and the Defense
Intelligence Agency.
Those signing the memorandum were Thomas Drake, former senior
executive of the National Security Agency; Philip Giraldi, retired
Central Intelligence Agency officer; Matthew Hoh, former Marine Corps
captain with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan; Larry Johnson, retired
CIA and State Department official; W. Patrick Lang, former senior
executive and Defense Intelligence Officer; David MacMichael, who was on
the National Intelligence Council; and Ray McGovern, former U.S. Army
infantry intelligence office and CIA analyst.
Other signers of the memo were Elizabeth Murray, former deputy
national intelligence officer; Todd Pierce, former U.S. Army judge
advocate; Sam Provance, former sergeant, U.S. Army in Iraq; Coleen
Rowley, former Division Council and FBI special agent; and Ann Write,
retired U.S. Army colonel and foreign service officer.
The memorandum, with a subject line titled “Is Syria a Trap?” pointed
out that the weight of the Obama’s evidence is reminiscent of
intelligence used by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in a Feb. 5,
2003, speech before the United Nations, in which he “peddled fraudulent
intelligence” – according to the memo – to support the March 18, 2003,
U.S. military attack on Iraq for its weapons of mass destruction.
“Then, also, we chose to give President (George W.) Bush the benefit
of the doubt, thinking he was being misled – or, at the least, very
poorly advised,” the analysts said.
“Our sources confirm that a chemical incident of some sort did cause
fatalities and injuries on Aug. 21 in a suburb of Damascus,” the
analysts said, suggesting that they maintain contact with current U.S.
intelligence community analysts. “They insist, however, that the
incident was not the result of an attack by the Syrian Army using
military-grade chemical weapons from its arsenal.”
In an apparent direct attack on CIA Director John Brennan, the former
high-ranking analysts said that he was “perpetrating a
pre-Iraq-War-type fraud on members of Congress, the media, the public –
and perhaps even you,” referring to Obama.
Article continues at
wnd.com