Sy Hersh Explodes Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Narrative - Part 1

"I guess it didn't matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.“

LA Times

You won't hear or read this story in the msm, stenographers have an aversion to the truth. True investigative journalism, in the traditional sense, has been almost completely defanged across US corporate media. It takes a relatively obscure publication in Germany and a blacklisted legendary reporter to provide a reliable account of the events.

Once again, the Pulitzer prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh provides a detailed account of what actually occurred on April 4th 2017 in Kahn Sheikhoun that provoked the US to respond with a 59 Tomahawk missile barrage two days later.

Drawing from sources within the intelligence community that Hersh has cultivated over the decades, a very different portrayal emerges as to what transpired leading up to US retaliation.

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Official Narrative

The official story is that the Syrian government launched a chemical weapons attack against the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. The 24hr media frenzy picked up the story and immediately began broadcasting images around the globe of victims suffering from nerve gas poisoning. Despite the fact that no international observers visited the site it was determined in short order that Assad and the Syrian government were responsible and Sarin gas had been used against civilians.

CNN - The Independent

Indeed, government forces did target a building in the town but conventional armaments, not chemical weapons, were deployed. In his latest article, Hersh stresses that intelligence officials were completely aware that it was not a chemical attack but it was the president's rash decision making that resulted in launching of airstrikes.

The available intelligence made clear that the Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives. Details of the attack, including information on its so-called high-value targets, had been provided by the Russians days in advance to American and allied military officials in Doha, whose mission is to coordinate all U.S., allied, Syrian and Russian Air Force operations in the region.

Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president's determination to ignore the evidence. "None of this makes any sense," one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. "We KNOW that there was no chemical attack ... the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth ... I guess it didn't matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.“

Source: Welt.de - Trump's Red Line

Intelligence Officials knew that there was no evidence of a chemical weapons attack in Kahn Sheikhoun but president Trump had already decided based on the photographs and the images he saw on the news of dead children.

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Beyond Confirmation Bias

“It’s typical of human nature. You jump to the conclusion you want."

Based on Syrian and Russian data and from his sources within the intel community, Hersh describes the Syrian bombing as follows:

The target was struck at 6:55 a.m. on April 4, just before midnight in Washington. A Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA) by the U.S. military later determined that the heat and force of the 500-pound Syrian bomb triggered a series of secondary explosions that could have generated a huge toxic cloud that began to spread over the town, formed by the release of the fertilizers, disinfectants and other goods stored in the basement, its effect magnified by the dense morning air, which trapped the fumes close to the ground. According to intelligence estimates, the senior adviser said, the strike itself killed up to four jihadist leaders, and an unknown number of drivers and security aides. There is no confirmed count of the number of civilians killed by the poisonous gases that were released by the secondary explosions, although opposition activists reported that there were more than 80 dead, and outlets such as CNN have put the figure as high as 92. A team from Médecins Sans Frontières, treating victims from Khan Sheikhoun at a clinic 60 miles to the north, reported that “eight patients showed symptoms – including constricted pupils, muscle spasms and involuntary defecation – which are consistent with exposure to a neurotoxic agent such as sarin gas or similar compounds.” MSF also visited other hospitals that had received victims and found that patients there “smelled of bleach, suggesting that they had been exposed to chlorine.” In other words, evidence suggested that there was more than one chemical responsible for the symptoms observed, which would not have been the case if the Syrian Air Force – as opposition activists insisted – had dropped a sarin bomb, which has no percussive or ignition power to trigger secondary explosions. The range of symptoms is, however, consistent with the release of a mixture of chemicals, including chlorine and the organophosphates used in many fertilizers, which can cause neurotoxic effects similar to those of sarin.

In this assessment, it's more probable that the target of the attack was housing weapons and fertilizers on the premaciss and toxic fumes were subsequently released in secondary explosions.

Within hours of viewing the photos, the adviser said, Trump instructed the national defense apparatus to plan for retaliation against Syria. “He did this before he talked to anybody about it. The planners then asked the CIA and DIA if there was any evidence that Syria had sarin stored at a nearby airport or somewhere in the area. Their military had to have it somewhere in the area in order to bomb with it.” “The answer was, ‘We have no evidence that Syria had sarin or used it,’” the adviser said. “The CIA also told them that there was no residual delivery for sarin at Sheyrat [the airfield from which the Syrian SU-24 bombers had taken off on April 4] and Assad had no motive to commit political suicide.” Everyone involved, except perhaps the president, also understood that a highly skilled United Nations team had spent more than a year in the aftermath of an alleged sarin attack in 2013 by Syria, removing what was said to be all chemical weapons from a dozen Syrian chemical weapons depots.

How quickly we forget that, since 2013, Syria no longer possesses a chemical weapons stockpile.

“No one knew the provenance of the photographs. We didn’t know who the children were or how they got hurt. Sarin actually is very easy to detect because it penetrates paint, and all one would have to do is get a paint sample."

At this point, the adviser said, the president’s national security planners were more than a little rattled: “No one knew the provenance of the photographs. We didn’t know who the children were or how they got hurt. Sarin actually is very easy to detect because it penetrates paint, and all one would have to do is get a paint sample. We knew there was a cloud and we knew it hurt people. But you cannot jump from there to certainty that Assad had hidden sarin from the UN because he wanted to use it in Khan Sheikhoun.” The intelligence made clear that a Syrian Air Force SU-24 fighter bomber had used a conventional weapon to hit its target: There had been no chemical warhead. And yet it was impossible for the experts to persuade the president of this once he had made up his mind. “The president saw the photographs of poisoned little girls and said it was an Assad atrocity,” the senior adviser said. “It’s typical of human nature. You jump to the conclusion you want. Intelligence analysts do not argue with a president. They’re not going to tell the president, ‘if you interpret the data this way, I quit.’”

..."Everyone close to him knows his proclivity for acting precipitously when he does not know the facts," the adviser said. "He doesn’t read anything and has no real historical knowledge. He wants verbal briefings and photographs. He’s a risk-taker. He can accept the consequences of a bad decision in the business world; he will just lose money. But in our world, lives will be lost and there will be long-term damage to our national security if he guesses wrong. He was told we did not have evidence of Syrian involvement and yet Trump says: 'Do it.”’

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As it's been reported, president Trump doesn't read.

The president of the United States prefers to be informed of world events via Fox, Newsmax and Breitbart.

Furthermore, the president makes rash decisions to launch attacks against other countries based on several photographs and verbal briefings.

These are disturbing thoughts.

In concluding the article, Hersh's source ponders the implications in terms of future false flags.

“The issue is, what if there’s another false flag sarin attack credited to hated Syria? Trump has upped the ante and painted himself into a corner with his decision to bomb. And do not think these guys are not planning the next faked attack. Trump will have no choice but to bomb again, and harder. He’s incapable of saying he made a mistake.”

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