Those who occupy the White House should learn from past history. The latest charges by the Trump administration that Syrian President Bassar Assad released chemicals, killing up to 70 people including children, sounds like a familiar story played during the Obama administration.
In August 2013, President Obama charged that Assad was responsible for a missile-delivered sarin attack. Investigative and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh found compelling facts that challenged the U.S. government’s official account. In fact, he showed that the attack was most likely the work of the rebels opposing the Assad government. He said al-Nusra, a Syrian al-Qaeda division, had “mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity.”
Because the mainstream media would not publish Hersh’s comprehensive article alleging that the Obama administration was “cherry picking” intelligence to serve its own purpose of regime change, the account was published in the London Review of Books. Later on, James Clapper, Obama’s national intelligence director, reportedly had warned the president that the intelligence information that Syria released the sarin was not a “slam dunk.”
For the past several years, Assad has been fighting against the rebels including al-Nusra and ISIS, to prevent their takeover of Syria. The rebels, funded and trained by the U.S. and its allies, have incited chaos and violence throughout the country. It makes no sense after making strides against the opposition that the Syrian leader would initiate a chemical attack. Why hasn’t the mainstream press or members of Congress asked for more evidence from the Trump administration or called for an independent investigation of this matter?
Deborah K. Smarth