David Krout
David Krout's JournalNew details on USA's alleged wiretap showing Syrian Govt. conducted chemical weapons attack
Once we read that the Obama administration is talking about intercepted communications among Syrian officials, we find the key paragraph in the whole news piece at the bottom of the first page:
Washington Post (8/30/2013): "While unusually detailed, the assessment did not include photographs, recordings or other hard evidence to support its claims. Nor did it offer proof to back up the administration’s assertion that top-ranking Syrian officials — possibly including President Bashar al-Assad — were complicit in the attack."
I would also like to refresh your memory regarding one time that our intelligence agencies claimed to have intercepted someone's communications, yet never "include photographs, recordings or other hard evidence to support its claims," to borrow the words from today's article:
New York Times (Sept. 20, 1975): "WASHINGTON, Sept. 20-- The Central Intelligence Agency secretly tape-recorded two telephone conversations between Lee Harvey Oswald and the Cuban and Soviet Embassies in Mexico City some eight weeks before President Kennedy was shot to death on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Government sources familiar with the events said today."
Note: This is not a conspiracy-theory kind of post, as it is irrelevant for the purposes of this thread whether Oswald killed JFK or not. I am trying to highlight the fact that an intercept was allegedly made against someone, but nobody ever heard it.
Did Rachel Jeantel get the scholarship promised to her?
I was wondering what happened to the scholarship offered by radio show host Tom Joyner to Rachel Jeantel (which she reportedly accepted), that would pay for tutors to help her pass all her classes and the SAT test, along with paid transportation to and from school.
I believe she deserved this. Does anyone have an update on this?
Nearly 80% want Obama to seek Congress approval if he wants to bomb Syria
http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/08/30/americans-obama-congress-approval-syria-strike/2736855/Linkbait of the day: A shark that walks
If you see a news title that reads, 'Walking' shark discovered in Indonesia', what image do you picture in your mind?
The first thing I thought of one of those sharks (regular, scary sharks) extending its killing power to the sands or beyond.
Here's the news item in question: http://news.yahoo.com/walking-shark-discovered-indonesia-141908033.html
But this is what its called "linkbait." The media outlet responsible for this article didn't want you to know right off the bat that the shark in question is 30 inches long (maximum, not even average .
Were you thinking about a shark this small? No, you weren't.
More importantly, this shark walks in the water.
The goal was to make people think omg we are in so much trouble! Sharks can now walk! The body of the article would make thinks clear, but so what! the news outlet made its money because it attracted people to their website, and people will re-post this exact scary non-scary link in blogs, Facebook, etc.
The only reason why I clicked on the title is that I had strong suspicions that the details would not be anywhere as shocking as the title.
I don't know about you, but I hate that practice.
Report that Cuba snubbed Edward Snowden turns out to be bullshit
One newspaper made the allegation without citing evidence, and some people here swallowed it whole.
Fidel Castro states the obvious: Cuba takes no shit from the United States.
Castro, in a column carried by official media on various international issues, from Syria and Egypt to robots doing police work and Snowden, praised Snowden and out condemned US spying as repugnant.
"It is obvious that the United States will always try to pressure Cuba ... but not for nothing has (Cuba) resisted and defended itself without a truce for 54 years and will continue to do so for as long as necessary," Castro wrote.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/fidel-castro-edward-snowden-cuba-us
Baghdad bomb attacks leave scores dead
Source: AP
A co-ordinated wave of bombings has torn through Shia Muslim areas in and around the Iraqi capital, killing at least 66 and wounding many more, according to officials.
The blasts, which came in quick succession, targeted residents out shopping and on their way to work early on Wednesday.
The attacks are the latest in a wave of killings in Iraq that has left thousands dead since April, marking the country's worst spate of bloodshed since 2008. They raise fears that Iraq is hurtling back towards a civil war fuelled by ethnic and sectarian differences.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/baghdad-bomb-attacks-scored-dead-iraq
If Syria hurled just one bomb at the US, would our government call it war?
Or would they call it surgical strike?
American claim that it's "too late" for UN to find use of chemical weapons in Syria DEBUNKED
August 25, 2013 (Guardian): "The green light for the UN inspection came almost five days after the attack and was immediately greeted with scepticism by western leaders and chemical weapons experts, who say it may now be too late for inspectors to gather useful scientific results. An American official told reporters the move was "too late to be credible". http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/25/syria-united-nations-west-chemical-weapons-inspectors
August 27, 2013 (New York Times): "Scientists have discovered that sarin, a deadly nerve agent, can be detected long after its use on the battlefield. In one case, forensic experts went to a Kurdish village in northern Iraq four years after Iraqi warplanes had dropped clusters of bombs there. The experts found a unique chemical signature of the lethal toxin in contaminated soil from bomb craters.
"Such findings suggest that the Syrian government would have a hard time hiding evidence if it did indeed use chemical weapons against civilians in a large-scale attack last week." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/science/not-easy-to-hide-a-chemical-attack-experts-say.html
My emphasis.
Bill Kirstol, Karl Rove, Joe Liberman and others send Obama letter urging action on Syria
A letter signed by 62 "journalists, political operatives and foreign policy experts" encourages President Obama to take action:
"At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship’s military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons,"...
""It should also provide vetted moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition with the military support required to identify and strike regime units armed with chemical weapons."
More: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/08/kristol-wieseltier-urge-syria-action-171285.html?hp=l8
I propose that the UN be abolished if US-UK attack Syria before inspections are complete
If the Assad regime does not allow UN to complete inspections, it's another story. But if the UN complains that it could have completed inspections and Syria is bombed anyway, I will have no alternative but to consider the UN a completely irrelevant money waste, since the big powers don't give a damn.
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Member since: Fri Aug 2, 2013, 07:53 AMNumber of posts: 423
