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jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
12. One problem I see is the "Government Assessment" being not a "Intelligence summary"
Sun Apr 27, 2014, 03:14 PM
Apr 2014

whose idea it was to use a "Government Assessment", I don't know.

And it surprised my too, that British intelligence had Russian sources they trusted, according to Hersh.


Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. 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. The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack.

...

Within a few days of the 21 August attack, the former intelligence official told me, Russian military intelligence operatives had recovered samples of the chemical agent from Ghouta. They analysed it and passed it on to British military intelligence; this was the material sent to Porton Down. (A spokesperson for Porton Down said: ‘Many of the samples analysed in the UK tested positive for the nerve agent sarin.’ MI6 said that it doesn’t comment on intelligence matters.)

The former intelligence official said the Russian who delivered the sample to the UK was ‘a good source – someone with access, knowledge and a record of being trustworthy’.


http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line


Intelligence Summary or Political Ploy?

That Secretary of State John Kerry would invoke Clapper’s name this week in Congressional testimony, in an apparent attempt to enhance the credibility of the four-page “Government Assessment” strikes us as odd. The more so, since it was, for some unexplained reason, not Clapper but the White House that released the “assessment.”

This is not a fine point. We know how these things are done. Although the “Government Assessment” is being sold to the media as an “intelligence summary,” it is a political, not an intelligence document.
The drafters, massagers, and fixers avoided presenting essential detail. Moreover, they conceded upfront that, though they pinned “high confidence” on the assessment, it still fell “short of confirmation.”

Déjà Fraud: This brings a flashback to the famous Downing Street Minutes of July 23, 2002, on Iraq, The minutes record the Richard Dearlove, then head of British intelligence, reporting to Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior officials that President Bush had decided to remove Saddam Hussein through military action that would be “justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.” Dearlove had gotten the word from then-CIA Director George Tenet whom he visited at CIA headquarters on July 20.

The discussion that followed centered on the ephemeral nature of the evidence, prompting Dearlove to explain: “But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” We are concerned that this is precisely what has happened with the “intelligence” on Syria.

http://warisacrime.org/content/whos-lying-brennan-obama-or-both

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

DU Rec. eom MohRokTah Apr 2014 #1
I believe the State Department Did Demeter Apr 2014 #2
The buck no longer stops there. truedelphi Apr 2014 #11
Unfortunately, true Demeter Apr 2014 #29
True. 840high Apr 2014 #33
No. wercal Apr 2014 #3
I think that the West had generally much less to do with what happened in Ukraine... Spider Jerusalem Apr 2014 #4
It requires a double-theory of the CIA feigning incompetence all these years. cthulu2016 Apr 2014 #6
Yeah, Rachel Maddow did a humorous piece on the CIA. She talked about all the world events okaawhatever Apr 2014 #18
No, actually we in the public were told at the time that they truedelphi Apr 2014 #44
You Will Pick Up Quite A Bit Of Navel Lint With This One, Sir... The Magistrate Apr 2014 #5
reuters and the un are russian agents? questionseverything Apr 2014 #7
I cannot read the OP to you. cthulu2016 Apr 2014 #8
UN: Chemical weapons used in Syria appear to come from army stockpile pampango Apr 2014 #9
Of course, as Janet Reno often said, "We will never ever know." truedelphi Apr 2014 #10
One important thing we do know about what has gone on over there: truedelphi Apr 2014 #14
_grin_ BelgianMadCow Apr 2014 #36
_likewise_ truedelphi Apr 2014 #42
One problem I see is the "Government Assessment" being not a "Intelligence summary" jakeXT Apr 2014 #12
Sadly, that story is kind of a joke cthulu2016 Apr 2014 #15
And this is why the British Parliament voted against military intervention which sabrina 1 Apr 2014 #17
Cold war is back on and MI5 is hiring jakeXT Apr 2014 #19
If we had had a dozen other Hersh's out there doing real journalism, we truedelphi Apr 2014 #43
Whatever is the plan, I don't want war n/t 951-Riverside Apr 2014 #13
No. I think the our government helped overthrow the government and didn't care much Warren Stupidity Apr 2014 #16
Re the Sarin Gas incident, that has been disputed over and over by investigators and many sabrina 1 Apr 2014 #20
Yes, we are indeed fucking with other nations all the time. cthulu2016 Apr 2014 #22
Sadly our history shows us that the CIA have led covert TBF Apr 2014 #21
Anyone who believes the Ukraine govt are Nazis is falling for Russian propaganda. baldguy Apr 2014 #23
What if a person considers some of the Ukraine govt to be fascists? Bodhi BloodWave Apr 2014 #34
Russia's problem with Ukraine is that it isn't fascist enough. baldguy Apr 2014 #37
agreed on the nazi term, which is why i use fascist instead Bodhi BloodWave Apr 2014 #41
K&R Progressive dog Apr 2014 #24
Foreign policy can be sumarized in two things nadinbrzezinski Apr 2014 #25
This: NuclearDem Apr 2014 #39
No, they are not Nazis. They are facists. FarCenter Apr 2014 #26
Nope Duckhunter935 Apr 2014 #27
it's a matter of fact that the U.S. was involved Enrique Apr 2014 #28
Obama? Hell no. The U.S. govt (which has been doing this since before I was born)? Maybe. nt Sarah Ibarruri Apr 2014 #30
Fascist, not Nazi. Obama? No... ballyhoo Apr 2014 #31
Ukraine: Joe Biden Promotes U.S. as Fracking Missionary Force nationalize the fed Apr 2014 #32
No. Warren DeMontague Apr 2014 #35
I don't think Obama did anything in Ukraine, really. LuvNewcastle Apr 2014 #38
Only if you desire to have charred pants. Tommy_Carcetti Apr 2014 #40
Again. Read Peter Dale Scott. The Deep State doesn't work that way. Junkdrawer Apr 2014 #45
Yes. I also believe that Obama is Kang Arkana Apr 2014 #46
No. LeftishBrit Apr 2014 #47
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