Seymour Hersh Alleges Obama Administration Lied on Syria Gas Attack

[karynnj]

132. Russia did not do that utilaterally and was UNINTERESTED even a few months before

Obama and Kerry were the other side of that negotiation. Even if you look to the first day's accounts, you will see the final agreement by Lavrov and Kerry was closer to doing what Kerry was demanding than to Lavrov's position.

By your definition, intelligence is ALWAYS cherry picked. There always is a process to weed out things that are not credible or are irrelevant. There were major factors that pushed the US - and other Western countries - to see that it was very very likely that Assad's government did this. The bigger question was actually if Assad himself approved it.

The problem with Hersh's claims are they ignore that later investigation backed up that Assad's government did use chemical weapons -- and in the end it was only very sketchy sources saying otherwise.

Where it is complicated is that both sides have been guilty of crimes that may well be crimes against humanity. Hersh would have had a better case if he would have investigated the US encouragement of the moderate rebels. There is a REAL question of whether we should ever be involved like that.