Syria: “Chemical Propaganda” and Fabricated Evidence

Selected Articles

In order to facilitate the action of liberative (sic) forces, …a special effort should be made to eliminate certain key individuals. …[to] be accomplished early in the course of the uprising and intervention, …

Once a political decision has been reached to proceed with internal disturbances in Syria, CIA is prepared, and SIS (MI6) will attempt to mount minor sabotage and coup de main (sic) incidents within Syria, working through contacts with individuals. …Incidents should not be concentrated in Damascus …

Further: a “necessary degree of fear .. frontier incidents and (staged) border clashes”, would “provide a pretext for intervention… the CIA and SIS [MI6 should use … capabilities in both psychological and action fields to augment tension.” (Joint US-UK leaked Intelligence Document, London and Washington, 1957, quoted in Felicity Arbuthnot, SYRIA: CIA-MI6 Intel Ops and Sabotage, Global Research, February 07, 2012.)

Written in 1957, this document shows the classic Western intelligence modus operandi to overthrow independent governments and replace them with puppet regimes. In 1981, Newsweek magazine published an article entitled “A Plan to Overthrow Kaddafi”, which revealed a CIA destabilization campaign against Muammar Qaddafi, similar to the one against Syria elaborated in the 1957 intelligence memo. It consisted in a “disinformation program to embarrass Qaddafi and his government, the creation of a counter-government to challenge his claim to national leadership and an escalating paramilitary campaign consisting of small-scale guerrilla operations.” (William Blum, Killing Hope, Common Courage Press, 2004, p.283.)

Both covert operations against Libya and Syria, drafted long ago, have been carried out lately in close collaboration with the Western mainstream media, serving as a mouthpiece for the US-NATO alliance and the corporate interests behind them.

The Libyan government was overthrown as planned in the 1980’s, with the help of NATO bombings paving the way for their proxy soldiers promoted as “pro-democracy rebels” by the mainstream media.

The 1957 plan against Syria has been carried out since March 2011. The architects of the Middle East conquest are now intensifying their propaganda and planting another classic story in the mainstream media: the chemical weapons threat.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials have unleashed a barrage of warnings to the Assad administration citing Western media reports that “the Syrian regime has shown signs that it may be making chemical weapons material.”

Obama said he wanted to be “absolutely clear” to Assad that “the world is watching” and the use of chemical weapons is “totally unacceptable” and “if you make mistake of using it – there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.” (Xinhua News Agency, West’s Stance on Syrian Chemical Weapons: Prelude to Military Intervention?, December 08, 2012.)

This kind of propaganda usually leads to military invasion. On December 7, Washington’s Blog reported:

10,000 U.S. troops – as well as French, British and Nato troops – are amassing off the coast of Syria for a potential invasion.

“Anonymous U.S. sources” are claiming that Syria is mixing chemical weapons … but that claim is ridiculous … and could be part of a long-contemplated  false flag attack in Syria. (Washington’s Blog, Potential War Against Syria: Chemical Weapons, Russian Warships and Terrorists, December 07, 2012.)

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya also compared the situations in Libya, Syria and Iraq in relation to the chemical weapons propaganda and its devastating consequences:

In 2011, were not similar charges put forward against another Arab country? Were they not claiming that the late Muammar Qaddafi would use chemical weapons against his own population? Was it not claimed even earlier that Qaddafi and the Libyan military had brought in black-skinned African mercenaries to kill Libyan citizens? Or that Libyan jets were killing Libyan protesters? What happened to the genocide in Benghazi? Now there is nothing but silence and lost memories. Claims were made, morality and responsibility were invoked, and then a rising Arab country was bombarded. An engine of economic progress in Africa was halted in its tracks overnight and an entire society robbed.

There was also the textbook case of Iraq even before the lies about the Libyan Jamahiriya. Did not the Bush Jr. Administration, Tony Blair, and their circle of war criminals-in-office not lie to the entire international community and say that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program and weapons of mass destruction in 2003? What happened to those WMDs? This is not something that can easily be scoffed at. More than one million Iraqis died over the lies conjured by the Anglo-American duo. Not to mention the ecological damage and the intellectual genocide perpetrated against Iraq’s intelligentsia and professional class. (Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, WMD Hype: Syrian Government will not Use Chemical Weapons against its Own Citizens, Press TV, December 05, 2012.)

While the US administration expresses fears that the Syrian government will use chemical weapons, the Syrian authorities as well as many others fear that, the weapons fall into the hands of US-NATO backed opposition groups in Syria.

Some also fear that Libya’s arsenal, now in the hands of extremist militants, including members of Al-Qaeda, is both scattered across the Middle East and Africa and, most of all on its way to Syria:

Libya’s arsenal had fallen into the hands of sectarian extremists with NATO assistance last year in the culmination of efforts to overthrow the North African nation. Since then, Libya’s militants led by commanders of Al Qaeda’s Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) have armed sectarian extremists across the Arab World, from as far West as Mali, to as far East as Syria.

In addition to small arms, heavier weapons are also making their way through this extensive network. The Washington Post in their article, “Libyan missiles on the loose,” reported:

“Two former CIA counterterrorism officers told me last week that technicians recently refurbished 800 of these man-portable air-defense systems (known as MANPADS) — some for an African jihadist group called Boko Haram that is often seen as an ally of al-Qaeda — for possible use against commercial jets flying into Niger, Chad and perhaps Nigeria.”

While undoubtedly these weapons are also headed to Niger, Chad, and perhaps Nigeria, they are veritably headed to Syria. Libyan LIFG terrorists are confirmed to be flooding into Syria from Libya. (Tony Cartalucci, Syria: The WMD “Justification” to Wage a “Preemptive War”: US Repeats Syrian Chemical Weapons “Warnings”, Land Destroyer, December 04, 2012.)

The US and its European allies don’t seem to share this concern, however, since CNN reported they “are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria”. In the meantime, an Israeli covert operation inside Syria is said to “track Syria’s chemical arsenal.” Such a leak in the press about a presumed secret operation only serves propaganda purposes and is obviously used to strengthen the belief that the Syrian authorities are planning to use these weapons. (Julie Lévesque Fabricating WMD “Evidence”: Israeli Covert Operation inside Syria to “Track Chemical Arsenal”, Global Research, December 11, 2012.)

Is the US-NATO alliance “staging a humanitarian disaster?” Michel Chossudovsky describes the “diabolical scenario” behind the media hype smoke screen:

Modeled on the Saddam Hussein WMD narrative, the propaganda ploy concerning the alleged threat of Syria’s chemical weapons has been building up over several months.

The Western media suggests –in chorus and without evidence– that a “frustrated” and “desperate” president Bashar al Assad is planning to use deadly chemical weapons against his own people. Last week, U.S. officials revealed to NBC News that “Syria’s military has loaded nerve-gas chemicals into bombs and are awaiting final orders from al-Assad” […]

The Western military alliance does not contemplate at this stage an all out war in response to Syria’s possession of chemical weapons. What is contemplated is the need to train the opposition rebels in the handling of chemical weapons […]

This is not a rebel training exercise in non-proliferation. While president Obama states that “you will be held accountable” if “you” (meaning the Syrian government) use chemical weapons, what is contemplated as part of this covert operation is the possession of chemical weapons by the US-NATO sponsored terrorists, namely “by our” Al Qaeda affiliated operatives, including the Al Nusra Front (see image on right), which constitutes the most effective Western supported and trained fighting group, largely integrated by foreign mercenaries. In a bitter twist, Jabhat al-Nusra, a US sponsored “intelligence asset” was recently put on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. (Michel Chossudovsky, The Syria Chemical Weapons Saga: The Staging of a US-NATO Sponsored Humanitarian Disaster? Global Research, December 12, 2012.)

Global Research brings you a list of selected articles on this unfolding story.

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SELECTED ARTICLES

SYRIA: CIA-MI6 Intel Ops and Sabotage, Felicity Arbuthnot, February 07, 2012

West’s Stance on Syrian Chemical Weapons: Prelude to Military Intervention?, December 08, 2012

Potential War Against Syria: Chemical Weapons, Russian Warships and Terrorists, Washington’s Blog, December 07, 2012

WMD Hype: Syrian Government will not Use Chemical Weapons against its Own Citizens, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya December 05, 2012

Syria: The WMD “Justification” to Wage a “Preemptive War”: US Repeats Syrian Chemical Weapons “Warnings”, Tony Cartalucci, December 04, 2012

Fabricating WMD “Evidence”: Israeli Covert Operation inside Syria to “Track Chemical Arsenal”, (Julie Lévesque, December 11, 2012

The Syria Chemical Weapons Saga: The Staging of a US-NATO Sponsored Humanitarian Disaster?, Michel Chossudovsky, December 12, 2012

Chemical Hype Behind Patriot Games on Syria Border, Pepe Escobar, December 05, 2012

Washington “Discovers” Terrorists in Syria, Bill Van Auken, December 12, 2012

Won’t Get Fooled Again? Hyping Syria’s WMD ‘Threat’, David Edwards, December 12, 2012

US Defense Contractors Training Syrian Rebels to Handle Chemical Weapons, John Glaser, December 11, 2012

Israel Asked Jordan’s Approval To Strike Alleged Syrian WMD Facilities, Global Research News, December 04, 2012

Washington Floats Chemical Weapons Charge as Pretext for Syria Buildup, Bill Van Auken, December 04, 2012


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Articles by: Julie Lévesque

About the author:

Julie Lévesque is a journalist and researcher with the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal. She was among the first independent journalists to visit Haiti in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake. In 2011, she was on board "The Spirit of Rachel Corrie", the only humanitarian vessel which penetrated Gaza territorial waters before being shot at by the Israeli Navy.

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