Originally appeared at Zero Hedge
It’s so absurd it’s hard to believe, but when it comes to US policy absurdity has been par for the course over the past years. At an international meeting hosted by France on global chemical weapons proliferation Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blamed both Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and Russia for carrying out a purported new chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta. Speaking from Paris on Tuesday, Tillerson said, “Whoever conducted the attacks Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in eastern Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons since Russia became involved in Syria.”
That’s right – in the same sentence Tillerson leveled the accusation against Russia, while simultaneously pointing the finger at Assad, he admitted that he really doesn’t know much at all about “whoever conducted the attacks”.
The incident, a reported chlorine gas attack delivered via rockets, is said to have happened Monday in the same suburb of Syria’s capital that a much larger August 2013 attack took place, which the United States blamed on Assad, which nearly precipitated direct US military intervention under the Obama administration, according to an investigative report by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books.
Tillerson issued the accusation at chemical weapons conference in Paris on Tuesday. Image source: AP via The Washington Post
“Only yesterday more than 20 civilians, mostly children, were victims of an apparent chlorine gas attack,” Tillerson said at the Paris conference involving 24 nations, which has eyed chemical weapons usage in Syria in particular. He added that the attacks “raise serious concerns that Bashar al-Assad may be continuing to use chemical weapons against his own people.”
And this is where the US Secretary of State asserted, “Whoever conducted the attacks Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in eastern Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons since Russia became involved in Syria.”
The sole sources for the reports include two well-known opposition groups, namely the White Helmets and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – both of which have long been on record as seeking regime change in Syria and have been go-to sources for American and UK media in particular. SOHR is led by one man, an activist named Rami Abdulrahman, who lives in Coventry, England, while the White Helmets is on record as being funded by US and UK governments to the tune of many tens of millions of dollars, and has further been caught cooperating closely with al-Qaeda factions on the ground in Syria. Indeed the group only operates in areas controlled by al-Qaeda (HTS) and other anti-government insurgents.
On Monday the White Helmets posted two videos to its Twitter account, purporting to show the aftermath of the attack. The first video included men and children, some lying on hospital beds, in a makeshift clinic receiving treatment. The White Helmets statement claimed, “More than 20 of suffocation so far following the bombing of the Assad regime forces with missiles carrying poisonous gases (probably chlorine).” The second video merely shows a White Helmets rescue worker carrying an infant in the back of an ambulance with no chemical protective gear on.
It appears that Tillerson is pointing the finger at Assad and Russia based solely on the White Helmets videos and accusations, despite the fact that no international observer or investigative body has confirmed that the incident even took place. Tillerson further used the alleged incident to blame Russia for breaking prior commitments made regarding the 2013-2014 US-Russia brokered deal to dismantle Syria’s extensive nerve agent program, which was widely reported to have been successfully carried out and completed in 2014.
Secretary Tillerson: This meeting was about two things: stopping chemical weapons attacks and denying impunity to those who use or enable the use of such weapons. For an indication of what these weapons can do to humans, one need look no further than East Ghouta in #Syria. pic.twitter.com/fOS5W49EJL
— Department of State (@StateDept) 23 January 2018
“There is simply no denying that Russia, by shielding its Syrian ally, has breached its commitments to the United States as a framework guarantor,” Tillerson said of the prior 2013 agreement, and added, “Russia’s failure to resolve the chemical weapons issue in Syria calls into question its relevance to the resolution of the overall crisis. At a bare minimum, Russia must stop vetoing and at least abstain on future UNSC resolutions on this issue.”
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov heavily criticized the Paris conference, which has as its mission the creation of an ‘International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons’, accusing attendees of seeking to create a new “quasi-collective” organ instead of using already existing international institutions. The Russian Deputy FM said in a statement carried by RT that, “The quasi-collective approach, or, in fact, gathering up the states who cannot go against Euro-grands and the US is a direct violation of the prerogatives of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a blow to the UN platform,” Ryabkov said.
“We believe that the result of such sort of ‘exercises’ will be only further partition of the international community,” he warned. “Authors of such ideas and initiatives should really consider the consequences.”
Russia has long accused the US of blindly trusting opposition sources inside Syria concerning claims of chemical weapons attacks, including an April 2017 incident in al-Qaeda controlled (HTS) Idlib, which resulted in the US attacking an airbase in central Syria.
Last October, the US State Department admitted that anti-Assad militant groups operating in Syria, especially in Idlib, possess and have used chemical weapons throughout the war – something which the US government said was impossible, as it consistently held the position that only the Assad government could be to blame.
The alleged chemical allegedly occurred after the Syrian Army all ready controlled the area in question. A false false flag attack.
Russia and the others will carry on with the Peace Talks;USA=Saudis and The Jews in Tel Aviv=JEWS in Washington are desperate to have these talks FAIL.
In Italy he will eligible for a TSO (mandatory medical treatment) Tillerson’s brain is farting :-)
It’s a sad thing that international media just blindly accepts these statements, but fact checking seems to have become a lost journalistic art. It’s like they’re not even teaching it at journalism school anymore. The kind of reporting we have today would not have passed in the 80’s, when journalists still knew how to check facts. These days I pretty much only watch the news to look at the pretty ladies reading it.
80’s or so, journalistic are all lies when you cant hardly see any hard evidence specially in the government which where journalists listen and relying to the reports of the governments when ever its local or international, USA still thinks we are in the 80’s where evidence cant be seen, in todays real time when internet around the world is available that even an ordinary people can upload any worthy news and cannot block, control or stop it by the government because it become viral
Hey folks isn’t it striking that just a day before this so called conference against the use/impunity of chemical weapons. Syrians/Russians manage to use chemical weapons, just so the participants at the Paris conference would have something “fresh” to talk about??.
Just so this stupid conference and stupid participants will seem relevant.
The most pathetic people are all these media trying to sellout these satanic and pervasive agendas. May God Bless you ALL.
Indeed!Amateurish USA and Saudi Arabia=JEWS get their proxies to undermine the talks.
Yeah, The tilted tiller thing is out on an mission of drooling down everything of what little they had left of anything even remotely connected to credibility, what so ever, and await in awe on what the pack of sniveling bastards in the utterly corrupt and thru out rotten UN is capable of mustering of more moronic drivel, witch of course, just adds to the heep of bullshit the Wankeestanians is yapping in their corner.
Hehe, its hilarious. Spooky, the nonsense and stupidity is so bad it awoke my “mothers instincts” poor schmuck, making an fool of him self, and makes one wounder, you know, about IQ and shit like that, shoe size level, huh. And of course, haven’t you all noticed how bonkers the British eh….. press have become, I believed even the Birts had more common sense left somewhere on the island, but no, the level is comparable just to one other country where the people is brain washed so throughout there isnt much left, Wankeestan, the imperial banana republic it self, everything they know is lies, fake, or not even written about witch is the normal modus among the Prestitutes and Whorespondents, in the Western MSM.
Like the downfall of RT, witch is going down like Al-scam-jazzz, an mere joke this days. Tsk, tsk, tsk, but this is the price, of showing a little light on an pitch black spot, in this post-truth times, and nobody prints fake news anymore. And propaganda is only in NK. Dunka, dunka.
peace
USA has 23 different WMD/Chemical Weapons sites spread across 23 countries, without UN inspections. so, why are they in such a hurry to change the protocol of the existing mechanism ? They have the audacity to BLAME RUSSIA? Shamelessness on Nimratta Randhwar’s part.The 2 past chemical attacks were carried out Saudi /USA/Turkish paid terrorists??? They have been called out twice for engineering these attacks/ false flags. What they really is for for Syria to roll over and allow their FRIENDS or pay their dodgy scientists to say anything FOR MONEY say it is the Syrian government.like the Iraqi man who they paid to say that, there were WMD’s in Iraq. When the USA used chemical weapons in North Korea/Vietnam/Iraq and Syria eg depleted uranium and Napalms, nobody not the useless UN challenged USA/; Peace Talks comes around/ false flags happen and USA get into “blame Syrian government without evidence rhetoric”
A bully will spread nasty false rumours about people the bully cannot directly challenge or defeat. Why? Cos powerful people often suffer from inner doubts, that evil people can exploit. Jewish America is a master of such psy-ops.
It never occurs to the mainstream media to apply simple logic. Why would the Syrian government use chemical weapons? They are impossible to control and ineffective. Using them will bring instant condemnation on their heads from the rest of the world. Conventional weapons are more effective. The Syrians are winning, so what benefit is there to be had for them to use chemical weapons?
Who does benefit from use of commonly available chemicals like chlorine gas as weapons? The various terrorist groups and their sponsors (the USA).
Use your limited brainpower, media puppets. This is so obviously false that you have to try hard to get it wrong.
Also funny how Syria never used chemical weapons in places like Palmyra against ISIS where there were virtually no civilians.One would think that this would be an ideal area to use this thing..
But then again for 7 years western politicians and media have repeated that Assad is killing his own people for no apparent reason. Its one thing to blame politicians and media but seriously if someone keeps repeating that a president is killing his own people for no clear reason wouldn’t you get curious and try to find out more.. This naturally sound suspicious but nooo millions in the west just drink that stuff. This is the reason that I have always said that the general western population is complicit in their governments killing of innocents all over the world..
i’ve used that argument once while discussing with a crazy brit, his response was that “we shouldn’t treat dictators like Assad like normal people, with the rationality of normal people: they are irrational hence they’d do things like using chemical bombs when they are winning”.
When you face people brainwashed to that point, discussion is pointless – the sad part is that the only thing that is going to wake them from stupor is to face reality in first person.
The sheep also don’t get that, just because the mainstream media and Western politicians call Assad a “dictator” that doesn’t mean that Syrians, particularly those who voted for him to be their President, consider him to be a dictator. Syria isn’t the best example of a democracy, but then neither are the USA or the UK, the USA being more obviously an oligarchy.
The media (and politician) claims that it’s a civil war and that it started when “the Assad regime brutally suppressed an uprising” are taken at face value by the gullible. A civil war means two groups of citizens of the SAME state fighting each other, not citizens of 100 other states being paid mercenaries to fight a proxy war against a legitimate government. They also fail to mention that it started as one of the CIA’s infamous “Color Revolutions” and, because the Russians tipped them off, the Syrian government stepped in quickly and put paid to that, much to the disgust of the instigators in Washington D.C.
Considering the history of NATO members meddling in Syria, it’s not that surprising that the Assads have not treated dissenters with kid gloves.
Well-stated. There might be more internal opposition to the American attempt to overthrow Assad, but when the directive to “step down” came from the Great Emancipator himself (Obama), regime change had to be the moral thing to do…in the minds of the brainwashed one-half of Americans who were still on their knees in adoration. They will never see Obama for the war criminal he is.
“that doesn’t mean that Syrians, particularly those who voted for him to be their President, consider him to be a dictator”
Absolutely. Fact is, western powers and medias actually don’t give a single f*** about what the Syrian voters consider.
They just have to convince their public opinions that another war is necessary, and that they are always on the right side of Democracy.
Western publics in general, and US in particular, have had their brains literally filled with garbage from movies, videogames and other propaganda means masquerading as innocent culture production.
I think it is fair to assume, that movies like Star Wars or James Bond have contributed more than everything else into forming the idea of “evil dictatorships” in the mind of public opinions.
It also appears that those same publics were totally accepting of the myriad of real, military dictatorships the CIA has forced upon basically every single South American country during the cold war.
Tillerson trying to get cohesion with the old chestnut the media is doubtful about.
Tillerson’s absurd comments only mirror the Israeli concept of ‘ Collective Punishment’ that is in fact illegal under UN law. The USA is increasingly ‘Jewamerica’ now and this hysteria is always worse just before any peace process that are about to be discussed.
What’s the best alternative country to move to?
That is a good question in these turbulent times around the globe. In an ideal world the citizens of all countries who believe it is right to have a society free from slavery and abuse by gangs of venal parasites is the goal.
That goal of course is a Holy Grail but if fair minded citizens fail to fight and even die for that achievement their countries will descend into a morass of corrupt War Lord driven chaos that we can even see in the USA today.
All fair minded citizens have an obligation to fight for their freedoms.
what a tool.
almost fool
Instead of Russia defending itself against accusations they should start accusing the US since it is there proxies committing the crimes.
RT just carried a major op-ed by an infamous IRISH zionist extremism lionising jewish acts of terror, and attacking any who criticise Putin’s links to Israeli TERRORISM. This is why the American Deep State feels so emboldened it feels free to DEMONISE all things Russia with such pathetic lies.
Here’s a clue for the clueless. The two house of the US government contain many minorities- ‘blacks’, ‘latinos’, asians, etc. Yet when these Houses vote, the vote 100% (one hundred percent- including Ron and Rand Paul) to support all Israeli Crimes against Humanity in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
Putin supports Israel, and the Israel loving masters of the USA paint Russia as a chemical weapon using DEVIL. What is wrong with this picture?
A decent fair Human understands a group/cult by how that cult operates. The jewish dominated showbiz industry of the UK and France ensured jewish mass rapist Weinstein received the highest industry accolades. Years earlier the same jewish controlled industry ensured CONVICTED child rapist Polanski, who had escaped from US justice to child rape friendly France, continued to make movies at the highest level.
Now jewish controlled America is calling Putin a second coming of Hitler- and the implication of what should happen to Russia as a result is obvious. Yet despite this, Putin still kneels at the feet of leading jews.
Jews control the mainstream and most of the ‘indy’ media outlets in the West. This isn’t even disputed. Organised propaganda is the jewish method- and THIS isn’t even disputed. So any bad message about Putin and Russia comes straight from the mouths and keyboards of jews.
World-wide jewish organisations BOAST how the destruction of Iran is their no.1 goal. Only Russia can save Iran. Making Russia back off is therefore essential to jewish plans. Why does a bully spread bad rumours about powerful people the bully CANNOT himself intimidate? To get those forces that COULD confront the bully to choose to back away instead, allowing the bully to continue.
This ‘chemical weapon’ crap is but another tactic to make Russia uncertain and unwilling to use the power of its EMPIRE status. Make a person doubt themselves, and become fearful to act forcefully lest by doing so they risk their ‘reputation’. The ‘Saker’ and zionist trash Bryan MacDonald use this method all the time.
Does America worry about acting forcefully? Does Israel? (both in the name of pure evil). Why then should Russia worry (in the name of good)- yet so many crypto-zionists say Russia should worry.
The allegations of chemical attacks serves only one purpose that is to be the propaganda vehicle to attack President Bashar Assad and ally President Vladimir Putin. It has already been established that the foreign mercenaries use chemical weapons; furthermore, it has already been established that the US has protected the mercenaries who used chemical weapons. It has already been seen as a pattern that terrorists use chemical weapons as they are on the verge of defeat. It is also clear that the US condemns the Syrian Government when the terrorist use chemical weapons of civilians. One can easily see the complicity and collusion of the US and its proxies in the use of chemical weapons.
What about Vietnam Tillerson? There are still maimed, suffering, crippled and paralyzed victims there in the hundreds of thousands from our Agent Orange use. What about the depleted uranium deaths from Iraq and illnesses caused to our own troops as well as Iraqis? But probably the most oft-used dirty weapon is the bundle of lies and distortions of truth that spew forth from the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA on a regular basis ..