In Rush to Strike Syria, U.S. Tried to Derail U.N. Probe

[Octafish]

A must-read from Gareth Porter:

Truth Beneath the Surface

In Rush to Strike Syria, U.S. Tried to Derail U.N. Probe

by GARETH PORTER
CounterPunch, AUGUST 28, 2013

After initially insisting that Syria give United Nations investigators unimpeded access to the site of an alleged nerve gas attack, the administration of President Barack Obama reversed its position on Sunday and tried unsuccessfully to get the U.N. to call off its investigation.

SNIP...

The State Department spokesperson, Marie Harf, confirmed to reporters that Kerry had spoken with Ban over the weekend. She also confirmed the gist of the U.S. position on the investigation. “We believe that it’s been too long and there’s been too much destruction of the area for the investigation to be credible,” she said.

That claim echoed a statement by an unnamed “senior official” to the Washington Post Sunday that the evidence had been “significantly corrupted” by the regime’s shelling of the area.

SNIP...

“Sarin can be detected for up to months after its use,” he said.

SNIP...

The real reason for the Obama administration’s hostility toward the U.N. investigation appears to be the fear that the Syrian government’s decision to allow the team access to the area indicates that it knows that U.N. investigators will not find evidence of a nerve gas attack.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/28/in-rush-to-strike-syria-u-s-tried-to-derail-u-n-probe/

IMO, Porter is one of the clearest minds writing on matters of war and peace around.

There's something wrong when war criminals, warmongers and banksters walk free and people who oppose them like Col. Westhusing and John Kokal are dead and Don Siegelman, and soon James Risen it looks like, are in prison.

[Catherina]

1. I was just about to post this and saw your thread.

TruthOut is carrying it too http://truth-out.org/news/item/18447-in-rush-to-strike-syria-us-tried-to-derail-un-probe

In his press appearance Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry, who intervened with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to call off the investigation, dismissed the U.N. investigation as coming too late to obtain valid evidence on the attack that Syrian opposition sources claimed killed as many 1,300 people.

The sudden reversal and overt hostility toward the U.N. investigation, which coincides with indications that the administration is planning a major military strike against Syria in the coming days, suggests that the administration sees the U.N. as hindering its plans for an attack.

I was expecting a little more elegance from this administration.

[Electric Monk]

2. k&r

[MinM]

3. Why derail it if it's such a 'slam dunk'?

To borrow a phrase from Dubya's CIA director.

[DirkGently]

4. Well, that's not exactly like Iraq at all. Oh, wait ...

[jsr]

5. This is a must read.

[CanSocDem]

6. And when the inspection teams....

...took small arms fire a few days ago one would have to think that this attack was very specifically designed to illustrate...

From your link

The Wall Street Journal reported the pressure on Ban without mentioning Kerry by name. It said unnamed “U.S. officials” had told the secretary-general that it was “no longer safe for the inspectors to remain in Syria and that their mission was pointless.”

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