General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMaybe Joe Biden Was Too Quick to Apologize to Turkey...
A revisit of investigative journalist Sy Hersh's revelations a year ago which were largely ignored by MSM seems to say Turkey has been very involved.
-------
April 6, 2014
Exclusive: Journalist Seymour Hersh has unearthed information implicating Turkish intelligence in last summers Sarin attack near Damascus that almost pushed President Obama into a war to topple Syrias government and open a path for an al-Qaeda victory, writes Robert Parry.
According to Hersh, the administrations war plans were disrupted by U.S. and British intelligence analysts who uncovered evidence that the Sarin was likely not released by the Assad government and indications that Turkeys intelligence services may have collaborated with radical rebels to deploy the Sarin as a false-flag operation.
Turkeys Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan sided with the Syrian opposition early in the civil conflict and provided a vital supply line to the al-Nusra Front, a violent group of Sunni extremists with ties to al-Qaeda and increasingly the dominant rebel fighting force. By 2012, however, internecine conflicts among rebel factions had contributed to Assads forces gaining the upper hand.
The role of Islamic radicals and the fear that advanced U.S. weapons might end up in the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists unnerved President Obama who pulled back on U.S. covert support for the rebels. That frustrated Erdoğan who pressed Obama to expand U.S. involvement, according to Hershs account.
Hersh wrote: By the end of 2012, it was believed throughout the American intelligence community that the rebels were losing the war. Erdoğan was pissed, the former intelligence official said, and felt he was left hanging on the vine. It was his money and the [U.S] cut-off was seen as a betrayal.
----------
Our senior military officers have been told by the DIA and other intelligence assets that the sarin was supplied through Turkey that it could only have gotten there with Turkish support. The Turks also provided the training in producing the sarin and handling it.
Much of the support for that assessment came from the Turks themselves, via intercepted conversations in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Principal evidence came from the Turkish post-attack joy and back-slapping in numerous intercepts. Operations are always so super-secret in the planning but that all flies out the window when it comes to crowing afterwards. There is no greater vulnerability than in the perpetrators claiming credit for success.
According to the thinking of Turkish intelligence, Hersh reported, Erdoğans problems in Syria would soon be over: Off goes the gas and Obama will say red line and America is going to attack Syria, or at least that was the idea. But it did not work out that way.
MORE of ARTICLE AT:
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/06/was-turkey-behind-syrian-sarin-attack/
merrily
(45,251 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)That's what I'm starting to think. Robert Parry feels David Ignatius is coming around to realize something isn't adding up. And, he seems to have hope that more questioning will occur after Biden had to Apologize.
Who Knows...it's all so crazy these days. But, Hersh's report and the fact that it got no MSM Coverage from our "Usual Sources" ...The Big 3....does seem to come back to haunt and for us to revisit and ask to have more questions answered. Sy was heavily censored. Parry's Reporting ties so many "loose ends" together.
We shall See.......at some point.
merrily
(45,251 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)but question remains why did he do that speech and then had to apologize.
When you have time...this is an interesting watch:
TRNN: Why has Turkey Decided to Join War Campaign Against the Islamic State?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017219259
roamer65
(36,738 posts)He will be one of the characters that starts the regional ME war.