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The white-Left Part 1: The two meanings of white

Linux Beach goes Postol

Meet the holocaust enabler from M.I.T.
Dr. Theodore Postol

After the sarin attack of 4 April 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria killed 92 people and focused the world's attention on the fact that the regime of Bashar al-Assad was still massacring civilians, and still using chemical weapons to do it, all manner of Assad apologists emerged from their swamp to cast doubt on the culpability of Assad for these sarin murders. Noam Chomsky, Patrick Cockburn, Stephen Cohen, Jonathan Steele and many others cited the theories of Dr. Theodore Postol as the basis for their positions. Dr. Postol's reputation and M.I.T. credentials were cited as if Postol's opinion was unassailable and a matter of fact.

In looking at Dr. Postol's various papers on this sarin massacre we found that, far from being unassailable, his theories could not stand even the most elementary scrutiny. We also realized that by taking down Postol's various "scientifically based" theories about how Assad didn't do it, we could pull the rug out from under all the "anti-imperialist" personalities that were standing on it. That is what led to this series:

Sincerely yours, Theodore A. Postol, 26 April 2017
"Sincerely yours?" Really? Who signs a scientific paper about a chemical weapons attack "Sincerely yours?" The answer is Theodore A. Postol,.. when he is trying to use the mantles of science and position to pull the wool over our eyes.
What utter nonsense! I asked chemical weapons expert Dan Kaszeta to name a common substance with evaporation characteristic similar to sarin and he responded "Water. On a very dry day, next to zero humidity." The reason why he stated that last part twice is because how rapidly water evaporates does vary greatly with the amount of water already in the air, but it is always a very dry day for sarin, at least for parts of the world not under Assad's air force.

Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now says Assad now best for Syria, 27 April 2017
Maybe Noam Chomsky is getting senile. Perhaps that is the kindest thing I can say....he would capture a glimmer of truth here and there, but he failed to put those pieces together into a coherent pattern,
Just as he doesn't spare word one on the suffering of the sarin victims, he never addresses their claims as to who done it. Instead he takes on the White House Report, presumably because he, like Postol, has elected the Trump administration as the best champions of the Syrians in Khan Sheikhoun. I turn on Democracy Now to hear Chomsky singing Postil's praises like a movie poster.
Sure, plenty of time for an inquiry. It's not like people are dying everyday. Noam Chomsky, Theodore A. Postol and Amy Goodman don't treat Syria as a crime in progress because it's not happening to them.
Please Re-Tweet as Ted Postol beats a hasty retreat, 28 April 2017
It may be more accurate to call Postol a holocaust enabler, because he is defending the mass murderers while they are committing the crime, and by doing this, he is helping them turn a string of atrocities into a holocaust.
Poor Postol. He wants so badly to please his Syrian Sister, but no matter how hard he tries, he can't seen to get it right. First he rushes to press with his own theory of how Assad didn't do it, only to discover his theory blows their alibi. So he ditches his theory to back their alibi, and in his zeal to find new proofs for them, ends up calling them out for lying again.
This isn't rocket science, it's reading comprehension 101. If logic were a person, or even a corporation, it could probably bring a case in federal court against Postol for violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. At some point this has got to be embarrassing for MIT, even if it isn't for Dr. Postol.


Dr. Postol's "correction" shows he still needs Reading Comprehension 101, 30 April 2017
The ridicule on social media was at once merciless and well-deserved.
Dr. Postol said that, the way he read it, it sounded like the French were describing another attack entirely. I am beginning to feel like he is reading another French Intelligence Report entirely.
Postol's Apostles & the normalization of chemical weapons use, 1 May 2017
This new chemical weapons use against civilians is being done with complete impunity and almost no protests in the West against this terrible resurgence. The attitude of the western peace and justice movements has been most shameful. Groups like Code Pink and Veterans for Peace have acted as defense counsel for the killers.
When it comes to the fight against the return of chemical warfare, the "Left" has been in the smoke screen business.
This HRW video also reveals new evidence about Khan Sheikhoun that blows away Dr. Theodore A. Postol's sarin pipe-bomb theory. It is just as well that he has abandoned it. Now Dr. Ted has been shown to be an incompetent fool willing to go to any length to please Putin. He is totally exposed.
Reading Comprehension 101 for MIT Professor Dr. Ted Postol, 3 May 2017
I know you have lengthy academic credentials when it comes to engineering and rocket science, but I've been reading your recent and varied reports about the sarin massacre that took place in Khan Sheikhoun, 4 April 2017, and it would appear that you have some issues with reading comprehension.
Words are important. How we use them is important. If we don't understand what we are reading, we will have trouble communicating our ideas to others. It is better to read a passage twice, even three times, before putting pen to paper in criticism. And don't be afraid to look up unfamiliar words and phrases!
Are Scott Horton & Ted Postol holocaust enablers?, 10 May 2017
There are forces, some on the Right and some on the Left, that speak out on questions related to Syria only when the slaughter that has been raging for the past five years rises to a level that floods it into the mainstream media.
Syria is becoming the first holocaust of the 21st Century. 
Although we didn't hear from many of these holocaust enablers when the Assad regime first began using mass murder as a political tool, or even when it started killing with sarin in December of 2012, we did as soon as a military response was threatened in response to the unprecedented sarin murder of more than a thousand near Damascus in August 2013. They then swelled the ranks of the Assad defenders until the danger passed. Not the danger of chemical murders mind you! The danger that effective action would be taken to stop them.
Dr. Ted Postol misreads the HRW Report on Khan Sheikhoun, 12 May 2017
Dr.. Postol, ... believes these local residents don't know what they are talking about, or worst, they are part of a deep state conspiracy that involves obviously the White House, as usual, the French, a couple of guys in England, and now apparently also Human Rights Watch.  In spite of those odds, his Syrian Sister can rest assured that Dr. Ted is as yet undaunted in his defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He maintains staunchly that Assad wouldn't hurt a fly, at least not with chemicals,
In the best journalistic and humanistic traditions, HRW takes upon itself the task of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Now, Dr. Ted can't say that, because when he writes about human rights atrocities it is to comfort the afflicter.
While Postol demands exacting evidence that meets his high standards from those he is criticizing, he offers wild statements without anything like a shred of evidence as the premise for his conclusions.
Postol and others of his ilk act like defense council for Assad rather than prosecutors for the people. If they were representing the people, and believed Assad didn't do it, they still should have pursued the "case of 2013" until the "real killer" was convicted or at least identified. That is how prosecutors prevent crimes from recurring. Defense counsels don't worry about that. After their guy gets off, they go home. Recurring crime is only their problem if their guy is being charged again.
Even if Assad were somehow innocent of one or more chemical attacks, he clearly is guilty of the majority of the carnage in Syria. So what should we call those who come out to defend Assad whenever his mass murders get media attention, but holocaust enablers?
Millions of Syrians that started this upheaval in 2011 by demanding an end to the fascist 40+ year old Assad dictatorship, and refusing to take "no" for an answer. They are still refusing to take "no" for an answer. That is the reason Assad is dropping sarin bombs on them.

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