Sy Hersh's incredible secret source

The legendary journalist Seymour M. Hersh has recently published an appreciation of the deadly attack on Khan Sheikhoun, Syria that took place on the morning of 4 April 2017 and of United States President Donald Trump's response several days latter. While the Syrian opposition, the United States, France, Germany, Human Rights Watch and the OPCW all have come to the conclusion that 92+ Syrian civilians were murdered that morning by a sarin bomb delivered by a Syrian warplane, the claim that Hersh makes is "that there was no chemical attack." This is a bold claim in the face of so many deaths and a mountain of evidence that they were caused by sarin.

The OPCW report on the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, dated 29 June 2017 and released today, begs to differ:

The [OPCW Fact-Finding Mission] team concluded that a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to sarin. The release that caused exposure was likely to have been initiated in the crater in the road, located close to the silos in the northern part of the town. The team concluded that, based on such a release, the only determination that could be made was that sarin had been used as a weapon.

This would be the same crater that another Assad defender, Dr. Theodore Postol claimed was the site in which terrorists set off a sarin pipe-bomb so they could blame the Assad regime. Ted Postol's Assad defense relies on alternative facts from Hersh. Hersh has little use for the crater in the street since it contradicts his story about the bombing of a building. I have also extensively criticized the various Postol defenses of Assad:

05/12/2017 Dr. Ted Postol misreads the HRW Report on Khan Sheikhoun
05/10/2017 Are Scott Horton & Ted Postol holocaust enablers?
05/03/2017 Reading Comprehension 101 for MIT Professor Dr. Ted Postol
05/01/2017 Postol's Apostles & the normalization of chemical weapons use
04/30/2017 Dr. Postol's "correction" shows he still needs Reading Comprehension 101
04/28/2017 Please Re-Tweet as Ted Postol beats a hasty retreat
04/26/2017 Sincerely yours, Theodore A. Postol

Ray McGovern, another long time Putin pundit and Assad supporter, seemed not to notice this contradiction between his earlier support of Postol's theory of how Assad didn't do it, and Hersh's in his Counterpunch defense of Hersh. He begins by repeating verbatim Hersh's story about what happened:

Russia and Syrian Air Force officers gave details of the flight path to and from Khan Sheikhoun in English, Hersh reported. The target was a two-story cinderblock building in which senior leaders – “high-value targets” – of the two jihadist groups controlling the town were about to hold a meeting. 

Then a few paragraphs later he remembers a memo put out by his group in support of Ted Postol's thesis:

For instance, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity produced a memo on April 11 questioning Trump’s rush to judgment. Former MIT professor Ted Postol, a specialist in applying science to national security incidents, also poked major holes in the narrative of a government sarin attack. But the MSM silence was deafening.

But Hersh contradicts Ted Postol's thesis as much as he contradicts the OPCW findings. Both agree that there was a sarin attack. Both agreed that the crater in the street was the release site. The divergence that McGovern supports is Postol's conclusion that the source of the CW attack was a terrorist sarin pipe bomb. Hersh says there was no sarin, only a conventional bomb in a cinderblock building. How can McGovern promote both theories at once? Perhaps the answer is that a con artist is someone who can promote two opposing theories and still remain convincing.

The question of whether there really was a chemical attack is especially important now because Russian President Vladimir Putin has predicted there would be more CW attacks in Syria, and US has claimed that the Assad regime is preparing them. It is also important because after having been effectively banned in 1925, CW weapons are starting to make a comeback as an accepted weapons for the suppression of mass rebellion, and not just in Syria anymore. A critical component of this new normalization of chemical weapons use has been efforts by the perpetrators and their supporters to create doubt and confusion over who is responsible for these chemical deaths. That way nobody is prosecuted. In this case Hersh supports the Russian-Syrian flat out denial that a chemical attack has even occurred, in spite of the fact that labs in Turkey, France, and for the OPCW have all tested samples from Khan Sheikhoun and found that sarin was used.

Seymour M. Hersh has not been reporting on the day to day, week to week, or month to month slaughter that has been called the Syrian conflict, and has so far taken more than a half-million lives over the past six years, but he has felt the need to weigh in strongly when Bashar Assad has been accused of killing with chemicals. In the case of the sarin murder of more than 1400 civilians in suburban Damascus on 21 August 2013, Sy Hersh mobilized an army of anonymous experts and intel officers to exonerate Assad. I roundly critiqued his positions in these six posts:

04/23/2014 How Seymour Hersh confuses Syria with Libya
04/13/2014 After Hersh lays smoke screen, Assad lobes gas bombs
04/12/2014 Mỹ Lai and Sy Hersh, a Reappraisal
04/10/2014 Seymour Hersh's chemical weapons fetish
04/08/2014 Seymour Hersh's Believe It or Don't
12/09/2013 Whose Seymour Hersh?

Sy Hersh's latest defense of Assad, Trump's Red Line, published by Welt, 25 June 2017, makes the bold claim that we are the victims of fake news and there really were no victims of a sarin attack in Khan Sheikhoun in April. His claim has been lauded and repeated by a number of commenters, including Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern, who like Hersh himself, are people I use to admire.

Just What a Khan Sheikhoun False Flag Conspiracy Would Actually Mean, has been well covered today by Eliot Higgins on Bellingcat, so I don't have go into how ridiculous it is to think there is a big secret studio somewhere cranking out opposition YouTube videos.

Since there can be no question that we are seeing murder on a mass scale in Syria, getting to the truth of these claims and counterclaims is not a parlor game. It is most serious. If Hersh and his supporters are right, then both the public and the Assad regime have been the victim of a tight, well organized conspiracy involving hundreds of people in Syria, Turkey, France, and the United States. If they are wrong, them the lot of them should be looked upon as holocaust enablers.

Who is Hersh's secret source?

Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern,  Jonathan Cook, Alex Jones and many others are basing their claims on Sy Hersh, and Sy Hersh bases his claims on information from "a senior adviser to the American intelligence community, who has served in senior positions in the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency." Hersh doesn't say who this anonymous individual is, but since he or she is the source of the narrative being fed to us by Hersh, knowing his or her identity is important. What can we discern about Hersh's source from what he tells us?

Since Hersh only says that he has served in the intelligence community, it is probably safe to assume he is a former intelligence officer, rather than one actively employed, and yet he seems to know all about everything on all sides! He knows about communications between the US and Syrian forces at levels few would expect. For example, as part of "deconfliction":

the Russians speak on behalf of the Syrian military

except apparently when Syrian Air Force officers communicate directly with USAF officers aboard AWACS planes:

Russian and Syrian Air Force officers gave details of the carefully planned flight path to and from Khan Shiekhoun on April 4 directly, in English, to the deconfliction monitors aboard the AWACS plane, which was on patrol near the Turkish border, 60 miles or more to the north.

He claims that they also give exact targeting information, including descriptions of buildings being struck to the US command in Doha:

The Syrian target at Khan Sheikhoun, as shared with the Americans at Doha, was depicted as a two-story cinder-block building in the northern part of town...Russian intelligence depicted the cinder-block building as a command and control center that housed a grocery and other commercial premises on its ground floor with other essential shops nearby, including a fabric shop and an electronics store.

He then goes on to say how the basement is being used. This sounds like they share with the US the type of intelligence that can only be gathered by spies on the ground. How nice of them! According to Hersh's secret source, the Russians give the US this type of detailed advance notice is so that CIA assets can have time to escape.

One reason for the Russian message to Washington about the intended target was to ensure that any CIA asset or informant who had managed to work his way into the jihadist leadership was forewarned not to attend the meeting. 

This seems at odds with stories heard in other quarters of Syrian warplanes threatening CIA assets around Raqqi, but it is particularly considerate of the Russians. Since, if the target is suppose to be a meeting of jihadists, both the attempt by the CIA to communicate the attack plans to their supposed assets on the ground, and the attempt by those assets to flee, would involve a considerable chance they would blow the whole operation, after so much careful planning, with drone observations and special bomb and all, according to Hersh. Gee, they must really love us. Can't we treat them better?

According to Hersh's secret source, the Russians talk directly to the CIA about their bombing missions and detailed intelligence about the insurgents.

I was told that the Russians passed the warning directly to the CIA. “They were playing the game right,” the senior adviser said. The Russian guidance noted that the jihadist meeting was coming at a time of acute pressure for the insurgents: Presumably Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham were desperately seeking a path forward in the new political climate. 

These two groups could have easily met more safely in the physical climate of Turkey, but the senior adviser didn't explain why they were risking this meeting in Khan Sheikhoun. He does portray a level of cooperation by US forces with the Russians and Syrians that they have been lobbying for. He says that Russian and Syrian spies work closely with multiple American command posts. Who knew?

Russian and Syrian intelligence officials, who coordinate operations closely with the American command posts, made it clear that the planned strike on Khan Sheikhoun was special because of the high-value target. “It was a red-hot change. The mission was out of the ordinary – scrub the sked,” the senior adviser told me. “Every operations officer in the region" – in the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, CIA and NSA – “had to know there was something going on. 

If knowledge of the "real" nature of the attack was so widely known, it is all the more surprising that Hersh had to go with his one unnamed source. In this era of leaks it's not uncommon for a major story in the New York Times or Washington Post to claim a dozen sources for a story. This is probably why the London Review of Books rejected it, even after having paid for it. Instead, Hersh had to shop Europe to find a publication with, shall we say?, less rigorous standards on sourcing.

Apparently, some US allies have been kept out of this loop, and didn't receive all this juicy information. They had to stoop to intercepting Syrian communications that they said proved Assad's forces delivered the sarin bomb. Hersh is at pains to explain to us that they are confused but US intelligence sources different from Hersh's secret source also claim to have overheard these communications, as did Syrian opposition plane spotters for which the disposition of Syrian military aircraft is a life or death question. Hersh doesn't give Syrian sources the time of day because it's easier to treat the Trump administration as the source of the facts he wishes to deny, but  an opposition news site had already identified the pilot of the bomber Hersh mis-identified as a Su-24 the day after the attack:

Orient Net contacted a number of field, independent and even Syrian Civil Defense observatories in the countryside of Idlib and Hama, and all testimonies indicated that the Assad terrorist who dropped toxic gas-filled barrels on Khan Sheikhoun was colonel pilot, Muhammad Yousef Hasouri.

Colonel Hasouri is the commander of the Sukhoi 22 Squadron at al-Sha’yrat airport. His warplane carries Quds 1 banner. He hails from the villages of Talkalakh town from Homs countryside and currently resides with his family in the Assad-controlled al-Sakan al-Shababy neighborhood in Homs city.

At approximately 06:30 am on Tuesday (April 4), Colonel Hasouri took off with his Sukhoi 22 and dropped barrels filled with toxic chemicals on the town of Khan Sheikoun in Idlib countryside, killing more than 100 civilians as they slept and injuring more than 400.

The majority of those who fell victim to the toxic gas were children.
...
It is worthy to mention that the walky-talkies and wireless connections have become an essential part of the lives of Syrians living in the liberated areas because of their effective role in reporting any sudden assault by Assad or Russian warplanes.

While the Hersh narrative ignores the crater in the street that Ted Postol made such a fuss over and everyone else claims was the place the sarin bomb exploded, it has a lot to say about an explosion no one on the ground reported. This former intelligence officer of Hersh's apparently still has access to pentagon Bomb Damage Assessments (BDA) which he said confirmed that what happened was pretty much what the Russians and Syrians said had happened:

U.S. military later determined that the heat and force of the 500-pound Syrian bomb triggered a series of secondary explosions that could have generated a huge toxic cloud that began to spread over the town, formed by the release of the fertilizers, disinfectants and other goods stored in the basement, its effect magnified by the dense morning air, which trapped the fumes close to the ground. According to intelligence estimates, the senior adviser said, the strike itself killed up to four jihadist leaders, and an unknown number of drivers and security aides. There is no confirmed count of the number of civilians killed by the poisonous gases that were released by the secondary explosions, although opposition activists reported that there were more than 80 dead, and outlets such as CNN have put the figure as high as 92. 

I guess Hersh somehow thinks a decision to drop a bomb in a busy shopping district ("with other essential shops nearby, including a fabric shop and an electronics store") that kills a hundred civilians in order to take out four "high value targets" can be morally justified so long as chemical weapons aren't involved. This is his CW fetish I wrote about earlier. What is missing from anybody's account of the aftermath of the attack are reports of fighters or civilians being killed or injured by the blast of a 500 pound bomb. The reported deaths were from chemical exposure.

Hersh's senior advisor seems to think he knows all about Putin's relationship with Assad as well:

"What doesn't occur to most Americans" the adviser said, "is if there had been a Syrian nerve gas attack authorized by Bashar, the Russians would be 10 times as upset as anyone in the West. Russia’s strategy against ISIS, which involves getting American cooperation, would have been destroyed and Bashar would be responsible for pissing off Russia, with unknown consequences for him. Bashar would do that?"

There is ample evidence, including some published on this blog, that Russia's strategy in Syria isn't against ISIS so much as it is about propping up the Assad regime, so while this retired intel officer may think he knows what Putin is trying to do in Syria, he is probably wrong. Like everything else that he tells Hersh, it is what Putin wants us to hear.

He is probably right that Assad wouldn't do anything to piss off Putin. The one true tone that underlines the whole Hersh narrative is that it is Putin that is running the show in Syria. That merely means that Putin was behind the sarin attack and those who ask why would Assad do it are asking the wrong question. They should be asking why would Putin do it? Most likely the answer has little to do with Syria, and much more to do with the overall international situation, and particularly the acute need at that juncture, two days after Republican Congressional Intel Committee chief Nunes was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, to create a distraction and an open break between Trump and Putin.

But wait there's more! Hersh's secret source doesn't just know all about events in Syria, and in the US military, he knows details about goings on in the White House, including what the CIA told the White House.

When a single intelligence asset claims information from multiple agencies and varied sources, it is a red-flag that that asset is getting information from multiple agencies, and that you are being played:

Within hours of viewing the photos, the adviser said, Trump instructed the national defense apparatus to plan for retaliation against Syria. “He did this before he talked to anybody about it. The planners then asked the CIA and DIA if there was any evidence that Syria had sarin stored at a nearby airport or somewhere in the area. Their military had to have it somewhere in the area in order to bomb with it.” “The answer was, ‘We have no evidence that Syria had sarin or used it,’” the adviser said.

According to Hersh's adviser, the CIA thinks they know exactly what has been going on at Shayrat airfield, even if he, Hersh and the CIA, can't keep the type of plane straight:

“The CIA also told them that there was no residual delivery for sarin at Sheyrat [the airfield from which the Syrian SU-24 bombers had taken off on April 4] and Assad had no motive to commit political suicide.”

The "political suicide" bit sounds more like an argument for acquittal than an intelligence assessment, particular since the much larger East Ghouta sarin attack in 2013 didn't kill him. anyway, every other description of the attack says that a SU-22 did the bombing.

But aside from a few issues like that, Hersh's whole story relies on this one senior advisor as its source, but he is such an unbelievable source! Not only does he know what al Qaeda is up to in the basement of a two-story brick building in Khan Sheikhoun, he also has intimate knowledge from inside the Trump White House. He can quote the president's private comments:

The intelligence made clear that a Syrian Air Force SU-24 fighter bomber had used a conventional weapon to hit its target: There had been no chemical warhead. And yet it was impossible for the experts to persuade the president of this once he had made up his mind. “The president saw the photographs of poisoned little girls and said it was an Assad atrocity,” the senior adviser said. “It’s typical of human nature.

This senior adviser was like a fly on the wall of Trump's Syria attack discussions:

“Trump ruled out option one off the bat,” the senior adviser said, and the assassination of Assad was never considered. “But he said, in essence: ‘You’re the military and I want military action.’” The president was also initially opposed to the idea of giving the Russians advance warning before the strike, but reluctantly accepted it. “We gave him the Goldilocks option – not too hot, not too cold, but just right.” The discussion had its bizarre moments.

This same senior adviser knew what the primary target at Shayrat Airbase was.

The airfield’s gasoline storage tanks, a primary target, were pulverized, the senior adviser said, triggering a huge fire and clouds of smoke that interfered with the guidance system of following missiles. As many as 24 missiles missed their targets...

The Tomahawk missiles use GPS as well as terrain tracking technologies. Fire and smoke at the target site would not interfere with their guidance systems. They would be pretty useless in combat if they did. Who does this senior advisor think he is trying to fool?

One curious coincidence is that while Hersh's secret source may disagree with everything Assad's opposition has to say about what happened that morning in Khan Sheikhoun, and what the Trump administration and the US Intelligence agencies have had to say about about that and the retaliatory raid on Shakyat airfield, he lays out a narrative that is consistent at most points with the one put forward  by the Russians and the Syrians. For example, while Hersh's senior adviser claims 24 missiles missed their target, the Russians said the Syrian Ministry of defense claims 23 Tomahawks hit the airbase. Both claims are wrong. A comparison of commercial satellite photos of the airbase both before and after the attack show at least 44 distinct hits, and while it doesn't prove the Pentagon's claim that 58 of the 59 TLAMS hit their targets, it doesn't disprove it either, considering the possibility of double taps on some targets.

After the strike: These satellite images show the damage to al-Shayrat military airfield which was hit by US cruise missiles on Thursday night

For some, faith in the Pulitzer prize winning reporter and his legendary secret sources has reached almost mythic proportions, as exampled by Jonathan Cook in his latest Counterpunch defense of Hersh:

So what did Hersh’s investigation reveal? His sources in the US intelligence establishment – people who have helped him break some of the most important stories of the past few decades, from the Mai[sic] Lai massacre by American soldiers during the Vietnam war to US abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004 – told him the official narrative that Syria’s Bashar Assad had dropped deadly sarin gas on the town of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 was incorrect.

In the first place, Sy Hersh didn't exactly "break" the story of My Lai, okay? A friend at the Village Voice alerted him to a press release the Army had issued on the upcoming Calley trial. The real heroes were those that wouldn't let the story die. People like SP5 Ron Ridenhour, a former door runner who wrote 30 letters to members of congress demanding an investigation, or Sgt Michael Bernhardt who Hersh would cite 28 times on his way to the Pulitzer. They and others hounded the army until they put someone on trial for the atrocities. Only then did Hersh pick up the story.

Beyond that Cook talks as if Hersh has had the same solid sources in the Pentagon and CIA for almost fifty years so anything he tells us is gold. We can take it to the bank!

But this latest story comes from a single source and in spite of being a single source, has been able to give Hersh the inside scoop in every arena relevant to his story. Generally, a reporter would have to piece together a story like this from multiple sources. I mean how lucky is it to find one source that can tell you what the jihadist had in an Idlib basement, and what the president was told in his most private discussions? It sounds too good to be true, and that is my reading of Hersh, his secret source, and his story.

What makes it very, very bad is that he ended it with a note designed to prepare us to view stepped up chemical slaughter by the Assad regime and its Russian partners as fake attacks we would do well to ignore:

 And do not think these guys are not planning the next faked attack. 

 Seymour M. Hersh may have made his reputation as a journalist, but he is spending that capital as a holocaust enabler.

By Clay Claiborne    republish freely

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for my posts on the 2016 US Election Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria Click here for a list of my other blogs on Libya

The small world of Gary Tyler and me

Gary Tyler Must Be Free (1976)

In 1975 I was living in Chicago. There I got my first job in video and film production with a small production house named Video Works. I started as an electronics technician but also did some editing and hand acting on a film produced by October Productions titled "Gary Tyler Must Be Free" about a 17 year old African Youth that had been railroaded onto death row in Louisiana. It was my early introduction to filmmaking.

Gary Tyler was sentenced to death at age 17
Now he is building a new life in Venice 

In 1977, I move to Los Angeles. The next year I had a print of "Gary Tyler Must Be Free" sent to me. It became the west coast copy and it was shown a few places around California before it ended up with my stored possessions. Then, for almost forty years I have dragged in around with me although I didn't even have a way to view or show it. For all I knew, it could have been the only surviving print and I felt a historical obligation to see that it had a future, so even when I reduced my earthly belongings to what would fit in the space of my tiny Venice apartment, I found room for it on a closet shelf, and that is where it  set for the last decade.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I saw the cover of the beach communities' weekly tabloid, The Argonaut, to find that Gary Tyler, now out of prison, had also found his way to Venice! The paper announced a reception for him at Arena1 Gallery near the Santa Monica Airport on Saturday. I was working that day but I took an early lunch and was able to give him the film that I had so long saved for him.

The Argonaut published:

SENTENCED TO DEATH AT AGE 17, GARY TYLER IS BUILDING A NEW LIFE IN VENICEby Shirley Hawkins
Photos by Ted Soqui
28 June 2017

Wrongfully imprisoned for 41 years, Gary Tyler will discuss
his case on Saturday at Arena 1 Gallery in Santa Monica

Gary Tyler is finally at peace. The tranquil Craftsman homes and lush tree-lined streets of Pasadena are a far cry from the grim, gray walls of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, infamously known as Angola, the worst and bloodiest prison in the nation.

Tyler, 58, was incarcerated there for 41-and-a-half years for a crime he did not commit, arriving on death row before his 18th birthday.

“I feel free here,” says the soft-spoken Tyler, who now lives in a small, picturesque guest house where he frequently hosts local doctors, lawyers and activists — several of his longtime supporters.

“I can wake up in the morning and hear the birds chirping, smell the fresh air and feel the fresh breeze,” he says. “I enjoy the simple things — walking, talking to people, reading newspapers, learning how to drive and the fact that I can go anywhere without needing anyone’s permission.”

Despite having so much taken from him, Tyler spends much of his time giving back. Several times a week Tyler rides the Expo Line on the way to his job as an outreach and engagement support worker at Safe Place for Youth in Venice, where he helps homeless youth get off the streets.

“I see the potential in the kids who come from dysfunctional backgrounds. Even though they might be runaways, homeless or doing drugs, I tell them they are salvageable and that they still have potential,” Tyler says of his work. “I tell them to take advantage of all the opportunities that life affords them."

Bob Zaugh spent decades campaigning for Tyler’s
release, then helped him find housing and a job

A CHILD SENTENCED TO DEATH

Tyler’s nightmare began at age 16, when he was charged with murder, hastily convicted and, at 17, became the youngest inmate in American history to be incarcerated on death row.

This was 1974, when public schools across America were still undergoing desegregation. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court had decided Brown v. Board of Education 20 years earlier, racial tensions flared at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, La.

Tyler was sitting on a bus with other African-American students when a crowd of about 200 white students began yelling racial slurs and throwing rocks and bottles at them. A gunshot rang out above the clamor and the bullet struck 13-year-old Timothy Weber, a white classmate who later died at the local hospital.

During the turmoil, Tyler witnessed his cousin being harassed by sheriff’s deputies and spoke up in his defense. They subsequently arrested Tyler and initially charged him with disturbing the peace and interfering with an officer’s duties.

“I was known for being outspoken,” says Tyler.

Investigators searched the bus for several hours but did not find a weapon, then transported the students to the substation to search it once again. This time, they reported finding a gun: a government-issue 45-caliber Colt automatic. Police would produce the gun as evidence at Tyler’s trial. Later, it was discovered that the weapon was identified as having been stolen from the sheriff’s firing range in Jefferson Parish, 10 miles away. The gun later disappeared from the evidence room.

Inside the sheriff’s substation, police cursed at Tyler and threatened him.

“They kept asking me questions about what happened on the bus,” Tyler remembers. “When I said I didn’t know anything, six or seven police officers brutally beat me for two or three hours in the booking room at the substation.”

Tyler’s mother arrived hoping to take her son home and was horrified when she heard his muffled screams. He was tried by an all-white jury and sentenced to death by electric chair.

“I told them I was innocent, but no one listened,” says Tyler, his voice tinged by sadness at the memory of it.

A TEST OF SURVIVAL

Tyler still recalls the sense of fear he felt as the steel gate on his prison cell clanged shut.

“When the prison gates shut behind me, I felt as if I was shut off from the rest of the world,” he says. “You knew you would not exit those gates once they were closed.”

While languishing on death row for the next two years, Tyler wrote letters pleading for help and support from every media outlet he could think of, and eventually his case became national news. In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s mandatory death penalty was unconstitutional, and Tyler’s sentence was reduced to life in prison.

Tyler describes day-to-day life in Angola as a test of sheer survival.

“Angola was the bloodiest, most infamous prison in the nation,” he says.

“It was a place of turmoil where prisoners were killing each other and committing suicide. I saw horrible things— inmates being set on fire or stabbed with homemade spears. I saw inmates who were doused with acid by other inmates. Some prisoners even got beaten to death by guards.”

But Tyler did not have to face this without help. A group of inmates formed a bond to protect the vulnerable, frightened teen.

“They saw a little kid who was all alone,” Tyler recalls. “Many of them were uncles and fathers, and they stepped up as responsible men to make sure that nothing happened to me.”

Tyler went on to become a model prisoner, obtaining his GED, studying graphic arts and printing, and even attending paralegal school. He mentored other inmates and spent 17 years as a volunteer in the prison’s hospice care facility.

But it was an invitation to join Angola’s Drama Club that radically changed his life. For the next 20 years, Tyler headed that club, which led to him directing the passion play “The Life of Jesus Christ.” Impressed with the production, directors Jonathan Stack and Nicholas Cuellar filmed a documentary about the project titled “Cast the First Stone.” More...

Gary Tyler & Clay Claiborne, Santa Monica, 1 July 2017

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for my posts on the 2016 US ElectionClick here for a list of my other blogs on SyriaClick here for a list of my other blogs on Libya

Putin: More chemical attacks being prepared in Syria

When this headline appeared in Russian media just days after the sarin gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun killed over a hundred civilians it got almost no notice in the United States. In April, Pravda.ru reported:

Putin: More chemical attacks being prepared in Syria
11 April 2017
Moscow has information about upcoming chemical attacks in Syria, similar to the one that has recently occurred in Idlib. The new attacks will take place in other regions of Syria, including in the capital city of Damascus, Russian President Putin said.

Putin made the statement about impending chemical attacks in Syria after negotiations with his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, Interfax reports.

"We have information from various sources saying that such provocations, I do not have a different word for it, are being prepared in other Syrian regions, including in southern suburbs of Damascus, where they are going to use some substance and accuse the Syrian official authorities of that," Putin told reporters.

I did notice at the time, and wrote:

This tells us that Putin is planning more sarin terror attacks in Syria. Putin, not Assad, not "the opposition," not "jihadists," Putin. It also means that soon we will be hearing how Putin's prediction was right and Assad didn't do it again, as more little children choke to death, and the "anti-imperialists" like Code Pink and Veterans for Peace once again play out their role as 21st century holocaust enablers. Putin is desperate to end this thing at any cost. He did his own "Mission Accomplished" dance 13 months ago, when he announced the Russian air force was going home. Then he brought them back right quick, and they are still there, slugging it out. It is Putin that has turned to sarin hoping its terror will end this thing quickly. That is why it is essential to his plans that the world do nothing in the face of these attacks and the Syrian people feel abandoned. That also why the Assad Loving Left in the United States has played a crucial role in sustaining the dictatorship through all its difficulties.

Today we have this ominous warning from the White House saying that they are seeing preparation for new chemical attacks, but not by some unnamed entity as Putin described, but by the same regime that most outside of the Putin/Assad camp blame for the 2013 sarin attack in East Ghouta, and this April's attack in Khan Sheikhoun:

There are also indications the French are seeing the same thing:

🔴 #BREAKING - Macron: Any use of chemical weapons in Syria will result in an immediate strike by France https://t.co/omP9IwIdAi pic.twitter.com/6VkilQPFxC

— FRANCE 24 Breaking (@BreakingF24) May 29, 2017

Since it does nothing to strengthen their case, Democracy Now does not mention the French warning and sees in the US warning to Assad not to use chemical weapons, a US effort to escalate the war. Apparently, DN is already taking the stand that it couldn't possibly be true. They would have us think Assad would never commit the mass murder of civilians, at least not with chemicals:

In Latest Effort to Escalate U.S. War in Syria, White House Claims Assad Planning Chemical Attack

The White House claimed Monday, without offering any evidence, that the Syrian government appears to be preparing for a chemical weapons attack. Unnamed U.S. military officials told The New York Times that they were surprised by the White House statement. Military experts say this type of public warning from the White House is highly unusual. The statement appears to be aimed at preparing American public opinion for an upcoming U.S. military strike against the Syrian government, warning that if Assad does conduct a chemical weapons attack, "he and his military will pay a heavy price." Critics are warning that the United States is quietly expanding its military role in Syria, threatening the possibility of a direct conflict between the U.S. and Russia.

Since almost all CW attacks in Syria have been against civilians opposed to the Assad regime, DN doesn't even care to name who the chemical attack may be against. The White House statement speaks of "the mass murder of civilians, including children," and while the official US concern may be bogus, the DN concern for those civilians is nonexistent. That is why they speak of  "a chemical weapons attack" without a target. Who cares? They exhibit zero concern either for those Syrian civilians that have been killed by chemical weapons and conventional weapons by the Syrian regime in the past, or will be killed by them in the future. Democracy Now hasn't protested the chemical murders of Syrian civilians either now, in 2013, or in between. They have never tried to determine who committed these murders. Their focus has been entirely about creating doubt that the Assad regime and it allies have been responsible. Most of the violence in Syria is never reported on Democracy Now because most of the violence is done by Putin and his proxy.

Today the Guardian ran an extensive background report about CW use in Syria:

What do we know about regime's use of chemical weapons in Syria?
Martin Chulov
27 June 2017

What has the White House alleged?
The Syrian military is making preparations for a chemical weapons attack that “would result in the mass murder of civilians, including children”.

How has the Assad regime used chemical weapons in the past?
It has deployed them in a variety of ways over the past five years: in grenades and makeshift bombs dropped from helicopters; rockets fired from jets; and artillery rounds and custom made rockets fired from the ground.

Chlorine has frequently been used, but as it has an industrial purpose in Syria it is not banned. Chlorine gas is a crude weapon that can be fatal in high concentrations. In lower doses, it can damage lungs or cause severe breathing difficulties and other symptoms, including vomiting and nausea.

The lethal nerve agent sarin has been deployed less often, but generates more outrage internationally because it can cause widespread loss of life.

Its most recent use was in an attack on the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April. Earlier attacks took place in villages near Aleppo, Homs, Idlib and the outskirts of Damascus. A large scale attack involving more than one tonne of sarin killed more than 1,300 people in the suburbs of of the Syrian capital in August 2013. The overwhelming majority of those killed were in opposition communities. More...

Linux Beach has also extensively covered chemical weapons use in Syria and the response to it. All of these posts are carefully documented, and what is more important is that they are rich in links to the most important source materials. So, if you really want to understand this question, this would be a good place to start:

05/16/2017 Since Khan Sheikhoun: Murders holocaust enablers don't argue about
05/12/2017 Dr. Ted Postol misreads the HRW Report on Khan Sheikhoun
05/10/2017 Are Scott Horton & Ted Postol holocaust enablers?
05/05/2017 Who runs Syria? Why are more sarin attacks coming?
05/03/2017 Reading Comprehension 101 for MIT Professor Dr. Ted Postol
05/01/2017 Postol's Apostles & the normalization of chemical weapons use
04/30/2017 Dr. Postol's "correction" shows he still needs Reading Comprehension 101
04/28/2017 Please Re-Tweet as Ted Postol beats a hasty retreat
04/27/2017 Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now says Assad now best for Syria
04/26/2017 Sincerely yours, Theodore A. Postol
04/24/2017 A valuable admission: Russia controls Syria & Putin runs the war
04/16/2017 Why would Assad use sarin in Syria now?
04/13/2017 Democracy Now debuts new lie about Khan Sheikhoun sarin attack
04/09/2017 Trump's strike against Assad: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
04/05/2017 Noam Chomsky regurgitates 2012 Putin propaganda to excuse latest sarin murders
04/04/2017 After Trump drops "Assad removal" from US goals, Assad drops sarin again

11/20/2016 What's next for the left's troubled relationship with Syria?

09/29/2016 Chemical Weapons attacks expand beyond Syria

08/20/2016 Amy Goodman should address this extremely important statement by her guest
01/05/2016 Luna Watfa: Enemy of Syrian State admitted sarin photos were fakes!
12/15/2015 Truth Revealed: 2013 East Ghouta sarin attack was done by aliens!
11/16/2015 The Imperial Left's sarin song: still "Regime Change" after all these years!
02/02/2015 How the Left's shill for Obama's red-line con fueled the rise of ISIS
01/27/2015 With Left support, Assad continues to kill in East Ghouta
04/13/2014 After Hersh lays smoke screen, Assad lobes gas bombs
04/10/2014 Seymour Hersh's chemical weapons fetish
04/08/2014 Seymour Hersh's Believe It or Don't
03/09/2014 UN: Assad sarin used in attacks | The Left's response?
02/04/2014 While Assad's CW is 95.9% intact, Qaddafi's is 100% destroyed
01/28/2014 Ex-journalist Robert Fisk: One is reminded of Goebbels
12/09/2013 Whose Seymour Hersh?
11/24/2013 How Obama has supported Assad's gas murder always
10/14/2013 Why the return of chemical weapons is a big deal
10/07/2013 The Courage of Ghouta in a Craven World
10/02/2013 The Courtship Continues: Obama stopped French strike on Assad
09/26/2013 More on ex-journalist Robert Fisk's defense of Assad
09/25/2013 Where Robert Fisk's defense of Assad falls down
09/23/2013 Desmond Tutu: UN owes it to Syria's children to act
09/20/2013 Mint Press exposed as Assad apologist, AntiWar.com apologizes
09/16/2013 UN hints Assad used Russian rockets in sarin gas attack
09/12/2013 BREAKING: New Chemical Attack reported in Syria
09/09/2013 Secret Intel Source of Ray McGovern & VIPS Revealed!
09/09/2013 Why did Assad Regime first Deny CW Attack if Blameless?
09/09/2013 Witness to CW Attack: When Paradise turned to Hell.
09/08/2013 Dr. Zaher Sahloul on the CW Attacks in Syria
09/08/2013 Why would Assad use CW with UN Inspectors in Syria?
09/07/2013 My dare to Ray McGovern & VIPS on Syria CW attack
09/03/2013 Who Used Sarin in Syria?
09/02/2013 Recycled Lies: Critique of the Kucinich letter on Syria
09/02/2013 How Obama Helped Assad Kill with Poison Gas in Syria
08/31/2013 Win-Win for Assad as Obama Response to CW Put on Hold
08/30/2013 Obama Denied Gas Masks to Assad's Victims
08/22/2013 AntiWar.com Disparages Chemical Attack in Syria
08/21/2013 Assad Knows: Chemical Attacks Kill Children First!
08/21/2013 1300+ Dead after Obama "Green-lights" new CW attack in Syria
08/05/2013 Syria: New Poison Gas Attacks Reported in #Douma & #Adra
06/03/2013 More False Reports of Sarin Usage by Assad's Opposition in Syria
05/13/2013 Jon Steward weighs in on Obama's "red-line" in Syria
05/10/2013 Obama's "Red-Line" was nothing but a Green Light for Assad's Slaughter of 70,000
05/06/2013 Syria Sarin Blame Game: Is Carla Del Ponte at it again?
04/29/2013 Other Echoes of Iraq in NATO response to WMD in Syria
03/14/2013 Reports say Iran sending more arms to Assad as he prepares chemical weapons
01/15/2013 US: Assad didn't use chemical weapons in Syria
01/15/2013 BREAKING: FP says Obama ignored chemical weapons attack by Assad in Syria
01/06/2013 NY Times: Assad has sarin in bombs at airfields
12/26/2012 BREAKING: Defecting General confirms use of chemical weapons in Syria
12/22/2012 BREAKING: Chemical weapons first use reported in Syria
09/14/2012 Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad
08/23/2012 Assad's Redline and Obama's Greenlight!
08/20/2012 Obama "green lights" Assad's slaughter in Syria

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for my posts on the 2016 US ElectionClick here for a list of my other blogs on SyriaClick here for a list of my other blogs on Libya

More...

Was Rep. Steve Scalise targeted for his white supremacist views?

After Rep. Steve Scalise was the featured speaker at a Nazi event:

David Duke said Scalise was merely taking an opportunity to meet with “constituents.”

From the Washington Post we have this 2014 report on Congressman Steve Scalise:

House Majority Whip Scalise confirms he spoke to white supremacists in 2002
By Robert Costa and Ed O'Keefe
29 December 2014

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white-supremacist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers.

Scalise, 49, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO. But the adviser said the congressman didn’t know at the time about the group’s affiliation with racists and neo-Nazi activists.

“For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous,” Scalise told the Times-Picayune on Monday night. The organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by several civil rights organizations.

The news could complicate Republican efforts to project the sense of a fresh start for a resurgent, diversifying party as the new session of Congress opens next week. In the time since voters handed control of Congress to Republicans, top GOP leaders have been eagerly trumpeting their revamped image and management team on Capitol Hill.

Monday night, some Democrats were already raising questions about whether Scalise should remain in a leadership post.

“It’s hard to believe, given David Duke’s reputation in Louisiana, that somebody in politics in Louisiana wasn’t aware of Duke’s associations with the group and what they stand for,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (Tex.), a rising star in the Democratic Party who is considered among the most prominent Hispanics in Congress. “If that’s the case and he agreed to join them for their event, then I think it’s a real test for Speaker Boehner as to whether congressman Scalise should remain in Republican leadership,” Castro said in a phone interview.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) called the news “a big deal.”

“Race still is, sadly, an ugly aspect of our politics,” he said by e-mail. “No politician should ever find himself/herself addressing a white supremacist organization except to tell them to go to hell.” Associates of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) are monitoring the situation, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s staff had no comment.
More...

In 1999 when Steve Scalise was running against David Duke, he said in an interview that he embraced many of the same conservative views as David Duke, but that he was a far more viable as a candidate. MSNBC reported in 2014:

Rep. Steve Scalise: I might have attended white supremacist event
By Benjy Sarlin
29 December 2014

Majority Whip Steve Scalise says he abhors hate groups, but acknowledged on Monday that he may have spoken at a white supremacist conference led by the notorious former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in 2002.

“I didn’t know who all of these groups were and I detest any kind of hate group,” Scalise, the third highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous.”

WATCH: Top Republican addressed racist group in 2002

The interview came hours after Scalise’s office acknowledged that a report claiming that the Louisiana congressman spoke at a gathering of the Duke-run European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) as a state legislator in 2002 could be accurate. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist organizations, has listed EURO as a “white nationalist” hate group.

According to NBC News, an aide to Scalise said it was “highly likely” the Congressman spoke before the group, but Scalise told the Times-Picayune he had no memory of the event in question. He blamed a combination overzealous campaigning and an overworked staff for his alleged appearance. More...

This talk by Arden Wells, then a candidate for Sheriff, points to collusion between David Duke and Steve Scalise to put Scalise in Congress:


In this interview with Smerconish, David Duke claims he doesn't know if Steve Scalise spoke at the 2002 meeting of the white supremacist organization he founded because he was in Moscow, Russia at the time:


Rachel Maddow reported on the connection between the white supremacist Stormfront website and Steve Scalise on 6 January 2015:


Here are some choice comments from what people at Stormfront [the voice of the new, embattled White minority] are saying about the shooting today:

A normal White Nationalist just wants to be left alone.

We want to live our life, raise a family, and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Leftists want to commit mass murder against anyone that disagrees with them.

When communists gain power they always commit mass murder.
__________________
______________
__________
______
__

If we will not defend our own White Children, then who will?

By certain accounts the gunman had asked earlier whether these were democrat or republican congressmen. There is zero doubt which of those two parties is the worst when it comes to issues we, and many in America care about. The poster applauded shooting at the better party, and was even happier it was possibly a white man who did it. How moronic is that?? He didn't even give a thought to the very high likelihood that the man was a far left nutjob that probably hates his own race like most white libtards. If he targeted republicans, the LAST possible explanation would be that he was some sort of white 'patriot'. Think about it.

And I would LOVE to see people like Pelosi fall over dead from a stroke or something. But to shoot them only strengthens the resolve of our enemies. Shooting the people slightly closer to our values? Utter stupidity.

The media constantly OPENLY supports the death of White people and endorses attacks on White conservatives. They called the Charleston church shooting terrorism but on CNN now they say they don't know the "motive" (even though the shooter said he wanted to kill as many republicans as possible). He will be coddled and they will push gun control.

Make an example out of this deranged leftist scum and we will have less issues like this. If Kathy ISIS Griffin was thrown in prison for pretending to behead the president this would not have happened.

Instead we have the MSM championing attacks on Whites and making them appear normal so the population is desensitised to this. They are making it easier for Whites to be killed with zero backlash.

This white supremacist is already the third most powerful Republican in Congress and now his position will be elevated as a result of the tragedy.

See also: Who is James T. Hodgkinson, the Alexandria shooting suspect?

UPDATE 1: Not that it is necessarily related but after this blog post was published, they are now mentioning Scalise white supremacist connections, if only to excuse them. This rabid white racist is being referred to as a "staunch conservative." It David Duke also now a "staunch conservative?" How about Adolph Hitler?

More, later...

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for my posts on the 2016 US ElectionClick here for a list of my other blogs on SyriaClick here for a list of my other blogs on Libya

Who is James T. Hodgkinson, the Alexandria shooting suspect?

As soon as I heard Rep. Ron Paul say the shooter may have been suffering from mental illness I knew the shooter was white, if he was a person of color, Paul would have blamed evil, not madness.

Now they are super quick about erasing a suspect's social media footprint as soon as he is identified. This puts them in charge of the suspects image after death.

Apparently, he was another one of these "Never Hillary" people, writing on his facebook page 25, July 2016 "You've been warned DNC. I will NEVER vote Hillary. A nomination for Hillary, equals a win for Trump. #NOTWithHer."

So we can assume he refused to vote for Clinton to stop Trump, and to stop his prediction from coming true. Now he is allege to have taken a terrorist act [ Why is the media not calling this a terrorist act? ] which will only strengthen Trump's hand.

The two screenshots below are from sites that have already been removed shortly after I started collecting them.

From his facebook page:

Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co.

We Don't Need or Deserve a Billionaire for President. There will Always be a Conflict of Interest. Millionaires are Bad Enough.

I want Bernie to Win the White House.

Here is his facebook page:

James T. Hodgkinson was a building contractor in Belleville, IL according to Buildzoom:

Overview
James T Hodgkinson in Belleville, IL holds a Home Inspector license (450000651) according to the Illinois license board.

Their BuildZoom score of 90 indicates that they are licensed or registered but we do not have additional information about them.

BuildZoom has not verified this license since its expiration date. If you are thinking of hiring James T Hodgkinson, we recommend double-checking their license status with the license board and using our bidding system to get competitive quotes.

Look here for updates throughout the day

Update 1:

Someone with a quick lineup pattern has already set up fake twitters account, notice both were started in June 2017 That is a date hard to fake without twitter involvement. Also they have no original tweets before today. They both have been created with the goal of promoting the image of Hodgkinson as violently anti-Trump. This leaves us with the questions of who was creating these fake accounts while I was writing this blog, and why were they created.

Now that his anti-Trump motivations are becoming clear, they are starting to call him a terrorist.

Update 2: It's Trump's Birthday today - is that just another coincidence?

One thing is clear, if the Cui Bono [who benefits] test is applied to this attack, James "Tommy" Hodgkinson didn't benefit, Trump announced that he died in the hospital. Neither did Bernie Sanders, his supporters or any in the anti-Trump, anti-white nationalist, camp. We will all be made to suffer for the crimes of Hodgkinson, assuming he really was the shooter.

So far the scariest thing about this whole affair is the suggestion that facebook statements such as "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co." or calling the Trump Republicans the "American Taliban" should have been as enough to open an FBI investigation on him.

Certainly, hindsight is 20/20, but these statements can't normally be taken as the mark of an assassin. American Taliban  is a label that has widely and correctly applied to the right-wing of the Republican, as for example, this 2014 Truthdig piece The Rise of the American Taliban, or this YouTube video The Newsroom - Tea Party is the American Taliban by RagingScottish.

Whether there is more to this shooting than that which is being made obvious, or just an fortuitous opportunity for the rigthwing, this incident will be used to push congress further into Trump's fascist camp, and tt is already being used by the media to suggest a connection to the protests at townhalls and congress people's homes. Rep. Bost is already on MSNBC saying that he will have a sheriff's detail at his upcoming townhall meeting.

With regards to the Cui Bono question: It is those that want to chill free speech and put the kibosh on anti-Trump protests that stand to benefit from this attack. In anycase, this incident is a birthday present to Trump.

Update 3: It's a Small World After all.

As it turns out, I have one mutual facebook friend with Hodgkinson, of course I have about 2,500 facebooks friends. I have redacted the name of this friend who obviously is a Bernie Sanders/ Jill Stein Supporter, between us we have 399 mutual friends, shall we all now be targeted for our anti-Trump views.

Yesterday we witnessed a presidential cabinet meeting that featured the type of uncritical adulation and praise typical of that demanded by a fascist leader, and now this. Things are moving very fast at this point.

Update 4:
CNN just showed a screenshot they claimed was of Hodgkinson's facebook page, but it didn't look like what I captured above before it was taken down. The one CNN showed used a image of Bernie Sangers dressed up as Uncle Sam. Where did they get that screenshot?

Wolf Blitzer also claimed the statement "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co." was a threat to kill Trump and should have been investigated, so we can see where this is going.

See also: Was Rep. Steve Scalise targeted for his white supremacist views?

More, latter ...

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for my posts on the 2016 US ElectionClick here for a list of my other blogs on SyriaClick here for a list of my other blogs on Libya