March 4 2018 Sergei and Yulia Skripal are attacked with a nerve agent in Salisbury
March 6 2018 Boris Johnson blames Russia and calls Russia “a malign force”
March 7 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia arrives in London for an official visit
March 13 2018 Valeri Gerasimov, Russian Chief of General Staff, states that Russia has intelligence a fake chemical attack is planned against civilians in Syria as a pretext for US bombing of Damascus, and that Russia will respond militarily.
March 19 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia arrives in Washington for an official visit
April 8 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia arrives in Paris for an official visit
April 8 2018 Saudi funded jihadist groups Jaysh al Islam and Tahrir al-Sham and UK funded jihadist “rescue group” The White Helmets claim a chemical weapons attack occurred in their enclave of Douma the previous day – just before its agreed handover to the Syrian army – and blame the Syrian government.
April 11 2018 Saudi Arabia pledges support for attack on Syria
April 14 2018 US/UK/French attack on Syria begins.
I have always denied the UK’s claim that only Russia had a motive to attack the Skripals. To denigrate Russia internationally by a false flag attack pinning the blame on Russia, always seemed to me more likely than for the Russians to do that to themselves. And from the start I pointed to the conflict in Syria as a likely motive. That puts Saudi Arabia (and its client jihadists), Saudi Arabia’s close ally Israel, the UK and the USA all in the frame in having a powerful motive in inculcating anti-Russian sentiment prior to planned conflict with Russia in Syria. Any of them could have attacked the Skripals.
Today, Theresa May is claiming -astonishingly – that the UK attack on Syria is “to deter chemical weapons attacks in Syria and the UK”. I don’t think the motive for a Skripal false flag could be more starkly demonstrated.
We do not yet know how many children and other civilians have died so far in what the media always pretend are magically “pinpoint” attacks on Syria. Denying the “collateral damage” is part of the neo-con playbook. The danger is that they will not stop but continue to push, testing how far they can go in weakening Syrian government forces to promote their jihadist allies on the ground, before they spark a real Russian reaction. That way madness lies.
It is also worth noting that the most ardent supporters of this military action, outside Saudi Arabia and Israel, are the Blairites in the UK and the Clinton Democrats in the USA. The self-described “centrists” are actually the unhinged extremists in today’s politics.
This attack on Syria is, beyond doubt, a huge success for the machinations of Mohammed Bin Salman. Please do read my post of 8 March which sets out the background to his agenda, and I believe is essential to why we find our nations in military action again today. Despite the fact the vast majority of the people do not want this.
Well, if anyone was ever in doubt of the existence of the ‘Axis of Evil’, there’s the frickin’ confirmation.
My heart, along with the hearts of all right minded people, goes out to those poor victims and their families, whom the psychopaths and liars have bombed and killed on a lie this day. I am almost 60 years old, and truly sorry to be associated by dint of birth and residence with this insanity. I apologise to the Syrian and Russian people, I really am, truly sorry.
Complete agreement with you. I am ashamed of the BBC’s ‘news’ coverage – used to be really quite proud of them.
Absolutely agree, I too would be embarrassed to admit I’m British.
As to the BBC, I’d like to think they’ll never recover from this, for many, my family included, they never will, they’re finished.
Thanks for the summary, and for the continuous excellent analysis as events unfold. Amnesty’s role in this should also be noted: March 23: “The international community’s catastrophic failure to take concrete action to protect the people of Syria has allowed parties to the conflict, most notably the Syrian government, to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity with complete impunity, often with assistance of outside powers, particularly Russia.”; and today: “The people of Syria have already endured six years of devastating attacks, including chemical attacks, many of which amount to war crimes. All precautions must be taken to minimise harm to civilians in any military action. People already living in fear of losing their lives in unlawful attacks must not be further punished for the alleged violations of the Syrian government.”, “unlawful attacks” presumably not referring to US/UK&France’s strikes. The timing of this attack is also worth noting, just hours before OPCW was about to visit Douma. I hope these strikes are successful, though, in the sense that they may rid the UK of the May government come next election.
Martin Elvemo
“The international community’s catastrophic failure to take concrete action to protect the people of Syria has allowed parties to the conflict, most notably the Syrian government, to commit war crimes”.
I think it’s nearly 7 years now. Why is Assad so popular & obviously adored by the vast majority of Syrian people if he is murdering their families, neighbours, sons, daughters? I am amazed by him – 7 years of hell from the ‘allies’ yet he remains calm & rational.
“The international community’s catastrophic failure to take concrete action to protect the people of Syria”.
You mean just like Libya? That came out well didn’t it? Wanna buy a slave? Wanna bomb Manchester? Yes the Libyan people must feel very grateful to us – shame about the free education, electricity, religious freedom, rights for women, interest free mortgages etc.
The point I was trying to make is that Amnesty provides a humanitarian cover for western aggression, in this case predicted in this excellent article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/23/100699/
https://twitter.com/paulmasonnews/status/985037538405560320
An added bonus for the Tories is they will inevitably claim that their disastrous performance in the local elections is blow-back from Maggie May’s courageous decision to get involved in this bombing campaign; political cover she will undoubtedly avail herself of.
Craig
You also forgot the Israeli attack on T4 airbase on the 8/9th which was obviously to test the defences.
It is interesting that local media in Syria and sources are claiming this as a sort of victory for the Syrian government and an exposure of the opposition who cannot now claim that they have the interest of Syrians at heart. They say that the damage caused was minimal and probably symbolic in order to play to the propaganda. They also claim that many missiles were shot down. They also claim that most of the attacks did not come from the US and French mediterranean ships but from Al Dammam and Jordan red sea fleet and possibly Israel. This is unconfirmed, but if confirmed it may indicate that the French and UK support was symbolic in order to avoid attacks.
Better to be hung for a sheep than a lamb. If most of the people of this country outside the chosen few who’ve always had it all, have their way, Mrs May and all her predecessors and their contemptible underlings will be hung all the same. This is far from over, we need to start making examples. The countries of Britain will soon become, if they aren’t already, ungovernable, they can’t kill us all and there’s only so many of them.
It is already being dubbed ‘The Tripartite Aggression’ in Syria in memory of Suez 1956. I wonder how the Arab street will react.
Didn’t you see the photo of Damascenes pretty much dancing in the street this morning? This is a great success for Syria. A massive attack has been avoided, and it’ll be difficult to launch one now. Though certainly there’ll be another “gas attack” in the near future, as the jihadis will have seen that at least such attacks do gain some advantage, even if not as much as hoped.
The real issue here is that the West has no strategy in Syria. IN fact they never did. Imagine trying to persuade anyone that we are working with the Saudis to bring democracy to Syria!
They had a strategy – regime change – but it hasn’t worked. The secondary, Netanyahu, aim of eternal instability is also not working, as Syria is beginning to come together again. Failed strategy is not the same as no strategy.
Sturgeon and Corbyn unequivocably opposing the airstrikes. In contrast Vince Cable pulling his punches and only directing mild criticism against Missiles May.
But if May had opposed air strikes Sturgeon would have been for them. Sturgeon automatically opposes everything the Conservatives do.
TFFT
If Nicola had supported this nonsense my £2 a month would have been in jeopardy!
Excellent, clear and concise summary Craig.
And absolutely no spin at all …
I agree wholeheartedly as my letter in the Herald today confirms. This is all part of deliberate Western policy to destabilize the Middle East to maintain the power of the Western Establishment and the control it exerts through the petrodollar and the US dollar being the de facto global reserve currency…..once that control is lost the accumulated national debts of the Western economies can never be repaid and the economic system will collapse…..that’s why life is so cheap if it happens to be Syrian Palestinian Iraqi etc.
Perhaps there’s also a nostalgia for the red lines drawn by Sykes-Picot across Mesopotamia’s sands? Now it’s May-Macron trying to redden those wretched lines.
Either that or the guys that do the books for the arms companies worked out they sell more guns when Arabs are fighting and destroying each other than they do when they aren’t.
This petrodollar argument has always read like something from the back of a David Icke DVD case.
Funny how David Icke – the unhinged lunatic who we can use as the basis to ridicule anything we want – also says this…..
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/esp_icke22.htm
David Icke says everything, he’s bound to be right occasionally. From lizards to paedophile rings ran by aliens living in the moon, and a thousand permutations involving all those and more, he’s pretty much cornered the crackpot market.
The point is ‘play the ball not the man’. You seem to prefer the Norman Hunter approach. Care to elaborate on how in this instance David Icke is right.
You say everything but as yet I have found no occasion where you appear to be right. Oh bugger ‘I played the man…..
I doubt that David Icke is insane. Instead, his role is to poison the well. By acting as a slightly deranged “flake”, he will taint any group or movement that he actively supports.
Would you really want him to be on your side?
All feels very much like the run up to Suez in 1956.
Except that this time, the US is part of it.
As you note, Craig, the worrying part of this is that they will probably take another bite as they seem to have got away with it this time.
And of course there is now a huge incentive for there to be more “chemical attacks” in Syria…
As articulated by Peter ford.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raho4VHQzEE
This attack didn’t actually gain much advantage for the jihadis in the end. It rather defined the West’s reaction as a symbolic pop, not the mass bombardment they hoped for. Things won’t change in the future; the war’s pretty decided as a result.
What is really behind the destruction of Syria? I suspect it is the usual starting point for all detectives investigating a crime, “Follow the Money”! There has to be more to it than two sick people in Salisbury.
Did it all start, under the guise of pro-democracy demonstrations that may have been fomented by agent provocateurs, because Syria wished to trade in currencies other than petrodollars? Because it had insufficient debt to IMF from which its major shareholders could extract rent/usury? Is Syria trading oil in Roubles and Renmimbi, with consequent dire effects on the US ‘economy’?
O, it was a false flag. And here I was thinking that this was an attempt at serious commentary, even if burdened by an unfortunate sympathy for authoritarian regimes.
Since I mentioned that people should read-into TIMBER SYCAMORE on the previous thread at 06:12am today, just 18 minutes later I received an anomalous highly targeted spear phish mail from cyber-criminals. I’ll pass it onto my CERT.
I will test my freedom of speech, serious commentary, here at Craig’s blog by repeating the posting and seeing if it automatically leads to another personalised cyber-attack. Yes, it is likely from an authoritarian regime, but I don’t think Putin has that much to lose from idiots on the internet mentioning the completely open-source-information TIMBER SYCAMORE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore
And your fortunate sympathy for Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia….
Are you campaigning for entry into the DRC?
Let’s look at the whole tree you are, with all the sweet fruits hanging off you. Shall we?
Craig is dispassionately assessing who is more likely responsible:
A) a Syrian regime that knows it has the war won and that the only thing they could do to botch it would be to allow the West to accuse it of having crossed some spurious humanitarian red line.
B) the foreign Al-Quaeda jihadis (aka “the brave rebels”), who know staging such an event is the only thing that could conceivably save them.
He is engaging in deductive reasoning, rather than imbibing credulously every word of proven liars and warmongers in government and state media.
Meanwhile, the Guardian has provided a convenient overview of your fellow-travellers: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/13/syria-intervention-conservative-rightwing-opposition-trump
Although Project for New American Century said it “had achieved its objective” and so closed as a ‘think tank’ in 2006 (after only one ‘think/thought’) has it been merely dormant? John Bolton in POTUS45 Cabinet, ‘Scooter’ Libby given a Presidential pardon….the ghouls are reenergised and going about the next stage of their nasty PNAC conspiracy….ooops, I think they call it a ‘strategy’!
Clare Short is on record saying PNAC was never required reading for the Cabinet she belonged to and nor was it ever discussed in Cabinet. Why not? Why is it never referenced these days? ‘America First’ is PNAC latest catch phrase. Everything has history.
Spot on Robin. It goes right back to Kristol and Kagan and their many followers.
Good to learn that people against initiating WW3 are most likely Nazi’s. This must be why the Guardian is such a profitable enterprise with a reputation for insightful analysis.
Only an extremist would possibly ask for evidence that a chemical attack has taken place and for evidence as to the identity of the attackers. The constant repetition of assertions does not constitute evidence. It does however point to a society that is in terminal decline and infested by irredeemably stupid and cowardly people.
A number of Islamist’s living in Europe traveled to Syria and engaged in all kinds of barbarous activities. It comes to something when any reasonable person would have more respect for such people than for the people who urge death, destruction and carnage from what they believe to be the safety of their own protected armchairs.
Whether you know it or not you have made a bet that the Russians are more civilized than you. If you are wrong then it is goodnight Vienna, and game over. Any rational society would section Guardian writers both for their own safety and for the safety of others.
Germany in the 21st century is the civilised large nation of Europe, in contradistinction to England and France.
No Germany along with most EU states are vassal states, they all, along with NATO support the attack but they are to pussy to bomb themselves.
The BBC keeps saying “Britain has carried out airstrikes on Syria”,
It’s England’s government that has carried it out. A government voted in only by England. A government that is working to dismantle democracy and freedom of choice in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
England has carried out airstrikes on Syria.
Not even England, the tories and thier fellow travellers.
True. But England voted them in to power.
Actually not quite. You might as well say that it is England and Northern Ireland as the DUP hold much more clout rgan the rest of the country.
The rest of the DUPs country is the Republic of Ireland.
Slightly off topic, yesterday on LBC a caller rang Iain Dale saying he was a near neighbor of DC Bailey. Iain said when you next see him ask him to call I would love to speak to him. The reply was I can’t he has been on holiday since his release from hospital.
Very, very interesting…..
@ Bunkum April 14, 2018 at 10:09
Probably on a world cruise – profitable business, being a government hoaxer.
Is there nothing we can do? I have had enough and I want to be heard. I am frustrated that no matter what this corrupt disgusting government does it gets away with it. Whether it is knowingly increasing child poverty or committing war crimes there are never consequences. Look at the French – out on the streets causing mahem – their voices are heard. It is clear that many people are dismayed at current events and contribute to sites like these ( on which note Craig I want to thank you for your analysis and sanity over the last few weeks. Your informed and rational posts have been a lifeline in this increasingly unhinged world). But posting comments doesn’t hurt the government. Don’t we need to be out in the streets bringing the country to a halt? I’m up for it.
But Syria is not going to go down – that’s more or less the conclusion to draw from last night.
Craig.
In your post of 8th March you mentioned Rex Tillerson – “This was a massive slap in the face to Bin Salman from Donald Trump, and a result of Tillerson recognising the real threat to the world from Bin Salman’s extreme ambition.”
Five days later Trump kicked Tillerson out.
How do you think this will leave Aljazeera, say, a news network that is worth watching if only for the fact that it has upset everyone over the years?
If there is collateral damage, heaven forbid. And there are civilian deaths. Is it likely that Russia will feel obliged to retaliate by striking at the sources from where this attack was launched ?.
I cannot imagine anything more likely to instigate a global catastrophe than this manic decision to carry out this attack. Especially as it has been indecated that weapons inspectors were on their way today, Saturday 14th April 2018, to inspect the alleged chemical areas in Syria.
Only half the story ? Perhaps more the string-pullers are being pulled themselves;
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-07/leaked-secret-israeli-cable-confirms-israeli-saudi-coordination-lebanon
What is the purpose of calling a UN SC meeting when three of the five permanent, veto holding, states conducted this clearly criminal attack. Criminal in every sense. At a minimum this sort of banditry which insults the common sense, decency and humanity of every sane human being on our planet, should be cause for a UN General Assembly session so that the world can voice its views on this assault, this terrorist attack, on all of us.
If there ever was a time to unite and stand against destruction of the rule of law and morality, it is now.
If not now, when, if not us, who?
[Mod: Sock puppet. Don’t comment any further on this thread, please.]
Comment deleted.
Warmongers should have problems about what happened last night. Because it more or less showed that the West is not going to contest the course of the war in Syria. It’s really an abandonment, while allowing the willy-wavers to have their bang.
I think you’ll find, even amongst those who concede a gas attack took place last week, there’s quite a lot of speculation about who might be responsible.
Nobody knows for sure, apart from the false flag guys whose pockets are bulging with Saudi cash.
I guess you just gained yourself a reputation here.
When did the Russians concede a chemical attack? Please supply refs.
May positively beaming at her press conference. Thatcher and Blair at least looked serious and solemn when they went to war. Not the naughty cornfield intruder. You could see her thinking ‘yeah I’m now a war leader, a Tory war leader’. What kind of person calls a war up and immediately gets on a high?
In front of the Union Jack.
Of a type that fist bumps at the sight of the first ever attack of WMD in UK
Did she do any fist pumps?
With WW3 over , the headlines can once again go back to NHS waiting lists, lack of care homes, potholes, etc etc… hope May enjoys the glory, she’ll be wiped out in the local elections next month…
“What kind of person calls a war up and immediately gets on a high?”
Everyone, apparently. Obama in the drone room: “It turns out I’m good at killing people.” Clinton’s “We came we saw he died.” Bush in his flight jacket. We’ve had a lot of wars/police actions in my lifetime and I’m having trouble thinking of a counterexample.
It seems to be quite the rush, to be responsible for the lives and deaths of thousands of people. I don’t think the human nervous system was built for it.
“Just Who’s Pulling the Strings?”
On the evidence so far? In the Skripal case almost certainly the GRU, Russian military intelligence, I doubt Putin had much to do with it, I think he gives the GRU a free hand in these matters and doesn’t interfere. They had to do it to save face, Sergei Skripal was one of their colonels. They had been planning it for some time and timed it to coincide with extreme cold weather in Europe to limit political retaliation.
As for the chemical attack in Syria I doubt Assad had a lot to do with that either, a local commander on the ground will have made the decision because there was a group of rebels in an easily defended place, prepared to fight it out to the last man and who would have been difficult and costly in Syrian forces lives to dislodge. A tactical decision.
I don’t think Mohammed Bin Salman had much to do with anything whatsoever.
«gives the GRU a free hand in these matters and doesn’t interfere. They had to do it to save face, Sergei Skripal was one of their colonels.»
Skripal did not escape Russia and was hiding in the UK: he was arrested, tried and imprisoned in Russia, and then after a few years released in a spy exchange. The GRU had every opportunity to sentence him to death or kill him while in prison in Russia. As C Murray has said, spy exchanges are very important to spy agencies on both sides, and undermining them by killing someone who was released in a spy exchange, even several years later, makes no sense for any of the spy agencies involved.
I would expect the GRU considered just killing Skripal would be letting him off too lightly, the prison he was in wasn’t exactly a holiday camp, they would have killed him when he finished his sentence anyway.
But… why the GRU then let S Skripal enjoy the money he earned with his spy work for 7 years in the UK between 2010 and 2018 after they released him? In 2004 the GRU/FSB arrest and sentence him to prison, he is released from prison in 2010 and sent to the UK, and his door handle is “allegedly” poisoned in 2018. It is a really bizarre sequence.
After the West’s affected outrage about chemical attacks in the recent past, no Syrian commander would have made that call. They would know the repercussions they would face from Assad.
What outrage? Most of the attacks probably go unreported and when they do we make a few token holes in a runway that could be repaired over the weekend.
The outrage that has completely dominated western media all this week, for example .. and this time last year .. and back in 2013. Do try to give your responses at least the veneer of credibility.
Why on earth would they worry about outrage in the western media?
” I don’t think Mohammed Bin Salman had much to do with anything whatsoever.”
Of course not, he’s too busy trying to figure out when women in Saudi Arabia should be allowed to drive a driverless car.
Well we certainly wouldn’t want to give him the full credit; many others stand to gain, apparently, for a host and variety of reasons.
Now there’s TWO World Class “conspiracy theories” for the price of ONE!
LOL
@ J Galt April 14, 2018 at 10:59
Here’s 53 for nothing:
’53 Admitted False Flag Attacks’: https://www.globalresearch.ca/53-admitted-false-flag-attacks/5432931
Thanks for link – when have we ever not had arseholes for leaders!
Mods
Could you examine if this statement breaks community rules?
As another commenter has pointed out it is quite amazing the coincidence that not many days before this story arc started the “novichok” was the key plot device of a TV series:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back:_Retribution
«She discovers that Zaryn is in fact Karim Markov, a Russian scientist who allegedly killed his colleagues with Novichok, a nerve agent they invented.»
«Section 20 track Berisovich’s meth lab in Turov where Markov is making more Novichok and destroy it, though Berisovich escapes with Markov.»
As the ancient said “nature imitates art” 🙂
Not a coincidence, also not a coincidence that the 10 episode series was supposed to end its run last year, but was suddenly split into 2 so the that the later half could end just before the Salisbury incident.
Where does the ‘R’ family figure in all this?
They’ll be doing their job of distracting folks with their wedding in a few weeks.
Well Her Maj bows to MBS. The King of Bahrain too and for that matter, any wealthy dictator who will buy weapons from us.,
Britain’s defence ministry said “very careful scientific analysis” had been applied to maximise the destruction of stockpiled chemicals while minimising any risk of contamination to surrounding areas.
“The facility which was struck is located some distance from any known concentrations of civilian habitation, reducing yet further any such risk,” the MoD said in a statement.
It said initial indications were that the precision weapons and meticulous target planning had “resulted in a successful attack.” A ministry spokesman declined to give further details on the attack or the number of missiles launched.
Sounds so perfect doesn’t it. So my take on that.
I would suspect the Russian/Syrians gave them co-ordinates of an empty piece of desert where they had parked a couple of old Porta-cabins with a home made chemical weapons factory sign on top. Everyone happy and, no doubt, videos of missiles striking porta-cabins to follow. Theresa claims wonderful success and pours praise on the heroes involved. Job done.
They used HE (high explosive) munitions which just spread things around, if they really were going to destroy a stockpile of chemical weapons they would want to use some form of incendiary weapon like napalm to burn it up. The government lies have become so blatant they must think we are all morons.
Hi David, problem, neither Syria nor Russia have any chemical weapons having destroyed them all under international supervision and confirmed by the OPCW.
What puzzles me most is why so many in this country are so docile in the face of the state’s descent into an authoritarian abyss, but so quick and easy themselves to prey on those weaker than themselves in turn. Way back in the sixties, host countries began bombarding ‘enemy’ embassies with powerful microwave radiation, in the range of tens of gigahertz frequencies, to induce all sorts of cognitive effects on their occupants. We’re now doing exactly that to ourselves, the whole population, with cell-phone towers, cellphone handsets, wireless routers and devices blasting out beacons every millisecond and the latest manifestation is so called smart-meters, a power cellular radio, wired to the mains, in your home with all sorts of unknown ‘features’ yet to be activated or discovered, which all of us need to stop the installation of or if already in place take a hammer to and smash to smithereens. You can legally refuse to have one installed, but for how long and what difference will it make if your neighbour through permeable walls already has one installed.
This is an electromagnetic assault; human and animal brain, spine and nervous systems are essentially electrical in nature, utilising millivolt signalling over long and poorly insulated poor conductors called axons. It’s why a fly can sense us move to swat it and be gone before we get there.
Add to this chemical and radioactive assaults, from rat-poison sweeteners aspartame/sucralose, lots of totally unnecessary positively harmful pharmaceuticals, poisons in the air, in the water, in the soil, in our food and the cumulative effects of radiation from thousand of past atomic weapons tests, to routine emissions from nuclear power stations in normal operation and worse in abnormal conditions. IQ levels have fallen off a cliff.
They’re killing us, the earth and all life, in ways that inhibit us more and more every day from doing anything about it. It may already be too late.
@ Tony M April 14, 2018 at 10:54
And aluminium and mercury in vaccines, GMO’s, Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering with dangerous chemicals poisoning us and further destroying the ozone layer and weather patterns.
But just as with the wars and False Flags, most are unaware as the MSM don’t cover them, or cover them with disinformation.