Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich takes a look at Syria. (photo: Getty Images)
By Dennis Kucinich, Reader
Supported News
05 September 13
In the lead-up to the Iraq War, I researched, wrote and circulated a document to members of Congress which explored unanswered
questions and refuted President Bush's claim for a cause for war. The document
detailed how there was no proof Iraq was connected to 9/11 or tied to al
Qaeda's role in 9/11, that Iraq neither had WMDs nor was it a threat to the
U.S., lacking intention and capability to attack. Unfortunately, not enough
members of Congress performed due diligence before they approved the war.
Here are some key questions which President Obama has
yet to answer in the call for congressional approval for war against Syria.
This article is a call for independent thinking and congressional oversight,
which rises above partisan considerations.
The questions the Obama administration needs to answer
before Congress can even consider voting on Syria:
Claim #1. The administration
claims a chemical weapon was used.
The UN inspectors are still completing their
independent evaluation.
Who provided the physiological samples of sarin gas on
which your evaluation is based?
Were any other non-weaponized chemical agents
discovered or sampled?
Who from the United States was responsible for the
chain of custody?
Where was the laboratory analysis conducted?
Were U.S. officials present during the analysis of the
samples? Does your sample show military grade or lower grade sarin gas?
Can you verify that your sample matches the exact
composition of the alleged Syrian government composition?
Further reading: Brown Moses blog; McClatchy News
report; Global Research report.
Claim #2: The administration
claims the opposition has not used
chemical weapons.
Which opposition?
Are you speaking of a specific group, or all groups
working in Syria to overthrow President Assad and his government?
Has your administration independently and
categorically dismissed the reports of rebel use of chemical weapons which have
come from such disparate sources as Russia, the United Nations, and the Turkish
state newspaper?
Have you investigated the rumors that the Saudis may
have supplied the rebels with chemicals that could be weaponized?
Has the administration considered the ramifications of
inadvertently supporting al Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebels?
Was any intelligence received in the last year by the
U.S. government indicating that sarin gas was brought into Syria by rebel
factions, with or without the help of a foreign government or intelligence
agents?
Further reading: Global Research report; Wall Street
Journal article; Reuters story; Zaman story (in Turkish -- see Google translate
from Turkish to English); Atlantic Sentinel story; AP story
Claim #3: The administration
claims chemical weapons were used
because the regime's conventional weapons were insufficien.
Who is responsible for the conjecture that the reason
chemical weapons were used against the Damascus suburbs is that Assad's
conventional weapons were insufficient to secure "large portions of
Damascus"?
Claim #4: The administration
claims to have intelligence
relating to the mixing of chemical weapons by regime elements
Who saw the chemical weapons being mixed from August
18th on?
Was any warning afforded to the Syria opposition and
if not, why not?
If, on August 21st a "regime element" was
preparing for a chemical weapons attack, has an assessment been made which
could definitively determine whether such preparation (using gas masks) was for
purpose of defense, and not offense?
Claim #5: The administration
claims intelligence that Assad's
brother ordered the attack
What is the type of and source of intelligence which
alleges that Assad's brother personally ordered the attack?
Who made the determination that Assad's brother
ordered the attack, based on which intelligence, from what source?
Claim #6: The administration
claims poison gas was released in a rocket attack
Who was tracking the rocket and the artillery attack
which preceded the poison gas release?
Did these events occur simultaneously or
consecutively?
Could these events, the rocket launches and the
release of poison gas, have been conflated?
Based upon the evidence, is it possible that a rocket
attack by the Syrian government was aimed at rebels stationed among civilians
and a chemical weapons attack was launched by rebels against the civilian
population an hour and a half later?
Is it possible that chemical weapons were released by
the rebels -- unintentionally?
Explain the 90-minute time interval between the rocket
launch and chemical weapon attacks.
Has forensic evidence been gathered at the scene of
the attack which would confirm the use of rockets to deliver the gas?
If there was a rocket launch would you supply evidence
of wounds from the rockets impact and explosion?
What is the source of the government's analysis?
If the rockets were being tracked via "geospatial
intelligence," what were the geospatial coordinates of the launching sites
and termination locations?
Claim #7: The administration
claims 1,429 people died in the
attack
Secretary Kerry claimed 1,429 deaths, including 426
children. From whom did that number first originate?
Claim #8: The administration
has made repeated references to videos and
photos of the attack as a basis for military action against Syria
When and where were the videos taken of the aftermath
of the poison gas attack?
Claim #9: The administration
claims a key intercept proves the
Assad regime's complicity in the chemical weapons attack
Will you release the original transcripts in the
language in which it was recorded as well as the translations relied upon to
determine the nature of the conversation allegedly
intercepted?
What is the source of this transcript? What was the
exact time of the intercept? Was it a U.S. intercept or supplied from a
non-U.S. source?
Have you determined the transcripts' authenticity?
Have you considered that the transcripts could have been doctored or fake?
Was the "senior official," whose
communications were intercepted, a member of Assad's government?
How was he "familiar" with the offensive?
Through a surprised acknowledgement that such an attack had taken place? Or
through actual coordination of said attack? Release the transcripts!
Was he an intelligence asset of the U.S., or our
allies? In what manner had he "confirmed" chemical weapons were used
by the regime?
Who made the assessment that his intercepted
communications were a confirmation of the use of chemical weapons by the regime
on August 21st?
What is the source of information that the Syrian
chemical weapons personnel were "directed to cease operations"?
Is this the same source who witnessed regime officials
mixing the chemicals?
Does the transcript indicate whether the operations
they were "directed to cease" were related to ceasing conventional or
chemical attacks?
Will you release the transcripts and identify sources
of this claim?
Do you have transcripts, eyewitness accounts or
electronic intercepts of communications between Syrian commanders or other
regime officials which link the CW attack directly to President Assad?
Who are the intelligence officials who made the
assessment -- are they U.S. intelligence officials or did the initial analysis
come from a non-U.S. source?
Claim #10: The
administration claims that sustained shelling occurred after the chemical
weapons attack in order to cover up the traces of the attack
Please release all intelligence and military
assessments as to the reason for the sustained shelling, which is reported to
have occurred after the chemical weapons attack.
Who made the determination that was this intended to
cover up a chemical weapon attack? Or was it to counterattack those who
released chemicals?
How does shelling make the residue of sarin gas
disappear?
The American people have a right to a full release and
vetting of all facts before their elected representatives are asked to make a
decision of great consequence for America, Syria and the world. Congress must
be provided answers prior to the vote, in open hearings, not in closed
sessions where
information can be manipulated in the service of war. We've
been there before. It's called Iraq.
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