Local Editor

Allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria may be supported by the United States, France, Britain, "Israel", and Qatar, but former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich thinks they might just be Western-manufactured pretexts for war.

The anti-war Democrat, who went on a fact-finding mission to Syria in June 2011, sent out a little-noticed tweet on Thursday imploring his followers to "Google 'Syria #FalseFlag #Chemical Weapons'" if they're "trying to make sense of what's happening."

I took the former lawmaker's Googling advice and turned up a collection of stories implying that the United States fabricated evidence of a chemical attack or staged it in conjunction with the Qatari government .
The ex-congressman is not alone in his skepticism about claims that sarin gas was used in Syria.
In Congress, key lawmakers remain divided on the right US response in Syria. On Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said "much more" work needs to be done to verify the intelligence assessment that al-Assad's regime used chemical weapons.

Despite the mindless stampeded toward war under the chemical weapons pretext - virtually the same pretext used to turn Iraq into a hellish failed state - a small number of establishment media journalists have questioned the claim.

"Why use them knowing that you risk losing the diplomatic support of Russia and China, knowing you risk bringing in western intervention, and therefore risk losing the gains you've made militarily in the past few weeks?" asks Tim Marshall, the foreign affairs editor of Sky News. "Why now? It doesn't make sense. If the evidence of use was overwhelming, the question would still remain. But the evidence is underwhelming."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also weighed in on the topic, rejecting calls for intervention based on the lack of evidence on hand about the deployment of sarin. "Perhaps there are some states that believe any methods are good as long as they can help overthrow the Syrian regime. However, the subject of the use of weapons of mass destruction is far too serious," he said. "I think it is unacceptable to use it, to speculate on it for geopolitical purposes."

"I've read where President al-Assad has made certain commitments, and I would imagine that when things finally settle down, that President Assad will move in a direction of democratic reforms," Kucinich predicted in an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2011.

During his fact-finding mission to Syria, the state-sponsored news outlet SANA quoted him saying al-Assad is "highly loved and appreciated by the Syrians."
Everyone should certainly be cautious about jumping to conclusions regarding chemical weapons in Syria, since it's not yet clear how they were used or who used them.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org