Note To Journos - When Pompeo Doubles Down On A Lie He Does Not "Confirm" It

moon of alabama

Some people can't think but tweet anyway:

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The Israeli 'journalist' isn't the only one who fell for Pompeo's nonsense.

• MSN - US confirms Syria's Assad used chemical weapons in May: Pompeo
• Yahoo - US Intel Confirms Syria Committed Chemical Weapons Attack in May
• Breitbart - US confirms Syria’s Assad used chemical weapons in May: Pompeo

To claim that the man who bragged (vid) "We lied, we cheated, we stole" and continues to lie every time he opens his mouth can "confirm" anything is lunatic. What Pompeo falsely claimed 'confirmed' only a false claim his department had earlier made.

The NYT headlined more truthful - U.S. Concludes Syria Used Chemical Weapons in May Attack:

The United States has concluded that Syria used chlorine gas in an attack against rebels last May, saying Thursday that it was the latest use of chemical weapons by President Bashar al-Assad’s government in the eight-year civil war but stopping short of threatening a military response.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Mr. Assad’s government that “we’re going to do everything we can reasonably do to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.”
But he said that chlorine attacks amounted to a “different situation” than the suspected use of sarin, a nerve agent, that killed 80 people and provoked missile strikes against a Syrian air base by the Trump administration in April 2017.

As I did not remember any alleged chemical weapon attack in May I followed the link the NYT provided in its piece. It goes to a May 21 report by Edward Wong - U.S. Says Assad May Be Using Chemical Weapons in Syria Again:

The State Department said on Tuesday that the Syrian government might be renewing its use of chemical weapons, citing a suspected chlorine attack in northwest Syria, and maintaining that any use of such weapons would lead the United States and its allies to “respond quickly and appropriately.”The Trump administration said the suspected attack took place on Sunday in the Idlib area, the final stronghold of rebels who have tried to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

The Times report was based on a somewhat generic State Department statement that did not even describe where and when the alleged incident happened nor did it describe how it happened or if anyone was allegedly hurt:

Unfortunately, we continue to see signs that the Assad regime may be renewing its use of chemical weapons, including an alleged chlorine attack in northwest Syria on the morning of May 19, 2019. We are still gathering information on this incident, but we repeat our warning that if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately.The May 19 alleged attack in northwest Syria is ...

Idleb governorate is 6,097 km² (2,354 sq mi) large. If there was attack why couldn't the State Department be more specific. Who "alleged" that such an attack had happened?

Curiously neither the Syrian Observatory nor any of the usual propaganda outlets nor the MI6 White Helmets fakers reported of any gas attack on Sunday May 19 in Idelb.

In its May 21 report the Times also noted that:

Independent monitoring groups and foreign news organizations have not issued any notable reports of a chemical weapons attack on Sunday.

There were no reports of a gas attack on May 19 in Idleb governorate because no gas attack had happened. Pompeo's State Department made that up to warn the Syrian army from liberating Idleb. It was threat that another fake chemical weapon would be made up and used as justification for U.S. bombing if the Syrian army would begin to liberate Idleb.

This opens the question why Pompeo came out yesterday to "confirm" an attack that had never happened.

The reason is like this outrage mentioned in the last paragraphs of today's NYT piece:

Also on Thursday, the Treasury Department imposed economic penalties against a subsidiary of a Russian shipping company, three of its executives, and five vessels accused of evading American sanctions to deliver jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria who are assisting Mr. Assad’s government.

That the U.S. sanctions a Russian transport services company which provides logistic services for the legitimate Russian forces in Syria is unprecedented and in fact outrageous.

Yesterday's gas claim was not a confirmation but another Pompeo lie only put up to give some fig leaf excuse for the absolutely undiplomatic and illegitimate U.S. behavior.

Posted by b on September 27, 2019 at 16:53 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/note-to-journos-when-pompeo-doubles-down-on-a-lie-he-does-not-confirm-it.html