Soft Power: US Gives Award to US-Funded Agitator

April 18, 2018 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The Western media continues to saturate headlines with stories of "Russian meddling," meanwhile Western governments led by Washington openly celebrate their own meddling in foreign political affairs.

One such example unfolded during the US State Department's annual "Women of Courage Awards" with Thailand-based Sirikan "June" Charoensiri among the recipients.

Upon the US State Department's website under a post titled, "Biographies of the Finalists for the 2018 International Women of Courage Awards," Charoensiri's alleged work is described:

In the immediate aftermath of Thailand’s May 2014 coup d’etat, lawyer Sirikan Charoensiri (known as June) co-founded Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), a lawyers’ collective set up to provide pro bono legal services in human rights cases and to document human rights issues under the military government. TLHR has represented hundreds of clients since the military coup, often as the only alternative for those facing politically-motivated charges. Because of the political sensitivity of the organization’s work, TLHR lawyers and staffers, and June in particular, have been subjected regularly to harassment, intimidation, and criminal charges. As a consequence of her advocacy, June is currently facing three sets of criminal charges for her work as a lawyer, including a charge of sedition – the first for a lawyer under the military government. Nevertheless, June continues undeterred in her work.

However, completely omitted from Charoensiri's "biography" is the fact that her organization - Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) - was organized out of the US Embassy in Bangkok following the 2014 coup and has since been funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) since - aimed at US-backed regime change.

NED's website included TLHR under its 2014 recipients but has since erased this page. Its 2017 listings for Thailand omit TLHR's funding despite its continued sponsorship. Local English newspapers like The Nation have covered TLHR admitting they are funded by "foreign organizations" but failed to list them or press TLHR members regarding their dependence on foreign government funding and potential conflicts of interest.

The Nation's article, "Legal eagles fight for human rights," would admit (emphasis added):

Established on May 24, 2014 and funded by foreign organisations, the centre has risen to prominence fast.

Its rise to "prominence" is owed to the almost constant promotion afforded to it by the Western media - particularly representatives of Western media corporations like Reuters, AFP, the BBC, and others based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Defending Human Rights? Or US-Funded Regime Change?

The US State Department's aggrandizement of Charoensiri is aimed at lending what is essentially US political meddling in Thailand's internal affairs a sense of badly needed legitimacy.

The War in Syria was a US Intervention Since "Day 1"

April 15, 2018 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - In the aftermath of US-led missile strikes on Syria, the Western media has attempted to continue building the case for "US intervention."

However, before the first agitators took to the streets in Syria in 2011, the US was already involved.

The New York Times in its 2011 article, "U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings," would admit (emphasis added):

A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington, according to interviews in recent weeks and American diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. 

The work of these groups often provoked tensions between the United States and many Middle Eastern leaders, who frequently complained that their leadership was being undermined, according to the cables. 

The financing of agitators from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) before the so-called "Arab Spring" was meant to stampede targeted governments from power - paving the way for US client states to form. Nations that resisted faced - first, US-backed militants - and failing that, direct US military intervention - as seen in Libya in 2011.

After the US funded initial unrest in 2011 - the US has armed and funded militants fighting in Syria ever since. 

The same NYT would publish a 2013 article titled, "Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.," admitting (emphasis added):

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders. 

The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.

As the proxy war the US waged against Damascus began to fail, multiple attempts were made to justify direct US military intervention in Syria as the US and its allies did in 2011 against the Libyan government.

This includes repeated attempts to enforce the "responsibility to protect" doctrine, multiple false-flag chemical attacks beginning with the Ghouta incident in 2013 and the emergence of the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) which helped the US justify the deployment of ground troops now currently occupying eastern Syria.

The notion of the US currently "contemplating intervention" in Syria attempts to sidestep the fact that the Syrian conflict itself - from its inception - has been a US intervention.

Long Before "Day 1" 

Even before the most recent attempt at US-led regime change in Syria, the US has pursued campaigns of violent subversion aimed at Syria and its allies.

In 2007, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh would write in his article, "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?," that (emphasis added):

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Hersh's words would become prophetic when, in 2011, the US would begin arming and backing militants - many with overt affiliations to Al Qaeda - in a bid to destabilize Syria and overthrow the government in Damascus.

US Launches Impotent Attack on Non-existent "Chemical Facilities"

April 14, 2018 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - The US, UK, and France announced strikes on what they call, "Syria's chemical weapons program." 

The use of stand-off weapons such as cruise missiles and air-to-ground missiles reflects the US and its allies' fear of Syrian and Russia anti-aircraft defense systems.

The Syrian and Russian governments announced that 71 of over 100 missiles fired were intercepted, according to Russian media. Targets struck had already been evacuated or were not currently in use.

CNN in its article, "US, UK and France launch Syria strikes targeting Assad's chemical weapons," would claim: 

The US, UK and France launched strikes against targets at three sites in Syria in the early hours of Saturday morning, following a week of threats of retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in the Damascus enclave of Douma. 

"I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapon capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad," Trump said late Friday at the White House.

Of course, the phrase, "associated with the chemical weapon capabilities" of Syria is intentionally ambiguous.

Considering that any attack on actual, currently active chemical weapon facilities in Syria would risk the spread of toxic chemicals over civilian areas - attacking such sites would contravene the entire supposed purpose of the US-led attack - protecting Syrian civilians from "chemical weapons."

Considering that any attack on actual, currently active chemical weapon facilities in Syria would risk the spread of toxic chemicals over civilian areas - attacking such sites would contravene the entire supposed purpose of the US-led attack - protecting Syrian civilians from "chemical weapons." 

The fear of even industrial chemical facilities being targeted by terrorists to spread clouds of deadly toxins over civilian populations has been a familiar theme throughout America's supposed "War on Terror."

The Washington Post in a December 2001 article titled, "Chemical Plants Are Feared as Targets," would describe the possible impact of an explosion at a chemical plant in Tennessee, claiming:

If those chemicals had been released, as many as 60,000 people who live within reach of the ensuing vapor cloud could have faced death or serious injury, according to the plant's worst-case estimate.

Obviously, US-led strikes on chemical facilities in Syria - had they existed - would have led to similarly catastrophic threats to the civilian population of Syria, calling into question both Washington's credibility, and the alleged purpose behind this recent act of military aggression.

Popular Mechanics, a publication that eagerly promotes Pentagon endeavors around the globe, published an article on the eve of the US-led missile strikes titled, "These Are Syria's Chemical Weapons. Here's How To Destroy Them," admitting:

Due to the very nature of chemical weapons, an explosive attack would spread lethal agents over a wide area, meaning more civilian casualties. 

Racing to Beat OPCW Investigation

The US-led attack came just before the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) investigation into the Douma incident could begin. Just before the attack, Russia openly and directly accused the United Kingdom specifically of staging the Douma incident.

False Flag in Syria Sets Stage for Wider War

April 12, 2018 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The US threatened war within hours of an alleged chemical weapons attack taking place in Douma, northeast of Damascus.

The US rush to conflict attempts to sidestep any meaningful investigation into the attack, fitting a larger pattern of Washington and its allies using baseless chemical weapon allegations for wars of aggression stretching back to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

US accusations and threats of war come at a pivotal moment in Syria's now 7 year conflict in which the Syrian government has finally liberated all territory around the capital from foreign-sponsored militants.

Zero Evidence

To date, all supposed evidence comes from Western-funded militants and their auxiliaries including the US-European government-funded front, the so-called "Syria Civil Defense," better known at the "White Helmets." Unverified photographs and video of apparent victims have been the sole sources cited by the US.

The World Health Organization, in a recent statement attempting to bolster these accusations, claims that up to 500 patients appear to have been exposed to chemical poisoning, but would cite its "Health Cluster partners," the Daily Beast would report.

However, according to WHO's own website, these partners include Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which in turn, according to MSF's own website trains and supports the White Helmets. MSF has repeatedly admitted throughout the Syrian conflict that it does not have a presence on the ground in conflict areas and merely provides material support to groups that do.

The White Helmets have been repeatedly caught in the past fabricating evidence and staging scenes for propaganda value. In fact, all evidence suggests the entire purpose of the White Helmets is the production of propaganda.

This culminated in 2016 when the organization inadvertently revealed their theatrical methods during a protest in multiple European cities. They applied red paint and flour to their bodies and posed as victims for European media outlets and local bystanders. The scenes were indistinguishable from daily clips uploaded by White Helmet members allegedly carrying out emergency services in militant-held territory in Syria.

Absent from virtually all of their videos are scenes of actual injuries - open wounds, crushed or severed limbs, burns etc. Videos also lack any context, and are often heavily edited.

One Year Ago - Similar Lies

Previous allegations of the Khan Shaykhun chemical weapon attack the US cited in 2017 ahead of cruise missile strikes on Syria's Shayrat Airbase, were also baseless.

Syria False Flag: Repeating Baseless Claims is not "Mounting Evidence"

April 12, 2018 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - To date, all supposed evidence regarding recent allegations of a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria, northeast of the capital Damascus, comes from Western-funded militants and their auxiliaries including the US-European government-funded front, the so-called "Syria Civil Defense," better known at the "White Helmets."

Unverified photographs and video of apparent victims have been the sole sources cited by the US.

WHO "Authority" Used to Bolster Original Unverified Reports, Not Add New Evidence  

The World Health Organization, in a recent statement attempting to bolster these accusations, claims that up to 500 patients appear to have been exposed to chemical poisoning, but would cite its "Health Cluster partners," the Daily Beast would report.

The Guardian in its article, "Syria: 500 Douma patients had chemical attack symptoms, reports say," would attempt to claim:

The report from the WHO’s partners in Syria adds to mounting evidence of the use of toxic gas in the attack, which killed at least 42 people and has raised the prospect of American airstrikes against forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

However, according to WHO's own website, these partners include Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which in turn, according to MSF's own website trains and supports the White Helmets. MSF has repeatedly admitted throughout the Syrian conflict that it does not have a presence on the ground in conflict areas and merely provides material support to groups that do.

Thus, contrary to the Guardian's claims, the report from WHO's partners in Syria does not "add to mounting evidence," it is simply repeating the same, initial and still unverified claims made by the White Helmets.

The White Helmets have been repeatedly caught in the past fabricating evidence and staging scenes for propaganda value. In fact, all evidence suggests the entire purpose of the White Helmets is the production of propaganda.

This culminated in 2016 when the organization inadvertently revealed their theatrical methods during a protest in multiple European cities. They applied red paint and flour to their bodies and posed as victims for European media outlets and local bystanders. The scenes were indistinguishable from daily clips uploaded by White Helmet members allegedly carrying out emergency services in militant-held territory in Syria.

Absent from virtually all of their videos are scenes of actual injuries - open wounds, crushed or severed limbs, burns etc. Videos also lack any context, and are often heavily edited.

Real Evidence Requires a Real, Onsite Investigation 

Readers should recall that accusations of chemical weapon attacks last year that led to a US cruise missile barrage against Syrian government targets, were also never confirmed.

The investigation carried out by the The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (OPCW-UN JIM) report on the alleged attack would admit that no investigators even visited the scene of the attack.

The UN in a news article regarding the report would even claim (emphasis added):

Although it was too dangerous to visit Umm Hawh and Khan Shaykum, the panel considered that sufficient information had been gathered to come to a solid conclusion.

The report - while assigning blame to the Syrian government - admits it could not confirm a Syrian aircraft dropped the supposed munition allegedly used in the attack - and that munition fragments passed to investigators lacked a chain of custody, negating its probative value.

As for Western media claims regarding "mounting evidence" regarding the most recent attempt to accuse the Syrian government of using "chemical weapons," no additional - or credible - evidence can "mount" until investigators arrive on the ground.