Bolton And Mattis Feud Over Syria Strike As Assad Evacuates Weapons

by Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/13/2018 - 05:27
  • The Syrian government and Hezbollah have reportedly evacuated weapons from key locations
  • Assad has moved planes to a Russian-operated base
  • The UK Cabinet has agreed to back military action against the Syrian government
  • US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Defense Secretary James Mattis are reportedly feuding over the strategy in Syria, with Mattis favoring a more cautious approach
  • The U.S., France and Britain are crafting broad strike plans
  • A readout of a Thursday phone conversation President Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May suggests that military action may be days away, instead of hours 

The latest reports rolling in from Syria suggest that both the Assad regime and Hezbollah have evacuated weapons from likely targets, after CNBC revealed that the U.S. has selected 8 targets to strike, including two airfields, a research center and an alleged chemical weapons facility - after US officials told a reporter they were "fairly confident" the Syrian regime had been behind a gas attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

Mr. Assad was moving to protect his air force by moving planes to a Russian-operated base equipped with sophisticated air defenses, according to pro-regime media. -WSJ

The Wall St. Journal also reports that broad plans are being crafted by the U.S., France and Britain for a military strike, while President Trump told reporters on Thursday "We’re looking very, very seriously, very closely at that whole situation, and we’ll see what happens, folks, we’ll see what happens. It’s too bad that the world puts us in a position like that." 

Adding to the tension in the region is a UK cabinet decision to back military action against the Syrian government, a day after Theresa May said she was ready to strike "without parliamentary approval." 

Meanwhile, newly minted National Security Advisor John Bolton and Defense Secretary James Mattis have reportedly been clashing over the strategy in Syria, according to Senior Atlantic Council Fellow Kate Brannen.

Mattis and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dunford are reportedly "concerned with managing escalation and preventing blowback on US troops," while John Bolton is known for getting very excited at the prospect of a good ol' fashioned regime change.

“We are trying to stop the murder of innocent people, but, on a strategic level, it’s how do we keep this from escalating out of control, if you get my drift on that,” Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday.  

Mattis said that the U.S. aim in Syria is to defeat Islamic State, not “to engage in the civil war itself.” But referring to the use of chemical weapons, Mattis said that “some things are simply inexcusable, beyond the pale” and require a response. -Bloomberg

The Wall St. Journal reports that Mattis "brought those concerns directly to the White House on Thursday, where White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the national security team didn't agree on a response." 

Exactly two weeks ago Mattis met Bolton - telling the bemoustached bringer-of-death "I heard you're actually the devil incarnate, and I wanted to meet you." 

While the White House's reported conflict has resulted in a day without resolution, a readout of a Thursday evening call between UK Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump signaled that the US-led coalition is perhaps "considering all their options" before waging war on Syria over a chemical attack reported by an anti-Assad NGO accused of fabricating evidence and staging bodies along with other groups in the region.

 

Or perhaps Trump is reconsidering in light of the incredibly low standard of evidence involved in the Syria gas attack. Wasn't Trump just railing against the FBI for using an "unverified" dossier to obtain a FISA warrant?

Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that an attack on Assad's forces would come "very soon, or not so soon at all." 

Yesterday, Trump told Russia to "get ready" for a missile attack on Syria, where the Kremlin has assets and personnel at several military facilities. 

“If these strikes start, it could end very tragically and it’s impossible to predict the outcome -- that’s the nature of military actions,” said Russian Senator Frants Klintsevich in a phone interview, adding that there are "no madmen" among Trump's top military advisors. "These are professionals who aren't populists and know what this could lead to."

Meanwhile, Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia issued a stark warning on Thursday that there was a danger the war could escalate beyond Syria because of Russia's military presence. 

“We cannot exclude any possibilities [of war between Russia and the U.S.] unfortunately because we saw messages that are coming from Washington,” Mr. Nebenzia said. “They were very bellicose.”

In an attempt to settle things diplomatically, Russia asked for an open Security Council emergency meeting on Friday morning, calling for UN Secretary-General António Guterres to brief the council, according to the Wall St. Journal. 

Meanwhile, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says they are sending a team of investigators to Syria on Saturday to collect samples from the site of the alleged chemical attack last weekend.

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Comments

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J S Bach BaBaBouy Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:42 Permalink

Bolton is a soulless servitor of the Chabod Lubavitchors.  He has been seen is several photos with the bearded dwarves of this Satanic cult.  He is a servant of the adversary... and the very fact that he was appointed by Agent Orange proves the latter's culpability in our present malaise.  We may all go down, but some of us know (((who and what))) it is that paved our current path.

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Chupacabra-322 beepbop Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:57 Permalink

@ beep,

 

Remember four pointes:

 

1. Isreal will fight to the very last American Soldiers Death.

2. The Zionist screams in Fear as he Stikes you.

3.The Yinon Plan.

4.Operation TALPIOT.

 

The Zionist Plan for the Middle East, also known as the Yinon Plan, is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states.

 

The reach of a “Greater Israel”, as described in the Yinon plan.

When viewed in the current context, the war on Iraq, the 2006 war on Lebanon, the 2011 war on Libya, the ongoing war on Syria, not to mention the process of regime change in Egypt, must be understood in relation to the Zionist Plan for the Middle East. The latter consists in weakening and eventually fracturing neighboring Arab states as part of an Israeli expansionist project. 

“Greater Israel” consists in an area extending from the Nile Valley to the Euphrates.

 

Israeli strategists viewed Iraq as their biggest strategic challenge. This is why Iraq was outlined as the centerpiece to the balkanization of the Middle East and the Arab World. In Iraq, on the basis of the concepts of the Yinon Plan, Israeli strategists have called for the division of Iraq into a Kurdish state and two Arab states, one Shiite and the other Sunni.

 

The Atlantic, in 2008, and the U.S. military’s Armed Forces Journal, in 2006, both published widely circulated maps that closely followed the outline of the Yinon Plan. Aside from a divided Iraq, the Yinon Plan calls for a divided Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. The Yinon Plan also calls for dissolution in North Africa and forecasts it as starting from Egypt and then spilling over into Sudan, Libya, and the rest of the region.

 

“Greater Israel” requires the breaking up of the existing Arab states into small states. The plan operates on two essential premises. To survive, Israel must

  1. become an imperial regional power, and
  2. must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.

Small here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state. Consequently, the Zionist hope is that sectarian-based states become Israel’s satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation… This is not a new idea, nor does it surface for the first time in Zionist strategic thinking. Indeed, fragmenting all Arab states into smaller units has been a recurrent theme.

Viewed in this context, the war on Syria is part of the process of Israeli territorial expansion. Israeli intelligence working hand in glove with the US, Turkey and NATO is directly supportive of the Al Qaeda terrorist mercenaries inside Syria.

 

The Zionist Project also requires the destabilization of Egypt, the creation of factional divisions within Egypt as instrumented by the “Arab Spring” leading to the formation of a sectarian based State dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

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Slack Jack 07564111 Thu, 04/12/2018 - 23:03 Permalink

This latest chemical attack in Syria is yet another FALSE FLAG.

Just like all the previous chemical attacks in Syria were FALSE FLAG events.

Just like the Skripal "chemical attack" in Britain was a FALSE FLAG event.

Trump is a Jew (so is Theresa May, by the way).

http://www.preearth.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=630
http://mileswmathis.com/trump.pdf

It seems the Jews want war,.... yet again.

If you wish to see how real wars are conducted, read:

Proof that Adolf Hitler was a double agent.

http://www.preearth.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1174

It seems pretty weird when you first read it, but its clearly true.

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Slack Jack Slack Jack Thu, 04/12/2018 - 23:03 Permalink

Remember, the evil people, Theresa May, Stoltenberg, Trump and the rest, are damning Russia with obvious lies.

The Novichok nerve agents don't even exist.

HERE IS THE PROOF:

The Novichok nerve agents are supposedly much more toxic than the nerve gases VX or Sarin (and yet the Skripals are still alive!?).

Mirzayanov's book, published in 2008, contains the formulas he alleges can be used to create Novichoks. In 1995, he explained that "the chemical components or precursors" of Novichok are "ordinary organophosphates that can be made at commercial chemical companies that manufacture such products as fertilizers and pesticides."

https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/143…

Basically, Mirzayanov claims that it is relatively easy to make the Novichok nerve agents.

So, some enterprising Arabs could buy a few chemists to make a few tons of it and then spray it all over the little Satan.

Do you really think that the Jews who run the United States would allow the publication of information that could lead to thousands of deaths in Israel?

Do you really think they would protect the publisher of such information by giving him residence in the United States?

Remember, Mirzayanov was given residence (and a University position) in the United States after he was kicked out of Russia.

There are also a number of "people who should know" that have stated that there is zero solid evidence for the existence of the Novichok nerve agents. For example: Robin Black in Development, Historical Use and Properties of Chemical Warfare Agents (2016):

"In recent years, there has been much speculation that a fourth generation of nerve agents, ‘Novichoks’ (newcomer), was developed in Russia, beginning in the 1970s as part of the ‘Foliant’ programme, with the aim of finding agents that would compromise defensive countermeasures. Information on these compounds has been sparse in the public domain, mostly originating from a dissident Russian military chemist, Vil Mirzayanov. No independent confirmation of the structures or the properties of such compounds has been published."

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/the-novichok-story-is-i…

And, Alexander Shulgin, Russia's representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2018):

"There has never been a ‘Novichok’ research project conducted in Russia,... But in the West, some countries carried out such research, which they called 'Novichok,' for some reason."

CONCLUSION: The Novichok nerve agents don't even exist.

It has been said that: The Skripals are still alive for 1 of 2 reasons:
1. The exposure was too low.
2. They were given an antidote shortly after being exposed.

A killer would probably find it difficult to administer a dose low enough not to kill.

One drop containing 10 milligrams of VX (or 1 milligram of Novichok) absorbed through the skin is fatal.

The antidote atropine (which is quite toxic) must be administered immediately unless the dose is exceedingly low. How did they know to administer it?

If the dose was exceedingly small then those who administered the Novichok did not mean to kill.

If those who administered the Novichok meant to kill, the Skripals would be dead.

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Slack Jack Slack Jack Fri, 04/13/2018 - 00:04 Permalink

J S Bach: "Bolton is a soulless servitor of the Chabad Lubavitchors. He has been seen is several photos with the bearded dwarves of this Satanic sect. He is a servant of the adversary... and the very fact that he was appointed by Agent Orange proves the latter's culpability in our current malaise."

Seems you are correct. A quick search brings up:

http://www.chabadneworleans.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/341776/jew…

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Adolph.H. Slack Jack Fri, 04/13/2018 - 01:51 Permalink

Exactly two weeks ago Mattis met Bolton - telling the bemoustached bringer-of-death "I heard you're actually the devil incarnate, and I wanted to meet you." 

This sole sentence shows the very deep rift between the army and the geniuses in charge in the government. 

These few words tell the atmosphere aboard the American armada stationed in the Mediterranean sea is far from being merry. 

And this confirms it:

http://12160.info/video/ex-israeli-intel-boss-us-generals-scared-of-rus…

And Americans are already blinking:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/chrisreeves/2018/04/11/secretary-mattis-u…

----

It's okay not to be a Jew.

 

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JohninMK Adolph.H. Fri, 04/13/2018 - 05:59 Permalink

Yesterday, at the US House Armed Services Committee Budget Hearing, Secretary Mattis was asked what US legal authority there was that would allow the US to strike Syria in response to the chemical incident.

He responded that they would be doing so under Article 2, that is in defence of US forces in theatre.

Yes, you read that correctly, the US will attack Syria, presumably destroying what they regard as development labs/storage and delivery sites, in order to protect its forces, that incidentally are there illegally, from possible gas attacks.

He said that whilst it was not used on US forces this time he could not assume that it would not be in the future.

He also said that it would be due to Syria's violation of the Chemical Weapons Treaty.

Basically the US would be acting in self defence. Incredible.

The first point this was raised is around 80 minutes and then again 93 mins. Also why are the US still there is at 126 mins

https://twitter.com/thejointstaff/status/984431168777945092

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nmewn JohninMK Fri, 04/13/2018 - 06:35 Permalink
  • The Syrian government and Hezbollah have reportedly evacuated weapons from key locations

Seems like someone here on ZH was just pointing out what a yuuuge tactical mistake it is to move shit out of hiding with the eyes of the world on you while your doing it.

Of course, the Syrian government and Hezbollah have never been noted for their brains ;-)

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kralizec nmewn Fri, 04/13/2018 - 08:10 Permalink

Syrian government doesn't have to be smart, doesn't have to do anything except invite the Russians in to protect the pipelines both need to generate wealth...a wealth that disappears just as soon as the buyers (Europe) collapses...either by their own hand, by the Islamists or war.  The smart play would be for everybody to go home and come up with a new scheme to generate wealth that doesn't involve minor dictators or short-term solutions to long-term problems.  Nobody will make the first move to pull back though...so it will be a pissing contest with no winner because nobody is going to start a war over something this trivial.

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rwe2late JohninMK Fri, 04/13/2018 - 08:25 Permalink

 It's always "defense".

That's why it's called the "Defense" Department.

"Defend" against any and all "threats".

Possible threats, potential threats, little threats, conceivable threats,

future threats, threats to our trade, threats to resources,

threats to our troops, threats to somebody else's troops,

threats to our government, threats to other governments,

threats to our people, threats to their people, threats to prestige,

threats to stability, threats to freedom, threats to civilization,

biological threats, space threats, underwater threats, cyber threats,

perceived threats, imagined threats, budget threats,

security threats, insecurity threats ...

There is no end to the threats.

If you can't find a threat, you haven't been looking.

 

Except, of course, we are no threat.

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philipat Slack Jack Fri, 04/13/2018 - 01:55 Permalink

@Slack Jack. You really should stop talking to yourself. They say it is the first sign of madness, especially when nobody is listening??!

So John Bolton, the neocon Israel sycophant wants another war. He is a known draft dodger himself so let's make a deal. Your children and grandchildren go to the front line. Then let's talk some more. In the meantime, go fuck yourself..and your friend Nicki, before you get us all killed.

And this R2P shit is wearing a little thin isn't it? The US has no legal right to be in Syria under International law and has no UN mandate either to be there or to attack. An attack on Syria would be an act of naked aggression and would amount to a declaration of war for no reason. HAs SYria harmed or attacked the US in any way?

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hwy Slack Jack Fri, 04/13/2018 - 04:48 Permalink

Don't blame the Jews.

What Israel wanted never happened till the Sunnis took over.

The Group of Sunni Islamic countries with oil money bought all your governments.

UK, France, Germany, US,  till the smallest country in Europe are selling arms to Saudi Arabia.

They are addicted to arm sales and the Sunnis have baited them ALL.

Sunni money is building mosques in Europe Africa etc. Have these warring countries accepted ONE refugee?

Are the majority of these so call refugees in Europe non Sunnis? All these murders and rapes in Europe - guess which tribe they belong to?  Which type Macron, Trump, Titless May belong to?

Well, not Iranians, not Lebanese, not Syrians ! ! 

From top to bottom - those who pocketed these evil blood money .....hell on earth awaits them. 

 

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Eyes Opened tmosley Fri, 04/13/2018 - 02:00 Permalink

If , God-willing, common sense prevails & war does not come, I like many others here will be relieved that innocent men, women & children are not murdered ... regardless of their would-be murderers motives...

I would also like to say that this event in particular has flushed out those ZH'rs amongst us who are not true patriots, who are warmongers themselves, who are Zionist supporters & who deserve NO respect from the majority of decent folk here on Zerohedge...

you know who you are....

And now... so do we....

😒

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Ace006 tmosley Sat, 04/21/2018 - 08:42 Permalink

Bolton has invariably made sense in the past.  It's clear the Twitterati want to make him out as a warmonger.  This article seems to hinge on what some gal at the Atlantic Counsel tweeted about The Big Clash but the substance of it is unclear.

Above all , I want to know his views on what we should do in Syria now and whether he's a shill for Israel , our dearest friend ever . Coming from Gatestone as he does,  I do worry. 

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Voluntary Exchange thisandthat Fri, 04/13/2018 - 02:49 Permalink

Psychopaths may not care about anyone else, but they certainly do care about themselves.

No, that is what taxation and the draft are for: so the psychopaths can make you pay and make you die for their crimes. This is what they have always done, this is what they will always do. Stop taxation, and stop the draft by stopping your subjugation to sub-humans. Stop slavery, anyone who wants to control your life or control you wealth is your enemy.

Let the psychopaths, criminals, and sociopaths fight and pay for their own wars!

We are all equal regarding natural law and natural rights. No one gets to enslave another. Voluntary exchange only.

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PT thisandthat Fri, 04/13/2018 - 07:24 Permalink

Hey!  I read about this strategy in an old Sherlock Holmes story.

What happens when there is a fire?  You grab your most valuable possession and then get the hell out of there.
So how do you find someone's most valuable possession?  Shout "Fire" and watch what they do next.

Assuming the spy satellites are doing their stuff, assuming that Assad hasn't read Sherlock Holmes, Trump now knows where all the most important targets are... assuming he did not already know.