Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, says Israel may have conducted ‘false flag’ operation. Describes its government as inept and Netanyahu as ‘clueless.’
West of Eden
by Chemi Shalev
HAARETZ ISRAEL
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who once served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, believes that the chemical weapons used in Syria may have been an Israeli “false flag” operation aimed at implicating Bashar Assad’s regime.
Wilkerson made his astounding assertion in an interview on Current TV, the network once owned by former Vice President Al Gore and recently purchased by Al-Jazeera.
Wilkerson said that the evidence that it was Assad’s regime that had used the chemical weapons was “flaky” and that it could very well have been the rebels or Israel who were the perpetrators. Asked why Israel would do such a thing, Wilkerson said: “I think we’ve got a basically geostrategically, geopolitical inept regime in Tel Aviv right now.”
“I think we saw really startling evidence of that,” Wilkerson continued, “in the fact that President Obama had to tell Bibi Netanyahu ‘Pick up the phone, you idiot, call Ankara and get yourself out of this strategic isolation you’re in right now.”
A “false flag” operation is a covert attack on foreign or domestic soil carried out by governments or organizations under a false identity, aimed at placing blame on the enemy. It originates with a ruse once used in naval warfare in which ships would hoist the enemy’s flags in order to infiltrate his ranks.
Wilkerson, 63, a former Army helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Vietnam, served as Colin Powell’s chief of staff in 2002-2005. He was responsible for reviewing the intelligence information used by Powell in his by now infamous February 2003 United Nations Security Council appearance on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
After his retirement, Wilkerson described this presentation as “a hoax” and became an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s handling of the Iraq war. He now serves as a professor at Virginia’s William and Mary College and is a guest commentator on several U.S. television networks.
Speaking on the Current’s Young Turks program, Wilkerson said that because of the instability in the Middle East, Israel’s current geo-strategic situation is “as dangerous as it’s been since 1948.” He added that President Obama “has got to be very circumspect about what he does in exacerbating that situation.”
“Netanyahu is clueless as to this,” Wilkerson said. “I hope President Obama gave him a lecture in geostrategic realities.”
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Categories: Arab World, Asia, Israel, Syria
Interesting that this article was published in an Israeli newspaper.
I don’t think so Israel really need to get themselves involved in the ongoing turmoil at this level, their cousins Saudis are enough to carry out such dirty tricks.
Lawrence Wilkerson is a party line Republican (they have the blood of 19’000 Jewish kids on their hands.)and most likely just hates Jews. He is definitely a War Criminal for his part in the War with Iraq. He is retired army and my have taken too many frag grenades to the head. Israel has more to gain with Assad in Power. Setting him up to have him topple would put extremists in power and access to those chemical weapons and use them to try to destroy Israel. At any rate the UN as finished its report and it is clear who they implicate proving once again the Republican hawks not only believe a lie, they start it.
Hafner: The rebels seem not to need the Syrian Government’s chemical weapon stockpile. Others are providing it for them ‘all expenses paid’.
Tschannen: Others being?
As far as Wilkerson goes, he is a bit the crackpot. This is a man blames all on others. It was HE who cleared the intel for Powell’s speech to the U.N. for war built out of lies. Wilkerson also states the Israel pushed for war with Iraq. However, everyone interviewed in the cabinet and those near the inner circle indicated that Israel stated that Iran was problem in the region at the time. Assad gassed his own people. committed a war crime. Wilkerson is just a liar or one who believes in fantasy.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia ‘with Washington’s knowledge and approval’, as per some reports.