An "explosive acted on the pipe as a blunt crushing mallet. It drove the pipe into the ground while at the same time creating the crater. Since the pipe was filled with sarin, which is an incompressible fluid, as the pipe was flattened, the sarin acted on the walls and ends of the pipe causing a crack along the length of the pipe and also the failure of the cap on the back end."
"If this is in fact the mechanism used to disperse the sarin, this indicates that the sarin tube was placed on the ground by individuals on the ground and not dropped from an airplane," Postol concluded.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry raised more questions. "It remains a mystery why this intelligence assessment is not coming directly from President Trump's intelligence chiefs as is normally the case, either with an official Intelligence Estimate or a report issued by the Director of National Intelligence."
The Trump administration "withheld key evidence to support its core charge that a Syrian warplane dropped sarin," Perry wrote." It refused to release satellite surveillance of the area to protect "sources and methods," the standard excuse for opaqueness by government. But Parry noted the world already knows the U.S. has satellite intelligence capabilities.
"The dossier also seems argumentative in that it assumes that Russian officials--and presumably others--who have suggested different possible explanations for the incident at Khan Sheikdoun did so in a willful cover-up, when any normal investigation seeks to evaluate different scenarios before settling on one," Parry added.
Such a doltish attitude has filtered down from within the halls of power to infect all discourse around whatever happened in Syria. The attitude has been encouraged by proponents of so-called humanitarian intervention, who would like the administration to use way more military force than it has thus far in order to assist the rebels in their efforts to remove Assad from power.
What percentage of people asking questions do so with the intention of helping a tyrant cover up alleged war crimes? Or is it possible the skepticism comes from a place of concern around what may happen if Trump is successfully provoked into funneling more arms and military forces into Syria?
All one has to do is briefly examine Libya to see what may happen if the U.S. government follows through with an agenda of regime change by military force. Instead of calming tensions so a political solution can be obtained, which may include Assad's resignation, there will be even longer term dysfunction and violence as multiple militant factions setup governments and fight each other for control over the country.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
2
2
