It all started on May 27 when the US Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate visited Syria without any kind of approval from the Syrian authorities. This fact was reported by Brian Rogers the spokesman for the senior Republican senator but he gave no additional details about this “rogue” visit. In his interview to The Daily Beast Salem Idris, the leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Arm said: “The visit of Senator McCain to Syria is very important and very useful especially at this time,” he said. “We need American help to have change on the ground; we are now in a very critical situation.” He also added that “what we (the Syrian rebels) want from the U.S. government is to take the decision to support the Syrian revolution with weapons and ammunition, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons. Of course we want a no-fly zone and we ask for strategic strikes against Hezbollah both inside Lebanon and inside Syria.” Thus Senator McCain has become the most renowned top official to ever visit Syria since the beginning of the Syrian conflict.
Now one should take a closer look at the phone transcript of McCain’s conversation with Irdis that was made back in August on the eve of the Syrian chemical attacks (found at syrianperspective.com).
McCain: Hello. Hello. General?
Article published at Syrian Perspective
McCain: I’m calling just to tell you that I approve of your plan to attack Al-Qusayr from
Lebanon again. It sounds like a real winner,
idris: But, we need more weapons and money…..especially money, (Tee hee hee)
McCain: Well, I will never be called yellow when it comes to helping democracy-loving
freedom fighters, I’ll send you my personal check for $50.00 tomorrow. Keep up the
good work.
Idris: Could you put a few zeros after the $50, Senator? The freedom fighters and
democracy-loving activists would really appreciate it more.
McCain: Well, I dunno. I can’t be seen financing your revolution, it would be very
burdensome for me and my wife. How about that stocky guy in Arabia ?
idris: Oh, his son is not interested any more. We need to buy more weapons for the
attack on Al-Qusayr so we can bring freedom and justice once again to Syria. (Tee hee
hee)
McCain: Got it. Gee. I’ve got to figure something out for you. Let me think about this
for a while, in the meantime, who do I make the check out to?
idris: S-A-L-E-E-M I-D-R-E-E-S. That’ll work just fine, Senator.
McCain: I don’t think it’s a good idea to attack those Al-Qaeda folks, you know, it’s so
confusing. I just heard they chopped off some of your people’s heads. Got to talk to
them. You know.
Idris: Yes. it appears you have excellent relations with Al-Qaeda, Senator. Why don’t
you call them and tell them what you think?
McCain: Yes. Yes. Geeze. I’ll call Dr. Zawaheri and set it straight. You want some
more chemical weapons? (A comment –It is necessary to think that McCain suggests to put the chemical weapon not from the personal cellars)
Idris: Sure. Why not. We’ll fire them at the U.N. inspectors. Then you can blame
Assad.
McCain: Boy. That sounds like a winner too. Let’s do it. I’ll call Bandar to coordinate it.(A comment – the Saudi prince, the head of special services of kingdom, the chairman of the Higher national board of safety)
Okay?
And here’s another phone transcript of a conversation between some American “supporter” (since no Arabs would talk English in-between themselves) and the rebel Abou Abdo also known as “Haji”.
There are three mortal shells that are being requested from you.
The /82/ mortars are being requested.
Translation at “Russia” TV channel
Russian.
Original?
Yes original Russian in their boxes.
Is there a price?
The price is 310 USD? Meaning 10 for me and they cost 300.
Ok, original Russian?
Original in their boxes.
How many units?
Now there are 30 units.
Are they guaranteed? A while ago the men proposed some shells
containing gas.
The same but containing gas?
Yes.
By God I don’t know.
There 40 that had proposed to us and they are gone.
I do not know if these ones contain gas? But I know they are Russian
made.
The gas in those is “well according to your likings” you know what I mean.
Yes I know, Abou Jassem took 10 from those ones.
Are these the same or without gas?
They are the same, but I do not know if they contain gas or not. I’ll ask to
see if they have gas or not.
No, they do not contain gas. They had been proposed to us in Arsal and
they are gone. The “Shias” bought them “from up there”.
I will check now because those ones are also “from up there”.
Go ahead, rely on God. Now these are 310 per price?
Yes. May God protect you. Do not forget the matter for me
Is there anything to add? One can only recall a similar chemical conspiracy that was organized by CIA instead of a US Senator but there’s little difference. It was in Baghdad in 1998 when the CIA agents brought 4 containers of the deadly neuroparalytic agent VX to the UN laboratory with an explicit approval from the Australian head of the investigation team Richard Butler. They wanted to leave traces of VX on the Scud missiles to “prove” that Iraqi did manage to create a persistent nerve agent that they wanted to “test” on the neighboring countries. But an OPCW inspection that was accompanied by the top ranking diplomats from the UN Security Council member countries (Russia, China and France) paid a surprise visit to the UN laboratory in 1999 only to find the VX containers of the US origin alone with sarin and yperite. This story was successfully “forgotten” due to the good will of Boris Yeltsin, the Russian President at the time that didn’t want to put an end to the bilateral friendship efforts with the United States. This time around the chemical weapons are used in Syria, but is it any different from the last one? The foul play is in place, the dirty hands are in place, the only difference is that Saudi Arabia is involved.
So should we be waiting for new chemical attacks on the OPCW inspection or against innocent people of Israel carried out by the Syrian rebel. The rebels have already got USSR produced shells smuggled across the Lybian border that were charged with the US produced sarin so they can push blame on the Assad regime once again. Who’s stopping them? Will there be an end to the American “chemical roulette”?
Alexander Orlov, political analyst and an expert Orientalist, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
