US ties itself in legal knots to cover shifting rationale for Syria strikes

[dipsydoodle]

Lawyers use Iraq’s right of self-defence and weakness of Syrian regime – which US has undermined – to justify failure to seek UN approval.

US government lawyers have invoked Iraq’s right to self-defence and the weakness of the Assad regime as twin justifications for US bombing in Syria, in a feat of legal acrobatics that may reopen questions over its right to intervene in the bitter civil war.

In a letter to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, released near 24 hours after attacks began, US ambassador Samantha Power argued that the threat to Iraq from Islamic State, known as Isis or Isil, gave the US and its allies in the region an automatic right to attack on its behalf.

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The brief letter did not mention the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, which rested on erroneous claims of weapons of mass destruction and arguably contributed to its current instability, but stresses instead the country’s right to self-defence in the face of this new threat.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/24/us-legal-knots-shifting-rationale-syria-strikes

[Maedhros]

1. The Obama Administration has had a hard-on for military action against Syria

for over a year. Unfortunately for them, a Kerry gaff allowed Russia to step in with a diplomatic solution. That, and the sarin gas attacks were shown to be a false-flag operation by Turkey.

Not to be deterred, the Obama Administration remained patient until they could concoct another excuse to start bombing people. ISIL proved to be the perfect patsy.

But wait - there's more! Now we learn about the Khorasan Group, and they are an imminent threat.

BULLSHIT. ALL OF IT.

[Baclava]

11. I can't hear you - the roar of my flaming penis is so loud...

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. Get John Yoo on the phone.

He'll know what to do, Obama is pretty much using his arguments anyhow.

[liberal_at_heart]

3. those in power can make use or make up any law they want to do what they want to do.

[sabrina 1]

4. Isis is all about Syria. I doubt there are many people around the world who are believing

the nonsense emanating from the US at this point.

Syria presented a real problem for them. They thought they could use the same recipe they used in Libya, send in terrorists pretending to be 'protstors', no doubt from Qatar and Bahrain, not to mention our Mercenaris, destabilize the country, then Regime Change. What number as Libya on the PNAC list? Three, four?

Syria was tougher though. The people turned on the outsiders and decided to support their own government which by then, looked a lot better to them after the brutality of the 'invaders/rebels.

They tried everything, but still, Assad held on.

Now we 'have to go there' to 'get ISIS' a group no one heard of just a couple of months ago.

It is so obvious, Syria is what they want.

[Unknown Beatle]

5. How about the Khorasan Group?

Nobody's heard about them until today. ISIS was the ultimate evil monster that was going to devour the world in one single gulp. But wait! There's an even more eviler group and it's name is Khorasan! Run away! Flee! Hide everybody from the new and improved Boogeyman!

Bullshit!

[morningfog]

8. Just wait! There's more! Assad is really the most evil.

He's killed far more than IS or any other group in Syria. And he is te real reason we're there.

It's only a matter of time before *something* happens and he becomes the explicit target and the worst bad guy.

[sabrina 1]

9. He's worse than Hitler! If we don't get rid of him he's going to take over the world.

You know what's amazing? Do people know the humanitarian records of our Arab Allies towards their own people?

I've been following what has been going on in Bahrain eg, for several years. All I can say is, if cruelty and oppression was our concern, we would have bombed Bahrain and Uzbekistan and Qatar and Saudi Arabia long ago. Some of them make Assad look like a kitty cat by comparison.

I wish they would just tell the truth. The sad thing is, it's likely that a majority of Americans would be fine with us just bombing a country for Oil. Maybe they don't realize that yet.

[sabrina 1]

21. Regime Change has begun. Soon we will hear how Assad is helping ISIS, how he funded them.

How we cannot tolerate this. And we will go once again to our COALITION OF DICTATORS from Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and whichever other Dictators who actually WERE funding these groups, to get their support to take a Dictator.

Sometimes I hope I will wake up and this will all have been a comedy. We support dictators while trying to tell the world we are on a mission to help the 'oppressed'. It's ALMOST funny.

[msanthrope]

17. Um...just because YOU never heard of Khorasan doesn't mean no one had. Ever hear of

al-Nusra? Anwar Awlaki? Al-Asiri?

The bombing of the USS Cole? The BA bomb plot? The PETN bomb plot?

Khorasan is simply another name for a specific AQAP entity. And you MUST have heard of them.

[Unknown Beatle]

19. Even the hosts of

MSNBC shows said they never heard about Khorasan. Yes, I've heard about the entities that you mentioned, but if Khorasan has been around and they're worse than ISIL, why haven't we heard about them before? If Khorasan poses more of a threat, why did the government make it known now instead of ISIL and Khorasan both before the invasion?

[msanthrope]

23. OMFG....the media admits to not doing their jobs?

Quelle suprise.

[sabrina 1]

22. We did about them. Especially Awlaki, who in the end was described

by one of our Generals as 'one of the best psyops operations ever. Not that any of us on DU needed to be told that. I mean we killed him a dozen times. He was amazing the way he kept resurrecting himself. And with one leg too. Except when they finally put him to rest after people began to notice his amazing power to resurrect himself. When asked if they were SURE it was him, how did they know? They forgot he had only one leg, and explained it was his, TATTOOS! Lol!

So many 'enemies'. It's strange but there are actually countries who do not have all these enemies. It's like people. Some people seem to always have 'enemies' while others get through life without so much to fear. When you get to know them, you find out WHY they have enemies.

I wonder who designed those nice, 'ethnic' uniforms and who produced and directed those videos we have been seeing? They look like a Hollywood impression of what people in the ME should look like. They are slightly better produced than the old 'fat and thin' Osama videos, but still, kind of corny imo.

Saw one guy who was looking sort of uninterested but then quickly struck a pose, very threatening looking, as if the director had told him 'crouch, finger on the trigger, assume a threatening pose'.

Whatever, it's all so familiar now.

[msanthrope]

24. Oh lordy, sabrina. Do you have a cite for your claim? nt

[blkmusclmachine]

6. ,

,

[NealK]

7. The more things change...

[malaise]

10. Can you fucking believe these people

Laws apply to everyone else - they make them up as they go along.

All bullshit all the time.

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. Those people?

To whom are you referring?

[woo me with science]

14. +1000000

[woo me with science]

13. Like living in some sick, corporate, warmongering version of Wonderland. nt

[Autumn]

15. That's what happens when you base your rational to do what you want to do on lies.

Thing's get twisted around and next thing you know everyone see's the twisting for what it is.

[pokerfan]

16. Seems to me that we're taking both sides in a civil war

This will be fun...

[woo me with science]

18. Just like corporatists do in elections!

[Baclava]

20. Seems familiar

[yurbud]

25. the Obama admin doesn't have the talent for these kind of lies the Bushies did and

if you suspected the Bushies were lying, you were afraid to say anything about it (at least for a couple of years).