Friday, March 2, 2018

Middle East 'Experts' 2

'Expert' alert!

"Experts have long believed Syria held back tonnes of precursors used to manufacture sarin when it gave up its stockpile in 2013 under a Russian-brokered deal. Its production facilities, however, were destroyed, robbing it of the ability to mix fresh sarin from the precursors." (Kim's hands on Assad gas attack, The Times/AFP/The Australian, 1/3/18)

Are these the same 'experts', I wonder, who 'analyse' the Syrian president in light of The Godfather? (See my 23/2/18 post Middle East 'Experts')

No need to wonder further. On the very same page (10) of The Australian, we find one of them, Shalom Lipner! Under a column headed Political winds blow Netanyahu's sinking ship to a rocky shore, comes this potted bio:

"Shalom Lipner, a former foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, is a non-resident senior fellow at the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution."

But there's more! In today's Australian, two more of these 'experts' - Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer - appear on the opinion page as authors of Australia must not be duped into softening its stance on Iran. Their bios:

"Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defence of Democracies where Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice-president."

Takes you back to the days of Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, doesn't it?

3 comments:

Grappler said...

The best place to find a dispassionate view of the chemical weapons issue in Syria is here:

http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Category:Chemical_Weapons


It is certainly not in any Australian corporate (including ABC) media.

Grappler said...

On Mark Dubowitz - why do MSM reporters take him seriously:

https://lobelog.com/why-do-mainstream-reporters-take-fdds-mark-dubowitzs-iran-analysis-seriously/

Anonymous said...

The dogs of war are howling.