As usual, in situations like this, there are at least a couple of contradictory versions of "the truth" floating around.
Syria's government-run, official, Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA, says that Bassam Darwish was misquoted.
However, there were witnesses.
And documentation.
The Syrian slip was recorded in a document released by The United Nations General Assembly's Department of Public Information. it told about what happened at the annual gathering of the U.N.'s Disarmament and International Security Committee.
At least two people, one of them a U.S. delegate to the U.N., confirm that what Darwish wrote is almost exactly what he said. The delegate was very surprised, and nobody can figure out why the Syrian representative said "6 July" instead of "6 September."
The U.S. State Department is guessing that Darwish mis-spoke.
Syria has already called their representative a liar, with the statement "such facilities do not exist in Syria." I think that this time the Syrian statement may be literally true. Now. Before, Syria has said that Israel's September raid was on
- An unused military building
- An agricultural research station.
- Nothing but sand
- Nothing at all: There was no raid.
- Pick a story
- Keep it simple
- Stick to the original story
Now, with accidental confirmation of Syria's nuclear program, and the Israeli response, we've got a better picture of what's going on in the Middle East.
Not a comforting picture, but a more accurate one.
As for Bassam Darwish, I sincerely hope that he survives the turn his career is likely to take after this slip of the lip.
3 comments:
Well, you have a big handle so I won't address you by name. I picked up your blog address at another blog read. I have read most of your recent post and found them extremely informative. thanks for a good read. In your last concerning the raid on Syria by the Israelites. The US was against that raid and that is what held up the original plan. They had to go in by land to get information to give to the US to convince them that indeed it was a nuclear site. We constantly throw Israel under the bus in the name of diplomacy. Of cours we pay them for their surrender through treaties, such as the one that Carter did with them and Egypt MIllions..........Oh well, that politics. Stay well.....
Oi.
I wonder if Syria went to the same school of lying that Russia did.
brigid,
Could be.
I've wondered if the leadership in regimes which have good control over local media are operating at a disadvantage. Accustomed as they are, to whatever loopy story they come up with being treated as undeniable truth, it must be very easy to get sloppy.
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