FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Virginia State Sen. Richard Black Destroys Lies about Syria in Sputnik Interview
Sept. 10, 2018 (EIRNS)—Virginia State Senator Richard Black (R), in an in-depth, exclusive interview about Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, and the Syrian people, published by Sputnik today, soon after Black’s return from six days in Syria, destroys the image of “Assad the tyrant’ constructed by the British Empire and American Tories, and pushed through the media.
Black, who has now met twice with Assad, described the President as “optimistic” and “determined,” and a man who “drives himself” in his own SUV, rather than have a chauffeur and an escort.
Black told Sputnik he and Assad discussed the upcoming battle in Idlib, which the Syrian Arab Army has almost recaptured, with the exception of a holdout pocket controlled “by an individual named al-Julani,” al-Qaeda’s top figure in Syria. If the U.S. intervenes in Idlib, Black said, “We would be fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside al-Qaeda, the same group that attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on 9/11.” Black continued that Syria doesn’t use carpet bombing as the U.S. and its allies did in liberating Mosul in Iraq, and in Raqqa,
“because they are liberating the people.... If we get rid of the sanctions, it would make it so much easier for the refugees to return. We did talk about the refugees and President Assad made it quite clear: he wants all of the Syrians to return to Syria.”
Sputnik asked about the chemical weapons. Black said he studied the Syrian war for seven years, after studying Libya, and “that led to the fact that we were capturing Libyan weapons so that we could ship them to Turkey and use them to stage an invasion of Syria.” The terrorists carried out each of the chemical gas attacks in Syria, except for Douma last year, where Senator Black said, the rebels staged a fake attack (as other media and American scientific experts have also shown).
Senator Black pointed out that
“No American journalist has ever asked if Syria had gas in the first place. If they were so desperate to use gas, why don’t they use it against the terrorists? There are 50,000 terrorists in the province of Idlib. Why do they always use them against women with baby strollers and old men?”
The senator told Sputnik,
“I worry very much that there will be a poison gas attack, there’s been actual intelligence released on it. It appears as though British Intelligence MI6 will carry out a staged gas attack; they have already chosen a location that has been disclosed. They have trained people to fake as if they were victims of gas. Now it’s been disclosed and they may change their plans. We may see a different scenario.”
“Did you receive actual assurances from Assad that the Syrian army isn’t using chemical weapons?” Sputnik asked.
Black countered, that
“President Assad finds it to be ludicrous the idea that he would ever use it. You recall that the U.S. declared unequivocally, along with the UN, that there were no poison weapons remaining in Syria. They [the Syrians] know if they used poison gas ... it would probably provoke an invasion by the West. Syria understands it. They have absolutely nothing to gain, everything to lose.”
Being such a “vocal critic,” Sputnik ask the senator, what part of U.S. policy does he disagree with the most?
Black:
“Going all the way back to the time when the U.S. opposed the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan, we have begun to use terror as a weapon.... The CIA, working together with British intelligence, have repeatedly used the terror weapon to overthrow nations.”
Sputnik: “...Do you think that some changes will likely be introduced under the Trump administration?”
Black:
“I had very much hoped that this would be the case when President Trump appointed Michael Flynn as his national security advisor. I knew Michael Flynn, I knew his advisors; they were people who have an interest in peace. They genuinely opposed terror, they wanted to improve relations with Russia; they saw no reasons for the tensions with Russia.
“The deep state were terrified Michael Flynn might remain the national security advisor. For this reason they ousted him and successively put in bellicose people like John Bolton and they probably couldn’t find a greater advocate of war than John Bolton. So at this point I think it is quite questionable if the President will be capable of changing and shifting American policy.
“The problem is that he is surrounded by the deep state. We use the term to refer to the elements of the CIA, the State Department, to a smaller extent to the Defense Department, some members of Congress, the Senate. Not all ... but certain key people. John McCain was a good example. And then we had those think tanks which were typically funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, U.A.E., places like that. They may have a dozen people and their job is to write articles that undermine secular governments and lead to their overthrow.... I wish that President Trump would carry out some of his campaign promises that I like very much. He said, ‘I’m going to work with Syria, with President Assad. I’m going to diminish tensions with Russia, which isn’t necessary. I’m going to downgrade NATO.’ I agree with all these things and I wish he’s carried them out. I think it would be better for him to do so....”
He stressed passionately that the people of Idlib “need to be rescued. The idea that that somehow we would leave the most hideous jihadists, the worst terrorists on Earth untouched to prevent the accidental death of some civilians is like if at the end of World War II, we would say: ‘Well, this final battle for Berlin will result in civilian casualties, so we can’t go after Adolf Hitler because there will be collateral damage....’
“For all the civilized world, it is central that the battle for Idlib take place.”
Speaking of the refugees, Senator Black emphasized:
“President Assad has made it clear: he wants all the refugees back. He needs them to rebuild Syria. The UN is under pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, from all the sources of funding and so what they do is that for refugees who have left Syria, they provide financial incentives, money, food, medical attention. But if they return to Syria, they get nothing. ... Nonetheless, ... 150,000 have returned to Aleppo City already, 350,000 have returned to Homs City and some are returning from Lebanon and both Syria and Lebanon are very anxious for all of the refugees to return....
“We should end the sanctions and allow peace to return. ... One-third of our entire national debt was incurred fighting in the Middle East and there is not one single thing that has benefitted the American people or American foreign policy.... Everything has been destruction, we have left governments in ruins, we have left anarchy in places like Libya, where they have no government at all after seven years, and so it is time that we refocus our foreign policy and restore the image of the United States as a good, decent and moral country.”
