US stance on Russia embassy attack, shameful: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Webster Griffin Tarpley, an author and historian in Washington, about Moscow's criticism of the United States over its refusal to endorse a statement at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to condemn a recent terrorist attack on the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about this? Is this just essentially a misunderstanding or disagreement over wording?  

Tarpley: I would say first of all this is a sad day for United States. This is a disgraceful behavior, it is shameful, hysterical and it goes against the general idea in international law of the sanctity of diplomatic posts, embassies, diplomats in general and the statement that had been submitted to the Security Council simply for signature, and it is not a resolution, it is simply an expression of the sense of the Security Council. What Lavrov brought in was a kind of boilerplate, standard text which has been issued a number of times by the UN Security Council when diplomatic missions, especially embassies, have come under attack.

And now we see this shameful petty behavior by - I guess Samantha Power - who is the humanitarian bomber faction of the Obama administration. This woman - Samantha Power - is the one who has weaponized human rights but you can see what here issue is right now. If you say that this was a terrorist act, which it clearly was, we know pretty much that the groups that are near Damascus tend to be the ones the US openly backs rather than surreptitiously backs. So we are talking about the Free Syrian Army, the Nusra brigade meaning al-Qaeda and so forth. So if you condemn it is a terrorist act, then by implication the FSA and al-Nusra are terrorists, which of course they are, but that is a bridge too far for the State Department.

The other thing I would point to is that this came in the middle of a demonstration. This was a pro-Assad, pro-Putin demonstration with nice pictures, nice peaceful demonstration and it was an anti-terrorist demonstration. One of the mortar shells or rockets, as I understand it, fell in the Bab Touma area and if someone who has visited Damascus, that is Saint Thomas's Gate. That is the Christian quarter. That is where you have in particular this very nice Beit Al Wali hotel. So it is a wonderful neighborhood of Damascus but it happens to be along the axis where the FSA rockets would be incoming. So it is a scandal.

Samantha Power has to be fired immediately, that is long overdue and the other center of foot dragging or pro-terrorist activity that are yet is Ashton carter in the Pentagon who is constantly refusing to coordinate these airstrikes and other activities with the United States. So Ashton Carter, a Utopian warmonger is very close to the top of everybody’s list of the official in the Obama administration who should be ousted next.  

I would also say Obama seems to be losing control of his administration. We have got the Cold War neo-cons making a big comeback in the last two weeks, a kind of maybe a Pavlovian reaction to the Russian bombing campaign and there are at least a couple of voices pointing to the fact that the Russians have done more in two weeks than the United States did in an entire year of bombing.

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