Rebels Used Chemical in Syria? As 'NYT' Promotes War

UPDATE #2  Hail, hail, the gang's all here!  Paging Judy Miller!   Bill Keller, self-proclaimed "hawk" on invading Iraq in 2003, is out with op-ed tonight at NYT declaring that our mistakes in that country should not prevent us from intervening in Syria, which is "not Iraq."   He says he was gun-shy after his Iraq flub--but no more!  Now he derides Obama for "looking for excuses to stand pat." Concludes: "Whatever we decide, getting Syria right starts with getting over Iraq." Then we can get over Syria--with Iran?  Remember when Iraq was supposed to help us "get over" Vietnam?

See my new piece at The Nation. 

UPDATE  Despite the below, David Sanger of NYT still promoting tonight U.S. attack tonight--mentions chemical threat and John McCain's latest calls in first three grafs.   He and others have had one misleading story after another in past days, following Israel's lead. Read his whole piece tonight and see repeated references to chemical weapons.  And of course we had Tom Friedman's helpful call this morning for an international force to quickly occupy all of Syria.  To re-live our Iraq adventure see my book, just out in new e-book edition, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits and the President Failed on Iraq.

Earlier:  As I suspected, U.N. probers have found that if sarin was used in Syria it was by the rebels, not the government.  But hey, John McCain and other hawks, let's go to war anyway!   NYT news section pushing for war may have to fall back (or perhaps not). As with Iraq WMD, they are noting this report faintly while promoting its other chem stories on front page or at top of site.   Reuters:

U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

Greg Mitchell's is the author of more than a dozen books.  His latest: So Wrong for So Wrong  and Hollywood Bomb.