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Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Rickard, former American intelligence linguist, about the statement from Russia that the US in bypassing UNSC would undermine international law and that their allegations against Syria show no logic.

- What is wrong with what the Russian leader is saying - If the United States is saying they have the proof then why don’t they show it especially out of respect for its partners?

- It’s clear that the United States does not have proof. The recent pull out by the UN inspectors, actually pulling out early and going to Lebanon, is clear evidence that the American military is preparing for a limited attack.

It will probably be by airborne-based missiles. Most of these systems are very easy for Americans to launch from as far as 900 miles away as well as some not-so-smart arsenal that they can fire from easily within probably 50-60 miles away.

So they won’t have to even over-fly Syria airspace to continue to basically fight against Assad as they’ve done over the past two years using covert warfare with the CIA.

So, clearly this is not about evidence of Assad using any kind of chemical weapons. This was a dog and pony show that was basically to fool the American people as well as people around the world.

Ali Hashem from Al-Jazeera recently quit his job because of complete misinformation coming out of that network.

- What does it mean - you said that they would probably do limited strikes. What can that accomplish?

- It’s clearly evident to the Americans and British and French as well as their allies in the Persian Gulf. They know that they cannot beat Assad using the mercenary warfare that they’ve tried for the past two years. So they are hoping to turn the tide and allow these mercenaries to be more successful.

And so I think they are just trying to use these strikes just as they’ve used strikes already out of Israel - three major strikes this year alone to weaken Assad’s forces. I think they are just trying to weaken Assad’s forces to give the mercenaries that they’ve hired a better chance.

- Well, there is outrage throughout the world as we see more and more regular people taking to the streets against this possible US action in Syria. How likely is it that the United States will actually not end up carrying out these strikes?

- I think it is very unlikely that they will not.

Unfortunately there are billions of dollars at stake for the American military industrial complex - over ten billion dollars alone annually just for the type of weaponry that can do these strategic strikes and what they call ‘limited strikes’.

By no means are these limited applications when it comes to the armament that they’re going to use. These strikes will be devastating to the individuals that are working at those sites, they call them basically combatants.

These are not combatants. These guys are not fighting against the Americans or their allies right now. These are innocent soldiers who are working to fight mercenaries that have been hired by the West and they are not combatants against the West.