Leaked Audio Reveals John Kerry Argued For Regime Change In Syria

Leaked Audio Reveals John Kerry Argued For Regime Change In Syria

 

MINNEAPOLIS — WikiLeaks
brought renewed attention to an audio recording in which Secretary of
State John Kerry admits not only that he supported war in Syria for the
purpose of overthrowing the government, but that the United States knew
about the strength of terrorist groups in the region and allowed them to
grow yet more powerful.

Originally leaked to The New York Times in late September and published in its entirety by CNN
shortly after, the recording is of a meeting the secretary of state had
with Syrian civilians at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations in
September. CNN has since removed the audio, but left a description of
its contents along with an editor’s note claiming the file had been
removed “at the request of some of the participants out of concern for
their safety.”

However, it’s rare that any content is truly scrubbed from the internet. Clips of Kerry’s discussion can still be found on the Times website, and the complete audio file was published on Oct. 4 by YouTube user Angel North.

WikiLeaks published a link to the recording posted on YouTube on the organization’s Facebook page on Tuesday, and that post had been reshared nearly 2,900 times by Thursday afternoon.

The Times and CNN reported that Kerry
was speaking to a group of Syrian civilians at the Dutch Mission during
U.N. negotiations over a proposed ceasefire. Taking an apologetic tone,
Kerry admits that he argued for military intervention in Syria as far
back as 2013, when rumors swirled that the government of Syrian
President Bashar Assad had used chemical weapons against civilians.