Syria: The Asad government continues to insist that it did not use chemical weapons in the attack on 21 August. It approved an extension of the UN inspection team’s visit and requested that it investigate three gas attacks against Syrian soldiers since 21 August.
Lebanon’s Daily Star reported on 26 August that at least four Hizballah fighters are receiving treatment in Beirut after coming into contact with chemical agents in Syria, a security source said.
The source said four or five members came into contact with the chemical agents while searching a group of rebel tunnels in the Damascus suburb of Jobar over the weekend. (The attack on 21 August is being called the Jobar incident.)
Last Saturday, Syrian state television said Syrian soldiers found chemical agents in Jobar and that some had suffocated while entering the tunnels
Comment: The three primary questions about the attack remain unanswered.
– What agent was used?
– How was it delivered?
– By whom?
What appeared to be a slam dunk on Tuesday has weakened as more information has emerged about the source of US intelligence and about Syrian rebel chemical warfare capabilities. A lot of information has emerged, but is not receiving mainstream coverage in the US.
The agent. All experts who provided Feedback to NightWatch agreed some kind of chemical incident occurred on 21 August east of Damascus. As for the agent, multiple experts in Feedback claimed it was sarin. An equal number of experts in Feedback disagreed and claimed it was some other agent. Almost all based their judgments on symptoms observed in videos posted by rebels or on second hand reports of medical examinations.
Other videos posted to the web showed bags of chemicals with the label “made in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Factory for Chlorine and Alkalis” that were captured in rebel strongholds. The factory, known as SACHLO, is located in Riyadh and is hiring at this time.
Still other videos showed liquids in canisters that the reporter said were found in rebel tunnels. A third set purported to show a cache of chemical canisters and rockets that had been captured in a rebel bunker that could be fired by an artillery piece.
All the videos are inconclusive. None are dated; the location is never established; and none have a reliable chain of custody. At best they establish that both sides have chemicals, have used chemicals at some time and that more than one agent has been used by one or other side.
The delivery system. The open source information on instrumentality indicates rockets or modified artillery shells. Both sides have rockets that can deliver chemicals. The rebels have posted to the Web that they have such a capability and showed it to Sky News.
The attacker. Concerning the attacker, the mainstream media overwhelming claim that the Syrian government executed the attack. The evidence is not as clear as this assertion implies.
The Syrian government denies responsibility and claims its own forces suffered from a rebel chemical attack. The government is winning the fight and has no obvious motive to undertake action that would invite US military intervention that might affect the momentum of its successes. At least, that is what the Syrian government has said.
The rebels have strong motives to internationalize their fight and to manipulate the US into fighting on behalf of Islamists whose colleagues attacked the US in 2001. Some American officials and experts have asserted that the rebels have no chemical weapons. Not even the rebels say that.
Much of the story remains missing. And, I suspect much of what is being presented in the classified briefings to Congress is incomplete.
This has been bugging me for some time. Assad had no need for the use of these weapons.
As a witness to the manner in which the MSM has lied and manipulated “facts” – always to the benefit of leftist politicians versus conservatives, I have been suspicious of the immediate assignation of guilt in the attack to Assad. Though I don’t put it past him, the bottom line is if he was winning, it makes zero sense to use chemical weapons of any kind just as the author says.
Since we have multiple incidents of jihadists lying via photos of muslims (including children) “wounded by Israeli forces” who then are seen in later pix/vids to be up walking around with absolutely no injuries; use of ambulances by jihadis in violation of the Geneva Convention to haul weapons and ammo around; use of mosques (again in violation of the geneva Convention) to store weaponsand ammo, and to hide jihadi terrorists; and the dressing of male jihadis up in burkhas to fool security – I would be more inclined to believe this chemical attack was a false flag operation designed to goad the idiot leftists of the west into attacking Assad and thus aiding the jihadis. After all, the koran tells muslims to engage in taqqiyah – the act of deception to gain advantage over the muslim’s enemies. Other than satanism, islam is the only “religion” that tells followers in their very rulebook on how to be a ‘good’ member of the group – to lie.
It does seem rather suspicious that Obama did nothing to support the uprisings in Iran against a tyrannical islamic thugocracy that is known to be fomenting muslim terrorist activity around the world – yet the secularized arab countries of Libya and Egypt were prime targets for Obama to act in ways that helped put islamic thugocracies into power…and now when Al Qaeda appears to have much greater apparent control of the “rebels” in Syria, Obama seems to be chomping at the bit again to topple a secularized (albeit shameful dictator) government in favor of a bloodthirsty jihadi group that would push for sharia, just like Morsi did in Egypt.
The disgusting chutzpah of people like Jennifer Rubin writing how the GOP needs to support Obama in his desire to bomb Syria, arguing in essence that other nations will think Obama weak and ineffectual if we all don’t become super patriotic supporters of Obama’s war rage, makes one want to vomit. remember the left (particularly Hillary) spewing the phrase, “Dissent is the height of patriotism”? Remember entertainers like the idiot Dixie Chicks going around the world and making disparaging comments about Bush? Multiple leftist politicians going to give succor to our enemies – who really were threats to our national security – engaging in blatantly obnoxious and disrespectful acts against a republican president. Now take a look at the pictures of Pelosi and Kerry rubbing elbows with Assad as little as 5-8 years ago, juxtaposed with their pathetic whiny rhetoric demanding we all join the Obama wave for war.
Leftists are contemptible, dishonest and unworthy of the great gift of freedom our Founding Fathers gave us, which our ancestors fought, suffered and died to preserve to give to us. It disgusts me that the President of the United States and his administration are so corrupt and inept, and his actions so criminal and petty, that as a retired military officer I find myself unable to determine who is the more disreputable “leader” between Obama and Assad. Obama’s acts, to include:
1. Fast and Furious (US border patrol agent and hundreds of Mexicans murdered from weapons BATF/DOJ allowed to be sold to mexican drug cartels for highly questionable reasons)
2. The Benghazi debacle (to include the false imprisonment of a documentary film maker for supposedly causing the riot/attack on the US embassy for making an anti-Mohammed video)
3. The bizarre support of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, continuing even after they were overthrown in the ongoing Egyptian civil war.
4. The adamant refusal by Obama to call Hassan’s murderous shooting attack at Ft Hood, while shouting ‘Allahu Ackbar” as a terrorist attack, instead persisting in the ridiculous and disingenuous “workplace violence” characterization.
5. This pathetic posturing over 1400 alleged chem weapon casualties (ignoring the estimated 100,000 killed by conventional weapons prior to this) for what boils down to nothing more than a hypocritical “face saving” gesture without actual benefit to the US.
It truly is sad when I cannot support my nation’s elected leader because I honestly cannot say he has a higher moral position than another nation’s dictator who is killing his own people.
Since Israel’s DebkaFile is a disinformation site I usually take a 48-hour rule with their stories.
In that light, here’s this:
http://www.debka.com/article/23247/Iran-Russia-advise-Assad-to-transfer-chemical-stockpile-to-Tehran—to-avert-US-attack
IF Obama’s ploy of threatening war works …. and Syria stops using chemical weapons on people….it will have been a good thing.
If it doesn’t what happens when Syria, Russia and Iran call Obama’s bluff?
Russia just warned all their people not to travel to the USA.
@Nan G:
I am not at all convinced that Iran really wants to avoid US involvement. Syria is a huge distraction away from Iran’s Nuclear enrichment/weapon’s programs. All the time the world spends on the Syria uncivil war, is time that attention is diverted away from watching Iran.
Not only is the media missing everything on Syria, they’ve decided they need to re-use photos and video from Iraq 2003. An example of the “re-purposing” by the media:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/09/02/Syria-runs-Iraq-photo-Syria