'Growing evidence' of chemical weapons use in Syria - UK

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

The footage of an alleged chemical weapon attack was posted on YouTube
There is "limited but growing" evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, according to British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr Cameron called the evidence "very disturbing", adding it would constitute a war crime.
On Thursday, the White House said that US intelligence agencies believed "with varying degrees of confidence" that Syria had used chemical weapons.
It said the nerve agent sarin had been deployed on a "small scale".
It not give details of where or when it had been used.
The White House has warned chemical weapons use would be a "red line" for possible intervention, but says this intelligence does not represent proof.
Republicans in Congress called on Thursday for a strong US response.
The assessment was made in letters to lawmakers on Thursday signed by Miguel Rodriguez, White House director of the office of legislative affairs.
"Our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin," one of the letters said.
But it added: "Given the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent experiences, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient - only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making."
The phrase "varying degrees of confidence" is normally used to reflect differences in opinion within the intelligence community.
Speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Abu Dhabi that the use of sarin "violates every convention of warfare".

(More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22305444)

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

What's the point of posting state war propaganda?

To get that response

Or more specifically to gauge the opinions of fellow reftlefters on this. Do we all think this is bullshit (the 'WMD' that might lead to more direct intervention by interested parties like the US and UK). Or does anyone think there may be some truth in it, and if so, what do you think the response should be?

[Skyhilist]

The U.S. never learns. We see where funding Islamists has got is in the past (e.g. al queda via CIA support) and now many politicians here are trying to use this as an excuse to fund them again.

[ВАЛТЕР]

Saw this today

"An Unexpected Find of Syrian Soldiers"

According to this they found Turkish poison gas that the FSA had been using.

2rnRJGI0bJs

[Sasha]

Saw this today

"An Unexpected Find of Syrian Soldiers"

According to this they found Turkish poison gas that the FSA had been using.

2rnRJGI0bJs


wow, that is the most positioned "find" of chemicals i have ever seen, seriously, rembrandt couldnt have positioned that still life any better, also, those chemicals, what ever they are, must be enough to kill 10 people at best.
i have that about that amount of chemicals in my sink cabinet and i can brew up enough hydrochloric gas if i mix my drain cleaner with my toilet bleach (or something like that) to kill two rabbits too...
not quite the sarin gas the regime is accused of using

[Rusty Shackleford]

wow, that is the most positioned "find" of chemicals i have ever seen, seriously, rembrandt couldnt have positioned that still life any better, also, those chemicals, what ever they are, must be enough to kill 10 people at best.
i have that about that amount of chemicals in my sink cabinet and i can brew up enough hydrochloric acid if i mix my drain cleaner with my toilet bleach (or something like that) to kill two rabbits too...
not quite the sarin gas the regime is accused of using


sure the chemicals look a bit staged, but if the pentagon says the syrian state is using it then obviously they are using metric tons worth of poison gas on entire cities.

some poison gasses dont take much to kill a person, and also it looks like it must be mixed and then deployed meaning that the volume of liquid makes a shitload more in terms of gas.


regardless though its a bit unnerving that anyone could be using poison gas.

[brigadista]

reminded of the 'aluminium tubes' fiasco and when John McCain is being wheeled out on Brit tv to justify it well...im not convinced..

[Agathor]

We know the Syrian government has Sarin gas, and presumably they didn't acquire it with the intent of never using it - does anyone really think Assad wouldn't use it if he thought it could save his regime?

[Rusty Shackleford]

We know the Syrian government has Sarin gas, and presumably they didn't acquire it with the intent of never using it - does anyone really think Assad wouldn't use it if he thought it could save his regime?

the procurement of chemical weapons by the syrian state probably has more to do with cold war politics and also issues with israel and iraq. is it possible they will use chemical weapons in the civil war? maybe. i dont think it would be likely though because of the threat of direct intervention by NATO-US forces in the event that they are used. Its also possible that chemical weapons could have been captured by rebels.

[piet11111]

If chemical weapons have been used then it would come from the FSA guys.

If the Syrian government did decide to use chemical weapons they would not do it in such a limited way where they wont get any military results but for their trouble they will still have NATO knocking down their door.

Seriously if Assad decided to use chemical weapons then the death toll would be in the tens of thousands.
And then it would be unmistakable they have been used instead of the immense doubt the media shows.

[The Intransigent Faction]

I sincerely hope that nobody, let alone anyone who calls himself or herself a radical leftist, has a bad enough memory to fall for this garbage.

AMlS1KAXefY


I don't support Assad, but anyone who spouts blatant imperialist propaganda as if it has a shred of credibility or justifies U.S. involvement in Syria should be restricted.
Just had to put that out there. I feel better now.

[ckaihatsu]

[EmergencyResponseforUSAttackonIranorSyria] Cartalucci/Lendman: US promotes "wmd" stories on chemical weapons Vs. Syria


US Unveils Iraq WMD “Curveball-Style” Lies Vs. Syria By Tony Cartalucci

25 April 2013 — Land Destroyer http://williambowles.info/2013/04/26/us-unveils-iraq-wmd-curveball-style-lies-vs-syria-by-tony-cartalucci/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+williambowles%2FKJFu+%28Willi amBowles.info+Investigating+the+new+imperialism%29

As NATO terror front collapses in Syria, US attempts to justify intervention by drumming up familiar WMD lies.

April 25, 2013 “Information Clearing House” -”LD” – The last two weeks have seen a series of victories for the Syrian Army across Syria. It appears that 2 full companies of so-called “Free Syrian Army” fighters have been annihilated near Damascus, while government forces have restored order in parts of Homs and along the previously porous Lebanese-Syrian border.

Time has run out for the West, and it appears that they are desperately seeking any excuse to rescue their failing proxy war. When urgent, but otherwise unjustified military intervention is needed, a “humanitarian” pretext is usually invented – as it was in Libya. Failing that, as the West has already clearly done in Syria, an even more tenuous narrative has been resurrected from its well-earned grave. CNN has reported in their article, “Hagel: Evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria,” that:

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Thursday that the United States has evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria.

This comes a couple of days after an Israeli intelligence official said Damascus was using weapons banned under international law against its own people in the country’s civil war. Syria has said rebels have used chemical weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against its own people in the country would be a “game changer.”

Astonishingly, the West is attempting to repeat tales of “WMD’s” in Syria, just as it infamously did in Iraq. In the Washington Post’s “U.S. intelligence agencies: Assad used chemical weapons ‘on a small scale’,” the nature of this “evidence” is elaborated on (emphasis added):

Hagel said the intelligence agencies’ assessment was reached with “varying degrees of confidence,” meaning that they lacked proof or overwhelming evidence. He said the conclusion was “reached within the last 24 hours” and that the White House delivered a letter outlining the findings to Congress Thursday morning.

A letter from the White House via the Washington Post exposed further just how tenuous the evidence actually is (emphasis added):

Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. This assessment is based in part on physiological samples. Our standard of evidence must build on these intelligence assessments as we seek to establish credible and corroborated facts. For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions. We do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime.

Physiological samples indicating sarin – in other words – samples taken from people exposed to sarin, could have been produced in a number of ways. It is confirmed that Libya’s chemical weapon stockpiles included sarin and mustard gas. In the Washington Post’s 2011 “Libya’s poison gas unaffected by turmoil, official says,” it was stated:

Experts believe that Libya destroyed about 3,300 bombshells designed to carry mustard and sarin gas chemicals years ago, as part of its deal to end decades of economic and diplomatic isolation with the West.

But some 10 metric tons of mustard sulfate and sarin gas precursor remain stockpiled in barrels at three locations in the Libyan desert south of Tripoli, where Moammar Gaddafi has holed up in a last-ditch fight to keep from being overthrown.

Many experts worry that the barrels are ripe for picking by terrorists linked to al-Qaeda.

Of course, since 2011, it is now confirmed that the so-called “Libyan rebels” were actually Al Qaeda terrorists operating under the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which has been confirmed to have subsequently traveled to Syria to join Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra franchise in NATO’s proxy war there.

It is just as likely that NATO’s proxy forces brought along with them not only small arms and cash from Libya, but also heavier weapons, including possibly chemical weapons – and specifically – sarin and mustard gas.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ejOCXxuhUyg/UL12lnF-L7I/AAAAAAAAGZQ/52N6-O86weg/s1600/LIBYA_Chemical-containers-in-th-007.jpg

Image: (via the Guardian) “Chemical containers in the Libyan desert. There are concerns unguarded weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist militants. Photograph: David Sperry/AP” As increasing evidence reveals Libyan fighters and weapons are pouring into Syria, it seems the West is preparing to preempt or leverage the inevitability that Libya’s chemical arsenal has also found its way into the besieged nation.
….

Considering that the Syrian government knows the use of chemical weapons would basically hand the moral, strategic, and geopolitical initiative over to the West, and in light of its recent gains made using conventional weapons and tactics, it makes it all the more likely any real sarin to be found and used in Syria was the work of NATO proxies attempting to produce a plausible casus belli. Terrorists operating in Syria have already been caught using other chemical weapons.

And yet still, despite all of this doubt, the Western political establishment has hailed the so-called “findings” as the “game changer” required to green-light US military intervention.

Remember “Curveball”

It is absolutely imperative to recall the propaganda campaign conducted prior to invading Iraq in 2003. Chemical weapons were also used as a pretext for an otherwise unjustified war. The “intelligence” used by Hagel’s predecessors was admittedly fabricated on-demand.

In the British Independent’s article, “Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all: Defector tells how US officials ‘sexed up’ his fictions to make the case for 2003 invasion,” it stated:

A man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq – starting a nine-year war costing more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of pounds – will come clean in his first British television interview tomorrow.

“Curveball”, the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi’s lies used to justify the Iraq war.

He tries to defend his actions: “My main purpose was to topple the tyrant in Iraq because the longer this dictator remains in power, the more the Iraqi people will suffer from this regime’s oppression.”

We can already envision the establishment defending in hindsight its next “noble lie” to unseat “the tyrant in Syria.”

The Independent continues:

But Mr Janabi, speaking in a two-part series, Modern Spies, starting tomorrow on BBC2, says none of it was true. When it is put to him “we went to war in Iraq on a lie. And that lie was your lie”, he simply replies: “Yes.”

US officials “sexed up” Mr Janabi’s drawings of mobile biological weapons labs to make them more presentable, admits Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, General Powell’s former chief of staff. “I brought the White House team in to do the graphics,” he says, adding how “intelligence was being worked to fit around the policy”.

“How “intelligence was being worked to fit around the policy,” indeed is the most important aspect of the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, and is without doubt what is being done in Washington, Doha, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv in regards to Syria now.

The “Curveball-style” lies told about Iraq are now being repeated about Syria by an increasingly unhinged West who has tried every trick in the book, and is flipping back to the beginning to start over again. The question is, can the world afford to be led down this path again, knowing exactly where it ends? Nations and people outside the Wall Street-London international order are tasked with foiling this criminal war of aggression – unable this time to plead ignorance to the West’s true intentions.


Fabricated Intelligence and the WMD Pretext: Obama Heads Closer Closer to War on Syria By Stephen Lendman

25 April, 2013 — Global Research http://williambowles.info/2013/04/26/fabricated-intelligence-and-the-wmd-pretext-obama-heads-closer-closer-to-war-on-syria-by-stephen-lendman/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+williambowles%2FKJFu+%28Willi amBowles.info+Investigating+the+new+imperialism%29

A previous article discussed spurious allegations of Syrian chemical weapons use. Obama calls using them a “game changer.” He also said their use crosses a “red line.”

Syrian officials categorically deny using them. According to Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi:

“Even if Syria does have chemical weapons, our leadership and our military will not use them either against Syrians or against Israelis, above all for moral reasons and secondarily on legal and political grounds.”

On April 24, The New York Times headlined “US Says It Suspects Assad Used Chemical Weapons,” saying:

“….American intelligence agencies now assess, with ‘varying degrees of confidence,’ that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, but it said it needed conclusive proof before President Obama would take action.”

On April 25, the White House Office of Legislative Affairs director Miguel Rodriguez addressed Syria. His letter to SenatorsJohn McCain (R. AZ) ad Carl Levin (D. MI) said:

“At the president’s direction, the United States government has been closely monitoring the potential use of chemical weapons within Syria.”

“We have kept the relevant committees of Congress fully informed of our assessments on this issue, consistent with our statutory obligations.”

“Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. This assessment is based in part on physiological samples.”

“Our standard of evidence must build on these intelligence assessments as we seek to establish credible and corroborated facts.”

“For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions.”

“We do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime. Thus far, we believe that the Assad regime maintains custody of these weapons and has demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence against the Syrian people.”

“Because of our concern about the deteriorating situation in Syria, the president has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons – or transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups – is a red line for the United States of America.”

“Given the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent experience, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient – only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making….”

“In the interim, the administration is prepared for all contingencies so that we can respond appropriately to any confirmed use of chemical weapons, consistent with our national interests.”

“The United States and the international community have a number of potential responses available, and no option is off the table.”

Britain’s Foreign Office claims “limited but persuasive information from various sources showing chemical weapons use in Syria, including Sarin.”

Days earlier, Israeli General Itai Brun claimed Syria used chemical weapons “on a number of occasions.” He cited unspecified photo evidence. He called the weapon used sarin-based.

Former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said Obama’s “red line appears to have been crossed. The administration has to take some time to decide what to do about it.”

“But if they end up leaving the impression that the president is not willing to enforce his red line, that will have consequences in the region, particularly when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program, as well as for our ability to deter Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria.”

An unnamed Israeli official told the New York Times:

“Every intelligence branch can submit its own assessment. The issue of chemical weapons is being examined by Israel and the United States at the most senior levels, and is still being discussed.”

The Times added:

“Administration officials said that the Pentagon had prepared a menu of military options for Mr. Obama if he concluded that there was incontrovertible evidence that chemical weapons had been used.”

“Those options, one official said, could include missile strikes on Syrian aircraft from American ships in the Mediterranean or commando raids.”

Days earlier in Brussels, Secretary of State John Kerry said NATO should plan for a possible Syrian chemical weapons attack. He stopped short of calling for NATO’s intervention.

Separately, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) said Israeli warplanes downed a Hezbollah drone eight kilometers “out at sea” from Haifa. It flew south from Lebanon.

An IDF spokesman said:

“An attempt by an unmanned aerial vehicle to enter Israel’s air space was thwarted. The UAV was identified flying from the north past the coast of southern Lebanon and continuing south.”

“It was tracked continuously until it was downed by Israeli fighter planes and attack helicopters.”

“They went into action after the drone was identified as not coming from a friendly source. The Air Force gave the order to shoot it down.”

Netanyahu said:

“We take an extremely grave view of this attempt to violate our borders and will continue to guard them and keep our citizens safe.”

“We are watching events in Syria and Lebanon with extreme concern. Syria is breaking up and Lebanon is unstable.”

“Both places pose not inconsiderable perils to Israel – two emanating directly from Syria.”

“The first is the possible transfer of sophisticated weaponry to terrorist organizations and the second, attempts by terrorists to break through our borders and attack our towns and villages.”

“Israel stands ready to counteract any threats from Syria or Lebanon by sea, air and land.”

DF claims “there are plans afoot to spread (Syria’s) violence into Israel.” It cites Hezbollah’s UAV incident and violent incidents on the Israeli/Israel border.

On April 23 (updated on April 25), Washington Post editors headlined “Honoring a ‘red line in Syria over chemical weapons,” saying:

“THREE MAJOR US allies – Britain, France and Israel – have now concluded that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has very likely used chemical weapons, not once but on multiple occasions.”

“This would cross a ‘red line’ drawn by President Obama.” He’s been very clear saying America “will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people.”

So far he stopped short of intervening. “If there is no response, Damascus may decide that it is free to use its chemicals on a larger scale.”

At the same time, “Obama has been inching toward more decisive action.”

“If (he) waffles or retreats on the one clear red line he drew, US credibility across the region will be severely damaged.”

These type reports bear watching. Their significance remains to be seen. They may be prelude to direct US intervention. Stay tuned. More reports will follow.