Questions I have on Syrian chemical thing.

[Deep13]

1. Do we know it actually happened? Do we have any non-official first-hand sources? We have heard the WMD cry before.

2. Do we know who did it? There are about a dozen factions fighting for control of Syria, both direct and proxy. It seems to me that of all of them, Assad has the least reason to want to invite foreign intervention. With the Russians and Hezbollah backing him, he's winning, so why throw the dice?

3. Who supplied the gas? Did the Assad govt. produce it? Did they get it from Iran, Russia, Saddam, Al Qaeda, or the USA?

4. Is there any chance that a foreign (to Syria) power supplied some rebel group with gas in order to provide a pretext for Euro-American intervention? Again, the USA, the British, and probably the USSR has pulled that kind of crap before in the Middle East.

5. How exactly will dropping bombs make things better rather than worse?

6. If bombing is the answer, shouldn't an Arab air force be doing it?

7. Should we not at least get answers to these questions before committing to military action, especially considering what total cluster-fucks past interventions turned into?

[Harmony Blue]

1. I will give it a try

1. A nerve agent attack highly likely occurred not conclusive though. Yes, however we don't know how credible sources are and the U.N. has yet to release their report.
2. No one is certain and the motive isn't really strong for Assad to do so.
3. No certainty if it is homemade or weapon grade. U.N. inspectors still investigating.
4. An unconfirmed rumor has it that Turkey has supplied "resistance" as this isn't the first reported chemical attack but it is the most severe thus far
5. No one knows for certain
6. They don't have cruise missile capabilities form surface warships as far as I know.
7. Yes, preferably waiting for the U.N. inspectors report

[Deep13]

4. Thanks. nt

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. Doctors without borders is on the ground and has said 300 died.

Are they a NSA front group?

Medical charity MSF says 355 dead in Syria chemical attack

Hundreds reported killed in Syria gas attack

Yes, there are independent reports. It really happened.

[Deep13]

3. Okay, so that's a fact.

thanks.

[Catherina]

5. The last time the UN investigated chemical weapons claims, they concluded rebels were responsible

so we discounted that report outright and she was quietly shuffled off the scene and statements were issued that it wasn't clear but her initial report was very clear. Watch the video. She very clearly says the chemicals "that was used by the opponents, by the rebels, and we have no, no indication at all that the government, Syria, authority of the Syrian government, has used chemical weapons".

6 May 2013
UN's Del Ponte says evidence Syria rebels 'used sarin'

Carla Del Ponte: "I was a little bit stupefied by the first indication of the use of nerve gas by the opposition"

Testimony from victims of the conflict in Syria suggests rebels have used the nerve agent, sarin, a leading member of a UN commission of inquiry has said.

Carla Del Ponte told Swiss TV that there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof".

Ms Del Ponte did not rule out the possibility that government forces might also have used chemical weapons.

Later, the commission stressed that it had "not reached conclusive findings" as to their use by any parties.

"As a result, the commission is not in a position to further comment on the allegations at this time," a statement added.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the statement was terse and shows that the UN was taken by surprise at Ms Del Ponte's remarks.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22424188

Then we have news reports from Turkey arresting rebels and confiscating sarin gas from the rebel group and later
intercepting sarin gas being shipped to the rebels but they wouldn't publicize who shipped it. A few weeks later, Syrian authorities said they busted some rebel labs where they found sarin gas and other chemicals in containers from Saudi Arabia.

On late May, Turkish newspapers widely reported that Turkish security forces have arrested Al-Nusra Front fighters in the southern provinces of Mersin and Adana near the Syrian border and confiscated 2 kg of sarin gas from them. Then in June, Iraq discovered "two facilities in Baghdad to produce sarin and mustard gas" belonging to the anti-Assad al-Nusra rebels.

The UN has been repeatedly clear, as has Doctors With Borders where they pre-empted Kerry's misleading, manipulative statement with a press release, that, so far, there's no proof the Assad regime used chemical weapons, just that something was used by someone.