Chemical Attack Was Syria Rebel Provocation, Former Hostages Say

[Purveyor]

Two Europeans who were abducted and held hostage for several months in Syria claim they overheard an exchange between their captors which proves that rebels were behind the recent chemical attack.

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In a number of interviews to European news outlets, the former hostages - Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin and Italian journalist Domenico Quiric - said they overheard an English-language Skype conversation between their captors and other men which suggested it was rebel forces, not the government, that used chemical weapons on Syria’s civilian population in an August 21 attack near Damascus.

“It is a moral duty to say this. The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said during an interview with Belgium's RTL radio station.

Piccinin stressed that while being held captive, he and fellow prisoner Quirico were secluded from the outside world and had no idea that chemical weapons were deployed. But the conversation which both men overheard suggested that the use of the weapons was a strategic move by the opposition, aimed at getting the West to intervene.

"In this conversation, they said that the gas attack on two neighborhoods of Damascus was launched by the rebels as a provocation to lead the West to intervene militarily,” Quirico told Italy’s La Stampa. "We were unaware of everything that was going on during our detention in Syria, and therefore also with the gas attack in Damascus."

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http://rt.com/news/chemical-weapons-rebels-captives-632/

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. Okay this is the third time this has been posted?

but then I went to bed...could be more...

[ocpagu]

2. K&R

It becomes clearer and clearer that Assad was telling the truth since the beginning regarding the CW.

[questionseverything]

6. looking like both sides might of used them

altho it might of been assads generals that were acting w/o approval

there do not seem to be any "good guys" to back here

[questionseverything]

3. so it was the rebels?

In a number of interviews to European news outlets, the former hostages - Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin and Italian journalist Domenico Quiric - said they overheard an English-language Skype conversation between their captors and other men which suggested it was rebel forces, not the government, that used chemical weapons on Syria’s civilian population in an August 21 attack near Damascus.

“It is a moral duty to say this. The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said during an interview with Belgium's RTL radio station.

[cthulu2016]

4. "Some guy says a rebel said" is not much in the way of evidence

[cali]

5. Human Rights Watch Report Concludes That Assad Carried Out Chemical Attacks

A just-released report (warning: graphic cover page) from Human Rights Watch, based on evidence and interviews with those in the area, concludes that the chemical attacks carried out on August 21 were the action of the Syrian government and not rebel forces.

<snip>

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/09/human-rights-watch-report-concludes-assad-carried-out-chemical-attacks/69226/

[questionseverything]

7. complicated issue

Reuters) - Syrian government forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack close to Damascus without the personal permission of President Bashar al-Assad, Germany's Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday, citing German intelligence.

Syrian brigade and division commanders had been asking the Presidential Palace to allow them to use chemical weapons for the last four-and-a-half months, according to radio messages intercepted by German spies, but permission had always been denied, the paper said.

This could mean Assad may not have personally approved the attack close to Damascus on August 21 in which more than 1,400 are estimated to have been killed, intelligence officers suggested.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/08/us-syria-crisis-germany-idUSBRE98707B20130908

[cali]

8. yes, it is. Juan Cole said right after Ghouta

that he believed that Assad's forces did it, but that Assad had not personally approved it.

[LanternWaste]

9. Plausible Deniability is as old as is politics.

Much as in 1940, when Polish officers were killed en-masse without the direct knowledge of Stalin. Plausible Deniability is as old as is politics.

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. This would be really easy to fake.

Have some conversation heard and release them to go tell it. There are a bunch of other reporters taken hostage who were not released. Why these two, and why at that time?