Former U.N. weapons inspector: West has 'no authority' in Syria.

[another_liberal]

Source: Al Jazeera America

Western powers have threatened military action against the Syrian government following an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus last week that left hundreds dead. Both the Syrian opposition and President Bashar al-Assad have denied responsibility for the attack – which crossed what President Barack Obama called a "red line," necessitating a direct response from the U.S.

But Ambassador Richard Butler, former chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, has called on the West to await evidence from a team of inspectors who on Monday were granted access to the site of the alleged Syrian attack. One issue, Butler said, is the timing of the inspection. The inspectors had been kept from the site of the alleged attack in the eastern suburbs of Damascus for five days – raising questions about the viability of the investigation. "The chemicals involved degrade fairly rapidly … those five days make it difficult," Butler told Al Jazeera in a television interview.

(snip)

Butler worked with the leader of the U.N. team currently in Syria while he was an inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. He expressed confidence in the Syria team's abilities, but added: "No matter how good they are, they need proper access in a timely fashion, and I think they have been denied that." The Aug. 21 attack on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital was first reported by Syrian activists who claimed that government forces carried out a "poisonous gas" attack. Hundreds were left dead, and graphic photographs flooded the media. "The pictures seem very clear, that chemical weapons do certainly appear to have been used," Butler said. "But the second question … where do they come from and who authorized or directed they be used … has become the crucial question in determining what action should be taken."

Although both sides continue to deny responsibility for the attack -- while the U.N. inspectors continue to investigate -- the U.S. and other Western leaders appear to have accepted Assad's guilt as a fact.

Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/28/former-u-n-weaponsinspectorwesthasnoathoritywithinsyria.html

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Can't we wait to start this war until we at least know for certain who we need to attack? I would hate to see us caught in another never-ending, Middle Eastern military campaign, only to find out in a month or two that Assad had nothing to do with the chemical attacks after all.

[BlueMTexpat]

1. Amen!

If neither Assad nor the rebels were involved in this (frankly, while neither side is palatable IMO, it is difficult to see how either would benefit from such a heinous attack on their own co-citizens in the long run) - and chemical weapons were indeed used - can you think of other individuals or groups who might have both access to such as well as a financial or political stake in inciting Western states to intervene militarily in Syria?

Candidates whom I have in mind include an unholy coalition of Western covert ops intelligence agencies (including Mossad) together with backers representing corporate interests. It's not as though such a thing has never happened in the ME.

The Snowden revelations have been a very convenient distraction from a lot of very important other things. Intelligence agencies do not only listen in. Many of them act. Many such actions have usually been discovered LONG after the fact and have been every bit as awful as this particular one.

Cui bono?

[Berlum]

3. Amen to your Amen

the fog of war is already dense.

[Coyotl]

2. A voice of reason in a wilderness of wolves.

[another_liberal]

9. Yet, it is so important that the effort be made . . .

Here's hoping Ambassador Butler continues to, "Speak truth to power."

[Demeter]

4. Not that "lack of authority" has ever stopped an empire on the prowl

and it often takes repeated, unrelenting failure to stop the empire, usually by destroying it through attrition..

[another_liberal]

7. Quite true.

I don't want to see my country destroyed, but I do not want it to continue acting like an Empire either.

[Arctic Dave]

5. K&R

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. West had no authority in Iraq

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.
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or Afghanistan, and a few other nations.

Did that stop them?

'nuff said.

(sigh)

CC

[another_liberal]

8. We already have to fear much from the law of Karma.

Western translation: "What goes around, comes around."