UN Inspectors Confirm Syria Chemical Attack
Source: AP
Chemical weapons were probably used in four locations in Syria this year, in addition to the confirmed attack near Damascus in August that forced the government to abandon its secret chemical stockpile, U.N. inspectors have said.
In a report released Thursday, the experts, led by Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom, examined seven alleged chemical weapons attacks and said it lacked information to corroborate the allegations at two locations.
The inspectors' limited mandate barred them from identifying whether the government or opposition fighters were responsible for any of the attacks.
Thursday's report said evidence indicated chemical weapons were probably used in Khan al Assal outside Aleppo, Jobar in Damascus' eastern suburbs, Saraqueb near Idlib in the northwest, and Ashrafiah Sahnaya in the Damascus countryside. In two cases, it found "signatures of sarin."
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chief-report-syria-chemical-weapons-21199034
Specifically forbidden by their mandate, they were unable to establish conclusively that the rebels fired these weapons as has been previously reported.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)This comes as a major new article casts doubts on the veracity of the Obama administrations claims that only the Assad regime could have carried out the attacks in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta earlier this year. Writing in the London Review of Books, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh argues the Obama administration, quote, "cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad." He reports U.S. was also aware that al-Nusra, a militant group fighting in Syrias civil war, had, quote, "mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity."
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/9/seymour_hersh_obama_cherry_picked_intelligence
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)The sarin that was found was very high quality.
If Hersh is going to argue that route, he should show how the sarin was stolen or something or used against Assad's wishes, not make up silly arguments that it was produced by rag tag rebels regularly losing territory, attacking their own side, so that they lost even more territory...
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)It's inconceivable! In all the world only Assad personally has this capability, in his palace kitchen.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)shipped Sarin into the rebels' hands, and then also provided them with big-ass rocket launchers they didn't possess beforehand.
Working awfully hard to excuse Assad from blame . . .
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)The rebels have at various point fielded a full panoply of weapons, high end sniper rifles, guided anti tank and aircraft missiles, katusha rockets, artillery, tanks and at one point jets.
That the terrorists could wield yet another basic weapon system is not out of the question.
Petrodollars are funding the mercenary armies in Syria. With unlimited funds from the monarchs of the gulf...the sky is the limit.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)concentrations requiring the resources of a state actor, hid all traces of this production of chemical agents, and managed to sneak onto government-held territory to fire chemical weapons at their own positions?
Abysmal fail of logic and Occam's Razor.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)I make no claims - and look, the U.N. report also doesn't about authorship. I show the ridiculousness of the claims being made. There is no definitive case for all the chemicals attacks. Use by Syrian regulars is entirely possible. Obviously with jihadis among the rebel factions, and with different factions receiving help from such dubious actors as the Gulf states and the Saudis, not to mention Turkey and the U.S., not to mention private sponsors with military connections, it's absurd to pretend none of these militias could have got their hands on sarin and tried to make it look like Obama's "red line" was violated by Assad. It's so obviously possible and not proven either way that you're reduced to cries of "thought crime! Alex Jones!"
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)If the rebels used the sarin, it would have the greatest effect if they targeted their own people than the govt soldiers. This way the US military forces can be drawn in just like they did in Libya to turn the tide and win the war quickly
it is he who suggests that their target should not be an enemy of the country but rather the country itself. Three targets are chosen to maximize the effect of the attack: a school, a tube station, and a water-treatment plant
Cha
(297,211 posts)chemical weapons gone. They don't need to lie about it. I don't give a damn what Seymour Hersh has to say about it.
President Obama didn't want to strike Syria but he was serious about the damn chemical weapons being gone.. he wasn't bluffing.
I trust the UN inspectors know what the heck they're talking about.
"Chemical weapons were probably used in four locations in Syria this year, in addition to the confirmed attack near Damascus in August that forced the government to abandon its secret chemical stockpile, U.N. inspectors have said."
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)to challenge the forensic evidence pointing towards Assad.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Inspectors did not make it to the areas where the attacks took place.
There was no chain of custody for the samples that were tested.
The samples were provided to the UN by Jihadist.
All the UN can say that samples it was GIVEN contained sarin.
I am grateful that the US attack on Syria was averted and that Syria is disarming it's stockpiles, there is no need to promote a false narrative when the facts don't support it.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Nor were the rebels capable of producing sarin in those quantities.
The flight paths triangulated to the headquarters of the Republican Guard's artillery brigade.
The UN team was able to access the area and test for sarin.
Photos posted on social media--from both rebels and the government--confirm what happened.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/09/sy_hershs_chemical_misfire
Since the attack, myself and others have been studying the vast amount of open-source information posted online on sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, which has provided many more pieces of evidence about what happened in the Damascus suburbs that day. This information not only answers many of the questions Hersh's article raises, but has also provided a much greater understanding of other events in the Syrian conflict. ...
What this tells us is the Syrian government has been using the explosive type of Volcano rocket in Damascus for at least a year, and there's evidence that the chemical type was used before the Aug. 21 sarin attack. There is no evidence of Syrian rebel forces ever using this type of munition -- and only Syrian government forces have ever been shown using them.
...
"The 1994 to 1996 Japanese experience tells us that even a very large and sophisticated effort comprising many millions of dollars, a dedicated large facility, and a lot of skilled labor results only in liters of sarin, not tons," Kaszeta said. "Even if the Aug. 21 attack is limited to the eight Volcano rockets that we seem to be talking about, we're looking at an industrial effort two orders of magnitude larger than the Aum Shinrikyo effort. This is a nontrivial and very costly undertaking, and I highly doubt whether any of the possible nonstate actors involved here have the factory to have produced it. Where is this factory? Where is the waste stream? Where are the dozens of skilled people -- not just one al Qaeda member -- needed to produce this amount of material?"
He went on to add: "We have to apply a simple logic test here. Who is more likely to have done the deed? The regime, which has confessed to CW [chemical weapon] production facilities and has declared a stockpile of precursors that match the Aug. 21 chemistry very well? Or persons unknown, with their alleged mystery factory, with no actual location, no trace of either supply chain or waste stream, no known employees, and far better things to do with the required amount of money?"
While Hersh rightly expresses concern about the way in which the U.S. government's narrative of the Aug. 21 was built, significant information can be gathered from open sources about this conflict -- information that he appears to be lacking. In the future, open-source information may become even more important for understanding hard-to-access conflict zones, and learning how to use it effectively should become a key skill for any investigative journalist.
The evidence that exists points overwhelmingly at the government. Hersh's gossipy piece doesn't bother looking into any of the relevant facts.
karynnj
(59,503 posts)"The inspectors' limited mandate barred them from identifying whether the government or opposition fighters were responsible for any of the attacks."
Though there were claims that the rebels did it - there were also claims that the Government did.
The important thing is that with the push from the US, Syria is getting rid of all their chemical weapons -- so NO ONE will use them.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)There are satellite pictures and whether Assad was aware of some of this information would be available is not known. Assad was also willing to give up the CW's and he knows he stepped over the line in using the CW's.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)It says UN inspectors CONFIRMED Syria chemical attack, and then goes on to use the term "probable" several times.