NBC News - Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad's order

By Jim Miklaszewski and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News


The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said.

As recently as Tuesday, officials had said there was as yet no evidence that the process of mixing the "precursor" chemicals had begun. But Wednesday, they said their worst fears had been confirmed: The nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs.

Sarin is an extraordinarily lethal agent. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces killed 5,000 Kurds with a single sarin attack on Halabja in 1988.

U.S. officials stressed that as of now, the sarin bombs hadn't been loaded onto planes and that Assad hadn't issued a final order to use them. But if he does, one of the officials said, "there's little the outside world can do to stop it."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated U.S. warnings to Assad not to use chemical weapons, saying he would be crossing "a red line" if he did so.

Speaking Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Clinton said the Syrian government was on the brink of collapse, raising the prospect that "an increasingly desperate Assad regime" might turn to chemical weapons or that the banned weapons could fall into other hands.


"Ultimately, what we should be thinking about is a political transition in Syria and one that should start as soon as possible," Clinton said. "We believe their fall is inevitable. It is just a question of how many people have to die before that occurs."

Aides told NBC News that Clinton was expected next week to officially recognize the main opposition movement, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, with which she is scheduled to meet in Morocco. Britain, France, Turkey and some key Arab leaders have already recognized the opposition.

Fighting intensified Wednesday in the 21-month civil war, which has left 40,000 people dead. The U.N. withdrew its personnel from Damascus, saying conditions were too dangerous.

The government said this week that it wouldn't use chemical weapons on its own people after President Barack Obama warned that doing so would be "totally unacceptable."

But U.S. officials said this week that the government had ordered its Chemical Weapons Corps to "be prepared," which Washington interpreted as a directive to begin bringing together the components needed to weaponize Syria's chemical stockpiles.

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U.S. officials had long believed that the Syrian government was stockpiling the banned chemical weapons before it acknowledged possessing them this summer.

NBC News reported in July that U.S. intelligence agencies believed that in addition to sarin, Syria had access to tabun, a chemical nerve agent, as well as traditional chemical weapons like mustard gas and hydrogen cyanide.

Officials told NBC News at the time that the Syrian government was moving the outlawed weapons around the country, leaving foreign intelligence agencies unsure where they might end up.

Syria is one of only seven nations that hasn't ratified the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention, the arms control agreement that outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of such weapons.

Bombshells filled with chemicals can be carried by Syrian Air Force fighter-bombers, in particular Sukhoi-22/20, MiG-23 and Sukhoi-24 aircraft. In addition, some reports indicate that unguided short-range Frog-7 artillery rockets may be capable of carrying chemical payloads.

In terms of longer-range delivery systems, Syria has a few dozen SS-21 ballistic missiles with a maximum range of 72 miles; 200 Scud-Bs, with a maximum range of 180 miles; and 60 to 120 Scud-Cs, with a maximum range of 300 miles, all of which are mobile and are capable of carrying chemical weapons, according U.S. intelligence officials.

I don't believe this one bit.
IMO, it's more USian bullshyte/propaganda designed to influence world opinion.

I totally believe it. Since we know Assad will kill his own people, destroy their cities, and even torture small children, why shouldn't be believe that Assad would do this?!

Of course you believe it.
You believe all the propaganda.
BTW, Israel still hasn't ratified the Chemical Weapons Ban Treaty. Why is that?

Of course it's true. The American government says it's true so it must be true. They even know where those weapons are. They're to the east, south, west and somewhat to the north of Damascus. In fact they're right there behind that tree. No, not that one. The one with the donkey peeing on it. Yeah, that one. You can see them right there disguised as a volkswagon van.

UK report finds IDF tortures Palestinian children
Published: 28 June, 2012, 20:42

British lawyers have lodged a complaint at the UN against Israel for allegedly torturing Palestinian children. Their report showed youngsters held in solitary confinement and shackled while in the custody of the Israeli military.

­This is considered torture and in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. A report funded by the UK Foreign Office claims Palestinian youths are routinely abused by Israeli authorities. A delegation of nine British lawyers revealed how Palestinians as young as 12 are treated when arrested and in Israeli custody. They spoke to UN agencies, former Israeli soldiers, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs and Palestinian children.


The report – Children in Military Custody – found that children are arrested by a number of soldiers normally in a night raid on their homes; they are then blindfolded with their wrists bound and transported to an interrogation centre face down on the floor of military vehicles.


“The majority are verbally and physically abused, without being informed of their right to see a lawyer or of their right to silence. They are sometimes held in solitary confinement and made to sign statements they can’t read because they are written in Hebrew,” the report says.


If Children are held for long periods in solitary confinement it is regarded as torture by the UN and is in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.


Greg Davies, a children’s rights barrister, who compiled and wrote the report told RT, “the weight of evidence in favour of these allegations is considerable and complaints have been lodged at the UN”.


Once in custody children have limited access to education and extremely restricted access to their family. “Every year Palestinian children are traumatised, sometimes irreversibly” the report states.


But Davies was told by Israeli military judges that Palestinian children are actually committing crimes so they end up in prison and get lessons, whereas the Palestinians, the UN and Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s claim that in most prisons the Israelis don't provide children with any education. “Palestinian children receive such a high standard of education that they have been known to offend just to access it,” the judges said.

“We didn’t look at evidence of social and psychiatric harm to children, but I know there is a raft of evidence in relation to that,” Davies explained to RT. A recent report by Save the Children found that Palestinian kids were suffering serious trauma as a result of the Israeli military occupation.


“When you look at the trauma that would be caused by arrest in the middle of the night or being dumped at the prison gates [after interrogation] with no one knowing you were there then it would be very difficult as a child not to suffer psychological damage,” Davies said.


The report also highlights a discrepancy in the law. There is one law for Israelis and another for Palestinians. Under the Israeli civil legal system an Israeli child cannot be imprisoned under the age of 14 and can get legal representation within 48 hours. Under Israeli military law, Palestinian youths are jailed as young as 12, and can be held for up to three months without access to a lawyer.


Davies believes this amounts to racial discrimination, “we found them in breach of Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it was evident there was discrimination,” he said.
Davies explained that although they were only in court for a few hours on one day of their week-long visit they saw a child in leg irons. “What was surprising was that they [the Israeli authorities] knew we were there that day.”


An Israeli military prosecutor told the team of lawyers, “Every Palestinian child is a potential terrorist.” This stance, Davies says, leads to a spiral of injustice, which only Israel as the occupying power in the West Bank can reverse.


A spokesman from the Israeli Embassy in London told the UK newspaper the Independent that Israel appreciated the efforts of the delegation but blamed Palestinians for “glorifying terrorism”. He added that as the Palestinian Authority will not investigate and prosecute alleged offences the Israeli military has no choice but to do so itself.


The UK government, which funded the report, said in statement, “We share many of the reports concerns and will continue to lobby for further improvements.”

http://rt.com/news/israel-tortures-pale ... eport-002/

It also known that USians tortured children in Iraq and that Obama is part of the coverup.

I don't believe this loading of gas for one second. Syria is not Iraq, and, even if it were, using almost the exact phraseology and terrorizing propaganda as was used to get us to invade Iraq is a bit ridiculous.

What occurs to me is that, for some reason, most MSM news sources seem to accept our governments news assessments that all Muslim countries are wild, barbaric, uneducated, brutes can be lumped together as ignorant, evil, murderous, religious fanatics with absolutely nothing more interesting in their lives than running around screaming, "Jihad! Yah, Jihad! Jihad! Toga Party? " What the hell.

The Egyptians, the Arabs, the Persians, the Syrians, all had well developed civilizations before the Europeans could even read. Look at what was built in Egypt, ancient China, hell, even the Aztecs and Mayans, had constructed very organized cities and civilizations. They are different, Yes. But that doesn't mean they are stupid.

And to suggest that anyone in the Middle East, with the full knowledge of what happened in Iraq and is happening in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, would even consider for a moment anything so utterly stupid as to use seran gas on their own populations to quiet the protestors is completely ridiculous. And to suggest that Israel or the US might bomb a facility they actually believe contains a poisonous gas of any kind is equally insane.

As one of the news commentators asked tonight of some smart ass talking head, "Wouldn't the bombing of suspected seran gas storage areas unleash the very poison gas we would be bombing the place to prevent being released?"

Indeed. The response was, "Well, maybe we wouldn't bomb the suspected facilities, only bomb the trucks making deliveries and taking deliveries out" Deliveries of what. What would be being brought to and taken from a facility whose purpose was to produce poison gas.

I don't think anyone on this planet is stupid enough to attempt to use seran gas to quiet a citizens protest or even a civil war. There are far too many other chemicals to use that the US, and others, have developed, that are not poisonous but can certainly be used to disperse crowds. They have the gases that smell so bad that anyone unprotected breathing it in would be involved in violent and continuous vomiting. There are the noise dispersal equipments that cause such pain to the unprotected ears that no one can stand to be around. There's tear gas and there's pepper spray, and there's fire hoses, and there's rubber bullets, and there's a thousand other non-lethal methods of dispersing protestors, even protestors with guns.

The only possible use Syria could have for seran gas would be national genocide and suicide. I don't think the people of Syria on either side of whatever the conflict is about would be about to make use of lethal gas to simply stop people from having a shoot out.

Every single newsletter from the left I've received sees this as an opportunity for one of those false flag things that will give the US brinksmanship an opportunity to start blasting away.

It is my understanding that Syria was, before this internal violence, and perhaps still, one of the nations that, along with Iran, was supplying various items, including weapons such as a better quality rockets and missles to Hezbollah and Hamas. We also have been informed, if anyone has bothered to look into it, that Syria seems to have some kind of alliance with Iran.

We know the US and Israel has been threatening, like the good terrorists they've become, to inflict bombs and rockets and perhaps even nuclear destruction (if our dear righteous nations should actually find their alleged nuclear facilities) by the use of some kind of EMP? (look it up. It's in the news right now. Some kind of electro magnetic missle that will shut down their computers and their electric grids and their telephones, etc. etc.....meaning that IF THERE ARE ACTUALLY ANY PARTIALLY OR COMPLETELY CONSTRUCTED NUCLEAR FACILITIES IN IRAN THE ELECTROMAGNETIC DESTRUCTION OF THE SAFETY CONTROLS WOULD BE ASSURED AND THERE WOULD BE NOTHING TO PREVENT THE OVERHEATING AND EXPLOSION OF SAID NUCLEAR PLANTS? Or so it would seem to my ignorant self. Am I wrong?

I'll try to find the newsletter and add the links. I am sorry for my ignorance, Being ignorant is to be fearful. Such information as we received during the Bush administration was sufficient to find any information coming from the Middle East claiming we need to go kill some more Muslims is highly suspect.

I do not think the Muslims are a bunch of idiots, and they are no more religiously deranged than our Phelps Families, and the guy who killed Dr. Tiller, and the ones who let that East Indian woman die rather than permit an abortion in their precious, sanctimonious hospital.

I wonder if any of them asked "What would Jesus do?" Probably not.

Hang on a bit. I'll look for the links.

jd

If read very carefully, the articles contain sentence structure that is confusing as to what the Syrian government, military and the protestors are doing. It is also unclear, in some sentence structure whether the authors are talking about dangers and/or threats from Syrian sources, or from US sources.

There seems to be no official statement from any reliable source that there is actually any saren (I know, I spell it wrong, but at the moment, I don't give a diddly) gas is actually even in the hands of the Syrian government, or the Syrian military, or the Syrian protestors. There is no certainty whatsoever, other than those articles that are using a lead such as "Syrian bombs locked and loaded with saren gas. Everybody panic!"

What is evident is that a vicious and dangerous allegation has been made, and I can't even determine which vicious rumor mongering terrorist has started it.

Fox News is hitting the panic button, threatening, terrorizing, salivating, promising...

Information Clearing House is really hounding this story, even with some sarcastic qualities.

As far as I heard on MSNBC, they are more interested in the career change of Jim DeMint and smirking at the over the whatever of the economy.

I am fully aware that I am supposed to just accept every bit of terrorizing threats issued by our government. I can't. The lies and deceit of the Bush years has changed my trust in any information that indicates there is another reason to destroy another Muslim regime.

I am extremely saddened by these hyped news blurbs designed to terrorize US citizens into accepting yet more killing and more weapons and more hatred, and more years to live in fear within a disintegrating world. I do not hear any words coming from the Muslim Middle Easterners that actually threaten the US with anything other than RETALIATION!!! "If you attack us, we will fight you."

Here are some links re the propaganda of terror, as well as something on the EMP weaponry, apparently in the hands of Israel. Oh, goody, goody. (Talk about terror?)

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Artic ... MGDbHeuWnk


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/ ... MGDkHeuWnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtOtiAwwimY


http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e33239.htm

http://gantdaily.com/2012/12/04/syria-m ... -official/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e33244.htm


http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e33223.htm


http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=61533


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -sarin-gas

That's all I need to know in order to stop worrying.

Ironic, eh? Or is it that Israel can't afford to point fingers about chemical/biological weapons?

Syria Civil War: Israel Defends Assad on Chemical Weapons in Syria
Alex Marin

Israel's Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad kept chemical weapons out of the hands of militants, according to Reuters.

The stunning defense came a day after it was known that NATO had voted to approve the deployment of Patriot missiles to the Turkish-Syrian border, after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warned the Syria regime that the United States would intervene if Assad decided to use these chemical weapons against his own people in the ongoing 20-month civil war in Syria. But, apparently, Israel is as concerned about chemical weapons falling into the hands of anti-Assad insurgents.

"Together with the international community, we are closely monitoring developments in Syria regarding its stores of chemical weapons," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. "Such weapons must not be used and must not reach terrorist elements," he added.

Yaalon insists, "there is speculation that the chemical arsenal will fall into the hostile and irresponsible hands of the likes of al Qaeda or other terrorist groups [...] in the past, clear messages were relayed to Assad on a number of opportunities, and in response Assad in fact gathered up the weaponry and separated the materials," he said.

Israel's vice prime minister confirmed that the United States had spotted "suspicious activity" involving Syria's stockpile, hence the warning to Assad from President Barack Obama and European allies meeting at NATO headquarters that they must never be used.

Read more on The Chicago Tribune.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/20231 ... s-in-syria