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Images of Death in Syria, but No Proof of Chemical Attack


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Mods.  I am requesting a new Syria Board/Topic.  IMO, involvement is inevitable now.     Images of Death in Syria, but No Proof of Chemical Attack

 

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Bassam Khabieh/Reuters

Aftermath of Attack in Syria: Hundreds of Syrians were killed by what rebels call a chemical weapons attack carried out by the government.

By BEN HUBBARD and HWAIDA SAAD Published: August 21, 2013 535 Comments

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Scores of men, women and children were killed outside Damascus on Wednesday in an attack marked by the telltale signs of chemical weapons: row after row of corpses without visible injury; hospitals flooded with victims, gasping for breath, trembling and staring ahead languidly; images of a

over a neighborhood.

But even with videos, witness accounts and testimonies by emergency medics, it was impossible to say for certain how many people had been killed and what exactly had killed them. The rebels blamed the government, the government denied involvement and Russia accused the rebels of staging the attack to implicate President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Images of death and chaos poured out of Syria after what may be the single deadliest attack in more than two years of civil war. Videos posted online showed dozens of lifeless bodies, men wrapped in burial shrouds and children, some still in diapers. There were hospital scenes of corpses and the stricken sprawled on gurneys and tile floors as medics struggled to resuscitate them.

Getting to the bottom of the assault could well alter the course of the conflict and affect the level of the West’s involvement.

President Obama said almost exactly a year ago that the use of chemical weapons was a red line. But the subsequent conclusion by the White House that the Syrian Army had used chemical weapons did not bring about a marked shift in American engagement.

This latest attack, by far the largest chemical strike yet alleged, could tip that balance — as many foes of Mr. Assad hope it will.

But like so much in Syria, where the government bars most reporters from working and the opposition heavily filters the information it lets out, the truth remains elusive.

The attack was especially conspicuous given the presence in Damascus of a team sent by the United Nations to investigate chemical strikes reportedly waged earlier in the war. The United States, the European Union and other world powers called for the investigators to visit the site of Wednesday’s attack.

The Security Council, meeting in emergency session, issued a statement calling for a prompt investigation of the allegations and a cease-fire in the conflict, but took no further action.

“I can say that there is a strong concern among Council members about the allegations and a general sense that there must be clarity on what happened, and that the situation has to be followed carefully,” said María Cristina Perceval of Argentina, the president of the Council, after the meeting. “All Council members agreed that any use of chemical weapons, by any side under any circumstances, is a violation of international law.”

The ranking diplomat from Britain, Philip Parham, told reporters later outside the Security Council chambers that representatives of at least 35 countries had signed a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting that Syrian authorities grant the United Nations investigative panel in Syria “urgent access” to the attack site.

But Mr. Parham declined to specify the signatories or to divulge whether any of the 15 Security Council members had proposed any stronger measures during their closed-door consultations.

In the opposition’s account of the deadly events, Mr. Assad’s forces deployed poison gas on a number of rebel-held suburbs east of Damascus, the capital. They described medics finding people dead in their homes.

Videos posted online showed mostly men and children, but the opposition activists said that many women were killed too, but that out of respect they were not photographed.

The actual death toll remained unclear. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late Wednesday that more than 130 people had been confirmed dead in attacks around Damascus, though it could not confirm the use of gas. Other opposition estimates put the death toll at more than 1,000.

“I saw many children lying on beds as if they were sleeping, but unfortunately they were dead,” said an activist reached via Skype in the suburb of Erbin, who gave his name as Abu Yassin.

“We thought this regime would not use chemical weapons, at least these days with the presence of the U.N. inspectors,” he said. “It is reckless. The regime is saying, ‘I don’t care.’ ”

Others said that field hospitals were overwhelmed with the number of patients and that many ran out of medication. An activist who gave only his first name, Mohammed, said the dead in one suburb, Zamalka, were laid out in front of a mosque, where a voice over loudspeakers called on residents to identify their relatives.

The video record posted online did not provide enough detail to draw a complete picture of what happened. Unlike the videos often uploaded by the opposition, the images on Wednesday did not show the immediate aftermath of the attacks in the communities.

The videos, experts said, also did not prove the use of chemical weapons, which interfere with the nervous system and can cause defecation, vomiting, intense salivation and tremors. Only some of those symptoms were visible in some patients.

Gwyn Winfield, editor of CBRNe World, a journal that covers unconventional weapons, said that the medics would most likely have been sickened by exposure to so many people dosed with chemical weapons — a phenomenon not seen in the videos. He said that the victims could have been killed by tear gas used in a confined space, or by a diluted form of a more powerful chemical agent. Others suggested that toxic industrial chemicals might have been used.

Some witness testimony suggested that residents, used to seeking cover from government shelling and airstrikes by running into underground shelters, had made the situation worse. In one video, a young medic said that residents had hidden in their basements, where the gas collected and suffocated them.

“The descent of the citizens into the basements increased the number of wounded and the number of martyrs,” the medic said, before breaking into tears and adding that many from the medical corps also succumbed to the gases.

It was not clear whether the team sent to Syria by the United Nations would be able to investigate the new reported attacks. The team arrived Sunday after months of negotiations with the Syrian government and is authorized to visit only three predetermined sites.

The White House said that Syria should provide access to the United Nations, and that those found to have used chemical weapons should be held accountable. Other countries, including Britain and France, offered similar expressions of concern.

Russia wrote off the attack as a “preplanned provocation” orchestrated by the rebels and said they had launched the gas with a homemade rocket from an area they controlled.

“All of this looks like an attempt at all costs to create a pretext for demanding that the U.N. Security Council side with opponents of the regime and undermine the chances of convening the Geneva conference,” said the statement, issued by Aleksandr Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. He also called for a “professional and fair investigation.”

At least one photograph posted on Facebook by an activist showed what looked like a makeshift rocket. But loyalist militias and Hezbollah have both fired makeshift rockets at rebel positions in this war, and could presumably be suspects for any attacks with improvised rockets on rebel-controlled neighborhoods.

The Syrian Army, in a statement read on state television, denied having used chemical weapons, calling the accusations part of a “filthy media war” in favor of the rebels. The claims “are nothing but a desperate effort to cover their defeat on the ground, and reflect the state of hysteria, confusion and collapse of these gangs and those who support them,” the statement said.

Louay Mekdad, a media coordinator for the military wing of the opposition Syrian National Council, said the attack showed that Mr. Assad “doesn’t care any longer about red lines since he has already exceeded too many of them while the world has showed no reaction.”

Mr. Mekdad called on the Security Council and international powers to “live up to their moral and historic responsibility” to protect civilians in Syria. “If the international community doesn’t move now, when is it going to move?” he asked.

 

Reporting was contributed by David M. Herszenhorn from Moscow; C.J. Chivers from the United States; Peter Baker and Thom Shanker from Washington; Alan Cowell from London; Alissa J. Rubin from Paris; Mac Bishop from New York; and Karam Shoumali from Antakya, Turkey.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/world/middleeast/syria.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

 

 

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Syria 'chemical' attack: France says force may be needed

 

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A child describes his mother "falling to the floor", as James Robbins reports

France's foreign minister has said a "reaction with force" could be needed if Syria is proved to have used chemical weapons against civilians.

Laurent Fabius's comments come a day after Syrian activists said hundreds of people died in such attacks in the Ghouta area of the capital, Damascus.

The UN has asked Syria to allow UN weapons inspectors already in the country to be allowed to investigate.

But there is no sign as yet that Damascus will allow this.

The UN team arrived in the city on Sunday and are staying about 15km (10 miles) from the site of the recent attacks.

Continue reading the main story Analysis
_64915761_64915760.jpg Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent

The chances of the UN chemical weapons inspectors in Syria accessing the true site of Wednesday's alleged chemical attack in time to make a clear judgement on responsibility are slim.

It took months to negotiate permission for them to visit other sites around the country. The Syrian government, backed by Russia, is resisting calls to give them access to the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta where this apparent atrocity took place. Part of the reason is the area is contested between government forces and rebels and is therefore unsafe.

If an agent such as sarin has been used, the UN team would need to get to the site within days before traces become so faint as to be inconclusive. And if, as the opposition claims, it was a government attack, then a delay of days or weeks would give it enough time for forensic evidence to become controversial and for evidence of munitions used to be removed. The Syrian government insists it was the rebels who carried out the attack.

But they only have a mandate to visit three sites previously agreed between the UN and the Syrian government, including the northern town of Khan al-Assal, where some 26 people were killed in an alleged chemical attack in March.

The Syrian government has described the latest allegations as "illogical and fabricated". The Syrian army said opposition forces had made up the claims to divert attention from their recent huge losses.

Heavy shelling continued around Ghouta on Thursday, reports say.

'Red lines crossed'

A spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, Eduardo del Buey, said on Thursday that the secretary general Ban Ki-moon believed the attacks "need to be investigated without delay".

Mr Ban was sending his disarmament chief Angela Kane to Damascus to press for an investigation, he said.

Earlier, Mr Fabius told the French BFM TV channel that if the use of chemical weapons was confirmed, "France's position is that there must be a reaction, a reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force".

He did not elaborate on whether that meant backing military action, but did rule out the idea of deploying troops inside Syria.

The US state department said it had yet to "conclusively determine" what had taken place in Damascus, but that it was urgently gathering information.

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US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki: ''The president, of course, has a range of options''

If President Bashar al-Assad's government was found to be behind a chemical weapons attack it would be "an outrageous and flagrant escalation", spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

President Barack Obama warned last year that the use of such weapons would cross a "red line".

The British Foreign Office said earlier in a statement that the UK and 36 other countries had formally referred the latest allegations to Mr Ban, and called for inspectors "to be granted the necessary access to enable their investigation into these latest allegations as a matter of urgency".

"We believe a political solution is the best way to end the bloodshed," said the statement, but added that the UK has "said many times we cannot rule out any option... that might save innocent lives in Syria".

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also stressed the need for an urgent response, and criticised the lack of UN action.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement condemning the attack at an emergency meeting.

It was blocked by China and Russia, which have repeatedly backed the Syrian government since the crisis began.

Russia is supporting calls for an investigation, however, because it believes the opposition might have carried out the attack itself, as "premeditated provocation" in an attempt to win the backing of the UN.

Disturbing footage

Opposition activists said that more than 1,000 people were killed after government forces launched rockets with toxic agents into the Damascus suburbs in the Ghouta region early on Wednesday.

Continue reading the main story Chemical weapons claims
  • Khan al-Assal, 19 March 2013 - Syrian state media accuse rebels of killing 31 people with rockets containing "chemical materials". Rebels blame the army for the attack.
  • Al-Otaybeh, 19 March 2013 - Opposition activists allege an attack in which six people are reported dead, apparently in reprisal for gains made by rebel forces.
  • Adra, 24 March 2013 - The LCC activist network say two people are killed in an attack.
  • Sheikh Maqsoud, Aleppo, 13 April 2013 - At least three people are killed in an attack; internet footage of the victims shows symptoms consistent with exposure to nerve gas.
  • Saraqeb, 29 April 2013 - Eyewitnesses say canisters containing a poisonous gas are dropped from a helicopter above the town. Eight people are injured, one of whom later dies.
  • Ghouta, 21 August 2013 - By far the most serious alleged incident, with hundreds reported dead in attacks on the outskirts of Damascus

The BBC has been unable to independently confirm the death toll.

Activists said Wednesday's attack took place as part of heavy government bombardment in the region surrounding Damascus, with government forces trying to drive out rebel forces. The areas affected included Irbin, Duma and Muadhamiya.

Video footage shows dozens of bodies with no visible signs of injuries, including small children, and survivors being treated in makeshift hospitals, with victims, including many children, having convulsions.

Chemical weapons experts have told the BBC that footage appears genuine and that the injuries shown are consistent with nerve agents.

While it is not clear how many died in the bombardment of the sites and how many deaths were due to any exposure to toxic substances, experts say it would be almost impossible to fake so many dead and injured including children and babies.

Both the rebels and government forces have accused each other of using chemical weapons throughout the 28-month conflict.

Syria is believed to have large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.

The government has implied it has chemical weapons, but said they would not be used against civilians.

More than 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the 28-months of conflict Syria.

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Syrian victims of alleged gas attack smuggled to Jordan for blood tests

Samples could help inform international response to incident, as UN inspectors denied access to affected areas of Damascus

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The scene of the alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus. Photograph: Erbin News/Demotix/Corbis

At least three victims of the alleged chemical weapons attack in east Damascus on Thursday have been smuggled to Jordan where samples of their blood and urine will help determine which agent was used to gas hundreds of people.

The samples could help inform an international response to the attack, which has sharply upped the stakes in Syria's civil war, drawing demands for recrimination and edging a much-feared regional spillover closer to reality.

Two mosques in Lebanon's second city, whose sheikhs have been persistently critical of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime, were severely damaged by car bombs on Friday . At least 42 worshippers were killed and up to 500 were wounded in the deadliest act of terror to hit the volatile country since the war started across its border two and a half years ago.

The bombs exploded as midday prayers were concluding on the first day of the Islamic weekend. Both mosques were filled with people who, minutes later, would have spilled out into car parks where the explosives-filled vehicles were parked.

"It is already hell on earth here," said Mohammed Dahbi, a mechanic from Tripoli, a Sunni Muslim-dominated city in north Lebanon. "But it could have been worse. So much worse."

A similar attack in Dahiyeh, in the Shia heartland of south Beirut, on 15 August killed 27 people.

Dahiyeh is a hub of operations for the Hezbollah militia. The Syrian war has deepened divisions between the two Islamic sects, which line up on different sides; the Sunnis largely support the opposition in Syria but Hezbollah is resolutely backing the Assad regime.

Hezbollah condemned the Tripoli attack, which it said was aimed at causing "civil strife". However, the condemnation fell on deaf ears near the scene of the blasts, with bystanders angrily blaming the group for the destruction.

"When there's a bomb in their area, they blame 'Takfiris', by whom they mean us," said Ahmed Otthman, referring to a term used to describe radical Islamists. "And when things like this happen to us, they blame Israel."

Tripoli has been the scene of repeated clashes over the past two years between its majority Sunnis and a minority community of Alawites who have remained barricaded on a hilltop suburb near the centre of the city.

The two ruling Syrian families, the Assads and the Makhloufs, are Alawites, and much of the Damascus establishment hails from the sect, which is loosely aligned to Shia Islam and comprises 12% of Syria's population.

Speakers at Friday prayers at each of the mosques had been denouncing the poison gas attack in Syria's Ghouta region, which came as the Syrian military launched a major advance into eastern areas of the capital that it continued to shell on Friday.

United Nations inspectors in Damascus were denied access for a second day to the affected areas of the capital – only seven-10 miles from their hotel.

Sources inside rebel-held districts said an active network of defectors, some of whom had fled the Syrian military's chemical warfare division, were helping to smuggle biological samples from the scenes of the attack to Jordan. At least three more victims suffering mild effects of gassing will be transferred to Jordan in the next few days.

The samples being sourced are biopsies of livers and spleens from fatalities, as well as blood and urine from survivors.

Rebel groups have received contact from investigators identifying themselves as UN team members asking for co-operation in providing samples. The investigators have apparently asked for biological samples to be taken from animals, too. The Guardian has been unable to verify if the contact was from the UN.

A questionnaire distributed to some rebel commanders asks for GPS co-ordinates of the attacks and launch sites as well as all medical records of victims, laboratory results and environmental samples.

Chemical weapons experts interviewed by the Guardian said that symptoms of the dead and dying depicted on videos posted online support a growing view that sarin was the nerve agent used in the attack, which killed up to 1,400 people.

Britain has blamed the Assad regime for the attack, the worst of its kind anywhere since Saddam Hussein's army gassed Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja in 1988, killing between 3,000-5,000 people.

However, the US continued to toe a cautious line, asking its intelligence community to gather more information before deciding what to do about it.

Eastern Ghouta has been a stronghold of rebel groups for much of the past year. Persistent bombing by Syrian military jets and artillery has been unable to dislodge armed opposition groups who have been poised on the edge of the capital's inner sanctum, but unable to advance.

The Syrian news agency, Sana, said the operation carried out in the early hours of Thursday was the largest launched since the civil war began. It said it aimed to clear the east of the capital and then pave the way for a push towards the Jordanian border, which remains bitterly contested by both sides.

The Syrian regime has been advancing in parts of the country, with the help of forces from Hezbollah, particularly in Homs and the west. However, it has been unable to clear the capital of rebel groups, which continue to pose a potent threat to its institutions.

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/syria-gas-attack-blood-tests

Syrian Rebels: '1,300 Killed In Gas Attack'
The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting over the alleged attack, while weapons inspectors talk to the Assad regime.
10:47pm UK, Wednesday 21 August 2013
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Video: 'Chemical Weapons Attack' In Syria

Enlarge
 

Professor Fawaz Gerges, from the London School of Economics, says if evidence of chemical warfare was found in the Syrian conflict, it would attract western intervention.

Video: 'Gas Use' A Crossing Of US Red Line

Enlarge

More than 1,300 people have been killed in a chemical weapons attack near Damascus, according to Syria's main opposition group.

The National Coalition claims toxic gas was used by President Bashar al Assad's forces during a bombardment of rebel-held areas outside the Syrian capital.

It described the attack as a "coup de grace that kills all hopes for a political solution in Syria".

The government said the claims were "totally false" and the international news organisations reporting them were "implicated in the shedding of Syrian blood and support terrorism".

map-1-522x293.jpgAttacks are alleged to have occured in the towns of Zamalka aand Ein Tarma

It comes three days after a 20-strong team of UN weapons inspectors arrived in Damascus to investigate whether chemical weapons have been used in the conflict.

The European Union has demanded an independent investigation into the alleged poison attack - which if confirmed would be the worst attack of its kind since Saddam Hussein killed an estimated 5,000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.

Russia, a longstanding ally of the Assad regime, echoed the call for a probe.

The US said it was "deeply concerned" by the reports and also called for an "urgent" investigation, demanding the Syrian government grant "immediate access" to the UN weapons inspectors.

"If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the UN team's immediate and unfettered access to this site," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

cegrab-20130821-100447-139-1-522x293.jpgActivists posted videos showing children apparently hurt in the attack

The United Nations said its chief weapons inspector was in talks with the Syrian government over the alleged attack, as the UN Security Council went into an emergency meeting behind closed doors to discuss the situation.

Earlier, Sky sources said at least 200 people were killed in the shelling in Zamalka and Ein Tarma, but could not verify whether chemical weapons were used.

Mohammed Saeed, an activist in the area, said hundreds of dead and injured have been taken to six make-shift hospitals in the eastern suburbs of Damascus.

"This is a massacre by chemical weapons," he said via Skype. "The visit by the UN team is a joke ... Bashar is using the weapons and telling the world that he does not care."

Opposition groups said government forces had fired "rockets with poisonous gas heads" in the attack.

Videos posted on YouTube by activists show children being treated in make-shift hospitals. Some are having convulsions and difficulty breathing. Others are not moving.

Sky News cannot authenticate the footage.

 

The YouTube images cannot be authenticated by Sky News

"Regime forces after midnight stepped up military operations in the East Ghouta and West Ghouta zones of the Damascus region with aircraft and rocket launchers, causing several dozen dead and wounded," the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, another Syrian pro-opposition group, said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the "brutal use of toxic gas by the criminal regime in parts of Western Ghouta".

Videos claiming to show the shelling were posted on YouTube by the Syrian Revolution General Commission, another activist group.

They showed what it called "a terrible massacre committed by regime forces with toxic gas, leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded".

Professor Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics, examined the motive behind a chemical weapons attack.

He told Sky News: "Why would the Assad government use poison while you have a very strong UN team in Damascus?... and his army has the upper hand in the Ghouta area? He has done everything in his power to prevent western intervention."

Prof Gerges said the pressure would be "overwhelming", not just on the US but on Britain and France too, "to retaliate militarily" if a UN probe found evidence of a chemical weapons attack in the region east of the Syrian capital.

 

Casualties are much higher than in previous allegations of chemical attacks

"So it in this particular sense, it is very strange, it doesn't make sense, it's illogical, though we have learned in the last two-and-a- half years that irrationality is as important as rationality when it comes to the Assad regime," he added.

Both the rebels and government forces have accused each other of using chemical weapons in the conflict, which began in March 2011 and has killed more than 100,000 people.

The UN team is investigating three sites where chemical weapons have allegedly been used: the village of Khan al Assal, just west of the northern city of Aleppo, and two other locations, which are being kept secret for security reasons.

If confirmed, this alleged chemical attack would be the most serious in the conflict since the incident in Khan al Assal on March 19, when at least 30 people were killed.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he hoped the alleged attack would "wake up" those who have supported the Assad regime to "its murderous and barbaric nature."

He said he was "deeply concerned" by the "uncorroborated" reports which if verified "would mark a shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria".

"Those who order the use of chemical weapons, and those who use them, should be in no doubt that we will work in every way we can to hold them to account," he said.

Mr Hague said he hoped the team of UN weapons inspectors were granted "immediate and unrestricted access" to the area of the alleged chemical attack "to try to establish the truth".

"There is no reason for them not to be given access to an area not many miles from where they are doing their work now," he added.

 

 

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1131320/syrian-rebels-1300-killed-in-gas-attack

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Assad and his forces did not do this.

Anyone that thinks he did needs their head checked.

This is the same mentality as to when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds (5000+) in Iraq.  Nothing happens in any country that the head of State/Nation is not aware of something of this magnitude, either before or just minutes after and not act towards using the swift sword.  No mobilization of his troops.  No border closing.  No Martial Law implemented.  No complaint to the UN Security Council from Syria.  No "Help me, throw me a rope" from the official Syrian channels to the world.  Nothing!  Just debating whether to let the UN investigators in so they can investigate.  This is a corrupt/genocidal government that is just like the one Iraq used to be.  JMMHO.  Only a true unbiased investigation will reveal what really happened.  Thanks for your input and post.

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You'll never get an unbiased investigation on this.

Russian, Chinese, and Iranian media are reporting the rebels did this. They have much more credibility these days than the western media.

Why would Assad attack his own people, the ones that have been supporting him in this insurgency, on the very day the chemical weapon experts get to Syria?

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Syria chemical attack evidence mounting, John Baird says
'The only end of the suffering of the Syrian people will be a political solution,' foreign affairs minister says The Associated Press Posted: Aug 23, 2013 5:39 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 23, 2013 10:50 PM ET 

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said evidence of a possible chemical weapons attack in Syria this week is mounting, but he stopped short of confirming a chemical attack actually took place.

"The fact that Syria continues to bombard this specific geographic area ... is telling," Baird said at a press conference Friday afternoon. “The fact that Syria will not let the UN inspectors who are on the ground in the country today visit this area is a very telling action.”

Baird said he has met with his British counterpart, William Hague, and both of them are “troubled” by the United Nations Security Council’s inability to take decisive action.

When asked if Canada will take any military action, Baird said Canada and its allies need more information before coming to a conclusion.

“The only end of the suffering of the Syrian people will be a political solution,” he said.

Wednesday's attack came as a UN team was on the ground in Syria investigating earlier claims of chemical weapons attacks.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria during more than two years of clashes between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters seeking to overthrow his regime.

U.S. President Barack Obama says the alleged possible chemical weapons attack is a "big event of grave concern" that has hastened the timeframe for determining a U.S. response.

However, Obama said the notion that the U.S. alone can end Syria's bloody civil war is "overstated" and made clear he would seek international support before taking large-scale action.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work," Obama said during an interview with CNN. "Those are considerations that we have to take into account."

Obama's comments on Syria were his first since Wednesday's alleged chemical weapons attack on the eastern suburbs of Damascus that killed at least 100 people. While he appeared to signal some greater urgency in responding, his comments were largely in line with his previous statements throughout the two-year conflict.

The president said the U.S. is still seeking conclusive evidence that chemical weapons were used this week.

Such actions, he said, would be troubling and would be detrimental to "some core national interests that the United States has, both in terms of us making sure that weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our allies, our bases in the region."

Russia calls for Syria's co-operation

The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, is calling for an independent probe by UN experts into the incident.

The statement released on Friday said that Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had discussed the situation by telephone on Thursday, and concluded that they had a "mutual interest" in calling for the UN investigation.

The statement said Russia had called for Assad's embattled government to co-operate with an investigation, but questions remained about the willingness of the opposition, "which must secure safe access of the mission to the location of the incident."

Russia has been one of Assad's key allies in the international arena.

U.S. shouldn't be 'jumping' into immediate action

Obama has warned that the use of the deadly gases would cross a "red line," but the U.S. response to the confirmed attacks earlier this year has been minimal.

That's opened Obama up to fierce criticism, both in the U.S. and abroad. Among those leading the criticism is Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, who says America's credibility has been damaged because Obama has not taken more forceful action to stop the violence.

The president pushed back at those assertions in the interview aired Friday, saying that while the U.S. remains "the one indispensable nation," that does not mean the country should get involved everywhere immediately.

"Sometimes what we've seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumping into stuff, that does not turn out well," he said. "We have to think through strategically what's going to be in our long-term national interests, even as we work co-operatively internationally to do everything we can to put pressure on those who would kill innocent civilians."

After the earlier chemical weapons attacks, Obama did approve the shipments of small weapons and ammunition to the Syrian rebels, but there is little sign that the equipment has arrived.

 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/08/23/syria-alleged-chemical-weapons-un-inspectors.html



You'll never get an unbiased investigation on this.

Russian, Chinese, and Iranian media are reporting the rebels did this. They have much more credibility these days than the western media.

Why would Assad attack his own people, the ones that have been supporting him in this insurgency, on the very day the chemical weapon experts get to Syria?

Psychological manipulation.

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Syrian forces bomb area of alleged chemical attack

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces pressed their offensive in eastern Damascus on Thursday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said the regime had killed more than 100 people the day before in a chemical weapons attack.

The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as "absolutely baseless."

The U.S., Britain and France have demanded that a team of U.N. experts already in Syria be granted immediate access to the site.

Syrian opposition figures and activists have reported death tolls from Wednesday's attack ranging from 136 to 1,300. But even the most conservative tally would make it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in Syria's civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had no word on casualties in the Thursday morning bombing. It said warplanes conducted several air raids on eastern and western suburbs of Damascus, including three that took place within five minutes.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also reported several air raids on the suburbs, and added that President Bashar Assad's forces were shelling eastern Ghouta from the Qasioun mountain overlooking Damascus.

Wednesday's alleged chemical attack was said to have killed scores of children, seen in amateur videos as small, lifeless bodies, wrapped in white cloths, their pale skin unmarked by any wounds.

Images of dead children lying shoulder to shoulder in rooms and of others being treated for breathing problems brought worldwide condemnation and shock.

Terrifying Images of Women and Children in SyriaPlay video."

Mohammed Abdullah, an activist in the suburb of Saqba, told The Associated Press via Skype on Thursday that most of the dead were buried hours after the attack in collective graves in different areas in eastern Ghouta. The burials took place quickly for fear the bodies might decompose in the heat, he said.

Relatives identified some of the dead before burial. Unidentified victims were photographed and their graves tagged with a number in case their loved ones come to collect their bodies in the future, Abdullah said.

"Most of the dead were buried in mass graves," he said.

In a statement calling the reports "deeply disturbing," UNICEF said: "This terrible conflict has gone on far too long and children have suffered more than enough.

"Children must be protected, and those who fail to protect them will be held accountable," it said.

From New York, the U.N. Security Council called for "a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation."

Syria's state media quoted a Foreign Ministry official, anonymously according to standard practice, as saying Thursday that allowing the U.N. team to go to Ghouta would require an agreement between the Syrian government and the U.N.

A 20-member U.N. team led by Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom has been in Damascus since Sunday to investigate three sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred in the past: the village of Khan al-Assal just west of the embattled northern city of Aleppo and two other locations being kept secret for security reasons.

 

France, meanwhile, raised the possibility of using force in Syria if it is proven that Assad's regime used chemical weapons.

"We need a reaction by the international community, ... a reaction of force," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. He excluded deploying soldiers on the ground as an option, though, and declined to specify the type of force that could be used.

Yuval Steinitz, Israel's minister for intelligence and strategic affairs, said Israeli "intelligence estimates" concluded that chemical weapons indeed were used. He didn't point fingers directly at Assad but called his regime "exceptionally cruel."

In Germany, Turkish and German foreign ministers underlined demands to let U.N. inspectors investigate. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called for new sanctions.

"Several red lines have been crossed — if sanctions are not imposed immediately, then we will lose our power to deter," he said.

He added that he had spoken to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and told him that "the U.N. must not behave hesitantly anymore, sanctions must now be imposed."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the Syrian opposition's allegations were "so serious, so monstrous that it is necessary to enable a real examination before talking or speculating about consequences."

Russia, Assad's main backer, is balking at tougher action. On Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the accusations appear to be an effort to "create a pretext at any cost" to stop the U.N. Security Council from supporting Assad's foes.

France says force needed if Syrian chemical attack …Play video."

He said Russia's gathered intelligence indicated that the rocket had been launched from positions in a Damascus suburb occupied by opposition forces.

On Thursday, Assad issued a decree introducing a cabinet reshuffle that affected several minor portfolios. According to the reshuffle, Samir Ezzat Amin was named as minister of domestic trade and consumer protection, replacing Qadri Jamil, who retained his post of deputy premier for economic affairs. The reshuffle also affected the ministry of education, economy, industry and tourism.

The last cabinet reshuffle was carried out in February. Thursday's reshuffle likely won't affect any major change in the stance of Assad's government.

In the capital, rebels attacked several army checkpoints Thursday in the neighborhood of Jobar, killing nine soldiers and wounding 10, the Observatory said. Jobar, on the northern edge of Damascus, has endured clashes between troops and rebels for weeks.

The Observatory also reported heavy clashes between al-Qaida-linked groups and Kurdish gunmen in the predominantly Kurdish northeastern province of Hassakeh. The group said the fighting concentrated near a border crossing point with Turkey in the city of Ras al-Ayan that is controlled by Kurdish gunmen.

It said both sides suffered casualties.

The fighting in northeastern Syria has killed hundreds of people in the past months. Earlier this week, the fighting drove a mass exodus of civilians out of the region into neighboring Iraq.

The unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed, according to U.N. figures.

____

Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

 

See Bottom Link for Pics.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-forces-bomb-area-alleged-chemical-attack-072545055.html

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Psychological manipulation.

That's what the Rothschild controlled media is doing to you.

This is yet another banker war. Syria is one of the last countries without a Rothschild controlled central bank. They won't be happy until the have every single person on earth in their control.

Only the super naive would believe western media at this point.

I'm gonna go enjoy this beautiful day. I hope you will wake from your slumber before its too late.

Edit: Sky and AP news are worthless.

Edited by flatdawg
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Long-term nerve damage feared after Syria chemical attack

 
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By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON | Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:06am EDT

(Reuters) - Even those who survived the suspected chemical weapons attack in Damascus - and many hundreds didn't - may have life-long disabilities and health problems for which there are few effective treatments.

The death toll from the incident, the latest grisly episode in Syria's two-and-a-half-year civil war, could well rise in coming days as doctors and other health workers who suffered secondary exposure via the direct victims start to succumb to the agent's poison.

Antidotes and emergency treatments do exist for patients suffering the immediate effects of poisoning by a nerve agent - something many experts fear happened to the thousands affected in rebel-held areas of the Syrian capital on Wednesday.

But if no help comes within the first hour or so, the chances become slim that an antidote drug like atropine or oxime, or the sedative diazepam, will do much good.

"(Treatment) needs to be immediate. The damage is done very quickly," said Ray Zilinskas, a chemical and biological weapons expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in the United States.

"Longer term, the major risk is the result of significant restricted breathing," which could also lead to brain damage, said Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology and chemical weapons expert at Britain's Leeds University.

ONE BREATH COULD BE DEADLY

Nerve gases are the most potent and deadly of the known chemical agents. "They are rapidly lethal and are hazardous by any route of exposure," says Sharon Ruetter of the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland.

In a review of chemical weapons hazards in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, Ruetter said it was theoretically possible to release nerve gases in high enough concentrations that "one breath would be incapacitating or deadly".

Nerve gases include tabun, soman and sarin - the agent experts think is most likely to have been used in Syria.

They interfere with transmissions between nerves, or between nerves and muscle cells, causing muscle weakness or paralysis, including paralysis of the diaphragm and heart. They also cause seizures, loss of body control, restricted breathing, sweating, profuse nasal and lung secretions and constricted pupils.

"With the number of casualties we've seen - the figures I'm seeing at the moment are up to 2,000 dead - and the sorts of symptoms, the rapidity of death ... the only plausible explanation is a chemical weapon," said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former commander of the chemical, biological and nuclear counter-terrorism unit at Britain's defense ministry.

"If it is a chemical weapon, it's most likely to be a nerve agent - and we know that sarin has been used in the past in Syria. We know that Assad has very large stockpiles of sarin, and a delivery of sarin would create these kinds of casualties."

Hay said that from pictures and videos he'd seen, nasal and lung secretions - signs consistent with nerve gas poisoning - were "very evident in many of the victims".

ANTIDOTE STOCKPILES?

Then there's the question of whether the antidote is available - and if so, in what quantities.

If the victims - whose writhing bodies and agonized faces shocked the world when Syrian activists published pictures and videos - did suffer a nerve agent attack, then atropine would be the treatment of choice.

A generic medicine, it is used in anesthesia as a premedication, in emergency situations or during surgery to make the heart beat faster, and to reverse the effects of poisons that make people hyper-salivate, or foam at the mouth.

Troops at risk of chemical weapons attacks often carry atropine auto-injectors to administer into thigh muscles.

Since it is a core medicine on the World Health Organization's "Essential Drugs List" - a list of minimum medical needs for any basic healthcare system - hospitals in Syria should have it, but may not have enough to treat a large number of people quickly.

"We have emergency (atropine) stockpiles here in the United States that could be accessed in a short time - and most industrialized countries would be the same," said Zilinskas.

In Syria, while most hospitals should have small amounts when they are functioning properly, the fear now is that supplies will be severely limited, and that any stockpiles are most likely to be held by the military.

"The question is how quickly would the military share? How quickly would they get it to victims?" said Zilinskas. "It doesn't do much good if it arrives two or three hours later."

(This story is corrected in third paragraph to read "thousands affected", not "thousands killed")

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Will Waterman)

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/23/us-syria-attack-health-idUSBRE97M0HP20130823

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That's what the Rothschild controlled media is doing to you.

This is yet another banker war. Syria is one of the last countries without a Rothschild controlled central bank. They won't be happy until the have every single person on earth in their control.

Only the super naive would believe western media at this point.

I'm gonna go enjoy this beautiful day. I hope you will wake from your slumber before its too late.

Edit: Sky and AP news are worthless.

This is not about a conspiracy.  This is real!  People are dead and the world will be asking for answers very soon.  By the way, I won't fall for this trap.  I am too seasoned and well read.  Thanks for your post and comments.  Enjoy your day.  :)

U.N. presses Syria to allow gas attack inspection

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

By Erika Solomon and John Irish

BEIRUT/PARIS | Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:53pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United Nations demanded Syria give its chemical weapons experts immediate access on Thursday to rebel-held Damascus suburbs where poison gas appears to have killed hundreds just a few miles from the U.N. team's hotel.

There was no sign, however, that scientists would soon be taking samples at the scene of horrors that have drawn comparison with the gassing of thousands of Iraqi Kurds at Halabja in 1988.

The administration of President Barack Obama said it was "appalled" by the death reports.

A U.S. official familiar with initial intelligence assessments said the attack appeared to be the work of the Assad government. It was "the regime acting as a regime," the official said. But the Obama administration made clear that any response would await confirmation of a chemical attack and its origin.

Assad's opponents gave death tolls from 500 to well over 1,000 and said more bodies were being found in the wake of Wednesday's mysterious pre-dawn killer fumes, which the Syrian government insists were not its doing.

Images, including some by freelance photographers supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies laid out on floors with no visible signs of injury. Some had foam at the nose and mouth.

Talk, notably from France and Britain, of a forceful foreign response remains unlikely to be translated into rapid, concerted action given division between the West and Russia at Wednesday's U.N. Security Council meeting, and caution from Washington on Thursday.

Moscow has said rebels may have released gas to discredit Assad and urged him to agree to a U.N. inspection. On Wednesday, Russian objections to Western pressure on Syria saw the Security Council merely call in vague terms for "clarity" - a position increasingly frustrated Syrian rebels described as "shameful".

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Syria must let the U.N. team already in Damascus investigate "without delay". He said he would send a top U.N. disarmament official, Angela Kane, to lobby the Syrian government in person.

Ban said he expected a swift, positive answer.

Obama has directed U.S. intelligence agencies to urgently help establish what caused the deaths, a State Department spokeswoman said while acknowledging it may be difficult given the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Syria.

"At this time, right now, we are unable to conclusively determine CW (chemical weapons) use," the State Department's Jen Psaki told reporters. "We are doing everything possible in our power to nail down the facts," she added.

Another U.S. official said intelligence agencies were not given a deadline and would take the time needed to "reach a conclusion with confidence."

Former weapons investigators say every hour matters.

"The longer it takes, the easier it is for anybody who has used it to try to cover up," said Demetrius Perricos, who headed the U.N.'s team of weapons inspectors in Iraq in the 2000s.

Syria is one of just a handful of countries that are not parties to the international treaty that bans chemical weapons, and Western nations believe it has caches of undeclared mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agents.

Syria's government, which has accused the rebels of using chemical weapons in the past, offered no public response to calls for wider U.N. access.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said world powers must respond with force if allegations that Syria's government was responsible for the deadliest chemical attack on civilians in a quarter-century prove true. But even Fabius stressed there was no question of sending in troops on the ground.

Britain, too, said no option should be ruled out "that might save innocent lives in Syria". But European forces can do little without U.S. help, and Washington shows little appetite for war.

Syrian officials have called allegations against their forces "illogical and fabricated". They point to the timing of the attack, days after U.N. inspectors arrived after months of argument, and to previous assurances that, if they possessed chemical weapons, they would never use them against Syrians.

After months of negotiating with Assad's government to let inspectors into Syria, a U.N. team arrived in Damascus four days ago. Their task is to check on the presence, but not the sources, of chemical weapons that are alleged to have been released in three specific, small incidents several months ago.

'WE'RE BEING EXTERMINATED'

Many rebels and activists in the opposition area say they have lost interest in promises of U.N. investigations or in help from abroad: "We are 7 km away, just a 5-minute car ride from where they are staying," said activist Bara Abdelrahman.

"We're being exterminated with poison gas while they drink their coffee and sit inside their hotels."

Qassem Saadeddine, a commander and spokesman for the rebels' Supreme Military Council, said the group was still deliberating on how or if it should respond: "People are growing desperate as they watch another round of political statements and U.N. meetings without any hope of action," he told Reuters.

Syria's revolt against four decades of Assad family rule has turned into a brutal civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people in two and half years and divided the Middle East along largely sectarian lines. Among world powers the conflict has revived Cold War-era East-West tensions and on the ground the struggle has limped to a poisonous stalemate.

Assad's Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam and has the backing of Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Western powers back the opposition but have been reluctant to fully commit to an Arab Sunni-backed revolt increasingly overtaken by Islamists linked to al Qaeda. Yet they have said the large-scale use of widely banned chemical weapons would be a game changer.

WORLD PAYING "LIP SERVICE"

Syria's southern neighbor Israel, still technically at war with Damascus, said it believed Syrian forces had used chemical weapons and accused the world of turning a blind eye: "The world condemns, the world investigates, the world pays lip service," Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

In Paris, Fabius said that if the Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways", but he did not elaborate.

Immediate international action is likely to be limited.

European officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that options ranging from air strikes, creating a no-fly zone, or providing heavy weapons to some rebels were all still on the table - but that there was little prospect of concrete measures without U.S. backing, which still seemed unlikely.

"The American reaction following yesterday's attack was cautious," said one. "And without U.S. firepower there's little we can do."

While France and Britain took a lead in attacking Muammar Gaddafi's forces to help Libya's revolt in 2011, the ultimately successful campaign against an enemy far weaker than Assad's military also relied heavily on U.S. firepower and logistics.

Assad's forces continued a heavy bombardment of the Ghouta region for a third day on Thursday, which activists say will further hinder U.N. investigators from entering the area.

A spokesman from the opposition's Syrian National Coalition said bodies were still being found on the outskirts of Damascus.

"We expect the number to grow because we just discovered a neighborhood in Zamalka where there are houses full of dead people," said Khaled Saleh, speaking in Istanbul.

Fahad Almasri, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army in Paris, said local fighters had counted 29 separate projectiles fired from three military positions during Wednesday's pre-dawn attack, though not all appeared to have chemical warheads.

The firing from Qasioun mountain, Almezzah air base and a military compound in the suburb of Damascus hit targets across a swathe of towns and neighborhoods northeast of the capital.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove in Moscow, Domiic Evans in Beirut, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam, Niklas Pollard in Stockholm, Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols in New York, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Tim Dobbyn)

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/22/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE97K0EL20130822

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U.S. preps for possible cruise missile attack on Syrian gov't forces
By David Martin, Holly Williams

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - CBS News has learned that the Pentagon is making the initial preparations for a cruise missile attack on Syrian government forces. We say "initial preparations" because such an attack won't happen until the president gives the green light. And it was clear during an interview on CNN Friday that he is not there yet.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country, without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented," the president told CNN, "then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it -- 'do we have the coalition to make it work?' Those are considerations that we have to take into account."

130823-Syria-alleged_poison_gas_attack_6

An attack on suburbs in Damascus suburbs has left hundreds dead. Poison gas used is suspected.

/ CBS News

The attack on the Damascus suburbs, which left hundreds dead this week, is looking more and more like a poison gas was used. The United States warned Syria months ago that using chemical weapons could provoke a U.S. response.

U.S. detected activity at Syria chemical weapons sites before attack
Hundreds dead in Syria after alleged chemical weapons attack
Syria opposition group claims 1,300 killed in chemical attack in Damascus suburbs

President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, sent out a Tweet on Friday, calling what happened "an apparent CW (chemical weapons) attack." And the commander of U.S. forces in the Mediterranean has ordered Navy warships to move closer to Syria to be ready for a possible cruise missile strike.

cruisemissile05_244x183.jpg

U.S. warships are moving closer to Syria for a possible cruise missile attack; but such an action has yet to be approved by President Obama

/ CBS

Launching cruise missiles from the sea would not risk any American lives. It would be a punitive strike designed not to topple Syrian dictator Bashir Assad but to convince him he cannot get away with using chemical weapons.

Watch a report on Syrian activists gathering evidence to prove chemical attack:

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey is expected to present options for a strike at a White House meeting on Saturday.

Potential targets include command bunkers and launchers used to fire chemical weapons.

However, officials stress President Obama, who until now has steadfastly resisted calls for military intervention, has not made a decision.

U.S. intelligence detected activity at known Syrian chemical weapons sites in the days before the attack. At the time that did not appear out of the ordinary. But now it is part of the circumstantial evidence pointing toward an attack.

The clearest evidence would come from a team of U.N. experts already in Damascus to investigate earlier, smaller scale incidents involving suspected chemical weapons. So far they have not been allowed into the field. But with pictures providing graphic evidence of mass casualties, even Russia -- long one of the Assad regime's staunchest backers -- is calling for a U.N. investigation.

Whatever an investigation finds, the president will also have to consider what he would do next if he ordered a strike and Syria continued to use chemical weapons.

Watch CBS News correspondent Holly Williams' report on the Syrian victims in the aftermath of the Damascus suburbs attack:

 

 

Meanwhile in Syria, two days after the alleged poison gas attack, more disturbing video has emerged of the aftermath. From it comes horrific scenes that show the dead and the dying -- many of them children.

 

One young boy described struggling to breathe and then losing consciousness. When he woke up in the hospital, he said, he could no longer see.

It's impossible to verify how many people died. But in a crowded, makeshift morgue, so many of the bodies were unidentified -- they were numbered.

 

Dr. Ghazwan Bwidany is caring for survivors of the attack at a clinic in Damascus. On Friday, CBS News spoke with him over the Internet. He said his mobile medical unit treated 900 people -- 70 of whom died.

 

"When you see these children," said Bwidany, "dying in front of our eyes, this is a very terrible feeling. I can't describe it."

 

Watch this video below of a Syrian mother saying goodbye to her children who were killed after reported gas attack:

Dr. Bwidany said some of the survivors have neurological problems, such as memory loss and confusion, that he believes could only be caused by a nerve agent.

 

So if this wasn't a chemical attack, what could it have been? "I don't know anything else that could make these symptoms, with this large number of injured," he said.

CBS News talked with a spokesman for the Syrian opposition Friday, who said he was angry and frustrated with the international community. He believes that if U.S. had delivered the arms it promised the opposition two months ago, the deadly attack may not have happened.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57599944/u.s-preps-for-possible-cruise-missile-attack-on-syrian-govt-forces/

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Let's see . . .

- The rebels are aligned with Al-Qaeda
- They've been caught killing citizens, Christians, etc. and they trying to blame Assad.
- They've been caught faking deaths and injuries and then blaming Assad.
- There is video of some rebels in possession of chemical weapons.
-  The last supposed chemical attack is believed to have been the work of the rebels . . .  hence no action against Assad.
- Multiple weapons experts have testified on FoxNews and other news outlets that they are suspicious of any chemicals actually having been used and question why Assad would use chemical weapons as inspectors are entering the country and while he's winning.
- Shortly before the alleged attacks, 300 CIA trained rebels entered the exact location of the supposed attack.
- The West has been itching for any reason to attack Assad, especially considering they were using Benghazi to transfer weapons to Syria.
- The West has a history of false flag attacks and aiding those they want in power. The CIA a few days finally recognized they orchestrated the 1953 Iranian coup.

So tell me, why does anyone believe this is the work of Assad?

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U.S. preps for possible cruise missile attack on Syrian gov't forces
By David Martin, Holly Williams

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - CBS News has learned that the Pentagon is making the initial preparations for a cruise missile attack on Syrian government forces. We say "initial preparations" because such an attack won't happen until the president gives the green light. And it was clear during an interview on CNN Friday that he is not there yet.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country, without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented," the president told CNN, "then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it -- 'do we have the coalition to make it work?' Those are considerations that we have to take into account."

130823-Syria-alleged_poison_gas_attack_6

An attack on suburbs in Damascus suburbs has left hundreds dead. Poison gas used is suspected.

/ CBS News

The attack on the Damascus suburbs, which left hundreds dead this week, is looking more and more like a poison gas was used. The United States warned Syria months ago that using chemical weapons could provoke a U.S. response.

U.S. detected activity at Syria chemical weapons sites before attack

Hundreds dead in Syria after alleged chemical weapons attack

Syria opposition group claims 1,300 killed in chemical attack in Damascus suburbs

President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, sent out a Tweet on Friday, calling what happened "an apparent CW (chemical weapons) attack." And the commander of U.S. forces in the Mediterranean has ordered Navy warships to move closer to Syria to be ready for a possible cruise missile strike.

cruisemissile05_244x183.jpg

U.S. warships are moving closer to Syria for a possible cruise missile attack; but such an action has yet to be approved by President Obama

/ CBS

Launching cruise missiles from the sea would not risk any American lives. It would be a punitive strike designed not to topple Syrian dictator Bashir Assad but to convince him he cannot get away with using chemical weapons.

Watch a report on Syrian activists gathering evidence to prove chemical attack:

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey is expected to present options for a strike at a White House meeting on Saturday.

Potential targets include command bunkers and launchers used to fire chemical weapons.

However, officials stress President Obama, who until now has steadfastly resisted calls for military intervention, has not made a decision.

U.S. intelligence detected activity at known Syrian chemical weapons sites in the days before the attack. At the time that did not appear out of the ordinary. But now it is part of the circumstantial evidence pointing toward an attack.

The clearest evidence would come from a team of U.N. experts already in Damascus to investigate earlier, smaller scale incidents involving suspected chemical weapons. So far they have not been allowed into the field. But with pictures providing graphic evidence of mass casualties, even Russia -- long one of the Assad regime's staunchest backers -- is calling for a U.N. investigation.

Whatever an investigation finds, the president will also have to consider what he would do next if he ordered a strike and Syria continued to use chemical weapons.

Watch CBS News correspondent Holly Williams' report on the Syrian victims in the aftermath of the Damascus suburbs attack:

 

 

Meanwhile in Syria, two days after the alleged poison gas attack, more disturbing video has emerged of the aftermath. From it comes horrific scenes that show the dead and the dying -- many of them children.

 

One young boy described struggling to breathe and then losing consciousness. When he woke up in the hospital, he said, he could no longer see.

It's impossible to verify how many people died. But in a crowded, makeshift morgue, so many of the bodies were unidentified -- they were numbered.

 

Dr. Ghazwan Bwidany is caring for survivors of the attack at a clinic in Damascus. On Friday, CBS News spoke with him over the Internet. He said his mobile medical unit treated 900 people -- 70 of whom died.

 

"When you see these children," said Bwidany, "dying in front of our eyes, this is a very terrible feeling. I can't describe it."

 

Watch this video below of a Syrian mother saying goodbye to her children who were killed after reported gas attack:

Dr. Bwidany said some of the survivors have neurological problems, such as memory loss and confusion, that he believes could only be caused by a nerve agent.

 

So if this wasn't a chemical attack, what could it have been? "I don't know anything else that could make these symptoms, with this large number of injured," he said.

CBS News talked with a spokesman for the Syrian opposition Friday, who said he was angry and frustrated with the international community. He believes that if U.S. had delivered the arms it promised the opposition two months ago, the deadly attack may not have happened.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57599944/u.s-preps-for-possible-cruise-missile-attack-on-syrian-govt-forces/

 

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - CBS News has learned that the Pentagon is making the initial preparations for a cruise missile attack on Syrian government forces. We say "initial preparations" because such an attack won't happen until the president gives the green light. And it was clear during an interview on CNN Friday that he is not there yet.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country, without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented," the president told CNN, "then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it -- 'do we have the coalition to make it work?' Those are considerations that we have to take into account."

 

An attack on suburbs in Damascus suburbs has left hundreds dead. Poison gas used is suspected.

/ CBS News

The attack on the Damascus suburbs, which left hundreds dead this week, is looking more and more like a poison gas was used. The United States warned Syria months ago that using chemical weapons could provoke a U.S. response.

U.S. detected activity at Syria chemical weapons sites before attack

Hundreds dead in Syria after alleged chemical weapons attack

Syria opposition group claims 1,300 killed in chemical attack in Damascus suburbs

President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, sent out a Tweet on Friday, calling what happened "an apparent CW (chemical weapons) attack." And the commander of U.S. forces in the Mediterranean has ordered Navy warships to move closer to Syria to be ready for a possible cruise missile strike.

 

U.S. warships are moving closer to Syria for a possible cruise missile attack; but such an action has yet to be approved by President Obama

/ CBS

Launching cruise missiles from the sea would not risk any American lives. It would be a punitive strike designed not to topple Syrian dictator Bashir Assad but to convince him he cannot get away with using chemical weapons.

Watch a report on Syrian activists gathering evidence to prove chemical attack:

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey is expected to present options for a strike at a White House meeting on Saturday.

Potential targets include command bunkers and launchers used to fire chemical weapons.

However, officials stress President Obama, who until now has steadfastly resisted calls for military intervention, has not made a decision.

U.S. intelligence detected activity at known Syrian chemical weapons sites in the days before the attack. At the time that did not appear out of the ordinary. But now it is part of the circumstantial evidence pointing toward an attack.

The clearest evidence would come from a team of U.N. experts already in Damascus to investigate earlier, smaller scale incidents involving suspected chemical weapons. So far they have not been allowed into the field. But with pictures providing graphic evidence of mass casualties, even Russia -- long one of the Assad regime's staunchest backers -- is calling for a U.N. investigation.

Whatever an investigation finds, the president will also have to consider what he would do next if he ordered a strike and Syria continued to use chemical weapons.

Watch CBS News correspondent Holly Williams' report on the Syrian victims in the aftermath of the Damascus suburbs attack:

Meanwhile in Syria, two days after the alleged poison gas attack, more disturbing video has emerged of the aftermath. From it comes horrific scenes that show the dead and the dying -- many of them children.

One young boy described struggling to breathe and then losing consciousness. When he woke up in the hospital, he said, he could no longer see.

It's impossible to verify how many people died. But in a crowded, makeshift morgue, so many of the bodies were unidentified -- they were numbered.

Dr. Ghazwan Bwidany is caring for survivors of the attack at a clinic in Damascus. On Friday, CBS News spoke with him over the Internet. He said his mobile medical unit treated 900 people -- 70 of whom died.

"When you see these children," said Bwidany, "dying in front of our eyes, this is a very terrible feeling. I can't describe it."

Watch this video below of a Syrian mother saying goodbye to her children who were killed after reported gas attack:

Dr. Bwidany said some of the survivors have neurological problems, such as memory loss and confusion, that he believes could only be caused by a nerve agent.

So if this wasn't a chemical attack, what could it have been? "I don't know anything else that could make these symptoms, with this large number of injured," he said.

CBS News talked with a spokesman for the Syrian opposition Friday, who said he was angry and frustrated with the international community. He believes that if U.S. had delivered the arms it promised the opposition two months ago, the deadly attack may not have happened.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57599944/u.s-preps-for-possible-cruise-missile-attack-on-syrian-govt-forces/

IMO, this is all but a con.  Look up the true believer syndrome.  This is nothing but a nice chess game with the winning side having two moves as to one, every time.  Like I said, only a true, unbiased investigation can prove the truth.  At any rate, people are dead and no blood has been spilled!!!  This is a serious issue for everyone.  IMO, the forced intervention is eminent!  4 US allies surrounding Syria's border.  Not to hammer on the issue but isn't congress on vacation?  Let's see if they get called for an emergency meeting soon.  Thanks for your post.  GLTY and all. 

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That's what the Rothschild controlled media is doing to you.

This is yet another banker war. Syria is one of the last countries without a Rothschild controlled central bank. They won't be happy until the have every single person on earth in their control.

Only the super naive would believe western media at this point.

I'm gonna go enjoy this beautiful day. I hope you will wake from your slumber before its too late.

Edit: Sky and AP news are worthless.

 

They won't.

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You'll never get an unbiased investigation on this.

Russian, Chinese, and Iranian media are reporting the rebels did this. They have much more credibility these days than the western media.

Why would Assad attack his own people, the ones that have been supporting him in this insurgency, on the very day the chemical weapon experts get to Syria?

 

Damn Good Question!

 

That's what the Rothschild controlled media is doing to you.

This is yet another banker war. Syria is one of the last countries without a Rothschild controlled central bank. They won't be happy until the have every single person on earth in their control.

Only the super naive would believe western media at this point.

I'm gonna go enjoy this beautiful day. I hope you will wake from your slumber before its too late.

Edit: Sky and AP news are worthless.

 

Sure hope folks do wake up... turn off the Neuz and start looking at the pattern that is right under their nose.

 

Iraq Anyone??? -_-

 

Let's see . . .

- The rebels are aligned with Al-Qaeda

- They've been caught killing citizens, Christians, etc. and they trying to blame Assad.

- They've been caught faking deaths and injuries and then blaming Assad.

- There is video of some rebels in possession of chemical weapons.

-  The last supposed chemical attack is believed to have been the work of the rebels . . .  hence no action against Assad.

- Multiple weapons experts have testified on FoxNews and other news outlets that they are suspicious of any chemicals actually having been used and question why Assad would use chemical weapons as inspectors are entering the country and while he's winning.

- Shortly before the alleged attacks, 300 CIA trained rebels entered the exact location of the supposed attack.

- The West has been itching for any reason to attack Assad, especially considering they were using Benghazi to transfer weapons to Syria.

- The West has a history of false flag attacks and aiding those they want in power. The CIA a few days finally recognized they orchestrated the 1953 Iranian coup.

So tell me, why does anyone believe this is the work of Assad?

 

Go Figure!

 

Thank You Rightsonword... All Good Points That You Made Here.

 

The FSA is in Israel's pocket. We should not intervene.

 

True

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Syria pushed for probe of chemical arms 'massacre'

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A top UN envoy was in Damascus on Saturday to press for an investigation into an alleged chemical attack, as Syrian hospitals were reported to have treated thousands of "neurotoxic" cases.

US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, met his top national security advisers to weigh the response to the alleged massacre.

He is under mounting pressure to act following Wednesday's reported chemical attack near Damascus that opposition groups say was carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's forces and had killed as many as 1,300 people.

The Syrian government has strongly denied the allegations but has yet to accede to demands that UN inspectors already in the country be allowed to visit the sites of the alleged attacks.

"The president has directed the intelligence community to gather facts and evidence so that we can determine what occurred in Syria. Once we ascertain the facts, the president will make an informed decision about how to respond," a White House official said.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that around 3,600 patients displaying "neurotoxic symptoms" had flooded into three Syrian hospitals on the day of the alleged attacks, and 355 of them died.

The victims all arrived within less than three hours of each other, and MSF director of operations Bart Janssens said the pattern of events and the reported symptoms "strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent".

"Medical staff working in these facilities provided detailed information to MSF doctors regarding large numbers of patients arriving with symptoms including convulsions, excess saliva, pinpoint pupils, blurred vision and respiratory distress," he said.

His comments came as UN Under Secretary General Angela Kane was in Damascus, tasked by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with establishing the terms of an inquiry.

Ban is determined to "conduct a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation" into the chemical attack claims, his spokesman said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, during a visit to the West Bank on Saturday, blamed Syria for a "chemical massacre" and said that "the Bashar regime is responsible."

But Damascus ally Iran blamed the rebels and warned the West against any military intervention.

"There is proof terrorist groups carried out this action," foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said, without giving any details.

Warning against any Western military intervention in the conflict, Araqchi said "there is no international authorisation for" such action.

On Friday, Syria's main opposition National Coalition pledged to guarantee the safety of the inspectors but warned that the "clock is ticking" before alleged evidence vanishes.

Coalition chief Ahmad al-Jarba was scheduled to hold a news conference on the issue in Istanbul later on Saturday.

Syria has yet to say if it will let the UN experts -- on the ground in Syria since August 18 to probe three other sites -- to inspect the latest allegations.

Russia urged Damascus to cooperate with the UN but dismissed calls for use of force against its ally.

In statements published on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Russia and China of having blocked a UN text demanding the inspectors be given unfettered access.

One year ago, Obama warned the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a "red line" and have "enormous consequences".

The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against Assad's rule flared in March 2011, while millions more have fled the country or been internally displaced.

The violence continued Saturday, with a watchdog accusing the regime of striking by air several rebel positions, including in Jobar, and reporting that insurgents seized a strategic town in the northwest.

State television said an army unit was surrounding a "sector of Jobar where terrorists used chemical weapons," adding that soldiers who tried to enter the neighbourhood had "suffocated."

Rebels have "resorted to chemical weapons after the successes of the Syrian army in recent days," the television charged.

The National Coalition denied that rebels had resorted to the use of chemical arms, saying the government was only trying to divert attention from its own use of them.

The "international community knows full well that the Assad regime is the only party in Syria which possesses the means to produce, use and stock chemical weapons," it said.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/msf-says-3-600-syrians-showed-neurotoxic-symptoms-153844283.html

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Syria ...

 

The "international community knows full well that the Assad regime is the only party in Syria which possesses the means to produce, use and stock chemical weapons," it said.

 

 

Tamiflyer the "international community" knows full well WHO is behind this.

 

Our guberment... employed by the Banksters... gave these weapons to the rebels.

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Tamiflyer the "international community" knows full well WHO is behind this.

 

Our guberment... employed by the Banksters... gave these weapons to the rebels.

Maggie.

 

So tell me who is ultimately responsible for over the 100k lives that have perished since it all started?  I am not totally convinced that the people that were affected by the chemical attack were done by the rebels.  Most rebel factions are inexperienced, no real communication equipment, no bases, no real weapons, just small arms and alot of courage.  Armies, on the other hand, are trained, equipped and have most at their disposal.  Like I said before, a total, unbiased investigation of this is mostly needed.  Over 1000 reported dead and almost 4000 scared for life, all in ONE DAY.  More news need to develop.   I don't agree on the banksters issue, like you said.  There is always conspiracy etiquette when the unknown is present.  The whole middle east/west/southwest is not ready for advancement, complimentary change.  Force is all that they have known/done for thousands of years.  It is now, in the technological era that they are seeing the truth of the world, therefore, comparing themselves to the rest, people wise.  The Syrian government saw this coming and did nothing concrete to fix it.  Status quo was their stance and look at it today.  It will only get worse unless intervention is allowed, either via a strong mouth or a heavy hand.  I am not in favor of either but like any bacteria or virus, if it is not dealt with on the early stages, it spreads and very difficult to stabilize.  Thanks for your post.  GLTY and All. 

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Maggie.

 

So tell me who is ultimately responsible for over the 100k lives that have perished since it all started? ... 

 

It will only get worse unless intervention is allowed, either via a strong mouth or a heavy hand.  I am not in favor of either but like any bacteria or virus, if it is not dealt with on the early stages, it spreads and very difficult to stabilize.  Thanks for your post.  GLTY and All. 

 

Tamiflyer I am as heart broken as you are for the innocent people that are being slaughtered. I would stop it if I could.

 

The first step to ending this is to recognize what is really going on. You believe the neuz... I don't.

 

There very well may be some "intervention" coming from Russia...

 

but it will be coming our way unless we protest against what is really happening.

 

JMHO

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Maggie.

 

Russia?  I don't believe that they would ever risk another Afghanistan!  China would probably sell the same weapons that they would use on them.  (Please see the Spralty Islands dispute and the CCCP Satellite Countries)  The Goodall US of A, is the only country that has a strong hand and compassion to get the job done.  The aforementioned two do not!  We would liberate while the other two would conquer and exploit.  I make my own analytical decisions and assumptions of the news that are delivered to us.  Peaceful protesting never works.  It is a fallacy.  All it does is bring out awareness and that is it.  A tough hand aimed at pockets always works and not necessarily at the bankers.  An old college professor told me that the UN international courts are a joke.  Oh boy, was he wrong, compared to today!  A lot of power is available there so we will have to wait until more unfolds and develops.  Thanks Maggie for your thoughts and posts.  GLTY and All.

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So tell me who is ultimately responsible for over the 100k lives that have perished since it all started?  I am not totally convinced that the people that were affected by the chemical attack were done by the rebels.  Most rebel factions are inexperienced, no real communication equipment, no bases, no real weapons, just small arms and alot of courage.

Read more: http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/158887-images-of-death-in-syria-but-no-proof-of-chemical-attack/page-2#ixzz2cvgRRDAM

 

And that's where I stopped reading. 

 

Please somebody find and post that vid of the, COURAGEOUS, freedom fighter rebel Tamiflyer 

 

refers to eating out the heart and liver of one of Assad's troops. Let her see her 

 

COURAGEOUS men in real action. Oh heck I'll get for you myself Tamiflyer,

 

here your courageous men

 

 

 

 

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Here's another vid of the incident, 

 

NOTE THAT AT THE 1 MIN 30 SECOND MARK the vid shows the Syrian 

 

rebels,(terrorist), handling small missiles. They eerily look similar to a 

 

pic of one of the missiles earlier in this thread that was supposed to be

 

used in this chemical attack.

 

 

 

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