Before I went to bed last night, I saw tweets from the outskirts of Damascus that said that the Ghouta suburbs were receiving artillery fire. When I woke up, it was being reported that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons and killed hundreds. The BBC was the most aggressive in pushing this line, but they were self-aware enough to point out the following:
The latest incident throws up more questions than answers, the BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen reports.
Many will ask why the government would want to use such weapons at a time when inspectors are in the country and the military has been doing well militarily in the area around Damascus, he says.
The U.N. inspectors have only just arrived and the government is supposed to have reacted by carrying out a massive chemical attack right in the Damascus metro area?
Everything is a hall of mirrors with this conflict in Syria.
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On satellite station France24 I watched this scholar, Gilles Kepel. Explains the present situation in Egypt,
the Arab uprising and Syria in very understandable terms.
Diary of a Traveling Scholar in the Arab World with links to YouTube videos.
Thank you for the link. He was very understandable. I really appreciated the video.
They were emboldened by Obama’s support of the Egyptian military coup, obviously.
Missed opportunity, Davis.
These days, all the kool kids are saying that we can’t trust UN weapons inspectors.
So, anyway, I understand there’s been some discussion of hypocrites who flip-flopped once Bush left office…
I don’t make this stuff up.
The U.N. inspectors have only just arrived and the government is supposed to have reacted by carrying out a massive chemical attack right in the Damascus metro area?
The flip side is, the UN Inspectors have only just arrived and the rebels think they can fake a massive chemical attack? Neither makes sense.
The main opposition alliance said that more than 1,000 people were killed by the attacks.
Activist networks also reported death tolls in the hundreds, but these could not be independently confirmed.
An attack that big would certainly leave evidence, and there is a chemical weapons team in the country to look for it. They should be able to confirm it happened, if it did.
And even if it didn’t!
Whatever.
Some of us don’t alter our opinions on the credibility of UN weapons inspectors quite so promiscuously.
well, if it happened, step two is figuring out who perpetrated it
Wow. Now that would be a story.
We know that different rebel factions don’t get along. We know the Nusra Front has attacked the Kurds.
Doesn’t pass the smell test. The idea of using chemical weapons in densely populated areas as a way of winning a political struggle doesn’t make sense to begin with.
Someone is playing games with Obama’s stated “bright red line” to sucker the US/NATO into the conflict.
Syrians need to sort this one out themselves.
Doesn’t pass the smell test. The idea of using chemical weapons in densely populated areas as a way of winning a political struggle doesn’t make sense to begin with.
Ever read about Hama? The Assads don’t think like you and me about how to win political struggles.
Hama wasn’t chemical weapons. Surely Syria had them in the 1980s?
If even the father which I hope we can agree, was at least as ruthless as the son, was hesitant to use them after years of conflict, it should give us all pause here.
No, it wasn’t chemical weapons, but it was a massacre that killed tens of thousands of civilians.
They Assads don’t really worry about looking terrible, is my point. Looking terrible is part of the plan. The politics they concern themselves with are the politics of fear.
And they’ve stayed in power as long as they have because they’re not stupid.
All I’m saying is we need more information.
We certainly agree on that.
Let the inspectors do their job.
Doesn’t pass the smell test. The idea of using chemical weapons in densely populated areas as a way of winning a political struggle doesn’t make sense to begin with.
Someone is playing games with Obama’s stated “bright red line” to sucker the US/NATO into the conflict.
Syrians need to sort this one out themselves.
Because the information first came out in tweets I would want it absolutely verified before coming to any conclusions. We don’t have to conclude anything based on whether it’s a wise move or not. There would be bodies, there would be evidence of chemicals, there would be people who survived, there would be damage.
There can be very accurate information tweeted but also misinformation sent around quickly. I’m not sure if it was the person in this article or not, but someone was misidentified and then found murdered.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10006028/Boston-marathon-bombings-how-soc
ial-media-identified-wrong-suspects.html
“They frantically tweeted everything coming over the crackly line, often mishearing or failing to understand the context as police screamed for back up.
Most damaging of all Twitter users began to circulate a rumour that a missing Indian-American student was one of the bombers. Even one of his friends tweeted that his picture matched one of the men sought by the FBI.
It took only a moment for his name to be flashed all over the internet, to the dismay of his parents who have not heard from him for over a month.”
And I also meant to say that Twitter is a tool that groups and individuals realize they can use to reach people with the truth or send out misinformation.
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Country of origin: Belgium
“A group – Sharia4Holland – calling on Muslims to fight for the setting up of a Dutch Islamic state has started operating openly in the Netherlands, writes the Protestant daily newspaper, Trouw. The group, which has split from Sharia4Belgium, wants Islamic sharia law to be introduced in the Netherlands. Dutch National Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Erik Akerboom and the Dutch AIVD intelligence agency say they are aware of the group and its activities”.
Belgian “journalists” carried bomb in video camera that killed Mehsud, the Lion of Pantsjir one day before 9/11 attack on the US.
French – Belgian FSA Terror Commander Killed in Syria
I’m searching origin of video …
There is a YouTube video source: Syrian4All World
Facebook contact: Syrian4allWorld Team
Active participant: WsmAl3odah
Twitter account: WsmAl3odah
YouTube religious video with views above 1-2 million [Yemen] WsmAl3odah
Professional video maker: Uturn entertainment
Uturn يوتيرن Owner [Prof. Noha Yousuf], Qamariya Location Saudi Arabia
LinkedIn | Uturn Ent
Gulf News: Syria opposition claims 650 dead in ‘chemical’ bombing
The Syrian army says the accusations have been fabricated to cover up rebel losses BBC Video.
I would treat any claims about chemical attacks in Syria with a great deal of skepticism until we’ve seen reports from reputable third parties.
A few discrepancies have been pointed out to me already. We are seeing lots of pictures of medical personnel helping the victims of this attack and none of the first responders are wearing chemical suits. A chemical attack of the size alleged would leave a lot of residue, enough to be harmful to aid workers without proper protection. There is also a lack of reports of the secondary conditions that would be seen after a massive gas attack: large numbers of people with blindness, vomiting, and loosened bowels.
The taproot of my skepticism is the fact that Assad and his Lebanese allies (Hezbollah) are winning the civil war handily now using conventional means. Almost the only way this situation turns on the regime in Syria is if the West gets suckered into intervening. Assad would have to be a fool to cross Obama’s red line for intervention at this point in the war — he simply has no reason to act so desperately.
A quick update:
I was doing more reading elsewhere and learned a bit more about chemical weapons. Apparently Sarin would disperse very quickly in Syria’s climate (hot and dry) and thus would not immediately make casualties of the first responders.
Also it is apparently hard to gauge what secondary effects you would see from victims without knowing the concentration and purity of the mixture.
So this is more plausible than I first thought, though now there are reports that the first news (on the internet) of the chemical attack preceded the attack itself.
I’m personally still in “who fucking knows” territory. Be very wary of any media push to get the US involved before inspectors have sorted out who did what. There is lots of unwarranted certainty on MSNBC.