Posted on 04/08/2018 9:53:44 AM PDT by ethom
People are dying, but the provenance of the chemical tools of war has become more a matter of politics than of fact.
The exact scope and nature of the disaster overtaking the conflicted Douma war zone of East Ghouta outside Damascus are becoming more elusive as allegations fly back and forth. Jaysh al-Islam, the rebel group holding Douma, was first to accuse the Syrian army on Saturday, April 7, of attacking the people of Douma with poison gas, causing 500 casualties. By Sunday, the death figures reported varied between 150 and 500. The US State Department cited at least 43 deaths. First responders reported whole families suffocated in their homes and shelters with foam on their mouths. Then, President Donald Trump, called out Putin and Iran for backing “Animal Assad,” whose air force helicopter was accused by rebel forces of dropping a barrel bomb full of sarin on the civilians of Douma.
Both Damascus and Moscow deny the allegation, accusing Syrian rebels of fabrications. Russia issued a statement on Sunday warning that foreign military intervention under “far-fetched, fabricated pretexts” in areas in Syria where Russian servicemen are deployed “might lead to very severe consequences.”
Despite the heated rhetoric, Middle East sources don’t see any immediate change in the current situation. Russia is not about to change its policy in Syria and the Americans don’t appear ready for any further action, certainly not a repeat of the 2017 missile strikes on a Syrian air base in response to a Syrian chemical attack. Some sources in Washington suspect that certain Syrian opposition groups are turning up the heat in the hope of prompting a US military surge in Syria, in reversal of President Trump’s announced intention of bringing US troops home. Whether chemical weapons were indeed used against Douma civilians may never be definitely proven one way or the other – and even then, it may not be possible to nail the party responsible. The same opacity covers the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was on a visit from Moscow when they were struck down by a nerve agent in Salisbury, UK on March 4. Both are recovering in a local hospital. The British accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin and his spy services of the attempted assassination, while Moscow fingers British intelligence for culpability. The Russians summoned the watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for an investigation into the source of the gas agent and demanded a role in the probe. London has refused Moscow access to its investigation.
The OPCW’s record for getting to the bottom of chemical warfare allegations is sketchy. The organization was granted full authority for a full-scale probe only once, in the years 2014-2015, when the US and Russia agreed to wind down Syrian chemical stocks. The Assad government claimed to have destroyed those stocks, but later turned out to have pulled the wool over the eyes of the OPCW monitors. Since then, poison chemicals are increasingly prevalent in the Syrian war and the public, while far from accepting this war crime, is not as horrified as it once was. Indeed, disinformation about the use of illegal chemicals in war has evolved into a handy tool of propaganda in international contests.
Isn’t Debka basically a pro-Putin propaganda outfit?
debka is pro israel all the time 24/7 i believe
Was Blue Helmet Guy there?
Were the crisis actor first responders handling people contaminated with nerve gas bare-handed and un-proteced again?
Was there frost visible on the bodies or did they wait for them to fully thaw out this time?
Don’t care.
Let’s get out.
I agree.
DEBKA is he last place you want to rely on for your news.
I’m going with a false flag attack.
Neither Syria or Russia, on the cusp of complete control of Syria, have any, any interest in doing this.
And there are multiple other parties who have an interest in provoking US intervention.
I just don’t buy it.
It’s easy to pin down. Trump said it’s time to get out of Syria, and so Assad on the top of his civil war decided to do the one thing to make America remain involved.
This is right up with the Gulf of Tonkin, the USS Maine, Belgian babies being bayoneted by WWI Germans, the Gleiwitz incident by WWII nazi Germans, by Kuwaiti babies being thrown out of incubators.
Just another fake incident to start a war.
The Bible declares that Damascus will, at the End Times, become uninhabited, and “be a city no more”.
NeoCons trying to force this outcome.
Same way they misinterpreted who and what Iraq is in the Bible, led by W., who declared to Jacques Chirac that they had to invade Iraq because it is “all about Gog and Magog”...
While Iraq is certainly ancient Babylon, the NeoCons have misinterpreted it to be “mystery Babylon”
In any case, antichrist NeoCons made sure Christianity was wiped out in Iraq.
Right behind CNN...
And ahead of British ‘Intelligence’ Services.
“Remember the Maine!”
“It’s easy to pin down. Trump said it’s time to get out of Syria, and so Assad on the top of his civil war decided to do the one thing to make America remain involved.”
... or it could be rebels doing it to make it look like Assad did it. Who really knows? The place is a s-hole. Regardless if who launched the WMDs I see no reason for us to be there.
Well yeah...that’s what i was saying. I guess the sarcasm didn’t come through. But only an idiot would think that as the civil war was all but over, and Trump announces time for us to leave, that Assad would shoot one or two gas shells which would guarantee we would stay and try to remove him.
Of course the rebels did it.
True, but what they publish provides insight into positions advanced by Israeli factions, including perhaps some in Mossad.
Sometimes they have intheresting stuff
But I think its written by people who spend all night typing.
On coffee and speed
Yes you are spot on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.