Posted on 09/17/2012 6:09:08 PM PDT by lbryce
'Der Spiegel' quotes witnesses as saying tanks and helicopters fired shells designed to carry chemical weapons in desert east of Aleppo last month, Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers flown in to observe testing.
Syria tested firing systems for poison gas shells at the country's largest chemical weapons research center at Safira, east of Aleppo, last month, German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Monday, citing statements from various witnesses.
According to the report, Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers were flown in by helicopter to witness the testing.
Several empty shells, designed to carry chemical weapons, were fired by tanks and helicopters in a desert location near the research center, Der Spiegel quoted the witnesses as saying.
According to the report, Syria has reinforced security at the facility and made efforts to safeguard its electricity supply in recent months, in case of rebel attack.
Both the US and Israel have expressed concern over Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands or being used by Syrian President Bashar Assad to quell the uprising in the country.
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US President Barack Obama warned last month that any sign that Assad was starting to utilize the weapons, or move them, would constitute a "red line" that could trigger US military intervention in the conflict.
"We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama told an impromptu White House news conference. He acknowledged he was not "absolutely confident" the stockpile was secure.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in July that Israel would take military action if needed to prevent Syria's chemical weapons from falling into the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
According to Monday's report in Der Spiegel, the Safira chemical weapons research center includes scientists from North Korea and Iran who produce chemical weapons such as mustard gas and sarin which they test on animals.
The German weekly quoted a member of the Free Syrian Army as saying that the rebels are not planning to attack or capture the site.
Syria has the world's largest stockpile of poison gas and if Assad is anywhere near being taking down, with nothing more to lose their vast stockpile will be going in the opposite direction, up, up towards anywhere, anybody, Israel for sure.
The testing serves two purposes, first, as a warning to those who harbor any thoughts of Assad ever relinquishing power and secondly of course to make sure they actually do work.
A dilemma much too diabolical to contemplate.
I think the bible predicts that Damascus ceases to exist as a city in one of the prophecies. I think Assad is of the mindset that if he is going (flashback to Khadafi killing scene) then he is going to take everything with him in a fight to the end.
Scariest part of this story is that oblunder will do nothing.
A hot white flash of light is a much more preferable way to out when compared to Qaddafi. Being sodomized with a large knife is a downer.
Might this be planted to justify Obama moving on
Syria to rescue him from his current Muslim malaise??
Just a thought.
“Scariest part of this story is that oblunder will do nothing.”
And exactly what would you like him to do? Maybe try to install the Brotherhood or the mob that runs Libya now?
Are those UNIDENTIFIED WITNESSES the same ones we have over here in the US that the MSM so often ‘quotes’ ?????
How in the heck could they tell if a ‘shell designed to carry chemical weapons’?
I would NOT DOUBT they HAVE some, and MIGHT use them, but I won’t accept the word of some UNKNOWN WITNESSES, mainly because the only DIFFERENCE would be if they LABELLED it as a chemical weapon, on the outside of the SHELLS in YELLOW PAINT.
EMPTY SHELLS would not have such markings.
I doubt it. Most have been destroyed, or disassembled. The rest were taken back to Russia.
Now... Syria has their own Chemical and Biological weapons capability, but I doubt they will use it.
Qaddafi did much worse to a multitude of others and deserved what he got. It's just that probable winners of the ongoing power struggle to control Libya are going to much worse than Qaddafi , and Qaddafi was a hard act to follow when it comes to brutal, sadistic dictators who advocate state sponsored international terrorism
Oh, Obama will do something, that's for sure.
And that something will be far, far worse than simply doing nothing.
Count on it.
Chemical weapons used to kill Sunni jihadis and used by Shia or Alawis. What’s not to like?
The ‘not-to-like’ makes the ‘like’ much less ‘like-ly’.
Sure he will. He will do whatever he can to make Israel more open to such an attack and less able to defend itself - as long as he has plausible deniability.
Thanks lbryce.
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