.. well .. sigh, gulp .. LOL .. hours later didn't get past the 3rd link in yours ..
September 21, 2013, 6:04 pm 11 Comments
Reporter Denies Writing Article That Linked Syrian Rebels to Chemical Attack
By ROBERT MACKEY
Updated, 7:58 p.m. | Three weeks after an obscure Internet news service claimed that Syrian rebels had admitted responsibility for the deadly chemical attack outside Damascus in August, a veteran foreign correspondent whose name and reputation lent credibility to the story has denied writing the article.
ooi .. just noticed if i copy the Brown Moses link without opening it i get that last one, yet opened it has an au .. http://brown-moses.blogspot.com.au/ .. in there .. never noticed that before .. doesn't happen with the others .. anyway .. there is a lifetime of reading of excellent work by Eliot Higgins .. amazing .. so many are so good at what they do! .. oh, almost forgot .. the video above is about halfway down in the BM link .. what now? .. yes DD .. Maher makes a valid point we have mostly all accepted a long time ago ..
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is an active, regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations in Somalia. It is mandated to support transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, and to assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid. As part of its duties, AMISOM also supports the Federal Government of Somalia's forces in their battle against Al-Shabaab militants. .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Union_Mission_to_Somalia
sanctioned by the UN .. it is worth repeating, i think, will anyway, that no doubt at all GW Bush's atrocity in Iraq earned him the mantle of top honcho among Al Qaeda recruiters of all time (yes, terrorist attacks started long before that, but Iraq gave AQ and like groups an almighty (God directed, as Bush's was) was a biggie .. what is the answer? .. how do we deal with this now? .. from Stephanie ..
some start .. yet pro-gun conspiracy dodos in the US even freak at the mention of that one .. so we seem to have the situation that going after killer terrorists in whatever way does create more bent on revenge .. yet, is it right that they are allowed to take over a country as Somalia? .. surely that is not the answer .. to allow them to force extreme religious ways on a populace they coerce by force .. so they can deny women and children, and men, a decent education and so some chance at opportunity in the broader world .. seems a catch 22 .. i have no idea at this stage what the best is to do .. except to totally agree these terrorists who walk into shopping malls, or any such, to capture and kill totally innocent civilians .. must be caught and imprisoned .. or killed .. sorry, wandered in places and the thread was lost a bit .. better stop before digging a bigger hole .. so click .. the end ..
Most of Syria’s toxins can be destroyed more easily than officials initially thought
By Joby Warrick, Friday, September 27, 9:22 AM
U.S. and Russian officials now believe that the vast majority of Syria’s nerve agent stockpile consists of “unweaponized” liquid precursors that could be neutralized relatively quickly, lowering the risk that the toxins could be hidden away by the regime or stolen by terrorists.
A confidential assessment by the United States and Russia also concludes that Syria’s entire arsenal could be destroyed in about nine months, assuming that Syrian officials honor promises to cede control of the chemical assets to international inspectors, according to two people briefed on the analysis.
The White House declined to comment on the assessments, which have been kept under wraps amid intense negotiations at the United Nations on a plan for dismantling Syria’s chemical stockpile. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Thursday on a resolution that requires Syria to surrender its chemical weapons.
Russia has long been a close ally and arms supplier to Syria and maintains strong ties to its military and intelligence services. Obama administration officials have said that Russian and U.S. intelligence agencies had independently reached similar conclusions about the size of Syria’s chemical weapons program, regarded as one of the world’s largest.
Findings spur optimism
In private briefings to weapons experts, White House officials said analysts had concluded that Syria possesses more than 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, of which about 300 metric tons are sulfur mustard, the blister agent used in World War I. Nearly all of the remainder consists of chemical precursors of nerve agents, described as being “unweaponized” and in “liquid bulk” form, according to two people who attended the White House briefings.
In military weapons programs, two chemical precursors for the nerve agent sarin are blended using special equipment as the toxins are loaded into rockets, bombs or artillery shells.
Weapons experts not privy to the briefings described the findings as encouraging. Several noted that it is far easier to destroy precursor chemicals than battlefield-ready liquid sarin or warheads already loaded with the toxin.
“If the vast majority of it consists of precursors in bulk form, that is very good news,” said Michael Kuhlman, chief scientist in the national security division at Battelle .. http://www.battelle.org/ , a company that has supervised the destruction of much of the United States’ Cold War-era chemical stockpile. “Now you’re dealing with tanks of chemicals that are corrosive and dangerous, but not nerve agents. And the destruction processes for those chemicals are well in hand.
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If U.N. inspection teams can remove even one of the sarin precursors — or the equipment used for measuring and filling — they can all but eliminate Syria’s ability to launch a chemical attack even before the stockpile is completely destroyed, said Daryl Kimball, director .. http://www.armscontrol.org/about/dkimball .. of the Washington-based Arms Control Association.
“The mixing equipment itself is essential to using chemical agents,” Kimball said. “If you prioritize the destruction of the equipment, you can largely deny Syria the ability to use these weapons again on Syrian soil.”
U.S. surveillance systems observed Syrian troops mixing chemical precursors three days before sarin-filled rockets exploded in a Damascus suburb.
White House officials say U.S. and Russian officials were mostly in agreement on the nature of Syria’s chemical arsenal and how to dismantle it, according to the two experts who attended the briefings.
The two governments did not agree on the number of storage sites for chemical munitions in Syria, and they differed on where the physical destruction of sarin and other toxins should take place. The Obama administration prefers to remove all chemical weapons from Syria as quickly as possible, in case President Bashar al-Assad changes his mind, while Russia wants the weapons destroyed on Syrian soil, said a weapons expert who attended one of the briefings. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the briefing.
A senior Russian official said Thursday in Moscow that Russia was prepared to provide troops to guard the chemicals as they are being destroyed.
Both countries expressed optimism that Syria will comply with U.N. demands to surrender its chemical weapons. Syria’s arsenal was initially developed as a deterrent to a future Israeli attack, but Assad may now view the weapons as a liability after the international outcry over the Aug. 21 attack, White House officials said at the briefings.
The apparent change of heart also could reflect discord within the Syrian government over the use of sarin, which some U.S. officials suspect may have been ordered by a senior regime official without Assad’s authorization, the briefers said.
In any event, they said, Assad is obliged to honor his promises or risk angering the Russian government and embarrassing President Vladimir Putin, who has given personal assurances that the weapons will be eliminated.
The White House briefers described the Russians as “serious and sincere,” and even more prepared that the U.S. team in addressing the legal and technical hurdles involved in bringing Assad’s arsenal under international control, one of the attendees said.
Anne Gearan in New York contributed to this report.
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