SYRIA: Nerve Gas Attack

Oh, he's going to blame his wife this time.    

Looks like they're going for Cunning Plan:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/10/accidental-diplomacy-kerry-now-claims-credit-for-syria-weapons-proposal/

Oh dear, they seem to have been outfoxed:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Syria’s chemical arms handover will only work if the US and its allies renounce the use of force against Damascus.

"Certainly, this is all reasonable, it will function and will work out, only if the US and those who support it on this issue pledge to renounce the use of force, because it is difficult to make any country – Syria or any other country in the world – to unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration," President Putin said on Tuesday.

Putin said the disarmament of Syria’s chemical weapons had been extensively discussed by experts and politicians.

The Russian president said that he and President Barack Obama had “indeed discussed” such a possibility on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg last week.

It was agreed, Putin said, “to instruct Secretary of State [John Kerry] and Foreign Minister [Sergey Lavrov] to get in touch” and “try to move this idea forward.”

more at:

http://rt.com/news/putin-syria-chemical-weapons-669/

Putin must be laughing his head off.

I can't follow this, it's going off in different directions too fast. From Sky:

Britain, France and the US will table a new UN resolution later demanding Syria puts its chemical weapons under international control.

The Syrian regime has accepted a Russian proposal to turn its chemical weapons over in return for avoiding strikes from the US, according to state television, but the claims are being treated with scepticism.

Announcing the resolution plan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the world needed to test if the Syrian arms handover was genuine and not just a delaying tactic against an international response to the use of nerve gas against civilians in Damascus last month......blah blah blah......

So, what's Obama got to say? Besides blah blah blah....

Looks like if he wants rid of the chemical weapons, he's going to have to NOT bomb Syria? And what's he going to do when the UN reports if it turns out to be kitchen sarin? Or an American batch?

Bonny, I will wait and see what happens about the origin of the sarin before I get angry about it.

Doesn't it sound fair to request that they not do that to Syria at the present time?

http://news.sky.com/story/1139734/syria-regime-to-declare-chemical-weapons

Syria has said it will declare its chemical weapons arsenal and will sign up to the Chemical Weapons Convention to avoid US military action.

Speaking to Al Mayadeen TV, Foreign Minister Walid al Moallem said Syria was ready to cooperate fully with a Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control and would stop producing more.

He added that Syria would place the locations of the weapons in the hands of Russian representatives, "other countries" and the UN.

That'll be Obama doing ANOTHER rewrite.

The current Fox banner sums it up-

Applause from me.

I am so, so glad Ed Milliband bumbled into this and stopped the whole march to war until reason could start to prevail, he saved thousands of lives with his rather clumsy intervention.

Almost forgot that, Bonny. Applause for Milliband from me in this instance.

 

Am reserving the right to heave a sign of relief when we have confirmation that it has gone satisfactorily.

So, we now have a glitch.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2c013c60-1a00-11e3-b3da-00144feab7de.html#axzz2eRONO6F7

I remember someone in the Syrian regime stating categorically they had no chemical weapons - now they are going to put these non-existant weapons under international control? How bizarre. LL

They are the dirty little secret of a great many nations, LL, not least the ones doing the most moralizing. I hope the UN will be rounding up the Jihadists' chemical weapons too, as they are known to have used them already.

Lincoln and Kennedy must be rolling in their graves after Obama's speech last night; thank God the Cold War is over, or we'd all be speaking Russian. Or the Earth would be a charred cinder.

http://rt.com/news/syria-foreign-fighters-mercenaries-706/

Recruited by Al-Qaeda: Foreign fighters in a Damascus jail tell their stories

You cannot tell me that Obama doesn't know that there are all sorts of bad men in Syria - some of the worse the very ones he was all set to go to war to help.

Several groups in Syria have access to chemical weapons of various sorts. The Jihadists are known to have used them already; no-one can even agree on how many casualties there were in the most recent incident, let alone who did it.

But the person getting blamed by Obama and others is the person with the least motive to have used them.

And we're supposed to believe a video made by the CIA, of all people? I'd rather believe Hideho's efforts.

IMO, it's up to the UN to get to the bottom of this, not Obama to lead an international lynch mob in a rush to war that would have cost countless lives with incalculable consequences. Though it might be an idea for Obama to steer well clear of book depositories, as the people who have rather a lot invested in stopping the oil pipeline across Syria aren't going to be pleased with him.

http://rt.com/news/chemical-weapons-rebels-captives-632/

Quote-

n a number of interviews to European news outlets, the former hostages - Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin and Italian journalist Domenico Quiric - said they overheard an English-language Skype conversation between their captors and other men which suggested it was rebel forces, not the government, that used chemical weapons on Syria’s civilian population in an August 21 attack near Damascus.

“It is a moral duty to say this. The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said during an interview with Belgium's RTL radio station.

Piccinin stressed that while being held captive, he and fellow prisoner Quirico were secluded from the outside world and had no idea that chemical weapons were deployed. But the conversation which both men overheard suggested that the use of the weapons was a strategic move by the opposition, aimed at getting the West to intervene.

"In this conversation, they said that the gas attack on two neighborhoods of Damascus was launched by the rebels as a provocation to lead the West to intervene militarily,” Quirico told Italy’s La Stampa. "We were unaware of everything that was going on during our detention in Syria, and therefore also with the gas attack in Damascus."

While stating that the rebels most likely exaggerated the accident’s death toll, the Italian journalist stressed that he could not vouch whether “the conversation was based on real facts." However, he said that one of the three people in the alleged conversation identified himself as a Free Syrian Army general, La Stampa reported.

Based on what both men have learned, Peccinin told RTL that it would be “insane and suicidal for the West to support these people.

“It pains me to say it because I've been a fierce supporter of the Free Syrian Army in its rightful fight for democracy since 2012," Piccinin added.

Quite.

He said some things in that speech which were quite the opposite of what he said earlier in it.

For instance that there was a threat to the US and then later that there was not a threat. I could go on but won't.

So, Syria is no threat to the US (not least by being thousands of miles away and having no territiorial ambitions) but is rather successfully fighting enemies of the US and the west like Jihadists and Al Quaeda. So instead of waiting for reports, etc., Obama decides he wants to intervene in a civil war ON BEHALF OF HIS COUNTRY'S ENEMIES.

When someone has figured out how that helps, do let me know...I miss people like Condaleeza, I could always follow what she was talking about.

Meanwhile, his finger has been prised off the trigger for at least the present, so we can only watch events develop.

Did he really talk over the minutes' silence at the Pentagon earlier?

Sorry, I did not watch it, so don't know, Bonny.

I did see a video of him on the White House lawn. The emotions seem so hollow somehow........

It just gets worse for Obama-

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/11/pro-syrian-opposition-analyst-fired-for-lying-on-resume/

Not good at all. I don't know how he can repair the damage to his presidency at this point.

You really would think something as basic as checking her credentials, and neutrality, had been done before her report was used to bolster the demands for war.

The whole business is beyond shocking.

I was at my doctors this afternoon and he was railing like you can't believe at the stupidity of nearly bringing us to the brink of a war which would widen and drag on indefinitely.

He is no different than most Americans though.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/09/11/Poll-Obama-Worse-than-Bush-on-Foreign-Policy

This would never have happened if dear old Ronnie had been around, you know. Once he'd got a promise from Assad to behave and not massacre so many people, he'd have told Ollie North to arrange for the Christian militia to get a steady supply of US arms.

And sent SEALS into the countryside to protect Christian villages as 'tourists', with instructions to shoot anything that moved. Especially if it had a beard, was dressed in black, and was shouting, Allah Akhbar!

I don't really see him backing the side whose dearest wish is the destruction of America. He'd have got on OK with Putin, they both ride horses and things, not fairy cycles while wearing a safety helmet.