The German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German opposition have joined the U.K., in what analysts assess as a concerted international effort to frame Syria on the grounds of non-compliance with Syria´s voluntary decision to put its chemical weapons under international control and to provide a full inventory of its chemical weapons and related stockpiles of chemicals as well as facilities. The effort began in the U.K., shortly after the U.K. Parliament voted against participation in U.S.-led military strikes against Syria without approval from the UN Security Council and in violation of international law and riled out a second vote on the issue.
Category: Head Stories
The UN in Geneva has released its long-awaited report on the use of chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21.The UN concluded: 1. Sarin gas was used in the attack. 2. The attack used at least two surface-to-surface rockets 3. One of the warheads containing sarin held 56 liters of the deadly chemical. The UN report did not assign blame for the attack nor was assigning blame in the charter of the team of forensic investigators. However, France and the United States immediately used the report to blame Syria for the attack. Cited as evidence were the two rockets used: an M14 artillery rocket with Cyrillic markings and a 330-millimeter rocket of unknown origin. The UN report stated that the evidence found in rebel-controlled territory outside of Damascus could have been manipulated by the rebels or forces allied with the rebels.
Instead of a non-politicized investigation and lab analysis, the UN investigation of alleged nerve-gas attacks inside Syria was led by Professor Ake Sellstrom, a man of mystery who keeps a veil of secrecy around his research and political-military relationships. Sellstrom’s report on Syria for the UN and his prior inspections record in Iraq are dubious, to say the least. In the eyes of laymen, his seeming objectivity and non-partisanship is based on the myth of Sweden’s neutrality. The public assumes – wrongly- that Sweden never takes sides in wars or geopolitical conflicts. Fraud of Neutrality This cosmetic veneer of Swedish neutrality has been deftly exploited by Israel and NATO to perpetrate falsehoods throughout Sellstrom’s work for the UN, including denial of the chemical-and-biological causes for “Gulf War Syndrome” and the shipments of U.S. chemical weapons to the Saddam Hussein regime.
Syria and key ally Russia joined forces on Wednesday against any Western-backed United Nations resolution that would allow military action, as Moscow accused UN chemical weapons inspectors of bias. The United States, meanwhile, said it will maintain the threat of force if Damascus fails to abide by an accord to surrender its chemical arsenal, and the United Nations hit back at the Russian accusations. Moscow came out swinging, saying Damascus had delivered new proof implicating rebels in an August 21 sarin gas attack near the capital that killed hundreds, while slamming a UN report into the incident.
USA, UK and France under Suspicion for Systematic Omission of Evidence for “Opposition´s Chemical Weapons Use, to Justify Military Aggression against Syria. UN Secretary General Ban Kyi Moon has received the UN Inspectors` report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The report was presented at a close session of the UN Security Council. The report clarifies that the experts did not find standard chemical weapons warheads as used by the Syrian Arab Army. The way in which the debris of the missiles was scattered suggests, that a multiple rocket launcher (MRL) could have been used to launch the chemical laden projectiles. A procedure not used by Syria´s military forces.
An unstoppable tide of radioactive trash and chemical waste from Fukushima is pushing ever closer to North America. An estimated 20 million tons of smashed timber, capsized boats and industrial wreckage is more than halfway across the ocean, based on sightings off Midway by a Russian ship’s crew. Safe disposal of the solid waste will be monumental task, but the greater threat lies in the invisible chemical stew mixed with sea water. This new triple disaster floating from northeast Japan is an unprecedented nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contamination event. Radioactive isotopes cesium and strontium are by now in the marine food chain, moving up the bio-ladder from plankton to invertebrates like squid and then into fish like salmon and halibut.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday warned that talk by western countries on the adoption of a “threatening” United Nations resolution on Syria could wreck peace efforts. He spoke after Britain, France and the United States at a Paris meeting agreed on the need for a “strong and binding” UN resolution on the transfer of Syria’s chemical weapons to international control. Lavrov said Russia opposed proposals by Western powers to swiftly pass a resolution including the use of force under Chapter Seven of the UN charter.
In recent decades American political discourse has relied heavily on the very short memories of the American public for its effect. When George W. Bush initially pushed his disastrous war on Iraq he was met with large-scale resistance—the largest anti-war protests in history and widespread skepticism around his purported justifications for war. Mr. Bush made his push at a particular moment in history when the capitalist triumphalism of the (Bill) Clinton years was temporarily interrupted by the attacks on New York and Washington. Mr. Bush successfully co-opted America’s compliant press whose mission, to the extent there ever was one, had shifted from a vague tendency toward public service to maximizing shareholder value at a time when war was considered good for business.
Russia’s diplomatic efforts to avert a potential international conflagration over Syria are to be lauded. But it would be preferable if Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and others in Moscow refrained from referring to US officials as “our American partners.” Washington is not a “partner” or “colleague” to anyone who is serious about upholding international law and peace. Its behavior is that of an outlaw state that needs to be faced down, not pandered to. Ironically, Washington says that the world needs to take a tough stance towards President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, otherwise other alleged tyrants will be emboldened. The truth is that the world needs to take a tough stand on Washington to curb its predatory aggression that seems to know no bounds.
While the issue of Syrian chemical weapons stockpile is hitting the world media headlines, little attention is paid on the problem of US compliance with its international obligations related to weapons of mass destruction. The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is a legally binding treaty that outlaws biological arms. In force since 1975, it currently has 165 states-parties and 12 signatory states. The BWC reaffirms the 1925 Geneva Protocol which prohibits the biological weapons use. The seventh BWC review conference was held in December 2011. The Final Declaration document concluded that«under all circumstances the use of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons is effectively prohibited by the Convention and affirms the determination of States parties to condemn any use of biological agents or toxins other than for peaceful purposes, by anyone at any time».