The newest claim of WMD use was headlined last week in Alarabiya.net, the semi-official Saudi network. Alarabiya has been the favorite network to pass on opposition Jihadi claims of Syrian regime use of WMD. Which is one reason I usually immediately suspected every and each claim. The latest claim was apparently taken down, or maybe just pushed into the back ‘pages’ soon after:
“Syrian opposition activists again accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of using chemical weapons near the capital Damascus on Thursday, publishing the video of an apparently unconscious man lying on a bed and being treated by medics. The alleged attack on the neighborhood of Jobar comes a week after the Syrian government sent a letter to the United Nations claiming it had evidence that rebel groups were planning a toxic gas attack in the same area, Reuters reported. Activists from the opposition “Jobar Revo” group posted the video on YouTube of a man being treated with oxygen and being injected by medics. A voice off-screen said Thursday’s date and that there was “a poison attack in Jobar.” …………..”
This excerpt next is from Seymour Hersh’s latest (allegedly controversial) writing on this topic and his allegations about Turkey’s Erdogan:
“The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack. For months there had been acute concern among senior military leaders and the intelligence community about the role in the war of Syria’s neighbours, especially Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan was known to be supporting the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist faction among the rebel opposition, as well as other Islamist rebel groups. ‘We knew there were some in the Turkish government,’ a former senior US intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence, told me, ‘who believed they could get Assad’s nuts in a vice by dabbling with a sarin attack inside Syria ………………..”
As I said, Alarabiya has been the source of almost all claims of WMD use in Syria. Syrian “activists” be they in Syria or Turkey or Riyadh or Paris, usually spread their claims through Alarabiya. Western media pick them up and make them into absolute undeniable facts. I still don’t know if any of the claims are facts or not. Mr. Obama seems to be not as convinced as the French or the British, for example, and for good reason. The French have their own Saudi axes to grind here, and Cameron faced a very skeptical Parliament on the issue. Senator McCain seemed to be getting ready to storm ashore at Latakia, until Mr. Putin adroitly diverted him with Ukraine and the Crimea.I have posted on this topic many times, so there is no need to provide links here: just search for WMD under this blog.
