{"id":14236,"date":"2013-08-28T19:44:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T23:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=14236"},"modified":"2013-08-28T20:17:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T00:17:38","slug":"syrian-chemical-weapons-attack-carried-out-by-rebels-says-un-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2013\/08\/28\/syrian-chemical-weapons-attack-carried-out-by-rebels-says-un-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Carried Out by Rebels, Says UN (UPDATE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Las Vegas Guardian Express<\/em> has the story Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Carried Out by Rebels, Says UN (UPDATE)<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Please read the following quote before drawing any conclusions from the headline.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: This article was updated to clarify one or two points that some of our readers found misleading: The chemical attack earlier this year was widely blamed on the Syrian regime. It is this attack that the UN now concludes was carried out by Syrian rebels. It appears unlikely \u2013 for a number of reasons \u2013 that the most recent August 21st attack was carried out by government forces \u2013 despite the rush to judgement within the international community \u2013 although this has yet to be fully determined. It is clear that both sides in the Syrian conflict have the means to use chemical weapons and it would be misguided to assume that either side has a moral objection to such attacks.<\/p>\n

As Jean Pascal Zanders, formerly of the European Union Institute for Security Studies, has pointed out \u201dIn fact, we \u2013 the public \u2013 know very little beyond the observation of outward symptoms of asphyxiation and possible exposure to neurotoxicants, despite the mass of images and film footage. For the West\u2019s credibility, I think that governments should await the results of the U.N. investigation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This article is NOT SAYING<\/strong> that the current attack was carried out by the rebels. However, it is saying that the possibility still exists.\u00a0 So why is everybody seeing the Russians as being obstinate because they won’t rush to judgment?\u00a0 Could it be that our mainstream press is not giving us access to all the news?<\/p>\n

By the way, I first heard about Carla del Ponte and her comments to Swiss radio late Sunday from a comment on a CBS news article<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 That comment mentioned “Carla del Ponte” and “Swiss radio late on Sunday.” I found the article that is the subject of this post that you are now reading by Googling carla del ponte syria chemical weapons<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Follow the previous link to do your own research to see what else you can find out.<\/p>\n

Before reading this article, I had been wondering if it would be possible to analyze the blood samples from the victims to determine what chemical agent was used.\u00a0 Then from this information and possibly deeper analysis of the blood samples, could we make some inferences as to who had access to the exact agent that was used?\u00a0 If so, why would we want to rush to judgment and possibly destroy evidence by making an attack?<\/p>\n

\n

Following up on some other links from my Google search, I found that the BBC<\/em> has the article UN’s Del Ponte says evidence Syria rebels ‘used sarin’<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nTestimony from victims of the conflict in Syria suggests rebels have used the nerve agent, sarin, a leading member of a UN commission of inquiry has said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/object>
\n
Carla Del Ponte: “I was a little bit stupefied by the first indication of the use of nerve gas by the opposition”<\/div>\n
\r\n<\/pre>\n
Again, I ask, why are people in Europe exposed to key information that is never mentioned in our own mainstream press?  Should we feel so smug and sure of our own knowledge when faced with incontrovertible evidence that there is often key information to be had that is being suppressed in our own country?  Is President Obama as in the dark about this key information as we were?  How could this possibly be?  If he does know about this information, why doesn’t he tell us if our own press corps won’t?<\/p>\n
I may have to reread my article on how President Obama is different from George Bush father or son.  I am starting to forget what those differences are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Las Vegas Guardian Express has the story Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Carried Out by Rebels, Says UN (UPDATE).\u00a0 Please read the following quote before drawing any conclusions from the headline. UPDATE: This article was updated to clarify one or two points that some of our readers found misleading: The chemical attack earlier this year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14236"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14246,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236\/revisions\/14246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}