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Syria Chemical Warfare Claims Aim To Provoke Western Intervention
By Bill Van Auken

http://www.countercurrents.org/auken220813.htm

The unsubstantiated charges that the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad carried out a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus killing large numbers of civilians have all the hallmarks of a staged provocation aimed at provoking Western intervention


Syria Gas Attack Story Has Whiff Of Saudi War Propaganda
By William Engdahl

http://www.countercurrents.org/engdahl220813.htm

The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the “red line” for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility

 

Syrian rebel attack may have been false flag. Doubts raised. 


Experts Doubt Syrian Chemical Weapons Claims

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Preliminary Evidence Indicates that the Syrian Government Did NOT Launch
a Chemical Weapon Attack Against Its People

CBS News reports that the U.S. is finalizing plans for war against Syria
– and positioning ships to launch cruise missiles against the Syrian
government – based on the claim that the Syrian government used chemical
weapons against its people.

The last time the U.S. blamed the Syrian government for a chemical
weapons attack, that claim was was debunked.

But is the claim that the Syrian government used chemical weapons
against its people true this time?

It’s not surprising that Syria’s close ally – Russia – is expressing
doubt.  Agence France-Presse (AFP) notes:

    Russia, which has previously said it has proof of chemical weapons
use by the rebels, expressed deep scepticism about the opposition’s claims.

    The foreign ministry said the timing of the allegations as UN
inspectors began their work “makes us think that we are once again
dealing with a premeditated provocation.”

But Russia isn’t the only doubter.

AFP reports:

    “At the moment, I am not totally convinced because the people that
are helping them are without any protective clothing and without any
respirators,” said Paula Vanninen, director of Verifin, the Finnish
Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

    “In a real case, they would also be contaminated and would also be
having symptoms.”

    John Hart, head of the Chemical and Biological Security Project at
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said he had not seen
the telltale evidence in the eyes of the victims that would be
compelling evidence of chemical weapons use.

    “Of the videos that I’ve seen for the last few hours, none of them
show pinpoint pupils… this would indicate exposure to organophosphorus
nerve agents,” he said.

    Gwyn Winfield, editor of CBRNe World magazine, which specialises in
chemical weapons issues, said the evidence did not suggest that the
chemicals used were of the weapons-grade that the Syrian army possesses
in its stockpiles.

    “We’re not seeing reports that doctors and nurses… are becoming
fatalities, so that would suggest that the toxicity of it isn’t what we
would consider military sarin. It may well be that it is a lower-grade,”
Winfield told AFP.

Haaretz reports:

    Western experts on chemical warfare who have examined at least part
of the footage are skeptical that weapons-grade chemical substances were
used, although they all emphasize that serious conclusions cannot be
reached without thorough on-site examination.

    Dan Kaszeta, a former officer of the U.S. Army’s Chemical Corps and
a leading private consultant, pointed out a number of details absent
from the footage so far: “None of the people treating the casualties or
photographing them are wearing any sort of chemical-warfare protective
gear,” he says, “and despite that, none of them seem to be harmed.” This
would seem to rule out most types of military-grade chemical weapons,
including the vast majority of nerve gases, since these substances would
not evaporate immediately, especially if they were used in sufficient
quantities to kill hundreds of people, but rather leave a level of
contamination on clothes and bodies which would harm anyone coming in
unprotected contact with them in the hours after an attack. In addition,
he says that “there are none of the other signs you would expect to see
in the aftermath of a chemical attack, such as intermediate levels of
casualties, severe visual problems, vomiting and loss of bowel control.”

    Steve Johnson, a leading researcher on the effects of hazardous
material exposure at England’s Cranfield University who has worked with
Britain’s Ministry of Defense on chemical warfare issues, agrees that
“from the details we have seen so far, a large number of casualties over
a wide area would mean quite a pervasive dispersal. With that level of
chemical agent, you would expect to see a lot of contamination on the
casualties coming in, and it would affect those treating them who are
not properly protected. We are not seeing that here.”

    Additional questions also remain unanswered, especially regarding
the timing of the attack, being that it occurred on the exact same day
that a team of UN inspectors was in Damascus to investigate earlier
claims of chemical weapons use. It is also unclear what tactical goal
the Syrian army would have been trying to achieve, when over the last
few weeks it has managed to push back the rebels who were encroaching on
central areas of the capital. But if this was not a chemical weapons
attack, what then caused the deaths of so many people without any
external signs of trauma?

    ***

    The Syrian rebels (and perhaps other players in the region) have a
clear interest in presenting this as the largest chemical attack by the
army loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad to date, even if the cause
was otherwise, especially while the UN inspectors are in the country. It
is also in their interest to do so whilst U.S. President Barack Obama
remains reluctant to commit any military support to the rebels, when
only the crossing of a “red line” could convince him to change his policy.

    The rebels and the doctors on the scene may indeed believe that
chemical weapons were used, since they fear such an attack, but they may
not have the necessary knowledge and means to make such a diagnosis. The
European Union demanded Wednesday that the UN inspectors be granted
access to the new sites of alleged chemical attacks, but since this is
not within the team’s mandate, it is unlikely that the Syrian government
will do so.

Stephen Johnson, an expert in weapons and chemical explosives at
Cranfield Forensic Institute, said that the video footage looked suspect:

    There are, within some of the videos, examples which seem a little
hyper-real, and almost as if they’ve been set up. Which is not to say
that they are fake but it does cause some concern. Some of the people
with foaming, the foam seems to be too white, too pure, and not
consistent with the sort of internal injury you might expect to see,
which you’d expect to be bloodier or yellower.

Chemical and biological weapons researcher Jean Pascal Zanders said
that the footage appears to show victims of asphyxiation, which is not
consistent with the use of mustard gas or the nerve agents VX or sarin:

    I’m deliberately not using the term chemical weapons here,” he
said, adding that the use of “industrial toxicants” was a more likely
explanation.

Michael Rivero asks:

    1. Why would Syria’s Assad invite United Nations chemical weapons
inspectors to Syria, then launch a chemical weapons attack against women
and children on the very day they arrive, just miles from where they are
staying?

    2. If Assad were going to use chemical weapons, wouldn’t he use
them against the hired mercenary army trying to oust him? What does he
gain attacking women and children? Nothing! The gain is all on the side
of the US Government desperate to get the war agenda going again.

    As I type these words, US trained and equipped forces are already
across the border into Syria, and US naval forces are sailing into
position to launch a massive cruise missile attack into Syria that will
surely kill more Syrians than were claimed to have died in the chemical
attack.

- - - -

Yahoo News: India

US 'backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt': Report

http://in.news.yahoo.com/us-backed-plan-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-syria-045648224.html

London, Jan 30 (ANI): The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

A new report, that contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence, showed a scheme 'approved by Washington'.

As per the scheme 'Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons,' the Daily Mail reports.

Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.

According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam's Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.

The emails were released by a Malaysian hacker who also obtained senior executives resumes and copies of passports via an unprotected company server, according to Cyber War News.

According to the paper, the U.S. State Department has declined to comment on the matter. (ANI)

- - - -
It seems that the chemical attack in Syria was filmed and uploaded by the "rebels" to YouTube a day before the attack allegedly took place on Wednesday, the 21st.  Note the upload date on the YouTube video of the attack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO8_eZcZkNE&bpctr=1377314696