Forum Post: Experts doubt chemical weapons used in Syria

This issue is critical, as Syria is the line in the sand over which today's nuclear super powers are facing off. One wrong move, and it could be the end of all of us. Read why experts doubt that chemical weapons have been used:

Experts Have Reason to Doubt Obama's Chemical Weapons Claims

If, indeed, Syrian forces have used sarin gas against rebel forces and against civilians, the Internet alone should be full of evidence, in the form of cellphone pictures and youtube videos that chemical weapons experts outside of the government could examine. But, according to Jean Pascal Zanders, an expert employed by the European Union's Institute for Security Studies, there is no such evidence (and a preliminary search of youtube seems to back him up). "It's not just that we can't prove a sarin attack," Zanders told McClatchy News Service, "it's that we're not seeing what we would expect to see from a sarin attack." And foremost among that evidence should be cellphone videos and pictures taken in the immediate aftermath of an attack. "In a world where even the secret execution of Saddam Hussein was taped by someone, it doesn't make sense that we don't see videos, that we don't see photos, showing bodies of the dead, and the reddened faces and the bluish extremities of the affected."

Even the one report of an alleged gas attack, published in Le Monde, last month, has much that bears questioning, Zanders said. Photos and video of rebel fighters show them preparing for a chemical attack by wearing gas masks. Sarin, however, is absorbed through the skin and can kill within minutes even in very small amounts. Zander also expressed skepticism about descriptions of victims being taken to underground hospitals through very long and circuitous routes. If sarin had been the gas in use, then the victims would have died long before they could get treatment. Zanders also noted that there are no reports of medical personnel or rescuers dying from contact with the victims. Residue of sarin gas in the clothing of victims can linger and remain fatal for a period of time after the initial exposure, and therefore kill other people who come in contact with the victims, and yet there have been no reports of this happening, either.

Other experts quoted by McClatchy included Philip Coyle, a senior scientist at the Center for Arms Control and Non- Proliferation in Washington and Anthony Cordesman, a senior strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Coyle told McClatchy that "Without blood samples, it's hard to know." Cordesman actually supports U.S. intervention in Syria, but still wrote in an article posted on June 14 that "the 'discovery' that Syria used chemical weapons might be a political ploy," something which was confirmed by the Washington Post only hours later.

http://larouchepac.com/node/26984