Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Gas - UN Prosecutor

http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/08/more-on-carla-del-ponte/ (Video)

http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/08/whose-chemicals/

http://www.aina.org/news/20130826131925.htm

Hat tip to Gates of Vienna.

I have held for a long time that the Syrian rebels would use chemical weapons, probably on Christian, Alawite, Shiite, or Druze civilians. They know that Obama is champing at the bit to dive into the fray and if he could tell the world that he had proof of chemical weapons being employed by the Syrian government he would have his justification for doing so. They also know that the White House would be happy to turn a blind eye to the actual perpetrators and accept the claim that the rebels were the innocent party.

I read a recent  article in which it was reported that, although the doctors who treated and attended to the victims did say that they bodily effects were consistent with nerve agents, the injuries were not consistent with those of weapons grade nerve agents. This would fit well with a rebel False Flag operation aimed at bringing in the US by setting up the government forces. Given that the Japanese cult made their own Sarin gas and used it on a Tokyo subway a number of years ago, I hold that there is a better than good chance that the rebels either made or acquired Sarin gas and used it to blame the government.

First, here is quick briefing from my Marine Corps days. Nerve gas types are classified as either persistent or non-persistent. The latter will come in forms similar to insect killer sprays, which dissipate quickly and leave little to no residual effects. These are not very effective if used to harm people as the dead and wounded can be attended to without ill effects for the responding personnel. Non-persistent gas also can be carried away by a change in wind direction, leaving very few casualties. The affected area of course can be immediate reoccupied. Persistent types have a  medium that makes a sort of oily film that sticks to everybody and everything in the area.This retards evaporation and contaminates the dead, injured, and the affected area  for a much longer period.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/501313/20130825/syria-chemical-weapons-damascus-tear-gas-jobar.htm

".....The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres [Doctors Without Borders] said 3,600 people were admitted to hospitals where it had a presence, all suffering "neurotoxic symptoms". A total of 355 died people in the attacks.

Dan Kaszeta, a former officer in the US Army's Chemical Corps, said tell-tale signs of a chemical weapons attack were conspicuously absent from footage shot in the aftermath of the attack.

He said medics treating the victims would have been expected to suffer serious health problems after coming into direct and prolonged contact with the victims, in the absence of protective clothing.

"None of the people treating the casualties or photographing them are wearing any sort of chemical-warfare protective gear," said Kaszeta.

"Despite that, none of them seem to be harmed."

He said the lack of any adverse effects in doctors treating the victims would rule out the use of most military-grade chemical weapons.

The vast majority of nerve gases, such as the Sarin gas stockpiled in large quantities by the Syrian regime, do not evaporate immediately, but leave residual contamination on clothes and skin. That level of contamination would cause severe harm to those coming in contact with victims in the hours after the attack, particularly when used at sufficient strength to kill hundreds of people.

Kaszeta added: "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, an expert in hazardous material exposure at England's Cranfield University, agreed.

Johnson, who has worked with Britain's Ministry of Defence on chemical warfare issues, said it was a surprising that the contamination was not more widespread.

"From the details we have seen so far, a large number of casualties over a wide area would mean quite a pervasive dispersal," he said.

"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."........"

-From Gates of Vienna:

"Carla Del Ponte is a Swiss lawyer, a retired UN official, and a former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). These weighty credentials qualify her as the most prominent non-Russian skeptic so far on the issue of the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons in Damascus.
This is not Ms. Del Ponte’s first dissent against received wisdom: she gained notoriety a few years ago while still at ICTY by exposing the Kosovars’ harvesting of organs from Serbian prisoners of war. Her efforts on behalf of Serbian victims show that she is not in thrall to the NATO narrative, but she is hardly a lapdog for the Russians — her prosecutorial position with the ICTY is evidence enough of that........."

-From Assyrian International News Agency

"Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.

Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof," that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed.........
Ms. del Ponte, a former Swiss prosecutor and attorney general, told Swiss TV: "Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals. According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated."........."