AP correspondent provides data on chemical weapons in Syria
HAVANA. 31/08/2013. A veteran journalist has stated that the deaths in Syria were indeed caused by banned lethal gases.
From inside the conflict zone and through contacts with the people involved, without using sophisticated and secret techniques much mentioned in recent weeks, the journalist reports that the gases affected insurgent jihadists and civilians in Ghouta and various parts of Damascus, capital of Syria.
The report comes from Dale Gavlak, a correspondent of the Associated Press in the Middle East, and precedes the anticipated reports of UN specialists.
The surprise is not that the artifacts exploded, but that they were handled by opposition militias. Political leaders, starting with President Barak Obama, had reacted by saying that they were fired by the Syrian army.
Obama said that Washington had evidence that Syrian government troops had made use of chemical weapons. But that evidence has still not been brought to the public eye. Nevertheless, the U.S. president, relying on his certainty and the interests of Washington, reiterated yesterday his decision to strike Syria.
Correspondent Gavlak narrates accounts from opposition guerrillas and common citizens in Ghouta, a territory belonging to Damascus. According to statements by the rebels, cited by the AP correspondent, the chemical weapons had been in their possession. Government officials in Saudi Arabia had provided them to the rebels.
Abu Abdel-Moneim, a Ghouta resident, said that the weapons had been delivered to opposition guerrillas by the Saudi jihadist Abu Ayesha, who commands an anti-government battalion, and that they were stored in a tunnel. Abu Abdel-Moneim added that some of the weapons “had a tube-like structure” and others resembled “a huge gas bottle.”
The explosion, which occurred on Aug. 21, destroyed the tunnel-warehouse and was caused, according to testimony received by Gavlak, by improper handling of the artifacts. In the explosion, about 12 guerrillas were killed, including Moneim’s son, who was among those in charge of guarding the deadly chemicals. This father-son relationship explains Moneim’s knowledge about the place where they were kept and the way in which the lethal gas was packaged.
“We were not told what kind of weapons they were, nor how to use them,” complained one fighter, whom the AP correspondent referred to as “K”.
“We did not know and never imagined that they were chemical weapons. When Prince Bandar [the Saudi intelligence chief] delivers these weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle them,” said the source “K.”
“Unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” said a local guerrilla leader identified by Gavlak as “J.”
Summarizing the report by Dale Gavlak, who has become the only public source of information from inside and whose credibility is excellent as a correspondent in the region:
1. The chemical weapons that exploded on Aug. 21 came from Saudi Arabia.
2. They were sent by Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi chief of intelligence.
3. They were delivered to the opposition guerrillas by the Saudi jihadist Abu Ayesha, who commands an anti-government battalion.
4. Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of one of the guerrillas killed by the gases, who was a guard in the tunnel-warehouse, described the two ways in which the chemicals were packaged.
According to surveys done in Europe and America, these revelations, so far not refuted, reinforce the widespread opinions against armed intervention, especially in view of the decisions of the United Nations Security Council.
They also increase the general mistrust regarding Washington’s assertions that it has proof of Syrian government responsibility. Washington has not published any such proof, reminding the world of the old tale of “weapons of mass destruction” possessed by the government of Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein.
So long as no accurate information, based on credible sources, is made available, falsehood continues to hang over the White House.
For a related article read: The weapons of the U.S. are meant to be used
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