Should Syria give up its chemical weapons?
Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:59AM GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/11/323290/should-syria-give-up-its-chemical-weapons/
By Prof. Rodney Shakespeare
Everything
gets down to whether or not the Russians really are going into Syria,
to defend it in a big way. When Libya disarmed that did not stop the
USA from attacking. When Saddam Hussein gave the UN inspectors
unfettered access Iraq was still attacked. If you disarm, you disarm at
your peril because the USA and Israel have already decided to attack."
Israel,
a regional aggressor, has chemical weapons. And atom bombs. And
hydrogen bombs, and quite a few other nasties. So why should Syria give
up its weapons?
Moreover, if Syria gives up its chemical weapons one thing is certain - it will be attacked (even more than it is being attacked at the moment). Only the existence of Syria’s chemical weapons, and the possible military support of Russia, has kept Syria from being attacked so far.
Basic American principle is always to attack any country or any group that is not capable of effectively striking back. It’s basic Israeli principle as well.
It’s what bullies have done since time immemorial. The USA wants to attack North Korea but that country has atom bombs so it doesn’t get attacked. So let’s get one thing clear - once Syria gives up its chemical weapons, it will be attacked.
Furthermore, giving up chemical weapons will not stop the use of chemical weapons in Syria. All the evidence so far - yes, all of it - indicates that the rebels have plenty of gas and are using it so that the Assad government gets blamed. The rebels admit it; they get caught with it; they even film themselves firing it!
And it’s very notable that Obama and Kerry - liars to the core - keep saying that gas has been used and therefore it was used by the Syrian government. Which type of logic is what you would expect from the people who are financing and arming the Jabhat al Nusra, Wahhabi, Salafists and the worst lot of all, the Takfiri so that they can cut throats, chop heads and - use gas.
Incredible though it might seem, the Axis of Evil (that’s the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia) are engaged in yet another massive false flag attack. It was exactly the same on 9/11, 2001, give or take some detail. You know something wants to happen (in the case of 9/11, the Americans and Israelis knew from spying on telephone calls and emails that a group was organizing an attack) and then you let it happen. And make sure it happens in a big way.
For years the American had had sanctions on Japan and were trying to provoke Japan to attack. For years the American had broken all the Japanese security codes and, exactly like today, were spying on everything the Japanese military were doing. For well over a week, the Americans knew the Pearl Harbor attack was coming. Thus they let it happen so that the middle-west and western Americans (who were anti-war) would be galvanized into war, which was what the east coast political establishment wanted. How the political establishment rubbed its hands when they heard the signals of the Japanese fleet setting out to attack!
In the case of 9/11 the Americans and Israelis had had over two months’ notice of what was being planned. So they did their own planning and one bit should never be forgotten - when you want to blow up a building (as Tower Number Seven, which was not hit by a plane, was blown up) you need at least a week’s preparation during which to lay the demolition charges.
Oh, and don’t forget - half an hour before Tower Number Seven was blown up and magically collapsed into dust (you need some sort of atomic device to do that), the BBC announced that it had already collapsed yet the Tower was seen to be still standing in the background! The BBC reporter who made the announcement was using a piece of paper conveniently supplied by the Reuters news agency….!
Therefore, if Syria does give up its chemical weapons, it will do not stop the Takfiri and Jabhat al Nusra from spreading more poison gas. It will not stop the Axis of Evil from doing its evil work. In no way will it stop the fighting inside Syria.
The hope, of course, is that Russia has made the proposal that Syria should give up its chemical weapons so that Russia, itself, is given time to establish itself militarily in Syria. So far, Russia has been all talk, and relatively little action. The situation urgently requires Russian intervention to protect the independence of Syria.
Moreover, by making Syria give up its chemical weapons Russia could be trying to do the one thing which really matters - making Israel give up its weapons which are not just a regional danger but a world one as well.
Let us hope that the Russians really are up to a major international maneuver which could give the USA and Israel their come-uppance.
But it’s risky. If Syria is slow to disarm the American war-mongers will see their chance to attack.
Everything gets down to whether or not the Russians really are going into Syria, to defend it in a big way. When Libya disarmed that did not stop the USA from attacking. When Saddam Hussein gave the UN inspectors unfettered access Iraq was still attacked. If you disarm, you disarm at your peril because the USA and Israel have already decided to attack.
We must pray that Russia has the will, the courage, and the means to do the right thing.
RS/HGH
Ex-captives reveal militants’ involvement in August 21 Syria chemical raid
http://presstvchannel.tumblr.com/post/60834022999/ex-captives-reveal-militants-involvement-in-august-21
An Italian journalist and a Belgian researcher, who
had been held hostage by the militants in Syria but were recently freed,
say they overheard their captors talking about involvement in a deadly
chemical attack last month.
Italian journalist Domenico Quirico and Belgian national Pierre Piccinin said they had heard their captors talking about the involvement of militants in the chemical attack that took place in Syria on August 21, the same attack that the US has blamed on the Syrian government and has planned to attack Syria as an act of “punishment” for.
The two landed in Rome on September 9 after five months of captivity.
“It is a moral duty to say this. The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said during an interview with the Belgian RTL radio station.
Piccinin said that while being captive, the two, who were secluded from the outside world, overheard a Skype conversation in English involving three people.
He added that the unknown militants involved in the conversation were saying that the chemical attack “in two suburbs of Damascus was carried out by rebels as a provocation to force the West to intervene militarily.”
The men have also criticized recent US threats of war against Syria, which have been blatantly issued against the Middle Eastern country over the accusation that the Syrian government was behind the August 21 attack.
Quirico said that he and Piccinin were beaten on a daily basis and had even suffered two mock executions.
The Italian journalist entered Syria from Lebanon on April 6 and was abducted three days later while travelling to the city of Homs.
The recent war rhetoric against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the Middle Eastern country and the country’s foreign-backed opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus.
The Syrian government categorically rejected the accusation.
Nevertheless, a number of Western countries, with the US being at the forefront, quickly started campaigning for war.
On August 31, US President Barack Obama said he would seek Congress authorization before the possible strikes on Syria.
However, reports indicate a majority of Congress members are either against the planned strikes on Syria or are yet undecided. The Senate has meanwhile postponed a vote on the US administration-proposed resolution to attack Syria.
The mood in the Congress seems to mirror that of the general American public, who, polls show, have become even more pessimistic about US war plans following the revelation by the US administration on Sunday, September 8, that it did not have “irrefutable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence” against Damascus. The White House has all along the way been insisting that it had “evidence” strong enough to implicate the Syrian government in the August 21 attack - a claim it continues to assert - while refusing repeated calls to release it publicly.
The UN, Iran, Russia, and China have been voicing strong opposition to the US plan for war.
(Source: presstv.ir)
US war machine cranks up again
US Navy destroyers cruising in the Pacific Ocean
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/04/322066/us-war-machine-cranks-up-again/
Wed Sep 4, 2013 1:45PM
By Finian Cunningham
The US war machine is cranking up to commit yet another criminal aggression on a sovereign country. This will be just the latest episode in a long history of American aggression and state terrorism against humanity and peace. And US politicians, from President Obama down, are lying through their teeth. They are wrapping themselves up with legalistic, moral and humanitarian principles to disguise the fact that they the mouthpieces of the most barbaric regime on earth.
The
true, barbaric nature of US government is once again apparent. It is a
war machine. It has always been so, but for a long time the inherent
belligerent, criminal state was disguised with the trappings of
democracy, human rights and law.
But those trappings are now discarded; and the steely, bristling war machine trundles forward to kill and maim countless more civilians for its gratification. The US is the political equivalent of a perverse cult in which, periodically, innocent human blood must be sacrificed to satiate its lust.
The US political establishment cannot help itself. It is programmed for war, no matter who sits in the White House or in Congress. This is because the political system in the US is a ghoulish servant of corporate and military empire. The politicians must obey, and many of them are only too willing to obey, the over-riding dictates of the elite: maximise profits at home or abroad. If that means impoverishing the majority, so be it. If that means going to war and killing millions of innocents in order to impose regime change to install pliable puppets, so be it. This is dictatorship by an elite under ironclad capitalist imperatives. Formal democracy was a cover for decades, now it has been discarded as no longer needed.
The spectacle this week in Washington testifies to this grotesque deformation of democracy. Politicians of both main parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are lining up to support calls for war on Syria, while the majority of ordinary American citizens oppose any such action. Impervious to the wishes of its people, never mind the precepts on international law, the US is now taking aim to unleash death and destruction. A country of 310 million people with the biggest military arsenal on the planet is preparing to attack a small land of some 22 million people, which has not or does not threaten the US. In Syria, nearly one-third of its population has been displaced after being ravaged by nearly three years of war. Now this devastated Arab society and its seven million refugees are to bear the onslaught of American missiles and air strikes. How barbaric can you get?
Following a charade debate in the US Senate - and unanimous acceptance by lawmakers of phoney propaganda levelled against the Syrian government over chemical weapons - there emerged bipartisan support for President Barack Obama’s plan to launch war. The brainless uniformity of the American political mindset is appalling. Senators and Representatives were seen congratulating themselves on having “debated” and “deliberated” to use military force - all based on the most outrageous lies and fabrications. The notion that there is some kind of diversity in the US political system is a travesty. There is no “left” or “right”; or “doves” and “hawks”. The US White House and Congress is a collective rubber stamp to serve as an illusion for the capitalist war machine.
Some commentators have speculated, vainly, that there are figures within the US administration who up to now have been acting as restraining influences. US Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey were supposed to be the dissenting voices of reason by which sanity might prevail over militarism. What a pathetic illusion that is. These three servile figures were this week cheerleading the calls in Washington for war on Syria.
And the worst joke of all is President Barack Obama. Here is the man who was first elected to end American wars and overseas aggression that the ordinary, decent people of the US have become sick of. President Obama was prematurely awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after he made early speeches about nuclear disarmament and “reaching out to the Muslim world”. How the American people have been cruelly betrayed by Obama, who has served only to increase US militarism around the world, including nuclear capability, illegal wars and assassinations. Now the Peace Laureate promulgates the calls for war on Syria.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden last weekend, Obama said: “Our military has positioned assets in the [Middle East] region. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs [General Martin Dempsey] has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose. Moreover, the Chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive; it will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now. And I’m prepared to give that order.”
In other words, this is a president who is holding a gun to the head of the Syrian people and the wider world. What’s more, we can be sure that the so-called “peace president” has signed off on a full-scale military attack on Syria in the coming days. The New York Times reported this week that Obama held a confidential meeting in the White House on Monday with two of the most rabid militarists on Capitol Hill, Senators John McCain and Lyndsey Graham. These two dangerous clowns, who openly support Al Qaeda militants in Syria and have been calling for US air strikes for the past two years, emerged from their confab with the president, both telling the media of their satisfaction that Obama was readying a “serious” military attack on Syria. If those two crackpots are content, then we can be sure that the US is indeed planning a major campaign of aggression.
Let’s put this in perspective. The US and its Western allies’ claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons are entirely bogus. There is not one shred of evidence to support these allegations, which rely on bombast and unverifiable information. The evidence, in fact, shows that the perpetrators of the deadly chemical attack near Damascus on 21 August, as in other previous incidents, were the anti-government mercenaries that the Western states and their regional proxies, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have infiltrated into Syria since at least March 2011. There are reliable reports that the mercenaries were supplied chemicals from Saudi Arabia and were acting under the direction of Western intelligence to cause an atrocity in order to provoke the red line threshold for Western military intervention.
The haste with which the US has mobilized warships and cruise missiles off Syria within days of the alleged chemical weapon attack on 21 August, and the unseemly rush to war in Washington, indicates clearly that the bigger plan is regime change in Syria - an objective that the US and its allies have long desired and is well documented. So it is highly probable that Western agencies have colluded in a war crime to justify committing an even bigger war crime; and all the while we are told that the US government is preparing to launch missiles on a country in order to “save lives”. It is so ludicrous and yet Washington politicians feign to “debate” the merits and demerits of this farce.
The Washington elite is brazenly telling lies to the American people and the rest of the world. The cause and reasons for going to war are audaciously fraudulent and insulting to commonsense. Obama and his lieutenants claim that the “limited strikes” on Syria do not amount to war. That is absurd. Five US destroyers are lining up to launch hundreds of cruise missiles on Syria. How can that be construed as anything but war? The White House claims that the agenda is “not regime change” yet the US is sending weapons and CIA advisors to help the mercenaries in Syria, as noted again by the New York Times this week.
Obama claims that the planned attacks on Syria are not aimed at “tilting the balance of forces” in Syria, yet he has said that the strikes will “degrade the regime”. It is believed that the US military is targeting more than 20 airfields and airports across Syria. That obviously has little to do with neutralizing chemical weapons and everything to do with crippling the Syrian army’s capacity to finish off the Western-backed mercenaries, who have been routed in recent months. Also, as political analyst Christof Lehmann points out, US Special Forces have been primed on the borders with Jordan and Turkey to mount “seek and destroy missions” along with the militants inside Syria. “That means that it is not at all unlikely that there will be an attempt to decapitate Syria’s military and political leadership,” says Lehmann. That’s not regime change?
The White House says the action in Syria is “not open ended, it is not Iraq or Afghanistan… there will be no boots on the ground”. So, why is the USS Antonio advanced amphibious warship stationed off Syria with 700 Marines onboard, and why has the latest motion agreed in Congress left a provision for “search and rescue teams to go into Syria”?
It is transparent and glaring. The US war machine is cranking up to commit yet another criminal aggression on a sovereign country. This will be just the latest episode in a long history of American aggression and state terrorism against humanity and peace. And US politicians, from President Obama down, are lying through their teeth. They are wrapping themselves up with legalistic, moral and humanitarian principles to disguise the fact that they the mouthpieces of the most barbaric regime on earth.
What this shows is that the US state is - inherently and incorrigibly - a war machine. Even a supposed “peace president” ends up behaving as an out-and-out war criminal. What American citizens need to do is to recognize the source of that inherent aggression. It’s way beyond this or that political party or politician. It’s the systematic inherent violence of capitalism. Americans need to deal with that for their own sake and that of humanity.
FC/SL
Prince Bandar behind effort to topple Assad: Ralph Schoenman
Sun Sep 8, 2013 5:14PM GMT
Interview with Ralph Schoenman
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/08/322793/bandar-behind-effort-to-topple-assad/
The
CIA and the Saudis arm and coordinate what is called extensive evidence
that the rebels, the murderous US-backed militia with al-Qaeda-linked
Islamist formations, have played a leading role and have used repeatedly
these chemical weapons."
Press
TV has conducted an interview with author and political commentator
Ralph Schoenman about Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia who is reportedly
leading a secret Saudi-CIA effort to aid militants in Syria.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Give us your thoughts on this report revealing Bandar’s role in the sequence of events that ultimately may lead to a US attack on Syria?
Schoenman: Well, as a matter of fact The Wall Street Journal article is very specific, “Inside the Central Intelligence Agency everyone knows Saudi Arabia is serious about toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Saudi king named Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to lead this effort.
The CIA has been involved with the Saudis in providing plane loads of money and arms and Prince Bandar has been jetting from coverts to manned centers near Syrian front lines to the Elysee Palace in Paris; the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to organize the undermining of the Assad regime according to Arab American European officials.”
This article continues - “Current Saudi Ambassador to Washington Adel al-Jubeir is leading a parallel campaign to coax Congress and the reluctant Obama administration to expand the US role in Syria. The conflict has become a proxy war for Middle East factions and Saudi Arabia’s efforts are one side of its broad efforts to expand its influence.”
And it continues - “The Saudi lobbying is part of the calculus involving and including chemical attacks.”
The specific reference to chemical attacks is corroborated by Associated Press reports that document that in fact the chemicals involved that have been the rationale and pretext for the imperialist planned aggression against Syria were in fact a Saudi undertaking provided to the mercenary formations that the CIA and the Saudis arm and coordinate what is called extensive evidence that the rebels, the murderous US-backed militia with al-Qaeda-linked Islamist formations, have played a leading role and have used repeatedly these chemical weapons.
In fact, all of the concrete evidence indicates that this is exactly what is involved in the current circumstance where chemical weapons were used not by the Assad government, but indeed by the rebels in this Saudi coordination as a well planned and prepared and well documented pretext as per usual for American imperialism to invade and dismantle another government.
Let me emphasize here that American imperialism has a decades-long history of using chemical weapons and gas throughout the war in Indo-China, chemicals and gas; chemicals, which explode the pupil of the eye; toxic chemicals of all sorts were used throughout Indo-China, throughout Vietnam. It was documented amply in the International War Crimes Tribunal.
Similarly with respect to the war on Iraq - Saddam Hussein was provided specifically with gas and chemicals that were used against Iran; and used by direction against Iran and were part of a coordinated attack initiated by Zbigniew Brzezinski after a meeting with Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia, al-Sabah the Emir of Kuwait and Saddam Hussein in Kuwait, precipitating the attack by Iraq upon Iran involving the use of chemical and gas weapons.
Fallujah in Iraq - Fallujah is permeated by chemicals weapons of the United States. In fact there was thalidomide-like birth deformities across Iraq as an outcome of the chemicals from the depleted uranium used.
Press TV: I’d like to get your thoughts on what are the Saudis gains in all of this?
Schoenman: The Saudis and the feudal apparatus in Saudi Arabia is seeking to dismantle and to undermine any national government that opposes imperialist objectives.
In particular the Wahabis are seeking to wage a war against Shia Islam, which is a component of their subordination to imperialism and their service to its aims.
They have done this with respect to Syria; they have done this with respect to Iran; they are doing it with respect to Lebanon; they are doing it with respect to Egypt.
In fact, they were involved - Prince Bandar and the Saudis - in coordinating with the Egyptian military this coup against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood of course had in fact attempted to submit to imperialism and encourage attacks against Syria and mobilize in support of attacks upon Iran itself. Nonetheless it was sacrificed because of popular anger at the austerity measures to which Morsi had acquiesced.
And the military took its actions against Morsi as a prelude to cracking down on the population at large.
All of this indicates the Saudi role at the behest of imperialism. And the specific moment that chemical weapons had been introduced into Syria, used in Syria and imputed to the regime it is part of the pattern of a false flag operation by imperialism.
SC/HGH
Thursday Sep 12, 201301:22 PM GMT
FM: Iran had warned US of insurgents having got chemical arms
US will lose key allies after Syria attack: Dr. Marandi
Thu Sep 5, 2013 5:16PM GMT
Interview with Mohammad Marandi
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/05/322249/us-loses-key-allies-after-syria-attack/
So
the United States is going to lose friends; key countries like Russia
and China will be unforgiving and definitely people in Iraq and other
regional countries will harden the stance against the Saudi dictatorship
and other American client regimes in the region and the United States
will become a pariah.”
Press
TV talks with Mohammad Marandi, professor of the University of Tehran,
about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s stance on the Syrian crisis.
The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: From what we heard the Leader say, how can Iran’s official position be interpreted concerning the Syrian situation? Of course, we know that officially Iran has said it is against military intervention but what kind of a reaction do you think Iran will show once a military strike takes place indeed it does?
Marandi: I think there is no doubt that the Iranians will increase their support for the Syrian people and fortunately the international community is rallying against the United States and its aggressive posturing for the Syrian people and I think the Iranians show that it is a very good opportunity to increase American isolation in this part of the world and beyond.
What Iran will actually do I think at this stage is unclear. The Iranians never show their hands, as they say, but I think that the Americans definitely will recognize and understand that the Iranians will make life for them a lot more difficult and those who support aggression against Syria in this region will definitely not benefit from the strikes and from aggression.Press TV: When the Leader says that the United States on Syria is making a mistake and it will have to pay the price, what do you think he means by that? What is the price that you think the US would have to pay if it launches a strike?
Marandi: I think this works at different levels. Militarily speaking, the United States may be able to kill people in Syria but at the end of the day, people will recognize that the United States has carried out aggression against a country to help al-Qaeda-like groups in Syria to overthrow a government that has been the victim of horrific terrorist attacks; terrorists who eat people, terrorists who cut off the heads of people and terrorists who have already used chemical weapons in the past like sarin because UN monitors and inspectors have stated this before. Carla Del Ponte, as we all know, she has said that on previous occasions it has been the opposition that has used chemical weapons.
So all evidence points to the fact that allies of the United States are carrying out atrocities and using weapons of mass destruction and the United States though wants to punish the Syrian government basically because the militants and al-Qaeda-like groups are losing the war in Syria.So the United States is going to lose friends; key countries like Russia and China will be unforgiving and definitely people in Iraq and other regional countries will harden their stance against the Saudi dictatorship and other American client regimes in the region and the United States will become a pariah. They will be seen as a pariah state and a rogue regime that carries out attacks on different countries one after another.
MSK/SS
MANTAN TAWANAN UNGKAPKAN TENTANG PELAKU SERANGAN SENJATA KIMIA
http://cahyono-adi.blogspot.com/2013/09/mantan-tawanan-ungkapkan-tentang-pelaku.html#more
Akhirnya ketegangan konflik Syria mereda untuk sementara setelah
negara-negara yang terlibat dalam konflik -- kecuali negara-negara Arab
badui, setuju dengan proposal Rusia untuk menyerahkan senjata kimia
pemerintah Syria kepada PBB. Namun seiring dengan itu satu demi satu
bukti terkuak, bahwa pelaku serangan senjata kimia di Syria adalah
pemberontak.
Kali ini dua orang mantan tawanan pemberontak Syria yang mengungkapkan fakta tentang konspirasi zionis internasional untuk memojokkan Syria dengan isu senjata kimia. Kedua tawanan tersebut, jurnalis Italia Domenico Quirico dan peneliti Belgia Pierre Piccinin, mengaku telah mendengar percakapan para pemberontak tentang keterlibatan mereka dalam serangan senjata kimia yang menewaskan lebih dari seribu warga sipil di berbagai wilayah di luar Damaskus bulan Agustus lalu. Pengakuan tersebut dikatakan keduanya setelah keduanya mendarat di bandara Roma Italia tgl 9 September lalu, mengakhiri penawanan mereka oleh pemberontak Syria yang berlangsung selama 5 bulan lebih.
"Ini adalah kewajiban moral untuk mengatakannya. Pemerintah Bashar al-Assad tidak menggunakan senjata gas sarin atau senjata kimia lainnya di sekitar Damascus,” kata Piccinin dalam wawancara dengan stasion radio "Belgian RTL".
Menurut pengakuan Piccinin, mereka berdua mendengar percakapan antara 3 orang yang berbahasa Inggris menggunakan media "Skype". Ia mendengar salah seorang pemberontak itu mengatakan, "serangan kimia di 2 kawasan di luar Damascus dilakukan oleh pemberontak sebagai provokasi barat untuk melakukan intervensi militer.”
Keduanya mengecam berbagai ancaman yang dikeluarkan Amerika terhadap Syria terkait isu serangan senjata kimia tersebut. Penurut pengakuan Quirico, mereka berdua telah mengalami berbagai penyiksaan selama menjalani penahanan, dipukuli setiap hari dan 2 kali mengalami eksekusi palsu. Keduanya masuk ke Syria dari Lebanon pada tgl 6 April. Pada tgl 9 April keduanya ditangkap pemberontak saat keduanya tengah dalam perjalanan menuju Homs.
Retorika perang Syria mendapatkan momentumnya pada tgl 21 Agustus lalu ketika para pemberontak mengklaim pemerintah telah melakukan serangan senjata kimia terhadap warga sipil di beberapa kawasan di luar kota Damaskus. Sebanyak lebih dari seribu orang tewas akibat aksi tersebut. Tuduhan tersebut dibantah oleh pemerintah Syria, juga oleh pemerintah Rusia dan Iran, yang balik menuduh pemberontaklah yang telah melakukan serangan itu. Medai-media utama cenderung menyuarakan tuduhan pemberontak, namun media-media independen sebaliknya gancar mengungkapkan berbagai fakta yang menunjukkan kebohongan tuduhan tersebut.
Atas tuduhan tersebut Amerika mengancam melakukan serangan militer terhadap Syria. Namun ancaman tersebut terhambat oleh opini publik yang berkembang di dalam negeri yang menolak langkah militer terhadap Syria, yang membuat Obama menyerahkan keputusan tersebut kepada Congress. Namun Obama buru-buru meminta Congress untuk menunda keputusan untuk memberi jalan bagi teralisasinya proposal Rusia.
Kali ini dua orang mantan tawanan pemberontak Syria yang mengungkapkan fakta tentang konspirasi zionis internasional untuk memojokkan Syria dengan isu senjata kimia. Kedua tawanan tersebut, jurnalis Italia Domenico Quirico dan peneliti Belgia Pierre Piccinin, mengaku telah mendengar percakapan para pemberontak tentang keterlibatan mereka dalam serangan senjata kimia yang menewaskan lebih dari seribu warga sipil di berbagai wilayah di luar Damaskus bulan Agustus lalu. Pengakuan tersebut dikatakan keduanya setelah keduanya mendarat di bandara Roma Italia tgl 9 September lalu, mengakhiri penawanan mereka oleh pemberontak Syria yang berlangsung selama 5 bulan lebih.
"Ini adalah kewajiban moral untuk mengatakannya. Pemerintah Bashar al-Assad tidak menggunakan senjata gas sarin atau senjata kimia lainnya di sekitar Damascus,” kata Piccinin dalam wawancara dengan stasion radio "Belgian RTL".
Menurut pengakuan Piccinin, mereka berdua mendengar percakapan antara 3 orang yang berbahasa Inggris menggunakan media "Skype". Ia mendengar salah seorang pemberontak itu mengatakan, "serangan kimia di 2 kawasan di luar Damascus dilakukan oleh pemberontak sebagai provokasi barat untuk melakukan intervensi militer.”
Keduanya mengecam berbagai ancaman yang dikeluarkan Amerika terhadap Syria terkait isu serangan senjata kimia tersebut. Penurut pengakuan Quirico, mereka berdua telah mengalami berbagai penyiksaan selama menjalani penahanan, dipukuli setiap hari dan 2 kali mengalami eksekusi palsu. Keduanya masuk ke Syria dari Lebanon pada tgl 6 April. Pada tgl 9 April keduanya ditangkap pemberontak saat keduanya tengah dalam perjalanan menuju Homs.
Retorika perang Syria mendapatkan momentumnya pada tgl 21 Agustus lalu ketika para pemberontak mengklaim pemerintah telah melakukan serangan senjata kimia terhadap warga sipil di beberapa kawasan di luar kota Damaskus. Sebanyak lebih dari seribu orang tewas akibat aksi tersebut. Tuduhan tersebut dibantah oleh pemerintah Syria, juga oleh pemerintah Rusia dan Iran, yang balik menuduh pemberontaklah yang telah melakukan serangan itu. Medai-media utama cenderung menyuarakan tuduhan pemberontak, namun media-media independen sebaliknya gancar mengungkapkan berbagai fakta yang menunjukkan kebohongan tuduhan tersebut.
Atas tuduhan tersebut Amerika mengancam melakukan serangan militer terhadap Syria. Namun ancaman tersebut terhambat oleh opini publik yang berkembang di dalam negeri yang menolak langkah militer terhadap Syria, yang membuat Obama menyerahkan keputusan tersebut kepada Congress. Namun Obama buru-buru meminta Congress untuk menunda keputusan untuk memberi jalan bagi teralisasinya proposal Rusia.
REF:
"Ex-captives reveal militants’ involvement in August 21 Syria chemical raid"; Press TV; 10 September 2013
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Ex-captives reveal militants' involvement in August 21 Syria chemical raid
Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:30AM GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/10/323034/excaptives-reveal-rebels-role-in-cw-raid/
An
Italian journalist and a Belgian researcher, who had been held hostage
by the militants in Syria but were recently freed, say they overheard
their captors talking about involvement in a deadly chemical attack last
month.
Italian journalist Domenico Quirico and Belgian national Pierre Piccinin said they had heard their captors talking about the involvement of militants in the chemical attack that took place in Syria on August 21, the same attack that the US has blamed on the Syrian government and has planned to attack Syria as an act of “punishment” for.
The two landed in Rome on September 9 after five months of captivity.
“It is a moral duty to say this. The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus,” Piccinin said during an interview with the Belgian RTL radio station.Piccinin said that while being captive, the two, who were secluded from the outside world, overheard a Skype conversation in English involving three people.
He added that the unknown militants involved in the conversation were saying that the chemical attack “in two suburbs of Damascus was carried out by rebels as a provocation to force the West to intervene militarily.”
The men have also criticized recent US threats of war against Syria, which have been blatantly issued against the Middle Eastern country over the accusation that the Syrian government was behind the August 21 attack.
Quirico said that he and Piccinin were beaten on a daily basis and had even suffered two mock executions.
The Italian journalist entered Syria from Lebanon on April 6 and was abducted three days later while traveling to the city of Homs.
The recent war rhetoric against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the Middle Eastern country and the country’s foreign-backed opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus.
The Syrian government categorically rejected the accusation.
Nevertheless, a number of Western countries, with the US being at the forefront, quickly started campaigning for war.
On August 31, US President Barack Obama said he would seek Congress authorization before the possible strikes on Syria.
However, reports indicate a majority of Congress members are either against the planned strikes on Syria or are yet undecided. The Senate has meanwhile postponed a vote on the US administration-proposed resolution to attack Syria.
The mood in the Congress seems to mirror that of the general
American public, who, polls show, have become even more pessimistic
about US war plans following the revelation by the US administration on
Sunday, September 8, that it did not have “irrefutable,
beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence” against Damascus. The White House
has all along the way been insisting that it had “evidence” strong
enough to implicate the Syrian government in the August 21 attack - a
claim it continues to assert - while refusing repeated calls to release
it publicly.
The UN, Iran, Russia, and China have been voicing strong opposition to the US plan for war.
SZH/HN/HJL
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