Posts Tagged ‘Carla Del Ponte’
Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Gas in 2013: From UN sources. And yet, Obama, Hollande (France) wanted and now Trump wants to punish the Assad regime again
Posted on: April 13, 2018
UN Sources Say Syrian Rebels — Not Assad — Used Sarin Gas
A member of the United Nations commission of inquiry announced on a Swiss-Italian television show that they believe the Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons on Assad’s troops.
his article is from the archive of our partner 
. It was published in 2013.
A member of the United Nations commission of inquiry announced on a Swiss-Italian television show that they believe the Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons on Assad’s troops.
“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, 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,” said Carla Del Ponte, a member of the commission. “This was used on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities.”
(And yet, Carla Del Ponte priority is to focus on the Syrian regime as culprit for crimes against humanity)
Well, this complicates matters. It was just ten days ago that the United States shook its fist and officially declared that chemical weapons were being used by the Assad regime against its own people.
This indicated that the Syrian government had crossed the “red line” that Obama determined last year and opened the possibility of greater U.S. involvement.
But if it was the other way around? — The good guys (supported by western colonial powers, mnarchic wahhabi Saudi Kingdom, Turkey…) sprayed sarin gas on the bad guys (the Syrian people)?
That makes assisting the rebels a much more complicated transaction. Chemical weapons are horrible, no doubt about that. And sarin gas is absolutely off limits, according to the Geneva Protocol, and with three reported uses in Syria, it’s not like it was an accident. Also, chemical weapons are horrible.
Before anybody does anything, the U.N. commission’s claims need to be verified. There’s been nothing but misinformation spewing out of Syria, as the conflict turned to an all out civil war, and it’s not unimaginable that the Assad regime has been able to spin some information to their advantage.
Plus how in the world would the rebels even get sarin gas?
It doesn’t grow on trees, and though the government does have a bunch on hand, they’ve been guarding it heavily.
That said, it’s not like it’s the Syrian state news agency that’s making the sarin claim. It’s the United Nations — or at least their sources. They seem like honest, human rights-loving world citizens, right?
While it’ll take a little more sleuthing before we can positively confirm who’s using what weapons, one thing is for sure: Things have gone from bad to worse to really bad in Syria these past few months.
And now that Israel’s started shelling the country, it’ll probably keep getting worse before it gets better.
Note: The same accusations are levied on the Syrian regime concerning the supposedly chemical weapons used in Al Ghouta. The USA and France want to attack Syria before the UN chemical organization finishes its investigation on the ground
Assaad Zakka shared a link. ·
Washington Times: It was the rebels, confirmed victims of chemical attacks to UN official. Lethal Gas containers from Saudi Arabia stocked in tunnels and rebels had no idea what they were…
Posted on: September 6, 2013
Washington Times: It was the rebels, confirmed victims of chemical attacks to UN official.
Lethal Gas containers sent by Saudi Arabia’s Bandar intelligence services (longtime former ambassador in USA), stocked in tunnels, and rebels had no idea what they were… and how to use them?
Shaun Waterman published to the The Washington Times this August 30, 2013
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.
Damascus has recently been facing growing Western accusations that its forces used such weapons, which President Obama has described as crossing a red line.
But Ms. del Ponte’s remarks may serve to shift the focus of international concern.
Ms. del Ponte, who in 1999 was appointed to head the U.N. war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, has sometimes been a controversial figure. She was removed from her Rwanda post by the U.N. Security Council in 2003, but she continued as the chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav tribunal until 2008.
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.”
She gave no further details, the BBC said.
Before It’s News posted this August 30, 2013 a video that was banned by Googles which states rebels confirmation of using sarin gas.
The lies being told by US government agencies and the mainstream media over in Syria continue to unravel as a Free Syrian Army Rebel has come out and admitted to the Associated Press that the rebels were responsible for the chemical attack in Syria blamed upon Syrian government forces.
If this information isn’t bad enough, the rebels also admit that the weapons were supplied to them by US ally Saudi Arabia.
Is Barack Obama now going to attack Saudi Arabia and the FSA rebels or will this be overlooked by the globalists and the White House and Syria attacked anyways? A video report is also below.
Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted to Associated Press journalist Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.
“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,”writes Gavlak.
Rebels told Gavlak that they were not properly trained on how to handle the chemical weapons or even told what they were. It appears as though the weapons were initially supposed to be given to the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.
“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” one militant named ‘J’ told Gavlak.
His claims are echoed by another female fighter named ‘K’, who told Gavlak, “They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them. We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”
Will Barack Obama continue to attempt to start WW3 now that this information has come out and if so?
Will TPTB and their propaganda specialists attempt to portray this report as false?
Infowars has more answers to these questions which will show anyone who doubts the validity of this report only needs to learn who the original source of this story is, below.
If accurate, this story could completely derail the United States’ rush to attack Syria which has been founded on the “undeniable” justification that Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack. Dale Gavlak’s credibility is very impressive. He has been a Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press for two decades and has also worked for National Public Radio (NPR) and written articles for BBC News.
The website on which the story originally appeared – Mint Press (which is currently down as a result of huge traffic it is attracting to the article) is a legitimate media organization based in Minnesota. The Minnesota Post did a profile on them last year.
Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in providing rebels, whom they have vehemently backed at every turn, with chemical weapons, is no surprise given the revelations earlier this week that the Saudis threatened Russia with terror attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi unless they abandoned support for the Syrian President.
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Note: The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria was established in August 2011 to examine alleged violations of human rights in the Syrian conflict which started in March that year.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/#ixzz2ddALpbSQ
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Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Carried Out by Rebels, Says UN (UPDATE)
As the Syrian revolt continues to tear the country apart, the international community has been eager to condemn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, even as it became clear that the rebels do not, in fact, represent a popular uprising against the oppression of the Assad regime.
According to UN diplomat Carla del Ponte, it appears that the recent April chemical weapons attack was carried out by the Syrian rebels and not the regime, as it had been widely assumed.
Graham Noble published in the Guardian Express this August 27, 2013 (with slight clarifications)
Speaking to a Swiss television channel, del Ponte said that there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels had carried out the attack. She also said UN investigators had seen no evidence of the Syrian army using chemical weapons, but that further investigation was needed.
A spokesman for the rebels denied responsibility for the most recent attack, which allegedly involved the deployment of sarin nerve gas. He pointed out that the Free Syrian Army does not possess the missiles or shells necessary to deliver the chemical agent.
Sarin gas can be delivered in a number of ways. Additionally, while the rebels claim that the chemical agent was delivered by missiles or artillery, there is no evidence of a missile strike or shelling in any of the many videos that have been uploaded to the internet in the wake of the alleged attack.
After swift initial progress in the over two-year-old conflict, the rebel advance was stalled as Lebanon Resistant group Hezbollah sent fighters to liberate the town of Qusair (in Syria a nd 6 km from Lebanon’s borders) that was a strategic and shortest supply route to the Lebanese town of Arsal and on to reef of Damascus.
Whilst a number of towns have been taken and then retaken by each side, Assad’s forces have gradually gained the upper hand. With his army making gains and the eyes of the world upon him, it seems unlikely that the Syrian President would risk carrying out a chemical attack – particularly against an urban area.
The Syrian government has flatly denied responsibility for this latest alleged chemical weapons attack and, although not widely reported in the western media, there is broad suspicion that it was carried out by the rebels.
Ultimately, it may prove impossible for UN inspectors to determine who was responsible for the incident. Further, their investigation may be curtailed by the seemingly imminent military action – possibly in the form of cruise missile strikes – by the United States and the United Kingdom.
US President Obama has sent out mixed messages, regarding his intentions towards Syria. Whilst he has stated that the US would not take military action against Syria without a UN mandate, it appears that preparations for an attack are already well underway, with American and British naval forces massing in the region.
There is widespread speculation that strikes could be carried out within a week, despite strong and repeated warnings from both Russia and Iran, as well as the Syrian regime itself.
One of the most ominous repercussions of US intervention against the Syrian government is the possibility that Iran and it’s surrogate in Lebanon, Hezbollah, will launch strikes against Israel, in retaliation. This, in turn, could lead to a regional war, with Russia and the US lined up on opposing sides.
The United States government has been quick to condemn the Syrian government for the latest chemical weapons attack. Now that much of the evidence suggests it may have been carried out by the al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels (Nusra Front), President Obama should remember that he, along with his supporters and political allies, devoted much time to condemning his predecessor for leading the US into war based on questionable intelligence.
UPDATE: This article was updated to clarify one or two points that some of our readers found misleading:
1. The chemical attack earlier this year was widely blamed on the Syrian regime. It is this attack that the UN now concludes was carried out by Syrian rebels.
2. It appears unlikely – for a number of reasons – that the most recent August 21st attack was carried out by government forces – despite the rush to judgment within the international community – although this has yet to be fully determined.
3. It is clear that both sides in the Syrian conflict have the means to use chemical weapons and it would be misguided to assume that either side has a moral objection to such attacks.
As Jean Pascal Zanders, formerly of the European Union Institute for Security Studies, has pointed out ”In fact, we – the public – know very little beyond the observation of outward symptoms of asphyxiation and possible exposure to neurotoxicants, despite the mass of images and film footage. For the West’s credibility, I think that governments should await the results of the U.N. investigation.”
What the UN inspectors are doing in Syria? Time to recollected their mission in Iraq…What changed between 2003 and 2013?
Posted on: August 27, 2013
What the UN inspectors are doing in Syria? Time to recollected their mission in Iraq…What changed between 2003 and 2013?
Is it true that Russia has declared that it will not intervene against the Western preemptive strikes on Syria?
Many believe that the meeting in Jordan is to put the final touch on Geneva 2 conference to resolve politically the civil war in Syria, and to defuse any military strikes.
Like striking what targets? Not chemical depots as you might surmise.
The strikes will target communication facilities, power production and transmission facilities, headquarters of central commands, infrastructures for producing even shells and bullets…
The strikes are not interested in the weapon depots, just facilities for producing weapons…
The strikes are meant to disorganize and weaken a strong and unified Syrian army, determined to foil any partition of the Syrian nation.
The problem is not Bashar al Assad: That was a problem in 2011.
The problem is a unified and well trained army, ready to back any political independent decision to maintain Syria self sufficiency, a unified Syria…
Russia and the USA have agreed that the next Cold War partition for dominion in the Middle East should eliminate any strong armies, and reduce them for internal security missions…
Let us RECAPITULATE what was the main mission of the UN inspectors in Iraq before 2003:
February 2003: Colin Powell goes before the United Nations Security Council and scrolls through photos of trucks presented as prototypes of mobile laboratory of biological research, satellite photos for plants and chemical weapons bunkers in Iraq and has finally a vial of white powder: anthrax. (Colin Powell publicly regretted for lying, 3 years later after he resigned…)
March 2003: The United Nations Hans Blix Inspector indicates that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. The US and British Tony Blair PM faked not to believe Blix…
March 2003: Invasion of Iraq by a loose coalition led by the United States and not satisfying any UN mandate...
September 2004: Iraq Survey Group charged by the U.S. Government to find these weapons declared that there were no more chemical weapons since 1991
January 2005: the Chief Inspector of the ISG mission, Charles Duelfer, claimed that “it cannot be ruled out that the ADM (chemical weapons) has been transferred to Syria.”. He cited “a significant number of credible evidence”?
December 2008: Bush acknowledged to ABC News, that “the biggest regret of this Presidency will be the failure of credible intelligence on Iraq.” (Meaning not finding any nuclear facilities…)
March 2013: Attack with chemical weapons to Khan el Asal in Syria
May 2013: Carla Del Ponte reveals that the UN investigation commission has concrete and serious evidence that the rebels have used sarin gas.
August 19, 2013: UN experts arrive in Syria to investigate Khan al-Assal
August 21, 2013: with a developed sense of “timing”… New attack with nerve gas… in the suburbs of Damascus
August 22: The UN team dropped the investigation of Khan el Asal… and UN inspection team directed its attention to the Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus…
The United Nations asked for the Syria access to the site in the suburbs of Damascus
August 24: the system authorizes the United Nations to investigate. Obama and Cameron agreed that Syria regime had probably carried out a chemical weapons attack and consider military options against Damascus.
August 24: The US administration says that it has no doubt about the responsibility of the regime.
August 25: Laurent Fabius (France foreign affairs minister and of Israel too)… considers that there is “no doubt” about the attack with chemical weapons near Damascus and put the entire “responsibility” on the Syrian regime
August 26/ today: beginning of the mission of experts from the United Nations. The mandate of the inspectors is to assess if there is a use of chemicals or weapons, but not to determine who is responsible. !!!!!!!!!!
The moral of this story? The wolf has no need for actual and objective proofs.
What changed between 2003 and 2013?
In 2003, the US conducted a preemptive war on Iraq in order to physically plan and control the routes of the Gas pipelines crossing Iraq and Syria. The mission failed and Russia, China, and Iran drew the routes for the gas pipelines.
In 2013, the US and Russia agreed on partitioning the Middle East https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/next-cold-war-partition-line-for-dominion-is-being-drawn/
Note: This post was inspired by an article of Khalil Toubia recapitulating the timeline of the UN inspections in Iraq
Adonis Diaries 