US Knew Syrian Rebels Could Carry Out Chemical Attack?

This article states that the United States knew Syrian Rebels could cause a chemical attack before the attack on August 21st, 2013. Writes Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. He received this prize through his investigations during the Iraq and Vietnam wars. He says that months before the American Intelligence agencies knew that al-Qeada had mastered the creation of sarin and could manufacture it in high amounts. The chemical attack took place on the same day UN inspectors arrived in Damascus to investigate allegations of use of chemical weapons. The idea of the U.S. knowing the possibility of the creation of chemical weapons in Syria was denied by the Director of National Intelligence, Shawn Turner. We can not be positive if all of this is true, but if it is the United States could have saved any lives. 

http://inserbia.info/news/2013/12/us-knew-syrian-rebels-could-carry-out-chemical-attack/

Obama lied about Syrian chemical attack, ‘cherry-picked’ intelligence: report

In this recent article a pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, claims Barrack Obama knew of Syria rebels ability to launch a chemical attack. This causes much controvesy because in the week safter the attack the Obama Administration focused their attention on blaming President Bashar Assad. it states that the Administration had kept secret the fact that U.S. spy agencies found that Assad did not have access to sarin. If Assad did not have access to sarin, than there is no way he could have fueled this attack. According to Hersh, the American intelligence agencies created a series of reports that cited evidence that the al-Nursa Front, a jihadi group linked to al Qaeda mastered a way in which to use sarin to attack. After this finding they were placed on the foreign terroristorganization list, yet after the attack thye were never brought up as a suspect when clearl they should have. Obama Administration apparently left this out in order to build a case against Assad. If this claim is true, then this would back Russia’s orginal claims that it was the rebels behind the attack and not the Presidents. The question is why Obama choose to hide this information and decide he wanted to build a case against Assad and then back down and agree upon a compromise? I feel more needs to be looked into this and Obama and his Administration need to come out and speak on their behalf. Overall, it was an interesting article to read and again provides a different side to the story and shows how each side is hiding this and leaving information out to benefit themselves.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/9/obama-lied-about-syrian-chemical-attack-cherry-pic/

OPCW warns of delay in moving Syria chemical weapons

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/opcw-warns-of-delay-in-moving-syria-chemical-weapons_895353.html

This article is more or less a notification from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that there may be a delay in moving Syria’s chemical weapons. The OPCW developed a roadmap with a deadline of December 31^st as the date in which all “priority” weapons will be removed from Syria, but OPCW director Ahmet Uzumcu says this might not happen due to “technical issues”. Although there may be a delay, he says that he is confident that the OPCW will meet the June 2014 deadline, which is the time when all chemical weapons in Syria will be destroyed. The article highlights that 1,290 tons of chemical weapons material are to be destroyed by the latter deadline.

I think that this article is important, especially in the light of the article posted to this blog a few days ago (Syria Chemical Weapons Facilities “Destroyed”) which stressed that we do not know what “destroyed” actually means. This lack of clarification, coupled with this new article saying that the OPCW is having technical difficulties seems to be pointing to the fact that things are not going as smoothly as originally hoped. It also seems as though the OPCW is quick to update the public when things are going right, like the facilities being destroyed, yet brush off delays by reassuring that they will still meet the final deadline. This article also mentions that the Norwegian Nobel committee honored the OPCW as the 2013 peace laureate for their “role in dismantling chemical weapons”, so it does make sense for them to want to keep their public image as high as possible. 

Growing suffering of Syria's besieged civilians

In this BBC article titled "Growing suffering of Syria's besieged civilians" gives an overview to the Syrian civilians living in the rebel areas and the troubles they face. This is happening due to the Syrian government taking siege in the rebel areas of Damascus and Homs. Millions are trapped and starvation is taking place around the area. The article says that electricity has been cut and no food, medicine or gas can enter the town in these areas.  As one Syrian army officer told the BBC: "They either surrender or starve." So far they are not surrendering.I feel that this is a great article to show how the civilians of Damascus are struggling to cope with the ongoing conflicts around the area. Not only is this a political and military struggle but also the many citizens of Syria. Many of the weapons and facilities are still gone but peace for the people is still far away. It's is a good article to raise awareness of how the ongoing conflicts in Syria affects their people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25240296

Syria chemical weapons facilities "destroyed"

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/10/syria-chemical-weapons-facilities-destroyed-2013103182859524946.html

This is a really great article to take a look at and is a portal for many other interesting titles and blogs on the area. The title itself shows hows there are so many people claiming that all the tasks and goals are met and completed. "Destroyed" in quotations shows the lack of clarification of what destroyed really means. Is it that Syria no longer has the weapons in their possession or are no longer able to use them? Is it that the weapons have poof, disintegrated and all the mess is cleaned up? It is none of the above. The article goes into depth about the deadlines the Syrian's met for allowing outside forces to come and clean house on 21 out of 23 facilities. Another deadline that was met was taking them out of the country and destroying some of the chemicals within the country for immediate relief. The third deadline that is mentioned will not be met until June 2014, which is the complete disposal of the chemical weapons and equipment. The OPCW does not have a part in this and therefore the UN has to out source and acquire a group to take on the role of figuring out what to do with such weapons.

It is helpful to read Aljazeera's articles and know that they are not as biased and information withholding as I would have assumed. People want to read and learn about what is going on, deadlines and specific goal intentions are very comforting to read because it shows actions are taking place and not all are just behind closed doors or talked about. There is always the other side to this but all in all Aljazeera has been the most reliable website for update situations.

The Write UP!!!!!

For the reflective write up I would like each of you to analyze what happened within the blog as a whole. This analysis should include 2-4 ‘themes’ or ‘categories’--preferably, though not necessarily exclusively, themes from class. Trace your chosen themes through the posts on the blog. You can quote from the posts, or the media itself, but please cite it in the paper. Please discuss posts that are not just your own! Using comments as well as primary posts to support your themes is encouraged. In many ways I picture this project as a research paper without the final product. What I mean by this is that online you are discovering and interrogating sources—analyzing them as raw pieces of data. In this written (and more formal) portion, I want you to create/impose order on the chaos that is data collection. This write up is just the analysis or discussion portion of a ‘normal’ paper, with some ‘conclusionary’ remarks for good measure. This essay may include personal observations and will definitely show what you thought most interesting. The essays should be between 3-5pages long and are due on BB by 5pm on December 16, 2013 (our final period). If you need some help likely categories might include geopolitics, individual perspectives, Al-Jazeera vs BBC, how the US is involved, role of oil, regime change..... These are *just examples* you do NOT need to use these!!! I wanted to give you some clues as to the possibilities so it would be easier to see the themes for yourselves.

Bad Teeth?

This political cartoon was found on Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoons. If was made by Olle Johansson from Sweden on September 30^th 2013. So thinking about what Sweden’s view is on Syria having chemical weapons one can look at this political cartoon and see they want them removed. Due to its geographical location clearly they feel Syria having chemical weapons as a threat to their country. I think it clever of the artist to design the cartoon to look as though they are “plucking” the problem out of Syria; like plucking a bad tooth from a mouth. This solution seems so simple, remove the weapons and the problem is fixed. Through research this simple analogy is not very simple after all. After removal another problematic question arises; how to dispose of the chemical weapons? Who should remove them? Where should they depose of the weapons?

http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/cf31a120-d7f6-4c36-956d-3cf52d45a45b.html