"Syria rebel coalition rejects Russia chemical weapons handover proposal" CBS News

"The military wing of the U.S.-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC), an umbrella opposition group fighting against President Bashar Assad, has flatly rejected a proposal by Russia which would see the regime hand over control of its vast chemical weapons stockpiles to international control to avoid U.S. military strikes. After more than two and a half years of bloodshed in Syria which has left more than 100,000 people dead and millions displaced, the Russian initiative was announced Monday and quickly agreed to by Assad's government."  CBS News

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Yes.  The SNC, some of John McCain's little friends, rejects the possibility of the removal from the country of the weapons that they insist have been used by the Syrian government.  Does this strike anyone as odd?  pl  

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57602558/syria-rebel-coalition-rejects-russia-chemical-weapons-handover-proposal/

Comments

[Matthew]

Because once the chemical weapons are removed, Assad goes "all in" with a new offensive crushing the SNC once and for all.

Like the Iraqi National Congress, the SNC will flit around in political Hades in Washington or London until the next Village Idiot convinces himself/herself that he/she is the "new" Churchill.

[Peter C]

McCain's little friends will get an ever increasing amount of weapons courtesy of Uncle Sam. If the intelligence is credible on the recent amounts of weapons delivered as being the largest and best coordinated, should make McCain do the happy dance.

Could this be the handy work of Stanley A. McChrystal "Chairman of the Board of Siemens Government Systems, and is on the strategic advisory board of Knowledge International, a licensed arms dealer whose parent company is EAI, a business "very close" to the United Arab Emirates government" (Wikipedia)

[William R. Cumming]

NY Times has an op-ed by V. Putin!

Also GUARDIAN has TS memo of understanding between US and Israel given the latter access to raw intel info.

No one had authority IMO to sign this agreement with Israel and could it be treason?

[Charles I]

Come come, Israeli experiments have conclusively established the toxic effects on any peace process that having an actual partner for peace entails.

[fred]

Obama didn't have the consent of the Senate when he issued his 'red line' why would he care what Congress would think about this?

[WP]

Does Israel get a copy of the whole data stream, raw from the splitters?

Be mindful that it is Israel that developed and has Narus, the gear the NSA uses to parse the raw data.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus_(company)

If so, then Israel has a political tool for intrique and corruption unequaled in the history of the world. If so, Israel gets everything all of us do, think, and say without our permission, control, or knowledge including our voices, images, and documents. If so, the FISA Court is fully irrelevant. All anyone at NSA who has the authority to ask Israel is to ask about an American, any American, including Congress, the Supreme Court, and companies. If Israel is getting the raw stream, it contains everything and it is a total end run around any rule of law.

Ask your Congressperson to demand the truth. We will only get answers if Congress gets it emails, telephones, and faxes clogged with demands to get this matter straightened out.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

As a poster on the thread following the Guardian report on the NSA/Israeli intelligence memo, there was a redacted signature from the Israeli side, but none was to be seen - even redacted - from the NSA side. Things that make you go, hmm. Here's the link to the original Guardian post, drawn from revelations from Edward Snowden and the journalists working carefully to pick through the materials in a responsible way; i.e., no accusations that they imperiled lives (in contrast to traitor Pollard, who had no such scruples...):

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents

Note the careful oversight regime in this agreement with our lil' pals. It's a "Special Relationship", doncha know. Yep, more special than our rights under the Constitution, apparently.

[blowback]

Next the terrorists will be claiming that Syria had/has a secret nuclear weapons program.

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

NBC broadcast an interview last night of a young Tunisian transiting Turkey on his way to the Jihad in Syria. Once there, if he survives, he joins the cadre of trained, experienced and radical Sunni Jihadists. Their sworn enemy #1 is the USA. America’s priority should be keeping these young men back at home or in jail if they break the law (like being smuggled into Syria). It is flat out crazy to be supporting them and Al Qaeda. This blew back 12 years ago, it will blow back again.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3032619/#52986808

America’s current policy is insane mixture of greed and hubris; topped by stupidity.

[Andrew]

"No one had authority IMO to sign this agreement with Israel and could it be treason?" Sir, I fear it will soon be arranged that having the above mentioned opinion will be considered treason. And congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen will haunt your nights forever more.

[Medicine Man]

File this under "what a fucking surprise".

Sarcasm aside, yes, I do think it is very odd. If Assad has indeed done what the powers that be claim he has, his opponents should be happy to see those weapons taken from him. I could understand if they expressed disappointment that they aren't getting more help, but to actually oppose the removal of Assad's weapons suggests some pretty shady motives on the opposition's part.

Are we truly going to find out it was some foreign salafist group that was creeping around gassing people?

[Medicine Man]

The last paragraph of Putin's article is pretty interesting (actually, the whole thing is well crafted), as he is speaking directly to the notion that the US is a special, indispensable country.

[Kunuri]

400,000 tons of weapons, not supplies or communication equipment, going over the border from Turkey into Syria recently. It is all over the blogs and places worth watching. That's a chunk hard to ignore. All supervised by US Special Forces trying to make sure they end up in friendly hands, but its an exercise in futility. Radicals rule over there.

Of course the rebels will oppose Assad handing over chemical weapons to UN. Its their only leverage to get the international community involved. But at least they know it will never happen. They know their opponent more than we do. So does the rogue elements in Assad camp, they will always keep their stash whatever Assad does and make sure the rebels know it.

Seems like the rebels are going to need more pictures of dead children in huge numbers for something to happen.

[WP]

It begins again?

http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=672308

[Pat]

Sir, these quotes are also in the article.
"We ask that the international community not be content with withdrawing chemical weapons, which are a criminal instrument, but to hold the perpetrator accountable and prosecute him at the International Criminal Court,"

"Removing the criminal tools is one matter and holding the criminal accountable is another,"

I could be naive, but I have a difficult time reading this as a rejecting the possibility of removing the weapons from Syria.

[Charles I]

You may be closer to the answer after reading this from long time keen observer John Pilger, who concludes quoting Judges at Nuremburg:

“Individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity.”

What is the duty of those in authority, and who shall judge or sanction any breach, in the country described in the AIPAC Dirty Tricks post?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/11/the-biggest-lie/

[Augustin L]

With regards to Israeli spying this ain't nothing new, only the scale of the criminaly and violation of our rights is. Short video on Amdocs Comverse Infosys operations on U.S. soil.They are active in all anglo-american countries, we're fucked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H20Naj176M0

[oofda]

Colonel,
Also note the news on the firing of a Ms. Elizabeth O'Bagy from the Institute for the Study of War for lying about her having recevied a Ph.D. She had been quoted by Kerry and McCain in Congressional testimony regarding the 'moderate' elements in the Syrian rebel forces. Nobody bothered to check her credentials and just took an op-ed she wrote for the Wall St. Journal as gospel.

[Harper]

I have two maybe explanations. First, if the CW is removed, then the US bombing is off. McCain and Graham told their little Syrian friends that they had extracted a promise from Obama to bomb Syrian military sites sufficiently that the rebels would be able to eventually win. As former Congressman Dennis Kucinich described it recently on Fox TV, the U.S. would become, in effect, "the Al Qaeda Air Force."

Second, maybe all these reports of Syrian rebels possessing their own chemical weapons is really true and they don't want to turn over their own Saudi-supplied CW.

[b]

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-rebel-groups-sought-to-buy-materials-for-chemical-weapons-prosecutors-say.aspx?pageID=238&nID=54365&NewsCatID=341

/quote/
A public prosecutor completed his indictment as part of the probe into the chemicals seized in the southern province of Hatay on Sept. 12, claiming that jihadist Syrian rebel groups were seeking to buy materials that could be used to produce highly toxic sarin gas.

The indictment, which included transcripts of several phone conversations between the suspects involved, said that a 35-year-old Syrian citizen, identified as Hytham Qassap, established a connection with a network in Turkey in order to procure chemical materials for the al-Nusra Front and jihadist Ahrar al-Sham Brigades.

The indictment rejected the legitimacy of the suspects’ claim that they were unaware the chemicals they tried to obtain could be used to produce sarin gas.
...
/endquote/

[William R. Cumming]

Perhaps I should mention that all TS and compartmented information in the Executive Branch and DoD and State and DoJ is automatically NOFORN!

[William R. Cumming]

COMSEC also all NOFORN!

[turcopolier]

oofda

I do not know her but they seem a shoddy outfit. pl

[robt willmann]

Yes, as to both reasons. The only pretext they (U.S., Britain, Saudi A., Qatar, Israel, and France) could think of that might fly was chemical weapons, and Obama and Kerry, et. al., have been pounding the table insisting that this is only about chemical weapons and has nothing to do with helping the [foreign] opposition gain ground and an advantage against the Syrian army. Now they are stuck, as their only justification is gone if the Syrian government's chem. weapons are neutralized. This also makes it harder for the opposition to pull off another manufactured and false flag poison gas event inside Syria or over the border into Israel, or to use such weapons against the Syrian army, once Syria's gas stockpile is embargoed.

[r whitman]

400,000 tons equal 16000 truckloads of stuff. Are there that many 18 wheelers in service in the area. Would take over 1000 trucks to do this.