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SurfaceUnits
09-11-13, 07:55 PM
These Two Men Allegedly Overheard Incredibly Explosive Skype Conversation While Being Held Hostage in Syria

• In August, Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin and Italian journalist Domenico Quiric were reportedly abducted in Syria by armed men in pickup trucks, possibly with the Free Syrian Army.
• The men were released on Sunday and have been speaking out about their horrific experience.
• Both men claim they overheard an English-language Skype conversation suggesting Syrian rebels are behind chemical attack.
• 62-year-old journalist Domenico Quiric says radical Islamists want to topple Assad and extend global caliphate.

Two Europeans who were allegedly abducted and held hostage for several months in Syria claim they overheard a conversation between their captors suggesting the Syrian rebels were behind the deadly chemical attack in Damascus. The men were released on Sunday.

Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin and Italian journalist Domenico Quiric both say they were able to eavesdrop on an English-language Skype session between their abductors in which they allegedly revealed that it was the Syrian rebels who perpetrated the attack so that the West would intervene.

“In this conversation, they said that the gas attack on two neighborhoods of Damascus was launched by the rebels as a provocation to lead the West to intervene militarily,” Quirico told the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa. “We were unaware of everything that was going on during our detention in Syria, and therefore also with the gas attack in Damascus.”

nrc
09-11-13, 08:44 PM
This just doesn't pass the sniff test. The rebels haven't shown the coordination or sophistication to strike as many locations as were affected simultaneously even with conventional weapons.


http://www.military.com/video/rockets/rocket-launchers/syrian-rebel-rocket-fail/1913093635001/

http://www.military.com/video/rockets/artillery-rockets/syrian-rebel-rocket-fail-1/1922120798001/

Andrew Longman
09-12-13, 01:47 AM
What a great idea. I can't think of a better time to try and confiscate chemical weapons than right in the middle of a civil war. :shakehead:

Locating, prepping, and transporting these things is going to require thousands of people. There will be "boots on the ground", the question is whose boots.Russian and/or UN troops are better than the US volunteers alone I know.

cameraman
09-12-13, 11:40 AM
This just doesn't pass the sniff test. The rebels haven't shown the coordination or sophistication to strike as many locations as were affected simultaneously even with conventional weapons.


http://www.military.com/video/rockets/rocket-launchers/syrian-rebel-rocket-fail/1913093635001/

http://www.military.com/video/rockets/artillery-rockets/syrian-rebel-rocket-fail-1/1922120798001/

That's some kwality munitions right there.

The head of the Free Syrian Army was on the radio this morning and he is saying that as of today they have not received any arms or ammunition of any kind from the US despite what the Washington Post might claim. Humanitarian aid yes, weaponry nothing. YMMV

Gnam
11-25-13, 05:04 PM
update on Syrian chemical weapons disposal:


Today, nearly three months after the conclusion of the pact, the sites of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles have been identified — at least those the Assad government has disclosed — but none of the most dangerous chemical weapons have been destroyed or moved off-site to a place where they might be safely neutralized. No third country has agreed to take them as a transit point toward destruction.

Earlier this month, an OPCW meeting set a deadline of December 31 to move the dangerous chemicals, particularly sarin and mustard gas components, off Syrian soil. With Norway, Belgium, France as well as Albania all refusing to act as host countries, talk has now turned to transporting them — across often hostile rebel territory — to a Syrian port and loading them onto a boat for destruction in mid-ocean. None of these are especially appealing prospects.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/11/24/iran-nuclear-agreement-obama-column/3691453/
Can't blame any country for not wanting the chemical weapons. I'm a little surprised Russia or Iran didn't volunteer. ;)

SteveH
11-25-13, 05:56 PM
I'll bet it takes several years to destroy whatever it is that is there.

North of Terre Haute was the production site for VX. Took several years to destroy that.


2005, May 5: destruction of VX begins
2005, October: 25 short tons (23 t) destroyed, less than 2.5% of stockpile [1]
2006, April: 180 short tons (163 t) destroyed, 14% of stockpile
2006, July: 274 short tons (249 t) destroyed, 22% of stockpile
2007, January: 470 short tons (426 t) destroyed, 37% of stockpile [2]
2007, February: 520 short tons (472 t) destroyed, 41% of stockpile [3]
2007, September: 834 short tons (757 t) destroyed, 65% of stockpile [4]
2007, December: 940 short tons (853 t) destroyed, 74% of stockpile
2008, May: 1,154 short tons (1,047 t) destroyed, 91% of stockpile [5]
2008, August: 1,269 short tons (1,151 t) destroyed, 100% of stockpile [6]
2009, September: Chemical Weapons Convention treaty inspectors verify 100% destruction


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Chemical_Depot