Israel Matzav

Assad's chemical weapons shell game

I started this post about three and a half hours ago. In the middle of the post, someone came into the room and said that there was someone was at the door for me. I jumped up to get to the door, knocked the laptop off the desk... and you can imagine the rest. I am now working on the laptop using Linux with no hard drive. Someone is trying to salvage my hard drive. We can only hope.

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The United States is concerned that the Assad regime is moving around its chemical and biological weapons, for reasons that are not yet known, but that may portend an to ethnically cleanse at least part of Syria.

American officials are divided on the meaning of the latest moves by members of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Some U.S. officials fear Damascus intends to use the weapons against the rebels or civilians, potentially as part of a targeted ethnic cleansing campaign. But other officials said Mr. Assad may be trying to safeguard the material from his opponents or to complicate Western powers' efforts to track the weapons.

Some said that Mr. Assad may not intend to use the weapons, but instead may be moving them as a feint, hoping the threat of a chemical attack could drive Sunnis thought to be sympathetic to the rebels from their homes.

Whatever the motivation, the evidence that the chemical weapons are coming into play could escalate the conflict in Syria, some fear. "This could set the precedent of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] being used under our watch," one U.S. official said. "This is incredibly dangerous to our national security."

Dangerous to your national security? What about the national security of every country in this region other than Iran and possibly Lebanon?

Read the whole thing. What most concerns me here is this:

U.S. officials have held discussions with the Jordanian military, working on plans to have Jordan's special operations forces secure the chemical and biological sites in the event that Assad's government falls.

Sorry but there is only one country in this region that can do this job. It's not Jordan.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, chemical weapons, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:36 AM