chemical weapons

President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, April 6, 2017, after the U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria. (AP/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON – A federal judge ordered the State, Justice and Defense Departments to speed up their responses to a government watchdog’s requests for records on the legal justification for the Trump administration’s missile strike on Syria in April.

(ANTIMEDIA) Washington, D.C. — Though the United States’ ruling establishment points fingers at other governments — namely the current Syrian regime — for allegedly using chemical weapons, the American military has a history of using this vicious ammunition on its own soldiers – and fifty years later, the Pentagon is reserving its right to keep the details secret.

The Pentagon conducted a series of secret chemical and biological weapons tests on military personnel in the 1960s and 1970s. Veterans groups and members of Congress are demanding to know exactly what happened – and who has suffered. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Pentagon conducted multiple secret tests of chemical and biological weapons, deliberately exposing some 6,000 US troops to nerve gases and various bacterial toxins, to “develop a response plan” in case US troops were ever attacked by chemical weapons.

When I was a young boy completing catechism in preparation for my first communion, I had to learn the proper procedure for auricular confession, a primary ritual of Roman Catholicism.

The ‘age of stupid’ is the only term I can think of for framing this ongoing nonsense. President Trump and members of his administration have taken the questionable approach of stating outright that the US will respond severely if the Syrian government carries out another chemical attack on civilians. More than that, it is insisting […]

By Tim Hayward
The OPCW has analysed samples from Khan Sheikhoun in April containing what they have identified as ‘sarin or a sarin-like substance’. They know that much, even if they are not sure how it got there or who is responsible.

Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko Russian Embassy Blog Post There are speculations about the chemical incident in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 flared up by the recent report by the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria (FFMS). On the surface, this report looks somewhat respectable, has been welcomed by some countries as a “highly professional” piece of work…

21st Century Wire says…
On the 29th June Maria Zakharova gave a press briefing on behalf of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In the briefing Zakharova covered the soon to be released [on 4th July] OPCW report into the alleged chemical weapon attacks in Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib on April 4th 2017.

Headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP/Peter Dejong)
The head of the team charged with determining responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria appealed to governments on Thursday to stop exerting political pressure on investigators who will report in mid-October on two incidents, including an April 4 attack that killed over 90 people.

By Tim Hayward
‘Every religious minority in Syria—there are 23 of them—is petrified at the thought of a victory for the Syrian rebels, whom the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have been doing their utmost to supply with weapons and money over the last two years.’ ~ George Galloway