<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; WMD</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/tag/wmd/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:20:06 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>We Drove Saddam’s Yellowcake to the Baghdad Airport</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/carter-andress/we-drove-saddams-yellowcake-to-the-baghdad-airport/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=we-drove-saddams-yellowcake-to-the-baghdad-airport</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/carter-andress/we-drove-saddams-yellowcake-to-the-baghdad-airport/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2014 05:35:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carter Andress]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bush]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[existed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hussein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244245</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I know Baathist Iraq’s WMD potential existed.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ert.jpeg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244250" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ert-450x301.jpeg" alt="ert" width="306" height="205" /></a>As someone who led the company that transported 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium—enough to make fourteen Hiroshima-size bombs—from Saddam’s nuclear complex in the Iraq War’s notorious “Triangle of Death” for air shipment out of the country, I know Baathist Iraq’s WMD potential existed. In early 2008, we secretly moved over several nights 140 truckloads carrying 5500 barrels of extremely heavy radioactive material provided to Iraq as part of the French-supplied Osiraq reactor destroyed by Israeli fighter bombers in 1981. The virulently anti-Semitic Saddam had announced “here begins the Arab bomb” and the Israelis took him at his word.</p>
<p>The recent article in the New York Times, however, caught us all by surprise. Random caches of old chemical weapons found post-invasion were old news, but not “roughly 5,000” warheads and bombs, many filled with still active, nerve agent. That’s an enormous quantity even if evidently left over from the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. Just “antiques,” as the Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung quaintly put it at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum on Iraq.</p>
<p>At the least, this shocker (after so many years of repetitious “Bush lied [about WMD], people died”) further points to the world’s inability to trust that the UN inspectors could ever realistically certify Saddam clean of his nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs. He had to be deposed, and the only way to do it was for us to invade and overthrow his dictatorship. Here was a genocidal, expansionist tyrant who had used chemical weapons on his own people and that of a neighboring nation (Iran), publically celebrated 9/11, and allowed a chemical weapons laboratory affiliated with al-Qaeda to operate within his security forces’ reach inside his country’s borders in contested Kurdistan (Khurmal).</p>
<p>The article in the Times references the Duelfer Report that summed up the official American investigation of Iraq’s WMD as definitive in that there were no ongoing WMD programs pre-invasion, yet fails to mention that every section of the report on the different types of weapons of mass destruction concluded that the evidence gathered by investigators clearly indicated that once sanctions were removed Saddam would reinstate his WMD programs. In addition, the article mentions that the chemical weapons program was not active for over ten years, but not the biological weapons program, which extended into 1996 and was only discovered because Saddam’s son-in-law defected, even after five years of aggressive UN inspections.</p>
<p>There’s no question in my mind, Saddamist Iraq would have reconstituted its WMD programs once UN sanctions faded away—a push Security Council veto-wielding members Russia and France were actively working toward because of oil field opportunities. (Petroleum companies from both countries signed huge, new contracts with Saddam pre-invasion.) And given the yellowcake inventory, nuclear weapons with available Pakistani and North Korean technology might not have been far off. After over ten years in effect, the sanctions system was actively degrading with banned flights landing in Baghdad, the Oil for Food program corrupted, and, as a result, would have collapsed if we had not invaded—thus leaving Saddam free to threaten the world again with WMD.</p>
<p>The greater problem, however, of significant quantities of chemical weapons hidden at some date prior to the US invasion points to a current and growing threat. The leader of the neo-Saddamists allied now with ISIS is Izzat al-Douri, a former Iraqi army general and last member of the senior Baathist leadership not executed or imprisoned. There is a distinct possibility that Saddam’s minions hid these munitions with the intention of disinterring them for deterrent use once again. And in fact, this is why Saddam’s military and secret police leaders never ceased to believe Iraq possessed WMD and could therefore project terror onto the Kurds and the rest of the region (Israel and Iran, specifically) until the end because Iraq did possess WMD, even after the dictator’s death by hanging. The Iraqi army and security services did not handle “special” weapons without the knowledge of the regime’s leaders. So to think that Saddam and his immediate circle, including al-Douri, did not know the locations of the WMD discussed in the Times article begs credulity.</p>
<p>Much of the area where the “antique,” yet still potentially potent chemical weapons discovered by US forces is now in the hands of ISIS, the forces of al-Douri, and their allied Sunni Arab tribes undergirding the “caliphate” occupying almost a third of Iraq. With hundreds of Western passport holders fighting in Syria and Iraq, the most immediate threat to the United States is the spread of jihadi terrorism to Europe now that ISIS has a border with Turkey, a gateway to the EU.</p>
<p>Can one even imagine the impact of a weaponized sarin-gas attack in Paris?</p>
<p><strong><em>Carter Andress is president of AISG, Inc. (American-Iraqi Solutions Group) and the author, with Malcolm McConnell, of </em>Victory Undone: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Victory-Undone-Defeat-al-Qaeda-Resurrection/dp/1621572803">The Defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Its Resurrection as ISIS</a><em> (Regnery, October 2014).  </em></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/carter-andress/we-drove-saddams-yellowcake-to-the-baghdad-airport/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>72</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>ISIS Laptop Found w/Bubonic Plague Bomb Documents</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/isis-laptop-found-wbubonic-plague-bomb-documents/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=isis-laptop-found-wbubonic-plague-bomb-documents</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/isis-laptop-found-wbubonic-plague-bomb-documents/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2014 18:57:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=239853</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["Even if it kills all of them and wipes them and their descendants off the face of the Earth."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/obamacare.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-143252" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/obamacare-300x300.jpg" alt="obamacare" width="300" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Don&#8217;t worry, <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-has-a-new-suit-no-strategy-for-isis-or-russian-invasion/">Obama may not have a strategy now</a> but he penciled in getting a strategy for sometime next year. In the meantime he has more important priorities, like illegal alien amnesty, racial demagoguery and Global Warming.</p>
<p>And suing a county that denied a mosque permission to build in an industrial zoned area.</p>
<p>He&#8217;ll <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/28/found_the_islamic_state_terror_laptop_of_doom_bubonic_plague_weapons_of_mass_destruction_exclusive">probably figure this thing out by the end of his term</a> or by the time ISIS attacks America. If not, he&#8217;ll wear a purple suit to the press conference condemning ISIS for not speaking in the name of Islam.</p>
<blockquote><p>The information on the laptop makes clear that its owner is a Tunisian national named Muhammed S. who joined ISIS in Syria and who studied chemistry and physics at two universities in Tunisia&#8217;s northeast. Even more disturbing is how he planned to use that education:</p>
<p>The ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals.</p>
<p>&#8220;The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge,&#8221; the document states. The document includes instructions for how to test the weaponized disease safely, before it is used in a terrorist attack. &#8220;When the microbe is injected in small mice, the symptoms of the disease should start to appear within 24 hours,&#8221; the document says.</p>
<p>The laptop also includes a 26-page fatwa, or Islamic ruling, on the usage of weapons of mass destruction. &#8220;If Muslims cannot defeat the kafir [unbelievers] in a different way, it is permissible to use weapons of mass destruction,&#8221; states the fatwa by Saudi jihadi cleric Nasir al-Fahd, who is currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. &#8220;Even if it kills all of them and wipes them and their descendants off the face of the Earth.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>We can wake up and start fighting back or we can listen to the Obamanites tell us that all we need is to win over the moderate ISIS Jihadists.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/isis-laptop-found-wbubonic-plague-bomb-documents/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Saddam&#8217;s WMDs: The Left&#8217;s Iraq Lies Exposed</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/saddams-wmds-the-lefts-iraq-lies-exposed/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=saddams-wmds-the-lefts-iraq-lies-exposed</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/saddams-wmds-the-lefts-iraq-lies-exposed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2014 04:58:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chemical weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=234626</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Where is the apology to the Bush administration?  ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #232323;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BN-DI219_0619ic_G_20140619114229.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-234688" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BN-DI219_0619ic_G_20140619114229-450x300.jpg" alt="BN-DI219_0619ic_G_20140619114229" width="255" height="170" /></a>The recent turmoil in Iraq brought on by the rise of the Sunni extremist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has ironically struck a blow to the American Left’s endlessly repeated narrative that there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq prior to the war. The State Department and other U.S. government officials have revealed that ISIS now occupies the Al Muthanna Chemicals Weapons Complex. Al Muthanna was Saddam Hussein’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10910868/Iraq-crisis-Obama-may-launch-air-strikes-without-Congress-amid-calls-for-Maliki-to-go-live.html"><span style="color: #1255cc;">primary</span></a> chemical weapons facility, and it is located less than 50 miles from Baghdad.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The Obama administration claims that the weapons in that facility, which include sarin, mustard gas, and nerve agent VX, manufactured to prosecute the war against Iran in the 1980s, do not pose a threat because they are old, contaminated and hard to move. &#8220;We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible to safely move the materials,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The administration’s dubious rationale is based on information provided by the Iraq Study Group, which was tasked with finding WMDs in the war’s aftermath. They found the chemical weapons at Al Muthanna, but they determined that both Iraq wars and inspections by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) had successfully dismantled the facility, and that the remaining chemical weapons were rendered useless and sealed in bunkers. The report called the weapons facility &#8220;a wasteland full of destroyed chemical munitions, razed structures, and unusable war-ravaged facilities,” the 2004 <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/chap5_annxB.html"><span style="color: #1255cc;">report</span></a> stated.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Yet other sections of the same report were hardly reassuring. &#8220;Stockpiles of chemical munitions are still stored there,” it stated. &#8220;The most dangerous ones have been declared to the UN and are sealed in bunkers. Although declared, the bunkers&#8217; contents have yet to be confirmed.” It added, &#8220;These areas of the compound pose a hazard to civilians and potential black-marketers.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Another <a href="http://cns.miis.edu/stories/100304_iraq_cw_legacy.htm"><span style="color: #1255cc;">report</span></a> paints an even more disturbing picture of the Muthanna facility. It warned that the number and status of Saddam&#8217;s sarin-filled rockets was unknown because facilities were not able to be inspected, leaving investigators only able to surmise about the weapons&#8217; condition. Even in degraded conditions, the report said, these rockets still posed a proliferation risk:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #232323;">Although the damaged Bunker 13 at Muthanna contained thousands of sarin-filled rockets, the presence of leaking munitions and unstable propellant and explosive charges made it too hazardous for UNSCOM inspectors to enter. Because the rockets could not be recovered safely, Iraq declared the munitions in Bunker 13 as &#8216;destroyed in the Gulf War&#8217; and they were not included in the inventory of chemical weapons eliminated under UNSCOM supervision.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Because of the hazardous conditions in Bunker 13, UNSCOM inspectors were unable to make an accurate inventory of its contents before sealing the entrances in 1994. As a result, no record exists of the exact number or status of the sarin-filled rockets remaining in the bunker. &#8230; In the worst-case scenario, the munitions could contain as much as 15,000 liters of sarin. Although it is likely that the nerve agent has degraded substantially after nearly two decades of storage under suboptimal conditions, UNMOVIC cautioned that &#8216;the levels of degradation of the sarin fill in the rockets cannot be determined without exploring the bunker and taking samples from intact warheads.&#8217; If the sarin remains highly toxic and many of the rockets are still intact, they could pose a proliferation risk.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #232323;">Nonetheless, U.S. officials, who claimed they were well aware of the facility insisted that the United States wouldn’t have left it there if it were a genuine threat. They also continued to stress that the takeover by ISIS doesn’t constitute a military gain by the group because the weapons would prove useless, even if ISIS were able to penetrated the sealed bunkers where they are stored. ISIS has reportedly yet to gain access to the bunkers.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">However, there are numerous holes in these assessments. The Obama administration, eager to leave a &#8220;sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq” as the president <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/380810/disaster-his-own-making-charles-krauthammer"><span style="color: #1255cc;">described</span></a> it in 2011, paid little heed to the prospect of large swaths of that nation being overrun by terrorists who have taken over key cities and military bases, and confiscated sophisticated American military equipment in the process. One defense official conceded as much, telling the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> that had they known the Maliki government would lose control so soon, they might not have left the weapons behind. And Psaki’s contention that the weapons could not be moved safely even by terrorists is hardly reassuring when one considers the reality that ISIS uses suicide bombings as one of it <a href="http://www.syriadeeply.org/articles/2013/10/2558/suicide-bombs-isiss-military-tactic/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">chief</span></a> military tactics.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">A far more critical consideration is the possibility that many of the Iraqi Sunnis who have joined ISIS due in large part to their alienation by the Shi’ite-dominated government of Nouri al-Maliki are comprised of former Saddam Hussein loyalists, some of whom may have working knowledge of the chemical weapons stored at Al Muthanna. Former WMD specialist Paul Perrone extrapolated on where such working knowledge might lead. &#8220;I&#8217;m more concerned with the prospect that these Muslim terrorists have access to formulas or precursors that would enable them to create their own WMD,” he warned.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The latest revelations on the details of Saddam&#8217;s weapons stockpile, now potentially in the hands of Sunni radicals, affirm the Bush administration&#8217;s characterization of Iraq as a territory situated in a hotbed of radicalism, flooded with a bevy of highly dangerous weapons and overseen by a criminal rogue regime. Indeed, the WMDs are to say nothing of the Hussein government&#8217;s nuclear weapons program, also put to a stop by intervention in Iraq. In 2008, American and Iraqi officials had &#8220;completed nearly the last chapter in dismantling Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program with the removal of hundreds of tons of natural uranium from the country’s main nuclear site,” the <i>New York Times</i> <span style="color: #1255cc;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?_r=2&amp;">reported</a>.</span> Approximately 600 tons of “yellowcake” was removed from the Tuwaitha facility, the main site for Iraq&#8217;s nuclear program. <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/tuwaitha.htm"><span style="color: #1255cc;">According</span></a> to global <a href="http://security.org/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">security.org</span></a>, uranium enrichment levels of 95 percent were achieved at the Tuwaitha facility. That site was also the location of the Osirak nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel in 1981.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">And in what sounded like a harbinger of the future, the <i>Times</i> noted that although the yellowcake could not be used in its current form to produce a nuclear device or dirty bomb, the “unstable environment” in Iraq necessitated its removal, lest it fall into the “wrong hands.” In an updated correction to the article, the <i>Times</i> notes that the Osriak nuclear reactor “theoretically produced plutonium, which can fuel an atomic bomb.”</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The Left dismissed this reality by claiming the yellowcake had been in Iraq prior to 1991 and thus was not the same yellowcake Bush referred to in his 2003 State of the Union address as part of his justification for invading Iraq. Led by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, the emboldened anti-war Left attempted to turn the claim into a scandal saying that Bush knowingly lied to the American public regarding Iraq’s effort to procure yellowcake from Niger.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Ultimately, Wilson and his story were <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2064"><span style="color: #1255cc;">thoroughly discredited</span></a> a year later by a Senate Select Committee report, which further noted that President Bush had been fully justified in including the infamous “16 words” regarding that intelligence in his speech. Moreover the left has never bothered to explain why yellowcake procured before 1991 was any less dangerous in terms of its WMD potential, given Saddam Hussein’s regular defiance of international law also enunciated by Bush as one of the primary reasons for deposing him.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">In 2010, documents procured by Wikileaks revealed more information on the WMD threat posed by Iraq that was known to the government. The self-described whistleblowers, who could hardly be called pro-war, released 392,000 military reports from Iraq that revealed several instances of American encounters with potential WMDs or their manufacture. These included 1200 gallons of a <a href="http://warlogs.wikileaks.org/id/7726706C-22D1-404B-B73C-5BB9F23BD1ED/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">liquid mustard agent</span></a> in Samarra that tested positive for a blister agent; <a href="http://warlogs.wikileaks.org/id/7726706C-22D1-404B-B73C-5BB9F23BD1ED/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">tampering</span></a> by large earth movers thought to be attempting to penetrate the bunkers at Muthanna; the <a href="http://warlogs.wikileaks.org/id/ECC9C0F2-5A52-4DA3-AC76-ECC421663C40/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">discovery</span></a> of a chemical lab and a <a href="http://warlogs.wikileaks.org/id/34B3B909-B0E3-4286-BF06-96B65A121702/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">chemical cache</span></a> in Fallujah; and the discovery of a cache of weapons <a href="http://warlogs.wikileaks.org/id/151E7734-E81A-D113-5818DB36E7BABD4F/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">hidden</span></a> at an Iraqi Community Watch checkpoint with 155MM rounds that subsequently tested positive for mustard.</p>
<p style="color: #323333;">Foreign involvement with WMDs in Iraq was documented as well. A war log from January 2006 <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/iraq/warlogs/D3127776-BF22-4583-81BD-4DB8CD7F9357"><span style="color: #1255cc;">speaks</span></a> of 50 neuroparalytic projectiles smuggled into Iraq from Iran via Al Basrah; Syrian chemical weapons specialists who came in to support the “chemical weapons operations of Hizballah Islami” (Hezbollah); and an Al Qaeda chemical weapons expert from Saudi Arabia sent to assist 200 individuals awaiting an opportunity to attack coalition forces with Sarin. As Wired Magazine <a href="http://www.wired.com/2010/10/wikileaks-show-wmd-hunt-continued-in-iraq-with-surprising-results/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">characterized</span></a> it, the Wikileaks documents revealed that for several years after the initial invasion, &#8220;U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins and uncover weapons of mass destruction.”</p>
<p style="color: #323333;">Left-wing members in Congress were certainly aware of these threats and more posed by the Hussein regime, which lead them to unanimously authorize war and even vocally champion its necessity. Their assessment was based on nothing less than the very intelligence known to the Bush administration at the time. Secretary of State John Kerry, as a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations before war was authorized, <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2013/09/kerry-spins-his-record-on-iraq/">said</a>, &#8220;There&#8217;s no question in my mind that Saddam Hussein has to be toppled one way or another, but the question is how&#8221; and that there was likewise &#8220;no question&#8221; that Hussein &#8220;continues to pursue weapons of mass destruction, and his success can threaten both our interests in the region and our security at home.&#8221;</p>
<p style="color: #323333;">Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intoned in 2002:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;"><span style="color: #444444;">In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members &#8230; It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #323333;">Justifying her well-known position, Clinton said later said in a 2003 interview with Code Pink, &#8220;<span style="color: #000000;">I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information, intelligence that I had available, talking with people whose opinions I trusted &#8230; I would love to agree with [Code Pink], but I can&#8217;t, based on my own understanding and assessment of the situation.&#8221; </span></p>
<p style="color: #323333;">However, these statements were made in the wake of 9/11 when Democrats sensed hawkishness was the key to their political fortunes. A few short years later, sabotaging the war that they had started and betraying the troops that they had sent to the field was where Democrats&#8217; political futures lied. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and others made this transition through a blatant campaign of deceit that went virtually unchallenged by the media. Clinton, for example, averred on the campaign trail, &#8220;[I]<span style="color: #000000;">f we had known then what we know now there never would have been a vote and I never would have voted to give this President that authority&#8221; and claimed that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/13/hillary-clinton-defends-2_n_81261.html">she didn&#8217;t know</a> that her vote for the &#8220;Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002&#8243; was a vote for war. </span></p>
<p style="color: #323333;">The con is still on going. In September of last year, Secretary Kerry brazenly <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/09/10/kerrys-claim-that-he-opposed-bushs-invasion-of-iraq/">asserted</a> that he and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had &#8220;opposed the president&#8217;s decision to go into Iraq&#8221; and that &#8220;evidence was used to persuade all of us that authority ought to be given.&#8221; Chuck Hagel, in fact, also voted in favor of the war before jumping ship, forsaking the lost lives he squandered in the field and joining with the hard left. As for the &#8220;manipulated evidence&#8221; canard cited by Kerry, the latest details of Saddam&#8217;s WMD stockpile &#8212; something there can be no doubt that the Secretary of State was aware of &#8212; exposes yet again the left&#8217;s great deception on the danger of Hussein and the motivation behind the Iraq war.</p>
<p style="color: #323333;">And now ISIS, disowned by al Qaeda for being even more ruthless than it is, controls a chemical facility containing contents declared &#8220;destroyed&#8221; because they couldn’t be recovered safely, along with bunkers containing contents “yet to be confirmed.” And an administration with an unparalleled facility for lying assures us everything will be fine because the chemical weapons have no useful military value and can’t be moved safely.  As with the rest of the Left&#8217;s handling of Iraq, this is an analysis that no one should have faith in.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/saddams-wmds-the-lefts-iraq-lies-exposed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>151</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Al Qaeda in Iraq Seizes Saddam&#8217;s WMD Facility</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-seizes-saddams-wmd-facility/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=al-qaeda-in-iraq-seizes-saddams-wmd-facility</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-seizes-saddams-wmd-facility/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2014 18:37:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=234450</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["The munitions could contain as much as 15,000 liters of sarin." ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/100304_iraq_cw_legacy.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-234451" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/100304_iraq_cw_legacy.jpg" alt="100304_iraq_cw_legacy" width="300" height="205" /></a></p>
<p>But don&#8217;t worry, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/sunni-extremists-in-iraq-occupy-saddams-chemical-weapons-facility-1403190600">Obama has announced he&#8217;s dispatching Kerry</a> to talk to people in the Middle East so it&#8217;s a race between which set of poison gasses will be emitted first.</p>
<blockquote><p> Sunni extremists in Iraq have occupied what was once Saddam Hussein&#8217;s premier chemical-weapons production facility, a complex that still contains a stockpile of old weapons, State Department and other U.S. government officials said.</p>
<p>U.S. officials don&#8217;t believe the Sunni militants will be able to create a functional chemical weapon from the material. The weapons stockpiled at the Al Muthanna complex are old, contaminated and hard to move, officials said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL,&#8221; Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. &#8220;We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>But what if ISIS, a group whose lead tactic involved suicide bombings, doesn&#8217;t care about safely moving that material?</p>
<p><a href="http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/06/19/isis-reportedly-captured-saddams-chemical-weapons-stockpiles-attacks-key-refinery/">Here&#8217;s the CIA report</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Numerous bunkers, including eleven cruciform shaped bunkers were exploited. Some of the bunkers were empty. Some of the bunkers contained large quantities of unfilled chemical munitions, conventional munitions, one-ton shipping containers, old disabled production equipment (presumed disabled under UNSCOM supervision), and other hazardous industrial chemicals.</p></blockquote>
<p>And <a href="http://cns.miis.edu/stories/100304_iraq_cw_legacy.htm">there are more details here.</a>..</p>
<blockquote><p>Although the damaged Bunker 13 at Muthanna contained thousands of sarin-filled rockets, the presence of leaking munitions and unstable propellant and explosive charges made it too hazardous for UNSCOM inspectors to enter. Because the rockets could not be recovered safely, Iraq declared the munitions in Bunker 13 as &#8220;destroyed in the Gulf War&#8221; and they were not included in the inventory of chemical weapons eliminated under UNSCOM supervision.</p>
<p>Because of the hazardous conditions in Bunker 13, UNSCOM inspectors were unable to make an accurate inventory of its contents before sealing the entrances in 1994. As a result, no record exists of the exact number or status of the sarin-filled rockets remaining in the bunker. According to the UNMOVIC final report in 2007, the rockets &#8220;may be both filled and unfilled, armed or unarmed, in good condition or deteriorated.&#8221; In the worst-case scenario, the munitions could contain as much as 15,000 liters of sarin. Although it is likely that the nerve agent has degraded substantially after nearly two decades of storage under suboptimal conditions, UNMOVIC cautioned that &#8220;the levels of degradation of the sarin fill in the rockets cannot be determined without exploring the bunker and taking samples from intact warheads.&#8221; If the sarin remains highly toxic and many of the rockets are still intact, they could pose a proliferation risk.</p></blockquote>
<p>ISIS was allegedly already working on sarin in Iraq and Turkey. It also lacks the concern about safety precautions. It&#8217;s not going to have the same problems inventorying Bunker 13.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear what if anything usable it will find there, but it&#8217;s best to be cautious when taking the words of experts that there&#8217;s nothing to worry about.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-seizes-saddams-wmd-facility/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>86</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama So Concerned About New York Getting Nuked, He Cut Funds for Detecting Nukes in New York</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-so-concerned-about-new-york-getting-nuked-he-cut-funds-for-detecting-nukes-in-new-york/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-so-concerned-about-new-york-getting-nuked-he-cut-funds-for-detecting-nukes-in-new-york</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-so-concerned-about-new-york-getting-nuked-he-cut-funds-for-detecting-nukes-in-new-york/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:30:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lower manhattan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=221966</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every year since he took office, Obama has proposed significant reductions ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/obama_golf_nuke_424573757.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-221967" alt="obama_golf_nuke_424573757" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/obama_golf_nuke_424573757.jpg" width="360" height="270" /></a></p>
<p>Obama is like the kid who tells his parents that he can&#8217;t come home because he&#8217;s staying late at school while telling his teacher that he can&#8217;t stay to help out because his parents need him home early.</p>
<p>O claimed that he wasn&#8217;t that interested in Ukraine because he was more worried about New York getting nuked. And by that he meant <a href="http://weaselzippers.us/180619-obama-im-more-concerned-about-nuclear-weapon-going-off-in-manhattan-than-russia/">that he wasn&#8217;t worried about that either</a>.</p>
<p>In Europe, Obama said, &#8220;The fact that Russia felt compelled to go in militarily and lay bare these violations of international law indicates less influence, not more. And so my response, then, continues to be what I believe today, which is that Russia’s actions are a problem. They don’t pose the number one national security threat to the United States. I continue to be much more concerned, when it comes to our security, with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the reality back home is different&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Obama is right to be worried about the possibility of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan. Attacking the city is on virtually every terrorist’s bucket list.</p>
<p>But at home, the President has not put his money where his mouth is. This year, his administration again proposed to slash the budget for the one initiative designed to protect Manhattan from nuclear threats.</p>
<p>The NYPD’s Securing the Cities program, has developed a first-of-its-kind radiological detection ring around Manhattan and the greater New York area. Yet, every year since he took office, Obama has proposed significant reductions to the program. Every year, the New York congressional delegation has labored to reverse the cuts on the House and Senate floor.</p>
<p>The disconnect between the President’s blunt talk about the nuclear threat to Manhattan and his administration’s attempt to eviscerate Securing the Cities program is absurd. The White House needs to intervene and show the same nuclear security leadership at home that it does abroad.</p></blockquote>
<p>If Obama does that, then Manhattan really will get nuked.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-so-concerned-about-new-york-getting-nuked-he-cut-funds-for-detecting-nukes-in-new-york/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Moderate Syrian Islamic Front Caught Trying to Buy Sarin Nerve Gas Materials</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/moderate-syrian-islamic-front-caught-trying-to-buy-sarin-nerve-gas-materials/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=moderate-syrian-islamic-front-caught-trying-to-buy-sarin-nerve-gas-materials</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/moderate-syrian-islamic-front-caught-trying-to-buy-sarin-nerve-gas-materials/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Sep 2013 21:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=204190</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Iraq had previously documented Al Nusra Front's WMD activities]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/395756-topshots-syria-conflict.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-203197" alt="395756-topshots-syria-conflict" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/395756-topshots-syria-conflict-450x253.jpg" width="450" height="253" /></a></p>
<p>When discussing the Syrian rebels, pro-interventionists denounce the Al-Nusra Front as extremist but claim that it&#8217;s only a minority compared to moderate Salafists like the Syrian Islamic Front.</p>
<p>How moderate is the SIF? So moderate that<a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2013/09/13/turkish-prosecutors-charge-syrian-rebels-with-trying-to-buy-materials-to-produce-sarin-gas/"> it&#8217;s not only working together with</a> Al Qaeda&#8217;s Al-Nusra Front, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syrian-rebels-sarin-gas-20130913,0,4224285.story">but its shopping list includes nerve</a> gas.</p>
<blockquote><p>Prosecutors in southern Turkey have alleged that Syrian rebel groups were seeking to buy materials that could be used to produce highly toxic sarin gas, Turkish media reported Friday.</p>
<p>An indictment issued in the southern city of Adana alleged that a Syrian national identified as Hytham Qassap, 35, was in Turkey trying to procure chemical materials for a pair of well-known Islamist rebel blocs, Al Nusra Front and the Ahrar al-Sham Brigades, the reports said. Washington has designated Al Nusra Front as a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda.</p>
<p>Neither group is affiliated with the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army.</p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s a nice bit of verbal gymnastics. While the<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-rebel-groups-sought-to-buy-materials-for-chemical-weapons-prosecutors-say.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=54365&amp;NewsCatID=341"> Ahrar al-Sham Brigades</a> is the biggest part of the Syrian Islamic Front, they all work together.</p>
<p>Iraq had previously documented Al Nusra Front&#8217;s WMD activities, but it&#8217;s a Shiite government. Turkey however is the lead backer of the Syrian rebels after Qatar. Its officials have no possible motive in trying to make the Syrian rebels look bad.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/moderate-syrian-islamic-front-caught-trying-to-buy-sarin-nerve-gas-materials/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Saddam&#8217;s Syrian WMDs</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/saddams-syrian-wmds/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=saddams-syrian-wmds</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/saddams-syrian-wmds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Sep 2013 02:38:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=203972</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ten years ago, James Clapper, now the Director of National Intelligence, said he was “unquestionably sure” that Saddam’s WMDs had been moved out of Iraq. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Hussein_Assad_Bouteflika_Khaddam.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-203981" alt="Hussein_Assad_Bouteflika_Khaddam" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Hussein_Assad_Bouteflika_Khaddam-450x293.jpg" width="450" height="293" /></a></p>
<p>There&#8217;s a fitting irony that the three men heading up the effort to deal with the Syrian situation, Obama, Kerry and Hagel, were all notorious for their Iraq War stance.</p>
<p>Syria&#8217;s WMDs is a problem left over from the Iraq War when Saddam shipped Iraq&#8217;s weapons into Syria. That conspiracy theory <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/liberal-wmd-hypocrisy-in-iraq-and-syria/">came from none other than this guy</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Ten years ago, James Clapper, now the Director of National Intelligence, said he was “unquestionably sure” that Saddam’s WMDs had been moved out of Iraq. Top Iraqi generals stated that the WMDs had gone to Syria.</p>
<p>Obama, Kerry and Hagel’s Syrian War is haunted by their destruction of the Iraq War and as Assad deploys his Weapons of Mass Destruction, the question that the doves twittering about soft power in Washington don’t have the courage to ask is how many of those weapons that will either kill civilians or fall into the hands of terrorists came from Saddam Hussein’s secret storehouses in Iraq.</p></blockquote>
<p>Assad is using Iraqi weapons against his opponents. The same weapons that Obama, Kerry and Hagel fiercely pretended didn&#8217;t exist because it served their political purposes.</p>
<p>Now they are forced to come to terms with the existence of those weapons&#8230; once again for political purposes.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/saddams-syrian-wmds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>15</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Syria Claims Terrorists Behind WMD Attack Will Carry Out Similar Attack in Europe</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/syria-claims-terrorists-behind-wmd-attack-will-carry-out-similar-attack-in-europe/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=syria-claims-terrorists-behind-wmd-attack-will-carry-out-similar-attack-in-europe</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/syria-claims-terrorists-behind-wmd-attack-will-carry-out-similar-attack-in-europe/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Aug 2013 23:02:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=202541</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back in June, Iraqi authorities claimed that they broke up an Al Qaeda plot to use Sarin domestically and against the US and Europe.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Testing_chemical_victims_behind_540x361.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-202543" alt="Testing_chemical_victims_behind_540x361" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Testing_chemical_victims_behind_540x361-450x300.jpg" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-syria-crisis-europe-idUSBRE97R0N220130828">Obviously Assad&#8217;s propagandists </a>have no credibility, but the reason this claim is interesting is because of <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-caught-plotting-nerve-gas-attack-in-the-united-states/">the way it dovetails with the Iraqi and Turkish seizure of Al Qaeda chemical warfare facilitie</a>s.</p>
<blockquote><p>Syria&#8217;s deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday that the United States, Britain and France helped &#8220;terrorists&#8221; use chemical weapons in Syria, and that the same groups would soon use them against Europe.</p>
<p>Speaking to reporters outside the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus, Faisal Maqdad said he had presented U.N. chemical weapons inspectors with evidence that &#8220;armed terrorist groups&#8221; had used sarin gas in all the sites of alleged attacks.</p>
<p>&#8220;We repeat that the terrorist groups are the ones that used (chemical weapons) with the help of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, and this has to stop,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This means these chemical weapons will soon be used by the same groups against the people of Europe,&#8221; he added.</p></blockquote>
<p>The last paragraph has been widely taken to mean that the attacks were carried out with direct Western aid, but he may simply mean that the West is helping the groups responsible.</p>
<p>Back in June, <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-caught-plotting-nerve-gas-attack-in-the-united-states/">Iraqi authorities claimed that they broke up an Al Qaeda</a> plot to use Sarin domestically and against the US and Europe.</p>
<blockquote><p>Authorities in Iraq say they have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to use chemical weapons, as well as to smuggle them to Europe and North America.</p>
<p>Three workshops for manufacturing the chemical agents, including sarin and mustard gas, were uncovered, he added.</p>
<p>Remote-controlled toy planes were also seized at the workshops. Mr Askari said they were to have been used to release the chemical agents over the target from a “safe” distance of 1.5km (1 mile)</p></blockquote>
<p>Al Qaeda in Iraq is basically the same group as the Al Nusra Front in Syria. Iraq is currently allied with Syria. But lending a certain amount of credibility to its claims, the <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/iraq-may-be-prepping-for-chemical-weapons-civil-war/">Iraqi government put in a huge order for chemical weapons gear</a> suggesting that they are expecting to have to fight a civil war with chemical weapons. That would fit nicely with Al Qaeda in Iraq&#8217;s plans.</p>
<p>While I would normally dismiss 80% of Syrian government propaganda, in this case it is plausible that Al Qaeda has Sarin and has used it and is planning to deploy it eventually against Western targets as well.</p>
<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that Assad didn&#8217;t also use chemical weapons. It&#8217;s quite possible and even probable that he did. But he was using them within the context of a civil war in which both sides were using them.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the kind of war Iraq is preparing for. That&#8217;s the kind of war Syria is already in. We may want to pay attention because before too long, it may be the kind of civil war that Europe is in.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/syria-claims-terrorists-behind-wmd-attack-will-carry-out-similar-attack-in-europe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Al Qaeda in Iraq Still Threatens America</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-still-threatens-america/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=al-qaeda-in-iraq-still-threatens-america</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-still-threatens-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2013 04:37:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chemical weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=191891</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A foiled nerve gas plot shows the terrorist group is more dangerous than ever. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iraq-AQ-chemical-agents.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-191898" alt="Soldiers wearing gas masks hold bottles containing chemical materials during a news conference at the Defence Ministry in Baghdad" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iraq-AQ-chemical-agents-450x281.jpg" width="270" height="169" /></a>A week ago, Obama declared that Al Qaeda was on a path to defeat. Not only is that not true of Al Qaeda as a whole; it’s not even true of Al Qaeda in Iraq.</p>
<p>During his multiple withdrawals from Iraq, Obama claimed that the mission had been successfully concluded and that the war there never had anything to do with Al Qaeda. Unfortunately Al Qaeda in Iraq begged to differ.</p>
<p>This May<a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/06/01/More-than-1-000-people-killed-in-May-Iraq-violence-U-N-says.html">, over a thousand Iraqis</a> have been killed, nearly equaling the death toll from the worst days of the Iraq War. Car bombings in Baghdad no longer make the evening news, but they are commonplace and despite the withdrawal, Americans haven’t been immune from the violence.</p>
<p>Among the Benghazi attackers <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/24/world/benghazi-al-qaeda-in-iraq">were about a dozen members of Al Qaeda in Iraq</a>. The four Americans who died in the attack could be considered four additional Al Qaeda in Iraq kills.</p>
<p>But Al Qaeda in Iraq’s real mission lay in Syria. The Al-Nusra Front has dominated the Sunni side of the Syrian Civil War. Robert Ford, the United States ambassador to Syria, <a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/12/12/ford_al_nusra_front_is_just_another_name_for_al_qaeda_in_iraq">has said that the Al-Nusra Front</a> is just Al Qaeda in Iraq operating under another name.</p>
<p>While Obama has been taking an extended victory lap, his unfinished business in Baghdad is on the way to accomplishing in Syria what it failed to accomplish in Iraq; take over an entire country. The Al-Nusra Front started life as a Syrian arm of Al Qaeda in Iraq which fed foreign fighters into the Iraq War and made the fighting so bloody. It has now become Al Qaeda in Iraq’s biggest success story.</p>
<p>In April, the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq announced the creation of an Islamic state encompassing Iraq and Syria. The Al-Nusra Front responded by pledging allegiance to Al Qaeda while avoiding acknowledging that they are not a Syrian independence movement, but a transnational Salafist front operating in Syria.</p>
<p>All this might seem academic. After years of trying to police Iraq, most Americans could be forgiven for not giving a damn who is blowing up who in Syria or Iraq. Unfortunately as we found out in Benghazi, what happens in Iraq, doesn’t stay in Iraq. It doesn’t stay in Benghazi either.</p>
<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-caught-plotting-nerve-gas-attack-in-the-united-states/">Iraqi authorities have arrested five members</a> of Al Qaeda in Iraq and seized a production facility for manufacturing Sarin nerve gas along with remote controlled planes that they planned to use as drones to deploy their chemical weapons.  Their immediate targets were Shiite Muslims, but the Iraqi defense ministry <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1098214/iraq-smashes-al-qaeda-poison-gas-cell">stated that there were plans to smuggle the weapons</a> to the United States and Europe.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Turkey arrested members of an Al-Nusra Front cell with their own stockpiles of Sarin nerve gas. Syria claims to have done the same thing.</p>
<p>While there are good reasons to be skeptical of any claims from the Syrian government, Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/">had stated earlier that evidence</a> pointed to the use of Sarin nerve gas by the Sunni rebels.</p>
<p>The seizure of multiple WMDs from Al Qaeda in Iraq’s operations across three countries shows just how big the problem has become.</p>
<p>In his recent national defense speech, Obama repeated the familiar theme that Bush had diverted focus from the fight against Al Qaeda by going into Iraq and that he had restored the proper focus by moving back to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>In fact, Al Qaeda was far stronger in Iraq than in Afghanistan when he took office and remained so during his failed attempts at defeating and then appeasing the Taliban. While Obama threw away lives fighting the Taliban, Al Qaeda in Iraq was laying plans for capturing an entire country and its WMD stockpiles.</p>
<p>There is a certain irony to Al Qaeda in Iraq threatening the United States with Sarin, classified officially as a weapon of mass destruction, long after the Democrats had discredited the Iraq War with taunts of “Where are the WMDs?”</p>
<p>Chemical weapons are notoriously tricky and it’s likely that Al Qaeda in Iraq still has some work to do before it can successfully deploy a WMD. In the nineties, a Japanese doomsday cult’s Sarin nerve gas attacks only killed twenty people and sickened thousands. But 0.5 milligrams of Sarin is a lethal dose for an adult and the Al-Nusra Front cells had kilograms of it.</p>
<p>Syria as a whole may have a thousand tons of Sarin. The Tokyo doomsday cult planned to kill millions with its 70 tons. And as Syrian bases and facilities fall into the hands of the Al-Nusra Front, it will no longer have to rely on crude attempts to manufacture weapons that it can just pick up wholesale.</p>
<p>In his speech at the National Defense University, Obama declared that the war must end. And no doubt it will. One way or another. Nothing lasts forever. But his implication that America can end the war by becoming more passive is wrong.</p>
<p>The war did not begin because the United States was too active, but because it was too passive and took refuge in the cult of root causes instead of dealing directly and immediately with threats. September 11 was shocking, but it was also inevitable. It is equally inevitable that a terrorist attack will one day occur that will be bigger and more devastating than it.</p>
<p>Washington, D.C. often lives in its own bubble. Having forgotten about Iraq once it stopped being a political football, Democratic politicians imagine that Iraq and its Al Qaeda legions have forgotten about them. The Sarin raids in Iraq, Turkey and Syria are a reminder that Al Qaeda in Iraq may now be a bigger threat than it ever was before.</p>
<p>The Clinton Administration chose not to take down Bin Laden when it had the chance, instead taking refuge in outreach and “smart” targeted strikes that were the predecessors of today’s drone warfare. It believed that showing Muslims that we would engage in humanitarian intervention to empower their national aims in Yugoslavia would count for more than hunting down Osama bin Laden. It was wrong.</p>
<p>September 11 was the outcome of its neglect. Now the Obama Administration is allowing history to repeat itself with more humanitarian interventions and smart strikes that overlook the real threat growing on the horizon.</p>
<p>The Sarin raids should be a wake up call. But this is not an administration that takes 3 AM calls.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-qaeda-in-iraq-still-threatens-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>45</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Everyone in Syria is Using Chemical Weapons on Everyone Else</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/everyone-in-syria-is-using-chemical-weapons-on-everyone-else/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=everyone-in-syria-is-using-chemical-weapons-on-everyone-else</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/everyone-in-syria-is-using-chemical-weapons-on-everyone-else/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:54:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=182241</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While it's entirely possible that either the government or the Turkish\Qatari-backed Sunni fighters are actually using chemical weapons on each other, the lack of a serious death toll would suggest that they aren't very good at it.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/everyone-in-syria-is-using-chemical-weapons-on-everyone-else/assad_pictured_burn/" rel="attachment wp-att-182244"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-182244" title="assad_pictured_burn" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/assad_pictured_burn-450x302.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>It&#8217;s entirely possible that someone in Syria is using chemical weapons on someone else. Or maybe not. Both sides in the Sunni-Shiite Syrian Civil War have really big propaganda networks and have been putting out viral videos accusing each other of using chemical weapons for months now.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s entirely possible that either the government or the Turkish\Qatari-backed Sunni fighters are actually using chemical weapons on each other, the lack of a serious death toll would suggest that they aren&#8217;t very good at it.</p>
<p>When Saddam used chemical weapons in Halabja, thousands of civilians died in distinctive ways. We have yet to see that kind of death toll coming out of any Syrian attack. The<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/19/syria-says-rebels-kill-16-in-chemical-weapon-attack/"> current death toll </a>for what both sides in the Syrian Civil War are claiming was a chemical attack is 26. You can kill 26 people with conventional shelling, which is what this probably was.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not impossible that this was a case of the Jihadists experimenting with some looted mustard gas, which is potentially serious, but the only real evidence of that comes from the Syrian regime, which, like the rebels, spends most of its time lying and making up stories. It wouldn&#8217;t be terribly hard for them to dump a bunch of asthma patients in a bed and invite foreign reporters to look over them.</p>
<p>The United States is pretending that nothing happened. The Russian government is warning of doom. But that&#8217;s to be expected since we are allied with the Sunni Jihadists and they are allied with the Shiite Jihadists and neither the Russian Foreign Ministry nor the State Department is worth believing on any subject involving the Syrian Civil War.</p>
<p>That alone is a sad state of affairs. Sadder than if chemical weapons are being used in the Syrian Civil War.</p>
<p>The one useful thing Obama Inc. should have done is grabbed up Syria&#8217;s WMD stockpiles. Instead it&#8217;s hanging around, flirting with the rebels and then backing away, while angry Washington Post keyboard warriors insist it should be giving the rebels every aid before they join Al Qaeda, if they haven&#8217;t already.</p>
<p>Our only conceivable national interest in Syria is not letting Al Qaeda get its hands on weapons of mass destruction. If we want to score some humanitarian points, we can set up visas for Christian refugees, instead of taking in more Syrian Muslims, who will do almost as much damage as the Somalis and the El Salvadorans have.</p>
<p>So what does all this mean? Maybe something, maybe everything, maybe nothing. Our leaders are stuck on their own incompetence and can&#8217;t move forward or backward. Sooner or later, chemical weapons probably will be used in Syria or worse still will fall into the hands of terrorists.</p>
<p>In Iraq, the people now in power claimed there were no WMDs. Now in Syria even they admit there are WMDs. But they&#8217;re willing to wait around to see who captures them in the civil war and what they do with them.</p>
<p>Mission accomplished.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/everyone-in-syria-is-using-chemical-weapons-on-everyone-else/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Will Saddam&#8217;s WMDs Fall into the Hands of Al Qaeda?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-saddams-wmds-fall-into-the-hands-of-al-qaeda/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=will-saddams-wmds-fall-into-the-hands-of-al-qaeda</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-saddams-wmds-fall-into-the-hands-of-al-qaeda/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:47:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=168636</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There would be a certain historical irony if Saddam's WMDs were indeed finally found, but by Islamist terrorists into whose hands they fell after almost a decade of liberal political malfeasance culminating in their irresponsible support for the Sunni side in the Syrian Civil War.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-saddams-wmds-fall-into-the-hands-of-al-qaeda/iraqi-information-minister/" rel="attachment wp-att-168637"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-168637" title="Iraqi-Information-Minister" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Iraqi-Information-Minister.jpeg" alt="" width="427" height="320" /></a></p>
<p>Probably one of the most despicable lies perpetrated by the Democratic Party was the claim that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs. It was a lie of political convenience by a party whose top politicians had asserted the exact opposite until it became more convenient for them to jump on a new bandwagon.</p>
<p>After all that there would be a certain historical irony if Saddam&#8217;s WMDs were indeed finally found, but by Islamist terrorists into whose hands they fell after almost a decade of liberal political malfeasance culminating in their irresponsible support for the Sunni side in the Syrian Civil War.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s map what that would look like</p>
<p>1. The Democrats sabotaged the Iraq War by preventing any enforcement action against the Syrian origin of the suicide bombers and terror squads in the early days of the post-war period. Meanwhile Iraqi WMDs had been smuggled into Syria.</p>
<p>2. The Democrats took power and then backed an Arab Spring that put Syria into the crosshairs of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, exposing the WMDs to those terrorists.</p>
<p>3. Either the terrorists get their hands on the WMDs, in which case the likelihood of them being used on the US or Israel is very high.</p>
<p>4. Alternatively Syria turns them over to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which ships them to Iran.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/071912-618875-syria-chemical-weapons-came-from-iraq-.htm">back to the story</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p> As the regime of Bashar Assad disintegrates, the security of his chemical arsenal is in jeopardy. The No. 2 general in Saddam Hussein&#8217;s air force says they were the WMDs we didn&#8217;t find in Iraq.</p>
<p>In 2006, former Iraqi general Georges Sada, second in command of the Iraqi Air Force who served under Saddam Hussein before he defected, wrote a comprehensive book, &#8220;Saddam&#8217;s Secrets.&#8221;</p>
<p>It details how the Iraqi Revolutionary Guard moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria in advance of the U.S.-led action to eliminate Hussein&#8217;s WMD threat.</p>
<p>As Sada told the New York Sun, two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, and special Republican Guard units loaded the planes with chemical weapons materials.</p>
<p>There were 56 flights disguised as a relief effort after a 2002 Syrian dam collapse.</p>
<p>There were also truck convoys into Syria. Sada&#8217;s comments came more than a month after Israel&#8217;s top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam &#8220;transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Just to add to the general cheerful tidings, <a href="http://www.jewishpress.com/news/defecting-syrian-officer-chemical-weapons-have-already-been-transferred-to-hezbollah/2012/12/09/">there are claims, unverified,</a> that some WMDs were transferred to Hezbollah.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-saddams-wmds-fall-into-the-hands-of-al-qaeda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Training Syrian Rebels to Secure Syrian WMDs</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-training-syrian-rebels-to-secure-syrian-wmds/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-training-syrian-rebels-to-secure-syrian-wmds</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-training-syrian-rebels-to-secure-syrian-wmds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Dec 2012 00:04:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=168540</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The hope at this point is that Assad has either taken control of the worst of his weapons or shipped them to Iran, Saddam style. And it's pretty sad when US policy is so awful that hoping that Iran gets its hands on Syrian WMDs before Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood do is considered hopeful.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-training-syrian-rebels-to-secure-syrian-wmds/4dc55746-b83c-4c71-986b-431c22920c46/" rel="attachment wp-att-168541"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-168541" title="4dc55746-b83c-4c71-986b-431c22920c46" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/4dc55746-b83c-4c71-986b-431c22920c46-450x300.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Hey, you know what would be a great idea. Do you know that stack of dynamite that&#8217;s just lying out back? Why don&#8217;t we go shoot off some fireworks next to it. And then invite that drunk guy to shoot them off with us. And then we can fill up fire extinguishers with gasoline, spray them all over the place, and ask the Syrian rebels to come over and join the party.</p>
<p>In completely unrelated news, <a href="http://israelmatzav.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/us-training-syrian-rebels-to-secure.html">Obama&#8217;s bright idea is to secure Syria&#8217;s WMDs using the Syrian rebels</a>, <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/state-department-will-designate-9-percent-of-syrian-rebels-as-a-terrorist-group/">around 10 percent of whom he already classified as Al Qaeda</a>, to secure Syria&#8217;s WMDs. Since the other 90 percent consists of also Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood militias, not to mention assorted thugs and loose cannons, this is probably the best plan since that fireworks dynamite gasoline party I mentioned before.</p>
<blockquote><p>The US and its allies have hired contractors to train some Syrian rebel brigades in chemical weapons security,</p>
<p>The diplomatic sources say defense contractors hired by the US and its European allies have recently conducted training exercises with Syrian rebel forces in Turkey and Jordan. The programs were intended to prepare brigades to handle chemical weapons sites and materials they might encounter, as Assad troops lose control of over parts of the country. US contractors have also been on the ground in Syria to monitor the status of regime stockpiles, said an employee with a major US defense consultancy that has been engaged in that work.</p></blockquote>
<p>If this is true, then we</p>
<p>A. Have boots on the ground in Syria already</p>
<p>B. Instead of using special forces to secure the WMDs, are going to be using rebel/terrorists, even the best of whom are closely intertwined with terrorists, to secure weapons that can kill thousands to millions of Americans.</p>
<p>C. Are about to make Benghazi look like a walk in the park</p>
<blockquote><p>“They’re probably trying to provide near real-time surveillance at all these sites. There’s no point in limiting yourself,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He emphasized that any training of rebel fighters would represent just one element of contingency planning underway and said it would be incorrect to assume that training rebels is “the only hope”.</p></blockquote>
<p>The hope at this point is that Assad has either taken control of the worst of his weapons or shipped them to Iran, Saddam style. And it&#8217;s pretty sad when US policy is so awful that hoping that Iran gets its hands on Syrian WMDs before Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood do is considered hopeful.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-training-syrian-rebels-to-secure-syrian-wmds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Will Assad Use Chemical Weapons Against Sunni Islamist Rebels?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-assad-use-chemical-weapons-against-sunni-islamist-rebels/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=will-assad-use-chemical-weapons-against-sunni-islamist-rebels</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-assad-use-chemical-weapons-against-sunni-islamist-rebels/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=168309</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Assad isn't just in this alone. A Sunni victory will mean the ethnic cleansing of Christians and Alawites at the hands of groups like the Al Nusra Brigade, who have already gotten started on the task. The only choice Obama can offer Assad is genocide or NATO bombings. That's not much of a choice.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/?attachment_id=168310" rel="attachment wp-att-168310"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-168310" title="chemical-weapons" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/chemical-weapons.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="270" /></a></p>
<p>Clinton and Obama have been warning Assad that if he uses chemical weapons against the Sunni Islamist rebels, most of whom are either aligned with Al Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood, it will mean &#8220;crossing a red line.&#8221; While C&amp;O have refused to specify what this means, the implication is that the air force that they are cutting to the bone and whose chapels they are desecrating with transgender marriage ceremonies will be ordered to go bomb Syria.</p>
<p>Ordinarily this should worry Assad. Syria, unlike Libya, isn&#8217;t a pushover, but its degraded air power is no match for NATO, especially with Turkey as an eager and willing partner, who has been trying to drag NATO into their Islamist Sunni vs Shiite Holy War from the start with incident after incident.</p>
<p>But unlike Saddam, Assad has held off using chemical weapons when he could have. If he does use them, it will be because Damascus is in danger of falling and at that point Assad will no longer care what happens. Being bombed to death by NATO is a lighter fate than being sodomized to death by some Salafi holy warriors.</p>
<p>Assad isn&#8217;t just in this alone. A Sunni victory will mean the ethnic cleansing of Christians and Alawites at the hands of groups like the Al Nusra Brigade, who have already gotten started on the task.</p>
<p>Syria isn&#8217;t Libya, it&#8217;s Rwanda, and the Alawite minority cannot afford to let the Salafis take Syria. Using chemical weapons would not be pretty, but it will be no worse than the fate that Obama&#8217;s &#8220;Brave Syrian People&#8221;, who were armed with his approval by the Islamists in Qatar and Turkey, have in store for millions of non-Sunni Syrians.</p>
<p>And even the Sunnis won&#8217;t get off light. The Free Syrian Army is a skeleton force, no more able to keep order in Syria after the fall of Assad, then the Libyan government was able to keep order after the fall of Gaddafi. That means the Islamist militias will have a free  hand in enforcing Islamic law, Mali style. And the situation appears to be even worse in Syria than in Libya.</p>
<p>Assad and the Alawites don&#8217;t have a whole lot to lose. Even if Obama, Cameron and Hollande guarantee some sort of exit for the Assad family, they can&#8217;t take hundreds of thousands of people with them. Nor can NATO enforce an end to the violence that will come after Assad falls because the entire doctrine of Obama Inc. is to let the rebels win and then hold elections. That led to ethnic cleansing of Africans in Libya. It led to a Muslim Brotherhood coup in Egypt. It will lead to far worse in Syria.</p>
<p>The only choice Obama can offer Assad is genocide or NATO bombings. That&#8217;s not much of a choice. And considering Hama, it is not at all improbable that Assad will pull the trigger if the fighting moves close enough to Damascus.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/will-assad-use-chemical-weapons-against-sunni-islamist-rebels/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>16</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Best National Security Administration Ever Has No Idea Where Syrian WMD&#8217;s Are</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/best-national-security-administration-ever-has-no-idea-where-syrian-wmds-are/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=best-national-security-administration-ever-has-no-idea-where-syrian-wmds-are</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/best-national-security-administration-ever-has-no-idea-where-syrian-wmds-are/#respond</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:19:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leon Panetta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=146146</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I think George W. Bush is still waiting for his official apology. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/052208Obama.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-146147" title="052208Obama" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/052208Obama-300x247.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="247" /></a></p>
<p>See that<a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2012/09/28/good-news-defense-secretary-panetta-says-they-have-lost-track-of-syrian-chemical-weapons/"> WMD stuff isn&#8217;t so easy</a> after all. I think George W. Bush is still waiting for his official apology.</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. has lost track of some of Syria’s chemical weapons, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday, and does not know if any potentially lethal chemicals have fallen into the hands of Syrian rebels or Iranian forces inside the country.</p>
<p>“There has been intelligence that there have been some moves that have taken place. Where exactly that’s taken place, we don’t know.” Panetta said, in a Pentagon press briefing.</p></blockquote>
<p>There&#8217;s been intelligence but no one knows what the intelligence is or exactly what&#8217;s going on. Just like in Benghazi. Maybe Obama should go the UN and get some kind of resolution to inspect Syria&#8217;s WMD stocks. And then impose more sanctions and wait for another 12 years while doing nothing until Russia and China approve of regime change in Syria&#8230; just like they wanted Bush to do.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/best-national-security-administration-ever-has-no-idea-where-syrian-wmds-are/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Where Are Syria&#8217;s Chemical Weapons Going?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/where-are-syrias-chemical-weapons-going/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=where-are-syrias-chemical-weapons-going</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/where-are-syrias-chemical-weapons-going/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:23:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=144279</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Lebanese daily Al-Nahar reported Sunday that a Russian envoy recently arrived in Beirut and warned Nasrallah against accepting chemical weapons from Syria]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/97vials_300.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-144280" title="97vials_300" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/97vials_300-300x223.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="223" /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/worries-intensify-over-syrian-chemical-weapons/2012/09/06/13889aac-f841-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story_1.html">Washington Post reports</a></p>
<blockquote><p>In August, a Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, said the Damascus government would never use chemical arms against its people, but he warned that it would unleash the weapons against what he called foreign invaders. He said the military was guarding the stockpile.</p>
<p>Syria is thought to possess the world’s third-largest stockpile of chemical weapons after United States and Russia, whose Cold War arsenals are being dismantled and destroyed. Syria’s weapons, predominantly deadly nerve agents that can be delivered by artillery rockets, shells and aircraft munitions, were developed for use in a war against Israel.</p></blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-russia-pounce-at-syrian-chemical-weapons-transfer/">the latest word is that</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The Syrian regime transferred chemical weapons from a storage base near Damascus to the port city of Tartus last month, sparking American and European concerns that the weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon or other extremist organizations inside Syria,  against Israel. Nasrallah’s reference to chemical weapons may have followed pressure from Syria’s ally, Russia. Lebanese daily Al-Nahar reported Sunday that a Russian envoy recently arrived in Beirut and warned Nasrallah against accepting chemical weapons from Syria. According to the daily, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Israel that Syria’s chemical weapons will not leave their storehouses.</p></blockquote>
<p>Iraq&#8217;s Baath Party had a ready ally in Syria&#8217;s Baath Party to shift its stockpiles to. Syria has fewer options. There are no other Baath parties and no ruling Alawites. That leaves it with no other choice but to go with Shiite ties.</p>
<p>Hezbollah would not be the smartest choice, but it may be the only practical one. No one is about to let Syria ship chemical weapons to Iran. But Syria has other options. A port city would allow it to move weapons almost anywhere as cargo. And networks of Shiite businessmen around the world play a major role in international trade. Shipping the weapons to somewhere in Africa where there is little law enforcement and a high degree of corruptibility might be one scenario.</p>
<p>The problem with turning over the weapons to Iran or Hezbollah is that getting them back would become difficult. The Assads have learned enough from Saddam not to repeat his mistakes. That means they would be more likely to leave the country and run the resistance from a safe haven and the weapons would be a trump card or a cash source. Moving them to a port may be one of the steps before the rats leave the sinking Syria.</p>
<p>Assuming that they want to avoid a long sea voyage that would increase the risks of the ships showing up on someone&#8217;s satellite, there&#8217;s always Cyprus. Turkey is now at odds with Syria and with Cyprus and there are a lot of Syrians in Cyprus. Cyprus&#8217; troubled status would make it an ideal base for Assad, as it did for Arafat.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/where-are-syrias-chemical-weapons-going/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Unthinkable in Syria</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/alan-w-dowd/the-unthinkable-in-syria/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-unthinkable-in-syria</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/alan-w-dowd/the-unthinkable-in-syria/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2012 04:40:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan W. Dowd]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weapons of mass destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WMD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=138694</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Worries rise over the regime's WMD arsenal in the event of Assad's fall. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/missile.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-138727" title="missile" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/missile.gif" alt="" width="375" height="255" /></a>So far, only the Syrian people have borne the costs of the Obama administration’s do-nothing approach to Syria, but the United States and its allies in Israel, Turkey and Jordan may soon pay dearly for the administration’s disinterested, detached approach to Syria’s civil war. And I’m not talking about the assault on conscience that Assad has perpetrated or the humanitarian dimensions of the Syrian regime’s war on its subjects (though a case can be made that America should intervene on these grounds). The focus here is the national security threat represented by Syria’s WMD arsenal.</p>
<p>Bashar Assad’s crumbling regime fields one of the largest chemical-weapons programs on earth, including mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agent. Syria has mated these weapons with artillery shells and missilery. Open-source materials indicate that Syria has five major chemical-manufacturing facilities in and around the cities of Hama, Homs and Al-Safira, along with 45 chemical-weapons storage facilities. Unnamed Pentagon officials say <a href="http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/22/military-thousands-of-troops-needed-to-secure-syrian-chemical-sites/">75,000 troops</a>would be required to secure Syria’s vast WMD arsenal. As Assad and his loyalists focus on survival, as the Syrian military splinters and as the country disintegrates, these stockpiles are growing increasingly vulnerable—indeed, some have been moved in recent weeks—and could fall into even less responsible hands. The candidates include: Hezbollah, which has strong ties to Assad’s Syria; al-Qaeda, which is involved in the fighting; a rogue military faction bent on revenge; or a post-Assad regime controlled by jihadists. Any of these scenarios would pose a significant threat to U.S. interests, to regional stability and to the security of allies in Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Making sure none of them transpire must be a priority as events unfold.</p>
<p>This is easier said than done, of course. First, unlike the civil war in Libya, where Russia stood aside as NATO intervened to prevent a bloodbath, Moscow is deeply enmeshed in Syria. Russia maintains a naval base in Syria and has provided Assad with military supplies and diplomatic cover at the UN. Hence, the U.S. and other power-projecting states simply do not have the freedom of action in dealing with Syria and its chemical-weapons arsenal that they had in dealing with Gaddafi’s Libya—especially given the fact that the White House has handcuffed its Syria policy to the UN’s lowest-common-denominator approach, as determined by Russia.</p>
<p>Second, unlike the revolution in Egypt, the U.S. does not have the same sort of military-to-military contacts in Syria. Moreover, Assad is no Hosni Mubarak. To be sure, Mubarak attempted to crack down on protests in the early days of the Egyptian revolution, but he chose to step aside rather than massacre his countrymen, partly because of back-channel pressure from U.S. political and military leaders.</p>
<p>The hard truth is that events may force the Obama administration to act—with or without any cooperation on the ground in Damascus, with or without any help from Russia at the UN.</p>
<p>The Pentagon has reportedly intensified discussions about Syria’s WMD threat with Israel, Turkey, Britain and France. The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. and Jordan—which is deeply concerned about chemical weapons falling into al Qaeda’s hands—are co-developing plans to secure Syria’s WMD arsenal, in the event of regime collapse or some other triggering incident. In fact, “a high-level delegation of Jordanian defense officials” traveled to the Pentagon this spring to map out possible operations to locate and secure Assad’s WMDs, according to the paper. “One plan would call for Jordanian special operations units, acting as part of any broader Arab League peacekeeping mission, to go into Syria to secure nearly a dozen sites,” the Journal reports.</p>
<p>“If left unsecured,” Adm. William McRaven said during a congressional hearing, “it would be, potentially, a very serious threat in the hands of…Lebanese Hezbollah.”</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/alan-w-dowd/the-unthinkable-in-syria/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>28</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Object Caching 1119/1250 objects using disk
Content Delivery Network via cdn.frontpagemag.com

 Served from: www.frontpagemag.com @ 2014-12-31 13:19:11 by W3 Total Cache -->