Assoluta Tranquillita: Syria chemical weapons

Now that Obama put away his red crayon, and the msm has gone on to their next big story du jour, it would perhaps be easy to forget other issues from months past. One of those issues? Syria and their chemical weapons.

From Homeland Security News Wire:

Assad retains secret caches of chemical weapons: Israeli intelligence

1 October 2014

Despite committing to dismantle and give up its chemical weapons – Syria was in possession of the world’s largest chemical weapons stock — President Bashar al-Assad’s regime still maintains a “residual” chemical weapons capacity, consisting of a few tons of the proscribed materials.

Israel’s intelligence community has concluded that the Assad regime has decided to keep this reduced, but still formidable, chemical weapons capability, and has successfully concealed it from the inspectors of the UNchemical weapons watchdog who, a few weeks ago, have declared the chemical disarmament of Syria to be officially complete.

The process of destroying and removing Syria’s chemical weapons began almost a year ago, following international pressure on the Assad regime in the wake of the August 2013 sarin gas attack by Assad forces on a Damascus suburb, an attack which left more than 1,400 dead.

The August 2013 attack was the latest in a series of smaller chemical weapons attacks by Assad’s army on civilians in rebel-held areas, attacks which began in December 2012. Haaretz notes that these early incidents were more or less ignored, and certainly not taken seriously, by the United States and other Western countries. The Israeli intelligence community provided the United States with evidence for a few of these early instances of chemical weapons use – and the head of Israel’s military intelligence referred to these attack in one or two public presentations – but the Obama administration dismissed those claims. President Obama had publicly drawn a “red line” with regard to the use of chemical weapons by Assad, and the administration saw the earlier use of chemical weapons by Assad as too small and localized to trigger a U.S. military retaliation which the president’s red line references promised....

Much more here.

Heck of a job there, Mr President.

There's a surprise - NOT!

From Homeland Security News Wire:

After failing 5 February deadline, Syria wants 100-day extension to remove chemicals

24 February 2014

After missing the 5 February deadline to have all its chemical weapons removed from its territory, Syria has submitted a new 100-day plan for their removal. The international group monitoring the operation says the completion of the removal can be accomplished in less time than that. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) executive committee met on Friday in The Hague to discuss the joint mission at a time when there is a growing international frustration with Syria over its failure to live up to its commitments.
Arutz Sheva reports that the Syrian government failed to meet the 5 February OPCW deadline to move all of its declared chemical substances and precursors out of the country.

The OPCW deadline for all of Syria’s declared chemical materials to be destroyed is 30 June.
“The Syrian 100 day plan for removal of the chemicals, on which we have been briefed, is not adequate,” Philip Hall, head of the British Foreign Office Counter Proliferation Department, told the OPCW, according to a copy of his statement.

“We now urge the Syrian authorities to accept the proposals submitted by the Operational Planning Group that provide for removal in a much shorter time frame, without compromising on security,” he said.

A senior UN diplomat, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the OPCW believes the operation can be carried out before the end of March, adding that Syria’s proposed end-May deadline would not leave enough time for the chemicals to be destroyed before the end of June....