[QUOTE="WhiteKnight77"]
Claims are not proof. It has been determined through independent sources that it has been Assad's forces is the entity that used the chemical weapons. They could also put evidence in places to try and remove blame from themselves so it appears the opposition are the one's who used them.
Either way, no one will know until after all of this is over if it ever is told or confirmed conclusively.
CynicalCaviar
At this point in time I wouldn't believe a word out of an American governments mouth, have we forgotten about the WMD's and whatever other BS accusation they use to invade nation after nation toppling governments. This is just the latest leg of the US assault against the middle east, these claims against Assad are bogus, just another reason for the US to spill blood.
Oh snap! Iraq Faces Major Challenges in Destroying Its Legacy Chemical Weapons due to chemical weapons that were bombed during Desert Storm not being counted as weapons even though they were not completely destroyed.
Before Iraq acceded to the CWC in early 2009, it had a long history of involvement in chemical warfare. The Saddam Hussein regime used mustard gas and the nerve agents tabun and sarin on a large scale during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) and the ensuing terror campaign against the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq, including the infamous chemical attack on the town of Halabja in March 1988 that killed some 5,000 civilians.[1]
In late 1990, during the run-up to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Iraq produced a large stockpile of chemical weapons at the Muthanna State Establishment, some 20 kilometers south of the city of Samarra, including aerial bombs, shells, artillery rockets, and Scud missile warheads filled with mustard and nerve agents. Chemical weapons were stockpiled at Muthanna in eight large cruciform bunkerssemi-underground structures resembling truncated pyramids that were built of reinforced concrete one meter thick and covered with a three-meter layer of sandy clay. Each bunker was about the size of a football field and had a main storage room with a capacity of about 10,800 cubic meters.[2]
During the Gulf War, U.S. retaliatory threats deterred Saddam Hussein from using his chemical arsenal, and Coalition aircraft bombed much of the Muthanna complex, shutting down Iraq's chemical weapons production. On February 8, 1991, an aerial bomb hit the roof of Bunker 13 at Muthanna. According to Iraqi declarations, this bunker stored 2,500 sarin-filled 122mm artillery rockets, which were partially damaged or destroyed in the bombardment. In addition, the bunker held about 200 metric tons of sodium and potassium cyanide salts (precursors for tabun production) and 75 kilograms of arsenic trichloride (a precursor for blister agent).[3]
*snip*
Post-Gulf War Chemical Disarmament
In the aftermath of Iraq's military defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, the cease-fire agreementUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 687required Iraq to eliminate its entire chemical weapons stockpile under the supervision of inspectors from a newly created UN disarmament agency, the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM). Chemical munitions, bulk agent, and precursors stored throughout Iraq were consolidated at Muthanna and destroyed by incineration or neutralization. The destruction campaign, which lasted from June 1992 to June 1994, disposed of more than 38,000 filled and unfilled chemical munitions, 690 metric tons of bulk and weaponized CW agents, and over 3,000 metric tons of precursor chemicals.[4]
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 "destroyed in the Gulf War" and they were not included in the inventory of chemical weapons eliminated under UNSCOM supervision.
Another nearby storage bunker at Muthanna, called Bunker 41, was in good condition, so UNSCOM used it to entomb contaminated materials left over from the CW destruction effort. These items included about 2,000 mustard-filled artillery shells that had been drained and burned to speed decomposition of the agent, and 605 one-ton mustard containers and other items that could not be thoroughly decontaminated. Because these items still bore traces of mustard, they posed a threat to human health if handled improperly. In 1994, Iraqi personnel working under UNSCOM supervision secured Bunkers 13 and 41 by sealing the entrances with massive barriers of brick, tar, and reinforced concrete more than 1.5 meters thick. They also used reinforced concrete to patch the hole in the roof of Bunker 13.[5]Linked Article
While UNSCOM said that Iraq destroyed all of the weapons that they had, they totally ignored the ones that Iraq claimed was destroyed, but wasn't. That also fails to account for the 500 weapons found after the US went back to Iraq in 2003 that even Nancy Pelosi and others were informed of by a House Intelligence Committee in 2006.
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