SIx In The Morning Saturday August 31

31 August 2013 Last updated at 06:03 GMT

UN inspectors leave Syria as US weighs 'limited act'

UN inspectors investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria have left Damascus.

They crossed into neighbouring Lebanon just hours after President Barack Obama said the US was considering a "limited narrow act" against Syria.

Citing a US intelligence assessment, Secretary of State John Kerry accused Syria of using chemical weapons to kill 1,429 people, including 426 children.

Syria said the US claim was "full of lies", blaming rebels for the attacks.

The UN inspectors - investigating what happened in the Damascus suburbs on 21 August - left their hotel in the Syrian capital in a convoy of vehicles on Saturday morning and later arrived in Lebanon.

During their visit, they carried out four days of inspections.

It could be two weeks before their final report is ready, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has told diplomats.

Sri Lanka turning authoritarian, says UN human rights chief Navi Pillay

KRISHAN FRANCIS

 SATURDAY 31 AUGUST 2013

The United Nations rights chief has chastised the Sri Lankan government, saying it is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction despite the end of a civil war four years ago.

In a hard-hitting statement ending a weeklong visit to assess the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was "deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant all-embracing state, is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction." 

During her stay, Pillay met government officials, politicians, rights activists and people affected by the war. She is to report her findings to the UN Human Rights Council next month. 

Colombia protests show dark side of economic boom

While economic data shows that Colombia is enjoying healthy and steady growth, the country's protesting rural poor feel like they have been not been invited to the party.

By Joseph BAMAT

President Juan Manuel Santos ordered Colombia’s army to secure the streets of the capital on Friday, after growing protests in support of striking farmers left two people dead.

The strike that began more than a week ago took a worrying turn on Thursday with masked youths clashing with riot police in the capital.

Citing the casualties and looting, Santos said on national TV that 50,000 soldiers would patrol the country’s major cities and highways, and ensure that deliveries reach city markets. Meanwhile, negotiations between government ministers and farmers were put on hold and officials were called back to Bogota, according to Colombian weekly Semana

The perfect storm: Australia's extreme weather thrill-seekers

August 31, 2013

Susan Chenery

The risks are monstrous, yet for tornado-chasing Australians, the beauty of midwest America's twisters just "blows you away".

It started as a small heap of fluffy white clouds on a blue summer day. But as the afternoon wore on, the sky above the flat green plains of Oklahoma darkened and grew malevolent. Crackling, roaring and rotating, the thunderstorm touched down as a tornado at 6.03pm, 13 kilometres south-west of the town of El Reno, unleashing a sudden and terrible power. In less than a minute, the tornado blew up from about 1.6 kilometres wide to 4.2 kilometres, the widest ever measured, with wind speeds close to 480 kilometres per hour, matching the fastest on record. Revolving around the immense parent tornado were smaller satellite tornadoes. One picked up a car containing three storm researchers, who'd been laying down probes to measure the system, and tossed it into the air, killing all three.

"You just saw the very left edge of the tornado but you couldn't see the right edge, it was so wide," says storm chaser Daniel Schummy, a 22-year-old graphic artist and video editor from Jimboomba, Queensland. On May 31 this year, Schummy was directly in the tornado's path, stuck in a traffic jam with three other storm chasers from Australia: Justin Noonan, Brendan Strauch and Rosemarie Steiner. The local TV news station's chief meteorologist had been telling people to get in their cars and flee south.

Children are exposed to a minefield of labour, mercury for the sake of gold

30 AUG 2013 09:56 LOUISE REDVERS

Thousands of children are working in small-scale Tanzanian gold mines, with many using or being exposed to mercury, a new report says.

Human Rights Watch has called on the government of Tanzania, along with donor organisations and gold companies, to take urgent action to curb the high rates of child labour and regulate the use of mercury.

In a 96-page report published this week the United States-based lobby group paints a grim picture of artisanal gold mining in the East Africa country, which, in 2011, was the continent’s fourth-largest gold producer.

Children, many of whom are orphans, are involved in every stage of artisanal mining, from digging with picks to carrying heavy rocks, mixing gold ore with mercury and burning the amalgam to extract gold, which they also sometimes sell directly to dealers. The work is backbreaking and dangerous and can involve being underground for between six and 24 hours. Of the 80 children interviewed on 11 mining sites, some had been injured by rudimentary machinery and others were trapped underground when shafts collapsed.

North Korea in grip of drugs epidemic, report claims

By Peter Shadbolt, CNN

North Korea's sanction-hit regime has long been accused of drug trafficking as a source of hard currency, but a new report claims drug producers are finding a ready market closer to home and that as many as two-thirds of North Koreans have used methamphetamines.

According to a report in the Spring 2013 edition of the journal North Korean Review, stricter China border controls have forced methamphetamine producers in the north to seek a local market for "ice" (known locally as "bingdu").

The report's co-author, Professor Kim Seok Hyang, of South Korea's Ewha Woman's University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that interviews with North Korean defectors suggested that the country is in the grip of an "ice" plague.

Random Japan

Photos of the JoJo train are finally here and it’s not just the outside that looks cool
Earlier this week, we told you about the Yamanote Line train that will be decked out with the characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle (coming to PS3 on August 29). At the time, we could only provide you with a few artist renditions of what the train might look like. But now, may we proudly present to you 31 photos of the actual JoJo train, inside and out! On August 26 at 5:57am, the first Yamanote Line train of the day pulled out of Osaki Station. This wasn’t the ordinary lime green-striped train that thousands of commuters have come to know, this one was special. The exterior, interior, monitors, and even the advertisements hanging from the carriage ceiling were covered in JoJo. On each side of the doors, the very same characters from the manga were proudly displayed for all to see.

stats

2,000 Number of foreign professionals that the government hoped to attract via a new “points-based preferential immigration system” introduced last May

17 Number of foreigners who have taken advantage of the program

1.13 million Lightning strikes in Japan last year, according to private weather company Franklin Japan

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

A Cabinet Office survey has revealed that 71 percent of Japanese people are “satisfied or somewhat satisfied” with their lives—the first time since 1995 that the figure has topped 70 percent.

Toshie Tanaka, 47, became Japan’s first female prefectural police chief when she assumed the top cop job in Iwate.

A high school baseball player in Aomori taking part in the Koshien summer tournament “tackled and overpowered” a knife-wielding man who was attacking a woman in the stadium parking lot.

Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan sued current PM Shinzo Abe for defamation over a claim made by Abe that Kan lied about making “the courageous decision to pump seawater” into a nuclear reactor during the crisis at Fukushima in 2011.

Blissful

And Unaware

Riddle Me This

What's In The Closet?

She Showed Him

Judo

Ainu struggle to find solution for hundreds of unidentified skeletons

August 31, 2013

By KENJI IZUMI/ Staff Writer
SAPPORO--Wearing robes displaying intricate designs, an indigenous Ainu group offered flowers and prayers for the souls of more than 1,000 ancestors during a memorial ritual called Icarpa. “We want to inherit our ancestors’ thoughts without forgetting the history of hardships and humiliation the Ainu people have suffered,” Tadashi Kato, executive director of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, said in his speech at the Icarpa on Aug. 2. The Ainu say the humiliation continues to this day concerning those same ancestors. Their skeletons had been dug up from graves for research purposes and were handled in a slipshod manner.

When elective representative government really works

In February of 2003 then Secretary of State Colin Powell went before the UN Security Council to laid out the evidence that would lead to the invasion of Iraq in March of that year.  Everything Secretary Powell told the Security Council was a lie.  Fabricated evidenced based upon the accusations of one person known to the CIA as Curveball a man who claimed to have been an engineer  working to develop Iraq's arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.  The Bush administration bought it hook, line and sinker because they wanted to believe that no matter how outrageous the claims Iraq had these weapons.  

In July of 2003 the Iraq survey group announced that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq and that there was clear evidence that  programs had been dismantled  in the aftermath of the first Gulf War.

Yesterday the British House of Commons voted by a narrow margin (13 votes) to deny David Cameron's government the right to involve  Great Britain  in the American scheme to attack Syria for that governments use of chemical weapons against its civilian population.  A majority voiced concern over the lack of concrete evidence of just what happened and who actually carried out the attack.  MP's invoked the memory of Iraq over and over again unwilling to useful fools to justify military action against Syria.          

Six In The Morning Friday August 30

30 August 2013 Last updated at 09:07 GMT

US to act in its 'best interests' over Syria crisis

The US has said it will act in its "best interests" in dealing with the Syria crisis, after British MPs rejected military intervention.

Washington accuses Syrian government forces of using chemical weapons - a claim denied by Damascus.

The move by British MPs, meanwhile, ruled out London's involvement in any US-led strikes against Syria.

But French President Francois Hollande said the UK vote did not change France's resolve for firm action.

In an interview with Le Monde newspaper, Mr Hollande said all options for intervention were on the table but no decision would be taken without the conditions to justify it.

Vast 466-mile-long canyon discovered under Greenland ice sheet, say scientists

Specialist radar uncovered the 800m deep canyon

NICK RENAUD-KOMIYA 

FRIDAY 30 AUGUST 2013

One of the world’s largest canyons has been discovered buried under ice in Greenland. 

Scientists have learned that the mega-canyon is 740km (466 miles) long and up to 800m (2,624ft) deep in places.

The feature, resembling a meandering river channel, is believed to pre-date the ice sheet that has covered Greenland for millions of years.

Professor Jonathan Bamber, from the school of geographical studies at University of Bristol, said, “With Google Streetview available for many cities around the world and digital maps for everything from population density to happiness, one might assume that the landscape of the Earth has been fully explored and mapped.

Russian security’s role in school siege still unclear nine years on

The sadness of 334 deaths lingers but cover-ups still obscure the truth

Daniel McLaughlin

Basketball hoops still hang at either end of the gymnasium and lines are still marked on its scorched wooden floor. The air seems acrid and dank, as if the fire that blackened the walls was only recently put out. But it is nine years since gunmen seized School Number One in Beslan, southern Russia, on the first day of the school year. They held more than 1,100 people hostage in this small gym for more than 50 hours, before a chaotic battle with special forces and armed locals that killed 334 people, including 186 children.

As Russian schools prepare to start a new term, so Beslan is again braced for the anniversary of an atrocity that devastated this small town, and turned some of its people against the political leaders and security services they blame for the deaths of their sons and daughters. Several dozen masked militants from the restive, nearby regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia herded people into the sports hall and, over the next two days, a hellish stand-off ensued.

EGYPT

Egypt awaits Saudi funding, more arrests

Saudi Arabia says it is considering more funding sought by Egypt's military-backed interim government. Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have arrested another senior Muslim Brotherhood politician, Mohamed al-Beltagi.

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was studying requests from Egypt's army-backed interim government for major investments in projects to repair Egypt's economy battered by two years of political turmoil.

In Cairo, Saudi ambassador Ahmed Qattan told the news agency Reuters that his country, along with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, was studying a "comprehensive" report on investment needs finalized by Egypt's cabinet on Wednesday.

30 August 2013 Last updated at 08:26 GMT

DR Congo unrest: UN chief urges Rwanda 'restraint'

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to Rwanda's president for restraint amid escalating tensions with the neighbouring DR Congo.

He spoke to President Paul Kagame after Rwanda accused DR Congo of deliberately bombing its territory, killing a woman and wounding her baby.

Mr Ban's assistant, Edmond Mulet, reportedly told UN members M23 rebels had been seen firing into Rwanda.

DR Congo and the UN accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, a charge it denies.

Dark-skinned Mexicans face lingering discrimination

Mexico has strong laws barring discrimination based on skin color or ethnicity, but media still promote the perception that dark skin is unappealing.

By Tim Johnson, McClatchy 

MEXICO CITY

Flip through the print publications exalting the activities of Mexico’s high society and there’s one thing you rarely find: dark-skinned people.

No matter that nearly two-thirds of Mexicans consider themselves moreno, the Spanish word for dark.

Mexico has strong laws barring discrimination based on skin color or ethnicity, but the practices of public relations firms and news media lag behind, promoting the perception that light skin is desirable and dark skin unappealing.

The issue came to the fore this month when a casting call for a television spot for Mexico’s largest airline stated flatly that it wanted “no one dark,” sparking outrage on social media and, ultimately, embarrassed apologies.

“I’d never seen anything that aggressive and that clear, all in capital letters: ‘NO ONE DARK,’” said Tamara de Anda, a magazine editor. “I decided to go with it.”

A must read from Robert FIsk about Syria

We should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But now?

Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran.  And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West

So there is nothing pleasant about the regime in Damascus.  Nor do these comments let the regime off the hook when it comes to mass gassing.  But I am old enough to remember that when Iraq – then America’s ally – used gas against the Kurds of Hallabjah in 1988, we did not assault Baghdad.  Indeed, that attack would have to wait until 2003, when Saddam no longer had any gas or any of the other weapons we nightmared over.  And I also happen to remember that the CIA put it about in 1988 that Iran was responsible for the Hallabjah gassings, a palpable lie that focused on America’s enemy whom 

Saddam was then fighting on our behalf.  And thousands – not hundreds – died in Hallabjah.  But there you go.  Different days, different standards.

And I suppose it’s worth noting that when Israel killed up to 17,000 men, women and children in Lebanon in 1982 in an invasion supposedly provoked by the attempted PLO murder of the Israeli ambassador in London – it was Saddam’s mate Abu Nidal who arranged the killing, not the PLO, but that doesn’t matter now – America merely called for both sides to exercise “restraint”.  

It's funny how western governments pick and choose which countries are rogue nations and which are allies even though they are barely two degrees to the left of North Korea.  When its covenant these governments turn a blind eye to torture, extrajudicial executions, mass imprisonment of the dictatorships flavor of the month opponents, suppression of basic freedoms, and so much more.  But now its time to bomb Syria back to the stone age because its government is supported by Iran.      

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un's ex-girlfriend 'executed by firing squad for appearing in porn films'

Reports indicate the dictator had been to see his former lover sing in a concert just nine days before she was arrested and killed

Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend has been executed by firing squad along with a dozen fellow North Korean musicians charged with violating laws against pornography, according to reports in a respected South Korean newspaper.

The Chosun Ilbo said performers from a well-known orchestra and light music ensemble were arrested on 17 August, accused of filming themselves having sex and then selling copies of the tapes.

While this breached North Korean anti-pornography laws, some of the musicians were also found to have Bibles in their possession and all were treated as political dissidents, according to the newspaper’s unnamed source.

They were executed in public by machine gun fire three days later, reportedly as the rest of the Unhasu Orchestra and Wangjaesan Light Music Band were forced to watch.

Somehow I find it hard to believe these musicians were executed for making "adult movies" something else is going on here.   If this wasn't a political killing I don't know what it was.

SIx In The Morning Thursday August 29

29 August 2013 Last updated at 09:08 GMT

US President Obama: 'No decision yet' on Syria strike

US President Barack Obama has said he has not yet decided on a plan for retaliatory action against Syria.

But he said he had concluded Syrian government forces were behind a recent chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

Speaking on US television, Mr Obama said the use of chemical weapons affected US national interests and that sending a "shot across the bows" could have a positive impact on Syria's war.

His comments follow a day of behind-the-scenes wrangling at the UN.

The UK had been pushing for permanent members of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution which would have authorised measures to protect civilians in Syria.

Indian Mujahideen leader Yasin Bhatkal captured by security forces

One of India's most wanted Islamic militants arrested after international manhunt ends on border with Nepal

• Jason Burke in Delhi
• theguardian.com, Thursday 29 August 2013 10.02 BST

One of India's most wanted Islamic extremists has been arrested in a security forces operation on the border with Nepal.

Yasin Bhatkal is accused of involvement in a string of recent attacks including a 2010 blast at a bakery patronised by international tourists in the city of Pune that killed nine and injured 60.

The 30-year-old is said to be one of the founders of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) militant organisation. "Yasin Bhatkal has been traced and detained ... His interrogation is going on," Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in Delhi on Thursday morning.

INTELLIGENCE

GCHQ reported to have access to almost all European internet traffic

Britain's GCHQ is reported to have wider access to Europe's electronic communications than previously thought. The media reports are based partly on documents released by former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden.

The reports published by public broadcaster NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper said documents made available to them by Edward Snowden indicate that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is capable of gathering and analyzing data from almost all of the traffic that passes through Europe's internet network.

UN peacekeepers attacked in Darfur again

Sapa-AFP | 29 August, 2013 10:30

Peacekeepers came under fire in Sudan's Darfur region while they searched for colleagues missing in a flood, the mission said, reporting the third attack this month against Blue Helmets.

The attack by "unknown armed men" happened on Tuesday about seven kilometres (four miles) northeast of Misterei, a West Darfur town near the border with Chad, said Rania Abdulrahman, a media officer with the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

The peacekeepers repelled the assailants and there were no casualties, she said, adding that the search continues for four missing UNAMID troops who were swept away in a flash flood on Sunday.

Violence in Darfur and against UNAMID has worsened this year.

Three peacekeepers were shot and wounded on Monday in East Darfur, in an area where two Arab tribes fought deadly battles this month.

Once a US school bus, now a Central American taxi

From Guatemala to Nicaragua, the iconic yellow buses are living out their waning days ferrying commuters across cities big and small. 

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / August 28, 2013

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR; AND CIUDAD VIEJA, GUATEMALA

Students across the United States are climbing onto the iconic yellow school buses rolling through subdivisions and down city streets this week as the school year kicks off.

But hundreds of miles away in Central America, school buses “retired” from their scholastic routes in the US go on to jam-packed second lives.

“We reuse them until they’re dead,” says Fredys Aguilar, a Salvadoran businessman who has been importing American school buses for more than 20 years.

From El Salvador to Guatemala, from Nicaragua to Honduras, former US school buses take on a new life shuttling people – often packed tight – across cities big and small. In some places, like Guatemala, there’s an impressive art that goes into refurbishing the vehicles.

Southeast Asia

Aug 29, '13

Visions of a democratic Vietnam
By Khanh Vu Duc 

As calls for political reform and democracy mount in Vietnam, questions are being asked over what kind of political system could replace the old. However, the main objective of Vietnam’s harried activists remains ensuring that any transition from authoritarianism to more representative governance is not exploited by those Communist Party officials who seek power for themselves. 

A recent move to amend the constitution by the Communist Party sparked a firestorm of debate on Vietnam’s blogosphere, leading to many outspoken calls for a full-blown democratic revolution. While there is no indication that communist leaders intend to yield



power, there is a growing recognition that the prevailing political system, forged in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, must change. 

 

Syria: The drums of war

We examine whether the West has a mandate for military intervention in Syria.

Weighing up military options against Syria, the United States has given its strongest response yet to a suspected gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians last week. The White House insists there is little doubt President Bashar al-Assad is responsible, with the US government describing the suspected chemical weapons attack as a "moral obscenity" that is "inexcusable" and "undeniable".

"What is the objective of the intervention of the West? Is it to get rid to Bashar al-Assad? Or is it to help Syrians to achieve democracy and freedom? Or is just because Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons? There should be [an] investigation and tangible evidence that the regime has used chemical weapons; [they should] not base their claims on YouTube videos that have not been verified.” Halla Diyab, a spokesperson for the Organisation for Freedom and Democracy in Syria

Late Night Music

Six In The Morning Wednesday August 28

UN inspectors resume Syria attack probe

Inspections begin at site of alleged chemical attack, as UK and US say there's no doubt Assad's forces behind strike. Last Modified: 28 Aug 2013 09:10

UN inspectors have left their Damascus hotel to carry out a second day of inspections at the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the suburb of Ghouta, witnesses say.

A convoy of six vehicles was seen leaving the hotel on Wednesday morning, though it was unclear what the exact destination of the inspectors would be.

The inspectors' first such visit on Monday was briefly suspended after the UN's convoy came under sniper fire from unidentified gunmen, though they did visit two field hospitals to collect evidence.

Aid agencies say that at least 355 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured in the alleged chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21.

Syrian Electronic Army in 'malicious electronic attack' against New York Times, Twitter and Huffington Post UK

Regime-backing hackers group thought to be targeting any Western media outlets who it regards as sympathetic to rebels

ADAM WITHNALL

 WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST 2013

The New York Times, Twitter, and the Huffington Post UK were all targeted in hacking attacks last night by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a group which supports the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Times was the worst affected, with its website brought down for several hours and bosses forced to warn the paper’s employees to be careful with what they included in emails following “a malicious external attack”.

The incident was the latest in a series targeting Western media sites that are believed to be sympathetic to the Syrian rebels, but was described as being far more serious and sophisticated than previous hacks.

HEALTH

False alarm in Fonterra botulism contamination scare

Dairy giant Fonterra has said its milk products at the center of a global contamination scare did not contain a bacteria that could cause botulism. The company said the products posed no food safety threat to the public.

New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said Wednesday that tests show a contaminant found in Fonterra whey protein concentrate could not cause botulism and that there was no risk to the public when it was pulled from shelves earlier this month.

"We sought additional testing at both local and international laboratories, seeking the most robust results we could get. Scientists used a range of methods - all came back negative for clostridium botulinum," said acting MPI director General Scott Gallacher. "[The] MPI has today informed overseas regulators of these results and we will be providing them with a full diagnostic report shortly."

North Korea pressured to allow a visit from UN investigators

August 28, 2013 - 10:00AM

Choe Sang-Hun

Seoul, South Korea: The first UN panel of experts assigned to investigate North Korean accusations of human rights abuses urged the government in Pyongyang on Tuesday to allow them to visit, even as the North called their work slanderous.

The panel, a three-member Commission of Inquiry, was finishing five days of public hearings in the South Korean capital, during which defectors from North Korea, many of them survivors of its labour or political prisoner camps, have provided harrowing accounts of hunger, torture, forced abortions and public executions.

Human traffickers lured women with promises of jobs who were later sold into prostitution in China. 

Child gold miners 'risking lives' in Tanzania

Sapa-AFP | 28 August, 2013 09:44

Thousands of child labourers as young as eight are mining gold in grim conditions in Tanzania, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report criticising conditions in the key industry.

While boys “dig and drill in deep, unstable pits” in informal mines, working underground for shifts as long as 24 hours, girls around the small-scale mines face sexual harassment and pressure to become prostitutes, the US-based rights group warned.

Tanzania is Africa’s fourth largest gold producer, and the precious metal is the top foreign exchange earner for the country, with exports topping $1.8 billion in the first six months of 2013, according to the central bank.

Small-scale mines extracted 1.6 tonnes of gold in 2012 worth some $85 million, with the bulk exported to the United Arab Emirates, as well as to Britain, China, South Africa and Switzerland.

Brazil's foreign minister helps Bolivian politician flee, then resigns

After 450 days holed up in the Brazilian embassy in La Paz, the Bolivian opposition politician Roger Pinto left the country with the help of unauthorized Brazilian diplomatic action.

By James Bosworth, Guest blogger 

Just over one year ago I wrote about the case of Roger Pinto, the Bolivian opposition politician accused of corruption by the government. Pinto had taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in La Paz, received asylum from the Brazilian government, but was denied safe passage by President Evo Morales. The case had odd parallels to the Julian Assange case, the founder of Wikileaks who remains in the Ecuador embassy in London, having received asylum from President Correa while wanted for questioning in a sexual assault investigation in Sweden.

A special correspondent for Le Monde, Jean-Philippe Rémy, spent two months with FSA fighters in the Damascus suburbs.

Guerre chimique à Damas 投稿者 lemondefr
A special correspondent for Le Monde, Jean-Philippe Rémy, spent two months with FSA fighters in the Damascus suburbs. Remy reports the fighters were repeatedly attacked with chemical weapons while he was with them. Remy's detailed report, a recommended read, says in part:

The men cough violently. Their eyes burn, their pupils shrink, their vision blurs. Soon they experience difficulty breathing, sometimes in the extreme; they begin to vomit or lose consciousness. The fighters worst affected need to be evacuated before they suffocate. [...] In two months spent reporting on the outskirts of the Syrian captial, we encountered similar cases across a much larger region. Their gravity, their increasing frequency and the tactic of using such arms shows that what is being released is not just tear gas, which is used on all fronts, but products of a different class that are far more toxic.

Needing A New Enemy: Western Nations Hoping to Bomb Syria

 Recently declassified C.I.A documents show the  U.S. government discovered that Iraq was using chemical weapons in its war with Iran, a war which the Americans encouraged Saddam Hussein to start in the hopes of exploiting the ongoing political turmoil  roiling Iran following the Islamic Revolution.  

Not only did the American government know of these weapons deployed against Iranian troops it would seem that they also helped to cover it up.

In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq's favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration's long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn't disclose.

On March 16 1988 Iraqi military forces launched against the Kurdish village of  Halabja killing somewhere between 3,200 and 5,000 people most innocent civilians.

The five-hour attack began early in the evening of March 16, 1988, following a series of indiscriminate conventional (rocket and napalm) attacks, when Iraqi MiG and Mirage aircraft began dropping chemical bombs on Halabja's residential areas, far from the besieged Iraqi army base on the outskirts of the town. According to regional Kurdish rebel commanders, Iraqi aircraft conducted up to 14 bombings in sorties of seven to eight planes each; helicopters coordinating the operation were also seen. Eyewitnesses told of clouds of smoke billowing upward "white, black and then yellow"', rising as a column about 150 feet (46 m) in the air
Survivors said the gas at first smelled of sweet apples;^[9] they said people died in a number of ways, suggesting a combination of toxic chemicals (some of the victims "just dropped dead" while others "died of laughing"; while still others took a few minutes to die, first "burning and blistering" or coughing up green vomit).^[10] It is believed that Iraqi forces used multiplechemical agents during the attack, including mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX;^[3] some sources have also pointed to the blood agent hydrogen cyanide (most of the wounded taken to hospitals in the Iranian capital Tehran were suffering from mustard gas exposure)

With clear evidence that the Iraqi armed forces had carried out the attack neither the Iraqi military or Saddam Hussein suffered any consequences for having used chemical weapons against a civilian population which is a clear violation of international law.


Today the drums of war are beating as Western governments prepare to  launch a military strike against Syria for a chemical weapons attack that took place more than a week ago.  

Why the sudden outrage over these attacks?  Is there some difference between the attacks carried out by Iraq in the 1980's and today?   Let's face it the second Gulf War was fought in an attempt to gain control of Iraq's oil reserves by major western oil companies while Syria has no natural resources whirt stealing.  Perhaps the Pentagon wants to show off its new toys in a revival of Shock and Awe.

American forces are "ready" to launch strikes on Syria if President Barack Obama chooses to order an attack, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel says.
"We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take," Mr Hagel told the BBC.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said there is "undeniable" proof that Syria used chemical weapons.
The UK Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss possible responses.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who has cut short his holiday and returned to London, said MPs would vote on a "clear motion" on the crisis.
Syrian opposition sources have said they have been told to expect a Western intervention in the conflict imminently.

Assaf AboudBBC Arabic, Damascus

A good number of Syrians, in particular those supporting the regime, believe the visit of the UN chemical weapons investigation team is nothing but a move to justify a military attack on Syria. The opposition, however, thinks that these visits will lead to some evidence being unearthed, proving that chemical weapons have been used against civilians by the Syrian regime.

Above all, fear and discomfort are palpable among those living in the capital. People are haunted by the possibility of a Western military strike on Syria, discussion of which is dominating the headlines of satellite channels.

"I don't want Syria to become another Iraq... Enough bloodshed," cried one Syrian woman.

"We, and thousands like us across Syria, will face any country that tries to attack us," threatened a young man, pointing at his weapon, which he uses to protect his neighbourhood. "These are Syria's problems and it is up to us, Syrians, to solve them."