Forces loyal to the regime of Syrian president Bashr Al-Assad have begun preparing chemical weapons for possible use against rebel-held positions throughout the country, according to reports from NBC and FOX news late Wednesday.
The reports cite an unnamed US Intelligence official who said that the precursor chemicals for the nerve agent sarin had been prepared and were ready to be deployed should Al-Assad give the order. Once mixed, the sarin would have to be used within 60 days before becoming inert.
Sarin attacks the respitory system and causes convulsions, nausea and resiptory failure- the chemical agent was used on the Tokyo subway system in a terrorist attack carried out by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo in 1995. Thirteen people were killed in that attack.
Syria has never overtly acknowledged having a chemical warfare program of their own, but military and intelligence officials believe the Assad regime has the Middle East's most prolific stockpile of chemical munitions. Some maintain that Syria developed their own chemical weapons independently while others believe Saddam Hussein was able to safely transfer large portions of his WMD inventory to Syria prior to the outbreak of the 2003 Iraq war [the two are not mutually exclusive- the Assad regime could've used a fairly small quantity of Iraqi WMD's as the foundation of their own chemical warfare program- NANESB!].
Western Diplomats warned that the Syrian military using chemical weapons would provoke a more direct involvement from the USA and NATO. The warnings on Syria's chemical weapons comes as fighting rages in the suburbs of Damascus- Syrian rebels had reportedly advanced close to Damascus' International Airport only to be hammered by airstrikes, heavy artillery and rockets. The fighting, which has raged since March of 2011, has at times spilled over into neighboring nations like Turkey and Lebanon.
Students at Columbia, along with exiled Syrians, had urged that Columbia rescind Jaafari's admission due to her previous work as a spokeswoman for the Al-Assad regime. Jaafari declined to enroll at Columbia, claiming she didn't want to be harrassed due to her work with Al-Assad.
The raven-tressed Muslima is the daughter of Al-Assad's UN Envoy and also attempted to use her high profile position in the regime and contacts with western reporters to land a job at a western news agency. Earlier this year, ABC News' Barbara Walters admitted to contacting colleagues at CNN to reccomend they hire Jaafari. Walters also contacted a former ABC chief who was a lecturer at Columbia to give Jaafari 'special' consideration for enrollment into the journalism school.
The requests by Jaafari came after Al Assad was interviewed by Walters in December 2011. However, a series of e-mail correspondence between Jaafari and Al-Assad that was released by hackers at Anonymous showed that she had coached Al-Assad on how best to manipulate American public opinion while minimizing the ongoing fighting that had killed an estimated 4000 Syrians by that point [including comparing the regime's crackdown to American law enforcement agencies attempting to break up the Occupy Wall Street encampments- NANESB!].
Walters would not be the only US Media figure duped by somebody from the Assad regime. Obama fundraiser and Vogue editor Anna Wintour published a piece favorably covering Syrian First Lady Asma Al-Assad and Syria under the Assad regime and ruling Ba'ath Party in February 2011.
Bloomberg news has reported that Wintour is interested in becoming the American ambassador to England during the second Obama term.
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