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Subscribe to RSSPentagon sources tell NBC News that the Syrian military is awaiting final orders to launch chemical weapons against its own people after precursor chemicals for deadly sarin gas were loaded into aerial bombs. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Updated at 8:20 a.m. ET: The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.
The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said.
As recently as Tuesday, officials had said there was as yet no evidence that the process of mixing the "precursor" chemicals had begun. But Wednesday, they said their worst fears had been confirmed: The nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs.
Sarin is an extraordinarily lethal agent. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces killed 5,000 Kurds with a single sarin attack on Halabja in 1988.
U.S. officials stressed that as of now, the sarin bombs hadn't been loaded onto planes and that Assad hadn't issued a final order to use them. But if he does, one of the officials said, "there's little the outside world can do to stop it."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated U.S. warnings to Assad not to use chemical weapons, saying he would be crossing "a red line" if he did so.
So far, intelligence sources say, bombs loaded with the components of sarin haven't yet been loaded onto planes. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Speaking Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Clinton said the Syrian government was on the brink of collapse, raising the prospect that "an increasingly desperate Assad regime" might turn to chemical weapons or that the banned weapons could fall into other hands.
"Ultimately, what we should be thinking about is a political transition in Syria and one that should start as soon as possible," Clinton said. "We believe their fall is inevitable. It is just a question of how many people have to die before that occurs."
Aides told NBC News that Clinton was expected next week to officially recognize the main opposition movement, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, with which she is scheduled to meet in Morocco. Britain, France, Turkey and some key Arab leaders have already recognized the opposition.
Fighting intensified Wednesday in the 21-month civil war, which has left 40,000 people dead. The U.N. withdrew its personnel from Damascus, saying conditions were too dangerous.
Kevin Lamarque / AFP - Getty Images
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government was "inevitable."
The government said this week that it wouldn't use chemical weapons on its own people after President Barack Obama warned that doing so would be "totally unacceptable."
But U.S. officials said this week that the government had ordered its Chemical Weapons Corps to "be prepared," which Washington interpreted as a directive to begin bringing together the components needed to weaponize Syria's chemical stockpiles.
Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com
U.S. officials had long believed that the Syrian government was stockpiling the banned chemical weapons before it acknowledged possessing them this summer.
NBC News reported in July that U.S. intelligence agencies believed that in addition to sarin, Syria had access to tabun, a chemical nerve agent, as well as traditional chemical weapons like mustard gas and hydrogen cyanide.
Officials told NBC News at the time that the Syrian government was moving the outlawed weapons around the country, leaving foreign intelligence agencies unsure where they might end up.
Syria is one of only seven nations that hasn't ratified the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention, the arms control agreement that outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of such weapons.
Bombshells filled with chemicals can be carried by Syrian Air Force fighter-bombers, in particular Sukhoi-22/20, MiG-23 and Sukhoi-24 aircraft. In addition, some reports indicate that unguided short-range Frog-7 artillery rockets may be capable of carrying chemical payloads.
In terms of longer-range delivery systems, Syria has a few dozen SS-21 ballistic missiles with a maximum range of 72 miles; 200 Scud-Bs, with a maximum range of 180 miles; and 60 to 120 Scud-Cs, with a maximum range of 300 miles, all of which are mobile and are capable of carrying chemical weapons, according U.S. intelligence officials.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed President Obama's recent vow to take action if Syrian President Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons during the ongoing clashes within his country. U.S. officials are also concerned about the rising influence of extremist groups within Syria. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
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anything going on yet in Syria?
Radial Velocity wrote:
Does it really matter how you kill people ?
Yes...to the politically correct it does... the politically correct set such boundaries to keep war as a useful tool for them..
The folks I'm referring to here are the ones in gov offices who send our young men to places like Afghanistan...and then tell them they can't do what's necessary to win...
And the so called religious leaders who preach hate out one side of their face and claim they represent God out the other.... and send children to commit suicide...
If war were too efficient there'd soon be no young people to send to their deaths....
And they might have to stand for their stupidity and hatred themselves....
How different the world would be if such folks had to fight their own battles.
The current administration, coupled with the U.N. have absolutely neutered the great nation of ours...WTF are we waiting for, thousands, tens of thousands to be murdered by their own leaders...??? There should be pre-emptive strikes before Ass-hat(Assad) gives the order...
This may be a ploy to get USA to act , and have IRAn start some crap here on US soil. It seems that they are sneaky, and one covers anothers back to distract the real dangers.
I think we ought to get the FBI to investigate..just like they did in Benghazi,..I just hope they do a little quicker job this time..Maybe we can save a few lives if they do
If George Bush was making this claim NBC would be calling him a liar. Where does NBC and its ilk think the Assad regime acquired these WMD's...possibly from Saddam Hussein for safe keeping?
I think you're jumping the gun. They'd vote right along with him like they did in 2002, and like they did in 1998 for Bill Clinton (who bombed Iraq that year) and definitely for Messiah Obama as of now. The only difference being is that they'd claim it was just Bush who was lying about those WMDs all along after the fact.
You said it, and Saddam and Assad were close, both were Ba'ath Party heads in their respective countries. Saddam could well have sent the gas to Syria like he did sending his fighter planes to Iran to save them in the Gulf War. It may well come out that Syria got at least some of this stuff from Saddam.
and just how does the news media know this? did they watch the syrians do it? or are they just trying to start yet another war to get gas prices back up and to raise their ratings.
At least America will get to see the difference between how a republican handles the job of Commander In Chief as opposed to a democrat. I bet Obama wins this war in a matter of weeks with minimal loss of American life. As opposed to the complete cluster f*ck that republicans made out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah, the Iraq that all those democrats voted for, like Kerry, Hillary, Biden, Reid, et al...
And the same Iraq that Clinton bombed in 1998 in Desert Fox. Because, of course, Iraq had WMDs in 1998, but not in 2001 or 2002...of course!
Hillary and the rest of the democrats who voted to let Bush have a war didn't expect Bush and the republicans to be such walking cluster f*cks.
Wow, so no democrats fought in Iraq. Thanks for clearing that up, genius.
OICY
Then why did they vote to fund the Iraq War for over 8 years??
I wonder if Hillary Clinton and President Obama have condemned anyone for saying Syria has WMD or what the Press is saying? Oh wait there is a Democrat in office.
If anyone's seen "Team America" it is tons worse when Team America does not show up than when it does. WMD and nerve gas are really nasty stuff. There is a reason the possession and use are frowned upon in the world. Worse than the World War One stuff, this is the stuff that makes lab monkeys convulse so hard htey break their own backs. I really hope and pray it won't be used but Assad sounds like the kind of individual who would, and if some of it goes over the Turkish, Iraqi, Lebanese or Israeli borders, this is going to get ugly in ways people aren't even imagining.
George W. Bush was right to worry about this stuff in the wrong hands. Whatever you think about that he was right about that. This is bad, bad stuff.
WMD's alive and well
alQuyida alive and well and growing
It's amazing how much safer the world has become during the Obama presidency - amazing
Why do you think he got the Nobel Peace Prize?
That helps to balance the danger that was created for no reason by the Bush administration.
p1 - your brain must be in dissolve mode - soon to disappear completely
your mindless posts ring hollow and somehow so meaningless
You're either too young or too old to remember facts
SO WHO'S THE "REAL" EXTREMIST? MUSSOLINI? GOLDWATER? OHBUMMER?
*****************************
MUSSOLINI ENDORSES THE ECONOMIC AND ENERGY POLICIES OF BARAK HUSHPUPPY OHBUMMER AND THE OHBUMMER WRECKING CREW!
“We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become.”
--- Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
--- Karl Hess [libertarian speechwriter for AZ Republican Senator Senator Barry Goldwater]
This country has its own Taliban to be concerned with conservative republicans.
. We have more weapons.. ;-)...Remember that prog.1.... The day is coming... Armed to the teeth, motivated..We are the EARNERS so clearly we can create and outhink... . I suppose the left has good reason to crush the 2nd Amendment.. LOL!... I would be trying to sell gun control every time a crazy retard, crackhead, loser kills someone with a gun if I were a lefty... Its your only hope...Problem: Even if you losers succeed the guns will be there, the skill to build them will be there.... Does my nutty thinking worry you? It should. Libs are weak and run from real adversity.. In the end we will own you..
prog.1 --- You sound like you're promoting a shooting war against the taxpayers of America. Keep it up, sport. Life is full of nasty little surprises.
No, I'd say the economic terrorists known as the democrats who want to spend us into bankruptcy are far more dangerous than the republicans who actually want to be responsible and cut spending.
But like all little kids, democratic voters just love all the shiny objects and free stuff.
Every time I hear one of these sniveling Leftards call us The American Taliban, my first thought is "TAX PAYERS" We have the Left that are Takers & the Right that are the Givers. You would think they would have a little more respect for the hands that feed them. Losers.
Redundant.
I suppose had Syria been an easy win like Libya was the King of the USA would have sent in our pilots and missiles from 60,000 feet up and Assad would be dead and the chance of sarin being used would be moot... Well, as typical of bullies the King of America wasn't sure we wouldn't get a bloody nose which would hurt his reelection chances...Now, 30,000 are dead and we are on the verge of a disaster that was avoidable..It would have not been popular but it would have been PRESIDENTIAL AND CORRECT to wipe that scumbag off the map 6 months ago.. Well, The King was reelected and now he can watch from his throne at what being a politician does to real human life..
so whats the big deal? let them kill each other. the fewer muslims there are in the world the better it will be. they are all a bunch of psycopathic killers.
True... never mind my last thought...Good job King Obama...Let them choke..
Can we send OhBummer to them as an advisor, shortly before the rapture?
What Obama needs to do is kill the American Taliban over here so we don't have to kill them over there. Of Course I'm talking about our own terrorists in the Tea Party.
O I C Y --- I advocate your overthrow and your physical destruction.
Ummmm... you need courage and weapons and brain waves to take out REAL Americans.. You are WAY overmatched... We have ALL the guns, all the IQ, all the $ and everything to lose.. Losers who create nothing, beg for everything they have, and rarely shower are not scary...LOL! WE ARE! BOO!
O I C Y
Do you argue with yourself often? Better yet, do you ever win?
Oh..An American advocating killing other Americans..what was that you said about that earlier?
I used to NOT be for abortion, BUT if it would have kept you from joining the human race, I would have really of liked to have performed it myself....Then slap your mother for even thinking about having you..
I think Israel will see the actual use of Sarin on a population as a massive threat to its existence and that this would lead to a very dangerous escalation. Remember that only the Golan separates Syria from Israel and I can't see Netanyahu sitting still for this. I am sure that Bashar Assad knows that Israel could turn Damascus into a parking lot if any Israelis die of poison gas after the Jewish experience of the 20th century. However desperate he is, I don't think he would risk that. In the Gulf War, even Saddam Hussein was intelligent enough to refrain from putting poison gas in his Scuds even though he gassed the Kurds. Sarin is an irreversible cholinesterase substance that leads to a wicked death. In the Aum Shinrikyu murders in the Tokyo subways, even a low grade of Sarin had terrible effects. Assad isn't using home cooked sarin and the whole world needs to respond to the dangers.
Why?
Because!
Benny and Barack will probably collude on the tactics, letting Mosad lead in IDs of mixing and delivery sites and airbases.
If the sh!thead al'Assad breaks our red line, then we can drop before he drops. Russia is instructed to remain neutral.
With any luck most of us will not be "in the stratosphere" three weeks hence, and the stunned House GOP will OK the tax deal out of sheer terror and shallow, begrudging respect.
That's my "Tom Clancy novel" version anyway.
All of this will probably turn out to be a non issue like Benghazi.
Benghazi is a non-issue because the Democrat-captured media are doing their best to help OhBummer get away with his lies.
Benghazi is a non-issue because you Reich wingers are all wearing little tin hats and couldn't recognize the truth if it shot up your pants leg and bit you on the nuts!
Legalize drugs so we can target shoot the zombies crippled by their freedom to waste away....like prog.1.. Legalize abortion and drugs..That should do away with liberals without firing a shot..
prog.1
I wonder if Chris Stevens & Ty Woods families think Benghazi was a non issue?
It is a terrible tradegy to the faimilies and will remain so as it should but it is not a national tradegy and the political issue the republicans have tried to make of this rather than allow the families to grieve is disgusting.
Its NOT a national tragedy to have American soil attacked by terrorists and 4 brave Americans killed ??..what would be a national tragedy in your eyes.. I
I think this guy would do it..He has nothing to lose.Then the blame game will start.USA created this mess with there spring fling. Oh and people are worried about gun control in the USA..Its laughable...
We should have helped liberate Syria a year ago but unfortunately we had elections to worry about. Enough is enough. It is time to take out Assad. Enough genocide has taken place. And under no circumstances shall we allow these weapons to be used. If Assad uses them or is even about to use them, we then go and assassinate him and all of the Syrian regime's leaders. Enough is enough
It's sad our military, doesn't have a commander in cheif!!!
The President focused effort to whack Osama, and I'll bet he can even spell chief!
Obama Promises America: “I Will Not Rest Until Everyone Can Find a Job" over and over again
The president - will be taking a 20 day vacation in Hawaii this month, at a cost of over $4 million dollars to the taxpayers
That jobs report coming out this Friday - must really be a sweet one
What could any country do once they load the bombs on a plane? If the US sent in a cruise missle after the bombs are loaded, Sarin gas is still going to be released?
What??? Syria has WMDs??? As usual the left will stand by and watch their neighbors die.....BTW yes CHEM WPNS are WMDs...you know the one they found in Iraq?
We should have helped liberate Syria a year ago but unfortunately we had elections to worry about. Enough is enough. It is time to take out Assad. Enough genocide has taken place. And under no circumstances shall we allow these weapons to be used. If Assad uses them or is even about to use them, we then go and assassinate him and all of the Syrian regime's leaders. Enough is enough
@sasss31, and WHO IN THE H IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT? You along with other regressives are bitching about the deficit, and now you want us into another war? Where are the troops going to come from?
You are the problem, one of the YELLOW ELEPHANTS, armchair general of the Chairborne Brigade. Guess what, you and your fellow elephants go over there in place of our troops. See if your balls are as big as your mouth is. Ten to one it isn't.
We already have the $$$ in place within our military budget. And we can do it from the air. We don't need ground troops. You are the moral coward that I was referring to.
way to go SallyAnn!!! way to tell people off for blustering on the computer although I wonder how you managed to do that without, in fact, being a computer commando yourself?
Can't we just raise the taxes on those filthy , evil rich people a little more to pay for it? Sounds like some of the Leftards are afraid they won't get some of their good free stuff from Barak-O-Clause. Hell just put it on the tab. Why worry about the debt or the deficit. We got money. Just print some more.
Do any of you really think you know whats going on outside the safty of your own home in the USA, you would pi)) your pants like a little school kids if you were prevy to any of this information.
Here we go with another war to stop WMDs. The very WMDs that Democrat supporters cried out about and wanted to lynch Cheney and Bush II for war crimes, but now it will be okay to invade Syria to stop those WMDs. Obama's Secretary of Intelligence - Mr. James Clapper is the same Clapper that advised Bush II on WMDs. Oh, it is a sad state of affairs when partisan hacks don't see clearly and or think for themselves.
Our intelligence community told us that the Benghazi attack was due to a video inciting a riot when there was NO riot..So NOW we're supposed to believe them when they say that Syria has WMD and is planning to use them??? LMAO.....Well I guess one out of two aint bad..
but they really exist this time guys! honestly! super serious!
"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, "Saddam's Secrets."
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's WMD threat.
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.
There were 56 flights disguised as a relief effort after a 2002 Syrian dam collapse.
There were also truck convoys into Syria. Sada's comments came more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."
Both Israeli and U.S. intelligence observed large truck convoys leaving Iraq and entering Syria in the weeks and months before Operation Iraqi Freedom, John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, told a private conference of former weapons inspectors and intelligence experts held in Arlington, Va., in 2006.
According to Shaw, ex-Russian intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov, a KGB general with long-standing ties to Saddam, went to Iraq in December 2002 and stayed until just before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Anticipating the invasion, his job was to supervise the removal of such weapons and erase as much evidence of Russian involvement as possible."
Don't bother!! To many of the readers here are programmed to believe only MSNBC and the liberal left. Anything facts that dispute obama are purely racially motivated in their eyes. They are more afraid of being called a racist than learning the truth.
BTW.. why do you think Israel suddenly bombed Syria's nuclear facility that suddenly appeared out of no where.
BTW.. Both Russian News Agencies ( TASS and Pravda) reported this information but our media would not cover it.
Thank you my friend for your level headed and intelligent comments.
Why would Saddam Hussaan move the weapons out of his country he would not be able to use them if he did not possess them?