by Stephen Lendman

US-supported ISIS and other terrorists were caught red-handed using sarin and other chemical weapons against civilians in Syria numerous times - Assad wrongfully blamed for their crimes.

No evidence suggests his forces used them at any time throughout the conflict. Plenty shows CIA and US special forces train takfiri terrorists in chemical weapons use, perhaps supplying them with toxic agents to use.

Saudi Arabia was caught red-handed providing them with toxic agents in containers marked “made in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).”

In early November, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) experts confirmed terrorists’ use of mustard gas and chlorine in Syria with “utmost confidence” - calling perpetrators “non-state actor(s).”

An OPCW statement said its Fact Finding Mission (FFM) “confirm(ed) that at least two people were exposed to sulfur mustard (commonly known as mustard gas), and that it is very likely that the effects of this chemical weapon resulted in the death of an infant.”

Mustard gas is a cytotoxic blistering agent, causing debilitating, potential lethal, internal and external chemical burns, affecting exposed skin and lungs when inhaled, able to penetrate wool and cotton fabrics.

A UK nurse during WW I commented on treating its burns, saying:

Patients “cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain, even with the worst wounds, but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.”

According to OPCW, “(m)ustard agent(s) (are) very simple to manufacture and can therefore be a ‘first choice’ when a country decides to build up a capacity for chemical warfare.”

In gas or liquid form, it “attacks the skin, eyes, lungs and gastro-intestinal tract. Internal organs may also be injured, mainly blood-generating organs, as a result of mustard agent being taken up through the skin or lungs and transported into the body.”

“The delayed effect is a characteristic of mustard agent. Mustard agent gives no immediate symptoms upon contact and consequently a delay of between two and twenty-four hours may occur before pain is felt and the victim becomes aware of what has happened. By then cell damage has already been caused.”

The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibited use of “asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices,” as well as “bacteriological methods of warfare.”

The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and 1993 Chemical Weapons Conventions prohibit their production, storage or transfer.

America and Israel notoriously use chemical, biological and radiological weapons in warfare. Major media report nothing.

Did Washington supply ISIS with toxic chemical agents, including mustard gas for use OPCW just reported? On November 6, Pravda said “Russian intelligence (in early October) obtained records of secret negotiations of ISIS militants about the use of chemical weapons.”

“It was said that the terrorists were going to use mustard gas ammo against government forces of President Bashar Assad.”

In late August, The New York Times reported “ISIS using poison gas in Syria…according to local rebels (other terrorists) and an international aid group.”

The Syrian American Medical Society reported city of Marea civilian areas attacked with over 50 shells containing toxic agents. Symptoms showed chemical exposure. Some victims had blisters associated with mustard gas use.

So-called rebels said shells were fired from an ISIS controlled area. Kurdish forces in northern Syria and Iraq were attacked with toxic chemical agents. Many injuries were reported. ISIS was blamed in both countries.

On November 23, an OPCW Executive Council special session will be held to discuss its findings of chemical weapons use in Syria. The organization last year said Assad completed handing over his government’s entire CW stockpile in June 2014.

No evidence suggests it has any remaining agents. Syrian UN envoy Bashar Jaafari categorically said many times that “(t)he Syrian government has not used and will never use chemical weapons.”

Toxic chemical agents in the hands of ISIS and/or other terrorist groups pose dangers throughout the region and beyond.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html