Tag: Damascus

An Iranian nuclear weapons program in what used to be ‘Syria’

Enlarging the footprint of the prohibited and frozen Iranian nuclear program.

Hezbollah: the victors of the Battle of Qusayr - site of a suspected nuclear facility - celebrate in 2013. (Image via Mondoweiss)
Hezbollah: the victors of the Battle of Qusayr – site of a suspected nuclear facility – celebrate in 2013. (Image via Mondoweiss)

New post up at Liberty Unyielding.  Enjoy!

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Zero to nowhere: Obama’s Syria-Iraq ‘policy’ leaves reality behind

My kingdom for a strategy.

Syria is burning. (Image: AFP via BBC)
Syria is burning. (Image: AFP via BBC)

New post up at Liberty Unyielding.  Enjoy!

Yes, I think Assad did it

It was the regime.

I’ve been hearing about an analysis from Yossef Bodansky, reportedly alluded to by Rush Limbaugh today, in which Bodansky suggests that U.S.-backed rebels were actually behind the chemical attack in east Damascus on 21 August. (Warning: you may not be able to bring the link up on the first try.  The avalanche of clicks from Rush’s listeners seems to have the site hammered at the moment.)

I don’t believe the rebels did this (which doesn’t mean I mistake any of them for the Green Mountain Boys or the Bluecoats at Bunker Hill.  It just means I don’t think they conducted this attack).  The character of the attack continues to finger the Assad regime, a theme developed by France’s recently released national intelligence estimate.  If you don’t have the means to read it in French or run translation software on it, Foreign Policy has a pretty good write-up.

Here are the key points from the French assessment Continue reading “Yes, I think Assad did it”

Syria: Israel, at least, is militarily ready

Did they or didn’t they?

Several websites have picked up on a UPI report that the Israeli Air Force attacked a chemical weapons site in the Damascus area on Saturday.  The report is unconfirmed by any official source, but it is credible.  There are caveats, however.

The site in question, if it was struck, was probably the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), long known to be a key facility in Assad’s chemical and biological weapons program.  (See here as well.)

“Mossomo” at Flopping Aces put together an excellent timeline back in February on the events leading up to a previous unconfirmed report that the IAF had struck the SSRC.  This strike was reportedly conducted Continue reading “Syria: Israel, at least, is militarily ready”