Wilkerson was tapped to serve as a military and foreign policy adviser for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2015

In 2013 the former chief of staff for then-Secretary of State General Colin L. Powell suggested that Israel was responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria (No, I do not miss Bush) and now we understand: (1) why Colin Powell was pushing the Israelis out of Gaza (2) why Powell in now a Democrat (3) what was really running the GOP establishment and now apparently the radical left.

(Former Sanders adviser: 'Israel will be eliminated' By David Rosenberg)  Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who earlier in the campaign had advised Bernie Sanders, claims Israel will be 'eliminated'. Retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson is no stranger to controversy, with a legacy of questionable statements on Israel and the US government. In 2013 the former chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested that Israel was responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. In 2007 Wilkerson appeared in a Dutch documentary, claiming that American foreign policy was dominated by “the Jewish lobby”. Despite his history of inflammatory rhetoric and frequent conspiracy theories, Wilkerson was tapped to serve as a military and foreign policy adviser for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2015. In the wake of yet another controversial interview, however, it appears that the Sanders campaign dropped Wilkerson, a point Wilkerson noted while speaking earlier this month to The Real News Network. “The last time I spoke this way on your show, I compromised my ability to work for the Bernie Sanders Campaign. So now I’ve probably foreclosed my ability to work for anyone.” True to form, the former Sanders adviser made yet another series of over-the-top claims during the interview, asserting among other things that Israel had “captured” the US government, a common claim employed by fringe elements and white supremacists. “[T]he ultra-right wing of Israel has captured AIPAC, and AIPAC has captured the United States Congress. And to a certain extent the oval office as well.” While Wilkerson dedicated much of his criticism to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, he also claimed that Zionism per se sought to dominate much of the Middle East, with designs on Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. "So the future for Israel, as contemplated by Netanyahu, is a greater Israel. Having secured the West Bank. Jerusalem as its capital, perhaps gotten Gaza back, parts of Lebanon, parts of Syria that’s now looking like it’s falling apart. And parts if not all of Jordan. This is Netanyahu’s ultimate goal. This is the Zionist ultimate goal. And so, that’s very dangerous because it’s not tenable. What you’re going to have is you’re going to have a one state solution. That state is going to be increasingly apartheid as the West Bank and Jerusalem are now." Wilkerson frequently invoked comparisons to apartheid-ridden South Africa, and asserted that Israel was doomed to annihilation by either the international community or its Arab neighbors. "And as Israel proper is becoming more and more alike, that state’s going to be apartheid, it’s going to be untenable, it’s going to be eliminated by the international community if not the 350 to 400 million people around it who are opposed to it." Wilkerson went on to offer his views on internal Israeli politics, blaming Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud party for the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. "The current ultra-right wing leadership in Israel under Bibi Netanyahu - to give a historical context - actually probably contributed to the tension and the incredible shift in political momentum in Israel that lead to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. It’s not going too far to say that Netanyahu and his group created the circumstances that produced the assassin." Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by Yigal Amir, an opponent of the nascent Oslo Accords unaffiliated with the Likud party.

@CriticalAnalyst #GeneralColinPowell was a bust, which is y he eventually left. As for ##Wilkerson, hv a listen --> https://t.co/PGGdvDONAN

— TheNatSecRoundtable (@nsroundtable) April 21, 2016

Listen to this clip of Colin Powell's former Chief-of-Staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, being interviewed on 'progressive media' channel, Current TV, which was founded by former Vice-President Al Gore, who sold it for $500 million a few months ago to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. h/t 

Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Colin Powell's chief of staff during the Bush administration, talks with Cenk Uygur about how President Obama should handle early evidence that Syria may have used chemicals weapons. "I think the president's statement was very circumspect, very prudent," Wilkerson says. "We don't know what the chain of custody is. This could've been an Israeli false flag operation, it could've been an opposition in Syria, ... or it could've been an actual use by [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad. But we certainly don't know with the evidence we've been given. And what I'm hearing from the intelligence community is that that evidence is really flakey."

Germany sold Syria chemicals with military potential

(Germany exported 111 tons of chemicals to Syria between 2002 and 2006 that could be used in the production of sarin gas, according to a government document published on Wednesday. )

Obama’s Smoking Gun Proof That Assad Was Behind Chemical Weapons Attack Was Doctored?

Alan Grayson

(Nice Deb) What?

The Daily Caller reported this a week ago – and somehow I missed it???

Alan Grayson (D-Bag) had to bring it to my attention after asking about it at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday.

Via US News:

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who is aggressively lobbying against a military strike on Syria, says the Obama administration has manipulated intelligence to push its case for U.S. involvement in the country’s two-year civil war.

Grayson made the accusation in an interview published Wednesday by The Atlantic and offered more detail in a Thursday discussion with U.S. News. He says members of Congress are being given intelligence briefings without any evidence to support administration claims that Syrian leader Bashar Assad ordered the use of chemical weapons.

Grayson said he cannot discuss the classified briefings, but noted details in the administration’s public, non-classified report are being contested.

The White House released its four-page public report Aug. 30, arguing that Assad’s government killed 1,429 people on Aug. 21 with a planned chemical weapon attack. Evidence cited in that report included “intercepted communications involving a senior official intimately familiar with the offensive who confirmed that chemical weapons were used.”

Grayson, however, says “the claim has been made that that information was completely mischaracterized.”

He points to an article published by The Daily Caller that alleges the communications actually showed Syrian officers were surprised by the alleged chemical weapon attack. The communications, according to unnamed sources paraphrased in article, were intercepted by Israeli intelligence and “doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion.”

What’s Alan Grayson doing reading the Daily Caller?

Never mind that… What Kenneth Timmerman reported in the Caller last Thursday is quite stunning. He charges that the Obama administration has selectively used intelligence to justify the military strikes on Syria, basing his assessment on the testimony of former military officers with access to the original intelligence reports.

According to these officers, who served in top positions in the United States, Britain, France, Israel, and Jordan, a Syrian military communication intercepted by Israel’s famed Unit 8200 electronic intelligence outfit has been doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion reached by the original report.

The doctored report was leaked to a private Internet-based newsletter that boasts of close ties to the Israeli intelligence community, and led to news reports that the United States now had firm evidence showing that the Syrian government had ordered the chemical weapons attack on August 21 against a rebel-controlled suburb of Damascus.

The doctored report was picked up on Israel’s Channel 2 TV on Aug. 24, then by Focus magazine in Germany, the Times of Israel, and eventually by The Cable in Washington, DC.

According to the doctored report, the chemical attack was carried out by the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian Army, an elite unit commanded by Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother.

However, the original communication intercepted by Unit 8200 between a major in command of the rocket troops assigned to the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division, and the general staff, shows just the opposite.

The general staff officer asked the major if he was responsible for the chemical weapons attack. From the tone of the conversation, it was clear that “the Syrian general staff were out of their minds with panic that an unauthorized strike had been launched by the 155th Brigade in express defiance of their instructions,” the former officers say.

According to the transcript of the original Unit 8200 report, the major “hotly denied firing any of his missiles” and invited the general staff to come and verify that all his weapons were present.

The report contains a note at the end that the major was interrogated by Syrian intelligence for three days, then returned to command of his unit. “All of his weapons were accounted for,” the report stated.

This ties in with what Walid Shoebat has been reporting - Evidence: Syrian Rebels used Chemical Weapons (not Assad) and Yossef Bodansky’s blockbuster piece: Did the White House Help Plan the Syrian Chemical Attack?

Just wow…….

Egypt used chemical weapons in the 1960s; no one did anything then either:

Arabs, allied with Russia, kill hundreds of other Arabs with chemical weapons. A cover-up of chemical weapons use and angry denials, allowing Western nations stand by and do nothing for political reasons.

In 1967.

FromChemical and Biological Warfare: A Reference Handbook,by Albert J. Mauroni (2007):

The Yemeni Civil War (1962-1970) pitted the Yemeni royalists of the deposed imam against the Yemen republican forces in North Yemen, with Saudi Arabia and Jordan supporting the royalists and Egypt supporting the republican forces. This war was fought for five years until the two forces reached a stalemate in 1967. Although there had been occasional mentions of Egyptian military employment of mustard agent—filled bombs between 1963 and 1966, in 1967 these attacks became more frequent. International journalists began reporting that Ilyushin heavy bombers were dropping mustard-filled and phosgene-filled bombs on cities and rebel bases.

In January 1967, a gas attack near Sada killed more than 125 people. In May, two villages suffered 75 casualties from phosgene-filled bombs. Between 1967 and 1968, it is estimated that more than 1,000 Yemeni were killed as a result of exposure to CW agents. An International Red Cross mission sent doctors to assist the wounded, and the doctors testified to what they saw. Al-though they were careful to clarify that they did not see any evidence of actual attacks taking place, the signs and symptoms of the victims included burning eyes and trachea, pulmonary edema, internal thorax pain, extreme fatigue, and anorexia. Their findings were that in all probability these victims had inhaled toxic gases (Cookson and Nottingham 1969).The doctors were reluctant to identify the specific chemical warfare agents used, in part because they wanted to retain their neutrality and access to war victims. Although it appeared conclusive that mustard and phosgene had been used, a few cases suggested the use of nerve agent—filled bombs as well. The problem was how to prove the use of chemical warfare agents and who was responsible for using them. Because there were no arms control experts assigned to monitor or investigate these attacks, there was very little evidence other than eyewitness accounts from civilians and what could have been propaganda from the royalists. Although bodies and samples were sent to Saudi Arabia for more study, again, it was difficult to accuse any specific nation. Egypt claimed it had not used chemical weapons in Yemen, and, according to some sources, this may be true if Soviet air crews were manning the Egyptian-marked bombers that attacked those cities.

When Saudi Arabia and the royalists tried to get the United Nations to investigate, the UN's secretary general, U Thant, declined. On March 1, 1967, he stated that he was "powerless" to investigate the issue, and that the facts were in sharp dispute. Although he almost certainly knew exactly what was going on in Yemen, he had made a political decision to stay out of the affair. The U.S. government, occupied with answering criticisms about the use of Agent Orange and riot control agents in Vietnam,chose not to get involved. The U.S. military decided that the chemical warfare attacks were an aberration and not reflective of any requirement to worry about future chemical warfare attacks (and in 1972, chose to disestablish the Chemical Corps). The United Kingdom was attempting to reestablish relations with Egypt at that time, so it chose not to say anything publicly against Egypt or Soviet affairs in the Middle East (Seagrave 1981, 124-125). The incident became a political nonevent, fodder for the arms control community but not much else.
This incident teaches several interesting lessons. The first is the failure of the world's nations to react against the use of chemical weapons against civilians and military forces that were not similarly armed. This was not a clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, since Egypt was not then (and still is not) a signatory of the Geneva Protocol, unless it could be proven that Soviet crews were in those bombers. The reason that some military analysts believe there were Soviet crews in the bombers was twofold: First, they do not believe that the Soviet Union would have allowed Egypt to own or employ chemical weapons in 1967, Egypt having just started its interest in an offensive CW program. Second, the bombers dropped their munitions upwind of their targets for maximum effect, and in some cases, MiG fighter planes came back to drop high explosives or napalm on and near the targets to reduce or eliminate the evidence. These same tactics were seen years later when the Soviet air force attacked Afghani villages with chemical weapons. Because the attacks occurred in such remote locations and because post-mortem examinations took place days or weeks later, it was very difficult to directly attribute the cause of death to the bombing attacks.
This was the first instance of Arabs attacking Arabs with chemical weapons.

The second was the Iran-Iraq War, where some 45,000 are believed to have been killed by chemical weapons.

Russians claim Sunni Muslims behind chemical attack in Syria

http://rt.com/news/syria-chemical-attack-rebels-848/

Samples taken at the Syrian town where chemical weapons were allegedly used indicate that it was rebels – not the Syrian army – behind the attack, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has said.

Russia has handed over the analyzed samples to the UN, he added.

“I have just passed the analysis of samples taken at the site of the chemical attack to the UN Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon),” Churkin said on Tuesday.

Evidence studied by Russian scientists indicates that a projectile carrying the deadly nerve agent sarin was most likely fired at Khan al-Assal by the rebels, Churkin pointed out.

“It was determined that on March 19 the rebels fired an unguided missile Bashair-3 at the town of Khan al-Assal, which has been under government control. The results of the analysis clearly show that the shell used in Khan al-Assal was not factory made and that it contained sarin,” he said.

Churkin added that the contents of the shell “didn’t contain chemical stabilizers in the toxic substance,”and therefore “is not a standard chemical charge.” The RDX – an explosive nitroamine commonly used for industrial and military applications – found in the warhead was not consistent with what the armed forces use.

According to Moscow, the manufacture of the ‘Bashair-3’ warheads started in February, and is the work of Bashair al-Nasr, a brigade with close ties to the Free Syrian Army.

Churkin stressed that unlike other reports which have been handed to the UN, the samples were taken by Russian experts at the scene, without any third party involvement.

More than 30 people died in the Khan al-Assal incident in the northern province of Aleppo in March. Damascus was the first to ask for the UN investigation, accusing opposition fighters of launching a chemical weapon attack. Syrian rebel groups denied the accusations, in turn blaming government forces.

However, the UN investigation has largely become stalled after a group of Western nations insisted on launching an inquiry into a separate case of alleged chemical weapons use in Homs in December 2012. The inquiry requires access to military objects, which Damascus has been unwilling to give.

The UN has also decided to exclude Russian and Chinese experts from the investigation team, withSyria protesting this decision.

So far, the UN commission of inquiry for Syria has not found any conclusive evidence proving that either side of the conflict used chemical weapons. This is despite several reports submitted by the US, UK and France, which claim to show that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces used such weapons.

The Syrian government invited chief UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane for talks in Damascus on Monday, announcing that a rebels-linked storage site containing piles of dangerous chemicals had been discovered.

“The Syrian authorities have discovered yesterday in the city of Banias 281 barrels filled with dangerous, hazardous chemical materials,” Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said, adding that the chemicals were “capable of destroying a whole city, if not the whole country.”

The chemicals, which included monoethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol, were found in a storage site used by “armed terrorist groups,” Ja’afari explained. He said that Syria has started an investigation into the discovery.

The Syrian envoy expressed Damascus’ confidence that there will be “constructive negotiations with the Syrian officials in order to reach an agreement,” particularly in terms of “reference, mechanism, and time frame” of the UN mission.

Ja’afari  added, however, that one should not “jump to the conclusion” that the Monday invitation means that Syria would consider allowing the UN team access to sites beyond Aleppo.

Israeli jets buzz Assad palace, bomb chem weapons site outside Damascus

I have not seen this reported anywhere else in Israel yet, but UPI is reporting from Maariv (one of our Hebrew papers) that Israeli jets buzzed the Damascus palace of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, and then went on to bomb a chemical weapons facility outside Damascus.

The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President Bashar Assad's palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus, Maariv reported.

The report said the Israeli jets entered Syria's airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday and flew over Assad's palace in Damascus and other security facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.

The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery positioned in the city fired at the Israeli jets that left Syria's airspace unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising up from the headquarters for chemical weapons. There were no reports of the extent of damage or casualties.

Neither Damascus or Jerusalem responded to the report.

In January, the IAF allegedly attacked a convoy moving Syrian weapons of mass destruction to Hezbullah in Lebanon. In 2006, the IAF buzzed Assad's summer palace on its way to Lebanon.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

CHEMICAL ALERT: Syrian “Rebels” More Dangerous Than Assad’s Thugs…Al Qaeda/Salafists In The Forefront

The idiom,“separating the forest from the trees”, is often bandied about, but mostly devoid of context. Hence, its targeted import becomes entirely lost, or muddled at best. Not only that, but when it comes to the Middle East, said confusion is as explosive as countless pyromaniacs running loose, in the largest forest of all!

In this regard, it is absolutely the case, the Pyromaniac-in-Chief set the region FURTHER ablaze, giving the advantage to Al Qaeda related jihadis. You know, those same hardened terrorists who fight under the banner of the late, non-lamented Osama Bin Laden! In fact, to up the odds of his Brotherhood picks ( “cousins” of Al Qaeda ) he has unleashed those very same forces – who primed their techniques fighting Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan – to run rampant all over the region. They are currently ensconced in the Egyptian Sinai (Israel’s southern border) and abutting Israel’s northern Golan border. Pincer-like. More than a bastard.

“Leading from behind”, he has no intention of dealing with the Iranian menace through hyper-American muscle tactics. Thereby, demonstrating to its Hitlerite regime what their fate will be, if they don’t cease & desist their genocidal weapons program. Instead, for 4 + years, he opts for jaw-jaw, hardly likely to scare any of the basket cases in the world, let alone the cagey mullahs.
In other words, the west’s imperative, to break the “Iranian axis of evil”,  thus weakening Assad’s/Hezbollah’s back, never entered the fray. As such, he not only left Iran stronger, but gave the upper hand to those fighting Assad, every bit as much killing machines as Assad. However, now Israel’s border is hotter than ever, as the “rebels” have ZERO reservations about utilizing chemical warfare, unlike Assad, knowing full well that said move would bring the IDF down on his head! 
But now, Jerusalem (and other capitals) is dealing with non-state actors, thereby, making the region more than a tinderbox. Alas, a six year old could have planned a better campaign. And that’s the point. Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s intent is to weaken American interests, with Israel at the forefront! Forget about his recent “visit”. Radical politics took center stage, even as the regional upheaval demanded his full attention. Yes, he can walk and chew gum at the same time. More than a pyromaniac. My head hurts.
In the main, the leader of the free world has ensured that chemical weapons would be introduced, something which Assad’s terror forces knew was off limits, regardless of regional tensions. However, now that the “rebels” have introduced chemical warfare, all bets are off, as reported, at this blog, almost most 4 months ago - adinakutnicki.com/2012/12/02/urgent-syrian-update-reported-movement-of-chemical-weapons-addendum-to-the-coming-encirclement-of-syria-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/

Most rational folks realize by now – including the Commander-in-Chief and his surrogates – Islamists are bloodthirsty, whatever their stripes - adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/31/islamists-whatever-their-stripes-are-bloodthirsty-assads-butchers-his-opponents-too-six-of-onehalf-dozen-of-another-addendum-toislam-blood-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/…even if the POTUS feigns otherwise, no, he didn’t pick his Brotherhood (with remnants of Al Qaeda) jihadis over the rest. And this matters, mainly because he really stood still when he shouldn’t have, back in 2009, when Iranian freedom fighters were attempting to break the back of their Hitlerite regime.

Therefore, no one should be surprised, that under his watch chemical weapons have been unleashed, and the fingerprints lead straight back to his “rebels”.

‘Alarming Footage: Syrian Rebels Used Chemical Weapons’

by Ted on MARCH 25, 2013 

By Theodore Shoebat and Walid Shoebat
In December of last year we revealed that the rebels had in their hands potent chemical weapons and were testing them on rabbits, and we predicted that they will use them on innocents.
Well now it is happening.
And now, new evidence translated from Arabic sources reveals the likelihood that it was the Muslim rebels (FSA) and not the Assad regime that carried out a chemical attack on the town of Khan al-Assal, west of Aleppo.
We have captured clips that were never translated (until now) showing rebels revealing heavy arsenals including weapons of mass destruction that contain chemical agents.
Russia says that it was the FSA that carried out the massacre while the White House says that there is no evidence that the rebels are responsible.
In the Arab circles, the blaming goes back and forth. The Syrian government blames the FSA and vise versa.
So who do we believe?
Even if we examine the sources in Arabic we find that the reporting on this story is usually done by masters of confusion. For example, how can an FSA reporter film an exploded chemical rocket at a close distance and remain alive?
But if we examine the videos during all the clashes between the FSA and the Syrian military we find much evidence from footage never seen in the West (until now) showing that weapons cache of scuds, tanks, Sam-7 rockets and even weapons of mass destruction (chemical as well as biological) are falling into the hands of FSA rebels.
In one video that we found, the Syrian rebels, after taking an airbase, show the substantial amount of scud missiles now in their hands:
And just when you think that these rebels are too primitive to figure out how to fire these missiles, here is a video of them actually launching one:
The chemical attack in Khan al-Assal is said to have been done by Assad, but as people are swayed to believing the jihadist rebels, we have first hand testimony from just one of the multitude of victims of this tragedy:
Also, there are some important facts that we have to take into perspective.
The assault happened in the town of Khan al-Assal, a predominately Shiite town. The Syrian revolution is a Sunni movement, and one of its main goals is to remove the Shiite Assad regime. The town has also been a common victimof attacks by Al-Qaeda, a Sunni organization. This is thus an indication that the attack was conducted by Sunnis, and not the government which is Shiite.
Moreover, neither the rebels nor the government denies that amongst the victims were military personal. In fact, it is said that out of the 26 dead 16 were Syrian soldiers.
Why would a Shiite government orchestrate a terrorist attack on its own soldiers especially in a Shiite town?
Assad is very loyal to his own sect–the Alawites–which is a part of Shia Islam, and they in turn are loyal to him. This allegiance is so strong that, according to Middle East expert Walid Phares, if Assad ever escaped from the rebels and hid in the northwestern part of Syria, where most of the Alawites live, and his enemies came to attack there, he would use chemical weapons “to defend his own community.”
Khan al-Assal, the place of the attack, is in the northwestern part of Syria, to where Assad would flee, and the region that he would be willing to defend.
Furthermore, a medic at the local civilian hospital said that he personally saw soldiers attending to the wounded at the scene of the attack.
Another factor that deserves attention is that the device used for the attack was not advanced; both American and independent weapons analysts confirm this. If the Assad regime had done last week’s incursion, then it would have utilized something of a more sophisticated arsenal.
Also, if the government was behind this, the attack would have killed more than just 26 people, since Syria is said to own the largest chemical arsenal in the region.
It is reported that the syrian military believes that the assault was done by launching into the town a home-made rocket containing CL17, a type of chlorine that can be found at your local swimming pool.
Though this was a small attack, chlorine can be used to implement very significant destruction on human populations. According to Benjamin Brodsky, writing for the Monterey Institute of International Studies:

The worst industrial accident in history is illustrative: 40 metric tons of methyl isocyanate was released from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, on December 3, 1984. The resulting plume killed at least 3,000 people downwind and injured more than 100,000. A sufficiently large release of elemental chlorine may be capable of exacting a comparable toll, particularly if it were to be discharged in a highly populated civilian area.

Another point is that if Assad was indeed the attacker in this scenario, then the media would be making full scale reports affirming that he is the perpetuator. The White House would be confirming it, the U.N. would be confirming it–but they are not.
It makes no sense that Assad would all of a sudden order such a strike in the first place, since he is worried about the repercussion of negative international responses. Walid Phares has made this point:

He is going to try not to use it [the chemical weapons] as much as as he can because he knows the international reaction is going to be very tough.

But, all of these facts have not stopped John Mccain and Lindsay Graham from calling for U.S. intervention and the granting of weapons to the jihadists. In a recent joint statement, the two Republican senators wrote:

We are extremely disturbed by reports that chemical weapons have been used today in Syria. President Obama has said that the use of weapons of mass destruction by Bashar Assad is a ‘red line’ for him that ‘will have consequences.’ If today’s reports are substantiated, the President’s red line has been crossed, and we would urge him to take immediate action to impose the consequences he has promised. That should include the provision of arms to vetted Syrian opposition groups, targeted strikes against Assad’s aircraft and SCUD missile batteries on the ground, and the establishment of safe zones inside Syria to protect civilians and opposition groups. If today’s reports are substantiated, the tragic irony will be that these are the exact same actions that could have prevented the use of weapons of mass destruction in Syria.

The facts do not stop Republican Mike Rogers from affirming that it is a “high probability” that Assad used chemical weapons, as can be found in a recent interview:
America is in, to a degree, intervening in the Syrian situation.
One diplomatic source has stated

Scores of U.S. military advisers in Jordan are training the rebels in

It has also been said that that training and weapons has been financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and that the goal of the U.S. and NATO is to make the rebels into a formidable fighting force “capable of countering the Syrian Army.”
Our primary concern should be that one day our own nation will work with NATO to militarily strike the Assad regime and allow the revolutionaries to prevail. Such an act will not only enable Islamic fundamentalism to further expand, but empower Turkey to commence its much aspired empire–that is–a revived Ottoman empire.
shoebat.com/2013/03/25/alarming-footage-syrian-rebels-used-chemical-weapons/
BOTTOM LINE: Now that the above has been set in motion, and Al Qaeda has captured the main highway bordering Israel, Jordan and Syria, and a major tributary too - www.debka.com/article/22852/Al-Qaeda-brigade-captures-Syrian-Israeli-Jordanian-border-junction-…part of his mission to Israel (aside from  ”Alinskyite” indoctrination of Israel’s university students and his ONLY major speech in Israel - adinakutnicki.com/2013/03/24/the-convergence-of-obamas-diety-saul-alinsky-his-channeling-to-israeli-students-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/) was to tamp down the fires. According to DEBKAfile Intelligence: “During his visit to Israel, US President Barack Obama struck a deal with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for military action against Syrian chemical weapons. The new issue will flesh out that core decision with exclusive revelations on NATO’s role in setting up the expedition, its participants, targets and ramifications, including likely responses by Moscow and Tehran”.
More than deserving of his Satan-like status! adinakutnicki.com/2013/03/19/the-swirling-likeness-of-barack-hussein-obama-to-satan-history-channels-the-bible-series-oh-me-oh-my-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/.
UPDATE: herein lies the crux of the above thesis (Obama’s incendiary handiwork)… and reading it, after today’s commentary posting, is more than noteworthy - www.debka.com/article/22855/Arab-League-Summit-The-empty-leadership-chair-in-Doha

via adinakutnicki.com

this is not going to end well for Jewish people. I was against intervention, but I'm not seeing a choice if the rebels have access to chemicals weapons. It is important to not be tied to any policy.

Chemo Time in Syria

Writing The Wrongs: Israel's military intelligence chief says Syria's embattled president, Bashar al-Assad, is preparing to use chemical weapons. Israel's military intelligence chief says Syria's embattled president, Bashar al-Assad, is preparing to use chemical weapons.
Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya that Assad is stepping up his offensive against rebels trying to oust him.
Kochavi claims Assad is making advanced preparations to use chemical weapons, but has not yet given the order to deploy them.
He did not disclose information about why he thinks Assad is preparing to use them.
Israel has long expressed concerns that Assad's stockpile of chemical weapons could end up in the hands of groups hostile to Israel like Hezbollah or al-Qaida inspired organizations.
Israel has kept out of Syria's civil war, but it is concerned that violence could spill over the border into northern Israel.

Israel's strike on Syria also hit biological weapons facility, says report

An IAF F-15 fighter jet during a training exercise (photo credit: Ofer Zidon/Flash90)(timesofisrael.com)In air raids on Syria overnight Tuesday, Israeli jets targeted several sites, including a biological weapons research center, which hadn’t previously been mentioned in the media, TIME magazine claimed Friday.

The center was “flattened out of concern that it might fall into the hands of Islamist extremists fighting to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad,” the report said, quoting Western intelligence officials.

The article also claimed Washington has given Israel a “green light” to carry out more such raids if it deems them necessary.

TIME added that Israel has raised security at embassies “and other potential targets overseas,” for fear of a Hezbollah-orchestrated retaliatory attack.

Thus far, the TIME article noted, only two airstrikes had been mentioned in the media: One attack, announced by Syria, was allegedly on a scientific research center in Jamarya, northwest of Damascus; the other, reported by various news organizations, claimed Israeli jets struck a convoy carrying advanced anti-aircraft defense systems toward Lebanon, presumably to Hezbollah, the Shi’ite group allied to Iran and Assad.

But “a Western intelligence official indicated to TIME that at least one to two additional targets were hit the same night, without offering details,” the magazine reported.

Regarding the strike at Jamarya, the magazine added new details: “Among the buildings leveled at the military complex at Jamarya, outside Damascus, were warehouses stocked with equipment necessary for the deployment of chemical and biological weapons, relatively complicated systems typically manned by specially trained forces,” it said.

The biological warfare labs were considered to be of particular concern — in part because of the grave damage small amounts of biological agents can cause, and also due to the stated interest in such weapons by terror groups, namely Osama bin Laden’s successor as head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The TIME story added that the US was prepared to carry out raids of its own in the Aleppo area if it feared rebels might otherwise gain control of weapons of mass destruction in that area of Syria.

On Wednesday, US officials told The New York Times that Israel had notified the United States about an airstrike it carried out overnight Tuesday near the Lebanese-Syrian border. The officials said that they believed the target of the strike was a convoy carrying sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry intended to reach Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

An unnamed Western official told the Wall Street Journal that the convoy was carrying sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft weapons, which could constitute a strategic game-changer were Hezbollah to possess them.

A former Syrian general said Friday that the facility reportedly struck by Israel produced non-conventional weapons, in addition to conventional arms. Maj. Gen. Adnan Sillu was previously in charge of the country’s chemical weapons training program.

Israel has yet to confirm or even officially comment on Tuesday’s alleged air raid.

On Friday, meanwhile, the Lebanese National News Agency claimed that Israeli jets flew low over southern Lebanon — Hezbollah’s stronghold — and carried out “mock raids.” The government outlets said that its correspondents reported Israeli planes flying over the southern Lebanese towns of Nabatieh, Tuffah, Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil.

#Upated #Assad has transferred chemcial weapons to #Hezbullah

Reports from Israel conclude that this won't escalate. I'm betting that this is not true and they are merely hoping that this won't escalate. Assad needs to bring Israel into a war to survive.

(Carl) Israel Radio is reporting (9:00 am) that Kuwaiti daily al-Watan reported in Thursday's editions that Syria has already transferred chemical weapons to Syria, including more than two tons of mustard gas. According to the report, Syria has also transferred missiles with a 300-kilometer range that are capable of delivering the chemical weapons. The use of the weapons is being supervised by high-ranking Syrian officers stationed in Lebanon.
There is no confirmation of the report from other sources.

(US officials say Israel notified them of Syrian attack, target was sophisticated SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles) Although, Israel has not confirmed it, American officials have told the New York Times that Israel notified the US that it attacked a convoy of weapons headed for Hezbullah in Lebanon. The weapons in question were sophisticated SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles (Hat Tip: Herb G).

The American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Israel had notified the United States about the attack, which the Syrian government condemned as an act of “arrogance and aggression.” Israel’s move demonstrated its determination to ensure that Hezbollah — its arch foe in the north — is unable to take advantage of the chaos in Syria to bolster its arsenal significantly.

The predawn strike was the first time in more than five years that Israel’s air force had attacked a target in Syria. While there was no expectation that the beleaguered Assad government had an interest in retaliating, the strike raised concerns that the Syrian civil war had continued to spread beyond its border.

In a statement, the Syrian military denied that a convoy had been struck. It said the attack had hit a scientific research facility in the Damascus suburbs that was used to improve Syria’s defenses, and called the attack “a flagrant breach of Syrian sovereignty and airspace.”

Israeli officials would not confirm the airstrike, a common tactic here. But it came after days of intense security consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the possible movement of chemical and other weapons around Syria, and warnings that Jerusalem would take action to thwart any possible transfers to Hezbollah.

Thousands of Israelis have crowded gas-mask distribution centers over the last two days. On Sunday, Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile defense system in the north, near Haifa, which was heavily bombed during the 2006 war with Lebanon.

(Carl) Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy explains why the SA-17's matter.

“Israel is able to fly reconnaissance flights over Lebanon with impunity right now,” Mr. Levitt said. “This could cut into its ability to conduct aerial intelligence. The passing along of weapons to Hezbollah by the regime is a real concern.” 

(Carl) And what's so special about the SA-17?

The SA-17 is an advanced antiaircraft missile with a low radar signature, which makes it difficult to target it. It possesses a range of approximately 25 kilometers, and the IAF considers them a danger to its freedom of operation in the region.

(Carl) Hmmm.

Syria’s chemical arms match Israel’s nuclear arsenal: defected general.

Syria’s chemical arms match Israel’s nuclear arsenal: defected general.(AA).The Syrian regime has a large arsenal of chemical weapons, which matches up to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the defected former head of Syria's chemical warfare program told Al Arabiya on Monday.
Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected from the regime earlier this year, was party to top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.
He told Al Arabiya where the Syrian regime has stored its chemical weapons in specific cities across the war-torn country, highlighting chemical warehouses in the city of Homs and weapons stored also in scientific research center in Aleppo.
“Syria’s chemical arsenal has reached similar levels to Israel’s nuclear weapons,” he said in the interview. Israel is believed to be one of the world’s largest nuclear superpowers.
Sillu, who once led the army’s chemical weapons training program, said in June that the main storage sites for mustard gas and nerve agents are supposed to be guarded by thousands of Syrian troops but that they would be easily overrun.
“Probably anyone from the Free Syrian Army or any Islamic extremist group could take them over,” he said.
Recently, U.N. peacekeeping troops on the Golan Heights have said they were prepared in the event of Damascus using chemical weapons amid mounting unrest between the Syrian regime and the armed opposition.
Meanwhile, United Nations ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told U.N. leaders in letters circulated Monday that opposition fighters might use chemical weapons against against civilians, and try to blame the regime of President -Assad.
The Pentagon has drawn up plans for responding to possible scenarios involving Syria’s chemical arms, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday during a visit to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 60 miles from the Syrian border.Read the full story here.

via mfs-theothernews.com

al-Qaeda, Chemical weapons, free syrian army, Israel, Syria, Syrian muslim brotherhood

US training Syrian rebels to secure chemical weapons

(Carl) Training Syrian rebels to secure the country's chemical weapons might be a good idea but for one small catch: Most of the rebels are al-Qaeda and since they will be the ones securing them, al-Qaeda will have control over the chemical weapons when the music stops.
The US and its allies have hired contractors to train some Syrian rebel brigades in chemical weapons security, Syria Deeply has exclusively learned from four diplomats, including one US official. The sources asked to remain anonymous, as they deal directly with developments in Syria. The training would mark a higher level of coordination between the US and armed opposition forces, working to secure Syria’s chemical arsenal during a period of political turmoil.

The diplomatic sources say defense contractors hired by the US and its European allies have recently conducted training exercises with Syrian rebel forces in Turkey and Jordan. The programs were intended to prepare brigades to handle chemical weapons sites and materials they might encounter, as Assad troops lose control of over parts of the country. US contractors have also been on the ground in Syria to monitor the status of regime stockpiles, said an employee with a major US defense consultancy that has been engaged in that work.

“They’re probably trying to provide near real-time surveillance at all these sites. There’s no point in limiting yourself,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He emphasized that any training of rebel fighters would represent just one element of contingency planning underway and said it would be incorrect to assume that training rebels is “the only hope”.

The State Department affirmed its concern over Syria’s chemical weapons, concerns that have been discussed with opposition leaders, but would not comment directly on the details of this report. The Defense Department hasn’t responded to a request for comment on the revelations.
What could go wrong?

(boudica) DEBKAfile Exclusive Report December 8, 2012, 5:10 PM (GMT+02:00)
Sarin canisters stored in Syria The danger that Syrian ruler Bashar Assad will now resort to chemical warfare shot up Saturday afternoon, Dec. 8, after the rebels captured the “chloride factory” at Al Safira east of Aleppo.
This is a codename for the Syrian army’s biggest chemical weapons store and base, which also houses Syrian Scud D missiles armed with chemical warheads adjusted to fire at Israel. Assad’s warning to the rebels not to fight with chemical weapons is taken as a means of justifying his own resort to chemical weapons and brought this threat closer than ever before. Read more…

did this already happen?

Assad has plans to transfer WMD to Hezbollah

(EOZ) From Al Arabiya:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would transfer the chemical weapons to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a Syrian defected general told the Times of London.
Former Syrian general turned defector, Major-General Adnan Sillu, said that aside from plans to transfer weapons to Hezbollah, Syria had planned to use chemical weapons on the Syrian people, “as a last resort,” a report on the Israeli online edition of Haaretz said, quoting the Times.
“We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas,” Sillu said.
“We discussed this as a last resort -- such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo,” the General was quoted as saying.
The German weekly Der Spiegel on Monday claimed that Syria tested delivery systems for chemical weapons at the end of August.
“Five or six empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents were fired by tanks and aircraft, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir,” east of the city of Aleppo, Der Spiegel reported.
The Safira research center in question is regarded as Syria’s largest testing site for chemical weapons. It is officially referred to as a “scientific research center.”
Iranian officers, believed to be members of the Revolutionary Guards, were flown in by helicopter for the testing, according to the witness statements cited.
Scientists from Iran and North Korea are said to work in the expansive, fenced-off complex. According to Western intelligence agencies, they produce deadly chemical agents such as sarin and mustard gas.

If Assad feels desperate enough to use chemical weapons against Syrians in a last ditch effort, it seems likely that he would want to shoot a few rockets with chemical warheads towards Israel as well, to try to rally support. Most Arabs would cheer such a move, after all.
By the way, the Al Arabiya article was illustrated with this really good infographic, but I cannot find a larger version:

Saddam saw Israel behind all his problems

(h/t Israel Matzav) The United States has released a small number of documents taken from an Iraqi archive during the 2003 invasion. The documents reveal that Saddam Hussein could not believe that Iran was as strong as it turned out to be, and thought that he was being attacked by Israel.

(NYTimes) Mr. Hussein so grievously underestimated Iran’s military that he wrongly assumed Iran’s initial airstrikes in the war had actually been carried out by Israeli warplanes. He personally selected the rockets to use on one attack against an Iranian city, and he boasted that Iraq had a chemical weapons arsenal that “exterminates by the thousands.” He felt threatened enough by the rise of fundamentalist Islamic groups that he discussed his desire to “trick” the public, into thinking that his government, too, endorsed Islamic values.
From a historical perspective, Mr. Hussein’s decision to take on Iran and his reaction to the Iran-contra affair are two of the most intriguing areas in the papers.
Mr. Hussein set the stage for war with Iran by repudiating a 1975 agreement that had settled a disputed over the Shatt al Arab, the strategic waterway along their border. According to Amatzia Baram, an Israeli expert on Iraq who has studied the archive, the pivotal decision appears have been made in a meeting on Sept. 16, 1980, when Mr. Hussein took the optimistic view that the Iranians, fearing the Iraqi forces massed near the border, would give in without much of a fight.
A top secret report from the Iraqi General Military Intelligence Directorate supported Mr. Hussein’s assessment. “It is clear that, at present, Iran has no power to launch wide offensive operations against Iraq or to defend on a large scale,” the report noted. It also predicted “more deterioration of the general situation of Iran’s fighting capability.”
But the war, which ultimately lasted eight years and resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, turned out to be far more difficult than Mr. Hussein had expected. Soon after it began, Iranian aircraft bombed a series of targets, including Iraqi oil refineries and the Osirak nuclear plant south of Baghdad. The feat so surprised the Iraqis that they assumed the attack could not have emanated from Iran.
“This is Israel,” Mr. Hussein exclaimed in an Oct. 1, 1980, meeting. He then complained that Iraqi officials had not followed his suggestion to bury the nuclear facility under the Hamrin Mountains north of Baghdad, before approving a plan to fortify the complex with millions of sandbags. But those sandbags proved to be of little use when Israeli warplanes actually did strike the site, in June 1981.
Later, Mr. Hussein said he was not surprised that Israel felt threatened by Iraq, which he asserted would defeat Iran and emerge with a military that was stronger than ever. “Once Iraq walks out victorious, there will not be any Israel,” he said in a 1982 conversation. “Technically, they are right in all of their attempts to harm Iraq.”
...
The notion that Israel and the West had joined forces to undermine his government persisted well after the Iran-Iraq war ended. In 1990, Mr. Hussein himself intervened to ensure the execution of Farzad Bazoft, an Iranian-born journalist working for The Observer, a British newspaper. Mr. Bazoft was investigating a mysterious explosion at a military complex south of Baghdad when he was arrested and charged with spying for Israel. The Bazoft case drew worldwide attention, and the British government appealed for clemency. Mr. Hussein was unmoved. Told that it would take a month for the Iraqi legal process to be completed, he took charge of the matter.
“A whole month?” he exclaimed. “I say we execute him in Ramadan, and this will be the punishment for Margaret Thatcher.”
Mr. Bazoft was hanged on March 15, 1990, six months after his arrest and shortly before Ramadan began. In response, Britain recalled its ambassador. Less than five months later, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait.

I suspect that if we got the same types of documents from other Arab countries, we would find that they too suspect Israel as being the root of all their problems. The paranoia is a primary characteristic.
Read the whole thing

Let's Remind Libya of this Next Year: WMDs [Updated]

Remember when US and Israeli intelligence agencies tracked the WMD consignments from eastern Libya as far as Sudan in convoys secured by Iranian agents with Hizballah and Hamas guards? and then there were rumors that Qaddaffi spread about the same accusation with Libyan rebels arming Hamas and Hezbullah?

VX gas was developed in the Porton Down Chemical Weapons Research Centre, Wiltshire, England in 1952 and its devastating effects were tested. The British traded the technology of VX with the United States of America for information on thermonuclear weapons. The LD50 can be as little as 10mg for humans. It operates by cutting off the nervous system. It binds to the enzyme that transmits signals to the nerves and inhibits them. Therefore the nerves become isolated and uncontrollable. The antidote, atropine, is a toxin itself but it counteracts the effect of the VX by removing it from the enzyme. It is an anti-nerve agent so does the reverse of the VX, a nerve agent. It is normally injected into the arm or thigh but for gaseous attacks the atropine must go immediately into the heart. So full body protection and gas masks are essential to avoid exposure in a VX missile attack.

but Rebels' spokesman says group wants Jewish State to help garner international support for new Libyan leadership, Western media outlets claim. Libyan rebels are turning to Israel for support in their new leadership, ahead of the looming end of Muammar Gaddafi's regime, Western media outlets reported on Thursday.

"We are seeking Israel's support and influence around the world in order to bring to an end Gaddafi's despotic rule," Ahmad Shabani, the founder of Libya's Democratic and a spokesperson on behalf of the rebels was quoted as saying. According to the unconfirmed reports, Shabani, whose family fled Libya after the king was deposed in 1969, said they were seeking the Jewish State's help because "Libya needs all the international support they can get, including Israel's." Responding to Gaddafi's allegations, according to which al Qaeda was aiding the rebels to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip, Shabani said the deposed dictator was himself cooperating with the terrorist group, adding that the opposition group aims to stop the alleged arms smuggling

Will the Rebels vote against 'Palestinian statehood'? Will they not be attending the Durban III? ;^)

There's a precedent for Assad using chemical weapons: His father did it.

א מַשָּׂא, דַּמָּשֶׂק: הִנֵּה דַמֶּשֶׂק מוּסָר מֵעִיר, וְהָיְתָה מְעִי מַפָּלָה.

1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

א מַשָּׂא, דַּמָּשֶׂק: הִנֵּה דַמֶּשֶׂק מוּסָר מֵעִיר, וְהָיְתָה מְעִי מַפָּלָה.

1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

Isaiah Chapter 17 יְשַׁעְיָהוּ

Many countries, including the United States and Russia, gradually eliminated their chemical-weapons arsenals, but Syria refused to sign the U.N. Chemical Weapons convention and proceeded to develop an ever larger and deadlier stockpile. The CIA has concluded that Syria possesses a large stockpile of sarin-based warheads and was working on developing VX, a deadlier nerve agent that resists breaking down in the environment.
By early in the last decade, some weapons experts ranked Syria’s chemical stockpile as probably the largest in the world, consisting of tens of tons of highly lethal chemical agents and hundreds of Scud missiles as well as lesser rockets, artillery rockets and bomblets for delivering the poisons. Leonard Spector lays down some other scenarios in which Assad's chemical weapons could be used. Let's start with the possibility of civil war. According to researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, open sources indicate that there are at least four, and potentially five, chemical weapons production facilities in Syria. One or two are located near Damascus, the other three situated in Hama, Latakia, and al-Safir village, near the city of Aleppo. Hama is one of the hotbeds of the Syrian revolt, which Assad's tanks attacked in early August and where, more recently, fighting has severely damaged the city's hospitals. Latakia is another center of unrest; it was shelled by the Syrian Navy in mid-August. Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, has also seen significant demonstrations.

If anti-Assad insurgents take up arms, the chemical sites, as symbols of the regime's authority, could become strategic targets. And, if mass defections occur from the Syrian army, there may be no one left to defend the sites against seizure. This could lead to disastrous outcomes, including confiscation of the chemical weapons by a radical new national government or sale of the weapons as war booty to organized nonstate actors or criminal groups.

In such chaos, no one can predict who might control the weapons or where they might be taken. With these chemical weapons in the hands of those engaged in a possible civil war, the risks that they would be used would increase substantially. The problem would be worsened further if some possessors were not fully aware of the extent of the weapons' deadly effects.

And let's imagine that Assad is eventually removed: What leaders would gain control of these weapons after he departed? Saudi-backed Sunni groups? Iranian-backed Shiite organizations? Whoever they might be, it is unclear that the newcomers would follow the Assads' cautious-use doctrine and refusal to share chemical weapons with nonstate groups, or that the new leaders would be able to maintain strict security measures at the chemical sites.

Meanwhile, it's possible that an existential threat will cause the Assad regime to abandon its previous policy of restraint regarding chemical weapons. It is not a huge leap from attacking civilians with tank fire, machine guns, and naval artillery to deploying poison gas, and the shock effect and sense of dread engendered by even limited use could quash a citywide uprising within an hour. h/t Carl

flotilla activists plan to use chemical weapons

Apparently Alice Walker and pals with, "The Audacity of HOPE"....flotilla are hoping to use chemical weapons on Israelis.  they intend to pour Sulfur... the stuff they make Mustard Gas with on the IDF as they board the ship.  Stupid feminist bitch!  TORPEDO THE FUCKING THING!

(JPost) IDF sources said Monday night that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.
According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.
“This is a chemical weapon, and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Monday night. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”
The information was obtained from closed meetings held by participants on the ships during which some voiced their intention to “murder Israeli soldiers,” according to the IDF.
Also, despite earlier predictions that members of the Turkish organization IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation would not participate in the flotilla, it now appears that some members will sail with the ships alongside other radical Islamic activists.
The Navy has begun its final preparations to stop the vessels, and the IDF sources said that commandos who board the ships will be prepared for a wide-range of scenarios from no violence at all to extreme and violent resistance from the passengers. via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

USE TORPEDOES! The Audacity of HOPE indeed. Thanks Alice Walker! btw... I hated your damn book.  oh... and apparently there is going to be a "Holocaust Survivor" on the ship...

Hedy Epstein via stl-psc.org

...IDF. You have the right to shoot 86-year-old Heda Epstein in order to defend your borders from uppity humanitarianofascists bearing food, medicine, and embarrassment.

Let's get a few things straight. A Holocaust survivor is someone who lived through the Holocaust in an affected country. It's not just someone who was alive when the Holocaust happened. Hedy Epstein - who loves to promote herself as a Holocaust survivor - is not one. She is no more a Holocaust survivor than my 83-year old father who lived through the Holocaust in Boston, Massachusetts. She left Germany in May 1939 - before the war or the Holocaust started - on the Kindertransport, and spent the war in England. When you hear "Holocaust survivor," you envision those gaunt kids who were in the concentration camps at the end of the war. She's not one of them. There were 10,000 kids just like her. They are not Holocaust survivors any more than the thousands of Jews who fled Germany and other affected countries during the 1930's. That makes her a much less sympathetic figure, doesn't it?
The people on those boats are committing an act of war. Yes, including Hedy Epstein and Alice Walker and that moron Medea Benjamin. They're not wearing uniforms, they're not part of an army, but by trying to run a legal naval blockade (and even the UN now says it's legal), they are committing an act of war. They are military combatants, and they may be treated accordingly.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com
image via rsc.org