Free Republic

Why did the CDC update its page for vinyl chloride nearly two weeks before the Ohio train derailment? The CDC edited its profile for vinyl chloride just recently, removing a section on how the chemical affects children. On February 3, a Norfolk Southern Railroad train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, emitting toxic clouds into the air and water supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency has deemed the water "safe to drink" – despite the existing reports of wildlife dying in the affected area. Now it seems even the CDC is minimizing the effects of the chemicals involved in the crash, one...

ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — A husband and wife are dead as a result of H2S gas poisoning on October 25. According to the Ector County Sheriff's Office, Jacob Dean, 44, was called out by Aghorn Energy to the 2200 block of W. 49th Street to check a pump house. When he had not returned home after some time, his wife, Natalee Dean, 37, started calling her husband. Knowing the location of the house, she decided to drive out and check on him. Natalee brought the couple's two children in the car with her.

The head of the largest medical relief agency in Syria claims that medics who responded to the suspected gas attack in Douma have been subjected to “extreme intimidation” by Syrian officials who seized biological samples, forced them to abandon patients and demanded their silence. Dr Ghanem Tayara, the director of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM) said doctors responsible for treating patients in the hours after the 7 April attack have been told that their families will be at risk if they offer public testimonies about what took place. A number of doctors who spoke to the...

In 2013, when the Obama administration was trying to convince Congress to authorize an attack on Syria to enforce its “red line’ against Assad using chemical weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry promised that the attack would be an “unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.” He often used the word “degrade,” rather than “destroy,” to describe the impact of the contemplated attack on Syria’s chemical weapons program. Kerry received plenty of ridicule for proposing an “unbelievably small, limited” attack. In fairness, though, we should keep two points in mind. First, Kerry used this phrase in response to strong resistance by...

The Media and Mueller are obsessed with trivial issues such as did Michael Cohen use a home equity loan to give Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a possible one night stand 12 years ago with Donald Trump, and whether this is an unlawful campaign contribution by Cohen. It is not a campaign contribution, but the facts do not matter to the Media/Mueller. Moreover, what does this have to with “Russian collusion” to affect the 2016 election? In the real world, President Trump has to decide whether to bomb Syria to punish it because Assad used chemical weapons to...

I know never to mix cleaners and to certainly never mix ammonia and chlorine but many cleaners contain ammonium chloride. Is this not essentially ammonia and chlorine? If not, how does it differ? If it is similar, what is done to it so it doesn't kill the user? I am obviously not a chemist and have merely an nodding acquaintance with the periodic table, so I would ask that your explanations be simplified as much as possible, as Einstein said, "As simple as possible but no simpler." Thanks

One year after the Obama administration celebrated the removal of chemical weapons from Syria, U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Bashar al-Assad’s regime did not relinquish all of its chemical weapons. The Wall Street Journal reported: An examination of last year’s international effort to rid Syria of chemical weapons, based on interviews with many of the inspectors and U.S. and European officials who were involved, shows the extent to which the Syrian regime controlled where inspectors went, what they saw and, in turn, what they accomplished. That happened in large part because of the ground rules under which the inspectors...

The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is systematically targeting civilians and hospitals, often with chemical weapons, to reverse recent setbacks in the country’s civil war, witnesses told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Assad’s forces have suffered a number of battlefield defeats in recent months, with the Islamic State and the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra gaining ground north of the capital Damascus and more moderate rebel groups achieving victories in the south. The Syrian army has also lost about half of its soldiers throughout the course of the four-year civil war and has increasingly relied on outside militant...

A while back (I think within the past three months) there was a very interesting article posted here about inventions by white men. I have not had any luck finding it through FR search. Does anyone remember it? Does anyone have it? Can anyone post a link to it? Thanks.

Germany is joining international efforts to destroy Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons, the foreign and defence ministries have announced. The decision is in response to a request for help from the UN and OPCW, co-ordinators of the destruction plan. Ministers said waste from the destroyed weapons would be burned at a government facility in the town of Muenster in line with environmental regulations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he isn’t “100 percent” certain that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will fulfill his commitment to give up chemical weapons. Putin’s comments today may indicate that Russia, Syria’s arms provider and ally, harbors doubts about Assad’s reliability, though less so than the U.S., which has demanded a quick and intrusive process to prevent the use of Syria’s chemical arsenal and to test whether the Syrian leader will give it up. Putin said Syria has taken “practical steps” by joining the Chemical Weapons Convention barring such arms and it now faces a disarmament process under a U.S.-Russia...

The administration’s plans for a missile attack to punish the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons has been frozen after Russia and Syria proposed international inspection, removal and destruction of the arsenal. But is such a plan realistic? Could Syria’s chemical weapons be found and eliminated? Six of the Slimes Most Obsequious Obama Apologists Explain What They Know Not A Wit Of What They Speak Of Chemical Agents Could Be Secured Quickly Dieter Rothbacher, Former inspector Logistical Problems Couldn’t Be Overcome Now Emily Chorley, IHS Jane's Andrew S. Weiss Russia Must Agree to an Enforcement Mechanism Andrew S. Weiss...

President Obama on Sunday hailed the agreement reached with Russia over the weekend to seize and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons as a “foundation” that could eventually lead to a political settlement of the civil war that has gripped that nation and killed tens of thousands of people over the last two years. Mr. Obama said the United States was in a “better position” to prevent President Bashar al-Assad of Syria from using poison gas again because of the deal hammered out by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. “Look, we’re not there yet,”...

The U.S. and Russia have reached a deal to hand over Assad's chemical weapons stockpiles to the international community for their removal and destruction. This move allows the U.S. to save face, and it has at least temporarily postponed a U.S. military attack on Syria. But the Syria problem is obviously far from solved. In all likelihood, the complete removal and destruction of chemical weapons is a pipe dream.

yrian soldiers may have used chemical weapons in a recent lethal attack without receiving permission from President Bashar Assad, the German paper Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday as the US pushed on with efforts to rally support for a military strike against Syria. The paper said that Germany’s intelligence services had intercepted a number of radio transmissions over the past four months, in which officers had asked Assad for permission to use gas — and had always been turned down. It said the requests had come from brigade and division commanders, and that most of the communications were intercepted by...

President Obama and Vice-President Biden held a rare press event Saturday in the Rose Garden to address the escalating tensions with Syria. President Obama said he was convinced Syrian President Bashir Assad had ordered a chemical weapon attack on his citizens and that the US, and the world community, must act in response. Obama called on Congress to authorize a military attack against Syria. A new foreign policy crisis now faces the US. After the press event, Obama and Biden went golfing. I'm not an expert in foreign policy, but I can think of a few things a President ought...

Thousands of sick and dying Syrians had flooded the hospitals in the Damascus suburbs before dawn, hours after the first rockets landed, their bodies convulsing and mouths foaming. Their vision was blurry and many could not breathe. Overwhelmed doctors worked frantically, jabbing their patients with injections of their only antidote, atropine, hoping to beat back the assault on the nervous system waged by suspected chemical agents. In just a few hours, as the patients poured in, the atropine ran out. To avoid contamination, medics stripped new arrivals down to their underwear and doused them with water before taking them inside....

At least 84 Afghan Schoolgirls Suffer Headaches and Vomiting. CHARIKAR, Afghanistan - At least 84 Afghan schoolgirls were admitted to a hospital Tuesday for headaches and vomiting in the third apparent poison attack on a girls school in as many weeks, officials and doctors said. The students were lining up outside their school in northeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday morning when a strange odor filled the school yard, and one girl collapsed, said the school's principal, who was herself in a hospital bed gasping for breath as she described the event. "We took her inside and splashed water on her face,"...

Peoria, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent to eight years in prison Thursday -- about half the time prosecutors had requested -- because the agent received what the judge called "unacceptable" treatment in a U.S. Navy brig. U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm could have sentenced Ali Marri to as much as 15 years. Prosecutors had endorsed that, presenting testimony that he remained a threat. But Mihm handed down the lighter sentence of eight years and four months in consideration of what he called "very severe" conditions under which Marri was kept during the almost six...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...