When Scott Crofut asked, Sada said he doubted Basher Assad’s Ba’athist government would use these weapons in a future Middle Eastern conflict. “To use these weapons would be a disaster,” he said, noting the strong deterrent effect of Israel’s nuclear program. “I don’t think the Syrians are thinking of using it, but God knows how they think.” Syria remains one of a handful of nations never to have signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.
It's fairly surreal that the whole whole-known fact that the Syrians have had their own chemical weapons in enormous quantities for decades and are producing more every year is never, ever, ever, ever mentioned in these articles.
I think it's because it makes the whole "Iraqi WMD to Syria" story less exciting somehow.