Posted on 09/03/2013 3:31:45 AM PDT by Candor7
Clarification: Dale Gavlak assisted in the research and writing process of this article, but was not on the ground in Syria. Reporter Yahya Ababneh, with whom the report was written in collaboration, was the correspondent on the ground in Ghouta who spoke directly with the rebels, their family members, victims of the chemical weapons attacks and local residents.
Gavlak is a MintPress News Middle East correspondent who has been freelancing for the AP as a Amman, Jordan correspondent for nearly a decade. This report is not an Associated Press article; rather it is exclusive to MintPress News.
Ghouta, Syria — As the machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week’s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.
Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.
The U.S., Britain, and France as well as the Arab League have accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the chemical weapons attack, which mainly targeted civilians. U.S. warships are stationed in the Mediterranean Sea to launch military strikes against Syria in punishment for carrying out a massive chemical weapons attack. The U.S. and others are not interested in examining any contrary evidence, with U.S Secretary of State John Kerry saying Monday that Assad’s guilt was “a judgment … already clear to the world.”
However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.
“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.
Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels were killed inside of a tunnel used to store weapons provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, who was leading a fighting battalion. The father described the weapons as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”
Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.
Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that it would similarly attack civilians in the Assad regime’s heartland of Latakia on Syria’s western coast, in purported retaliation.
“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”
“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.
A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,” he said.
“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” ‘J’ said.
Doctors who treated the chemical weapons attack victims cautioned interviewers to be careful about asking questions regarding who, exactly, was responsible for the deadly assault.
The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders added that health workers aiding 3,600 patients also reported experiencing similar symptoms, including frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision. The group has not been able to independently verify the information.
More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.
Saudi involvement In a recent article for Business Insider, reporter Geoffrey Ingersoll highlighted Saudi Prince Bandar’s role in the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war. Many observers believe Bandar, with his close ties to Washington, has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.
Ingersoll referred to an article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks alleging that Bandar offered Russian President Vladimir Putin cheap oil in exchange for dumping Assad.
“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” Ingersoll wrote.
“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Bandar allegedly told the Russians.
“Along with Saudi officials, the U.S. allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise,” Ingersoll wrote.
“Bandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy,” he added.
According to U.K.’s Independent newspaper, it was Prince Bandar’s intelligence agency that first brought allegations of the use of sarin gas by the regime to the attention of Western allies in February.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the CIA realized Saudi Arabia was “serious” about toppling Assad when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar to lead the effort.
“They believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn’t: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it, wasta, Arabic for under-the-table clout,” it said.
Bandar has been advancing Saudi Arabia’s top foreign policy goal, WSJ reported, of defeating Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.
To that aim, Bandar worked Washington to back a program to arm and train rebels out of a planned military base in Jordan.
The newspaper reports that he met with the “uneasy Jordanians about such a base”:
His meetings in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah sometimes ran to eight hours in a single sitting. “The king would joke: ‘Oh, Bandar’s coming again? Let’s clear two days for the meeting,’ ” said a person familiar with the meetings.
Jordan’s financial dependence on Saudi Arabia may have given the Saudis strong leverage. An operations center in Jordan started going online in the summer of 2012, including an airstrip and warehouses for arms. Saudi-procured AK-47s and ammunition arrived, WSJ reported, citing Arab officials.
Although Saudi Arabia has officially maintained that it supported more moderate rebels, the newspaper reported that “funds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar.”
But rebels interviewed said Prince Bandar is referred to as “al-Habib” or ‘the lover’ by al-Qaida militants fighting in Syria.
Peter Oborne, writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has issued a word of caution about Washington’s rush to punish the Assad regime with so-called ‘limited’ strikes not meant to overthrow the Syrian leader but diminish his capacity to use chemical weapons:
Consider this: the only beneficiaries from the atrocity were the rebels, previously losing the war, who now have Britain and America ready to intervene on their side. While there seems to be little doubt that chemical weapons were used, there is doubt about who deployed them.
It is important to remember that Assad has been accused of using poison gas against civilians before. But on that occasion, Carla del Ponte, a U.N. commissioner on Syria, concluded that the rebels, not Assad, were probably responsible.
Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates .
Dale Gavlak is a Middle East correspondent for Mint Press News and has reported from Amman, Jordan, writing for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Gavlak covers the Levant region, writing on topics including politics, social issues and economic trends. Dale holds a M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. Contact Dale at dgavlak@mintpressnews.com
Yahya Ababneh is a Jordanian freelance journalist and is currently working on a master’s degree in journalism, He has covered events in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Libya. His stories have appeared on Amman Net, Saraya News, Gerasa News and elsewhere.
Of course, he did. Just like he created Benghazi. He's America's ill winds. Everything negative that has happened to this country and every person who's been killed these past 5 years has been because of him. Sure, that sounds like nothing but a rant but it isn't. It's very clear that everything he has touched has turned to carp. Economy, racial tensions, health care, Constitution, Congress, housing, food, agriculture, coal, electrical cars, journalism, world relations, ammo shortage, multiple scandals, privacy out the door, jobs and job hours, gay marriage, gay law suits, fear of the government, etc. America of 2013 is not the America of 2008.
Syria: Al-Qaeda’s battle for control of Assad’s chemical weapons plant
TelegraphUK ^ | 6:00PM BST 27 Apr 2013 | Colin Freeman.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3013245/posts
Syrian rebels said close to chemical weapons cache
http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebels-said-close-to-chemical-weapons-cache/
YES!
It is important enough to repeat often on FR. The majority of the American voters did NOT vote for the muslim we have in our white house. I will go to my grave knowing the 2012 election was fraudulent. Who knows how many other Presidential elections were stolen as well.
Is it any surprise to FReepers when info like this comes out?
I definitely don’t say it often enough......thank you for all of the pings Mesta. They are appreciated much more than you will ever know.
How much is the House of Saud is paying to rent the good men and women of our armed forces - to die for them...
It damn well better be a pile of money... and a hunk of it needs to go for the care of our Vets.
Of course that won't happen. And yeah, a 'strike' against Syria probably in the short run won't be a disaster - but it sets us up for the war with Iran... which will be a disaster.
How many pieces of silver are the Sauds paying us to destroy our country? I'd like to know. (It'll be phrased as 'countries in the region paying their part'.. which is bullshit... If they want to suit up and die for this crap it's one thing ... but just to hand us cash?
How much is the House of Saud paying to rent the good men and women of our armed forces - to die for them...
It damn well better be a pile of money... and a hunk of it needs to go for the care of our Vets.
Saudi Arabia got us into the first Gulf War against Saddam....they got us into Bosnia and Kosovo as well, so they could have a conduit from which to spread Wahhabism to Europe.
There was no doubt a John Wayne western years ago in which he observed someone pull out a knife in a fistfight and he shot the knife out of the user’s hand with the line, “Now, now, let’s keep it fair”. That would be the “American” way.
On the other hand, if Wayne’s character believed both of the combatants were bad guys it seems likely he would not have interfered in the fight at all. If, however, both of the combatants produced weapons that could obliterate the entire town, there is no doubt he would have quickly proceeded to neutralize both parties.
The point here? I wonder if O watched any John Wayne westerns while he was growing up?
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Obama's attempt to take this ProgScam international is blowing up in his face.
For the same reason a minor film maker would want to destroy an embassy in Benghzi?
IMHO they want us to take our their enemies for them - because they’re the biggest assh*les in the known universe...
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Mesta, am I crazy for thinking part of this is a wag the dog to distract all of us from the Obamacare deadline that is coming at us like a runaway freight train? Could at least some of the Democrats’ approval be directed at keeping Obamacare activists off balance?
Ditto to that, 100%. All I heard from people on both sides was ***Romney over 0bummer***, but little did we know that it was “electronically pre-ordained” that he was going to win. The vote fraud was uber-slick and undetectable, like Michael Hasting’s car being made to blow-up and crash.
Yeah, I know: black helicopters etc. I’m off my meds. Heh...
But with computer wizards who work for MS, Google, Oracle, Facebook etc, working for the 0muslim traitors, I don’t doubt all traces of vote fraud were self-erased and all electronic trails, disappeared. Forever.
I remember watching Fox News at 11:52pm on Nov 6th, when they called it for 0traitor; I was stunned. I’ve been out on “the ledge”, ever since, knowing that our votes don’t mean squat, anymore.
Coming soon: 3rd Party or 4th Box.
Thanks also, Nully, for the cross post.
It’s never too late to buy a couple bags of beans, a few sacks of rice, a jar or two of soup base...
You’re absolutely right about that.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, there was a massive run on bread stuffs, noodles, beans and rice, water and so on, and the just-in-time supply chain was overwhelmed, so the store shelves were pretty bare for a couple, maybe three weeks.
Thanks. I’ll put together a “month” kit.
And on your next shopping trip an extra package of TP, and a few more cans of chili and stew...
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