Posted on 02/24/2012 5:37:47 PM PST by U-238
The State Department has begun coordinating with Syria's neighbors to prepare for the handling of President Bashar al-Assad's extensive weapons of mass destruction if and when his regime collapses, The Cable has learned.
This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria's neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria's WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable. For concerned parties both inside and outside the U.S. government, the demarche signifies that the United States is increasingly developing plans to deal with the dangers of a post-Assad Syria -- while simultaneously highlighting the lack of planning for how to directly bring about Assad's downfall.
Syria is believed to have a substantial chemical weapons program, which includes mustard gas and sophisticated nerve agents, such as sarin gas, as well as biological weapons. Syria has also refused IAEA requests to make available facilities that were part of its nuclear weapons program and may still be in operation.
The State Department declined to provide access to any officials to discuss the private diplomatic communication on the record, such as the author of the demarche Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Tom Countryman. In a meeting with reporters earlier this year, Countryman expressed confidence that the United States knows where Syria's WMD stockpiles are, but warned that they could become a very serious security issue for Syria and the region going forward.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecable.foreignpolicy.com ...
I cannot believe nobody followed that up.
If WMD justifies war with Iraq...it would also justify war with Syria. US forces were engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time.
Attacking a third muzzie country (expecially one allied to Iran, with us already in two countries that flank Iran) could have touched off all sorts of nasty outcomes.
Sometiems pretending one problem doesn't exist....prevents that small problem from becoming a very big nasty problem.
Syria has always been the Israelis backyard. Let them handle it. The took care of that nuclear plant in 2007(Operation Orchard)
Maybe that’s why Obama didn’t want to topple the Iranian or Syrian regimes. Inspectors might go in afterwards and find WMDs with Saddam’s fingerprints on that he smuggled over the border out of Iraq. Obama wouldn’t want to undermine his argument that Bush going into Iraq was an unjust war.
I know, I was in Al-Anbar province when that happened. If the Israelis would have attacked Syria at the same time we were conducting the 'invasion phase' of Iraq......it would have been outed as a concertated US/Iraeli plot. It would have touched off WWIII and been touted as a Zionist plot to commit genocide of muslims.
Iraq was always Israel's backyard too.....just like when they bombed the Iraqi reactors in the 80s.
That is true. Good point!
Yes. Though I’m saying Russians & Iranians because they are actively sending in weapons and manpower right now to fight against the uprising.
Unless something is done to stop that support & strengthen the opposition’s side, Assad will win.
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