SYRIA-U.N SAYS CHEMICAL WEAPONS WERE USED

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

AMOS 1:5
5  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS-CHEMICAL WEAPONS

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(BIOLOGICAL/CHEMICAL/NUCLEAR) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Pro-Israel groups suspend lobby for Syria strike

Jewish organizations maintain their support for Congressional authorization of military force despite the pending US-Russia deal

By Ron Kampeas September 17, 2013, 3:02 am 0-The Times of Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pro-Israel groups suspended their high-profile lobbying effort for a strike on Syria now that the United States and Russia have struck a deal to strip the Assad regime of its chemical weapons.A spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which organized a Capitol Hill blitz last week aimed at persuading Congress to back a strike, confirmed Monday that lobbying has been suspended for now.The American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which also had been involved in the lobbying, said they would suspend lobbying, too.“We sent many messages over the last week and a half; we are not formulating new letters to the Hill,” Jason Isaacson, the AJC’s director of international affairs, told JTA. “Our message is out there should it be required.”Jewish groups had hesitated at first to sign on to the lobbying effort, fearful that their support would be construed as a pro-Israel initiative. But they dove in after President Obama called for a strike last month and senior administration officials solicited their help in persuading Congress to sign off on the military action. AIPAC sent 250 of its members for personal meetings with Capitol Hill lawmakers, a show of strength the lobby reserves for major initiatives.

Jewish groups maintained their support for a strike even after President Obama called last week for Congress to delay a vote wile he explored the Russian proposal, which calls for Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles to be eliminated by 2014. The AJC in a letter Sept. 12 to Congress members said the threat of credible military action must be maintained even as the United States looked at the Russian plan.

Leading pro-Israel figures echoed the view.“Every day that goes by without congressional authorization, it undermines the vitality of the threat,” Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, said in an interview Friday. By Monday, however, the groups had changed their tune, suspended their lobbying and endorsed the putative deal brokered in Geneva over the weekend by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.Under the terms of the agreement, Syria would be stripped of its chemical weapons by the middle of 2014. If it refuses to comply, the situation would be referred to the UN Security Council.Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has yet to formally give its assent to the deal, though government officials have indicated a willingness to approve it.“While we remain cautious about President Assad’s true commitment to disarmament, we welcome this agreement as an ambitious but hopeful first step to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria,” the ADL said in a statement Monday.Martin Raffel, the senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which had advocated for a strike, said his group would now “take its lead from the administration.”“We hope military force won’t be necessary,” Raffel said. “The point of the military force was not just to engage in the military operation, it was to try and prevent Assad from using chemical weapons. We’re cautiously optimistic this thing will all work out.”The flurry of activity followed an attack on Aug. 21 in which a rebel stronghold near Damascus was hit with chemical weapons that are believed to have killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the attack was likely perpetrated by opposition forces, but the United States maintains it was almost certainly launched by Assad.After sealing the deal with Lavrov in Geneva, Kerry flew to Israel, where he appeared at a joint news conference Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“We have been closely following — and support — your ongoing efforts to rid Syria of its chemical weapons,” Netanyahu said. “The Syrian regime must be stripped of all its chemical weapons, and that would make our entire region a lot safer.”Netanyahu cast Israel’s investment in the deal in the same terms that pro-Israel groups had framed their support last week for strike authorization: as a message to Iran.“What the past few days have shown is something that I have been saying for quite some time — that if diplomacy has any chance to work, it must be coupled with a credible military threat,” Netanyahu said. “What is true of Syria is true of Iran and, by the way, vice versa.”

Syria deal shines light on Israeli capabilities

With a US-Russia brokered agreement to eliminate Assad’s chemical weapons on the table, some say it’s Israel’s turn to come clean

By Josef Federman September 17, 2013, 1:13 am 3-The Times of Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — The US-Russian plan to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons is drawing attention to Israel’s own suspected chemical stockpile and could raise pressure on the Jewish state to come clean about its capabilities.Israel signed the landmark international treaty banning the production or use of chemical weapons two decades ago, but it is among a handful of nations that have never ratified the deal. While foreign experts widely believe that Israel likely possesses a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, Israeli officials refuse to confirm or deny the existence of any such arsenal.They say the key issue right now is Syria, not Israel.In a radio interview Monday, former Defense Minister Amir Peretz declined to discuss the country’s chemical weapons capabilities but said the international community’s attitude toward Israel is “different” from Syria.“It’s clear to everyone that (Israel) is a democratic, responsible regime,” he told Israel Radio. “I very much hope and am certain that the international community will not make this a central question and we will maintain the status quo.”Israel has been similarly vague about foreign reports of a nuclear arsenal, a policy of ambiguity aimed at deterring its enemies. But following the weekend deal between the US and Russia to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014, voices have emerged calling on the government to take similar steps.“I do believe that the Israeli government should be open about this issue, should say what arsenal, if any, it does have and should strive for an international agreement to keep all these kinds of weapons outside of the Middle East,” said opposition lawmaker Dov Khenin.

The liberal daily Haaretz wrote in an editorial Monday that the chemical disarmament of Syria gives Israel an opportunity to finally ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention.“It would be a pity if in the future Israel finds itself in the position of Syria — forced to sign the convention under international pressure,” the newspaper said.Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Israel could not ratify the treaty in such an uncertain environment. “These things are regional and we’re not going to go out there on our own,” he said.There seems to be a consensus among foreign experts that Israel has likely developed an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons over the years.“Israel’s lack of transparency has led to a continued suspicion that a chemical weapons program is in place, although we are unable to confirm this or provide any further details,” Emily Chorley, a chemical weapons analyst at IHS Jane’s, said in an email.In a report this month, Foreign Policy magazine published what it said was a secret 1983 CIA document outlining evidence that Israel possessed a chemical weapons stockpile of unknown size, likely developed in the 1970s out of fear its neighbors were acquiring such weapons.“Several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and nonpersistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents, matched with suitable delivery systems,” the document says.The article’s author, military historian Matthew M. Aid, said the nonpersistent agent was almost certainly sarin, the same chemical that the Syrian army is suspected of using in an Aug. 21 attack that allegedly killed more than 1,400 civilians and triggered the international response. It was unclear what the persistent nerve agent might be.Chemicals are labeled persistent and nonpersistent depending on how long they last.The document said Israel had possessed special testing equipment since the early 1970s and “possible tests were detected in January 1976.” It also said a “probable CW nerve agent production facility and a storage facility” were identified in 1982 in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, home to Israel’s secretive nuclear program. It said other weapons production capability was believed to exist in Israel’s chemical industry.If Israel does have an active chemical weapons program, it likely involves the Israel Institute for Biological Research, a secretive facility in the Tel Aviv suburb of Nes Ziona that is under the jurisdiction of the prime minister’s office. The facility’s website describes itself as a “governmental, applied research institute specializing in the fields of biology, medicinal chemistry and environmental sciences.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined comment.

Israel says it has never used chemical weapons on the battlefield, though in one famous incident, Israeli agents attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal by poisoning him in neighboring Jordan. The agents were captured, however, and Israel was forced to turn over the antidote.Israel has also drawn war crimes accusations for its use of white phosphorous during an offensive in the Gaza Strip in early 2009. White phosphorous can be used legally as an illuminating agent, but is forbidden from use as a weapon. The substance can be dangerous if used in civilian areas because it can cause severe burns. Earlier this year, the Israeli military said it was halting its use of the material.The use of chemical weapons is an emotional topic in Israel, where memories remain fresh of the Holocaust, when countless numbers of Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers.Since the outbreak of the civil war in neighboring Syria two and a half years ago, Israel has repeatedly warned of the dangers of Syria’s chemical arsenal. Israeli leaders fear that Syrian nonconventional weapons could either be fired into Israel, or slip into the hands of Hezbollah and other hostile groups battling inside Syria.Hirschson said attempts by Syria or any other country to link Israeli compliance with Syria’s were disingenuous efforts to divert attention away from the real issue.“I don’t think Syria is in any position to tell anyone what to do,” he said. “We have never threatened anybody with chemical weapons, never used them, and they have.”___Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Plan for Syria’s chemical weapons to be initiated within days

Hague-based watchdog says its experts are anticipating the challenges in verifying Assad’s declared stockpiles

By Times of Israel staff and AP September 17, 2013, 12:36 am 0-The Times of ISRAEL

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The head of the chemical weapons watchdog said the organization will move swiftly to help eliminate Syria’s chemical weapon stockpile.Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Ahmet Uzumcu made the pledge Monday after UN inspectors reported finding “clear and convincing evidence” chemical weapons were used in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people.“It is envisaged… That the program to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria will be initiated in a matter of days,” the Hague-based OPCW said in a statement.The watchdog said its experts “are already at work preparing a roadmap that anticipates the various challenges involved in verifying Syria’s declared stockpiles.”Syria agreed to join the organization last week in a deal brokered by the United States and Russia.Uzumcu said Monday that the Chemical Weapons Convention goes into force in Syria on October 14, and Damascus will quickly provide the OPCW with “a complete inventory of its chemical weapons” and production facilities.The organization will inspect production and storage sites and help secure them ahead of the weapons’ destruction.

UN report cites ‘convincing’ evidence sarin used in Syria

But inspectors don’t say who launched attack; US and Russia spar over military threat in case Assad doesn’t honor deal

By Edith M. Lederer September 16, 2013, 5:09 pm Updated: September 16, 2013, 7:19 pm 2-The Times of Israel

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — UN inspectors said Monday there is “clear and convincing evidence” that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people.The findings (click here to read the full report) represent the first official confirmation by scientific experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria’s civil war, but the report left the key question of who launched the attack unanswered.The rebels and their US and Western supporters have said the regime of President Bashar Assad was behind the Aug. 21 attack, while the Syrian government and its closest ally, Russia, blame the rebels.US, British and French diplomats said the findings of the UN inspectors supported their conclusion that Assad regime was to blame. Russia disagreed.Secretary of State John Kerry briefed US allies on a broad agreement reached over the weekend with Russia to end Syria’s chemical weapons program, pressing for broad support for the plan that averted US military strikes. Kerry met in Paris with his counterparts from France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia before seeking a UN resolution that would detail how the international community can secure and destroy Syria’s stockpile and precursor chemicals.

As a sign of possible difficulties ahead, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sparred Monday over possible military action if Syria doesn’t abandon its chemical weapons.And in Geneva, the chairman of a UN war crimes panel said it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks in Syria, dramatically escalating the stakes. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the panel had not pinpointed the chemical used or who is responsible.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented the UN inspectors’ report to a closed meeting of the UN Security Council before its release.“This is a war crime and a grave violation of … international law,” Ban told the council in remarks distributed to the press. “The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves. … The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.”The inspectors’ report said “the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used … in the Ghouta area of Damascus” on Aug. 21.“The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale,” the inspectors said in their report to Ban.“This result leaves us with the deepest concern,” they added.Syria initially called for a UN investigation of an alleged chemical attack on Khan Al-Assal near Aleppo on March 19, which it blamed on the rebels. But when the US, Britain and France reported other alleged attacks, the secretary-general insisted on broadening the investigation, which the Syrians opposed.After months of negotiations, an agreement was reached in August for UN inspectors to go to the sites of Khan Al-Assal and two other alleged attacks. But its mandate was limited, reportedly at Syria’s insistence, to report on whether chemical weapons were used and if so which ones — not on who was responsible.The rebels and their Western and Arab supporters blame President Bashar Assad’s regime for the attack in the rebel-controlled area of Ghouta. The Assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by rebels. The UN report mentions the Ghouta areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka, all of which were featured in the videos of victims that emerged shortly after the attack.The report cited a number of facts supporting its conclusion:

— Rocket fragments were found to contain sarin.

— Close to the impact sites, in the area were people were affected, inspectors collected 30 soil and environmental samples — far more than any previous UN investigation — and “the environment was found to be contaminated by sarin.”

— Blood, urine and hair samples from 34 patients who had signs of poisoning by a chemical compound provided “definitive evidence of exposure to sarin by almost all of the survivors assessed.”

— More than 50 interviews with survivors and health care workers “provided ample corroboration of the medical and scientific results.”

The inspectors described the rockets used to disperse the sarin as a variant of an M14 artillery rocket, with either an original or an improvised warhead. The report said the rockets that hit two of the suburbs, Zamalka and Ein Tarma, were fired from the northwest but didn’t identify the perpetrator.The inspectors did not provide an exact location on the rockets’ launch site, but Qassioun Mountain, where the Syrian military is known to have bases, is roughly northwest of both suburbs.The US, Britain and France said the findings point to the Assad government as the perpetrator of the attack.“When you look at the findings carefully, the quantities of toxic gas used, the complexity of the mixes, the nature, and the trajectory of the (gas) carriers, it leaves absolutely no doubt as to the origin of the attack,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told RTL radio Monday evening. “It reinforces the position of those that have said the regime is guilty.”US Ambassador Samantha Power said “only the regime could have carried out this large-scale attack.” She said the quality of the sarin was higher than that used by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein against Iran and there is no evidence the rebels possess the nerve agent.

Bodies being buried after last month’s chemical attack near Damascus (photo credit: AP/Shaam News Network)

The inspectors cautioned that the five sites they investigated had been “well traveled by other individuals prior to the arrival of the mission.”“During the time spent at these locations, individuals arrived carrying other suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is being moved and possibly manipulated,” the report said. The areas were under rebel control, but the report did not elaborate on who the individuals were.Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called the investigators’ conclusion “deeply disturbing” but stressed that it was too early to jump to conclusions.“Allegations that in fact it was the opposition who used chemical weapons cannot be simply shrugged off,” he said. “Those allegations also need to be very seriously investigated.”Churkin wondered why there were no reports of casualties among opposition fighters if government forces fired rockets filled with sarin to try to oust opposition groups from the area. “Is it theoretically possible to fire five or six rockets and miss your opponent?” he asked.The Aug. 21 chemical attack unfolded as the UN inspection team was in Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the Damascus suburbs.In the report, chief weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom said the team was issuing the findings on the Ghouta attacks “without prejudice” to its continuing investigation and final report on the alleged use of chemical weapons in three other areas. The letter said it hoped to produce that report as soon as possible.Under an Aug. 13 agreement between the UN and the Syrian government, Sellstrom’s team was scheduled to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack on March 19 on the village of Khan al Assal outside Aleppo and alleged attacks on two other sites which were kept secret for security reasons.The report also thanked the four laboratories designated by the Office for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to examine the samples from Syria, disclosing their locations for the first time — in Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.Kerry and his French and British counterparts worked on a two-pronged approach to Syria. They called for enforceable UN benchmarks for eradicating the chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the moderate opposition.An ambitious agreement reached with the Russians calls for an inventory of Syria’s chemical weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out of the country or destroyed by mid-2014.France and the US insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 attack remained on the table, and were pressing for a UN resolution reflecting that in coming days.“It has to be strong, it has to be forceful, it has to be real, it has to be accountable, it has to be transparent, it has to be timely. All of those things are critical. And it has to be enforced,” Kerry said. “We will not tolerate avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime.”Kerry said the agreement “fully commits the United States and Russia to impose measures under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter in the event of non-compliance.” Chapter 7 resolutions allow for military enforcement.Russia’s Lavrov said Chapter 7 was the subject of “fierce debate” during the US-Russia talks but stressed that “the final document … doesn’t mention it” and that the Security Council resolution being negotiated will not be under Chapter 7. He said if Syria fails to cooperate, the Security Council can pass an entirely different resolution “which may employ Chapter 7.”Lavrov stressed that ongoing attempts to threaten the use of force against Syria would provoke the opposition and disrupt a chance for peace negotiations in Geneva that the US and Russia have been trying to organize.Ban urged the Security Council — which has been paralyzed over Syria — to unite and ensure enforcement and compliance with the US-Russia plan.In London, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said Syria will comply with all Security Council resolutions and will facilitate the mission of the UN inspectors in line with the Russian-US agreement. The comments were carried by state-run SANA news agency, which said al-Zoubi made the comments in an interview with Britain-based ITN TV on Sunday.Meanwhile, invitations were going out Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition — the main umbrella opposition group — for an international conference in New York timed to coincide with next week’s UN General Assembly meeting, French officials said.

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