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Report: Syrian chemical weapons appearing in Hezbollah caches.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 22nd, 2012 at 09:57 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

(H/T: Instapundit) I am back-and-forth on how seriously to take this particular story:

Two days after a mysterious explosion at a Hezbollah weapons depot in southern Lebanon, the Kuwaiti website Al Jarida is reporting that Israel bombed the site because Syria had transferred missiles there that were capable of being equipped with chemical warheads. The missiles had been moved into Lebanon from Syria in the last several months and were being held inside warehouses owned by farmers in the area.

The report also claimed that Hezbollah has many additional warehouses across Lebanon that are used for the same purpose. In October another weapons storage facility in the town of Baalbek was destroyed after an explosion. The AFP said that four Syrians were killed in the blast.

…given that I’m not familiar with either the website in question, or the site that it’s drawing its story from. On the other hand, reports that Syria is using Hezbollah as a storage facility for its weapons of mass destruction have been circulating for years. Haaretz reported something similar happening in 2009; the Washington Post, of course, had a column on the subject a couple of days ago. On the gripping hand, if I was running the Syrian regime right now I’d want to have my WMD stockpiles under the control of somebody reliable… and when you’re dealing with a civil war, ‘somebody reliable’ often means ‘somebody you’re paying.’ So it’s not really surprising that the Assad regime would move its nasty stuff to someone who’d hold onto until it was needed – and maybe supply a little WMD blackmail against the West on the side, if that was needed.

And all of this leads to the next question: what are we going to do when the Syrian civil war reaches a tipping point? With reports coming in that the Assad regime is making cruise [ballistic*] missile strikes against rebels – a pretty good indicator that the regime is worried; those things aren’t exactly recyclable – it may hit a point soon where we decide to intervene. If past history is any indication, if/when that happens it’d be done without reference to the War Powers Act… and if the (Democratic-controlled) Senate chooses to ignore that again then we might as well admit that the WPA is dead, dead, dead. Which is fine by me, but I was under the impression that various and sundry members of the antiwar movement had different opinions.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: While I expect John Kerry to get confirmed as Secretary of State, asking him during his confirmation hearing whether his backstabbing of the WPA wrt Libya was part of a quid pro quo might be amusing.

[*Silly error on my part; I wasn't feeling all that well yesterday.]

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  • tibbstaichou

    When it was found out that Iraq had “allegedly” stored chemical weapons, what did Bush do? Now its confirmed that Assad from Syria has a stockpile, and what will Obama do?

    by the way, would it be too far a stretch to assume that the Iraqi arsenal of chemical weapons could have been transferred out of Iraq and into Syria by any chance? Hence the liberal justification that it was a war that wasted billions of dollars in taxpayer’s money?

  • OhioHistorian

    There are sources that say these weapons came from Iraq. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/071912-618875-syria-chemical-weapons-came-from-iraq-.htm?p=full
    Sort of shoots “allegedly” in the foot. We need to stop with the leftist mantra that Hussein was pure as driven snow, but that Qadafi and Assad are beasts. Obama’s foreign policy looks a lot like Bush’s except that he kisses up to the socialists/communists and muslim theocracies more (e.g. Chavez and Medyev/Putin). Liberals will always say that their guy is wonderful, so we need to quit even worrying about what they say. If we would just quit electing them…

  • fredflintlock

    This guy, a former Iraqi general, claims to have the inside scoop on where Hussein’s WMD went and when. Something about a dam breaking in Syria and a “humanitarian” mission with Iraqi military planes disguised as civilian aircraft.

    Of course, neither Chris Matthews nor Wolf Blitzer ever gave this story any coverage, so there’s probably nothing to it.

  • CarolT

    I”m sure it came out at some point the Saddam put all his chemical weapons in Syria. It may not have made the media, but I know that Saddam moved them to Syria.

    We should stay out of this civil war, jus tike we should have stayed out of Libya and kept quiet about Mubarak. Things would be much better in Egypt if Obama had kept his mouth shut and let Mubarak take care of the protests on his own.
    Now the MB rules Egypt and the people there are still protesting and being killed and tortured. At least Mubarak was friendly to the US. I read how much he did during the first Gulf War in Dick Cheney’s book.

  • CarolT

    I forgot to add that John Kerry has praised Assad publicly several times, calling him a good friend. Great, another Secretary of State with very poor judgement is exactly what we do not need. Hagel as SOD is another bad move.
    We’d better pray for our country.

  • fredflintlock

    So, was Kerry for the Assad regime before he was against it?

  • checkmate2012

    Lol, yep. Just like Hillary…Assad is a reformer…Assad has to go. Man, the SoStates chosen by this admin are really scary.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/07/hillary-clinton-in-2011-assad-is-a-reformer-hillary-clinton-2012-killer-assad-must-go/

  • danilaw

    Poor judgement? Nonsense! Like most of his ilk, he is just really skilled at lying with a straight face. Useful talent for the senior diplomat? You be the judge.

  • toothpick

    The WPA is not dead, and will not be. It will simply (continue to) be a weapon that the Dems will dust off and use against Republicans any time it’s convenient and useful to do so.

    They (the left) don’t mind being hypocritical and inconsistent. They just want to *win*. “By any means necessary” is not just a slogan to them.

  • fredflintlock

    Why is it that those pesky Republicans are the ones who always start the illegal wars?

  • http://www.firstchevalier.com firstchevalier

    In point of fact the laws should be enforced, period. If they are not good laws then they should be changed or repealed/eliminated. To ‘ignore’ a law because you want to does not uphold The Rule of Law America claims to stand for, imo.

  • http://www.firstchevalier.com firstchevalier

    By the way, we KNOW Iraq had chemical weapons because we gave them to them thirty-odd years ago. They moved them into Syria right before we attacked which is also confirmed by CIA intelligence observing the trucks moving from known storage sites. EVERYONE knows Assad has the weapons, the real question is what are we going to do about them?

  • fredflintlock

    You understand that if this story ever goes mainstream, the narrative, as suggested by the investors.com story, will be that it’s our fault for picking a fight with Hussein (the other Hussein) in the first place. Clearly if we had waited for him to comply in earnest with the UN resolutions the WMD would be tucked away safely in our back yard.

  • checkmate2012

    You are joking right? Can you say Libya and South Sudan & Congo?

    I never knew why his sending troops to Central Africa never got push back from Congress when he simply notified them with a letter. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/10/obama-dispatches-100-troops-to-uganda/1

  • GreyCloak

    Al Jazeera’s Syria Blog makes no mention of weapons in the hands of Hezbollah. Instead, they say

    “Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, on Syria’s chemical weapon stock:

    According to the information we have, as well as the data of the US and European
    special services, the government is doing everything to secure it. The
    Syrian government has concentrated the stockpiles in one or two centres,
    unlike the past when they were scattered across the country.”

    Like ‘em or not, Al Jazeera has been thrown out of more Arab states than the BBC, mostly because they get to the truth.

  • Dave_A

    Since the WPA is clearly unconstitutional, it should be dead. Unfortunately, due to the above… It will be kept alive so the Dems can use it against Republican Presidents….

  • Dave_A

    There is nothing in the Constitution that requires the President to consult Congress before deploying troops…

    If a formal declaration of war is required, then the Constitution says Congress must issue it.

    But the document is silent on the subject of military actions outside a declared state of war (under the enumerated power of ‘Commander in Chief’).

  • Dave_A

    It’s unconstitutional and should die…

    BTW, the US has a major military presence in Turkey due to the NATO alliance, and the deployment of SAM systems to protect Turkey against SCUD strikes is a force-protection measure.

  • Dave_A

    There WAS a HUGE benefit to the US getting between pro-Iranian Alawi and the Sunni Arabs they were killing. Namely, isolation of Iran.

    Further, there was no benefit to remaining quiet on Mubarak & Lybia was about 20 years over due (Quadaffi should have been ousted in the 80s, for the Disco bombing & Pan Am 103)….

    The Muslim Brotherhood is not our enemy… Israels? Maybe, but that’s Israel’s problem not ours… The only way the Egyptian people will LEARN how to operate a free society, is to make some mistakes along the way… They deserve the government they voted for.

    And if the MB becomes a dictatorship, we’ll just support the next revolution like we did this one.

  • Dave_A

    Syria was known to be chem-capable prior to 03.

    However, no, it is not a stretch that Iraqi WMD went to Syria – especially since the Syrian and Iraqi regimes were ideological partners in Baathisim (a pan-Arab socialist movement, albiet more fascist than communist)…

    It’s also not a stretch that there are some WMD still in Iraq somewhere, as AQI actually used a chemical shell in an IED *by mistake*…. And we never figured out *where* they found it (yes, found is the right term – Saddam stashed ammo & weapons all over that country the same way a squirrel stashes nuts)…

  • commonsenseobserver

    Even if it were not illegal or improper to violate the War Powers Act, it is surely impolite.

  • rodguy911

    Actually between the Russians who had a huge part in transferring Iraqi wmds to Syria and Gen Georges Sada, Saddamms former Air Force Gen. most of the WMDs that Syria has are probably from Iraq.
    Sada went on talk radio and wrote a book on how he supervised the transfer of wdms,mostly poisonous gas, that were flown into Damascus by 49 flights of 707′s and 727′s with the seats removed.

    Trouble is the DBM forgot to cover all this since it didn’t fit the left’s needs at the time.Now that it does its OK to cover.

  • gunnyg2002

    I believe it is called the War Powers Act of 1973 but then again, when has the law ever mattered to the Liar-Blamer-Whiner-in-Chief?

  • gunnyg2002

    I’m all for selling arms to BOTH sides and letting them wipe themselves out. After 9/11, my sympathy quota for Muslims is pegged at zero.

  • Dave_A

    I tend to stick with the ‘rule of consistency’…

    Since I repeatedly argued that the WPA’73 was unconstitutional & Bush should ignore it, back when Bush was President… I give Obama the same allowances…

    Besides, the way I see it his fault is too little direct involvement (and thus too little American influence on the outcome) in the events of the recent ME revolutions…

  • Dave_A

    My sympathy is split, depending on what side the Muslims in question are on…

  • commonsenseobserver

    It’s not too little or too much involvement, it’s the wrong kind of involvement altogether.

  • commonsenseobserver

    I happen to think they are more likely to try wiping us out together before that.

  • funwithknives

    …and you must know then, since we “…are not of The Book and are the Crusaders and Infidels”, we mean less than squat to any True Islamic Believer and ‘taquiyya’ [lying in the name of Islam] does rule in all things……..
    If you do not know this, nor even attempt to recognize that a large part of Islamic Adherents wish for our, [and your] demise, then stay ‘split’ in your views, but never say you weren’t advised your views are naive at best……….

  • Dave_A

    That may be how Queda thinks (they claim ‘taquiyya’ allows them to break any law of Islam to further their war… Convenient, eh?), but the average Muslim is not one of ‘them’…. And there are quite a few who hate our enemies even more than we do, religious affiliations aside… Al Queda & the Taliban have killed more of them than us, by an order of magnitude…

    And until this debacle in Syria (where we let AQ rehabilitate themselves by leaving Assad in power)…. That was to our advantage – most over there are members of their family/tribe first, and Muslims second… Vendetta (well, their version of it) trumped Allah… Easily…

    So yes, I’m split in my views – when I was over there we had some genuinely *good* local troops (in our AO it was the ANP. Our ANA at the footsoldier level were generally lazy and useless, despite their officers being committed) who despite having abject rubbish for equipment & taking the brunt of the enemy’s attacks (we never got shelled – but the police compound took indirect fire regularly), fought quite hard….

    I don’t hate those folks, like I do the ones who were trying to kill me… I do somewhat feel sorry for them sometimes, since (a) we’re going to abandon them if O keeps his campaign-promise about 2014, and (b) a proper security force should not be so abjectly under-armed that they’re excited about capturing a rusty 50cal machine-gun not because they took it away from the enemy, but because they now have one 50cal machine-gun where before they had none….

  • gmat

    “Isolation of Iran” doesn’t occur for me as a “huge benefit” to the US, but I’m interested in that conversation. (If it’s something you think is self-evident, don’t bother).

  • funwithknives

    If only 10% of the Muslim world ‘believes’ in what I have stated here [and this is undoubtedly low, as once again who is gonna tell the truth to an imam-indicated/designated infidel, and one called Haram ?? ] then “we still gots us” a big honking problem.
    Dave, I live really close to Dearborn, Michigan and can tell you with no small amount of experience that what we face here in This Country is frightening if looked at objectively,and with contact experience.
    I go to their festivals/events, look, listen and learn what is said out in the open and publically.
    It is not a pretty thing to behold………and it’s a short drive from My Friggen’ House, and these are the educated ones.
    Who can tell with any kind of accuracy what lies in wait when the education many receive is from Imams, exclusively, as in many Islamic countries?