WarSclerotic

Chemical bomb shells

The United States last week began laying plans for the contingency of Syrian chemical warfare by setting up joint military, intelligence and medical working teams with Israel, Turkey and Jordan, all of which are feared under threat by Syrian president Bashar Assad, debkafile’s military sources report. The White House, the CIA and the Pentagon’s DIA are laying odds on a Syrian unconventional attack. All three countries under potential threat have put their medical services on the ready.
Because Jordan lacks the appropriate medical facilities, the United States and France have freighted over to the kingdom special forces trained in chemical warfare, military hospitals and hundreds of tons of medical equipment. Washington is taking into account that American military and strategic interests in all three countries may also be in danger.
In Istanbul, Saturday, Aug. 11, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quite frankly discussed a chemical war scenario. Referring to working groups, she said: …we need to get into the real details of such operational planning and it needs to be across both our governments (US and Turkey). Our intelligence services and our military have very important responsibilities and roles to play, so we are going to be setting up a working group to do exactly that. We have planned for many contingencies, including the very horrible scenario of the use of chemical weapons.”
debkafile: The working group she announced for the US and Turkey has been replicated for the US and Israel and the US and Jordan.
Saturday, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources disclosed exclusively that Syrian rebels had been supplied by Turkey with their first batch of FIM-92 Stinger anti-air missiles. Bashar Assad may well treat this as a game-changer in the Syrian war and decide to retaliate by unleashing chemical weapons against the rebels and his foreign foes.