OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria (►https://www....
▻https://diasp.eu/p/6997497
OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria
#Syria #OPCW #war #Chemical #Weapons #Douma #politics #international
OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria (►https://www....
▻https://diasp.eu/p/6997497
OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria
#Syria #OPCW #war #Chemical #Weapons #Douma #politics #international
OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to #Douma, Syria
Tuesday, 10 April 2018
▻https://www.opcw.org/news/article/opcw-will-deploy-fact-finding-mission-to-douma-syria
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 10 April 2018 — Since the first reports of alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, were issued, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been gathering information from all available sources and analysing it. At the same time, OPCW’s Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, has considered the deployment of a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team to Douma to establish facts surrounding these allegations.
Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment. This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly.
Background
Set up in 2014, the on-going mandate of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission (FFM) is “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals, reportedly chlorine, for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic”. The OPCW cannot and will not release information about an on-going investigation. This policy exists to preserve the integrity of the investigatory process and its results as well as to ensure the safety and security of OPCW experts and personnel involved. All parties are asked to respect the confidentiality parameters required for a rigorous and unimpeded investigation.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW oversees the global endeavour to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997 – and with its 192 States Parties – it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
Over ninety-six per cent of all chemical weapon stockpiles declared by possessor States have been destroyed under OPCW verification. For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Prolong the trends of miniaturisation, autonomy and lower costs - the result is obviously cheap insect-like fully autonomous and lethal. Now we realize that it is no longer science-fiction but the coming environment - especially against non-state actors. It is not quite like ground combat as we now it and it is also a dimension separate from macro-scale high-altitude air combat. Now what ?
"Using a new technological invention, the Red robots wiped out the Blue robots in the first days of the war, compelling the Blue humans to surrender. Some Blue humans tried to fight on, but the Red robots disarmed them, laughing at their slowness. The videos taken by the Red robots went viral"
On tomorrow’s battlefields, swatting swarms of autonomous bullet-drones...
▻https://balloonstodrones.com/2018/03/28/air-operations-at-the-level-of-boots-on-the-ground #weapons #robots
Changes to #suicide tactics in the battle for #Mosul
▻http://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/military-review/Archives/English/Adaptation-and-Innovation-with-an-urban-twist.pdf #Irak #Iraq #war #weapons #guerre #armes #asymmetric_warfare #guerre_asymétrique
Suicide bombers has always been an asymmetric response to lack of precision weapons. Once a replacement is developed, we can expect suicide bombing to recede despite its serving as a signaling function for ideology by demonstrating determination & sacrifice. (Which reminds that the coming proliferation of cheap precision guided munitions is not going to be fun)
First there is a movement down and to the right (less weight, more yield — improved fission bombs); there is also a movement sharply up and to the right (high weight, very high yield — thermonuclear weapons) which then moves down and to the left again (high yield, lower weight — improved thermonuclear weapons). There is also the splinter of low-weight, low-yield tactical weapons as well that jots off to the lower left. In the middle-right is what appears to be a sophisticated “sweet spot,” the place where all US weapons currently in the stockpile end up, in the 0.1-3 kt/kg range, especially the 2-3 kt/kg range:
#log-log …
The history and adaptability of the Islamic State car bomb
▻https://zaytunarjuwani.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/the-history-and-adaptability-of-the-islamic-state-car-bomb #SBVIED #VIED #ISIL #Islamic_State #ISIS #suicide #weapons #armes #Irak #Iraq #Syria #Syrie #Mosul
“Let’s make a delivery !” "Why don’t YOU drive ?" - #C&C #Red_Alert 2 seventeen years ago really was visionary, but seeing SVBIED routinely used as a normal component of ground assaults is something I would not have imagined actually happening outside of a silly game.
US delivers rifles to #Lebanon in arms aid deal
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-delivers-rifles-lebanon-arms-aid-deal
A shipment of 1,000 light war rifles arrived in Lebanon from the United States this week as part of a deal between the American and Lebanese armies, the Lebanese military said in a statement Thursday. The rifles are part of a US aid program to Lebanon’s military. The program most recently delivered 21 military buses to the #lebanese_army in April, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. The shipment arrived exactly one month after a meeting between Lebanese army chief Jean Qahwaji and US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to discuss American aid for the Lebanese army. read more
#turkey seizes #syria-bound arms shipment
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/turkey-seizes-syria-bound-arms-shipment
Turkish security forces have seized a truck laden with #weapons bound for Syria and arrested three people including a Syrian, local media reported on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, security forces on Wednesday stopped the truck in the southern province of Hatay on the Syrian border, Hurriyet newspaper reported. A significant quantity of ammunition and weapons were discovered in the truck, whose drivers claimed they were carrying aid on behalf of the pro-Islamic Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). But IHH dismissed the allegations as “slanderous.” read more
Arming Egypt, by Nizar Manek - English edition blogs
▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/arming-egypt
The #US doesn’t want to lose its access to the pyramids, nor does it want to allow its bilateral ties with #Egypt — the world’s fourth largest F-16 operator — to go limp. The two main categories under which US military equipment are sold to foreign customers — Foreign Military Sales (FMS, from the US Department of Defense stockpiles) and Direct Commercial Sales (from the manufacturers) — are a form of industrial policy, labelled an act of “rent-seeking” by a political elite and a “rent-granting” state, or a “strategic effort” by the US government to finance the growth of the defence manufacturing sector of the American economy, maintain its expertise in a global market for #weapons deals, and bolster employment levels.
Les USA devraient vendre pour 11 milliars de dollars d’armes à l’Arabie à Saoudite et aux Emirats Arabes Unis - Middle East Monitor
▻http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/americas/7845-america-sells-arms-to-saudi-and-the-uae-worth-11-billion
The US Department of Defence has announced its intention to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates valued at $11 billion. Officials at the Pentagon said that they are submitting a draft contract for the deal to the US Congress this week.
’Our’ weaponized Wahhabi bastards
▻http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-02-181013.html
Machiavelli taught us that individual will is as crucial as international power play in determining foreign policy decisions. The Florentine stressed how fortuna (fortune) can be capricious, and how history can be contingent. So how does a great Prince steer his state? By deploying virtu (virtue).
Oh no, this has nothing to do with the guilt-ridden Christian mish-mash, which also happens to be a crucial pillar of the “American exceptionalism” concept. It’s all got to do with classical values predominant in the Ancient World - from Greece to Persia. Virtue as in knowledge, strength, courage, and cunning.
So under this gold standard, Vladimir Putin certainly qualifies as a worthy Prince. Deng Xiaoping certainly did. Hassan Rouhani in Iran may reveal himself to be of the same caliber. But what about those angry, fearful, intolerant, yet heavily weaponized Arab princes? You don’t need to be a pilgrim to Mecca-as-Disneyland to find your answer.
10 Chemical Weapons Attacks Washington Doesn’t Want You to Talk About
▻http://www.policymic.com/articles/62023/10-chemical-weapons-attacks-washington-doesn-t-want-you-to-talk-about
Sur le sujet : Irak : après les feux de la guerre, les cancers - Les blogs du Diplo
►http://blog.mondediplo.net/2012-12-05-Irak-apres-les-feux-de-la-guerre-les-cancers
Et le travail du reporter franco-irakien Feurat Alani, notamment le docu « Fajullah, a lost generation »
Recent bloodshed underscores urgent need to halt arms transfers to Egypt | Amnesty International
▻http://amnesty.org/en/news/recent-bloodshed-underscores-urgent-need-halt-arms-transfers-egypt-2013-08-
All governments must suspend the transfer of weapons of the type used by Egypt’s security forces in violent dispersals and unwarranted lethal force against sit-ins and other protests, Amnesty International said today.
Tear Gas, A Deadly Chemical Weapon in Bahrain
▻http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/tear-gas-a-deadly-chemical-weapon-in-bahrain
La bataille pour Damas ? CBS News rassemble, à son tour, des informations qui tendent à démontrer que la grande offensive sur Damas (la sixième ?) est en vue. Si les financements qataris et saoudiens de fourniture d’armes à destination de l’opposition syrienne étaient largement médiatisés, en revanche l’implication des Etats Unis et d’autres Etats occidentaux était assez peu commentée. Ce n’est plus le cas puisqu’on dispose désormais d’un grand nombre de commentaires de presse sur les types d’armes exportées vers la Turquie et la Jordanie, sur le rôle de la CIA qui interviendrait pour s’assurer que ces armes finissent entre des mains « modérés et légitimes » (Kerry en marge d’une réunion de l’opposition tenue en Italie) et qu’elles rééquilibrent l’effort militaire fourni par l’Iran à Assad, enfin, sur l’abondance des matériels militaires qui arrivent en Syrie en préparation à une offensive finale sur Damas.
▻http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57576722/ap-master-plan-underway-to-help-syria-rebels-take-damascus-with-u.s.-approv
CBS/AP/ March 28, 2013, 5:26 AM
AP : "Master plan" underway to help Syria rebels take Damascus with U.S.-approved airlifts of heavy weapons
“Mideast powers opposed to President Bashar Assad have dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels in coordination with the U.S. in preparation for a push on the capital of Damascus, officials and Western military experts said Wednesday. A carefully prepared covert operation is arming rebels, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a senior Arab official whose government is participating. His account was corroborated by a diplomat and two military experts. Saudi Arabia and other regional powers have been arming Syria’s rebels for months, but the scale and coordination with the West — and the suggestion by the AP’s sources that the effort is linked to a plan for the rebels to try and seize Damascus — represents a potentially significant escalation in the civil war.”
#Syria #weapons_supplies #escalation #battle_for_Damascus #Croatian_arms #Qatar #Turkey #Jordan #chemical_weapons #Kerry
America’s secret plan to arm #Libya's rebels - Middle East, World - The Independent
►http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/americas-secret-plan-to-arm-libyas-rebels-2234227.html
Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi
By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent
Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked #Saudi_Arabia if it can supply #weapons to the rebels in Benghazi.
►http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00571/main-libya-arms_571521t.jpg
arms trade « MAHB Sustainability Initiative
►http://mahbsustainability.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/arms-trade
Sergei Chemezov, the head of state industrial holding for Russian Technologies, says that Russia is to lose $4 billion in arms exports to Libya due to the imposition of UN sanctions against Gaddafi’s regime
via blogs.aljazeera.net
one of the great resistors to sustainable peaceful world. The US is too involved and too given to arms as jobs.