Page 23 - Soil Samples News Today

Small attack. joining us more to talk about those possibility legal aspects and implications is the former u.n. chief weapons inspector david kay, currently a senior fellow it the potomac institute. dr. kay thank you for being with us. you are such a critical voice at this time. could you tell me, from your experience, being in country in these kinds of circumstances as a chief weapons inspector, what kind of evidence can be found on the ground that the united nations team would be prepared to a...

Alleged chemical weapons strike. they also said they took some samples, some soil samples. ok, they of course, theyre trying to term first of all what agent might have been used in this chemical attack. >> now, the regime of the president bashar al assad, fred, they acknowledge there were chemical weapons used to kill hundreds of people outside of damascus. but they blame the rebels. they blame the opposition. they blame people they call terrorists. is that right? >> reporter: well, their story ...

Well take you there live. first, any minute now, the secretary of state john kerry will be making a statement on syria. all over this. the alleged use of chemical weapons, nerve gas, used on civilians, women and children. its the latest in a string of alleged chemical weapons attacks across syria. right now u.n. weapons inspectors, they are inside syria. they are testing soil. earlier today they were fired upon by snipers as they tried to collect samples. for the first time the u.s. now says i...

>> reporter: they were. it did cause a big delay to them. they have left for where they are staying at and came under fire. its unclear who fired. the lead vehicle of the convoy was targeted. they did manage to get on the ground in the district southwest of damascus and one of the places where chemical weapons were used against civilians. they were able to talk to some people there. they got some samples. they took soil samples as well. they now returned to the hotel where they are staying at ju...

The evidence already been collected that gives rise to this certainty? >> reporter: the u.s. apparently says that some of the evidence has been collected especially in the early hours on wednesday by doctors in those field hospitals from the victims. the u.s. also says that evidence is being compromised because of continued government shelling. as were speaking these are the suburbs of damascus in some of the place where is the chemical weapons were used. theres massive plumes of smoke because t...

Quickly hes going to really make a very tough criticism of the regime saying even though those weapons inspectors are on the ground, the administration has pretty already dismissed any conclusions they could make, saying the regime has stalled the inspectors, not really let them get the samples that they need. so really even as the team is on the ground, saying its useless. but theyre also going to say they are pretty sure that chemical weapons were used by the regime. this is an issue of intern...

Awkward to all of a sudden find a chemical weapons stash in an area thats been under siege for such a very long time. but again, who knows? its very difficult to tell at this point in time. there is no hard evidence, and the thing thats troubling about all of this, the longer all of this takes, the more difficult it will be to gather evidence. because while all of this is going on, there is still a big military operation under way by the syrian military. they are firing artillery into the same a...

Chemical weapons attack in the world since saddam hussein gassed his own people back in 1988. and looks like is the key phrase here. its hard to prove. it is hard to tell conclusively when chemical weapons have been used especially if you are trying to tell from a distance. in that iraq case it took four years for experts to confirm that chemical weapons were, in fact, used then. physicians for human rights is one of the first groups to get into the site. they collected soil samples and tested t...

Damascus. i think its about four miles away from the closest site where rebels say chemical weapons were used. u.n. teams are trying, negotiating with their syrian handlers to get access and to be allowed to visit and take soil samples and interview people to do their work. so far that has been unsuccessful. what weve been relying on are dozens of videos that have been posted by the rebels, posted by the members of the opposition. weve spoken to dock, to weve spoken to activists. they all paint ...

Syrian government. they are negotiating with syrian authorities but so far have not been able to reach those areas and do their experiments, collect soil samples, talk to survivors and medical personnel which is something that now 35 countries are demanding that they do. the syrian government, however, says there was no chemical weapons attack. that tlchbt been any chemical weapons attacks, that this is a fabrication by the syrian rebels to try to gain international support, gain sympathy, and t...