Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20130828 : vimarsana.com

ALJAZAM News August 28, 2013

Everyone acknowledges their use. No one doubts that innocent men, women and children have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks. In syria. The president believes and i believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenseless men, women and children should, and must, be held accountability. The of accountable. The Vice President making it very clear the administrations intentions. Pathy culhane describes why the president has been hesitant to get involved. The president will respond to this the use of chemical weapons in syria. But the goal is not to get rid of syrian president Bashar Alassad but to send him a message. Regime change. They say no decision has been made but they say most likely it will involve cruise missiles not chemical weapons stock piles. A limited strike is unlikely to change the direction or the mowments in syria. In terms of shifting momentum on the ground its not likely. I think that targeted strikes are really more powerful in terms of the signaling that they achieve. And the sending a very strong message, that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated. Many believe the president left himself little choice but to respond. This was one year ago. A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. President obama has been hesitant to get involved in syria. The majority of the American People dont want it. And former ambassador Robert Hunter says the administration is afraid of who could come to power if assad falls. Then what happens . Who replaces that . What happens to the aloites, is there a bloodbath does al qaeda and the affiliates claim the upper hand . I think the idea is to calibrate a military action, not enough to seend message but not to send the men on the ground. If theres somebody who can do that ive not met that person. The administration is about to tell the American People why they need to get involved. It will declassify some of the evidence that proves the Assad Government is responsible for the attack trying to make the argument that the world needs to do something but only to a opinion. Patty culhane. Al jazeera washington. Mike, the Administration Direction has changed drastically, what happened . That is a testament to not only the power of the images, the horrific images but the testament to the power and ability to distribute those images. Remember this happened last wednesday. Thursday the president gave an uf statement that says we need to act within the auspices of International Law. Then the need for international inspectors, then the images continued to pour in. The International Investigators set, assad needs to let the investigators in. The Administration Says there is little doubt that assad was responsible then yesterday we heard that extremely strong statements from secretary kerry in part to galvanize Public Opinion where he called it a moral obscenity and culminated by today where joe biden said theres no doubt the assad regime is responsible. Mike, the American People are wary of any military involvement in syria. How does the president sell this military action . Whats important to keep in mind john, this is the second time this year that the Obama Administration has judge assad to have deployed these chemical weapons. The president has been very hesitant to get involved in the course of the three years of civil conflict under withering response from john mccain on capitol hill. There has been this hesitancy and obviously a war weariness on the part of the american public. I think a good gaining of where the milk stands gauge of where the public stands, the point might be academic bit that point john. Mike thank you. Momentum for military intervention, is building in syria as well. President says hes ready to punish those who gassed sifnlings and the British Government recalled people to placement. David cameron cut short his Summer Holiday and returned to london to decide what action britain should take on syria, and he decided placement to do the same. Yes it is my notion to put forward a motion in placement so members of placement will be able to vote. Obviously this is a developing situation, decisions havent been taken but we shouldnt stand by when we see this massive use of chemical weapons. The appalling levels of suffering. So crucially mps will get to decide on any military involvement, clearly David Cameron is gambling that placementarians, more importantly that they might be prepared to commit u. C. Personnel uk personnel and hardware to a u. S. Led campaign. But some arent so keen. We were told Saddam Hussein had wmd. Placement want to ask the questions, can these claims be verified and debate the consequences of going alone without the u. N. Which is what washington and placement want to do. The noises are getting louder. The chemical mess in syria cannot be left without a response. The despictable decision to gas innocent. The u. S. , the u comfort and france are well aware that russia and china would likely veto action if it went before the u. N. Security council. Alternate frameworks are being examined. Yet to be decided proposals on thursday but if the talk coming from washington is to be believed the bombs could be falling by then. Rohery challenge, al jazeera london. James baye joins us from the u. N. What are you hearing there james . Well john you heard all that tough talk coming from washington, london and paris. Diplomats you speak with here say yes, maybe president obama hasnt made his decision yet but it is hard to back down now and really they believe its not a question of any morp, if there is an operation, a strike that takes place in the coming days without the authorization of the u. N. Security council and that raises questions about its legality. The syrian foreign minister gave his first reports of the growing possibility of an imminent strike by the u. S. And its allies. We are all hearing the drums of war around us. If they want to launch a war in syria i think the pretext of chemical weapons is fragile. It is a false pretext. Russia an the iranians are saying military action conducted without the u. N. Security council would be a breach of International Law. We hope that the american and the european leaders all make remarks about them have enough wisdom, especially seeing that the u. N. Security council has issued no permissions in this regard and apparently is not going to issue any. A u. N. Spokesman was asked about this and was quick to dodge the question. I wouldnt speculate on what hypothetical military action would look like. We have no way of knowing. John in the last couple of hours i was wandering into the Security Council of the United Nations, the place where these Big Decisions are normally authorized. It was completely empty, wasnt sitting, no one was talking about syria. But the scenes behind the United Nations, calls being made, those key to making these disurgses the uk france and the u. S. Are trying to build a coalition, trying to make the point that even if they dont have the approval of the Security Council there is a moral authorizessation of this because an International Norm has been crossed and chemical weapons have been used. James bays, thank you very much. Well syria is slightly larger than north dakota. It sits at the edge of the mediterranean sea. Turkey on the north iraq to the east and jordan on the south. Its population 22 million, its capital dmas cuss and its president Bashar Alassad. John, were hearing that Bashar Alassads brother is running things behind the scenes. What can you tell us . I know and who knew . I mean who knew there was a brother potentially behind the scenes running things. I suppose most people havent given this much thought. Here he is, hes maja alassad. He hasnt been seen in public for the best part of the last year and those people who think they might have seen him flitting around in damascus say he might have had an injury to his hand or his leg and the feeling out there at the moment is that it may be that it was this man, mmentaja alass ad who was behind the attack. Not the president . Not the president. Here you have a situation of i wont say the good brother and the bad brother but you know the idea. There was another brother who was groomed to be president right . Basil, this guy died at a car crash. Driving a mercedes at top speed to the airport, hit the reservation and died snanlt. That means Bashar Alassad was never groomed to be the president , when he was called to lead in 2000 he was an eye doctor, in london, by all accounts a very likable man. Their father, hafas alassad, was a very bad man, the syrian army nearly leveled the town. When bashar took over they thought it would be all right. He has the support of the military, the police and the government, the support of the russians, a very complex relationship between syria and russia. He has the support of the alloites, secret kind of religion that is allied to the shia religion but they all support this man. If you have a situation where he was to be deposed in some way by this attack that may or may not be coming then i think he would just simply be replaced by somebody else who represents the hierarchy i just spoke about. If their goal is regime change, if that is what it is down the road then that opens up a whole new scenario because then you open up the al qaeda people that are part of the rebels in running the country. That may be something is a road they dont want to go down because they simply know the devil they know is better than the one they dont, that is Bashar Alassad. Its a very complex country. John, thank you very much. What are United Nations inspectors looking for on the ground . Hamash is a weapons expert. First of all i think most inspectors will get this clipped to their belt which will identify a chemical agent, test for a nerve agent, tell you whether it is serin or vx or a blister agent like mustard gas. It seems the most logical at the moment a nerve agent was used and probably serin. We have a very simple device that will work with antibodies, will identify eight pathogens, ananthrax, ricin and plague. The answer to protect civilians is very straightforward. We start off with a one size fits all rest operator that will be put on in a couple of seconds. This will give you comprehensive protection against some chemical webs. Allied with that is basic advice. Ideally you should move upwind because the gas will be moving rapidly down wind and you should move to Higher Ground. These come in clouds and in theory, if you hold your breath for 20 or 30 seconds get to Higher Ground and get out of that cloud and there is a chance you will survive. The planning that went into this attack seems to be in detail. Which again is pointing to the regime, to blow the windows and doors out so the chemicals can more easily get into the buildings. Then the chemical bombardment which forced people into cellars, its heavier than the air, deployed a couple of hundred feet above ground, and finds its way down, increasing the casualty count and then were hearing reports that the syrian army followed up in those areas once they new that the chemicals would have lost their effect. In our coverage of syria continues from State College pennsylvania were joined by richard butler, the former chief weapons inspectors in iraq and president and ceo of pioneer consulting group. Let me start with you mr. Ambassador. Will the inspectors presenting a preive report comprehensive report even be possible at this point . It will be difficult. They were kept away for five days and the chemicals degrade, they leave traces of their having been there but the second day would be best. They have tissue samples, urine and blood and the reports are that the syrian authorities wouldnt let them exhume bodies and wouldnt be available the tissue samples and i think too theyre allowed to take only limited quantities of blood and urine. So im a little bit pessimistic about the possibility that the u. N. Team will be able to bring back, as detailed or as conclusive a report as we would have hoped. And i want to emphasize this i know aki selstrom the leader, very well, we have worked together in the past, the they are men and women of extraordinary ability, determination and integrity. Im sure the same is true today. No matter how good they are they need proper access in a timely fashion and i think thats being denied them. So im not terribly optimistic that the report will be as comprehensive as we would like it to be. And as i understand it the inspectors have been asked to determine whether or not chemical weapons were used not who fired chemical weapons if they do find chemical weapons were used. So what does that do to help the United States in its effort to try to gather allies to support some sort of military response . I think youve just drawn a crucial distinction between two things. The question, the first question that needs to be answered, is, those pictures that we saw and the numbers of dead and injured that Doctors Without Borders for example presented to the world, was that the result of the use of chemical weapons . Now there seems to be a fairly widespread consensus from the evidence thats available now, even before the u. N. Report comes back, the picture seems very clear. The chemical weapons do certainly appear to have been used. But the second question, the one that you distinguished from the use of weapons as such, was that of their provenance. Where did they come from and who authorized or directed that they be used . And in my mind, that now has become the crucial question in determining what action should be taken, if this global norm against any use of chemical weapons has been violated. Which appears that it has. That is, who violated it . Whos to be held responsible . And were here already, a widespread argument developing, on one end of the spectrum the russians and others saying under no circumstances is there evidence that the u. N. Directed this and on the other end of the spectrum u. S. And other representatives france for example have virtually said that they are completely satisfied that this was directed by the Assad Government. I hear that repeatedly, just a few moments before coming to the studio, you reported it, the Vice President of the United States set he was completely satisfied that this was directed by the Assad Government. I respect him, i respect and know joe biden. He may be completely satisfied. But i want to make this point. His being completely satisfied is not the evidence being made to the world public. If it is the case that that evidence exists the United States and others and all people who are interested in this terrible problem, need to have it demonstrated not just stated but demonstrated. That it is beyond doubt, incontrovertible, that this was directed by the syrian regime. This is an important point. If that proves to be the case then whole issue of what action needs to be taken gets to be a whole lot clearer. Right but that said, if the inspectors cant do their work and by the way, they were unable to go on site today because the Syrian Government could not assure their safety. How account u. S. Make a decision like this when we may not get a report . Well, with profound difficulty. I go again to your really crucial distinction. It seems almost certain, you know, pretty credible, lets say its clear, that chemical weapons were used, okay . Im prepared to say that it has all the appearance of that, okay . But what we dont yet know, and it would be best we could verify that with a bit more hard evidence. But lets say thats a given. What we dont know is who directed that action . And thats crucial to determining what punishment as i think joe biden called it and the french ministers have been saying, there must be a consequence, a price to be paid be for having done this. In principle i agree with that. Because the norm of nonuse of chemical weapons is so precious. But we must be sure were punishing the right person. And im taking the purely intel intellectual and slightly political point that its in everyones interest that the identification of that person held responsible be not simply on the basis of gut feeling or the best, thats what we think. We need it as hard evidence to show the world the proof and once that is done the picture will look very different indeed. Youve been there before. Let me bring in tim crockett for a moment. Tim when were talking about a military strike what form might it take . Well, this doesnt end the difficulty there. I think at the very least were looking at some limited action to at least send that message. Youve used chemical weapons, youve crossed our red line so lets go in and restore some level credibility to our own authority. How that unfolds again, difficult to say at this stage. But were going olook at, at least some kind of critical command structure within the military, not necessarily the government but the military. Cruise missiles . Yes. I think at this stage we dont want to commit personnel. Syria has a very 76thed and robust air defense system. So in order to get past that youd have to commit considerable amount of resources. So some form of standoff attacks, tomahawks, cruise missiles maybe the use of stealth bombers thats what were going to look at and again theyre going to focus on key critical command infrastructure, communications, to try and degrade the ability or at least send the message dont use chemical weapons again. Right but they still have the chemical weapons. I mean cruise

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