Buying chemical weapons material through the mail is quick and easy

Better Killing through Chemistry
By George Musser – Scientific American – 5 November, 2001

I was reading up on nuclear proliferation when our editorial assistant came by my office. “You’ve got a package downstairs,” he said. I took the elevator to the lobby of our building, scribbled my signature on the invoice and carried my box upstairs. I then had all the material I needed to make sarin nerve gas.

“IT’S A CINCH” to obtain off-the-shelf chemicals needed to make sarin nerve gas, as Scientific American editor George Musser found out.

Experts have been arguing for years over how realistic chemical terrorism is. Some believe it is just too hard to make and disperse deadly gases; others think we shouldn’t underestimate terrorists¿ ability and recklessness. But everyone agrees that we shouldn’t make it easy for them, which is why our experience is so sobering. The tightened security and heightened awareness following September 11 wasn’t enough to stop Scientific American, just a few blocks away from Grand Central station and one floor below American Media Group (whose Palm Beach, Fla., office had just received anthrax), from acquiring the precursors of one of the world’s most notorious chemical weapons.

It all started when James M. Tour, a well-known organic chemist at Rice University and sometime Scientific American author, began to ring the alarm bells about chemical terrorism. While serving on a U.S. Defense Department panel to study the possibility, Tour concluded that nothing stood in the way of someone trying to acquire the ingredients of a chemical weapon. In an essay last year in Chemical & Engineering News he argued for restricting the purchase of key chemicals. “They¿re too easily available,” Tour told me. “There are no checks and balances.”

Unfortunately, his essay seemed to fall into the same wastebaskets as previous such warnings. One defense analyst assured Tour that the feds already monitored “every teaspoonful” of potential weapons material.

So Tour decided to do a little test. He filled out an order form for all the chemicals needed to make sarin¿the nerve agent used by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo in its 1994 and 1995 attacks¿and two of its relatives, soman and GF. His secretary then placed the order with Sigma-Aldrich, one of the nation¿s most reputable chemical suppliers. If any order should have rung the alarm bells, this one should have.

Instead Tour got a big box the next day by overnight mail. By following one of the well-known recipes for sarin-mixing, dimethyl methylphosphonate, phosphorus trichloride, sodium fluoride and alcohol in the right amounts and sequence he could have made 280 grams of the stuff or a comparable amount of soman or GF. (That¿s more than 100 teaspoonfuls.) All this for $130.20 plus shipping and handling.

(Incidentally, some people have asked whether it is foolish to list the ingredients here. The short answer is no. For a longer answer, click here. We aren’t telling terrorists anything they wouldn’t already know. We are, however, telling the rest of us what we need to know if we are to prevent terrorists from acquiring these materials.)

Nor would delivering the agent be rocket science. To avoid handling poisons, terrorists could build a binary weapon, which performs the chemical reaction in situ. An off-the-shelf pesticide sprayer could then blow the miasma into a building ventilation system. Depending on how well the sprayer worked and how crowded the building was, 280 grams of sarin could kill between a few hundred and tens of thousands of people. The Aum attack on the Tokyo subway involved about 5,000 grams and left 12 people dead, but the cult didn’t use a sprayer. …source

Syria: France’s evidence of chemical weapons use increases with 14 samples
By Henry Samuel, Paris and Damien McElroy – 28 June 2013

The conclusive results were taken from the blood, urine, hair and clothes of people at the site of battles between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and rebel fighters.

A first batch of results from three initial urine samples led Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, to declare earlier this month he was “in no doubt” that sarin gas had been used in Syria – at least once by the regime.

The fresh results “indicate the scale of sarin use by governmental forces in the months of April and May on the front lines,” according to Le Monde, whose reporters brought back most of the samples and struck a deal with the government to publish their findings.

The bulk of the new evidence was collected from 13 people mainly in the Damascus area and examined by France’s only certified chemical weapons test laboratory, the state-run centre du Bouchet.

Some came from clothes taken from unknown victims picked up from Jobar, a district of Damascus, during a chemical weapon attack at a time when rebels were fighting government troops.

One was from a T-shirt and a blood sample taken from a victim who reportedly later died after coming into contact with the nerve agent.

A 14th sample was apparently collected by the French state itself, after an April 29 helicopter attack by regime forces on Saraqeb, in the northwest province of Idlib. One woman died in the airborne chemical drop.

After this incident Mr Fabius said there was “no doubt that it was the regime and its accomplices” that deployed sarin.

However experts said that the new results were unlikely to convince Russia, which has previously rejected the French assertions.

“This level of evidence is much wider but you still wouldn’t get a conviction in a court on it because of the difficulty of proving who used it,” said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain’s WMD forces.

In all, sarin was found in eight urine samples, two hair samples, three clothes samples and one blood sample.

They were all provided by a doctor working in a medical centre in Kaffer Batner, a suburb of Damascus where victims were treated for chemical attacks mostly in Jobar, partially controlled by rebels. The doctor’s identity was kept secret for fear of reprisals.

The new results will increase pressure on the international community to act. President Barack Obama has indicated that conclusive proof of the use of chemical weapons would be a “game changer” for Washington.

Britain has come close to endorsing the French line, saying it was “highly likely” the nerve agent had been used and that “the room for doubt continues to diminish.” Any use of chemical weapons would amount to a war crime under international law. …source

A terrorist network, animated by Bandar bin Sultan, plans to destroy Lebanon
By Ghaleb Kandil – 26 August, 2013 – Voltaire.net

The plan of the head of Saudi intelligence, Bandar bin Sultan, to cause a general conflagration in Lebanon, is revealed. The commander of the Lebanese Army, General Jean Kahwaji and Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, reported the existence of cells that project to put car bombs in all Lebanese regions. Facts have proved them right after the explosions in the southern suburbs of Beirut (27 dead and 330 wounded) and Tripoli (45 dead and over 600 injured). What happened in North Lebanon capital has shed light on the political and media entanglement of the terrorist network led by Bandar and his determination to plunge the country into a sectarian discord.

Most reactions after the bombings of Tripoli warned against discord. Senior political personalities of 8 and 14-March coalitions have expressed unequivocally support the Lebanese Army and security services in the fight against terrorist groups. They called to intensify their efforts to dismantle the networks that place car bombs.
At this stage, the investigation proved the existence of Takfirist cells responsible for firing rockets, explosions on the Beirut-Damascus road and in the Bekaa region, and car bombings. These extremist groups are funded by some Gulf countries and enjoy a political and security coverage provided by the Future Movement, under the pretext of mobilizing in support of Syrian rebels.

It is necessary to show that these cells, composed of nationals of the Gulf (especially Saudi), Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians, working to cause sectarian conflagration in Lebanon. Continue to ensure their coverage from the Future Movement, will cause severe losses to Lebanon. Saad Hariri’s party must announce clearly and openly his withdrawal of coverage to these extremists and should not provide them with protection for sectarian considerations.
The attacks in Tripoli, however, revealed the existence of a strong coordination on political and media levels to complement the work of the terrorist network led by Bandar. MP’s like Khaked Daher and Mouïn Merhebi and sheikhs close to al-Qaeda, as Bilal Baroudi, Dai al-Islam al- Chahhal and Omar Fostok, commented on the car bombings in terms that could cause sectarian strife and bloodshed. They accused, sometimes directly, Shiites of being behind the attacks against two Sunni mosques in Tripoli.

Audiovisual media, which offered generous forums for these extremist individuals, are also responsible for the spread of sectarian and confessional speeches.

The Lebanese authorities are challenged to act and react according to the state logic. They must take immediate measures to put an end to this media chaos that curb sectarian speech and dismantle the networks funded and led by Bandar bin Sultan, threatening the unity and existence of Lebanon. It is not allowed that the Army, the Resistance and some wise persons remain alone on the battlefield to defend Lebanon. …more

U.S threats intended to cover the losses of Bandar bin Sultan
by Wassim Raad –

U.S threats intended to cover the losses of Bandar bin Sultan
By Ghaleb Kandil – 26 August, 2013 – Voltaire.net

The new case of chemical weapons caused by the coalition of Western powers, Israel, retrograde Gulf monarchies, and executed by takfirist movements has fizzled because of the vigilance of the Syrian-Russian-Iranian alliance. Russian satellites are very active over Syria and the information gathered by the Syrian military command shows that the “chemical film” aims to serve as a pretext for aggression against Syria, to compensate for losses suffered by terrorist gangs sent from Jordan. These losses are estimated to be thousands of dead and wounded, during ambushes and counter-offensives launched by the Syrian army, especially around Damascus and in the region of Lattaquia, where regular troops recaptured the villages occupied by terrorists, who massacred hundreds of civilians.

The American media have spread information about the deployment of additional war ships in the Mediterranean and statements attributed to Barak Obama on examining various options, including military in Syria. Yet the American president and his staff had made clear that the United States is unable to bear the human, financial and military cost of an intervention in Syria. In addition, a NATO ground attack would be a blunder that would cost Americans a lot more than what they are capable of supporting.

Israel’s role in inciting aggression against Syria is now clear. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres called for direct intervention, saying that “it is time to get chemical weapons out of Syria.” This argument prove that the Gulf countries and Israel are, again, in the same trench.

The narrowness of the choices available to the United States and its allies is primarily due to the resistance of the Syrian government against the universal that targets the country. But also to the determination of its allies. The presence of the Russian fleet on the Syrian coast and the Mediterranean, and the support of Iran are essential. Moreover, this support has not denied these last hours. Responding to a possible military operation against Syria, Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, warned that “if the United States crossed the red line (in Syria) there will harsh consequences for the White House. ”

All these Western gestures intended to raise the morale of terrorist gangs, dominated by Takfirist, after the Syrian government had managed to bring into its fold thousands of rebel fighters. They also aim to hide the true purpose of the meeting of military staffs of a dozen countries in Jordan next week to intensify the involvement of intelligence services in Syria.

The information circulating behind the diplomatic scenes ensure that extension was granted until the end of the year to chief of Saudi intelligence, Bandar bin Sultan, in an attempt to shift the balance in Syria. That is why he ordered the attacks in Lebanon in the hope of pushing Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from Syria, where their participation has allowed the Syrian army to make significant success. At the same time, Bandar is trying to mobilize the largest number of Takfirists after thousands of mercenaries were killed.

The next four months will be characterized by a great military and political escalation, but it will not be able to cause major strategic changes. The Syrian state, its army and its allies are not willing to lose the initiative, despite the scale of the resources used by the “coalition of evil”, led by the United States. The Takfirists are rejected by the Syrian people and this reality won’t change. In addition, the “coalition of evil” is in a stalemate in Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, while Turkey saw its imperial ambitions fray, and Israel is unable to conduct further war. The ambush by the Resistance against a patrol of elite Israeli troops who crossed into Lebanon on August 7, came to remind the enemy of his impotence.

The next few months will prove that Bandar bin Sultan has managed to prolong the war in Syria. But it will show that his defeat will inaugurate a period of turmoil within the Wahhabi kingdom, and its attempts to buy for billions of dollars a role in Egypt will not help to offset its crushing defeat in Syria. …more