rickyp wrote:fate

The Russians supplied the weapons

.
No they didn't.

It was decades ago that the Syrians learned how to make the weapons from Russian and Iranian advisors . But having learned how they don't depend on the Russians anymore..
The Syrians made the weapons from materials supplied by countries from several foreign countries, including the US and Britain.

Fate

Now, the Russians will remove the weapons, or demand they be turned over?

So far so ggod.

AMSTERDAM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Syria has handed over information about its chemical arsenal to a U.N.-backed weapons watchdog, meeting the first deadline of an ambitious disarmament operation that averted the threat of Western air strikes.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Saturday it had "received the expected disclosure" from Damascus, 24 hours after saying it had been given a partial document from Syrian authorities.

But a senior Russian official suggested on Saturday that if there were clear indications that Assad were not committed to handing over chemical weapons, Moscow may stop supporting him.

"I'm talking theoretically and hypothetically, but if we became sure that Assad is cheating, we could change our position," said Sergei Ivanov, chief of staff for President Vladimir Putin

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... C620130921

Fate (and I earlier) says the Russians made the weapons
Rickyp says Syria made them on their own

Though many point to Russia and North Korea as potential suppliers, we now know that the source is a variety of different actors — including private manufacturers in the United States and around the globe. For example, the United Kingdom authorized the export of precursor chemicals to a known Syrian front company, which raises questions about legitimate firms' willingness to sell dangerous dual-use chemicals to a country with a chemical-weapons program in the middle of a civil war.
Reports reveal that one British company tried to sell precursors to sarin — sodium fluoride and potassium fluoride — to a Syrian firm as recently as January 2012. From 2004 to 2010, two British firms exported sodium fluoride to a cosmetics company in Syria, which likely supplied Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons program.
These sales, and others like it, have allowed Assad to amass what some believe to be the world's third-largest stockpile of chemical weapons, after Russia and the United States. Syria accumulated the production technology in the 1980s from the Soviet Union and also chemical brokerage companies across Europe.
Despite building an indigenous production capability to marry chemicals to delivery systems, Syria still requires a steady supply of many dual-use products. Existing international controls monitor the sale of these precursor chemicals — especially those that fall under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). That global agreement outlines three classes of chemicals, delineating how much of the chemical can be sold for commercial purposes.
In theory, the CWC should limit the export of these products to Syria, a non-signatory state. However, Syria's desire to accumulate these chemicals, and the market incentives created by increased demand, has created a host of black marketers willing to supply Damascus.
Similar to proliferation of other weapons of mass destruction, front companies can transport the chemicals into Syria, hiding the origins and muddying the waters on the intended end-users. Experts point to illegal front companies throughout the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Iran, that are involved in an illicit Syrian supply chain.

Yet the weapons used had Cyrillic writing on

rickyp wrote:tom

Fate (and I earlier) says the Russians made the weapons
Rickyp says Syria made them on their own

Yes and I have several sources for that...

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel perked up some ears at today’s House Foreign Affairs hearing on Syria with a brief exchange in which he said Russia had supplied chemical weapons to Syria.

It all happened in an exchange with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., during which Hagel said it’s no secret that the Assad regime has significant stockpiles of chemical weapons.

When Wilson asked where they’d come from, Hagel said, “Well, the Russians supply them. Others are supplying them with those chemical weapons. They make some themselves.”

After the hearing had concluded, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little issued a clarification, explaining that Hagel was referring to the “well-known conventional arms relationship between Syria and Russia.”

He also pointed out that Syria has had a “decades-old largely indigenous chemical weapons program.”

He added that some Russian military equipment and support can be modified to support Syria’s chemical weapons program.

Including this report from reuters. I've quoted it before, and neither you nor Fate disputed it with evidence of your own... Did it not sink in? Have a read.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... 0820130918

(Any opinions expressed here are the author's own)

. . . .There's also no doubt about where the chemical precursors for the weapons start out... It ain't Russia.

That doesn't excuse the Soviets original crime in teaching the Syrians how to make the weapons.... But they can't be blamed for continuing to keep the Syrians production facilities supplied...

Do I have a source?

Many Western companies have since contributed to the Syria weapons program by selling precursor nerve agents to SSRC front companies. As far back as 1989, then-CIA Director William Webster said, "West European firms were instrumental in supplying the required precursor chemicals and equipment. Without the provision of these key elements, Damascus would not have been able to produce chemical weapons."
In the early 1980s, the SSRC set up its first chemical munitions facility, called the “Borosilicate Glass Project.” It was equipped by Germany's Schott Corporation, one of the largest industrial glass manufacturers, which helped produce materials used by the Syrians for their weapons program. On Sept. 15, 1983, a National Intelligence Estimate noted that Syria was meanwhile "a major recipient of Soviet CW [chemical weapons] assistance" and that the country "probably has the most advanced chemical warfare capability in the Arab world.”
In 1992, a Damascus-based company, Setma, under the auspices of the SSRC, received a 45-ton shipment of trimethyl phosphite, a precursor to nerve gas, from a company in India, according to information provided by the Nuclear Threat Iniative, a non-proift organization with a mission to strengthen global security. A year later, Syria received at least 800 kilograms of raw materials for the production of an updated version of VX, a deadly nerve agent. It was sold to the Syrians by Anatoly Kuntsevich, an adviser to Russian President Boris Yeltsin on chemical disarmament and commander of the Russian Military Academy for Chemical Warfare.
Another German company, Sigri, which specialized in Teflon coatings for instruments in the chemical field, provided critical equipment for the Syrian weapons program in the 1990s, and British-based MW Kellogg set up plants for the manufacture of ammonia and urea -- both used in chemical weapons -- in Syria and Iran, Shoham detailed.

But I think the US secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel knows more than does our pal Rickyp
He says Russia supplies many of the chemical weapons.

After the hearing had concluded, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little issued a clarification, explaining that Hagel was referring to the “well-known conventional arms relationship between Syria and Russia.”He also pointed out that Syria has had a “decades-old largely indigenous chemical weapons program

Speaking during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Hagel was asked by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) where the weapons came from.

]“There’s no secret that the Assad regime has had chemical weapons, significant stockpiles of chemical weapons,” Hagel said.

Wilson asked if they come from a specific country.

"The Russians supply them, others are supplying them with those chemical weapons, they make some themselves," Hagel said.

Yes the pentagon didn't like what he actually DID say and they tried to backpedal from the statement.

Ray Jay wrote:I think Hagel said one thing, and then his staff corrected him and refined his comment.