As Syria Deteriorates, Neighbors Fear Bioweapons Threat -- Washington Post
Last month’s alleged chemical attack near Damascus has refocused attention on Syria’s 30-year-old biological weapons research and raised concerns about whether the government there could activate an effort to make a weapon.
Syria’s bioweapons program, which U.S. officials believe has been largely dormant since the 1980s, is likely to possess the key ingredients for a weapon, including a collection of lethal bacteria and viruses as well as the modern equipment needed to covert them into deadly powders and aerosols, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern officials and weapons experts.
This latent capability has begun to worry some of Syria’s neighbors, especially after allegations that the regime of President Bashar al-
Assad used internationally banned chemical weapons against civilians in an Aug. 21 attack.
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My Comment: This is one of those known unknowns .... fortunately no one who has defected from the Syrian government recently has talked about such weapons, making me feel a bit assured that the program is either dormant or incapable of being weaponized.
Update: Alleged chemical weapons sites can’t be bombed safely: experts -- Japan Times/AP
1 comment:
I imagine such weapons would be as dangerous to the people employing them as the targets. Especially in the close confines of a civil war.
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