BERLIN (AP) — Germany exported more than 100 metric tons (110 tons) of "dual-use" chemicals to Syria between 2002 and 2006, but officials insisted Wednesday there was no indication the substances had been used to make chemical weapons such as the poisonous sarin gas used in last month's deadly attack outside Damascus.
The exports were authorized after officials were assured of "plausible civilian uses" for the chemicals, the Economy Ministry said in a written response to questions from left-wing lawmakers.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said there was no indication they had been used for military purposes.
"According to all the information available to me, they were used for civilian purposes," Merkel told public television station ARD.
But she said officials were still checking whether further shipments took place after 2006 and before May 2011, when Germany imposed strict controls on exports to Syria.
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| The first and third panels contain the German Pest Control Company emblem and the brand name Zyklon. The center panel reads "Poison Gas!" "Cyanide Preparation! to be opened and used only by trained personnel." The labels were used as evidence at the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at Nuremberg. |
N fucking B: Poison gas, Germans. We wouldn't try to invoke Godwin's Law here.
7 comments:
But THATS the problem with CW, Bouffant. When people say "what's the difference between killing people with regular artillery and gassing them?", this is the answer. EVERY country has to produce agricultural and pest control products. Therefore they will have access to the precursors and manufacturing capability necessary to produce lethal chemical weapons. You can't ban precursors to the point where nations can't address their insect-borne illness problem.
Then, if the thug-in-power decides to deal with a rebellion/insurgency problem, he can merely use a "lethal crowd control agent" to clear entire neighborhoods while leaving the infrastructure standing, which he can then repopulate with loyalists in a matter of days....
Kill 'Em All Editor:
Sounds like a problem solver to us. Even neutron bombs would allegedly do collateral infrastructure damage.
On the other hand, what the hell's wrong w/ spiders & bats to kill insects, anyway?
Oh yes. The so-called 'Neutron Bomb' is badly misunderstood. It is actually an 'Enhanced Radiation Device', a thermonuclear weapon that is designed to release more of its energy as energetic neutrons. But it's still a hydrogen bomb. The secret is the radiation case is made of nickel rather than uranium, and it uses a lithium booster to increase the number of energetic neutrons released.
But it is a nuclear weapon, and the blast/heat effect is still in the low single digits kt. Think 1 to 4 kilotons of TNT - it flattens everything for more than a half a kilometer in every direction.
Poison gas does NO infrastructure damage. Zero. Houses, roads, railbeds, water and sewage, electrical grid, everything remains in place. Just those pesky people die. You can see why the al-Assads and the al-Bashirs of the world would groove on this concept if they knew there were no consequences to using them...
GIFT GAS? Man, and I thought that "black soap" from the back of Astonishing Tales comics was a cruel practical joke.
Er, yeah ... that whole "de-Nazification" thing didn't actually go over too well with the Dulles Bros, nor with brass on the scene like Clay & McCloy (sp?) who thought them Nazzys damn sure had the right idea with the Commie-hating. So it wound up less de-Nazification & more desperately herding together premium draft-picks for the brand new bouncing baby Cold War.
"Mae Brussell began to study the pattern of Nazis coming to the United States after World War Two and patterns of murders identical to those in Nazi Germany. It was as if an early Lenny Bruce bit—on how a show-biz booking agency, MCA, chose Adolf Hitler as dictator—had actually been a satirical prophecy of the way Richard Nixon would rise to power. The parallels were frightening."
Been on that since '72. Or '84. Naw, '72.
'60s Editor:
Beware of Germans bearing "giften," we guess, esp on our b-day.
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