Revealed: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after war began

[jakeXT]

Source: Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail

FURIOUS politicians have demanded Prime Minister David Cameron explain why chemical export licences were granted to firms last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began.

BRITAIN allowed firms to sell chemicals to Syria capable of being used to make nerve gas, the Sunday Mail can reveal today.


...

The chemical export licences were granted by Business Secretary Vince Cable’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began.

They were only revoked six months later, when the European Union imposed tough sanctions on Assad’s regime.

Read more: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/britain-sold-nerve-gas-chemicals-2242520

[Scuba]

1. No one could have predicted that.

[darkangel218]

2. Did you read the article? the chemicals were sold AFTER

the uprising began.

[TalkingDog]

4. You forgot the sarcasm tag.

fixed it.

[Scuba]

5. Thanks, at least you got it.

[Thor_MN]

13. In all fairness, you don't look that much like Condalisa Rice...

Just saying...

[Scuba]

15. Agreed. I'm also NOT a war criminal.

[rhett o rick]

26. Hey, I got it. you always like him best. nm

[Skittles]

28. I WILL KICK SARCASTIC SCUBA ASS

YES INDEED

[Enthusiast]

19. Like planes and buildings?

[robinlynne]

20. exactly.

[bigbrother05]

21. We didn't sell crack, it was 20 tons of Sudafed

Who could have known?

[Berlum]

3. "What's wrong with hauling in some massive War Profiteering booty?" - Republicons

"The freaking LibTards in England, and in America, just don't get it about the free enterprise system." - Republicons (R)

[George II]

6. This is ridiculous...

Sodium fluoride is used in DRINKING WATER, Americans have been ingesting it for decades.

Potassium fluoride is used in all kinds of industries, mostly metallurgical uses.

[jakeXT]

7. Looks like Syria isn't doing it..or they didn't mention them

http://www.bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-%20The%20Extent%20of%20Fluoridation.pdf

[George II]

11. My point was that sodium fluoride is a common substance with innocent uses

[SunSeeker]

18. Is it used to make Sarin? nt

[Igel]

23. In 2000 and 2001 and 2002 there was the same debate.

Aluminum tubes, IIRC. They could be used to enrich uranium.

They could be used for making drinking water and outfitting sewage treatment plants.

Those who fervently believed Saddam was resurrecting his nuclear weapons program said, "Dual use = bad use." Those who said, "Little innocent babies are dying because we deny them these harmless, innocent tubes, and each of us, personally, is morally liable for each and every cry and--shudder to think--death. We must do something! Think of the babies and don't tie up those tubes!"

There were a lot of dual-use materials. Some were chemical. Some were mechanical or used in construction and machinery.

We see the same debate concerning Israeli limitations of imports into Gaza. "We need pipes for sewers and drinking water!" The response being, "We know that you use at least some of them for building rocket launchers that you are so proud of." You tell me what you believed before you hear the report and you've probably at the same time stated what you think the One True Moral Stance is.

American politics played the same game with the precursor chemicals used by Saddam to produce toxic gas for use against the Kurds. Most didn't come from the US, but since we're each morally personally responsible for everything, we only focus on what the US sent. A lot of those chemicals were dual use, as well. You pick who you think is evil, assume that the only use to be made of a dual-use import is the evil one, and you've used your assumption to prove the assumption.

[FarrenH]

41. Thanks for being the voice of reason n/t

[Lurks Often]

27. Agreed, but your post will be ignored by most of DU

because it uses facts and common sense. Most of the chemicals exported to the Syria and Iraq (under Saddam) had multiple uses and any decent chemical company can make usable chemical weapons.

[DeSwiss]

35. Misused you mean.

Fluoride is fuckng POISON!!!!

- Get it!?!?! Damn!

[George II]

38. Most substances, if misused, can be poison.

[DeSwiss]

39. This was concentrated toxic powder. (As stated in the article)

It was already poison upon manufacture.

Water is poison but only in massive quantities.

This shit was poison the moment it was made.

It was made to be a poison.

Not unless you believe they were buying this toxic powder supposedly to make aluminum windows while they're also in the middle of a civil war!

- That level of incredulity would be considered toxic as well.........

[Pterodactyl]

8. To be fair, although the sale was wrongheaded, the weapons were most likely built well before ...

... the importation and the chemicals themselves have medical and industrial uses as well as weapons uses. Britain should have blocked the exports, but it would not be fair to say that the chemicals were used in the attack.

[George II]

10. Maybe not fair, but for some it certainly is easy to make such ridiculous claims

[mathematic]

9. Not Chemicals!

This is like blaming the export of computers to Syria for the chemical weapons attack because the generals communicate via email.

Fluorine is the universe's most reactive element. It reacts with everything that can react with anything. It's more common in the earth's crust than carbon. It can be made anywhere on the damn planet. If they were buying it from the UK its only because the UK companies must have been giving them a good price.

[Posteritatis]

25. Yeah, freaking out over fluorine is silly; it's not even Schedule 3. (nt)

[Arctic Dave]

12. Our local agitprop war cheerleader already posted this months ago.

The "chemicals" are use in fluoridating water. If you consume water from a municipality then you've been drinking all this time.

[jakeXT]

16. I've only tasted tea with chlorine. The question is what impact it will have on UK politics,

just a minor footnote or more ?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_chlorination

[workinclasszero]

14. See? The MIC ALWAYS MAKES $$$$

Obviously the MIC is alive and well not only here but GB as well!

So they sell gas to a dictator in danger of losing his civil war...knowing full well what the slimeball is going to do with it.

Then their fellow MIC in the USA sells the missiles, bombs, etc necessary to take out gas using dictator!

So who loses? Syrians who get gassed, dictator who gets tomahawked, bombed, GB and American public who have to pay for this shit in blood and money.

Who wins?

The bloody fucking MIC who set the whole thing up from jump, it would seem!

The MIC ALWAYS WINS! ALWAYS!!!

[Egnever]

33. good lord step back from the ledge

did you even read the article or are you just lighting your hair on fire over a headline?

[caseymoz]

17. To Repubs: It's not Saddam's old cache.

Our current allies sold the weapons to Syria.

[daleo]

22. Hard to say about this

The chemicals are in powder form and highly toxic. The licences specified that they should be used for making aluminium structures such as window frames.

Professor Alastair Hay, an expert in environmental toxicology at Leeds University, said: “They have a variety of industrial uses.

“But when you’re making a nerve agent, you attach a fluoride element and that’s what gives it
its toxic properties.

“Fluoride is key to making these munitions.

- from the article.

On the one hand, it may be that these are common and easy to make anyway. But, if so, why bother with sanctions later?

[cstanleytech]

24. I am confused.

The author starts with the headlin of "Revealed: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after war began"

yet they then write

"BRITAIN allowed firms to sell chemicals to Syria capable of being used to make nerve gas, the Sunday Mail can reveal today."


Then again I guess it makes a better headline than

"Revealed: UK sold chemicals capable of being made into nerve gas to Syria 10 months after war began"

would make.

[dipsydoodle]

29. Government let British company export nerve gas chemicals to Syria

The Government was accused of “breathtaking laxity” in its arms controls tonight after it emerged that officials authorised the export to Syria of two chemicals capable of being used to make a nerve agent such as sarin a year ago.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will on Monday be asked by MPs to explain why a British company was granted export licences for the dual-use substances for six months in 2012 while Syria’s civil war was raging and concern was rife that the regime could use chemical weapons on its own people. The disclosure of the licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride, which can both be used as precursor chemicals in the manufacture of nerve gas, came as the US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had evidence that sarin gas was used in last month’s atrocity in Damascus.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills insisted that although the licences were granted to an unnamed UK chemical company in January 2012, the substances were not sent to Syria before the permits were eventually revoked last July in response to tightened European Union sanctions.

In a previously unpublicised letter to MPs last year, Mr Cable acknowledged that his officials had authorised the export of an unspecified quantity of the chemicals in the knowledge that they were listed on an international schedule of chemical weapon precursors.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-let-british-company-export-nerve-gas-chemicals-to-syria-8793642.html

[Vanje]

30. We'd better bomb Great Britain.

for "punishment", crossing the red line and all.

[former9thward]

43. Let's take out Big Ben.

That will be our "shot across the bow."

[Lasher]

31. Locking...

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.

[Lasher]

32. Unlocking this thread

We confused the Sunday Mail (the Sunday counterpart of the legitimate Daily Record) with the Mail on Sunday (the Sunday counterpart of the Daily Mail, a tabloid). We regret this mistake.

Lately we have been seeing a lot of unfamiliar news sources and we are doing our best to recognize the ones that are not reputable mainstream news websites or blogs, and therefore forbidden by the LBN SOP. We'll get better at it.

Lasher

[Alamuti Lotus]

34. London must be punished!

No. 10 needs a 'haircut'!
Glass the motherfuckers!
No blood for boiled pizza!
Cameron is the modern Hitler!
<insert other disturbing war slogans that only sound cool when they're uttered against non-white targets>

[DeSwiss]

36. Potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride

He said: “At best it has been negligent and at worst reckless to export material that could have been used to create chemical weapons. “MPs will be horrified and furious that the UK Government has been allowing the sale of these ingredients to Syria. “What the hell were they doing granting a licence in the first place?

“I would like to know what investigations have been carried out to establish if any of this material exported to Syria was subsequently used in the attacks on its own people.” The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Angus Robertson MP, said: “I will be raising this in Parliament as soon as possible to find out what examination the UK Government made of where these chemicals were going and what they were to be used for. “Approving the sale of chemicals which can be converted into lethal weapons during a civil war is a very serious issue.

*snip*

The Government have refused to identify the licence holders or say whether the licences were issued to one or two companies. The chemicals are in powder form and highly toxic. The licences specified that they should be used for making aluminium structures such as window frames.

Professor Alastair Hay, an expert in environmental toxicology at Leeds University, said: “They have a variety of industrial uses. “But when you’re making a nerve agent, you attach a fluoride element and that’s what gives it its toxic properties. “Fluoride is key to making these munitions.

- Oh yeah. They wanted these lethal chemicals so they could make some windows and screendoors.......

K&R

[Cal Carpenter]

37. It's all business, baby n/t

[dipsydoodle]

40. K & R.

.

[bobGandolf]

42. Smooth Cameron! n/t