Jon Smits: Syria`s Biological/Chemical
WMD
Biological/chemical weapons are weapons intended on killing
or incapacitating humans, plants or animals. There are a variety of agents able
to be used in bio-weapons, which can include; bacteria’s, viruses, and fungi,
which are intended to kill, incapacitated or disorient the enemy. Biological weapons are used mainly by what
we consider terrorist groups and are classified as bio-terrorists. However
biological weapons can turn into a chemical weapon caused by the massive
infection rate of the biological agent used and can cause hundreds of deaths.
Biological weapons where outlawed in 1972 to prevent biological attacks that
result in a large number of civilian casualties.
 |
| Ghouta Chemical Attack |
Syria a county in the Middle East has broken this ban on
chemical and biological weapons only a year after the outlawing of these WMD
occurring from Egypt as a defence against any military action. On July 23rd
2012 Syria announced to the world of their stockpile of biological and chemical
weapons. However during the Syrian civil war started in August of 2012 the
Syrian military restarted their chemical weapons testing in a base outside of
Aleppo just south of the Turkey border. Much of the western powers discussed an
intervention into this conflict as a consequence of the stockpile and accused
use of these weapons.
Syria was integrated
into the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons after the Ghouta
chemical attack where close to 2000 people died including a mere 51 rebel
fighters, most of the western powers held Syria responsible for this attack.
Recent Intel puts the Syrian stockpile at close to 2,000 tonnes of chemical
weapons including Yperite, VX and
hundreds of tonnes of sarin. (Yperite a type of sulphur mustard gas, VX and Sarin
both very deadly nerve agents.) One of the main issues that surrounds Syria is
it’s smallpox program, in which the UN and most other powers fear Syria has
been able to stockpile massive quantities of the agent and have enhanced the
agent to become more lethal. The enhancements have made the agent highly
infective and very transmissible or the ability to pass between patrons easier;
it also has a lengthy incubation period making it harder to spot at earlier
stages and has been modified to overcome any medical countermeasures. In light
of this discovery this has made Syria’s biological complex far more dangerous
than their chemical facilities, but the current world powers are fixated on
they’re chemical facilities possibly leaving them with a very dangerous
capability. It is said that Syria has many Scud-D and Tochka launchers with
multiple air and artillery delivery systems.
On October 13 2013, the OPCW
found a stockpile of roughly 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons within Syrian
bases. On October 16 the OPCW and the United Nations confirms a joint mission
to oversee the transport and elimination of all Syrian chemical and biological
weapons and manufacturing equipment by mid 2014. On January 7th the
first shipment of chemical weapons seized by world powers left the port of
Latakia on a Danish ship where it is to be taken to Italy and transferred to a
US Naval ship set to be destroyed in international waters via a titanium tank
filled with water on the ship to safely detonate the weapons. This conflict is
still on ongoing struggle to secure and dispose of all weapons.
For More information see: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/431311
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
Wow I never knew that Syria has been weaponizing Smallpox and that they have succeeded in making it more lethal than it has been in the past which is a scary premise if an outbreak ever occured. Do you think that the United Nations will take more serious steps and actions in order to ensure that these biological weapons being made are seized and prevented from ever being used? I wish I had more information about the severity of the threat that these weapons pose if they were in the hands of a large terrorist organization who could in theory make WMD's for use on large populaces. All in all good article -- Ryan Dinney
ReplyDeleteAbdul - Good analysis, however, there a few things to keep in mind. One of them is that the stockpile that Syria possess is pretty large and could potentially be dangerous when the weapons are destroyed, possibly leaking the chemicals to nearby lands or populace. The other thing is that the weapons are being destroyed in small quantities, and thus, will take a long time for the whole stockpile to be destroyed. This prolonging can potentially give time to the emerging militias inside Syria to get their hands on these dangerous weapons and cause another tragedy.
ReplyDeleteLaura Martinez- Wow, I never knew that Syria had 2000 tonnes of chemical weapons.Do you think Syria plans to use these weapons as a means to intimidate other countries to take over land or resources? I wish I had more information on the UN and the OPCW's plan to eliminate all of the chemical weapons.
ReplyDeleteFor one i believe the UN wont completely destroy Syria's smallpox stockpile but rather destroy some of it and probably conduct research on the rest to produce any countermeasures in case a strain of this virus is released. And most western powers including the States, Germany, Denmark, China, are all use military act to secure any weapon sites and testing facilities used to produce and stockpile these materials from both any Syrian military act and militant action taken to retrieve these weapons.The disposal of these weapons are taken to the port and is transport to ships such as the US naval vessel described above to destroy these weapons under military protection and transport. they are destroyed inside a titanium tank where a detonator is placed on the weapon and is detonated under extreme supervision and a secured tank to prevent any material from leeching into anything nearby, this is done in international waters far from any land with crews on stand by just in case anything does happen. The process of being in international waters is so every nation can take part in the extermination of the agents. The UN and OPCW's plan is to secure and defend each site with a stockpile of these weapons or any sites that contain them such as research labs and ect until the agents can be removed from each site and destroyed.
ReplyDeletewow I never knew that the Syrian government had been able to contain 2000 tonnes chemical weapons. Do you think that the killings could have been avoided? I would like to know if the 'western powers' did anything to stop the Syrians from improving there chemical base near turkey.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the killings could have been prevented with an earlier intervention from the UN and other countries. At the time of the re-establishment of the base near Turkey the western powers did not know of the purpose of reactivating of the base to be used as a chemical storage and possible firing position into other countries at the time as Syria deterred them from believing so by telling them it was just reactivating an old base to be used as a military storage site.
ReplyDelete