Syria Fails To Report CW Program
WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. intelligence community, contrary to previous
assertions by the administration, has concluded that Syria concealed
elements of its chemical weapons program.
The 16-member community asserted that Syria failed to declare portions
of its CW program, a pledge made in 2013 after the regime of President
Bashar Assad was accused of using toxic chemicals against the opposition.
Assad's pledge suspended U.S. plans to attack Syria amid the war with Sunni
rebels.
"We assess that Syria has not declared all the elements of its chemical
weapons program to the Chemical Weapons Convention," the intelligence
community's annual global assessment said. "Despite the creation of a
specialized team and months of work by the Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons to address gaps and inconsistencies in Syria's
declaration, numerous issues remain unresolved."
The community's assessment differed with statements by the
administration of President Barack Obama in 2015. For much of the year, the
White House and State Department assured Congress that Washington was
overseeing the destruction of Syria's CW arsenal.
"Moreover, we continue to judge that the Syrian regime has used
chemicals as a means of warfare since accession to the CWC in 2013," the
annual assessment, relayed to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,
said. "The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission has concluded that chlorine had been
used on Syrian opposition forces in multiple incidents in 2014 and 2015."
The report said Assad used helicopters from the Syrian military to drop
chlorine agents on suspected rebels. The intelligence community also said
Islamic State of Iraq and Levant was also using CW agents, including mustard
gas, against its opponents in Syria.
"We assess that nonstate actors in the region are also using chemicals
as a means of warfare," the report, released on Feb. 9, said. "The OPCW
investigation into an alleged ISIL attack in Syria in August led it to
conclude that at least two people were exposed to sulfur mustard. We
continue to track numerous allegations of ISIL's use of chemicals in attacks
in Iraq and Syria, suggesting that attacks might be widespread."

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