{"id":19106,"date":"2013-09-03T22:23:30","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T02:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=19106"},"modified":"2013-09-03T22:23:30","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T02:23:30","slug":"exclusive-syrians-in-ghouta-claim-saudi-supplied-rebels-behind-chemical-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/09\/exclusive-syrians-in-ghouta-claim-saudi-supplied-rebels-behind-chemical-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This image provided by by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, purports to show several bodies being buried in a suburb of Damascus, Syria during a funeral on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, following allegations of a chemical weapons attack that reportedly killed 355 people. (AP Photo\/Shaam News Network)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.<\/span><\/p>\n

By\u00a0<\/span>Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n

Dale Gavlak assisted in the research and writing process of this article, but was not on the ground in Syria. Reporter Yahya Ababneh, with whom the report was written in collaboration, was the correspondent on the ground in Ghouta who spoke directly with the rebels, their family members, victims of the chemical weapons attacks and local residents.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Gavlak is a MintPress News Middle East correspondent who has been freelancing for the AP as a Amman, Jordan correspondent for nearly a decade. This report is not an Associated Press article; rather it is exclusive to MintPress News.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Ghouta, Syria \u2014 As the machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week\u2019s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S., Britain, and France as well as the Arab League have accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the chemical weapons attack, which mainly targeted civilians. U.S. warships are stationed in the Mediterranean Sea to launch military strikes against Syria in punishment for carrying out a massive chemical weapons attack. The U.S. and others are not interested in examining any contrary evidence, with U.S Secretary of State John Kerry<\/span>\u00a0saying<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0Monday that Assad\u2019s guilt was \u201ca judgment \u2026 already clear to the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,\u201d said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels were killed inside of a tunnel used to store weapons provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, who was leading a fighting battalion. The father described the weapons as having a \u201ctube-like structure\u201d while others were like a \u201chuge gas bottle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that<\/span>\u00a0it would similarly attack civilians in the Assad regime\u2019s heartland of Latakia<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0on Syria\u2019s western coast, in purported retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,\u201d complained a female fighter named \u2018K.\u2019 \u201cWe didn\u2019t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,\u201d she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named \u2018J\u2019 agreed. \u201cJabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,\u201d \u2018J\u2019 said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doctors who treated the chemical weapons attack victims cautioned interviewers to be careful about asking questions regarding who, exactly, was responsible for the deadly assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders added that health workers aiding 3,600 patients also reported experiencing similar symptoms, including frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision. The group has not been able to independently verify the information.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saudi involvement<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

In a recent article for Business Insider, reporter Geoffrey Ingersoll<\/span>\u00a0highlighted<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>Saudi Prince Bandar\u2019s role in the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war. Many observers believe Bandar, with his close ties to Washington, has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingersoll referred to an article in the U.K.\u2019s Daily Telegraph about<\/span>\u00a0secret Russian-Saudi talks<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0alleging that Bandar offered Russian President Vladimir Putin cheap oil in exchange for dumping Assad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia\u2019s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia\u2019s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,\u201d Ingersoll wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,\u201d Bandar allegedly told the Russians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlong with Saudi officials, the U.S. allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise,\u201d Ingersoll wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to U.K.\u2019s Independent newspaper, it was Prince Bandar\u2019s intelligence agency that<\/span>\u00a0first brought allegations of the use of sarin gas<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0by the regime to the attention of Western allies in February.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that<\/span>\u00a0the CIA realized Saudi Arabia was \u201cserious\u201d about toppling Assad<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar to lead the effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn\u2019t: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it,\u00a0wasta<\/em>, Arabic for under-the-table clout,\u201d it said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bandar has been advancing Saudi Arabia\u2019s top foreign policy goal, WSJ reported, of defeating Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.<\/span><\/p>\n

To that aim, Bandar worked Washington to back a program to arm and train rebels out of a planned military base in Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The newspaper reports that he met with the \u201cuneasy Jordanians about such a base\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

His meetings in Amman with Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah sometimes ran to eight hours in a single sitting. \u201cThe king would joke: \u2018Oh, Bandar\u2019s coming again? Let\u2019s clear two days for the meeting,\u2019 \u201d said a person familiar with the meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jordan\u2019s financial dependence on Saudi Arabia may have given the Saudis strong leverage. An operations center in Jordan started going online in the summer of 2012, including an airstrip and warehouses for arms. Saudi-procured AK-47s and ammunition arrived, WSJ reported, citing Arab officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Saudi Arabia has officially maintained that it supported more moderate rebels, the newspaper reported that \u201cfunds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But rebels interviewed said Prince Bandar is referred to as \u201cal-Habib\u201d or \u2018the lover\u2019 by al-Qaida militants fighting in Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Oborne,<\/span>\u00a0writing<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has issued a word of caution about Washington\u2019s rush to punish the Assad regime with so-called \u2018limited\u2019 strikes not meant to overthrow the Syrian leader but diminish his capacity to use chemical weapons:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Consider this: the only beneficiaries from the atrocity were the rebels, previously losing the war, who now have Britain and America ready to intervene on their side. While there seems to be little doubt that chemical weapons were used, there is doubt about who deployed them.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is important to remember that Assad has been accused of using poison gas against civilians before. But on that occasion, Carla del Ponte, a U.N. commissioner on Syria, concluded that the rebels, not Assad, were probably responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates .\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Dale Gavlak is a Middle East correspondent for Mint Press News and has reported from Amman, Jordan, writing for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Gavlak covers the Levant region, writing on topics including politics, social issues and economic trends. Dale holds a M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. Contact Dale at dgavlak@mintpressnews.com<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yahya Ababneh is a Jordanian freelance journalist and is currently working on a master\u2019s degree in journalism, \u00a0He has covered events in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Libya. His stories have appeared on Amman Net, Saraya News, Gerasa News and elsewhere.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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