Secular Café: Syrian breakdown and the threats ahead

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Syrian breakdown and the threats ahead Apr 1st 2012, 20:14 The vile Assad regime may well collapse, and who could mourn it? But what comes after it may not be at all good. What if this lot get a grip on power or participate in an anarchic situation? http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...82S0O120120329 Quote: Sheikh Abu Abdullah Zahed, a Lebanese Muslim cleric with influence amongst radical youth, is part of a growing effort to push the uprising in Syria towards militant Islam. Hardline Sunni Muslims in Lebanon are maneuvering for influence over Syrians across the border who have spent the last year fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. "At first Syrians called on the West and NATO. Now they are calling on God," said Zahed, sitting in his library, where black Islamic flags hang on the walls. As opposition groups abroad squabble over politics and Assad's army pounds rebellious cities, Muslim hardliners want to make religion the unifying basis of the revolt. Because Syria is believed to have a large arsenal of undeclared and very nasty chemical weapons, including nerve gases. If the extreme Islamists could get their hands on even a proportion of them, that would mean terrorist troubles all over the place. This report is mainly worried about the effect on US troops, but they are by no means the only potential victims. http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/dot...emical-weapons Quote: The senators want the Obama administration to spell out the planning it has done to prepare for and "address" the potential that the Assad regime's stockpiles of chemical weapons might go missing. "In the event of a regime collapse, it is difficult to overstate the danger these weapons could pose to allies and U.S. forces in the region if they fall into the wrong hands," the letter states. The senators pointed to the apparent seizure of Libyan shoulder-fired missiles during that nation's internal conflict. Those missing weapons show "that non-state terrorist groups will seek to secure these weapons in the midst of chaos and an apparent lack of security or custody of these weapons," the senators wrote.

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