MIT report challenges US claims over Syria arms

MIT report challenges US claims over Syria arms
Thu Jan 16, 2014 09:56:01

A new Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report is challenging the US claim that Assad forces used chemical weapons in an attack last August, highlighting that the range of the improvised rocket was way too short to have been launched from government controlled areas.

In the report titled “Possible Implications of Faulty US Technical Intelligence,” Richard Lloyd, a former UN weapons inspector, and Theodore Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), examined the delivery rocket’s design and calculated possible trajectories based on the payload of the cargo.

The authors concluded that sarin gas “could not possibly have been fired at East Ghouta from the ‘heart’, or from the Eastern edge, of the Syrian government controlled area shown in the intelligence map published by the White House on August 30, 2013.”

Based on mathematical calculations, Lloyd and Postol estimate the rocket with such aerodynamics could not travel more than 2 kilometers.

To illustrate their conclusion, the authors included the original White House map that depicted areas under Assad control and those held by the opposition. Based on the firing range and troop locations on August 21, the authors conclude that all possible launching points within the 2 km radius were in rebel-held areas.

Moreover, the UN spokesman for the Secretary General, Martin Nesirky said Wednesday that the UN does not have information about a new chemical weapons attack in Syria, Itar-Tass reports.

On Wednesday Syria's National Coalition accused government troops of using poison gas in an attack on the rebel-held town of Daraya near Damascus.

At least three people were killed in the attack, the group alleged in a statement.

NJF/NJF
 

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