A video has emerged of an opposition rebel militant in Syria apparently confessing to using chemical weapons in order to follow Osama Bin Laden’s mantra of killing women and children.

The individual in the clip, Nadeem Baloosh, is a member an insurgent group called Riyadh Al Abdeen, which is active in the Latakia area of Syria. Baloosh speaks of “chemicals which produce lethal and deadly gases that I possess,” before going on to state, “We decided to harm them through their women and kids.” Baloosh ponders if it is acceptable to harm women and children before quoting the Koran, “Fight them as they fight you.” He goes on to quote Osama Bin Laden (whom other rebel groups have openly praised). “We’ll kill their women and children like Sheikh Osama Bin Laden said – “until they cease killing our women and kids,” he states. Baloosh goes on to talk about the Syrian Army approaching the area where his rebel group were located, before stating, “So we had the idea that this weapon was very powerful and effective to repel them, we announced if they approached one meter, everything is permitted.”

John Robles ■ As the world sits glued to their radios and TV screens and their other sources of information waiting for news of an attack on Syria other events are taking place that the nefarious planners in Mclean Virginia and Washington have successfully distracted the world’s attention from. At the cost of a couple of hundred Syrian lives, which in reality mean nothing for the Americans and their Al-Qaeda elements in Syria, the US has perhaps yet failed to launch another act of aggression and commit another crime against peace, but it has succeeded in accomplishing several other objectives.

Nile Bowie ■ No law will stop Obama’s democracy-bombs over Syria “He is lying and knows he is lying. It’s sad,” said Putin, of John Kerry’s address to the US Congress. That about sums it up – the lies and deceit of the Obama administration are so breathtaking, so innumerable, and they’re being trumpeted knowingly and shamelessly. Want a taste of highly moral and ethical narrative being championed in favor of “the Syrian people?” Look no further than the New York Times, with its recent headline “Bomb Syria, Even If It Is Illegal,” which argues that Obama and his poodles should “declare that international law has evolved and that they don’t need Security Council approval to intervene in Syria."

The Group of 20 developed and developing economies has discussed the Syrian crisis at its summit in Russia, but failed to reach a consensus over the US plans for an attack on Syria. ■ The first day of the G20 summit was held in St. Petersburg on Thursday. While US President Barack Obama is using the meeting to push for his strike plan, the European Union, and the BRICS emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as well as Pope Francis - in a letter - warned against the dangers of a US military strike on Syria. Chinese Deputy Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said, “Military action would have a negative impact on the global economy, especially on the oil price - it will cause a hike in the oil price.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also in St. Petersburg to push for diplomacy rather than military option regarding Syria.

Market Watch: Putin says Russia will assist Syria if attacked
PressTV: Russia pledges to help Syria in case of US war
SANA: Putin: Military force against sovereign country impermissible
SANA: Chinese President: Political solution is the only right way to solve crisis in Syria
Russia Today: China sides with Russia in opposing military strikes on Syria, warns of oil price surge
Prison Planet: G20 Summit: Obama Faces Heavy Criticism From World Leaders

A 100-page report on an investigation turned over to the United Nations by Russia concludes that the Syrian rebels – not the Syrian government – used the nerve agent sarin in an attack in the Syrian city of Aleppo last March.

While contents of the report have not been released, sources tell WND that the documentation indicates that deadly sarin poison gas was manufactured in a Sunni-controlled region of Iraq and then transported to Turkey for use by the Syrian opposition, whose ranks have swelled with members of al-Qaida-affiliated groups. In addition, sources tell WND that the intelligence originated with the Israelis, who have a vested interest in seeing Assad removed and his known chemical weapons storage facilities destroyed.

PressTV: Chemical weapons sent from Turkey to Syria: Former Turkish provincial official - Video - Residents in the Southern Turkish province of Hatay claim the chemical weapons used in an August attack in Syria's capitol Damascus were used by al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front insurgents and NOT the Syrian government. Farid Mainy, a Hatay resident and an activist himself told me those chemicals were sent to Syria from Turkey. The reason the Turkish government is allowing the transfer of weapons, residents believe, is because they are trying to create a pretext or what is also known as a false flag operation in order to wage war on its neighbor Syria.

McClatchy: Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack
Michel Chossudovsky: Israeli Intelligence News: Syria Rebels Possess Chemical Weapons

Washington doesn't merely lack the legal authority for a military intervention in Syria. It lacks the moral authority. We're talking about a government with a history of using chemical weapons against innocent people far more prolific and deadly than the mere accusations Assad faces from a trigger-happy Western military-industrial complex, bent on stifling further investigation before striking. Here is a list of 10 chemical weapons attacks carried out by the U.S. government or its allies against civilians.

For both countries, the Snowden affair is just another ho-hum spat in the greater imperial rivalry. ■ Lost in the excitement of this “White Bronco Moment,” many have missed the elephant in the room: the “Great Game”-style geopolitical standoff between the U.S. and Russia underlying it all, and which may have served as the impetus for Russia to grant Snowden asylum to begin with. What’s at stake? Natural gas. [...] It all comes as the U.S. competes with Russian gas production thanks in part to the controversial drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing — “fracking” – transforming the United States into what President Barack Obama has hailed as the “Saudi Arabia of gas.” Russia produced 653 billion cubic meters of gas in 2012, while the U.S. produced 651 billion cubic meters, making them the top two producers in the world.

● Documents recently released by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden uncover a decade-long operation by the NSA to break personal privacy encryption codes, enabling it to spy on the emails, Internet activity, cell phone calls and business transactions of millions of people in the US and around the world.

● The 50,000 or so documents Snowden provided to the British Guardian newspaper, expose details of two highly classified programs, codenamed “Bullrun” by the NSA and “Edgehill” by its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The information published by the Guardian and the New York Times Thursday provides further insight into the US government’s violation of core Constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

● The files show how the NSA and GCHQ spy on the world’s population, running roughshod over privacy rights and collaborating with Internet providers and other companies, which falsely assure customers that their communications, online banking and medical records are not decipherable to identity thieves and governments.

● The Guardian notes: “Those methods include covert measures to ensure NSA control over setting of international encryption standards, the use of supercomputers to break encryption with ‘brute force,’ and—the most closely guarded secret of all—collaboration with technology companies and internet service providers themselves. “Through these covert partnerships, the agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities—known as backdoors or trapdoors—into commercial encryption software.”

Gawker: The NSA Is Reading All the Stuff You Think You've "Encrypted"
New York Times: N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web
Russia Today: Privacy pulverized: NSA, GCHQ can bypass online encryption, new Snowden leak reveals
Glenn Greenwald: Revealed: How US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security
Feds Beg NY Times, Pro Publica Not To Reveal That They've Inserted Backdoors Into Internet Encryption

Secretary of State Kerry and the man he likened to German dictator are pictured dining with their wives at Damascus restaurant before civil war broke out.

● An astonishing photograph of John Kerry having a cozy and intimate dinner with Bashar al-Assad has emerged at the moment the U.S Secretary of State is making the case to bomb the Syrian dictator's country and remove him from power.
● Kerry, who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein [recently], is pictured around a small table with his wife Teresa Heinz and the Assads in 2009. Assad and Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their spouses look on. A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks, believed to be lemon and crushed mint.
● The picture was likely taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus, when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss finding a way forward for peace in the region.
● While President Barack Obama has softened his military threat against Syria by putting the question to Congress and guaranteeing at least a week's delay, Kerry remains outspoken about the dangers posed by the Syrian regime government. He said that Assad 'has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein' in deploying chemical weapons against his own people. Kerry said claimed Sunday that the U.S. now has evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria and that 'the case gets stronger by the day' for a military attack.

● "As a Jew," she said, "the concept of 'never again' has to mean something." She also noted the "searing images" of children killed in what appears to have been a chemical-weapons strike. [Cast Lead was ok. No problem.]

● Backers for war in Syria simply say that classified U.S. intelligence stringly indicates Assad used chemical weapons. So what's the evidence? — Well, we don't have the right to see it. We have to trust the politicians and the bureaucrats. The White House's unclassified case for war is here. But as our McClatchy DC bureau reports, the case is rife with inconsistencies and circumstantial evidence.