Russia says the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) has confirmed that the videos and photos purporting to show the victims of a chemical attack near the Syrian capital, Damascus, were fabricated. ■ The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that international experts as well as Syrian public and religious leaders presented their evidence to the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 9. It also said evidence provided by numerous witnesses confirms that militants fighting against the Syrian government used chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of western Ghouta last month. The participants in the UN Human Rights Council session warned of the consequences of a military strike against Syria, noting that such an attack would constitute a crude violation of international law.

Russia Today: Intl experts have strong proof images of chemical victims fabricated – Moscow

A dozen former US military and intelligence officials have told US President Barack Obama that they are picking up information that proves Syrian government was not responsible for the chemical attack near Damascus on August 21. “We regret to inform you that some of our former co-workers are telling us, categorically, that contrary to the claims of your administration, the most reliable intelligence shows that Bashar al-Assad was NOT responsible for the chemical incident that killed and injured Syrian civilians on August 21, and that British intelligence officials also know this,” they wrote to Obama. Writers of the letter who are from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) said they chose to assume that Obama has not been fully informed because his advisers decided to afford him the opportunity for what is commonly known as “plausible denial.”

PressTV: UK PM welcomes offer that Syria hand in chemical weapons
PressTV: China supports Russian proposal about Syria chemical weapons
The Daily Star (Lebanon): France, Germany welcome Russian Syria proposal
The Guardian: Obama welcomes Russia's chemical weapons proposal
OBAMA: A Strike On Syria Would ‘Absolutely’ Be Off If Syria Gives Up Its Chemical Weapons

A chemical attack may be launched on Israel by Syrian rebels from government-controlled territories as a "major provocation," multiple sources told RT. ● The report comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed that Syria puts its chemical weapons arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction in order to prevent a possible military strike against the war-torn country. Moscow also urged Syrian authorities to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The offer has already been passed over to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who met Lavrov in Moscow for talks on Monday. “We don’t know if Syria will accept the offer, but if imposing international control over chemical weapons stored in the country can help to avoid military strikes, we are immediately going to start working with Damascus,” Lavrov said. The Syrian Foreign Ministry has welcomed Moscow's initiative, “based on the Syrian’s government care about the lives of our people and security of our country,” Muallem said later on Monday.

Paul Craig Roberts: Alert! ● Are Israel and Washington going to have their lackeys, the “Syrian rebels,” attack Israel with chemical weapons given to them by Israel and Washington so that Israel and its obama puppet can attack Syria “in self-defense.” The Israeli government doesn’t mind sacrificing its own people if it provides an excuse that will drag the gullible Americans into another war.

Voice of Russia: Syrian rebels plan chemical attack on Israel from Assad-controlled territories - media

● Italian journalist Domenico Quiric and Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin, who were flown home yesterday after spending five months in Syrian rebel’s hostage, have indicated that Syrian insurgents had evidently stood behind the gas attack on a village near Damascus. The former hostages said in a number of interviews to western news outlets they had overheard an English-language Skype conversation between the rebels, who claimed that opposition forces were responsible for the lethal August 21 attack that killed over a thousand civilians. ● "It is a moral duty to say this. The government of Bashar al-Assad did not use sarin gas or other types of gas in the outskirts of Damascus," Piccinin told Belgium's RTL radio station. He said the conversation suggested that opposition intended to force the West to intervene in the Syrian civil war. "They said that the gas attack on two neighborhoods of Damascus was launched by the rebels as a provocation to lead the West to intervene militarily," Quirico told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper. He also said one of their captors identified himself as a Free Syrian Army general. ● Peccinin told the radio station it would be "insane and suicidal for the West to support these people," while Quirico stressed the aim of rebels was to create a caliphate and extend it to the entire Middle East and North Africa. ● In a number of news appearances, Quirico and Piccinin also shared stories of how they were subjected to two mock executions, beaten, and starved during their five-month captivity. They tried to escape twice but failed, prompting the rebel group to punish them.

■ As of this writing, America is planning military action against Syria under the pretext that the Syrian government allegedly used chemical weapons in an attack in a Damascus suburb on August 21. Leading figures in the Obama administration can be heard referring to chemical weapons as a “moral obscenity,” such that the United States has a “moral obligation” to punish the country that uses them.
■ Recently declassified CIA files prove that, during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), US intelligence agencies actively assisted in some of the most horrific chemical weapons attacks in history, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. These CIA files are the subject of an important new exposé by reporters Shane Harris and Matthew M. Aid in Foreign Policy dated August 26, 2013.

John Robles: US use of chemical weapons extensive

Video Report By BBC ● The Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, but the casualties continue as birth defects plague the country. There are claims that thousands of children continue to be born with horrific facial deformities due to the 20 million gallons of Agent Orange chemical sprayed by the United States. The Vietnamese call the disfigured youngsters 'the children of Agent Orange'. Da Nang in central Vietnam is thought to have the highest level of congenital deformity in the world. Inside Out's Mark Jordan joins a team of top London plastic surgeons on their unpaid mission to help these children through the charity Facing the World.