Portside

The world banned chemical weapons in 1997. Here’s why it took so long for the US to eliminate its arsenal.

The Weizmann Institute’s deep involvement in Israel’s arms industry, nuclear weapons program as well as chemical and biological weapons research is a perfect match for the Emirati university, which is closely tied to the government.

Despite the numerous international agreements barring the use of tear gas in war, number of restrictions on its use for domestic crowd control: 0.

Both the United Nations Charter and the Chemical Weapons Convention provide means for international investigation and sanction of the use of prohibited weapons. Unilateral use of military force in these circumstances by the United States, which has not been attacked and is not in imminent danger of attack, is unlawful.

Donald Trump just ordered the launch of dozens of Tomahawk missiles to strike Syria. It's an illegal and unauthorized escalation that could have devastating consequences, killing innocent Syrians and U.S. service members. Escalation against Syria will not help the victims of this heinous chemical attack, it will not bring the devastating war in Syria to a quicker end, it will not bring back the dead children. It will not defeat ISIS or end terrorism.

CSPG's Poster of the Week recalls that the U.S. practice of war includes herbicides targeting productive croplands.

While the Pentagon admitted decades ago that it used American troops as test subjects in experiments with mustard gas, until now, officials have never spoken about the tests that grouped subjects by race. And it wasn't just African-Americans. Japanese-Americans were used as test subjects, serving as proxies for the enemy so scientists could explore how mustard gas and other chemicals might affect Japanese troops. Puerto Rican soldiers were also singled out.

Although Israel has refused to publicly acknowledge its chemical weapons program, the U.S. Office of Technology has identified Israel as a nation with likely offensive chemical weapons capabilities. In addition to Israel's controversial chemical weapons program, Israel is one of few nations not to ratify the nuclear non-proliferation agreement.

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A careful examination of the Obama administration's summary of the intelligence on which it is basing the case for military action to punish the Assad regime for alleged use of chemical weapons reveals misleading language evocative of the infamous 2002 Iraq WMD intelligence estimate.