Another Red Line For Obama? -- Syria Shipped Out Less Than 5% of Chemical Weapons

The Israel Project notes that Syria has shipped out less than 5% of its chemical weapons:

Syria retains the vast majority of its chemical arsenal, can likely weaponize biological agents, and has restored the pace of its missile production to pre-war levels, according to a stream of analysis and reporting published on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mideast Media Sampler 5/06/13: Do We Really Know Syria Insurgents Used Chemical Weapons?

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

1) Who used the CW?

Overnight, it's been reported that UN investigators believe that it's the rebels, not the government who have been using chemical weapons in Syria. (h/t memeorandum). The Hill reports:

The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons and initially invited UN inspectors to probe a March attack in the village of Khan al-Asal near Aleppo, saying rebels used chemical weapons in that incident. The regime has refused to allow the inspectors to enter the country, however, after France and Britain demanded that they be allowed to investigate other reported sites of chemical weapons use, notably in the village of Ataybah near Damascus on March 19 and in Homs last December.

Israel Reportedly Strikes Syria: A Chemical Weapons Facility or A Weapons Convoy

On Friday, TheTower.org, the blog of The Israel Project had a post that Israeli Air Strikes Reported As Both Rebels and Hezbollah Close In on Syria’s Chemical Weapons:

CNN reported tonight that Israel’s air force recently attacked a Syrian chemicals weapon cache, probably on Thursday or Friday and probably from within Lebanese airspace. The report cited Western intelligence sources, likely based on radar evidence. The CNN report comes days after Syrian opposition forces reported that IAF strikes had taken place on Syrian territory. The opposition reports also indicated that the Israeli attack targeted Syria’s chemical weapons program.

Mideast Media Sampler 4/30/13: New York Times Now Agrees Syria Using Chemical Weapons, But...

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

1) The proof?  

Yesterday I noted that the New York Times seemed eager to relegate an article about the administration's reluctance to believe that Assad had employed chemical weapons to the ash heap of history. In a new editorial, Ill-considered advice on Syria, the New York Times view has changed a bit. Why? 

#Syria chemical weapons found in blood samples nearly impossible to fake, US intel sources say. Updated story:wired.com/dangerroom/201…
— Noah Shachtman (@dangerroom) April 25, 2013

In today's editorial, the editors write: 

The failure to act now could be misread by Mr. Assad as well as leaders in Iran and North Korea, whose nuclear programs are on America’s radar. But Mr. Obama should only act if he has compelling documentation that the sarin gas was used in an attack by Syrian forces and was not the result of an accident or fertilizer. The Financial Times reported the evidence is based on two separate samples taken from victims of the attacks. With the civil war in Syria now in its third year and the death toll at more than 70,000, the situation has deteriorated. Mr. Assad remains in power, sectarian divisions have intensified and fleeing refugees are destabilizing neighboring countries.