Revisiting the Obama track record on Syria’s chemical weaponsBy Jon Greenberg on Wednesday, April 5th, 2017 at 8:57 p.m.
Western powers have condemned Syria for unleashing a chemical attack on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun, a community in a rebel-controlled zone in northwestern Syria. While the details remain in dispute, and Syria denies using chemical weapons,
multiple reports from hospitals and other eyewitnesses describe an airstrike followed by victims choking to death.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 72, including many women and children. The World Health Organization said a chemical attack was likely because of the "lack of external injuries reported in cases showing a rapid onset of similar symptoms, including acute respiratory distress as the main cause of death. Some cases appear to show additional signs consistent with exposure to organophosphorus chemicals, a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents."
The outcry leads us to revisit a 2014 claim from former Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry said in a television interview that in Syria, "we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out."
Syria had agreed in 2013 to an ambitious program to destroy its chemical stockpiles under international supervision, as part of a deal brokered by Russia. When Kerry spoke in July 2014, the process seemed far along. Based on reports from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons --
which later won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts -- we rated that claim Mostly True. There were caveats about incomplete information, but at the time, international experts said the claim largely held up.
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http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/apr/05/revisiting-obama-track-record-syrias-chemical-weap/
