“The people who know the most about chemical weapons in the United States say that what is scary about Syria is not just the presence of chemical stockpiles …it’s the the technical knowledge and training and know-how and the delivery system required to deliver those weapons,” Logan said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.”  “Nobody knows yet who’s going to win the peace in Syria,” she added, “It might very well be al Qaeda.” The threat is “dangerous enough for the Deputy Director of the CIA to say there are more foreign fighters flooding into Syria to fight for al Qaeda today than there ever were at the height of the war with Iraq,” Logan said on “CBS This Morning.” Many of the fighters now based in Syria likely came from Afghanistan, North Africa, Yemen and Iraq, where they learned to fight the U.S., Logan explained

(CBS News) Senior U.S. intelligence officials are concerned about the growing presence of al Qaeda terrorists in civil war-torn Syria. In a statement released over the weekend, the State Department said the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)  has  moved himself and the group’s operations to Syria. A State Department spokesperson also noted that the deadly suicide attacks and car bombings carried out in Iraq in recent days can be attributed to AQI. 

CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell warned of the risk of the collapse of the Syrian government — which possesses a considerable stockpile of chemical and advanced weapons —  namely, a power vacuum which would leave room for al Qaeda to take hold and take advantage of their weapons cache and technical capabilities.

The al Qaeda movement is very much “based on ideology and has very little to do with the kind of organization” that the U.S. is accustomed to, according to CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan, who cited Syria’s “massive stockpile of chemical weapons” and depth of knowledge about employing those weapons as a unique threat compared to other, previous al Qaeda training havens.

“The people who know the most about chemical weapons in the United States say that what is scary about Syria is not just the presence of chemical stockpiles …it’s the the technical knowledge and training and know-how and the delivery system required to deliver those weapons,” Logan said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.” 

“Nobody knows yet who’s going to win the peace in Syria,” she added, “It might very well be al Qaeda.”

The threat is “dangerous enough for the Deputy Director of the CIA to say there are more foreign fighters flooding into Syria to fight for al Qaeda today than there ever were at the height of the war with Iraq,” Logan said on “CBS This Morning.”

Many of the fighters now based in Syria likely came from Afghanistan, 토토사이트 North Africa, Yemen and Iraq, where they learned to fight the U.S., Logan explained.

“That organization [in Syria] is in very close contact with Ayman al-Zawahri, who is in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region,” she said. Al-Zawahri is Osama bin Laden’s successor, who in 2001, laid out his long-term plan for the global jihadi movement.

The al Qaeda group currently based in Syria has been known as al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and recently changed their name to The Islamic State of Iraq, to reflect their growing ambitions.  AQI is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is now based in Syria. The U.S. has offered a $10 million reward for information that leads to the kill or capture of al-Baghdadi.

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President Bashar Assad’s government initially asked the U.N. to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack on March 19 on the village of Khan al Assal outside the embattled city of Aleppo, which was captured by the rebels last month. The government and rebels blame each other for the purported attack which killed at least 30 people. Britain, France and the U.S. followed with allegations of chemical weapons use in Homs, Damascus and elsewhere. U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council last month that the U.N. has received 13 reports of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria. On June 13, the United States said it had conclusive evidence that Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack Obama had called a “red line” and prompted a U.S. decision to send arms and ammunition to the opposition. But agreement on a U.N. investigation was delayed for months because Syria wanted to limit the probe to Khan al-Assal and the secretary-general, backed by the U.S., Britain and France, insisted on a broader investigation. The U.N. gave approval for the probe on July 31 following an “understanding” reached with Syria during a visit to Damascus by U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane and Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, the team’s leader, that three sites where chemical weapons were allegedly used would be investigated. One site is Khan al Assal, but the locations of the other two incidents are being kept secret for safety reasons. For the past two weeks, the Syrian government and the U.N. have been trying to agree on arrangements for the investigation. The U.N. team completed preparations for the visit over the weekend in The Hague, Netherlands, but its departure was delayed because of differences over details of the investigation. Following Wednesday’s agreement, U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said “the departure of the team is now imminent,” but he provided no specific date. Under the agreement with Syria, the team will remain in the country for “up to 14 days, extendable upon mutual consent” to “conduct activities, “including on-site visits,” del Buey said. He said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is pleased that agreement has been reached “to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission.” The secretary-general believes an effective investigation of allegations can serve as “an important deterrent” against the use of chemical weapons, del Buey said. “Our goal remains a fully independent and impartial inquiry,” he said. Del Buey said “the overwhelming support of the international community for this investigation makes clear that the use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances would constitute an outrageous crime.” The investigation team includes about 10 experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in The Hague, and the World Health Organization, based in Geneva. Del Buey said Ban expressed appreciation to the Syrian government for its cooperation and to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its support of the mission.
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