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Related: About this forumYou really, really, really, really couldn't make it up ....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-uk-government-let-british-company-export-nerve-gas-chemicals-to-syria-8793642.html.... and most of the media don't even appear to find it worthy of mention.
O brave new world, that has such assholes in it.
Stop the World. I want to get off.
The Skin
muriel_volestrangler
(101,144 posts)Sodium fluoride goes into toothpaste, for instance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23924259
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/02/ministers-face-questions-chemicals-syria
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10279790/Government-allowed-export-of-nerve-gas-chemicals-to-Syria.html
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/426410/Syria-trade-deal-for-chemicals-was-for-metal-finishing-says-Philip-Hammond
http://www.scotsman.com/news/syria-us-has-proof-of-sarin-gas-attack-1-3070679
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/02/syria-exports-cable_n_3854912.html
non sociopath skin
(4,972 posts)... though I'm still not sure why we should be flogging potentially dangerous chemicals to a country in the middle of a civil war.
Sigh. I'd never make an entrepreneur, would I?
The Skin
Little Star
(17,055 posts)There are now laws in Britain regulating the sale. It's not just for teeth strengthening and such anymore.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Don't you know?!?!
Little Star
(17,055 posts)But I started off with a link to the Daily Mail. Go take a look at what happened in my post. DU doesn't even appear to find it worthy of mention either. I don't get it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023622082
Denial is not just a river.
k&r for your OP.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,144 posts)This was covered earlier:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014582529
http://election.democraticunderground.com/10023586419
and it is a chemical with several legitimate uses. Syria was not under general sanctions in that period. If Britain had forbidden the sale, I'm sure Russia would have sold it to them instead. It's the kind of chemical with multiple vendors in China:
http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/sodium-fluoride.html
Calling sodium fluoride a 'Sarin agent' in the headline is rather misleading of the Mail. It's a a chemical you can use to make sarin. Normally, 'sarin agent' wold be used to refer to sarin itself - you talk about a 'nerve agent', or someone says "Syrian Army Seized two Containers with Sarin Agent" - that doesn't mean they seized some sodium fluoride. So "UK delivered Sarin agent to Syrian regime for SIX years" is a misleading headline.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)6 days before the Daily Mail, "The dual-use substances can be used as chemical weapon precursors, and are listed on the international schedule."
They knew very well of those duel-usages and there was a long on going civil war raging in Syria. Why do you think Thomas Docherty MP, a member of the Commons Arms Export Controls Committee, said: These are very disturbing revelations uncovered by The Mail on Sunday regarding the provision of sodium fluoride to Syria. At no time should we have allowed President Assads regime to get its hands on this substance?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,144 posts)which is the time the Mail is talking about. There was a licence granted in the early stages of the civil war in 2011, and then the international community decided that exports to Syria needed to be restricted; the sale covered by that 2011 licence never actually happened. Sodium fluoride is a widely used chemical:
the fluoride chemicals (chemicals 14, 24, 41, 42, 43 and 44) for the production of sarin-family nerve agents
14. potassium fluoride [7789-23-3]
24. hydrogen fluoride [7664-39-3]
41. potassium bifluoride [7789-29-9]
42. ammonium bifluoride [1341-49-7]
43. sodium bifluoride [1333-83-1]
44. sodium fluoride [7681-49-4]
http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/a-comparison-of-the-australia-group-list-of-chemical-weapon-precursors-and-the-cwc-schedules-of-chemicals/
Why is Docherty saying that? Because he wants his name in the papers, that's why.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)The revelations come as the US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed to have evidence that sarin gas was used in last months atrocity in Damascus which killed nearly 1500 people, including 426 children.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10279790/Government-allowed-export-of-nerve-gas-chemicals-to-Syria.html