ONE WAY TO SKIN A CAT : HOW WAS THE SARIN USED IN SYRIA MADE AND BY WHOM?

 

As the world squabbles over imperialist wars and justifiable interventions, a very important part of the conundrum could be solved by using cold hard science.

In order for the UN investigators and independent researchers alike, hard at work on the samples taken from the site of a chemical attack in Damascus, to properly ascertain who carried out the attack, and more importantly the provenance of the chemical used, a careful catalog of the chemical substance and their 'imprint' must be made.  Even more valuable however, is the casing that delivered the substance, according to experts.

And that is not as difficult as it sounds.  

In fact, the study of the samples has brought to light an indisputable fact: the production of large scale batches of sarin or other chemical agents made by governments like Syria when they build up their military cache, is done under controlled conditions, which enable the chemicals to be produced without impurities or chemical byproducts, something that rebels or other homemade producers of the chemical could not possibly achieve.  Those impurities, furthermore, would linger on the soil together with the chemical agent, making their finding impossible to miss. 

 

Since the homebrewed version would widely differ in the amounts of byproduct contained the other issue that presents during sample observation is how much of the by product is contained in the soil itself before contamination. 

Already researchers have relayed the news of findings of sarin in tissue samples from the deceased in Damascus' suburbs where the attack took place. However, impurities cannot be detected from those tissue samples. 

 

The only way to be sure of the amount and percentage of such impurities is to inspect the casings of the ordnance that delivered the poison.  In those casings there is no natural occurence of byproduct chemicals or impurities so skew the analysis.  The rocket casings' own metal composition will be another tell tale sign of who delivered the attack. 

Another factor is looking at the time of the attack.  Experts would know that using sarin as a means of poisoning in the early morning hours would kill far more people than if it were employed in the midday sun.  The cool morning air allows the sarin mist to linger in the air and kill many more, than if it were dispersed during the hot, noon hours, since the heat would quickly evaporate the mist.  

Source : Scientific American/ 9.4.13