Iraq uncovers al-Qaeda 'chemical weapons plot'

[Ford_Prefect]

14. To underscore my comment we do not know the evidence nor the details of the "confessions".

My point is that there are many players here. Some have their own agendas inside Syria, or Turkey, or perhaps Iraq or Iran. Some are playing to a larger audience. The Turkish security forces seem to have several objectives, some of which may be as proxy for the US intel services, some no doubt are part of the anti-Kurd variety.

There seem to be multiple groups inside Syria acting as local militia. Some of them are allied and some are very localized, almost tribal. The Turks, Russians, US, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Saudis, Israelis and who knows maybe the Chinese, have all got irons in this fire and hope to manipulate things to suit themselves. It seems very similar to Lebanon in years past when the cold war was still on.

That anyone with an interest was facilitating bomb making may be true. It may be equally true that the thing was used as a setup to give the Iraqi security forces credibility. Facts that can be confirmed are not offered by any agency with credibility.

It seems highly unlikely that AQ agents working on such materials would have surrendered, let alone confessed. One has to ask what the value of confessing would be? Why would they bother to do so? How could it possibly benefit them to do it?

It may indeed be more or less what we've been told. I am not persuaded we have heard meaningful truth so far. The term Dog and Pony Show comes more easily to mind.