Is Syria Moving Chemical Weapons into Iraq and Lebanon?
The situation in
Syria has been making the front page for a while now, talking about the
chemical attacks on civilians. The most recent story has been discussing Russia
and America’s attempt to compromise a deal on whether or not to take military
action. On Saturday September 14 the tabloids exploded with the news of a
compromise between the two nations. CNN, The Aljazeera and The New York Times
reported very similar stories except for one key aspect, whether or not Syria
was moving chemical weapons into Iraq and Lebanon. The Aljazeera and CNN both
reported that Syria had indeed been moving weapons into these countries. While
the New York Times said they had no indication of this.
An
anonymous American official reported to The New York Times “There was no
indication that any of Syria’s chemical stocks had been moved to Iraq or
Lebanon… We believe they are under regime control.”
Whereas
“the Syrian Military Council claimed that Assad’s forces have been moving their
chemical weapons arsenal to Lebanon and Iraq over the past few days” this was
reported on by the Aljazeera.
The
General Salim Idriss told reporters in Istanbul “We have information that the
regime began to move chemical materials and chemical weapons to Lebanon and to
Iraq.” This was reported to by CNN.
CNN later said that they couldn’t verify the sources that they had cited in the
article but were trying to. The New York Times has a history of not having very
reliable sources. The NY Times did try to get some verification of their
sources in the article. The Aljazeera though has done nothing to try and verify
its sources. This breaking the principle of journalism that talks about making
sure sources are verifiable. This is an issue because now the public is trying
to figure out what is true and what isn't.
Sources
