Fluoride Action Network

German government admits selling poison gas chemicals to Syria after Sunday Mail reveals Britain did the same

Source: Daily Record & Sunday Mail (Scotland) | March 15th, 2015 | By Billy Briggs
Location: United Kingdom, England
Industry type: Chemical Weapons

THE Sunday Mail revealed that the British Government allowed companies to sell chemicals to Syria in 2013 and now the German government have admitted doing the same.

THE German government admitted selling poison gas chemicals to Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad after the Sunday Mail revealed British sales, according to a new film.

French director Jean-Baptiste Renaud’s movie Chemical Weapons: Made in Europe will be premiered in Britain later this month.

The documentary exposes how Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Saddam Hussein and Bahrain’s government were able to obtain banned weapons after buying products from America, Britain, France and Germany.

Renaud exposes the role of French firms while highlighting revelations from the Sunday Mail in 2013 that the UK Government allowed companies to sell nerve gas chemicals to Syria.

Our investigation revealed export licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride were granted 10 months after Syria’s civil war erupted.

Fluoride can be used for everyday products but it is also key to producing sarin, the nerve gas that killed up to 1500 people, at least 400 of them children, in a Damascus suburb in 2013.

The export licences were granted by Business Secretary Vince Cable’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. They were only revoked six months later when the European Union imposed sanctions on Assad’s regime.

Renaud’s film explains that our reports prompted German MP Jav Van Acken to ask his government whether they sold sarin gas chemicals to Syria .

They said 100 tons were exported between 2002 and 2006. Acken said: “The first question we posed to the government was whether any type of sensitive chemicals were licensed for Syria. And the answer was ‘yes’.

“That was a shock for me. How can you sell chemicals that can be used for this when you know they are producing sarin? I didn’t think it was possible.”

While making his film Renaud visited Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and interviewed survivors of the nerve gas attack in Damascus.

His film has graphic footage taken in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity.

It shows people writhing in agony while foaming at the mouth and a baby with its chest heaving, battling for its life.

Renaud said: “It was a great story to tell because the outrage was global and our president said – and he was right – that this attack in Syria was gruesome and evil. But who gave them chemical weapons?”

His film explains that France’s links to chemical weapons stretches back to manufacturing of Zyklon B for the Nazis.

Renaud also exposes links between France and Saddam Hussein and the illegal export of tear gas from France to Bahrain where at least 39 people have died after being gassed by security forces during street protests.