Something Dangerous

Funny how the following didn't make it into today's papers:

"A Belgian writer held hostage for 5 months in Syria has said that his own rebel captors denied that President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the Ghouta massacre. Pierre Piccinin said that he and fellow hostage Domenico Quirico, an Italian war reporter, heard their jailers talking about the chemical weapon attack and saying that Assad was not to blame. Quirico confirmed to La Stampa newspaper that they had eavesdropped such a conversation through a closed door but added that he had no evidence to substantiate what he heard. Piccinin said the captives became desperate when they heard that the US was planning to launch a punitive attack against the regime over the gas attack in the Damascus suburb. 'It wasn't the government of Bashar al-Assad that used Sarin gas or any other gas in Ghouta,' Piccinin told Belgian RTL radio after he was released. 'We are sure about this because we overheard a conversation between rebels. It pains me to say it because I've been a fierce supporter of the Free Syrian Army in its rightful fight for democracy since 2012,' Piccinin added. 'We were prisoners, stuck with this information and unable to report it,' he said... Quirico said he listened to a Skype conversation between 3 individuals whose names he could not confirm. One identified himself as a Free Syrian Army general. The 3 contended that insurgents had used gas in Ghouta to trigger Western intervention... Kidnapped in April, Piccinin and Quirico were freed by their captors and flown to Rome. Quirico said he was treated badly. The Syrian revolution had turned into something very dangerous since he began covering it, he added... According to Washington, strong and incontrovertible evidence indicated that the regime was responsible for the chemical attack in which 1,429 died." (Syria: Assad not responsible for Ghouta gas attack, says freed hostage Pierre Piccinin, Umberto Bacchi, ibtimes.co.uk, 9/9/13)