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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Francis A. Boyle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Law Building<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Champaign IL 61820 USA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">217-333-7954 (phone)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">217-244-1478 (fax)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">(personal comments only</span></b><span style="color:#1F497D">)</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> Boyle, Francis A <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, October 20, 2017 9:42 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> sectns.aals@lists.aals.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> US Admitting Syrian Militants Use Chemical Weapons ‘Welcome’ Overdue Corrective<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Shared from sputniknews.com <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">US Admitting Syrian Militants Use Chemical Weapons ‘Welcome’ Overdue Corrective<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201710211058422305-usa-terrorists-use-chemicals-syria/">https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201710211058422305-usa-terrorists-use-chemicals-syria/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">US KNEW ALL ALONG</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">The US government was finally started to acknowledge that groups it had supported had employed chemical weapons in Syria where the Trump and Obama administrations had
sought to blame the Damascus government for such attacks, University of Illinois Professor of Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">These policies were part of a wider US strategy to topple the Damascus government that was clearly illegal under international law, Boyle pointed out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">The United States had backed the Syrian terror groups "as part of an illegal attempt to overthrow the Syrian government in violation of the United Nations Charter and
the rulings of the World Court in the Case of Nicaragua versus United States of America (1984-1986)," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">US policymakers could have had no doubt that the terror groups they were financing, helping to organize and arming had been s using chemical weapons, Boyle observed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">"Of course the United States
<a href="http://sputniknews.com/politics/20170718/1055632225.html"><span style="color:#F7961D">government
</span></a>knows full well that some of its surrogate terrorist organizations in Syria have used chemical weapons," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><img border="0" width="705" height="375" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D349EC.323092F0" alt="Buildings in Hama, Syria"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;background:#F7961D"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:white;text-transform:uppercase">© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:13.5pt;background:#F7961D"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><a href="https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201710051057967144-opcw-chemical-weapons-use-syria/"><span style="color:black">OPCW
Says Found Evidence of Chemical Weapons Use in Syria's Hama in March</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">Over the past four years, successive US administrations had deliberately and cynically blamed Damascus for chemical attacks
that they knew their own allies had carried out, Boyle stated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">"Both the Obama administration and now the Trump administration have maliciously exploited their surrogates’ uses of chemical weapons as pretexts and propaganda to justify
direct US military intervention into Syria," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">Boyle also warned that even after the admission buried deep in this week’s Travel Advisory, the US government could again in the future blame the Syrian government for chemical
attacks that it knew had been carried out in reality by its own allies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">"It very well could happen again. Caveat emptor!" he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">Al-Nusra Front controls Syria's Idlib Governorate through the umbrella terrorist group al-Sham and is still thought to be a front for al-Qaeda.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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