Moazzam Begg on Syria: A No-Fly Zone Is Needed Around Idlib to Prevent “Unprecedented” Massacre

In Syria, international chemical weapons inspectors are still attempting to enter the town of Douma, where an alleged chemical gas attack killed dozens of people earlier this month.

Inspectors with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus on Saturday but have been unable to reach Douma and have accused Syrian and Russian authorities of blocking access to the town. On Friday, the United States, France and Britain carried out airstrikes against two chemical weapons storage facilities and a research center in Syria. In response to the U.S.-led strikes, Russia announced it may supply Syria with a state-of-the-art air defense system—a move likely to anger the United States and Israel. Israel has carried out more than 150 bombing raids in Syria since 2011. Just last week Israel bombed an Iranian air-defense system at a Syrian base. We go to London to speak with Moazzam Begg. He is a former Guantánamo detainee. He was held in extrajudicial detention by the U.S. government from 2002-2005, first in Kandahar then at Bagram airbase for approximately a year before being transferred to Guantánamo. In 2011 and 2012 Begg made several trips to Syria to investigate reports of U.S. and U.K. rendition operations and to interview former prisoners of the Assad regime. Begg works as outreach director at the London-based organization CAGE, which advocates on behalf of victims of the War on Terror.

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