Kolb ignored the order, claiming the equipment delivered by its subsidiary was useful only for manufacture of pesticides.
German intelligence also knew about the deliveries of equipment for the manufacture of methylphosphonyl difluoride, which becomes sarin when combined with isopropanol, as early as 1983. But ministry officials were not happy to hear about these reports, and “Genscher wrote across the first page of one of them: ‘What business is that of theirs?’” a retired intelligence official told Der Spiegel.
The company had not responded to Der Spiegel by the time the article was published. The Germany government has justified its refusal to publish the list of Syria’s suppliers as well, referencing “grave consequences” and “existential threats.”
What about the existential threats to the potential victims who are still at risk? Israelis living south of Syria and Lebanese to its west, not to mention Jordanians to the south and east are all in the cross-hairs.
It is very clear that Syria has not given up all its chemical weapons. As late as last October, U.S. envoy to the United Nations Samantha Power noted that at least four C-weapons sites existed that had not been declared to the joint UN mission to eliminate Syria’s declared chemical weapons program.
Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator of the UN joint mission, confirmed that Syria had failed to declare the four facilities, according to TIME Magazine. This came months after the mission to destroy the illegal chemical arsenal had ended earlier in the summer of 2014. And that was more than a year after Assad military forces used helicopters to attack civilians and rebel fighters with sarin gas in Damascus. Thousands were killed by the chemical warfare, as documented by UN and other international entities.
What happens when Bashar al-Assad is no longer president of Syria — or even if he remains — and chemical weapons are transferred to his allies, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists? Or if he loses his civil war, as it seems he likely will, and Salafi Muslim groups such as Al Qaeda, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jabhat al Nusra (Al Nusra Front) and others — all aligned against Israel — seize the chemical weapons sites instead, forcing Israel once more to go to war?
What are the legal ramifications for the German companies who helped the Assad government produce these weapons?
More to the point, what is the culpability of the German government, and could that be the reason for its refusal to release the names of those involved?
Germany has spent decades trying to reform its image in the “free world” and no one has worked harder than Angela Merkel towards that goal. The picture of German chemicals once again felling innocents may ultimately cost Berlin a very high price.