When Regimes Fall: The Challenge of Securing Lethal Weapons

Today we examine the challenge of securing lethal weapons as regimes fall, and the cases of Libya and Syria are the primary focus here because they highlight this challenge. The Syrian regime could be imploding as we speak. When we think about the weapons at their disposal, the chemical and biological weapons, you think back from what we know in our conversations with the Soviets, the former Soviet Union in the 1980s, they helped put together a very robust program from the Syrians. Iran, today, has been helping Syria with this respect, so they have long had an active chemical weapons program. We know they have mustard gas. We know they have sarin, VX, which is certainly the most lethal of nerve agents. So some of the most dangerous chemicals on the planet have been weaponized, most of it to put into artillery shells, and that is why in the proliferation community they call Syria a chemical weapons "superpower." And the question is, what is to be done?