From Newsmax

The Islamic State group has shown it is prepared to use chemical weapons and is likely to have among its recruits the technical expertise to develop them, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

In a speech late Friday, Bishop said Australia had no doubt that the Syrian regime had used toxic chemicals including sarin and chlorine over the past four years.

But she said apart from some crude and small scale endeavours, the conventional wisdom had been that the Islamic State group’s intention to acquire and weaponise chemical agents was largely aspirational.

“The use of chlorine by Daesh, and its recruitment of highly technically trained professionals, including from the West, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons development,” she said in Perth, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

“Daesh is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons.”

The use of chlorine in homemade bombs has been reported in several parts of Iraq and Syria, with car and roadside bombs easy to rig with chlorine canisters.

And in March, Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan government said that analysis of soil and clothing samples showed that IS used chlorine gas in a car bomb attack in January.

In a speech to the Australia Group, which works to deny licences for the export of chemical and biological-weapon related materials, Bishop said a global effort was needed to prevent the proliferation and use of the toxic chemicals.

Speaking of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, she said: “The fact that atrocities such as this continue to occur shows that we must remain vigilant to the threat of chemical and biological weapons.”

“Export controls and their effective implementation are as important as ever as threats to global security, continue to evolve.”

Bishop said the rise of global terror groups such as IS was one of the gravest security threats faced by the world.

Bishop has previously warned that the numbers of Australians seeking to go overseas to fight with IS was not declining, with more than 100 fighting alongside jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria.

Australia has introduced a series of national security measures over the past few months to combat the threat, including criminalising travel to terror hotspots.

For more on this story go to: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/isis-chemical-weapons-development/2015/06/05/id/649122/#ixzz3cIU3zhTs

IMAGE: gbtimes.com

 

Related story:

British Pirates of the Caribbean actor fighting ISIS is ‘Mentally Unstable’

By Ben Arnold UK Movies Writer From Yahoo News

A British actor who has travelled to Syria to fight Islamic State is ‘mentally unstable’, according to an ex-US marine.

Michael Enright, who has appeared in films like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ and recently the Marvel TV series ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’, joined western fighters and Kurdish YPG forces in Syria earlier this year.

But in a post on his Facebook page, former Marine Jordan Matson has warned that he is ‘unstable’ and faces being either abandoned or murdered by his own side because of his ‘erratic and abusive’ behaviour.

It’s claimed that he’s assaulted several people since his arrival and threatened to take his own life when asked to leave fighting units.

Matson has appealed to the State Department to send someone to remove him ‘before you have the first US death in Syria’.

In the remarkable statement, Matson said: “Michael Enright the mentally unstable actor who is in Rojava is in danger of being killed by one of the many westerners and kurds who want to bury him.

“He has been kicked out of 4 different fighting units and asked to leave twice by the ypg to which end he put the barrel of his rifle in his mouth and threatened to kill himself if he was sent home. (He is still working on his movie script.)

“He constantly lies and tries manipulating everyone around him both kurd and westerner. The generals have even told us they try keeping him away from everyone for fear that there (sic) own men will kill him.”

He added that they have taken the firing bolt out of his AK-47 rifle, so ‘he runs around taking pictures of himself in the rear saying he killed daesh with a weapon he can’t even fire’.

Enright, 51 from Manchester and who has no military experience, left to join the Kurdish militia forces in March, where he received some basic training.

Speaking to the Mail On Sunday on arriving, he said: “It’s got to a point where I just want to absolutely annihilate them, and kill them on sight.

“IS are just an abomination. This is a call to humanity, it’s a call to everybody, to do whatever we can, in whatever way we can.”

He said that it was the footage of the murder of Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kassasbeh, who was burned alive, which was the ‘final straw’.

He has also added that he had wanted to join the ‘war on terror’ in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.

Enright has been an actor since the late 90s, featuring in small roles in films like ‘Knight and Day’ with Tom Cruise, and TV shows like ‘CSI’ and ‘Law & Order’.

For more on this story go to: https://uk.yahoo.com/movies/british-pirates-of-the-caribbean-actor-fighting-120762523731.html

See also iNews Cayman story published in iNews Briefs on June 2 2015 “A “Pirates Of The Caribbean” actor has gone to Syria to fight ISIS” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/inews-briefs-more-community-events-7/