US senators in Syria while Syria builds WMD plant

Jane's uncovers:

Satellite images from several commercial sources gathered from 2005 to 2008 have shed light on activity at the chemical weapons facility identified as Al Safir in northwest Syria. Imagery obtained by DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1 satellite indicates that the site contains not only a number of the defining features of a chemical weapons facility, but that significant levels of construction have taken place at the facility's production plant and adjacent missile base.

And yet the US continues to send major officials to genuflect at these active builders of WMDs:

A delegation of US senators headed by Benjamin Cardin, a member of the foreign relations committee, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

Cardin's talks with the president on Wednesday will focus on bilateral relations, the peace process and regional questions, the US embassy said.

It is the second US Congressional delegation to visit Syria in less than a month and John Kerry, foreign relations committee chairman, is expected to make the country one of his stops on a current Middle East tour.

See Soccer Dad for more on the folly of senators sightseeing in Damascus.