U.S. says it saw preparations for possible Syria chemical attack

[webfact]

U.S. says it saw preparations for possible Syria chemical attack

By Jeff Mason and Dmitry Solovyov

 

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on September 26, 2013. SANA/Handout via Reuters/Files

 

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - A U.S. warning to Syria's leadership against staging a chemical weapons attack was based on intelligence about what appeared to be active preparations at a Syrian airfield used for such an attack in April, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

 

Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main international backer, denounced the warning and dismissed White House assertions that a strike was being prepared as "unacceptable," raising the tension between Washington and Moscow over the Syrian civil war.

 

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the United States had recently seen activity at Shayrat airfield, the same base targeted by a U.S. cruise missile strike on April 6.

 

"This involved specific aircraft in a specific hangar, both of which we know to be associated with chemical weapons use," Davis said.

 

Davis said the activity occurred during "the past day or two." He did not say how the United States collected its intelligence.

 

The White House said on Monday it appeared the Syrian government was preparing for another chemical weapons attack and warned Assad that he and his military would "pay a heavy price" if it went ahead.

 

The U.S. strike on Shayrat followed the deaths of 87 people in what Washington said was a poison gas attack in rebel-held territory two days earlier. Syria denied it carried out the attack.

 

Russia challenged the U.S. intelligence about a possible attack.

 

"I am not aware of any information about a threat that chemical weapons can be used," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

 

"Certainly, we consider such threats to the legitimate leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic unacceptable."

 

Russian officials have privately described the war in Syria as the biggest source of tension between Moscow and Washington, and the April cruise missile strike ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump raised the risk of confrontation between them.

 

Assad visited a Russian air base at Hmeymim in western Syria on Tuesday, his first visit to the base from which Russian jets have supported his war effort.

 

Photos circulated showed the Syrian leader in the cockpit of a Russian Sukhoi SU-35 warplane, and inspecting weapons, personnel and armoured vehicles at the base near Latakia.

 

U.S. WARNING

 

The Syrian military and Foreign Ministry did not comment on the White House warning, although a Syrian state-run television station, al-Ikhbariya, said the allegations were fabricated.

 

U.S. Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the concerns about preparations for a chemical weapons attack were authentic.

 

"The claims that they made, from my perspective, are valid claims," he said.

 

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the Trump administration intended its warning to be aimed not just at Syria's government but also at Russia and Iran, another supporter of Assad.

 

"I believe that the goal is, at this point, not just to send Assad a message but to send Russia and Iran a message that if this happens again we are putting you on notice," Haley said in a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

She stressed the primary U.S. goal in Syria is to fight Islamic State, not to remove Assad.

 

"I don't see a healthy Syria with Assad in place, but the U.S. priority has and continues to be to fight ISIS," she said.

 

Senator Tim Kaine, a Democratic member of the foreign affairs and armed services committees, who has been leading a bipartisan push for Congress to debate and vote on the use of military force in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere, said there was no legal justification for extracting a “heavy price” from Syria.

 

U.S. and allied intelligence officers had for some time identified several sites where they suspected Assad's government may have been hiding newly made chemical weapons from inspectors, said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence.

 

That assessment was based in part on the locations, security surrounding the suspect sites and other information that the official declined to describe.

 

Although the intelligence was not considered conclusive, Washington decided to issue the public warning to the Syrian leadership to try to deter such a strike, said the official, who declined to discuss the issue further.

 

The number of people killed in suspected chemical attacks is a small portion of the total dead in Syria's civil war - a figure the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, estimates is close to half a million.

 

But television footage of victims of April's attack, including children, writhing in agony, caused revulsion across the world.

 

After the April attack, Trump accused Assad's government of going "beyond a red line" and approved what U.S. officials called a "one-off" strike to deter future chemical attacks.

 

(Addition reporting by Phillip Stewart in Munich, Eric Beech, Patricia Zengerle and John Walcott in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Mike Holden in London; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Alistair Bell; Editing by Paul Simao and Bill Trott)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-28

[colinneil]

This is puzzling, the US can see specific aircraft at a specific airfield preparing for a chemical weapons attack.

Yet US sailors cannot see a bloody great ship just a few hundred feet away.

[craigt3365]

16 minutes ago, colinneil said:

This is puzzling, the US can see specific aircraft at a specific airfield preparing for a chemical weapons attack.

Yet US sailors cannot see a bloody great ship just a few hundred feet away.

Some would call that trying to compare apples to oranges.  Not to mention off topic.

[ilostmypassword]

Warning on Syria's chemical weapons is test of Trump's credibility, and of intelligence community he attacks

The Trump administration has sent the kind of dire warning — that Syria is planning another chemical weapons attack and would pay “a heavy price” if it followed through — that requires a credible messenger to have a receptive national and foreign audience.

Yet the initial bafflement among U.S. defense officials after the warning came late Monday, coupled with the simultaneous distraction of President Trump's unrelated tweets, by Tuesday seemed to undercut the seriousness of the charge. More broadly, the episode is a test of the damage Trump has done to his and his administration's trustworthiness by his assaults on the U.S. intelligence community and other perceived enemies.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-syria-trump-20170627-story.html

[colinneil]

50 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Some would call that trying to compare apples to oranges.  Not to mention off topic.

Oops

[Jonmarleesco]

Would that intelligence be more evident and reliable than that for the second Iraq war?

[Jonmarleesco]

5 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Some would call that trying to compare apples to oranges.  Not to mention off topic.

Hardly off-topic, at all.

[colinneil]

Some people get very touchy when you say something about their countries.

[craigt3365]

5 hours ago, Jonmarleesco said:

Hardly off-topic, at all.

Right.  Ship near Japan gets rammed by a cargo freighter is just like a chemical attack in Syria.

 

Next, we'll be bringing up the Iraq war.   Oops...already did.

 

 

[craigt3365]

5 hours ago, colinneil said:

Some people get very touchy when you say something about their countries.

Only when you troll.  Valid arguments are fine.  Especially if on topic.

[ilostmypassword]

5 hours ago, colinneil said:

Some people get very touchy when you say something about their countries.

They get even touchier when what you say is relevant.

[Kasset Tak]

It is starting to look like when US started talking about Saddam having WMD's as those WMD's Saddam had in the first place were delivered by US...

[YetAnother]

here we go again;' weapons of mass destruction' (imagined) II

[friendofthai]

And... as always... the proof is too secret to be presented to the public.

[craigt3365]

11 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

They get even touchier when what you say is relevant.

Never a problem as long as it's relevant.  And true.  Not just a bash.

[colinneil]

57 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Never a problem as long as it's relevant.  And true.  Not just a bash.

Bit of banter never hurt anyone, in fact it helps pass the day.

Be happy keep smiling,  be happy, too much sadness in the world , let people make love not war.

[whatawonderfulday]

Whilst Assad is no doubt running a toxic regime,  I can not help drawing comparisons here with the "weapons of mass destruction" claims, that was proved to be totally baseless, yet it justified ( in the eyes of the US and the UK mainly), to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussain.

 

Could this be another fact less build-up to a major Syrian intervention ? Hope not because the US will have a tough battle against Assad's supporter, Russia, which could well escalate.

[craigt3365]

8 hours ago, whatawonderfulday said:

Whilst Assad is no doubt running a toxic regime,  I can not help drawing comparisons here with the "weapons of mass destruction" claims, that was proved to be totally baseless, yet it justified ( in the eyes of the US and the UK mainly), to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussain.

 

Could this be another fact less build-up to a major Syrian intervention ? Hope not because the US will have a tough battle against Assad's supporter, Russia, which could well escalate.

I do believe Syria has already shown it has chemical weapons.  And has used them.  That's well documented.  So not a totally baseless claim.  In Iraq?  Well, that was a mess!

 

But yes, we can't be 100% sure of what's going on this time.  Hard to tell what Trump's going to do from day to day. LOL