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Trump administration says new evidence discredits Russia’s claims on chemical attack
Washington Post ^ | 11 Apr 17 | Missy Ryan and Greg Jaffe

Posted on 04/11/2017 12:49:20 PM PDT by elhombrelibre

The Trump administration broadened its assault on Russia’s military involvement in Syria on Tuesday, offering new evidence that U.S. officials said showed that Moscow’s explanation for a deadly April 4 chemical attack was false.

The new details from a declassified U.S. assessment add to tensions with Russia just as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson makes his first visit to Moscow and presses the Kremlin to drop its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Russia; Syria
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1 posted on 04/11/2017 12:49:20 PM PDT by elhombrelibre
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To: elhombrelibre

“The Assad regime is down to as few as 18,000 soldiers, according to some estimates. U.S. officials said the chemical weapons attack, launched against civilians in an area that has supported the rebels, was intended to help make up for those manpower deficiencies.”


2 posted on 04/11/2017 12:55:55 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (Cogito ergo sum a conservative pro-American.)
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To: elhombrelibre

sure sure

so the Syrian military and the Russians violated everything that could bring sanctions down on themselves to protect the regime from 80 civilians- mostly little kids

that’s some shock and awe


3 posted on 04/11/2017 12:59:20 PM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: silverleaf

You seem to think tyrants are highly rational and always do the right thing for the right reasons. And you offer that as the reason that we cannot believe President Trump.


4 posted on 04/11/2017 1:02:43 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (Cogito ergo sum a conservative pro-American.)
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To: elhombrelibre

> Senior officials said that U.S. signals and aerial intelligence, combined with local reporting and samples taken from victims of the attack, showed that a Russian-made, Syrian-piloted SU-22 aircraft dropped at least one munition carrying the nerve gas sarin on the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun.
>
> The officials said that nothing from an array of intelligence and publicly available material provided any credence to the alternative account put forward by Syria and Russia, which claimed that routine bombing inadvertently struck an opposition chemical weapons depot.
>
> “We are very confident that terrorists or non­state actors did not commit this attack,” said one senior official who, like others, spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings.

Nothing new reported.


5 posted on 04/11/2017 1:06:13 PM PDT by Ray76 (DRAIN THE SWAMP)
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To: elhombrelibre

Has the establishment already turned Trump’s head away from the four big domestic issues that won him the presidency?

I hope he can resist the Uniparty’s agenda of war mongering, regime change and nation building.

It sucked George ‘Dubya’ Bush in and destroyed his presidency.


6 posted on 04/11/2017 1:06:35 PM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (Best long term prep for conservatives: Have big families & out-breed the illegals & muslims.)
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To: elhombrelibre
Wonder if they've thought this through?

Russia pulls out, Assad loses, isis/al queda wins or one of their benefactors, Turkey moves in.

7 posted on 04/11/2017 1:10:44 PM PDT by Eagles6 (My weapons are lubricated by liberal tears.)
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To: elhombrelibre
You seem to think tyrants are highly rational and always do the right thing for the right reasons. And you offer that as the reason that we cannot believe President Trump

Bravo!

8 posted on 04/11/2017 1:12:40 PM PDT by DungeonMaster (Love your neighbor as you love yourself.)
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To: elhombrelibre

How can we ask the Russians to join with us in getting gas weapons out? We tried that before and achieved “100% success”. It might even have been true at that moment. But the knowledge of how to make nerve gas is the crucial thing, and there is no way to get rid of that knowledge. They can make their own, and there’s basically nothing we or the Russians can do about it, beyond trying to strictly monitor all the equipment and any precursor chemicals that the Syrians can’t make themselves.
We can condemn it, we can sanction it, but we can’t stop Assad from using it if that’s what he wants to do.


9 posted on 04/11/2017 1:13:01 PM PDT by Stirner
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To: Ray76

It seems that the “signals intelligence” is new. I haven’t seen that reported elsewhere.


10 posted on 04/11/2017 1:14:55 PM PDT by Chad_the_Impaler
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To: elhombrelibre

You never seem to be able to discuss anything logically that might challenge your fixed beliefs that everything is black or white. Russia bad. Never right. Has no valid national interests that could be accommodated respectfully if we sought common ground, mutual respect and how to resolve disagreements short of nuclear weapons. Could be a massive win for humanity

Anyone who points out other logical alternatives or even contrary facts to your beliefs is dismissed as an idiot a traitor or worse

with 100,000 people on this forum at least I stand in some good company

and BTW it wasn’t the USA who took the war to ISIS- It was Putin. Shamed and energized us into military action only when deep state’s globalist scheme (which is continuing) was exposed

We need to get down off our throne because we are not in Syria - or Ukraine- for humanitarian reasons anymore than is Putin


11 posted on 04/11/2017 1:17:39 PM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Chad_the_Impaler

True.


12 posted on 04/11/2017 1:18:22 PM PDT by Ray76 (DRAIN THE SWAMP)
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To: Vlad The Inhaler
Has the establishment already turned Trump’s head away from the four big domestic issues that won him the presidency?

No. That's a hysterical conclusion to jump to.

I hope he can resist the Uniparty’s agenda of war mongering, regime change and nation building.

Good. It's very likely that your hope will be realized.

It sucked George ‘Dubya’ Bush in and destroyed his presidency.

George W. Bush is no Donald J. Trump, and vice versa.

13 posted on 04/11/2017 1:23:37 PM PDT by sargon ("If we were in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, the Left would protest for zombies' rights.")
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To: Stirner

Let’s see how long it is before Assad uses it again. I won’t be surprised if he does a cost benefit analysis and decides it is not worth it. A couple of days before he used it the Secretary of State said his removal was not our focus. Now, he says assad is done. Do you think using more chemical weapons will help him survive? What he should do is take the money and run. Maybe his buddy putin will give him a Dacha, or his palls the mad mullahs will take him in.


14 posted on 04/11/2017 1:26:33 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (Cogito ergo sum a conservative pro-American.)
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To: Eagles6
Wonder if they've thought this through?

Russia pulls out, Assad loses, isis/al queda wins or one of their benefactors, Turkey moves in.

C'mon man. Get real.

There are doubtless dozens (hundreds?) of people being paid to "think this through" 24/7/365...

15 posted on 04/11/2017 1:31:22 PM PDT by sargon ("If we were in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, the Left would protest for zombies' rights.")
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To: silverleaf
I don't see how what my previous post said is anything like what you characterize it as. If you feel like an idiot or not a patriot, it's not my fault. Here is what I wrote:

"You seem to think tyrants are highly rational and always do the right thing for the right reasons. And you offer that as the reason that we cannot believe President Trump."

The worst part about your reply is it seems so much like when I used to argue with Marxist professors in college. I was always for freedom, and it annoyed them. America needed to get off its high horse and make way for the Soviet Union and its KGB thugs, they said. Now, you want KGB putin to ride roughshod on small nations, like its neighbors.

As for your admiration for putin and his taking the war to ISIS, that is pure fiction. And see who is coming in for the kill:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3543225/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3543228/posts

16 posted on 04/11/2017 1:35:39 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (Cogito ergo sum a conservative pro-American.)
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To: silverleaf

sure sure

So Saddam Hussein jerked the UN weapons inspectors around because it was logically and rationally in his best interests to give Bush a pretext for invading. Hussein had everything to gain by cooperating with Hans Blix, and everything to lose by playing never ending games with him, and denying Blix access all over the place—often at the last minute.

Dictators usually become increasingly paranoid and decreasingly rational over time. Assad wouldn’t be the first to act stupidly.


17 posted on 04/11/2017 1:40:53 PM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught owith pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: DungeonMaster

“You seem to think tyrants are highly rational...”
*******
Actually, people who have lasted as long as Assad are usually cunning in support of their own goals. That’s one reason why false flag is plausible enough to merit an impartial investigation. And it’s also cause for suspicion that the Democrats, the Turks, the EU, and other enemies of freedom are jumping on the attack band wagon.


18 posted on 04/11/2017 1:43:04 PM PDT by Socon-Econ
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To: DungeonMaster

“You seem to think tyrants are highly rational...”
*******
Actually, people who have lasted as long as Assad are usually cunning in support of their own goals. That’s one reason why false flag is plausible enough to merit an impartial investigation. And it’s also cause for suspicion that the Democrats, the Turks, the EU, and other enemies of freedom are jumping on the attack band wagon.


19 posted on 04/11/2017 1:43:30 PM PDT by Socon-Econ
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To: sargon
Yes, those people would be the bureaucrats that soetoro populated intelligence,state and the military with over the last 8 yrs.

I remember a college history prof, WWII vet, not a lefty said that American history could be summed up in one sentence.

"Oh s***, how the hell did we get into this?"

20 posted on 04/11/2017 1:58:13 PM PDT by Eagles6 (My weapons are lubricated by liberal tears.)
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