US Says No Evidence Assad Behind Chemical Attack; But Will Retaliate Regardless Of UN Decision
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Mon, 04/09/2018
The initial U.S. government assessment of the chemical attack in Syria has concluded that some type of nerve agent was used – however the specific agent used is unknown, government sources told Reuters, adding that the U.S. government “had not yet conclusively determined whether the attack was carried out by President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government forces.”
The revelation makes Israel’s Monday morning strike on Syrian military positions known to house Russian forces all the more troubling, as this appears to be yet another kneejerk rush by the West to conduct major foreign policy maneuvers based on contested events before all the facts are in.
Following last April’s Kahn Shaykhun chemical attack in Syria, President Trump notably launched 59 Tomahawk missiles within 48 hours of the incident despite conflicting reports pouring in from several sources over key details.
Bear in mind that nearly all the information and physical evidence available from the attack site in Syria has come from anti-Assad sources linked to al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra, which controls the area. This includes the so-called White Helmets, who are opposition surrogates. The established narrative derives from this material as well as from bipartisan assertions of Assad’s “certain” guilt, even from normally liberal Democrats, which are being presented as fact. -American Conservative
The West has similarly imposed a variety of sanctions on Russia after determining that the Kremlin was behind the March 4 poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK. In fact, the chief scientist from the UK’s Porton Down military laboratory facility, Gary Aitkenhead, told Sky News (in a statement which was later retracted) that they had been unable to prove that the novichok nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal came from Russia.
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