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Post by Admin on Apr 6, 2017 18:51:38 GMT
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria “crossed many, many lines” for him, and he said his attitude toward Syria and President Bashar Assad had “changed very much” as a result.
“It crossed a lot of lines for me,” Trump told reporters during a news conference at the White House with the king of Jordan. “When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that is so lethal ... that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line. Many, many lines.”
The latest attack in Syria brought renewed pressure on Trump from some in his party to take bolder action against the regime there. His administration has come under scrutiny for its handling of Assad, particularly after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week that the “longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people.”
The president declined to say Wednesday whether he plans to intervene in Syria directly but, describing himself as a “very flexible person,” said his opinion on the issue had shifted.
“I will tell you, that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. Big impact,” Trump said. “It's very, very possible — and I will tell you, it's already happened — that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 9, 2017 18:44:41 GMT
President Trump ordered the first major military action of his young presidency Thursday evening, authorizing the bombing of a Syria airfield where the government of President Bashar Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians this week. "It is in this vital national security interest of the U.S. to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons," Trump said. "There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons violated its obligation under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the United Nations Security Council."
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2017 18:45:46 GMT
Speaking on CNN's "At This Hour" with Kate Bolduan, the Kentucky lawmaker told the host that he didn't think the Syrian leader launched the attack, and that further intervention by the US government may aggravate the situation. "Frankly, I don't think Assad would have done that," Massie said. "It does not serve his interests." "You've got a war going on over there," Massie said. "Supposedly that airstrike was on an ammo dump, and so I don't know if it was released because there was gas stored in the ammo dump or not -- that's plausible."
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Post by Admin on Apr 11, 2017 18:41:23 GMT
New satellite imagery released by ImageSat International shows the damage 59 US Tomahawk missiles inflicted at Syria's Shayrat airfield. The United States says the forces of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad used the airfield to conduct Tuesday's chemical weapons attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun, leaving at least 86 townspeople dead. "Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment," said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis. "[They] targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars." Satellite imagery provided by ImageSat International reveals the extent of that damage, in comparison to previous records. It was not clear Friday how soon after the strikes the images were recorded.
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Post by Admin on Apr 13, 2017 18:43:58 GMT
A professor who challenged the 2013 claims of a chemical attack in Syria is now questioning the Trump administration’s narrative blaming the Assad government for the April 4 attack in the Idlib province town of Khan Shaykhun. On Tuesday, the White House released a declassified intelligence brief accusing Syrian President Bashar Assad of ordering and organizing the attack, in which Syrian planes allegedly dropped chemical ordnance on civilians in the rebel-held town. The report “contains absolutely no evidence that this attack was the result of a munition being dropped from an aircraft,” wrote Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Theodore Postol, who reviewed it and put together a 14-page assessment, which he provided to RT on Wednesday. “I believe it can be shown, without doubt, that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the US government has concrete knowledge that the government of Syria was the source of the chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun,” wrote Postol. “Any competent analyst would have had questions about whether the debris in the crater was staged or real,” he wrote. “No competent analyst would miss the fact that the alleged sarin canister was forcefully crushed from above, rather than exploded by a munition within it.” Instead, “the most plausible conclusion is that the sarin was dispensed by an improvised dispersal device made from a 122mm section of rocket tube filled with sarin and capped on both sides.”
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