The Wall Street Journal cited “unnamed” US officials who claim “President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country’s last major rebel stronghold”.
The report also details how Trump is undecided over whether new retaliatory strikes could entail expanding the attack to hit Assad allies Russia and Iran.
The “unnamed” officials are now claiming to be in possession of intelligence showing how Assad has already given the order in an absolutely unprecedented level of “pre-crime” telegraphing of battlefield events involving chlorine gas.
The anonymous officials told the WSJ of “new US intelligence” in what appeared to be reports quite similar to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when “anonymous officials” gave vague assurances about unseen intelligence that turned out to be fake.
The Journal upped “fears of a massacre” as Washington appears to be signalling that an American attack on Syrian government forces and locations is all but inevitable.
According to the WSJ, President Trump may actually give the order to attack even if there is no claim of a chemical attack:
In a recent discussion about Syria, people familiar with the exchange said, President Trump threatened to conduct a massive attack against Mr. Assad if he carries out a massacre in Idlib, the northwestern province that has become the last refuge for more than three million people and as many as 70 000 opposition fighters that the regime considers to be terrorists.
But if White House and defense officials decide to hit “Russian or Iranian military forces” it would be a monumental escalation that would take the world to the brink of World War 3.
A member of the Virginia State Senate Richard Black noted after his visit to Syria: “The CIA, working together with British intelligence, has repeatedly used the terror weapon to overthrow nations. Our goal is to install a puppet regime. If we had succeeded in Syria today, Al-Qaeda or Daesh [ISIS] would be running Syria from Damascus and the dreaded black and white flag of Al-Qaeda would fly over the capital. I don’t think this is what the American people want. I would say that the worst thing about American foreign policy is that it is deeply entrenched in our foreign policy to use terror as a weapon.”
Black told Sputnik News: “We talk about the war on terror, but we are not waging a war on terror. We are waging a war in which terror is our principal weapon. That is my principal concern with what we are doing in the Middle East.” He added: “The people in Idlib live under a domination of these very vicious jihadists.”
Black said Britain was also behind the move. “It appears as though British intelligence, MI6, will carry out a staged gas attack; they have already chosen a location that has been disclosed. They have trained people to fake as if they were victims of gas.”