Thread: Schiff says Russia is absolutely 'complicit' in Syrian chemical attack

Schiff says Russia is absolutely 'complicit' in Syrian chemical attack

• By MICHAEL EDISON HAYDEN

Apr 9, 2017, 11:48 AM ET

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

WATCH Rep. Adam Schiff: Russia 'absolutely' complicit in Syrian chemical attack

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Russia is absolutely "complicit" in the chemical attack in Syria that killed at least 86 civilians, including many children.

"Absolutely they're complicit," Rep. Adam Schiff of California told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday. "Russian intelligence may not be as good as ours, but it's good enough to know the Syrians had chemical weapons, were using chemical weapons."

Schiff added that Russia is "better positioned to know, in the sense that they have people on the ground in close proximity working in close concert with the regime. I think absolutely they know what the Syrians are doing."

Russia is a key military ally of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in its fight against rebel factions in the country's civil war.

The U.S. blames Syria's government for the deadly chemical attack on a rebel-held province last week. The Assad government has denied responsibility, and Russia has said that the release of toxic agents happened when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical-weapons arsenal and munitions factory.

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The question of Russian complicity in the attack also came up in an earlier interview on "This Week" Sunday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said he has "not seen any hard evidence" that Russians were involved in planning or carrying out the attack.

But the secretary of state said when he meets with the Russian foreign minister this week, he will bring up Russia's obligation under a 2013 agreement to ensure the Syrian government got rid of its chemical weapons.

"It agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons, and why Russia has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me," Tillerson said. "Clearly they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been out-maneuvered by the Syrians."

Within less than three days after the chemical attack in Syria, President Trump ordered a U.S. missile strike on the Syrian air base where the aircraft which carried the chemical weapons are believed to have flown from.

Rep. Schiff told Stephanopoulos, "I think there's a strong moral case ... to make for what the president did" in response to the chemical attack.

"But I don’t think, George, it should have been done without congressional approval," the lawmaker added.

"Do you think Congress could even come close to agreeing on a use of force resolution at this point?" Stephanopoulos asked, referring to the sharp partisan divide.

"You know, I do," the Democratic lawmaker replied. "It's certainly not easy ... [But] I think we can come to agreement on a resolution that says the president will have the authority to go after al-Qaeda and ISIS and the Taliban."

Such a resolution "forces accountability," Schiff said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/schif...ry?id=46677669

"You know, I do," the Democratic lawmaker replied. "It's certainly not easy ... [But] I think we can come to agreement on a resolution that says the president will have the authority to go after al-Qaeda and ISIS and the Taliban."

Hmmm. Well what have we been doing for the past 16 years? You mean 2 prior Presidents have been going after al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS without legal authority?!

Well, gee, guys, don't you think it's time you authorized the actions you've been funding for the past 16 years??!!!

These Congresscritters are morons and show it more every day.

Of course Russia is complicit. They were complicit in the attempted cover-up. That became obvious the minute they told a lie in an attempt to cover Assad's butt!

The Assad government has denied responsibility, and Russia has said that the release of toxic agents happened when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical-weapons arsenal and munitions factory.

The only thing left to find out is if Russia was an accessory to the crime.

Originally Posted by MW

Of course Russia is complicit. They were complicit in the attempted cover-up. That became obvious the minute they told a lie in an attempt to cover Assad's butt!

The only thing left to find out is if Russia was an accessory to the crime.

Actually, aside from the ardor of those accusing the Syrians and now the Russians, I don't see any evidence yet of any kind of chemical weapons arsenal at the US targeted site. And we've seen plenty of videos of the site that was attacked. Meanwhile we have no images of the site struck by the Syrians in the alleged chemical weapons attack.

Which place would be easier to visit? If there had actually been a chem weapons site where the Syrians had been hit by the US, could people be wandering around taking videos? And the fact that there were no videos of the Syrian attacked site is more suggestive of there being an arsenal there. If it had just been a chem weapon bomb, it is more likely have been dissipated by now.

Originally Posted by pkskyali

. . . Meanwhile we have no images of the site struck by the Syrians in the alleged chemical weapons attack . . .

There are pictures at this link. I can't get them to copy, and some are to graphic anyway. Go here and have a look. Click thru the 11 pictures. http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/04/middle...l-attack-trnd/

Warning: This article contains graphic images of dead children.

It is almost like no one wants trump or anyone to keep an open mind with Russia or even have contact with anyone in Russia to get the whole story. The liberals have been blaming Russia for nearly everything since Hillarys loss. I am not saying Russia is innocent. Just I think the liberals protest to much. Maybe they don't want Trump to know the whole story..there was some obvious problems between Obama and Putin. Makes me curious what this is really all about.

It's about globalism. Putin and Russia are nationalists. All the people who hate Russia are globalists who hate Russia because they're nationalists. They believe in secure borders, fair trade or trade that benefits them, and almost zero immigration. China on the other hand is a globalist nation, they put their own people in what we would call slave compounds for their entire lives making cheap products for the US and other nations to collect and hoard dollars. Russia doesn't do that. Russia would like to be free of sanctions, get their own economy back and do some good trade deals, but Russia won't play the globalists game, that's why Europe hates them. Our people hate Russia because they think Russia is an "evil empire", a label created to support NATO. If the US has improved relations with Russia, then Europe will have improved relations with Russia, and then NATO might not be as important as it has been in past years, because it has no big enemy to defend against.

When Trump and Putin meet, I think it's going to be a whole new ball-game with US-Russia Relations. I sure hope so. Its time to have a good relationship with our Ole Ally.

Warplanes drop incendiary bombs in Syria's Idlib, Hama - activists, monitor



Reuters April 10, 2017
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FILE PHOTO: People inspect the damage at a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian or Russian warplanes dropped incendiary bombs on areas of Idlib and Hama provinces just days after a deadly gas attack in the region, activists and a monitoring group reported on Monday.

Moscow and the Syrian army were not immediately available for comment.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian jets had used an incendiary substance called thermite in bombs they dropped over the towns of Saraqeb in Idlib and al-Latamenah in Hama, further south, on Saturday and Sunday.

A rescue worker in Saraqeb said warplanes had dropped phosphorus bombs there, but he had not heard of the use of thermite. He said use of phosphorus was not a new development.

"It's normal, these are often used," said Laith Abdullah of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, a rescue group working in rebel-held areas.

Videos posted on social media purportedly from Saraqeb on Sunday showed flaming materials hitting the ground and spreading large fires.

The Observatory said thermite had first been used in the Syrian conflict in June 2016 by the Syrian government.

The bombings came after the United States launched cruise missiles at an air base in western Syria on Friday. The missile strike was a response to what Washington said was a gas attack by Syrian warplanes in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib that killed scores.

Syria denies using chemical substances and denies it carried out the attack.

The Observatory reported Syrian warplanes took off from the same air base less than a day after the U.S. attack and carried out air strikes on rebel-held areas.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/warplanes...142431682.html

Originally Posted by posylady

It is almost like no one wants trump or anyone to keep an open mind with Russia or even have contact with anyone in Russia to get the whole story. The liberals have been blaming Russia for nearly everything since Hillarys loss. I am not saying Russia is innocent. Just I think the liberals protest to much. Maybe they don't want Trump to know the whole story..there was some obvious problems between Obama and Putin. Makes me curious what this is really all about.

Yes, I wonder why they are grinding on about Russia - as yet, there seems to be no evidence that they have done any of the things they are being accused of. I'm sure they will come up with something - someone's mistress knew about some prostitute, who overhead something or other.

Are they fighting in Syria, it seems they are. It also seems they were invited to do so by the elected leader of that country.
That country is also in their part of the world, so they do have some real interest there.

We, on the other hand, have been a little confused about which side we are on - just definitely not the leader of Syria - just don't know which of the terrorists organizations we want to arm and fund this week.

We need to shut up, get out, and tend to the many, many things going on in this country that is destroying it.

This Russia bashing is just ridiculous.

If our government, meaning our 'intelligence' community, had any real concerns about Russia, would they be screaming it to the world? Would they be 'leaking' all this information to every hysterical media source and blogger they could find?

I would hope that's not the way they conduct a real investigation. Of course, these days, you never know.

Please President Trump, don't get involved in another war - we have plenty of things we need to do right here in this country that is more important not only to this country but the rest of the world as well.

If illegals, so called refugees, radical Muslims, etc., succeed it taking over so many countries of the world, it won't matter if someone has chemical weapons or not.

Was there some 'other' reasons these chemical weapons had to be destroyed? Was there some other fact about these weapons that made it imperative they be destroyed? Was this what convinced Pres. Trump to do this?

Something to think about ----

Trump didn't destroy the chemical weapons. They were careful not to because they didn't want to release the gases and impact civilians. So the gases are all still there at the airbase stored in a facility we didn't strike. My question is how did we know what buildings they were stored in? Sounds to me like the "Intel" community knew all along the gas agents weren't destroyed. We would only know now what Obama knew all along.