White House Accuses Russia of Trying to Cover Up Syria ‘Gas Attack’

Allegations Contradict Pentagon Comments on Lacking Evidence

by Jason Ditz, 

Continuing to doubling down on a growing flurry of allegations that are fueling soaring tensions between the US and Russia, the White House today accused Russia of plotting to cover up last week’s putative Syrian “gas attack,” insisting they are “confident” that the Syrian government carried out the attack and that Russia has been spreading disinformation to try to cover up the incident.

White House officials claimed a “mass of data” backing the allegation, adding that they didn’t believe it was possible that Russia wouldn’t have had advanced knowledge of the attack, though their declassified report offered none of this claimed evidence. Indeed, if the Pentagon is to be believed, that evidence doesn’t exist in the first place.

Because shortly before the new round of White House statements railing against Russia, the Pentagon issued its own statement rejecting allegations circled yesterday of Russia having advanced knowledge of the attack, saying they had seen “nothing” to corroborate the allegation.

Interestingly, the false allegations that Russia did have advanced knowledge themselves came from US officials, albeit ones quoted anonymously, once again underscoring just how desperate the Trump Administration is to throw more accusations against Russia in the hopes that something sticks. That the allegations are making already dangerously dire US-Russia relations even worse appears to be very much beside the point.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/04/11/white-house-accuses-russia-of-trying-to-cover-up-syria-gas-attack/