US official claims Russia knew about the chemical attack in Syria beforehand

  Maybe I was just a little too quick to jump on MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell for wondering if Vladimir Putin was behind the chemical attack in Syria in order to help Donald Trump. Okay, I am not going to go that far however there is a new report which claims to be quoting an unnamed US official which is a little troubling on the surface. This official claims that Russia knew the attack was coming and in the aftermath tried to cover it up by bombing the hospital where the victims were going seeking treatment.

  Here is more:

A senior U.S. official says the United States has concluded that Russia knew in advance of Syria’s chemical weapons attack last week.

The official says a Russian-operated drone flew over a hospital in Syria as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment.

Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons.

Until Monday, U.S. officials had said they weren’t sure if the drone was operated by Russia or Syria. The senior official said it still wasn’t clear who was flying the jet that bombed the hospital.

  This is either sloppy reporting or this US official is making a great leap. We all know Vladimir Putin supports Assad and has been assisting him in Syria’s civil war so it would not be surprising if Russia had a drone, or drones, flying overhead at most times during the day and night so how this confirms Putin knew about the attack ahead of time is beyond me–Russia could have drones flying in multiple locations at all times.

  This story is now making the rounds on the blogs and the story has morphed into Russia knowing about the attack ahead of time and then sending in a jet to bomb the hospital in an attempt to cover up the story. But as you can see from the original story it was a Russian-made jet but it is not known who was flying the jet–it could have been a Syrian pilot.

  Little of the story we are being fed makes much sense to me, especially the notion that Assad used chemical weapons because he was emboldened after the White House said the President was not interested in regime change. Why would Assad attack his own people with chemical weapons and risk changing the President’s opinion?  

  I can see the possibility of Russia trying to help Assad cover this story up if it is true, but it is equally possible that Assad also tried to cover it up afterwards if he did indeed use chemical weapons on own people. But this is all speculation on my part, we do not know what the truth is but the story keeps getting stranger every day.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium