Friday News Dump? U.S. Had Intel on Chemical Strike Before It Was Launched

[pnwmom]

24. Is there some evidence that the US knew this wouldn't be one of the "usual" smaller-scale

chemical attacks that had been going on for some time?

From the article linked at the OP:

"Razan Zaitouneh, an opposition activist in the town of Douma, one of the towns hit in the Aug. 21 attack, said she had no early indication of a major chemical attack. 'Even the moment [the attack hit], we thought it was as usual, limited and not strong,' she told The Cable in an instant message. That only changed when 'we started to hear about the number of injuries.'"

Also, hindsight is always 20/20. The evidence they examined retroactively probably seems much more clear than when they were looking at it going forward -- assuming they even looked at it in real-time. They might have merely collected the info, and then looked at it afterwards. That is how this statement reads to me. Note that it says "we assess" not "we assessed."

From the same article:

"In the three days prior to the attack, we collected streams of human, signals and geospatial intelligence that reveal regime activities that we assess were associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack," said a U.S. intelligence report the Obama administration released Friday.

"Multiple streams of intelligence indicate that the regime executed a rocket and artillery attack against the Damascus suburbs in the early hours of August 21," the report added. Satellites detected that the weapons were launched from territories held by the regime. They landed in rebel controlled or contested neighborhoods.