The US attack on an airfield believed to have been used by Syrian President Bashar Assad‘s military to launch a deadly chemical-weapons attack early last week has given Russia a renewed purpose for staying mired in a war that remains popular at home while allowing Moscow to paint itself as a foil to US „aggression.“

It has also allowed US President Donald Trump to deflect criticism that he is overly beholden to Russia and insensitive to Assad‘s brutal, scorched-earth campaign against Syrian civilians and rebel groups.

(23.12.2016)

“I think the strikes that we did last week on that airbase were very good,” Robert Ford said on “CBS This Morning.” “It’s time to try to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, so I think that’s a good step. But it’s only a step. Assad will almost certainly try to use chemical weapons again, and so I think it will be hard to convince the Russians to lean on Assad to stop using chemical weapons.”

Die bisher schärfsten Drohungen hatte der für die Region zuständige Chef des Central Command, General Joseph Votel, am 29. März in einem Bericht an den Streitkräfteausschuss des Abgeordnetenhauses ausgesprochen. Irans »destabilisierende Aktivitäten« seien »auf lange Sicht die größte Bedrohung« im Nahen und mittleren Osten. Man werde Gelegenheiten suchen, um »ihre Handlungen durch militärische oder andere Mittel« zu durchkreuzen.

Drei Tage nach dem Luftangriff auf einen syrischen Stützpunkt kündigte US-Außenminister Rex Tillerson beim Besuch einer Gedenkstätte für Naziverbrechen in Italien an, „wir verschreiben uns wieder dem Ziel, jeden in der ganzen Welt zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen, der Verbrechen an Unschuldigen verübt“.

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(15.6.2013)

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In einer am Montag veröffentlichten Umfrage von Infratest dimap für die ARD-Sendung „hart aber fair“ gaben 29 Prozent der Befragten an, dass sie das Vorgehen der USA gegen die Regierung des syrischen Machthabers Baschar al-Assad befürworten.

„Wir wissen nicht, woher Reuters diese Information hat und was für anonyme Quellen das wieder waren“, kommentierte Dmitri Peskow, Pressesprecher des russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin, am Montag. „Wir können das nicht bestätigen.“

Past cyber attacks on scores of organizations around the world were conducted with top-secret hacking tools that were exposed recently by the Web publisher Wikileaks, the security researcher Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) said on Monday.

That means the attacks were likely conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Spying tools and operational protocols detailed in the recent Vault 7 leak have been used in cyberattacks against at least 40 targets in 16 different countries by a group Symantec calls Longhorn. Symantec has been protecting its customers from Longhorn’s tools for the past three years and has continued to track the group in order to learn more about its tools, tactics, and procedures.

The tools used by Longhorn closely follow development timelines and technical specifications laid out in documents disclosed by WikiLeaks. The Longhorn group shares some of the same cryptographic protocols specified in the Vault 7 documents, in addition to following leaked guidelines on tactics to avoid detection. Given the close similarities between the tools and techniques, there can be little doubt that Longhorn‘s activities and the Vault 7 documents are the work of the same group.

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In hearings, Senator Tower neglected to disclose family ties to CIA gun-running operation at the heart of the scandal