Eli Lake, Columnist

Syria’s Assad Has Gassed His Own People, Again

Newly declassified U.S. intelligence shows that the regime did exactly what it has accused its enemies of doing.

December 4, 2018 at 11:50 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Only one side in this war is using chemical weapons.
Photographer: AAREF WATAD/AFP

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Since Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad began gassing his people half a decade ago, his regime and its Russian enablers have tried to persuade credulous observers that the rebels were doing it to themselves. Now there is new evidence that, last month, the Syrian regime did exactly what it accuses the rebels of doing.

A newly declassified U.S. assessment of the incident, scheduled to be released today, will say a so-called chlorine attack on Nov. 24 was essentially a false-flag operation.