Syria's Bashar al-Assad speaks during an April 6 interview with a Croatian newspaper. (Reuters)
The CIA is denying a report that its director
told President Donald Trump he didn't believe Syrian President Bashar
Assad deployed chemical weapons on a rebel-held town.
The disputed report
cites a single anonymous source who said CIA Director Mike Pompeo
personally informed Trump on Thursday that Assad "was likely not
responsible" for a Tuesday chemical incident that killed dozens, and
that "Pompeo was excluded from [a] larger meeting as Trump reached a
contrary decision."
The report, appearing in Consortium News, connects the source's claim with Pompeo's absence from a photo of Trump surrounded by advisers as he was briefed Thursday evening on the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase.
Spokespeople for the intelligence community tell
U.S. News the claims presented in the report are untrue and that
intelligence officials believe Assad is guilty.
The report is "completely erroneous," CIA spokesman Dean Boyd says.
"The fact that Consortium News made such a
ridiculous claim based upon one photo and an anonymous source – without
ever contacting CIA for comment – speaks volumes," Boyd says.
Pompeo briefs Trump “virtually every day,” Boyd
says, and "there was and is no daylight between CIA and the White House
in the conclusion that the Syrian regime was responsible for the April 4
chemical weapons attack."
A photo of President Donald Trump on
the evening he launched airstrikes against Syria's government does not
show senior intelligence officials, though Director of National
Intelligence Dan Coats reportedly was on the phone. (Shealah Craighead/White House)
Tim Barrett, a spokesman for Director of
National Intelligence Dan Coats, also pushed back on the report, which
notes Coats' absence from the photo, expressing concern that "Trump
[chose] to rely on the smug certainty from the TV shows."
“Consortium is wrong,” Barrett says. “ I can
speak for DNI Coats, who was at the White House for roughly eight hours
the afternoon [and] evening of the strike.”
Trump was in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the time of the U.S. attack. Coats reportedly was involved via a secure conference call.
“I don’t think there’s any question about the
analysis from within the [intelligence community]" concerning
responsibility for the chemical incident, Barrett says. “ODNI and CIA
are in lockstep on this issue.”
It’s unclear if the U.S. government will conduct
a formal national intelligence estimate (NIE) to further assess
responsibility. Barrett says office policy prevents him discussing
potential NIEs unless he's directed to do so.
A missile is launched toward Syria from the USS Porter following President Donald Trump's order to attack a Syrian airfield. (The Associated Press)
The Consortium News report has not gained widespread attention since it was published by Robert Parry, a veteran journalist who wrote for The Associated Press and Newsweek before founding Consortium as an investigative nonprofit.
Parry doesn't do much to vouch for the
credibility of his source. At first, he writes, he dismissed the account
as “the sort of tidbit that may come from someone who lacks first-hand
knowledge and doesn’t get all the details right." The photo, he wrote,
"made me wonder whether perhaps my original source did know something."
Parry did not address the reliability of his
source in response to an email seeking comment. But he says The New York
Times "also noted how strange it was not to have [Coats] or other
intelligence officials involved in an issue such as this." (His
Consortium report pointed to this Times article, which does not directly say that.)
"The photo speaks for itself," Parry says.
The report came as some lawmakers expressed skepticism of whether proof exists of Assad’s culpability. Others have said they would like to see more evidence.
Assad’s government says it did not use chemical
weapons and that the poison gas was released after it bombed an al-Qaida
offshoot’s arms depot.
Responsibility for past chemical attacks in Syria has been hotly contested.
A chemical attack that killed hundreds in
rebel-held territory near Damascus in 2013, for example, was also blamed
by the U.S. government on Assad. But there's no consensus. The top
United Nations investigator told U.S. News “key pieces [of evidence] are missin
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