Today’s Syrian Gas Attack: How do we know who is responsible?

Today's Syrian Gas Attack: How do we know who is responsible?

Today a terrible gas attack struck a neighborhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo, leaving innocent victims dead and seriously injured. This is an unconscionable crime against humanity. Seventy civilians, many of them children, have been stricken. Entire families are dying, and the tragedy harkens back to the horrific 2013 attack.

The Management Team of Face Activities extends our deepest sympathies and concern for the victims of today’s criminal attack. And we ask, are we sure we know who is responsible for this outrage? The international news media is very quick to blame Bashar al-Asad. But what is the source of this information?

It’s important to get this right, by thoroughly researching and investigating every logical possibility. It’s too easy to make a snap judgement, and snap judgments in war can be costly, in the worst ways. Has ISIS, the most horrendous of terrorist threats, been ruled out? They could have had access to chemical weapons by virtue of all the territory they captured during the war.

The Management Team of Face Activities calls upon the international news media to present the results of their investigations into this chemical attack, and explain their sources to the public. Has ISIS been ruled out, or is there more investigative work needed before this can be done?

 

By Bernard Gagnon (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons