Intercepted Telephone Calls By U.S. And Israeli Intelligence Is The Proof That The Syrian Military Used Nerve Gas, U.S. Spies Say

A convoy of U.N. vehicles carrying a team of United Nations chemical weapons experts and escorted by Free Syrian Army fighters (vehicle on left) drive through one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in eastern Ghouta. Daily Mail

Exclusive: Intercepted Calls Prove Syrian Army Used Nerve Gas, U.S. Spies Say -- The Cable/Foreign Policy

Last Wednesday, in the hours after a horrific chemical attack east of Damascus, an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense exchanged panicked phone calls with a leader of a chemical weapons unit, demanding answers for a nerve agent strike that killed more than 1,000 people. Those conversations were overheard by U.S. intelligence services, The Cable has learned. And that is the major reason why American officials now say they're certain that the attacks were the work of the Bashar al-Assad regime -- and why the U.S. military is likely to attack that regime in a matter of days.

But the intercept raises questions about culpability for the chemical massacre, even as it answers others: Was the attack on Aug. 21 the work of a Syrian officer overstepping his bounds? Or was the strike explicitly directed by senior members of the Assad regime? "It's unclear where control lies," one U.S. intelligence official told The Cable. "Is there just some sort of general blessing to use these things? Or are there explicit orders for each attack?"

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More News On Reports That It Was Intercepted Telephone Calls By U.S. And Israeli Intelligence That Proved Syrian Military Use Of Nerve Gas

The U.S.'s Proof of a Syrian Army Chemical Attack Is an Intercepted Call -- The Atlantic
U.S. spies certain Assad used nerve gas 'after intercepting phone call from panicking Syrian defence chief demanding an explanation from its chemical weapon military unit' -- Daily Mail
Intercepted call reportedly clinched US claim on Syria chemical weapons strike -- FOX News
Intercepted calls prove Syrian army used nerve gas: US spies -- SBS
Israeli intelligence 'intercepted Syrian regime talk about chemical attack' -- The Guardian

My Comment: If we are going to war because of intercepted telephone calls from one Syrian official to another .... I say that this is then a mistake.