Russian President Vladimir Putin has takena page out of President Donald Trump's playbook byquestioning the reliability of U.S. intelligence reports aboutchemical weapons usagein Syria.The Trump administration has tried to force Moscow's hand withU.S. spyreports about chemical weapons being used in by the Assad regime. It also used them to justifyrecent missile strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad's military bases."It reminds me of the events in 2003 when U.S. envoys to the Security Council were demonstrating what they said were chemical weapons found in Iraq," Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Tuesday, in response to U.S. agencies blaming Syria's government for using chemical weapons. "We have seen it all already."The Bush administration used falseintelligence reports that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraqin 2003. Some lawmakers and pundits, however, accusedthe Bush administration ' not the intelligence community ' of exaggeratingthe reports.The intel didn't state that Iraq had WMDs. The Bush-Cheney WH made that misrepresentation. pic.twitter.com/T6Sx3vXt92' Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) December 10, 2016Trump used the same rationale in December to question intelligence reports that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election. "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," hesaid.Trumplater supported WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's statementsclaiming that Russia did not help WikiLeaks.Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless' Also said Russians did not give him the info!' Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017Trump has also accused intelligence agencies of leaking information about his associates' connections to Moscow, and blamed them for allowing an unverified dossier to be leaked. But he alsoblamed the media for the riftbetween him and the intelligence communities.Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany'' Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017Trump's rocky relationshipwith his own intelligence community has seemingly come back to bite him, as the Russian government has taken to usinghis own words to respond to US accusations. It'salso notthe first time the tactic has been used. On the campaign trail, Trump cited a fake news story about a terror attack in Turkey, repeatedly questioned the credibility of the US electoral process, and dismissed hacking attempts of the Democrats attributed to Russia ' themes that were often echoed by Russian media."Partof the reason active measures have worked in this U.S. election is because the commander-in-chief has used Russian active measures, at times, against his opponents," Clint Watts, a former FBI agent who has researched Russian information warfare, told the Senate recently.The U.S. has accused Russia of knowing about the chemical weapons attack and trying to cover it up.At the same time, Putin alleged that the U.S. framed Assad, and that the U.S. isplanning more "false flag" chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus.Still, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said there could be "no doubt" that Assad's troops were behind the attack, andautopsies have showedthatsarin gas was used.Russia has instead argued that the Syrian air force carried out a conventional attack that hit a chemical weapons cache controlled by the rebels. However, as chemicalweapons expert Dan Kaszeta toldBellingcat, sarin in storage consists of unmixed components, and dropping a bomb on them would not turn them into a nerve agent."It is an infantile argument," he wrote.Meanwhile, Trumpsaid Wednesday that the U.S. would not intervene furtherin Syria, whilePutin said that relations with the Trump administration have "degraded."SEE ALSO:TRUMP: We're not going to get more involved in SyriaJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: These are the small, agile new aircraft carriers meant to take F-35s into battle
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