I know this doesn't fit into the popular narrative here that President Obama and John Kerry are lying to the American people about the Assad regime ordering the sarin gas attack on August 21, but the German wire service has released new information presented by the German Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst -BND) that backs the president.
BND Chief Gerhard Schindler presented the BND findings to a closed group of Bundestag officials and said that the evidence corroborates the assertions made up to now by the Americans. In addition, Schindler presented a bit of new evidence:
(my translation) It turns out that the BND intercepted a communication between a senior representative of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Iranian Embassy. In this communication, the official of Hezbollah, which is traditionally on the side of Assad and militarily supported him, said that Assad had given to go ahead to use poison gas. The official said Assad had "lost his nerve," and by issuing the command for the use of poison gas he had made a huge mistake.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has stated that Germany will not participate in any attack on Damascus. However, in her televised debate yesterday with Peer Steinbrueck (of the Social Democrats - SPD) she condemned the use of chemical weapons and stated that she would hold direct talks with Vladimir Putin (Germany has very close ties to Russia) to push for a UN resolution against the Syrian regime.