Robert Burns
reports for the Associated Press:
Hagel was speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi. He says the White House has informed members of Congress that, within the last day, U.S. intelligence concluded with "some degree of varying confidence" that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has used chemical weapons — specifically sarin gas.
Hagel says, quote, "It violates every convention of warfare."
On Thursday, White House legislative director Miguel Rodriguez
sent identical letters to Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan stating, among other things:
Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. This assessment is based in part on physiological samples. Our standard of evidence must build on these intelligence assessments as we seek to establish credible and corroborated facts. For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannnot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions. We do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime. Thus far, we believe that the Assad regrime maintains custody of these weapons, and has demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence against the Syrian people.
Because of our concern about the deteriorating situation in Syria, the President has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons—or transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups—is a red line for the United States of America. [...]
Given the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent experience, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient—only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making, and strengthen our leadership of the international community.
Meanwhile, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former commanding officer of the British army’s chemical weapons unit and now head of the counter chemical warfare company SecureBio,
told The Guardian that the United States was right to remain cautious about intelligence reports from Israel, Britain and France that sarin had been used by the Syrian regime:
People like myself and others went to war in Iraq on some pretty spurious WMD “intelligence”. So everybody ... the US government and the UK government ... are very circumspect. If the red line is crossed, as Obama said that would be a game changer. Getting ground troops involved in Syria would be a hugely challenging area and I’m sure Obama and Cameron are trying to avoid that at all costs.
9:43 AM PT: “It’s pretty obvious that red line has been crossed,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters. [...]
“From what I’ve heard our intelligence indicated with some degree of certainty that it has been crossed,” [Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)] said. “That’s up to the commander in chief, but something has to be done.”