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LookieNoNookie -> RE: Kerry On Syria (8/30/2013 8:31:50 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lucylastic
The Obama administration has concluded there is “high confidence” that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own people on Aug. 21, according to an unclassified four-page intelligence estimate released by the White House Friday afternoon.
The report found that the chemical attack included the use of a nerve agent and that it killed 1,429 people, including 426 children.
“Our intelligence community has carefully reviewed and re-reviewed information regarding this attack and I will tell you it is more than mindful of the Iraq experience,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in a Friday afternoon speech. “We will not repeat that moment.”
Kerry said the United States has a responsibility to act in Syria and needs no approval from other nations.
“The United States of America makes our own decisions, based on our own timelines,” Kerry said.
The statement marks the second time this week the Obama administration has used Kerry to deliver its Syria message to the world. On Monday he was the first administration official to categorically declare that the Assad government used chemical weapons during the Aug. 21 attack, calling it “undeniable.”
Kerry urged people to read the report, released during his speech.
“Read for yourself, everyone, those listening, read for yourselves the evidence from thousands of sources,” Kerry said.
“In addition to U.S. intelligence information, there are accounts from international and Syrian medical personnel; videos; witness accounts; thousands of social media reports from at least 12 different locations in the Damascus area; journalist accounts; and reports from highly credible nongovernmental organizations,” the report said.
“We assess with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack against opposition elements in the Damascus suburbs on August 21. We assess that the scenario in which the opposition executed the attack on August 21 is highly unlikely,” it added.
“The body of information used to make this assessment includes intelligence pertaining to the regime’s preparations for this attack and its means of delivery, multiple streams of intelligence about the attack itself and its effect, our post-attack observations, and the differences between the capabilities of the regime and the opposition.”
Believing they have established that the attack was ordered by the Assad regime, administration officials say they are now turning to the question of how to respond. Senior administration officials discussed the finding of the report with 26 high-ranking members of Congress on Thursday night and solicited the views of lawmakers on how to respond.
“This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people,” Kerry said. “Now that we know what we know … the question is, what will we do?”
Kerry promised that any U.S. military action undertaken by President Barack Obama would not resemble the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the international coalition assault that toppled Muammar Qadhafi in Libya in 2011.
Also Friday, the National Security Council is briefing all lawmakers from key congressional committees on Syria, multiple Hill aides said.
The committees involved in the calls include the House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Armed Services Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee. The House panels and Senate panels are being updated in separate calls.
One Senate aide said the call is similar to the one held Thursday evening for congressional leaders and top lawmakers on national security and foreign affairs.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/syria-chemical-weapons-report-96089.html#ixzz2dTa78B00
Link to unclassified chemical weapons report
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/syria-chemical-weapons-assessment-document-96088.html
Too long.
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