White House pushes back against doubters of Syria intel

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday pushed back against a report that the intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime to an alleged, large-scale, chemical attack is no "slam dunk."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters a "preponderance of publicly available information" shows the Assad regime launched the attack.

Earnest backed the assertion by noting that two top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee — Democrat Dianne Feinstein and Republican Saxby Chambliss — have been privy to classified intelligence and share President Obama's conclusion that the Syrian government is responsible for the assault that independent observers say left more than 300 dead.

Chambliss of Georgia, "who has not shied from contradicting the president in public on a number of issues," agrees with Obama that the Syrian government is to blame for the Aug. 21 attack, Earnest said.

"Based on available intelligence, there can be no doubt the Assad regime is responsible for using chemical weapons on the Syrian people," Chambliss said in a statement Wednesday.

Earnest, however, did not respond directly to an Associated Press report that cited anonymous U.S. intelligence officials saying the intelligence community is no longer sure where Syria's chemical weapons are stored or can prove that Assad ordered their use.

The news agency cited multiple intelligence sources who used the phrase "not a slam dunk" — a reference to the language that then-CIA Director George Tenet used in 2002 to describe confidence that Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime had weapons of mass destruction before the March 2003 U.S. invasion.

Earnest attempted to downplay the AP report by comparing the on-the-record comments by President Obama and others about the Assad regime's complicity in the attack with the anonymous comments in the AP story.

"You've got a handful of anonymous sources that are quoted in that story," Earnest said. "And I have an on-the-record statement from the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, an on-the-record statement from vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. I have on-the-record statements from the president of the United States, the vice president, the secretary of State. I've got on-the-record statements from prime minister of the United Kingdom. We've got the president of France. We've got a multi-lateral resolution passed by the Arab League indicating all of these things."

Administration officials will also try to soothe growing concern among lawmakers to a potential strike, later on Thursday when members of the president's national security team will hold an unclassified telephone briefing for leaders of the House and Senate from both parties, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of relevant committees.

The White House is also expected to publicly disclose an unclassified intelligence report, perhaps as early as Thursday, detailing the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons.