White House accuses Syrian regime in chemical attack

Aamer Madhani, Tom Vanden Brook, Paul Singer and Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Kerry lays out evidence against Syria Secretary of State John Kerry says the evidence is clear that Syria used chemical weapons on its own people. He detailed what the U.S. has learned in the wake of last week's attack.

Obama says no decision yet on retaliation%2C but limited response is under consideration

Public release of intelligence report meant to bolster case for possible military action

Administration careful to show difference from Iraq war

WASHINGTON--President Obama said Friday that the U.S. has determined with high confidence the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people, as the White House released a four-page report summarizing their case against the Bashar Assad regime.

"This kind of attack is a challenge to the world," Obama said. "We cannot accept a world where women and children and innocent civilians are gassed on a terrible scale."

Obama repeated on Friday that he has still not made a final determination on whether the U.S. will carry out a punitive military strike against Syria, but a senior defense official told USA TODAY that military leaders are preparing for an imminent strike.

The U.S. military is ready to execute a strike immediately on the president's order, said the official.

In a brief appearance before reporters, Obama emphasized that he is only considering a "limited, narrow act" against Syria.

"We're not considering any open ended commitment," Obama said. "We're not considering any boots on the ground approach."

In laying out their intelligence report publicly, the Obama administration hoped prove that they have a preponderance evidence that would justify a potential military strike on Syria. Obama tapped Secretary of State John Kerry to detail the intelligence community's findings and announce the release of the report before he made his own comments.

"I'm not asking you to take my word for it," Kerry told reporters at the State Department. "Read for yourselves the verdict reached by our intelligence community" that the government of Syria was responsible for the attack.

The intelligence community believes with "high confidence" that the Assad government used chemical weapons in the Damascus suburbs based on human sources as well as intercepts of conversations by senior Syrian officials, according to the report and Kerry. Assad is the ultimate decision maker for the chemical weapons program, the report asserts, but stops short of concluding that Assad ordered the attack.

"We know that for three days before the attack, the Syrian regime's chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area, making preparations," said Kerry, referring to intercepts of conversations of Syrian officials. "And we know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons."

Kerry added, "We know that a senior regime official who knew about the attack confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime, reviewed the impact, and actually was afraid that they would be discovered."

The Syrian regime has the types of munitions that were used to carry out the attack on Aug. 21, that left more than 1,400 dead, including 429 children, according to the report. The regime also has the ability to strike simultaneously in multiple locations.

The U.S. intelligence community has discounted the possibility that Syrian rebel groups could have been behind the attack, noting that it doesn't have the rocket and artillery capability that was used in the most recent attack.

"We assess that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons over the last year primarily to gain the upper hand or break a stalemate in areas where it has struggled to seize and hold strategically valuable territory," the report said. "In this regard, we continue to judge that the Syrian regime views chemical weapons as one of many tools in its arsenal, including air power and ballistic missiles, which they indiscriminately use against the opposition."

With the release of the intelligence report and a telephone briefing for lawmakers on Thursday evening, the White House looked to bolster the case for taking action against Assad even as objections to a strike continue to mount in the U.S. and with the nation's closest ally, Britain, against taking military action.

Obama was also given a bolt of international backing on Friday, when President François Hollande of France announced his support for international military action against the Syrian government.

On Thursday, the British parliament voted to reject taking military action in Syria, even as the government published an intelligence document that detailed how it concluded the Syrian government was responsible for the chemical attacks on the outskirts of Damascus last week.

Skepticism about a potential strike among the American public and lawmakers also remains an issue that Obama has yet to overcome. Nearly 80% of Americans say Obama should seek congressional approval before taking any military action in Syria, according to an NBC News poll published Friday.

Kerry also acknowledged the specter of the long U.S. war in Iraq weighs heavy in the minds of the Obama administration and the public.

As a candidate for the White House in 2008, Obama ran as an anti-war candidate. Kerry also was highly critical of President George W. Bush in his unsuccessful 2004 run for the White House.

"The American people are tired of war," Kerry said. "But fatigue does not absolve us of our responsibility." He said that "history would judge us all extraordinarily harshly" if the United States does not respond to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government."

The president had long expressed skepticism about the merits of American involvement in the Syrian civil war that has left more than 100,000 dead. But Obama stated publicly just over a year ago that movement or deployment of chemical weapons was a "red line" that must not be crossed.

The White House had determined earlier this summer that Assad's regime had previously used chemical weapons against rebels and civilians on a small scale, but had resisted taking action or offering any significant new military aid to the rebel groups.

But after last week's suspected chemical attack in a rebel-controlled suburb of Damascus, Obama has appeared to inch toward a stronger response.