Watch: President Obama discusses his plan for a response to Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is vowing that U.S. military retaliation for Syrian chemical weapons use would send a “strong signal,” and intelligence officials prepared briefings for Congress on evidence aimed at linking last week’s attack on civilians to President Bashar Assad’s government.
But new hurdles appeared to be slowing the formation of an international coalition to undertake military action. And questions remain about the strength of the case against Assad.
Russia blocked British efforts to seek a force resolution at the United Nations. British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would wait to join any military efforts until a U.N. chemical weapons inspection team releases its findings. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the team is expected to complete its inspection Friday and report to him Saturday. They will share their conclusions with members of the Security Council, Ban said, but he didn’t specify when that might happen.
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A report by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence outlining that evidence against Syria is thick with caveats. It builds a case that Assad’s forces are most likely responsible while outlining gaps in the U.S. intelligence picture. Relevant congressional committees were to be briefed on that evidence by teleconference call on Thursday, U.S. officials and congressional aides said.
The complicated intelligence picture raises questions about the White House’s full-steam-ahead approach to the Aug. 21 attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb, with worries that the attack could be tied to al-Qaida-backed rebels later. Administration officials said Wednesday that neither the U.N. Security Council, which is deciding whether to weigh in, or allies’ concerns would affect their plans.
Intelligence officials say they could not pinpoint the exact locations of Assad’s supplies of chemical weapons, and Assad could have moved them in recent days as U.S. rhetoric builds. That lack of certainty means a possible series of U.S. cruise missile strikes aimed at crippling Assad’s military infrastructure could hit newly hidden supplies of chemical weapons, accidentally triggering a deadly chemical attack.
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“If any action would be taken against Syria, it would be an international collaboration,” Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.
Still, the Obama administration vowed to take action even without the backing of allies or the U.N. The president said the U.S. has concluded that Assad’s regime perpetrated the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus, which killed at least 100 Syrians.
“And if that’s so,” Obama said during an interview with “NewsHour” on PBS, “then there need to be international consequences.”
Obama did not present specific evidence to back up his assertion.
U.S. officials were in search of additional intelligence to support the White House’s case for a strike against Assad’s military infrastructure. American intelligence intercepted lower-level Syrian military commanders’ communications discussing the chemical attack, but the communications don’t specifically link the attack to an official senior enough to tie the killings to Assad himself, according to three U.S. intelligence officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the intelligence publicly.
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The administration was planning an intelligence teleconference briefing Thursday on Syria for leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate, U.S. officials and congressional aides said. Officials also said an unclassified version of the report by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence would be made public this week.
The White House ideally wants intelligence that links the attack directly to Assad or someone in his inner circle, to rule out the possibility that a rogue element of the military decided to use chemical weapons without Assad’s authorization.
The CIA and the Pentagon have been working to gather more human intelligence tying Assad to the attack, relying on the intelligence services of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel, the officials said.
Britain on Wednesday when it went to the Security Council with a draft resolution that would authorize the use of military force against Syria. As expected, the five permanent members of the council failed to reach an agreement, as Russia reiterated its objections to international intervention in the Syrian crisis. Russia, along with China, has blocked past attempts to sanction the Assad government.
Obama said he was not seeking a lengthy, open-ended conflict in Syria. But he argued that Syria’s use of chemical weapons not only violated international norms but threatened “America’s core self-interest.”
“We do have to make sure that when countries break international norms on weapons like chemical weapons that could threaten us, that they are held accountable,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Julie Pace and Lara Jakes contributed to this report.
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