US Not Sure Syria's Assad Used Chemical Arms

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says the U.S. hasn't yet come to the conclusion that Syrian President Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons even though close U.S. allies say he has.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the U.S. is concerned about the reports and is looking for conclusive evidence. He says the U.S. supports a U.N. investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Israel, Britain and France have already concluded that Assad's government used chemical weapons last month in his battle against insurgent groups, increasing the pressure on the U.S. and other countries to intervene.

MORE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-23-13-55-34

[leveymg]

1. And, when sir, did you stop beating your wife?

[riderinthestorm]

2. The region is so unstable with so many competing interests, I don't trust ANY report

coming out of there - even (and maybe especially) those coming from our allies.

What we need to do is stay out of this.

[geek tragedy]

3. Israel, Britain and France on the same page. Look out Suez Canal--you're next!

[pampango]

4. UK Guardian: Will chemical weapons in Syria be the 'red line' Barack Obama promised?

Barack Obama has declared the use of chemical weapons in Syria to be a "red line" or a "game changer" which could trigger military intervention by the US or Israel. But the latest claim by a senior Israeli intelligence officer is the most explicit and detailed statement yet made about their operational deployment.

In Damascus, Syrian government officials say chemical weapons were used by rebels in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo last month. Opposition sources say there is evidence of the use of some kind of gas by government forces fighting for parts of the capital under the control of insurgents.

Speaking in Jerusalem after talks with Binyamin Netanyahu on 20 March, Obama said that the use of chemical weapons or their transfer to terrorist groups would be a "game changer". He added: "When you start seeing weapons that can cause potential devastation, and mass casualties, and you let that genie out of the bottle, then you are looking potentially at even more horrific scenes than we have already seen in Syria, and the international community has to act on that additional information."

But Syrian opposition sources have begun to scorn Obama for not standing by that commitment: "The US said that the use of chemical weapons was a red line for the Assad regime but the regime is using them and nothing has happened," protested Hisham Marwa, a senior member of the National Opposition Coalition.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/23/chemical-weapons-red-line-obama

France, the UK and Israel may have concluded that Assad's government has used chemical weapons, but none of them drew the 'red line' that Obama drew. Perhaps the US is trying to maintain enough 'plausible deniability' on whether it actually has happened so that Obama is not forced to act on his 'red line'. Let us just hope that no one in Syria takes this hesitation as implicit permission to use chemical weapons on a scale that would be undeniable.