<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>BREAKING:SenMcCain says he received letter from PresObama saying Syria HAS used chemical weapons</p>— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShannonBream/status/327442393253175297">April 25, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Why is this a concern of the US? We are not the world police. If Obama start a war with Syria, he is as dumb as Bush.
It will probably just be air support like Libya, which is all the rebels really need anyway. The problem will be keeping Russia from intervening on Syria's behalf.
McCain must have forgotten to put his reading glasses on if it's the same letter: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/world/middleeast/us-unsure-of-chemical-arms-use-by-syria.html?hp
Could not agree more. I hope we just stay the **** out of it. There is no need to be involved in every countries business. Let the UN handle it.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>WASHINGTON (AP) —Secretary of State John Kerry says Syrian regime launched 2 chemical attacks.</p>— Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) <a href="https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP/status/327452875326361602">April 25, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Chuck Hagel: US intelligence assesses "with some degree of varying confidence" that Syria "has used chemical weapons" <a href="http://t.co/Y94FToOX0r" title="http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/25/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html">cnn.com/2013/04/25/wor…</a></p>— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) <a href="https://twitter.com/tobyharnden/status/327449216383320069">April 25, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>WH sends letter acknowledging possible Syrian sarin use AS President Obama speaks at Bush Library opening.</p>— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) <a href="https://twitter.com/GlennThrush/status/327449371824238592">April 25, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
White House says chemical weapons used in Syria Posted By Josh Rogin Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 12:15 PM Share The White House acknowledged for the first time Thursday that chemical weapons were likely used in Syria and lawmakers quickly responded to say President Barack Obama's red line has been crossed. At a briefing for all senators Thursday morning led by Secretary of State John Kerry and including representation from the office of the director of national intelligence and the FBI, lawmakers were given a letter from Obama stating that his administration now believed that the regime of President Bashar al Assad has used chemical weapons. The new assessment brings the United States in line with the assessments of Britain, France, the Israel Defense Forces, and the prime minister of Qatar, who addressed the issue Wednesday evening in Washington. "Our intelligence community does asses with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent Sarin," Miguel Rodriguez, the director of the White House office of legislative affairs, wrote in the letter. That conclusion was based in part on "physiological samples," the White House said. British intelligence agents were reported to have secured soil samples from an alleged instance of chemical weapons use in Aleppo and Damascus in March. Syrian activists also claim that the regime used chemical weapons last December in Homs, but two State Department investigations failed to confirm that allegation. The White House said the chain of custody for the evidence was not clear so the U.S. intelligence community cannot confirm where or how the chemical weapons were used. "Thus far, we believe that the Assad regime maintains custody of these weapons, and has demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence against the Syrian people," the letter stated. The use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would cross the "red line" President Barack Obama first established in an Aug. 20 statement. "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation," Obama said. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel echoed the letter's conclusions when speaking to reporters Thursday in Abu Dahbi. "It violates every convention of warfare," he said. Hagel said the administration was still assessing whether the information means that Assad has violated Obama's red line. Only yesterday, Hagel was striking a more skeptical tone. "Suspicions are one thing, evidence is another," he said Wednesday when asked about the issue. Also yesterday, a senior official told The New York Times that the administration lacked conclusive evidence that chemical weapons had been used in Syria and therefore was not prepared to take steps toward intervention. "It is precisely because this is a red line that we have to establish with airtight certainty that this happened," the official told the Times. "The bar on the United States is higher than on anyone else, both because of our capabilities and because of our history in Iraq." The president's letter was a response to a letter sent Wednesday to Obama by a bipartisan group of senators asking for the administration's view on whether chemical weapons had been used. The letter was signed by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Carl Levin (D-MI), Bob Corker (R-TN), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). "Senior officials from your Administration have testified publicly to Congress that they are still reviewing the facts and have not yet determined whether chemical weapons have been used by the Assad regime in Syria," the senators wrote. "Has the Assad regime - or Syrian elements associated with, or supported by, the Assad regime - used chemical weapons in Syria since the current conflict began in March 2011? We believe this question can be answered straightforwardly without compromising any critical intelligence sources and methods, just as our French, British, and Israeli allies have done." Emerging from Thursday morning's briefing, which was classified, McCain waved the president's letter, which was unclassified, and called for more aggressive military steps by the U.S. inside Syria. "I think it's pretty obvious that this red line has been crossed," McCain said. "Everything that the non-interventionalists said would happen in Syria if we intervened has happened." McCain called for a no fly zone to protect Syrian civilians and for the U.S. to provide arms to members of the Syrian armed opposition. He also said the military has to prepare to go into Syrian to protect the regime's chemical weapons from falling into the wrong hands. "We have to have operational capability to secure these chemical weapons stocks," McCain said. Graham warned of the chaos that is spreading in the region and the potential for that instability to increase if and when Assad falls. He called for the administration to develop a strategy "to contain the fighting so the Kingdom of Jordan does not fall." Jordan's King Abullah II is on Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with lawmakers. Corker, the Republican head of the foreign relations committee and an avowed opponent to U.S. intervention in Syria, struck a more somber tone following the briefing. "There's probably a little bit of additional verification that needs to occur, but there are indications that a red line has been crossed," he said. "I think there are a lot more serious and sober discussions ahead." http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/25/white_house_says_chemical_weapons_used_in_syria
Ah, ok, so you're mad that he's ... never mind, Ima just try to get along rather than try to reach a consensus on this apparently divisive issue.
Last thing we need is to intervene so these muslim extremist can setup their own islamic government. Let them fight it out...
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Hagel">#Hagel</a>: it's now my job to give Obama military options on how/whether to respond to chemweapons attack in <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Syria">#Syria</a>. <a href="http://t.co/Px1JdrBVbh" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-intelligence-agencies-assad-used-chemical-weapons-on-a-small-scale/2013/04/25/208346aa-adc0-11e2-98ef-d1072ed3cc27_story.html?hpid=z1">washingtonpost.com/world/middle_e…</a></p>— Craig Whitlock (@CraigMWhitlock) <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigMWhitlock/status/327457280280915969">April 25, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
