U.S. Makes Case for Strikes as Military Builds in Mideast

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry blamed Syria’s government for a chemical weapons attack with ‘high confidence’ and said it was ‘highly unlikely’ the outrage was a ruse plotted by rebels.

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration made public its case that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for a chemical-weapons attack outside Damascus, bracing Americans for potential strikes in the coming days.

President Barack Obama said he hasn’t made a decision on military strikes on Syria, even as U.S. forces continued a buildup in the Middle East on Friday and the White House took the rare step of releasing a detailed U.S. intelligence assessment.

The U.S. findings, based on intercepted communications, satellite images and human spying, were released to underpin Mr. Obama’s assertions that the Assad regime was responsible for the attack, which according to the U.S. conclusions killed 1,429 people, including more than 400 children.

“I am very clear that the world generally is war-weary,” Mr. Obama said on Friday. “The American people understandably want us to be focused on the business of rebuilding our economy here and putting people back to work. And I assure you nobody ends up being more war-weary than me.”

Secretary of State John Kerry discusses the circumstances surrounding the alleged chemical-weapons attack in Syria.

Mr. Obama continued seeking international support, speaking Friday afternoon with French President François Hollande, who said—the morning after the possibility of British military help was quashed by a parliamentary vote—that his country was ready to respond.

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Some of the president’s critics in Washington continued to demand more information. “If the president believes this information makes a military response imperative, it is his responsibility to explain to Congress and the American people the objectives, strategy, and legal basis for any potential action,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio).

Amid prospects of a new U.S. military front in the Middle East, a U.S. Marines amphibious assault ship joined five American destroyers armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles in the eastern Mediterranean.

The fifth destroyer arrived this week and the Marines vessel carries helicopters useful for evacuations, while U.S. diplomatic officials prepared to secure embassies in the region.

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In late August 2011, Adnan Bakkour, the attorney general of the central city of Hama, appears in a video announcing he has defected.
Source: WSJ research

Secretary of State John Kerry made a public argument on Friday for a forceful American response against Syria.

Mr. Kerry cited the U.S. intelligence assessment, saying U.S. officials have “high confidence” the Assad regime deployed chemical weapons against civilians on Aug. 21 and attempted to destroy the evidence.

A high-confidence assessment is the strongest position that intelligence analysts can take short of “confirmation,” the report says.

The report, which tracks the alleged attack from its planning stages to its aftermath, cites evidence that officials said directly demonstrates regime culpability.

Officials didn’t release all of the intelligence that they said backs up the assessment. Officials were still working to close “gaps in our understanding” of what happened, the report said.

The assessment, released by the White House, represents the consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, and officials said all weighed in at high confidence.

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It cited intercepted communications involving a senior Syrian government official “intimately familiar” with the attack, in which he confirms that the regime used chemical weapons, and raised concerns about the United Nations inspectors obtaining evidence.

“Regime officials were witting and directed the attack,” the assessment concludes.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the evidence in a statement on Friday night. “Mr. Kerry relied on old tales propagated by the terrorists more than a week ago, with all the fabrications and lies,” it said, using a regime term for the rebel opposition. “We remind the world of the fabricated lies of Colin Powell before the invasion of Iraq.”

Some U.S. intelligence veterans said on Friday that the unclassified presentation of the intelligence assessment appeared solid, in contrast to errant 2003 findings on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

“This is a pretty strong assessment,” said John McLaughlin, who served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2000 to 2004. “The intelligence community does not say ‘high confidence’ about something unless they have really chewed it over.”

The four-page unclassified assessment, which relies in part on reports from hospitals and social media, showed a toll of death and injury that Mr. Kerry called “the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror” of chemical weapons.

“The primary question is really no longer ‘What do we know?’” Mr. Kerry said.

“The question is: ‘What are we—we collectively—what are we in the world going to do about it?’”

Mr. Kerry, who characterized the attack as a crime against humanity, said the U.S. would continue talking to allies and Congress, but would make its own decisions on its own timeline.

The White House has said Mr. Obama is willing to act unilaterally if necessary, although France’s participation would ease the need for the U.S. to go it alone.

Officials explaining the intelligence findings avoided saying Mr. Assad personally ordered the attack. Instead, they placed the blame on regime officials.

The administration took an unusual step in disclosing it had obtained intercepted communications, which are considered sensitive because they could reveal sources and methods. The disclosure underscored how aggressively the administration is seeking to press its case for military action.

It also indicated the administration is trying to avoid accusations that it is relying on indefinite intelligence sources as in 2003.

Policy makers don’t make decisions based solely on intelligence, but use the analysis to understand the risks of a particular action, said Thomas Fingar, a former longtime intelligence official.

“The intelligence community doesn’t drive this process,” he said. “It informs decision makers. It’s the policy guys who decide whether the evidence is strong enough.”

The White House has made clear the goal of military action in Syria isn’t regime change, although Mr. Obama has repeatedly said Mr. Assad should step down. Administration officials have also stepped up efforts to make clear that action in Syria would be limited and distinct from the U.S. missions in Iraq or Afghanistan—the two longest wars in U.S. history, which became deeply unpopular—and the intervention in Libya in 2011.
—Sam Dagher in Damascus, Syria and Adam Entous in Washington contributed this article.
Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com, Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com and Jared A. Favole at jared.favole@dowjones.com

Original post: U.S. Makes Case for Strikes as Military Builds in Mideast