News Conference Speech 8/30/2013 Kerry Says Assad, A 'Thug And Murderer,' Was Behind Attack (WashingtonPost) Secretary of State John F. Kerry made a forceful case Friday for U.S. military intervention in Syria, saying that U.S. intelligence has information pinning responsibility for last week's chemical weapons attack squarely on the government of President Bashar al-Assad. In a speech at the State Department, Kerry said that for three days before the Aug. 21 attack, the Syrian regime's chemical weapons personnel "were in the area, making preparations" for the strike. He also said that "regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks" and taking other precautions. And he said U.S. intelligence knows that the rockets containing the poison gas were launched only from "regime-controlled areas." Two years after the first anti-government protests, conflict in Syria rages on. See the major events in the country's tumultuous uprising. The attack killed more than 1,400 Syrians, including 426 children, Kerry said. "The American people are tired of war," Kerry said, adding that he is also. "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. Kerry spoke after French President Francois Hollande said Friday that his country is prepared to act in Syria despite Britain's surprise rejection of military action, potentially making a nation that turned its back on Washington during the war in Iraq the primary U.S. ally in a possible strike against Syrian forces. President Obama is weighing military action against Syria as a way of sending a strong message of disapproval to Assad, whom U.S. officials say is culpable for the apparent Aug. 21 chemical weapons attacks that killed hundreds of men, women and children in rebel strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus. A U.N. team of chemical weapons experts has been gathering evidence at the sites of the alleged strikes this week and will present its findings Saturday to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The United States says it has clear proof that Assad's government was involved in the attacks. Although U.S. officials have said repeatedly that they are trying to assemble an international coalition to support military action, the administration also insisted Thursday that, if necessary, Obama has both the authority and the will to act on his own. "There are few countries that have the capacity to inflict a sanction by the appropriate means. France is one of them," Hollande said, according to the Reuters news agency. "We are ready. We will decide our position in close liaison with our allies." German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Neue Osnabrücker newspaper that Berlin's participation in a U.S.-led coalition has "neither been asked nor is it being considered by us." The American public opposes broad military action in Syria, according to an NBC poll released Friday, but is more open to limited weapons strikes that could undermine Syria's chemical weapons capability. Still, an overwhelming majority of Americans want Obama to win the approval of Congress before authorizing such strikes, the poll found.

• published: 30 Aug 2013
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