Evidence tying Assad to chemical attack ‘not a slam dunk’
The intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or his inner circle to an alleged chemical weapons attack last week that killed at least 100 people is no sure thing.
The intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or his inner circle to an alleged chemical weapons attack last week that killed at least 100 people is no sure thing.
Questions remain about who controls some of Syria's chemical weapons stores and about whether Assad ordered the strike, US intelligence officials say.
US President Barack Obama declared on Wednesday that the Syrian government was responsible, while laying the groundwork for an expected US military strike. "We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out," Obama said in an interview with PBS. "And if that's so, then there need to be international consequences."
However, multiple US officials used the phrase "not a slam dunk" to describe the intelligence picture. That was a reference to then-CIA director George Tenet's insistence in 2002 that US intelligence showing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk". That intelligence turned out to be wrong.
A report by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence builds a case that Assad's forces are most likely responsible for the August 21 chemical attack, while outlining gaps in the US intelligence picture.