Kerry: Chemical Arms Use in Syria ‘Undeniable’

Edges closer to military response

Secretary of State John Kerry laid the groundwork on Monday for possible military action against the Syrian government over a suspected chemical weapons attack, implicating President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the chemical attack.

In the most forceful U.S. reaction yet to last week’s suspected gas attack outside Damascus, Kerry said President Barack Obama “believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people.”

Kerry spoke after U.N. chemical weapons experts interviewed and took blood samples on Monday from victims of the attack in a rebel-held suburb of Syria’s capital, after the inspectors themselves survived sniper fire that hit their convoy.

“What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world,” Kerry told reporters. “Let me be clear: The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity.”

Kerry’s tough language marked an increased effort by the administration not only to point the finger at Assad’s government but to prepare the war-weary American public for a potential military response.

He accused the Syrian rulers of acting like they had something to hide by blocking the U.N. inspectors’ visit to the scene for days and shelling the area.

“Our sense of basic humanity is offended not only by this cowardly crime, but also by the cynical attempt to cover it up,” Kerry said.

Information gathered so far, including videos and accounts from the ground, indicate that the use of chemical weapons in Syria was “undeniable,” Kerry said, adding that it was the Syrian government that maintained custody of the weapons and had the rockets capable of delivering them.

A Step Closer to Military Response

There were mounting signs that the United States and Western allies were edging closer to a military response over the incident, which took place a year after Obama declared the use of chemical weapons a “red line” that would require strong action.

Obama, who withdrew troops from Iraq and is winding down U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, has been reluctant to intervene in two and a half years of civil war in Syria.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Saturday showed about 60 percent of Americans opposed U.S. military intervention, while only 9 percent thought Obama should act.

However, with his international credibility seen increasingly on the line, Obama could opt for limited measures such as cruise missile strikes to punish Assad and seek to deter further chemical attacks, without dragging Washington deeper into the war. The United States has started a naval buildup in the region to be ready for Obama’s decision.

Kerry stopped short of explicitly blaming the Syrian government for the gas attack but strongly implied that no one else could have been behind it and said the United States had “additional information it would provide in the days ahead.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was “very little doubt” that the Syrian government was to blame, but that Obama had not yet decided how to respond.

The Obama administration has not set a timeline for responding but officials are preparing options for with a sense of urgency, the State Department said.

While senior Republicans are mostly urging Obama to respond forcefully against Assad, House of Representatives’ Speaker John Boehner’s office called on the president to make his case to the American people and also to engage in “meaningful consultation” with Congress, which he said had not taken place.

“The president has an obligation to the American people to explain the rationale for the course of action he chooses, why it’s critical to our national security and what the broader strategy is to achieve stability,” said Brendan Buck, spokesman for Boehner, the top Republican in Congress.

Q & A on Nerve Agents Used in Chemical Attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Kerry said Monday that a large-scale chemical weapons attack occurred in Syria.

Q: What chemical weapons were used?

A: It’s not clear yet. But experts point to a class of chemical weapons called nerve agents because of the symptoms seen in  Syria. Nerve agents commonly include sarin, soman, VX and taubun. They are called nerve agents because they block transmission of nerve cell transmissions.

Q: What are the symptoms reported and how does that tell us nerve agents were used?

A: The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders reported seeing “large number of patients arriving with symptoms including convulsions, excessive saliva, pinpoint pupils, blurred vision and respiratory distress.” Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior associate for the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said what the group of doctors in Syria is reporting “is what a textbook would list to say nerve-agent poison.” Symptoms like small pupils say it is not another agent like mustard gas or chlorine gas.

Q: What’s the difference between the various nerve agents?

A: Essentially the four nerve agents do the same things to the body, kill in the same way, have the same antidote and treatment, and are all banned by the international convention signed by 189 countries, so there is no practical difference for the U.S. in planning a response if it was sarin or VX, Adjala said. Sarin, sometimes called GB, is the most volatile of the agents and VX the most lethal.

Q: Why do I hear the name sarin associated with this attack more than the others?

A: Mostly it is based on the Syrian leadership’s past likely use and storage of sarin, Adalja said.

Q: Can you see or smell sarin?

A: No. As a liquid it is odorless, colorless and tasteless. It’s often used in gas form but can kill with liquid content on the skin.

Q: Is it natural?

A: No. It is man-made, created in 1938 as a pesticide and similar to certain kinds of insecticides called organophosphates now used. However nerve agents are much more potent.

Q: Has sarin been used much in the past?

A: The most famous sarin attack was a 1995 terror attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and injured about 6,000 people.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the August 27th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.